CULTS: The Salad Bar That Started a War: The Rajneesh Movement

Hi everyone, before today's episode, we want to tell you about What the Fact. It's a new show from Conor Tomlinson, who you know from Netflix's Love on the Spectrum, and Carter Roy from Murder, True Crime Stories. Every week they take three unbelievable true facts from history and tell you the full story behind them. Conor's infectious energy will make you realize history is the most fascinating thing on Earth. Follow What the Fact, wherever you listen, or subscribe on YouTube at What the Fact On. Here's a question for you and for everyone listening. How does a community build on freedom, pleasure, and spiritual enlightenment turn into the largest bioterrorist attack in American history? That is a great question and a horrifying reality, because that is what we're going to explore here today on Crimes Up, which is factual cases, so it happened. Bhagwan Sri Rajani, she was one of the world's most popular gurus, truly tens of thousands of people studied his teachings. He told his followers to live their lives to the fullest, to live freely, reject shame, and experience everything life has to offer. Yeah. One woman in the community sought to seize power, and when she did, things took a very violent turn, and hundreds of people were poisoned. Welcome to Crimes of Colts. I'm Sabrina Deanna Roga. I'm Corinne Vien. 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? If you're loving Crimes Up, 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 add 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. The case of Bhagwan Sri Rajneesh, Ma Ananshila, and the Rajneesh movement starts now. We have got to say that today's episode, it's a bit wild. 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 times every episode. We're going to be saying that word, especially today quite a lot, which totally makes sense why the Netflix documentary was called Wild Wild Country. Yeah. I watch it when I came out. Oh, of course. I watch it with my family and my mom, and I couldn't stop talking about it for like a good six weeks. It really blows my mind, and wild is kind of the perfect way to describe it. If you aren't familiar with the Rajneesh movement, then you are definitely going to 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. It all began with a spiritual guru who built a massive community. That built a ginormous commune in the middle of Oregon, kind of sounds like my dream. And lived off the land and followed a minimalist lifestyle. So very minimalist in quotations, that this spiritual leader collected dozens of roles voices, which I don't know that that was in the documentary, or I forgot about that part. I don't really remember that part either. And more than dozens. Because honestly, that is the 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 drugged people, falsified medical tests, wiretapped private rooms, and worst of all Karen, she orchestrated the largest bio-terror attack in American history. You know, classic, peace, love, cult situation, that's not poison hundreds of people. So all to say, buckle up, because this is going to be a wild ride. Drink up. 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. So Sunday afternoon in Sandy Luckins sits at a table of the shaky's pizza parlour 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 her 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, flucking 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. They're 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. 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 shaky 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. 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 Ananshila. 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 Sri Rajneesh. But 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 Apple White, 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 god-like figure that like tens of thousands of people from all over the world would go to just see almost like a pilgrimage to go visit different 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 seem to be seeking peaceful enlightenment. One that despite its massive following was keen to kind of keep to itself. Yeah. And going back to the beginning, Bhagwan Sri Rajneesh, he was born in 1931 and his birthday was actually Shandra Mohanjain, 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 won't call him Lord of the Night, we'll call him Rajneesh throughout his episode. Yes. But basically, 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 is like a very pure, sweet thing to call your grandchild. Right. He literally named their kids King and Prince and things like that. And I nicknamed my niece chicken butt like, you know, she's got a lot to live up to you now. It's about me who are personally and what you think is important in chicken butts. Alright, bonjour. - Very important. - 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 told them that he was an atheist. Which in India is, I mean, that's blasphemy. It's like what? - It's like how? - Yeah, people are so religious. - Right, it's such a deeply spiritual country. So yeah, that was definitely unusual for him to identify as being an atheist. He's 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 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. - You know what I realize 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. - You told me that the other day. - It was a hot take. - It's just a pattern that I am seeing. - Yeah, no, but you made me start to question and think back about like everyone that I've met. And I agree that there are some tough personalities. - 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. - Yeah, and you don't want every single conversation to have to be like, oh, now I have to really explain myself. - Yeah. - Get into this. - I can't we all disagree that goes very real and can we not have a debate about it? - That's the problem is because we believe in ghosts. We don't get along with philosophy major. - I actually don't know that many. - It was my worst subject. - You're not missing out. 