The Growth Groups Parmartha explores a few issues
Christopher Calder, once a very early sannyasin, and now internet critic of Osho and the sannyas movement, questions the development of psychological growth groups in the seventies ashram, and presumably subsequently, saying that they have nothing to do with enlightenment or meditation or the search of truth, and that the only reason for their inclusion in the ashram activities was to swell the coffers of the ashram economy. (Actually the groups were costed at less than a quarter of the costs of such groups in the west at the time).
I cannot agree with Calder. Of course some vulnerable candidates got into the seventies groups, as is the case with what was an already quite large organisation who should never have been there. But such a criticism could equally be leveled for example at the Esalen Institute, or organisations such as Quasitor or Community (here in London) at the time. How to avoid the entry of such vulnerable people into such groups should be much more a preoccupation of the personal growth movement, both then and now. But prima facie this cannot be an argument “against the ashram”, and there was certainly quite a lot of sensible weeding out that I saw in seventies Poona, and that included the exclusion of most from cultures like Japan and India so unlike the totally different culture of the Californian seventies.
My own experience and that of many was that the groups did in fact help one on the long path to knowing oneself. As Karl Popper once said to me when I was very young, dont worry if your self critical faculties are a little missing, if you allow yourself to live and be amongst human beings who are themselves a little free, they will soon see the flaws. He was talking philosophy, but in Poona one groups I found this was also true of the collection of self deluding self opinion in which most human beings rest in their cocoon, of how the ego structures and supports itself into believing that it actually exists. These groups did a good job with opening the eyes to that.
Furthermore Calder ignores the fact that the blending of western humanistic psychotherapies with eastern mysticism became the base of most further developments in later humanistic psychologies.
This has been documented in the Spanish book De Esalen Poona. Osho y el camino de la psicología humanista-transpersonal. (“From Esalen to Poona. Osho and the development of humanistic- transpersonal psychology”) By J. C. Saez Editor, Santiago, Chile, by Vikrant A. Sentis.
There was in fact a highway of psychologists to the ashram in Poona in the seventies: for example: Will Schutz, the creator of Encounter Groups; Bernard Gunther, author and creator of Esalen Massage, and developer of Sensory Awareness; Richard Price, disciple of Fritz Perls, co-founder of the Esalen Institute; Leonard Zunnin and Andy Farber from the Neurological and Psychiatric American Board; David Boadella, developer of biosíntesis; John Bell, inventor of Unitive Psychology; Gerda Boyesen, inventor of Biodynamic Psychology; Thomas Thorbe, developer of co-dependency work; Dr. Robert Birnbaum, disciple of Perls, Bernie and Carl Rogers, director of Odyssey Centre, Alexander Everent, developer of the Alfa Training and his disciple Werner Erhard, founder of Est Training; among many more. . The complete list and their expereince in Poona is in Mr. Sentis book. Some of theses people lived with Osho for a while and then went on their way, some others stayed on, one way or another, and are sannyasins up until this day.
To me those who attack Encounter and other groups are actually at the same time attacking zen. It is no easy task to wake oneself up, with or without a teacher, and sleepwalking is still the order of the day for most of us. And it is sweet that sleepwalking. rather painless, and comforting – to the ego. A few slaps around the face done in the context of a particular environment dont necessarily wake one up, but they may give you a hundred to one chance of the light.
Sure the groups were at one level just to keep us occupied, engaged, and enable us to connect to other visitors, particularly newbies, to the ashram otherwise a lot of us, especially the English:)) would have wandered round like lost sheep. Only one aspect I stress.
i partially agree with Chris Calder and Parmartha. ANY situation that arises can be used for growth or if you’re lucky, enlightenment. The cosmos is really weird in this respect.. from seeing another person dying to dropping a tab of acid; it’s all an opportunity; it’s up to the individual and the Cosmos, but since all of us are the Cosmos, I’ll just say Cosmos from now on. But with the track record regarding enlightenment on this planet Earth, and the odds already set by the Cosmos, i agree with Calder that most of the therapy groups were set up to generate cash for the Ashram. Parmartha- if this not so, and your opinion is true, then what explained the goings on at the Ashram, the Ranch, Pune 2 and the current stupidity reigning at “The Resort”. It’s easy to make your claim, but reality tells a different story. For those people the 40 or so odd years of doing meditations and group therapies, if even half of them attained some sort of “clarity”, common sense, or even compassion, then all of the deceit, game playing, nastiness, violence would never have occurred because these same people would not have allowed it to occur. As i see it, most doing those groups found a home doing so, they became addicted to repeatedly doing those groups as well as meditations. they felt self worth for the first time perhaps. Even this result was better than the mental state they had before; the feeling of self loathing, worthlessness, not “fitting in”. But in terms of enlightenment, a great ‘breakthrough”, even a satori, I don’t think so. the cats running the ashram new a good cash cow when they saw one and of course addictions are hard to break, including group therapy. On a sour note about Chris Calder- he especially hasn’t learned much, a sour puss, very bitter man after all of these years… a cry baby to be more blunt, IN opinion.
Parmartha:
its all about organising people who live in the amorphousness of a disintegrated social democratic anonymity into clumps of working hives that temporarily may be able to pursue a common interest with a common language.The indicator of ‘progress’ is all important here, and the in and out tray.The cost.Versus the imagined or real benefit.
Is therapy good for you? Its like asking a general question ‘should I cross the street”…. that all depends. Really whats at stake is accountability….you omit to mention if the therapists were as accountable for their therapies as we were for our unconsciousnarse or whether these hierarchical circles of informed becoming were part of the structural problem of just being answerable but not being answered to.I actually found the whole thing quite sick precisely because of the therapists lack of simple decency, sponsored by a right wing fanaticism of the ‘grouping’ clergy that was as sycophantically puerile as the worst of their own sycophants. To list a bunch of Venerable names means little to me. I neither know of or care even less about their credentials… why because I’ve seen and heard of too much hypocrisy and a complete absence of frank and unaffected intimacy from these purveyors of optimum human indulgence to give them any air time.That’s not to say that those who refused ‘to group’ were intelligent and wise beyond measure..quite the opposite…I know many who lacked the balls to get involved precisely because they had too much to lose and were shit scared. On the other hand if you have a quick look around the world like I have and see what idiots therapy has made of therapists then at the very least one can surmise that though you may have learned the lesson of experience..friendship,ridicule , absurdity, involvement…. and a generous humanity added to your daily interactions, simply expressed..they by selling snake oil quite clearly haven’t.
