Cult Research - Rajneeshpuram
Wild Wild Country - 2018 Netflix limited series on the Rajneesh cult in Oregon. **Note that a lot of the footage in this docuseries is real archival footage from the cult or from the local news station in Antelope.
Episode 1 Notes:
Small town of Antelope - like 50 people. Had a cafe, a post office, a school house, and a church. Everyone knew everyone and everyone got along. Community parties and bbqs. All working class people trying to live in peace and quiet.
“Some rich guru” bought a ranch in Antelope. 80,000 acres of rocky hillside. Called themselves an agricultural commune, but the land was not farming land. They wear only shades of red.
Cult started by having the roads closed leading to the ranch so they were not accessible to the community of Antelope.
They brought in mobile homes and building materials. “Didn’t seem like they were building a ranch” lol
All of this happened over the course of like 2 weeks
“Largest poisoning case” / “largest wiretapping case” / “largest immigration fraud” in the united states.
They claimed they just wanted to farm, be good neighbors, and follow their religion. “The problems started when Sheela got here”
She was the spokesperson for the cult leader - described as cunning, charming, intelligent, a great organizer, knew how to operate a commune. She came up with the idea to borrow money from “Sannyasins” (the cult members) and they set up their own bank with a card system. She came to America from India at 17 to go to college. She had been part of the cult for a year.
She describes the cult as an “opera” where she’s a soprano (humble lol), Bhagwan is a tenor, and the cult is the setting. And she says operas always have tragic endings, like that’s acceptable and just the way things go???
The cult was worth millions of dollars
Meditation was the product. They sold tickets to attend practice and his speeches, and this money was the financial backing to do what they wanted to do.
She was the business side of things. She didn’t like to meditate lol. Their goal was to make money as part of the commune. They wanted to be rich to live the life they felt they needed. (lmfao how did no one connect this to capitalism and materialism. Come on guys, you’re supposed to be intellectuals.)
She went into hiding after this all went down.
She says she was under threat because she’s powerful. She’s in interviews in this docuseries now because she says she has nothing to hide and nothing to lose.
Her father took her to meet Bhagwan when she was 16. Her father told her this man would be the second coming of buddha. “I saw Bhagwan and that was the end of me.” She’s still reverent in the interviews, she still speaks of him like he’s her savior.
Bhagwan Rajneesh, later known as Osho - wearing a white shawl and a lungi, chest exposed. She cried when she first saw him, he smiled and hugged her and she says her “whole head melted”. Felt her life was fulfilled in meeting him. Again, she was 16 lol.
Was fashionable and appealed to intellectuals. His target group was people who were sick of working the daily grind.
Found followers initially by going to speak to small groups of people. Taught dynamic meditation. Started publishing his own books
Dynamic Meditation: 1. Breathing quickly to fast music (hyperventilating) 2. Scream and release emotion 3. Jump with hands up and chant “hoo” 4. Lay in corpse pose and be quiet and still. Crying. (two minutes hateeeeee lol)
Was filling stadiums. 20,000-30,000 people would stand in the rain to hear him speak on spirituality, capitalism, sexuality
Goal was to orchestrate an international commune where he could create an “energy field” through meditation.
“It was a necessity to be near him. His physical body was so important to us.” / “Bhagwan, he was porcelain. Very fragile. Very precious. Millions of years old. And I was lucky enough to have the responsibility to transport him from one country to another. It was the adventure of my life.” - Sheela
In the beginning he wore a long white robe with a long beard, “he looked the part of the sage”
He claims he is a no one. Only “I was asleep and now I am awake.” His goal was to help people "be awake". “The awakened man will be the new man.” He will not be part of any religious group or cultural group, only an awakened being. Goal was to create a “new man” who lives in harmony with nature and one another.
Says the east has not evolved because it is following fake spirituality and is behind in technology, the west has not evolved because it has chosen materialism. Everywhere, man is empty. Each group has it half correct, his goal was to bring them together.
Speaking about sex - says there are two choices. To reject it or transform it. Says creation, creativity, and sex are all the same. Seems like sex is a big part of his belief system (unsurprising lol, who doesn’t want more sex and a better understanding of how to enjoy it fully. Easy way to lure people in). Lots of footage of people sitting in a circle naked and singing / meditating, footage of people naked in tantric positions. Talking of demystifying and removing shame from nudity and sexuality.