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. - My philosophy teacher hated me too. - 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 whole thing is about ideas? - That's what bothered me. - Look what? - And I know we 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 of 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 baby sat me, because your name was on the paper. - Yes. So, you know what, maybe I have beef with flaws. - Which, hey, if you're a philosophy maybe you're in your listening or you study philosophy, prove this wrong. We're welcome to being friends with you. - And ghosts are real. - So if you can't answer yes to that, then actually don't talk to us. - Okay, but unlike us, we're not looking for debate, Russianish love to good debate. - Even though we just debated for a minute. Well, debated all to go to the conclusion of, we don't like it. - We don't like debating. But turns out, Russianish 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 insecurity that was placed in the world and had all of these 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 Russianish 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. It's totally worked for him. And more than that, one night at just 21 years old, Russianish supposedly achieved a state of total enlightenment while meditating. - Wow. - He was sitting under a mulchery tree in the garden when all the 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 quote, "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. - 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. Raj Nish's question in Gandhi. - Wow. - Was he run on the right side of that? - Side of that, I think he was. - He criticized Gandhi for what he saw as glorifying poverty. Because I basically Gandhi was like saying you have to suffer. But Raj Nish 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. - I mean, I can see why he had so many followers because 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 him being like, why don't you just live your life to the fullest and enjoy sex and eat what makes you feel good and go outside and touch grass? I'm like, yes, that does sound great. - 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 business men types, people who really didn't want to give up their lifestyles in the name of enlightenment. By the mid-1960s, Raj Nish 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 Raj Nish was preaching. And his teachings drew from a mix of influence, those like Zen Buddhism, Hindu philosophy, and modern psychology, again, all centered around the idea that you could break yourself open emotionally and come out on the other side transformed. And how could one do such a thing he might ask? Well, in 1970, when he was 39, Raj Nish unveiled his signature spiritual technique, which he called dynamic meditation. And it is not your traditional laydown in a comfortable position, close your eyes or the world quiet around you type of meditation. It was chaotic. It began with jumping, shouting, breathing intently, dancing until you were so out of breath. Is that not one of the most popular? It isn't like New York and LA. Don't, there's a workout class. It's like that where you're just like-- Like Zumba? You're like screaming and jumping. I mean, it's called the class. What are just the class? The class. So screaming is a big component because 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, screaming at the top of their lungs. Well, yeah, that's kind of what you're doing in the dynamic meditation. But that's the beginning. So once you're fully exhausted and then you were expelled all of this energy that was built up in your body, 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. Oh, just a little orgy to really solve the tension. Which is so cult coded. Like, cult are just having orgys all the time. There's a name of a cult that hasn't had some sort of weird sexual element. Yeah. Yeah. 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. [MUSIC PLAYING] Happy Halloween, Crime House listeners. I'm Vanessa Richardson. Join me every Sunday this month on Crime House 24/7 for Crime House of Horrors, where I dive into four stories behind some of our favorites. scary movies. If you can't wait and want all four episodes now, add free, join Crime House Plus, join on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or at CrimeHousePlus.com. In the fall of 1970, Rajneesh officially named his philosophy, the Neo-Sonyas International Movement. He initiated six disciples to spread his teachings, and that is also when he took on the name Bhagwan Sri Rajneesh, which roughly translates to the enlightened one. They all named themselves like the highest rank that they can possibly think. I mean, this is the thing about cult, 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. 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. 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. You think he would have gotten his bad, though, if he stayed. Oh, interesting. 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 as physical in the dark while screaming while doing because it's sometimes like debating with someone who's just never going to see your side. It's just not worth it. It's about me. No, no, in general. Oh, I was like, I just said, I don't want to fight you. I've reposted debate. You said, no, a fight because you'll never see my side. I meant it in general. I was going back to like the debate issue. Just a general. Yeah. No, because I really would not want to fight you physically. I would want to be there at a very low center of gravity. Someone once that full speed biked into me and I didn't even move about an inch, but their bike and their body went flying. Wow. So physics made a concrete. Anyway, so he had six disciples named himself the enlightened one and then seeing an increase in demand for followers, Roshanish 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. They 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 Roshanish was pretty unique and a great guru. He definitely stood out against the others. And of course, Roshanish, 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 ashrams arts and craft center and they would encourage friends to go do the same. And then by the late 1970s, Roshanish was not just this humble guru. Humble is kind of a weird word to use when he named himself a 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. A lot of money. That is a lot. And also, as you can imagine, a big business to run by yourself. I mean, he probably would want help. No. 