Rajneesh

Rajneesh (born Chandra Mohan Jain, 11 December 1931 –

Rajneesh
19 January 1990), also known as Achary a Rajneesh, [1 ]
Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, and latterly as Osho (/ˈoʊʃoʊ/),
was an Indian spiritual guru, philosopher and the leader of the
Rajneesh mov ement. During his lifetime he was v iewed as a
controv ersial new religious mov ement leader and my stic. In
the 1960s he trav eled throughout India as a public speaker and
was a v ocal critic of socialism, arguing that India was not ready
for socialism and that socialism, communism and anarchism
could ev olv e only when capitalism had reached its maturity .
Rajneesh also criticised Mahatma Gandhi, [2 ][3 ][4 ] and Hindu
religious orthodoxy . [5 ][6 ] Rajneesh emphasized the
Born Chandra Mohan Jain
importance of meditation, mindfulness, lov e, celebration,
11 December 1931
courage, creativ ity and humour—qualities that he v iewed as
Kuchwada, Bhopal State,
being suppressed by adherence to static belief sy stems,
British India
religious tradition and socialisation. In adv ocating a more open
(modern-day Madhya
attitude to human sexuality [6 ] he caused controv ersy in India
Pradesh, India)
during the late 1960s and became known as "the sex guru". [7 ][8 ] Died 19 January 1990 (aged 58)
Pune, Maharashtra, India
In 197 0, Rajneesh spent time in Mumbai initiating followers
Nationality Indian
known as "neo-sanny asins". During this period he expanded his
spiritual teachings and commented extensiv ely in discourses on Known for Spirituality, mysticism
the writings of religious traditions, my stics, and philosophers Notable work Discourse transcriptions
from around the world. In 197 4, Rajneesh relocated to Pune, published in over 600
where an ashram was established and a v ariety of therapies, books
incorporating methods first dev eloped by the Human Potential Movement The Osho International
Mov ement, were offered to a growing Western following. [9 ][1 0 ] Foundation
By the late 197 0s, the tension between the ruling Janata Party
Website osho.com (https://osho.co
gov ernment of Morarji Desai and the mov ement led to a curbing
m)
of the ashram's dev elopment and a back taxes claim estimated
at $5 million. [1 1 ]

In 1981, the Rajneesh mov ement's efforts refocused on activ ities in the United States and Rajneesh relocated to a
facility known as Rajneeshpuram in Wasco County , Oregon. Almost immediately the mov ement ran into conflict
with county residents and the state gov ernment, and a succession of legal battles concerning the ashram's
construction and continued dev elopment curtailed its success. In 1985, in the wake of a series of serious crimes
by his followers, including a mass food poisoning attack with Salmonella bacteria and an aborted assassination
plot to murder U.S. Attorney Charles H. Turner, Rajneesh alleged that his personal secretary Ma Anand Sheela
and her close supporters had been responsible. [1 2 ] He was later deported from the United States in accordance
with an Alford plea bargain. [1 3 ][1 4 ][1 5 ]

After his deportation, 21 countries denied him entry . [1 6 ] He ultimately returned to India and a rev iv ed Pune
ashram, where he died in 1990. Rajneesh's ashram, now known as OSHO International Meditation Resort, [1 7 ] and
all associated intellectual property , is managed by the registered Osho International Foundation (formerly
Rajneesh International Foundation). [1 8 ][1 9 ] Rajneesh's teachings hav e had a notable impact on Western New
Age thought, [2 0 ][2 1 ] and their popularity has increased markedly since his death. [2 2 ][2 3 ] A notable example is
the influence that his thought has had on the German philosopher Peter Sloterdijk.

Contents
Biography
Childhood and adolescence: 1931–1950
University years and public speaker: 1951–1970
Mumbai: 1970–1974
Pune ashram: 1974–1981
The United States and the Oregon commune: 1981–1985
Arrival in the United States
Establishing Rajneeshpuram
1984 bioterror attack
Travels and return to Pune: 1985–1990
Death
Teachings
Ego and the mind
Meditation
Sannyas
Renunciation and the "New Man"
Euthanasia and genetic selection
Rajneesh's "Ten Commandments"
Legacy
Reception
Appraisal by scholars of religion
Appraisal as charismatic leader
Wider appraisal as a thinker and speaker
Films about Rajneesh
Selected discourses
See also
Notes
Citations
Bibliography
References
Further reading
External links

Biography

Childhood and adolescence: 1931–1950

Rajneesh (a childhood nickname from Sanskrit रजनी rajani, night and ईश isha, lord) was born Chandra Mohan
Jain, the eldest of elev en children of a cloth merchant, at his maternal grandparents' house in Kuchwada; a small
v illage in the Raisen district of Madhy a Pradesh state in India. [2 4 ][2 5 ][2 6 ] His parents Babulal and Saraswati
Jain, who were Taranpanthi Jains, let him liv e with his maternal grandparents until he was sev en y ears old. [2 7 ]
By Rajneesh's own account, this was a major influence on his dev elopment because his grandmother gav e him the
utmost freedom, leav ing him carefree without an imposed education or restrictions. [2 8 ] When he was sev en
y ears old, his grandfather died, and he went to Gadarwara to liv e with his parents. [2 4 ][2 9 ] Rajneesh was
profoundly affected by his grandfather's death, and again by the death of his childhood girlfriend and cousin
Shashi from ty phoid when he was 15, leading to a preoccupation with death that lasted throughout much of his
childhood and y outh. [2 9 ][3 0 ] In his school y ears, he was a gifted and rebellious student, and gained a reputation
as a formidable debater. [2 ] Rajneesh became critical of traditional religion, took an interest in many methods to
expand consciousness, including breath control, y ogic exercises, meditation, fasting, the occult and hy pnosis.
Also briefly associated with socialism and two Indian nationalist organisations: the Indian National Army and
the Rashtriy a Sway amsev ak Sangh. [2 ][3 1 ][3 2 ] Howev er, his membership in the organisations was short-liv ed as
he could not submit to any external discipline, ideology or sy stem. [3 3 ]

University years and public speaker: 1951–1970

In 1951, aged nineteen, Rajneesh began his studies at Hitkarini College in Jabalpur. [3 4 ] Asked to leav e after
conflicts with an instructor, he transferred to D. N. Jain College, also in Jabalpur. [3 5 ] Hav ing prov ed himself to
be disruptiv ely argumentativ e, he was not required to attend college classes in D. N. Jain College except for
examinations and used his free time to work for a few months as an assistant editor at a local newspaper. [3 6 ] He
began speaking in public at the annual Sarva Dharma Sammelan (Meeting of all faiths) held at Jabalpur,
organised by the Taranpanthi Jain community into which he was born, and participated there from 1951 to
1968. [3 7 ] He resisted his parents' pressure to get married. [3 8 ] Rajneesh later said he became spiritually
enlightened on 21 March 1953, when he was 21 y ears old, in a my stical experience while sitting under a tree in
the Bhanv artal garden in Jabalpur. [3 9 ]

Hav ing completed his B.A. in philosophy at D. N. Jain College in 1955, he joined the Univ ersity of Sagar, wherein
1957 he earned his M.A. in philosophy (with distinction). [4 0 ] He immediately secured a teaching position at
Raipur Sanskrit College, but the Vice-Chancellor soon asked him to seek a transfer as he considered him a danger
to his students' morality , character and religion. [3 ] From 1958, he taught philosophy as a lecturer at Jabalpur
Univ ersity , being promoted to professor in 1960. [3 ] A popular lecturer, he was acknowledged by his peers as an
exceptionally intelligent man who had been able to ov ercome the deficiencies of his early small-town
education. [4 1 ]

In parallel to his univ ersity job, he trav elled throughout India under the name Achary a Rajneesh (Acharya
means teacher or professor; Rajneesh was a nickname he had acquired in childhood), giv ing lectures critical of
socialism, Gandhi and institutional religions. [2 ][3 ][4 ] He said that socialism would socialise only pov erty , and he
described Gandhi as a masochist reactionary who worshipped pov erty . [2 ][4 ] What India needed to escape its
backwardness was capitalism, science, modern technology and birth control. [2 ] He criticised orthodox Indian
religions as dead, filled with empty ritual, oppressing their followers with fears of damnation and the promise of
blessings. [2 ][4 ] Such statements made him controv ersial, but also gained him a loy al following that included a
number of wealthy merchants and businessmen. [2 ][4 2 ] These sought indiv idual consultations from him about
their spiritual dev elopment and daily life, in return for donations—a conv entional arrangement in India—and his
practice snowballed. [4 2 ] From 1962, he began to lead 3- to 10-day meditation camps, and the first meditation
centres (Jiv an Jagruti Kendra) started to emerge around his teaching, then known as the Life Awakening
Mov ement (Jiv an Jagruti Andolan). [4 3 ] After a controv ersial speaking tour in 1966, he resigned from his
teaching post at the request of the univ ersity . [3 ]

In a 1968 lecture series, later published under the title From Sex to Superconsciousness, he scandalised Hindu
leaders by calling for freer acceptance of sex and became known as the "sex guru" in the Indian press. [8 ][6 ] When
in 1969 he was inv ited to speak at the Second World Hindu Conference, despite the misgiv ings of some Hindu
leaders, his statements raised controv ersy again when he said, "Any religion which considers life meaningless
and full of misery and teaches the hatred of life, is not a true religion. Religion is an art that shows how to enjoy
life."[8 ][4 4 ] He characterised brahmin as being motiv ated by self-interest, prov oking the Shankaracharya of
Puri, who tried in v ain to hav e his lecture stopped. [4 4 ]

