Ep.11 The Rajneesh movement

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:24):
Welcome to Hidden Cults, the podcast that shines a light
into the shadows. Here we explore the strange, the secretive,
and the spiritually seductive. From fringe religions to doomsday prophets,
from communes to corporate empires. These are the movements that
promised meaning and sometimes delivered something far more dangerous. I'm
your host, and in each episode, we uncover the true
stories behind the world's most controversial cults, the leaders who

(00:47):
led them, the followers who followed, and the echoes they
left behind. If you or someone you care about has
been impacted by a cult, you're not alone. There is help.
Whether you're still inside a cult or trying to process
what you've been through, support is out there. You can
find organizations and hotlines in the description of this episode.
You deserve freedom, healing, and a life that's truly your own.

(01:10):
Reach out. The first step is often the hardest, but
it's also the most powerful. If you'd like to share
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future Listener Stories episode. Your anonymity is guaranteed always today's episode,
let's begin the Rajniche movement Part one, The Making of

(01:31):
a Guru, from Chandra Mohan to Bagwan Shri Rajnish before
the Rolls Royces, before the ranch in Oregon, Before the
world saw him as either a spiritual genius or a
dangerous cult leader, he was simply Chandra Mohan Jane born
on December eleventh, nineteen thirty one, in Kuchwada, a small
village in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. He

(01:52):
was the eldest of eleven children in a Jane family.
His early years were shaped by paradox. He was surrounded
by religion but repelled by its rigidity. He was introspective
but also rebellious, and he never stopped asking questions. His
maternal grandparents raised him for most of his childhood. They
allowed him unusual freedom for the time. While many children

(02:15):
in rural India followed strict social and spiritual expectations, young
Chandra roamed freely through the forests, read voraciously, and spent
hours in solitary contemplation. His grandfather encouraged his questions about life, death,
and the nature of the soul. This autonomy coupled with
the early death of his grandfather when Chandra was a
teenager left a mark. It intensified his fascination with mortality,

(02:40):
with existential mystery, and with the idea that life was
too complex for conventional answers. By the time he enrolled
in college, Chandra Mohan had become known as a provocative speaker.
He studied philosophy, first at Hitkarini College in Jabalpur and
later at D. N. Jane College. His professors respected his intellect,
but many were frustrated by his confrontational style. He challenged

(03:02):
their ideas, pushed back against academic norms, and dismissed religious
orthodoxy as hypocritical and dead. He developed a reputation for
radical honesty and public debates that could drag on for hours.
In nineteen fifty five, he graduated with a BA in philosophy.
Two years later he earned his master's degree with distinction.

(03:22):
But more importantly, he had begun to cultivate his identity
not just as a thinker, but as a disruptor. He
started traveling across India giving lectures under the name Acharia
raj Niche. These talks were unlike anything traditional Indian audiences
were used to. He spoke about meditation and mysticism, but
also about sex, capitalism, socialism, and the illusion of moral certainty.

(03:46):
He quoted Marx and Freud as easily as he quoted
Krishna and Buddha. He attracted followers, but also outrage. In
a deeply conservative society still healing from the trauma of
British colonialism and partition, Rajnish's message was shock. He criticized Gandhi,
attacked organized religion, and called for a new man, someone
free of ideology, liberated from guilt, and fully alive in

(04:08):
the present. To many, he was dangerous. To others, he
was thrilling. By the late nineteen sixties, his message had
taken hold among a certain kind of seeker. Educated urban
frustrated with tradition but unsatisfied by Western rationalism. India's middle
and upper classes were beginning to turn inward, searching for
meaning beyond the material boom of post independence. Rajniche offered

(04:33):
a path that was both ancient and radical. He drew
on meditation practices from Jainism, Buddhism and Tantra, but stripped
them of discipline and austerity. He told people that desire
was not the enemy, that the body was not a trap,
that God was not outside but within. In nineteen seventy,
he introduced a new technique he called dynamic meditation. It

(04:55):
combined rapid breathing, cathartic movement, intense emotion, and silence. The
process was designed to bypass the analytical mind and provoke
a kind of energetic release. Followers described it as electrifying.
For many, it was their first experience of meditation that
felt physical, raw, even violent. It wasn't peaceful contemplation. It

(05:16):
was a storm. That same year he also accepted his
first Western disciples. They were travelers, mostly young, curious and
hungry for something authentic. India had become a spiritual destination
for the counterculture, beat poets, LSD philosophers, disillusion dropouts, all
searching for gurus and answers. Rajni stood out. He didn't

(05:36):
look ascetic, He didn't ask them to renounce pleasure. He
spoke in clear, confident English, and he seemed to understand
their discontent better than they did. He moved to Bombay
in the early nineteen seventies and began holding lectures at
a flat owned by one of his Indian devotees. Westerners
came in increasing numbers, drawn by word of mouth and
the promise of transformation. It was around this time that

(06:00):
he began calling himself Bagwan, a Sanskrit term meaning the
blessed one or God. It was not a name many
Indian spiritual teachers used lightly, but Rajnish wore it without apology.
To him, enlightenment wasn't a mysterious achievement reserved for saints.
It was the natural state of a person freed from illusion.

