.............it appears he is now doing the wobble dance again, even in Los Angeles, if I understand what happened this past weekend correctly. It's a recurring pattern with him.  Very predictable, actually.

It's interesting that in the candour of middle age he's willing to admit to having a 'nasty side'. What he can't yet admit to himself is that he's been a nasty little c***t through & through from about the age of 7.

So much for self awareness, eh.

What intrigues me is just who does he listen to when it comes to the really important subject of the money, & what will his reaction be when he's told that there isn't as much sloshing around as there once used to be. 

Mishler's interview totally backs up what I saw in the 1976 "let's be normal" campaign. It sounded as if M was about to jump of the diving board into the human race and ran the other way- thus what we all experienced in the late seventies.

I was out by the early eighties. But Dettmers said he too was trying to get M to come down to earth. I don't have the dates.

It is interesting to think about what might be going on behind those beady little eyes.

Hi Susan.   Yes, I remember the 1976 period.  I actually was one of those who was disappointed that Rawat didn't give darshan during his Summer tour in 1976.  Then Rawat fired Mishler and became the dancing Krishna to satisfy his God complex and keep the cash coming in.  I mean, he had a family to support by then.

I remember Michael Dettmers saying that in the mid-80s he was trying to get Rawat to come down from the throne.  Unfortunately, one of the ways Rawat did that was starting to have sex with premies.  This was problematic, because while maybe Rawat's view of himself was changing (maybe only temporarily), the views of the premies did not.  So, we had the situation of the Lord of the Universe having sex with his devoted premies whom he was saying should surrender to him.  Blimey.  That's a problem

Dettmers said he was actually somewhat encouraged that Rawat wanted to have sex outside his marriage because he was lightening up and trying to be normal (if that's considered normal), but that Dettmers suggested prostitutes, and definitely not premies.  Apparently Rawat nixed the prostitute idea.  Maybe they wouldn't have been surrendered enough.

Disgusting, no?

You've made a valiant attempt with those two posts Joe, to think yourself into the mindset of what could be called a diseased personality, & quite possibly your analysis is accurate, but I don't believe we'll ever know for sure.

The striking thing about him for me, after I'd assimilated all the hitherto hidden information, & rid myself (with much help from others) of the last cobwebs of magical thinking, is his single mindedness.

One of the very 1st Divine Light mags, I think from late '71, had a photo of the 12 yr old Lord of the Universe on its cover. He was wearing a pilot's uniform.

34 yrs later he holds a clutch of licences, all of which require many years of application to gain, & for someone who has never been an airline employee, an unimaginable amount of money spent on hiring the aircraft necessary for him to prove his practical competence.

I don't think he's ever had any scruples about what he's done, & in a way it would be unrealistic to expect him to. In mentality he's a throwback to an earlier age of expendable serfs, unquestioned obedience, & the Divine Right of Kings, Indian style. 

The incredible thing is how he managed to transplant that to the West in the '70's. I guess we know some of the reasons.......the main one being the meditation trick.

In my view he's incomprehensible in our terms. Now that Google is going to put the entire C19th holding of one of the Oxford libraries on line, we will eventually be able to read the obscure monographs which contain the perceptions of those long forgotten individuals who had to make sense of the likes of Ranjit Singh or the Rani of Jansi. 

The clue to the way he thinks, I reckon, is to imagine yourself more in the world of Sheherezade, than in the C21st.

I could be way off the mark, but it's fun speculating, & in any case, fuck him.

Maybe you have already and I missed it, but I'm interested in when you received Knowledge, and how was the process then.

All the best,

Hi Jonathan,

Following JHB's request I should like to say that whilst enjoying reading your posts, I too wondered about your interestingly different perspective.

I thought maybe you had never received " Nollidge" but were an "interested person" who had the good sense to check out Prem Rawat's credentials ?

Best wishes, Lexy.

Check out the Millennium Press Conference where Maharaji is completely uptight and out of his element talking to the press:

5.7 MB WMV

http://gurumaharaji.info/video/lord_of_the_universe/millennium_press_conference_1973.wmv

And check out other excerpts of the "Lord of the Universe" documentary at: http://gurumaharaji.info/video/lord_of_the_universe/

I agree, Joe.  I think Maharaji was and still is a very damaged and needy human being no matter how well he dances or sings and no matter how tasteless his jokes are.

Maharaji, I feel sorry for you.

Joe-excellent analysis of the 70's and the "perfect master meltdown"...

To take it a step further, I think we saw:

1972-73-probably the most "innocent" period, leading to the 1973 millenium meltdown, then resurrected in 74&75, followed by the turbulent and infamous 1976 period in which premies began to have "workshops' and realized how programmed they had become...this meltdown was followed by the "super devotional-- this isn't your father's satguru" period of 1977, 78, 79, in which I think maharaji rebounded from almost losing the "mastership" as Mischler and others urged, into roaring back into devotion for one last try...

The 2 kissimmee festivals were big events, although after the last one, I remember the "vibe" just wasn't there in the communities very much, and satsang got really wierd and boring beyond belief, as premies tried to squeeze some magic out of the old s,s&m formula (S&M might be more appropriate?)..

Then the "secret project" the 707, pulled the action to Miami, although that was followed by the realization that the plane was a bust, too big, too polluting for US standards, too expensive, and eventually sold to another "maha', the maharishi....

