Down below we had some discussion about the various levels of dehumanization that ocurred in the Rawat cult over the years.  Jim mentioned that Rawatism is just a case of Hinduism and as such is just a very extreme frame of mind.  The world's all maya, the master's the only reality, samskara, karma, grace that overrides it all ...   And because of that, it opens the door to a lot of fanaticism and dehumanizaiton, but Jim was surprised there wasn't more of it, given the mindset.

I agree with him and I think it could have been a lot worse, although there was quite a bit of it, as we were discussing below.   Plus, the underlying ideology of Rawatism is inherently dehumanizing because it's that you are too helpless and confused to take charge of your own life, you have to have Rawat there to get you through, and Rawat, every time he talks, never fails to hammer in that human beings are confused, violent hateful and otherwise messed up, and that as premies they are always failing by not being "in that place."  Let's just say it's a real put down and not at all conducive to individual growth and self-reliance.  It is inherently designed to foster psychological dependence on Prem Rawat by putting the pwk always in a deficient and "incomplete" place, always needing more improvement.

But I also think there were a few things that mitigated some of the worst abuses in that cult:.

First, the majority of premies were a bunch of peace and flower hipppies before they got involved, and that created a different predisposition to spiritual brutality than if they had come from the ocean of religious zealotry or the search for purification.

Second, Rawat tended to not give people power for very long, I think because he resented anybody taking attention away from him  So, he could give David Smith power over the ashram premies in certain regions and he could engage in an  assault of fanatical dehumanization and sadism, but he couldn't do that for very long.  Same thing with the Mahatmas. 

So, most of the time these real zealots were just premies, or just Initiators, and they didn't really have physical power over people.  True, they could be psychologically abusive, and many were, but they couldn't really enforce their wills on people unless they had real power over them, as was sometimes the case.  But that didn't happen for very long.

The other situation that was extremely abusive was knowledge selection, and that's when the more mentally screwed up premies/initiators could really damage people who had been indoctrinated into thinking that knowledge was the ultimate and that they had to have it to survive as a human being.  In those situations, when people are psychologically vulnerable, a lot of mental abuse took place, and I witnessed a lot of it myself.

Anyhow, for most premies, you could be abused by the cult mostly to the extent you took it seriously, and felt that Maharaji was giving you what you needed, including when you were being mentally tortured.  So, people in the ashram, and who became initiators were probably the most vulnerable.  Unless the fanatical abuser had  power over you, that was limited.  True, Rawat was often psychologically abusive when he gave satsang, but he was very distant from most premies, so premies could be reconciled that all the other premies were in the same boat, being abused in the same way.  It was abusive, but less direct (for most premies).

But when I saw the abuse and dehumanization really come to the fore, was when Rawat got personally involved in premies' lives. 

The most clear example of that is DECA.  Maharaji wanted that plane badly and so he got personally involved in DECA almost micromanaging it.   He was there all the time, and he was constantly asking DECA to produce more stuff personally for him.

When that happened, the dehmanization reached its apex.  Rawat put huge demands on the premies without really any thought about the physical, emotional and social consequences, and premies jeapordized their health, careers, families and put everything on the line to serve him.  They got divorced, they ignored their kids, they ruined their health, you name it.  From both the perspective of Rawat and the premies, it was all justified because Rawat is the only reality and all that matters.  The rest is just maya, and your only purpose in life is to serve the "one reality."

So, Rawat's relative hands off approach to the premies up until then was probably a plus in that sense, because when he got really involved, that was the most dehumanizing period of all.

What do you guys think?