Mumbai: 1970–1974
At a public meditation ev ent in early 197 0, Rajneesh presented his Dy namic Meditation method for the first
time. [4 5 ] He left Jabalpur for Mumbai at the end of June. [4 6 ] On 26 September 197 0, he initiated his first group
of disciples or neo-sanny asins. [4 7 ] Becoming a disciple meant assuming a new name and wearing the traditional
orange dress of ascetic Hindu holy men, including a mala (beaded necklace) carry ing a locket with his
picture. [4 8 ] Howev er, his sanny asins were encouraged to follow a celebratory rather than ascetic lifesty le. [4 9 ]
He himself was not to be worshipped but regarded as a cataly tic agent, "a sun encouraging the flower to
open". [4 9 ]

He had by then acquired a secretary , Laxmi Thakarsi Kuruwa, who as his first disciple had taken the name Ma
Y oga Laxmi. [2 ] Laxmi was the daughter of one of his early followers, a wealthy Jain who had been a key
supporter of the Indian National Congress during the struggle for Indian independence, with close ties to Gandhi,
Nehru and Morarji Desai. [2 ] She raised the money that enabled Rajneesh to stop his trav els and settle down. [2 ]
In December 197 0, he mov ed to the Woodlands Apartments in Mumbai, where he gav e lectures and receiv ed
v isitors, among them his first Western v isitors. [4 6 ] He now trav elled rarely , no longer speaking at open public
meetings. [4 6 ] In 197 1, he adopted the title "Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh". [4 8 ] Shree is a polite form of address
roughly equiv alent to the English "Sir"; Bhagwan means "blessed one", used in Indian traditions as a term of
respect for a human being in whom the div ine is no longer hidden but apparent. Later, when he changed his
name, he would redefine the meaning of Bhagwan. [5 0 ][5 1 ]

Pune ashram: 1974–1981

The humid climate of Mumbai prov ed detrimental to Rajneesh's health: he dev eloped diabetes, asthma and
numerous allergies. [4 8 ] In 197 4, on the 21st anniv ersary of his experience in Jabalpur, he mov ed to a property
in Koregaon Park, Pune, purchased with the help of Ma Y oga Mukta (Catherine Venizelos), a Greek shipping
heiress. [5 2 ][5 3 ] Rajneesh spoke at the Pune ashram from 197 4 to 1981. The two adjoining houses and 6 acres
(24,000 m2 ) of land became the nucleus of an ashram, and the property is still the heart of the present-day OSHO
International Meditation Resort. It allowed the regular audio recording and, later, v ideo recording and printing
of his discourses for worldwide distribution, enabling him to reach far larger audiences. The number of Western
v isitors increased sharply . [5 4 ] The ashram soon featured an arts-and-crafts centre producing clothes, jewellery ,
ceramics and organic cosmetics and hosted performances of theatre, music and mime. [5 4 ] From 197 5, after the
arriv al of sev eral therapists from the Human Potential Mov ement, the ashram began to complement meditations
with a growing number of therapy groups, [9 ][1 0 ] which became a major source of income for the
ashram. [5 5 ][5 6 ]

The Pune ashram was by all accounts an exciting and intense place to be, with an emotionally charged,
madhouse-carniv al atmosphere. [5 4 ][5 7 ][5 8 ] The day began at 6:00 a.m. with Dy namic Meditation. [5 9 ][6 0 ]
From 8:00 a.m., Rajneesh gav e a 60- to 90-minute spontaneous lecture in the ashram's "Buddha Hall"
auditorium, commenting on religious writings or answering questions from v isitors and disciples. [5 4 ][6 0 ] Until
1981, lecture series held in Hindi alternated with series held in English. [6 1 ] During the day , v arious meditations
and therapies took place, whose intensity was ascribed to the spiritual energy of Rajneesh's "buddhafield". [5 7 ] In
ev ening darshans, Rajneesh conv ersed with indiv idual disciples or v isitors and initiated disciples ("gav e
sanny as"). [5 4 ][6 0 ] Sanny asins came for darshan when departing or returning or when they had any thing they
wanted to discuss. [5 4 ][6 0 ]
To decide which therapies to participate in, v isitors either consulted Rajneesh or selected according to their own
preferences. [6 2 ] Some of the early therapy groups in the ashram, such as the encounter group, were
experimental, allowing a degree of phy sical aggression as well as sexual encounters between
participants. [6 3 ][6 4 ] Conflicting reports of injuries sustained in Encounter group sessions began to appear in the
press. [6 5 ][6 6 ][6 7 ] Richard Price, at the time a prominent Human Potential Mov ement therapist and co-founder
of the Esalen Institute, found the groups encouraged participants to 'be v iolent' rather than 'play at being v iolent'
(the norm in Encounter groups conducted in the United States), and criticised them for "the worst mistakes of
some inexperienced Esalen group leaders". [6 8 ] Price is alleged to hav e exited the Pune ashram with a broken arm
following a period of eight hours locked in a room with participants armed with wooden weapons. [6 8 ] Bernard
Gunther, his Esalen colleague, fared better in Pune and wrote a book, Dying for Enlightenment, featuring
photographs and ly rical descriptions of the meditations and therapy groups. [6 8 ] Violence in the therapy groups
ev entually ended in January 197 9, when the ashram issued a press release stating that v iolence "had fulfilled its
function within the ov erall context of the ashram as an ev olv ing spiritual commune". [6 9 ]

Sanny asins who had "graduated" from months of meditation and therapy could apply to work in the ashram, in an
env ironment that was consciously modelled on the community the Russian my stic Gurdjieff led in France in the
1930s. [7 0 ] Key features incorporated from Gurdjieff were hard, unpaid labour, and superv isors chosen for their
abrasiv e personality , both designed to prov oke opportunities for self-observ ation and transcendence. [7 0 ] Many
disciples chose to stay for y ears. [7 0 ] Besides the controv ersy around the therapies, allegations of drug use
amongst sanny asin began to mar the ashram's image. [7 1 ] Some Western sanny asins were alleged to be financing
extended stay s in India through prostitution and drug-running. [7 2 ][7 3 ] A few people, later alleged that while
Rajneesh was not directly inv olv ed, they discussed such plans and activ ities with him in darshan and he gav e his
blessing. [7 4 ]

By the latter 197 0s, the Pune ashram was too small to contain the rapid growth and Rajneesh asked that
somewhere larger be found. [7 5 ] Sanny asins from around India started looking for properties: those found
included one in the prov ince of Kutch in Gujarat and two more in India's mountainous north. [7 5 ] The plans were
nev er implemented as mounting tensions between the ashram and the Janata Party gov ernment of Morarji Desai
resulted in an impasse. [7 5 ] Land-use approv al was denied and, more importantly , the gov ernment stopped
issuing v isas to foreign v isitors who indicated the ashram as their main destination. [7 5 ][7 6 ] Besides, Desai's
gov ernment cancelled the tax-exempt status of the ashram with retrospectiv e effect, resulting in a claim
estimated at $5 million. [1 1 ] Conflicts with v arious Indian religious leaders aggrav ated the situation—by 1980 the
ashram had become so controv ersial that Indira Gandhi, despite a prev ious association between Rajneesh and
the Indian Congress Party dating back to the sixties, was unwilling to intercede for it after her return to
power. [1 1 ] In May 1980, during one of Rajneesh's discourses, an attempt on his life was made by Vilas Tupe, a
y oung Hindu fundamentalist. [7 5 ][7 7 ][7 8 ] Tupe claims that he undertook the attack because he believ ed
Rajneesh to be an agent of the CIA. [7 8 ]

By 1981, Rajneesh's ashram hosted 30,000 v isitors per y ear. [7 1 ] Daily discourse audiences were by then
predominantly European and American. [7 9 ][8 0 ] Many observ ers noted that Rajneesh's lecture sty le changed in
the late Sev enties, becoming less focused intellectually and featuring an increasing number of ethnic or dirty
jokes intended to shock or amuse his audience. [7 5 ] On 10 April 1981, hav ing discoursed daily for nearly 15
y ears, Rajneesh entered a three-and-a-half-y ear period of self-imposed public silence, and satsangs—silent
sitting with music and readings from spiritual works such as Khalil Gibran's The Prophet or the Isha Upanishad—
replaced discourses. [8 1 ][8 2 ] Around the same time, Ma Anand Sheela (Sheela Silv erman) replaced Ma Y oga
Laxmi as Rajneesh's secretary . [8 3 ]

The United States and the Oregon commune: 1981–1985

Arrival in the United States
In 1981, the increased tensions around the Poona ashram, along with criticism of its activ ities and threatened
punitiv e action by the Indian authorities, prov ided an impetus for the ashram to consider the establishment of a
new commune in the United States. [8 4 ][8 5 ][8 6 ] According to Susan J. Palmer, the mov e to the United States was
a plan from Sheela. [8 7 ] Gordon (1987 ) notes that Sheela and Rajneesh had discussed the idea of establishing a
new commune in the US in late 1980, although he did not agree to trav el there until May 1981. [8 3 ] On the 1st of
June that y ear he trav elled to the United States on a tourist v isa, ostensibly for medical purposes, and spent
sev eral months at a Rajneeshee retreat centre located at Kip's Castle in Montclair, New Jersey . [8 8 ][8 9 ] He had
been diagnosed with a prolapsed disc in early 1981 and treated by sev eral doctors, including James Cy riax, a St.
Thomas' Hospital musculoskeletal phy sician and expert in epidural injections flown in from London. [8 3 ][9 0 ][9 1 ]
Rajneesh's prev ious secretary , Laxmi, reported to Frances FitzGerald that "she had failed to find a property in
India adequate to Rajneesh's needs, and thus, when the medical emergency came, the initiativ e had passed to
Sheela". [9 1 ] A public statement by Sheela indicated that Rajneesh was in grav e danger if he remained in India,
but would receiv e appropriate medical treatment in America if he needed surgery . [8 3 ][9 0 ][9 2 ] Despite the
stated serious nature of the situation Rajneesh nev er sought outside medical treatment during his time in the
United States, leading the Immigration and Naturalization Serv ice to contend that he had a preconceiv ed intent
to remain there. [9 1 ] Y ears later, Rajneesh pleaded guilty to immigration fraud, while maintaining his innocence
of the charges that he made false statements on his initial v isa application about his alleged intention to remain in
the US when he came from India. [n b 1 ][n b 2 ][n b 3 ]

