John Macgregor goes to incredible lengths, however, to blame himself totally for his recent problems, and to exonerate Maharaji in every conceivable manner.

The sections in John's post in which he recounts his own ego-tripping, anger and combativeness are very moving.
IMO it's often very rewarding and growing to be able to discern when we are acting from our own ego and ill-will, and without regard to the sensitivities of others.

However, this is surely a whole universe away from apologizing for causing the slightest stress or upset to Maharaji or any one of the premies by anything which he may have said or done.

For example, John is probably very conscious of writing in his magazine article about Maharaji's personal habits, his mistress, and so on.

Yet isn't he forgetting that the whole reason why he should have repeatedly raised such matters was to ask the basic question: Would a person who the premies of the 70s were trained to believe was the Lord in Person act in such a manner?

Probably the majority of the work that has ever been done on this Forum has been around this topic: To demolish the grip upon our personal psychology imposed by the belief that we are or have been subordinated to God in Person, who has often acted in some very strange and problematic manners when viewed from the viewpoint of conventional human values and standards.

'Engaging in an attack on Maharaji not only hurt many people needlessly, but violated the first principle of life - taking responsibility for one’s own actions. No-one (least of all Maharaji) forced me to be a premie for 28 years: it was a choice I made every year, every day.'

Now this statement is a chestnut in contradicting what John has been saying over the last 3 or 4 years.
Yes, we should always attempt to take responsibility as far as possible for our own actions.
*However*, the notion that John made the conscious choice every year, every day for 28 years to be a premie is the most complete and utter (well-intentioned) nonsense.

If this were true, how is it that John had to write the first two of his very long posts for EPO under an assumed name, in great trepidation and with very mixed internal feelings?

In fact, he was so conditioned into a belief system, and obviously afraid of potential retribution for breaking ranks and silence on his experiences, that he apologized greatly to readers at the time for having to post in such a manner, and for taking such an incredibly long time to reveal his identity.

No - in fact it's very difficult to extract oneself from a totalitarian type of belief system, often because the mind is trained to circumvent its own free reasoning ability.

The main reason why I am able to view Maharaji in any form of dispassionate way nowadays, and see him no longer as the Greatest Incarnation is by emailing for months with a very patient and kindly John Macgregor.

It seems that the lessons John has learnt regarding anger, humility and so on are extremely valuable to him.

However, to forget exactly where he came from some years back - the lengthy exiting process he was obliged to undergo, with the angsts and fears involved seems an example of false memory syndrome.

The sufferings and fears he has undergone in the last 14 months have caused John to swing from criticism of Maharaji to offer any type of recompense for the slightest upset he may have caused M or anyone else in premie-world.

His position now is so diametrically opposite the one he used to espouse, and so actually at odds with reality and memory, as to maybe even be harmful to himself.

While wishing him extremely well, and a long recuperation from his troubles, it's as well to remind him somewhat of the above.