This rare footage below is interesting if you can bear with the ads of the time. The big wigs of the Ranch actually come over okay in a way, and one would never imagine at the time that within a few months of this everything collapsed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ck8KunA9s28
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When one sees this footage it gives the impression in 32 years centuries have passed. People in the video look from another age with obsolete software.
It is not even nostalgic but a case study how cult mind works and how it becomes necessary for the state to uproot and discard it.
I was surprised at how confident, well homeworked, apparently drug-free and untrammelled all the spokespeople for the Ranch seemed.
Given that within a few months they all seemed ‘shot’ to me, and sort of destroyed.
Parmartha, it seems like you were one of those innocent and faithful ones who did everything as per the books; sometimes accident happens not because you are a bad driver but other is the asshole.
I am sure you are one of those who have still some void within as betrayal of devotional trust has its own impact.
One must be very shrewd and player type to say it matters not, yesterday is yesterday. Because sannyas collective has treated complexity of emotions in a very easy way in the disguise of love, therefore has no idea to deal with the ghosts of past affecting the present.
In a way it is wonderful. Nature is much smarter than any master and any of disciples. Those who break the laws in over-smartness get caught sooner or later. Laws of Cosmic laws are too long.
I have also a void within to see how final creation of Osho as commune being mutated by the same old players, yet it feels like Nature’s way.
I must say in Osho’s case there was no need of enemies from other religions, his own people are enough to sink the ship. When a big store fails, few employees use their experience to be entrepreneurs. These herbalists and meditation camp takers are such kiosk-holders. Surely I will never ever buy any product from them.
I sympathise more with the legitimate concerns of the Antelopians this time round. I haven’t watched it all but he’s a good interviewer/moderator. I think.
The ‘Rajneeshees’ are ok mostly, except for Sheela who (as usual) comes across as shrill, aggressive and problematic as Osho’s manager. It was never going to end well with her in charge, she was not emotionally up to the job, and should never have been raised so high. Shame we have no footage of Osho, above it all in his bunker, high on hippie crack.
This is “cult mind”, as Shantam says. File under, ‘Life Lessons Learned.’
“I sympathise more with the legitimate concerns of the Antelopians…”
Totally agree, Dominic. At the time, in the UK, hearing how disrespectful the Ranch powers-that-be were to the locals, coming across as arrogant, conceited know-it-alls, I recall feeling most uneasy, thinking that lot don’t represent me, and fearing the worst.
What, I wonder, was Osho’s attitude to all this? It’s one thing to give his people “a taste of fascism” (if indeed that was his intention) but quite another to allow them to perpetrate the same on ‘ordinary people’.
This particularly because some histories of the Ranch say how things were really falling apart by 1984…and the SMT governance of the Ranch was totally undermined by the ‘madness’ of Sheela and her close friends, their use of uppers and downers, and the plans they were making at this time for terrorisim in the local town.
Something does not really fit.
Around 48, 49th minute of video, the foxy lady called Sheela introduces herself, President of Rajneesh foundation International! And I remembered the present cool operator of Osho Foundation International, who works behind the scenes and has the staying capacity of Robert Mugabe.
I must say, majority of people attracted to Osho´s communes were innocent, intelligent humans with deep divine longings of merging and oneness.
As it is said, few rotten fishes are enough to destroy the whole pond. When founder of Sannyas collective was busy in hitting competitive organisations his rotten fishes were having a field day of competition among themselves to rise in the eyes of their boss. They could also find out weaknesses and character flaws of the human who was carrying masterly soul.
Watched the Money Express video for about 10 mins. I do not share a fascination for this sort of time capsule footage. I have seen it all before in rehashed formats. It does not help knowing the story’s ending either. All that enthusiasm, energy, money and stupidity to create what exactly? A big mess that some say cost Osho his life, although the jury is still out on that one.
As I said in an earlier post, there is hopefully more to the sannyas scene today than going over old vids from thirty years ago. Some more current topics, please.
Without freedom of speech, there is no freedom. That has always plagued the guru pyramid scheme model and made it unworkable and beyond redemption in my book. Coupled with no-mind foolosophies that have attempted to short-circuit people’s healthy responses and critical thinking.
