What to do when somebody you know is in a cult?
The response can range anywhere from an indulgent smile to kidnapping.
I think that we must consider all the circumstances. To give one example - if your kid has disappeared into a cult headed by a man who teaches the way to Heaven is hitching a ride on the Haley's comet, then steps should be taken before your kid kills himself. There are parents in the United States who lost their children in just this way. They probably did not know what to do, and they probably got no help from anybody. The USA, afterall, adheres to freedom of religion with nearly no reservations.
For ex-premies and premies, we have the dilemma of not wanting to hurt our friends and loved ones while wanting to actively counter-measure Rawat's teachings. One example - a premie in my town, a woman who is the main local contact person for PWK, has a husband who is not a premie. He has refused to let her have anymore "meetings" in their home. This presents a dilemma for the husband and wife, and the same dilemma is faced by all of us who have been involved. It comes with the territory of a cult. It is unavoidable. Whenever you have a teaching that is so narrow and restrictive that it relies on the power of one human savior-figure, then a differing of opinion is inevitable, and there will always be the question of how to proceed, both individually and collectively on the level of national government.
The truth is never narrow and dependent on the power of one human being. This is a truism. Unfortunately for us, the human race does not seem to have evolved a gestalt of this truth yet. Instead, twenty-first century humans still behave with monkey-like, hierarchical, and even combative thinking as they awkwardly contemplate the Unknown.
It's pathetic that the cult member plays the "human rights" card. The obvious fact is that cults do damage, to varying extents. So there has to be some kind of balance between human rights/individual freedom vs the judicious prosecution of con-men. There are no simple, one-sided solutions.
When religious leaders become terrorists, the truth becomes evident even to the dullest members of our societies. But most cult leaders are careful and smart enough to "fly under the radar" as Rawat so appropriately puts it. Rawat has the problem of needing a campaign of reaching out to the public without the public becoming too aware of it. His dilemma in this regard is becoming more and more problematic for him, as evidenced by the Keys program and its amazing restrictions. And our dilemma of how to counter-measure Rawat's cult is becomiing less and less problematic as this particular cult enters its dying stage.
