Sex Cult: The Story of Bhagwan Rajneesh and His Sex Cult’s Bioterror Plot to Take Over Oregon

[00:00:00] Kyle Risi: Oh, Osho's meditation centres still exist. Really? Yeah, where you can go and participate in these dynamic meditation workshops. 

[00:00:10] I'm not sure if the sex is still happening though. If they are. then it's very weird because they now offer different corporate retreat packages. So you go on this team building kind of excursion where at the end of it you just end up having sex with Sharon for finance. 

[00:00:27] Adam Cox: Wow. I'm gonna put that in the suggestion box at work. 

[00:00:31] Kyle Risi: Can we go to a dynamic meditation? 

[00:00:53] Welcome to The Compendium, an assembly of [00:01:00] fascinating and intriguing things. A weekly variety podcast that gives you just enough information to stand your ground at any social gathering. We explore stories from the darker corners of true crime, the annuls of your old unread history books, and the who's who of extraordinary people.

[00:01:15] I'm your ringmaster this week, Kyle Recy. 

[00:01:18] Adam Cox: And I'm your butt scratcher seller, Adam Cox. 

[00:01:21] Kyle Risi: Butt scratcher! Butt 

[00:01:22] Adam Cox: scratcher! Butt scratcher! Butt scratcher! Everyone needs a butt scratcher. They do, especially this week because 

[00:01:28] Kyle Risi: it's your birthday. Happy birthday! 

[00:01:31] Adam Cox: Hang on, you get an annual butt scratch!

[00:01:33] Yay! And now if you had a butt scratcher I wouldn't need to do it. 

[00:01:36] It's true, I do need a butt scratcher so maybe if I'm very lucky I'll get one. 

[00:01:40] Kyle Risi: It just makes you feel so sad because you're getting so old um makes you feel really I'm not as old as you yeah But you remember that yeah, but but I look younger You look really old 

[00:01:52] Adam Cox: not in this lighting 

[00:01:54] Kyle Risi: in fact any lighting 

[00:01:57] Adam Cox: But if we turn the lights off great great 

[00:01:59] Kyle Risi: [00:02:00] no one can see you Adam today's compendium, we are diving into an assembly of hyperventilation, tantric sex, and a serious bout of the shits.

[00:02:13] Adam Cox: Um, well, this doesn't sound like it goes well. 

[00:02:16] Kyle Risi: So it's been a while since we've done a cult story. Uh huh. And because my mind is always in the gutter, I thought, what better way to spend a Saturday and to spice up the podcast with a sex cult story.

[00:02:27] Yeah. Today I'm telling you the story of Bhagwan Rajneesh and his controversial sex cult that tried to take over. America. 

[00:02:37] When was this? 

[00:02:38] So this actually happened during the 1970s and 80s. Okay. Bhagwan had successfully grown his cult into this global network of followers known as the Sannyasins. And the Sannyasins were most famous around the world for their free love, open marriages, and shockingly, their dynamic meditation practices. And these practices would [00:03:00] typically involve like heavy frantic breathing, hyperventilation, violence, tantric sex orgies, as kind of like a form of like, psychological therapy.

[00:03:10] Any of that ring a bell to you? 

[00:03:11] No. 

[00:03:12] Really? 

[00:03:13] Yeah. 

[00:03:14] Okay, they basically became best known for the time when they moved their headquarters from India to Oregon in the United States during the 1980s. They brought with them thousands of to this remote and desolate countryside where they managed to build, Adam, from scratch, an entire city with the aim of taking control of the entire state of Oregon. Like their ambition just knew no bounds.

[00:03:41] This cult essentially that once preached peace, harmony, love and unity was essentially willing to intimidate, poison and even murder anyone that stood in their way.

[00:03:51] Adam Cox: I mean, there's a lot to unpack here, because you've mentioned there's tantric sects, that they, there's thousands of them, they [00:04:00] build a city. How close did they manage to get to taking over Oregon then? 

[00:04:03] Kyle Risi: Well, I'm going to tell you all about it. I'm very confused.

[00:04:07] It gets even worse because probably their biggest claim to fame is when their plan to orchestrate one of the largest bioterrorism attack plots in US history in an effort to take control of the government was discovered by investigators that were kind of sent down to kind of look into their dealings and Even today is considered one of the biggest bioterrorist attack plots.

[00:04:30] Adam Cox: That doesn't sound like preaching love and peace and harmony. 

[00:04:33] Kyle Risi: I mean, they kind of went off the rails a little bit. 

[00:04:36] Adam Cox: A little bit? Okay. 

[00:04:39] Kyle Risi: So this is the story of Bhagwan Rajneesh and his attempt to take America. 

[00:04:44] But of course, before we kick off today's episode, Adam, It's, of course, time for 

[00:04:49] Adam Cox: All the Latest Things.

[00:04:50] Kyle Risi: So this is a segment of our show where we catch up on all the things we've discovered over the last seven days, from weird [00:05:00] news to mind boggling facts. This is All the Latest Things. Adam, what have you got for us today? 

[00:05:07] Adam Cox: So, this week, there's this woman that did get burgled in the UK and to be honest, I wouldn't mind being burgled by this guy.

[00:05:15] Oh my god, Adam. Is this perverted? No, it's not. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. No, this is not perverted. I do not want to be butt burgled. Let me tell you the story. Okay. He had broken into this woman's house. She was out, I guess for several days.

