Life In the Cult: Commune

""But on that subject, what about all the sex? Bhagwan advocated an open attitude to sex, and everyone in Rajneeshpuram was at it everywhere all of the time (that’s certainly how the God-fearing locals saw it). Is that free-love approach more of a male utopia than a female one? “You could say that, because males are more sexually orientated than females. While females have been, until now, in a place of oppression, men have always been given more freedom. From that point of view, your analysis is accurate, that it is a male idea. And, of course, this open speaking about sex came from Bhagwan and he is also male, so one can say it is a male idea. But I personally don’t feel it should be male and female separated; it’s human. We see it also in animals. They don’t make a big fuss about it; when spring is there they enjoy their moment of sexuality.”...And it didn’t bother her that he was having sex with lots of other people?” “What does love have to do with sex? We are taught to associate sex with love, to compensate. You feel sexual but are afraid to declare it, you say: ‘I love you.’ In my life, it has always been separate. I can tell someone I want to go to bed with [them], I have no qualms about it and enjoy being in bed. And if I love somebody, I love somebody – they are two separate events.”"​​​​​​​

​​​​​​​~Sheela Birnstiel, previously known as Ma Anand Sheela, was, in the early 1980s, personal secretary to Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. (The Guardian)

The Rajneesh were all about living in the moment while being connected to their physical belongings. Osho himself believed he wasn't connected to the world physically. 

They practiced Osho dynamic meditation, to purify the body and mind. This took about an hour to complete. First, they breathed through their nose for 10 minutes before “exploding” and releasing all emotions. Then, they jumped while repeating a mantra. Then freezing for 15 minutes before celebrating.

The Rajneesh were heavily anti-marriage and pro-free love. This meant the separation of love and sex. Cult members would take many partners for their pleasure but stay loyal romantically to their spouses. 

The share-a-home program tasked commune members to take responsibility of the homeless. This was a way to indoctrinate people into their cult to buy votes. Despite the fact it had bad intentions, giving people homes had a positive impact. However they were bussed off afterwards. 

"Hmmm. OK, so what about the shocking episode in which thousands of homeless people were bussed in to rig a local election? “We offered them an alternative lifestyle,” she says. You were using them, cynically, for your own political needs. “This is a custom of every major election: people clean up the homeless and send them for voting. I was told this by a politician.”

It’s not common practice to sedate homeless people, though, is it, which hers were? “Don’t ask me because I am not aware of it.”"

~Sheela Birnstiel, previously known as Ma Anand Sheela, was, in the early 1980s, personal secretary to Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. (The Guardian.)​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

"The share-a-home thing was quite something. I was building fences at the time and then I suddenly got given the few people who were on the share-a-home program and I was really frustrated, because they were unfocused; they weren’t working. And I complained to one of the bosses — we always had female bosses, Osho put women in charge of everything — and she said, Look, it’s not about production, this is about connecting and sharing our commune and sharing what we feel. I ended up with two guys and we really created a friendship between us. I can still see their faces and their gradual sort of relaxation: they were in a safe place, there was no crime, no one was going to beat them up, they had a place to sleep, good food, and work to do..."
~Surendra. Retired social worker and photographer living in Japan, lived in Rajneeshpuram for nine months.

The Cut, “9 Rajneeshpuram Residents on What Wild Wild Country Got Wrong,” April 19th, 2018, Anna Silman

"For my whole life, people have been asking me what it was like. And just like if you ask anybody what their childhoods were like, it had pluses and minuses. I had a tremendous amount of freedom and responsibility and opportunity to learn things — like, I was a mechanic on airplanes when I was 9 years old. At the same time, it was an oppressive culture, there was not a lot of school or formal education, there were times when we had school but the school moved around and had sort of a rotating cast of characters and was sort of optional, and that was something I really wanted."

~Hira Bluestone. Physician’s assistant living in Seattle, Washington. Was brought to Rajneeshpuram by her parents when she was 7 and lived there until she was 11.​​​​​​​ ​​​​​​​(The Cut.)

Families moved to Rajneeshparuam in hopes of starting a new life, bringing their children. Ironically, families were broken up whenever they arrived. Kids lived in huts separate from their families. Kids had schooling on occasion, but it was never mandatory, leaving the kids with little to no academic knowledge after the commune disbanded. 

Being a kid in a sex cult was very traumatic, some children said they could hear people having sex, and others were forced into sexual situations. 

Due to the cult's beliefs of free love, many families were ripped apart. Some couples worked well with the separation of sex and love, but others couldn't handle it leading to divorces afterwards.

"There was a school, “run by this crazy English hippie called Sharma with long blond hair and a guitar and we would sing ‘We all live in the orange submarine’. I don’t know how much it mattered if we were in school or not. When I eventually did get back to this country when I was 10 I couldn’t read anything or write anything, or do two plus two.”

He did learn how to smoke. And at the age of six he got accidentally stoned by eating hash cake."

~​​​​​​​"Growing up in the Wild Wild Country cult: ‘You heard people having sex all the time, like baboons’," The Guardian