Gary Betzner, the Cocaine Premie

Gary Betzner was a sociopathic crop duster who faked his own death and became one of the biggest drug smugglers of his time. HBO produced a miniseries, 'The Invisible Pilot' in 2020 and my brother told me about it one beautiful morning despite knowing I have a strong antipathy towards drug use and criminals. "Ah, but he worked for your 70's guru," he replied and went off laughing.

I wish he hadn't told me because watching those 3 episodes to see what they revealed about Prem Rawat, my 1970s bogus meditation guru was one of the most dispiriting times of my life. The producers found that a friend of his children had been filming and interviewing the family since the 1970s and to see the ageing downward spiral of their lives was really depressing. Betzner was a lousy pilot who crashed 11 times, a failed businessman who left a trail of debt, a terrible father who damaged his children, a very poor follower of Rawat's and a natural but very incompetent criminal who was arrested many times, utterly selfish, cowardly and rash, a total liar who betrayed everybody who couldn't kill him in revenge. And he wasn't half as excruciating to watch as his hideous second wife and "soul mate" in her own mind.

In 1977 after faking his own death to avoid prison he fled Arkansas to California and came into contact with Guru Maharaj Ji aka Prem Rawat and Divine Light Mission. He led a "hippiesh" life as Lucas Harmony smoking, growing and selling dope, eating stolen fruit and definitely not following Rawat's instructions in how to live and meditate. There was always an outer circle of dopers, crazies and criminals hanging around Divine Light Mission centres. Exactly where the premies ended and the bongos began was often hard to tell as there was usually an uncertain area. Naturally he was arrested, its hard to be a successful criminal and use the product.

In 1979 while awaiting trial he went to Miami to answer the guru's call for people to work on a Boeing 707 being remodelled for his private use. This was called the DECA project and over 1,000 premies moved to Miami. He then became a pilot smuggling mostly cocaine from Central America to the USA. This was astoundingly profitable and he lived the life of a man with lots of money and drugs in 1980s Miami, a decadent lifestyle both glorified and condemned by Hollywood, often at the same time. Despite rumours there is no evidence that Rawat profited from him in any way, this was a man who didn't even support his own children. Thankfully, he was arrested again and spent 27 years in jail despite his possible involvement in the Iran-Contra affair becoming public.

He spoke about his involvement with his bogus guru, a bogus devotee for a bogus guru, irony sqared. It was interspersed with scenes of Guru Maharaj Ji aka Prem Pal Singh Rawat from Millenium 73 and another film I can't identify:

"… and from that point on, mylife changed. I found the most incredible teacher, my guru Prem Pal Singh Rawat, Maharaji. He only talked about one thing, one thing only and that's uh the experience of Knowledge of the Self, to have true peace in your life. Back in those days it was almost like they had a, like a cult, it was almost like a religion It was really beautiful and there was something more that I was looking for. I didn't know what I was looking for but if I knew what I was looking for then I wouldn't need to know what I was looking for and that's what Maharaji shows us, the Inner Self, the God inside, the heaven inside he called it. … I'm not even a spiritual person, what the fuck, I'm a process person."

Actually it was definltely a cult, definitely a religion but Betzner is so self-absorbed he probably didn't notice. Most religious groups contain some users and cheaters and in Betzner's case he was only a small-time user and abuser of others compared to Rawat Himself. Betzner spent 27 years in jail which somewhat restores my faith in the Unites States penal system but it was nothing as terrible as being condemned to spend 27 years with that loathsome second wife. Now that would have been karma.

The mini-series includes some film taken at the Millenium' 73 festival and shown in the TVTV documentary "The Lord of the Universe." Betzner had no connection with Divine Light Misson at that time. There is also film that appears to have been taken in India at a Holi festival in the early 1980s, provenance unknown.