Hope is, in my opinion, extremely important for a person's mental health and peace of mind. When hope goes, as Rawat said, depression can take its place (look, I agree with Rawat!). This is clearly undesirable, so for premies, it is a strong reason to stay with Rawat, as a large part of their hopes are invested with him.

I recall my brother, who has lived in Brazil since 1980, talking about a friend of his from Switzerland, who told him that Switzerland had a very high suicide rate, in spite of their high living standard, and yet Brazil, where many people live in poverty, and violence is widespread, has a low suicide rate. My brother put this down to the fact that poor people in Brazil had hope that they could find a better house in the shanty towns, or a better job, or get out of the shanty towns (his wife is a good example who rose from abject poverty to teaching English to students on the university steps, to now teaching English to celebrities). As long as people feel they can improve their own lives, or the lives of their families, or for the more altruistic, the lives of strangers, then depression is unlikely.

I think we lose hope when we place our hope in unrealistic ideals, such as the possibility that God has incarnated in the body of a bloated, greedy, drunken man from India. If we do make such a mistake, the answer is not to keep hold of our hope, but to let go and place our hope in something more realistic.

My own path away from Rawat was made relatively easier by having already found other things in my life that had become important to me, where I placed my hopes. When I rejected Rawat these other things did not let me down, so for me, hope in the future is still strong, and I cannot forsee that failing. Other people find hope in their families or religion, but I recognise that for some ex-premies rejecting Rawat can lead to a feeling of hopelessness. The premie who posted below asks what we can offer these people.

The answer is, IMO, that we do not offer them anything except the possibility of not looking for hope in other people, but instead relying on ourselves to make the life we want, and invest our hopes in our own abilities to make the future we want for ourselves and those we love. This may not be easy, and no one promised it would be easy, but this hope can not be taken away by some charlatan guru. It is ours to nurture and cherish.

Just some thoughts from a very cold Latvia.