The Salad Bar That Started a War: The Rajneesh Movement

Summary

Podcast Summary:

Scams, Money, & Murder
Episode: The Salad Bar That Started a War: The Rajneesh Movement
Air Date: June 24, 2026
Hosts: Sabrina Deanna Roga & Corinne Vien

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Sabrina and Corinne dive deep into the wild and unsettling story of the Rajneesh movement—how a spiritual community in rural Oregon transformed into the site of the largest bioterrorist attack in American history. The hosts unpack the origins of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh’s cult, the rise of his ruthless lieutenant Ma Anand Sheela, and the spiral from New Age promise to poisonous reality. Alternately irreverent and incredulous, they walk listeners through the movement’s philosophy, its explosive growth, and its shocking crimes.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. From Enlightenment to Bioterrorism

• Opening Question:
  “How does a community built on freedom, pleasure and spiritual enlightenment turn into the largest bioterrorist attack in American history?” (00:55, Sabrina)
• Thesis: The episode traces a seemingly harmless spiritual movement’s devolution into violence under Ma Anand Sheela’s power.
• Notable Quote:
  “Classic peace, love, culture situation. Let’s not poison hundreds of people.” (04:10, Sabrina)

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2. The Oregon Salmonella Attack: The Infamous Beginning

• The Incident:
  The story opens with Sandy and Dave, owners of Shakey’s Pizza in The Dalles, Oregon, describing mass food poisoning in a small town—later revealed as intentional poisoning affecting over 700 people. (07:00–08:14)
• Key Moment:
  “By the time they get [to the ER], it is overflowing with people just like them… No one knows what’s causing it.” (07:41, Sabrina)

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3. Rajneesh’s Roots & Philosophy

• Rajneesh’s Early Life: Born Chandra Mohan Jain, nicknamed “Rajneesh,” raised in India; seen by his family as destined for greatness. (10:12–11:13)
• Contrarian Streak: Known for questioning everything, earning him a reputation as an atheist and provocateur in a deeply religious country.
• Core Teachings:
  • Embraced pleasure and experience (especially sex, food, and self-indulgence) as spiritual, opposing asceticism.
  • “True spirituality did not come from denying yourself of things, but rather from experiencing life fully.” (16:51, Corinne)
• Dynamic Meditation:
  • A chaotic, cathartic practice involving physical exertion, screaming, dancing, sometimes group sex.
  • “Not your traditional meditation… It was chaotic. It began with jumping, shouting, breathing intensely, dancing until you were so out of breath.” (19:28, Corinne)

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4. Rise in America: Building a Commune in Oregon

• Fleeing India:
  • Increasing scrutiny from Indian authorities and tax problems.
  • Rajneesh, Sheela, and core disciples quietly relocate to the U.S. in 1981.
  • Purchase of the 64,000-acre “Big Muddy Ranch” in Oregon for $5.75 million; renamed Rajneeshpuram. (29:06–30:32)
• Clash with Locals:
  • Antelope, population 75, becomes overrun with thousands of Rajneeshees.
  • Notable for their sunset-colored clothes (“the red people”) and their daily work mantra: “Work is our worship.”
  • Locals grow increasingly hostile as the commune grows into a self-sufficient city—with water reservoirs, schools, an airport, and the fourth largest public transit system in the state. (33:07–35:39)
• Rajneesh’s Rolls Royces:
  • Rajneesh amassed 93 Rolls Royces, driving past followers daily at 2 p.m., in silent parades.
  • Quote: “He lived in a compound surrounded by fruit trees… every day at 2pm all of the Rajneeshis would stop what they were doing… and Rajneesh would ride through the streets in his convoy of Rolls Royces, dozens of them.” (35:43, Corinne)

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5. Ma Anand Sheela: Cult Power & Paranoia

• Power Consolidation:
  • Made herself absolute leader, punishing dissenters with menial jobs, social ostracism, and worse.
• Medical Abuse:
  • Orchestrated fake AIDS diagnoses to exile critics; drugged would-be defectors; surgical abuse (non-consensual hysterectomy on a whistleblower). (39:34–41:47)
• Notable Quote:
  “With Pooja’s help, Sheila was now free to run things as she saw fit, and anytime someone came against her…she could medically mutilate, control, and, and manipulate them.” (43:04, Sabrina)

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6. War with Antelope: Political Takeover and Hostilities

• Political Machinations:
  • Sheila orchestrates a hostile takeover of Antelope: buys up property, ships in followers to outnumber locals, takes over the town council, and renames the town “Rajneesh.” (44:41–45:41)
  • Tensions escalate as nearby communities and media turn against the group.

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7. Security State: Militarization and Intimidation

• Isolation:
  • The commune becomes a fortress: visitors must sign forms, wear ID bracelets, and pass “Peace Force” checkpoints—members in sunset robes with submachine guns. (51:50–52:31)
• Intimidation:
  • Peace Force blocks officials, poisons them after visits, slashes tires.

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8. The “Share-a-Home” Scheme: Weaponizing the Vote

• Voter Coup Attempt:
  • Sheila busses in 4,000 homeless people from major cities, attempting to register them to sway the Wasco County election.
  • Notable Quote:
    “Sheila had a purpose… to make them all registered voters in Oregon.” (55:54, Sabrina)
• Escalating Desperation:
  • As lawsuits block most of these new voters, Sheela and Pooja begin plotting voter suppression—via bioterrorism.

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9. The Oregon Bioterror Attack (Salmonella Poisonings)

• The Plan:
  • Rajneeshees test salmonella-laced “salsa” on local salad bars, grocery produce, courthouse doorknobs in The Dalles.
  • Over 750 people fall seriously ill; no fatalities, but several near-tragedies (pregnant woman and baby go into septic shock). (57:05–60:38)
• Aftermath and Intended Escalation:
  • The salmonella attack was intended as a “test run”—Sheela planned to poison the water supply before the November election.
  • Quote: “This was only a test run for Sheila. Now that she knew that salmonella was an effective poison… she planned to sneak it into the town’s water supply.” (60:58–61:16, Sabrina)
• Failure of the Plan:
  • Courts move to prevent the vote-rigging; local backlash surges voter registration against Rajneeshees.
  • On Election Day, all Rajneeshee candidates lose in a landslide. (62:44, Sabrina)

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10. Collapse and Aftermath

• Financial Ruin:
  • Failed “Share-a-Home” effort plus lawsuits, negative press, and declining donations leave the commune deep in debt (estimated $55 million).
  • The homeless bused in are abandoned, dumped in nearby towns.
• Sheela’s Final Acts:
  • Allegedly orders firebombing of county offices, assembles a hit list, and sabotages newspaper.
  • Flees to Europe with loyalists as government investigation closes in. (67:02, Sabrina)
• Rajneesh’s Response:
  • Throws Sheela under the bus:
    “Rajneesh held a press conference where he publicly called Sheila and her associates, quote, a gang of fascists.” (70:26, Sabrina)
• Legal End:
  • Rajneesh and leaders indicted for immigration fraud; Sheela, Pooja, and others extradited and charged with a spectrum of crimes.
  • Shocking Sentence: Despite mass poisoning and attempted murder, Sheela serves only 2.5 years in prison before moving to Switzerland, where she now manages two retirement homes. (75:00, Sabrina)
• Aftermath:
  • Rajneesh deported to India; commune closed, members disperse. The former site is now a youth camp, but infrastructure and “ghosts” of the past remain.

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Memorable Moments & Quotes

• On Rajneesh’s Cult Persona:
  “He’s not even alive. He’s actually just a stuffed doll we can parade it around.” (36:58, Sabrina)
• On Cult Contradictions:
  “Can we not argue that he’s too attached to his cars? Yeah, release worldly attachments.” (37:26, Sabrina)
• On Ma Anand Sheela’s Ruthlessness:
  “She was like, because you have tested positive for AIDS, you are no longer safe to live in this community.” (40:10, Sabrina)
• On Bioterrorism:
  “They dumped [salmonella] also on produce at local grocery stores. They spread it on doorknobs at the county courthouse.” (57:46, Corinne)
• On Sheela’s Prison Term:
  “She only spent two and a half years behind bars… Her life that she started, her new life wasn’t all that different from her old one. And as of this recording, Ma Anand Sheela still lives in Switzerland, where she owns and manages two retirement homes.” (75:26, Corinne)

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Timeline & Timestamps for Key Segments

| Segment | Timestamp | |-----------------------------------|-------------| | Opening & Episode Theme | 00:55–01:53 | | The Dalles Salad Bar Outbreak | 07:00–08:14 | | Rajneesh's Origins & Teachings | 10:12–19:28 | | Dynamic Meditation & Early Followers | 19:28–21:02 | | Rajneeshpuram: Building a Commune | 29:06–35:43 | | Rolls Royce Parades & Silence | 35:43–37:55 | | Sheela's Power & Cruelty | 39:34–43:26 | | Political Takeover of Antelope | 44:41–45:41 | | Cult Militarization (“Peace Force”) | 51:50–52:31 | | Share-a-Home Scheme | 54:14–56:22 | | Bioterror Poisoning Plan | 57:05–61:16 | | Commune’s Collapse | 62:44–66:32 | | Firebombings, Fleeings, and Arrest| 66:32–71:16 | | Aftermath, Trials, and Legacy | 71:16–end |

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Conclusion & Reflections

• Hosts’ Take:
  Both Sabrina and Corinne are incredulous at how greed, power, and unchecked belief metastasized into violence. They challenge the idea of Rajneesh’s innocence and paint Sheela as both mastermind and scapegoat.
• Call to Listeners:
  “Thankfully, nobody died because of the Rajneesh movement, but plenty of lives were ruined…If you feel like you or anyone you know may be trapped in a cult, please know there are resources to help you.” (77:46, Sabrina)

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Overall Tone:
Informative yet irreverent. The hosts use dark humor and candid commentary (“Wild. One more drink for you.”) to grapple with the unbelievable twists of the story, but treat the victims and the stakes seriously.

