dkkent

What was so amazing about Rajneesh? How did you view him back then? How do you view him now?

I was a teenager, so what was amazing for me was the energy of the community around him, not so much him. I was younger so did not really listen to what he was saying and didn’t participate in the meditations. I was there because this was my life - not because I was a spiritual seeker (like my mom was).

He was “my master” because on the ranch he was everyone’s master. Once it all fell apart I did go back to the Ashram in India one time, I was about 19 and I wanted to go see what all this was about, from a slightly more mature place in myself. It was nice to see old friends, I was in Poona for about 4 weeks, I worked again at the Ashram, and I heard him talk. It was nice to see my friends, interesting to see Bhagwan (I never call him Osho - to me that name is propaganda to try and forget what happened in Oregon) but I din’t reveal any desire to be a disciple or follower any more.

Now, I feel like he was at one time a very well read university professor who was very good at combining eastern mysticism, philosophy, elements of religion and some good jokes to create a compelling message that resonated with people looking for something different. More and more people came and I thin he got swept up in the fame and adoration of all that attention. I do not for a second believe that he was innocent in all that went on. He may not have known about some of the details but there is too much testimony that implicates his collusion and telling Sheela about what needed to be done to protect the community.

So for me he had some good things to say, and obviously many people love his books and spoken word. But I think this serves as a warning to anyone who follows someone else. Whether that be religion, sect, cult, whatever name you want to give it. Take what is life changing for you, and move on. Or if not, take what is life changing and then own up to the darkness and say “Yes - this man is my master. And he has done some really messed up things and hurt a lot of people, but I am sticking by his side because his wisdom outweighs his dark side”.

As humans we give up our own individual power easily, I think there is something genetic that predisposes many people to want to follow someone or something else. I just think we all need to discern a bit better who we are following.

Do you feel the community was treated reasonably fairly in the documentary?

Short answer - Yes. Of the material they touched on it's a pretty good representation, also keeping in mind that everyone interviewed has their own biases. I think the most neutral of the current day commenters were Jane Stork and the ex-mayor of Antelope, the guy who found the documents that were supposed to be shredded in the dump.

The part that the documentary barely touches on is everything 'else' that happened that had nothing to do with wiretapping, arson, or attempted murder.

It's true that as a community we did terrible things to the surrounding community, and many of us had no idea that this stuff was taking place. And at the same time you had thousands of people working really long hours to build some different, and mostly smiling all the time because we were generally happy.

I think it's a very layered story, obviously with many individual experiences so I am not about to try and put words in the mouths of others. I was there because my mom took me there when I was 12 years old, so my experience obviously is different to those who were older and chose to be there. The struggle I always have with any book, story, documentary etc. about the ranch is to make sure the good and bad are shown equally, because if you focus on only one of those aspects the full story is never told.

I can't speak for other kids, but for me this was my normal. I had been surrounded by Bhagwan's followers since I was 6 or 7 years old. And this was true for many of the kids on the ranch. At some point I thought I would be living there for as much of the future as I could imagine. No one ever talked to me about going to college, or starting a career. But as a teenager I loved living there until there was a "disturbance in the force" which was how I described it. When I was 16 I was sent to the commune in Amsterdam - that was awesome, out of the Oregon desert and into the middle of a city where I worked in our own nightclub right on the edge of Amsterdam's famous red light district. But after 6 months I returned to the ranch and a lot of things felt "off". And as I described it to my friends for there was a disturbance, and it was about 8 months later I think that everything fell apart.

I often wonder how it would have been if Sheela hadn't pissed off so many people, but the reality is we bought ranch land that was zoned agricultural so this would've never been successful in that location. Could it have been on some other property or somewhere else in the world? Perhaps... there certainly was the will amongst the people to work hard to create this new home. But as Sheela once told me (ironically) - power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely... (I know other people have said that but the first time I heard it was from her when she was visiting the Rajneeshee kids in the Antelope school house).

For me the ranch was like a microcosm of any other society where there is good and bad, unfortunately the negative won over the good.

How much free love was really happening? Was that tabloid news?

Like Sheela says in Wild Wild Country - do you pay for it? This was my same response when some teenagers came to the ranch for a visit from an alternative high school in Portland :)

But seriously - I know this one of the most sensational topics and also the one blown way out of proportion. In Wild Wild Country there is an FBI agent saying the he saw people having sex on a bridge as he was entering the ranch, if he did then it’s probably the only time it ever happened. People were affectionate and loving in public, but not having sex. It just didn't happen - we were too busy working during the day!

There were people who were married, single, in relationships, playing the field, breaking up, getting together, etc. etc. just like anywhere else in the world. Perhaps because people were less stressed about work and bills they may have been more promiscuous but it really wasn’t a sex cult. Sure there is footage from the “encounter groups” that took place in a padded room in the Ashram in India. This is a tiny tiny sampling of daily life that stopped once people started getting hurt. And as far as I know this type of ‘group’ never took place in Oregon.

How did most of the kids you knew view their time at Rajneeshpuram? Were you longing to have a 'normal' childhood / high school experience or did you enjoy it? Do you think that things would have gone differently had the community had different leadership or if Sheela would have been less combative?

Life on the Ranch was “normal” for me. My mom had been involved with Rajneesh since I was about 6 years old so this was all very familiar to me. I definitely enjoyed it as a teenager. I worked hard at my job, long hours editing video, building electronics projects (including the security system for Sheela’s house), running the teenagers disco, and a lot of other things. It was really fun in many, many ways. I had good friends, good work, good food, and too many red clothes!

The ranch was zoned agricultural so just buying that particular property in hindsight was a really bad idea. It was doomed from the start in many ways because of that. Would it have fared better somewhere else? Perhaps… but ironically, one day Sheela came to the school in Antelope (during the short time I actually attended that school) and she was the first person I ever heard saying “power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely”. I think whenever you give a single person too much power - whether they be a guru, leader of sorts, politician, god, etc. you give up your own personal will to a certain degree and lose personal responsibility. There are many, many things that contribute to success or failure of a group like this. In it’s essence it was a beautiful ideal, to create a sustainable community with everyone working towards a common goal, it just didn’t work in this case, and I am unaware of any other situation where it has worked! Perhaps a symptom of the human condition?