Susan Boyer sits at her kitchen table, eyes closed.
"Focus on something that fills you with love," she instructs, "a person, a place." After a few moments of quiet, she begins to sing softly, "Huuuuuuu. Huuuuuuu. Huuuuuu."

The kitchen doors are wide open to her Niskayuna backyard, colorfully adorned with flowers and shrubs. A fountain bubbles: the sound of God.

Behind her eyelids, blue and green shapes dance: the light of God.

After the exercise, Boyer describes what she felt.
"For me, it was just a feeling of incredible peace. I became aware of all the sounds around me, but not in an intrusive way," she said.

Exercises like this one are central to the lives of those who practice Eckankar, a religion which claims over 50,000 followers and is growing worldwide. Boyer is a clergy member, and one of a group that meets for services monthly at the Best Western Hotel on Western Avenue in Guilderland.
Eckankar, Boyer explained, "teaches practical ways to live a spiritual life." The goal of ECKists is to become co-workers with God, which is what, they say, Eckankar means.
"It means that everything you do is for the good of all," Boyer said. "We believe God is love. How do you act with love every minute of every day""
To connect with the Holy Spirit, or the ECK, followers learn spiritual exercises, which often involve singing or chanting "HU," pronounced "hue," which, they say, is an ancient name of God.

(Followers of Eckankar always completely capitalize the words HU and ECK.)
ECKists believe a human being is eternal Soul, negotiating his or her way through levels of consciousness, from the physical world to the spiritual, achieving what Boyer calls "spiritual freedom."
"I think God is the creative being that created Soul and set it in motion, and set up the lower world—the physical world—as a schoolyard for Soul," Boyer said.

In a series of lifetimes, ECKists believe, through reincarnation, Soul gradually learns the lessons necessary for leaving the physical world and purifying itself of karma, or sin. The process, again, is practical, Boyer pointed out.
"We believe in reincarnation as a way to raise Soul’s consciousness," Boyer said. "So, when we die, we meet with our inner guides and discuss what we learned in this lifetime and discuss what we want to learn in the next lifetime."

The inner guides are ECK masters that have left the physical world. They help other souls in their spiritual journeys and can be contacted, Boyer said, through the spiritual exercises, and soul travel, in which ECKists believe Soul can temporarily journey to the spiritual worlds, often during dreams. During soul travel, Boyer said, a person can communicate with other souls.
"There are even whole cities you can visit," she said.

Rediscovered

ECKists, like Boyer, claim the teachings of Eckankar have been around as long as civilization. It’s a very personal religion—based on Soul’s own choices—and a practitioner doesn’t need to be part of an organization to practice Eckankar, Boyer said.
"The only thing in Eckankar that is essential, is to do the spiritual exercises," she said. "It’s personal. That’s one of the great things about it."

However, Eckankar, as a religious organization, emerged in 1965. It was founded by Paul Twitchell, a Kentucky native, World War II veteran, reporter and writer, who, after years of spiritual searching and studying with several teachers worldwide—and the ECK masters of the spiritual world, ECKists say—introduced his findings to the world as Eckankar.
"Paul worked with [the spiritual ECK masters] to decide whether it was time to bring the teachings out as religion," Boyer said.

Based at the Temple of ECK in Chanhassen, Minn., Eckankar now has chapters in almost every state and on every populated continent. Local organizations are called Satsang Societies. The New York Satsang Society is broken up into areas. The Capital Region area, of which Boyer is a member, serves Albany, Clinton, Columbia, Essex, Franklin, Fulton, Montgomery, Rensselaer, Saratoga, Schenectady, Schoharie, Warren, and Washington counties.

Eckankar always has one Living ECK Master. The first was Twitchell; currently, it is Harold Klemp. Klemp, a Wisconsin native who discovered Eckankar while with the United States Air Force in Japan, runs the organization and is the chief spiritual teacher, writing most of the books and guides to spiritual exercises ECKists use.
"We relate to him as a teacher, a way-shower," Boyer said. "We don’t worship him. I guess what he does is offer us tools...One of the primary beliefs in Eckankar is you have to do it yourself."

A personal journey

Boyer started following Eckankar in the late ’70’s. She was raised as a Catholic, she said, but hadn’t found the spiritual answers she wanted in Catholicism alone.
"I was a spiritual, but not a religious, person," she said.

While a student at Syracuse University, she saw a poster on campus for a talk on Eckankar.
"Something inside of me, a door, opened, and I knew, ‘That is what I am,’" Boyer said. But, she didn’t go to the seminar, "The door closed and said, ‘Not yet.’"

A couple of years later, she said, the time was right when she saw the poster on campus again.
"The door opened again. It was like, ‘Okay, now,’" Boyer said. She went to the talk. "It just seemed so fresh to me: the concepts of studying your dreams and reincarnation," she said.

Now, as an Eckankar clergy person, she helps lead services (which involve singing HU, reading from ECK books, silent contemplation, and discussion), and officiates at ECK ceremonies, like weddings and memorial services. As with all Eckankar clergy, Boyer is a volunteer. She earns a living as a landscape architect.
"The idea of service and giving back to life is really important in Eckankar," Boyer said. "Why grow" Why learn" Why do anything" It gives us the ability to give back to life and serve life and to serve God."

The Light and Sound

Eckankar is not an exclusive religion. Boyer said that followers of other religions might find aspects of Eckankar useful, such as singing HU, and vice-versa.
"I think all religions are from God and they are here to teach certain things and appeal to certain levels of consciousness," she said. "A person drawn to Eckankar is a person who really wants to delve into the spiritual in a really real practical way."

Delving into the spiritual, ECKists believe they encounter the Light and Sound of God, the omnipresent dual aspects of the Holy Spirit.

The Light of God, Boyer said, is experienced visually on the physical plane, like the moving lights behind closed eyelids.
"That’s the light of the Holy Spirit in what’s called the third eye, the spiritual eye," Boyer said.
In an introductory pamphlet from Eckankar, it says, "Saul of Tarsus had a dramatic encounter with the Light of God on the road to Damascus. Moses saw It in the burning bush."
The Sound of God, Boyer said, is "the vibration of God’s love. You can hear it in the physical. You can hear it in dreams."

The Sound of God can be present in any sound, she said, like the noises of nature.
"The Sound of God was the rushing wind that visited the disciples during Pentecost," the Eckankar pamphlet says.

"See what happens"

Because Eckankar can be practiced personally, Boyer said there’s no way of knowing how many ECKists live in the Capital District. However, she said, between 10 and 20 people come to the monthly worship services at the Best Western.

People interested in Eckankar can come to a service and talk to some of the followers, Boyer said. There are also talks held periodically for newcomers. Information is available at www.eckankar-ny.org.

Or, Boyer said, spiritual seekers can try some of the exercises on their own.
"Set aside five minutes a day to sing HU and see what happens," she said.