Happened to me too Barry, as you know. Fascinating also to see the various monuments to Elron around the world, as well as the him posing for an artist bust in clay.
Monumental (literally) ego of the leader leads to monuments made to said leader: check Large real estate holdings become critically important as cult membership dwindles: check We, and we alone, are the only salvation for planet Earth: check If planet Earth is not saved, it's YOUR fault: check Those who don't believe as we do are categorized as Wogs or non-meditators: check Those who express doubts or question the fundamentals are excommunicated: check I could go of course, but the point is that this can happen to anyone. It happens slowly, over time. Imagine if in TM we were told in our intro lecture that those who want to delve deeper into the practice will learn to "fly', walk through walls, etc. Imagine if in TM we were told in our intro lecture that our mantras literally are the seed form names of vedic gods and that when completed (advanced techniques) we would literally be saying: Most glorious Saraswati, I Bow Down To You Again and Again. (Saraswati used here as an example.) Nope, we learned how to soft sell it in the intro lecture, knowing full well that we are lying through our teeth. Those who bring new recruits into $cientology learn to do the same.