We want to belong, but the dark side of trading personal integrity for it is too high a price. Today ‘hate speech’ and political correctness is more of the same mind control, in different clothes.
For obedience to authority, watch the Milgram and Stanford prison experiments on YT….
I always felt Osho allowed Sheela do to what she did on purpose. He took a step back and allowed her to take control. Later he said in a discourse: “I wanted you to have a taste of fascism”.
I think Sheela was a device Osho used to undermine any trust in authority, so that even after his death, sannyasins will not blindly trust any authority the way Christians trust the Pope.
Otherwise, it doesn’t make sense.
I meditate, I’m not enlightened — but I am able to read people’s thoughts and feel when someone has bad intentions. It is impossible that Sheela had interactions with Osho and even tried to KILL him and kill his closest disciples, Amrito and Vivek – and for him not to get a whiff of it.
I would have smelled a rat. I immediately feel when something is off…and I am just a meditator.
So I am more and more convinced Osho allowed Sheela to do what she did on purpose – only he did not realize she would go this far.
—
“I had chosen Sheela to be my secretary to give you a little taste of what fascism means. Now, live my way. Be responsible, so that there is no need for anybody to dictate to you.”
From Bondage to Freedom, ch. 4
“Q: WHEN I WAS HERE LAST WEEK I RECALL YOU SAYING DURING ONE OF YOUR ADDRESSES TO THE COMMUNE MEMBERS THAT YOU PURPOSEFULLY CHOSE SHEELA AND WILLINGLY ALLOWED HER TO CONTINUE WHAT YOU CALLED HER REIGN OF TERROR IN ORDER TO GIVE YOUR FOLLOWERS WHAT YOU REFERRED TO AS A TASTE OF FASCISM. WERE YOU SERIOUS OR WAS THIS A JOKE?
A: Serious.
Q: DOES THAT MEAN, THEN, THAT GENERALLY YOU DID KNOW OF SOME OF THE THINGS THAT SHEELA MUST BE DOING?
A: No. I did not know anything that she was doing. One thing I knew, that she will do something which will give a taste to the commune of fascism. And it is good to have a taste of fascism so that you don’t get into the trap again.
And it is better to give that experience while I am here.
I stopped it before it could have become too much. And now my people will remain aware, and they will know how it happens, how it grows and how it destroys everybody’s freedom, individuality, integrity.
I was absolutely serious when I said it.”
The Last Testament, vol 3, ch. 4
“It was a very general statement. A taste of fascism is good exercise for all those who are going to live longer than me. Once I am gone, if then somebody starts becoming fascist, it will be impossible for them to stop it. But now I have destroyed that possibility completely.”
The Last Testament, vol. 3, ch. 4
—
Apparently not. It is enough to ban some people from the Resort, and threaten everyone else with being banned – and no one will challenge you.
The sannyasins will say “baaa! baaa!” like the obedient sheep they are.
Well, yes, Osho said so himself in his Epic Rap Battle with Krishnamurti that took place only a few weeks ago in the Akashik ether:
“You said that truth is a pathless land but you just talked and talked it
I started my own religion and then went out and walked it.
You railed against the evil of organisations and religions
But I got my homies to go right out and live `em.
So listen up to my rhythm and get the wisdom of my mission:
You`ve got to get into it to get out of it if you follow my vision.
That`s why I busted their egos with a little taste of fascism:
I just set ‘em free of all that mental prison
Now they floating thru the empty sky without the help of -isms.”
And maybe the Inner Circle are still administering doses of fascism to those who haven`t got the message yet?
If so, they are certainly ‘doing Osho`s work’!
Social bots can rhyme and rap.
No doubt about it, Frank…waiting for ´thumbs up’?
You won´t get mine. You got lost in repetitive trances, I´d say.
Madhu
Good Rap, Frankie boy….
A P.S:
For bystander-buddhies moving hands on the keyboards etc. and as the viral wave is getting stronger here also in that well known and ever again used racist contemporary way from contributors who always claim to have a very special HERE-AND-NOW connection – like you, Scotsman Lokesh.
What would be probably never, ever come up as a ‘rap’ is:
“Why do you observe the splinter in your brother’s eye and never notice the plank in your own?”
