Tim Freke

Tim Freke seems to be a decent, well-meaning person who believes he had a "spontaneous awakening" when he was 12 years old and has been "exploring spirituality" since then and has made a career out of it. If you're living in the New Age, then Tim is "a pioneering philosopher whose best-selling books, inspirational talks and life-changing events have touched the hearts and minds of hundreds of thousands of people worldwide" otherwise not so much. In 2021 he was invited to film a talk with Prem Rawat, an unusual choice compared to the New Age intellectuals with whom Freke usually dialogued.

Born in 1959 he was a little young to join Guru Maharaj Ji's World-Peace-For-All bandwagon in the early 1970s. He became "involved with him (ie Guru Maharaj Ji aka Prem Rawat) as a young person" in the "late 70s - then a pause - and mid 80's."

Thus far Freke was like tens of thousands of young Westerners who became involved in Divine Light Mission activities and presumably were initiated into Guru Maharaji's secret meditation techniques and at least considered him well worth listening to if not worshipping Him as the Incarnation of God and Lord of the Universe. There was a hiatus in Freke's involvement when "he went off to make music". He became involved again in the mid-1980s which means he knew of Prem Rawat's new cognomen, the simple and tasteful 'Maharaji' and some discreditable features of Rawat's career such as demanding all media and material relating to his 1970s career be destroyed and that all ashrams were to be summarily closed and the dedicated and devoted ashramees be thrown out into the street, metaphorically, sharing the cost of any debts the ashram, as an official part of Divine Light Mission, had incurred.

Freke seems to be a pretty enthusiastic guy and so back in the 1970s Divine Light Mission he "introduced a lot of people including my parents … but that all turned out fine" except that his first wife "left me to follow prem after i had broken off from him." The story of the parents is typical, very few older people were gullible enough to join the Guru Maharaj Ji Crusade. Tim has now been very happily married for 27 years (2024) so even his wife leaving him to keep following Prem Rawat turned out well. Tim's final disillusionment came due to poetry: "the moment i knew i would leave him many years ago was in a gig in london where he recited his poetry … and it was so bad … which clearly meant he could be 'the lord' or whatever the current claim was … but also meant there was no-one around him to say 'Maharaji drop the poetry - stick with the talking'" In the 1980s Rawat's speeches had not yet reached their 2024 stage of mist and fog devoid of meaning, they were even worse. He had decided he was a well-read, extremely interesting raconteur who could pass on gems of wisdom and inspire with his brilliant poetry:

Through what he thought of a series of coincidences Freke received the possibility of speaking to Rawat. He accepted and sensibly decided not to inform Rawat's minions of his past involvement in Divine Light Mission. There's little doubt that Rawat would never actually film and speak with someone who knew of his past and had reason to ask difficult questions. Freke informed the minions after the dialogue was finished and filmed. Freke had read the story of Rawat's childhood "awakening" under the magnolia trees published in Hear Yourself and surprisingly did not realise it was bogus but then it had been at least 30 years since he'd given Rawat a thought.

What Did Tim Freke Think About Prem Rawat After their "Discussion"?

• I didn't set out to attack or endorse him only to see who he is and how he thinks … for me it was a sort of 'mythic' moment … a circle on my journey because of my distant past
• I don't feel that he had some greater experience at all
• I wanted to hear what had actually happened for him because the book didn't give that … as I remember it the book gave a new spin on the old story … to make it fit the new PR
• I wanted to hear him be authentic about his actual experience so we could engage in a real way not just with well rehearsed scripts … and that happened a little I think but nowhere near what I would have liked
• I feel he failed to acknowledge and be honest about his past
• I found his ideas surprisingly strange
• the most interesting thing was after our conversation his entourage (who were all lovely) were so enthusiastic because they said : "no one ever questions him and it brought out stuff they'd not heard in all the decades with him." I took from this the reason he was intellectually incoherent was that he didnt have people around him to question him and sharpen him up
• I am no longer angry, but I completely understand ex-premies who are