Down below is a thread discussing some of the history of Prem Rawat in the West and how his own psychological problems are pretty much the only explanations for some of the things Rawat did, all of which were/are destructive of what he and the premies have said are his true "mission" in everything he supposedly does. 

Also, La-Ex, rightly I think, observes that every stage in Rawat's cult has always been due to Rawat trying to get out of, and repair, the psychological and other "messes" he had created in the earlier phases, and he tried to do this by coming out with the next gimmick that was going to finally make what was left of the "divine plan" come together. 

 In every new phase, he claimed the problems in the previous phases are due to somebody else.  (He blames the Mahatmas, the premies, the world, something other than him, always), and it seems that whenever a new phase arives the premies are always expendible and something he never really worries about, except to the extent that dwindling numbers begins to affect his psychological or financial situation.

1.  Phase I:  The pre-millennium period (1971-1973) Rawat was pretty young and entranced by all the money and toys and freedom in the West that he didn't have in India.  Knowledge was spread pretty much the way it was in India, in that there was an honest (if incredibly deluded) presentation that Rawat was God, that he was to be worshipped and knowledge showed you God.   There was no formal preparation for knowledge except for going to satsang for awhile, sometimes as little as a couple of days.  Rawat preached that he was bringing peace to the entire world and that he had a plan for world peace.  This built up to the Millennium program at the Houston Astrodome at the end of 1973, where Rawat was supposed to reveal his plan for world peace.  It was almost a complete bust.  Despite it being free and the huge lead-up advertising, the Astrodome was mostly empty.  The mission went into huge debt and the premies were kind of depressed.  The press reports about Millennium were almost uniformly negative, and ranged from laughing sarcasm, to ignoring the event completely. 

2.  Phase II:  In response to the angst Rawat had because the world did not accept him and because people didn't come running by the millions, Rawat compensated by trying to prove to himself that he really was the Perfect Master and so set out to live the obscenely luxurious lifestyle, enjoy all the Western world had to offer, and become a demanding lord to the premies, when being a premie required total devotion and surrender, total dedication, and Rawat expected service and gratitude to the point of exhaustion of every one of them.  This period, IMO was the most damaging to premies, and caused the most injury to the largest number of his followers and resulted in things like DECA, divorces, isolation from the world, abandonment of children, etc.  (Note: the 1976 "humanitarian leader" (short) period is a subphase here, and I think it scared Rawat enough that it increased the intensity of the devotional period that followed on its heels.)  This entire period had the effect of drying up what little propagation there was, reduced the number of premies, and burned out the ones who remained.

3.  Phase III:  Rawat wants to quit, then tries to change his image to try to be more relatable to the world , and does an about face on the physical surrender required.  As one of the ways to change his image, he flippantly decides to close the ashrams and abandon the premies who were in them, despite having spent the previous 7 years pretty much demanding life-long commitment in those same ashrams.  It's hard to decide which was worse for his followers:  that he pushed the ashrams in the first place, or how he just shut them down with nary a care as to what would happen to the people in them.

Rawat then started smoking, drinking and eating meat in front of the premies, again, in an attempt to change his image.  He also started experimenting with having sex with premie women, despite being married, and despite the obvious problems he and other Gurus have gotten into by taking advantage of devotees.  I guess he also had marriage problems during this period and he and his wife went to marriage counseling.  Everything in the "mission" pretty much stops during this period, while Rawat works out his emotional and personal problems.

4.  Phase IV:  Rawat tries to further tone-down his image and make his presentation a little more slick, and words like "motivational speaker" and "student" and "successful investor" and "foundation" come into the cult lexicon, but at the same time, Rawat sets up Amaroo, and around that time there is a resurgence of premies worshipping him, and darshan, arti, and the wobble dance are reintroduced, to the delight of the premies who held over from phases I and II. 

Propagation outside India is dead, but Rawat keeps proposing technological and other gimmicks to pretend that he is really serious about propagation, and at every phase, there are  premies who seem to buy it, always forgetting the many other "new phases" that were always going to make it all happen ("it" being world peace, etc.). Rawat also uses the excuse of getting ready to finally do propagation to get things he wants, like a Gulfstream Jet, which he wants to use in his hobby as a pilot, and which also has the effect of making him feel better about being propely treated as the Perfect Master.

5.  Phase V:  In my opinion, phase V is all about reacting to ex-premies and the internet, which has created whole, new, psychological and other problem for Rawat, because for the very first time in the cult, since the very beginning, Rawat and the cult are forced (kicking and screaming and running away, of course), to actually face and be aware of what has happened in the past and how the present isn't as different from the past as the cult propaganda would suggest. 

So, I believe, that at least for the past few years, the cult has been all about trying to repair Rawat's image through PR, because of what EPO has done to it, and also, to desperately try to hold on to the 70s premies who are the bulk of his dwindling number of followers. 

 Hence, programs even in the US have begun to be devotional orgasms again, with "expressions" and dancing and the like, and many premies love it, and the ones who don't, leave.  I wouldn't be a bit surprised if Rawat starts giving darshan and the premies start singing arti to him at "events" in North America (which will not be open to "new people" because everyone will have to have a "smart card," which is all part of the Rawat cult's attempt to limit the damage caused by Master-worshipping details getting out to the public). 

With Rawat, there seems to be always this recurring, psychologically-driven pattern.  He tries to tone down and get away from being the Lord, and the worship and money that comes from that, in order to try to be relatable to more people because he is supposed to be about spreading knowledge to people, but then because of his psychological need to be worshipped, combined with the reduction in donations that come when premies start to think of him as something other than the Lord, he reverts back to guru-worship, which is completely counter-productive to propagation.  Although he might have had some success in doing both at the same time, this requires that the public be kept in the dark about the "other" Rawat, and because of EPO and other problems, he can't do that. 

Hence, the latest phase is all defense because of EPO.

What do you guys think?  Can we fill in the whole story?