[00:05:28] And he must have squatted there, essentially. And he had hung out her washing. Okay, he had put her shopping away. He cooked a meal on the stove, so he did steal some food. He cooked a meal. He's quite civilized in that sense. He did help himself to some wine, but then he did empty the recycling bin and a few other things.

[00:05:47] Kyle Risi: So he's a handy burglar! 

[00:05:48] Adam Cox: Yeah, he's really helpful. Really helpful. Um, he left a little note saying, don't worry, be happy, eat up, and scratch. 

[00:05:54] Kyle Risi: And scratch? 

[00:05:55] Adam Cox: And scratch.

[00:05:56] Kyle Risi: Scratch what? 

[00:05:56] Adam Cox: I don't, that I don't get, but he also, um, he refilled the bird [00:06:00] feeders, she had a new pair of shoes, so he took them from the packaging, threw the packaging away, and just seems generally quite helpful, so that you come home and go like, oh, that's great.

[00:06:09] Kyle Risi: But was he burgling or was he squatting because that makes your title very misleading. 

[00:06:14] Adam Cox: He's been known as a burglar. Essentially. That's what they've said He was right aside from stealing some food. I don't think he actually took anything That's just like payment for like House sitting.

[00:06:24] Yeah, it's like an Airbnb, right? Yeah cheaper. What a great deal. Yeah, and so this guy he's actually been, he was caught eventually and I think she was really freaked out because someone had been living in a house and been moving stuff around. But he's actually been sent to prison for like 22 months and I just thought that doesn't sound so bad. He can come burgle us if he wants.

[00:06:45] Kyle Risi: What, the fact that he's been sent to prison Or, the fact that you want him to come burgle us. Well, in terms of like He's been sent to prison for doing essentially a good thing. 

[00:06:55] Adam Cox: Yeah, that's what I thought. And I just think, obviously it's not very nice.

[00:06:58] And I guess maybe if you live alone, [00:07:00] obviously as a, you know Terrifying, yeah. But, I don't know. Of all burglars, I would, I think I'd be okay with it. I'd be like, he hasn't stolen anything. He's just helped himself to some baked beans. 

[00:07:09] Kyle Risi: Do you know what? I can honestly say I don't think you get to choose your burglar. Do you not? No, you don't. Oh. 

[00:07:15] Adam Cox: Well yeah, more burglars like him, please.

[00:07:18] So what have you got, Kyle? 

[00:07:19] Kyle Risi: So Adam. Mm hmm. In France, women have such a hard time keeping their panty hamsters in their knickers that the French government have actually banned paternity tests. 

[00:07:30] Adam Cox: Pantyhamsters? 

[00:07:31] Kyle Risi: Yeah, my new word for vagina. 

[00:07:33] Adam Cox: I don't know if that's going to catch on. 

[00:07:35] Kyle Risi: I'm going to make it happen, trust me.

[00:07:38] Adam Cox: So, why is the French government banned paternity tests?

[00:07:42] Kyle Risi: Well, the government puts it very demurely and they say it's basically to protect family harmony and individual privacy, which, let's be real, it's just a fancy way of saying that people are so frisky that the government feels compelled to prevent families from breaking up due to, kind of, sleeping around.

[00:07:59] Adam Cox: I can't [00:08:00] believe they're able to enforce this. So if I was in France, I wouldn't be able to, like, go on to 23. 

[00:08:04] Kyle Risi: No, no, that's basically what my understanding of this is. And, but the thing is, at the heart of all of this, the intention is to protect the interests of children. What this also means is that if you do find out that you're not the child's biological kind of father, you may still be required by law to continue supporting the child.

[00:08:24] So you can end up in this like real tricky situation where the government has made it nearly impossible for you to confirm paternity. So they banned paternity tests. And if it somehow comes out that You're not the father You could be forced to continue paying child support and supporting child financially because you had been doing it previously. 

[00:08:41] Adam Cox: Right. I well, I kind of, that's a good thing. You don't want like the dad leaving and so therefore trying to keep families together. I understand it a bit more now that you've given some more context, but I find that weird that they still don't have that free will to find out though. 

[00:08:54] Kyle Risi: Yeah, it's so strange and apparently unauthorized paternity testing can land you like a year in prison or a [00:09:00] 15, 000 or Euro, fine, which is just mental.

[00:09:04] But what I found the most interesting about the story is how the government tries to kind of rationalize it. That's the funniest part of this. They're saying it's not about paternity, but it's about privacy concerns, medical ethics, but also the psychological impact of uncovering sensitive genetic information without proper guidance.

[00:09:23] I think it's safe to say that we can all read between the lines there. And that it's all about making sure they can keep these families together because people are just cheating bastards. 

[00:09:35] Wow, the French. Kinky. Yeah, kinky. 

[00:09:37] So next time you're thinking about mating off for a feline DNA sample to check if Keith is actually biologically yours, remember, no matter what the result is, Adam, you might still be on the hook for those kids. Cat ballet classes that we've been sending them to. 

[00:09:51] Adam Cox: And all the catnip. 

[00:09:52] Kyle Risi: And all the catnip, yeah. Keeping him drugged up. 

[00:09:55] So yeah, that's my all the latest thing for this week. 

[00:09:57] Adam Cox: Should we get on with the show? 

[00:09:58] Kyle Risi: Let's get on with [00:10:00] Bhagwan Rajneesh and his sex cult. 