(06:20):
In nineteen seventy four, the movement took a decisive turn.
Rajnish relocated to Pune, where his followers established the Shri
Rajeniche Ashram. It became the hub of his global operation,
a compound of meditation halls, dormitories, gardens, and administrative buildings,
all designed to support the growing community of seekers. People
from across the world came to live there, some for weeks,

(06:43):
some for years. Workshops ran constantly, therapy groups and counter
sessions guided meditations. It was spiritual boot camp, psychological excavation,
and communal experimentation all at once. Life in the Pune
Ashram was structured, but intense. Sexual openness was encouraged. Emotional
breakdowns were normal. Authority was fluid, but ultimately centered on

(07:05):
bagwan himself. He rarely met with new disciples directly, but
his energy seemed to saturate the place. He appeared for
daily dharshans, where he would sit in silence while his
followers gazed at him. He wore robes, beads, and an
aura of effortless serenity. People cried at the sight of him,
Some believed he could see into their soul. Others simply

(07:27):
felt calmer in his presence. But Rajnish was also building
something more ambitious than just a spiritual retreat. He saw
himself not as a guru, but as the founder of
a new civilization. He wrote constantly, dictated tantaepe and published
volumes of teachings. His subjects ranged from Zend to the
bagavad Gida, from Jesus to Gurjef. He called for the

(07:48):
destruction of organized religion. He said communism and capitalism were
both broken. He envisioned a world ruled by Zorba the Buddha,
a fusion of sensual pleasure and spiritual away awareness. His
followers took these ideas seriously. They wore maroon robes, they
changed their names to Sanskrit ones, They gave up careers families, homes,

(08:10):
They worked in the ashram, cooked meals, cleaned dorms, edited books,
They gave money, a lot of money, and they believed
they were building the future of humanity. But beneath the surface,
tensions were rising. The Indian government grew suspicious. Locals complained
about the Ashram's behavior. Immigration officials questioned the legality of
the dozens of Westerners living on site. Police watched carefully,

(08:34):
and within the movement, power was beginning to concentrate around
a small circle of administrators, chief among them an ambitious
and fiercely loyal woman named ma Annshila. In Part two,
we followed the explosive expansion of the movement into the
United States, the founding of Rajnishpurum in rural Oregon, and
the unfolding of one of the most bizarre and dangerous

(08:55):
chapters in the history of modern spirituality. Part two, From
Puna to Oregon, ma Anan Shila and the rise of Rajnishperam.
In nineteen eighty one, the rhythm of the Punae Ashram
changed abruptly. For years, Bagwan Shri Rajniche had been the
nucleus of a global spiritual movement that fused Eastern mysticism
with Western psychological therapies. His teachings reached across continents. His followers,

(09:20):
known as Sanyasen's, came from every corner of the globe
to sit at his feet. And yet at the height
of this influence, Rajnish went silent. The reason was never
fully explained Publicly, his followers said he was entering a
period of silence for spiritual reasons. Privately, many suspected it
had more to do with mounting pressure from the Indian government.

(09:40):
Officials were increasingly wary of the Ashram's foreign visitors, financial activity,
and the sexually open, emotionally explosive group therapies that unfolded
behind its gates. There were immigration issues, tax inquiries, allegations
of corruption, and Rajnish, whose health was said to be fragile,
to decided or was advised to leave India altogether. The

(10:03):
architect of this move was ma Anan Sheila. Sheila was
not a mystic or a spiritual philosopher. She was a strategist, sharp, young,
and utterly devoted to Ragniche. She had been drawn into
his orbit years earlier and had risen quickly through the
ranks by nineteen eighty one. She was his personal secretary,
the gatekeeper between the Bagwan and the outside world, and

