I agree with you, Joe, that it's not " clear-cut ". We are all such individuals...and even the cult brainwashing doesn't eradicate that !

Even though I have always been rather an unquashable free spirit....cult thought reform had nevertheless, managed to sap and suppress a great deal of my self-belief, leaving me on some level ,very very sensitive and vulnerable . A heavy handed, sledge-hammer to crack a nut approach towards me, on this forum, would have been far too terrifying and wounding. I would have had to run back to the familiarity and relative safety of the cult ju-ju and magical thinking to prevent an overload of psychological confrontation !

Not only that.......but the cotton woolly, lovey doveyness aspect ( and we know it is only ONE of several aspects ) of Rawatism and premies is, on the surface, far pleasanter than being " shouted" at,  called names and confronted and told we are wrong by exes on forum 8 .

One premie who once posted here , told me privately that he would rather " eat pooh for breakfast " than ever post here again.

When I first posted here I was absolutely terrified because I hadn't really exed. Posting here was my second move towards escape ( the first was that awful but ,in retrospect, deliciously wicked moment when I logged into Ex-Premie Org. ) I can honestly say, that my "heart was broken" by what I read there......a physical shock and then the aftershocks that lasted many days . However I still had many questions and I was very confused.....especially about my powerful experience (s) over the years of love /peace / exhilaration  which I had thought were "by his grace".

The forum guidelines do contain some good advice IMO about the way we should treat premies who dare to come here ( disobeying Rawat apparently...tut, tut. ). Of course the situation is muddied by the same few premies who come here again and again, very boringly, to try and disrupt the forum ( " trolls"). They are either abusive or they spout the same old , tired party line. However, genuine posters, even if they are not consciously "exing" soon become apparent.Their genuine personality comes through even if we've heard it all before regarding the content of their posts.

On the evening....it seems like an AGE ago, that Gerry accused me of being a "troll" and called me names when I was first posting I truly was utterly devastated and panic-struck. Even though I didn't know what a "troll" was it was clearly not a good thing to be and I thought I would be banned.( I absolve thee, St Gerry   )  The funny thing is, that evening someone new called " Max" signed in ,claiming to be a big-shot from Elan Vital......and got lots of polite attention....but we never saw him again ! ( as far as I know? ).

Looking back, it's highly amusing to realise that I had a natural ability to imitate a troll, before I knew what they were ! 

Anyhow... when it's all weighed up...IMO...tolerance, friendliness, kindness and clear communication is definitely the best approach ( for me anyway but probably not for everyone)....and it's not an easy thing to communicate like that across nationalities and cultures and on a two dimensional message board with a person you don't know.

I have to confess that I was a little rude to Ghi. It is difficult to walk the tightrope of  gullibility/cynicism and allow oneself to detect sincerity.(  If Ghi is sincere ??)I now understand that I've reached the point ( thanks to this forum and ex-premie friends ) where it's harder and harder to tolerate hearing " satsang" ; that crap that duped me for so much of my life. It just makes me angry.However , when I first arrived on this forum, I could never have imagined that  the so-called "company of truth " would make me angry.In a way it's quite sad to "see through"  the duplicity of "satsang "....for me it was such an anaesthetising and heady drug. I will always have a " soft spot" for premies ; after all I was one for over 30 years and there were lots of good times amidst the insanity !

Everybody has helped me, on this forum, but when I was first here it was the kind ones that stopped me from fleeing in horror. Marianne, Chris.especially (cq. ),Mike Finch, Bunny, Susan, John Brauns, Pat D,Thorin ,Tempora, Dant and Hilltop .....and all the lovely ones I've forgotten ( sorry! ). Oh! J'avais oublie Jean- Michel Khan et son chat Pipo.