[00:10:03] Okay, so Adam, so the leader of the Rajinishi cult was an Indian man who had given himself the name Shri Rajinish. Now Bhagwan basically means blessed Lord or kind of God in Sanskrit, which I kind of feel like tells us a lot about what he thought of himself. 

[00:10:22] Adam Cox: An ego, by the sounds of things. 

[00:10:23] Kyle Risi: He's got a big ego and his followers absolutely worshipped him like a deity. Now Bhagwan was born in the early 1930s in India. His family were, I believe they call them Jains, which basically is an ancient Indian religion but from as early on as he learned to speak, Bhagwan questioned everything. And this led him to push every single boundary that he came face to face with in his daily life, especially within kind of philosophy and spirituality.

[00:10:53] So He was often challenging authority figures, which, drove him to become deeply interested in all different [00:11:00] belief systems Like, so he was very often challenged for cherry picking of different ideals from different religions that kind of he had read about and stuff.

[00:11:09] He developed a real gift for being able to kind of also articulate why he believed in these kind of different ideals from these different religions, which led him to kind of develop this real acute ability to influence the people around him. So it became really influential really quickly.

[00:11:25] Adam Cox: Isn't that not necessarily a bad thing though? Because you're picking maybe the best parts of different cultures, beliefs, well, hopefully the best parts. 

[00:11:34] Kyle Risi: You are right. But remember, he's living in Pune, which is rural India, where they have very kind of conservative views and values. So it wasn't always taken well, essentially. But when Balguan finished school, he went on to study philosophy at university. And because of his argumentative and challenging personality, he was an absolute pain in the absolute ass to the point where his professors [00:12:00] like literally asked him to not attend their classes.

[00:12:03] Wow. 

[00:12:04] Instead, they'd made provisions for him to receive his coursework and told him that he could just kind of end up taking his tests at the end of term. And like, obviously, if he passed, then they were giving him his degree.

[00:12:14] And because he was like studying in isolation from his peers he ended up increasingly more and more polarizing because he wasn't around other people to challenge those belief systems.

[00:12:25] Adam Cox: What did he do that was so bad for him to be like completely expelled from class? 

[00:12:29] Kyle Risi: Because he challenged everything, like, so you'd be in a class and you wouldn't be able to get through the lesson because he would like nitpick at every single thing that you said. Oh, he sounds the worst. Yeah. He is just one of those kind of smart aleck kind of guys who just will not let things go. 

[00:12:44] Adam Cox: Right, okay. 

[00:12:44] Kyle Risi: You will never be able to win, essentially. But even though he studied away from the kind of the usual university setting, he was extremely academic and he ended up getting his degree, which led him to become a professor of philosophy. 

[00:12:56] However, his teachings were often seen as really controversial, especially in [00:13:00] the country that was extremely conservative as it is. So he would give like these really graphic lectures on sex and politics and religion that were so outside of the conventional realms of the day that he kept just being fired from all the different universities that he worked at because just people weren't ready.

[00:13:17] Adam Cox: He's too far ahead of the times. 

[00:13:20] Kyle Risi: I think it's just too dirty and it's just too controversial, I think. Like, he started traveling around India, giving all these different independent lectures throughout the 1960s.

[00:13:29] And The philosophy he was preaching in his lectures was very pro capitalist, pro consumerism. He was totally anti chastity. And he often encouraged people just to have as much sex as they liked with as many people as they wanted without harboring kind of any shame.

[00:13:46] Adam Cox: So, how is he, he's being employed by all these different universities to give lectures. Mm hmm. And that, what kind of role are they bringing him on board, and why is he always going, and That he's turning into, like, you should just have sex. 

[00:13:57] Kyle Risi: Well, I think that he's been brought on as a [00:14:00] philosophy professor, right? And he's supposed to be teaching within a set curriculum, I assume. Right. But he's got these different views and ideals that he's kind of gearing into them. Like, have as much sex as you possibly can and be as selfish as you want and be all about yourself and hedonistic.

[00:14:17] Adam Cox: Right. imagine if I was another professor at the university and I walked past his classroom. All of his students got like their tops off. 

[00:14:24] Kyle Risi: Shaking their tops, I don't know, possibly. And of course, his teachings were seen as really appalling to the majority of people in India, particularly kind of the old and devout Hindus in the cities that he was visiting. 

[00:14:36] But for people attending his lectures that were actually coming out and seeing him, his message really resonated with him, especially in a society where conservative values were often seen as really oppressive.

[00:14:48] So people found his message really refreshing, especially coming from a philosopher. He was essentially giving people permission to be as greedy as they wanted and to have as much sex as they [00:15:00] desired, especially outside of marriage, which was something that I guess people of India were totally against at the time and had been for so many years.

[00:15:09] So over time, as he traveled from city to city, he started building up, like, a serious number of followers, like, eager to help him spread his message. So to assist this, he started publishing a bunch of books in multiple languages, and once the 1970s rolled round, like, his fellowship of devout members had grown to the point that he decided that he was going to induct a bunch of disciples that would help him set up the church. an ashram in pune which is basically a commune essentially like imagine like a jewish kibbutz i guess where they all live together in harmony and they like practice their philosophy and shit like that 

[00:15:47] Adam Cox: by practicing their philosophy you mean just a giant orgy 

[00:15:50] Kyle Risi: Basically, and I'm going to come on to those in just a second because it's just outrageous. But this ashram became like the Mecca for people from all around the world who'd heard about his teachings [00:16:00] and were curious to know a bit more about them. 

