Religious, Culture, and Social Changes

Religious Change

The growth and success of Eckankar as an NRM was heavily influenced by both the religious and spiritual climate of the United States during the 20th century and by the social and political shifts in American consciousness. According to scholar Timothy Miller, “Since the mid-nineteenth century, many alternative religions have arisen claiming to have acquired new spiritual insight and wisdom from heretofore hidden sources, some allegedly of ancient vintage, or to have reconstructed longstanding religious teachings in a way believed to be especially suited to the contemporary world.”1 Spiritualism, a 19th century movement based in the belief that one can communicate with spirits dead and alive, led to the creation of two movements in the late 1800s and early 1900s that had a direct effect on Eckankar. The first movement is Theosophy, which refers to the seeking of direct knowledge or wisdom about the nature of divinity. It borrowed heavily from Eastern religions, particularly Hinduism.2  The second movement is New Thought, “which emphasized power of the mind over all physical reality.”3

The 1960s counterculture coincided with a widespread disillusionment with conventional Christian churches.

Cultural and Social Shifts

On the cultural and social side, the changing landscape of America during the 1960s, 70s, and 80s greatly influenced the appearance and growth of Eckankar. “The great cultural explosion of the 1960s saw several new additions to [the] religious panorama [of the United States]. Many elements of existing ancient wisdom and metaphysical groups were leavened by hippie culture and combined with innovative insights and approaches.”4  The effects of ‘hippie culture’ cannot be understated. The changing interests of the counterculture population of the 60s focused increasingly on spirituality over religiosity and creativity over convention. For example, Eckankar’s position on dreams reveals why Eckankar’s spiritual focus was integral to its success in the mid 20th century:

“The connection of dreams to religion might be best summarized by the widespread notion that ‘the gods speak through dreams.’ Dreams are relevant to the experiential dimension of religion, which encompasses many phenomena involving ‘altered states of consciousness.’ The 1969 work of the same name edited by Charles Tart covers dreams, meditation, hypnosis, and mystical experience. All of these rarified states have been cultivated through history by adepts seeking religious visions.  Interest in such ethereal states of mind has grown enormously in the United States since the 1960s.”5

In other words, Eckankar’s stance on dreaming and altered spiritual states of being appealed to the shifting interests of some Americans away from “the religious.”

In conjunction with a rejection of standard, traditional religion, after the 1965 Immigration Act was passed, there was an increase of Asian religious teachers who delivered varieties of Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, Taoism, Jainism, and Islam to American spiritual seekers.

Furthermore, the 1960s and 70s saw an increase in creative license; the re-appropriation, redefinition, and, often times, conglomeration of various beliefs, traditions, and worldviews into a new sort of creative reality. The purpose of this creative license was to reject the traditional and the standard in favor of something unique. Eckankar offered that to potential followers. “The 1960s counterculture coincided with a widespread disillusionment with conventional Christian churches”6 and Eckankar  “appealed to many who were disenchanted with traditional churches.”7  In fact, many of the ECKists with whom I spoke found themselves confused or unhappy with the teachings of their former faith (which was, more often than not, Catholicism). In conjunction with a rejection of standard, traditional religion, after the 1965 Immigration Act was passed, there was an increase of Asian religious teachers who delivered varieties of Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, Taoism, Jainism, and Islam to American spiritual seekers.8 This new religious panorama served both to create an increased interest in non-Western religion and spirituality, as well as to offer new ways of thinking about religion. Eckankar seized upon the shifting social and cultural realities and interests of American society and, as a result, serves as an example of “how a new religion evolves in much quicker spurts than might be imagined.”9

  1. Timothy Miller, ed. America’s Alternative Religions (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995), 313. ↩

  1. Timothy Miller, ed. America’s Alternative Religions (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995), 313. ↩

  1. Timothy Miller, ed. America’s Alternative Religions (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995), 313. ↩

  1. Timothy Miller, ed. America’s Alternative Religions (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995), 313. ↩

  1. Wade Clark Roof, ed., Contemporary American Religion, Volume 1 (New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2000), 199. ↩

  1. Lippy and Williams, eds., Encyclopedia of Religion in America, Volume 3, 1584. ↩

  1. Chris Waddington, “Eckankar gathering is a mix of a retreat, reunion, Christmas party,” Minneapolis Star Tribune, October 29, 1991, 5E. ↩

  1. Lippy and Williams, eds., Encyclopedia of Religion in America, Volume 3, 1584. ↩

  1. David Christopher Lane, “Eckankar,” in Introduction to New and Alternative Religions in America, Volume 3, ed. Eugene V. Gallagher and W. Michael Ashcraft (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2006),113. ↩