Gurus Gone Wild — Bhagwan Rashneesh (aka Osho) Wrecks Havoc in Oregon in the 1980s

This is part one in an ongoing series called “Gurus Gone Wild” — which will expose the dark secrets of today’s most notorious fake gurus of every religion.

Of course, like almost everyone else, the minute Wild Wild Country hit Netflix, I binged watched all six segments. It was riveting TV to say the least. Who wouldn’t want to watch the tale of yet another “guru” gone wild? We’re lousy with them these days.

However, in this case, it seems that some people are taking the side of the guru and his clan — believing the put-upon citizens of Antelope, Oregon, are close-minded racists. In reality, they were just ordinary people who were terrorized by hundreds of blind-faith cult members. Osho was a sociopathic lunatic wreaking havoc on innocent people’s lives — just like every other “guru.” Ask yourself this question: Would you want these people as your neighbors?

Even India didn’t want Osho, which is really saying something if you spend anytime researching what a lot of the professed “gurus” are up to over there. Hint: Nothing good.

I’m an ex-cult member (not this cult). So, I have a unique perspective on the Bhagwan Rashneesh/Osho. I’ve found that most people are either not knowledgeable about the cult experience or they are hardcore believers in Osho. In both cases, they tend to pussyfoot around who the man really was. All they seem to see is a tiny smiling shiny “guru.” All they hear is his hypnotic voice droning on and on with pronouncements that are little more than a derivative mishmash of other “spiritual” and “human potential” teachings — all with a twist of extreme “open sexuality.”

Osho said he wanted to create a “new man.” What he created was a new mess in guru world.

Before this documentary, I only had limited knowledge about the group. My introduction occurred when I lived in Atlanta in the early 1980s. The group had picked up a busload or two of the city’s homeless and took them to Oregon. It was a very odd story to say the least. Also, at that same time, the media reported on his fleet of Rolls Royces. The next we heard was that the group tried to poison local residence. Then all of sudden the cult was gone and Osho was dead.

End of story, right? Far from it as we’re now learning thanks to the six-hour documentary. Even at six hours somehow I felt the series was not telling the whole story. So, I started digging. What I found is chilling, yet, millions of people still worship him around the world (for example, Osho International on Facebook as 2.5 million followers!).

Osho Died — But His Story Didn’t

Coincidentally, I had a curious interaction with an ex-follower while I was still in my ex-cult. She was my therapist (I explain the reason I was there in my cult experience memoir). One day she told me that she had lived at the Big Muddy until the bitter end. I asked her a few questions. I couldn’t tell if she still believed in the dude or not. However, when I asked why he had dozens of Rolls Royces, she defended him saying, “He was just playing with us. If people thought it was odd that a guru had a Rolls Royce, then why not have a bunch of them.”

Odd, indeed. What a strange — expensive — guru game to play. Rolls Royces cost about $100,000 in the early 80s ($250,000 today). That’s not chump change. Anyway, it turns out that the fleet of high-end vehicles, as well as Lear jets, diamond jewelry, and who knows what else was all part of a widespread money-laundering scheme. You see, these gurus who collect massive amounts of money from devotees need to somehow move the money around without getting caught. I know my ex-gurus were big fans of money laundering through gold and diamond jewelry.

A few years later, out of the blue, I found a video on YouTube about the group. It was a documentary of sorts, but nothing like Wild Wild Country. It was fairly tame and didn’t really reveal much (see link below). Then I forgot about them again. Suffice to say, anyone who watches Wild Wild Country will not soon forget about Osho and his delusional group of followers. This is one extremely evil dude. He’s right up there with my two child-molesting, money-scheming, and murdering ex-gurus.

Fair is Foul, and Foul is Fair

While I’m hard left politically, I do not blame the residents of the small town of Antelope, Oregon for not appreciating the bombardment of Osho-ites. It looks like their world was turned upside down when hundreds of arrogant brainwashed guru worshipers moved in. It was the devotees who were bigoted and small minded — not caring one whit for the community or lifestyle that existed in the small town for decades before they arrived. The Osho-ites bullied the mostly old and retired residents.

Believe me, I’m very familiar with the superiority complex that guru followers feel. They think it’s their right to do whatever the f*ck they want, as long as their guru approves. Based on the effusive words of millions of blind Osho diehards, who continue to this day to work to keep his name and organization alive around the world, if Osho had a tagline it would be: “Fair is foul, and foul is fair.” In other words, we’ll do whatever suits our purposes, everyone else be damned.

While the details of this group are different from my experience, the overall story is very familiar. When you boil cults down to their essence, they all act in similar ways. To wit:

A large group of somewhat intelligent, idealistic people. Check.

Worshiping a god walking on earth in the form of a man (or woman). Check.

Hanging on the guru’s every utterance and appearance like a needy child. Check.

Living in an “intentional community.” Check.

Building something out of nothing to the gurus exacting specifications. Check.

Willing to do anything to protect the guru. Check.

Also similar is the corruption. So much so, that ex-followers I know used to ask, “Is there a ‘How to be a Conman (or Woman) Guru Handbook’ that all of these fake gurus read?” Because we saw that they all use the same brainwashing and control tactics.