He speaks about the small truths in all religions, brings together ideologies in saying that each has their own grain of truth.
“Materialist spiritualists” (he had a white armored rolls royce lmao)
Presented itself as a classless society but in reality there were people who had roles, a ranked hierarchy.
Wanted people who would be part of a community, not people just looking for mental exercise.
Wanted to create a society that could serve as an example to the world of what was possible. “Buddhafield”. That’s what they were looking for land for. They wanted enough space for 10,000 people.
Group was at odds with the Indian prime minister. There was an assassination attempt on Bhagwan. They decided to go to the USA because of the religious freedom afforded to American citizens.
In 1980, there came a point when Bhagwan said he wouldn’t be speaking anymore. He also wasn’t seeing anyone. Sheela became his spokeperson. This was to protect him from the law. She was given power of attorney.
She told the group to keep their move to America a secret.
She went to get a visa for herself and Bhagwan
The two of them left in the middle of the night to fly to America. They flew out on a 747 that they bought out. They drank champagne on the flight, these people had MONEY. This was his first time leaving the Ashram (his community in India) in 4 years. The people that lived in the Ashram were essentially abandoned. News got out that he was in Oregon.
Roger and Jane Stork married in 1966 in Australia. She was unhappy in the marriage and wanted to make a change. She was told to see a psychologist. They met a psychologist who taught her meditation, a man wearing an orange robe with a beaded necklace. Everyone else is wearing orange clothes too. Large photos of Bhagwan on the walls.
She wanted to go meet Bhagwan in India. “I developed this need to sit at the feet of my master.”
“From the very beginning I was completely overwhelmed” - the sensory overwhelm of visiting India to see him. Reaching the place where Bhagwan was soothed her because it was quiet, green, people meditating in orange clothing. She describes this as being like a mecca. Video footage shows people laughing, talking, eating, quiet slow music, everyone in yellows and oranges and reds.
She describes watching him walk as if his feet don’t touch the ground. He glides.
She found herself sitting at his feet and he spoke to her
She asked for work in the group and she was given the task of cleaning toilets for the first year. “I came all of this way to clean?” lmao so she was looking for salvation but salvation is bigger than cleaning toilets I guess.
She took her husband and two kids with her to India and then was left there when Bhagwan moved to America. She says they waited 7 years for him to return and he never did.
Next guy is someone who was born in the US in the 40’s. Grew up and went to law school, had a great career and was successful but dead tired and overworked. A friend shows him tapes of Osho and his “life was changed.”
He went through a divorce and wanted to overhaul his life. He was drinking too much, eating too much, overworked, never taking breaks. Seems like this cult was the solution to the problems in his life.
He sold his partnership in the law firm he was part of and went to India. Left behind a hugely successful business to start over.
He visits India and is amazed by the paradise Osho created. A sea of people wearing maroon robes. “I felt like I had arrived. I felt like after a life of being somewhere I felt I didn’t belong, including my family, I felt like I’d come home”. He says he was a “nobody” in the back watching Bhagwan speak and it was “so powerful”.
He’s crying in the interview, saying they truly felt they were “the chosen people”. He’s clearly mourning the loss of what he genuinely believed they had. Unclear if he sees that he was part of a cult, or if he feels the glory days are over.
Jayananda - Had a financial background and worked on wall street. Created a business to support the flow of goods and finances to India.
Starts by explaining that the American Dream failed him and other people of his generation. He was looking for fulfillment in rejection of what he was raised to be (The Human Potential Movement).
Observations:
Leader - at first is very accessible to the followers, then less so as time goes on. Eventually stops speaking and visiting with followers. Creates image of him as being ascended, they are not worthy of him. They worship him, see him as a savior, and he promotes this by giving them ideology to follow but denies them by saying he is nothing special. Mixed messaging here conveys the sense that he is just an average joe who found enlightenment and they can too, except somehow they are not as “ascended” as he is, so he clearly is something special and someone to worship. They claim he is special so he is. He allows them to define him as special rather than telling them he’s special.
Spokesperson - she doesn’t meditate or follow the doctrine. She runs the business and manages the people. She’s who they go through, not him.