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 and light in life. But I feel like this is also the moment when people are like, how do I get more? Well, and also the government was on to 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 Shila. 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 prolapse disc in his spine. But there were other reasons like I was hinting at momentarily or just a moment 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 and less 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? How many more people are you gonna get? Probably infinite. So on May 31, 1981, Rajneesh, Sheila, 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 error in New Jersey was not good enough for his recovery. I mean, unless you're not better than where he came from. Right. Agreed. But I do agree. Like there's a lot of pollution and stuff. He needs clean, clean air. Go north. Even though it was reported that Rajneesh was up and walking around just fine after one week after arriving in the US. So I think he just wasn't as happy with New Jersey. He was like, I want to share this ballet with the real housewives. Exactly. He needed to be famous. The most famous one in the state. 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 crying eyes. And I feel like that is why he didn't want to be 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 dollars, which is now in like today's money, probably 20 million dollars. 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 Puram. 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. We'll talk about the population size. Okay. Yeah. So there were 75 people in Antelope. That's not a lot. 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, Rajneesh Puram 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. You had to drive through Antelope. It's 75 people. Yeah. They couldn't ignore what's going on. Hundreds of people were passing on the road. Their town road to this new property. You can't ignore that. And also you cannot ignore what they looked like because all of Rajneesh's followers, he had instructed them to address 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 all in that garb. So the locals started calling them red people. people, or Rajneeshis, but Rajneeshis followers preferred being called Sinyasins, which is a Sanskrit word that means, for those who have renounced all selfish desires, although I'd argue they're embracing selfish desires, isn't that kind of what his 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 sick of the rat race and read about Rajneesh in magazines or had gone to meditation classes, run by his different disciples in the U.S. and were like, "Okay, this seems like maybe I could live this spiritual fulfilling life, and this is what I'm going to do," and so they traveled to Oregon to learn from the guru himself. And what they found when they arrived was a cluster of tents and no running water. Fire festway before happened. Literally. It is. There's your single slice of white bread. That was in the script, and I removed it, so 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. Four 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. That's true. They're moving pretty fast. And like, these are skills that you have to learn. I think the city of Boston could hire them for two different roads we've had. 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 used for irrigation and drinking water. See, this is kind of impressive. It's so impressive when humans come together and just work peacefully-ish for a while together. Yes, and in order to 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 Porum was given three vegetarian meals a day. Just lived rent-free in shared A-frame houses scattered around the settlement, and all clothes and toiletries were provided for. Feels like a, that sounds great. Great community where everyone's kind of, you feel taking care of in the same way, adding and contributing. Right. And aside from the hierarchy of Rajneesh being at the very top and, like, sure, there's other disciples, everyone is kind of living a uniform lifestyle home. 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 2 p.m., all of the Rajneesh's 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. But so bizarre that it happened daily, like, you know, like, oh, it's Rajneesh's day, whatever, like, every day, every day. Mm-hmm. And also 2 p.m., that's like when you get the tired slump, and now you have to go stand and watch this guy drive his butt. Maybe that's for sure. That if you're there for him, that gives you a good person of energy. Like I see that, true. 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. 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 that we didn't parade it around. 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. Can we not argue that he's too attached to his cars? Yeah. Release worldly attachments. 