Marx tried to organise a fractured economy for a functioning populace without an internal emotive life.Freud continued to try to organise our internal lives in the face of a broken mirror of disintegrating humans under stress in the new world.Both aimed at structuring our experience to confront the awfulness of industrial/suburban reality.The psychological sciences are littered with the legacy of the shrewdly written and monolithic tomes of learned shrinks, therapists, healers who may well have all the endearing skills of a mollusc, in their private lives, without any of their reproductive or affective skills.I should know ..I’ve met a few..molluscs that is..nice creatures who really are quite effective at being impervious…like any great therapist will tell you.
A good opening piece there by Parmartha. I would agree. Therapy groups are simply meditation externalized. Instead of confronting your stupid and aggressive (active or passive) thoughts, you confront stupid and aggressive (active or passive) fellow group members. What is the difference? ‘Outer’ and ‘inner’ is all ultimately the same anyway.
Gurdjieff, incidentally, was an accomplished ‘groupleader’. Anyone who has read some of the transcripts documenting his ‘live-fire’ work with students, especially in Paris in the 1940s, will not see much difference between them and the typical Poona or Esalen therapy group. Some of these (previously unknown) transcripts documenting Gurdjieff’s ‘darshans’ with students can be read in William Patrick Patterson’s ‘Voices in the Dark: Esoteric, Occult & Secular Voices in Nazi-Occupied Paris, 1940-44.’
Osho had been influenced by Alan Watts, who had pointed out, as early as his 1961 book ‘Psychotherapy East and West’, that the Western equivalent of Eastern meditation is not Western religions, but rather Western psychotherapy. I think it was to Osho’s credit that he recognized Watts’ intelligence and used the idea accordingly.
Calder always sounds to me like hes going on about an ex, who he holds responsible for the breakup.
Well said. You summarised above article and comment by simple statement
teertha
you ask….
“therapy groups are simply meditation externalised..
…what`s the difference?”
from your professional bias,that may,to you, appear to be a rhetorical question.
there is ,however a clear answer…
money-cost and power structure.
A famous German actress called Eva Renzi(she starred with Micheal Caine in Funeral in Berlin) was unintentionally responsible for making Osho (Bhagwan) famous in Germany, and which cascaded so many Germans to come to the then Poona in the late seventies. She signed up for the Encounter group, got her face slapped by a Dutchman and chastised as a “Phony Bitch”.
Upset at the sudden shattering of her self image she ran to the nearest telephone, contacted DPA the German International Press Agency and related her story. The following morning her “Beating” in Bhagwan’s ashram made the front page of Bild Zeitung.
Then… the Dutch press got interested and wanted to know the identity of the Dutchman! To everyone’s surprise it was Jan Foudraine who had written a best selling book about alternative psychiatric treatment called “Not made of Wood”.
Hundreds of Germans and Dutch people flocked to the ashram after reading these stories, spent their money on groups, and some became seekers. This had nothing to do with the ashram pursuing money, or Osho’s own self publicity, it just happened.
As Dylan says: “Something’s going on here but you dont know what it is, do you, Mr Jones! “
Nice story Swam. Tells me you trust Osho, unlike more bellicose contributors; and as far as I’m concerned trust in Osho is the issue.
Parmartha; those incidents may or may not be true, i don’t know. I wasn’t there and didn’t have a trusted friend or relative who witnessed these things. I am not calling you a bullshitter, it’s just that, regarding sannyasins and the community, rumors fly around more than the mosquitoes in Pune. Gossip, rumors, story telling, all done to keep the group mind cohesive. At the ranch this was done very frequently, stories and rumors about osho, the immigration services, Sheela, the locals were flying around all the time. Much of it started by sheela and Osho himself. The truth… yeah right , a sannyasin wouldn’t know the truth if Bodhidharma himself slapped him in the head with it… sorry, but past history has proved my assertion to be pretty close to the truth.
Accept what you say Jay overall. However this story is true. I was there. It can also be verified by the then Press Officer in Poona, Anand Subhuti, who was previously a UK parliamentary correspondent for the Birmingham Post.
Arpana: Trust in Osho is not the issue. It’s- trust in the Cosmos, Consciousness. Osho is just another player like the rest of us.
Osho is not just another player like the rest of us. I am not in his league as regards understanding, insight, perception or discernment, and I don’t share your delusion that you are either.
too bad you can’t/won’t see the bigger picture regarding the Cosmos.. your loss not mine.. still stuck on osho, that seems to be not only your issue/block but most sannyasins and exsannyasins. “… not in his league…” even the old man would say that is a pompous ass statement. And get back to reality, bro- Osho IS just another player, in the cosmic sense, just like a rose or thorns- i believe he even made a statement similar to that.
and teertha,
i do not agree that alan watts “pointed out” that western psychotherapy was the equivalent to eastern meditation.
the book “psychotherapy east and west” was a piece of creative writing,with the author riffing on the similarities that could be found and maybe made to work between the eastern and western “ways of liberation” as he called them.
this riff was based on the idea that the therapist,like the zen master would always seek to frustrate the seeker/client,give him a koan,put him in a “double bind”,”stay one up on him” leading and forcing him in a koan-like manner to his utter frustration and then spontaneous transcendence of the problem altogether.
it was an imaginative theory to attempt to link psychotherapy and zen in this way,and osho definitely bought into it,as you say.
trouble was,it took no account of the reality of psychotherapy that was already based and still is on a massive and unhealthy gulf of power between therapist and therapee or whatever you call him/her.
also the the need to question the trustworthiness of the purity of the motives of the therapist, especially one who has this alarmingly powerful weapon in his hand, was simply completely ignored,even repressed……
but like jc pennie says anything can be a learning experience,going to prison,being a drug addict,an alky,a thief,a hooker etc etc…
these experiences are frequently transformative for some,and in this sense encounter therapies and so on may indeed be just the ticket,but its not the same as saying: “shooting up,selling your ass and going to jail is a spiritual path…….” pay me,and i`ll facilitate it….
and to finish.
between getting your face slapped by a would-be napoleon for £60 and taking acid (£10?) for a spiritual blast….
cost and effectiveness….
that has gotta be a 99-1 ON choiceless choice……
Frank — there is also ‘money-cost’ and ‘power structure’ in meditation — at least, any meditation involving a group setting with others. For example, meditation retreats. Monastic settings with typical renunciates may not involve money, but power structure, yes. See San Francisco Zen Center, early 1980s and the Roshi Baker scandal (the Zen master who was furtively boning all his female students who later went ballistic on him) for an example of failed power structure in a spiritual community that used no therapy groups.
Now obviously you can meditate on your own, and you won’t have to charge yourself or answer to any therapist, head monk, or Zen master ready to hit you with his stick. But you can also do therapy on your own (self-analysis). So this ‘difference’ is really marginal, seems more a reason for Calder to express his grievances.
I enjoyed reading everyone’s comments on this thread so far. Good entertainment for a night in a wee cottage in the middle of nowhere in Scotland, with the wind howling outside and the stags braying in the hills.
I watched the therapy trip germinate, flower and flourish in Poona One and participated in many groups, including the notorious ‘Encounter’ led by Teertha. What nobody mentioned was how much fun it was. Like…ehm…watching my ex-wife being seriously fucked in a padded room by a kung-fu expert, after he’d kicked the shit out of a couple of big guys in a gestalt therapy session. Oh yeah, sure, I was shitting myself sometimes but it was a hell of a ride, as in ‘Lokesh, go home with the woman you are most attracted to’….’Yes, sir, right away’.
Personally, I think it did me the world of good. I grew up in downtown Glasgow during the fifties and sixties and had a serious fight or flight programme hardwired into my reptillian brain. It was a relief to not have to view every male I met as a potential threat etc…and all thanks to the groups and individual sessions I did in Poona.
Yes, it was also a business, but so what? I see it that most people simply don’t appreciate that sort of thing if it is free. It really was not that expensive and did in fact encourage many sannyasins to stop spacing out and get their ass in gear to make some money out in the real world. Why, many of my closest friends became drug smugglers and hotel lobby hookers in order to work on their spiritual growth. Can’t be bad now can it?
Back in 77 I did an Aum Marathon in London led by Veeresh. I actually didn’t see much of him as he was smoking dope and rails of coke in the kitchen, while he and his cohorts dreamt up ever more bizarre exercises for us sleep-depraved groupies to perform. I began smoking cigarettes for the first time in my life after that group. Nipple substitute? I don’t think so. It had more to do with breathing so much fag smoke over the weekend with all the smoking that was going on. Well I eventually kicked the habit….28 years later. Ahh, yes, those were the days.
that explains your current mental state, Loko. Just some of your statements about the groups you did tell the sorry of how most therapists and therapy are bullshit. so you had fun, you could have gone to a playground, hop on swings and swing away, or run around and climb a tree or laugh and skip along in a field of flowers? Now, that to me is fun- play. I think when children become adults a giant sign is imprinted on their foreheads saying- “I’m A Sucker, take me for all the money I have.” today, we dope our kids up, with Ritalin, Anti-psychotics, anti-depressants, because adults can’t handle them. That used to be medication for adults 10 or 20 years ago, now kids are getting it. Now i can imagine “Group therapy” for kids or Gestalt or Aum meditation weekends being the “in” thing. Bad enough adults can’t or don’t know how to play, but now kids can’t even be kids anymore.. you can take these therapies and shove it.
all the therapists/psychologists/psychiatrists that i knew or were friends with ALL had some sort of mental health issues that they needed to resolve.. to the point, as i can tell, When a person chooses to pursue a career in the mental health field it’s due to their own mental problems and seek to find out what makes their minds tick and to find answers. Kinda like why a person chooses to become a proctologist for example, a fetish for assholes. So save yourselves some money- go out get laid, take a jog around the park, have a glass a wine, take a nap… now that’s therapy.
I am quite sympathetic to what you write, Parmartha. I think I also learnt something from the groups I did.
However I came across a very interesting book ‘Psychology as Religion: The Cult of Self-Worship’ by Paul C. Vitz. This book argues that humanistic psychology constitutes a set of beliefs that is more or less a religion. Vitz is a Christian and says humanistic psychology is un-Christian. But I also think humanistic psychology is un-Osho as well, in that many of the core beliefs of humanistic psychology contradict what Osho says in discourse.
I have often thought that the average Western sannyasin has not gone from atheism or Judaism or Christianity to Osho. They have made a big detour through humanistic psychology and many of them are still stuck there. I think this is one of the reasons for the conflict with the Indian sannyasins; they can see that many sannyasins are really following Perls or Erhard or Rogers, and not the Old Boy.
Greetings Swam,
))))
Recall Osho saying ( Was that in the first lecture after he came out of silence at the ranch? Not sure. )enough people were ready, he had his own people now, (By implication not all of us were ready, but enough.) so a new phase could begin. Well do wonder if that meant enough people had converted, transcended would be a better word, Christianity, lefty anti Christianity, to Oshoism ( For want of a better way of saying this. )
Sadly Arpana,
this was before he went into silence. He came out of silence when he realised his assessment of his sannyasins at that time was mistaken.
“He came out of silence when he realised his assessment of his sannyasins at that time was mistaken.”
This may well be true, but I do not think he actually said that. I think the whole business of the silent period and then coming out of it needs to be discussed more.
My impression is that he said periodically and a little repetitively over the years that he had found his own people now.
I think it is clear he thought “Oshism” was needed to save the planet, and it was a question of attracting numbers of people.
Alok
I would hold it to be self-evident that when it became clear that Sheela and her gang had clearly goofed up in a big way and he became fully aware of it that was the point he began speaking. (Nov/Dec 1984).
I do recall in 1981 he went on about us being ready to receive him in silence, etc, but clearly that did not apply to the organisers, as he did once point out Sheela had never meditated. She also used to fall asleep in discourse which I witnessed.
Why not start a string on the silent period as you say it needs more discussion.
you must be joking with that statement alok!!! “I think it is clear… “Oshism” was needed to save the planet…” firstly, the planet needs no saving… humans do. So with that said , you are already on a misguided path.. time to backtrack and look again, what Osho was/is all about.
quite right guys…
me too..
i didn`t get where i am today without watching a gorilla shagging the arse off my wife…
breathing deep and going through the green channel….
shakin me booty at a few pervs…
i also did some “work”with that cutting edge rehab expert veeresh where everyone comes out heavier into gear than when they went in…..it worked…
i came out with a george best thirst and bob marley lungs…
but …. je ne regrette rien….
…..no joking.
“amor fati…”
love your fate…
as i have said before.
its all a con,a hoax.
and like freddie said…
only by having conmen perpetrating the hoax can you find out….
its a paradox
so i mean it when i say…
i thank you all from the bottom of my heart, you f***ing b****stards….
“i want to thank you from the bottom of my heart- Feliz Navidad- Feliz Navidad” by Jose Feliciano 197?
Osho himself clarified that the reason he was using psychotherapy groups was due to the differences between the ‘Western’ and ‘Eastern’ ego. His main point was that the Western ego, with its Graeco-Roman roots in individualism and the ‘rebel’ archetype, was stronger and more defined than the average Eastern ego (the Greek god Prometheus, who thumbed his nose at Zeus by stealing fire from heaven and giving it to humanity, perhaps being the classic example). Osho’s point was this:
1. A stronger, more defined ego does better in a group of people.
2. A less defined ego can handle solitary meditation more easily.
3. The Western ego is more defined than the Eastern ego.
4. Therefore, Westerners are more adapted to groups than solitary meditation.
That is of course a sweeping generalization, and generalizing was perhaps Osho’s intellectual Achilles heel. But I think there is also much truth to it.
Also: a typical Zen ‘dokusan’ (private encounter between Zen master and student) has, many times, resulted in a sudden awakening for the student. This is much like a process between therapist and client; that is, the awakening was brought about by *dynamic interplay between two people*, not in solitary meditation. In other words, so-called therapy and meditation overlap in many places.
That sounds pretty accurate to me, Teertha.
Alok John:
I have often thought that the average Western sannyasin has not gone from atheism or Judaism or Christianity to Osho. They have made a big detour through humanistic psychology and many of them are still stuck there. I think this is one of the reasons for the conflict with the Indian sannyasins; they can see that many sannyasins are really following Perls or Erhard or Rogers, and not the Old Boy.
SD:
Spot on, Alok!
Therapists have become ‘priests’ of this new ‘religion’ – and it’s common knowledge there are good and bad priests.
Problem in Osho’s community was/is the blindingly obvious point that a therapist isn’t a Master and shouldn’t be accorded the status of one. With Osho no longer here this becomes even more of an issue.
Nothing wrong in therapy if you need it, but so many, including myself, didn’t/don’t know when to stop relying on therapists and truly listen to the Master.
For me, some therapy, mainly one-to-one, was valuable, but in retrospect much of it was a complete waste of time, counter-productive, damaging even – and a huge drain on my finances for many years.
Teertha, He definitely said the groups were only preparation for meditation.
Vitz says the religion of humanistic psychology is selfism–worship of the self, even the ego. I think the poor moral values of sannyasins and their materialism comes from humanistic psychology, not from Osho meditations or discourses.
teertha,
what you say is interesting.
yet,why do we assume that osho`s plan, scheme or rationale for installing therapy into his movement was any clearer and well worked out than his motives in installing a pathological liar,poisoner and criminal sheela in charge of his outfit?
how much did he actually know about therapy?
i heard him rattle on about how jung “betrayed his master” by rejecting freud and doing his own thing….
a better example of misreading the western world of knowledge-seeking you probably couldn`t find….
(unless of course he was just putting the frighteners on anyone who was thinking about dropping sannyas….)
he never mentioned therapy in the beginning-it was all about his meditations and religious stuff,you know,god,wise old men and so on….
then the therapists arrived and suddenly it was all– therapy will clean the rubbish etc.
by the end,new guys showed up and it was colorpuncture(“absolutely right”)he declared,tib pulsing and a completely new set of games to play,he even lobbed in ol` freddie with the zen masters at the end…….
if he had set up an institute for exploring the parapsychological,which i hear was on the cards just before therapy took over,rest assured there would be folks on this site and beyond saying they had the time of their lives,their wives had been shagged by a psychic entity that looked like a gorilla and it had taught them a lot,and where would they have been without it..?
A the “very beginning” beginning, he didn’t even require a person to wear a mala, or red shaded clothes. I wonder how he came to the decision later for the mala and red clothes, i did hear stories that he told Laxmi he had a sign for that to to start. who knows the true story.
Btw, Teertha – are you the ‘real’ (excuse me!) Teertha, the one that ran the Encounter Group, aka in certain circles for a while as “Osho’s successor”, and since the demise of the Ranch as Paul Lowe?
Doubt it, but curious anyway….
No he’s not SD. He is the author of “The 3 Dangerous Magi” in the name of P.T. Mistlberger . It’s a book worth the reading.
Many of the Western sannyasins who helped build up Poona One were not influenced by Christianity, Atheism or Jungian Psychology, but rather psychedelics. I was fairly typical of the time. I was suffering from psychedelic shell shock in Goa and when, after looking at a Bhagwan photo while high on acid, I knew he was the man and caught the bus to Pune.
Nothing sparks cosmic curiosity like LSD. Here lies the big difference between early Indian sannyasins and their western counterparts. Basically the Indians were living out the age old game of bowing down at the feet of the master. There was nothing new in this at all. Bhagwan pandered to this. His early discourses are almost biblical in their language, because he was fulfilling the traditional role of how a holy man should speak and behave. Yes, he had more of an edge than most of the players on the scene at the time. Sai Baba, Krishnamurti etc, but basically he was delivering the same old message, go in, meditate etc.
By the early to mid-seventies the hippie’s wooden ships had capsized in a sea of unsupportable excess and psychedelic casualties like myself were being washed up on Goa’s beautiful beaches. The thing is, the hippies had had a taste of something which can be simply described as the beyond, but most of us did not know where to take it from there. We needed help with our visions. We needed answers that Western culture could not deliver.
Three things at the time come to mind that affected the hippie’s picture of what the Indian guru trip was about. The Beatles’ relationship with the Maharishi, which ended in disillusionment, Parmahansa Yogananda’s delightful ‘Autobiography of a Yogi’ and perhaps most importantantly, Baba Ram Dass giving Neem Karoli Baba a massive dose of acid and the guru showing no external indication that he was in the least bit affected by a dose that would normally have had a bull elephant performing cartwheels. In my case it was Neem Karoli who alerted me to the fact that something lay beyond the purple haze of the psychedelic vision.
Osho really helped me move into the next stage of my life back in the seventies. He gave wise council and offered good personal advice. He did this with a smile and always a delightful sense of humour. Being the great spiritual chameleon and innovator that he was, Osho simply adapted to the times by integrating therapy groups into the existing scene in Poona One. It was a natural and I daresay natural progression for the times, plus the ashram needed more money and Osho, never the one to pass up an opportunity to make a buck, recognized a great opportunity.
Nowadays there is a conflict on the sannyasin scene between some Indian sannyasins and the powers that be in Poona’s resort. Let the children play, is how I see it. I think a lot of the visions that first built the sannyasin movement are dead and gone and if you have not moved on from the old sannyasin programmes, first put in place during the seventies, you are stuck, or as in the case of some of my contemporaries, using the international sannyas network to promote their trip, be it selling books, therapy or in many cases some kind of New Age mumbo jumbo etc.
I remember well Osho’s emphasis on taking it to the marketplace. Those who got the message have done that and merged into the global consciousness movement that will have to mushroom very soon if homo sapiens are to continue their existence on this planet. Those who have not moved on, ie, parroting Osho’s words, making a cause for a regime change in the resort, bowing down at the feet of imposters purporting to be channels for Osho etc, are simply lost and not contributing what our world so desperately needs, namely, love, meditation, dance, laughter, a non-serious approach to the life process and a sense that we can make the world a better place for future generations to inhabit by abandoning this ridiculous global culture of object worship and rampant materialism that exists on our planet today. After all, no one did a better job of showing how stupid you can make yourself look by collecting luxury objects than Osho himself. Nobody showed how corrupt seemingly intelligent people can become when given unquestioned power over others. Thanks Sheela. We won’t be fooled again. Timothy Leary, misguided though he may have been at times, pointed out again and again the need for responsible individuals to think for themselves and question anything put forward by authoratarian figures. The whole guru trip is an ancient authoratarian programme put in place over the centuries…the idea that someone knows what is best for us. Well, I’ve reached a place where I no longer need anyone to tell me what is best for me, ironically thanks to the help of people like Osho. I look around and see a global populance that is in a coma. Wake up now or pretty soon these somnambulists will bring us into an evolutionary cul-de-sac where humanity will become just another failed biological experiment on this, the third stone from the sun.
(Double post, please delete the above version).
Frank — you wrote, “teertha, what you say is interesting. yet, why do we assume that osho`s plan, scheme or rationale for installing therapy into his movement was any clearer and well worked out than his motives in installing a pathological liar,poisoner and criminal sheela in charge of his outfit? how much did he actually know about therapy?”
Good questions, and in fact I assume little about his motives, or clarity of understanding around therapy, was mostly relaying his own words on the matter.
But it’s all worth looking into. Anyone who holds Osho in a high regard, almost as infallible, and yet who sees the group therapy element as suspect, is in something of a contradiction, because they have to answer to the fact that Osho himself sanctioned these therapy groups.
The cynic’s viewpoint (Calder, etc.) is that it was primarily a commercial venture. This is almost certainly nonsense, because Osho himself formulated his own ‘mystery school’, which was based on the ‘multiversity’, and that included the therapy groups. It’s important to remember that Osho’s prime vehicle for learning was reading. His meditation practice may have given him a wide and deep consciousness, but meditation practice does not yield specific knowledge on a practical level. For that you have to use the mind, and Osho did this via the knowledge gained from his massive reading venture. He read Alan Watts — not just read him, but exalted him, dedicating his lectures series “Books I have Loved’ to Watts himself — and he’d read Wilhelm Reich and the other human potential thinkers. So he was getting his knowledge of these matters from the existing literature. Obviously, he was impressed enough to begin using them. (He saw Reich as a ‘potential buddha’ — his bias against Jung was, as I recall, stemming from an incident where Jung made a disparaging remark about Ramana Maharshi).
It also has to be borne in mind that the key meditation practice Osho devised in 1970 — Dynamic Meditation — contains an element of therapy, in the cathartic stage, and this ‘therapy’ was not unique to Osho in the context of Indian spiritual practice. That is, certain forms of Yoga, like Kundalini Yoga, or shaktipat work (like the stuff Muktananda and Rudrananda were doing when Da Free John discovered them) involves all sorts of intense catharsis — stuff that bore far more resemblance to Western style humanist therapy than to the image of the placid meditating Eastern monk.
Admittedly the Osho therapy groups were a cash-cow, but here again, there is a precedent in Osho’s teachings that sanctions this — he was a great admirer of Gurdjieff as we all know, and Gurdjieff was explicit in stating that unless a student pays for teachings, he does not value them. (There is even an Osho clip up on YouTube where Osho basically repeats this same teaching, in answer to a reporter’s question about why he is charging money for his work).
Lokesh — “…Baba Ram Dass giving Neem Karoli Baba a massive dose of acid and the guru showing no external indication that he was in the least bit affected by a dose that would normally have had a bull elephant performing cartwheels.”
There’s a funny story connected to that, coming from Papaji (Poonja). When told this story he claimed adamantly that the reason Neem Karoli had no reaction to the LSD was that he was already psychotic. He claimed that many Western seekers, Ram Dass included, were fooled by Neem Karoli’s insanity, thinking it enlightenment.
Don’t know what truth that carries, but it’s a funny example of the one-upmanship that has always been part of the Indian guru scene.
i often wondered how true that story was about Ram Das giving Karoli Baba all of that acid.. did anyone actually see ram das prepare the dose? or was it sugar cubes dropped in his tea(rumor has it he loved his tea extra sweet). as far as i’m concerned it all hearsay.
It is a an almost unliveable that someone could take that much acid and at least externally appear to have taken nothing.
Here’s the story in Ram Dass’s own words taken from his book, ‘Miracle of Love’:
“In 1967 when I first came to India, I brought with me a supply of LSD, hoping to find someone who might understand more about these substances than we did in the West. When I had met Maharajji(Neem Karoli Baba), after some days the thought had crossed my mind that he would be a perfect person to ask.
The next day after having that thought, I was called to him and he asked me immediately, “Do you have a question?”
Of course, being before him was such a powerful experience that I had completely forgotten the question I had had in my mind the night before. So I looked stupid and said, “No, Maharajji, I have no question.”
He appeared irritated and said, “Where is the medicine?”
I was confused but Bhagavan Dass suggested,
“Maybe he means the LSD.” I asked and Maharajji nodded. The bottle of LSD was in the car and I was sent to fetch it.
When I returned I emptied the vial of pills into my hand.
In addition to the LSD there were a number of other pills for this and that–diarrhea, fever, a sleeping pill, and so forth. He asked about each of these. He asked if they gave powers. I didn’t understand at the time and thought that by “powers” perhaps he meant physical strength. I said, “No.” Later, of course, I came to understand that the word he had used, “siddhis,” means psychic powers.
Then he held out his hand for the LSD. I put one pill on his palm.
Each of these pills was about three hundred micrograms of very pure LSD-
-a solid dose for an adult. He beckoned for more, so I put a second pill in his hand–six hundred micrograms. Again he beckoned and I added yet another, making the total dosage 900 micrograms–certainly not a dose for beginners. Then he threw all the pills into his mouth. My reaction was one of shock mixed with fascination of a social scientist eager to see what would happen. He allowed me to stay for an hour–
and nothing happened.
Nothing whatsover.
He just laughed at me.
The whole thing had happened very fast and unexpectedly. When I returned to the United States in 1968 I told many people about this acid feat. But there had remained in me a gnawing doubt that perhaps he had been putting me on and had thrown the pills over his shoulder or palmed them, because I hadn’t actually seen them go into his mouth and had thrown the pills over his shoulder or palmed them, because I hadn’t actually seen them go into his mouth.
Three years later, when I was back in India,
he asked me one day, “Did you give me medicine when you were in India last time?”
“Yes.”
“Did I take it?” he asked. ( Ah, there was my doubt made manifest!)
“I think you did.”
“What happened?
“Nothing.”
“Oh! Jao!” and he sent me off for the evening.
The next morning I was called over to the porch in front of his room, where he sat in the mornings on a tucket. He asked, “Have you got any more of that medicine?”
It just so happened that I was carrying a small supply of LSD for “just in case,” and this was obviously it. “Yes.” – “Get it,” he said. So I did. In the bottle were five pills of three hundred micrograms each. One of the pills was broken. I placed them on my palm and held them out to him. He took the four unbroken pills. Then, one by one, very obviously and very deliberately, he placed each one in his mouth and swallowed it– another unspoken thought of mine now answered.
As soon as he had swallowed the last one, he asked, “Can I take water?”
“Yes.”
“Hot or cold?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
He started yelling for water and drank a cup when it was brought.
The he asked,” How long will it take to act?”
“Anywhere from twenty minutes to an hour.”
He called for an older man, a long -time devotee who had a watch,
and Maharajji held the man’s wrist, often pulling it up to him to peer at the watch.
Then he asked,“Will it make me crazy?”
That seemed so bizzare to me that I could only go along with what seemed to be a gag.
So I said, “Probably.” And then we waited.
After some time he pulled the blanket over his face, and when he came out after a moment his eyes were rolling and his mouth was ajar and he looked totally mad. I got upset. What was happening?
Had I misjudged his powers? After all, he was an old man (though how old I had no idea), and I had let him take twelve hundred micrograms. Maybe last time he had thrown them away and then he read my mind and was trying to prove to me he could do it, not realizing how strong the “medicine” really was.
Guilt and anxiety poured through me. But when I looked at him again he was perfectly normal and looking at the watch. At the end of an hour it was obvious nothing had happened. His reactions had been a total put-on. And then he asked,
“Have you got anything stronger?” I didn’t. Then he said, “These medicines were used in Kulu Valley long ago. But yogis have lost that knowledge. They were used with fasting. Nobody knows now. To take them with no effect, your mind must be firmly fixed on God. Others would would be afraid to take. Many saints would not take this.” And he left it at that.
When I asked him if I should take LSD again, he said,
“It should not be taken in a hot climate. If you are in a place that is cool and peaceful, and you are alone and your mind is turned toward God, then you may take the yogi medicine.”
SN contributor Frank once commented that Ram Dass later retracted this story. But I have never seen any reference of retraction myself. I must admit I like to think the stories true.
if what Franks says is true, about Dass’ retraction- what is the truth? was it a hallucination Dass had while he was meeting with Baba? Was it a repeated hallucination where he “thought” he did those things? Or just wanted, out of low self esteem, to build up his own reputation, so he conjured up a colorful, superhuman story about Indian gurus….. it’s a story and always will be, take it with a grain of salt.
a guru is just another name for a leader and since by nature we are pack animals, 99.9% of people need to have a leader and some sort of organized tribe. the .1% are people with some sort of mutated gene where independence rules. The crazy cosmic game.. as far as Sheela goes, some of my old sannyas friends were also buddies with Sheela back when she purchased the “Castle” in Montclair New Jersey for Osho’s interim living accommodations and were friends with her at Pune 1. Her clique included, the likes of Susheela, a short chunky woman and Homa a tall, pretty dark hair chick. Word had it that back in Pune 1 when Sheela’s first husband with whom was in love, died, sheela, went off the deep end and never recovered, a long, slow downward spiral into madness with ass kissers and yay sayers not questioning her orders all around her. Homa later went on to become a “Judge” at the ranch and Susheela a fund raiser… there are many more interesting facts just have to find the insiders willing to open up…. and lokesh the above mentioned came from those close to her, not some contrived gossip. still i wasn’t there so- it’s still pretty close to gossip
Lokesh, you are quite an insider expert in Osho Matters. The commantry will radiate more authenticity if once in a while you write some disclaimer too, for example,” As i have heard and felt with my Scttoish background.”
Many masters have told continuously that chances of their being misunderstood and misinterpretated are enormous, and here we have Osho a North Indian man speaking in English but using all kind of Indian metaphors and poetical expressions, think about how big is the gap?
This is one of the tragedy of Osho that people who came by chance due to the trends of their youth are controlling His work as if they are the only test tube babies of an eastern mystic…
JC, a few things. Take my word for it, Ram Dass definitely gave the baba 1500mcs of top quality Sandoz acid. It is history now.
To say ‘a guru is just another name for a leader ‘, says more about you than anything else. A guru might lead you to something but it will have had little to do with a person’s need to have a leader and a lot more to do with a person’s need to fathom the deeper waters of life. Yes, in essence, the guru role is an authoratarian one, but a good guru is, amongst other things, a spiritual friend, teacher and giver of wise counsel…and ultimately the one who will set you free for the need of a guru. I don’t think the desire for a life with spiritual values arises from having a mutated gene but rather a number of factors, including social circumstance, a taste for something a wee but deeper than the purely pedestrian etc. Once again this says more about you than being an objective fact. It is a fact that we understand the world and the people who inhabit it to the extent that we understand our very own self.
I knew Sheela back in the old days, but we were never friends. She was, quite frankly, not the kind of person I would have been attracted to at the time. She was, in my young rebellious mind’s eye, straight, spoiled and boring. Similar in a way to a few people who held positions in the shram in that she had an air of being priviledged about her.
Susheela I knew as well as I wanted to. She was on my case from day one. Giving the woman her due, she was quite right about a couple of undesirable character traits I carried at the time, and to a certain extent still live with today. I did not like her. She was a fat bitch who had a penchance for big men in short trousers. At one point she was in charge of the groups department and was therefore my boss. She made me work in an Indian laundry for four months in order to make me surrendered enough to perform individual therapy sessions in the shram, something I really desired to do. Like her colleague Diksha, another fat bitch, she was supposed to be a zen mistress. This was just one more bit of Osho-type bullshit that we all swallowed that must have had the old man pissing himself with laughter. Theses women were power-mongers who were almost fascistic in their approach to the people who were put in the unfortunate position of obeying them.
They were, amongst other things, responsible for filling sterilization quotas. Diksha later apologized for any harm done through her actions, and harm was undoubtably done. Teenage girls were coerced into undergoing hysterectomy procedures, taking away the baby carriage and leaving the playpen. In retrospect I see this as criminal. All this in the name of spiritual growth. Unbelivable. Yet inkeeping with the guru’s need for more and more emotive energy to be directed his way. It takes a lot of energy to rear kids, so if that is taken away where will that energy be directed? Yet, nobody smelt a rat and if they did they kept quiet about it, afraid of being chucked out of the buddhafield.
Live and learn as they say and my years around Osho formed quite a steep learning curve but nothing compared to what awaited me further down that long and twisting, thorn-strewn path I call my life. It is my opinion that the greatest tool we have at our disposal for learning is personal suffering. I’ll celebrate and party hearty till the holy cows come home, but when suffering shows up I embrace it. This whole bliss trip that still permeates the sannyas community is at best a glitzy illusion and at worst a distraction from the fact that it is inevitable that if we are in the least bit identified with the body/mind complex we are, sooner or later, going to suffer. And yet, paradoxically it is, more often than not, that very suffering that will make us grow and hopefully set us free. Osho himself had had enough of physical suffering by the time it was time to leave this world and my feeling is that it most have been a tremendous relief for him to leave his pain-racked bag of bones behind. During the time I spent in close physical proximity to the man, I was always struck my how his spirit appeared to be attached to his body by a gossamer thread. It is therefore one of my theories that Osho’s love affair with luxury cars, diamond-encrusted watches and daft outfits were what kept him in the body. Without all that junk around him he would have left his body behind perhaps a decade earlier. I really believe he did that for those who loved him. The Roolls Royce of crucifixtions, one might say if one can stretch their imagination that far.
Hi Lokesh,
I really enjoyed your comments and they reminded me of an answer Osho gave to a question many years ago in the Ranch, and I quote by memory:
“Bhagwan, are you a prophet, a messiah or a reincarnation of god?
And his answer:
I am not a messiah because there is no god to send messengers to the world. Moreover, I don’t want to be crucified, not that I am afraid of death but I would like a luxurious, comfortable death, not carrying the cross on my shoulders, not even on your shoulders, the cross will be carried in a limousine Rolls Royce.”
The man was superbly brilliant.
Cheers,
Tan
my opinions presented are just that- opinions. sannyasins look too much into the “spiritual” aspect of life they forget about the flesh and bones and flesh and bones and the entire physical cosmos are made up of matter- chemicals- organic and inorganic and organic chemicals on this earth have turn into over time , along time, chromosomes, genetic material, even how our minds operate, is dictated by genetics along with electricity. just yesterday scientists i believe in Poland did experiments with patients where they place magnets on different parts o f the frontal portion of both the left and right side of the brain and where able in most circumstances make people tell the truth or to lie. It was published in some medical journal and if you want to further inquire about it, Google it yourself. Of course upbringing has a lot to do with one’s quest or lack of seeking but I’ve come been acquainted with all types of characters in my life time, sannyasins, non sannyasins, those from supposedly “stable” or happy backround, rich, middle class and poor, and frankly, it doesn’t matter; most people are sheep, plain and simple, including sannyasins and especially with sannyasins they look at osho as some sort of infallible leader, they they would give their lives to. And osho even commented about the silliness and stupidity of many sannyasins regarding this. So, in a sheep’s mind, a guru is another form of a leader- “Oh please Osho tell me what to do”, this extends to all religious nut jobs and followers of politicians, musicians(the “groupie”), business leaders, et.al. With regards to what my opinion tells about me, how about you? regarding Susheela-” She was a fat bitch, who…” and Diksha(who i never mentioned)- “… diksha, another fat bitch…” a wee bit of misogyny portrayed by you in those words; any misogamy floating on your tongue, too? Keep going… on a tangent and off a cliff… inquiring minds want to know more, what really has you so pissed.
I’d also like to hear from Frank who, according to Dharmen, claims that Ram Dass later retracted his story.. proof- fuck trust- i trust in creation/cosmos even if it is mad. but people need to prove things, not pass on gossip as much as they do… on occasion okay, but people out of their neurosis, pass on too much gossip, vicious gossip at that. btw, the last post, i failed to do spell check- oh well- read it and get confused.
Shantam, I am not an insider expert on Osho matters but rather an insider expert on myself, and therefore there is no need for a disclaimer.
Your conclusion that, and I quote, ‘This is one of the tragedy of Osho that people who came by chance due to the trends of their youth are controlling His work as if they are the only test tube babies of an eastern mystic…’ is completely uninformed and uneducated.
For a start their is nothing going on that I see as tragic. Osho affected many people in many different ways. I am one of them and assert my right to express myself in whatever way I wish and see fit.
Your warped vision, and I quote, ‘they are the only test tube babies of an eastern mystic…’ is one that undermines the beautiful transformations that came about in many people’s lives due to their personal contact with Osho (The negatives, like the ridiculous sterilization programme set aside).
Overall, Shantam, what I see from my remote perspective of you, reading your comments over a period of months, is that behind your campaign for change in the resort, is a vibe of pissed-offness that your contact with Osho was from a distance. You smooth this over by your making Poona Two the pinnacle of Osho’s work etc. As opposed to it being simply another phase of his work, if you can call it work. Yes, Shantam, you appear to me to be a candidate for feeling that you missed out on something really good, but live in denial about it. This is, of course, only my opinion and opinions are, by their very nature, two a penny.
