I looked back at what you wrote and you quoted “successful cult recruitment did not last beyond the 1970s” - and then link to the article about how the cults of the 1970s (ours among others) ushered in much of today’s fuzzy thinking. I think it’s great we feel free to disagree as that isn’t how cults work. But I don’t see our cult as a problem (whether it’s this forum I say it on or not) that isn’t just a part of the bigger picture of cults in general.
One thing on your site.. at one time Prem Rawat had a lot less wealth than he appears to have now. You have well documented that even as his western follower numbers dwindled his lifestyle appears to have become even more ostentatious. So, whatever it is the cult now is, for him, on a material level, his business model has been a success.(however many current pleas we see for donations as yet we see no evidence of him scaling back his own lifestyle)
I get a bit pissed by the logic on we didn’t get branded, we didn’t commit mass suicide, and we didn’t have a dogma where as many children were sexually assaulted as in the Children of God. You do see my point, that even on a smaller scale it’s still really abhorrent, and I appreciate that. But I am sure you also realize that what did happen in Prem Rawat’s cult gets swept under the rug sometimes with that very logic- “we aren’t like them because we didn’t … x”. As you know, he used the same dynamics as all cult leaders to control premies.
