Projection - Reality - Delusion
"Yes I guess that people did put like God on him, you know and that he he would know everything so not only did he, was he whatever we would imagine a realized soil soul an enlightened soul that somehow meant he would know everything."
His followers were taught he was God and he publicly proclaimed he was revealing the direct experience and Knowledge of God in exactly the same way as Jesus, Buddha and Krishna before him but it was ridiculous to believe he knew everything. Anyone who heard him speak immediately learnt that he didn't even know English very well.
"And so we projected those ideas onto him and that that was a problem, aah it made it difficult to see him as he was and to really see Knowledge as it was and I think that has been one of his greatest challenges is to preserve the real recognition that people were having in their hearts for both him and as they experienced it for Knowledge." - Timothy Gallwey
Many false ideas were projected by Rawat, the ideas he was proclaiming: that he could reveal God through the secret meditation techniques, that he could bring World peace, that he was a realized soul, that he deserved to live a life of luxury but that he was completely detached from materialism, that everyone should surrender to him because he was the Perfect Master, etc.
"I'm I'm as guilty as anybody. I, I, I probably endowed him lots of uh extra-terrestrial powers that he didn't have. But he must, he had the power to win my heart and if somebody could do that, for me, that's more powerful than, than, I can't explain but it's more powerful than, than, I can find words for."
No problem, George, I can find the words. You, like millions of people, are worshipping a cult leader. It's no big deal, there are hundreds, if not, thousands of them and they win peoples' hearts with very little effort and no requirement whatsoever to be authentic.