Really? Since Maharaji and his father were alive at the same time, who was "the current incarnation of God"?

Well you'd think that would have been some sort of clue, but if you're implication is that he could not have made the claim since it wouldn't strike people as "logical" that seems like a rather long way around the barn. Why not just say he never made such a claim? Well, because he did, didn't he? And you apparently know that, which is why you've chosen this obfuscatory claim.

In the Indian mystagogue tradition the "mastership" is passed from one person to another at some point, but there may be a period where it's held simultaneously by both. There are also sects within the Sant Mat that have no current or living master. A lot of back-stabbing goes on over the succession... which was the case with Ms father and with him, of course. This is completely non-controversial.

Really? John Macgregor and Neville Ackland spring to mind as two people who, within months of deciding to stop practicing Knowledge, made the worst decisions of their lives.

I'm not familiar with either of these cases, but assuming they did make bad decisions it's not unusual for a former cultist to be unanchored for awhile after leaving the cult. The accountability for that lies more with the cult than with those who've left, but thanks for pointing the mechanism out.

Suicides? Have you any evidence that the incidence of suicide is any higher amongst premies? Or do you just say it to try to put some blame on Maharaji?

I'm pretty sure Jim can give you root and branch on this. Also, as a social scientist who has read Durkheim it would not be difficult at all to demonstrate that cults in general (because they're by definition "deviant") have much higher rates of suicide. That is not going to be your most fruitful line of argument or apology, believe me.

The bottom line is that a cult is a social pathology. Being a member of a cult confers on otherwise mentally healthy people some of the symptomology of mental illness, not just limited to a higher suicide rate.