A Modern Prophet Answers Your Key Questions about Life

Established in 1965 by Paul Twitchell, Eckankar is a religion that refers to itself as the ""Religion of the Light and Sound of God."" It teaches that past lives affect present decisions, dreams are real and can be used to understand everyday experience and that ""Soul Travel"" is a ""natural method for discovering spiritual truth."" Soul Travel is taught only by the living ECK Master, the spiritual leader of Eckankar who assists people in their spiritual travels and whose ""duty it is to lead Souls back to God."" In 1981, Harold Klemp, after a career in the U.S. Air Force, became the current living ECK Master, or Mahanta, of Eckankar. In the past 17 years, many followers of Eckankar have written to Klemp seeking his advice on spiritual matters, and many of those questions, along with Klemp's answers, are reproduced in this volume. Gathered into 12 chapters, questions range from ""Are dreams real?"" and ""Why is life so hard?"" to ""Why stay a virgin until marriage?"" and ""Does smoking affect your spiritual growth?"" In his responses to questions, Klemp remains evenhanded and seeks a middle ground that will lead the questioners to reconsider certain principles of ECK that deal with their situations. On balance, though, Klemp comes across as a spiritualized ""Dear Abby"" proffering aphorisms like, ""Life isn't run by people who are experts in living"" and ""Be kind and gentle to yourself. We are all beginners in living."" (Sept.)