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Hi Everyone. As you
will be able to tell, I have been thinking about
the 'cult' subject for quite some time. Now that
our friends Mitch Ditkoff and Erika Andersen have
weighed in with their lofty intellectual analysis
of why Maharaji isn't leading a cult, I thought it
was time to polish off my thoughts on this.
So, the following is the result. I will send
them to 'Please Consider This' but I expect they
will retain their perfect record in demonstrating
they are most certainly in a cult, by censoring all
contrary information.
Please let me know what you think of the
following:
YES, MAHARAJI REALLY IS THE LEADER OF A
CULT
It’s pretty clear that people who are still
devoted to Maharaji can get really upset when you
say that Maharaji is leading a cult. They may even
go to a lot of trouble to try to prove otherwise,
as we have seen in recent months. First, Elan Vital
addressed it in a big section of its website, which
consists of a transparent self-serving attempt at
throwing up and then destroying straw men of its
own creation.
More recently, Erika Andersen and Mitch Ditkoff
have written articles on this subject, and
currently it’s the topic of the week on their
website. In his article, Mitch continues in the
same vein as Elan Vital by attempting to explain
why followers of Maharaji don’t meet certain
aspects of a cult “definition.”
[I’d like to request that if anyone can
make any sense out of Mitch’s meanderings on
this subject to please let me know.] Erika
Andersen tries another angle. She presents a long
expose about how “normal” her life is.
Since neither mass marriages nor ritualistic abuse
appears in her list of daily activities, Erika
reassures us that she couldn’t possibly be in
a cult.
Why is this such a big deal to them? Probably
because cults have a pretty bad reputation in this
society, what with Jonestown, the Moonies,
Scientology, Heaven’s Gate, and the rest. It
also looks bad for propagation purposes, and
it’s embarrassing. When I was a follower of
Maharaji, I would never, even for a minute, have
thought I was in a cult. I would have considered it
an insult if someone said I was.
Sure, I thought the Moonies were a cult, and the
Hare Krishnas were a cult, but I and the other
people following Maharaji, couldn’t possibly
be a cult, could we? Of course not, I reasoned,
because what Maharaji was offering was real, and I
was just too smart ever to be in cult. Everything I
did appeared to be of my free choice, and
weren’t cults so weird that it would be
obvious if you were in one?
Unfortunately, no. One of the characteristics of
being in a cult is that you don’t think you
are because a cult is all about protecting yourself
from those kind of thoughts. Many people, after
they leave cults, discover that’s exactly what
they were in, and they have spawned all kinds of
“ex-cult” groups and websites like
Ex-Premie.Org, and large organizations like CAN and
AFF, whose members proclaim that they were once
members of cults. [For record, both CAN and AFF
have listed Elan Vital/Maharaji as a
“cult.”]
The simple (and obvious) reason for this
division is that once you discover you are in a
cult, you are probably either already out of it, or
on your way out. Hence, the divide between the
current and former followers of Maharaji on the
“cult” issue is quite wide and there is
little common ground on the subject.
I have thought a lot about groups and cults, and
I’ve read and studied a lot to try to
understand better how I ever became a follower of
Maharaji in the first place, and why I remained one
for as long as I did. The purpose of this article
is to explain, based on my own research and my own
experience, why I say that Maharaji is, and always
has been, the leader of a cult, and to try to boil
it all down to the most basic level I can. I have
tried to set aside the hyperbole.
Maharaji’s Followers Are Not
Brainwashed
Let’s just get this out of the way quickly.
“Brainwashing” implies unwilling
indoctrination of alien principles and beliefs and
Manchurian Candidate images of overt control
techniques. Maharaji does not brainwash people and
followers of Maharaji are not brainwashed.
So, If We Weren’t Brainwashed, Why Did
We Join?
