For newly exiting premies it can be quite shocking to see the doctored or parodied photos of Maharaji.  I remember feeling very strange and yucky when I first saw the one of Maharaji in the Kirshna costume with the enormous boobs.

I got over it.  But, I also  have a very strong constitution. Others may not understand them or have a strong constitution emotionally.  That's why I also think undoctored photos of Maharaji, especially from the 70s are the real parodies of himself.  I mean really, the photos of him with the water guns and in Krishna costumes speak volumes without using Photoshop.  Each to his own, though.

One thing that EV and other lurking premies don't understand (or don't believe, maybe) is that the photos that get doctored are done by individuals -- it's not a group effort.  It's not like we have a big network of ex-premies using Photoshop! I do consider it to be art therapy, though.  I don't see the necessity of making an entire website out of them, but it's none of my business if someone wants to do that either. 

The reason I consider it art therapy is because I've done art therapy, not as a therapist, but as a client in a group setting, as well as in an individual therapeutic setting. Often the pictures or images that people created told quite a lot about about how someone was feeling. 

For instance, in the art therapy sessions I've been in, all of the clients were survivors of child abuse, and the objects of their pictures were their abusers.  They were snapshots of what someone was feeling at the time they made the pictures.  That's the point of art therapy.  And, yes, sometimes they were ugly, because child abuse is ugly.  Sometimes they reflected enormous rage because a survivor of child abuse who is in therapy finds their rage, then their sadness, and hopefully will move on into good mental health.  Sometimes the pictures were very funny.  Also therapeutic.  Art therapy was my least favorite form of therapy, though.  I preferred other therapeutic methods, personally, for myself.

Usually, the results were disturbing and scary to look at because there was so much pain and rage coming out of those images that it was almost palpable. But, in that setting, there was a therapist nearby to help the person through the rage and pain and sadness. That's not the case with someone looking on a website or here when they see doctored photos of Maharaji.

Sometimes it was difficult to even look at my own pictures.  I generally threw all of mine away and moved on as I grew through my own pain and rage.  In fact, I recently came across some that were buried in a box that I had kept.  I burned them all in a campfire.  That was therapeutic because I didn't need to hold onto the old pain and rage anymore so I put the pictures in a fire to burn up how I used to feel about my abuser.  That was a symbolic gesture for me.

Whenever I've seen an image of the famous painting "The Scream" I often remember my time in art therapy. The painting is famous, but not pretty. (Did they ever find that thing?)  It's the same with the doctored images of Maharaji. 

There are many websites created by adult child abuse survivors who display their art that is descriptive of the suffering and pain they have worked through as adults.  I don't particularly like them, but I don't condemn them either because I understand why they are there and what they mean to the artist.

On the other hand, the websites created by some premies that are so-called parodies or satires of ex-premies are not funny.  They are, in fact, libellous and demean particular people, myself included.  I don't see how anyone who has ever gone through the process of recovering from being in Rawat's cult could possibly see those websites as funny or truthful.  They definitely are not satirical. In fact, one of those websites that names me is pornographic.  And those premies know full well how I would react to any pornography (because they do know I'm a survivor of child sexual abuse where at times pornography was used).

I know satire, that ain't it.

Cynthia