Elan Vital 2004 Update
I've always wondered just how many premies / PWKs there have been and are. Since none of his organisations publish figures its hard to be sure though that certainly indicates that they are not doing well especially as the young Guru Maharaj Ji boasted about his 7 or 8 million premies and his double the number every year success rate. Over the years I have collected some data from Rawat's sources. Things changed drastically in 1982/83/84, and apparently have never recovered in the Rawat heartland which, strangely enough, is North America and Europe. I ignore events in India as, no matter what numbers he boasts about, he is a small-time guru there and has nothing like the number of followers of even his brothers.
1986: In the English Elan Vital publication, Newsline November 1986, an article gave some statistics for the number of English PWKs. There were about 9,000 people on their mailing list, but less than 10% (< 900) actually made a donation during 1986, and about half of that figure (< 450) made it a regular contribution. Six months later less than a third (< 300) of their financial supporters make regular donations. The minimum requirement for an "in touch" PWK should be financial support, but is actually turning up to see Maharaji when it is possible for you to do so and especially for a Rejoice Knowledge Review. A significant culling of the mailing list was required. 44 new British and Irish instructors were appointed, three full-time, the rest part-time.
1987: Maharaji said: "There are about 320 instructors as of right now, and around the world, approximately 21,000 people received the Knowledge this year alone to date." This figure must have included events in India.
1988: On Tuesday, 26th January, Maharaji conducted an evening programme in London attended by 165 aspirants from all over the UK. On Monday, 1st February, he went on to Madrid where he met with around 130 aspirants.
In April Maharaji did two Knowledge selections and held a Knowledge session for 9 people.
Over 3,000 pwK applied for a place at a programme on the 31st March with Maharaji.
Maharaji's public presentation at Wembley on 21st April was attended by 1500 people with Knowledge accompanied by 1100 guests.
In July, three British Rejoices were held with a fourth in September. Altogether, 4,000 pwK attended. Every pwK could only attend one Rejoice program so there was a maximum of 4,000 PWKs in England in 1988 as there was a frantic outreach to any and every person who had ever been initiated in England.
In 2004 there were at least 3 issues of the CONNECT NAm magazine published, electronic or paper .pdf. Naturally, as in all Elan Vital publications, all the articles were relentlessly upbeat. However, some actual relevant figures were printed.
The April 2004 issue contained an interview with Cindy Lategan, the contact person for the North American Introductory and Follow-up Team of Elan Vital:
CNA: How many Knowledge sessions were held during 2003 and how many people learned the techniques of Knowledge?
Cindy: There were eight Knowledge sessions in North America in 2003 where 297 people learned the techniques of Knowledge.
In 2004 Maharaji had been proselytising in the USA for 33 years and there were 290,000,000 citizens so the year 0.0001024137931034483% of the U.S. population had "learned the techniques of Knowledge." It is almost possible to state how poor this result is and yet it was a result that was presented proudly.
The June 2004 issue contained an interview with David Mankoff of the North American Resource Team of Elan Vital.
CNA: How many interested people support this work? - "this work" refers to Maharaji and Elan Vital's activities
David: In the U.S. about 5,000 people who are actively interested go to see Maharaji when he does events here and about 2,000 - 2,500 send donations, so there is room for growth. Contributions, regardless of size, really do make a difference. Much of the expense for international tours is covered by contributions from the U.S. and Canada, making it possible to hold events in countries where people simply cannot afford the costs associated with Maharaji visiting their region. This is truly something North American contributors can be proud of.
After 33 years in the USA Maharaji had 2,500 People With Knowledge (PWKs) prepared to make some financial donations to help him in implementing his vision of the possibility of peace. What is even more disturbing is that app. 20 years before he had about 10,000 people prepared to do so.
2004: Maharaji introduced the Keys and PWKs were expected and requested to pay the amount Maharaji and his minions claimed the project had cost. In Australia the "figure for PWK numbers used in the formula below has been taken from the maximum number of PWKs who attended any one of the live broadcast events in your location. You may note that this is not the same as what is on your mailing lists. By taking broadcast attendance as a common reference it was possible to keep the factor of 'uncertainty' (ie between number on mailing lists and actual in touch) and 'ability to pay', as a constant across all centres." ELan Vital calculate that there were 560 active "in touch" PWKs in Australia and 100 in New Zealand.
2004: Using a copy of the European "propagation" report for February 2000 I estimate that in the year 2000, there were 5,000 in touch PWKs in Europe, 5,000 in the USA, 4,000 in the UK and 700 in Australia and New Zealand who fit the minimum requirements to be accepted as a pwK, about 15,000 total in "the West" that developed or devolved from the intial burst of Rawat's juvenile "Eastern Divine Lord of the Universe" success amongst the drug-addled baby boomers.
We have pwK and aspirant numbers and financial figures from 2 Elan Vital local communities, one in Australia and the other in the USA that confirm that local communities' activities were confined to hiring halls and rooms to publicly show videos of Maharaji's speeches to attract new potential converts. About 15% of the PWKs were dedicated and organised and engaged in these activities, another 25% attended these 'events' and made donations and the other 60% went along to see Maharaji in person and some special showings for which they had to pay to gain entry. It was a financial struggle in both communities despite one being much wealthier than the other and by 2004 neither had many new PWKs to show for their work.
Maharaji's "Big Push" of the late 1990s was a failure in terms of actually attracting people to learn to be "revealed Knowledge" and became loyal, dues-paying PWKs. Its no wonder Maharaji began to look to leave behind his Maharaji persona and oncentrate on becoming Prem Rawat, respected international Ambassador of Peace. He could possibly cheat and lie his way into respectability but the pool of people looking for a Maharaji in their life had dried up no matter how many new people might see a video or a magazine story or a web page.