Osho - A psychopathic cult leader

[thorbiorn]

An interesting article written by Satya Franklin who was a close friend of Osho and Sheela and lived at Rajneeshpuram:

‘Wild Wild Country’: A Rajneeshee Cult Insider on the Horrors the Netflix Series Left Out

From the article:

[...]
Here in the article, she discusses rewriting Osho's early books:

[...]
A little while later in the article she also mentions the following about her books and her writing:

There was another passage in the article by Satya Franklin:

[...]

[...]
The creators (Maclain and Chapman Way) once again put Sheela center stage, where she clearly likes to be. She’d fought her way to the top of the Rajneesh hierarchy to get there, getting rid of anyone who stood in her way, even when this meant poisoning or drugging them. Bhagwan’s longtime companion Vivek is barely mentioned; his longtime secretary Laxmi barely mentioned. Their suspicious illnesses and deaths are completely ignored. [...]
[...]
Six months earlier, Sheela’s first husband, Chinmaya, whom she spoke movingly about in the documentary, died under suspicious circumstances at the ashram. (Puja was there when it happened.) According to the FBI testimony of one of Sheela’s co-conspirators, she admitted that she’d personally injected Chinmaya with the drug that killed him, calling it a “mercy killing.” The Ways never questioned her about this. Did they dig deeply enough into the records to be aware of it? Talk to people who’d been there? Ask questions about why Chinmaya died when he did, while his Hodgkin’s disease was in remission and he was doing well, certainly not on his deathbed?

Relevant questions. But what about Hillary Clinton and Co, or should one ask if another effect of the series could be that people are led to believe that activities like they took place at the Ranch are far removed from the life of the ordinary society?

In 1972, when I was living with Vivek in Bhagwan’s Bombay apartment, Sheela came to see Bhagwan. (She’d known him, briefly, as a child.) Bhagwan told me to convince her to “take sannyas” (become his disciple), and my efforts succeeded: she did.

What a choice!

[...]
Sheela and Chinmaya adopted her niece, who never lived them with them. The adoption allegedly allowed Sheela to claim increased death benefits when Chinmaya died.
[...]

Hmm...

[...]Sheela had “a bad habit of poisoning people,” she admitted at her trial.[...]

She had bad habit, but probably it was "not out of character".

Sheela is a master manipulator like Bhagwan. She manipulated the Ways, too. It was her world that was portrayed in Wild Wild Country, not the world the rest of us were living in. Bhagwan had helped thousands of us awaken from the dreams and illusions of our conditioning; he’d helped us rediscover joy again. These were no small treasures by anyone’s standard, even if he spoke of the nuclear family as evil (the ashram/ranch/commune was to be our family now). Bhagwan created new dreams for us to believe in, and still looking for a meaning to define our lives, we bought it all, willing partners in our own deception.

As for orgies at the ranch—no way they happened. We were working 16-18 hours a day, seven days a week. Who had the time or energy for an orgy?! The video footage of naked sannyasins rolling around on mattresses, fighting or erotically entwined, was shot in an encounter group at the (first) Rajneesh Ashram in India (now known as “Poona 1”).
[/QUOTE]
On Amazon there are several reviews of a book by Satay Franklin, originally published in the 1990'ies. https://www.amazon.com/PROMISE-PARA...preST=_SX218_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&dpSrc=srch

One thought I have been having while reading about the subject of this topic, is that several aspects of the culture many of us live in is like a wild, wild country. True, we don't have someone listening to our phone calls and checking our possessions, but we have total surveillance of our communication, most of our shopping transactions are recorded, and now that I looked at the book by Satya Franklin, the advertisement changed to smart shoes for women. We don't have poisoning, but we have governments, democratic of course, some of which that didn't/(don't ?) shy away from testing their latest bio weapons against the enemy - on their own populations, we have a pharmaceutical industry that sometimes rates its profits higher than our health, we have vaccine programs that are being enforced with increasing insistance and severity, we have GMO gone wild. We don't have a program for enlightenment, we have an ideology that is being promoted in schools and universities. We don't have a leader like Sheela and co with their antics, but we have Russia gates, we have WMD's and chemical attacks where often there are none, we have false flag events like 9/11 that end up costing millions of people death and suffering, we have Skripal events where victims are put away like in a mysterious disappearance of some cult, and we have evidence of pedophilia in high places. There has also been cases of elections that were adjusted, not by busloads of homeless people being shipped in for the purpose, although sometimes the borders of consituencies have been adjusted to create the same effect; it is ofen more refined and less noticeable, except to the keen observer who notices irrigularities, like sudden impossible changes in the numbers showing up on the screen. Of course we don't have a guru that has 93 Rolls Royces, we have something much better, an elite where a very small number own half the worlds wealth, an elite which has a huge influence on the worlds of finance, medias, politics - and almost nobody cares. We have sport stars The World's Highest-Paid Soccer Players that for a fraction of their yearly income could buy twice as many cars as a former professor of philosophy and his followers managed to purchase over a number of years, but that is not a problem because the cult was back then and now on the show of the wild wild country.

