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| A Statistical Analysis of the Happiness Quotient of students of Inspirational Speaker, Prem Rawat |  | ||
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I've been quite surprised at the level of disagreement I have been getting when making the simple statement that most of the premies I know are quite happy and successful in their lives. I don't feel any need to make this pronouncement very often but when I see sweeping generalisations being made on this Forum about premie misery I feel like raising the point. The Jim Heller/Cynthia hypothesis is that I am saying this because I have friends and family who are premies and can't face the real truth. But I have friends and family on the left of politics too. They're happy and successful in their lives and I don't feel any need to pretend otherwise about this just because I'm politically conservative. Other ex-premies seem to believe that because I say the premies I know are happy then I must not understand that Elan Vital is a cult or that Prem Rawat is an ignorant, nasty charlatan yet I believe both those statements and many similar ones to be true. Others say I must be defending the efficacy of the so-called “Knowledge” of Prem Rawat even though I explicitly state that I don't ascribe any but a very small part of this observable happiness to their cult membership. Others wish to explain that I'm not philosophically sophisticated enough to understand “real” happiness from “premie” happiness but if it waddles and quacks I call it a duck. I was a little taken aback by this vehement opposition and I wondered if I might be wrong so I thought about the premies I know and wrote down a list of their names, jobs, etc. Then I rang an old premie mate who is heavily involved in the administration of the local community and asked him a few questions to ensure I was up to date with my information, most of which I have got by gossiping with premies over the years. Apparently Elan Vital have 200 people in this city on their mailing list though the local community considers about 120 to be the number of people who are in sync enough to be considered “practising”. Of these, there are about 60 who can be counted on to come to a big night and contribute to Elan Vital in a meaningful way and about 10 to 12 who do regular service in the local community. I culled my list to only include people who I had known well, who I would recognise and would happily stop and chat and catch up with should we meet. There were 30 names left in the list. Amongst this group were 7 teachers and librarians, 7 business people, 3 health professionals, 4 asssorted managers and clerical staff, 1 technician, 3 pensioners, 2 housewives and 4 I don't knows. All but 5 or 6 own their own homes and even in Australia this would be considered a high percentage. The pensioners have free government housing in small but comfortable apartments. Many of them have hobbies such as surfing, playing music and gardening and many share their neighbours' enthusiasms for sport, popular culture, etc. None of them are living in unfurnished homes whose only decorations are photos snipped from the pages of 'And It Is Divine' though many have now worthless satellite TV dishes and growing DVD collections. There are 5 or 6 people on this list that I'd consider unhappier than the average person but they were unhappier when I first met them and while being a premie hasn't changed that it also hasn't caused it. If there is anything that makes these people statistically abnormal amongst the overall premie community it is that they are virtually all 30 (plus or minus 3) year premies. I don't know any premies from recent decades. Nearly half of them lived in the ashram or if they already had families when they joined DLM were very committed premies. So if they show anything it is that 30 years' involvement with Prem Rawat in Australia has not necessarily disadvantaged them greatly, especially as some of them would have been considered hippies before joining DLM. When I consider what being a premie these days entails it does not seem excessive. Our area has many new large “American-style” charismatic churches and those of our neighbours who are involved in them spend more time in their activities than even the committed service oriented premies and Elan Vital meetings are positively boring compared to the wild, hot gospelling, praising, “speaking in tongues”, music and spirit filled evenings in their large auditoriums. To keep it in perspective, there are many local churches that have more members than Prem Rawat has Australian followers. Actually, Elan Vital meetings are positively boring, period. If there are any people who know actual premies, not cyberspace premies, and who can produce evidence that the group I know are completely unique and that premies are, in fact, miserable, then I'd be glad to hear from you. |
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