(10:26):
when Ragniche chose to retreat from public speaking and entered silence,
Sheila stepped in, not just as an administrator, but as
the public face of the movement. Sheila orchestrated Ragniche's move
to the United States. The initial story presented to immigration
officials was that he was there for medical treatment. In truth,
the movement had grander ambitions. They wanted land, They wanted permanence,

(10:50):
They wanted to build a utopia. They found their canvas
in Wasco County, Oregon. It was remote, largely undeveloped, and
to the Rajniches perfect. In July of nineteen eighty one,
the movement purchased the Big Muddy Ranch, a sixty four
thousand acre stretch of land near the small town of Antelope.
Locals were told it would be a small spiritual community,

(11:10):
quiet and self contained, but from the beginning the scope
of the project was far more ambitious. Bulldozers arrived, roads
were carved out of the desert. Prefabricated homes were shipped in.
Over the next few months, the land was transformed into
a city. They called it Rajnishpurum. At first glance, it
was an impressive feat. Where there had been nothing, they

(11:32):
built a self sustaining community. There were homes, gardens, a dam,
a post office, an airstrip. At its peak, Rajnishpuram had
its own police force, fire department, restaurants, a mall, and
public transportation. Thousands of Seniasins moved in, wearing their signature
red and orange robes. They worked day and night building

(11:52):
a city in the desert, believing they were laying the
foundation for a new way of life. But it wasn't
just physical infrastructure that was taking shape. Power was consolidating
rapidly around Shila. As Ragniche remained silent, emerging only for
daily drives through the compound in one of his growing
fleet of rolls royces. Sheila handled everything else. She negotiated

(12:14):
with local officials, she managed finances, She oversaw construction, logistics
and press relations, and increasingly she led with an iron
will to the public. Shila was combative and quotable. She
insulted journalists, mocked politicians, and delivered profane tirades against the
group's critics To followers. She was both admired and feared.

(12:34):
She claimed to speak for Baguan, and in a movement
where his word was law, her authority was absolute. The
tension with local residents escalated quickly. The nearest town, Antelope,
had a population of just a few dozen before the
Sanyasins arrived. Within a year, the newcomers outnumbered them. They
registered to vote, ran for office, and won. Antelope was

(12:56):
renamed Rajniche. The takeover was legal, but deeply proved pocative.
Locals felt invaded. They began pushing back legally and politically.
In response, Sheila pushed harder. The commune launched its own
political initiative. Their goal was to secure influence in Wasco
County and eventually statewide. But there was a problem. Many

(13:17):
of the commune's residents were foreign nationals who couldn't vote.
So Shila devised a plan. In nineteen eighty four, hundreds
of homeless people were busted into rajnish Puram from cities
across the US. They were promised food, shelter, and dignity.
What Shila wanted was votes. When officials tried to block
the move tensions escalated. The newcomers were eventually expelled when

(13:39):
they became politically inconvenient, but the message was clear. The
Rajnischies were willing to manipulate systems, bend rules, and cross
moral lines to protect their vision. And then the line
was crossed entirely. Later that year, Wasco County was preparing
for an election. The Rajnichies feared they would lose influence,

(14:00):
so Sheila and her inner circle launched a plan to
suppress voter turnout in the DALs, the county seat. Their
method was unprecedented in American history. They poisoned salad bars
at ten local restaurants with salmonella bacteria. Over seven hundred
and fifty people were sickened. At least forty five were hospitalized.
No one died, but it was the largest bioterror attack

(14:22):
on US soil at the time. For months, the attack
went unconnected to the commune, but inside Rajnishpurum paranoia was growing.
Dissenters were punished, wire taps were installed. Sila's inner circle
stockpiled weapons, including semi automatic rifles and explosives. Tensions between
Sheila and other top members reached a breaking point, and then,

(14:44):
just as suddenly as she had risen, Shila disappeared. In
September nineteen eighty five, she and several close aids fled
the commune. Ragniche broke his silence days later in a
press conference. He accused Sheila of crimes assault, wire tapping,
attempted murder. He claimed she had acted without his knowledge.
For many inside and outside the movement, it was hard

(15:06):
to believe. Federal authorities raided the ranch. Evidence of the
wire taps, the poisoning plot, and stockpiled weapons was uncovered.
Rajnish himself was arrested shortly after on charges of immigration fraud.
In a plea deal, he avoided a lengthy trial by
agreeing to leave the country. He was deported in November
nineteen eighty five after paying a fine. Rashnish Perum was dismantled.

