Skip to main content

Wild, Wild Country, Building Utopia, and My Obsession with the Rajneesh Movement

This image is titled "Osho Drive By", and it is copyright 2003 by Samvado Gunnar Kossatz. You can find several other photos of the Rajneeshees by this photographer here. This image is from 1982, and it was taken at Rajneesh Purim in Western Oregon. A Rolls Royce, containing respected religious leader Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, is driving along a dusty dirt road. Dozens of Bhagwan's followers, all clothed in red, are lined up to greet him. In the background, there are several desolate mountains.

Hello!
I have recently become absorbed by the podcast Building Utopia, which examines the life of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. You may be familiar with Bhagwan from the equally absorbing Netflix documentary series Wild Wild Country. The podcast shares many details about Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh's followers (sannyasins) and their commune in Western Oregon that were not shared Wild Wild Country. For those who are unfamiliar with the Rajneeshees, I recommend starting with the Wikipedia page. The shortest possible summary that I can provide is that the Rajneesh movement began in India, created a commune in Oregon, and was ultimately convicted of widespread voter fraud and poisoning. (But, really, you need to be watching Wild Wild Country and/or listening to Building Utopia.)

Upon starting to listen to this podcast, I remembered that a follower of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (who, later in his life, went by the name "Osho") had created a tarot deck. This remembrance led me to look around the Osho website, and learn that you can still live in an intentional Rajneeshee community in Pune, India. In Building Utopia, the host, Rusty King, emphasizes that the Rajneesh movement was inherently a for-profit venture. The same is true for present day, with different retreat options provided for different needs. I found myself thinking "Wouldn't it be interesting to visit? I mean, things have already gotten as bad as they can get, so how much worse could they get now?".

Anyway, this renewed interest in Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh has reminded me of my own fondness for the idea of joining a movement that verges on being a cult. I suspect that I will follow up listening to this podcast with lots of other cult-related content. What do other folks think about when they absorb cult media? Does anyone else vaguely want to run away and join/start a cult?

Until next time,
Lydia
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Blogging Every Day in August: A Directory of 30 Posts

Hello! I hope that you are all doing well! This month, I set out to write a blog post every day, and, if you are reading this blog post, I have succeeded in that goal. I imagine that future blog readers will not want to sort through 31 days worth of consecutive blog posts in order to figure out which content might be most interesting to them. So, hopefully, this post can act as a launchpad, and allow you to explore whichever blog posts from this month might capture your interests. Here is a roundup of this month's blog posts. I am including a short summary of each blog post, and who I think would enjoy each post. Tarot Reflections from the Yurts of MFC : I include snippets from my daily tarot draws while I was working as a counselor at Mountain Friends Camp. Ideal for people who like tarot, summer camp, or both. Desperately Trying to Hack My Sleep Schedule : I talk about the different methods that I have used to improve my sleep, how well they have worked, and whether I...
Post a Comment
Read more

Grouchy Lydia Returns: A Tale of Tiredness

Image of a cartoon, faceless man resting his head on a stack of books at his desk. This image is from the Wikimedia Commons , and it is attributed to Peggy and Marco Lachmann-Anke [CC0]. Hello! I am very tired! My sleeping schedule has slowly deteriorated over two weeks. At first, I kept on sleeping through my 7:30-8 AM alarm, but I consistently woke up by 8:30 AM. Tired of not reaching my goals, I figured "Well, okay, I'll just move my wakeup time to 8-8:30 AM". I'm not sure where I strategized incorrectly here, but I found myself gradually waking up later and later. Since I was waking up later, I found myself struggling to go to sleep. How could I, when I had only been awake for very long and I had been doing nothing physically or emotionally strenuous all day? My problems came to a head when I woke up just before 11 AM on Thursday. "Ugh, fine, I've had enough of this. I'll just take Melatonin tonight!" I decided in a cloud of rage. ...
Post a Comment
Read more

A Brief Reflection on the Practice of Blogging Daily

Image of a canyon in White Rock, New Mexico. There is a ridge in the horizon of the picture, with orange-brown rock. The canyon is dry and dirt-covered, with small bushes and trees dotted near the bottom. A green pine tree sits in the bottom left corner of the frame. Hello! I seem to be in a season of my life where I am eager to start a project, but struggle to follow through. *stares at sentimental items on my desk that been sitting there for days, waiting for me to sort through them*  By blogging every day this month, I am trying to create some consistency, and to keep Slanted Rays from becoming just another abandoned project. This habit has become surprisingly well-ingrained, even with yesterday's post being written in my parents' car on the way to Sonic at 10 PM. At the same time, maintaining a daily post schedule is a bit exhausting. It's weird to sometimes create meaningful content that I really enjoy, while also occasionally churning out words just so that I...
Post a Comment
Read more