Establishing Rajneeshpuram
On 13 June 1981, Sheela's husband, John Shelfer, signed a purchase contract to buy property in Oregon for
US$5.7 5 million, and a few day s later assigned the property to the US foundation. The property was a 64,229-
acre (260 km2 ) ranch, prev iously known as "The Big Muddy Ranch" and located across two Oregon counties
(Wasco and Jefferson). [9 3 ] It was renamed "Rancho Rajneesh" and Rajneesh mov ed there on 29 August. [9 4 ]
Initial local community reactions ranged from hostility to tolerance, depending on distance from the ranch. [9 5 ]
The press reported, and another study found, that the dev elopment met almost immediately with intense local,
state and federal opposition from the gov ernment, press and citizenry . Within months a series of legal battles
ensued, principally ov er land use. [9 6 ] Within a y ear of arriv ing, Rajneesh and his followers had become
embroiled in a series of legal battles with their neighbours, the principal conflict relating to land use. [9 6 ] The
commune leadership was uncompromising and behav ed impatiently in dealing with the locals. [9 7 ] They were
also insistent upon hav ing demands met, and engaged in implicitly threatening and directly confrontational
behav iour. [9 7 ] Whatev er the true intention, the repeated changes in their stated plans looked to many like
conscious deception. [9 7 ]

In May 1982 the residents of Rancho Rajneesh v oted to incorporate it as the city of Rajneeshpuram. [9 6 ] The
conflict with local residents escalated, with increasingly bitter hostility on both sides, and ov er the following
y ears, the commune was subject to constant and coordinated pressures from v arious coalitions of Oregon
residents. [9 6 ][9 8 ] 1000 Friends of Oregon immediately commenced and then prosecuted ov er the next six y ears
numerous court and administrativ e actions to v oid the incorporation and cause buildings and improv ement to
be remov ed. [9 6 ][9 9 ][9 8 ] 1000 Friends publicly called for the City to be "dismantled". A 1000 Friends Attorney
stated that if 1000 Friends won, the Foundation would be "forced to remov e their sewer sy stem and tear down
many of the buildings. [1 0 0 ][9 7 ] At one point, the commune imported large numbers of homeless people from
v arious US cities in a failed attempt to affect the outcome of an election, before releasing them into surrounding
towns and leav ing some to the State of Oregon to return to their home cities at the state's expense. [1 0 1 ][1 0 2 ] In
March 1982, local residents formed a group called Citizens for Constitutional Cities to oppose the Ranch
dev elopment. [1 0 3 ] An initiativ e petition was filed that would order the gov ernor "'to contain, control and
remov e' the threat of inv asion by an 'alien cult'". [9 9 ]
The Oregon legislature passed sev eral bills that sought to slow or stop the dev elopment and the City of
Rajneeshpuram—including HB 3080, which stopped distribution of rev enue sharing funds for any city whose
legal status had been challenged. Rajneeshpuram was the only city impacted. [1 0 4 ] The Gov ernor of Oregon, Vic
Atiy eh, stated in 1982 that since their neighbours did not like them, they should leav e Oregon. [1 0 5 ] In May
1982, United States Senator Mark Hatfield called the INS in Portland. An INS memo stated that the Senator was
"v ery concerned" about how this "religious cult" is "endangering the way of life for a small agricultural town ... and
is a threat to public safety ". [1 0 6 ] Such actions "often do hav e influence on immigration decisions". In 1983 the
Oregon Attorney General filed a lawsuit seeking to declare the City v oid because of an alleged v iolation of the
Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the Constitution. The Court found that the City property was
owned and controlled by the Foundation, and entered judgement for the State. [1 0 7 ] The court disregarded the
controlling US constitutional cases requiring that a v iolation be redressed by the "least intrusiv e means"
necessary to correct the v iolation, which it had earlier cited. The City was forced to "acquiesce" in the decision, as
part of a settlement of Rajneesh's immigration case. [1 0 8 ]

While the v arious legal battles ensued Rajneesh remained behind the
scenes, hav ing withdrawn from a public facing role in what commune
leadership referred to as a period of "silence." During this time, which
lasted until Nov ember 1984, in lieu of Rajneesh speaking publicly ,
v ideos of his discourses were play ed to commune audiences. [8 8 ] His
time was allegedly spent mostly in seclusion and he communicated
only with a few key disciples, including Ma Anand Sheela and his
caretaker girlfriend Ma Y oga Viv ek (Christine Woolf). [8 8 ] He liv ed in a
trailer next to a cov ered swimming pool and other amenities. At this Rajneesh greeted by sannyasins on
one of his daily "drive-bys" in
time he did not lecture and interacted with followers v ia a Rolls Roy ce
Rajneeshpuram, circa 1982
'driv e-by ' ceremony . [1 0 9 ] He also gained public notoriety for amassing
a large collection of Rolls-Roy ce cars, ev entually numbering 93
v ehicles. [1 1 0 ][1 1 1 ] In 1981 he had giv en Sheela limited power of attorney , remov ing any remaining limits the
following y ear. [1 1 2 ] In 1983, Sheela announced that he would henceforth speak only with her. [1 1 3 ] He later said
that she kept him in ignorance. [1 1 2 ] Many sanny asins expressed doubts about whether Sheela properly
represented Rajneesh and many dissidents left Rajneeshpuram in protest of its autocratic leadership. [1 1 4 ]
Resident sanny asins without US citizenship experienced v isa difficulties that some tried to ov ercome by
marriages of conv enience. [1 1 5 ] Commune administrators tried to resolv e Rajneesh's own difficulty in this
respect by declaring him the head of a religion, "Rajneeshism". [1 0 9 ][1 1 6 ]

During the Oregon y ears there was an increased emphasis on Rajneesh's prediction that the world might be
destroy ed by nuclear war or other disasters in the 1990s. [1 1 7 ] Rajneesh had said as early as 1964 that "the third
and last war is now on the way " and frequently spoke of the need to create a "new humanity " to av oid global
suicide. [1 1 8 ] This now became the basis for a new exclusiv ity , and a 1983 article in the Rajneesh Foundation
Newsletter, announcing that "Rajneeshism is creating a Noah's Ark of consciousness ... I say to y ou that except
this there is no other way ", increased the sense of urgency in building the Oregon commune. [1 1 8 ] In March 1984,
Sheela announced that Rajneesh had predicted the death of two-thirds of humanity from AIDS. [1 1 8 ][1 1 9 ]
Sanny asins were required to wear rubber glov es and condoms if they had sex, and to refrain from kissing,
measures widely represented in the press as an extreme ov er-reaction since condoms were not usually
recommended for AIDS prev ention because AIDS was considered a homosexual disease at that stage. [1 2 0 ][1 2 1 ]
During his residence in Rajneeshpuram, Rajneesh also dictated three books under the influence of nitrous oxide
administered to him by his priv ate dentist: Glimpses of a Golden Childhood, Notes of a Madman and Books I
Have Loved. [1 2 2 ] Sheela later stated that Rajneesh took sixty milligrams of v alium each day and was addicted to
nitrous oxide. [1 2 3 ][1 2 4 ][1 2 5 ] Rajneesh denied these charges when questioned about them by
journalists. [1 2 3 ][1 2 6 ]
At the peak of the Rajneeshpuram era, Rajneesh, assisted by a sophisticated legal and business infrastructure,
had created a corporate machine consisting of v arious front companies and subsidiaries. [1 2 7 ] At this time, the
three main identifiable entities within his organization were: the Ranch Church, or Rajneesh International
Foundation (RIF); the Rajneesh Inv estment Corporation (RIC), through which the RIF was managed; and the
Rajneesh Neo-Sanny asin International Commune (RNSIC). The umbrella organisation that ov ersaw all
inv estment activ ities was Rajneesh Serv ices International Ltd., a company incorporated in the UK but based in
Zurich. There were also smaller organisations, such as Rajneesh Trav el Corp, Rajneesh Community Holdings, and
the Rajneesh Modern Car Collection Trust, whose sole purpose was to deal with the acquisition and rental of Rolls
Roy ces. [1 2 8 ][1 2 9 ]

1984 bioterror attack

Rajneesh had coached Sheela in using media cov erage to her adv antage and during his period of public silence he
priv ately stated that when Sheela spoke, she was speaking on his behalf. [1 0 7 ] He had also supported her when
disputes about her behav iour arose within the commune leadership, but in early 1984, as tension amongst the
inner circle peaked, a priv ate meeting was conv ened with Sheela and his personal house staff. [1 0 7 ] According to
the testimony of Rajneesh's dentist, Swami Dev ageet (Charles Harv ey Newman), [1 3 0 ] she was admonished during
a meeting, with Rajneesh declaring that his house, and not hers, was the centre of the commune. [1 0 7 ] Dev ageet
claimed Rajneesh warned that Sheela's jealousy of any one close to him would inev itably make them a
target. [1 0 7 ]

Sev eral months later, on 30 October 1984, he ended his period of public silence, announcing that it was time to
"speak his own truths". [1 3 1 ][1 3 2 ] In July 1985 he resumed daily public discourses. On 16 September 1985, a few
day s after Sheela and her entire management team had suddenly left the commune for Europe, Rajneesh held a
press conference in which he labelled Sheela and her associates a "gang of fascists". [1 2 ] He accused them of
hav ing committed serious crimes, most dating back to 1984, and inv ited the authorities to inv estigate. [1 2 ]

