Let me make more explicit that in nearly everything I say about premies today I am talking about their day to day average experience as much as I can judge it from their actions and conversation. Yes Prem Rawat is alive but his personal life has little or no direct influence on their day to day lives. eg As in most religions there are requested donations. Whether these are for church repairs, missionary work, charity work or a new jet plane for Prem Rawat makes little difference especially as the premies see those donations as being for missionary work. Prem Rawat has made astounding (as I see them) changes to the EV doctrine but the Jehovah's Witnesses have recently removed their major doctrine re imminent Armageddon and the Mormons have changed their God revealed dogma on the inferiority of black people and both those religions/cults go on very successfully.

You said that cult members cannot judge their cult leader without rejecting him but premies can and do as you explicitly demonstrate when you say you questioned the changes made to basic EV doctrine and practices by him in 1982 and 1989 and accepted them. No doubt many Mormons questioned the dropping of the divine commandment to be polygamous and accepted the change in the same way.

You appear to have selective memory when you relate these acceptances as well because by the late 1970's 'satsang' was controlled enough by peer group pressure and rules (at least in Australia) that off-the-wall ideas had disappeared and the party-line prevailed. I agree that 'Maharaji' had been pretty well always saying the same things as he had a paucity of ideas but your memory had to be very selective to manage to believe that there was a continuity in them. There were sudden and drastic changes on a number of occasions in which of the “same things” were said and which were hidden and you seem to have forgotten the extra level of insider stories, information and directives from the master's mouth that was brought back by those initiators/instructors/community co-ordinators who had been directed to spend time with him and then return to their communities to spread the word.

You say you were a “little surprised” when in a moment that must be unique in the history of religion the “techniques” of divine realisation were changed, the recommended hours of meditation lowered and the basic “commandment” to meditate constantly on Holy Name was not just abandoned but forbidden. And you say you've forgotten how you managed to reconcile these completely irreconcilable changes! Did you suddenly think that Shri Hans, Prem Rawat's father and guru and all the prior gurus and “Perfect Masters” including Jesus Christ, Buddha and Krishna had got it wrong or was it just Shri Hans and Mahatma Gurucharanand who had made the mistakes and that it had taken 23 years for Prem Rawat to realise this and fix it?

I'm just bringing up these points because I really have no idea how people could accept all this and your short answer just raises my level of astonishment. The only tenuous idea I have about this is that premies seem to have been, or have moved into, a vacuum of ideas where any connection with “Knowledge” and the world, with “Knowledge” and the spiritual paths and religions on which it was based and to the past seem to have been forgotten or never known.

What were the criteria on which you based your belief that you (and presumably the other premies) were growing spiritually? Did you have any concepts about this before you were introduced to Knowledge? At what times did you think about this and what were your criteria? In 1976 when Mishler took control and tried to turn DLM into an encounter group? in 1977 when Maharaji took control back? From 1978 until 198? when premies were beating the great drums of his satsang and the half-naked mala and jewelled Krishna crown wearing Maharaji was dancing in his own very singular fashion? in 1982 when the ashrams really were closed, satsang stopped and DLM shut down? in 1989 when Rejoice changed all the rules or in that last period of the 1990's before you finally questioned and left? What was the final straw and how did that relate that to your belief that you had been spiritually growing in the prior 25 years?

In mainstream religions doctrines have been accepted in days gone by and change slowly and present day parishioners probably don't worry about them too much but are premies any different? By the way Prem Rawat continues to demand/plead that premies should meditate and their reactions when he says these things it seems many of them still only pay lip service to meditation. And only a minority is prepared to involve themselves in “service” and as propagation continues to fail it seems premies are closer to Anglicans than Charismatics in their dedication.

I think you are using an incorrect level of metaphor in your comparison with the local Catholic parish. You seem to be equating a person's reaction to criticising wrong doings in a local parish to the sort of attack alluded to in that deeply flawed and historically inaccurate best-seller, 'The Da Vinci Code'.

Many premies criticise what they think of as the actions of the “honchos” ie EV management especially related to Amaroo over here. Quite a few that I know criticise the actions and attitudes and characters that apparently are necessary for people to become honchos. I last went to Amaroo at possibly the final program that had a “public day” purely as a curious bystander who had to be vouched for by old friends before “security” allowed me in. I was told it had been forbidden to wear the T shirts engraved “F_ck you, I'm a Honcho too” which had already sold out but I saw a few anyway. Honchos aren't necessarily PAMS but certainly want to be. Many premies have the “if only Maharaji knew” mindset to explain what they see as EV problems caused by honchos.