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Notable Takeaway:
Greed bad.—The Rajneesh movement shows how even movements promising enlightenment and community can spiral into control, cruelty, and crime when power goes unchecked.

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For further details or resources on cult recovery, see show notes.

Transcript

[A]

Hi, listeners.

[B]

Exciting news. Crime House plus and Murder True Crime Stories are celebrating America's 250th by dropping a four part limited series on the

[A]

crimes that built America. These are the crimes and cases that

[B]

gave us Miranda rights, sparked criminal profiling and a murder that built America's missing children movement. Follow Murder True Crime Stories for a new episode every Monday leading up to July 4th. Or or you can listen to all of them right now with Crime House Plus. To join, go to crimehouseplus.com or if you're listening on Apple Podcasts, tap, try

[A]

free at the top of this show's page. This is crime house.

[B]

Here's a question for you and for everyone listening. How does a community built on freedom, pleasure and spiritual enlightenment turn into the largest bioterrorist attack in American history?

[A]

That is a great question and a horrifying reality because that is what we're going to explore here today on Crime Stuff, which is factual cases. So it happened.

[B]

Bhagwan Sri Rajneesh was one of the world's most popular gurus. Truly, tens of thousands of people studied his teachings.

[A]

He told his followers to live their lives to the fullest, to live freely, reject shame, and experience everything life has to offer. Yeah.

[B]

But over time, one woman in the community sought to seize power. And when she did, things took a

[A]

very violent turn and hundreds of people were poisoned.

[B]

Welcome to Crimes of Cults. I'm Sabrina deannaroga.

[A]

I'm Corinne Vien.

[B]

And this season we are diving into some of the world's most dangerous cults and the charismatic leaders who promised salvation but instead led their followers to ruin. We're going to ask the question of when does belief become control? And how can you tell the difference between faith and manipulation, between hope and fear?

[A]

If you're loving Crime Sub, please follow rate and review us wherever you listen. It helps build the community and we also love hearing from you. To get early access and ad free listening, subscribe to the Crime House plus community on Apple Podcasts. You can also catch us on YouTube where we include visuals that bring every case to life.

[B]

The case of Bhagwan Sri Rajneesh Ma Anand Sheila and the Rajneesh movement starts now.

[A]

We have gotta say that today's episode, it's a bit wild.

[B]

I kind of think every time we say the word wild, you should take a shot of your coffee or whatever you may be drinking because a few

[A]

times every episode we're gonna be saying that word.

[B]

Especially today, quite a lot. Which totally makes sense why the Netflix documentary was Called Wild Wild Country.

[A]

Yeah. Did you watch it when it came out?

[B]

Of course.

[A]

I watched it with my family and my mom and I couldn't stop talking about it for like a good six weeks.

[B]

It really blows my mind. And wild is kind of the perfect way to describe it.

[A]

If you aren't familiar with the Rush niche movement, then you are definitely gonna be in for a ride. Because it started with something that should have or could have been completely harmless. But things got very dark very fast.

[B]

It all began with a spiritual guru who built a massive community that built

[A]

a ginormous commune in the middle of Oregon. Kind of sounds like my dream. And lived off the land and followed a minimalist lifestyle.

[B]

So very minimalist in quotations that this spiritual leader collected dozens of Rolls Royces, which I don't know that that was in the documentary or I forgot about that part.

[A]

I don't really remember that part either.

[B]

And more than dozens, because honestly, that

[A]

is a fact that you're going to forget about too, once we tell you everything else. Because this guru had a right hand woman who basically took over everything, then

[B]

drugged people, falsified medical tests, wiretapped private rooms, and worst of all, Corinne.

[A]

She orchestrated the largest bioterror attack in American history.

[B]

You know, classic peace, love, culture situation. Let's not poison hundreds of people.

[A]

So all to say, buckle up, because this is going to be a wild ride.

[B]

Drink up.

[A]

Glug, glug, glug.

[B]

Real skin results start with one daily ritual. Meet daily microfoliant from Dermalogica. This iconic exfoliating powder activates with water to gently polish away dullness and uneven texture. It leaves skin instantly smoother and more luminous while supporting your skin barrier with professional expertise to deliver visible results daily, even on sensitive skin. Discover your healthiest skin today. Visit dermalogica.com and use code smooth at checkout for an exclusive gift with your $65 purchase. Hi, I'm Angie Hicks, co founder of Angie and one thing I've learned is that you buy a house, but you make it a home. Because with every fix, update and renovation, it becomes a little more your own. So you need all your jobs done well. For nearly 30 years, Angie has helped millions of homeowners hire skilled pros for the projects that from plumbing to electrical roof repair to deck upgrades. So leave it to the pros who will get your jobs done well. Angie the one you trust to find the ones you trust. Find a pro for your [e-mail] It's a beautiful late summer afternoon in the Dalles Oregon, a small, quiet town. The kind of place where people know one another and life is monotonous, routine, simple. It's a Sunday afternoon, and Sandy Lutkins sits at a table of the Shakey's Pizza Parlor that she owns with her husband, Dave. Church has just let out for the day, and Sandy is really glad to see that the dining room is full. She and Dave are enjoying a pizza with their friend Dan, and as they talk, Sandy gets up and heads over to the salad bar. She grabs a bowl, fills it with lettuce, tomatoes. She hovers over the croutons, debating whether or not she wants a nice little crunch in her salad. Then she adds a couple. She dresses the salad and then makes her way back to the table, plucking a tomato off the plate, popping it into her mouth as she does. There's nothing unusual about her day. They finish their lunch, they say goodbye to Dan, and her and Dave head home. Not long after, Sandy's stomach starts to rumble. Then, not the like, ooh, I'm digesting food type of rumble, the something is very wrong type of rumble, and she runs to the bathroom, clutches the toilet and vomits the contents of her stomach. Not long after, her husband Dave has to do the same thing. And it doesn't stop. Even when she thinks they cannot vomit anything more, they do. Did they get food poisoning? As she cradles the toilet, she worries about the state of their restaurant. And things are so bad that she and Dave rush to the emergency room. And when they get there, it is overflowing with people just like them. They are in line in the waiting room, flooding the halls. They are everywhere, all exhibiting the same symptoms. Gosh. Vomiting, diarrhea, severe stomach pain. No one knows what's causing it. And the hospital is so overwhelmed that they're certain this is an issue for the state health department. By the time they get involved, more than 700 people are sick. Hospitals are so overflowed, no one can find the source. And this wasn't just Sandy and Dave's Shakey's pizza. In fact, this was not a produce supply issue at all. Food poisoning does not work like this. And within days, the health department realizes that this was no accident. Someone did this on purpose. Someone tried to poison an entire community. They just didn't know who. But they were determined to find out, and they had to do it quickly because the person behind it was planning to target something even bigger. The water supply.

[A]

As we will discuss, this was in fact an intentional poisoning where over 700 people were affected. And fortunately, there were no deaths. Which is kind of miraculous that there are no deaths after 700 people are experiencing this, thank goodness. But the person behind it was, in fact, preparing for something much bigger. And that person was Ma Anand Sheela. She was, at one point in time, the right hand woman of the leader of the Rajneesh movement, but she eventually took over the whole movement. But before we get into who she was and everything there, and also why she wanted to poison hundreds of people in the Oregon countryside, we're going to go back and we're going to talk about the beginning, about the man who started all of this, the one who built a community based on peace and built the framework that made this all possible. His name was Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh.

[B]

And when you think of a cult leader, you're probably imagining, like, a big otherworldly personality. You know, like a lot of the leaders that we've talked about already. This season of Crimes of Cults, Charles Manson, Marshall Applewhite, Jim Jones, who we will be talking about this season, you know, the type of person who lures members in with their big charisma and then keep you there by sheer force of will, by brainwashing, grooming, all of those tactics. But Bhagwan Sri Rajneesh was not really that type of person. Yes, he had his own type of magnetism. And at the peak of his leadership, he was a godlike figure that, like, tens of thousands of people from all over the world would, like, go to just see, almost like a pilgrimage to go visit different, like, religious sites. People were, like, traveling so far to see Bhagwan Sri Rajneesh. But before all of that, he was just an ordinary kid growing up in central India and seemed to be seeking peaceful enlightenment, one that, despite its massive following, was keen to kind of keep to itself. Yeah.

