Let's start with the so-called 'invitation' to Prem Rawat [hereinafter referred to as PR] to speak in a city, anywhere. First, PR meets with his staff, he expresses his wishes, and they discuss potential tours and events. Prerequisites include jet airstrip facilities, luxury accommodations for "The Speaker," regular local Knowledge events and some evidence of propagation (aspirants), and in the West, a host community's (and an event's) ability to pay for all the expenses - and generate substantial additional revenue. North America and Western Europe have always provided almost all the funding for PR and his alleged 'mission.'

Then, word is leaked out by PR's associates to the targeted communities/cities or to certain individuals, or via visiting instructors or other cult officials. Sometimes, PR will even arrange meetings of regular financial donors and express a possible interest in visiting their locales. The attending donors are always sworn to secrecy beforehand about these meetings, not to divulge the location to other uninvited "premies" [sic "students" or devotees].

Afterwards, PR's cult subordinates are instructed to advise the targeted communities to 'prepare' for him and submit an invitation written to PR to visit their city. This way, on the surface, it always appears as though the event is the result of PR "accepting an invitation," rather than the invitation being a top-down directive. In some cases, the invitation actually does come from a community first. Nevertheless, a community's "invitation" is always carefully orchestrated from the top, too. Meanwhile, the cult members think that PR is coming to town for them, or to do propagation (recruitment/conversion of new devotees). The indoctrinated possibility of darshan (being in the Master's physical presence) re-energizes their programmed devotion to him and focusses them in this endeavor. However, there are other factors at play involved.

In the preliminaries of the process, the community has to put together an event team, beginning with an event manager and an event finance manager, and present on paper how and where it can hold the event and accommodate PR in royal style. Sometimes this process takes several years, involving many people locally and literally thousands of hours of their unpaid professional time, since the requirements are quite rigid and detailed. PR has extremely loyal, longtime cult subordinates - very demanding national and international tour event coordinators and a directory of event personnel who consult with the communities to assure compliance, every step of the way: tour operations, budgets/accounting, security/ushering, productions, AV, fundraising, liaisons, public relations, legal, contributions, seating, translation, communications, medical/special needs, sales, etc.

The community event organizers are instructed to communicate via internal email on the FirstClass software system, for security and confidentiality. They are also instructed not to discuss the preparations or any details with unauthorized cult members or outsiders.

Within the communities, cult members are further instructed how to "prepare" for PR. Signed financial pledges are solicited from individuals to help underwrite the anticipated event. The community must cover thousands of dollars of the event expenses. Detailed monthly aspirant reports are also compiled and sent to PR's Los Angeles-area cult offices.

The community's event team has to contact all the leading venues (auditoriums, halls, ballrooms) in the area, the best hotels, and all the nearby airports with airfields and facilities capable of handling a Gulfstream V. The event team has to compile piles of extensive information at each and every place contacted, in this process, including specified dates of availability (as instructed by PR's tour event people), maps, photographs, and numerous line-itemed sheets of data. Much of the data pertains to providing for the "Speaker's" requirements of supreme comfort and security. The national tour event director sends a national security person to check each potential hotel and venue, r.e. access, security, privacy, etc. In all dealings with the various facilities and their managers, the event teams are instructed never to reveal PR's name; he is always referred to as the "Speaker." This naturally tends to arouse some suspicions and concerns with the hotel and hall managers. "Why can't you even tell us his name? Why all the secrecy? Do people want to kill him? Will our hotel/hall be in danger?" The community's event team is also ordered not to mention the name of PR's organization until a contract is actually ready to be signed. This tends to unnerve most hotel and venue managers, since this approach is not customary behavior for reputable entities.

The luxury hotels must literally have Presidential or Royal Suites for the "Speaker." Typically, a Presidential suite for PR ranges from a bargain basement price these days of about $1000 US to $2-3000+/night, depending upon whether the suite is packaged together with an on-site ballroom rental for the event. PR's suite needs to have at least two bedrooms, since he travels with his own personal valet, who attends to his clothes, toilette, and other personal needs. Typically, PR's expansive luxury suite will have 2 king bedrooms, 2 spa bathrooms, an elegant living room, a full kitchen, big-screen televisions, stereo systems, sweeping views, etc.. PR's suite must also be supplied with specified food and the requisite expensive liquors, etc. Additionally, PR's secretary needs an adjacent suite. The tour event director will also demand a nice suite for herself/himself. And then there are the suites and deluxe rooms for PR's retinue, including PR's mistress, family members, instructors, rooms for the other tour event personnel, Visions/Dunrite production staff, and security personnel, and so forth. PR also requires the local community to foot the bill for a hefty per diem expense account for his ample haute cuisine meals and requests from room service, probably a minimum of $200+/day nowadays.