[00:16:02] And because this growing desire for spiritual enlightenment in the West, remember, this was the era of spiritual awakening that saw the rise of groups like Scientology, the Hare Krishnas, and of course, most famously, the People's Temple, aka Jonestown.

[00:16:19] So Bhagwan's ashram attracted mostly white, young, middle class hippies looking for the spiritual awakening that was flooding across the West at the time. 

[00:16:30] And this was great for Bhagwan because if these people were willing to make the pilgrimage to India, They were then also very likely to be really well educated wealthy individuals likely to make large donations. So every year throughout the 1970s, the movement just exploded and he became extremely wealthy.

[00:16:49] And although like he was not a religious leader and he didn't believe in religion, he was very content to be worshipped like a god and his followers obeyed every [00:17:00] command who became known as the Sanyasins, and they would only wear yellows, oranges, pinks and reds.

[00:17:06] And these colors were kind of meant to represent the sunrise and represent this idea of like enlightenment. They also would wear these medallions, which is probably the most famous kind of motif that they would wear. And basically it was a beaded prayer necklace with a picture of Bhagwan directly in the center. So you're wearing this big medallion with Bhagwan's face on you all the time. 

[00:17:29] Adam Cox: He's trying to suggest that he is like a god, isn't he? 

[00:17:32] Kyle Risi: It's essentially, 

[00:17:33] Adam Cox: yeah, like he is their leader. 

[00:17:35] Kyle Risi: He's Indian Jesus. But it's not a religion because he's very anti religion. So it's a very new take on 

[00:17:40] Adam Cox: it. It feels kind of religion.

[00:17:42] So if you would see these people walking around your town, If they were wearing orange and they had these big medallions on with Baguan's face on it, you would know that they were the Sanyasins. And the name Sanyasin is essentially a term that Baguan just used took from Hinduism, which basically [00:18:00] means someone who has surrendered everything in pursuit of spiritual awakening and a willingness for total obedience to their leader for eternity.

[00:18:09] And the ironic thing is, because of course there is always irony and contradiction when it comes to cults, was that their belief was that all sannyasins were more evolved than other people because they were such free thinkers and such individualists, yet they had dedicated their lives to doing exactly what one man told them to do.

[00:18:29] So actually not that free thinking. No, no. Hey, I want to think for myself. Oh, I'm just going to follow you. 

[00:18:34] Kyle Risi: You can think for yourself as long as you do exactly what I say, essentially. 

[00:18:38] Adam Cox: Yeah. Okay. I can see that 

[00:18:39] Kyle Risi: freedom at all. So as the years went on more and more sannyasin meditation centers started popping up on every continent across the globe. They were especially popular in Germany of all places. And these meditation centers started becoming kind of key recruitment centers and fundraising outposts with all the [00:19:00] donations obviously been funneled into Baiguan's kind of, ashram in Pyun. And so he was getting very, very wealthy very, very quickly. 

[00:19:08] And all around the world, people started to get really concerned about the growing number of these orange people dressed in these weird orange kind of togas, togas, essentially.

[00:19:18] Adam Cox: I kind of think of like, um, Buddhism in terms of that kind of orange toga. Is there a bit like that? 

[00:19:23] Kyle Risi: I think what you're probably thinking is the Hare Krishnas, which would also wear the kind of very similar. Yeah. Outfits as well. They might sometimes have a little braided thing at the back of their head.

[00:19:32] Yeah. 

[00:19:33] Yeah So it's it's all part of that kind of movement. But yeah, that's exactly it Okay

[00:19:37] There were also a lot of concerned families who were contact to the media because they'd lost their families and loved ones to the cult. Often, like new inductees would give up their entire lives and just hand everything that they owned to the ESIS and just move overseas.

[00:19:52] And these moves would happen like so quickly, like families. would just be left completely bewildered, as [00:20:00] to where their loved ones had gone. Often, like, there would be reports of parents abandoning their kids to go off and dedicate themselves to this cult. And essentially, where they were going was India. They were moving to the headquarters of this cult in, in Pune, this ashram. To abandon your kids, though, that's That's pretty hard going. I mean, they must be absolute bastards. 

[00:20:21] Adam Cox: Yeah, maybe. Maybe like, I want it out. 

[00:20:23] Kyle Risi: I hate you so much, Johnny, that I'm willing to join a cult. Is what I'm hearing here. 

[00:20:29] Adam Cox: Yeah, that's harsh. They're willing just to uproot themselves and yeah. 

[00:20:34] Kyle Risi: The other more sinister aspects of the cult were rumours about things that were happening inside these meditation centres. What was particularly concerning was what they called the dynamic meditation sessions.

[00:20:44] Adam Cox: And by dynamic, I mean What does that actually mean? 

[00:20:47] Kyle Risi: So they actually involve these several steps essentially. So firstly, everyone in the group would start wiggling, thrusting and jumping around for like 10 minutes, right? While you [00:21:00] started to breathe really heavily through the nose only. Intentionally, the aim here was to cause yourself to hyperventilate and get really worked up. 

[00:21:08] Adam Cox: So you're just in like this hole, let's say. You're standing up, and you're just wiggling your body, and you're kind of thrusting 

[00:21:14] Kyle Risi: Whatever feels natural in the moment. 

[00:21:16] Adam Cox: And you're just like waving your body around, and around, and around. Yeah, yeah. And getting out of breath. 