(15:28):
Soon after. The city was disbanded, the buildings emptied. The
dream was over. In Part three, we followed Ragnish's exile,
his transformation into Osho, and the strange final chapter of
a movement that refused to die quietly. Part three Exile
and reinvention from Bagwan to Osho. When Ragnisch was deported

(15:49):
from the United States in November nineteen eighty five, He
left not as a spiritual leader returning from pilgrimage, but
as a man ejected under federal scrutiny. His empire and
Oregon had crumbled. Jniche perm was being dismantled, his most
loyal lieutenant, ma Anan Shila, was in hiding, and the press,
once curious and occasionally admiring, had turned fully adversarial for

(16:12):
the first time in years. Baguan Shri Rajniche had lost
control of the narrative. The terms of his plea deal
with US authorities were clear. He was not convicted of
the crimes that brought down his commune. He was convicted
of immigration fraud. In exchange for avoiding trial, he agreed
to leave the country immediately and not return for at
least five years. His exit was swift, his silence broken

(16:36):
only weeks earlier to denounce. Shila returned just as quickly.
But exile didn't bring peace. Instead, it triggered a month's
long multi nation odyssey that played out like a strange
spiritual fugitive drama. His first stop was Greece, where the
Rajniche plane landed with the intention of establishing a temporary home,
but the Greek authorities already wary from press coverage and

(16:58):
diplomatic whispers, asked him to leave within days. From there,
he traveled to several countries Sweden, Uruguay, Jamaica, Portugal, only
to be denied entry or told to leave shortly after arrival.
In some cases, visas were revoked without explanation. In others,
pressure from the U. S. State Department was suspected. Wherever
he went, governments feared a repeat of what had happened

(17:21):
in Oregon. Nobody wanted to host a man known for
building autonomous cities and destabilizing small town politics. Eventually, he
returned to India. It was a quiet reentry. Gone were
the waves of Western disciples, the spectacle, the carefully cultivated
aura of untouchability. In his absence, the original Pune Ashram

(17:42):
had continued to operate, albeit on a smaller scale. Some
disciples had remained, others had scattered, disillusioned or traumatized by
the collapse of Rajnishpuram. But for those still loyal, his
return marked the beginning of something new. In nineteen eighty seven,
rajnich Re emerged publicly. He was frail, thinner, his voice
was weaker. He blamed his health problems on the US government,

(18:05):
claiming he had been poisoned while in federal custody. Specifically,
he said he had been slowly dosed with thalium and
exposed to radiation. No formal medical evidence supported this claim,
but for his followers it didn't matter. The narrative of
martyrdom fit. Their Guru had been persecuted, driven out, harmed
for speaking truth to power. That same year, he began

(18:27):
distancing himself from the name Bogwan. He had carried the
title for over a decade, but now he said it
no longer served his vision. It was too weighted, too
bound up in religious baggage. Soon after, he abandoned the
name entirely and adopted a new one, Osho. The word
itself was enigmatic. He said it was derived from William
James's term oceanic, referring to a transcendent, boundless experience of

(18:50):
the divine. Later he claimed it was from ancient Japanese
meaning with great love, reverence, and gratitude. Whatever the etymology,
the rebranding was clear. The man once known as Bogwan
was now Osho. A new chapter had begun, and this
time he was taking a different approach. Osho stopped traveling.
He no longer tried to build new communes. The focus

(19:13):
shifted back to the Pune Ashram, now marketed as the
Osho International Meditation Resort, It was remodeled in the late
nineteen eighties into something more sleek, modern, and corporate. The
red and orange robes were abandoned in favor of white.
Rituals were streamlined, group therapy sessions became less physically aggressive.
Everything became more polished. The pivot wasn't just aesthetic, it

(19:36):
was strategic. Osho recognized that the world had changed and
that he needed to change with it. The hunger for
gurus had waned. The headlines from Oregon were still fresh.
The term cult had become synonymous with danger. To survive,
the movement had to become something else, and it did.
The new Osho movement presented itself not as a religion,

(19:57):
but as a lifestyle brand. Spirituality without dogma, meditation without submission,
enlightenment without sacrifice. You didn't need to live communally, renounce
your possessions, or follow a rigid doctrine. You could attend
a workshop, buy a book, stream a lecture. The teachings
were the same, but the packaging had evolved. Osho himself
continued to give discourses until early nineteen ninety. By then,

(20:20):
his health was deteriorating quickly. He walked slowly, spoke less,
and appeared increasingly frail. In January of that year, he
died in Pune, reportedly of heart failure. He was fifty
eight years old. The announcement was immediate and, as always,
deeply stylized. According to those present, his last words were
a message to his disciples, let me go, my work

