Eckankar: A group in Columbia uses chants and exercises to gain a closer relationship with God.
The followers of Eckankar, the religion of the light and sound of God, believe peace can be just a short word away.
Every Sunday, a small group meets in Columbia to reach deeper states of consciousness through contemplative spiritual exercises. Sitting on folding chairs in a circle, a hum begins, grows to a crescendo into a deep, sustained tone. The Eckists are chanting "Hu" - pronounced "Hue" - an ancient word that they believe has spiritual power and describe as "a love song to God."
Eckists chant Hu "to attune themselves with higher frequencies of God," said Matthew Silver of Columbia, an Eckankar clergy member.
Although members say Eckankar, meaning "co-worker with God," is the oldest religion in the world, scholars have evidence that it formed as an organization with a public presence in the early 1960s.
In 1965, writer Paul Twitchell made ancient writings from China, India and Tibet "available in a form that modern man could relate to," Silver said. "This core truth we call Eck is the essence or core from which all religions stem."
Twitchell was recognized as a
living Eck Master, or spiritual leader - a position held today by Sri Harold Klemp. The religion's headquarters moved from California
to Chanhassen, a suburb of Minneapolis,
where the
This area has seven Eck centers, including two in Baltimore. Although Eckankar literature reports tens of thousands of members in more than 100 countries, its leaders do not state an exact number publicly, said Joe McGloin, chairman of the board of the Maryland Satsang Society, a chartered Eckankar affiliate.
Members can practice the exercises without formally joining,
using materials available at bookstores. Eckankar has
a strong following in West Africa, particularly Nigeria,
said Roger Olson, a Christian theologian at Baylor
Silver, a clergy member who has been a member since 1978, said Eckists believe that "each of us is Soul, instead of having a soul" as taught in Christian traditions. Members of the religion believe in karma. Through reincarnation, they "take Soul back to God through a process of personal spiritual growth," Silver said.
Eckists practice spiritual exercises that allow them to pursue this inner process. Silver said the exercises are different from meditation, which he described as "passive, waiting for something to happen." Rather, members focus on light or sound. In addition, Eckists believe that dreams are another means to reach different levels of consciousness.
During an Eckankar service last week in Dorsey's Search, Terry Engel of Ellicott City, an Eckankar clergy member, led 12 other Eckists in chanting Hu. He instructed the gathering to take a comfortable seat and put both feet on the floor and closed his eyes and chanted.
The others echoed his intonation.
Although members can study on their own, group worship consists of an introduction of the day's topic with a reading, a Hu sing, silent contemplation and further discussion of the day's topic.
The first time Randi Green sang Hu, "there was no question that there was a change in vibration, a change in energy that I had never experienced through prayer before," she said.
Green, who grew up in a Jewish family in Pikesville, first explored Eckankar when she met her fiance in 1988.
Now the 43-year-old Burtonsville resident teaches her children about Judiasm as a culture, not as a spiritual path.
Green, like other members, does not claim that Eckankar is the only path to God.
"If I searched, I could have found that [a spiritual connection] in Judaism," she said. However, "I found that in Eckankar right away."
It provides "centering so I can function from a more loving place," Green said.