Rajneesh) was an Indian spiritual teacher and controversial figure in the New Age movement.
Osho cult trial#
Slate writes that in the original plan, the Rajneeshees were going to use Salmonella typhi, which causes typhoid fever and "surely would have resulted in numerous fatalities." And the salad-bar attacks were meant to simply be a trial run for a larger poisoning right before the election, likely through the town's water supply. Apparently at one point, "Rajneeshee leaders considered flying a bomb-laden plane into the county courthouse in The Dalles. The Hindu guru Osho, who ran a cult in Oregon and was infamous for hoarding 93 gold Rolls Royces, became a lightning rod of controversy for teaching tantra and sexual openness. A battle soon began brewing, with ranchers and farmers on one side, and Bhagwan Shree. House of Representatives on February 28th, 1985, "indirectly accused the Rajneeshees of having caused the salmonella outbreaks in The Dalles the previous fall." Congressman Weaver even went on to accuse the cult of having a laboratory in Rajneeshpuram, but his speech was written off as "a rambling and incoherent speech delivered to a nearly empty chamber." Inside the Crazy Sex Cult That Invaded Oregon. Conflicts between Rajneesh and law enforcement escalated. The sect became known as the Rajneesh movement and was at the center of numerous political controversies. According to The New Republic, Oregon Congressman Jim Weaver gave a speech to the U.S. Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh was first known to his followers simply as Rajneesh, variously translated from Sanskrit as the ‘Blessed One Who Has Recognised Himself As God’ or, more accurately, the ‘Holy Glorious Lord of Darkness’, then Bhagwan, and later, after a run-in with the US government, he changed his name to Osho. In the 1970s, an Indian mystic named Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (also known as Osho) founded his own religious group with ashrams in India and the United States. However, this didn't stop people from speaking out. Residents of Wasco County maintained their suspicions, but without any hard evidence, there was little to incriminate Osho's followers.