Followers - all people who felt they had done everything they were supposed to do in life and it wasn’t fulfilling. They went to school, they got married, they had kids, they landed successful careers, and life felt empty. They were people looking for mental stimulation and purpose. They were looking for a community of others who felt outcast. Plus Bhagwan was giving them permission to be sexual in ways that felt off limits to them in society. So he created community, philosophy to follow, places to discuss life’s purpose and meaning, and also the freedom to have loootttsss of sex and the people who felt life was boring were sold.
Application to story concept:
I need to know more about kids who are raised in cults. My protagonist is someone who got out.
I need some kind of impending doom event and a cult’s misaligned beliefs about how to prevent it.
Need more information about the psychology of what happens in a cult commune.
Episode 2 Notes:
Starts with lawyer explaining that thousands of felonies were committed in moving the ashram from Poona to Oregon, and Sheela was the obvious target for who to investigate. Lawyer says it was not motivated by greed, it was evil.
The cult created their own city, they just needed 150 United States citizens, according to the freedom of assembly and freedom of association. They named it the City of Rajneeshpuram. By making it their own township, they can manage their law enforcement, building permits, etc.
They had people of all expert backgrounds in the cult, so they had lots of innovation and knowledge to get this off the ground (electricity, plumbing, laying roads, etc.) Worked day and night to build this city. Honestly a very cool concept. I can see the appeal of being part of something like this.
They had a clothing shop / a pizza place / a grocery shop / a bank / meditation hall that could hold 10,000 people / an airport / farms using modern tech to reclaim previously unusable land. All built and run themselves. It was an entirely independent community.
Bhagwan arrived in 1981 after the community was established and this work was done (lol)
They put an add in the newspaper suggesting that people who wanted sexual freedom should come to this city. They put forth ideas about polyamory that the local Antelope community was offended and threatened by.
People of Antelope said that all of the people in this “city” seemed under the influence. They believed the Sannyasins were hypnotized. They felt their quiet town was ruined.
Families of cult members were reaching out to the leaders in Antelope to see if their missing loved ones could be located. Rumors started that there was violent therapy and abuse happening in the city.
Jonestown was a recent event and the people of Antelope were concerned about that happening here. Shannon Jo Ryan, daughter of Congressman Leo Ryan (whose assassination was the catalyst for the mass suicide at Jonestown), was a member but claimed this was not a cult. WILD.
The Sannyasins were offended by the term “cult” and said that this implied “one leader, strict rules, priority for the group over the individual” and went on to say that “this better applies to the US Army” than the Rajneesh cult
Alright. By THEIR perspective they just live in a city they built with their own hands and they’re proud of and where they can define their own rules for life. By the outside perspective they are a free love sex cult who is controlled by a mentally unstable leader who may instruct them to become violent towards others or themselves. The cult was incredibly secretive so it was hard to get information.
A documentary was created with the cult’s permission and then shown in Antelope. The person who filmed was sympathetic toward the cult so they expected that the documentary would make them look good. The cult then claimed that the footage was taken on a “secret camera” in a group therapy session and was a violation of the therapy patients’ privacy. There is a picture of the camera, it’s huge lol. No way it could be secret.
Yeah that footage shows that this is clearly a cult. They’re naked and hitting each other, screaming at each other, chanting, sobbing, fighting, and then singing and dancing and holding hands, looks to be an orgy at the end. They lose self control during these “therapy sessions” and then are brought back to calm by their belief in Bhagwan. It’s literally the two minutes hate from 1984.
1000 Friends of Oregon became the group to fight for the removal of the cult, their foundation being that the cult originally claimed to be an agricultural commune and it clearly wasn’t that.
Sheela then decided to BUY Antelope. Holy shit. She used the law against them and moved the business part of the City of Rajneeshpuram into the town of Antelope itself. They lawfully purchased land and businesses in the town.
This became a Satanic Panic situation and local vigilantes decided to take matters into their own hands. There was a bombing in the cult’s hotel.
The cult then armed themselves and told the media they were prepared to defend themselves in anyway necessary. Episode ends with footage of cult members following Bhagwan with guns, acting as body guards.
Observations:
Cult began as a community of people who wanted to live outside of the rules of society, found freedom in connecting with people who also felt like social norms weren’t right for them. When society at large became threatened by a group who wanted to live outside of social norms, both sides escalated the conflict and it became violent.
