Editing Techniques of Knowledge (section)

==Descriptions==
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According to the Dutch religious scholar and Christian minister [[Reender Kranenborg]] and the American religious scholar [[J. Gordon Melton]], these techniques are secret and were originally called "Light", "Sound", "Name" or "Word" and "Nectar" but Prem Rawat now refers to them as the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th techniques.<ref name="Kran">[[Reender Kranenborg|Kranenborg, Reender]] Dr. (1982) ''Oosterse Geloofsbewegingen in het Westen/Eastern faith movements in the West'' (Dutch language) {{ISBN|90-210-4965-1}}</ref><ref>Frankiel, Sandra S. in Lippy, Charles H. and Williams. Peter W. (Eds.) ''Encyclopedia of the American Religious Experience'' p.1521, Charles Scribner's Sons (1988), {{ISBN|0-684-18863-5}} (Vol III)</ref><ref name="Melton">Melton, Gordon J., Encyclopedic Handbook of Cults in America (1992) pp. 143-4, Garland Publishing, {{ISBN|0-8153-1140-0}}</ref> Prem Rawat asks practitioners to promise "not to reveal these techniques to anyone", but says to "let other people go through their own journey... [so] they, too, can have the techniques when they are ready."<ref name=promises>{{cite web | url = https://thekeys.maharaji.net/keys/threepromises.php | title = Three promises | accessdate = 9 September 2006 | author = The Keys website | publisher = The Prem Rawat Foundation | url-status = dead | archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20070115203415/http://thekeys.maharaji.net/keys/threepromises.php | archivedate = 15 January 2007 }}</ref>

Kranenborg and Melton provide differing details of them in their writings but agree on a general description of the practices, referring for some of those, to tantric practices or sabda-brahman meditation.<ref name="Kran"/><ref name="Melton"/> Another description including the details of the four techniques of knowledge is provided by [[Daniel Kriegman|Dr. Daniel Kriegman]] who describes the process for receiving Knowledge utilized by the Divine Light Mission in the early 1970s.<ref>Appendix A to Dr. Kriegman's doctoral thesis describes [https://ozacua.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/premie_recruitment.pdf the process for receiving Knowledge] driven by Mahatmas from Divine Light Mission.</ref> Michael Drury, describes these techniques as helping the practitioner to develop "a deep and spiritual self-knowledge."<ref name=Drury>Drury, Michael, The Dictionary of the Esoteric: 3000 Entries on the Mystical and Occult Traditions, pp.75-6, (2002), Sterling Publishing Company, {{ISBN|1-84293-108-3}}</ref>