(20:41):
is done. In the years that followed, the movement carried
on under the name Osho International, with a strange duality.
On the one hand, it tried to erase its past.
The events of Oregon, the crimes of Sheila, the commune's collapsed.
These were downplayed or dismissed as irrelevant. On the other hand,
Osho's teachings remained front and center. His face appeared on

(21:04):
book covers, his words were quoted endlessly, his voice still
echoed in meditation halls. For a man who had rebranded
so many times, his presence never truly left. In Part four,
we follow how the Osho brand entered the digital age,
how the legacy of Rajenishpurum continued to haunt those involved
and how the movement navigated its post founder existence in

(21:26):
a world that never quite forgot what had happened in Oregon,
Part four, After the Master, the Osho Brand, the Digital Turn,
and the battle for legacy. When Osho died in January
of nineteen ninety, the announcement was framed like a spiritual transition.
His followers didn't call it a death. They called it
leaving the body. They said he was entering another state
of being. But beneath the reverence was uncertainty. For nearly

(21:51):
two decades, Osho had been the center of gravity around
which everything else orbited. Now that center was gone, and
no one knew exactly what would hold a movement together.
At the Osho International Meditation Resort in Pune, the mood
was controlled but tense. Osho had not appointed a single successor.
There was no spiritual heir, no final sermon to clarify

(22:13):
who should lead. Instead, governance fell to an inner circle
of longtime disciples, many of whom had known him since
the early nineteen seventies. These were people who had helped
run the Ashram, edited his books, managed his public relations,
and coordinated the community's finances. They were not gurus, they
were administrators, and their job now was to protect and

(22:34):
promote the legacy of a man who had built an
empire without ever naming a second in command. The movement,
once intensely personal, now became institutional. The Pune compound was
reorganized under a trust. The emphasis shifted toward infrastructure, sustainability,
and the global dissemination of Osho's teachings. Rather than positioning

(22:54):
a new spiritual leader, The trust focused on building a brand,
and Osho, in death became a product. His voice, captured
in thousands of hours of recorded lectures, was digitized and
released in curated packages. His books were republished with glossy
covers and global distribution deals. His sayings were printed on
coffee mugs, calendars, and T shirts. The Osho International Foundation

(23:17):
began licensing his name and image, not unlike a corporate trademark.
The resort was renovated to look less like a spiritual
commune and more like a luxury retreat. Meditation halls became polished,
black stone structures, robes became optional, credit cards became standard.
This rebranding wasn't accidental, It was deliberate. The nineteen nineties

(23:38):
were a time of transition, not just for the Oh
Show movement, but for spiritual commerce worldwide. Yoga studios were
opening in Western cities, Eastern philosophies were being stripped of
context and sold as wellness. Self help was a booming industry,
and meditation, once exotic, was on the verge of becoming mainstream.
Into this landscape. Stepped the Oshow brand, offering spiritual depth

(24:01):
with a commercial sheen. The message was simple. You didn't
need to believe anything, You didn't need to join anything.
You didn't even need to meditate in a specific way.
You could read an Ohshow book on your lunch break.
You could stream his talks on a long commute. You
could participate without ever changing your name or moving to
a commune. Spirituality was now on demand. The movement's leadership

(24:25):
leaned into this model. They avoided political statements. They kept
their distance from the scandals of the nineteen eighties. In
official communications, Rajnishepurum was rarely mentioned. If it came up,
it was described as a failed experiment, an unfortunate misstep
in an otherwise luminous journey. Shila was painted as a
rogue operator Osho, according to them, had been innocent, misunderstood, betrayed.

(24:51):
But outside the official version, the questions never stopped. Journalists
continued to dig into the history of Rajnishpuram. Filmmakers began
producing documentary. Former members gave interviews. Survivors of the bioterror
attack in Oregon told their stories, and slowly a different
narrative emerged, one that didn't match the sleek marketing of

(25:11):
the Osho International Foundation. The truth was messy. Some former
members still loved Oshow, even as they acknowledged the harm
that had occurred under his leadership. Others were angry at
the gaslighting, the manipulation, the psychological games. Many struggled for
years to rebuild their lives after leaving the movement. The

(25:32):
teachings that once gave them clarity now felt like traps.
The freedom they were promised had often come at the
cost of their agency, and still the movement endured throughout
the late nineteen nineties and into the two thousands. Ohshow
centers continued to operate in over one hundred countries. They
offered workshops on meditation, TNTRA, emotional release, and personal transformation.

(25:56):
Some were small, no more than a room in a
yoga studio. Others were sprawling properties in rural settings, run
like spiritual resorts. Most used the language of self empowerment.
Few mentioned Rajnishpurum. The Internet accelerated everything. Osho's teaching's flooded
digital platforms. Clips of his talks were uploaded to YouTube,

(26:16):
often stripped of context and set to ambient music. His quotes,
some profound, others inflammatory, were shared across social media. New generations,
unfamiliar with his history, discovered him as a mimiable mystic,
a guru for the algorithm age. His legacy, once scandalized,
was now being recast in real time. But within the

(26:37):
movement fractures emerged. Some longtime disciples criticized the leadership for
focusing too heavily on profit. They argued that the Pune
resort had become too corporate, too cold. They missed the
rawness of the old days, the chaos, the challenge the community.
Others believed the movement had betrayed Osho's vision by turning
his teachings into commodities. There were disputes over money, over property,

(27:01):
over who controlled the archive of Oshow's work, and then
there was the legal battle in the late nineteen nineties,
the Osho International Foundation attempted to trademark the name oh Show.
They wanted exclusive rights to it, not just for books
and teachings, but for anything sold under the brand. This
triggered lawsuits from former disciples, who argued that Oshow by definition,

(27:23):
could not be owned. The legal fights dragged on for years,
with courts in Europe and the United States weighing in.
Some ruled in favor of the foundation, others rejected the
trademark claims. The conflict raised a larger question. Who owns
a spiritual legacy. Is it the man who spoke the words,
the people who heard them, the corporation that files the trademarks,

(27:45):
or the broader public that now interacts with the teachings
through books, memes, and meditation apps. There was no clear answer,
but the battle itself revealed how far the movement had
traveled from its roots. What began as a radical experiment
and spiritual freedom had become a corporate entity guarding its
intellectual property. What was once a living community of seekers

(28:07):
had become a brand with a board of directors, and
what had once been called a cult was now being
repackaged as a lifestyle In Part five, we turned to
the survivors, the former san Jassens who walked away, the
residence of Oregon who never forgot, and the journalists and
filmmakers who have spent decades trying to make sense of
one of the most surreal chapters. Part five Aftermath and Accountability, Survivors,

(28:38):
truth Seekers, and the Unfinished Reckoning. When the gates of
Rajnishpurum finally closed for good in nineteen eighty five, there
was no moment of public reckoning, no trial that laid
it all bare, no public apology from the movement's leadership,
just the slow dismantling of a dream that had gone
too far, and the scattering of thousands of people who
had once called themselves citizens of a spiritual utopia. For

(29:01):
those outside the movement, especially the people of Wasco County, Oregon,
the end came with a strange mix of relief and disbelief.
For four years, they had watched a rural landscape transform
into the stage for a global spectacle. Their quiet towns
had been flooded with red robed san Jasins, helicopters, surveillance, lawsuits,
and finally a biotera attack, and then almost overnight, it

(29:25):
was gone. Rajniche was deported, Sheila was arrested, the commune
emptied out, but the trauma remained in Antelope, the town
the Sanyasins had taken over and renamed Ragnich. The process
of reclaiming their identity took years. The name was legally
changed back, but for many residents, the feeling of being
invaded never fully lifted. They had seen their government infiltrated,

(29:49):
their neighbors intimidated, and their community upended by a group
that claimed to be spiritual but operated like a paramilitary state.
To this day, some residents of Wasasco County still won't
speak on record about what happened. Others will talk only
if you're not recording. For former San Jasen's, the process
of recovery was even more complex. Many had left everything

(30:12):
behind to follow Ragniche. They'd sold homes, severed ties with family,
handed over bank accounts, and taken on new names, new identities,
new belief systems. They had believed deeply that they were
building a new world, and when that world collapsed, they
were left not only with the logistical mess of rebuilding
their lives, but with the far deeper task of rebuilding

(30:34):
their sense of self. Some walked away and never looked back.
They changed their names again, moved to new cities, buried
the experience like a bad relationship. Others spent decades trying
to reconcile the good They remembered, the friendships, the spiritual insights,
the sense of purpose. With the undeniable harm that had unfolded,

(30:55):
they struggled with shame, with confusion, with the guilt of complicity.
Some tried to explain it to friends or family, only
to be met with judgment or disbelief. Others found solace
in writing, in therapy, in connecting with fellow ex members online.
And then there were those who became truth seekers. In
the years after Rajnishporum, a small but determined group of journalists, scholars,

(31:19):
and former insiders began documenting the story. Filling in the
gaps left by official narratives. They conducted interviews, collected court records,
filed foyer requests, and pieced together the real history behind
the rise and fall of the commune. One of the
most significant voices in this effort was Les Zeites, a
reporter for The Oregonian who spent years investigating the movement.

