 Eckankar bestows initiations on its members and these serve as a yardstick of an Eckist's spiritual growth. Someone just joining automatically becomes a 1st initiate; this supposedly occurs in a dream, although the member likely won't remember the sacred moment. Some claim they do. At this stage (for the first two years), the member is considered in a trial period - a time to read over the literature and decide if they wish to continue. If they elect to go on, they meet with a priest for a short ceremony and are given a "secret" word, specially tailored to their unique spiritual vibrations and direct from the inner master. Eckists are warned never to reveal their secret word, upon penalty of being demoted, turned into frogs or booted from the spiritual heirarchy, so to speak. Evoking the Law of Silence, most Eckists uphold this dictum and never discuss their magical, mystical, secret word. But, as in all things Eckankar, if one looks just beneath the surface, they find a much different picture emerging. A number of braver souls dared to divulge their secret words to others and were stunned into genuine silence when they discovered the other person had the same word. Also, a number of former members have revealed that there is a secret (Eckankar loves this word!) Initiator's Handbook containing a list of preselected generic words. This is to be used in case the initiating priest isn't having such a good day communicating with his inner master to get a word for the student. Great emphasis is placed on these initiations by both the teachings and the individual members. Supposedly, there are anywhere from 12 to 16 or more initiations, depending on whom you listen to, although no Eckist (except Klemp) can progress beyond the 8th. There has never been a convincing explanation of just why this is so, although critics of Eckankar have noted that it conveniently serves to limit competition to Klemp. Twitchell taught that even lowlie 2nd initiates have already surpassed Jesus, Buddha, Krishna and other historical men of god. Certainly by the time they have received the vaunted 5th initiation, Eckists have become masters of all the worlds below the soul plane. They have complete control over the physical world and have long ago resolved any health, emotional or mental problems they may have had. At least this is the teaching. Again, reality shows a far different picture. Even a cursory observation of any high initiate will quickly show you they are no different than anybody else. They have no great powers or knowledge and differ in no way from the average person on the street. Eckankar members take these initiations very seriously and, like anxious brides, look forward to the big event. According to the teaching, the inner master decides when a student is ready to progress to the next one. This appeals to the person with a mystical mindset towards life. However, as can be expected with Eckankar, things don't work this way. Rather than having their inner master select them for initiation, many members have learned that the initiation slip arrives pretty much on schedule, whether they've been applying themselves or not. In short, initiations are given on a computer generated basis.Quite a few ex members have concluded that Eckankar's initiations are a complete farce and many humorous tales can be told concerning these "sacred events".
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"Any initiate who violates the tenets of ECKANKAR will automatically be dropped out of ECK. This means that he will be put back in his spiritual unfoldment and will not have any opportunity for growth until the Mahanta, the Living ECK Master, has reinstated him." |