Best of the Forum - NikW - Hold on to your stomachs

Hold on to your stomachs

Posted by:	NikW
Date:	01/11/2005, 01:03:32
Original URL:	Click here (However, the link may be stale.)

Governor of the State of New Mexico Honors Prem Rawat's Achievements

11 January 2005
PR Newswire (U.S.)
Copyright © 2005 PR Newswire Association LLC. All Rights Reserved.

SANTA FE, N.M., Jan. 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Bill Richardson, Governor of the State of New Mexico, has issued a tribute to Prem Rawat, also known as Maharaji, in recognition of his accomplishments.

The Governor's tribute says: "The Governor of the State of New Mexico, having learned of the outstanding achievement and exceptional accomplishments of Maharaji, does hereby extend congratulations and acknowledgement and further does herein direct that this official expression of pride be forthwith sent on behalf of the people of the State of New Mexico."

For Linda Pascotto, President of The Prem Rawat Foundation, "This award concludes another banner year for Maharaji. This recognition from the Governor of the State of New Mexico is a sign of the growing interest which Maharaji's message of peace is receiving all around the world."

More than 1.4M people sought inspiration and guidance from Maharaji in the last 12 months, and more than 53,000 learned his techniques for finding peace within. His message is now made available in more than 88 countries and 70 languages. A few months ago, he was invited by members of the Italian Parliament to present his message of peace, and a few weeks later, he addressed a capacity audience of faculty, guests, and students at Harvard University's Sanders Theatre.

The Brazilian Association of Community Channels recently bestowed its highest award to Words of Peace, the weekly television series featuring highlights from Maharaji's message of peace. The president of this association expressed that the award was given to Words of Peace for the quality of Maharaji's message and for the contribution made by this program to the cause of peace in Brazil.

In addition to helping make Maharaji's message of peace available throughout the world, an important role of The Prem Rawat Foundation, which Maharaji created, is to help improve the quality of life for people most in need.

The Foundation is expanding its capabilities in terms of providing food and medical relief to people most in need and is enjoying steadily growing public support. In the last two weeks alone, more than $120,000 has been donated to the Foundation by people all around the world to aid the tsunami victims in Southeast Asia.

"Enhancing Maharaji's legitimacy"

Posted by:	Will
Date:	01/11/2005, 07:51:21
Original URL:	Click here (However, the link may be stale.)

Nik,

Thanks for this post. (And all your other posts, by the way - you're one of my favorite reads quite often).

In my response to "premie responder" below, I mentioned to him/her that Rawat is on a campaign to appear legitimate to the public. This campaign has been published and outlined on one of Rawat's own websites. It comes from a newsletter called Connect, from October 2004.

Here are the ways that Rawat and his premies have thought up for trying to improve Rawat public image: publish interviews in obscure magazines in which all the questions are rigged, contact mayors and governors and request that they give Rawat an honor of some sort, book Rawat at prestigious buildings and institutions such as U.N. and Harvard and have that prestige rub off on Rawat, do charitable work and brag about it. See link for other brilliant ideas. Scroll down to Richard Cooper.

Related link: http://www.materialsresource.org/Materials/CNA-letter-October-04.pdf
Modified by Will at Tue, Jan 11, 2005, 07:55:31

Boy, got that right

Posted by:	Joe
Date:	01/11/2005, 10:59:46
Original URL:	Click here (However, the link may be stale.)

Yes, Will, here's how it works. (Maybe it's something Richard Cooper works on when he isn't busy being a real estate agent in Miami):

THE PREM RAWAT PR PLAN ON THE CHEAP

1. Get a bunch of meaningless "proclamations" from any politician who will give one, the more uninformed about Rawat the better.

2. Get PR firms to get articles in magazines you cannot purchase and then pretend they happened because the supposedly legitimate magazines heard about, and wanted to "interview" Prem Rawat. Also, pretend it was an actual "interview" and not the reality, which was a canned piece written by the PR firm under the complete editorial control of the cult. (This is probably not all that cheap, BTW)

3. Rent halls in supposedly "prestigious" locations like a building owned by the UN in Thailand, or at Harvard. Then pretend that Rawat actually spoke before distinguised people in either place, was invited by the institutions, or that it was anything other than just a hall rental.

4. I have no idea what went on in connection with the Italian parliament, but you can be sure it is infinitely less than meets the eye.

5. Oh, yeah, take a page out of Scientology and persecute any ex-follower who has the audacity to talk about their "experience" with Prem Rawat and his cult, and avoid, like the Black Death, any legitimate interview or news article about Prem Rawat, and especially his past. Try to shut down the websites of ex-followers with bogus copyright infringement complaints, and set up campaigns to attack former followers who provide inconvenient information on a side of Prem Rawat Richard Cooper and Linda Pascotto do not want you to see.

That about sums it up.