Cult IS hiding things from outsiders. There ARE violent things happening in these “dynamic meditations.” Their choices about sexuality are theirs to make, but it isn’t clear if they have communication about autonomy and boundaries. During the video footage of the “therapy session” there seems to be a clothed man forcing a naked woman to the ground and laying on top of her. Looks like sexual violence.
The conflict builds here because the town of Antelope is a god fearing community who doesn’t know how to accept outsiders who live differently AND the cult is taking advantage of members’ need for connection and community. They are two extremes who are both in the wrong and neither has interest in finding the middle ground.
Application to story concept:
Feels like sexual abuse is an inherent part of cult dynamics, will need to consider how in depth I want to get with that. Tricky because I don’t want to misrepresent any sexualities in my world building for a fictional cult. I also think a lot of cults abuse the concept of polyamory, don’t want to contribute to harmful narratives.
Maybe part of what the protagonist learns in her adulthood is healthy sexuality. How to respect yourself and others, how to communicate, how to set boundaries, how to define what you like and don’t like, etc.
Protagonist is someone who got out of the cult in early adulthood, but the cult will have been well established by then. Will need to look at how I shape the cult’s history so it originates from a seemingly logical / rational place and evolved into something awful over time. No one joins a cult with the intent of harming themselves or others lol, they’re usually people who are lost and looking for a savior. Her family will have joined the cult when it was in its early days, like this group who just wanted to meditate and bang each other and live off the grid lol. But then as more people join and there’s less oversight into how people communicate, how people treat each other, checks and balances of power, etc. the cult evolves into something violent and dangerous.
Episode 3 Notes:
Episode starts at a gun range on the commune. They are learning to shoot and are legitimately trained.
The cult also put forth their own people to be on the city council in Antelope and overwhelmingly won. The people of Antelope said they were being held “hostage” by the cult. Some of the cult members go to the police academy and become cops in Antelope.
They got a lot of media attention and Sheela was directed by Bhagwan to be aggressive and provocative. This sold them a TON of books.
They started to establish self supporting communes all over the world. They had about 30,000 working Sannyasins. They had 500,000 people who were part of their religion total.
They had a 1983 World Festival in Oregon. At this point the cult was worth over 70 million dollars.
**Will say, from an outside perspective, it is REALLY hard to fault them for trying to live a life of banging whoever they want, living off the land, and protecting themselves from harm. The cult is good at protecting their image, there doesn’t seem to be skeletons in their closets. Their only slip was the documentary that showed the violence in that one group “therapy session” that Sheela explained away as an isolated incident.
A guy from Antelope started to find their stuff in the dump (here we gooooo lol)
Meeting minutes from the commune that say “SHRED IMMEDIATELY AFTER USE” and were never shredded
Documents of arranged marriages
Directives to read and censor the mail before it leaves the commune
Oregon Attorney General got involved at this point because the city of Rajneeshpuram was run by a religion, and that violates the separation of church and state. Also came about that the school in the town was an outpost of the cult because posters of Bhagwan were in the classroom, the teachers wore religious garb while teaching, etc.
Sheela became the person in charge of the cult, Bhagwan was essentially a figurehead. She met with him alone once a day, in the evening, and then recount what they talked about.
She had a living complex called Jesus Grove where she lived with people she found useful. Jane - the woman from Australia who moved to India with her husband and children - was moved into the complex because she could wax Sheela’s legs.
They started going to recruit homeless people from major cities and bring them to Rajneeshpuram. They would not disclose what life looked like for these people after coming to the commune. Sheela claims they cared for them, cleaned them, and gave them medical attention. This was a plan to bring people in to Wasco County, give them an address on the commune, and get them to vote in an upcoming election. This is blatant manipulation. Taking advantage of a vulnerable group.
The county suspended all new voter registration as a result. This doesn’t sound legal, although totally understandable why they felt this action was warranted lol.
There was a riot in the commune. The solution was to sedate ALL of the homeless people that were brought there. (wttfffffffff) Haldol was put into the beer served to them at the evening meal. That’s HELLA culty.
Sheela then called a meeting to discuss “other ways to win the election.” Surprise - that includes killing people.