[00:21:21] Kyle Risi: Yeah. Maybe doing some twerking, because that kind of gets the diaphragm moving. And yeah, you do that for about ten minutes. Then, once everyone was like nice and dizzy and frantic, you go through a process of kothesis where you're told to just let go of all of your inhibitions.

[00:21:38] And this can manifest itself in any way that you want. It could be screaming your lungs out, you could beat the absolute crap out of the person next to you if you wanted to. This included wild, crazy group sex. And so there are these real crazy scenes where literally all of the above is happening at the same time. 

[00:21:57] Adam Cox: When I think of meditation, none of these [00:22:00] things come into it. Well, the 

[00:22:00] Kyle Risi: meditation's coming. Dynamic meditation. 

[00:22:03] Adam Cox: So you wiggled your body for ten minutes, you're out of breath, and all of a sudden you just see John to the left of you. Like, you lamp him, then you see Susan on the right, and you go, I'll screw her. I was just going to screw her. 

[00:22:13] Kyle Risi: But then after about 10 minutes of that, then you're back to hyperventilating again. And then it's followed by sitting in silence for 10 minutes. And then the whole thing is wrapped up where everyone gets naked and they just hug it out with everyone in the session.

[00:22:28] Adam Cox: What happens if John's on the floor? Everyone's like, pummeled him. And he's okay, now I forgive you, let's hug. But actually he's got a broken arm, a black eye. 

[00:22:35] Kyle Risi: Yeah, that's, that's what these sessions are all about. Yeah, I don't whoever how did he think this how did he come up with this?

[00:22:41] I don't know so as you can imagine like the more conservative a country is especially India people were outraged by what was happening and the immorality and the lack of kind of seemingly self restraint that was happening during these sessions and so in India, especially the epicenter of this cult people started protesting and [00:23:00] urging the government just to do something about these sannyasins that were just Getting involved in all this free love and like all these weird ideals because I remember It was all about doing whatever you could do in the the here and now to make yourself happy. 

[00:23:17] Adam Cox: Fine, I'm sure I'm going to try and take this methodology on I'm going to see what makes me happy in the moment. So maybe throughout the rest of this podcast, if I just start screaming randomly, yeah, because it makes me happy.

[00:23:28] Kyle Risi: It. Let's see how that goes. We might have to do a lot more editing.

[00:23:32] What made all of this even more grotesque was that Baguan himself started flaunting his wealth in a way that just started antagonizing people he was often seen just driving around in his very very expensive Rolls Royces and flashing his Rolex watches and all of this in a country where many of the religious teachings were about stoicism and restraint. So seeing this hedonistic, self indulgent way of living really just outraged ordinary Hindus living in the area. 

[00:23:57] Adam Cox: If he's got a Rolls Royce, he's doing all right [00:24:00] for himself. 

[00:24:00] Kyle Risi: That's it. And more and more extreme reports started leaking out to the media about how Bhagwan would force male followers to watch their wives have group sex with other men as a way of surrendering their wives to the cult and the religion.

[00:24:13] Adam Cox: Okay, now it's getting really kooky. 

[00:24:15] Kyle Risi: Yeah. Also, reports started emerging that Bhagwan himself was providing young women with special therapy sessions that involved mutual masturbation with them in his bed. So, it was all very questionable stuff coming from a leader of a very, spiritual, free thinking movement. So, as you can imagine, it didn't go down very well. 

[00:24:36] Adam Cox: Yeah, at the moment, whilst it's weird, it's not really harming anyone in a, in a, in a, I don't know, a serious way, so I'm really intrigued. Apart from, like, Ben, who's just been beaten up. Yeah, apart from Ben, but who likes Ben, anyway? But what I mean is, I'm really intrigued to how we're gonna get to, like, Like bio, what did you say bio? Bioterrorism. Yeah, how, where does this go? 

[00:24:57] Kyle Risi: Well, we need to introduce you to [00:25:00] someone first, but we're going to get on to her in just a second. Right. So of course out of all the reports that were coming out of the cult, Bhagwan himself was branded as the world's first sex guru and the Rajaneshis, essentially were branded as this infamous sex cult which only just Boasted kind of the cult's fame around the world attracting even more curious members Looking to be part of the sex orgies essentially 

[00:25:25] Adam Cox: basically. Yeah people looking for a good time. 

[00:25:27] Kyle Risi: Exactly, young free thinking people around the world are going Oh my god I'm totally in. Yeah. . And then they're coming to India to join this cult. 

[00:25:33] Adam Cox: I wanna take a gap year. gap. Ya

[00:25:36] Kyle Risi: So because the cult was amplified even more, the sexual freedom that was once just a small part of the practices became the main attraction, the main thing of the cult.

[00:25:47] And so you can probably imagine with all the sex orgies going on in the Ashram, STDs were absolutely rife. And I can just imagine how badly the place would have smelled. I was just thinking that. [00:26:00] With everyone just spending the day jumping around, sweating and then just cumming on each other. Ew. It would have been absolutely rank. 

[00:26:07] Adam Cox: You know when you walk into a room that's, that's had the sex? It had the sex, yeah. And it's just got that smell. Yeah, you can smell it. I can just imagine this I don't know this big hole and it just stinks. Oh my god. Like open the windows. And the heat 

[00:26:19] Kyle Risi: as well. This is in India, Adam. So it's going to be warm. 

