if as a pre-teen, the person who you love and trust the most of earth, i.e. your mother, tells you that you are the God and then brings you worshipers and followers, you will beleive it.

I think at some point in M's life he started to break away from his mother's influence and realized, gee I'm not a god. I think he has a lot of guilt, he can't just stop and say I quit,

people not only have giving their money but huge chunks of their lives to him. Most of them think they are happy, if M just said, sorry I am not a god, and all my knowlege you can get at Amazon.com for $5.oo or at a community YMCA yoga class, he would crush the hearts of a lot of people. It might also bring on a storm of legal action by people who want their money back too. 

So, I think he is just as much trapped as his followers are. I think he tries to absovle his guilt through spending money, buying pretty fancy things makes him happy and the only way to get those things is by sucking people dry, which makes him feel more guilty and to wash away that guilt he needs even bigger better goodies, and the cycle continues. I think in later years he tries to absolve some guilt, by saying he is a motivational speaker and tries to hide his past. He also sees a lot of happy people, people who he thinks he is helping even though he knows deep down he is a fraud. I am sure the drinking and the over-eating are all just ways he tries to distract himself from his guilt.

MC