Observations:
Application to story concept:
Episode 4 Notes: **This episode was hard to follow. There wasn’t a linear path for this segment, lots of disjointed reports and time jumps
The county sent a tax assessor to the commune in 1981 to check out the buildings and the cult had blocked the road with a “traffic accident” so the county employees couldn’t get through. Then, when leaving, the assessor noticed three single wide structures and asked to see them. The mayor of the commune said the buildings were just janitorial supplies and it was locked and he didn’t have the key so there was no way to get in even if they’d wanted to. The sheriff escort and the county employees left but felt uneasy. The commune was completed in 1981, this was before all the other nonsense. The documentary starts the episode by explaining those structures were the commune’s lab.
All the local restaurants seem to be have a Salmonella outbreak. Headaches, diarrhea, nausea, etc. 750 people were effected. Even the CDC got involved and no one could make sense of what happened. The official statement was that it was improper food handling, a chain of transmission across restaurants because it was a small town and people lived in close quarters. It could not be linked to the cult, but it is widely believed they were responsible.
A new group had come to Rajneeshpuram, The Hollywood Crowd. The ex-wife of Al Ruddy was one of them. Their Hollywood mansion became a place for the group to party and recruit wealthy people to the cult. This group had money and would buy lavish gifts for Bhagwan, and so had direct access to him. They were a threat to Sheela’s authority. He was going to give two of these newcomers a corporation to run. Sheela didn’t love that lol.
Bhagwan started to talk about a doomsday scenario and request that underground dwellings be built to protect the Sannyasins. They would be safe after this event. He only told this to her, he was not speaking to the group at large.
Sheela says here that Bhagwan was getting drugs from the Hollywood group and that was what inspired his radical new thoughts.
Not sure if I believe her. There’s no way to confirm that he was going downhill on his own and that she had no part of it. Seems like her authority was in jeopardy and she saw herself becoming insignificant. If she could discredit Bhagwan she may be able to take over.
Immigration investigation started in 1981. Bhagwan wanted to change his visa from visitor to religious leader. He was denied and ordered to leave. The cult fought back. In February of 1984 he was granted the visa he applied for as religious teacher and leader.
In the investigation it became clear that the cult was using arranged marriages to bring immigrants to the country and give them status as American citizens. It seems nothing was done?
Sheela started to curate a list of people who were enemies of the commune and those people were to be shot. Jane was going to be the assassin. Jesus. She was sent to Portland to meet a woman who would help her get access to pistols, get her street clothes, and drive her to the workplace of her target. They ended up not seeing their target and discussed luring him to the safe house to kill him. They did not end up committing the murder.
The cult lost the election and the Rajneeshee were ready for war.
They burned the building for the board of planning and sent chocolates to local officials under false names to poison them.
The cult started forcibly removing the homeless people from the commune and dropping them off in neighborhoods, using semi automatic weapons to quell dissidents.
Rumors from the commune about Sheela asking a pilot to bomb the Wasco County Courthouse, Sheela planning the Salmonella outbreak, etc.
Sheela had Bhagwan’s room wiretapped because she had less access to him. She said it was to watch for potential threats to him. She overheard Bhagwan asking his doctor about doctor assisted suicide. He asked the doctor to hide the medications until they’d need them. Later he told Sheela to build a crematorium, and told Sheela that he would die on July 6 (“Master’s Day”?)
Sheela asked a small group to intervene by killing the doctor who planned to administer the medications. Jane said she would do it. She was given a syringe with medicine and told her goal was to keep Bhagwan alive. She felt no anxiety or hesitation about what she was planning to do. She said she felt like Joan of Arc. She sat behind the doctor during a dance in the festival and was able to administer the medicine. She acted like she was concerned for him, asking him what was wrong, and then he staggered off and she left to be alone at Jesus Grove. Sheela left the cult after this, Jane went with her because she knew she’d been changed by the cult and wanted out.
Bhagwan wanted Sheela to return and threatened prosecution to bring her back. He planned a press conference, the first time he’d spoken publicly in 4 years. He stated that Sheela took advantage of his silence. He said that Sheela and her people tried to kill three people in the commune and neighboring cities. He called her and her people fascists, criminals, and brutally dangerous.
The leaders are turning against each other - seems like he is trying to discredit her and silence her. She must know something wild about him.
Observations:
Application to story concept:
