I caught wind of Prem's alleged sexual misconduct about a year ago, and am encouraged that his children seem to be taking the courageous and painful lead to bring this to light.  I've wished Marolyn would come forward too, perhaps more unlikely now if the allegations against her have substance.  I hope that more serious reporting will come directly from his children.  Does anyone know of any news sources about this, other than Johnson's account and what I've seen on this Forum? 

However painful, I feel his followers deserve to know the truth of this.

My own response is mostly a deep sadness, for so many reasons.

I still count many friends that drank the Kool-Aid long ago, and remain propped up by the shared delusion of his specialness (even if downgraded from 'Perfect Master' (wink)). Probably very tough to break with a huge driver of what has made their lives seem special, especially those now in their seventies and eighties who've spent fifty tears 'with' him.  That's a lot of Kool-Aid! And of course, there's the obvious ego-trip benefits to have pried away...."if he is so special, and I am one of the chosen, then I must be pretty fucking special too", and so it goes...

On the other hand, I recall how I finally stopped arguing with my evangelical father about epistemological matters about when he turned eighty, even feeling grateful that he could draw comfort from his beliefs, albeit ridiculous beliefs to me.  (There's no shortage of religious cults out there). Unvarnished reality can be pretty tough to face, and getting comfortable with uncertainty and impermanence can be a real bitch.

I've also seen the sad extended effects of Prem culture on his followers' kids, innocently caught up in their parents' neediness and bullshit.

Although I got out fairly early in the game, I still feel truly, deeply sorry for any way I helped to prop up, for a time, our shared fantasy and his predatory behavior.

I mean, here is a guy that took actual ownership of a spiritual tradition/practice based on meditation and serving others, packaged it into a brand and went to market in the west at just the right time (in concert with our "just Say Yes" generation) and used it to suck our time, money, energy and love into his black hole of narcissism.  And one really sad thing is that the meditation techniques he offered are fairly remedial, not to mention his saccharine message.

- Mike

BTW, a warm howdy to y'all if you've read this far, and thanks (as ever) to John for keeping this going!