A few friends of mine have recently gotten into a multi-level marketing scheme (Quixtar, the new face of Amway), and managed to drag me to a seminar in Los Angeles last Saturday.  Although the topic was money making and success, it bore striking resemblance to satsang (quite obviously, because it is a corporate cult).  More about what was similar about it later, but first and foremost, their use of audio and visual.

Like in videotapes and broadcasts of satsang, the same genre of music (soft techno with a few stray piano notes in it) was played before each charismatic speaker took the podium, and they were always ushered up on stage in the same manner (clapping, then clapping to the beat of the techno) with the same music each time.  Repetition was the name of the game, and regardless of how many times the same speaker came up, the same music played, and he was given the same standing ovation each time.  Like in satsang, everybody was seemingly in high spirits. 

Knowing these and other similarities to satsang, I continued to have suspicions and convictions as, praise God, I had in previous experiences with Maharaji; continuing inner questions and desires to discredit the one speaking; to puncture the smooth, dazzling surface of the spoken words and smiling face and have the hidden world of what happens underneath it come pouring out of the wound too quickly for the speaker to stop at least some from being noticed.

One question I had was, "why is it necessary to play that same music over and over again?"

My answer came when I compared it to Visions International broadcasts of Prem Rawat.  The only difference was that V.I. displayed pastel-colored shapes (blue squares nowadays) floating about the title of the excerpt, along with that same bewildering music.  I used to think it was relaxing; that is, until I realized that it was meant to make people relaxed.

The glowing, floating shapes, likewise, would have the same function.  The same five seconds of audio and visual are used before every excerpt; again here repetition is the name of the game.

And it is repetition that can put someone into a state of hypnosis. Visions International still has yet to find a way to put everybody into a state of hypnosis in a mere five seconds of audio and visual, but when it does Maharaji will get quite a few new followers.

If I have time, I will tell you more about the similarities between TPRF and Quixtar.  There are many, and the sheer resemblance is astonishing.