......thanks for that.

Yes, at the beginning, in those early days DLM was more attractive than conventional institutions, peddling their view of the purpose of life.

The participants were mainly around my age or just a little older.The agenda seemed to flow nicely and naturally from the drugs/hippy/ban the bomb/end war philosophies of the sixties/early seventies.

Despite all this there was something very distinct and "heavy" ( as we would have said then ) about following Maharaj Ji. I remember intuitively feeling this underlying scarey side to "Divine Light" from the first person who told me about it ( who was not yet a premie but was thinking of becoming one and very confused,nervous and frightened about it all).This guy had clearly picked up the notion that in order to follow the guru, sacrifice and renunciation of your former life, friends outside the cult and even family was required.

When I finally met a premie and allowed myself ( oops...is that " choice" ?) to get dragged in , I felt the dark side of it all ( like the turning of a screw)....then the bliss.....and then the dark side again....then the bliss...then the dark side....on and on