Rajneeshpuram,
An Experiment to provoke God
An enthralling and
unprejudiced documentary about the story of the ranch
After all the trash produced about Osho’s ranch in Oregon at least this report is not filled with lies and stupidity that seems to come straight from the press department of the Pentagon.
The producer of this film at least tries to describe this most thrilling story of modern religious consciousness in an unprejudiced way.
The enormous envy of the
neighbouring farmer is shown clearly, the farmer who could not stand the
success of the Sannyasins.
The local historian Bernd Webber, University of Portland/Oregon, stated:
"their agricultural proceeds down there were carefully and scientifically
arranged and done and frankly made neighbouring Oregonian farms and rangers
look bad”
The true reason for the failure of the ranch is brought to a point by Osho's attorney Swami Niren: "If you have a little brown guy from India, whose fundamental premise is that we all need to be one and we all need to love each other, and out of oneness and love we will no longer need the politicians, we will no longer need the religions, we will no longer need people to tell us what to do, who comes in and says the family is dead, this is not going to go down real well in eastern Oregon, this is not going to go down well in Washington D.C.”
For many of the followers of Osho it became more than clear in what kind of country they had landed when the first fanatic Christian fundamentalists appeared at the gates of the ranch, shouting slogans like " We will show these people that there is only one God almighty."
Now the
politically motivated pressure by the US government against the ranch
intensifies.
The federal attorney of Oregon declares the city of Rajneeshpuram an illegal
city, unprecedented in world history. And the reason is, astonishingly, that
the ranch offends the separation from state and church. From now on this
verdict served as a base to hinder and cripple the ranch in every possible
way. Buildings on the ranch are declared illegal and new buildings are not
allowed due to some obscure land use laws.
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The
Sannyasins successfully maintain their ground before court. When the US government, under the leadership of US Secretary of State Alexander Haig, realise that they cannot harm the ranch on a legal basis, they change their tactics and start to attack Bhagwan directly. Instigated by a corrupt Christian press the population also turns more and more against the Sannyasins. Historian Bernd Webber points out: "Here was a population dedicated doing everything they could …. to beat them down and to get them out of there.” |
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Direct influence of the US-Secretary of State Alexander Haig |
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Unexpected help came to them from inside the ranch by Osho’s secretary,
Sheela. Sheela had already fled to Europe and Osho invited the FBI to investigate into her crimes, offering the full support of the ranch, when the US government set the National Guard on alert in 3 neighbouring villages and secretly prepared for bloodshed |
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The Popes |
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Only Osho's flight to Charlotte, North Carolina, and his subsequent kidnapping by the US authorities takes pressure off the ranch. Osho's deportation from the USA was the final hit to the ranch. The community was destroyed and announced its final dissolution. Today the former city of Ranjneeshpuram is just another ghost city in the wild west of America.
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The Mall in Rajneeshpuram after Osho left |
