“He has an appeal for people who have a sense of powerlessness or joylessness in their lives.
“One of the things you run into is contradictions … some very strong countermoves of saying there are some really bad things over here and things are going to happen to you if you do this, this, and this.”
“He’s a master at using the media and using all kinds of methods of communicating and getting the allegiance of his followers and projecting that into a black-white situation.”
These are all comments made by a cult expert in an obscure video I found buried in the bowels of YouTube filmed back in the 1980s. They’re about Bhagwan Rajneesh (aka Osho). But they could be said about any cult leader living or dead.
Long before the new documentary Wild Wild Country aired on Netflix, many others were studying the phenomenon of Osho after he landed with thousands of followers in a remote area of North-Central Oregon in the early 1980s. There are several barely watched videos on YouTube that you can find if you keep drilling down.
One of my finds was a series of roughly 45-minute long videos that include interviews with Osho and his followers, and views of the Big Muddy property. One of the videos stands out for me. It starts and ends with scenes of devotees manically dancing as they await and greet Osho during one of his daily excursions around the ranch in one of his many Rolls Royces, along a long rambling conversation with Osho himself.
(Note to ex-cult members: Check out the followers laughing off-screen at Osho’s every manipulative utterance at 4:20 to 5:50. It will bring back memories for many blind-faith devotees who regularly giggle at their guru’s pronouncements like he or she is some kind of comedian-God — this includes the brainwashed followers of my two ex-gurus.)
But, at 22:09, I found what I think is the most interesting section of this video,. A local reporter is interviewing a local cult expert for a few minutes. Adrian Greek was the director of the Portland Positive Action Center, a cult counseling and education organization in West Multnomah County Oregon, at the time that the Rajneesh/Osho and Osho-ites were wrecking havoc in Oregon in the 1980s.
I transcribed this brief conversation because I think the cult expert’s perspective is so vitally important to both our understanding of cults — this includes the phenomenon of pedestalizing political “leaders.” As many realize, America has been usurped by a large section of the population who act as if they are in a cult. Their fierce loyalty to a totalitarian conman is identical to that which takes place within cults. We need to understand this if we can ever hope to free our minds and free our lives from the prison of belief — and the prison of rule by cult leaders.
Here is a transcription of the interview. I encourage you to watch it as well.
Reporter — “Explain the appeal that the Bhagwan has for people.”
Adrian Greek — “He has an appeal for people who have a sense of powerlessness or joylessness in their lives. They feel overwhelmed by the future dangers of the world. The guidelines in our society in terms of values. In terms of goals. Maybe they’ve gone so far in their lives that they are overwhelmed with responsibility and have a sense that there’s nothing more to live for and so they hear or read of his writings and in his permission to throw over all responsibility and just enjoy themselves and be themselves. And they are sort of hooked into a system.”
Reporter — “Bhagwan made a series of predictions, including that two-thirds of the world population will die of AIDs. Will people believe and follow him even more (because of this)?”
Adrian Greek — “I think that one of the things you run into is contradictions between the extreme removal of limits and responsibility, and some very strong countermoves of saying there are some really bad things over here and things are going to happen to you if you do this, this, and this. And so it’s a real restrictive type of thing at the same time. I personally believe that his projection of two-thirds of the world’s population dying of AIDs probably was really taking into consideration the lifestyle of the Rajneshees (themselves), where there are multiple sexual relationships on a continuous type of basis, which seems to be the primary audience of people who get caught into the AIDs syndrome. He was bringing it up, but it also produces a contradiction. One of free sex versus restricted sex. And no responsibility versus having responsibility for protecting your partner or protecting yourself.”
Reporter — “Do you think that he’s using the press?”
Adrian Greek — “Oh, I think he’s a master at using the media and using all kinds of methods of communicating and getting the allegiance of his followers and projecting that into a black-white situation. One in which those people who are followers of his, believers in Bhagwan, are the true people, are the only one. It’s the only way. And the outsiders, anyone who would be critical, is a bigot, prejudiced, is against them. Creating that type of a wall produces an isolation within the organization, which isolates them from the realities of all the gray areas of life, which is most of what exists out here. It’s a fact that there isn’t just right or wrong. There are a lot of different options available.”
These three comments by Adrian Greek are so dead-on accurate regarding cults that it’s amazing — and scary — because this mentality is impacting America deeply right now. I’m frightened, because there doesn’t seem to be any end to the twisted thinking by political cult members’ ongoing insanity and support of a madman — just like the Rajneeshees and every other cult follower.
Photo Credit — I found the photo at the top of this story on The Oregonian website. The paper reported extensively on the Bhagwan cult back in the day, including the 20-part series outlined on this page. There’s a lot there. What I’ve read so far is so interesting. It also includes 102 photos that are quite revealing about this cult.
