The problem for Andries - and the Wikipedians - is that they are looking for reliable data rather than estimations.

The difficulty for anyone researching Rawat and EV is that everything in the past is treated as 'deniable' and nothing in the present is treated as definitive, so that while impressive numbers are given out for those who have 'heard Mahraji's message', there are simply no figures for those who reject the message. It's as though Coca-Cola Corp. were to base it's evidence of market penetration on the number of people who've merely seen a Coke advertisement, or on the number of people who bought a coke in the last year, without acknowledging that half those people prefer Pepsi and another 25% don't like either very much.

A 1 in 4 commitment rate for old time premies is probably about right, I doubt whether the intake of the last fifteen years behaves in quite the same cut and dried manner but anyway their overall numbers are proportionally low. In the absence of any clear statement about what constitutes 'commitment' to the Rawat 'teaching', the situation in India is completely unassessible.

In the UK one could argue for evidence of 'commitment' being demonstrated by financial support - perhaps of the order of an average monthly donation of £50. EV UK had an Income of £1,826,000 to the year ended 31/03/02 - although not specified this included Event income, perhaps of the order of £250,000 - plus a Tax rebate of 28% which may have accounted for a further £400,000. Personal donations can therefore be put at around £1,175,000: equal to approx. 2000 premies paying £600 per year each.

The Wikipedia articles seem at one point to suggest that the financial information available on EV UK is limited to a single year. This is incorrect, although not published online, all UK Charities accounts are available to the public - in the case of EV UK, this means every annual return since 1994.