Rajneeshee: The Forgotten Cult Responsible For America's Worst Bioterror Attack
In August, 1984, the U.S. suffered the first and single largest bioterrorist attack in history, in The Dalles, Oregon. The attack occurred as the followers of Rajneeshee contaminated salad bars at numerous restaurants in the area. But the Rajneeshee movement, and the Indian guru who started it, is relatively unknown in the United States.
Here is a look at the cult-like movement of free-loving hippies that tried to poison hundreds of people.
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Osho
The figure behind Rajneeshee was Chandra Mohan Jain, also known as Rajneesh, and later Osho. A professor of philosophy, he traveled throughout India during the 1960s as a public speaker, criticising politics and organized religion. He advocated a more open attitude towards sexuality, and became controversial as he began preaching spiritual and mystical ideals against materialistic culture.
Spreading The Rajneeshee Movement
In 1970, Osho settled temporarily in Bombay, initiating followers. His intellectual discourse and charisma eventually began attracting many Westerners, and he began developing therapy techniques based around Indian and Hindu meditation combined with modern psychotherapy. The religious and spiritual beliefs he preached focused on personal acceptance and growth, as well as acceptance rather than denial of desires. As he gained more prominence in India and became known as a famous guru and established a number of monasteries, Osho became a symbol of counterculture in the country, as well as abroad.
Devoted Followers
The followers of Osho became known as Rajneeshees or "Orange People," because of the orange and later red, maroon and pink clothes they wore. Many were attracted to the inclusive, playful, joyful, and life-affirming tenets of the movement, and many began moving into communal towns set up around the world, notably in the United States and Germany.
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Osho's Profit
Osho was criticised by many figures in India as well as around the world for the cult-like movement he had spawned, as well as the personal wealth he derived from his followers. He was known at one point as the "Rolls-Royce Guru" for the multiple Rolls-Royce cars he owned, as he advocated for a life of luxury as a somewhat paradoxical way to escape the corrupting influence of consumerism. Rajneeshee was also recognized as a highly effective commercial enterprise, generating hundreds of millions of dollars as Osho established numerous interlocking corporations around the world to bring in donations and sales of spiritual goods, supported by a complex business and legal structure.
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Prominent Associations
A number of prominent followers and figures became associated with the Rajneeshee movement, including a number of actors and politicians in India, as well as political figures in the United States. Notably, Arianna Huffington and her then-partner Bernard Levin were disciples in the early 1980s.
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Rajneeshpuram
In the 1970s, Osho established a communal settlement in Wasco County, Oregon, called Rajneeshpuram. The community grew as around 2,000 followers flocked to the tent city, causing tension with nearby towns. Many in Oregon viewed Rajneeshpuram as another "Sodom and Gomorrah," threatening to take over the rural area in the state, a characterization Rajneeshees found insulting. A 1993 bombing of a Rajneeshee-owned hotel by a radical-Islamist group caused even further tensions.
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Controversy And Violence
In 1983, a high ranking follower of Osho, Sheela Silverman, began to break with the Rajneeshee movement. Silverman had been acting as a spokesperson for Osho, but in the midst of the tensions with Wasco County, began advocating more drastic actions, for which Osho publicly disavowed her. After asking her to leave Rajneeshpuram, Osho accused her of committing crimes, and invited authorities to investigate.
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Bioterror Attack and Poisoning Attempt
In 1984, it was discovered that Silverman, along with other Rajneeshee followers, had contaminated salad bars at ten local restaurants with salmonella, sickening 751 individuals in Wasco County, Oregon. The first and single largest bioterrorist attack in United States history was aimed at incapacitating the voting population in order to influence the 1984 Wasco County elections. Osho denied involvement in the plot, but was later indicted on a number of immigration charges, and forced to return to India. Silverman and other followers were sentenced to 20 years in prison, but not before other members attempted to assassinate Charles Turner, the United States Attorney for the District of Oregon at the time.
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Tim Guest And 'My Life in Orange'
The Rajneeshee movement declined in support in the United States and Europe after the bioterror attack, and a number of its former followers began speaking out against the cult-like communities it had spawned. Tim Guest, a journalist and writer, published "My Life in Orange" in 2004, a book detailing his upbringing in Rajneeshee communes in the U.K. and Germany, and the neglect he suffered as a child in the environment.
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Status Today
In 1990, Osho died in Pune, India. Despite his death and the troubles the movement faced, he still maintains a significant following in India, called the Osho International Foundation. In the United States, however, many view the Rajneeshee as defunct.
Don't question blind allegiance to brown spiritual leaders.