 

[Aeneas]

Chacaflus said:

I am astonished. This bioterrorism was OSHO. I remembered this attempt (_1984 Rajneeshee bioterror attack - Wikipedia and _The Largest Bioterror Attack in U.S. Histors. Despite causing widespread sickness, the plot didn't work. Locals suspected it was an attack of some sort and turned out in force to vote against the Rajneeshee candidates. But there was no concrete proof of malicious poisoning.
y Began at This Salsa Bar) but I never thought it was done by OSHO. It is funny to think how many of his books are sold in Spain every year by people looking for improving themselves.

I looked at this story about the largest Bioterror attack in US history and something irked me. It sounded eerily similar to “Assad poisoned his own people”. It says in the article:

Over the course of two months, the group contaminated 10 salad bars in the area with salmonella in an attempt to suppress the vote. Using a plastic bag filled with a brown liquid they nicknamed "salsa," the poured the salmonella filled slurry directly into salad dressings, splashed it on produce, put it in water, and generally got it everywhere they could. 751 people fell ill, and 45 were hospitalized with Salmonella poisoning. No one died, but had the Rajneeshees gone with their original plan of using Salmonella typhi, or typhoid fever, it surely would have resulted in numerous fatalities.

The contamination was originally attributed to poor worker hygiene. It wasn't until one year later, when Osho himself had fled the commune and blamed Sheela and her "gang of fascists" for the attacks that the government investigated. What they found in the commune was a fully fledged bioterrorism lab containing salmonella cultures and literature on the manufacture and usage of explosives and military biowarfare. Also discovered was one of the largest illegal wire-tapping operations ever found, and an assassination plot on the life of Charles Turner, United States Attorney for the District of Oregon.

.

So the government investigated a year later and found what was there to back up their story. The same government that wants us to believe in the Scripal poisoning, the Douma chemical attack, the Chemical attack in Ghouta, The MH17 investigation, the “Russia did this and that” stories and on and on. This back then undoubtedly fitted an agenda of putting more restrictions in place - of course to protect the people - and purporting the narratives.

I don't find this story of influencing the votes by contaminating 10 salad bars thus hitting vegetarians especially hard) very convincing. It sounds more like a story to the kind we are used to these days and which are accepted by all the MSM at face value.

And remembering those times, then Osho/Rajneesh was very much hated in the US as he attacked the US government like Duterte, Ahmadinejad, Chavez has done. Osho attacked the US and the US government and this provocative stance certainly polarized people. Labelling him the sex guru certainly swayed the elephant (to use Jonathan Haidts description) for many that he was the incarnation of the devil and that emotional trigger worked wonders for the MSM and no reason or logic was needed. Just as today, where babies "gassed by an evil dictator" or "throw out of incubators" is enough for most people to support a government war. Emotions works wonders and focussing on sex and Rolls Royces was also then enough to drown out perhaps some valid criticism of Western values.

But the story about how the US government conveniently found this biolab a year later is also interesting in light of this story on SOTT a few days ago:
US Army admits that it secretly dispersed germs in 239 locations across America, exposing many thousands of unsuspecting citizens -- Sott.net

The U.S. Army has admitted that it secretly conducted at least 239 germ warfare tests in locations across the country, targeting unsuspecting Americans.

While the United States government claims to be horrified every time there are reports of a chemical attack that was allegedly carried out by the Syrian government, history serves as a reminder that the U.S. is responsible for carrying out a number of chemical attacks on thousands of unsuspecting Americans, and some of the innocent victims are still suffering from the effects today.