The amount of secrecy, detail and nitpicky requirements in these arrangements is absolutely unbelievable. The only thing close to this that I've seen is when the President of the United States or Queen Elizabeth travels. Not even the world's richest private citizen, Bill Gates, or the Rolling Stones travel in such grandiose style or with such detailed, elaborate arrangements.

Continuing, the community must provide a leased luxury vehicle for PR: no less than the top-of-the-line Lexus, Mercedes, or Infinity are preferred, and in some countries a Rolls Royce, Bentley, or Jaguar (the best BMW may be acceptable). A Lincoln Continental or Cadillac generally will not suffice, and a limousine may draw too much attention and is harder to park/maneuver in some situations. All the vehicle routes (airport-hotel, hotel-event venue, etc.) must be mapped out in advance and driven during various hours of the day for accurate timing. An approved chauffeur/driver must be provided for PR, available 24 hours/day. A number of other nice cars must be leased or made available (with cult member drivers) for PR's retinue.

The airport has port charges and for servicing, fueling, and storing the Gulfstream V, and there are expenses for PR's personal pilot and mechanic, lodging and meals.

At the airport, hotel, event venue, and when traveling by car, security personnel and related telecommunications must be personally provided for PR; he has 24hrs/day security personnel on-hand. Additional telecommunications systems must also be available for him.

At the event venue, he must have his own private VIP room and bathroom backstage, and a private guarded backstage entrance/exit and elevator. The parking on any street must also be blocked off, and plainclothes security personnel (with headsets) are placed strategically at all entrances and exits and others patrol the sidewalks/streets surrounding the venue. Lists of "bongo premies," ex-premie activists, et al are circulated, and computerized files are maintained on laptop computers for immediate access. Event attendees must submit 'smart cards,' and anyone looking 'suspicious' is noted and put under surveillance, or evicted from the premises.

The basic costs of event venues varies, depending upon size, contractual requirements, and number of days. The rental cost for a single 1-day program at a hall with 1,000 seating capacity might run only $2000, 2-3,000 seat hall $3500-5000+, and some halls with larger seating capacities charge upwards of $10,000. Sometimes this base fee does not include any required hall personnel, stagehands, food concessions, etc. There is also the exorbitant cost of the audio-video equipment rental; this varies dependent upon whether the system is all in-house or contracted out, which is even more expensive ($2000-3000). The stage set, if simple, might run $500-1000 just for materials, usually the fabric. Carpeting adds more to the costs, and a more elaborate set costs thousands of dollars, even when constructed by devotee volunteer labor. The Speaker must have his specially-designed chair, microphones, and/or an approved lecturn.

Visions International/Dunrite charges a minimum of $3,000-5,000+ to replicate what the venue staff is already capable of doing. Sometimes union stagehands and venue personnel are visibly just standing around, with nothing to do but watch the event or grab some coffee. The Visions/Dunrite production fee, and licensing fees for materials depicting the Speaker all are taken off the top, and go right back to the organization - and the licensing fees to its prime beneficiary. Attendees are encouraged to deposit cash and personal checks in various donation boxes. (Incidentally, community members are also encouraged to send personal checks and cash regularly directly to "Prem Rawat" at a Malibu, California post office box, which my friends and I used to do, too.) If there is an opportunity for 'students' to express their 'gratitude' to PR, envelopes and boxes are also provided for similar cash and check donations. Additionally, tables are set aside for these same purposes, and for monthly pledges. The net revenue from videos, audio tapes, CDs, magazines, books, photos, souvenirs, etc. depicting or licensed by PR all accrue to his benefit, as run through Visions Intl.. Similarly, any cult audio CDs featuring his daughter, who occasionally sings at these events dressed in provocative, body-clinging attire while looking adoringly at PR.