[00:26:23] Adam Cox: The cleaners must have been like, oh, 

[00:26:25] Kyle Risi: I quit. 

[00:26:26] Adam Cox: They got through a lot of cleaners. 

[00:26:28] Kyle Risi: And of course, with all the sex, especially the unprotected kind, lots of people started getting pregnant. And this is where really shocking reports started emerging that bag one was telling women to get abortions. And for those that weren't pregnant, he was encouraging them to get sterilized. And he would pitch this as a mandatory step towards surrendering yourself and displaying your dedication to the movement, essentially. 

[00:26:51] But when all this emerged, politicians in India kind of finally decided that, enough was enough so an investigation was launched and [00:27:00] officials discovered that not only was the sannyasins from around the world being encouraged to migrate to India illegally but also that the sannyasins Was not paying any taxes. Of course not. So if you want to get yourself shut down, not paying taxes is the one thing that's going to do pretty quickly.

[00:27:16] Adam Cox: Yeah, government, government doesn't want to be missing out on its money. 

[00:27:19] Kyle Risi: No, they can excuse all the sex and immorality, but fuck with their taxes. They're going to come after you. And so as the officials started taking action, making it very difficult for them to continue expanding, they were forced to pay back all the taxes, which was, of course, a huge dent. on their revenue streams, but also they put in place more stringent measures to ensure that pilgrims couldn't just enter the country illegally anymore, which ended up stifling their growth and their numbers. Big problem. But bizarrely, the person Bhagwan blamed for all of this was just his secretary. His secretary. Yeah, yeah. It had hardly anything to do with it. 

[00:27:58] Adam Cox: Can you just like file some [00:28:00] paperwork? I don't know, found a loophole or something for Barbara. 

[00:28:03] And so this was a woman that was one of his original disciples, a woman called Laksmi. And so in response, demotes her and he replaces her with a woman who would go on to have more of an impact on the Rajneeshi movement than any other individual. And her name was Ma Anand Sheila. We're just going to call her Sheila. 

[00:28:24] Sheila? That sounds more Australian, that name. now. All right. So what does um, Sheila 

[00:28:29] Kyle Risi: do? So at the time when she was appointed, she was extremely young and ambitious. She joined the Rajneeshis as a teenager after her father had introduced her to Bhagwan.

[00:28:39] And according to her, the moment that she laid eyes on Bhagwan, she decided that she was going to devote her entire life to him, which I think is pretty sad, really. But When she was first promoted, she told Bhagwan that the government was never going to leave the ashram alone and that if they wanted to grow the commune in any [00:29:00] significant way, then they needed to take drastic action and move the commune headquarters somewhere out of the government's reach.

[00:29:07] Adam Cox: Sights on moving to another country, like Oregon? 

[00:29:10] Kyle Risi: Exactly. So Bhagwan tells her that if you can pull this off, and find a new location for the ashram, and successfully relocate us all there, I will make you my right hand woman. I will also make you my spokeswoman and also the president of all of my company. So of course, Sheila's like, I can do this, bitch. I'm going to be Billy, big potatoes. 

[00:29:31] Adam Cox: Yeah. But that, to try and ship a whole commune, because I don't know how many people are at this point, to another country, that must be, it's almost like Noah's Ark.

[00:29:39] Kyle Risi: 000. 

[00:29:41] Adam Cox: Wow. 

[00:29:41] Kyle Risi: Yes. So Sheila, Bhagwan, and all his closest disciples arrange flights in complete sequency. from the Indian government. They pack up, they leave the ashram along with all their kind of Rolls Royces and all the valuables, and they just disappear at them without telling anyone, [00:30:00] not even the rest of the commune.

[00:30:02] Really. Yeah, for the followers that were left behind, this caused quite a bit of a shock and confusion because they had no clue what was going on or what to even expect or what to do without their leader.

[00:30:13] So this has made even more odd because for the past year or so, Bhagwan had taken a vow of silence. Whenever he just appeared like at seminars and stuff, he would literally just sit on the stage in silence and other people would talk. And when people would ask him questions, he just wouldn't say anything. 

[00:30:29] Adam Cox: I'd be really mad. I've just flown to India. I've invested, I don't know, say a million dollars to have a few orgies. Yeah, expensive orgy. And then he's buggered off and I'm like, oh, now what do I do?

[00:30:40] Kyle Risi: Yeah, exactly. So a few days after leaving without a word, Bhagwan Bhagwan and his entourage safely arrived in the United States. Sheila then sends a message instructing all the sannyasins in the ashram in India to just return back to their old lives.

[00:30:55] Adam Cox: Really? So it's Oh, we don't need you anymore. 

[00:30:56] Kyle Risi: Yeah. 

[00:30:57] Adam Cox: Thanks for coming. 

[00:30:58] Kyle Risi: So a lot of people that did move to [00:31:00] India, they were just told to go back home. She made it very clear though that this was only temporary and that they should just wait for further instructions. 

[00:31:08] And the message explained that they were in the process of securing a new commune, and a promise that this new commune would be even better, but most importantly, it would be able to accommodate 10, 000 people. 300, 000 sannyasins. 

[00:31:20] Wow. 

[00:31:20] So the Ashtrayn was emptied out, all of his contents were sold off, and the Sanyasins, they just scattered around the globe, waiting for further orders to come down the line.

