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Divine Light Mission finished it's early growth period by the end of 1973. It had large debts following the Millenium 73 festival. It suffered terrible publicity following the 16 year old guru's marriage and his mother's firing him as the Satguru and the young guru's opulent lifestyle. It is possible that his greed and materialism and his personal use of the majority of DLM's financial resources were as detrimental as the bad publicity as it severely hampered the organisation's ability to function with up to 60% of the total income going to him personally. Michael Dettmers became involved in the administration as he was one of the few premies with management experience in a large organisation. One of his ideas was to have focus groups amongst DLM administrators to determine exactly how they felt about their roles, Rawat's role and their lives. Sophia Collier wrote that "It had all started the month before (11/75), when Maharaj Ji came to the Denver community meeting and said that all the people in DLM should have "understanding." He seemed very emphatic about this, although it was rather vague just exactly what he wanted people to understand. Each person, according to her/his nature, interpreted Maharaj Ji's statement differently. Michael Dettmers and some of the other executives assumed people on the HQ staff needed to understand the organization and their commitment to it more fully. To this end, in the middle of December (1976), they set up a large conference for the entire staff at the Hilton Hotel. They secured the services of a premie who was a professional in group dynamics. Maharaj Ji came to the conference and told everybody that he was completely behind this effort and the premies should relax, cooperate, and 'not be paranoid.'" These "training workshops" used basic brainstorming and synthesizing techniques to get members to think about what the organization was actually trying to accomplish. They were told to reflect on their experience of "Guru Maharaj Ji" and knowledge and what is Rawat"s role in spreading knowledge, what is the best way to "spread knowledge", the ashrams, etc. The administrators encouraged people to leave the ashram as they and most others were not actually "experiencing" the bliss that that had been promised to them. Most of the administrators were in illicit sexual relationships (illicit for ashram residents that is) and they wanted out. A decision was made that the best way to present Maharaji was as a "humanitarian leader" and the instructions to premies and the publicity began. Mishler believed Rawat had agreed to these changes. This was truly bizarre as Rawat had been promoted as the boy God, the Lord of the Universe, the Lord of Universal Peace, who proclaimed he had come to rule the world with more power than any Perfect Master before him. While premies were obedient and changed the way they spoke about Rawat publicly (while not changing their beliefs) the media were, understandably, not so obedient. As Bob Mackenzie had written "The 16 year-old guru Maharaj Ji has decided he is God, I understand. That is not a bad job for a 16 year-old kid, except that there's no chance for advancement." There also is no possiblility of an acceptable and reasonable demotion. In an unlikely scenario, an extreme right-wing lobby group, The Citizens' Congress, who were well-known at the time for their strong support of President Nixon, invited the Guru Maharaji to speak at a Bi-Centenary function at the Mayflower Hotel. Speakers at the luncheon included U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Earl Butz who was convicted of tax-evasion in 1981 and who resigned in disgrace after making his most famous speech: "I'll tell you what the coloreds want. It's three things: first, a tight pussy; second, loose shoes; and third, a warm place to shit." and Senator Strom Thurmond. Rennie Davis would have rolled over in his grave had he been dead. As Dettmers explained DLM were going to be audited by the IRS due to the publicity re Prem Rawat's luxuries. DLM was incorporated as a church and the spending on and by Rawat as the church leader was far beyond the amount acceptable to the IRS. Bob Mishler, who had come to see Rawat up close and personal from the time of the "family feud" was completely fed up with Rawat's alcohol abuse and out of control spending that was destroying the organization, decided to sell the Malibu mansion and haul in the reins of Rawat's spending binges. Plans to create an investment fund to allow Rawat to maintain his opulent lifestyle were decided upon but the DLM cash flow dropped enormously as people left the ashrams and stopped donating their entire salaries and premies became involved in a more normal life. Rawat came to Denver to meet the Executive Committee of DLM, fired the non-sycophants (as Downton so quaintly phrases it: "the guru took the initiative halfway through 1976 by asking two members of the Board of Directors, including the President, to step down from their posts and to assume a different form of service within the movement.") and installed Dettmers as his Personal Manager. Rawat stated "knowledge without devotion to Maharaji is nothing". He took steps to ensure that his total control would never again be challenged and began a new era of devotion, along with a reinstatement of the ashrams. In Andrea Cagan's sleazy "biography" of Prem Rawat she writes that by July, 1976, the organisation's administrators' had so little respect for him they were saying that he should have only a figurehead role. Rawat claimed that during the summer tour he had given Bob Mishler a place of honour and asked him to speak first. It was not uncommon for Western premies or his wife to speak first and comment upon the need to pay attention to the young Rawat's "satsang" as he was so simplistic and his English so poor that his "incredible depth and wisdom" might be missed.
This appraisal of the changes in DLM in 1976 is based upon:
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