The current living spiritual leader (and star in my friend’s disturbing wet dream) is Harold Klemp. He studied under Paul Twitchell who formed the Eckankar organization, first as a corporation, then as a non-prophet-profit.

Before starting a religion, Paul Twitchell wrote science fiction. As far as I’m concerned the only science fiction writer who should have started a religion is Philip K Dick. Not exploiting his spiritual experiences for capital gain is a testament to their authenticity. “Be wary, for there will be many false prophets, but only one Philip K Dick,” Sherman Christ Jericho III, a person I just made up, once said.

Later we’ll look more closely at the spiritual leaders of this organization and I will take you on a tour of my first encounter with the power of ECK!

She was eccentric. Once there was an electrical short in her car and the automatic locks began acting funny. She blamed a poltergeist. It made sense in a that-makes-no-sense kind of way. She often talked about her boyfriend, a man who didn’t exist in reality as we know it. She lived in an apartment filled with cats, either invisible or non-existent like her boyfriend.

She believed that through the act of automatic writing she could communicate with God and tell the future. She painted a beautiful picture of my future. Unfortunately, my life didn’t turn out at all like she said it would.

Still, I enjoyed listening to her ramble about religion and sex with her invisible boyfriend. At the moment, her boyfriend was in Texas, because he wanted payment for his copyrighted technology that put a man on the moon. When he came back he was going to be rich.

One day she told me that she had joined a new “religious organization.” We were sitting behind the coffee shop. I was smoking; she was rocking back and forth in her chair.

“Eckankar,” she told me. “You would love it, absolutely love it!”

She told me about Harold Klemp. He possesses the power to visit followers in their dreams. He came to my friend in a way that suggested she was very special. She described in vivid detail the content of her dream. I refrained myself from laughing. I restrained myself from puking. She told me they were having a meeting at the coffee shop in one week. I realized it would be an excellent opportunity to study…something. I didn’t know what was going to present itself. I began reading about Eckankar.

They gave us personality and IQ tests. They marked on the sheets where Scientology could help us improve. Then they showed us how much it would cost.

I was young but not stupid. I wasn’t going to join a religion founded by a science fiction author without researching it. And research it I did. I attended a few “services” and watched their movies. The thing that turned me off was a non-disclosure statement. Screw that.

There have been several journalists and investigators who have ignored the non-disclosure statement. Their books and articles can be tracked down. Anyway, this guy claims Scientology isn’t nutty. Most religions are nutty. Scientology is very nutty.

From the article:

1. Casu Marzu Maggot Cheese Yes, you read that right: maggot cheese. This is one delicacy that’s both an acquired and a forbidden taste. Casu marzu is a runny white cheese made by injecting Pecorino Sardo cheese with cheese-eating larvae. The cheese can pose various health hazards, such as an intestinal larval infection or even the risk of larvae jumping into your eye. Because of these threats, casu marzu can’t legally be sold in Italy, though farmers on Sardinia and in northern Italy’s Piedmont and Bergamo areas still produce it for their own clandestine consumption. United States regulations don’t even address this particular type of cheese—perhaps because no one has been brave enough to put it on an American menu.

Find out more.

It’s like when I’m single. No one is interested in me when I’m single. When I’m in a relationship people become attracted to me. You must be with the strange in order for the strange to be attracted to you. Love, honor, and cherish the strange and the strange will reciprocate.