Neither the Fabe sisters nor the Cincinnati Enquirer gave any evidence for their theory that Divine Light Mission members used sophisticated methods of Mind Control. They used the time-tested methods of persuasion and influence: repetition, zealotry, empathy, sincerity, excitement, mass hysteria, promises too good to be true, face to face contact, insistence on the doubt being caused by the evil Mind. Methods the Enquirer concedes are "as central to indoctrination in DLM as it is in any religion." The article says: "Barbara and Linda are typical of the bright, strong-willed, affluent, white undergraduates drawn to unconventional religions in the last decade (my bold). Successful cult recruitment did not outlast the 1970s.
The Cincinnati Enquirer (Cincinnati, Ohio) * Mon, Feb 5, 1979 * Page 23
Cults Sophisticated In The Use Of Mind Control
By Ben L. Kaufmann
Enquirer Reporter
Barbara Fabe would have killed for her guru.
Sect Laments Bad 'Press'
Cincinnati's Divine Light Mission (DLM) involves possibly 50 followers of the young Indian Guru, Maharaj Ji, according to a young member of longstanding.
The young man said, DLM depends on word-of-mouth to draw members and has no "official recruiting."
Typically, new members are friends or relatives recruited by premies, as Guru Maharaj Ji's followers are known. They often are invited to Friday evening introductory discussions at a private home.
In recent months, the Cincinnati premies have included two sisters and a brother-and-sister team.
"We try to share, We try to explain."
Insisting on anonymity, he acknowledges that premies have developed an aversion to talking with reporters. It is based, in part, on "bad press" Guru Maharaji has had since he arrived as a 14-year-old guru in the early 1970s, and in the tales told by former premies.
Even James Sivitz, the local co-ordinator, is not free to be interviewed, the young man added. Sivitz and his sister, Susan, are members of the Cincinnati DLM community, he confirmed.
The young man's name and telephone number, and the Sivitz's names, came from a former member of the Cincinnati Group.
"I followed Guru Maharaj Ji even before he came to this country," the young man said, recalling his wide reading about religion.
His family, all Catholics, were unhappy with his allegiance to Guru Maharaj Ji: loving and following a live teacher inspires suspicion. There "always is an element of fear when something is new."
The young man said Guru Maharaj Ji's spiritual influence affects each individual differently. "It's nothing material, it's nothing physical," he said. "You can't put it in words … It goes beyond him.
"It's not just the guy who lives out in Malibu." Guru Maharaj Ji lives on a palatial, walled esstate in Malibu, Calif.
Guru Maharaji elevates an individual's desire to know the truth, to know God, he said, and such self realization leads to a happier, more content life.
It's not easy to explain, given DLM's oral tradition and the differences between Guru Maharaj Ji's teachings and traditional Western religious belief and practice.
For the young man on the telephone, Guru Maharaj Ji provided the "missing piece" in his life, the "love that I never felt."
The young man at DLM agreed, saying the active membership could be 15,000 nationally.
If anything distinguished the Queen City group, it was the high proportion of blacks, she said. Many came to Cincinnati's DLM from other communities.
That has changed, the young man said, as the membership has shifted. At one time, so many young Jews belonged that premise joked about it.
Today, the main DLM commune is 820 Delta Ave., Mt. Lookout, where Linda and her sister, Barbara, 24, lived. It is called a re-ashram, Linda said.
An ashram is a residential community of premies. Unmarried premies in an ashram or pre-ashram are expected to be celibate.
When DLM began in Cincinnati, soon after Guru Maharaj Ji arrived in the United States in 1972, there was an ashram in Hyde Park.N
Apparently, from what Linda and Barbara have heard, the Cincinnati ashram was loosely run. The commune no longer is granted full ashram status by DLM's national and international headquarters in Denver.
There also is a premie house in East Walnut Hills, still owned by Barbara Fabe. Her parents bought her the house, hoping the challenge of rehabilitating the home would snap her out of her worship of Guru Maharaj Ji.