The alleged crimes, which he stated had been committed without his knowledge or consent, included the
attempted murder of his personal phy sician, poisonings of public officials, wiretapping and bugging within the
commune and within his own home, and a bioterror attack on the citizens of The Dalles, Oregon, using
Salmonella to impact the county elections. [1 2 ] While his allegations were initially greeted with scepticism by
outside observ ers, [1 3 3 ] the subsequent inv estigation by the US authorities confirmed these accusations and
resulted in the conv iction of Sheela and sev eral of her lieutenants. [1 3 4 ] On 30 September 1985, Rajneesh denied
that he was a religious teacher. [1 3 5 ] His disciples burned 5,000 copies of Book of Rajneeshism, a 7 8-page
compilation of his teachings that defined "Rajneeshism" as "a religionless religion". [1 3 5 ][1 3 6 ] He said he ordered
the book-burning to rid the sect of the last traces of the influence of Sheela, whose robes were also "added to the
bonfire". [1 3 5 ]

The Salmonella attack is considered the first confirmed instance of chemical or biological terrorism to hav e
occurred in the United States. [1 3 7 ] Rajneesh stated that because he was in silence and isolation, meeting only
with Sheela, he was unaware of the crimes committed by the Rajneeshpuram leadership until Sheela and her
"gang" left and sanny asins came forward to inform him. [1 3 8 ] A number of commentators hav e stated that they
believ e that Sheela was being used as a conv enient scapegoat. [1 3 8 ][1 3 9 ][1 4 0 ] Others hav e pointed to the fact
that although Sheela had bugged Rajneesh's liv ing quarters and made her tapes av ailable to the US authorities as
part of her own plea bargain, no ev idence has ev er come to light that Rajneesh had any part in her
crimes. [1 4 1 ][1 4 2 ][1 4 3 ] Nev ertheless, Gordon (1987 ) reports that Charles Turner, Dav id Frohnmay er and other
law enforcement officials, who had surv ey ed affidav its nev er released publicly and who listened to hundreds of
hours of tape recordings, insinuated to him that Rajneesh was guilty of more crimes than those for which he was
ev entually prosecuted. [1 4 4 ] Frohnmay er asserted that Rajneesh's philosophy was not "disapprov ing of
poisoning" and that he felt he and Sheela had been "genuinely ev il". [1 4 4 ] Nonetheless, US Attorney Turner and
Attorney General Frohnmey er acknowledged that "they had little ev idence of (Rajneesh) being inv olv ed in any of
the criminal activ ities that unfolded at the ranch". [1 4 5 ] According to court testimony by Ma Av a (Av a Av alos), a
prominent disciple, Sheela play ed associates a tape recording of a meeting she had with Rajneesh about the "need
to kill people" in order to strengthen wav ering sanny asins' resolv e in participating in her murderous plots: "She
came back to the meeting and ... began to play the tape. It was a little hard to hear what he was say ing. ... And the
gist of Bhagwan's response, y es, it was going to be necessary to kill people to stay in Oregon. And that actually
killing people wasn't such a bad thing. And actually Hitler was a great man, although he could not say that
publicly because nobody would understand that. Hitler had great v ision."[1 0 2 ][1 4 6 ]

Av a Av alos also claimed in her testimony to the FBI inv estigators that , "Sheela informed them that Bhagwan was
not to know what was going on, and that if Bhagwan were to ask them about any thing that would occur, 'they
would hav e to lie to Bhagwan.' "[1 4 7 ]

Sheela initiated attempts to murder Rajneesh's caretaker and girlfriend, Ma Y oga Viv ek, and his personal
phy sician, Swami Dev araj (Dr. George Meredith), because she thought that they were a threat to Rajneesh. She
had secretly recorded a conv ersation between Dev araj and Rajneesh "in which the doctor agreed to obtain drugs
the guru wanted to ensure a peaceful death if he decided to take his own life". [1 0 2 ]

On 23 October 1985, a federal grand jury indicted Rajneesh and sev eral other disciples with conspiracy to ev ade
immigration laws. [1 4 8 ] The indictment was returned in camera, but word was leaked to Rajneesh's lawy er. [1 4 8 ]
Negotiations to allow Rajneesh to surrender to authorities in Portland if a warrant were issued failed. [1 4 8 ][1 4 9 ]
Rumours of a National Guard takeov er and a planned v iolent arrest of Rajneesh led to tension and fears of
shooting. [1 5 0 ] On the strength of Sheela's tape recordings, authorities later said they believ ed that there had
been a plan that sanny asin women and children would hav e been asked to create a human shield if authorities
tried to arrest Rajneesh at the commune. [1 4 4 ] On 28 October 1985, Rajneesh and a small number of sanny asins
accompany ing him were arrested aboard a rented Learjet at a North Carolina airstrip; according to federal
authorities the group was en route to Bermuda to av oid prosecution. [1 5 1 ] $58,000 in cash, 35 watches and
bracelets worth a combined $1 million were found on the aircraft. [1 5 0 ][1 5 2 ][1 5 3 ] Rajneesh had by all accounts
been informed neither of the impending arrest nor the reason for the journey . [1 4 9 ] Officials took the full ten day s
legally av ailable to transfer him from North Carolina to Portland for arraignment. [1 5 4 ] After initially pleading
"not guilty " to all charges and being released on bail, Rajneesh, on the adv ice of his lawy ers, entered an "Alford
plea"—a ty pe of guilty plea through which a suspect does not admit guilt, but does concede there is enough
ev idence to conv ict him—to one count of hav ing a concealed intent to remain permanently in the US at the time
of his original v isa application in 1981 and one count of hav ing conspired to hav e sanny asins enter into sham
marriages to acquire US residency . [1 5 5 ] Under the deal his lawy ers made with the US Attorney 's office he was
giv en a 10-y ear suspended sentence, fiv e y ears' probation and a $400,000 penalty in fines and prosecution
costs and agreed to leav e the United States, not returning for at least fiv e y ears without the permission of the
United States Attorney General. [1 3 ][1 3 4 ][1 5 3 ][1 5 6 ]

As to "preconceiv ed intent", at the time of the inv estigation and prosecution, federal court appellate cases and
the INS regulations permitted "dual intent", a desire to stay , but a willingness to comply with the law if denied
permanent residence. Further, the relev ant intent is that of the employ er, not the employ ee. [1 5 7 ] Giv en the
public nature of Rajneesh's arriv al and stay , and the aggressiv e scrutiny by the INS, Rajneesh would appear to
hav e had to be willing to leav e the US if denied benefits. The gov ernment nonetheless prosecuted him based on
preconceiv ed intent. As to arranging a marriage, the gov ernment only claimed that Rajneesh told someone who
liv ed in his house that they should get married in order to stay . [1 5 7 ] Such encouragement appears to constitute
incitement, a crime in the US, but not a conspiracy , which requires the formation of a plan and acts in
furtherance.

Travels and return to Pune: 1985–1990

Following his exit from the US, Rajneesh returned to India, landing in Delhi on 17 Nov ember 1985. He was giv en
a hero's welcome by his Indian disciples and denounced the United States, say ing the world must "put the
monster America in its place" and that "Either America must be hushed up or America will be the end of the
world."[1 5 8 ] He then stay ed for six weeks in Manali, Himachal Pradesh. When non-Indians in his party had their
v isas rev oked, he mov ed on to Kathmandu, Nepal, and then, a few weeks later, to Crete. Arrested after a few day s
by the Greek National Intelligence Serv ice (KY P), he flew to Genev a, then to Stockholm and London, but was in
each case refused entry . Next Canada refused landing permission, so his plane returned to Shannon airport,
Ireland, to refuel. There he was allowed to stay for two weeks, at a hotel in Limerick, on condition that he did not
go out or giv e talks. He had been granted a Uruguay an identity card, one-y ear prov isional residency and a
possibility of permanent residency , so the party set out, stopping at Madrid, where the plane was surrounded by
the Guardia Civil. He was allowed to spend one night at Dakar, then continued to Recife and Montev ideo. In
Uruguay , the group mov ed to a house at Punta del Este where Rajneesh began speaking publicly until 19 June,
after which he was "inv ited to leav e" for no official reason. A two-week v isa was arranged for Jamaica but on
arriv al in Kingston police gav e the group 12 hours to leav e. Refuelling in Gander and in Madrid, Rajneesh
returned to Bombay , India, on 30 July 1986. [1 5 9 ][1 6 0 ]

In January 1987 , Rajneesh returned to the ashram in Pune [1 6 1 ][1 6 2 ] where he held ev ening discourses each
day , except when interrupted by intermittent ill health. [1 6 3 ][1 6 4 ] Publishing and therapy resumed and the
ashram underwent expansion, [1 6 3 ][1 6 4 ] now as a "Multiv ersity " where therapy was to function as a bridge to
meditation. [1 6 4 ] Rajneesh dev ised new "meditation therapy " methods such as the "My stic Rose" and began to
lead meditations in his discourses after a gap of more than ten y ears. [1 6 3 ][1 6 4 ] His western disciples formed no
large communes, mostly preferring ordinary independent liv ing. [1 6 5 ] Red/orange dress and the mala were
largely abandoned, hav ing been optional since 1985. [1 6 4 ] The wearing of maroon robes—only while on ashram
premises—was reintroduced in summer 1989, along with white robes worn for ev ening meditation and black
robes for group-leaders. [1 6 4 ]

