Paul Twitchell

Paul Twitchell (born Jacob Paul Twitchell) (died September 17, 1971) was an American spiritual lecturer and writer, pulp fiction author, and founder of the religion known as Eckankar. He was accepted by the Eckankar members as the Mahanta, the Living ECK Master from October 22, 1965 until his death. He created and directed the development of Eckankar as a new spiritual teaching. He stated in his writings that his spiritual name is Peddar Zaskq.

Paul Twitchell obscured many details of his life. His year of birth is disputed, with 1908, 1910, 1912, 1920 and 1922 being suggested. It is given as 1908 in the Library of Congress Biographical Information on Authors. He was born in Paducah, Kentucky to Effie Dorothy and Jacob Noah Twitchell.

Twitchell attended high school in Paducah. He then attended Murray State College, a teacher's college, for two years, before going to Western Kentucky State Teachers College until 1934. He failed to graduate from either of those colleges.

Twitchell's first full-time paid job was as a painter, which he began in late 1936 via his father Jacob who worked as an Office Administrator at Marine Ways. His first marriage was to Camille Ballowe, from Paducah, in Providence, Rhode Island on August 12, 1942. He 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.

Twitchell's first known connection with L. Ron Hubbard (also a US Naval Reserve Officer during WW2 and pulp fiction author) was around 1950 during the Dianetics period. He also 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 Premananda Giri's Self-Realization Church of Absolute Monism, an offshoot of Paramahamsa Yogananda's Self-Realization Fellowship. He lived on the grounds of the church, and edited its periodical, The Mystic Cross. He was asked to leave the church in July 1955, and a few months later he formally separated from his wife, who stayed on at Premananda's for a time.

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