In 1977, the U.S. Army admitted that it secretly conducted at least 239 germ warfare tests in the open air in cities across the country between 1949 and 1969. The areas where the lethal germs were simulated on the public were typically in major cities such as Washington D.C., San Francisco, New York City, Key West and Panama City, according to a report the Army submitted to the Senate Health Subcommittee.

And we are meant to believe that the US stopped experimenting on their own population in 1969 with Bio/chemical warfare? Pinning one incident of such an attack on a cult movement sounds convenient and I somehow am a little hesitant to take the US governments words at face value.
Rajneesh believed as was the wisdom of the times, that man could be freed if only all the sexual and emotional repressions were let loose, explored and accepted. No doubt a can of worms with unforeseen consequences. He spoke a lot about this and this attracted many of the top people in the early 70ies from the Esalen institute AND the Hollywood set.

When one bears in mind how instrumental the CIA were in setting up the New Age movement and experimenting in Mind control programs, such as MKULTRA and MOCKINGBIRD and very involved in the Esalen Institute and Hollywood, then it would be strange if the Rajneesh movement would not be infiltrated in the early 70'ies and ponerized.

Even if Rajneesh/Osho was a smart guy, his blind spot on ponerology along with his own weaknesses could easily be taken over by those only to “eager to help”.

Cases of US government involvement such as, the Jones Town cult, The Koresh cult or the Oklahoma City Bombing. Reading the official wiki entry on those cases might give us the feeling, just like the wiki entry on Osho, that we know all there is to know about these cases and that they were just bad evil people out to steal our freedom and democracy.

It has been mentioned that Osho left India, because the Indian government booted him out for tax evasion. On the surface that looks like a good reason, but that just raises the question how come there are still 1,3 billion people in India as surely he is not the only who has done tax evasion. Osho was outspoken and deplored the Indian system. He ridiculed all the “holy men” in India past and present pointing at the state of India with untold powerty and pointing to how all the holiness of these people never did anything to better the standards of living or the class systems.

He said repeatedly that the West had gone astray by not having any spiritual values and how the East had gone astray by not learning from the West in term of improvement people’s livelihood. He called for what he called the marriage of Western science and Eastern mysticism.

This is not to say that he was right, but his highly critical views of the state of the world certainly created many powerful enemies.
Was he a psychopath? Well, it is said that one has to study a person for years to get the full picture, but I think that the movement without doubt was infiltrated and ponerized.

 

[Eulenspiegel]

I wondered why India has a bigger share of these Godman Scams/scandals than others. They are pretty common news of Indian media. Often people with foreign national followers attract more attention to the media. Maybe it is related to religion or history or poverty or religious fighters fought Muslim/British rule or combination.

Some fall under religious authorities and some Self-made Godmen. I came across this article which talks about this phenomenon.

_India’s godman syndrome

There must be many factors contributing to that phenomenon. But the thing is, India has a long history of spiritual traditions and particularly charismatic spiritual leaders, and people have come to expect the periodic appearance of such people in that country. It also hasn't been secularized to the degree many Western countries(and China) have. There are no doubt genuine traditions in India, but the existence of poverty promotes scams. People noticed that religious symbols like matted hair and robes, combined with the display of seemingly miraculous powers, tends to attract large followings, who gladly donate their money. Even in China's communist state, there was a brief period in the 80's and 90's where many "Qi Gong Masters" appeared. They advertised themselves through the alleged ability to heal or display "powers". In China's case, the impact of those people was even more pronounced because of the distinct lack of spirituality in the country.
It also seems to me that people look for father figures; someone they can follow. You see, Rajneesh was basically a well read philosophy professor who acted like he was a yogi. He began to comment on many things, even areas he couldn't possibly know much about(other religious traditions and philosophy, for example). People nevertheless became fascinated with his talks and writings, even though he obviously was talking the talk, but not walking the walk(the traditions he talked about strongly advise against sadhus buying or owning property like ashrams or creating large followings)

Something similar seems to be happening with Jordan Peterson right now. He's a great psychology professor and activist. But people are putting him on a pedestal, he has a large amount of followers that would heed his every word(and also pay him a million dollars a year on Patreon). He has become a godman of the West. If he were to have ill intentions and bought a large area of land and invited his followers to come live with him, what do you think would happen?

