I've been giving a lot of thought to the difference between religions, NRMs, and cults.

I think the enormous gap between religions, and even some NRMs, and cults is that there is deliberate thought-control involved in a big way in cults.  The teachings of Prem Rawat are not a static thing because he is continuously changing the belief-system.  The core belief in him as divine is definitely still there, the magical thinking about the connection of him to knowledge is still there, but he manipulates premies in the worst way and the training transcripts are solid evidence of this.

A good example of the difference between a religion and a cult is my own experience of leaving Catholicism behind, versus leaving Prem Rawat/Knowledge behind.  I had no problems rejecting the Catholic church or Christianity.  I simply stopped practicing the religion. I didn't feel the need to sort out a lot of issues and certainly don't feel that Catholics are people who need help to get out of their religion.  I simply walked away and never looked back.  And I came from a large extended family of devout RCC people: nuns, priests, the whole nine yards.

On the other hand, I held onto the belief-system instilled in me by a living cult leader for a long, long time.  That's the crucial difference, IMO.  Obviously, I didn't think I was in a cult -- no one does while they are in it.  However, leaving Rawat and his thought-reform behind has been an enormous job of extricating myself from believing so many things that are simply false.  One huge belief is that Rawat is the Lord.  But, what a lot of people don't understand is that Maharaji continuously demonized the use of our minds, criticized us endlessly for failing as devotees, restricted how we lived, what we ate, what we read, who we associated with, told us not to have relationships, etc. He continues to do this but in a much more subtle way. The list of mind damaging abuses he perpetrated and continues to perpetrate upon premies seems nearly endless.  So it's not about freedom of religion, but the loss of freedom of religion and thought.  That's why this forum exists in my mind.  It's a place to sort out the enormous damage Rawat has done to people. 

I have been looking for a post written by an ex-premie named Nigel, who doesn't post here anymore, but did for quite some time a few years ago.  It is titled "Teachings verus Teaching," or something like that.  It's in the forum archives and I can't find it.  It is a brilliant post about the difference between those who have "teachings" and people who are actually teachers.  I want to repost it because it explains, from the point of view of a teacher, a lot about the distinctions.

The techinques are only a secret to those who believe they owe Rawat something and believe something bad will happen to them if they break the oath to "never show the techniques to anyone."  It's tantamount to saying, "I'll never tell you how Santa Claus gets down the chimney!"   Sort of.  That's part of the thought-control.  Otherwise, because they are ancient techniques, there is no reason whatsoever, for not including them in the articles on Wiki.  

Cynthia