Paul Twitchell

Paul Twitchell was an American writer and spiritual teacher who created and directed the development of the new religious movement known as Eckankar. Twitchell described himself as "The Mahanta, the Living ECK Master" from 1965 onward. These are terms without proven historical use before 1965 and his usage. He also ascribed to himself the name Peddar Zaskq in his writings.

Birth and early life

Paul Twitchell was born in Paducah, Kentucky, to Effie Dorothy and Jacob Noah Twitchell. His date of birth has been given variously between 1908 and 1922, with the Library of Congress' Name Authority File giving 1908 and a spring 1910 census suggesting 1909. Upon Twitchell's death in 1971, his second wife Gail told the medical examiner that Paul was born on October 22, 1922, the same date presented in their marriage certificate. However, his marriage certificate with his first wife, Camille Bellowe, gave his date of birth as October 22, 1912.
Twitchell himself provided varying accounts of the circumstances of his birth. In his book The Spiritual Notebook, calling himself by his "spiritual name" Peddar Zaskq, Twitchell claimed to have been "born on a packetboat amid the Mississippi River, a few minutes after a great earthquake shook the mid-South and formed a great lake in this region." That version echoed the tradition that a new Buddha is born
near water. In his biography In My Soul I am Free, authored by Brad Steiger, he claimed to have been born in a place called China Point, the location of which is not clear.
Following graduation from high school in Paducah, Twitchell attended Murray State Teachers College in Murray, Kentucky for two years before going to Western Kentucky State Teachers College, which he left in 1934 without having obtained a degree.
His first marriage was to Camille Ballowe, from Paducah, in Providence, Rhode Island, on August 12, 1942. He claims to have served in the United States Naval Reserve during World War II, from February 1942 until August 1945 when as Lieutenant Jg. he was honorably discharged. Twitchell became a correspondent for Our Navy magazine after the war for a short time. He later went on to become a freelance journalist, though he found success elusive.

