ECKANKAR, Author at ECKANKAR Hub site

Our Unexpected Reunion—A Love Story

By Jocelyne Durand and William Meekins

William:

I lost my wife of twenty-five years in December 1996. The following months brought a lonely time of coming to terms with my loss. In June 1997, with my grief finally beginning to lighten, I started wondering what a new love would be like. I just knew I would not live the rest of my life alone. I began telling my friends that I would know the new love of my life just by looking in her eyes.

In October 1997, I attended the ECK Worldwide Seminar in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with a great sense of love and anticipation. During the Friday afternoon session of the seminar, I went to a workshop titled “How to Master Change in Your Life.” Participants in the workshop were asked to create a collage of pictures and words as part of a goal-setting exercise.

I put on my goal sheet that I wanted to find someone who would bring some joy back into my life. My collage incuded a couple dancing, a smiling woman with a big red heart over her head, and the words Get connected today and Spontaneous.

How could I know that within five and a half hours my goal would be realized?

Jocelyne:

In 1995, a series of puzzling events began for me. First, in May of that year, I received a strong inner message that I should begin straightening out my life to make way for a new relationship. In December 1996 I had a dream. In the dream, I received a phone call from a man who told me that, although I did not yet know him, I was to become his wife. I was both uneasy and curious.

Six months after that dream, in June 1997, I had another. I was in a roomful of people seated at tables who were choosing partners. I immediately recognized an old friend I had not seen in lifetimes. “What are you doing here?” I asked in surprise as I seated myself at his table. We chatted about the issues that might come up between us as a couple, the greatest being that he was English-speaking, whereas my native language is French. “That won’t be a problem,” he reassured me. I awoke remembering his facial features and his thick salt-and pepper gray hair.

Finally, in October 1997, accepting a friend’s invitation, I decided at the last minute to attend the ECK Worldwide Seminar in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

William:

On Friday evening of the seminar, following the evening program, I returned to my room, changed clothes, and headed to the dance. At age fifty, after twenty-five years of marriage, I felt just like a recycled teenager, shy and awkward. After unsuccessfully trying to find a dance partner, I gave up, asked the Mᴀʜᴀɴᴛᴀ to choose for me the next one to dance with, and joined my roommate and friend, Bryan, who was seated at a table.

Jocelyne:

A gentleman I had met on the flight from Toronto to Minneapolis had invited me to join him at the Friday night dance. I entered the room about 10:30 p.m. but found him deeply engaged in conversation with another woman. Looking around for someone else to talk with, I started chatting with a new man at the table, who introduced himself as Bryan.

About 11:00 p.m., the disc jockey changed gears from fast dance music to a slow romantic mood. I returned to Bryan’s table to find him chatting with a gray-haired man.

“Jocelyne, may I introduce you to a good friend of mine, William?”

“Pleased to meet you, William.” There was something familiar about this man.

“Jocelyne, how come you’re not dancing?” asked William.

“No men around,” I joked.

I’ll take care of that,” he said, grabbing my hand and leading me to the dance floor. My hand felt very good in his.

William:

It felt so good to hold her hand. As we danced, I looked into Jocelyne’s eyes, and I knew she was the one.

Jocelyne:

As we danced, I realized this was the man from my dreams. I spoke French. He spoke English. There were tables all around us. And I recognized him! His face and the gray hair I had seen in my dream!

William:

The next day I returned to the How to master Change workshop to declare to all who would listen that my goal-setting exercise had produced results in less than six hours!

Jocelyne:

The very next day, William and I sat at a hotel dining room table. “You and I both know where this is leading,” he said. I could hardly believe my ears. Of course I knew. I had seen him in my dream. But how could he know too?

William and Jocelyne:

A year later, we were married at the Temple of ECK in Chanhassen, Minnesota, just days before the 1998 ECK Worldwide Seminar. Our friend Bryan, a member of the ECK clergy, who had introduced us the year before, performed the ceremony. We now know that love endures through the ages. We are so grateful to the Mᴀʜᴀɴᴛᴀ, our inner teacher, for leading us so gently and surely to our reunion in this life.

My Daughter Finds Her Way Home

Life after Death Encounters

By Olumide Olamigoke

Several years ago, I got a phone call that changed my life. My daughter, Desola, had been seriously injured in a terrible car accident.

I rushed to the hospital, but it was too late. Desola, whom I called “my princess,” had died.