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? You're even more idolized, it's like silent, all-knowing, being who we worship every day at 2 p.m. It sounds so silly when you put it like that. And then when he went silent, that left Ma Ananshila 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 multi-million-dollar budget. Shila was the de facto mayor of Rajneesh Poram, 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, Shila kept tabs on everything, and on everyone. It was a city of devotion run by Shila, a woman speaking for a man who no longer spoke. With Ma Ananshila in charge of the Rajneesh Poram, 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. Rajneesh used to criticize her and asked too many questions, "We're deemed negative and given menial undesirable jobs," she was 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, Shila actually physically isolated her critics as well. No, we're about to get into some really gruesome things that did happen, and some like it's really messed up, so just a little contact warning. But the way that she did, like there's one thing we'll get into more, but one time Shila 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 Anansh Pooja, fake, positive test results, so that all 11 of these people believe they had AIDS. And then she used it as an excuse to exile them because you have tested positive for AIDS, you are no longer safe to live in this community. Oh my gosh. And that was not the only way that she would use Pooja to help her control things. When three high ranking rush needs, she 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. So that consensual, like here take this, this will help you know, like slipping it into their food and drink without their knowing. Yeah, for hearty practicing poisoning people. Another rush needs, she was given multiple doses of quailudes, and Pooja treated her at the clinic. And this caused the member to become addicted. Horrible. Soon enough, people started to notice that something weird was happening. One follower tried to write a letter to rush needs himself to warn him about Shila's actions with the assumption that he had no idea what mom on Shila was doing, which I say I call Bia. Sure. Shila was very crafty. She actually intercepted the letter before rush needs 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 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, where doctors performed a hysterectomy on her. Without her consent, they removed her uterus. That is horrific torture. It is. Yeah. This is something that you don't expect to hear happening in like the 1980s. I'm like, okay, this is, no, it's just, it's very disturbing. Did you know penicillin, the drug that has saved more lives than any other in history was discovered because a scientist forgot to clean a petri dish before going on vacation? I'm Connor Tomlinson and history is my thing has been. my whole life and I'm Carter Roy and this is what the fact the history lesson you actually wished you had in high school with everything they cut for being too interesting put back in. Every week we take the wildest true things that ever happened and tell you the whole story behind them. I bring the history, I bring the facts, the tangents and the occasional British accent, the wildest stuff is real and the real stuff is wilder than you think. New episodes every Wednesday follow what the fact on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Amazon music or subscribe on YouTube at what the fact part. In a world where swords were sharp and hygiene was actually probably better than you think it is. Two fearless historians, me, Matt Lewis and me, Dr. Alan Oryanaga, dive headfirst into the mud, blood and very strange customs of the Middle Ages. So for plagues, crusades and Viking raids and plenty of other things that don't rhyme, subscribe to Gone Medieval from History Hit wherever you get your podcasts. Afterwards Pooja prescribed your 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 manipulate them. Yeah. 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 now like it's thousand. Even a dozen followers, it's suddenly, you know, there's 20% more traffic on your world. And now there's so many more. 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 Borum'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 red necks 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." Yikes. That is some harsh words. 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. A head 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 Rajneesh's outnumbered the local townspeople. So as a result, the mayor of Antelope and the entire town council were voted out and replaced by Rajneesh's and they immediately dropped all the town's legal challenges. It's such an evil genius plan. I know. So upsetting that that happens. They even changed the name of the town from Antelope to Rajneesh. And the town's people were like, "Okay, well, we're leaving. Goodbye." And they literally up and left. They were forced out of their homes. It's, yeah, it's so terrible. Yeah. You want the right people to win. And this is 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 Rajneesh's 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's forum. 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 Rajneesh's. But that all took a turn when Sheila and the followers pushed everyone out of Antelope. Yeah. 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." And you might be wondering, "Okay, well all of this is happening where's Rajneesh?" Well, there's a lot to discuss there, but pretty evident to us. I think it's irresponsible to believe he was completely innocent and naive. Yeah, I don't think he's totally in the dark, but I also don't think he knew all of the details. Sure. I think that there's a lot of sneakiness. If he did learn, would he care? That's a different question. I don't think he cared. But I don't think I don't personally think he knew everything. But also if he found out, I'm not sure he would have stopped it. He just wanted to keep buying Rolls Royces and being paraded around at 2pm. 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 question everything. Wouldn't that from him? We learned that from philosophy majors. 