Don Johnson and John Patterson podcast
Posted by: prembio
Post title: Don Johnson and John Patterson podcast
Date: 08/30/2026, 19:23:02
Original URL: Click here (However, the link may be stale.)


Yesterday I posted a speech of Rawat's from 1991 in which Rawat basically repeated one of the central dogmas which he has used throughout his career though the words have been different: You cannot become happy by 'manipulating' your physical circumstances. Difficulties and problems are transient but always exist. The only true happiness comes from the 'heart' which can only be accessed through Maharaji's 'Knowledge.' 

That afternoon I watched the Don Johnson and John Patterson podcast on youtube: External link: www.youtube.com

John Patterson and I have lived very different lives but many of the things he said are things I say and think.

John: I'm just I'm a happy camper. I mean, I'm very thankful for my life and my experiences. I've been very, I've been taken care of. Yeah.

I paraphrase a famous line someone wrote: I have often been saved by the kindness of strangers though in my case it was friends, family and acquaintances as well as strangers.

John: Well, it became quite clear to me that I'd been fooled. And it didn't take me long to walk away. I didn't go through a huge struggle. I didn't have to go to multiple psychologists or psychiatrists to talk it out. I just said, well, you were sincere. You wanted to improve your life. We're only on this earth quite possibly once. And I wanted to, I wanted a beautiful, beautiful experience. So, it didn't, I just walked away and left the baggage at the border. And whoever has gone through that stuff can have it. But I didn't want to spend too much time moaning and groaning and going, well, woe is me. I just got on with my life. You know, I go out and ride every morning here in the highlands of Panama. And it's so beautiful. You can't conceive of it. I ride for an hour every morning on my bike. And I just give thanks for being alive too, for all the experiences that I've had, the good, the bad. I'm just happy that it didn't wipe me out psychologically, and I didn't go into decline. I'm very thankful for that. And I'm, I'm looking forward to each day. And I, obviously, we probably all learned some important things.

"I just give thanks for being alive" which sounds a lot like "every morning I awake and I'm so grateful to be alive" which is what I say and I said it well before Prem Rawat picked it up as a tool of mind control. I'm grateful, John gives thanks and we're out and about doing the things that make our lives joyful. I don't think John meant he learned important things through meditation, I know I didn't. I think coping with the difficulties that "practicing Knowledge" created in our lives was the learning experience.

In retrospect my involvement with Rawatism would have been over by 1980 if wasn't for friends and family and long forgotten. Instead I remained close to DLM/Elan Vital activities another 25 years as an disinterested observer until I became disgusted that the very people who had once openly worshipped Guru Maharaj Ji and secretly continued to carry on in the same manner to Maharaji now publicly claimed that wasn't true or at least pretended like it had never happened and wasn't happening.

Re: Don Johnson and John Patterson podcast
Posted by: lakeshore
Post title: Re: Don Johnson and John Patterson podcast
Date: 08/31/2026, 11:45:55
Original URL: Click here (However, the link may be stale.)
I began a reply to Prembio's post. Then I thought I should probably watch the podcast so I'd know more about what I was talking about. This is how far I got before listening to the podcast:

With all due respect to John, something about his words irked me, mildly of course, because it wasn't like that for me and so many others. Everyone's background, circumstances, vulnerabilities and susceptibilities, etc., are different. As Don said, "some of us walked away easily and for some of us it was much more difficult." As for myself:

• It didn't become "quite clear" to me for nearly thirty-six years that I'd been fooled; it took decades before I walked away.
• I was indoctrinationally barred from just walking away.
• I went through a huge struggle.
• Even if I didn't have the beautiful experience - or even the peace - I was looking for, Prem Rawat convinced me it was my fault and I either needed to make more effort, let go, surrender or just wait for the muck to settle or the sun to come out or some such thing.
• I was forbidden from taking any free time to go out in the morning - or any time of day for that matter - and ride a bicycle.
• If "whoever has gone through that stuff can have it" had anything to do with the kind of stuff I went through, then I certainly wouldn't want them to have any of it.

Then I watched the podcast and, again, with all due respect to John, I found his commentary... I don't know how to say this... dispassionately distanced, lacking in expressed empathy... devoid of explicitly holding Prem Rawat responsible or accountable for destroying so many lives, including the lives of his own brother and sister (who ended up homeless and sleeping behind garbage cans and even in snow).

To the contrary, he came across as spared... elevated even by his own good fortune and being thankful, free, clear and happy in part because he never struggled with any of it. Good for him. His memories of the cult seemed to revolve around the initial exhilaration, high ideals, positivity, excitement and hopefulness... bags of cash and all. As if, unlike so many others, he came out unscathed. More knowledgeable for the lessons learned. To me, however, it almost seemed like a block or avoidance of facing it squarely and digging into it.

