The Teachers listed here have been my most significant spiritual contacts. My first contact, who was an inner teacher, taught me during meditation and sleep. The second raised my Kundalini, and along with the other Siddhas noted below, as well as the ECKankar Mahanta, continue to teach me on so many levels.
NoTar
In 1979 I did a lot of meditation throughout the day as well as visualization and certain exercises. One of the exercises I did was to focus on expanding my heart while chanting "HU," which is an ECKankar mantra. Another exercise I did was visualizing people I knew in a circle of light or animals coming into a circle in their physical bodies. Along with reading the Rosicrucian lessons, doing the exercises in each monograph, and attending Rosicrucian convocations at Johannes Kelpius Lodge in Allston, MA, I read loads of books on mystical, psychic and spiritual topics. The Rosicrucians have a saying that when the student is ready, the teacher will appear. The teacher may appear on the inner level, outer level, or both. One day while resting at my mother's house I had a clear vision of a very high being whose face was very unusual and whose head was surrounded with a large halo of light. I came to call him the "Silver Man." His vibration was so high, my friends would often get intense headaches when he was near, but I never had any adverse effects. Eventually I came to know him through numbers, colors, and the name "No Tar," which seemed very appropriate when I looked back years later, although he said his name was not important. Once I made full contact with him on May 17, 1979 (a date I prophesied by reviewing my dream journals), I felt as if I were having arcane lessons while sleeping or meditating. My creativity began to flow, dreams came true within 24 hours, I met significant people from past lives, my intuition was heightened, and meditation was more powerful. It was at this time I was directed to begin teaching and was given each lesson in meditation. Then in 1981 a Rosicrucian friend led me to Siddha Yoga while I was also doing intense service as Master of Johannes Kelpius Lodge.
Gurumayi
There is nothing like a Self-realized teacher who can also impart Shaktipat to awaken one's sleeping Kundalini that lies coiled at the base of the spine. Swami Chidvilasananda, otherwise known as Gurumayi, is such a being. Although the main headquarters of Sidda Yoga is in Ganeshpuri India, Gurumayi spends considerable time at the ashram in So. Fallsburg, New York. I have been there many times and have witnessed her incredible equanimity and the way she draws children, adults and, I understand, animals to bask in her presence. I have never seen or heard of Gurumayi angry or ruffled, and if I were to describe a physical being I would want to emulate for an extremely peaceful presence of mind and body, it would be her.
My first visit to So. Fallsburg was an overnight with an older dowsing friend, Bill Calvert (now in spirit) on our way home from a week at a Spiritual Frontiers Conference in Pennsylvania. We arrived in time for a nutritious vegetarian dinner and an evening of chanting and darshan with Gurumayi in the Muktananda Mandir, which was the first time I had seen her in person. I had no idea how to behave in the darshan line and am embarrassed when I think that I did not bow or show some kind of respect for such an enlightened being. I did, however, make an offering since one does not go before the Guru empty-handed.
After staying overnight in a women's dorm, I took the ashram bus to Atma Nidhi where I was going to meet Bill for breakfast in the Annapurna dining hall. When entering any moving vehicle I do a Rosicrucian protection technique to protect me as well as everyone in it. But when I did this after sitting down, Gurumayi appeared in my third eye looking 3-dimensional and asked sternly, "What are you doing? Don't you know that my ashram and all of its people are protected?" I immediately stopped and have not done a protection technique on any Siddha property since.
After another nutritious meal, Bill and I took the bus to the main building known as Anugraha. For some reason, I asked Bill if I could have a half hour alone then proceeded to the Amrit Cafe where, even though not hungry, I purchased a big raisin bran muffin and cup of coffee and took it out to the patio garden. I sat in an Adirondack chair facing the rising sun and before ingesting anything, felt compelled to do an adoration to the sun like Pharaoh Akhenaton, which went something like this - "O great Ra, you are so beautiful, you shine on everyone equally." Then I took a sip of coffee and felt bliss as it moved down my throat. I continued basking in the sun's rays inwardly adoring it, then took a bite of the bran muffin. To my amazement I felt waves of bliss again as it passed from my tongue, down my throat and into my chest. So within a couple of hours I had two profound experiences that showed me Gurumayi was aware and present on many levels and had the ability to impart not only an inner message but also bliss. Gurumayi's swami name, by the way, means "bliss of the play of consciousness."