That – amongst other privileges – meditation is about. is it not, Lokesh, Parmartha, other SN regulars and team?
Madhu
“Without freedom of speech, there is no freedom. That has always plagued the guru pyramid scheme.”
Very good point, Dominic.
Osho says, “I had chosen Sheela to be my secretary to give you a little taste of what fascism means.”
Sounds like spin. Perhaps, had Osho grown up in Europe, he would have realised Adolf Hitler did a good job of that for many generations to come. Germany is today one of the countries most opposed to fascism in the world, although some people will never learn.
Here is a link that encapsulates today in Germany. The German Volk learned their lessons well…they are nice!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMQkV5cTuoY
“Osho says, “I had chosen Sheela to be my secretary to give you a little taste of what fascism means.” ”
This is just rationalisation. One can always give things a meaning when they have passed.
I have heard that he did not like that desert land. So the simple reason that everything collapsed could be that he wanted to return home to India. Just another view.
Haha, nice! Yes, sounds like spin or rather, damage limitation and manipulative lying by Osho, using the old crazy wisdom/device joker card. Only by sheer luck, nobody was killed.
Has the German collective mind really changed that much, obediently replacing one form of fascist brainwashing for another, replacing Hitler’s national socialism with Merkel’s multikulti socialism? Her EUtopia is a Fourth Reich Hitler would have envied, without needing to fire a shot, and arguably more destructive to the future of Europe.
Dominic declares, “Her EUtopia is a Fourth Reich Hitler would have envied, without needing to fire a shot, and arguably more destructive to the future of Europe.”
Sounds like something he read in a cheap sensationalist newspaper. I wonder what kind of factual evidence exists to back up such a negative scenario. After all, there are not any concentration camps or gas chambers in Germany. Germany also took in by far the most refugees from the Middle East wars even though they have little direct involvement with them.
Germany is a federal, parliamentary and representative democratic republic that guarantees civil liberties, political rights and freedom of press. So, Dominic, perhaps a clear and detailed explanation is in order to back up your claim.
Well, Lokesh, sounds like you believe what THEY want you to believe
Let’s keep it simple.
The EU is a dictatorial superstate with Germany at the centre (Fourth Reich/EUSSR)
importing millions of mostly male migrants (without consultation) with a totalitarian ideology (Islamofascism), population replacement, high Islamic birthrate, low western birthrate (European genocide), freedom of speech and press disappearing (‘hate speech’ laws, internet monitoring etc.).
The Fourth Reich/EUSSR (a political union no one voted for) is being created by destroying national sovereignty and having centralized, unelected control. Importing millions who will vote for the left, and creating cheap mobile labour force for big business. The war is fought with indoctrination in education, media, government etc.
Unlike with Hitler, the results will be largely irreversible. Europe, that built the modern world, is committing suicide with its immigration policies. Far from protecting civil rights, its governments have placed its native population more at risk from terrorism and civil conflict. Life for women in particular is more dangerous, Sweden now the rape capital of Europe, thanks to immigration. No one ever gets prosecuted for the hundreds of thousands of cases of fgm in this country do they? The countries who are fighting back this madness are ex-Soviet ones (Czech, Hungary Poland…) who know what it’s like to live under dictatorship.
There is compassion and there is IDIOT compassion. Even the Dalai Lama agrees, or Morrissey…
https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/881924/Morrissey-Angela-Merkel-Germany-immigration-migrant-crisis-crime
Some Oregon parallels…
Sheela brought in busloads of homeless people (‘refugees’) so as to outvote the Antelope population and help takeover.
It’s the Achilles heel of western democracies: accelerate mass immigration, offer free stuff and the Left’s power will grow, to the detriment of the native population (unaffordable housing, lowering of wages, pressure on services and infrastructure etc.).
Merkel’s background in East Germany is agitprop Marxist-Leninism. Merkel is also Sheela in a wig!
“Merkel’s background in East Germany is agitprop Marxist-Leninism. Merkel is also Sheela in a wig!”
That’s bullshit.
Merkel, as daughter of a Protestant pastor, did let the refugees into the country because of her Christian duty.
I guess with Brexit one can enjoy national sovereignty and its consequences. Sounds very much right wing, your text.
How is the UKIP going with “I want my country back”?
‘Christian Duty’ – oh my God! The only duty is to Allan Snackbar and his invasion force!
Whatever her motives (you can google for her background) it is a calamity for germany, for Europe and for her. She has blood on her hands.
Truly, if you want to help genuine refugees, this is not the way. You can help millions more, including the most vulnerable women and children, by setting up safe zones in their own homelands and cultures. This opening of the borders helps no-one long term, and destabilises the West.
The only people you are helping are the people-traffickers helping to fund terrorist groups, and the globalists (perhaps you are one) who want to destroy the integrity of nation states and European Christian-based culture, to further their ends for a centralised superstate.
The Left (now morphed into liberals, progressives, feminists, pc-ism etc) is the new fascism. It is not ‘far right’ to want to preserve your culture and avoid becoming a minority in your own country which has taken thousands of years to build, and then be dictated to by an unelected oligarchy. It is just common sense, and no other countries round the world, apart from the leftie brainwashed West, would put up with it.
Are you German, Satchit? The obedience of Germans is both their strength and weakness, whether they are being told to hate others or (Christian duty/Nazi guilt) hate themselves!
Ja, ja, Dominic, you think you know the Germans very well?
I know your argumentation. Nobody leaves the frontiers here open long-term. It was just a special situation at that time at the railway station in Budapest.
Yes, I’m German. And you British, I guess? Our countries are not so different. In both countries the rate of Muslims is around 5% of the total population.
But the rate of Islamophobia is much higher.
Wow, bullseye! You guys don’t seem to learn, whether wiping out other cultures or your own. I like Germans anyway. Seems you’ve swallowed the ‘schwachsinn’.
There is no islamophobia, a made-up word by the left to shut everybody up. But there is beheadophobia, explodophobia, truckophobia, shariaphobia, halalophobia, misogynophobia, etc. etc. It is a totalitarian supremacist ideology, however nice the people may be.
Research its founder, history, beliefs, countries and how minorities are treated there, not to mention the ethnic conflict. With its high birth rate, it’s bad news for the West and the damage is irreversible.
What we have is islamocommunism, two globalist fascist ideologies exchanging vows, while it suits them – a marriage made in hell.
My nearest city has two mosques there (last I heard – could be more now) and a Muslim population, and I have to say it enhances the city for me.
When I step into one of their shops near to the mosque that sells everything under the sun I feel as if I am in India.
Shanti,
To get the India vibe, I usually get a Bollywood movie out, turn it right up so that it distorts heavily, forget to flush the toilet for a few days, get the dog to pee on my carpet, turn the heating all over the house to the max, join a tube from my running car exhaust into the living room, squat on the floor, light some incense, take a deep breath, and moving my head from side to side, say:
“Acha
Hari Om
Tic hai!”
Do you know this song? The Muslims will rise in Europe. Good posts, Dominic. Sheela in a wig!
The British want their sovereignty back and looks like they will get it. Don’t think it will do them much good. I am all for the EU. But you are right. This song just about sums it up. An old favourite.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ustXRPke9lM
Godwin’s law (or Godwin’s rule of Hitler analogies) is an internet adage that asserts that “As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Hitler approaches 1″; that is, if an online discussion (regardless of topic or scope) goes on long enough, sooner or later someone will compare someone or something to Adolf Hitler or his deeds.
The British who “want their sovereignty back” were 51% of 72% which makes 36% who were conned by a lying, sociopathic old Etonian and a racist, pain-killer addicted banker who`s only got one ball!
That said, the EU does have a very nasty totalitarian edge, which will only get worse with time. Ask Varoufakis.
It`s a Zen koan.
Whoever you vote for, the government gets in!
It reminds me of the haiku I saw scrawled on the toilet wall of the Osho steakhouse in Poughkeepsie:
Slip into no-mind
It’s the only way to escape
The thought police.
Good song, Lokesh. Love Europe, hate the EU! Don’t know what good it will do either, most politicians being what they are. It’s in their nature…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwtQSNEOivk
Sadly Frank, ‘no-mind’, as it turns out, was just another trick by the thought police to keep the suckers sedated..
“Wow, bullseye! You guys don’t seem to learn, whether wiping out other cultures or your own. I like Germans anyway. Seems you’ve swallowed the ‘schwachsinn’.”
No, I don’t swallow your “schwachsinn”.
What nations do or not do is not relevant.
What matters is the individual.
Dominic, you have a sharp mind, well aware about the happenings around us.
I like such people who watch global drama happening around us rather than just breath.
Can you share some biographical notes about you, like academic education, work experience and importantly, connection with Osho, sannyasins and meditation?
Thanks, Shantam, but I politely decline. Not to appear secretive, I just have no energy for it. Safe to say, Poona 2 was my favourite cult period as well
Pune 2 or Pune 1 – at that time it was a spiritual movement. The way spoiled milk becomes curdy, the past from the present´s eyes creates the impression of a cult.
The cult management may call their headquarters the resort as if it is in the league of other wellness resorts in the West; humanity is not stupid enough to see, robes-wearing collective is a cult.
One of the prerequisites of the cult is, “We decide, You follow.”
This is how we do it in Christendom.
Feed the poor!
…..
If you go to meet a Master and he shouts, “Tofu Bratwurst!”, it doesn`t necessarily mean he`s throwing you a zen koan. It doesn`t mean he’s asking his women for more food, either. He could just still be enlightened but just gone a bit…cuckoo.
Maybe that`s what happened to Osho in the desert sun.
He started off with his cowboy theme well, and the project city of love with its utopian dreams kept the red and pink crews busy working away all week.
Osho loved to go for long drives in the desert, his gas-guzzling Roller churning up clouds of dust as he sat behind the wheel, silver-mirrored shades on.
But then people wondered what was going on with Osho`s colourful car collection, his robotic doors, his love of shoulder pads, that must have been inspired by Michael Jackson.
”What`s all this?” people thought as they watched videos of uzi-clad guards walking next to Rajneesh, smiling as he waved his hands in rhythm with the music, driving slowly past his dancing, sunset-clothed fans.
I remember in a documentary, an old police chief remarking how the first thing he saw when he drove onto the Ranch was a couple making love openly on a bridge. ”The whole place had a feeling of evil to it”, he declared.
Osho kept aggravating the locals by slagging off Jesus Christ and Christianity as soon as he started talking again. On live tv, he compared Mahatma Gandhi to Hitler.
And then the news broke of the poisonings, the wiretapping and the murder attempts.
Had he gone mad? People wondered, or had he been an accomplice in Sheela`s crimes?
She produced a tape, that wasn`t clear and with Osho`s muffled voice on it. But she had doctored Osho`s recordings and books before and had been messing around with bits of tape and sellotape in her underground bunker.
Had Osho gone nuts?
I cannot think of any other spiritual figure who played with his life in the way Osho did when he went to America. Except for perhaps the Japanese master who hid all the fireworks in his robes before he was burned.
Today I was thinking, how rare is the talent to create institutions and how much sincerity of purpose is needed to give them towering height. How many of us can chalk the path of Aldi, Ikea, Amazon or Pepsico kind? What to say about creating spiritual organisation on its own from the very scratch?
I read with great interest the business stories and mostly the people behind them, I feel a sense of ‘wow’ but my heart bows down only for Osho; not because of his oratory but dreaming a vision and giving it shape on a geographical basis.
To be true, Rajneeshpuram was born to be doomed. There are many socio-political reasons behind it and i wonder why Osho aka Bhagwan of that time ignored the layers of collective psychology surrounding human beings.
But Pune 2 he left as a complete creation where nothing could be added, nothing could be subtracted. Its downfall is the blot to the human intelligence. It is the downfall at which mediocre minds who cannot find the solutions have started saying, “Osho´s work is not confined to an address.”
Simply mental lethargy; if such people even become enlightened, I won´t have any enviousness!
All the organisations around Osho, including Poona 1 and Poona 2, and endless Poonas, and Rajneeshpuram were flawed. And also in the current day, whether it be Arun, Keerti or Amrito or anyone else!
For whatever reason, the paradigm of ‘Master/disciple’ was mainly fully encouraged, and was mistaken. Within the organisations it can so easily be reduced to ‘obedience’.
That is why I would think that Krishnamurti, UG, and also J, and Barry Long, and quite a few others discouraged ‘organisations’ around them, and especially those based on grandiose notions like a ‘Master’.
The idea of a Master is a sop to those who need a psychological security which does not in fact exist. A large part of it is based on a need for a paternal figure who is fault-free and has an answer to everything, not a friend who together explores and mutually shares issues with one. This latter is the best human model, and also the most elusive!
Some forms of Sufism, I feel, are based on this, and I am very sorry to learn that the mosque that was blown up in Egypt overnight was basically inspired by a Sufi vision. Just the sort of thing that really upsets fundamentalisms in all their guises…and would explain why it was attacked and many, many killed.
All the more reason to stay underground, and cloak oneself in apparent convention, whilst inwardly living one’s private and mysterious life, and seeing those conventions are rubbish.
“For whatever reason, the paradigm of “Master/disciple” was mainly fully encouraged, and was mistaken.”
As far as I remember, he called the Master/disciple paradigm a passage, is it not? It is not the end.
Certainly all organisations fail because they belong to the world, to the momentary. They don’t belong to the eternal.
Without living master or living community, chances to get trapped in priesthood is immense. It is a drug.
Shut up, Sheela!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5q6A7swQjIk
This ‘anti-Sheela conditioning’ is so strong among mostly all sannyasin kids who were barely teenagers at that time; some non-Gujarati sannyasins still use the word ‘gujrati’ to abuse anyone they don’t approve of!
Sometimes really I thank God for not having me during the Rajneeshpuram phase, especially since they worked for 18 hours as I was told by sannyasins who were there at that time.
Based on this Gujrati history, I think to nudge westerns soon there will be a new expression, “Don´t try to be a doctor.” or “Swami, are you From Edmonton?”
People who are interested in doing post-mortem of short-lived history of Rajneeshpuram should ask, “Who were the beneficiaries of Sheela´s departure?” Most probably these very people must have created a rift between her and her Bhagwan!
If I had kids my conditioning would be ‘An apple a day keeps the doctor away’, ‘Keep your teeth healthy so you won’t need a dentist (laughing gas)’, ‘Wash your own laundry’, ‘Be your own secretary’, ‘Fall deeply in love with a lawyer so you can learn how to out-law legally’!!!
The list is endless, thank God again I was saved the trouble!
Thank God for having me during the Rajneeshpuram phase as a sannyasin, Kavita, so I really can make some discernment amidst all the crap of rumours which are filling some obscure talk show corners in and out of the internet or social networks.
Priya Huffman (Boulder) has left some beautiful reviews in Oshonews about her time on the Oregon ranch and otherwise, and maybe you´d like to read it, as it is an integrated piece from a mature and an experienced being.
She is meanwhile an author (poetry), artist (pottery), a Jungian Therapist and a mother.I love her deeply and owe her much gratefulness in so-called Pune I and especially so-called phase on the Ranch. Her review is trustworthy (if you are interested).
You don´t have kids of your ´own´, I presume, Kavita, so your long list of prescriptions you added then at lunch break time will all serve yourself very well, I guess. And thank you for sharing.
Madhu
Your lunch break time, Madhu, is my post-siesta time/tea-time. Yhose are lessons learnt, not prescriptions at all actually.
Thanx for the read-suggestion.
Growing their own organic vegetables and produce, building their own dam structures and lakes, trying to create a peaceful environment as an example to the world of how things could happen. That is what the pink and red crews did in the desert.
It was a labour of love.
They didn’t just grow vegetables but reared chickens and they had a herd of cows as well.
Any other plans for the future?
I have seen other groups of people come together, some of them take their clothes off under the sun and grow most of their own foods organically and live close to Nature. But these were people living in simple means, with perhaps solar panels as the only technology.
The red and orange crews were different. They had cement mixers and road building equipment. They built their own helipads and airport. They had their infrastructure and their own telephone system. There were watchtowers around the perimeter reminiscent of the towers around Worthy Farm- except the guards had machine guns.
The other thing. They had no childbirths there at all for five years.