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Joe Whalen answers this
question, and analyses the process of becoming a member of
the Maharaji cult.
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 a 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:
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