Sex gurus: Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh

1 Feb 2005

I see there's a prog coming up on Channel 4 later tonight which is partly on the Rajneesh movement, led by Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. The movement was about much more than sex, there were courses on all sorts of alterative therapies, both exotic and more ordinary. I went to several of their courses in the late seventies and early eighties, and got a fair bit out of them (okay, also some shags too :twisted: ), although I never became a Sanyassin (The movement devotees who wore orange clothes and the bead necklace with a picture of Bhagwan round their neck), but I had several friends who did.
Did anyone else here have any involvement in the movement at all ? (You would have to be quite old! redface

) They had a centre in Camden Town in north London, and an ashram in Suffolk, as well as the vast main ashram in Poona, India.
I shall certainly be watching the prog tonight.
Mike.

1 Feb 2005

Why aren't gurus ever called Steve or Mick or John lol

:lol:
Bev
xx

2 Feb 2005

I just watched the program, and thought it was quite interesting, although I would have liked it to go into more detail about the ideas behind the various things they talked about. I'm too young to remember any of this but I found it really fascinating, if a little bit scary, the ideas of cults and mass control has never really appealed to me. I'd be interested to find out more about it, did anyone else watch the program?

2 Feb 2005

I havenâ€™t fixed the Arial on the roof yet, and Iâ€™m in no hurry to

2 Feb 2005

Quote by snow_white
I just watched the program, and thought it was quite interesting, although I would have liked it to go into more detail about the ideas behind the various things they talked about. I'm too young to remember any of this but I found it really fascinating, if a little bit scary, the ideas of cults and mass control has never really appealed to me. I'd be interested to find out more about it, did anyone else watch the program?

I watched it, as I said I would. It skated over things rather superficially, but then it would take far more than an hour top go into things more deeply. I'm off to bed now, but tomorrow I'll try to find some links for you, or you're welcome to pm me to ask anything more specific. I certainly remember the woman "Claire" who was interviewed in the programme, she was considered one of the best group leaders in the movement, and I went to several courses and groups run by her.
Mike.

2 Feb 2005

If you could find some links for me that would be really interesting, I'm also gonna have a look for the book that was written by the man they interviewed who'd been a child in one of the communes...

2 Feb 2005

Quote by james02
I havenâ€™t fixed the Arial on the roof yet, and Iâ€™m in no hurry to

Oh, please get it fixed soon!!! confused

:? :? :? :? wink

2 Feb 2005

I saw the program it was interesting... but I also think parts of it have been on before... I have been getting a strange sense of documentary deja-vu about their whole 70's sex series!
I thought the sex surogates was a particularly interesting concept... I suppose it must work because he is still doing it... and none of his patients appear to have got uppety about their treatment in later life. Made me think about how sex may change again in the future, swinging seems to be comming more to the fore in recent years, not sure how much of that is my perception changing as I get exposed to it more (I am only young after all). One of the talking heads said the whole thing was a giant pendulum swing that was now starting to move back towards a more open culture again... makes you wonder if sex will become more and more sociable an activity (a bit like how some monkey species shag all the time as part of their social interactions). Most people have already 'acidentaly' knobbed off a couple of their friends at one point or another... how long till we start knobbing them off as part of a normal open friendship relationship... probably wouldn't need sex surrogates if we did... hmm its fun to let the mind wander sometimes... :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted:

2 Feb 2005

Quote by snow_white
If you could find some links for me that would be really interesting, I'm also gonna have a look for the book that was written by the man they interviewed who'd been a child in one of the communes...

That guy, Tim Guest, has his own website at:

Although Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh was deported to India in the late eighties, and later died, there is still a centre called "Osho" at Oregon, which still runs classes in the different types of meditation which we saw in the programme, especially the dynamic meditation which was the one the Rajneesh movement pioneered. See:

Hope you find these interesting,
Mike.

2 Feb 2005

Bhagwan was always portrayed by the west as a sex guru but if anyone reads his books such as from sex to superconciousness you will find he was talking about going beyond sex. I would also recommend the mustard seed. Personaly I think Bhagwan or Osho as he is now known was an amazing guy with some liberating ideas.