As a student of the ECK teachings, I knew that, as Soul, Desola is eternal. I also knew that death of the physical body frees us from the bonds of earth, allowing us to move on to our next spiritual experience.

But the shock and trauma of the accident seemed to make it difficult for Desola to move on—to let go of her physical life. For several days, ECK friends and family saw Desola in their dreams. Often, I could sense her clinging to me.

Three nights after the accident, I was practicing one of the Spiritual Exercises of ECK before going to sleep, when I felt someone sit on the left side of my bed.

At first I was afraid. Who could this person be?

Then I inwardly heard Desola speak to me.

“It’s me, Dad!” she said.

Even though I knew this was my princess, the situation unnerved me. I began to sing HU aloud to calm myself and stay open to this gift of love.

As I sang, I was surprised to see my daughter lift gently off the bed and float to the ceiling. I watched in amazement as a bright white light began to shine through the oval windows of my bedroom.

Slowly, Desola floated effortlessly into the light and passed through one of the windows. As she did, she turned back to look at me once more.

“I love you,” she whispered.

Then she was gone.

I was both sad and grateful at the same time. The love song of HU created a bridge for Desola to find her way into the heavenly worlds, floating on a river of Light and Sound. I felt the Mᴀʜᴀɴᴛᴀ’s presence guiding my princess to her true home.

This experience proved to me that Soul is eternal. Life goes on, and our departed loved one is in just the right place to continue his or her spiritual journey and spiritual growth.

I’m grateful for the Mᴀʜᴀɴᴛᴀ’s love and guidance in helping my daughter find her way back home to God.

A Case of Out-of-Body Travel

Soul Travel

By Vic Shayne

For a few years after finding Eᴄᴋᴀɴᴋᴀʀ, I made a concerted effort to prove to myself that Soul Travel was real. Every night I would get out of my body in the wee hours of the morning.

I would try to wake a family member or leave some physical proof of my out-of-body travels. This went on for some time until I got tired of trying. I had not yet realized that Eᴄᴋᴀɴᴋᴀʀ points the way to Soul Travel experiences for deeper, spiritual purposes.

One morning, at about 3:30 a.m., I was in the midst of a dream. I was on the steps of a courthouse or government building, chasing a small, reddish-haired boy up the steep steps and around the railing.

We played chase like this for a couple of minutes until I found myself at the side of my bed, looking at my own and my wife’s body asleep under the covers.

This was amusing. When I looked to my left, I noticed the ten-year-old boy from the dream standing beside me at the side of the bed.

While we were standing there, my wife, Janice woke up in the physical. She looked at me with the strangest expression. The next thing I knew, I was being shaken from a deep sleep.

In my grogginess, I mumbled something like, “What are you doing? I was having the most amazing dream. It had something to do with the courthouse steps and . . .”

Janice interrupted me, “Never mind your dream. I just saw you standing at the side of the bed, out of your body!”

“No Kidding?” I replied, still staring at the inside of my eyelids. Finally it registered. “Really?” I asked.

Then I said, now coherent enough to quiz her, “Was anybody with me?” (I thought she’d never guess this one in a million years.)

“Yes. A small boy with red hair was standing next to you.”

I was amazed! Not only did Janice confirm that I was out of my body, but she also described my companion! We discussed this incident only for a minute; then we both rolled over. However, I was determined to repeat this wonderful feat.

I concentrated on a deep humming in my head as I left my body again. This time I appeared at the opposite end of the bed. Not yet asleep, Janice sat up startled in bed and stared at my nonphysical form. I tried to speak to her, but all I could manage to do was gesture that I was fully aware of what I was doing and had complete presence of mind.

Later that morning we discussed this experience. She remembered seeing me and described my gestures. I decided that my personal keys to achieving out-of-body clarity included focusing on the Sound Current and relaxing the mind.

This particular experience proved to me that the dream worlds, the physical world, and the out-of-body state are linked by Divine Spirit. As Soul, we can move quite easily among these different levels of awareness.

Do I Pass On or Do I Stay?

Soul Travel

By Sri Harold Klemp

A woman in Little Rock, Arkansas, was critically ill over the winter. There were holes in her stomach from an infection. The doctors had tried everything. They had put in tubes to drain off the infection. But nothing was working. Finally the specialist gave up hope. He said, “I just don’t know what else to do.”

The woman would get very high fevers. When the fevers got high, she hovered at the point of leaving this life. After a few days the doctor said, “We’ve decided to change the tubing. It will mean another operation.”