In Nov ember 1987 , Rajneesh expressed his belief that his deteriorating health (nausea, fatigue, pain in
extremities and lack of resistance to infection) was due to poisoning by the US authorities while in prison. [1 6 6 ]
His doctors and former attorney , Philip Toelkes (Swami Prem Niren), hy pothesised radiation and thallium in a
deliberately irradiated mattress, since his sy mptoms were concentrated on the right side of his body , [1 6 6 ] but
presented no hard ev idence. [1 6 7 ] US attorney Charles H. Hunter described this as "complete fiction", while
others suggested exposure to HIV or chronic diabetes and stress. [1 6 6 ][1 6 8 ]

From early 1988, Rajneesh's discourses focused exclusiv ely on Zen. [1 6 3 ] In late December, he said he no longer
wished to be referred to as "Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh", and in February 1989 took the name "Osho Rajneesh",
shortened to "Osho" in September. [1 6 3 ][1 6 9 ] He also requested that all trademarks prev iously branded with
"Rajneesh" be rebranded "OSHO". [1 7 0 ][1 8 ] His health continued to weaken. He deliv ered his last public discourse
in April 1989, from then on simply sitting in silence with his followers. [1 6 6 ] Shortly before his death, Rajneesh
suggested that one or more audience members at ev ening meetings (now referred to as the White Robe
Brotherhood) were subjecting him to some form of ev il magic. [1 7 1 ][1 7 2 ] A search for the perpetrators was
undertaken, but none could be found. [1 7 1 ][1 7 2 ]

Death
Rajneesh died on 19 January 1990, aged 58, at the ashram in Pune, India. The official cause of death was heart
failure, but a statement released by his commune claimed that he had died because "liv ing in the body had
become a hell" after alleged poisoning in US jails. [1 7 3 ] His ashes were placed in his newly built bedroom in Lao
Tzu House at the ashram in Pune. The epitaph reads, "OSHO // Nev er Born // Nev er Died // Only Visited this
Planet Earth between // Dec 11 1931 – Jan 19 1990".
Teachings
Rajneesh's teachings, deliv ered through his discourses, were not presented in an academic setting, but
interspersed with jokes. [1 7 4 ][1 7 5 ] The emphasis was not static but changed ov er time: Rajneesh rev elled in
paradox and contradiction, making his work difficult to summarise. [1 7 6 ] He delighted in engaging in behav iour
that seemed entirely at odds with traditional images of enlightened indiv iduals; his early lectures in particular
were famous for their humor and their refusal to take any thing seriously . [1 7 7 ][1 7 8 ] All such behav iour, howev er
capricious and difficult to accept, was explained as "a technique for transformation" to push people "bey ond the
mind". [1 7 7 ]

He spoke on major spiritual traditions including Jainism, Hinduism, Hassidism, Tantrism, Taoism, Sufism,
Christianity , Buddhism, on a v ariety of Eastern and Western my stics and on sacred scriptures such as the
Upanishads and the Guru Granth Sahib. [1 7 9 ] The sociologist Lewis F. Carter saw his ideas as rooted in Hindu
adv aita, in which the human experiences of separateness, duality and temporality are held to be a kind of dance
or play of cosmic consciousness in which ev ery thing is sacred, has absolute worth and is an end in itself. [1 8 0 ]
While his contemporary Jiddu Krishnamurti did not approv e of Rajneesh, there are clear similarities between
their respectiv e teachings. [1 7 6 ]

Rajneesh also drew on a wide range of Western ideas. [1 7 9 ] His belief in the unity of opposites recalls Heraclitus,
while his description of man as a machine, condemned to the helpless acting out of unconscious, neurotic
patterns, has much in common with Sigmund Freud and George Gurdjieff. [1 7 6 ][1 8 1 ] His v ision of the "new man"
transcending constraints of conv ention is reminiscent of Frederich Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil;[1 8 2 ] his
promotion of sexual liberation bears comparison to D. H. Lawrence;[1 8 3 ] and his "dy namic" meditations owe a
debt to Wilhelm Reich. [1 8 4 ]

Ego and the mind

According to Rajneesh ev ery human being is a Buddha with the capacity for enlightenment, capable of
unconditional lov e and of responding rather than reacting to life, although the ego usually prev ents this,
identify ing with social conditioning and creating false needs and conflicts and an illusory sense of identity that is
nothing but a barrier of dreams. [1 8 5 ][1 8 6 ][1 8 7 ] Otherwise man's innate being can flower in a mov e from the
periphery to the centre. [1 8 5 ][1 8 7 ]

Rajneesh v iewed the mind first and foremost as a mechanism for surv iv al, replicating behav ioural strategies that
hav e prov en successful in the past. [1 8 5 ][1 8 7 ] But the mind's appeal to the past, he said, depriv es human beings
of the ability to liv e authentically in the present, causing them to repress genuine emotions and to shut
themselv es off from joy ful experiences that arise naturally when embracing the present moment: "The mind has
no inherent capacity for joy . ... It only thinks about joy ."[1 8 7 ][1 8 8 ] The result is that people poison themselv es
with all manner of neuroses, jealousies, and insecurities. [1 8 9 ] He argued that psy chological repression, often
adv ocated by religious leaders, makes suppressed feelings re-emerge in another guise, and that sexual repression
resulted in societies obsessed with sex. [1 8 9 ] Instead of suppressing, people should trust and accept themselv es
unconditionally . [1 8 7 ][1 8 8 ] This should not merely be understood intellectually , as the mind could only
assimilate it as one more piece of information: instead meditation was needed. [1 8 9 ]

Meditation
Rajneesh presented meditation not just as a practice but as a state of awareness to be maintained in ev ery
moment, a total awareness that awakens the indiv idual from the sleep of mechanical responses conditioned by
beliefs and expectations. [1 8 7 ][1 8 9 ] He employ ed Western psy chotherapy in the preparatory stages of
meditation to create awareness of mental and emotional patterns. [1 9 0 ]
He suggested more than a hundred meditation techniques in total. [1 9 0 ][1 9 1 ] His own "activ e meditation"
techniques are characterised by stages of phy sical activ ity leading to silence. [1 9 0 ] The most famous of these
remains Dy namic Meditation™, [1 9 0 ][1 9 1 ] which has been described as a kind of microcosm of his outlook. [1 9 1 ]
Performed with closed or blindfolded ey es, it comprises fiv e stages, four of which are accompanied by
music. [1 9 2 ] First the meditator engages in ten minutes of rapid breathing through the nose. [1 9 2 ] The second ten
minutes are for catharsis: "Let whatev er is happening happen. ... Laugh, shout, scream, jump, shake—whatev er
y ou feel to do, do it!"[1 9 0 ][1 9 2 ] Next, for ten minutes one jumps up and down with arms raised, shouting Hoo!
each time one lands on the flat of the feet. [1 9 2 ][1 9 3 ] At the fourth, silent stage, the meditator stops mov ing
suddenly and totally , remaining completely motionless for fifteen minutes, witnessing ev ery thing that is
happening. [1 9 2 ][1 9 3 ] The last stage of the meditation consists of fifteen minutes of dancing and
celebration. [1 9 2 ][1 9 3 ]

Rajneesh dev eloped other activ e meditation techniques, such as the Kundalini "shaking" meditation and the
Nadabrahma "humming" meditation, which are less animated, although they also include phy sical activ ity of one
sort or another. [1 9 0 ] His later "meditativ e therapies" require sessions for sev eral day s, OSHO My stic Rose
comprising three hours of laughing ev ery day for a week, three hours of weeping each day for a second week, and
a third week with three hours of silent meditation. [1 9 4 ] These processes of "witnessing" enable a "jump into
awareness". [1 9 0 ] Rajneesh believ ed such cathartic methods were necessary because it was difficult for modern
people to just sit and enter meditation, and that once these methods had prov ided a glimpse of meditation people
would be able to use other methods without difficulty .

Sannyas
Another key ingredient was his own presence as a master: "A Master shares his being with y ou, not his
philosophy . ... He nev er does any thing to the disciple."[1 7 7 ] The initiation he offered was another such dev ice: "...
if y our being can communicate with me, it becomes a communion. ... It is the highest form of communication
possible: a transmission without words. Our beings merge. This is possible only if y ou become a disciple."[1 7 7 ]
Ultimately though, as an explicitly "self-parody ing" guru, Rajneesh ev en deconstructed his own authority ,
declaring his teaching to be nothing more than a "game" or a joke. [1 7 8 ][1 9 5 ] He emphasised that any thing and
ev ery thing could become an opportunity for meditation. [1 7 7 ]

Renunciation and the "New Man"

Rajneesh saw his "neo-sanny as" as a totally new form of spiritual discipline, or one that had once existed but since
been forgotten. [1 9 6 ] He thought that the traditional Hindu sanny as had turned into a mere sy stem of social
renunciation and imitation. [1 9 6 ] He emphasised complete inner freedom and the responsibility to oneself, not
demanding superficial behav ioural changes, but a deeper, inner transformation. [1 9 6 ] Desires were to be
accepted and surpassed rather than denied. [1 9 6 ] Once this inner flowering had taken place, desires such as that
for sex would be left behind. [1 9 6 ]

Rajneesh said that he was "the rich man's guru" and that material pov erty was not a genuine spiritual v alue. [1 9 7 ]
He had himself photographed wearing sumptuous clothing and hand-made watches[1 9 8 ] and, while in Oregon,
drov e a different Rolls-Roy ce each day – his followers reportedly wanted to buy him 365 of them, one for each
day of the y ear. [1 9 9 ] Publicity shots of the Rolls-Roy ces were sent to the press. [1 9 7 ][2 0 0 ] They may hav e
reflected both his adv ocacy of wealth and his desire to prov oke American sensibilities, much as he had enjoy ed
offending Indian sensibilities earlier. [1 9 7 ][2 0 1 ]

Rajneesh aimed to create a "new man" combining the spirituality of Gautama Buddha with the zest for life
embodied by Nikos Kazantzakis' Zorba the Greek: "He should be as accurate and objectiv e as a scientist ... as
sensitiv e, as full of heart, as a poet ... [and as] rooted deep down in his being as the my stic."[1 7 7 ][2 0 2 ] His term
the "new man" applied to men and women equally , whose roles he saw as complementary ; indeed, most of his
mov ement's leadership positions were held by women. [2 0 3 ] This new man, "Zorba the Buddha", should reject
neither science nor spirituality but embrace both. [1 7 7 ] Rajneesh believ ed humanity was threatened with
extinction due to ov er-population, impending nuclear holocaust and diseases such as AIDS, and thought many of
society 's ills could be remedied by scientific means. [1 7 7 ] The new man would no longer be trapped in institutions
such as family , marriage, political ideologies and religions. [1 7 8 ][2 0 3 ] In this respect Rajneesh is similar to other
counter-culture gurus, and perhaps ev en certain postmodern and deconstructional thinkers. [1 7 8 ]

Euthanasia and genetic selection

Rajneesh spoke many times of the dangers of ov erpopulation, and adv ocated univ ersal legalisation of
contraception and abortion. He described the religious prohibitions thereof as criminal, and argued that the
United Nations' declaration of the human "right to life" play ed into the hands of religious campaigners.

