Just One Spark - Prem Rawat (Guru Maharaj Jii) Excessive Drug Use and Conversion to the Knowledge of Prem Rawat (Guru Maharaj Jii)

Virtually all of Prem Rawat's early 1970's followers had been using marijuana and LSD prior to their involvement with Divine Light Mission. In a study conducted early 1973 with 875 premies, the majority of whom were between the ages of 15 and 29, 840 out of 875 respondents had been using drugs prior to "receiving Knowledge." It's unlikely that the high use of marijuana and LSD improved their critical facilities leaving them open to recruitment into Divine Light Mission and initially they had a dramatic though not total fall in drug use.

  • Marijuana: 97% had used marijuana at least once, with 87% using it more than 40 times. 50% were using marijuana more than 20 times per month before receiving Knowledge.
  • Hallucinogens: Before receiving Knowledge, 62% were using hallucinogens at least once per month.
  • Stimulants (amphetamines, cocaine, etc.) : Half of the respondents used stimulants at least once per month before Knowledge.
  • Barbituates, Hypnotics, and Tranquilizers: 43% used these drugs at least once per month before Knowledge.
  • Opiates: Before Knowledge, 21% used opiates once per month, or more often.
  • Alcohol: Out of 450 respondents, 18.5% drank alcohol at all before Knowledge.

76% of the respondents had been meditating less than a year, and none for more than 22 months so long term effects were unknown.

Marijuana, Maharaji and Middle Class Teenage Weltschmerz

Early Divine Light Mission was heavily influenced by the conversion stories of many influential premies

You know I mean it's like these initiators get up and give satsang you know about how horrible this world is, sometimes how miserable this world is and for them even at a stage this world was fine they were living you know it's like they were, I mean it's not like everybody sitting here was one or the other time thinking of committing suicide, that's not true.

Joan Apter is probably the quintessential premie storyteller of despair to bliss

She travelled for 4 years, no mention of her source of income, "only knowing the constant taste of discontent … the constant chillum smoking around the sacred fire, the rites and rituals … and I got into it. Walking from temple to temple, but now the emotional crisis, the weeping, the darkness … and after some time, my heart reached a level of such grave disappointment that I began to lose all my natural optimism, and thought finally, that no one knew we were all poor seekers for some happiness that did not exist. This is called death, the death of our hope, the hope for which man has been born, without attaining which there is no reason to live.

Shri Bal Bhagwan Ji, who is the incarnation of divine intelligence, and much more, spoke to me every evening on the sacred science of the soul. He answered every question of my mind, and my heart began to open up. Holy Mother and the divine brothers of Guru Maharaj Ji gave me so much love that I knew only one thing, that I had found my destination, and that I wanted only to be with them forever.

Drug Use Again Became Common Amongst Prem Rawat's Disciples

However with the falling off of the initial enthusiasm and the failure of Rawat's early promises about the effects of meditation, drug use became rampant again in 1976 after the ashrams were closed for the first time and many premies were no longer living the ordered, restricted life of an ashram resident. Maeve Price in "The Divine Light Mission as a social organization" wrote

"At a festival held in Leicester in 1976 many openly smoked cigarettes and cannabis, drank alcohol and wore 'conventional' hippie clothing, the men complete with beards and beads. Official mission policy is opposed to all these practices."

In the Atlantic City Conference on December 20th, 1976 Rawat (Maharaji) was explicit about his prohibition on the use of drugs by his premies including alcohol and cigarettes and even eating eggs. He mentioned the "'gerbage' excuses people give" for smoking pot, that "everybody used to drink bhang in ashram. In India. And all of a sudden they would get just … somewhere else, in their own little world" and he knows "that a person who is stoned cannot really do meditation" and that "instead of having brains they just got horsemeat."

amaroo (11K) By the 1990's the drinking of alcoholic beverages became a normal part of Élan Vital "events" though the extent of marijuana smoking among Rawat's "students" is not easily determined as it is illegal. At that time I observed that most of the volunteers working at Amaroo (Rawat's cult compound in Australia) were smoking cigarettes. By the 1990's, smoking was very much a minority habit in Australia. In 2003 John MacGregor reported that half of Rawat's "students" in Northern NSW smoked marijuana. By then the early promises of transcendant states of consciousness were forgotten ot at least not discussed publicly.

Words of Peace Global Sponsored Weekend Retreats Required Bartenders

By the time Words Of Peace Global had been created, it became commonplace that Prem Rawat's disciples required a bartender or two for meditation, whoops, weekend retreats at Amaroo, Rawat's major Knowledge Centre in Australia if not the world.

Australian Honcho Premies Sharing The Bliss

In the 1990's Rawat's legal drug taking (Marlboroughs and cognac apparently being his favourites) became public public knowledge amongst his followers and smoking amongst them became common and a "retreat" at Amaroo was inconceivable without an experienced bar-tender. banner2 (5K)

Further evidence that the overwhelming majority of young people attracted to Prem Rawat (Maharaji) and his Knowledge and Divine Light Mission in the 1970s were involved in drug taking, mainly but not exclusively marijuana and LSD, and that many of them suffered severe mental and emotional problems can be found in Divine Light Mission official publications.

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