Like with any other cult, people become
premies/PWKS because they see something they think
they want. This might be friends, community,
absolutes to live by, a way to “know
one’s self,” a way to “experience
the energy that is God,” a simple formula for
life, happiness, etc. When I was first introduced
to Maharaji and his followers, I saw premies as a
loving group of people who seemed to be happy, and
I wanted to be in their “family,” to
share what I thought they had, and I thought I
lacked. I wanted the promised experience of the
peace inside of me. I wanted to be a part of
bringing peace to the world, which Maharaji said he
was doing.
I was told by premies and Maharaji that to get
those things I wanted, the key was to “receive
knowledge.” So, very early on, like literally
within hours of my first “satsang,” I
decided I wanted knowledge. At the same time, I
also noticed lots of really weird, or at least
illogical, stuff that seemed to go along with it,
like worshipping this kid, feeling
“devotion” (now “gratitude”) to
this strange person, pranaming, feet-kissing, and
the like. This set off “red flags” in my
analytical thinking, and briefly caused me to
question all I was being told. So, I now had an
internal dilemma. How could I deal with the major
problem for me, which was that this
“Maharaji” and dedication to him, came
along with the premies and the
“knowledge” that I wanted so badly?
Followers of Maharaji Are Not Coerced; They
Are Cooperators in Their Own Programming
Many people resolve this dilemma by dropping out
of the process. They split. They are part of the
vast majority of people who hear about Maharaji,
maybe even come to some introductory event, and
never follow through. They aren’t hooked. It
doesn’t take. But another way to resolve it is
for the individual to follow the directives of the
cult and suspend normal critical judgment in this
area, in order to obtain the “carrot”
representing the fulfillment desired, in this case
to get “knowledge.” In this way, the
individual engages in cooperation with what the
cult is telling them. Unfortunately for me,
that’s what I did.
Cult researchers will tell you that because this
process involves mutual and willing cooperation,
and the individual views all decisions as their
own, it is a more binding form of “mind
control” than other forms, and harder to undo,
because of the illusion that it was all just a
personal choice. Indeed, I wanted to believe it. It
fulfilled a “need,” and it was “my
decision.” In fact, the strongest, most
enduring, and most insidious, programming in the
Maharaji cult goes on before the individual even
receives knowledge, at this very juncture.
I can still remember the feelings and the
process from my own experience. I wanted to receive
knowledge. So, I did what they said I had to do; I
listened to premies and Maharaji talk about it and
sing songs about it. This was before video, but
during the days of satsang every single night. I
also watched movies about it, read articles about
it, and I traveled across the country and saw
Maharaji speak twice before I received knowledge.
In this process “aspirants” like me, are
told one has to be “ready” to receive
knowledge and yet there is no test or measure of
what “ready” means, just that one has to
have “that understanding” to “have
no more doubts,” to “get rid of all
pre-conceived ideas about Maharaji and
knowledge,” and “be open.”
So, left with no clear guidelines and completely
ambiguous instructions, most people are going to
take this the way I did, that it means stripping
away value judgments and restraining all doubts or
critical analysis of anything that was happening in
connection with Maharaji or knowledge. To fail to
do that was to not be “open” or it was
evidence that the impediments of doubt were still
there, and therefore you wouldn’t get what you
wanted, to receive knowledge.
So, I pushed all the sincerity buttons I had; I
tried not to think critically or negatively about
Maharaji. I tried to be open by not letting
“my mind” criticize or analyze any of
this process. What was the point, anyway? I was
told that I wouldn’t really be able to judge
any of it until I received knowledge and that
knowledge was something that couldn’t be
explained in words.
At some critical point in this period, I crossed
over into the world of “cult.” I did this
by deciding that I wanted knowledge so much that I
would ignore much of my critical/analytical
faculties, and even my own “gut
feelings.” This was the beginning of my
practicing of cult mind control which consists
mainly of learning to shut down the critical part
of my thinking when it came to Maharaji and
knowledge. Amazingly, that process, that repressive
mechanism, continued for almost 10 years
thereafter, getting ever more efficient as I
practiced it. So efficient in fact, that for many
years I had no conscious awareness that I was even
doing it.
