The

Rajneeshpuram
Cult
Kerri Sampson
What is Rajneeshpuram?
Rajneeshpuram was a religious intentional community in Wasco County, Oregon, incorporated as a city
between 1981 and 1988. Its population consisted entirely of Rajneeshees, followers of the spiritual
teacher Rajneesh, later known as Osho. Its citizens and leaders were responsible for launching the 1984
Rajneeshee bioterror attacks, as well as the planned 1985 Rajneeshee assassination plot, in which
they conspired to assassinate Charles Turner, the then-United States Attorney for the District of Oregon.

The leader of the cult,  Bhagwan Sri Rajneesh was born on December 11th 1931 and he’s from
Kuchwada, British India. When he was in highschool he realized he had a “higher purpose” than his
classmates and he got into meditation and hypnosis. He went to college at 19 and majored in
Philosophy

In 1953 that is when Bhagwan says that he had his spiritual awakening. He said that one day he was
sitting underneath a tree and he felt a rush go through him and he felt like he was the chosen one and he
must give the world his gifts.
 Founding of the Rajneeshee Community
● In 1981, after running into problems with the Indian government, Rajneesh
closed his ashram in the city of Pune in central India and invited devotees from
all over the world to join him to create an extraordinary community in central
Oregon. Some Rajneeshees bought houses in the closest town, Antelope. Most,
however, journeyed for another 19 miles on the winding mountain roads that
led to the the plateau where Rajneeshpuram rested. At its peak, the communal
city housed about 2,000 devotees.
● Women and men labored together around the clock, constructing a huge
meditation hall and an open-air mall with restaurants, clothing boutiques and a
shop that sold hundreds of books and videotapes by and about Rajneesh. They
also created a private airport, a hotel, living quarters and a sparkling artificial
lake.
● The devotees belied popular stereotypes of passive, easily manipulated
spiritual seekers. Two-thirds of Rajneeshpuram’s residents had four-year
college and/or had previously pursued lucrative career paths.
Accomplished Women
● Fifty-four percent of Rajneesh’s devotees were women. Many had abandoned relationships,
successful careers and occasionally young children in order to create a utopia around their
spiritual leader. In our conversations, they disclosed that they followed Rajneesh to Oregon
because they felt that he had transformed their lives, and they wanted to continue to experience
the love and affirmation that they received from their powerful protector.
● Many woman interviewed had been influenced by the feminist movement of the 1970s and hoped
for full economic, sexual and social equality. They wanted to live very differently from their
housewife mothers. However, they were deeply disappointed when they still felt anxious and
lonely despite the money and recognition that they received from their careers. They said hat they
had felt forced to choose between successful careers and fulfilling marriages. They lost with either
choice.
● But Rajneesh asserted that women could succeed in every endeavor as well as or better than men.
He applauded high levels of achievement and also emphasized the importance of traditionally
feminine traits like intuition and emotional sensitivity for both women and men. He told women
that they could and should integrate their personal and professional lives.
 Facts about the Rajneeshees
1. Red and other ruddy hues, salmon, burgundy, mulberry, violet, russet, were the
Rajneeshees’ visual calling card. The colors symbolized ”the sunrise of the inner
world”. Together, whether in Pune, India, Bhagwan established his first ashram in
1974, or in the 40-person town of Antelope, the monochromatic group made for an
arresting, almost formidable, sight.
2. Many of them were doctors, lawyers, and professors, who were looking for spiritual
enlightenment they weren’t finding in their regular lives.
3. It is estimated that one-fifth of the Rajnesshpuram community had Masters degrees.
4. Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh’s teachings were very different from other religions. He
preached that people should basically just do whatever feels good, that attachment to
material objects was okay, and that sex was an expression of love that should be
explored freely.
5. Bhagwan’s belief was that there should be no religions, but he created one and built
Rajnesshpuram to house it.
The 1984 Rajneeshee Bioterror Attacks
● After being denied building permits for Rajneeshpuram, the commune leadership sought to gain
political control over the rest of the county by influencing the November 1984 county
election.Their goal was to win two of three seats on the Wasco county commission, as well as the
sheriff's office. Their attempts to influence the election included the "Share-a-Home" program, in
which they transported thousands of homeless people to Rajneeshpuram and attempted to register
them to vote to inflate the constituency of voters for the group's candidates. The Wasco county
clerk countered this attempt by enforcing a regulation that required all new voters to submit their
qualifications when registering to vote.
● 751 people in The Dalles, Oregon, got food poisoning in 1984 as a result of Salmonella
contamination of salad bars at ten area restaurants. A group of notable Rajneesh supporters led by
Ma Anand Sheela sought to disenfranchise the city's voting population so that their own
candidates could win the Wasco County elections in 1984. The incident was the first and greatest
bioterrorist attack in American history. In a Rajneeshpuram medical laboratory, a sample of
bacteria that matched the pollutant that had affected the town's residents was discovered.
1985 Rajneeshee Assassination Plot
● In 1985, a group of high-ranking Rajneeshees plotted the assassination of Charles Turner, the US
Attorney for the District of Oregon at the time. Ma Anand Sheela (Sheela Silverman), Rajneesh's
personal secretary and second-in-command, gathered the group when Turner was assigned to
investigate criminal behavior at Rajneeshpuram, the followers' commune. Turner led the federal
prosecution of the 1984 Rajneeshee bioterror attack in The Dalles, Oregon, after investigating
claims of visa fraud and sham marriages.
● Ma Anand Sheela; Sally-Anne Croft, Rajneeshpuram's Chief Financial Officer; Susan Hagan,
Rajneeshpuram's Head of Security; Catherine Jane Stork, who bought weapons and suppressors
and volunteered to be the actual murderer; Ann Phyllis McCarthy, Rajneeshpuram's fourth-in-
command; Alma Potter, Carol Matthews, Phyllis Caldwell, and Richard Kevin Lang Turner was
stalked and planned to be murdered near his business in Portland, Oregon, by two of the
conspirators who used false IDs to buy handguns out of state. The assassination plot was never
carried out and was only revealed after a federal inquiry into the bioterror assault in The Dalles
and other criminal activities committed by the Rajneeshpuram leadership.
1985 Rajneeshee Assassination Plot cont.
● Prosecution of the conspirators began in 1990, when a federal grand jury brought indictments
against several of the key players. Some had fled the country, and extradition proceedings against
the perpetrators and subsequent prosecution and conviction was not completed for sixteen years.
The final conspirator was convicted in 2006, when Catherine Jane Stork agreed to return to the
United States from Germany in order to be allowed to visit her terminally ill son in Australia.
Eight perpetrators received sentences ranging from five years' probation to five years in federal
prison and an additional member of the Rajneesh commune pleaded guilty to murder conspiracy.
Rajneesh was never prosecuted in relation to the conspiracy, and left the United States after
pleading guilty to immigration fraud and agreeing not to reenter the country without permission
from the U.S. Attorney General.
The Outcome of the Cult
Sheela was extradited from West Germany and imprisoned for attempted murder, assault, wiretapping,
arson, immigration fraud, and her role in the bioterror attack. During the next few years the movement
also came under investigation for multiple other felonies:
• Arson
• Attempted Murder
• Immigration Fraud
• Voting Fraud
• Drug Smuggling
● These criminal activities had, according to the Office of the Attorney General, begun in the spring
of 1984, three years after the establishment of the commune.[13] Rajneesh himself was accused of
immigration violations, to which he entered an Alford plea. As part of his plea bargain, he agreed
to leave the United States and eventually returned to Pune, India. His followers left Oregon
shortly afterwards.
● The increasing ability and capacity of local and state regulators to actively limit the development
of Rajneeshpuram this way was one major factor that led to the sudden collapse of the commune
in September and October 1985.
The Ending of the Cult
Sheela was extradited from West
Germany and imprisoned for attempted
murder, assault, wiretapping, arson,
immigration fraud, and her role in the
bioterror attack. During the next few years
the movement also came under
investigation for multiple other felonies:
• Arson
• Attempted Murder
• Immigration Fraud
• Voting Fraud
• Drug Smuggling
• According to the Attorney General's Office,
these illicit acts began in the spring of 1984,
three years after the commune was founded.
Rajneesh had been charged with immigration
offences and had taken an Alford plea. He
agreed to leave the United States as part of his
plea deal and finally returned to Pune, India.
Shortly after, his supporters fled Oregon.
• One of the primary factors that led to the
commune's unexpected collapse in September
and October 1985 was the rising ability and
capacity of local and state regulators to
aggressively limit Rajneeshpuram's expansion in
this way.
 Outcome cont.
● Rajneeshpuram's legal status remained uncertain.
Federal Judge Helen J. Frye ruled against
Rajneeshpuram in the church/state case in late 1985,
a decision that was not appealed since it came too late
to be of practical relevance.  However, the Oregon
courts eventually ruled in the city's favor, with the
Court of Appeals ruling in 1986 that incorporation
had not violated the state's agricultural land goals. 
● In 1987, the Oregon Supreme Court adjourned the
case, leaving Rajneeshpuram vacant and insolvent but
legal under Oregon law. The property, which had
been marketed for nearly $28 million in 1985, was
sold at a sheriff's auction in late 1988 for $4.5 million
to Connecticut General Life Insurance Company, the
single bidder.