OSHO'S PARANOIA

On this matter, Chris Coates wrote the following:

The teachings of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh had always had an apocalyptic thread running through them and in the late 1970’s he predicted that World War Three would start in 1993 in the Middle East, would last six years and would destroy modern civilization except for a few Rajneesh communes which would survive to start the new world.

Later this turned into a prophesy of a “great crisis” that would occur between 1984 and 1999 during which every kind of destruction would be visited on the Earth; floods, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, nuclear war.

And in this cyclone of destruction Rajneeshism would create a “Noah’s Ark of consciousness” to save humanity.

It appears not to have been clear whether this great crisis was meant to be taken metaphorically or as a reality, though at least one of the groups leading therapists believed that Bhagwan meant that extra-terrestrials would descend in their mother-ships to save them.

This doom laden message was heightened when AIDs broke out in the early 1980’s. The reaction of the Rashneeshies to the threat of AIDs was quick and fairly draconian. Bhagwan announced that this was a sign of the great crisis and would wipe out two thirds of mankind. Instructions were sent out from the Oregon headquarters.

About this subject, Tim Guest said:

« We were told: in order that sannyasins would survive, a radical programme of preventative measures was to be introduced immediately. … All sexual intercourse, with other sannyasins and between sannyasins and non-sannyasins, would take place using protection. Condoms, plastic gloves and dental dams were to be issued to every sexually active sannyasin. Plastic gloves had to be worn for all genital contact. Contaminated waste-bins would be available for disposal in the kitchens, toilets, and dormitories. »

(My Life in Orange)

Every member was tested for HIV and a system of coloured beads on members malas was introduced:

-      a blue bead for those not been tested,

-      a yellow bead for those awaiting their test results,

-      and a green bead for those who had tested negative.

Anyone who had sex with someone without a green bead was to have their beads confiscated for three months.

As it turned out no one at the Medina commune (the main of England) tested positive – had they done so they were to be placed in isolation and cared for by the community.

In the 1980’s the Rajneeshi communes would self-destruct in a scenario of their own making rather than serve as Arks to survive an external apocalypse.

(www.blog.utopia-britannica.org.uk/1093)

(Observation: the scaremongering Osho expressed prophesying the soon arrival of the Third World War was not due to paranoia, but was a premeditated tactic to seek to attract more followers, as I detailed it in the post before this one.)