According to Rajneesh, one has no right to knowingly inflict a lifetime of suffering: life should begin only at birth,
and ev en then, "If a child is born deaf, dumb, and we cannot do any thing, and the parents are willing, the child
should be put to eternal sleep" rather than "take the risk of burdening the earth with a crippled, blind child." He
argued that this simply freed the soul to inhabit a healthy body instead: "Only the body goes back into its basic
elements; the soul will fly into another womb. Nothing is destroy ed. If y ou really lov e the child, y ou will not want
him to liv e a sev enty -y ear-long life in misery , suffering, sickness, old age. So ev en if a child is born, if he is not
medically capable of enjoy ing life fully with all the senses, healthy , then it is better that he goes to eternal sleep
and is born somewhere else with a better body ."

He stated that the decision to hav e a child should be a medical matter, and that ov ersight of population and
genetics must be kept in the realm of science, outside of politicians' control: "If genetics is in the hands of Joseph
Stalin, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, what will be the fate of the world?" He believ ed that in the right hands, these
measures could be used for good: "Once we know how to change the program, thousands of possibilities open up.
We can giv e ev ery man and woman the best of ev ery thing. There is no need for any one to suffer unnecessarily .
Being retarded, crippled, blind, ugly – all these will be possible to change."[2 0 4 ]

Rajneesh's "Ten Commandments"

In his early day s as Achary a Rajneesh, a correspondent once asked for his "Ten Commandments". In reply ,
Rajneesh said that it was a difficult matter because he was against any kind of commandment, but "just for fun",
set out the following:

1. Never obey anyone's command unless it is coming from within you also.
2. There is no God other than life itself.
3. Truth is within you, do not search for it elsewhere.
4. Love is prayer.
5. To become a nothingness is the door to truth. Nothingness itself is the means, the goal and
attainment.
6. Life is now and here.
7. Live wakefully.
8. Do not swim—float.
9. Die each moment so that you can be new each moment.
10. Do not search. That which is, is. Stop and see.

He underlined numbers 3, 7 , 9 and 10. [2 0 5 ] The ideas expressed in these Commandments hav e remained
constant leitmotifs in his mov ement. [2 0 5 ]
Legacy
While Rajneesh's teachings were not welcomed in his own home country during his lifetime, there has been a
change in Indian public opinion since Rajneesh's death. [2 0 6 ][2 0 7 ] In 1991, an Indian newspaper counted
Rajneesh, along with figures such as Gautama Buddha and Mahatma Gandhi, among the ten people who had most
changed India's destiny ; in Rajneesh's case, by "liberating the minds of future generations from the shackles of
religiosity and conformism". [2 0 8 ] Rajneesh has found more acclaim in his homeland since his death than he ev er
did while aliv e. [2 2 ] Writing in The Indian Express, columnist Tanweer Alam stated, "The late Rajneesh was a fine
interpreter of social absurdities that destroy ed human happiness."[2 0 9 ] At a celebration in 2006, marking the
7 5th anniv ersary of Rajneesh's birth, Indian singer Wasifuddin Dagar said that Rajneesh's teachings are "more
pertinent in the current milieu than they were ev er before". [2 1 0 ] In Nepal, there were 60 Rajneesh centres with
almost 45,000 initiated disciples as of January 2008. [2 1 1 ] Rajneesh's entire works hav e been placed in the
Library of India's National Parliament in New Delhi. [2 0 7 ] . The Bolly wood actor, and former Minister of State for
External Affairs, Vinod Khanna, worked as Rajneesh's gardener in Rajneeshpuram in the 1980s. [2 1 2 ] Ov er 650
books[2 1 3 ] are credited to Rajneesh, expressing his v iews on all facets of human existence. [2 1 4 ] Virtually all of
them are renderings of his taped discourses. [2 1 4 ] Many Bolly wood personalities like Mahesh Bhatt, Prav een Babi
were also known to be the followers of Rajneesh's philosophy . [2 1 5 ] His books are av ailable in more than 60
languages from more than 200 publishing houses[2 1 6 ] and hav e entered best-seller lists in Italy and South
Korea. [2 0 8 ]

Rajneesh continues to be known and published worldwide in the area of meditation and his work also includes
social and political commentary . [2 1 7 ] Internationally , after almost two decades of controv ersy and a decade of
accommodation, Rajneesh's mov ement has established itself in the market of new religions. [2 1 7 ] His followers
hav e redefined his contributions, reframing central elements of his teaching so as to make them appear less
controv ersial to outsiders. [2 1 7 ] Societies in North America and Western Europe hav e met them half-way ,
becoming more accommodating to spiritual topics such as y oga and meditation. [2 1 7 ] The Osho International
Foundation (OIF) runs stress management seminars for corporate clients such as IBM and BMW, with a reported
(2000) rev enue between $15 and $45 million annually in the US. [2 1 8 ][2 1 9 ]

Rajneesh's ashram in Pune has become the OSHO International Meditation Resort, one of India's main tourist
attractions. [2 2 0 ] Describing itself as the Esalen of the East, it teaches a v ariety of spiritual techniques from a
broad range of traditions and promotes itself as a spiritual oasis, a "sacred space" for discov ering one's self and
uniting the desires of body and mind in a beautiful resort env ironment. [2 3 ] According to press reports,
prominent v isitors hav e included politicians and media personalities. [2 2 0 ] In 2011, a national seminar on
Rajneesh's teachings was inaugurated at the Department of Philosophy of the Mankunwarbai College for Women
in Jabalpur. [2 2 1 ] Funded by the Bhopal office of the Univ ersity Grants Commission, the seminar focused on
Rajneesh's "Zorba the Buddha" teaching, seeking to reconcile spirituality with the materialist and objectiv e
approach. [2 2 1 ] As of 2013, the resort required all guests to be tested for HIV/AIDS at its Welcome Center on
arriv al. [2 2 2 ]

Reception
Rajneesh is generally considered one of the most controv ersial spiritual leaders to hav e emerged from India in
the twentieth century . [2 2 3 ][2 2 4 ] His message of sexual, emotional, spiritual, and institutional liberation, as well
as the pleasure he took in causing offense, ensured that his life was surrounded by controv ersy . [2 0 3 ] Rajneesh
became known as the "sex guru" in India, and as the "Rolls-Roy ce guru" in the United States. [1 9 7 ] He attacked
traditional concepts of nationalism, openly expressed contempt for politicians, and poked fun at the leading
figures of v arious religions, who in turn found his arrogance insufferable. [2 2 5 ][2 2 6 ] His teachings on sex,
marriage, family , and relationships contradicted traditional v alues and aroused a great deal of anger and
opposition around the world. [8 9 ][2 2 7 ] His mov ement was widely considered a cult. Rajneesh was seen to liv e "in
ostentation and offensiv e opulence", while his followers, most of whom had sev ered ties with outside friends and
family and donated all or most of their money and possessions to the commune, might be at a mere "subsistence
lev el". [1 0 1 ][2 2 8 ]

Appraisal by scholars of religion

Academic assessments of Rajneesh's work hav e been mixed and often directly contradictory . Uday Mehta saw
errors in his interpretation of Zen and Mahay ana Buddhism, speaking of "gross contradictions and
inconsistencies in his teachings" that "exploit" the "ignorance and gullibility " of his listeners. [2 2 9 ] The sociologist
Bob Mullan wrote in 1983 of "a borrowing of truths, half-truths and occasional misrepresentations from the great
traditions"... often bland, inaccurate, spurious and extremely contradictory ". [2 3 0 ] American religious studies
professor Hugh B. Urban also said Rajneesh's teaching was neither original nor especially profound, and
concluded that most of its content had been borrowed from v arious Eastern and Western philosophies. [1 7 8 ]
George Chry ssides, on the other hand, found such descriptions of Rajneesh's teaching as a "potpourri" of v arious
religious teachings unfortunate because Rajneesh was "no amateur philosopher". Drawing attention to Rajneesh's
academic background he stated that; "Whether or not one accepts his teachings, he was no charlatan when it
came to expounding the ideas of others."[2 2 4 ] He described Rajneesh as primarily a Buddhist teacher, promoting
an independent form of "Beat Zen"[2 2 4 ] and v iewed the unsy stematic, contradictory and outrageous aspects of
Rajneesh's teachings as seeking to induce a change in people, not as philosophy lectures aimed at intellectual
understanding of the subject. [2 2 4 ]

