Hi Lexy,

You're right about this thread being guesswork.  That's why I mentioned a couple of times when I speculated about Marolyn that I don't know what went on inside the Rawat home.

One thing that I also don't know for sure is how much those kids witnessed the drunken behavior of their father.  Dettmers, Donner, and Mishler, all said he had a tendency to become a bellicose drunk.  That's the scariest kind of drunk for anyone to be around, especially kids. 

Lexy, I already said that I'm very biased on this subject.  And maybe I'm thinking too much in black and white about this because of my own life experiences. I empathize with Marolyn Rawat from the standpoint of how much I understand how my own mom was mind-controlled and based upon how much I do understand about mind-control and abusive spouses.  I know how hard it is for woman to leave an abusive situation.  I really do understand, but there reaches a point when decades fly by and the woman is still there and for whatever reasons a woman remains, I don't excuse them if they've brought kids into this world and have stayed and stayed.

One thing I can't accept is that Marolyn seems to be given a pass as if she is the child in the picture.  I suppose that's the same pass my own mom got -- she always viewed herself as one of the girls, instead of the parent.  Maybe that's the difference between Claudia and Marolyn Rawat.  Seems like Claudia knew how to figure out the difference and wasn't going to be abused and used by Rawat or her own husband for the rest of her life and her child's life, too.  I don't know much about that either, it's my speculation. I'm willing to bet that Claudia was much more under the influence of Prem Rawat than any ordinary premie like me or you, too.  But, it couldn't have been easy for her to walk away, either.  I have to admire her for having done so against such a powerful influence, too.

Cynthia