Men are from Mars, Wackos are from Venus—Exposing the Vivid Imaginations of Cult Creators

 

Chazz:  Mind-bottling, isn’t it?

Jimmy:  Did you just say mind-bottling?

Chazz:  Yeah, mind-bottling.  You know, when things are so crazy is gets your thoughts all trapped, like in a bottle?

~ from Blades of Glory

The content of Dodie Bellamy’s article, “Hi Fubbi, This is Gakko” is at once vexing and perplexing.  Which is more difficult to believe:  the followers of Eckankar deeming a mystical rod (too much like the light saber from the Star Wars franchise) passes from an ethereal master to a more earthly version; or, that cult leader John-Roger Hinkins would be so threatened by questions to ran sack David Lane’s house and launch a several year smear campaign in order to discredit him?

 

David Lane is a truth seeker.  He is looking for his own truth.  He is looking for that cosmic cookie of substance—the one that promises not only to hold the answer but to also be verifiable, something absent the Kal of humanity (deception, denial, distortion, and other such‘d’ words that spell ultimate doom for the gullible).

In searching for his own personal truth, it seems he cannot help but ferret out the flaws in faith.  Paul Twitchell founded Eckankar after a laborious journey through supposed divine direction and geographical reassignment across the United States.  Is Eckankar a true manifestation of the divine, the side effect of a few bad drug trips, or merely the not-so-vivid imagination of Twitchell at work (including the fabrication of Rebazar Tarzs from a road sign on the way to Baja and plagiarizing volumes from Sant Kirpal Singh and others)?

Lane is like the Indiana Jones of spiritual archaeology.  After digging up the actual artifacts of Eckankar and displaying such for public viewing, certain former members claim to have lost their faith, blaming Lane for ruining their Ignorance-is-Bliss-Shangri-La.

Certain die-hards genuinely accept Eck’s origination after the founding spirit migrated to Earth from Venus and have personally experienced out of body manifestations including the presence of heavenly blue Eck light… yet Lane’s publication (and not the divine rod of Eck) has the power to crumble their conviction?  Is faith, at least Eckankar faith, so shaky that a few printed facts would ruin the root value?

And what of John-Roger Hinkins?  One has to wonder if all cults are created with ulterior motives in mind.  Are cults nothing more than a power play, bent to satisfy the base needs of its founding member—most usually adoration, sex, and money?  Or does power corrupt absolutely?

While certain Eck ministers maintain that David Lane has a personal bent for Eckankar, Lane himself seems to be interested only in seeing what is.  Lane seems to recognize and acknowledge the frailty of the human spirit—that flaw does indeed seem to be part of the integral design.  There appears to be no malice here in the realm of realism, at least not for Lane, whose heart still weeps for the whole human and not the supernaturally romanticized masters.