[A]

And going back to the beginning, Bhagavan Shree Rajneesh, he was born in 1931, and his birth name was actually Chandra Mohan Jain, although his family called him Rajneesh. And Rajneesh is a Sanskrit word that roughly translates to Lord of the Night. So that is what we will. We won't call him Lord of the Night. We'll call him Rajneesh throughout this episode. But basically, like, that's to say that there was some sort of not pressure, so to speak, but, like, expectation that came with who he was and who he would be with his nickname. And that nickname apparently came from his grandfather, who loved him so much that he was convinced that Rajneesh was a king. In his past life, which I think

[B]

is, like, a very pure, sweet thing to call your grandchild.

[A]

Right. I mean, people, like, literally name their kids King and Prince and things like that.

[B]

And I nickname my niece Chicken Butt. Like, you know, she's got a lot to live up to now.

[A]

Endearing. It's about who you are personally and what you think is important. And chicken butts are high upon.

[B]

Sabrina's very important.

[A]

His family were cloth merchants who lived outside of Bhopal, and they were successful enough to basically be able to send Rajneesh away for education, which is something that I think a lot of people did if they could afford. So in school, Rajneesh quickly got a reputation for questioning pretty much everything that he was being taught. And he shocked his fellow classmates and peers when he essentially, like, told them that he was an atheist, which in

[B]

India is a. I mean, that's blasphemy. It's like, what.

[A]

Like how.

[B]

Yeah, people are so religious.

[A]

Right. It's such a deeply spiritual country. So, yeah, that was definitely unusual for him to identify as being an atheist. He still had a big interest in world religions and ideologies, so much so that when he went on to college, he chose to study socialism and. And major in philosophy, which I'm not surprised about. The philosophy major. All based on how much he was questioning everything that was being thrown at him in school.

[B]

You know what I realized when prepping for this episode? I don't think there's a single person I've met who studied and majored philosophy that I get along with.

[A]

You told me that the other day. It was a hot take.

[B]

It's just a pattern that I am seeing.

[A]

Yeah, no, but you made me start to question and think back about, like, everyone that I had met. And I. I agree that there are some tough personalities.

[B]

I think they're just super combative, and sometimes it feels like for no purpose. Like, it's just, like, combative because they can be right. And it comes off a little bit. I know better than you.

[A]

Yeah. And you, like, don't want every single conversation to have to be like, oh, now I have to really explain myself and get into this.

[B]

Can't we all disagree that ghosts are real? And can we not have a debate about it?

[A]

That's the problem is because we believe in ghosts, we don't get along with philosophy majors. For the most part. I actually don't know know that many is my worst subject.

[B]

You're not missing out.

[A]

Not to go on a tangent here, but I still am so pissed at Our college. Not our college. One of the college philosophy teachers that I took a philosophy course from. And he just hated me right off the bat.

[B]

My philosophy teacher hated me, too.

[A]

Yeah. And I'm like, how can you. And he would give me horrible grades, and I'm like, how can you grade someone's ideas when this. The whole thing is about ideas.

[B]

And, like, that's what bothers me.

[A]

And I know he had it out for me because when it came to our final paper, I was like, I need to be able to pass this class. Like, I cannot fuck up. And the top person in the class who got, like, a hundred on everything was dating one of my friends. So I was like, can you please come over, spend a couple hours with me, rip apart my paper, help me, like, figure out how to write this for this guy to accept it? And I got a, like, 73 on it when really the top student sat next to me and babysat me.

[B]

It was because your name was on the paper.

[A]

Yes. So you know what? Maybe I have beef with philosophy, which.

[B]

Hey, if you're a philosophy, maybe chair and you're listening, or you studied philosophy, prove us wrong. We're welcome to being friends with you.

[A]

And ghosts are real. So if you can't answer yes to that, then actually don't talk to us, okay? But unlike us, who are not looking for debate, Rajneesh loved a good debate.

[B]

Even though we just debated

[A]

well, debated all to go to the conclusion of

[B]

we don't like it. We.

[A]

We don't like debating. But turns out Rajneesh was very good at debating. He loved it. He was just like any other good philosopher out there. And when he was in school, he was consumed by doubts and questions and insecurities about his place in the world and had all of these questions, questions that were turning into an internal crisis. So you can imagine the sort of debates and conversations he was having all the time. Unfortunately, did kind of have a physical manifestation with Rashneesh. And he suffered from debilitating headaches. And he also started to become severely depressed. He tried some modern medicine, but nothing worked. And eventually he was like, I gotta do something about this. This is all consuming and horrible to experience every single day. So he turned to alternative methods, and he started running 10 to 16 miles every single day, followed by hours of meditation. And according to him, this worked. This totally worked for him. And more than that, one night at just 21 years old, Rajneesh supposedly achieved a state of total enlightenment while meditating.

[B]

Wow.

[A]

He was sitting under a maushery tree in the garden, when all of a sudden something clicked. And in that moment he died. Or like the man that he was, died a death of self, so metaphorically. And then he was reborn into something or someone else. And the way he described it was that he attained something, but not of this world. He simply arrived home. And just like that, his headaches were gone, his inner demons had been conquered.

[B]

You would think his life would change if he reached total enlightenment, but no, he kind of just kept up his normal day to day lifestyle. He kept going to school, he graduated, he got a teaching job. And it wasn't until 1960, when he was around 29 years old. So eight years after this enlightenment, that he started taking his personal philosophy on the road. And he would give lectures all around India. And to sum up his philosophy in two words, it would basically be question everything. Religion, tradition, authority, even Gandhi. And this was like, oh, my God, I can't believe Rajneesh is questioning Gandhi.

[A]

Is he not on the right side of that? I think he was.

[B]

He criticized Gandhi for what he saw as glorifying poverty, because basically Gandhi was like saying, you have to suffer. But Rajneesh was rejecting that idea and said that suffering was not necessary for spiritual growth. His personal philosophy that he preached was that true spirituality did not come from denying yourself of things, but rather from experiencing life fully, which meant he encouraged pleasure in all forms. It was something to embrace, like sex. People should really embrace it.

[A]

I mean, I can see why he had so many followers, because, like, what's more attractive, Gandhi basically being like, oh, why don't you just starve yourself for 10 days and experience all this other stuff? Or. Or him being like, why don't you just live your life to the fullest and have sex, enjoy sex and eat what makes you feel good and go outside and touch grass. I'm like, yes, that does sound great.

[B]

Well, and as you can imagine with that narrative that he's preaching, and granted, he's saying other things as well, but this was a big part of his philosophy. And as you can imagine, that idea caught the attention of a lot of men, wealthy, educated businessmen types, people who really didn't want to give up their lifestyles in the name of Enlightenment. By the mid-1960s, Rajneesh had gotten enough support that he quit his full time teaching job and became a full time guru. And his audience kept growing, and not just in India, but it started to spread internationally too, especially among people drawn to that New Age movement, which very briefly was a loose spiritual term in the 60s and 70s. That blended Eastern philosophy, psychology and alternative healing. All centered around the desire for personal growth and self discovery. So this felt very similar to what Rajneesh was preaching. And his teachings drew from a mix of influences like Zen Buddhism, Hindu philosophy, and modern psychology. Again, all centered around the idea that you could bring. Break yourself open emotionally and come out on the other side transformed. And how could one do such a thing, you might ask? Well, in 1970, when he was 39, Rajneesh unveiled his signature spiritual technique, which he called dynamic meditation. And it is not your traditional lay down in a comfortable position, close your eyes, let the world quiet around you type of meditation. It was chaotic. It began with jumping, shouting, breathing intensely, dancing until you were so out of breath.

[A]

Is that not one of the most popular? It isn't like New York and la. There's a workout class. It's like that where you're just like.

[B]

Like Zumba.

[A]

You're like screaming and jumping and I mean, it's called the class.

[B]

Literally just the class.

[A]

The class. So screaming is a big component, but. Cause you have to release your stuck energy in this class. And it had a big cult following, including celebrity clients. And it was like, often done in the dark with music. And they're like jumping like a rage and screaming at the top of their lungs.

[B]

Well, yeah, that's kind of what you're doing in the dynamic meditation, but that's the beginning. So, like, once you're fully exhausted and then you were like, expelled all of this, like, energy that was built up in your body, and then you were ready to meditate. The idea was that you had successfully gotten rid of everything you were carrying and repressing. And sometimes these sessions were even more chaotic and included people screaming at or hitting one another. And of course, sometimes meant group sex.

[A]

Oh, just a little orgy to release all the tension, which is so cult coded.

[B]

Like cults are just having orgy.

[A]

There's a cult that hasn't had some sort of weird sexual element.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Anywho, this was the dynamic meditation. And it was really working for a lot of people. So as you can imagine, it really caught on. If you're the proud parent of a puppy or kitten, you know, you can't pet proof your entire life.

