User:Andries/Prem Rawat

Scholarly opinions and criticism
(tag removed) mergefrom|criticism of Prem Rawat|date=January 2007}}

Many scholars and authors that have written about Prem Rawat and related organizations. They include: David V. Barrett,  George D. Chryssides,  Lucy DuPertuis, Eugene M. Elliot III, Erwin Fahlbusch, Sandra S. Frankiel, Rosemary Goring, Wim Haan, Jeffrey K. Hadden, Andrew Kopkind, Stephen A. Kent,  Ralph Larkin,  Raymond Lee, Saul V. Levine, James Lewis, Charles H. Lippy, John Bassett McCleary, Dennis Marcellino,  Tim Miller,   J. Gordon Melton, Ruth Prince and David Riches, Paul Schnabel, Robert P. Sutton Jan van der Lans and Bryan R. Wilson. The Canadian sociologist Stephen A. Kent described Rawat’s message as “banal” in the preface of his book based on his personal experience with Prem Rawat and treats the criticism by the countercultural left on him in the 1970s. materialistic, spoilt, and intellectually unremarkable and Rawat discouraging critical thinking was claimed in a 1982 Ph.D. thesis about new religious movements and mental health by the sociologist Paul Schnabel; Rawat having become a charlatan, leading privately a life of idleness and pleasures hidden from the average followers by the professor of psychology of religion Jan van der Lans in a 1981 book about followers of gurus written upon request for a Dutch Catholic institute; and concern about financial exploitation of followers by the psychiatrist Saul V. Levine. The author Barret wrote that the Divine Light Mission used to be criticized for the devotion given to Maharaji, who was though to live a life of luxury on the donations of his followers” and that the movement was sometimes criticized movement for “stressing of emotional experience over intellect. “

J. Gordon Melton describes that in the mid-1970s several ex-members became vocal critics. Some of the criticism leveled at Rawat derives from key personnel who, after they parted ways with Rawat in the 1970s and 1980s, began making allegations against him about purported anxiety. These key personnel included Robert Mishler (who died in the late 1970s). Mishler, ex-president of the DLM, said in a Denver radio interview in February 1979 (a few years after leaving the mission) that Rawat "had tremendous problems of anxiety which he combatted with alcohol." According to Melton in a 1986 article, Mishler's complaints that the ideals of the group had become impossible to fulfill and that money was increasingly diverted to Maharaji's personal use found little support and did not affect the progress of the Mission. Another scholar, James Lewis, notes a number of ex-members made claims of brainwashing and mind control. In an FAQ article about opposition to Maharaji and his message, Elan Vital claims that there are a handful of former students that actively engage in opposing Rawat, his students and organizations, and lists a series of complaints against them. '