Episode 21: Osho

Recently I watched a documentary series called, Wild Wild Country, which is about Osho’s time in Oregon. Maybe a decade ago or more, I began noticing a lot of video clips of interviews with Osho and his quotes on social media. And back then, I’d think, that’s a brilliant guy...why haven’t I heard of him before now? It took me a while to put two and two together and realize he originally went by a different name: Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. Under this name, he had run into some trouble.

He was kicked out of the US back in the 1980s in fact. After he established a sort of commune in Oregon, he had the reputation of being a cult leader. His followers, Rajneeshees, were mostly harmless people who subscribed to more of a free love philosophy. Let’s just say the townspeople, the ones who had been there before the Rajneeshees, were appalled by the behavior of these newcomers. The documentary depicts a fair-minded glimpse into both sides of what would eventually become a local war between the two groups.

Back in the 1960s, the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh had been a brilliant philosophy professor in India. He challenged social norms with his ideas about sex being part of the path to enlightenment. He also wasn’t afraid of standing out with controversial opinions either. He criticized mainstream religions. Among the high profile people he criticized were Gandhi and Mother Teresa, both icons of India in their own right. From what I understand, he was critical of Gandhi because he failed to embrace science and technology, which would bring India into the modern age. And regarding Mother Teresa, he suggested her motives for tending to the children of orphanages may have been less than pure. Her desire to win more souls to Catholicism surely factored into the effort. Not only that, but the church’s doctrine of being against birth control did not help poor people.

 In the 1970s, Rajneesh went on to establish an ashram in Pune, India. He developed his own types of meditation and began to promote various therapies to help people. Later, in the 1980s, he established a sustainable community in Oregon which also offered therapies and meditation techniques. I don’t want to get into the whole story of what happened in Oregon because you can watch the video series if you’re so inclined, but I need to point out that even despite his getting kicked out of the US doesn’t necessarily mean he was a bad person. His is a complicated story...and that caused him to rebrand himself later in life. He took on the name, “Osho,” maybe to pass on his valuable teachings without the emphasis being on what went wrong in Oregon.

 It’s fair to say that a lot of cults have operated in the US. It’s nothing new here. Some are quite harmless while others are preoccupied with marrying off children, killing those who oppose them, and so on. There is a spectrum of cult behavior. Some people think that many religions operate with some level of coercion or social pressure which could technically categorize them as cults. Some families are like cults.

 If you’re wondering what methods of controlling people define a cult, there is a a model to refer to. 

 BITE Model by Steven Hassan from the book, Combating Cult Mind Control: The Guide to Protection, Rescue and Recovery from Destructive Cults 

Behavior Control

• A group member dictates where, how, and with whom the member lives and associates with, or isolates them from others.
• They regulate your diet through forced fasting.
• They manipulate a person and deprive them of sleep.
• They practice financial exploitation, manipulation or dependence.
• They impose rigid rules and regulations.

Information control

• They practice deception (by deliberately withholding or distorting information, and/or lying).
• They minimize or discourage access to non-cult sources of information (TV, internet, former members, and so on).
• They make extensive use of cult-generated information and propaganda (YouTube, newsletters, movies and other media).

Thought Control

• They require members to internalize the group's doctrine as truth (black-and-white, good vs evil thinking).
• They change a person's name and identity.
• They use loaded language and clichés which constrict knowledge, stop critical thoughts, and reduce complexities into platitudinous buzz words.
• They employ hypnotic techniques to alter mental states, undermine critical thinking and age-regress the member.

Emotional control

• They manipulate and narrow the range of feelings—some emotions and/or needs are deemed as evil, wrong or selfish.
• They teach emotion-stopping techniques to block feelings of homesickness, anger, doubt.
• They make the person feel that problems are always their own fault, never the leader’s or the group’s fault.
• They instill fear, such as fear of the outside world, enemies, leaving or being shunned by the group.

Practical aspect of the episode:

Osho’s Dynamic Meditation [link provided in show description]

Instructions [link provided in show notes and the following text quoted from Osho.com]:

The meditation lasts one hour and has five stages. Keep your eyes closed throughout, using a blindfold if necessary.

This is a meditation in which you have to be continuously alert, conscious, aware, whatsoever you do. Remain a witness. And when – in the fourth stage – you have become completely inactive, frozen, then this alertness will come to its peak.

First Stage: 10 minutes

Breathing chaotically through the nose, let breathing be intense, deep, fast, without rhythm, with no pattern – and concentrating always on the exhalation. The body will take care of the inhalation. The breath should move deeply into the lungs. Do this as fast and as hard as you possibly can until you literally become the breathing. Use your natural body movements to help you to build up your energy. Feel it building up, but don’t let go during the first stage.

Second Stage: 10 minutes

EXPLODE! … Let go of everything that needs to be thrown out. Follow your body. Give your body freedom to express whatever is there. Go totally mad. Scream, shout, cry, jump, kick, shake, dance, sing, laugh; throw yourself around. Hold nothing back; keep your whole body moving. A little acting often helps to get you started. Never allow your mind to interfere with what is happening. Consciously go mad. Be total.

Third Stage: 10 minutes

With arms raised high above your head, jump up and down shouting the mantra, “Hoo! Hoo! Hoo!” as deeply as possible. Each time you land, on the flats of your feet, let the sound hammer deep into the sex center. Give all you have; exhaust yourself completely.

Fourth Stage: 15 minutes

STOP! Freeze wherever you are, in whatever position you find yourself. Don’t arrange the body in any way. A cough, a movement, anything, will dissipate the energy flow and the effort will be lost. Be a witness to everything that is happening to you.

Fifth Stage: 15 minutes

Celebrate! With music and dance express whatsoever is there. Carry your aliveness with you throughout the day.