As I was saying down below to Cynthia, I enjoy the analysis of what a "cult" is and how it's clear that Prem Rawat is indeed heading cult.  I know Cynthia has also read a lot about this and is also interested and I think the information she provides is helpful.

This dicussion of cult is interesting to me because the nature of a cult is like addiction, in the sense that imbedded in the very definition of a cult (like addiction) is extreme denial that that's what it is by the people affected by it.   So, there is no middle ground on this between premie and ex-premie.  We just talk past each other, and I'm very interested in the huge blindspots cult members have, and I had too when I was one.

And like additction, once somebody understands that they are/were in a cult, they either work through it and try to forget about it, or they become advocates for informing people about the dangers of cults. [I just finished the book "Dry" by Augusten Burroughs a few months ago, which is the best book about alcohol addiction I have ever read and yes, I did see parallels.]

All of us who were premies must have at some point thought about whether we were in a cult or not.  I certainly thought about it first when Jonestown happened, and people I worked with raised concerns because I was a premie.  But I quickly dismissed it, mostly by doing what Elan Vital and the premies do, by defining "cult" in a way to suit my rationalization purposes.   Since the definition I made up didn't fit (basically that we didn't live isolated in the jungle and weren't contemplating mass suicide), then I wasn't in a cult, and boy was I glad!  We also drank Chai and not Kool-Aid.

What Rawat and his cult have mostly tried to do to avoid the label "cult" which is the death knell for most people, is equate 'cult' with and label certain characteristics of the cult as weird Hindu practices and terms, the ashram, "Lord of the Universe" and things like that in order to explain away his very embarrassing past, and to imply that his organization isn't a cult anymore, if it ever was.

A couple of years ago, Elan Vital tried to address this on on its website, and  Glen Whittaker also had an incredibly revisionist and dishonest history lesson of Maharaji in the West, that yes, maybe for awhile Maharaji was heading a cult, but now he has realized that and changed things and now it isn't a cult.  Plus, Elan Vital and premies, and, unfortunately much of the public, equte being in a cult with brainwashing, physical restrictions against your free will, etc., and if that isn't happening, then it isn't a cult.  Wrong.

The problem with Elan Vital's 'logic' is that a 'cult' isn't dependent on the externals. The essence of a cult is what goes on in the heads of the members, in attempting to follow the teachings of the cult.

Most of the cult-research organizations include three essential elements of a cult, which Maharaji and Elan Vital still exemplify in spades, maybe more now than in the past:

1. First, in a cult, there is usually a simple solution offered for fulfillment, happiness or for solving peoples' problems. Obviously 'knowledge' is still offered in that way. Maybe it isn't referred to as god-realization anymore, but it is still sold as a way to access truth, happiness and peace, and there is still the basic cult-teaching that has always been there, that happiness is inside and not outside.   Rawat has tried to get away from this by saying that knowledge, "doesn't solve your problems," but then he completely disingenuosly states over and over that the "problem" with people is that they don't have peace, are looking in the wrong places for happiness, and then he says "knowledge," is the solution to those problems.  So, the idea that "knowledge" isn't sold as a "solution" to "problems" is just a lie.  Of course that's the way it's sold.

2.  As mentioned in the letter from Dr. Langone that Cynthia posted, as a result of getting the 'simple solution,' members of the cult get to feel 'lucky' or 'superior' to people who don't have it. In Elan Vital, the aspirant program serves an important purpose here. By seeing people who want knowledge, it reinforces in members that it must be something great. Maharaji continually talks about how great knowledge is, and makes some minor and ineffective efforts to 'spread' knowledge. I think he has to at least act like he is doing that to keep donations coming in, but as we know, he has been a tremendous failure at doing that, especially in the West.   297 people receiving knowledge in one entire year in the USA, considering the huge sums that people donate for "propagation" is clear evidence of that, even if it's true that that number received knowledge.

3. Cults usually have a leader who is considered special, who is considered the source of the 'simple solution,' has special powers, is unlike normal people in some 'higher' sense, and is worthy of reverence and devotion, and in the case of Maharaji, the new 'cult-speak' of 'gratitude.' Obviously this is, and always has been, the case in Elan Vital.

4. A cult has little or no tolerance for doubt of the cult or its ideology,  and  ZERO tolerance of criticism of the leader. How many times have ex-premies noticed the complete inability of a premie to utter even the teensiest criticism of Maharaji, even though it is claimed he is an 'ordinary person?' What would happen to a premie who uttered such criticisms in a room full of premies? How many of you exes have experienced the anger and fear from premies if you criticize Rawat, or how many of you become pariah among the premies you used to know, who avoid you like the plague? 

 Some premies seem to freak out most and dissemble to the point of sputtering when Michael Dettmers is mentioned, or Rawat's obvious flaws are discussed.  Indeed, any discussion like down below that speculates on Rawat's motivations or psychological make-up are infuriating to premies because it is violating the cardinal rule in a cult, that the cult leader is beyond criticism by definition and, further, it is the ultimate sacrilege for a mere mortal to try to fathom what is going on in the head of the Perfect Master.  How dare you?  Who do you think you are?.  Accordingly, people who do it, especially people who have "the gift" are by definition, nuts, depraved, or otherwise really messed up. 

All of the above characteristics of a cult have existed in Maharaji's cult since the beginning, and continue now. Other characteristics, I think may have INCREASED. For example: General paranoia and distrust of the outside world.

Although there aren't ashrams anymore, so premies don't live in that kind of isolation, Maharaji in later years has shied away from the press completely, the media, and contact with people who aren't premies.  He is doing some canned PR pieces, but no exposure to the press or anything that isn't completely controlled.  When somebody like John McGregor does that for him, the equivalent of holy war is declared.  Rawat rattles on continuously about how screwed up "the world" is, and he has at times dismissed as useless, things like the Internet, the press, even social or political activism. (Not to mention marriage, having children and even commuication that isn't about cult ideology.)

Information within the organization has gotten more controlled, not less, with most of it just going one way, including videos and satellite events. There is no real opportunity for feedback.   It is interesting that one or two "renegade" premies now have websites that criticize Elan Vital and a lot of the premies, but never Rawat, who is seen as being disserved by the organization.  This is also nothing new; it's just the Internet that's new.

Premies/Students are not allowed to address other prmies about their experience of knowledge anymore, and Elan Vital sets up no formats for open discussions about their experiences with each other. I also think the organization is really out of touch with the way it comes accross, reflected by the FAQs on its website, which are ridiculous on their face, and also really undermine Elan Vital's credibility with the long-time premies, who know from personal experience that EV is lying about Arti and darshan, and "Lord of the Universe" and the like.  They know that what is being said, and the ridiculous excuses given, just aren't true.

I think most premies just try to ignore it, say EV is just incompetent, or, as is the usual response, say they "don't care" because they are "having a nice experience."

What do you guys think?