Michael Dettmers, Former Personal Assistant to Prem Rawat Internet Revelations

Sun, Dec 17, 2000 at 23:42:46 (GMT)
From: Michael Dettmers
Email: dettmers@gylanix.com
To: Everyone
Subject: My response to Joe and others
Message:

Joe asked if the stories about Maharaji being homophobic as reflected in his offensive jokes about gay people were true.

Maharaji often made, and loved to hear, offensive jokes about anything including gay people. It was generally known that certain members of the residence staff as well as some of the mahatmas were gay. The Hindi term he used for a gay person was "gandu" (spelling?) and he sometimes made these people the butt of his gandu jokes. I certainly have the impression that Maharaji is homophobic. However, at that time, no one in Maharaji's inner circle nor most of the people with whom he came in regular contact were engaged in healthy and meaningful sexual relationships of any kind (at least ones that were publicly acknowledged). Thus, the overall environment was sexually dysfunctional which added impetuous and sting to the constant barrage of hurtful and offensive jokes.

Joe and several others have asked if the widespread belief that Maharaji has had numerous affairs with premies over the years is true.

Beginning in 1985, Maharaji began a series of affairs with women who were premies. His move in this direction was prompted by his marriage difficulties in 1984. Although he and Marolyn came to some understanding and resolution over their problems, I do not know if part of that resolution included an agreement that he would be free to engage in extramarital affairs. I know that, from Maharaji's perspective, Marolyn was certainly not free to engage in extramarital affairs.

At that time, Maharaji and I were particularly close and he told me of his desire to experience other women. I was not shocked by his desire nor did I have a negative assessment about it. In fact, I thought that it might put him more in touch with his humanity which could only be a positive development as far as I was concerned. However, I strongly advised him not to get involved with premies. To me, this could potentially bring trouble for him and create difficulties for the women as well. Instead, I suggested that he engage the services of a professional escort, and I offered to make the arrangements for him. At first he seemed open to the idea but soon thereafter he decided against it.

He told me that there was a particular premie woman he had in mind, and he asked me to arrange that they meet, which I did. Soon, thereafter, he asked me to arrange a meeting with another woman. In the meantime, the first person was left high and dry wondering what was going on. He cut off communication with her and her only recourse was to contact me. I now found myself in the unpleasant circumstance of dealing with situations he created by his lust and careless disregard for the hurt and confusion it inflicted on his victims. After three such incidents, I told him that his reckless behavior was backfiring, and that I did not have the time to take care of the negative consequences it produced. He responded by agreeing that I had more important things to handle for him than procuring women and that he would now take care of that task himself, meaning that he simply delegated the task to someone who was more amenable to it. He continued to have numerous affairs of which I am aware and it was not too long thereafter that he began a more serious affair with Monica Lewis that, according to my sources, continues to this day.

Mon, Dec 18, 2000 at 00:57:13 (GMT)
From: Michael Dettmers
Email: dettmers@gylanix.com
To: Everyone
Subject: My response to Joe and others
Message:

Joe,

I don't know of any law suits or settlement agreements but, then again, I haven't been around for a long time.

The evidence suggests that he prefers blondes.

Michael