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Could somebody post me a copy of my message which was censored? Thanks. I never kept hold of it myself. I have now posted the following statement to Amazon. I am concerned that Amazon have chosen to delete one of my recent
postings in the discussion of Andrea Cagan's book 'Peace Is Possible'.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/discussionboard/cd/discussion.html/ref=cm_cd_notf_thread/002-3997538-3736832?ie=UTF8&cdForum=Fx3EB0EB2M2CDK1&cdPage=15&asin=0978869494&cdThread=Tx23FPVNT8EF21M#
As you can see from now the fiercely contested lengthy thread the
discussion is taking place between supporters of Prem Rawat (the
subject of Cagan's biography) and his opponants, like myself,who are
aware of highly documented accusations that he is a sinister religious
cult leader - a fact largely ignore by the book itself, for which it is
justifiably criticised). The Prem Rawat supporters have been
consistently rude and hostile to myself and other opponants throughout
the discussion, someof their attacks on opponants (who in some cases
are not even participating directly in the online discussion) are
openlly litigatious - and they often take the discussion way off topic
just to arbitrarily post propaganda about their spiritual leader that
has no relationship to the book whatsoever. I have consistently remained
calm and polite, though highly critical, and focused on points about
his life that Cagan, the biographer declines to comment on as a sign of
the failure of her book to fully represent her subject properly or
objectively. I would advise readingthe disciussion as a whole
ratherthan intercepting individual threads discussed by either side as
opffensive. I preessed the 'report abuse' button on a a reply to one of
my opponant's messages expecting a drop down window to open invitingme
to state why I might find a message to be 'abuse' but it simply
transmitted my vote without explanation - if that is all it takes to get
a message challenged then no post from anyone is safe,especially when
the book being discussed is a controversial one as the cagan book
undoubtedly is. I would seriously advise a comprehensive study of this
thread and related ones from start to finish.
One appalling tactic used by the suporters of Prem Rawat (known
better as Maharaji) is to mass delete their own postings to leave
opponants like myself arguing against an invisible opposition - on some
of their postings that remain, they even boast of doing this. They are
now however also using the 'report abuse' function buttons to get my own
perfectlly valid postings removed and posting messages to the list
boasting of their ability to do so. It is hard to see anything in my
deleted message that could be regarded as offensive. A statement from an
independent poster is given in my defence to this effect in the middle
of these postings - (Extract)
"I'd say, from my perspective that your questions and observations are
perfectly valid and not defamatory. The supporters of Prem rawat are
merely using the 'report abuse' functiontactically to censor any
voices of opposition to their stance on the book, including myself. This
is not the kind of approach you are going to see on discussionof books
on Amazon that don't relate to religious cults, so in many ways your
rules about abuse are not geared up to dealing with such a situation at
all. .
In summation, I cannot see how drawing attention back to the issue: the
misleading aspect of the book, is anything more than good debate. The
alleged guru is the subject; and his own self-defamatory words, choices,
actions and omissions are his own responsibility, not that of his
followers, nor yours or mine. Nor, for that matter, are they the
responsibility of our good book suppliers."
My message being deleted hurts, as no message from amazon warned me it
was coming or invited me to justify my posting - and now the person /
people responsible for it are exploiting the thread to whoop and holler
about their victory in silencing me which I find in itself abusive.
http://www.lulu.com/content/757452 My book on Maharaji - BRAINWASHED! A CULT SURVIVOR'S TALE
Arthur Chappell arthur@chappell7300.freeserve.co.uk
My Space. http://www.myspace.com/56954240
Web site www.arthurchappell.clara.net/
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Sorry, I don't have a copy.
I would just like to make a criticism - but first, thanks for your the effort that you are making there. I would like to suggest you use a spell-checker, that's all. What you say is good and pertinent, and I am glad someone is out there saying it. But your message becomes diluted when it is fairly obvious you have written your piece quickly, and then not subjected the text to a spell checker.
Maybe I am a bit pedantic, but for me, seeingwords jammed together without the intervening space, or seeing 'opponant' rather than 'opponent' is off-putting. I don't think I am alone in this. I would like your message to be as clear as possible. I hope this doesn't cause offence.
BTW, I use Firefox, which has dictionary add-ons that are easy to find and install, and then when you have written something, errors are highlighted, or you can right-click and have you text checked.
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Thanks for taking that in the way it was intended!
Why use Word? With a spell-checker built into the browser, it is a lot easier to check, and also to avoid Word-specific formatting problems when it is output as html.
Related link: Firefox
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Quite a while ago, when Rawat's book Clarity first appeared on Amazon, there was a review war, so to speak, between some premies and exes on Amazon. Amazon kept removing the negative reviews by exes, and as I remember no amount of complaining to Amazon did any good. Amazon's in the business of selling the book, not being concerned with fairness. 