Then began the exercises in traumatic
humiliation known as “knowledge
selections.” Twice I sat in the
“selection” process and wasn’t
selected by the Instructor. I watched, increasingly
heartbroken and desperate, as those who were
selected seemed ecstatic and privileged. I wanted
to be like them. And I wanted to be happy like the
premies, who had by this time become my friends and
they were rooting for me to receive knowledge.
Having been rejected, I re-doubled my efforts to
“be ready” and “be open.” Any
critical thought was immediately discarded. I even
started singing the praises of Maharaji and
knowledge. I had become not only “open,”
I had become dedicated.
Finally, after cutting my university classes,
and taking a bus 350 miles, I was in yet another
“selection” for knowledge. By this point
my critical thinking became just irrelevant
background noise. I was even “praying” to
Maharaji, who was by now a kind of an imaginary
friend to me, to please give me knowledge and let
me be his devotee. By the time I was selected to
receive knowledge, I couldn’t even imagine
doubting anything about Maharaji or knowledge, or
even looking at any of it objectively in any way
approaching how I looked at anything else. But if
you would have asked, I would have told you that
all of this was happening by my free will, by my
free choice.
I was so far gone that by this point I was even
willing to say that I devoted my life to Maharaji
(then Guru Maharaj Ji), when the Instructor asked
that I do so. Amazing. Here I was, a guy at the top
of my university class, a guy who was a confirmed
anti-authoritarian, a semi-Marxist, a guy who had
left the Catholic Church because it was too
paternalistic, devoting my life to a human being,
who claimed to be another Jesus Christ, somebody I
had never met and knew virtually nothing about.
Yes, it could even happen to me, and it did. And if
it could happen to me, it could happen to
anybody.
So, I received knowledge, and let’s just
say that the experience did not blow my socks off.
It was actually somewhat disappointing. But by that
time, I no longer had much capacity to evaluate
anything about Maharaji. But it felt okay because
now I belonged, and the premies held a
“birthday party” for us, and it was all
kind of nice, and I was a new baby. Give it time, I
thought. Don’t doubt, don’t judge, just
be open and give it a chance, the premies told me.
I wasn't even conscious of the fact that I had
given that up my critical thinking. Like I said, it
was almost 10 years before that changed.
Okay, so what was I now a part of? I was now
part of the Maharaji cult. It is and was a cult,
that fits the definition Mitch Ditkoff uses in his
article:
1. A group claiming to have “the
answer” as the “only way” to peace
and happiness;
2. A leader to whom “excessive
dedication” occurs; and
3. The use of “mind control
techniques.”
I’m sure even Mitch agrees that Maharaji
claimed that he had the one experience of
“peace and happiness” and that he was the
only person on the planet offering it. I’m
sure he would also agree that “excessive
devotion” has been expressed to Maharaji,
including just a few months ago, when his
followers, once again, lined up to kiss his feet.
But what about the “mind control?” How
did that manifest after I received knowledge and
was a full-fledged follower of Maharaji?
“Mind Control” (Better Known as:
Discouragement of Doubt) in the Maharaji
Cult
Although “mind control” is a heavy
term, there is nothing magical or strange about how
it manifests in cults. It's pretty basic stuff. But
what do I really mean by it when it comes to the
Maharaji cult? Well, in addition to the process I
already described, the following eight examples are
characteristics of the cult that caused me and
others to limit our thoughts – to engage in
“mind control.” These are all “Mind
Control Techniques” described in general terms
in the literature and research on cults. They
should be easily recognizable to anyone who has
been a follower of Maharaji:
1.The Commandment Against Doubting. Cults
almost always forbid or discourage their members
from doubting anything about the Cult, and
especially the Cult Leader. Maharaji was especially
explicit about this. For many years, Maharaji had a
“Commandment” that his followers were
supposed to follow, which was to “Never
Leave Room for Doubt in Your Mind.” I know
he doesn’t have “commandments”
anymore, but I think the principle is still there,
and I read a transcript of Maharaji speaking in
Argentina in which he again lambasted
“doubts” as a detriment to your
“experience.” I know that some PWKs say
that the commandment actually meant something else,
but I find the explanations absurd. It says what it
says. Moreover, in my experience, doubts in the
Maharaji cult were always discouraged, with or
without the existence of Maharaji’s
“commandment.”