[00:31:29] While news outlets all around the world were reporting on this, nobody knew though, where Bagran had gone. And the speculation, of course, was that he had gotten himself in trouble with the Indian government, and that he had kind of like, gone into hiding.

[00:31:42] But then the news broke that Sheila and Bhagwan had actually been spotted in a mansion in New Jersey. And the reason why they were there is because of course Sheila had previously gone to university there and she knew that the United States offered the best protections against religious freedoms.

[00:31:57] So she thought that the United States would be the best place to [00:32:00] start up a new ashram for the Rajneshis. 

[00:32:03] So she bought the grandest building that she could find in New Jersey, which is obviously this quirky little replica castle and even there, Bagwan was behaving really badly, like causing a lot of frustration for the locals that were in the area.

[00:32:17] Because there were reports that started circulating that he just kept speeding around in his Rolls Royce, getting himself speeding tickets and not paying them. So like he just has no regard for any laws or anyone else he's just 

[00:32:30] Adam Cox: a dick 

[00:32:31] Kyle Risi: he's just a dick what the media didn't know though was that they were just using New Jersey as a temporary base while Sheila was out scouting for locations for a brand new commune big enough to house more than 10, 000 Sanyasins.

[00:32:45] After a few weeks of hunting all across the country, she had spotted what she thought was the most suitable location. But in retrospect, it's probably the worst possible location that they could have chosen. 

[00:32:57] The spot that they chosen was an old [00:33:00] abandoned ranch in the middle of Oregon called Big Muddy Ranch and this place Adam was massive it was 64, 000 acres in total so for perspective this place could fit five Manhattan islands into the single area and the idea was that it was isolated and remote enough to provide the commune with room to expand as its numbers grew over the next few decades.

[00:33:24] Adam Cox: And how are they expected just to get that land? 

[00:33:27] Kyle Risi: Basically Sheila told the owners that she was a wealthy widow who just wanted to set up a farm and start like a brand new life for herself. So she offers them 5. 9 million which they accept and the deal was done. Unbeknownst to the sellers, like big muddy ranch was about to become home to the world's leading community of sex crazed Rajaneshis. 

[00:33:47] And the reason in why this was such a terrible spot for a sex commune was that It was completely void of any infrastructure.

[00:33:56] Like there was no roads, no plumbing, no sewage, not even [00:34:00] electricity. It was literally just hills and rocks. And on top of this, it was culturally. Very, very conservative. 

[00:34:08] So the few locals that were nearby were not going to be pleased when they found out that this was going to be the headquarters of the largest tantric sex cult of people all tripping on LSD.

[00:34:20] So, they're in for a wild ride. I think, 

[00:34:23] Adam Cox: I mean, yeah, if you're a neighbor. I can just imagine you've got a little house, nice little farm, then you look over, and then you just see all this debauchery going on in the, bushes and stuff. 

[00:34:32] Kyle Risi: Yeah, an outdoor, uh, dynamic session. 

[00:34:35] Adam Cox: Yeah, and, I mean, there's quite a lot of space for 10, 000 people, at least initially, so you could kind of probably hide them quite well.

[00:34:42] But if they've got, they've got to build, I guess, houses, and then sewerage, What? That feels like a lot of work before they could even have any meditation. A 

[00:34:49] Kyle Risi: hell of a lot work. So on top of this, out of all the 50 states in America, Oregon has the tightest zoning restrictions and laws about how land can be used.[00:35:00]

[00:35:00] So the speculation is that Sheila was just under mountain pressure from Baguan to find a location. So very little research into these things was done. But now, the deal was done they just had to make it work at any cost. 

[00:35:11] Adam Cox: Yes, what kind of restrictions then in terms of what houses they could build how high or whatever that kind of thing exactly 

[00:35:17] Kyle Risi: that yeah So the idea was that this was a ranch it was a farm It could only be used as a farm But oh like they needed to stop building a city essentially to house 10, 000 people like farm infrastructure wasn't going to cut it so almost immediately Sanyasins from all around the world were summoned to come to Oregon to start building this new utopia in the wild west of America.

[00:35:39] Again, they were instructed to sell everything that they owned and bring all that money to Oregon because they were going to need a lot of capital to start building this city. 

[00:35:48] Adam Cox: Wow, so you've just been like, dismissed, essentially. He's like, oh, we will need you back. And then Sheila's obviously effed up a little bit and then she's like, um, actually, we need you back a bit soon. Can you come now, bring all your money, a [00:36:00] toolkit, maybe some screws, because yeah, you're gonna need it. 

[00:36:03] Kyle Risi: That's it. So because obviously their network of sanyasins were mostly well educated professionals, they first called upon all the engineers, the architects, the farmers, people across all these different fields to bring their expertise to start turning this remote ranch into a city all under the guise of establishing this farm.

[00:36:21] And so the Sanyasins started arriving and quickly locals started realizing that these were the notorious sex cult people that they'd been reading about in the news, of course, because everyone was wearing kind of their, their orange tunics and stuff. Of course, nearby towns, they became very nervous watching these group of hippies arriving at Big Muddy Ranch in, in truckloads.

[00:36:45] So, ugh. 

[00:36:46] Adam Cox: I was like, I'm never gonna sell this place now. 

[00:36:48] Kyle Risi: Exactly. Think about the value of my house. And for the first few months, Sheila and the other senior members just continued to reassure the local communities and governments that they were just simply building a farm, nothing more.