Similarly with respect to Rajneesh's embracing of western counter-culture and the human potential mov ement,
though Mullan acknowledged that Rajneesh's range and imagination were second to none, [2 3 0 ] and that many of
his statements were quite insightful and mov ing, perhaps ev en profound at times, [2 3 1 ] he perceiv ed "a potpourri
of counter-culturalist and post-counter-culturalist ideas" focusing on lov e and freedom, the need to liv e for the
moment, the importance of self, the feeling of "being okay ", the my steriousness of life, the fun ethic, the
indiv idual's responsibility for their own destiny , and the need to drop the ego, along with fear and guilt. [2 3 2 ]
Mehta notes that Rajneesh's appeal to his Western disciples was based on his social experiments, which
established a philosophical connection between the Eastern guru tradition and the Western growth
mov ement. [2 2 3 ] He saw this as a marketing strategy to meet the desires of his audience. [1 7 8 ] Urban, too, v iewed
Rajneesh as negating a dichotomy between spiritual and material desires, reflecting the preoccupation with the
body and sexuality characteristic of late capitalist consumer culture and in tune with the socio-economic
conditions of his time. [2 3 3 ]

The British professor of religious studies Peter B. Clarke said that most participators felt they had made progress
in self-actualisation as defined by American psy chologist Abraham Maslow and the human potential
mov ement. [7 0 ] He stated that the sty le of therapy Rajneesh dev ised, with its liberal attitude towards sexuality as
a sacred part of life, had prov ed influential among other therapy practitioners and new age groups. [2 3 4 ] Y et
Clarke believ es that the main motiv ation of seekers joining the mov ement was "neither therapy nor sex, but the
prospect of becoming enlightened, in the classical Buddhist sense". [7 0 ]

In 2005, Urban observ ed that Rajneesh had undergone a "remarkable apotheosis" after his return to India, and
especially in the y ears since his death, going on to describe him as a powerful illustration of what F. Max Müller,
ov er a century ago, called "that world-wide circle through which, like an electric current, Oriental thought could
run to the West and Western thought return to the East". [2 3 3 ] Clarke also said that Rajneesh has come to be "seen
as an important teacher within India itself" who is "increasingly recognised as a major spiritual teacher of the
twentieth century , at the forefront of the current 'world-accepting' trend of spirituality based on self-
dev elopment". [2 3 4 ]

Appraisal as charismatic leader

A number of commentators hav e remarked upon Rajneesh's charisma. Comparing Rajneesh with Gurdjieff,
Anthony Storr wrote that Rajneesh was "personally extremely impressiv e", noting that "many of those who
v isited him for the first time felt that their most intimate feelings were instantly understood, that they were
accepted and unequiv ocally welcomed rather than judged. [Rajneesh] seemed to radiate energy and to awaken
hidden possibilities in those who came into contact with him". [2 3 5 ] Many sanny asins hav e stated that hearing
Rajneesh speak, they "fell in lov e with him". [2 3 6 ][2 3 7 ] Susan J. Palmer noted that ev en critics attested to the
power of his presence. [2 3 6 ] James S. Gordon, a psy chiatrist and researcher, recalls inexplicably finding himself
laughing like a child, hugging strangers and hav ing tears of gratitude in his ey es after a glance by Rajneesh from
within his passing Rolls-Roy ce. [2 3 8 ] Frances FitzGerald concluded upon listening to Rajneesh in person that he
was a brilliant lecturer, and expressed surprise at his talent as a comedian, which had not been apparent from
reading his books, as well as the hy pnotic quality of his talks, which had a profound effect on his audience. [2 3 9 ]
Hugh Milne (Swami Shiv amurti), an ex-dev otee who between 197 3 and 1982 worked closely with Rajneesh as
leader of the Poona Ashram Guard[2 4 0 ] and as his personal body guard, [2 4 1 ][2 4 2 ] noted that their first meeting
left him with a sense that far more than words had passed between them: "There is no inv asion of priv acy , no
alarm, but it is as if his soul is slowly slipping inside mine, and in a split second transferring v ital
information."[2 4 3 ] Milne also observ ed another facet of Rajneesh's charismatic ability in stating that he was "a
brilliant manipulator of the unquestioning disciple". [2 4 4 ]

Hugh B. Urban said that Rajneesh appeared to fit with Max Weber's classical image of the charismatic figure,
being held to possess "an extraordinary supernatural power or 'grace', which was essentially irrational and
affectiv e". [2 4 5 ] Rajneesh corresponded to Weber's pure charismatic ty pe in rejecting all rational laws and
institutions and claiming to subv ert all hierarchical authority , though Urban said that the promise of absolute
freedom inherent in this resulted in bureaucratic organisation and institutional control within larger
communes. [2 4 5 ]

Some scholars hav e suggested that Rajneesh, like other charismatic leaders, may hav e had a narcissistic
personality . [2 4 6 ][2 4 7 ][2 4 8 ] In his paper The Narcissistic Guru: A Profile of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, Ronald O.
Clarke, Emeritus Professor of Religious Studies at Oregon State Univ ersity , argued that Rajneesh exhibited all the
ty pical features of narcissistic personality disorder, such as a grandiose sense of self-importance and uniqueness;
a preoccupation with fantasies of unlimited success; a need for constant attention and admiration; a set of
characteristic responses to threats to self-esteem; disturbances in interpersonal relationships; a preoccupation
with personal grooming combined with frequent resorting to prev arication or outright ly ing; and a lack of
empathy . [2 4 8 ] Drawing on Rajneesh's reminiscences of his childhood in his book Glimpses of a Golden
Childhood, he suggested that Rajneesh suffered from a fundamental lack of parental discipline, due to his growing
up in the care of ov erindulgent grandparents. [2 4 8 ] Rajneesh's self-av owed Buddha status, he concluded, was part
of a delusional sy stem associated with his narcissistic personality disorder; a condition of ego-inflation rather
than egolessness. [2 4 8 ]

Wider appraisal as a thinker and speaker

There are widely div ergent assessments of Rajneesh's qualities as a thinker and speaker. Khushwant Singh, an
eminent author, historian, and former editor of the Hindustan Times, has described Rajneesh as "the most
original thinker that India has produced: the most erudite, the most clearheaded and the most innov ativ e". [2 4 9 ]
Singh believ es that Rajneesh was a "free-thinking agnostic" who had the ability to explain the most abstract
concepts in simple language, illustrated with witty anecdotes, who mocked gods, prophets, scriptures, and
religious practices, and gav e a totally new dimension to religion. [2 5 0 ] The German philosopher Peter Sloterdijk
has called Rajneesh a "Wittgenstein of religions", ranking him as one of the greatest figures of the 20th century ; in
his v iew, Rajneesh had performed a radical deconstruction of the word games play ed by the world's
religions. [2 5 1 ]
During the early 1980s, a number of commentators in the popular press were dismissiv e of Rajneesh. [2 5 2 ] The
Australian critic Cliv e James scornfully referred to him as "Bagwash", likening the experience of listening to one
of his discourses to sitting in a laundrette and watching "y our tattered underwear rev olv e soggily for hours while
exuding grey suds. The Bagwash talks the way that looks."[2 5 2 ][2 5 3 ] James finished by say ing that Rajneesh,
though a "fairly benign example of his ty pe", was a "rebarbativ e dingbat who manipulates the manipulable into
manipulating one another". [2 5 2 ][2 5 3 ][2 5 4 ] Responding to an enthusiastic rev iew of Rajneesh's talks by Bernard
Lev in in The Times, Dominik Wujasty k, also writing in The Times, similarly expressed his opinion that the talk he
heard while v isiting the Poona ashram was of a v ery low standard, weary ingly repetitiv e and often factually
wrong, and stated that he felt disturbed by the personality cult surrounding Rajneesh. [2 5 2 ][2 5 5 ]

Writing in the Seattle Post Intelligencer in January 1990, American author Tom Robbins stated that based on his
readings of Rajneesh's books, he was conv inced Rajneesh was the 20th century 's "greatest spiritual teacher".
Robbins, while stressing that he was not a disciple, further stated that he had "read enough v icious propaganda
and slanted reports to suspect that he was one of the most maligned figures in history ". [2 4 9 ] Rajneesh's
commentary on the Sikh scripture known as Japuji was hailed as the best av ailable by Giani Zail Singh, the former
President of India. [2 0 7 ] In 2011, author Farrukh Dhondy reported that film star Kabir Bedi was a fan of Rajneesh,
and v iewed Rajneesh's works as "the most sublime interpretations of Indian philosophy that he had come across".
Dhondy himself said Rajneesh was "the clev erest intellectual confidence trickster that India has produced. His
output of the 'interpretation' of Indian texts is specifically slanted towards a generation of disillusioned
westerners who wanted (and perhaps still want) to 'hav e their cake, eat it' [and] claim at the same time that cake-
eating is the highest v irtue according to ancient-fused-with-scientific wisdom."[2 5 6 ]