I’ve said it before and will say it again, one of Osho’s greatest teachings is that of adopting a non-serious attitude in life…brilliant. Whenever we become serious about something there lies the shadow of ego. Please don’t take anything I write on here too seriously, because for me it is fun and entertainment and a way of keeping my fingers flexible on my keyboard and if I don’t take anything I write seriously then why should you?
Apart from that I like SN and what the lads are creating here, and therefore I want to contribute by writing. I have some time on my hands right now so excuse be if I over-indulge a little. Who knows, perhaps someone else might be enjoying this besides myself. I write, post the comment and then it is on to the next episode.
Teertha, well Papaji had also a few things to say about Osho also that were not exactly flattering. From what I understand, his ideas were based on second or even third hand information, possibly passed on to him by people who had reason to manipulate the facts to suit their purposes. Strangely enough it was while hanging out with Papaji that I realized that on a certain level how much I had to be thankful to Osho for.
Papaji was not a sophisticated man like Osho. One on one he was just as effective as Osho at showing you the way home. although his style was a lot less theatrical. He was a lovely man in my book. And talking of books Papaji’s confessions about dressing up in Sarees to attract the attentions of Lord Krishna sound a bit….Well, you can make up your own mind about that.
JC, one thing you might try and understand. I am Scottish. If a Scot calls a fat woman who is also a bitch a ‘fat bitch’ that simply means she is a fat bitch and probably doesn’t have anything much to do with being pissed off. I was describing events from long ago that no longer have any emotional impact on me. You strike me as a bit of a square, as in two-dimensional, and your sense of humour could do with a wee bit of developing. It is a mistake to take anything I say seriously, but you just don’t get it. I’m not pissed off at you, in spite of all the nasty comments you’ve flung my way, just stating how you come across. I also suspect that you live in the backwaters of America, or else why state, ‘I’ve come been acquainted with all types of characters in my life time’? Come on, man, you think that is something unique? Gimme a break, Jimmy.
I agree that people must be stupid to view Osho as an infallible leader, because he so obviously wasn’t.
Somebody once asked Osho if he was infallible, and he replied that he wasn’t. Mind you he could have been lying. Given he admits to lying, what is truth, in that sense, when spoken by him. (Fourth Question. Vol 8. Chapter 11. Dammapada. )
same with Ram Dass, you guys believe his stories, and claim them to be factual.. he very well could have made all of this shit up… loko: i don’t trust your word that he actually did do those things- any proof? oh yeah- you heard it from a ” close”sannyasin “friend”, or someone “reliable”… one thing you obviously forgot- there were never any “close”, “reliable” sannyasins.. Sannyas history proved it. Sorry to burst everyone’s bubble– that’s the truth, same with sannyasins looking to osho as an “infallible” person with infinite wisdom- truth hurts
Arpana” at least we agree on this one point
Lokesh, according to Andrew Cohen, Papaji once said that Neem Karoli was mad, and another time “praised him as the highest of the high”. So who knows.
Really good recent video here of Ram Dass talking about Neem Karoli:
http://magazine.enlightennext.org/2011/03/14/spiritual-masters-lama-surya-das-on-neem-karoli-baba/
He mentions the LSD story about two-thirds of the way into the video.
And a good video here of Osho talking about drugs:
The video cannot be shown at the moment. Please try again later.
Regarding therapy vs. meditation, the ‘third pillar’ in all that is probably recreational drugs — being a ‘pillar’ much older than therapy.
i agree with lokesh about the psychedelic influence.
what percentage of all folks going to india and poona had taken it,i wonder?
a high percentage for sure.
most of the satoris people had in those days were probably flashbacks…..
about ram das…..
of course what an old geezer did or didn`t stick down his blanket in the hills 40 years ago is up for endless debate like most of the subjects here on sn.
apparently,terrence mckenna reckoned he “palmed it”.he wasn`t there though….
for myself,i just dont see why it would be true- ramdas` poor record with telling the truth to his disciples hiding his gayness etc…might be one angle.
and if they had given him battery acid,for examplewould he have just sat there?did he never get the shits?
he was only immune to spiritual chemicals?
but still,as our freddie said:
whether something is true or a lie doesn`t matter,the real criterion of truth is if it is useful to humanity or not…
(that is the basis of a philosophy or religion that is “beyond good and evil”).
osho must have agreed here…
in this case all the tripped out hippies thought: “i could do with some of that” and started heading east….
job done….
alan watts was another tripper who played a big part in the enlightentertainment story (the greatest story ever told?)
funny that osho acknowledged him by dedicating his nitrous trips books to him…that was a bit of a quiet nod,i would say.
it seems alan watts was the first to say….
“i am not serious,i am sincere”
“god is not serious”
“meditation is really supposed to be fun
i have great difficculy in presenting this view as everyone takes any thing to do with religion with the utmost seriousness”
osho talked up that othe boozer gurdjieff,but i would say his message was a million miles nearer to alan watts…..
isn`t the karoli baba acid story just another enlightened super-hero story?
like all those “siddhis” a la autobiog of a yogi– tales like living for a few hundred years in himalaya,flying,not eating etc
and gurdjieff`s conscious boozing?
that reminds me of the story osho told about when g threw ouspensky`s suitcase out of a moving train as some kind of teaching. g was “pretending to be drunk” at the time as some kind of gurdjieffian device…
an amazing piece of method acting for sure!
all things considered…..going to india on a spiritual search because rumour had it that there was a guy there who was permanently tripping on self-generated acid was probably a better reason than going there because some famous cheese-head psychotherapist punched some german chicks` lights out…
teertha,
another pillar to add to meditation therapy and drugs could be philosophy.
i know its a bit of a dirty word in sannyas cicles,evoking pictures of unjuicy repressed guys totally stuck in the heads who obviously were`nt getting enough sex (call the gorilla)…
but gurdjieff and especially ouspensky owed a lot to freddie.
there was more than a strong whiff of the “superman” about their worldview…
and what was osho doing in his room whilst people`s wives were getting shagged senseless next door by gorillas?
reading philosphy literally by the crate load…
Hindu lore abounds with fantastic yogi tales. Paramahansa Yogananda’s ‘Autobiography of a Yogi’ probably takes the cake. One story concerns Sri Yukteswar getting an arm chopped off by a local cop’s sword. The master picks up his severed arm, tells the grief-stricken cop not to worry and then walks off. Quite soon after he shows up again. His arm is as good as new with no scaring. He must have used a lot of Vitamin E (E for enlightenment).
This string is now closed as it is long off topic, but please start your own strings on the caravanserai.