In my �Journey' entry I wrote that Maharaji seemed just as much a victim of cult programming as anybody else. A few people have since expressed the view that Maharaji is a conman, who's aware that he's only too human, and is tricking everyone to get rich.

Strange as it may sound, having been involved with Maharaji for over 25 years, I'd never seriously considered that he might be a simple conman, so, from my fresh perspective as an ex-premie, I remembered back to the days when I went to his house and spent time with him.

Maharaji's houses are called �Residences'. There are several �Residences' around the world. Each has a small staff, who use local premies to maintain everything with spotless devotion.

Just as in the house of any rich person with private staff and servants, there are areas in the Residence you may go, and areas you may not. Everyone is aware of their duties, and what the limits of those duties are. There is a feeling of being in a special place, because the Living Master is walking around, and you are serving him.

As soon as the helicopter lands or the fleet of cars arrive, the atmosphere at the Residence changes. When you hear Maharaji's voice, the atmosphere goes up another gear, if he comes into the room it changes again. Everything stops and he is the focus of attention. If he speaks to you, what greater thing can there be? You are immediately blessed with a gift you will carry safely home in your heart, and maybe sprinkle a bit of the secondary fallout to your premie friends in the form of a �darshan story'.

Maharaji is the focus of what everyone is doing. �Blissed Out' visitors wander in and out and the place buzzes. There are big flash cars in the driveway, cooks in the kitchen and security on patrol .

All the premies at the Residence treat Maharaji as �the Master', from morning to night. As far as I know, he doesn't have a life outside of being �the Master'. He takes his role very seriously, and sees it as fulfilling his late father's wishes.

When he goes away on holiday, or shopping he travels with premies. I don't think he likes to have non-premies around him.

The culture at the residence is a more concentrated version of that in the �premie community'. The name of the game is worshiping, loving, and serving the Master, as he is �the outer manifestation of the inner experience'. Any other behavior, or perspective is regarded as �confusion'.

If he's conning everyone, he's doing it 24 hours a day, and so convincingly that his own brother and wife are being conned too.

It seems more feasible that he is also part of the delusion, and genuinely believes himself to be the �Living Perfect Master'. His personal website shows that he sees himself in this way, as part of the �Perfect Master lineage'.

Looking at Maharaji from a psychological perspective may give some clues to where he's at. So, with my vast experience, based on reading the press quotes on the back of a of pyschology paperback I rolled a joint on once, here's my theory.

He was indoctrinated into 'Perfect Master land' from birth. This conditioning has been reinforced throughout his life. His ego has been force fed under halogen lamps since he was eight. Thousands of people fly around the world to give him money and line up and kiss his feet. People publish magazines and make videos to tell the world how wonderful he is. Insipid, sterile Websites mumbling his support, are sprouting like mushrooms on a dead donkey. He always gets his own way. If he gets depressed or angry, it's always, somebody else's fault. And anyway, all he's doing is spreading peace throughout the world. He probably thinks he's doing us all a big favour by being there for to worship and shower with expensive cars.

In Maharaji's private world, he doesn't need to con anyone. It all works better if he believes it too.

What, dear reader, do you think?

Anth.