(31:42):
He uncovered documents that showed how far the commune's leadership
had gone in its pursuit of control, weapons, stockpiles, wire taps,
poison manufacturing, assassination plots. The portrait that emerged was not
of a misunderstood spiritual community, but of a group that
had been willing to use violence and manipulation to maintain power.

(32:03):
Zets's reporting was instrumental in pushing public understanding of the
case beyond the caricature of a guru and his rolls rooices.
It exposed the infrastructure of deception and control that had
made Rajni Shpur impossible, and it helped lay the groundwork
for documentaries, academic studies, and books that would follow over
the decades. Other voices joined in. Former Sonia sins began

(32:25):
to speak out, some publicly, others through anonymous accounts. They
shared what life had really been like inside the commune,
the long workdays, the surveillance, the psychological pressure, the fear
of questioning Sheila or disappointing o Show. Some had been
in the inner circle and had watched decisions being made

(32:46):
that would later turn into criminal investigations. Others had been
on the periphery, simply trying to find peace, caught in
something they didn't fully understand until it was too late.
Their stories painted a fuller, more painful picture of what
the movement had been. For many, the most difficult part
wasn't the collapse of rajnish Puram. It was what came after,
the silence, the erasure, the way the movement rebranded itself

(33:10):
as a benign wellness organization, selling Osho's books in airports
and streaming his voice on YouTube on never once addressing
the trauma left behind. The lack of accountability felt like
a second betrayal, And then came Wild, Wild Country. The
Netflix documentary series, released in twenty eighteen, brought the story
of Rajnishpuram to a global audience. It was the first

(33:30):
time many people, especially younger viewers, had heard of the
movement at all. The series was stylish, dramatic, and polarizing.
It featured interviews with key players, including ma Ananshila, who
remained defiant, unapologetic, and strangely charismatic. The documentary sparked debate.
Some viewers were captivated by Sila's toughness and Osho's eccentricity.

(33:52):
Others were horrified by the scale of what had happened.
Critics argued that the series downplayed the victims, the poisoned diners,
the intimidated townspeople, the manipulated disciples. Supporters said it raised
important questions about religious freedom, charisma, and state overreach. Survivors
were split. Some felt seen, others felt sensationalized. What Wild

(34:14):
Wild Country proved beyond a doubt was that the story
still mattered, that the questions it raised about faith control, abuse,
and complicity were still unresolved. In the years since, more
former Sanyasins have come forward. They've written memoirs, given talks,
appeared on podcasts. They've talked about the good, the bad,
and the deeply confusing. They've tried to articulate what it

(34:36):
means to believe in something so fully that you don't
see where it's taking you until it's too late, and
they've tried to find language for what it means to
come back from that kind of belief. Some have forgiven Oshow,
others hold him accountable, but almost all agree that the
movement cannot be understood by looking only at its leader.
It has to be understood through the eyes of the
people who lived it. In Part six, we examine Oshow's

(34:59):
global life legacy, how the movement survives today, what its
teachings have become, and what the story of Ragnishpuram ultimately
tells us about the human search for meaning and the
dangers that come when a search for truth becomes a
surrender of power. Part six Legacy in the Ashes, The
Echo of Osho and the Market of Modern Enlightenment. The
story of the Ragniche movement did not end when the

(35:21):
gates of Ragnishpurum closed, nor did it end with the
death of Osho in nineteen ninety. Like so many powerful
ideologies that burn brightly and destructively, what came next was
not silence but mutation. It changed form, It spread, and
it took root in places far from Oregon, far from India,
and often far from the name Osho itself. Its ideas

(35:45):
radical freedom, the rejection of morality, spiritual liberation through egodissolution
became part of the global language of self help, New
Age spirituality, and modern wellness. But the legacy was not
just philosophical. It was personal, and it remained contested after
all Asho's death, his most loyal administrators tried to ensure
that the movement continued without disruption. The Pune compound became

(36:06):
a polished international resort, catering to a mix of serious
spiritual seekers and Western tourists looking for a curated experience
of Eastern Enlightenment. Gone were the raw, unpredictable group therapies
of the nineteen seventies. In their place stood meditation gardens,
swimming pools, and carefully designed workshops. The Osho Meditation Resort

