25 Years After the Rajneesh

[texasdiver]

Originally Posted by tijlover

It's a tragedy that Rajneesh delegated all the operations at Rajneeshpuram to a criminal: Sheela. You could say she destroyed the commune. She was prosecuted, spent some time in prison, but she should have been executed. I don't believe Rajneesh (changed to Osho) was behind any of it. He felt that women were overlooked for too many years, and he appointed all these women to run things, with Sheela as the head honcho. Before he found out what she had been up to, and firing her, it was too late!

The movement in OR may have been exterminated, but the followers of Osho continue on, and multiply. People fly from all over the world to the Osho Center in Poona, now the 2nd most visited site in India, next to the Taj Mahal.

I've been a follower of Rajneesh/Osho for years, and back in 1995, I made a special trip up to Antelope to pay homage to him, and what could have been. And I've also been to Poona.

I was a college student in Portland at that time. I drove out there with some friends to check the place out in maybe....summer of 1983? And it was downright creepy. Thugs in red patrolling the streets with automatic weapons. Following you around. We didn't go all the way to Rajneeshpuram, just to Antelope. But still, place gave off a very creepy vibe.

I don't know why you feel compelled to defend the Bagwan. Everyone knew what they were up to. There wasn't any big secret. Trying to rig the election by busing in the thousands of homeless from across the US. And then doing a bio-terror attack by trying to create a salmonela epidemic by infecting restaurants all over the Dalles with salmonela. These were not the actions of one person. As the leader of the place they should have busted him under the RICO statutes and tossed him into jail.

[tijlover]

^^^^

All of that was the work of Sheela! He mistakenly delegated too much authority to her! She was evil! I'm just so glad that people were intelligent enough to oversee the damage she did, and see him as one of the more enlightened Philosophers/gurus of our times. You can see him discoursing on YouTube today.

When he was chased out of the U.S., he flew all around the world where no country would take him, even India where he came from. For awhile, not even India was going to take him back, as he denounced all religions, even the Hindu religion. It was smart of India to finally let him back in, given what a tourist attraction the Osho Center in Poona is today.

A good many of his followers were very wealthy, they had money. Even buying him a new Rolls Royce was chump change to these people and it was there way of showing love for him. So one follower bought him a Rolls Royce, then another, and another until he had almost a hundred of them, but he never asked for them.

Every time I stop by the big Bookman's book store, I look for Osho books, but last week when I was there, the clerk told me when they get any Osho books in, they're bought up a few days. So I'll have to order an additional books form Powell's in Portland.

[redguard57]

The Netflix Docuseries "Wild Wild Country" is really worth the watch, and I think gives a fair accounting of all sides involved.

The interviews with Sheela were the big get of the program. They filmmakers portray her as an interesting character, whip-smart for sure. But not a sympathetic character. If anyone got off easy it was the Bagwan himself, who I think the film exposes as someone who was manipulating his followers for money. Maybe not so much at first in the movement's 60s origins, but definitely in the later stages. He realized at the end of it all that he had effed up & even tried to cut and run. It's amazing his movement still has followers given that the whole history of his movement can only lead one to believe that he was a fraud.

The whole movement was this weird combination of money, sex, and spirituality. I knew about their red-costume hippy-dippy stuff, but did not know how much money you had to have to even participate & how much of a money-maker the whole thing was. I mean, they made a bunch of money off of selling followers designer red clothes! These were mostly rich people involved, who later tried to manipulate a bunch of homeless people.

[texasdiver]

Originally Posted by redguard57

The Netflix Docuseries "Wild Wild Country" is really worth the watch, and I think gives a fair accounting of all sides involved.

The interviews with Sheela were the big get of the program. They filmmakers portray her as an interesting character, whip-smart for sure. But not a sympathetic character. If anyone got off easy it was the Bagwan himself, who I think the film exposes as someone who was manipulating his followers for money. Maybe not so much at first in the movement's 60s origins, but definitely in the later stages. He realized at the end of it all that he had effed up & even tried to cut and run. It's amazing his movement still has followers given that the whole history of his movement can only lead one to believe that he was a fraud.

The whole movement was this weird combination of money, sex, and spirituality. I knew about their red-costume hippy-dippy stuff, but did not know how much money you had to have to even participate & how much of a money-maker the whole thing was. I mean, they made a bunch of money off of selling followers designer red clothes! These were mostly rich people involved, who later tried to manipulate a bunch of homeless people.

I was in HS and early college years in Portland during the whole episode.

What was somewhat surprising to those of us who watched the whole saga in real time was how many seemingly educated and intelligent people got sucked in. For example, I know of several university professors in the Portland area who went full-Rajneesh. And while I think that most of the Rajneeshees who descended on the area were from out-of-state and out-of-country, there were some numbers of educated and wealthy locals who got sucked in. This was really only a few years after Jonestown in Guyana and back in the late 70s there was frankly a whole lot more fear and consternation about cults than there is today. These day's it's mostly fear of ISIS and extremists like white supremicists. Which I suppose are cults too, but not in the same way.

It was a strange time. The 60s were over but a whole lot of late 20s and 30-something folk were looking for ways to recreate that moment in their lives. For those of us who were too young to remember the 60s it was just very weird.

[McFrostyJ]

I'm curious. Does anyone remember Mega Maharishi I'm-Ed from Portland Wrestling?

[McFrostyJ]

Originally Posted by texasdiver

These day's it's mostly fear of ISIS and extremists like white supremicists. Which I suppose are cults too, but not in the same way.

The two biggest cults in the United States today, are the Republicans and the Democrats.