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 Majras, which was 70 miles away. And his entourage would stop at a gas station to buy a drink. And then they would turn around and just go back. How many miles was that? 70 miles. You're polluting for no reason. Just to go get like a fresh diet coke from the gas station. What are you getting? Only orange key to read. Oh, it's the best one. That's your favorite? Yes. What's yours? Hot take. Wait, we might need to do a poll. What's everyone favorite? What is your favorite? Mine's the blue. For sure. Okay, but blue is only good when it's ice cold. I disagree. The orange is my I would pick last. Okay, but can we all agree on this? Anytime, whatever brand purples the worst. I disagree. What? Okay. Wow, this really is. It's battle. Off-road. I would like to read that orange yellow red. Blue. Is that the opposite of you? I mean, purples not my top, but I think I would put purple before orange and yellow. Orange is my bottom. Oh my god. I'm shocked. Hey, Gatorade, do you want to sponsor this episode? See, but here's proof there's something for everyone. That's all that different from me. So whatever their reasons were for doing this, the people of contrast 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 heckles and berated in another. Sheila was like, we cannot tolerate this. This is inappropriate. So she started sending busloads of Rajani. She's too modest 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. Also, you're building a whole city, get a little like convenience store setup where you send, which makes me think that he wanted to be idolized elsewhere and one of his presence to be seen and felt beyond his sound. 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. Crazy. And eventually, the county district attorney stepped in and convinced Rajani's to stop his daily visits. And this is actually a very rare case where the Rajani's she's did back down. Things were heated. The state and county officials were on high alert. Maybe think about Jim Jones in the Jones town situation a decade earlier. You can probably think about where some of the minds were pondering. So yeah, they were basically told to stop going and getting your gas station drink and heckling with them. 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 and Jones town. Yeah, massive aside. I mean, well, think about their response to just their leader being yeah, heckled when going and getting a drink, like just suddenly daily send a ton of people and buses to bully backly. Yes, just yeah. And I 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 were 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 Jones town commune in South America. So the authorities in Oregon are worried that the same thing might happen in Rajneesh, forum. So they start to monitor things more closely just to make sure or like prevent anything getting out of hand like that. Yeah. As you'd expect, Sheila did not appreciate being monitored. So in the summer of 1983 she started taking steps to cut off Rajneesh Porum 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 on to this commune. And then these checkpoints were staffed by members of the Rajneesh Porum called the Peace Force. But the Peace Force was anything but peaceful. They carried some machine guns on them at all times. That's so freaky. Everyone's still dressing in their like reds and oranges and dressing. I am looking like the sunset and then just massive weapons. Wheeling, yeah. And reminds you 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? Oops. You must have had a rock. 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 drink 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. Yeah. She was going to go all out. In August of 1984, Sheila announced that Virginia's Sporum 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. That sounds nice, unless you know anything about this group and who is leading it? It's so wild how the word that they use for their name, like the San. Whoa. The San Script term was like people who got rid of selfish desires. And everything that Sheila is doing is the most selfish thing. Yes. Absolutely. Yeah. And it's just messed up too. She just uses people for everything. And abuses people. So she created a share a home program and this is where the Rushney. She started approaching unhoused people on the streets of Los Angeles. Chicago, New York, other major cities would buy them bus tickets to go to Rushney, Sporum. 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. 1000. New unhoused people who had been bust 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 Rushney, Sporum. 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. 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. Can you see where this is going? So that November, multiple members of Wasco County Commission would be up for re-election. How timely. Two Rushney she's with close ties to Sheila. We're running for seats as right 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 Rushney she candidates would win and they could shut down further oversight of their cult. Yeah, because now they have 4,000 new residents of the county if she can register them as such. Yes. So not a totally full proof 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 Rushney she's. Yeah, it's not like Annelope, a town of 75 people. Yeah. You're like, okay, well, then I'd have 76 and boom, we're done. There was a lawsuit in motion trying to keep all the new residents from voting. It was very obvious what Sheila 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. 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 forum commune facilities. She learned a lot. And soon Pooja and Sheila decided to run a much larger experiment this time with human test subjects. Wow. In September of 1984, small groups of Rajneesh used started traveling 90 miles north to the dials. It was the largest town in Wascoe County and home to the most of the counties voters. So, instead of wearing their usual red, the Rajneesh's dressed in normal colored clothes. So no one could identify them as Rajneesh's. And they brought along with them small ziplock 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, Rajneesh's 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 door knobs at the county courthouse. And once their mission was complete, they returned to Rajneesh forum to wait for the chaos to begin. And within days, the people of the dials started getting sick. And it's kind of like we described in the opening narrative of Sandy and her husband Dave at the shakies. 