A spiritual commune promises freedom, enlightenment and utopia, then becomes the centre of a political takeover attempt, mass poisoning plot and one of America’s strangest cult scandals. Sex Cult follows Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, the Osho movement, Rajneeshpuram and the commune that tried to bend Antelope, Oregon to its will.
Sex Cult traces the rise of the Rajneeshee community, the power of Ma Anand Sheela, the clash with local residents, and the Rajneeshee bioterrorism plot that contaminated salad bars in an attempt to influence an election. We look at free love, charisma, obedience, surveillance, immigration fraud, and the increasingly paranoid machine that turned a spiritual movement into a national scandal.
This documentary podcast episode uses cult stories, cult podcast angles, conspiracy theories, historical scandals, strange true stories and what really happened to unpack the case made famous by Wild Wild Country. Sex Cult is a story about power, devotion, control, and how quickly utopia can start behaving like a siege.
Resources and Further Reading
“Wild Wild Country” (2018) - Documentary series on Netflix:
“Searching for Sheela” (2021) - Follow-up documentary on Netflix:
“Building Utopia” - Podcast by Russell King:
“What it was like to be a child in the commune” - Article in The Guardian
“A journalist's recent experience at an Osho retreat” - Article in The Guardian
Host & Show Info
Hosts: Kyle Risi & Adam Cox
Intro Music: Alice in dark Wonderland
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Website: thecompendiumpodcast.com
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