Jean Davis charms with her rabbit, Peanuts, during a worship service.

Everyone looked up and smiled.

The service last Sunday was typical of Eckankar, an international religion with headquarters in Minneapolis. It is only three decades old but has links to non-Western traditions that are centuries old.

The worship services typically feature a brief reading from an Eck book, the Hu chant followed by silent contemplation and discussion of a spiritual topic. Discussion Sunday centered on giving, the theme this year of the worldwide church.

The service also included a children's sermon by Jean Davis, who had brought an angora rabbit named Peanuts to illustrate a lesson on spiritual freedom.

The Omaha Eckankar Center, at 3618 Leavenworth St., is one of two in Nebraska. The other is in Lincoln's Haymarket district.

Even though the two centers have been open for several years, Eckankar remains relatively unknown locally.

Eckists hope that a seminar they are putting on this weekend at the Best Western Regency West, 909 S. 107th Ave., will change that.

Titled "Your Spiritual Wake-up Calls," the two-day affair begins today at 10 a.m. and continues on Sunday.

The Sunday agenda includes a Hu chant at 8 a.m. and a workshop on Eckankar spiritual exercises conducted by guest speaker Marge Klemp.

Eckankar was established in 1965 by Paul Twitchell, an American journalist who had studied in India and elsewhere with various spiritual gurus.

He claimed to have gathered the lost and neglected knowledge of the Light and Sound of God into a coherent body of teaching known as Eckankar, which means "co-worker with God." Twitchell declared himself the 971st Living Eck Master that same year. He died in 1971.

Eckankar teaches that a spiritual essence, Eck, the Light and Sound, connects every soul with the Heart of God.

Eckists believe that individuals can experience this essence through dreams and spiritual exercises, including the singing of Hu and soul travel, which is similar to daydreaming.

Eckists believe in karma, which is the law of cause and effect, and in reincarnation, the notion that souls live through many lifetimes on Earth in order to perfect themselves.

The religion is headed by a Living Eck Master who guides people on their journey back to God through mystical experiences, writings and lectures. The current Eck Master, or Mahanta, is Sri Harold Klemp.

Klemp is assisted by about 80 volunteer regional spiritual aides who coordinate Eckankar activities in their areas. Valerie Ingraham of Omaha is the Nebraska aide.

She and Einsel are members of the all-volunteer Eckankar clergy. Ordination requirements include years of study and initiation into certain planes of spiritual consciousness.

Clergy lead Eck worship services, preside at memorial services for the dead and perform wedding and consecration ceremonies, which are similar to baptisms.

Eckists do not proselytize - believing that people come to Eckankar when they are spiritually ready. This is one reason numbers remain small.

John Goin, the Eckankar publicity coordinator, estimated membership at 60,000-plus worldwide.

Nebraska has 50 to 60 registered Eckists, Einsel said. Iowa has about 100, said Julie Olson, an Iowa City member.

Local Eckists come from all walks of life and religious backgrounds.

Einsel, 56, a pressman for the World-Herald, grew up in the Church of the Foursquare Gospel and attended a Missouri Synod Lutheran church before discovering Eckankar.

Mike Godfrey, 56, a train scheduler at Union Pacific Railroad, was reared a Reform Jew and later joined the United Church of Christ. A sister introduced him to Eckankar.

Keith Larsen, 48, who works for the State Health and Human Services System in Lincoln, grew up Missouri Synod Lutheran. He found out about Eckankar through a brother.

Ingraham, 38, a project manager for an Omaha firm, was an Episcopalian before becoming an Eckist at age 10 - the year that her mother discovered the religion.

Olson, 41, a commercial artist, was Presbyterian. A Twitchell book given to her by a friend when she was 17 turned her to Eckankar.

Einsel, Godfrey, Larsen and Olson said Eckankar answers questions that their previous faiths were unable to satisfy.

Larsen, for example, had been told when he was a child that Mahatma Gandhi would go to hell because he wasn't a Christian.

"That was impossible for me to accept," he said. "Because of that, I had to search."

Olson said she had always questioned having only one life and whether Christianity was the only path to God.

"Eckankar gave me the room to maneuver spiritually within my own understanding," she said. "It's not dogmatic. It lays down no rules."

Although Eckankar has a set of scriptures and a spiritual master, members believe that individuals create their own spiritual experiences through many physical lifetimes until they fully manifest their godlike qualities.

According to Eck teachings, people choose their parents and life circumstances before birth in order to learn necessary lessons or to erase karma accumulated in another lifetime.

"As a result, there are no victims (in Eckankar)," said Olson.

"I am totally responsible for my own life," she said. "Nobody is going to pay my debts."