For the sake of brevity here, these are just a few of the thousands of details and expenses/costs involved in each tour event. There are also expenses for additional hired police, radios/cell phones, translation headsets and transmitters, ushering expenses, telephone/fax, gratuities, forms and printing for the information and contribution tables, instructors' airfare, a hired cook for PR, etc., ad nauseum.

Furthermore, in planning these tour events, the national tour event director and personnel instruct the community's event manager, finance manager, and their team to get multiple bids on everything, and to play the hotels and event venues against each other, in order to get the best deals. This is a tedious process, when there are 3-4 hotels and 3-4 venues involved, and trying to mesh PR's tour event directors' constant (and often changing) demands and dates with hotel and venue availability. Then, the community event team managers have to submit separate line-item budgets for each viable venue and luxury hotel for the proposed tour event, and prepare separate budgets and summary pages of the grand total expenses projected for each of the potential scenarios. This is absolutely nuts, really, as any legit independent professional in the event/conference/convention/hotel or tourist business, will tell you. It is hierarchical control freakdom to the nth degree. All this preparation is just preliminary, mind you, until PR himself decides where, when, and if the event will happen - and then tells somebody. Meanwhile, dozens of people are getting strung along, in the process - the devotees and the outside businesses/staffs alike. And that's just in one community. But wait - there's more!

Here's the kicker: What Prem Rawat's tour event directors don't tell the community event team, until literally the last moment, is that they are also competing against 3-4 (or more) other communities for that tour event for the same exact dates. That means that literally hundreds of people and businesses in 3-4+ cities are all getting jerked around for each tour event, due to the capricious whims of Rawat and his appointed, salaried, often verbally abusive, organizational cult stooges. (If there are 4-5 cities on a tour, then that's anywhere from 12 to 20 communities of cult members and business venues/hotels being manipulated like objects.) And at the last minute, sometimes PR changes his mind and itinerary, or scraps some events - or even the entire tour. You can imagine how this demoralizes the hard-working, slave-labor devotee professionals who have been busting their butts for several years to make a tour event with the "Master" happen in their city! Some of these people have been volunteering 20 hours/week or more for up to 2 years ahead of the event, and increasing to even more hours as the potential tour event date approaches. If their city isn't the one selected for that tour event, their only consolation is a brief phone call from the national tour event director, or a fax saying crap like, "Well, we prepared for Maharaji 18 times before he finally showed up. If he doesn't come on the 18th invitation, it might be the 19th!" Seriously. Unbelievable, but True!!

Now, as to the revenue from these events: even after all the exorbitant expenses for the "Speaker" and his entourage and security, there's a tidy profit to be made. For example, a "winning" community's single-day tour event grand total budget for all the aforementioned expenses might be $20,000-25,000 [which includes a 10% contingency added], including renting a hall with capacity for 2,500-3,000 people. Even if only 1,500 cult members/aspirants show up, that's still a range of only $13.33 to $16.66 on the estimated cost per attendee. If each attendee pays a $50 "donation" or "reservation fee," that's $75,000 gross revenue. $75,000 - 25,000 still leaves a $50,000 net profit from the event. If the attendees pay staggered fees for better seat reservations, the net revenue goes still higher. (And PR's cult devotees paid considerably more if they camped out at Amaroo, Australia and bought their meals there on-site at the cult concessions and rip-off restaurant.)

With a smaller event venue (say, 750 seat capacity), the hall rental and personnel and production costs are substantially lower, but the lower seating capacity also translates into less cult member revenue. Naturally, these costs vary by venue, city, country, etc. But after looking at some of the figures from various small-medium-to larger events in the USA beginning about 1995, the organization's estimated costs per attendee are anywhere from about $12-16, and sometimes approaching $20. (These figures are calculated by dividing the projected grand total expenses by the expected attendance number.)

We also have to add in the cult souvenir sales (those titanium watches, expensive photos, PR's designs, jewelry, etc.) and PR's self-promoting licensed Visions videos and personality cult propaganda materials, and that's a lot more revenue.

