Did M tell that story?  If so, I assume the  "genie" is your mind.  Mind was also the "doubtmaker," a "monkey on your back," "the void" and one time M equated it with the death star/planet that "the Empire" had in "The Empire Strikes Back."

One of the things I have seen in talking to former premies is that our experiences varied, depending on our own circumstances, how seriously we took M's agya and directions, and what we were or were not willing to sacrifice to do what Rawat told us to do.

I liked a lot of the premies, and I had a lot of good times, too, but the thing that bothers me the most now is that M used a lot of scare tactics to keep us from moving on when knowledge and the ashram and the rest were no longer working for us, and were in fact destructive of our happiness and growth as human beings. 

I mean, you are right that we made our own choices and the like, but if you really did believe Prem Rawat was the Perfect Master, and if you believed he was actually directing and taking care of you, and if you believed what he said about your only choice was to surrender, well, then it gets hard to make a choice that conflicts with that, right?   And of course, he told us all those things were true.

I was very unhappy and felt very stifled as a premie, especially in the last 5 or so years, and yet I didn't leave because Rawat said I shouldn't, and that those doubts were just my evil mind, or genie, or monkey, or whatever.  So, he kind of had me trapped.  I think that's the thing that many of us hold Rawat responsible for.  I am responsible for believing in him when I shouldn't have, but he has responsibility too.  And of course, the waste of life is troubling.

I have always felt that the more people were really individuals as premies, and kind of bucked the system, and perhaps followed their own feelings instead of trying to surrender, then it was a lot less damaging to them.