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The kingdom's guru – from utopia to bioterrorism and paranoia

Wild Wild Country
Regissør: Chapman og Maclain Way
(USA)

The disturbing and exciting TV documentary Wild Wild Country has already become a pop-cultural phenomenon. The reference to The Wild West signals wild and exhilarating events.




(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)

When the Rajneeshpuram Utopian community was established around the Indian guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (later Osho) in Oregon, there was an armed conflict with the intolerant, conservative Outlying America. Not only the events, but also the characters are as drawn from a western movie. Morality as well, or rather the lack thereof.

 

Neat and glowing. The series plays well on many strings and grapples with its many problems. The American primordial values ​​- the right to build their own lives, conquer lands and increase their flock – are counteracted by the authorities who were to secure these values. This is a documentary series that dares to dive deep. Here it is stirred up in soreness, rage and pain. We get portrayed a reality that far surpasses fiction.

The Regibr brothers Way has spent four years on production and seamlessly weaves together the elements: xenophobia, power struggle and disclaimer are burning lusts. A rich type gallery pours personal life journeys into the larger story. Incredible disclosures reveal far more than the offenses themselves, and archival material provides time and temperature.

The master brain behind the move to America and the purchase of the ranch at approximately 260km2 in 1981, is a skinny Indian woman.

The storm is coming. A good-natured pensioner in carpenter's pants, John Silvertooth, enthusiastically talks about the first notice of the unlikely in issue. On his way home from the post office, he saw a slim figure standing a few meters away. He realized it was not an American, but a European, from the footwear – fashionable leather shoes, not cowboy boots. After a polite exchange, the stranger had said: 'They are coming. Many more are on their way. It's going to be a lot of trouble. "The mayor of the sleepy, small town of Antelope, Oregon, sums it all up." Even in dreams, it was impossible to imagine the incredible and frightening events to come. "

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Thus the stage is set. The dusty town of Antelope in no man's land huser barely fifty residents – mostly poor pensioners who can afford their own home for the first time in their lives. They might as well have been invaded by Martians – the newcomers are just as terrifying to them. Thousands of people in the same orange-red-brown clothes swarm loudly to get direct access to the source, Bhagwan. He is the pop star of enlightenment gurus, the man who has filled stadiums with worshipers in India and written countless books on the path to the new, enlightened man. The guru attracts Western intellectuals with his hip, modern style and his liberating message of letting go of inhibitions and breaking societal conventions.

Little do pensioners know that their fight against the "reds" will result in naked sunbathing on a sweaty patch of grass in the middle of the city, or that the sound of ecstatic sex from the neighboring houses will ruin their night's sleep. What is captivating in this story is how far the various parties are willing to go to fight the others, and how little they know so far about their own boundlessness.

The woman behind. The mastermind behind the move to America and the purchase of the ranch at approximately 260 km2 in 1981, is a skinny Indian woman with a will of steel and a wonderfully toxic tongue. She is introduced early as the villain in the story, called for attempted murder and bioterrorism. Still, the preparation of her is irresistible and refreshing. Her candid testimony is moving. Ma Anand Sheela already met Bhagwan as an 16 year old. Warmly, she tells of the meeting that changed her forever. She was allowed to lay her head on the hairy chest of the famous guru, and the moment was so perfect that she could die.

After studying in the United States, Sheela returns to Bhagwan, India, with her Jewish husband. She quickly rises in the ranks of the Rajneesh movement, organizing the emigration and the construction of the promised land as controversy with local authorities forces Bhagwan to leave his homeland and his ashram in Pune.

An utopian city in the Oregon desert is being built in record speed with Sheela as the leader of The Rajneesh Foundation. The settlers are carefully selected sannyasins (Sanskrit for Disciple), and the list for perfectionism and innovation is high. The red carpet is rolled out for the guru who arrives on his own airstrip and carried on in a Rolls Royce.

The Guru attracts Western intellectuals with their hip, modern style and liberating message of releasing inhibitions and breaking social conventions.

Paradise is threatened by cold front. According to Sheela, Bhagwan understood early on how meditation and the search for spirituality could be translated into hard currency through followers from the West. The money was therefore in place when Big Muddy Ranch was purchased. Several countries had been of interest, but the choice fell on the United States – the symbol of freedom and capitalism.