Then, add in the signed pledges from individuals in each community planning a tour event, and finally the solicited cash and checks in the event's donation boxes, and that's a pretty sizable cash haul for one hour of public speaking by PR. It could be $75,000 to $100,000, and that's not even for a major tour event (like the 7,000-8,000 attending those Long Beach programs in the 1990s). Moreover, it keeps the faithful sheep in the flock, and afterwards the 'gratitude' checks and pledges will flow into the coffers, too. Remember, too, that PR and co. have charged $50 per home television subscriber fee for digital satellite up-links of many of the same events, and then Visions edits and releases versions of these event videos in required community subscriptions (for local video events) and for sale to cult members. And befitting his self-proclaimed Indian nom "Maharaji," the guy really lives just like a great King, doesn't he? Amazing. What a racket, huh!

Also, if anyone associated with PR's "non-profit organization" (registered as a "church" that doesn't file federal tax returns) finds out you are rich or have an inheritance, look out! You can bet they'll be in touch.

So, anyone out there contemplating joining the Prem Rawat cult, before you get lured and tricked by his delusional devotees, then brainwashed by the mind-control videos of the self-proclaimed 'Master', and finally sucked into his self-serving personality cult, take note. Caveat Emptor: "A mind is a terrible thing to lose," after all. (By that [mind], I mean the ability to think, and to use your brain and innate intelligence.) Never surrender your mind, your money, your time, let alone the reins of your life, to any human incarnation of an 'Imperfect Master.'

Lastly, anyone within the cult in denial of the facts presented here - is either very ignorant or living a lie, as spoon-fed by PR's cult zombie cloning apparatus. If there's someone out there who would like to learn some meditation, fine - so long as it doesn't entail joining a cult, or following a guru of any kind or stripe. If the truth is within you, then you don't need to look outside to anyone else for it. And the 'Knowledge' techniques (and now "keys') he supposedly 'reveals' are free on the internet, and in numerous books, without any false attachments to anybody or to some deceptively misrepresented cult/church.

When I was in Hawaii, this Christian television network had this sequenced show with a process called the "Wisdom Keys," and after you got bitten by the bug (as it were), then they hit you up for some money, of course. After watching it for a bit, it made me wonder where PR copped his recent Keys idea. Just like he copped his Pasadena 'dung beetle' discourse from watching the Discovery Channel. Are you going to pay money just to hear somebody regurgitate that kind of stuff, or to hear some jumbled watered-down Hindu platitudes, or attend the cult videos for 6 months just to learn some hijacked universal yoga teachings falsely represented as somebody's [unholy cash-cow] monopoly? Well, I hope NOT.

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Caveat and disclaimer: I was never an employee of the Prem Singh Rawat (aka Guru Maharaji) personality cult, nor have I ever gotten any of my information by illicit means, nor do I possess anything legally belonging to the cult or its agents. Like many guileless and unwary spiritual suckers, I was simply an abused volunteer and financial contributor for many years. The information submitted here is based on first-hand knowledge, personal experience, and statements and information shared with me and others via numerous contacts with some of Rawat's closest aides/organizers. Anyone inside the cult (or outside) attempting to harass me (or my family) in any way for posting this publicly does so at their own legal peril, including potential criminal charges of racketeering and terrorism, and shall be held liable for violating any pertinent civil statutes, with penalties including damages, costs, and fees. If you'll notice, except for Rawat, I did NOT mention any PR cult officials or operatives by name here (although I definitely could, and lots more, too).

Upfront: Please be advised that my only intention is to simply present this information as a 'service', as it were, to other unwary human beings (including cult members). Other than writing this single lengthy post for now, I frankly do not have the time available nor an inclination to respond to questions or engage in related dialogue about the cult (or correspond by any means with any inquiring minds out there). I do hope anyone reading this post understands and can empathize. (And this has already taken me more than a day to prepare and write.)

Throughout recorded history, billions of people have been misled by religions/cults and their leaders, and millions of people have suffered and even perished at the hands of religious fanatics. The transit system bombings in London today bear bloody witness and testimony to the abomination of religious zealots. Rawat and his devotees fall into the category of delusional cult zealots. Prideful, intolerant, superstitious, religious zealots on all sides are tyrannizing and tormenting the rest of the people of this planet.

My unsolicited advice to one and all: Think for yourself - practice self-reliance, and understanding, too. And in keeping up the good fight for truth and justice, practice peaceful means - because an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind! The horror, the horror...

Best wishes (and I'll try and check back in sometime in the future),