Rajneeshpuram

 

Three weeks ago, I wanted to watch something on our television set - something that would hold my attention and would entertain or inform me. Given the number of options out there in the ether, you might think that such an itch would be very easy to scratch but not so. There's so much rubbish piled up on accessible channels - stuff that I would never want to see.

Flicking through Netflix, I found a documentary series that I thought might be just the ticket - all about a commune that evolved in the state of Oregon during the nineteen eighties. The series is titled "Wild Wild Country" and it focuses upon a cult that was centred around an Indian fellow who had become a kind of mystic -  a guru if you will. His name was   Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, later known as Osho. That's him in the header picture.

Back in 1981, he and his immediate followers purchased a  valley in north central Oregon. It had previously been the site of The Big Muddy Ranch It was about twenty miles south east of the town of Antelope and pretty remote.

Citizens of Rajneeshpuram greeting their spiritual leader  in 1983

Rajneesh's followers became known as Rajneeshees. They came from all over the world but mostly they were Americans. Some of them were pretty wealthy, influential people. Together they turned the valley into a small city known as Rajneeshpuram. It had lots of good accommodation, a large meeting hall and even its own airstrip. They built a reservoir and a sewage reclamation plant. There was a police station, a fire department, cafes and restaurants and a health facility. It is estimated that at its height over 7,000 people lived there including a large number of down-and-out homeless people from various American cities.

Downtown Rajneeshpuram in its heyday

Although I watched all six episodes of the documentary, by the end I remained very unclear about what if anything Rajneesh had been preaching. What was his message and why did he attract so many devotees? I mean he looked like a guru with his customary smile and his long white beard and his mystical robes but what was he actually saying?

Anyway, by 1988 it had all fallen apart  for mixed reasons. Local citizens were distrustful, politicians and lawmakers were quite hostile and within the cult itself cracks began to appear with various accusations and wrong turns. The dream was over as the authorities began to circle like hawks.

Today the former site of Rajneeshpuram is occupied by a Christian youth organisation called Young Life . It's like a giant summer camp and retreat - operating within the remit of The Washington Family Ranch. I checked out their website and could find no reference at all to  Rajneeshpuram. It's almost like it was never there - a kind of fiction - which I suppose it was.

Washington Family Ranch