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 breath 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, 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 that basically it 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 Rajanishis were responsible for the mass poisoning. But that didn't matter. Rumor spread, word spread, and everyone in the town, they were like, we know who did it. Yeah. It's just so messed up. Like the to be a follower too and to see how it's affected people and to hear the new 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. And yeah, but if maybe maybe a couple of them did, and then they ended up in the hospital with a hysterectomy, not by choice. 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? Delusion. 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. Sheila planned to sneak it into the town's water supply, just days before the November election. Terrifying. Can you imagine having zero remorse? And just being like, yeah, let me go after more people, more children, more pregnant ladies. 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. 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 originally she's in Oregon, if they all voted the way that she told them to, they would be able to win. Fortunately, Sheila did knock at the- chance to put her plan into action, thank God. In mid-October, the courts ruled against the Russian issues in a voting lawsuit, and state election officials put new policies in place that made it much harder for Russian issues to add their share-home participants to the state's voter roles. They also disqualified thousands of new Russian forum voters after discovering that they had failed out registration cards with fraudulent information. Because you also know that Sheila and her little minions were probably filling out the registration cards willy-nilly for everyone else. Even with all of that in place, people in the deals 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 Russian issues. On election day, all of Sheila's candidates lost in a landside, and her plan completely backfired, and before long the entire cult would crumble. 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-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 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 anymore money," so she discontinued the share-home program. She kicked the part participants out of the commune, and most of them were bussed to nearby towns, just dropped off, cut loose, with no money, and then left for locals to deal with. That was one of the brutal parts of watching the darkest areas, because it was devastating. Yeah, these people are plucked from the street convinced that they're going to have a good life somewhere, end up in chaos, living in Oregon, and then just shipped back on a bus, but not back to where they came from. Yeah, a lot of them were dumped in L.A. and San Francisco. Just random house, 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 little bit sad because Rajneesh, when he was younger, he definitely was more of 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? No, no, so I'm glad that the downfall happened as it did, because it needed to be put to rest. And he's passed the point of damage control at this point, like there's so much going on, and polls showed that more than two-thirds of Oregonians were strongly opposed to the Rajneeshis, 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 at 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 Forum. And county officials started to crack down two issuing a multi-million-dollar fines and building codes at Rajneesh Forum. And they were like, whatever we can do, we're going to just throw it at them and just try to like make them crumble. 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 Matan on Sheila was not ready to give up. In early 1985, Sheila allegedly ordered a group of her followers to fire bomb the Wasco County Planning Department offices in the deals. She's, she's terrorist. She, she literally is, yeah. It's so crazy to do. Because like you see her in the, like she's so tiny, even so unassuming. Signed up to do the documentary, too, just as a lot about her. She speaks in it. Yeah. 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 fire bombing at the Wasco County Planning Department office that badly damaged the building destroyed roughly half of the county's records and files. And despite not being able to prove it, law enforcement suspects the Rajneesh involvement. And I feel like to this day, how can we kind of finger point, like it makes total sense for them to have? But because legally, it's not been proven, we say allegedly, allegedly, no evidence. But they think, 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 the last effort to maintain control, Sheila then drew up a hit list of public officials and reporters to assassinate, which included the state attorney general. Sheila. Girl. Smah. Like what? What happened? Yeah. Before she could buy 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 of 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 Raj Nishis could get green cards by marrying American Raj Nishis. And so now, as we can see, like everything is falling apart for Sheila. And now Raj Nish, who had previously tried to do some damage control, he is like, I can't save you anymore. No. And so 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 going to 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. 