Swami Muktananda
Swami Muktananda was Gurumayi's teacher/Guru who had a significant impact on spreading the Siddha philosophy around the world. He did three world tours giving Shaktipat Initiation wherever he went and wrote numerous books of which my favorite is Secret of The Siddhas. His autobiography, Play of Consciousness, is a detailed description of his spiritual journey towards Self-realization as well as his love for Bhagawan Nityananda, his Guru. I have learned so much from his many books and often find myself opening psychically to a page, chapter or sutra. Swami Muktananda spent 18 years traveling around India on foot, meeting saints and learning scriptures, then came to Ganeshpuri to sit near the feet of his Guru whom he thoroughly studied and tried to emulate in silence. He was eventually rewarded with the greatest of all prizes. I believe it was Swami Muktananda that led me to the Boston Ashram and Siddha Yoga in 1981 via dreams and meditation. I often felt his presence while chanting even though he was physically in India, and I often imagined him in my favorite tree in front of the Boston Ashram.
Bhagawan Nityananda
Bhagawan means "Lord" and Nityananda in this generation appears to have been the king of Self-realized beings. No one knows when he was born but his original name was Ram; however, because he was in a continual state of bliss, he became known as Nityananda (eternal bliss). He was mostly a silent Guru, speaking only occasionally when the spirit moved him and there was some lesson to impart. He was also a naked Guru before hordes of people came to worship him and his close devotees got him to wear a loin cloth. He loved children - they surrounded him and walked with him and he gave them candy. A true master is one on all levels making life better for others. Some of his numerous physical works included building roads, clearing jungle, making meditation caves, and giving food to the poor, but the inner level is where he was master, where he saw and knew everything and helped his devotees on their spiritual journey. Swami Muktananda's book Bhagawan Nityananda of Ganeshpuri is a treasure and one I bought and read concurrently while attending the July 2000 week-long Miracle Course in So. Fallsburg NY that was focused on this great life. For the longest time I thought Nityananda was very stern, because a photo of him on my puja appeared that way, until I attended an event at the Siddha Yoga Meditation Center in Watertown MA the first time. While chanting I observed his smiling golden murti from the side and fell in love with him, saying inwardly over and over, "I love you - you are so beautiful." All of a sudden I saw the murti breathing, in and out! At first I thought it was me breathing, so I stopped my breath and observed the murti but it was still expanding and contracting! Later I came to understand there was a living consciousness in the statue of Nityananda and that there was a very sacred process of installing it, enlivening it, and keeping it that way making it a "murti" instead of a statue.
The Living ECK Master, The Mahanta (currently Harold Kemp)
The head of ECKankar, the science of sound and light as well as soul travel, is known as the Living ECK Master on the material plane and the Mahanta on the spiritual. I first became aware of ECKankar when a friend brought a male visitor to my apartment in Nashua around 1979. He questioned me and asked if I had ever seen a blue light in meditation. I said, "Yes, all the time." He then urged me to come to an ECKankar meeting. I did attend one or two somewhere in NH, but was mostly intrigued by a series of books by a former ECK Master called Paul Twitchell. I ended up purchasing, ECKankar - Key to Secret Worlds, The Flute of the Gods, The Drums of the ECK, The Tiger's Fang, and an herbal book and read and reread them for many years until I gave all of them away except ECKankar - Key to Secret Worlds. Many years later I attended an ECK worship meeting in Cambridge but didn't feel drawn to it at the time, then when ECKists decided to meet at the Theosophical Society in Arlington MA, I felt compelled to go to their monthly worship service. It was a time in my life when I didn't want to drive much at night to attend Johannes Kelpius Lodge convocations in Allston or the Sunday morning Siddha Guru Gita in Watertown, both further away, and I absolutely loved the format of their service that included a satsang (sharing of spiritual experiences). After all the years of being acquainted with ECKankar and chanting "HU," I finally decided to join, became initiated and felt an over-riding presence. I attended the monthly sound and light services with a male friend, Don Culp, whom I picked up at the Burlington Sunrise Assisted Living until the 2020 COVID19 pandemic when people became cloistered in their homes for a couple of years. Since people were not meeting in person, ECKankar gave up renting space at the Theosophical Society. It was at this time I decided to no longer become a dues carrying member, primarily because of the accumulation of Eckankar books (I had previously downsized my book collection by 92 percent!). Also ECKankar focuses a lot on dreams, but I had already spent over 25 years working with dreams and accumulating dream notebooks. However, I did enjoy contributing to the Arlington room rental, bringing food for the pot luck after the service, and talking with the members, and have fond memories of my times there.