[A]

There simply isn't a sock drawer high

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Whether it's an unexpected accident or a

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you're listening on Apple Podcasts, tap try free at the top of this show's page. Are you really buying a car online on Autotrader right now?

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[A]

Really? In the fall of 1970, Rajneesh officially named his philosophy the Neo Sannyas International Movement. He initiated six disciples to spread his teachings. And that is also when he took on the name Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, which roughly translates to the enlightened one. They all name themselves, like, the highest rank that they can possibly think.

[B]

I mean, this is the thing about cults, right? Is there are so many, despite their methodologies being different or like, what they do to followers being different. There are so many commonalities.

[A]

Yeah. And honestly, I feel bad even talking about Rajneesh because, like, yes, there are some things that he did and started that were totally questionable. But in the end, he's not the baddest character of all.

[B]

I disagree. I think he's fully aware of everything that's happening and he found a way to take a step back and let someone else take the fall for it.

[A]

You think it would have gotten as bad, though, if he stayed? Oh, interesting.

[B]

I do. Okay, Hot take. Maybe should we debate at the end? Let's debate. I'd rather just fight. Really. And I'm not a physical person.

[A]

In the dark while screaming, while doing.

[B]

Because it's sometimes like debating with someone who's just never gonna see your side is just not worth it.

[A]

Is this about me?

[B]

No, no, in general.

[A]

Oh, I was like. I just said I don't want to fight you. I proposed a debate. You said no, a fight. Because you'll never see my side.

[B]

I meant it in, like, a general. I was going back to, like, the debate issue.

[A]

Just a general.

[B]

Yeah. No, because I really would not want to fight you physically.

[A]

I wouldn't want to either. Got a very low center of gravity. Someone once at full speed biked into me, and I didn't even move about an inch, but their bike and their body went flying.

[B]

Wow.

[A]

So physics made of concrete. Anyway, so he had six disciples, named himself the Enlightened One. And then seeing an increase in demand for followers, Rajneesh also established an ashram, which is a spiritual community near Bombay, where students could come and directly learn from him, which I feel like is not out of the ordinary. I feel like a lot of gurus do that and have, like, a place that they kind of set up and people fly to go see them. So there were plenty of takers who wanted to go learn from him. Tens of thousands of students. So many would learn at his feet. Yeah. So wild. And many of them were young, wealthy Westerners traveling through Asia who were looking for enlightenment and thought Rajneesh was pretty unique and a great guru. He definitely stood out against the others. And, of course, Rashneesh, he was happy to take, quote, unquote, donations from them. And these students were giving him a lot of money. They would buy clothing and jewelry from ashram's arts and crafts center, and they would encourage friends to go do the same. And then by the late 1970s, Rajneesh was not just this humble guru. Humble is kind of a weird word to use. When he named himself the Lion One. He wasn't just this humble guru going against the grain. He was actually now a leader of a massive religious organization worth tens of millions of dollars.

[B]

It's a lot of money.

[A]

That is a lot.

[B]

And also, as you can imagine, a big business to run by yourself. I mean, he probably would want help. No.

[A]

Yeah. I feel like this is where it gets tricky, because it's like, if you just keep doing what you're doing, maybe you'd be fine, and you'd keep making millions of dollars, and then you can just retire and live your little enlightened life. But I feel like this is also the moment when people are like, how

[B]

do I get more well, and also, the government was onto him, like, the way that he was doing things, and, like, it wasn't all above board. But anyway, he decided that he did need help, so he decided to bring on one of his most devoted students to help assist with the business side of things so that he could focus on the spiritual matters, that devoted student to run the business side, the one and only Ma Anand. Sheila. She had grown up in India and went to college in the United States, where she married a man, an American man. She actually went to college in New Jersey. Fun fact. Around 1972, she and her husband returned to India on their own spiritual journey. And that is how they found Rajneesh and his teachings. She was so devoted and involved that, like I said, a few years later, Rajneesh put her in charge of the movement's business affairs. And that would set her up to take center stage in all the drama, in all the chaos, the mass poisonings, all of the things that the Rajneesh movement did ultimately become famous for. But it started with moving across the world. So while her and her husband had just moved back to India, they are now like, well, now that we're kind of in charge of things, I think we need to take another move back to the United States, the whole group. In 1980, Rajneesh decided it was time to leave India. He was 49, and he had a lot of health problems that needed to be attended to in the States, like, he had diabetes, asthma, and a prolapsed disc in his spine. But there were other reasons, like I was hinting at momentarily or just moments ago. The Indian government was investigating the group and coming after its tax exempt status because they didn't think it qualified as an educational institution or a religious or charitable organization. So basically, they were threatening to shut down the ashram unless Rajneesh paid them a fortune in back taxes. And also, they wanted to keep expanding. And most of their followers were western wealthy men and women who were traveling to India. So why not go directly to the source? Why not go west to the United States?

[A]

How many more people are you going to get? Probably infinite.

[B]

So on May 31, 1981, Rajneesh, Sheela, and 17 other disciples quietly left India and flew to the United States. And Rajneesh really did have health problems. And Sheila had gotten him a medical visa for his treatment. So while he was kind of focused on his medical treatments, he put Sheila in charge of finding them a home base in the United States. So at first, she used the money to buy them a mansion in New Jersey, because she had attended Montclair University in New Jersey and was familiar with it. But supposedly the air in New Jersey was not good enough for his recovery.

[A]

I mean, unless you're new. Better than where he came from, right?

[B]

Agreed.

[A]

But I do agree, like, there is a lot of pollution and stuff. He needs clean, clean air. Go north.

[B]

Even though it was reported that Rajneesh was up and walking around just fine after one week after arriving in the U.S. so I think he just wasn't as happy with New Jersey. He was like, I want to share

[A]

the spotlight with the Real Housewives.

[B]

Exactly.

[A]

Which he needed to be famous. The most famous one in the state.

[B]

So he sent Sheila out to find somewhere more suitable. And he requested specifically somewhere that was drier, with more space, where they could continue their work away from prying eyes. And I feel like that is why he didn't want to be in New Jersey. He wanted way more land. And after a few months of looking, Sheila finally found the perfect place. A 64,000 acre plot of land in central Oregon called the Big Muddy Ranch. It was sprawling over 100 square miles of dry hills and canyons in Wasco County. And the ranch had more or less been abandoned for the past 20 years. This is a lot of land. So on July 10, 1981, Sheila bought the property for $5.75 million, which is now in, like, today's money, probably $20 million. And just a few days later, a small group of Rajneesh's followers arrived to prepare for his arrival. And they called their new home Rajneesh Purim.

[A]

It all sounds great for them, right? They have this massive ranch, but despite it being 18 miles from the nearest town, people could not help but notice these new neighbors that were moving in. They didn't really know what to make of this group. The closest down was the tiny community of Antelope, which, if you watch the documentary, they interview a lot of the people from that town and will show footage from, like, the diner and stuff to just, like, kind of give you perspective on how wild it was to be a member of this community.

[B]

And then we'll talk about the population size.

[A]

Okay. Yeah. So there were 75 people in Antelope.

[B]

That's not a lot.

[A]

No. And most of them were retired ranchers. Definitely not the, like, New Age meditation, enlightenment type of character. And as far as they knew, Rajneeshpuram was supposed to be this small religious community, just a few dozen people. But not long after this property sold, it became very clear that the new owners had much bigger plans. And the only road that ran into this community ran through Antelope.

[B]

You had to drive through Antelope.

[A]

75 people in Antelope. Yeah. They couldn't ignore what was going on. Hundreds of people were passing on the road, their town road, to this new property.

[B]

Yeah. You can't ignore that.

[A]

And also, you cannot ignore what they looked like, because all of Rajneesh's followers, he had instructed them to dress as the setting sun. So they would be basically cloaked in red and pink and orange. It was kind of like a little tie dye uniform. I'm like, thinking specifically of this one scene from the documentary where they're, like, showing a bunch of them, like, sitting in a truck and they're all in that garb. So the locals started calling them red people or Rajneeshis. But Rajneesh's followers preferred being called sannyasins, which is a Sanskrit word that means for those who have renounced all selfish desires.

[B]

Although I'd argue they're embracing selfish desires.

[A]

Isn't that kind of what his whole thing is standing for? Unlike some of the other cults that we have discussed this season, the members were not wandering souls. They were not curious college kids. A lot of these people were very successful people who just basically got, like, sick of the rat race and read about Rashneesh in magazines or had gone to meditation classes run by his different disciples in the US and were like, okay, this seems like maybe I could live this spiritually fulfilling life, and this is what I'm going to do. And so they traveled to Oregon to learn from the guru himself.

[B]

And what they found when they arrived was a cluster of tents and no running water. Fyre fest.

[A]

Way before it happened. Literally, it is, here's your single slice of white bread that was in the

[B]

script, and I removed it.

[A]

So did you.