They took her into the operating room, and they were working on her. Suddenly she was outside her physical body, looking down from the Soul viewpoint. Those of you who are in ECK know this is an example of Soul Travel. In this higher state of consciousness, the woman saw the doctors working over her.

Suddenly the line on the heart monitor went flat. It meant that her heart had stopped. But here she is watching the whole thing. She sees her body on the operating table. The doctor’s trying everything to bring her back to life. But she’s there.

The woman notices the Inner Master, Wah Z, beside her, and she takes his hand. She says to him, “Do I go or do I stay?”

She looked in his eyes and saw unconditional love. It was her choice. She had a choice of whether to stay with her body, which had given her so much pain through the winter, or go and be free. She decided to stay because she wanted to be with her family. Instantly she was back. She opened her eyes and looked into the face of the specialist who’s operating on her. He was very, very concerned.

The next day he said to her, “Thank God the new antibiotic we tried worked. It got you back just in the nick of time.”

But the ECKist knew what really happened. She knew that the Spiritual Traveler—the Mᴀʜᴀɴᴛᴀ, the Inner Master—had been with her. The name of this individual is Wah Z. It’s the inner side of myself.

She realized that life is something to live joyfully. Live it joyfully because you’re learning to be a Coworker with God.

To Catch a Thief—Use Inner Guidance!

Dream Explorations

By Bennet C. Nwokedi

One day at work, I sat across from my office supervisor, writing checks to some of our creditors. The supervisor was busy working on some office records. While we were working, a friend of mine dropped by to say hello, so I left my task for a few minutes to see him off. When I returned, I finished up the check signing and handed the checks to the office supervisor to deliver to the recipients.

That night, about two in the morning, the Mᴀʜᴀɴᴛᴀ, my inner teacher, appeared to me in a blazing ray of light and told me to examine my checkbook because it had been tampered with. Startled, I awoke and switched on the light. As I was going through the checkbook, I discovered that two checks had been removed.

Monday morning I went right to the bank to report the missing checks and to find out whether my account had been accessed. As I was leaving the bank to await the results of the bank’s investigation into the matter, the Mᴀʜᴀɴᴛᴀ appeared in my car, in his Light body.

“Your office supervisor stole the checks when you went to see your friend off.”

This was hard to swallow. I didn’t want to doubt the Inner Master, but I had always trusted my office supervisor. Two hours later, the bank telephoned to say that two unknown persons had been caught attempting to cash one of the stolen checks for nearly $35,000. I hurried back to the bank. When I got there I discovered the thief was indeed my employee. He and his accomplice were arrested by the police and jailed.

Divine Spirit had given me total protection from my trusted office supervisor’s fraud. That day, I learned to trust the Mᴀʜᴀɴᴛᴀ, above all others, to guide me through the challenges of daily life.

A World of Golden Light

Soul Travel

By Sri Harold Klemp

Occasionally we go to a far world which has a beauty beyond words. There is no true way to describe what is seen. The closest is to say it’s a world illuminated by two golden suns, and everything is seen through a golden veil. When Soul comes here and begins walking into the land of gold, It wants never to return; It wants to go on forever. And I found myself in the same position.

I walked with the ECK Master Fubbi Quantz in this world of golden light. Two golden planets were in the sky. Since there is no time and no space, it’s interesting how things are perceived in the spiritual worlds.

I’m trying to describe a unified world. But since we are now in a world of duality, I can only express it by dimensions. The planets were moving very fast but they weren’t going anywhere; and yet they were able to move across the entire expanse of this golden world, which wasn’t round.

We went further into this God World of golden light, but we didn’t walk at all. Yet there was a yearning to go even farther, farther than ever before, because the love of the Sᴜɢᴍᴀᴅ, the love of God, always draws you on.

At one point Fubbi Quantz turned to me and said, “You have to go back now, my son.” It was spoken with a great deal of kindness, compassion, and love, born of the understanding that comes only to one who has walked into the golden worlds himself. At one time, he too wished to go on forever, to never come back; but someone had said to him, “You must go back now, my son.”

The higher you go into the spiritual planes, the greater becomes your capacity for love; compassion; and the attributes of wisdom, freedom, and charity.

Our responsibilities bring us back. And the only way we can ever go further into the heart of God is to face our responsibilities to serve God here, in our everyday lives. This is the paradox that both allows us to grow and gives us the yearning to want to grow.