I think this phenomenon can happen anywhere.

 

[turiya]

History has shown that a general population of people have never accepted a contemporary as being a genuinely enlightened individual. And in this day & age, the naysayers have the help of a MSM Fake News outlets to lay on their dirt. In this way, the man is buried deep beneath a ton of BS, that many here have so easily have found links to.

Sad to see so many Eyes_Wide_Shut.
Ciao for now.

 

[luigi rovatti]

Is Osho really enlightened, or just a charlatan? I'd like to know what the Cs think of him.

 

[Jones]

There's a discussion topic on Osho here if it helps. I don't think the C's have been asked specifically about him.

 

[BHelmet]

I am a hard sell when it comes to gurus. I just read some the the 77 quotes on the internet. Seemed fairly legit to me, but, why bother? What he says is what must be learned by walking the path yourself.

 

[Matthew]

I stumbled across a video of him online some years ago. It was really weird. The video began with him entering a room and staring intensely at the camera before he sat down. I thought: "What a creep!" I didn't get a good vibe from him at all. He had an acolyte sitting there who clearly thought that he was a divine being who had nothing but pearls of wisdom. She asked him lots of questions and was fully on board with the guru trip. He would consider her question for a moment and then spout some nonsense. I stopped watching after a few minutes as I thought there was nothing to be gained there. I have an instinctive revulsion to the whole guru/acolyte relationship and even had a couple want me to be their guru once. I soon smashed that illusion I can tell you! I told my friend about it and we watched it together and had a good laugh at his act.

 

[dmnlksm]

My opinion about Osho; it is that while he was moving on a positively oriented and enlightened path at first, he was later subjected to a heavy deviation by negative forces. And It is possible to talk about erosions created by money and power.

 

[Arne]

I wached the documentary "Wild wild country" a while back. Personally I would not like to be near him.

"When a controversial guru builds an utopian city in the Oregon desert, it causes a massive conflict with local ranchers. This docuseries chronicles the conflict, which leads to the first bioterror attack in the United States and a massive case of illegal wiretapping. It is a pivotal, but largely forgotten, time in American cultural history that tested the country's tolerance for the separation of church and state. "

Wild Wild Country (TV Mini Series 2018) ⭐ 8.1 | Documentary, Crime

1h 10m | 18

www.imdb.com

 

[Petar]

Hi Luigi,
Answer on your question is better to base on your personal experience. I know that is easier to ask and get it for free but you are going to miss the experience and chance to distinguish right from wrong. I have red a lot of his books, I can recommend to everyone (The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali-Osho) and sow many of his video's, so my advice would be do it your self only than you wil get the right answer on your question. .

 

[loreta]

He had around 100 Rolls-Royce. For me just this point is enough to say no way.

 

[Miracle]

@luigi rovatti

I wached the documentary "Wild wild country" a while back. Personally I would not like to be near him.

"When a controversial guru builds an utopian city in the Oregon desert, it causes a massive conflict with local ranchers. This docuseries chronicles the conflict, which leads to the first bioterror attack in the United States and a massive case of illegal wiretapping. It is a pivotal, but largely forgotten, time in American cultural history that tested the country's tolerance for the separation of church and state. "

Wild Wild Country (TV Mini Series 2018) ⭐ 8.1 | Documentary, Crime

1h 10m | 18

www.imdb.com

No need to ask the Cs what they think about him. Watch "Wild Wild Country" like Arne suggests as the documentary should rather thoroughly answer your question. That documentary series is AMAZING! My jaw was on the floor the entire time. In the chance that you do take the time to watch the series I won't give any spoilers.

 

[Aeneas]

Is Osho really enlightened, or just a charlatan?

Personally I would not like to be near him.

Osho aka Rajneesh died 30 years ago, so to those who are afraid of the thought of being near him, then they can rest easy.

Was he enlightened? Well, there is no unified agreement as to what enlightened is or means though it has been talked much about. Was he a charlatan? It is an interesting question but I think a yes or a no, would be a too black and white answer.

My opinion about Osho; it is that while he was moving on a positively oriented and enlightened path at first, he was later subjected to a heavy deviation by negative forces. And It is possible to talk about erosions created by money and power.

