It’s great to read this discussion and thank you so much for responding to this thread, I believe that to address what “knowledge” is will help a lot the premies to get “deprogrammed” and see their master as the Conman and criminal he is.

The belief in “knowledge” is part of the fraud Prem Rawat has set up in order to be the leader of a cult and make people, even ex premies, believe that somehow his “knowledge” was beneficial for them.

So, if the bath water is Prem, a pedophile master behaving like a mob boss, is the baby the “techniques of knowledge” ? (and in that context I do not understand why do you call them techniques of knowledge and not techniques of yoga)

I have a few remarks on that topic after reading all the responses:

The Techniques Prem Rawat “teaches” are the following:

1. Closing your eyes and placing your fingers on your eyes touching the spot at your forehead between your eyes for 15min and just stay like that and see the various artifacts created by the pressure on your eyeballs 

2. Closing your ears with your hands upwards and just stay like that and hear the buzz created by the pressure on your ears for 15min

3. Closing your eyes stay still and just breath without any specific gudelines for 15min

4. Turning your tongue around inside your mouth and just stay there and feel the various saliva produced  for 15min

For me, and many ex premies, just to reveal those techniques is very stressful because we were indoctrinated not to share with anyone and we had to take a vow we won’t.

Taking vows like that is definitely a cult practice.

Now: Are those techniques beneficial ?

To what ? To the body ? The mind ? They calm you ? Is that the benefit you get from practicing them?

Well I have practiced these techniques every day more than an hour per day  religiously focusing inside etc for many many years since I was 15 y old.

And yes I did have plenty of “Experiences”

But I had these experiences believing that whatever I feel is the “divine”

However when I “received knowledge” by Prem Rawat I had a hard time accepting that these psychical techniques had anything to do with knowing God !

I did them because Rawat said they are the key to God.

I don’t find them beneficial otherwise so once I stopped believing Rawat immediately these techniques seemed to me totally stupid.

The “third” technique, consisting in just sitting down and breathing it’s even ridiculous to call it a technique.

And even more ridiculous not to be allowed to tell it to someone else because if they learn it of you and not of Rawat it will ruin their experience (and their life, since this “experience” is the purpose of life)!

Otherwise Yoga as you probably all know means union with God and it’s religious , to use a religious practice from India to help relax or have any other benefit besides finding God is not yoga, but a western use of yoga techniques as gymnastics and relaxation method and of course most of gymnastics and relaxation methods that people are using are good for them since they seem to need it if they are using it.

And there are lots of papers pointing out the negative effects ie dissociation etc. but this is irrelevant to the discussion about “knowledge”.

I personally don’t need to do anything special to relax , I feel very relaxed when I am in a safe place with my loved ones my beautiful son I spend quality time with my art my husband etc  And looking at nature etc  So I don’t feel I need to do something special to relax.

As for gymnastic I still do “astanga yoga” some mornings for stretching but I don’t believe it has anything to do with me feeling peace god divine or any other special “energy” and of course it has nothing to do with believing in “knowledge”

Susan and so many others have explained it perfectly : the techniques are not the problem, the religion Rawat created that makes these techniques special is what is the problem because he uses that religion to cover a criminal organization.

There is huge difference between: a) sitting down and breathing or doing whatever one wants to do to relax or feel more quiet, and b) believing that because they are more quiet now they have attained some higher spiritual level and are “in peace”.

It’s an ego trip and premies all have fall into that trip and this hinders them from acknowledging the truth about their master because they have a lot to lose : their belief that they are spiritually superior to other people who “don’t have knowledge”.