[B]

Yeah, there you go. It's exactly that. But keep in mind, this rant had been abandoned for 20 years. So people who were coming out here to learn from Rajneesh knew that part of it meant there was going to be a lot of work that they had to put in to really build this community. And they were prepared to do that. For years, Rajneesh had taught that hard labor was its own form of meditation. And his followers often repeated the saying, work is our worship. So at Rajneesh Puram, they put those words into action. Between 1981 and 1983, about 1,000 Rajneeshis happily worked 12 to 16 hours a day, seven days a week, turning this abandoned ranch into a full on small city. They built roads, houses, a sewer system, a 10 megawatt electrical substation, a recycling plant, and an airfield, which is truly incredible. I think about if it was a post apocalyptic world, these are the people you want building your city.

[A]

That's true. They're moving pretty fast and like These

[B]

are skills that you have to learn.

[A]

Like, I think the city of Boston could hire them for a few different roads. We've had issues with free.

[B]

Right. And then people who were trained in agriculture cleared out more than 3,000 acres of the land to plant wheat, sunflowers and vegetables. There were engineers who were followers who built a 400 foot dam to create a 45 acre reservoir which they use for irrigation and drinking water.

[A]

I mean, see, this is kind of impressive. It's like, how much can you get done when humans come together and just work peacefully. Ish. For a while Together.

[B]

Yes. And in order to like get around this property because it's so big, they brought in a fleet of 85 school buses, which, fun fact, became the fourth largest public transit system in all of Oregon in this small little city that they're building. And in exchange for their work. Again, reminder, 12 to 16 hours a day, seven days a week, everyone in Rajneesh Purim was given three vegetarian meals a day. Residents lived rent free in shared a frame houses scattered around the settlement, and all clothes and toiletries were provided for. Feels like a.

[A]

That sounds great.

[B]

Community where everyone's kind of right, you

[A]

feel taken care of, living in the same way, adding and contributing.

[B]

Right. And aside from the hierarchy of Rajneesh being like at the very top and like, sure, there's other disciples, everyone is kind of living a uniform lifestyle. But the real highlight of living here was daily contact with Rajneesh himself. He lived in a compound surrounded by fruit trees at the center of the community. And every day at 2pm all of the Rajneeshis would stop what they were doing, stop their work, and line up next to the road that ran through the community. And Rajneesh would ride through the streets in his convoy of Rolls Royces, dozens of them.

[A]

It's so bizarre that it happened daily. Like, it's not like, oh, it's Rajneeshi day, or whatever like this every day. Every day also 2pm that's like when you get the tired slump and now you have to go stand and watch this guy walk, drive his.

[B]

But maybe that's if you're there for him, that gives you like a burst of energy, I guess.

[A]

Yeah, true.

[B]

As his car would pass by, each member would bow and murmur the Hindu greeting. Namaste. But Rajneesh never said anything back. In fact, he actually hadn't said a single word since he left India. Not a single word.

[A]

Oh, this is where the conspiracy side of me would take over. I'd be like starting a rumor he's not even alive. He's actually just a stuffed doll. We can parade it around.

[B]

Yeah, but here's the thing is, shortly before he left for the U.S. rajneesh told members of his inner circle that he was going to stop speaking because according to him, a key component of achieving enlightenment was releasing worldly attachments. And he felt like his followers were becoming too attached to him.

[A]

Can we not argue that he's too attached to his cars? Yeah, release worldly attachments.

[B]

And this is what he's saying to his followers, and he decides that he's going to go silent in hopes that his followers wouldn't have such a strong attachment to him, but almost in a way that kind of made them more attached to him. Right. Because it's like you're even more idolized. This, like silent, all knowing, being who we worship every day at 2pm

[A]

it sounds so silly when you put it like that.

[B]

And then when he went silent, that left Ma Anand Sheila to be the voice of the entire movement. She was the president of Rajneesh Foundation International, which was a tax exempt organization that collected donations from followers all over the world. And she had full control over the organization's multimillion dollar budget. Sheela was the de facto mayor of Rajneesh Purim, ordering people around from a luxurious house that was right next to Rajneesh's, and through a network of mostly female managers, coordinators, and spies, Sheila kept tabs on everything and on everyone. It was a city of devotion run by Sheela, a woman speaking for a man who no longer spoke.

[A]

With Ma Anand Sheela in charge of the Rajneesh Puram, things quickly started to spiral. She would order people around, and at first, it was just to make sure everything in the ranch was going accordingly. But over time, she began to use her power to demand complete loyalty and sideline anyone who didn't give it to her. Rajneeshis who criticized her and asked too many questions were deemed negative and given menial, undesirable jobs. So she was like literally punishing people. And not only that, but other members were instructed to ignore them. So they're being isolated, soon to be ostracized. And in some cases, Sheila actually physically isolated her critics as well.

[B]

No, we're about to get into some really gruesome things that did happen. And some like, it's messed up, really messed up. So just as a little content warning, but the way that she did one, like, there's one thing we'll get into more. But one time, Sheila ordered 11 people who had gotten on her bad side to have their blood tested for aids. And then she had the commune's medical director, a woman named Ma Anan Pooja, fake positive test results so that all 11 of these people believed they had AIDS. And then she used it as an excuse to exile them because she was like, because you have tested positive for aids, you are no longer safe to live in this community.

[A]

Oh, my gosh. And that was not the only way that she would use Pooja to help her control things. When three high ranking Rajneeshis started talking about leaving, Pooja told them that they were overworked and that they needed to rest. And her rest meant putting them on heavy sedatives and leaving them in bed for weeks. So they basically drugged people.

[B]

Yeah, that consensual. Like, here, take this. This will help you. No, like slipping it into their food and drink without their knowing. Yeah.

[A]

Already practicing poisoning people. Another Rajneeshi was given multiple doses of Quaaludes and Pooja treated her at the clinic. And this caused the member to become addicted.

[B]

Horrible.

[A]

Soon enough, people started to notice that something weird was happening. One follower tried to write a letter to Rajneesh himself to warn him about Sheila's actions, with the assumption that, like, he had no idea of what Mahanan Sheila was doing.

[B]

Which I say I call bs, but

[A]

sure, Sheila was very crafty. She actually intercepted the letter before Rajneesh could read it. So maybe there are some things that he didn't know about or she just got scared or spooked enough that, like, if he did know, he would suddenly, just for optics, sure, trade her out with someone else. Shortly after that, that whistleblower who tried to send the letter got sick with a mysterious ailment and had to be taken to the medical clinic. When where doctors performed a hysterectomy on

[B]

her without her consent, they removed her uterus. That is horrific.

[A]

It's like torture.

[B]

It is. Yeah.

[A]

This is something that you don't expect to hear happening in, like, the 1980s. I'm like, okay, this is.

[B]

No, it's. It's very disturbing.

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Afterwards, Pooja prescribed her medication that left the woman mentally and emotionally unstable for years. But with Pooja's help, Sheila was now free to run things as she saw fit and was able to. Anytime someone came against her or spoke against her, she could medically mutilate, control and, and manipulate them. Yeah.

[B]

And as Sheila was taking more drastic and unethical approaches, the people of Antelope were also getting frustrated. As you can imagine, this town of 75 people who thought it was just going to be a dozen followers are

[A]

now like it's thousands, even a dozen followers. It's suddenly, you know, there's 20% more traffic on your. Yeah. And now there's so many more.

[B]

And the people who lived in Antelope lived there because they liked the peace and quiet. None of them wanted this full blown city in their backyards, let alone the constant parade of trucks and construction equipment and busloads of visitors that were passing through their town on a daily basis in order to go visit the commune. So the Antelope town council tried to stop things by filing lawsuits to cancel Rajneesh Forum's building permits. And as you can imagine, the second Sheila heard about that, she was not happy. At town hall meetings and in statements to the press, she insulted the residents of Antelope, calling them rednecks and bigots. And in an open letter to the governor, Sheila referred to Antelope as a town where, quote, unproductive, indolent people go to mark time until they die.

[A]

Yikes. Those are some harsh words.

[B]

Very. And ultimately Sheila, I mean, I think probably they could have worked something out, but she chose not to make peace with them. And so she got to a point where she was like, well, there's no chance of making peace with them. So she came up with another strategy ahead of Antelope's next local election In November of 1982, Sheila bought properties all over the town and sent Rajneesh's followers to go live there. So that by the time the election day came, Rajneeshi's outnumbered the local townspeople. So as a result, the mayor of Antelope and the entire town council were voted out and replaced by Rajneeshis. And they immediately dropped all the town's legal challenges.

[A]

It's such an evil genius plan.

[B]

I know.

[A]

So upsetting that that happens.

[B]

They even changed the name of the town from Antelope to Rajneesh. And the townspeople were like, okay, well, we're leaving. Goodbye. And they literally up and left. They were forced out of their home.

[A]

It's. Yeah. It's so terrible. Yeah, you want the right people to win. And this is.

