Rawat trapped us with a false worldview circled by enough fears -- fear of our own capacity to think and doubt chief amongst them, to keep and milk us dry.  You know that.

You were trapped, I was trapped, but others weren't, Jim, even though they were subjected to the exact same onslaught.  Nobody held a gun to our head and dragged us against our will into the knowledge room. 

In fact I think there's far more deception going on now than there was back then.  Back then the cards were on the table - 'the lord's on the planet - receive his 'knowledge' etc'.  Nowaways people are inveigled in under a false premise so I'd say the stakes are higher - at least we pretty mush knew what we were getting into.  On the other hand, there aren't ashrams any more,  new premies in 2005 aren't going to become the way we were - the times are totally different.

...But then, most ironically, just after you strike down your own straw man you resurrect him again by implying that the forum itself engages in a certain kind of "mind control"!

Can you see the irony? 

Yes of course I can, but of you'd read my post properly, you'd have realised  I was talking about 'group-think' (rather than 'mind-control') and the individual susceptibility to it in both cases. 

Regards

Livia