So, after you receive knowledge, after the
repression of your thoughts that it took to get to
that point, Maharaji gives you a commandment that
says you aren’t supposed to doubt and that
doubting interferes with the
“experience.” Obviously, this makes it
nearly impossible to look at knowledge or Maharaji
objectively.
2. No Critical Question about the Leader or
His Teaching is Legitimate. One of the true
tests of whether someone is in a cult is whether he
or she can criticize the Cult Leader. It’s
nearly impossible, indeed is impossible, to get a
one of Maharaji’s followers to do it. Of
course, they will say there is nothing to
criticize, because cult thinking will not allow
those critiques, those “doubts” to enter,
and if they do, they are immediately repressed. It
causes a cult member great discomfort to think of
questioning or criticizing the Cult Leader and if
they have such thoughts, they would NEVER say it
publicly. This is because the Maharaji cult is
really a personality cult, although it retains some
“Eastern spiritual cult” overtones.
Obviously, if you attack the
“personality” what do you have left? Some
PWKs can bring themselves to criticize Elan Vital,
and various leaders of that and other related
organizations. I did the same thing towards the end
of my involvement. But mostly, I just blamed myself
for even having any doubts in the first place.
Once you are out of the cult, believe me, you
will have no problem criticizing Maharaji. All the
critical things you have thought about him, about
his “efforts” as master, or about
knowledge, or about your experiences as one of his
followers, all of which have been repressed, will
come out like a raging river, and it feels
wonderful.
3. Criticism of the Cult and Especially the
Cult Leader, in any Form, is Seen as Lack of
“Understanding,' or 'Confusion.' In my
experience, if you express criticism of Maharaji,
or any of his decisions, or Knowledge, or anything
related, you get the cold shoulder by his followers
and his organization and will be considered
“confused” or not
“synchronized.” It’s group pressure,
really. And if you do so, you can usually forget
about moving up in the organization, getting close
to the Lotus Feet, getting a good seat at a
program, being invited to “the
residence,” or getting a good
“participation opportunity.”
If you do it too much, you might even be
categorized as a “bongo.” Try sitting in
your next “participation meeting” and say
some negative stuff about Maharaji or what
he’s doing. See how open and tolerant your
fellow followers are to such statements. It’s
unlikely they will encourage you to air your
opinions and vigorously discuss your
“negative” views. [By the way, being
labeled “negative” is about the worst
thing that can happen to you in the Maharaji cult
and this is yet another form of mind
control.]
4. Threats of Dire Calamity if They Abandon
Knowledge/Maharaji. I could go into the
“tons of rotten vegetables” and other
things Maharaji said as threats of what would
happen if people abandoned the cult, but that
isn’t really necessary. Basically, this is
internalized in most PWKs, such that they cannot
imagine, and fear, what their lives would be like
if they left Maharaji. Since Maharaji has been
portrayed as being exclusive in his “perfect
master” position, PWKs fear there is no place
else to go. This is basically phobia
indoctrination. It’s the irrational fear of
ever leaving the group or even questioning the
leader’s authority. Basically, the PWKs (and
this was also true for me), cannot visualize a
positive, fulfilled future without being a follower
of Maharaji, and Maharaji reinforces this in just
about everything he says.
As a premie, I described this psychological
dependence on Maharaji or at least my image of
Maharaji and the fear I had of rejection by him, as
my “love for Maharaji,” despite the fact
that I never even met the guy. Also, somehow, if I
said I “loved” Maharaji, it gave me some
comfort that is was less likely I would ever
unconsciously reject him, or that he would reject
me.
5. There is Never A Legitimate Reason to
Leave/Shunning Those Who Leave. It’s
difficult for a follower of Maharaji to see how
someone can legitimately leave “that
place” and not be miserable. Ex-premies have
heard it all, and I thought much the same when
people left the cult when I was still a member.