[B]

Unfortunately, that's not what happens, and especially not in this case. Everything was going Sheila's way, but her battle with the outside world was only getting started. Because when the Rajneeshis first got to Oregon, Sheila had gone out of her way to make a good name for all of them. Like, she would invite reporters, politicians, anyone who wanted to check out Rajneesh Purim, and she would have the most charismatic members of the cult give the tours to these people. So for the first year or so, most Oregonians outside of Wasco county had a generally positive outlook on Rajneesh and the Rajneeshis. But that all took a turn when Sheila and the followers pushed everyone out of Antelope.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Now people across the state were seeing how hostile Sheila had been and then watched as her group more or less stole the town from its locals. And they did not like what they saw. And so they were like, we're actually not going to keep quiet about it.

[A]

And you might be wondering, okay, while all of this is happening, where's Rajneesh? Well, there's a lot to discuss there, but pretty evident to us.

[B]

I think it's irresponsible to believe he was completely innocent and naive.

[A]

Yeah, I don't think he's totally in the dark, but I also don't think he knew all of the details.

[B]

Sure.

[A]

I think that there's a lot of sneakiness. If he did learn, would he care? That's a different question.

[B]

I don't think he cared, but I don't think.

[A]

I don't personally think he knew everything, but also, if he found out, I'm not sure he would have stopped it.

[B]

He just wanted to keep buying Rolls Royces and being paraded around at 2pm

[A]

yeah, that's another thing. If he didn't want his followers to be so attached to him, why make himself a parade every day at 2pm that. This is question everything. Learn that from him.

[B]

We learned that from philosophy majors.

[A]

So Sheila ran a strict ship. Rajneesh did his own thing. This is kind of the dynamic that was happening at the time. But every afternoon, he would have his little Rolls Royce parade all the way to the town of Madras, which was 70 miles away. And he and his entourage would stop at a gas station to buy a drink, and then they would turn around and just go back.

[B]

How many miles was that? 70 miles.

[A]

70 miles. You're polluting for no reason just to

[B]

go get, like, a fresh Diet Coke from the gas station?

[A]

Yeah. What are you getting? Only orange Gatorade. Oh, it's the best one.

[B]

That's your favorite?

[A]

Yes. What's yours?

[B]

Hot take.

[A]

What?

[B]

Wait, we might need to do a poll. What's everyone's favorite flavor? Mine's the blue, for sure.

[A]

Okay, but blue is only good when it's ice cold.

[B]

I disagree. The orange is my. I would pick last.

[A]

Okay, but can we all agree on this? Anytime, Whatever brand. Purple's the worst.

[B]

I disagree.

[A]

What? Okay.

[B]

Wow. This really is the episode of.

[A]

It's a battle

[B]

I'll throw. See, I would rank iterate at you.

[A]

Orange, yellow, red, blue. Is that the opposite of you?

[B]

I mean, purple's not my top, but I think I would put purple before orange and yellow. Orange is my bottom.

[A]

Oh, my God, I'm shocked.

[B]

Hey, Gatorade. Do you want to sponsor this episode?

[A]

See, but here's proof. There's something for everyone. That's why they have different flavors. So whatever their reasons were for doing this, the people of Matras would line up every single day on the streets and heckle him as he and his entourage came in. So while he was worshiped in one place, he was heckled and berated in another. Sheila was like, we cannot tolerate this. This is inappropriate. So she started sending busloads of Rajnishis to Madras to act as counter protesters, allocating all of these resources and all these people and making them travel daily a far distance when he could just not drive there every day to go get a gas station.

[B]

Oh, so you're building a whole city. Get, like, little, like, convenience store set up where you can. Which makes me think that he wanted to be idolized elsewhere and wanted his presence to be seen and felt beyond his town.

[A]

Yeah. It's just weird, though, especially because it went on for months you would think you would change tactics or something, but it got so bad that local law enforcement was actually afraid that a riot was going to break out.

[B]

Crazy.

[A]

And eventually the county district attorney stepped in and convinced Rajneesh to stop his daily visits. And this is actually a very rare case where the Rajneeshis did back down. Things were heated. The state and county officials were on high alert. If you think about Jim Jones and the Jonestown situation a decade earlier, you can probably think about where some of the mines were terrified. So, yeah, they were basically told to stop going and getting your gas station drink and heckling with.

[B]

Well, because they were so scared of what was going to happen, and they didn't know how this group was going to treat the public. Or maybe in an act of, like, the Jim Jones in Jonestown mass suicide.

[A]

I mean, we'll think about their response to just their leader being heckled when going and getting a drink. Like, to suddenly daily send a ton of people in buses to bully back. Like, it's just. Yeah.

[B]

And like we mentioned in the beginning of this episode, we are going to be covering Jim Jones in more detail later this season. But if you are not familiar with his story, all you need to know right now is that he ordered over 900 of his followers to commit mass suicide at his Jonestown commune in South America. So the authorities in Oregon are worried that the same thing might happen in Rajneesh Purim. So they start to monitor things more closely just to make sure or, like, prevent anything getting out of hand like that.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

As you'd expect, Sheila did not appreciate being monitored. So in the summer of 1983, she started taking steps to cut off Rajneesh Purim from the outside world entirely. She stopped those guided tours. Visitors had to sign three separate forms, be issued an identification bracelet, and pass through multiple security checkpoints. Like, this is like tsa. It's so secure to get onto this commune. And then these checkpoints were staffed by members of the Rajneesh Purim, called the Peace Force. But the Peace Force was anything but peaceful. They carried submachine guns on them at all times.

[A]

That's so freaky. Everyone's still dressing in their, like, reds and oranges and dressing. I'm looking like the sunset and then

[B]

just massive weapons wielding.

[A]

Yeah, machine guns.

[B]

It reminds me of, like, Hunger Games and, like, the Peacekeepers. But one time in 1984, the county planner tried to conduct a land use assessment of the commune. Tried being the key word, because when they arrived, they were met by the Peace Force, blocking The road like a full on blockade with their massive weapons. So the county planner had to turn around. So things were definitely getting heated again. Concerned about things escalating, three members of the Wasco County Commission requested a meeting with Sheila at the commune. They were allowed in, but right after the meeting, they saw that one of their tires had been slashed. And the members of the community were like, oh, no. How could that have ever happened?

[A]

Oops, you must have hit a Rocky.

[B]

Don't worry, we'll fix it. And as they're waiting for it to get fixed, Sheila and Pooja, bring some water out to these three members. And I'm sure you know where this is going. They drank the water, their car was fixed, they got in their car, they're on their way home. And two of the commissioners got so sick they had to be rushed to the hospital. They were pretty sure they had been poisoned, but they couldn't prove it. And at the time, they had bigger fish to fry because another election was coming up, and it looked like Sheila was planning to do the same thing she had done to Antelope, but now in Wasco County.

[A]

Yeah, she was going to go all out. In August of 1984, Sheila announced that Rajneesh Purim had launched a new charitable effort to solve America's homelessness crisis. Which on the surface, you're like, okay, that's great. That's super. Just charitable. Like, that sounds nice. Unless you know anything about this group and who is leading it.

[B]

It's so wild how the word that they use for their name, like the sand.

[A]

Whoa.

[B]

The Sanskrit term was like, people who got rid of, like, selfish desires. And everything that Sheila is doing is the most selfish thing.

[A]

Yes, absolutely.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And it's just messed up, too. Like, she just uses people for everything and abuses people. So she created a share a home program. And this is where the Rajneeshi started approaching unhoused people on the streets of Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, other major cities would buy them bus tickets to go to Rajneesh Puram. And they were promised free housing and food and jobs. And so a lot of people took them up on this. And within weeks, they had as many as 4,000 new members. 4,000 new unhoused people who had been bussed into the commune and promised all of these things. But for many of them, they didn't stay long because as you can imagine, a lot of these people were coming in with their own struggles, mental illnesses, criminal records, things that in their own lives did not quite set them up for life of farm labor. And living on a commune successfully. So pretty quickly, chaos erupted in Rajneeshpuram. There was a surge of violent incidents, and in some cases, especially unruly residents were given tranquilizers against their will to keep them from causing trouble. So again, just like drugging people, like doing anything they can to. Yeah, yeah. Sheila, despite all of the chaos that was happening, she didn't want these people to leave because she had a purpose, which was to make them all registered voters in Oregon.

[B]

Can you see where this is going?

[A]

So that November, multiple members of Wasco County Commission would be up for re election. How timely. Two Rajneeshis with close ties to Sheela were running for seats as write in candidates. If everyone who was brought in through the Share home program voted the way that Sheila told them to vote, that would mean that these Rajneeshi candidates would win and they could shut down further oversight of their cult.

[B]

Yeah, because now they have 4,000 new residents of the county. If she can register them as such.

[A]

Yes. So not a totally foolproof strategy, because even with their inflated numbers, there were still tens of thousands of voters in the county who were registered to vote and could vote against the Rajneeshis.

[B]

Yeah, it's not like Antelope, a town of 75 people.

