Will, you said this very well.  This is pretty much exactly my "experience" as well, and so painfully obvious that it defies saying much more about it.  This states really well that "aha" revelation that ex-premies get when they get out from under the cult.  They do not become unhappy, they become happier.  They do not miss any good "experience" because they still have it.  The only difference is you no longer attribute happiness to a cult leader or his "gift."  Because, in the end, that practice of attribution was all there ever was in the first place.

Will's post from below:

I never left Knowledge.  I just discovered, to my great surprise, that it doesn't exist.

The experience that people have when they are engaged in what they call "practicing Knowledge" is the experience that is common to all people who are enjoying themselves.  It is a complete mistake to identify this experience as unique to "Knowledge."  To call it "experiencing Knowledge" is nothing but mistaken, cultish rhetoric.  Simply using language correctly, e.g. "I feel happy", will dissipate the cultish mind-set very easily, depending on how stubbornly it is held on to.

I have now been on both sides of the fence.  And there is no difference.  In fact, there isn't even any fence.  Knowledge simply doesn't exist except as an illusionary mental construct.

The emperor is absolutely naked, not a stitch!  His empire is wholly a matter of imagination and convoluted vocabulary.  When you "leave" his empire, you find yourself standing in the exact same spot you've been standing in all along, right from the beginning, right with everybody else.

We all love love.  We all love truth.  We all enjoy harmony.  These things are all available to us.  We just need to stop making up so many unnecessary rules and philosophies about it, and simply partake.

The four techniques are without practical value, in fact they are a hindrance to the very thing they seek to promote.  Peace and enjoyment do not develop upon an imposed set of instructions.  No, no, no. 

It is difficult for some people to believe what I have said, because they have only been on one side of the fence.  They experience peace and attribute it to their practice of Knowledge and to the influence of Prem Rawat.  What have they got to compare it to?  Little do they know that the same feeling of the heart is theirs, by right of birth, and available in so many ways, even available in no way at all.

What is the problem if they experience that good feeling in their own way, through "Knowledge"?  The problem is that Knowledge is a cult and Prem Rawat is a cult leader, and the problem with all cults is that they divide people, they classify information incorrectly and lead people astray.  There is no truth there, because the truth doesn't need any practice, any meditation, nor any self-proclaimed saviors or motivational speakers.  It really, really doesn't.  The result can vary - some cults simply party in their particular and innocuous manner without causing too much harm to anyone beyond the embarassement of family and friends; while other cult members end up killing themselves in order to attain the very thing that is already theirs.

Many of the ideals that people have when they practice Knowledge are the ideals that belong to love and truth.  One such ideal is discernment and discrimination.  The people who stick with Knowledge by keeping their rational heads in the proverbial sand are those people who have lost out on that very important ideal, discrimination.  Even the heart withers when the mind is allowed to be blindfolded in such a manner.  That's the reason premies are always in need of being reminded.  They think that they can't get to that feeling unless they go to an event or sit under a blanket for an hour every day.  Poor fools.  It's really so much easier than that.

So, John B, try it on the other side of the fence for awhile.  You'll soon see that nothing, nothing changes, only your concepts.  Ironic, isn't it