Also, what you’ll find in many cults — if you dare to look deep beneath the surface — is sex abuse, physical abuse, torture, beatings, threats, exploitation, money laundering, murder, and many other crimes. And these dark worlds often run parallel to a squeaky clean “pure” exterior. When devotees say, “I never saw anything bad,” it’s because they lived in the façade, just as I did. I didn’t know about the dark side of my ex-cult for 14 years. It didn’t even occur to me to look for one. Once I learned the truth, I left — and started working to warn others.

Going Deeper into the Cult’s Darkness

I am happy this story is getting out there — just as the story of my ex-cult did in my book, multiple news articles, and an episode of John Walsh’s The Hunt (currently on Netflix). The more people learn about the reality of cults and how destructive they are, the more people will avoid the horrific and life-destroying experience. If they’re like me, after seeing this six-part series, hopefully people will do more research. If they do, they will discover even more eye-opening insight.

When you pull the band aid off of Osho, Inc., you find a very sick, twisted, and diseased person peddling fake “enlightenment” to the masses. Osho World was a far cry from the happy pabulum the current Osho-loving brigade wants you to believe — to say the least.

Here’s a short list of some of the insights I uncovered. Click the links, and take a look for yourself and see if you still think the residents of Antelope were the problem, that Sheela was the problem, or that Osho was a special being. (If the first excerpt doesn’t give you chills, you may not be human — from the mouth of an Osho “therapist: “She needed to be raped.”)

I’ve also added a list of some of the books ex-cult members have written about their experiences. Remember, that it’s bad enough to have lived in a cult. To retell the whole story is a nightmare, because you have to relive it — but this time with your eyes wide open. We should respect these people for being the brave few to try and warn others.

Chilling New Reports About the Osho Cult

The New Republic — “Outside the Limits of the Human Imagination”
Excerpts:
“An ex-disciple named Roselyn, who went through six months of therapy groups at Rajneesh’s ashram in India, told me that coercive psychological pressure was applied at the ashram—particularly on women—to enforce participation in sexually promiscuous behavior and in the ashram’s notorious group sex orgies. ‘The lingo at the ashram was ‘say yes’ and ‘say yes to life,’ she said. ‘One guy made an approach to me and I wasn’t the least bit interested, but I felt guilty because I was not ‘saying yes to life.’ She told me that women who refused to participate in ashram orgies were castigated by group leaders for being ‘selfish,’ ‘frigid,’ and ‘rejecting.’ Attempts to enforce sexual participation at the Pune ashram did not always stop at psychological pressure, but sometimes extended to the use of violence. A German ex-disciple named Eckart reported witnessing the rape of a female sannyasin by two men during an encounter group called ‘samarpan’ (surrender). When he tried to intervene, he said, the group leader stopped him, explaining afterwards: ‘She needed to be raped.’”

“The type of organization that the Rajneesh cult in fact most resembled was a vast criminal enterprise. In three separate columns … I laid out the evidence that much of the cult’s wealth had probably been derived from the involvement of Rajneesh followers in India in prostitution and the smuggling of drugs and currency. It cost a lot of money to remain at Rajneesh’s ashram in Pune, and when a follower ran out of funds and pleaded to be allowed to stay on, he or she (though all the cases that came to light seemed to have involved women followers) would be offered an opportunity to gain money through illegal means of one kind or another.”

CRI — “Rajneeshpuram: Another Tragedy in the Making?”
Excerpt:
“An object of media fascination and horror, Rajneesh is known for his bizarre revelations on sex. He has constructed a vision of the New Man that repudiates all prior norms and traditions. Man, by Rajneesh’s thinking, is the hedonist-god, fully autonomous (barring the inner voice of Rajneesh), and free to carve out the cosmos in his own image. He is the sovereign pleasure seeker, self-transcender, who owes nobody anything. The family is anathema, children extra trash. And so long as the Neo-sannyasin has the money the fun ride continues. Afterward, however, he or she is usually a non-functional casualty. Homicides, rapes, mysterious disappearances, threats, fires, explosions, abandoned ashram children now begging in Poona’s streets, drug busts — all done by those amazing hybrids in red who believe they are pioneering new and daring redefinitions of the word ‘love.’ (Citizens) working in a Poona asylum confirm such accounts, adding the breakdown rate is so high the ashram has wielded political power to suppress reports.”

The Washington Post — “Surviving the Bhagwan”
Excerpts:
“‘He was a man,’ she said, ‘who had a satori (a realization) and a number of mystical experiences.’ She felt he had enabled his disciples to learn about themselves. Some, she said, were healed of physical illnesses and many had ‘psychic experiences.’ But, she continued, more sad now than angry, he had failed the spiritual test that Jesus and other great religious leaders had passed: ‘He went for power.’ The Master became the ‘master scammer.’ (A sannyasin, Anna Forbes, had been Rajneesh’s disciple for years.)

“For … many others who no longer consider Rajneesh as their Master, the readjustment has been more profound, more complex and disturbing. They, too, mourn the death of the utopian community that seemed about to be born, the idyll they enjoyed in India and in the early days on the ranch. They feel betrayed by the sterilizations and the poisonings and by their Master’s callousness and indifference towards his disciples and the Oregonians. They are ashamed of their own mindless complicity in his actions. But they also have an immense sense of gratitude toward Rajneesh himself and for the experiences that they had while they lived in his company.”