Hi Will,

I now believe in friendship, and I even think that we find our real selves through friendships to a certain and important degree.  I think that Rawat was dangerously wrong on this issue and continues to be wrong.  Our fulfillment as human beings cannot be supplied so simplistically by the inner experiences found in meditation or by following an authority figure such as Rawat. 

I think it's safe to say that making, having, and nurturing friendships with people is the accepted norm in the world, not something one has to state as something to believe in. 

Prem Rawat contributed in a huge way to ashram premies developing social phobias, IMO, which he encouraged and cultivated in us by telling us we needed nobody but him in our lives. Worse, he used our status as ashram premies, people who had entered ashrams with the intention of living out our lives there.  Then, when it fancied him, he pulled the rug out from under everybody, leaving them to fend for themselves when ashramers had been living a cloistered, secluded life in that cult. 

But, Rawat would deny all that now, blaming us and the Mahatmas for our misunderstanding of him!