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I agree Cynthia - I expect that is exactly what the Premies are exploiting. The irony for Amazon is that the controversy, if focussed on properly, would actually generate sales - media controvesy generally provokes interest in a publication. That the debate is largely raging between 8 posters suggests that most of Maharaji's followers are not even aware of it. I think they are afraid of the book attracting too much attention outside of their captive audience and market where readers are likely to be less credulous about the subject matter. I have posted news of the censorship to a number of forums and boards for atheists, humanists and cult watchers, as well as on my own blog though I could do with a copy of the banned message itself, which I naively haven't kept hold of.
http://www.lulu.com/content/757452 My book on Maharaji - BRAINWASHED! A CULT SURVIVOR'S TALE
Arthur Chappell arthur@chappell7300.freeserve.co.uk
My Space. http://www.myspace.com/56954240
Web site www.arthurchappell.clara.net/
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A senior person in Amazon is a premie and has allegedly used that seniority to censor Rawat's critics. As this person's wealth and power far exceed mine, I'm not going to publicly name them without ten watertight affidavits confirming the allegation (well maybe five will do).So Arthur, you aint got a chance unless some of the Amazon staff who have been ordered to do the censoring are willing to go public. John.
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I didn't know that, John. Interesting.
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This was Amazon's response to my concerns. Greetings from Amazon.com.
First, I'm sorry for any frustration this situation has caused.
Any Customer Discussion forums on our web site can be removed
without any warning or notification to the customer who submitted
the post.
Any message reported through the 'Report This' button, is marked to
be review by a member of our staff. If the comments are found to be
outside of our guidelines, they will be removed.
We will review the thread you mentioned, and if any of the posts
made on that thread are outside of our guidelines, they will be
removed. Please note, that this means any of your posts may also be
taken down.
In the future, please continue to report any post that you find
inappropriate by clicking the "Report abuse" link and submitting a
report. If you simply think that a post doesn't help further the
discussion, but doesn't violate our guidelines, please vote "No" on
the right edge of the post.
We want our Customer Discussion Forums to be a place for comments
and feedback for our customers regarding the different aspects of
the item being discussed.
I apologize and thank you again for your comments.
Please let us know if this e-mail resolved your question:
Please note: this e-mail was sent from an address that cannot accept
incoming e-mail.
To contact us about an unrelated issue, please visit the Help
section of our web site.
Best regards,
Peter
Amazon.com Customer Service
http://www.amazon.com
I have let them know I am unhappy, but I expect it will not achieve much - hopefully they will assess some of the opposition postings as inapproriate though - it seems bizarre if a posting asking to keep a critique on topic can be deleted while the postinggs denouncing us as a hate cultt and callingone of our friends a witch can be left unchallenged. Funny old world.
http://www.lulu.com/content/757452 My book on Maharaji - BRAINWASHED! A CULT SURVIVOR'S TALE
Arthur Chappell arthur@chappell7300.freeserve.co.uk
My Space. http://www.myspace.com/56954240
Web site www.arthurchappell.clara.net/
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Hello Arthur, The premies posting on Amazon have really shown their true colors over there already. I do have one suggestion, however. I think that the post of yours which was removed by Amazon mentioned the bicyclist incident in India. Unless you personally were an eye-witness to that accident, it's bound to be considered as potential libel (despite the fact it's true) by Amazon and hence, Amazon would consider legal rammifications of leaving such an allegation on their discussion board. There is plenty of other information such as the proof of Rawat talking about Kali Yuga, his claims of divinity, the premie belief-system itself, and Rawat's abuse of power, etc. that is verifiable by posting links to EPO and other sites where DLM/EV publications and videos of Rawat do show exactly what he said to premies in the past -- information now covered up and excluded by Cagan. I would think that the fact that premies continue to believe in M's divinity would be more of a turn-off to potential buyers of the book and potential aspirants to the cult, than the bicyclist incident. Rawat's crime was leaving the scene of a fatal accident and without the context of the story by Dettmers, it's difficult to explain over there. Hope you accept my observations in the positive spirit they're offered. Best wishes, Cynthia
Modified by Cynthia at Mon, Mar 12, 2007, 06:58:04
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Thanks Cynthia, you may be right - Amazon's motives could vary though seberal of my postings have mentioned the death of the cyclist there without provoking a backlash - why the premies targetted that specific message is lost on me especially as I didn't keep the message myself and can't remember its exact wording. You add "Hope you accept my observations in the positive spirit they're offered." Absolutely - perfectly valid point - much appreciated. AC
http://www.lulu.com/content/757452 My book on Maharaji - BRAINWASHED! A CULT SURVIVOR'S TALE
Arthur Chappell arthur@chappell7300.freeserve.co.uk
My Space. http://www.myspace.com/56954240
Web site www.arthurchappell.clara.net/
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