Hi Tim,
I completely agree with everything you say. I always feel out on a limb with these "reinvented, legitimized cult" posts because I lean towards cult insiders being disguised and clever enough to "put lipstick on a pig" and fool people enough to pass Knowledge off as something entirely different than what I practiced. Moreover, I've cautioned myself to not underestimate what they're capable of.
I think you captured the new approach when you said:
"It is literally a process of mis-education to ingrain the notions that personal 'inner peace' is some sort of a 'cure all' that is also a morally suitable/desirable objective for people to aim at in life. Furthermore that such a mythical state is not only attainable -- but also simply so given the help of a'teacher'."
That's what it is, except I'm sure they're clever enough to leave out the mis-education, cure all and mythical parts in their sales pitch. Whatever Prem Rawat wrote in "Hear Yourself" and whatever the PEP curriculum is along with the rest of the glitter, I'm sure they package it in a way that comes across to an unsuspecting public as a plausible, attractive and potentially effective set of practical self-help tools and guidance aimed at being more stable and grounded in a topsy-turvy world.
Just as I was vulnerable to the way Knowledge was presented in 1973, too many people are vulnerable to those "attractive" notions. Being unsuspecting and overly trusting, especially in a formal education setting, the probably fall for it. In other words, what you accurately described is a whole different kind of bait for attracting a whole different kind of fish with a whole different set of pretexts. Thus, the reinvented, legitimized and contemporary version of the same old cult.
It's like a tale of two cults: the old one that I'm familiar with and the emergence of a new one that I know very little about and has the potential of becoming sustainable on some level (hopefully not significant), and possibly with entirely diffent criteria for success, e.g., sustainability and acceptance of Prem Rawat as legitimate. Signs of success on that basis are certainly disconcerting, especially when I see high school students and principals speaking positively about PEP. That can't possibly be the same bait I swallowed hook, line and sinker! (Even though on some level it is.)
It's hard to write about something I know very little about!