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. No, no. I agree. But I think she'd continue. But if he kept defending her, 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 13th, 1985, Sheila and several of her remaining loyalists got onto a private plane at Raj Nishpuram Airport because like we had said earlier, they literally built an airport in an air runway here. And they fled to Europe. And then likely to cover his own. But three days after Sheila left the country, Raj Nish held a press conference where he publicly called Sheila and her associates, quote a gang of fascists. And in front of news cameras, Raj Nish accused Sheila of the Salmonella breakout and the fire bombing and the poisonings of multiple high ranking Raj Nish's. And he claimed he did not know anything about her illegal activities until now. Shortly after that press conference, an interagency task force of county, state and federal law enforcement officers set up shop at Raj Nishpuram to conduct a full investigation. They reviewed financial records and found that Sheila had committed widespread fraud, leaving the organization 55 million dollars in debt. The investigation also showed just how far her paranoia and her need for control went because Sheila had wiretapped almost every single phone and private room in the commune. That's collecting evidence against herself, basically. 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 days. Yeah. So she was basically like a terrorist and a mad scientist. And she was in the wind. But with her in the wind, Raj Nish 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 them of other things. So they're like, what can we charge them like? Like Sheila Raj Nish 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 Alfred 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 Raj Nish forum and told them, hey, it's closing down. You got to go. It's just like if you hadn't already left, I know what are you doing? But I mean, people have left behind their whole lives and rebuilt here like, yeah. And because maybe they're probably whispering being like, okay, well, like once everyone else, these other people go to jail or whatever, like, what should we do with our community? How should we run it? Yeah. Yeah, that makes sense. But over the next few weeks, the last of the Raj Nish, she's left the ranch and tried to return to their old lives, and the leaders left behind tried to cover the cold steps by selling everything they could find on the property, which included several pianos, a high-tech flight simulator, which that's not frickin' cheap. And 85, 85 of Raj Nish's Rolls Royces. 85 is just insane. Each one costs somewhere between $100,000 and $150,000 in the early 1980s. Which is way more now. And according to what I could find, Raj Nish had a total of 93 Rolls Royces. This man, I don't believe he was innocent by any means. No, it's also just so wild that the whole, like, poisoning thing cost them $1,000,000, and that was not sure it was like, "Oh, that's too expensive," but spending, like, 10 times that on cars. Well, that's why it was so damaging because they were spending his Rolls Royce budget. Gotta keep papa happy. Anyway, I really do believe that Raj Nish knew more than he let on. But by early 1986, Raj Nish Puraum 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. Yeah. In the summer of 1986, Ma'anon Sheila, Ma'anon 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 days. 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 drive a steel in election, she only spent two and a half years behind bars. I want to scream. 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. She only served two years. Yep. Or two and a half years, whatever. That is wild, y'all. I feel like you don't belong in Switzerland. Like I understand legally why she's in Switzerland, but like, come on. Swiss people got to run you out. 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, Anan Sheila still lives in Switzerland, where she owns and manages two retirement homes, which I feel like should not be allowed considering how she treated people on the Rajneesh-Porum commune. Like, yes. There's already so much to talk about with, like, retirement, living, and like, the use to the elderly. Yeah. I'm very concerned. It's all I will say. But obviously, we have no evidence of any wrong doings. Yes. Meanwhile, a Bhagwan Sri Rajneesh never left India again before dying in 1990. What used to be Rajneesh-Porum in Oregon is now a youth camp and conference center. Wild. But the ghosts of the past are still there, the dam, the reservoir. Some of the original buildings are still standing. I wonder if there's like any secret, like, underground things that they don't know exist there. Do you think the kids of the camp dare each other to look in the windows at the different buildings? Yeah. Definitely. Anyway, as we wrap up this wild episode, let us know how many times 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 Rajneesh 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. He knew a lot. I just don't think he knew everything on Sheila did. Yeah. But I'll just say it's all bad. There's not that what the details are. Yeah. The truth is greed. Not good. Not good. Not the greed bad. Shila 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 proper way of saying that. But yeah, that's the Rajneesh movement. Quite a story. Very interesting, unfortunate case. Thank God, no one died, but my my gosh. Yeah. Wild. One more drink for 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, maybe 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. Thank you so much for listening. We are your host, Sabrina Diannevroga and Karen Vienn. 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. Here at Crime 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 at Crime House. And don't forget to rate, review, and follow Crime sub wherever you get your podcasts. Your feedback truly makes a difference. Jury is adjourned. Looking for your next podcast? Check out what the fact. 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