Films about Rajneesh

1974: The first documentary film about Rajneesh was made by David M. Knipe. Program 13 of Exploring the
Religions of South Asia, "A Contemporary Guru: Rajneesh". (Madison: WHA-TV 1974)
1978: The second documentary on Rajneesh called Bhagwan, The Movie[257] was made in 1978 by American
filmmaker Robert Hillmann.
1979: In 1978 the German film maker Wolfgang Dobrowolny (Sw Veet Artho) visited the Ashram in Poona and
created a unique documentary about Rajneesh, his Sannyasins and the ashram, titled Ashram in Poona: Bhagwans
Experiment.[258][259]
1981: In 1981, the BBC broadcast a documentary titled The God that Fled, made by British American journalist
Christopher Hitchens.[253][260]
1985 (November 3): CBS News' 60 Minutes aired a segment about the Bhagwan in Oregon.
1987: In the mid-eighties Jeremiah Films produced a film Fear is the Master[261] which contains rare footage that
was shot behind the closed doors of Rajneeshpuram.
1989: Another documentary, named Rajneesh: Spiritual Terrorist, was made by Australian film maker Cynthia
Connop in the late 1980s for ABC TV/Learning Channel.[262]
1989: UK documentary series called Scandal produced an episode entitled, "Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh: The Man
Who Was God".[263]
2010: A Swiss documentary, titled Guru – Bhagwan, His Secretary & His Bodyguard, was released in 2010.[264]
2012: Oregon Public Broadcasting produced the documentary titled Rajneeshpuram which aired 19 November
2012.[265]
2016: Rebellious Flower, an Indian-made biographical movie of Rajneesh's early life, based upon his own
recollections and those of those who knew him, was released. It was written and produced by Jagdish Bharti and
directed by Krishan Hooda, with Prince Shah and Shashank Singh playing the title role.[266]
2018: Wild Wild Country, a Netflix documentary series on Rajneesh, focusing on Rajneeshpuram and the
controversies surrounding it.[267]

Selected discourses
On the say ings of Jesus: The Mustard Seed (the Gospel of Thomas)
Come Follow to You Vols. I – IV
On Tao:
On Kabir:

Tao: The Three Treasures (The Tao Te Ching of Lao

Ecstasy: The Forgotten Language
Tzu), Vol I – IV
The Divine Melody
The Empty Boat (Stories of Chuang Tzu)
The Path of Love
When the Shoe Fits (Stories of Chuang Tzu)
On Buddhist T antra:
On Gautam a Buddha:
Tantra: The Supreme Understanding
The Dhammapada (Vols. I – X)
The Tantra Vision
The Discipline of Transcendence (Vols. I – IV)
On Patanjali and Yoga:
The Heart Sutra
The Diamond Sutra Yoga: The Alpha and the Omega Vols. I – X
On Zen: (reprinted as Y oga, the Science of the Soul)

Neither This nor That (On the Xin Xin Ming of Sosan) On Meditation m ethods:
No Water, No Moon
Returning to the Source The Book of Secrets, Vols. I – V
And the Flowers Showered Meditation: the Art of Inner Ecstasy
The Grass Grows by Itself The Orange Book
Nirvana: The Last Nightmare Meditation: The First and Last Freedom
The Search (on the Ten Bulls) Learning to Silence the Mind
Dang dang dok o dang T alks based on questions:
Ancient Music in the Pines
I Am the Gate
A Sudden Clash of Thunder
The Way of the White Clouds
Zen: The Path of Paradox
The Silent Explosion
This Very Body the Buddha (on Hakuin's Song of
Meditation) Dimensions Beyond the Known
Roots and Wings
On the Baul m y stics:
The Rebel
The Beloved Darshan interv iews:
On Sufis:
Hammer on the Rock
Until You Die Above All, Don't Wobble
Just Lik e That Nothing to Lose but your Head
Unio Mystica Vols. I and II (on the poetry of Sanai) Be Realistic: Plan for a Miracle
On Hassidism : The Cypress in the Courtyard
Get Out of Your Own Way
The True Sage Beloved of my Heart
The Art of Dying A Rose is a Rose is a Rose
On the Upanishads: Dance your way to God
The Passion for the Impossible
I am That – Talks on Isa Upanishad
The Great Nothing
The Supreme Doctrine
God is not for Sale
The Ultimate Alchemy Vols. I and II
The Shadow of the Whip
Vedanta: Seven Steps to Samadhi
Blessed are the Ignorant
On Heraclitus: The Buddha Disease
Being in Love
The Hidden Harmony
See also
1984 Rajneeshee bioterror attack
1985 Rajneeshee assassination plot
2010 Pune bombing
Byron v. Rajneesh Foundation International
Osho Times
Vijnana Bhairava Tantra

Notes
1. "His lawyers, however, were already negotiating with the United States Attorney's office and, on 14 November he
returned to Portland and pleaded guilty to two felonies; making false statements to the immigration authorities in
1981 and concealing his intent to reside in the United States." (FitzGerald 1986b, p. 111)
2. "The Bhagwan may also soon need his voice to defend himself on charges he lied on his original temporary-visa
application: if the immigration service proves he never intended to leave, the Bhagwan could be deported."
(Newsweek , Bhagwan's Realm: (https://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nealkarlen.com%2Fn
ewsweek%2Fbhagwan.shtml&date=2012-03-24) The Oregon cult with the leader with 90 golden Rolls Royces, 3
December 1984, United States Edition, National Affairs Pg. 34, 1915 words, Neal Karlen with Pamela Abramson in
Rajneeshpuram.)
3. "Facing 35 counts of conspiring to violate immigration laws, the guru admitted two charges: lying about his reasons
for settling in the U.S. and arranging sham marriages to help foreign disciples join him." (American Notes, Time
Magazine, Monday, November 1985, available here (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1050625-2,0
0.html) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20090709072745/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,10
50625-2,00.html) 9 July 2009 at the Wayback Machine)

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Further reading
Appleton, Sue (1987), Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh: The Most Dangerous Man Since Jesus Christ, Cologne: Rebel
Publishing House, ISBN 3-89338-001-9.
Bharti, Ma Satya (1981), Death Comes Dancing: Celebrating Life With Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, London, Boston,
MA and Henley: Routledge, ISBN 0-7100-0705-1.
Bharti Franklin, Satya (1992), The Promise of Paradise: A Woman's Intimate Story of the Perils of Life With
Rajneesh, Barrytown, NY: Station Hill Press, ISBN 0-88268-136-2.
 Braun, Kirk (1984), Rajneeshpuram: The Unwelcome Society, West Linn, OR: Scout Creek Press, ISBN 0-930219-
00-7.
Brecher, Max (1993), A Passage to America, Mumbai, India: Book Quest Publishers.
FitzGerald, Frances (1986), Cities on a Hill: A Journey Through Contemporary American Cultures, New York, NY:
Simon & Schuster, ISBN 0-671-55209-0. (Includes a 135-page section on Rajneeshpuram previously published in
two parts in The New York er magazine, 22 September, and 29 September 1986 editions.)
Forman, Juliet (2002) [1991], Bhagwan: One Man Against the Whole Ugly Past of Humanity, Cologne: Rebel
Publishing House, ISBN 3-89338-103-1.
Goldman, Marion S. (1999), Passionate Journeys – Why Successful Women Joined a Cult, The University of
Michigan Press, ISBN 0-472-11101-9
Guest, Tim (2005), My Life in Orange: Growing up with the Guru, London: Granta Books, ISBN 1-86207-720-7.
Gunther, Bernard (Swami Deva Amit Prem) (1979), Dying for Enlightenment: Living with Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh,
New York, NY: Harper & Row, ISBN 0-06-063527-4.
Hamilton, Rosemary (1998), Hellbent for Enlightenment: Unmask ing Sex, Power, and Death With a Notorious
Master, Ashland, OR: White Cloud Press, ISBN 1-883991-15-3.
Latkin, Carl A.; Sundberg, Norman D.; Littman, Richard A.; Katsikis, Melissa G.; Hagan, Richard A. (1994),
"Feelings after the fall: former Rajneeshpuram Commune members' perceptions of and affiliation with the Rajneeshee
movement" (https://web.archive.org/web/20080312222811/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0SOR/is_n1_v55/ai_
15383493), Sociology of Religion, 55 (1): 65–74, doi:10.2307/3712176 (https://doi.org/10.2307%2F3712176),
archived from the original (http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0SOR/is_n1_v55/ai_15383493/) on 12 March 2008,
retrieved 4 May 2008.
McCormack, Win (1985), Oregon Magazine: The Rajneesh Files 1981–86, Portland, OR: New Oregon Publishers,
Inc.
Palmer, Susan Jean (1994), Moon Sisters, Krishna Mother, Rajneesh Lovers: Women's Roles in New Religions,
Syracuse University Press, ISBN 978-0-8156-0297-2
Quick, Donna (1995), A Place Called Antelope: The Rajneesh Story, Ryderwood, WA: August Press, ISBN 0-
9643118-0-1.
Shay, Theodore L. (1985), Rajneeshpuram and the Abuse of Power, West Linn, OR: Scout Creek Press.
Thompson, Judith; Heelas, Paul (1986), The Way of the Heart: The Rajneesh Movement, Wellingborough, UK: The
Aquarian Press (New Religious Movements Series), ISBN 0-85030-434-2.

Zaitz, Les. 25 years after Rajneeshee commune collapsed, truth spills out. (http://www.oregonlive.com/rajneesh/inde
x.ssf/2011/04/part_one_it_was_worse_than_we.html) The Oregonian. 2011.

External links
Osho International Foundation website (https://www.osho.com/)
Osho World Foundation website (https://www.oshoworld.com/) –
Osho archive collection (https://archive.org/search.php?query=osho)
Zaitz, Les (14 April 2011). "Rajneeshees in Oregon: The Untold History" (http://www.oregonlive.com/rajneesh/index.s
sf/page/post.html). The Oregonian. Retrieved 25 April 2018. (updated 12 July 2017).
Turnquist, Kristi (19 March 2018). "Netflix documentary on Rajneeshees in Oregon revisits an amazing, enraging
true story" (http://www.oregonlive.com/tv/2018/03/netflix_documentary_on_rajnees.html). The Oregonian. Retrieved
25 April 2018.
Osho bibliography (http://www.sannyas.wiki/index.php?title=Osho_Bibliography) – On Sannyas Wiki site, a site
devoted to Osho's work, his discourses, his books, and the music made around him

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