Eileen,

Think of my little example as a nice, safe gift.  Here, at no cost to you and with no heavy lifting is your proof that Elan Vital is a lying, disingenuous and defamatory organization.  The case is airtight.  I made an unambiguous joke (I can show you the thread itself, by the way, if you have any doubt at all about this) and EV purposely distorted it so as to make me look like a felon.  There's no way around that.  In fact, I might also add that Jack Tuff, the community coordinator in Calgary then and still a die-hard premie, himself posted to clarify the fact that there was no money ever missing, nothing of the sort.  No embezzlement, not by me, not by anyone, no kidnapping, no torture, no nothing.  All just a joke.  That is until EV got its filthy hands on it.

And we won't even get into what relationship EV has with the anonymous people responsible for those other websites.  You don't know who they are?  Guess what.  Neither do I.  Not yet anyway.  But I think that there's good reason to assume that they're working hand in hand with EV, don't you?  Think about it.

But I don't want to dilute the case.  Let's just talk about EV.  Because we do know who those guys are.  They're Maharaji's servants.  They're doing his bidding and you know it.

So what does that mean?  It means that Maharaji has instructed or at least authorized his followers to do whatever it takes to discredit and shut his critics up. 

So what do I expect you to do?  I dunno.  You tell me.  Nothing? 

Anyway, now to answer your questions.  I was initiated in Vancouver in April, 1973.  Moved into the ashram later that year, moved out briefly about a year later -- but always stayed deeply involved -- and moved back in three months later.  I finally left for good in '81 at which time I moved to L.A. I still thought of myself as a premie and went to satsang there some but over the next year or so came to terms with the cogency of my doubts which, by then, were far more impressive than any answers the cult offered. 

A few years later (88 maybe?) I went to one of Raja Ji's fundraising programs, just for a lark, more or less, to see who I knew there.  I sat at the back with my hands folded, so to speak.  Raja Ji was typically unintelligible.  After his pitch some guy at the front asked a question about his relationship with Maharaji, how that seemed so confusing what with all the changes of the day.  Raja Ji gave him some perfunctory, bullshit answer that riled me enough to shout out something from the back.  I ended up getting into a friendly little debate there and then with him.  I told him I'd spent eight years in his brother's ashram on the basis that he was God.  He started talking about the movie "The Last Emperor".  Anyone there who remembers would have to admit that I clearly "won" that exchange.  He really had nothing to say.

Afterwards I went up and introduced myself.  When he learned that I was a lawyer ($$?) he took a real interest in me.  We arranged to meet the next day.  He would stop by my office in Westwood on his way back to Malibu from getting his haircut in Beverly Hills.  He did and we went downstairs to the Red Robin for a drink.  I had scotch, he had Perrier. 

I started laying out all my reasons for doubting Maharaji.his apparently aborted mission to bring peace on earth was a big one.  Another then was the whole way he had changed the lifetime status of initiators.  See, I'd read the satsang he'd given where he warned initiators that they were like glasses raised to a certain height.  If they fell from there, they'd break for sure.  There was no turning back from that level of surrender, he said.  But then, a couple of years later, he changed his mind, let them all go, no big deal.  I had a hard time understanding that. 

Yes, that's all I had. I knew nothing about evolution then.  I was fully spiritual and magical.  If Rawat was fake, I was more than ready to fall into some other trap.  Indeed, I did more or less, but never to the same extent I did with Rawat.  I can't imagine what I'd have thought if I knew all that I've since learned about the guy.

Anyway, at first Raja Ji patronized me, "Oh, you're so sincere!  Those are such good questions!  I know some excellent instructors who are really good at working with people like you."

"Yeah, right" I thought. 

"Look, this might be a big mistake.  It's not you I should be talking to, it's your brother.  I mean, what does he think he is?  That's the question.  Really, who does he think he is anyway?"

Suddenly, Raja Ji's demeanour changed. He dropped his guard, for some strange reason, and looked at me quite sincerely, it seemed, and shrugged "You know, I've tried but he won't even talk to me about these things."

And that was it for me.  I walked Raja Ji out to his fat, new giant Mercedes, shook his hand and walked away for keeps.

So to answer your question, there was no internet then, let alone any "smartass" to "intimidate" me.  Count yourself lucky!