The story of the Dutchman van der Braak sounds more like the story of early followers of Maharaji than that of followers of SSB. The guru’s own mother (Luna Tarlo) publicly rejects him after some time though for very different reasons as Mataji, followers had a naive belief that they will change the world quite soon through a spiritual revolution, lived in ashrams and followed the guru in different countries. Van der Braak fought against his doubts and mind. In contrast to Maharaji, Cohen does have some teachings and some intellectual depth, and he even sometimes openly expresses his doubts and in the beginning changes his teachings somewhat as a consequence. Unlike Rawat, Cohen did not blatantly exploit his followers for personal gain but like Rawat he is an immature teacher and degenerates by the authority and veneration that he received from his followers. Cohen seems to become more demanding, and more paranoid in the course of time. Cohen's biggest mistake seems to be that he overgeneralizes from his own experience.

Van der Braak describes his experiences in an honest way, leaving the theoretical frameworks to interpret his experiences until the last chapters. The way van der Braak describes rude boy Cohen’s "tough love" reminds me of Rawat’s satsang transcripts.

Van der Braak blames the problems on the guru-disciple system and understands that he was in a cultish group of which there are so many but he does not describe his experience in a bitter way, in spite of the psychological abuse to which Cohen subjected him. If I were to write a book about SSB then more of my anger and bitterness would shine through.

This is a well-written book and an "easy read". (By the way, the employee of book shop told me that van der Braak was a regular customer there). Toby, Dant, Wolfie, it has also been translated into German.