Frequently Asked Questions

H.	Opposition to Maharaji and his message – Detractors and the negative message they convey
		back
	(1)	Is it true there is a group of former students who dedicate their time and energies to negating Maharaji’s work? Yes, it is true. For a few years, a handful of disgruntled former students have hidden behind the Internet's cloak of anonymity to disparage Maharaji, his students, and Elan Vital. One of the hate groups' favorite unethical tactics is to create multiple web pages under different domain names containing the same hate speech, unsupported allegations, and hearsay to create the impression that more people support their views than in reality. Another purpose is to try and flood Internet search engines with a skewed amount of negative websites. In fact, the hate group has created at least three different web pages using different domain names, but it has been proven that all three websites are owned and operated by John Brauns, a resident of rural Latvia , in spite of his denials. Elan Vital filed several regulatory complaints with Internet authorities regarding Brauns' misuse of copyrighted text and images, and Brauns responded by signing legal documents in which he had to admit that he was the owner and operator of the three hate speech websites. [ Download PDF ]. Brauns has made no effort to provide journalists or interested parties with any independently verifiable documents or factual support for the allegations appearing on his several web pages. Brauns also operates a chat room where the hate group posts using multiple aliases to create an impression that they have a large membership. However, on any given month, no more than twenty people worldwide post on their site.
	(2)	What is this group trying to accomplish? While speculation about their motives is best left to psychologists, former hate group members have admitted in court affadavits that their real motivation is to defame, libel, and harass Maharaji and his students . (See affidavit by John Macgregor and affidavit by Tom Gubler ). Although some may attempt to present their vindictiveness as a noble cause, many of their activities have leapt from mere criticism into outright illegal acts.
	(3)	Who are the people who form this hate group? Over the years, millions of people have sought Maharaji's inspiration and guidance. Some people found it was not for them and moved on. Sadly, not all people are able to take responsibility for their own life choices. These detractors did not. Remarkably, most of them turned their backs on Maharaji in the late 1970's/early 1980's but are still obsessed with him almost 30 years later.
	(4)	Is it true that this small group has manipulated some media? Yes, members of the group have actively sought, and in some cases found, reporters who have been misled by the startling statements and seemingly sensational information offered by these detractors. Some reporters have even been duped into publishing false and defamatory statements provided by detractors when the reporters failed to investigate the facts. Often the detractors use fictitious names in contacting the media, even falsely claiming to be representatives of Elan Vital. They have fed misinformation to newspapers and sent multiple letters to editors using fictitious names.
	(5)	Are the people in this hate group credible? Although their attacks against Maharaji, his students, and the organizations that promote his message are fanatical, outwardly these people appear quite ordinary. Some are professionals, leading normal lives during the day and posting on the hate forums or engaging in illegal acts at night. This pattern of concealment contributes to their ability to dupe others, including the occasional media person. Only a few give their actual names when they post to their website, most maintaining various anonymous personae. The lies, misinformation, and gross exaggerations stated by them provide the sensationalism that attracts a certain percentage of the population and of the media.
	(6)	Is it true that this group has committed criminal acts against the organizations and Maharaji's supporters? Sadly, yes. Maharaji's students have been the victims of persecution by this small hate group. Using the anonymity of the Internet, they have have concocted and implemented various plans and threats, including but not limited to: • Inciting people via the Internet to drug and kidnap members of Maharaji's family; • Publishing on the Internet the floor plans of the house where Maharaji, his wife, and children reside, and encouraging harassing phone calls by publishing his personal telephone number; • Delivering death threats to Maharaji and attempting to physically assault him; • Inciting people to poison the water at a Conference Center during a conference with Maharaji; • Mounting telephone-call and letter-writing campaigns to employers of students of Maharaji, claiming they employ "a member of a dangerous cult," causing several people to lose their jobs; • Filing formal complaints to professional regulatory bodies to have the law and psychology licenses of some of Maharaji's students revoked. Fortunately, no regulatory body found any allegations worthy of formal investigation; • Calling the editors of newspapers that publish fair articles about Maharaji (at times up to 40 calls a day), intimidating them into recanting their articles; • Contacting venues where Elan Vital holds public meetings and flooding them with defamatory statements and threats of demonstrations in an effort to get them to cancel events; • Contacting entities with which Elan Vital does business and flooding them with communications in an attempt to get contracted business cancelled; • Trying to break into the internal email system of Elan Vital; • Using stolen, misappropriated access codes to enter Elan Vital telephone conferences; • Publishing private information on the Internet about Maharaji’s students and registering these documents with Internet search engines so that people searching these people's names would immediately read this private information; • Systematically posting copyrighted documents on their website, in violation of applicable copyright laws.
	(7)	Why do people become part of a hate group? Sociologists and mental health experts have speculated about the reasons for Internet-based hate. Understanding the motives that lead to obsessive hate-mongering is difficult. Historically, most voices for peace have been targets of violent reactions. Gandhi and Rev. Martin Luther King were assassinated. Even Mother Teresa was attacked by a British journalist as a "self-serving egotist" engaged in money laundering. And while Elan Vital supports free speech and welcomes constructive criticism, when people employ any means, including unethical and unlawful activities to achieve hateful ends, it suggests a degree of anti-social behavior that goes well beyond the acceptable boundaries of protected speech. A number of these opponents, who have posted thousands of pages of criticism about Maharaji on the Internet, exhibit behavior that psychologists diagnose as obsessive/compulsive. See Time To Log Off: New Diagnostic Criteria For Problematic Internet Use, Dawn Heron, MD, University of Florida, Gainesville, published in Current Psychology, April 2003 (identifying incessant posting in chat rooms as emotional disorder). See also a sociological study of self-described "anti-cult" crusaders abusing the Internet.
	(8)	Who is John Macgregor, and what is his involvement? John Macgregor is a freelance journalist and former student of Maharaji. He became a member of this hate group and then left them after finding out the true nature of their activities. In 2005, Macgregor came to realize that his actions were improper and admitted that his involvement with the hate group was due to emotional and personal difficulties. Macgregor publicly apologized to Prem Rawat, to Elan Vital, and to the students, and admitted in legal documents that the hate group's goals are not intelligent or rational debates, but intended to harass and interfere with the public's legal rights to explore Knowledge and self-discovery. [Download PDF of the affidavit by John Macgregor filed with the Supreme Court of Queensland, Australia.] In 2002, he had filed complaints against Elan Vital Australia with many tax authorities around the world and then encouraged legitimate reporters to write about the "tax fraud investigations" without disclosing that he had instigated the story and the investigations himself. After a court action in which it was shown that there was no wrongdoing on the part of Elan Vital, the court found Macgregor guilty of theft of computer records and of contempt of court. All of Macgregor's allegations of tax fraud were false. The court explicitly rejected Macgregor's claim that he broke the law on the public's behalf. As a result, the court found that as a matter of law, John Macgregor had knowingly, improperly, and without justification helped steal and distribute documents of a private nature. The court ordered that the stolen documents not be further distributed, and that Macgregor pay Elan Vital's legal costs. [Download PDFs of the transcript of that hearing and ruling ]. Click here for a PDF of the press release following the court case.
		back