My view is not too different to that. He was a voracious reader and highly intelligent. He read and was strongly influenced by Gurdjieff and shared a number of characteristics which were similar. Business man, trickster, magician and a charismatic character. He wanted to merge the Western scientific thought with Eastern mysticism and had a dream of 'creating' a new man who embodied this melting of East and West.

He had a large Western following not least because he was well versed with Western literature, philosophy and psychology and thus able to talk to an audience of young people who were super charged by the human potential movement of the 60'ies and 70'ies. It was cool to go to India, meditate and hang out with thousands of other Westerners. Tune in and tune out was the motto back then and Osho saw many come to him too. He devised meditation techniques for the 'Western mind' as he said, which were active and cathartic in nature as to him the Westerners were culturally not able to just sit still with a mantra for hours. They according to him needed some active part to release some of this energy stored up in the bodies and minds first. This started back in the late 60ies. He wanted desperately to wake people up and his provocative viewpoints was meant as Gurdjieffian alarm clocks. The Transcendental Meditation movement by Maharishi was also popular at the time and advertised how people slept better with their meditations. Osho was quick to score points by saying that he was himself not about putting people to sleep but rather in waking people up and that if they wanted to sleep then they should just go to Maharishi. Osho did see people as asleep and the need for alarm clocks 24/7.

Another story about shocking people I heard from the time just after the fall of the wall (1989), when a number of Russians came to him. One evening during a discourse, he talked the whole evening about the great qualities of Stalin. As a consequence half the Russians left the next morning and that evening he talked the whole evening what a terrible character Stalin was. Osho wanted to poke people awake and rattle them and so rattle he did.

With the human potential movement and Westerners who came to him, came also many of the top therapists from the Esalen Institute and the Hollywood set. I think that was when the dark forces around him accelerated. He was very provocative and outspoken as previously mentioned, speaking up against the Catholic church, the US endless wars and foreign policy and for that he was vilified in the press. The films made about him has been to assassinate his character and are akin to the CNN writing about the presidency of Trump.

He had around 100 Rolls-Royce.

When he went to America, he said beforehand, that Americans only valued money and thus to gain respect one had to play their game. He had rich followers and soon Rolls Royces appeared and the donors were given a front seat close their 'master'. It somehow worked as the PR put him on the front pages in the US. To Osho, bad publicity was almost better than good publicity as people remember it better. Emotions anchor memories and some hated him while others loved him but people didn't stay indifferent to him.

He was called the sex guru as he talked about 'love' and for men and woman to freely explore sexuality. He felt it was almost impossible for most people to just neglect, so his approach was to go into it with open arms for then to go beyond it. He did not see sex as the end goal, but that didn't mean that many didn't get stuck there. It certainly got the US bible belt firmly against him and Ronald Reagan whom he liked to poke fun at. Carl Jung also embraced sex as a way for personal development and he too went astray.

There is no evidence that he was a sexual pervert or a pedophile or anything like that. During the last several decades he had a lifelong female partner with whom he had 'apparently shared a previous life together. There has been no claims during his life or after that he had anything to do with minors, which is why I wouldn't cast him in the pedo/pervert category. What he did with adult women with mutual consent is not something I care about, just like I don't care what Trump did with adult women under mutual understanding.

Osho from my understanding had a very limited understanding of evil and the dark forces and that undoubtedly contributed to his downfall. He also had a strong narcissistic character which didn't help when negative forces over the years infiltrated his movement and distracted it and him. After his death, he was sanitized by the organisation around him, some books where he spoke against putting him up on a pedestal became permanently out of print. Likewise did books which encouraged serious seekers to, after his death, find new masters/teachers. He became suddenly someone whose teachings didn't frighten anybody anymore and instead a sleeping pill.

He was an interesting personality and also a product of the time in which he lived. Here I am thinking especially of the flower power movement, the human potential movement and the antiwar movement.

 

[Cosmos]

Is Osho really enlightened, or just a charlatan? I'd like to know what the Cs think of him.

I don't think it is necessary to ask the C's about Osho, since we can find out the answer for ourselves. As you can see in the title of this thread (and its contents), the answer to your question is quite clear: Osho - A psychopathic cult leader.