That's good, Neville, but I think the best advice has to be:

Follow the question.

Cults (like anyone trying to fool someone) hate questions. If they indulge them at all, they usually give very superficial answers while trying to discourage the person from following up or asking anymore.  The EV and other Prem Rawat FAQs are excellent examples of ourageously incomplete answers which are obviously framed to cut the conversation short.  You simply can't get fooled into thinking that there might indeed be something wrong with asking stuff and following through.  And how far do you go?  You gauge that by your satisfaction, not the answerer's. 

If only I understood that then.  Instead, I, like so many, was completely prey to the notion that a sensitive, thoughtful, "evolved" and "seeking" person didn't ask a whole lot of questions.  That was so crass ....