(36:27):
marketed itself as a luxury destination, more spa than ashram,
more boutique experience than spiritual crucible. The business model worked
for a time. The resort thrived, but beneath the surface,
old tensions remained. The foundation that managed Osho's image and
intellectual property was run like a corporation. Disputes over trademark rights,

(36:48):
publishing deals, and licensing became routine. Several longtime disciples accused
the leadership of commercializing Osho's teachings, stripping them of their
revolutionary edge, in favor of marketability. Others argued that this
was inevitable, that Osho had always curted wealth, style and power,
that turning a spiritual movement into a sleek global brand

(37:09):
was not a betrayal, but a fulfillment of his vision. Meanwhile,
Osho's presence continued to grow, especially online. By the early
two thousands, his teachings were everywhere. Video clips his image, bearded, robed, smiling,
became familiar to millions who had never heard of Rajnisheperum.
His message was often reduced to digestible aphorisms about love,

(37:30):
life and freedom, and because the deeper context was rarely included,
many people never knew about the crimes, the poisonings, the surveillance,
the power struggles. Osho had been successfully repackaged for the
Internet era as a kind of spiritual philosopher king stripped
of history and controversy, and yet the story of Rajnicheperum

(37:50):
refused to stay buried. Survivors kept speaking, New documentaries unearthed
old footage, Investigative journalists and scholars continued publishing, and each
time the sanitized version of Osho's legacy came under renewed scrutiny.
The spiritual teachings might still resonate with many, but the
movement's history was tangled in coercion, control and trauma. You

(38:12):
could not separate the two without losing the truth. One
of the most persistent controversies involved the question of accountability.
Bosho himself was never prosecuted for the crimes committed at Rajnishpurum.
When he returned to India after his deportation, he was
greeted by loyal followers, not investigators. He claimed he had
been kept in solitary confinement, targeted by the US government.

(38:35):
His followers accepted this version of events. To them, he
was a martyr. But for the people of Wasco County,
for the victims of the salmonella poisoning, for the disillusioned
disciples who had given years of their lives to the commune,
there was never any justice man on. Sheila served her
sentence and was released from prison after twenty nine months.

(38:56):
She moved to Switzerland and opened a nursing home. She
remained unapologetic. She said she did what she had to do,
that she still loved Bagwan, that she had no regrets.
Her defiance was magnetic and for some viewers strangely admirable.
For others, it was a slap in the face, a
reminder that harm was done, lives were altered, and the

(39:18):
people responsible walked away largely unscathed. Today, the ruins of
rajnish Buram still stand in parts of Oregon. The land
was sold to a Christian youth organization and many of
the original buildings were torn down, but the story never left.
Local residents still remember former saniasins still carry the weight,
and new generations continued to discover the movement through glossy

(39:40):
books and curated online clips, often without knowing the cost
behind the quotes, and that may be the most troubling
part of the legacy. Osho's teachings were about breaking free
from tradition, from repression, from the shackles of society, but
in practice his movement often demanded absolute loyalty, discouraged critical thinking,
and punished dissent. The language of freedom was used to

(40:03):
justify obedience, the rhetoric of love was used to cover control,
and the promise of enlightenment was sold to people desperate
for meaning in a world that no longer made sense.
That contradiction between the words and the reality still echoes
in many corners of modern spirituality. It echoes in the
language of life coaches who promise transformation without accountability. It

(40:26):
echoes the branding of wellness gurus who blur the line
between liberation and exploitation. It echoes in the carefully curated
worlds of influencers and spiritual entrepreneurs who preach authenticity while
monetizing every moment. Osho was not the only one, but
he helped lay the blueprint, and perhaps that is the
final lesson of the Ragniche movement. Charisma is not wisdom,

(40:47):
community is not always safe, and belief, when surrendered without question,
becomes the doorway through which harm can walk in smiling.
As for Osho, his name lives on, his books are
still in print, his voice still streams through headphones, his
teachings still inspire millions. But the question that remains is
not whether he was right or wrong. It is whether

(41:09):
we are willing to look at the whole story and
what we're willing to ignore in our hunger to believe.
In our next episode, we turned to a modern movement
that cloaked itself in the language of empowerment while hiding
a secret inner circle of branding, coercion, and manipulation. A
group that drew celebrities, built self improvement courses, and slowly

(41:30):
evolved into one of the most disturbing cults of the
twenty first century. Join us as we begin the six
part story of NXIVM and the man behind it, Keith Renier.
That's next time.

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Ep.11 The Rajneesh movement

NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal