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Wild Wild Country docuseries about Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh
just started watching this last night on a recommendation (sounds like a western, but it's not). OMG I cannot believe this happened in 1980 and I've never heard about it. Really interesting and .... and.... and. WOW.
Via archival news footage and contemporary eyewitness accounts, the siblings’ true-crime tale lays out the labyrinthine story that unfolded when silent, Rolls-Royce-loving mystic Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and thousands of his maroon-clad, enlightenment-seeking disciples descended on sleepy Antelope, Oregon, in the 1980s.
“That’s a real chilling part of the story: seeing how this love for a person and a community was then used to do harm.”
That reverence led the guru’s highly educated, skilled “sannyasins” (the word means “disciples” in Sanskrit) not only to build a utopian city on a 64,000-acre ranch, but ultimately to take over Antelope’s government. They renamed the town Rajneeshpuram and installed a sannyasin as mayor, predictably provoking Antelope’s existing conservative, largely retired citizens—who had already begun brandishing weapons when they filed a lawsuit challenging the Rajneeshee’s use of rural farmland.
In the ensuing years, some sannyasins would commit the largest bioterror attack in U.S. history—contaminating local salad bars with salmonella to suppress voter turnout for a county election—as well as the nation’s biggest immigration-fraud scheme. Others within the sect plotted to assassinate Bhagwan’s personal doctor, a local investigative journalist, and several Oregon government officials. The story’s sprawling cast of characters also includes Antelope rancher Jon Bowerman, the son of Nike co-founder Bill Bowerman; the daughter of Leo Ryan, the congressman killed while investigating the Jonestown cult, who used her father’s life-insurance money to join the Rajneeshees; and the woman once known as Francoise Ruddy, the ex-wife of The Godfather producer Albert S. Ruddy.
“That’s a real chilling part of the story: seeing how this love for a person and a community was then used to do harm.”
That reverence led the guru’s highly educated, skilled “sannyasins” (the word means “disciples” in Sanskrit) not only to build a utopian city on a 64,000-acre ranch, but ultimately to take over Antelope’s government. They renamed the town Rajneeshpuram and installed a sannyasin as mayor, predictably provoking Antelope’s existing conservative, largely retired citizens—who had already begun brandishing weapons when they filed a lawsuit challenging the Rajneeshee’s use of rural farmland.
In the ensuing years, some sannyasins would commit the largest bioterror attack in U.S. history—contaminating local salad bars with salmonella to suppress voter turnout for a county election—as well as the nation’s biggest immigration-fraud scheme. Others within the sect plotted to assassinate Bhagwan’s personal doctor, a local investigative journalist, and several Oregon government officials. The story’s sprawling cast of characters also includes Antelope rancher Jon Bowerman, the son of Nike co-founder Bill Bowerman; the daughter of Leo Ryan, the congressman killed while investigating the Jonestown cult, who used her father’s life-insurance money to join the Rajneeshees; and the woman once known as Francoise Ruddy, the ex-wife of The Godfather producer Albert S. Ruddy.
https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2018/04/wild-wild-country-netflix-cult-documentary-interview-bhagwan-shree-rajneesh-antelope-oregon-sheela-rajneeshpuram
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