[A]

You're like, okay, well, then I have 76, and boom, we're done. There was a lawsuit in motion trying to keep all of the new residents from voting. It was very obvious what she was trying to do. So she came up with another bold plan to win at the ballot box. Voter suppression in the most terrifying way possible. Bioterrorism.

[B]

Sheila and Pooja had started studying ways to poison people without killing them. And In August of 1984, Pooja even set up a secret laboratory where she tested different poisons on mice, all on the Rajneesh Purim commune facilities. She learned a lot. And soon, Pooja and Sheila decided to run a much larger experiment, this time with each other. Human test subjects. Wow. In September of 1984, small groups of Raj Nishis started traveling 90 miles north to the Dalles. It was the largest town in Wasco county and home to the most of the county's voters. So instead of wearing their usual red, the Rajneeshis dressed in normal colored clothes so no one could identify them as Rajneeshis. And they brought along with them small Ziploc bags of a light brown liquid that they called salsa. But it is not the type of thing you want to dip your chips in, because, no, it had been purposely infected with salmonella. A bacteria that can cause severe illness and even death. So over the course of a few visits, Rajneeshis covertly spread their salsa over salad bars at 10 different restaurants in this town. They dumped it also on produce at local grocery stores. They spread it on doorknobs at the county courthouse. And once their mission was complete, they returned to Rajneesh Puram to wait for the chaos to begin. And within days, the people of the Dalles started getting sick. And it's kind of like we described in the opening narrative of Sandy and her husband Dave at the Shakeys. But local clinics so quickly and hospitals became so overwhelmed with patients suffering from vomiting, diarrhea, stomach cramps, fever and chills. And fortunately, no one did die. But that does not mean there were not tragedies. And this one story is so scary and so sad. One Victim was a 34 year old pregnant woman who went into labor while infected and gave birth to a baby who was born with severe septic shock. They both survived, but it was so scary and such a close call. By the end of the month, local officials estimated that more than 750 people had gotten sick and 45 were hospitalized. It was pretty obvious that this was not a run of the mill food poisoning. And public health officials and experts from the CDC came in to investigate. They traced the outbreak back to salad bars at multiple restaurants, but none of them came from the kitchens, which to them was like, oh, that means this is something bigger and this is not something that came from like a produce supply. And they realized it basically wouldn't happen in a naturally occurring outbreak of salmonella, which then meant it must be the result of human tampering. And truly, this was the largest act of bioterrorism in American history at the time. So you know that there was a ton of urgency behind the CDC and the government tracking down who caused this. But it would take months before investigators could prove that the Rajneeshis were responsible for the mass poisoning. But that didn't matter. Rumors spread, word spread, and everyone in the town, they were like, we know who did it.

[A]

Yeah. It's just so messed up, like, to be a follower too, and to see how it's affected people and to hear the news stories and the panic and to not come forward, like, they don't have a moment of, oh, shit, this isn't what I signed up for. This isn't enlightenment.

[B]

Yeah, but if maybe, maybe a couple of them did, and then they ended up in the hospital with a hysterectomy. Not by choice.

[A]

That's true God cults are so scary. So Sheila, despite everything going on and investigations and rumors and all of this, she's very confident that she's going to come out on top, right?

[B]

Delusion.

[A]

Delusion. Despite that this was the largest act of bioterrorism in American history. This was only a test run for Sheila. Now that she knew that salmonella was an effective poison, knew how to do it, she, Sheila, planned to sneak it into the town's water supply just days before the November election.

[B]

Terrifying.

[A]

Can you imagine having zero remorse and just being like, yeah, let me go after more people, more children, more pregnant ladies.

[B]

If anything, it gave her more confidence because she's like, oh, I was specifically trying to find something that would poison everyone and not kill them. Now I can do it on a bigger scale to make my election scandal work.

[A]

Totally. So she thought if she timed it right, that it would force thousands of people to stay at home on election day. And basically the amount of people that she had registered the Rajneeshis in Oregon, if they all voted the way that she told them to, they would be able to win. Fortunately, Sheila did not get the chance to put her plan into action. Thank God. In mid October, the courts ruled against the Rajneeshis in a voting lawsuit and state election officials put new policies in place that made it much harder for Rajneeshis to add their share home participants to the state's voter rolls. They also disqualified thousands of new Rajneesh Purim voters after discovering that they had filled out registration cards with fraudulent information.

[B]

Because you also know that Sheila and her like little minions were probably filling out the registration cards willy nilly for everyone else.

[A]

So even with all of that in place, people in the Dales were so outraged by the salmonella attack that thousands of new legitimate voters specifically registered to vote who weren't registered before so they could vote against the Rajneeshis.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

On election day, all of Sheila's candidates lost in a landslide and her plan completely backfired. And before long, the entire cult would crumble. Yo, it's J. USO from WWE and I'm Jimmy USO Chumba. Because Casino and WWE are hyped for the biggest event of the summer. SummerSlam. I know I can't wait. There's nothing better to do while we're waiting. Playing Chumba Casino. Sign up today and you could win a VIP experience with Chumba Casino and WWE for SummerSlam. So what are you waiting for? Play Chumba Casino and enter for your chance to win. Let's Chumble Purchase necessary. BTW Group void we're long CT's and Z's 21 plus sponsored by Chamo Casino. There's never been a better time to get outside and experience the benefits of nature, discover nearby trails and explore the outdoors with alltrails. Download the free app today and find your outside.

[B]

Sheila had gambled everything on her plan to take over the county. And when that failed, everything else started to fall apart. Thanks to all the public controversies, the Rajneeshis had been bringing in less and less donation money over the past few years. And then the Share a Home program made things worse. Housing and feeding thousands of more people was not cheap. And not to mention they had to take care of a lot of their medical problems as well. So that's also not cheap. It's estimated that Sheila's failed election plot cost over a million dollars. And as someone who was, quite frankly, pretty motivated, she was like, I don't want to bleed any more money. So she discontinued the Share a Home program. She kicked the participants out of the commune.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And most of them were bused to nearby towns. Just dropped off, cut loose with no money, and then left for locals to deal with.

[A]

That was one of the brutal parts of watching the documentary so series. Cause it was like, it's devastating. Yeah. These people are plucked from the street, convinced that they're gonna have a good life somewhere, end up in chaos, living in Oregon, and then just shipped back on a bus, like sometimes, but not

[B]

even not back to where they came from.

[A]

A lot of them were dumped in la, in San Francisco.

[B]

Just random towns. Yeah. So point being, Sheila's plan was a total disaster. And it was so bad that her boss, Rajneesh, could not ignore it anymore. And after years of silence, Bhagwan Sri Rajneesh decided it was time to step back in the spotlight. And over the next few months, he tried to do some damage control. And Rajneesh talked to anyone who would listen.

[A]

A little bit sad. Cause Rajneesh, when he was younger, he definitely was more of like the captivating public speaker and got so popular. But now he's in his 50s, he has health problems, years of not talking, totally lost his charm is like dying for anyone to listen to him. It's sad, but we can't feel too bad, right?

[B]

No. And also I'm glad that the downfall happened as it did because it needed to be put to rest.

[A]

And he's passed the point of damage control at this point. Like, there is so much going on. And polls showed that more than 2/3 of Oregonians were strongly opposed to the Rajnishis. So there's no chance that he's coming back from this soon. The lawsuits were coming at them from all directions. From former cult members, from the residents of communities that they targeted, and from unhoused people who claimed that they had been abused during the share a home debacle. And as if that is not bad enough, the state's largest newspaper, the Oregonian, was about to publish a lengthy investigative report into the Rajneesh Purim. And county officials started to crack down, too, issuing multi million dollar fines and building codes At Rajneesh Purim.

[B]

They were like, whatever we can do, we're gonna just throw it at them and just try to, like, make them crumble.

[A]

Yeah. So you would think that they would just be like, okay, let's pack it up, let's leave. But no, because Sheila's involved, and ma and Anshila was not ready to give up. In early 1985, Sheila allegedly ordered a group of her followers to firebomb the Wasco county planning department offices in the Dales. She is. She's a terrorist. She.

[B]

She literally is. Yeah.

[A]

It's so crazy, too, because, like, you see her in the. Like, she's so tiny. The fact that she, even so unassuming,

[B]

signed up to do the documentary, too, just says a lot about her.

[A]

Speaks it. It's so crazy. If anyone hasn't watched it before, you definitely should. Okay, so now there's no definitive proof that Sheila had ordered them to do this, but there's also no definitive proof that the Rajneesh community was responsible. But there was, in fact, a firebombing at the Wasco county planning department office that badly damaged a building, destroyed roughly half of the county's records and files. And despite not being able to prove it, law enforcement suspects the Rajneeshi involvement. And I feel like to this day, can we kind of finger point? Yeah. Like, it makes total sense for them

[B]

to, but because legally, it's not been proven. We say allegedly.

[A]

Allegedly.

[B]

No evidence, but they think.

[A]

They think. Yes. Sheila also reportedly sent people to the offices of the Oregonian to try to sabotage the newspaper before it could publish its story. It didn't work because they were scared off by security guards before they could do any damage, luckily. So in a last ditch effort to maintain control, Sheila then drew up a hit list of public officials and reporters to assassinate, which included the state attorney general.