I think at that period, in the early 80's, maharaji began to realize that he had milked this same old crowd for all it was worth...every "high" period was followed by a bust, and the propagation efforts never materialized beyond the original crew and a few friends etc...every big project eventually became a nightmare, with no increase in numbers...he couldn't "jump start" the premies into more devotion, so he blamed the premies, who were getting more burned out...

When Deca ran dry, and wierd, the ashrams were closed, and maharaji ran back to malibu...in one of the early ev websites, they noted that maharaji went into "semi-retirement" in the 83-84 period....I remember seeing Dettmers at that time in a meeitng he led, and he described maharaji as "in transition", or "waiting for the next phase" or something like that...

Then came the instructor programs in the mid 80's, which after a big hype, also went nowhere...I think he "came out" a bit then, smoking and drinking with premies, trying to pick up premie chicks...(a friend just told me the other day that his friend left the fold then-apparently his final "drip" was being at one of those instructor conferences and after listening to maharaji the whole day, he came down to the bar late at night, and saw maharaji apparently putting the "moves' on one of the female participants, and maharaji gave him the old "wink and a nod", as if to say to the premie "not bad, huh"...at least that was his take, and he wasn't seen again....)

I think he was always drinking and getting stoned regularly, but I think that in the early to mid 80's is when he really realized he was full of shit as far as the "perfect master"schtick went...also, it was 1981-2 when the "purge" happened, and all the old devotional materials were supposed to be thrown out...(nice move by Hilltop and others in keeping them in their attics and basements...)..it was also around 1984-5 that the "retreat" happened at San Yisidro ranch, where maharaji was confronted by premies for the first time, and possibly by his wife about his excessive drinking...

I remember many premies basically wondering "what's going on?" then, trying to figure out what to do next in their lives, especially the ashram ones, who were generally wandering around in a state of shock....

Fast forward to the late 90's when he started making noises about the "unique vision", "the new era of propagation", "secret trainings", "the 70's enthusiasm,with the 90's maturity" or some such clap trap etc.....

Once again I think he realized that it's not going anywhere, and declared that knowledge might become a "select club", especially after the emergence of the EPO site....

I think that his final attempt, after a long hiatus, was in the late 90's, but thank god for the internet, and the rest as they say, is history...

I think EPO was so much more effective at exposing him as a charlatan than he will ever admit, and I think the only hope he has left is keeping the few remaining premies with silly projects and things to do in order to keep donations rolling in the west, and keep the indian premies busy with large festival where he can get the devotion hs is so addicted to...

But first I've got to tell both of you, Joe and la-ex, that imaging Maharaji having sex with probably the cream of the crop of premie women is just grossing me out.

I think the Amaroo phase starting in the early to mid 90's was an attempt at a jump start.  Certainly, many premies spent small fortune going to Australia once or even twice a year to spend a week in Shangri-La.  And Amaroo has quickly turned into a white elephant money pit.

Another phase in the 90s was the community video hall era.  While on occassion prior to videos the only satsang given was by instructors or instructor candidates and a small group of elite premies.  At least that was the deal in my last community.

The videos ended all premie satsang, but created Service opportunities that resulted in the over-controlled video event where you'd have 2 to 4 premies acting as ushers, a finance and info table person, the video technician, the manager, and the security person.  Meanwhile, there would only be about 6 people in the audience.

The community videos also required a financial commitment at the local level to provide for an Elan Vital approved hall that had to meet a stringent set of criteria.  This was in addition to the push for Direct Debit to fund the national organization.  I was easily spending $100 per month on both.  The leased facility in my community cost about $1600 per month or more.

I should note that the rare event in that particular community is held at a public facility.  I don't know what the one-time rental fee is.  It might even be free.

There's also another phase that I believe is happening now and that is the Dish TV broadcasts.  I'm not entirely certain since I'm no longer involved, but my guess is that the communities are dead and gone.  And that's a good thing when it comes to relieving local premies from having to pay for local events that provide little or no bang for the buck.  Thus, more money can go directly to Maharaji to allow him to fund the projects he desires.

Thanks guys

HT-I agree, this thread should probably be brought up to the top, and re-started, allowing other people to add their recollections of the different phases we all went through with rawat.....

I think the "current psychology' of each phase would be very interesting to look at, as it coincided with rawat's "current psychology" of each time...dates, event etc are important too, but I think the psychology of the whole thing would be fascinating to chronicle...

One thing that stands out to me like a sore thumb now, after having left for 5 years, is that each time a "new phase', or "new direction' came, it was really all about rawat and his current mess, rather in response to real premie needs, which a so called "leader" would be responsive to...also, his ability to 'mask" that, and our inability to "see" it....it all was billed as his "new direction"....also, the amount of defensiveness he displays without being noticed by the premies....

For instance, he kept the ashrams open because he feared the revenue would dry up if he closed them, even though they were clearly not working....he worried about rising health care costs for premies as they got older, their retirment etc., and abandoned them after they gave their entire lives to him, supposedly forever...

The list goes on for each phase...

If you ask me, if rawat wanted to do something "humanitarian" right now, it would be in cleaning up the mess in the victims lives of the"spiritual tsunami" he unleashed back in the 70's....I think you should start with your own life and the problems you have created in it, rather than having premies contribute to some "window dressing" like disaster relief to bolster your PR, when it can be done far more efficiently by the pros who do it every day...