That is a question that has caused much controversy on this forum. I'm a believer that we make and made choices constantly but others believe that if we say we chose DLM & SSM that absolves Prem Rawat of responsibility for his part.Firstly you chose to accept a minority zeitgeist of the time. It may have been fashionable but despite media reminiscences most young people of the 60's grew up and led normal 9 to5 suburban lives.
Smartness didn't seem to have much to do with accepting the first answer that looked like it fitted. As there were many similar groups making similar claims it sounds like you didn't have a wide enough contacts in the milieu or you were particularly rash and hasty in your decisions. In the Australian suburbs where I grew up most of the young people were just the same as the Asians and Africans in not asking the "big" questions and not caring about them even when they were highly publicised as part of the fashionable zeitgeist.