Everyone has worked day and night regardless of difficulty, including Sheela. Huge bulldozers have been run on steep slopes by women and men. Long days, releasing bodies – everything to drain water, make the soil fertile again, create its own electric power plant, roads and other necessary infrastructure. The progress is spectacular. Sheela and the others strut with pride and confidence over the incredible paradise they have created. Here Bhagwan will take the next step in his vision. The vast fertility of the new country has already brought the vibrant wildlife back.

Ironically, it is the commercial exploitation of the land that leads to legal trouble – they are being sued for violating the agricultural restrictions on the ranch. Bhagwan is also denied application for permanent residency in the United States as a religious leader because of his self-imposed long silence.

Little do the hard-working sannyasins know about the opponents who will tear down what they have built up and time ticking down. Great large buildings are in place to accommodate future supporters – a hall that can house 10 000, hotel, bank and shopping center. Philip Toelkes – the former lawyer of the Rajneesh Foundation – hums when he adds that there were of course limited color choices at the mall. Precisely the limited color palette of the followers was one of the things that promoted the alien fear of pensioners, accustomed as they were to their own way of life and monotonous days. With new neighbors, the changes happen too quickly. The pensioners are shooting in the air and printing flyers with a dead Bhagwan. In the end, they are willing to disband their own city to get rid of the strangers. "Rather dead than red" is the slogan.

The guest in room 405. To date, the report has aroused empathy and commitment to the utopian collective community that is unfolding on the ranch. But then there is a huge shift in the story, and in the logic. One night Sheela can't sleep. [SPOILER ALERT !!!] Shortly after, it crashes in the hotel down town. An unknown guest has brought several explosives in the room. Despite several bombs going off and destroying the hotel, no one ever finds out who the professional bomber was.

This is a documentary series that dares to dive deep. Here it is stirred up in soreness, rage and pain.

The situation between the new immigrants and the original population of Antelope had long been extremely flammable. The bomb provocation hits. Sheela organizes weapons procurement. She admits to several attempted murder and salmonella poisoning. The internal power struggle in the Rajneesh movement is difficult to determine. Did the doctor want the life of Bhagwan? Murder attempts for a possible killer seem like a bad B-movie. Sheela replies in cash: "I do what I set out to do. Still, I'm being judged for trying. ”Was this part of a scare tactic? Sheela was one of the first to be interviewed for the documentary series. During the conflict rally in Oregon, she is constantly provocative on television: “Bhagwan, I say, is neither Jesus nor Ghandi. Turn the other cheek on, and I'll take both. "Cross-cutting with large-scale weapon training. Clips from the suicide cult in Jonestown (1978) make what, in Norwegian eyes, can be perceived as American witch-hunting by the Rajeshs, more understandable.

I lose my empathy with Sheela and the others after the unveiling of the hundreds of homeless people invited to the ranch. The testimonies of several homeless people who had never experienced belonging, care or meaning are perhaps one of the most heartbreaking in the series. Here the utopian community is capable of producing something good that these have rarely experienced before. But the homeless were just pieces of the game to win the state election. When their voting opportunity is blocked, they are doped down and bused straight out onto the street again.

Swinging doors. Precisely the series' ability to turn narrative into new surprising twists – including emotionally – is its distinctive strength. Open-hearted interviews from the various parties are the heartbeat of the series. The Rajnees, government officials and Antelope's inhabitants are close, confident and familiar with their subjective perceptions of what happened. It is best to take your statements with a pinch of salt. It is up to each of us to put together our own panorama.

That's what it says when Mayor Silvertooth in one of my favorite scenes happily presents Rajneesh posters he found in their garbage. He enthusiastically talks about quantities of documents that should have been shredded and other incriminating evidence floating around. But his disappointment is to the touch as he talks about the new, strident neighbors who have taken over from his former, colorful enemies. Back on the ranch, a sustainable infrastructure and spectacular facilities are testament to what should have been the framework for a redeeming dream community for the new, free human being. There is now a camp school for the Christian Youth Association Young Life, which is known for its severe abstinence.

Watch the six-episode documentary on Netflix

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Ellen Lande
Ellen Lande
Lande is a film writer and director and a regular writer for Ny Tid.

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