Hi Paddy,

I'm not rationalising "the fact that some people ain't ever getting out."

What's fortunate is that there is indeed an "out" to begin with concerning being or not being in a cult.  Premies worship another human being and give a lot of their internal selves to him in the process, which is psychological manipulation. That's what makes it so wrong, IMO, not whether his followers feel good about it.  Deception is deception. 

As you do, I also know some premies who I think will always believe in Maharaji as their Lord (or some variation), and based on their decades of involvement with him, and the layers of indoctrination over those years, they will never get out.  See, there's that word "out" again.  It always pops up when discussing cults. 

Plus, it's not as if Maharaji handed out simple mantras one day in the distant past and said, "go practice this and be happy, forget about me, live and be happy."  There's an entire belief system involved, rituals practiced, a person is being worshipped.  Whether or not someone appears to be living a contented or even a blissful life as a premie isn't the point, IMO.  The fact remains that Maharaji obtained their trust and adoration by lying to them every step of the way, so their happiness is actually based on lies.  That's a deep deception on many levels that lies at the heart of the Rawat cult. 

That said, I don't expect the forum or EPO to "save" everyone from Prem Rawat because that's an unreasonable expectation, and I don't look at it that way at all.  I see the forum and EPO as an option for premies to read if they want to, so that they can find out that there was an actual "in" to the cult, and now years later, if they so choose, can find their way out.  Then again, Prem Rawat has gotten the message out to premies not to read the forum or EPO, so there you go -- he himself doesn't want to let them "out," even though he says often enough that people are "free to go."  That too, is very much a lie, especially for the decades-long involved.

Cynthia