Eckankar

Twitchell investigated a number of diverse spiritual movements and became an avid reader of spiritual, philosophical, religious and occult books at the library. In 1950, he joined Swami Premananda Giri's Self-Revelation Church of Absolute Monism, an offshoot of Paramahansa Yogananda's Self-Realization Fellowship. He lived on the grounds of the church, and edited its periodical, The Mystic Cross. In July 1955 Twitchell was arrested following violent fights with others living in the Swami's compound. The Swami's group terminated its relationship with Twitchell. A few months later his wife left him, they formally separated, and she remained in the compound for a short time. Their divorce was finalized in 1960.
Twitchell was initiated into the Surat Shabd Yoga by Kirpal Singh, Master of the Sant Mat group "Ruhani Satsang," in October 1955 in Washington, D.C. He immediately became a devoted student of Singh, acknowledged experiences during Initiation and later wrote to his master of his appearing in Twitchell's apartment and dictating discourses to him which he typed up and mailed to Singh in New Delhi, India. By 1966 reports to Singh that Twitchell was teaching a program very similar to Sant Mat caused a rift between them that was never repaired. Weeks before Twitchell died he sent a letter to Singh denying he ever saw him as a 'master' or ever received an initiation from Singh because Singh had no power to give initiation, and claiming that Twitchell's spiritual achievements were gained years before they met. Twitchell also suggested that he never spiritually benefited from his connection with Singh.
However, in December 1963 Twitchell reportedly asked Singh to allow him to dedicate a book, The Tiger's Fang, in Singh's name. Twitchell wanted Singh's help to get it published and sent the manuscript for Singh's approval. Twitchell never received a positive response from Singh and following their disagreement in 1966 he asked for its return. He published it himself in 1967.
Twitchell's first known connection with L. Ron Hubbard was around 1950 during the Dianetics period. He again became involved in the Church of Scientology from about 1956 to 1959, becoming a member of the Church's staff and supposedly one of the first Scientologists to become clear. Twitchell taught classes, audited others, wrote articles for the magazines, and did other activities for Scientology. He made many long-term friendships during this time with the exception of Hubbard, who circa 1968 listed Twitchell and Eckankar on his suppressive persons/groups list. Hubbard described Twitchell not as a clear, as Twitchell always claimed, but as "aberrant".
Moving to Seattle, Washington, in late 1960 after the death of his sister Kaydee in 1959, he met Gail Ann Atkinson in 1962. She was working part-time at the library, where they met, while pursuing undergraduate degree. Twitchell later introduced her to the Ruhani Satsang teachings, and others, and Gail was also formally initiated by Singh in early December 1963 in San Francisco, during his second tour of the US. At the same time Twitchell relocated to San Francisco permanently. They married soon after on January 16, 1964, when Twitchell began more seriously writing and compiling materials about his new teaching, Eckankar. The first draft manuscript for The Far Country was written during this year. Twitchell also began having articles about Eckankar published in various newspapers and magazines.
In late 1964, they moved south to San Diego, where Twitchell gave his first lectures on Eckankar and what was then termed the "bilocation" technique, which he later called "Soul Travel." Gail quit her studies to work full-time so that Twitchell could dedicate himself to establishing Eckankar as a new business venture. In spring 1965, he began a long-term series of regular lectures and workshops on Eckankar at the California Parapsychology Foundation in San Diego and also started selling monthly "Discourses" to interested students. By late 1965 the Twitchells had together founded the Eckankar Corporation and Illuminated Way Press, registering both as companies in California.
It is believed that Twitchell's second wife suggested that he adapt some of his spiritual education into a new religion. Twitchell said her encouragement was a spark for him to do something more with his writings. Critics say that at first Twitchell claimed his teachings were new but that he eventually said they were an ancient science that predated all other major religious belief systems. Others say this interpretation is based on comments Twitchell made before he officially started Eckankar, when he was promoting what he called his "Cliff-Hanger" philosophy, an "outsider's" view on modern society. Those were indeed his own views and ideas, but once he launched Eckankar in October 1965, he always called it an ancient teaching. In his book Eckankar: The Key to Secret Worlds, Twitchell lays out wide-ranging examples of the teaching through history while also relaying his personal experiences with his teacher, "ECK master Rebazar Tarzs." The actual existence of "Rebazar Tarzs," like that of other Theosophical and ECK masters, remains disputed, since there is no evidence that anyone has seen Tarzs, other than the faith claims of Twitchell and his followers. Some believe Tarzs was a persona Twitchell created to cover his previous associations with Kirpal Singh etc., or to provide the public with the image of a personally powerful and intellectual teacher.
After founding Eckankar, Twitchell wrote and published a series of books and personal study discourses, gave talks around the world, wrote thousands of letters to students, and continued to write articles for magazines. He wrote a series of articles shortly after starting Eckankar that some critics have raised concerns about. In a series that Twitchell referred to as "The Man Who Talks To God," he poked fun at gurus, including himself. He says that he wrote the series in exchange for getting a booklet printed on Eckankar, during a time when he couldn't afford it himself. In that column he gave out spiritual advice, claiming to communicate with God about the problems of those who wrote to him. He included prophecy, predicting that the Vietnam War would end in 1968 and that Lyndon Johnson would be reelected president of the United States. Many of his answers were concluded with the words "I HAVE SPOKEN!"

As a writer

In 1984, Harold Klemp, the current spiritual leader of Eckankar—which keeps an archive of Twitchell's writings—commented on Twitchell as a writer: "He was an avid letter-writer, and he always kept a carbon copy ... At one time Paul made his living by writing for pulp magazines. He also wrote public-relations copy for the Navy... He sincerely cared about spiritual unfoldment and growth. He went through volumes of books on consciousness, a subject which was not in vogue in those days... he thrived on the study of different philosophies."
Klemp also describes Twitchell as a master compiler: "The high teachings of ECK had been scattered to the four corners of the world. The different masters each had parts and pieces of it, but they attached little requirements ... You must be a vegetarian, or you have to meditate so many hours a day ... Paul gathered up the whole teaching and took the best. Though it may be strange to say, in this sense I see him as a master compiler. He gathered the golden teachings that were scattered around the world and made them readily available to us."
In Paulji, A Memoir, Patti Simpson reveals how Twitchell put her in charge of a monthly communication to students called the Mystic World. It often contained many mistakes: stories that were supposed to continue on a certain page but didn't, stories stopping in mid-sentence, or the wrong names under pictures. Twitchell told her, "You have no idea ... how much help it will be to me if you can learn how to take care of this publication for me. I have so many books to get out, and I need to spend time on them."
Twitchell told famed writer on the paranormal Brad Steiger that he expected The Tiger's Fang to be controversial, having announced that it "would shake the foundation of the teachings of orthodox religions, philosophies, and metaphysical concepts."