....Well , well...I really did jump into a well. I lived in an unofficial Ashram in Norfolk.

The self-styled " mahatma"( and a premie), David Willmot ( now known as David Breathe) made me take off my clothes  and climb into the freezing cold water of the genuine, old well in the ( organic ) garden. This was part of the military-style preparation of surrendering sufficiently to be ready to receive Maharaji's knowledge  (and supposedly to " cure" my " "poor circulation")

I was 19 years old,fresh out of boarding school and this older man ( Willmot) lured me to his " commune" after I met him soon after the death of my father ( I only mention these details as I now understand that they are all indicators for susceptibility to cult entrapment ).

It's just another example of how this dangerous notion of "surrender" opens the vulnerable to appalling abuse by those who used the trappings of Maharaji-ism for there own weird purposes, both within and without the official structure.

This story is completely true and I know that there is at least one other inmate of that place in the early seventies, who sometimes reads the forum and will recognise it's validity. ( it sounds too nuts...but really , you couldn't make it up ! ).

Willmot/ Breathe still seems to be advertising his own brand of "surrender" on the web. 

Remembering how dangerously and " charmingly" persuasive this man was ,I feel obliged to offer a health warning with the link!!