People who leave are labeled as
“confused,” “lacking the proper
understanding,” having gotten into the cult
for “the wrong reasons,” wanting a
“Hindu spiritual trip,”
“undisciplined,” “never having
practiced knowledge,” “negative,” or
seduced by money, sex, rock and roll. You name it.
We have heard it all. Just check out Pia
Grunbaum’s and Charles Glasser’s
websites, if you want to see it in print. And as
for being shunned, how many of us lost our premie
“friends” when we left? Now that some of
us are notorious ex-premies speaking out on the
Internet, that “shunning” has evolved
into open hostility. It even extends to attack
websites, like those of CAC, Charles Glasser and
Pia Grunbaum. “Please Consider This” is
just a lot more diplomatic on that score, but is
essentially an attempt at the same endeavor.
6. The Cult Leader and the Cult Make
Followers Feel that Any Problems Are Their Own
Fault and Never Maharaji’s. This, in my
opinion, is the essence of the Maharaji cult. The
axiom is this: All that is good is due to Maharaji,
or at least ultimately due to him, while all that
is bad is due to the PWK, because of the PWK’s
lack of understanding, always getting distracted,
or “forgetting that place,” his or her
own confusion, etc.
If you want to see examples of this, just read
the Maharaji cult websites, and see how the writers
thereon engage in logical gymnastics to keep from
ever blaming Maharaji for anything that ever
happened, but are quite willing to place
responsibility on themselves or Maharaji’s
other followers.
7. Information is Not Freely
Accessible/Information Varies at Different
Levels/Leadership Decides Who “Needs to
Know” What. Elan Vital and Maharaji are
notoriously secretive. Very little is disclosed,
even to members. And of course, we all know how
secretive Maharaji has been about his personal
life, with people being “x-rated” in
order to be around him. And even PWKs complain of
the paranoid secrecy within Elan Vital and
Maharaji’s organization. This kind of
information control, especially when it involves
information damaging to the perceptions of Maharaji
and knowledge, is very important in the Maharaji
cult, and always has been. This is partly why EPO
is seen as such a threat, because it exposes
information the cult is trying to keep secret, and
information is empowering to people, and even
encourages them to look critically at things they
accepted as truth in the past.
8. Lots of “Loaded Language” (AKA
Thought-Terminating Clichés). These are
basically terms that have normal meanings to most
people, but to people in the Maharaji cult, they
have loaded meanings, that evoke an instantaneous
“understanding” such that no further
thought about what is being said is necessary. Just
to name a few: mind, heart, knowledge, breath
(that’s a big one these days), that love, that
peace, that experience, that gift (really lots of
words with “that” in front of them to
convey special meaning), understanding, thirst,
negativity, doubt, participation, gratitude, and my
personal favorite, “synchronization.”
Maharaji can use these words peppered throughout
his speech and end up really saying nothing, but
sounding profound, with appropriate nods from his
followers.
So, by the time I walked out of the knowledge
session, and became an official follower of
Maharaji, I was already crippled in my ability to
judge what was going on with me in relation to the
cult and Maharaji. Then, Maharaji’s
commandments and teachings, and the culture of the
cult itself, discouraged critical analysis, and
encouraged its continued repression.
After a very short time, I was on automatic. I
automatically engaged in self-censorship of my
thoughts, almost all the time after that. It
didn’t really matter the particular rituals or
living situations I encountered in the cult, the
real cult was by then existing largely between my
ears, reinforced by the mind control mechanisms
described above, and others as well. Sure,
occasionally some doubts still got through, but
they were pretty easily disposed of, perhaps by
some extra meditation, or perhaps by getting a
“group high” from an
“event.”
I want to emphasize that in other areas, on
subjects unrelated to Maharaji and knowledge, I
remained pretty much a normal, functioning person,
to the extent I could be. It wasn’t until I
got out of the cult, and started to unwind that
whole process, that I even realized that yes, I
really was engaging in that process almost the
whole time. When that happened, it was
exhilarating. It was like I could finally breathe
again, after I had somehow forgotten for a very
long period of time.
Joe Whalen
November 1, 2001
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