Paul Twitchell (d. 1971) was an American spiritual writer, author and founder (or modern founder) of the teaching Eckankar. As the Mahanta (the Living ECK Master) of his time, from 1965 until his death in 1971, he uncovered what Eckists (members of Eckankar) call the ancient science of Eckankar through several books and lectures; some have charged that he invented the religion. His spiritual name is believed by Eckists to be Peddar Zaskq.

Eckankar is a new religious movement that focuses on spiritual exercises enabling practitioners to experience what its followers call "the Light and Sound of God."

According to the Eckankar glossary, the term Eckankar means "Co-Worker with God". A Glossary of ECK Terms It is likely drawn from the Sikh term, Ik Onkar. Since 1985 Eckankar is described as ?The Religion of the Light and Sound of God?. Prior to 1985 Eckankar changed the descriptor following its name several times.

Eckankar headquarters are in Chanhassen, Minnesota (southwest of Minneapolis). At this site there are the Eckankar Temple, an outdoor chapel, an administrative building, and the ECK Spiritual Campus.

This article does not discuss "cult" in the original sense of "veneration" or "religious practice"; for that usage see Cult (religious practice). See Cult (disambiguation) for more meanings of the term "cult".

Cult typically refers to a cohesive social group devoted to beliefs or practices that the surrounding population considers to be outside the mainstream, with a notably positive or negative popular perception. The spelling c-u-l-t also has at least eight homonym meanings that have confused the public since 1920 onward.

In common or populist usage, "cult" has a positive connotation for groups of art, music, writing, fiction,Star Trek has an extremely large following but can still be considered cult' due to the intense loyalty the franchise inspires; see Cult following and fashion devotees (see Cult following), but a negative connotation for new religious, extreme political, questionable theraputic, and pyramidal business groups.Cult Concerns: An Overview of Cults and their Harmful Methods in the UK. http://www.cultinformation.org.uk/articles.html For this reason, most, if not all, non-fan groups that are called cults reject this label.

A group's cult status begins as rumors spread of its novel belief system, its great devotions, its idiosyncratic practices, its perceived harmful or beneficial effects on members or its perceived opposition to the interests of mainstream cultures and governments. Persistent rumors may follow relatively small and recently founded religious or non-religious groups when they are perceived to engage in excessive member control or exploitation.

New religions are often considered "cults" before they are considered religions by social scientists, by Christian Evangelical/Fundamentalist theologians, and also by the secular public ? yet these three groups do not usually have the same understanding of the term "cult". People understand the term "cult" through the most popular usage in their cultures and subcultures, which can result in homonymic conflict, a communicative conflict with people who hold a different definition of the same term. This often results in confusion, misunderstanding, and resentment between members of "cult" groups and non-members.

Laypersons participate in cultic studies to a degree not found in other academic disciplines, making it difficult to demarcate the boundaries of science from theology, politics, news reporting, fashion, and family cultural values.

From about 1920 onward,"During the 1920s and 1930s, sociologists who were studying religion started to use it to refer to those faith groups that were not full denominations or sects." ?Ontario Consultants On Religious Tolerance: Cults, Sects and Denominations. OCRT references Superior Court of California, 1985: "It began as a sociological term in the twenties and thirties."; testimony of Dr. J. Gordon Melton, UCSB (author of the Encyclopedic Handbook of Cults in America; see #Bibliography#Books). the populist negative connotation progressively interfered with scientific study using the neutral historical meaning of "cult" in the sociology of religion."This popular use of the term has gained such credence and momentum that it has virtually swallowed up the more neutral historical meaning of the term from the sociology of religion" James T. Richardson wrote in 1993. A 20th century attempt by sociologists to replace "cult" with the term New Religious Movement (NRM), was rejected by the public "The use of the concept "new religious movements" in public discourse is problematic for the simple reason that it has not gained currency. Speaking bluntly from personal experience, when I use the concept "new religious movements," the large majority of people I encounter don't know what I'm talking about. I am invariably queried as to what I mean. And, at some point in the course of my explanation, the inquirer unfailing responds, "oh, you mean you study cults!" " --Prof. Jeffrey K. Hadden quoted from Conceptualizing "Cult" and "Sect" (cited by cultfaq.org) and not entirely accepted by the social-scientific community. "...use of the term 'cult' by academics, the public and the mass media, from its early academic use in the sociology of religion to recent calls for the term to be abandoned by scholars of religion because it is now so overladen with negative connotations. But scholars of religion have a duty not to capitulate to popular opinion, media and governments in the arena of the 'politics of representation'. The author argues that we should continue using the term 'cult' as a descriptive technical term. It has considerable educational value in the study of religions." --Michael York quoted from Defending the Cult in the Politics of

Representation DISKUS Vol.4 No.2 (1996) (cited by cultfaq.org)

Despite the existence of popular cult checklists, anthropologists and sociologists have argued that no one has been able to unambiguously define ?cult?, in a way that identifies only non-fan groups who will become illegally abusive or destructive. However, without attempting to predict crimes or torts by groups, scientific criteria of characteristics attributed to cults do exist. A little-known example is Alexander and Rollins' 1984 study, which concluded that the socially well-received group Alcoholics Anonymous is a cult by using the model of Lifton's thought reform techniquesRobert J. Lifton, 1961, Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism (cited by freedomofmind.com) and applying those to AA's group indoctrination methodology.Alexander, F., Rollins, R. (1984). ?Alcoholics Anonymous: The Unseen Cult,? California Sociologist, Vol. 7, No. 1, Winter, page 32 as cited in Ragels, L. Allen "Is Alcoholics Anonymous a Cult? An Old Question Revisited" ?AA uses all the methods of brain washing, which are also the methods employed by cults ... It is our contention that AA is a cult.? transcribed to Freedom of Mind, website and retrieved on August 23, 2006.

During the 20th century, groups referred to as cults by governments and media became globally controversial. The televised rise and fall of less than 20 destructive cults known for mass suicide and murder tarred hundreds of NRM groups having less serious government and civil legal entanglements, against a background of thousands of unremarkable NRM groups known only to their neighbors.

Following the Solar Temple destructive cult incidents on two continents, France authorized the 1995 Parliamentary Commission on Cults in France. This commission set a mostly non-controversial standard for human rights objections to exploitative group practices, and mandated a controversial remedy for cultic abuse, known in English as cult watching, which was quietly adopted by other countries. The United States does not have a classification for cults in its legal system. The U.S. responded with human rights challenges to French cult control policies, and France charged the U.S. with interfering in French internal affairs. In recent years, France's troublesome public cult watching lists appear to have been retired in favor of confidential police intelligence gathering.