[B]

Sheila, girl sm.

[A]

Like what? What happened?

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Before she could put her murderous plan into action, Sheila learned that the federal government had its eyes on her. So she was like, oh, maybe I can't do all this terrorism just openly. The IRS had opened an investigation into the cult's finances. And not only that, but Sheila found out that she was about to be indicted for immigration fraud, because turns out she had arranged many sham marriages so that Indian Rajneeshis could get green cards by marrying American Rajneeshis.

[B]

And so now, as we can see, like, everything is falling apart for Sheila. And now Rajesh, who had previously tried to do some damage control, he is like, I can't save you anymore.

[A]

No.

[B]

And also, I have a lot of thoughts. Like, I almost feel like he saw the writing on the walls and he's like, you know what? I'm gonna let Sheila take the fall for all of this so that I'm not implicated in it. Like, she's been the face. Let me let her take the fall. Let me stop trying to defend her so that I can get away with things.

[A]

But I will say, she also seems so off the rails that I don't think that there's anything anyone could say to reel her back in.

[B]

No, no, no, I agree.

[A]

I think she'd continue.

[B]

But if he kept defending her or tried to, like, cover things up, that would implicate him more. So, yeah, Sheila could tell she was screwed. And so what does any chicken criminal do? Flee. And that's what she did. On September 13, 1985, Sheila and several of her remaining loyalists got onto a private plane at Rajneeshpuram airport, because, like, like we had said earlier, they literally built an airport and an air Runway here. And they fled to Europe. And then, likely to cover his own butt, Three days after Sheila left the country, Rajneesh held a press conference where he publicly called Sheila and her associates, quote, a gang of fascists. And in front of news cameras, Rajneesh accused Sheila of the salmonella breakout and the firebombing and the poisonings of multiple high ranking Rajneeshes. And he claimed he did not know anything about her illegal activities until now.

[A]

Shortly after that press conference, an interagency task force of county, state, and federal law enforcement officers set up shop at Rajneeshpuram to conduct a full investigation. They reviewed financial records and found that Sheila had committed widespread fraud, leaving the organization $55 million in debt.

[B]

Damn.

[A]

The investigation also showed just how far her paranoia and her need for control went, because Sheila had wiretapp almost every single phone and private room in the commune. Just collecting evidence against herself. Basically.

[B]

Right.

[A]

And when investigators searched the basement of her house, they found lab equipment containing samples of salmonella that matched the strain used to poison a bunch of people in the Dales. Yeah, so she was basically like a terrorist and a mad scientist, and she

[B]

was in the wind. But with her in the wind, Rajnees cooperated fully with the investigation, and he even tried to make some reforms within the cult. But it was too little, too late. And In October of 1985, a grand jury indicted him, Sheila, and several other leaders on 35 counts of immigration fraud. Again, like, they're not really able to definitively accuse him of other things. So they're. They're like, what can we charge them with?

[A]

Right.

[B]

Like, Sheila. Rajneesh tried to flee the country by plane. But he was arrested at Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina when his jet stopped to refuel. He eventually accepted an Alford plea, which basically means he maintained his innocence, but acknowledged the prosecution had enough evidence to convict him. And this came with a $400,000 fine. And then he was deported back to India on November 14. A week later, the cult's remaining leaders gathered everyone who was left at Rajneesh Purim and told them, hey, it's closing down. You gotta go.

[A]

It's just good. Like, if you hadn't already left. I know, what are you doing?

[B]

But, I mean, people had left behind their whole lives and rebuilt here.

[A]

Like, yeah, I guess maybe. They're probably whispering, being like, okay, well, like, once everyone else, these other people go to jail or whatever. Why can't we keep with our community? How should we run it? Yeah. Yeah, that makes sense.

[B]

But over the next few weeks, the last of the Rajneeshis left the ranch and tried to return to their old lives. And the leaders left behind tried to cover the cult's depths by selling everything they could find on the property, which included several pianos, a high tech flight simulator, which that's not freaking cheap.

[A]

No.

[B]

And 85. 85 of Rajneesh's Rolls Royces.

[A]

85 is just insane.

[B]

Each one cost somewhere between 100,000 and $150,000 in the early 1980s, which is way more now. And according to what I could find, Rajneesh had a total of 93 Rolls Royces. This man, I don't believe he was innocent by any means.

[A]

No, it's also just so wild that the whole, like, poisoning thing cost them $1 million. And that was ma. Nanchile was like, oh, that's too expensive. But spending, like, 10 times that on cars.

[B]

Well, that's why it was so damaging, because they were spending his Rolls Royce budget.

[A]

Gotta keep Papa happy.

[B]

Anyway, I really do believe that Rajneesh knew more than he let on. But by early 1986, Rajneesh Purim was back to being an abandoned Western ghost town. And later that year, the people responsible for the commune's collapse finally faced justice for everything they had done over the past five years. Well, I would say justice is a light term considering what happened.

[A]

Yeah. In the summer of 1986, Ma Anand, Sheila Ma Anan Pooja, who was the cult's medical director, and several other co conspirators were arrested in Europe and extradited to the US to face charges. Sheila and her companions were taken back to Oregon where they pleaded guilty to a long list of charges, including attempted murder, wiretapping, poisoning, the whole Wasco county commissioners and the mass salmonella poisoning in the Dales. Sheila was eventually given a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for her most serious crime. Even though she'd stolen millions, terrorized her followers, and poisoned an entire town to try to steal an election. She only spent two and a half years behind bars.

[B]

I want to scream.

[A]

She had good behavior. Good girl. They let her out. And even better lawyers, apparently, because, yeah, they got her sentence substantially reduced and she was released in December of 1988, moved to Switzerland, which is where she was when they filmed the documentary that she actively and willingly participated in.

[B]

She only served two years.

[A]

Yep.

[B]

Or two and a half years. Whatever.

[A]

Switzerland.

[B]

That is wild, y'.

[A]

All. I feel like you. You don't belong in Switzerland. Like, I understand legally why she's in Switzerland, but like, come on, Swiss people gotta run you out.

[B]

I wonder if that's where she, like, did she hide money there? I don't know. Anyway, her life that she started, her new life wasn't all that different from her old one. And as of this recording, Ma and Ansheela still lives in Switzerland, where she is, owns and manages two retirement homes, which I feel like should not be allowed, considering how she treated people on the Rajneesh Purim commune. Like, yes, there's already so much to talk about with, like, retirement living and like, the taking advantage to the elderly. Yeah, I'm very concerned is all I will say. But obviously we have no evidence of any wrongdoings. Yes.

[A]

Meanwhile, Bhagwan Sri Rajneesh never left India again before dying in. In 1990. What used to be Rajneeshpuram in Oregon is now a youth camp and conference center.

[B]

Wild.

[A]

But the ghosts of the past are still there. The dam, the reservoir, some of the original buildings are still standing.

[B]

I wonder if there's, like, any secret, like, underground things that they don't know exist there.

[A]

Do you think the kids at the camp dare each other to, like, look in the windows of the different buildings?

[B]

Yeah, definitely. Anyway, as we wrap up this wild episode, let us know how many times you took a drink. We do want to say that thankfully nobody died because of the Rajneesh movement, but plenty of lives were ruined. I mean, people were physically mutilated, forced into addictions, and Bhaji really got away with so much. Some people believe that he didn't know everything that was going on, or maybe he didn't know anything at all. But, I mean, he was the one preaching from the start that greed is good.

[A]

I think he knew a lot. I just don't think he knew everything Ma and Aunt Sheila did.

[B]

Yeah, but obviously.

[A]

But no matter what, it's all bad. Doesn't matter what the details are.

[B]

Yeah. The truth is greed not good.

[A]

Greed bad. Greed bad.

[B]

Greed bad.

[A]

Greed bad. Sheila carried out the crimes, but Rajneesh built the system for her to do so, and no one questioned it or no one was allowed to question it. It's really the property proper way of saying that.

[B]

But, yeah, that's the Rajneesh movement. Quite a story.

[A]

Very interesting. Unfortunate case. Thank God no one died. But my. My gosh.

[B]

Yeah. Wild. One more drink for you.

[A]

Wild. Such a crazy time. But, yeah, no. Cults are scary, and cults are serious. And if you feel like you or anyone else you know may be trapped in a cult, please know that there are resources to help you. We've included them in the show notes, and it's never too late to get out.

[B]

Thank you so much for listening. We are your hosts, Sabrina Diana Roga and Corinne Vien. Join us next Tuesday for another peek inside another crimes of cults case. And if there are any cases that you want us to cover, please let us know in the comments.

[A]

Here at Crimes House, we want to thank each and every one of you for your support. If you like what you heard today, reach out on all social media rimehouse. And don't forget to rate, review, and follow Crime Sub. Wherever you get your podcasts, your feedback truly makes a difference.

[B]

Jury is adjourned.

[A]

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