David Christopher Lane
Published: 2017-09-02
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The groundbreaking study of the new religion, Eckankar and its founder Paul Twitchell. Written forty years ago by a then a young college student, The Making of A Spiritual Movement showed for the first time how the founder of Eckankar had attempted to hide his past and create a new biography replete with mythic characters such as Sudar Singh and Rebazar Tarzs. Paul Twitchell was also a plagiarist of the first rank and copied verbatim whole pages from the work of Julian P. Johnson and others. Many Eckists who read this book in its earlier editions chose to leave the movement and became harsh critics of Eckankar's persistent cover-up of its founder and his questionable activities. The Making of a Spiritual Movement caused such a tremendous uproar within the membership of the group that Eckankar issued a "Special Notice to All Eck Chelas," dated December 27, 1979, attempting to squelch the persisting controversy surrounding Lane's findings. The following excerpt reveals in a nutshell Eckankar's official opinion of this book and its findings: "It does not tell the straight story. . . was not completely researched and is untrue. These people [David Lane, Mark Albrecht, et al.] are being used by the Kal [Negative] forces to dismantle Eckankar and are referred to by Sri Paul Twitchell in a private tape he made. . . shortly before he translated. Paul said: . . '[These] pagans and heathens are in a conspiracy to destroy Eckankar, not only in the physical but in the psychic worlds. . . those who are bracketed within the category of these people are actually against us. They have been-since the beginning of mankind or the formation of the lower worlds. All these people are under the Kal forces. . Sn' Darwin [Second Living Eck Master] asks that [Lane's research as found in the 1979 SCP Joumal] be destroyed. . . ." Obviously, Eckankar does not agree with Lane's findings. However, as Dr. J. Gordon Melton notes, "The evidence that David Lane uncovered of Twitchell's creating a false history of his rise to leadership of Eckankar indicates extensive corruption. That the leadership has done nothing to correct Twitchell's false claims, yea, have perpetuated them, indicates a significant problem at the heart of that organization." This particular edition is based primarily on the 1978, 1983, and 1993 versions and thus reflects what was then known about Eckankar and its history. Excerpt from the prefatory section, "A number of researchers have discovered that Paul Twitchell's plagiarism was much more extensive and widespread than I even first imagined since it turns out that he had appropriated complete sentences and paragraphs from a variety of books outside of Radhasoami and Sant Mat circles. In light of the Internet and sophisticated scanning applications, it is now possible to track down most of Twitchell's sources word by word. Twitchell wrote at a time when he most likely did suspect that his massive plagiarisms would be discovered, but today it is relatively easy to see where the founder of Eckankar got his inspirations and where he indulged in literary piracy. Moreover, Twitchell's attempt to hide his past has come undone, with new documents and information showing that he never traveled to Europe or Paris at the times he claimed. Despite Twitchell's duplicity there are many who feel that he was a "master compiler" and a spiritual "smash up" artist before his time. As for myself, I find Paul Twitchell to be one of the most interesting religious leaders to have emerged from the 1960s.