Then, for me, it all fit when it took an almost triggering turn. In the context of all the trauma inflicted by religions and other such cults, etc.:

John: I just want to say to all the people in the world that have been trampled by their religion and have experienced some terrible, terrible things. I mean from priests molesting kids. I just hope that someday you can just walk away and say, you now, that didn't have anything to do with me. That was just a crazy thing and just go on with your life. But for so many, they're traumatized forever.

Don (to is credit... repeatedly throughout): ...there's a lot of trauma in all that. I mean, from the people I've spoken to, victims, the trauma goes deep, deep, deep. It really, really does. I think it's impossible for any of us who have never been molested to understand what that does to a human being. You know, it's just inconceivable.

John: (almost interrupting) You know, I just and yeah, and I yeah, you know, what I mean? You just say you just need to walk away because it's beyond deadly.

I suppose that by adding those last three words after Don spelled it out, that at least he gets it. But saying the victim didn't have anything to do with it... when the victim was raped or molested!... really misses the mark: the victim was raped or molested for bleep sake! He or she didn't have anything to do with perpetrating the crime, but they were certainly doing (fighting, resisting and being traumatized) while they were being done to. It's like a ray or an atom or a quark on a trajectory towards one end of the universe suddenly being altered or diverted up to 180 degrees. It will never return to it's original trajectory.

Can't you just let it go? Can't you just walk away? Move on?

In a cult for decades being deceived, exploited and mentally, emotionally and intellectually stunted? Deprived of the unfettered freedom (thoughts, creativity, curiosity, talents, etc.) your peers enjoyed throughout their lives? Soul rape as some on this forum have described it?

Can't you just let it go? Can't you just walk away? Move on?

C'mon John. Dig a little. Try to feel what your brother and sister must've felt.

I sincerely apologize if my impressions mischaracterized or misrepresented John's take on any of this, but sheesh, if so, please try to interject a bit more articulation to avoid such misimpressions in the future.

To his credit, I thought Don did his best as a host to steer it in that direction and keep the conversation in the context of Prem's destructive role.
__________________________

Sadly, Don also mentioned that Arthur Brigham passed away recently.

Thanks Lakeshore
Posted by: 13
Post title: Thanks Lakeshore
Date: 08/31/2026, 13:11:53
Original URL: Click here (However, the link may be stale.)
for watching this for a start. I think I've lost the knack of watching, given up being an audience. Mid-afternoon, I came to the end of a long list of jobs, weeks of work. So I had time, but realised I didn't have the inclination. There's a TV in this room, but it isn't even plugged in. Dunno when it last was. So, I stared at the walls a bit. I might be done watching.

Your indignation at the dismissal of the cult experience as something to just walk away from, imply no harm was necessarily done - and maybe you gained some knowledge - is clear and justified.

You've spelled out over and over your decades in the ashram, and the mental constraints you lived under. Most of us are too familiar with the constraints to ask you why you didn't just walk away much earlier. We know why.

And I'm sorry. You present your experience almost always with some humour and self-deprecation so it's easy to forget or dismiss how painful the loss of those years of freedom must be. Yeah, good jokes Lakeshore, with your barmy escapades and pretzel efforts to find a way to live within the madness of Rawat's rules. You came out with your humour intact after all, and I don't know how you might have coped without that. We're all grateful for that.

I realise that, through no fault or effort of my own, I got off lightly after all. A few years of intense efforts (including two rejections after applying to join the ashram), and then I was all at sea literally, and pretty much out of it barring the belated reflection and deconstruction.

So many suffered so much more. Hans of course. Seems like most of the people that ever worked closely with Rawat. The people with years spent in ashrams. People who handed over inheritances, gave up careers, relationships, and in one case at least that we know of, a baby.

And gave it all up for what? No spiritual wisdom, no enlightenment, no deeper meaning of life. No, nothing at all. It was entirely a scam. A fraud, from beginning to, well, it still goes on.

I'd like to look on the bright side, and generally I do, but I think I'd be foolish to forget what depravity some people are capable of, and how easily people are ensnared and how they can become deluded. How easily they can be tricked into limiting their own thoughts. Never leave room for doubt in your mind. What a powerful and toxic little trope that was to plant in our naive minds.

So yes, sorry you have such good reason for your righteous indignation. There's nothing we can do to turn back time, undo things. We can just acknowledge the damage and suffering. That's the least we can do anyway.