Some thoughts by a former devotee of Guru Maharaji/Elan Vital/Prem Rawat.
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By then I had gotten into the habit of not questioning too deeply what he said (who would I ask anyway, HIM?). If he said something helpful, fine. If he didn't I ignored it. Looking back, I see his messages were often mixed, and contradictory. Intellectually, I found him kind of embarassing at times; yet I cut him slack in a way I would not have done for anyone else.
I hate the word "brainwashing", because it sounds like something that someone does to you without your consent.
Premies are more like, "conditioned"; we were conditioned to not question him much, to overlook his illogic or greed or character faults. No one forced us, we just went along with it, because we wanted to feel love, and if being judgmental got in the way of that, then we convinced ourselves that it was not important.
We made excuses, and learned not to question too much. We COOPERATED. We went along with it.
And in return, many of us got something out of it, too. But we payed a price.
I'm just glad I didn't put all my eggs in one basket. I did have other things to fall back on when I left. But I can think of many premies for whom that is not true. They gave him everything. Destroy that faith they have invested in him, and what do they have?