Anyway, I normally treat email to the epowebmaster address as confidential, but when the sender doesn't want a private reply, then a public reply is the only alternative.

So, here's my reply to the email:-

----------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 27 Jul 2005 14:06:30 +0100 (BST)
From: "John Brauns" <epowebmaster@yahoo.co.uk>
Subject: Re: Website feedback
To: PremieBomb@aol.com

Mr. ToJ,

Many thanks for your email, which you have sent to the webmaster of ex-premie.org, John Brauns, which is me. I normally treat all email to this address as confidential, so any comments you have addressed to Mike Finch and Patrick Wilson will not be seen by them unless you write to them directly. I hope you don't mind but I've added further comments interspersed in your email text.

John Brauns
webmaster ex-premie.org

--- PremieBomb@aol.com wrote:

> Dear Friends,
>
> Thank you for your interesting Website.
>
> Yes I took Mahraji's Knowledge back in 1975, and it
> has transcended
> everything in all that time. Such power! Such
> exquisite power and beauty like a
> spring oozing water on the hillside, gathering pace
> to form a stream, a current,
> a river. All within myself.

Indeed, all within yourself.

>
> Unfortunately you people haven't a CLUE of what I'm
> talking about. ( You may
> THINK you can "explain" it, but trust me, you don't
> - see last paragraph. )

It's nice to have an unverifiable unshakable opinion,
isn't it?

> Money? Donate large amounts of cash ? Mike F. you
> bozo, why on EARTH did
> you give your house away? I listened to your
> satsang in your house in Brighton
> for years, and you said you had this experience. Now
> you say not. Are you
> another Patrick Wilson, never really having
> experienced it ?

You may have listened to Mike Finch, but it seems you were not listening to Maharaji or his close lieutenants who made it very clear that the best way to practice Knowledge was to surrender our lives completely to the living Perfect Master.

> ( Patrick - you were guranteed to clear the satsang
> room, whenever you got
> up to speak...such monotonous rambling
> uninspiration, yet your music is cool.
> Stick with it, mate )
>
> I saw the "cult" trappings wrapped around the
> Knowledge that I was
> experiencing, and simply declined them. No big
> donations. No moving into the ashram (
> despite the pressure ). Kept my job, my girlfriend,
> my surfing and tennis.
> Yes!

Is it not reasonable for the website to point out that much of the cult trappings and the pressure to move into the ashram came from Maharaji?

> I used discrimination, and my own previous
> experience of life to question
> these things, and reject them. The Knowledge is NOT
> dependent on a "relationship
> with Maharaji" Mike. It's dependent on simply
> putting the time and effort
> into meditation ( at least it is for me....! ).
> Focus. Focus. Within
> yourself. Not on MJ . Although I really enjoy
> hearing him speak - so I go along &
> listen a couple of times a month. Rest of the time,
> it's up to me.

Again, you're not listening to Maharaji - he states very clearly that a relationship with him is essential. Even on his current 'Keys' website, he states:-

"The second promise that I ask for is to keep in
touch. Keep in touch with me through my message,
through the practice of Knowledge. Come to my events.
Come and hear what I am saying. Let me help you remove
your doubts. Let me help to inspire you, clarify and
remind you again and again what is important, so you
can continue to grow."

Notice he emphasises 'again and again'. Clearly he is recommending a long term relationship.

> No international trips to see the man. Not needed.
>

Once again, you're not listening to Maharaji. In the quote above, he says:-

"Come to my events. Come and hear what I am saying."

As he only attends events in very few countries, this means that for premies in most countries international trips are essential to follow his instruction.

> The power I feel is no doubt attributed to
> "delusion" by those
> un-experiencing it. So be it.
>
> As for Maharaji's "misdemeanours" . I don't see much
> there that worries me.
> A broken marriage & subsequent partner? Excuse me?
> Look around you. It's
> everywhere. We don't bat an eyelid. Ah but he
> claimed to be......Perfect
> Master, L.O.T.U., etc... who cares?
>
> If a philanthopist had big personal claims which
> later didn't seem right,
> but you STILL receive the 50,000 dollars he puts in
> your bank month in month
> out, year in year out, do you get upset about his
> personal life
> "misdemeanours"?.
> I doubt it. You just say "Thank You. Thank you VERY
> much! Keep it coming!

Err, no, actually. If the money came from immoral earnings then I personally could not receive it. It's interesting that you see no connection between the morality of the giver and the gift. But as you said above, whatever you experience is within you, so you are free to experience it, AND use your critical faculties, and your sense of right and wrong, to formulate your opinion of the person who taught you how to meditate.

> The disillusionment stories from his ex"staff" ?
> I'm not surprised. I saw a
> lot of these social climbers elbowing their way to
> get close to the "Boss".
> They should have relied on their own power more,
> grown up a bit, developed
> their selves a bit. But they got burned. And of
> course project their failings
> onto his "mistreatment" of them. I don't blame him
> for not "putting his
> side". My Japanese Zen Masters NEVER explained
> themselves. They were whole walls
> of silence if I didn't get it.

The first hand reports describe what the witnesses observed. Readers are free to form their own opinions about Maharaji as a result. I'm glad you are not suggesting these people are lying about what they observed.

> Drinking? It's a common stress-buster. And Brandy
> is a wise and healthy
> choice. Churchill thrived on it. Won the War on
> it.

But Maharaji is supposed to the master of a method of finding peace within!! Not just someone who practices the method, but the MASTER!! Can't you see any cognitive dissonance in your worldview here?!

> High lifestyle? Hmmm.....may well be some
> criticism justified here folks,
> but I don't finance it.

Whoa, let me read that again.... A premie accepting that some criticism of Maharaji may be justified! This is a first - thank you, I mean it!

> What I do is practice the Knowledge, and enjoy,
> hourly, riches and happiness
> I only dreamed of when reading my Buddhist
> scriptures and texts, and living
> in my monastery in Japan, striving for two years to
> break into the realm of
> "Enlightenment".
>
> So he's changing the presentation again? Oh how
> terrible! The package
> and the contents are independent of each other.
> All innovative teachers learn
> by experience.

What about the commandment received on a scroll by every new premie at their initiation 'Constantly meditate and remember Holy Name'? Changed in 1987 to 'practice technique number 3 for at least 15 minutes a day'. Don't you think this change was a lttle radical?

> So you can get these techniques elsewhere - 100s of
> gurus in India reveal
> them? Ah, but do you KNOW for certain that those
> who practice THESE
> techniques revealed by other teachers EXPERIENCE the
> "EXPERIENCE".
>
> No you frigging don't son! You do NOT, any more
> than I do.
>
> I don't know what they experience, and neither do
> you. They probably get as
> high as I did in my zen monastery, which was pretty
> good, lovely even, but
> NOT ENOUGH.
>
> What I do know is that I searched and searched other
> teachers before hitting
> MJ and they didn't offer the EXPERIENCE.
>
> Which, I humbly & joyfully remind you, you do NOT
> understand. If you did,
> you'd burn the Website. Tear it all up, and go on
> your way laughing!

Just imagine you had got the 'EXPERIENCE' some other way, would you have any problems with me publishing the information about Maharaji that's on ex-premie.org? And anyway, regardless of the
experience, don't prospective students, who are being asked to engage in a lifelong commitment, have the right to know as much about their 'Master' as possible?

>
> Mr. "Tao of Joyfulness" B. Sc. Physics and Maths
> ( so I'm not as stupid
> as you think.... )

I think you are about as stupid as I was during my 25 years as a premie. Anyway, do I know you? I lived in Brighton Ashram for the whole of 1974 and went back a couple of times afterwards.