[00:36:59] And they promised [00:37:00] that they were going to be operating within kind of the state guidelines and restrictions on land and zoning laws. They said that all the hundreds of workers that were relocated to the farm were only there temporarily for the project and that all the structures that they were building on the ranch were purely necessary for them to just run a simple farm. 

[00:37:17] Adam Cox: I see, but I imagine if I was an inspector that was just going in to check in on the works, I was looking around, okay, so it's fine, a few houses, got you, got you.

[00:37:23] This sex swing out here. Is this essential? Oh yeah, no, absolutely. We need that for the cows. 

[00:37:28] Kyle Risi: Yeah, yeah, it's a cow set. It's, it's a cow, what do you call those slings that they put pregnant women in? Yes. In a gynecologist's ward where they put their legs in the, in the harness so they can get in there.

[00:37:40] It's for the cow. It's for the cow, okay. Yeah, this one's for a sheep. 

[00:37:43] Adam Cox: Yeah, like there's a hundred of them. 

[00:37:45] Kyle Risi: Yep, 

[00:37:45] Adam Cox: we're gonna have cattle. Purely for the cows. 

[00:37:48] Kyle Risi: Yeah, it's also going to be a leading cow gynecological research facility here as well. So we need a lot of these harnesses. And what's this giant swing pull of lube?

[00:37:57] What's that for? 

[00:37:59] For getting your hand [00:38:00] inside the cow. 

[00:38:01] But the thing is, though, it was just obvious to everyone from the very beginning that all of this was just a blatant lie. Because there were just hundreds of them on this ranch working around the clock, like literally 14 to 16 hour shifts every single day. 

[00:38:15] And while they did set up areas for farmland, the infrastructure they were erecting was more than enough to support an entire city with thousands of permanent residents.

[00:38:25] So like Adam, the things they built were just ridiculous. They built a dam, they built a very elaborate plumbing and sewer system. They built their own power plant, all right, to generate electricity. They built an entire network of roads for Bhagwan to kind of speed around in his Rolls Royce's. They even built an airport.

[00:38:45] That's impressive. Yeah. So this is super serious, Adam. They are all in, like these people know what they're doing. 

[00:38:51] Adam Cox: In some ways it's quite a fun project. It does sound like it'd be quite cool to build a whole new city from scratch. Yeah. But just, I still can't work out how they [00:39:00] have enough money to do this all. I know everyone's bringing their own money, but that's a lot that your life savings that you're putting into this. 

[00:39:06] Kyle Risi: Cost of building must be cheaper in a. In Oregon, I guess. Yes, yeah. 

[00:39:10] So I think that's a great time to take a quick break and when we get back, Bhagwan himself moves to the ranch and shit really kicks off.

[00:39:20] So Adam, we're back. The Sanyasins have been very hard at work building their utopia sex commune in Oregon. And finally in August of 1981, it's finally ready to receive Bhagwan himself. 

[00:39:34] This is when the pretense of saying that they were just building a farm was finally up, because like Bhagwan arriving instantly. He's like literally the most recognizable person of this entire cult so Unapologetically, they just came clean which of course was no surprise to anyone in the area and they announced that they were going to try and have the ranch legally incorporated as a city called Rajneeshpuram, the city of [00:40:00] Rajneesh.

[00:40:01] Adam Cox: Named after him. 

[00:40:02] Kyle Risi: Yeah, I mean, like, he's a cult leader. Of course, he's going to be really arrogant and call it after himself. 

[00:40:07] Adam Cox: God, he's just going to be driving around in his Rolls Royce, picking up ladies. 

[00:40:12] Kyle Risi: So following this announcement, it was basically treated as a declaration of war. And this is where the story escalates to a whole new level because this announcement would spark conflict between the Rajanishis and the native Oregonians. This would end up raging in courts and in the streets over the next few years, resulting in murder plots, hundreds of poisonings, bombings of several buildings, and keep in mind this was supposed to be a peaceful paradise under the rule of Ba Guan Rui.

[00:40:40] Adam Cox: Who threw the first 

[00:40:42] Kyle Risi: brick? I think it was them. So the first chapter of the story of this war between the Rajanishis and the people of Oregon was the takeover of the nearest town called Antelope. 

[00:40:53] Pretty much all of the residents there were retired conservative white Christians who had been [00:41:00] staunchly, of course, against the idea of a sex guru, bringing thousands of sex crazed followers, stinking up. the entire place with incense and yeast into their backyard. 

[00:41:10] And they were not quite about it either because Antelope became kind of ground zero for media reporting which presented this as every small town's worst nightmare 

[00:41:19] Adam Cox: Yeah, I think any giant cult turning up on your doorstep stinking up the place of yeast. Why yeast? 

[00:41:25] Kyle Risi: It's just, it's just what hippies do. A stick of yeast. 

[00:41:28] Adam Cox: Are they baking bread? I don't know, what's going on? 

[00:41:31] Kyle Risi: So the Rasi started buying up all the commercial residential property that they could get their hands on in antelope, and they use intimidation to get rid of as many of the original residents as possible. And before long, there were more than twice the number of Sanyasins as Antelopean residents living in Antelope. 

[00:41:48] And effectively, they were successful. They managed to take control of the entire city. But to further prevent, The Sanyasins from running the city, the mayor of Antelope, went to the extreme lengths [00:42:00] of trying to have the city of Antelope completely disincorporated entirely. 

[00:42:05] But in order to do this, they would require a vote. but by the time it got to a vote, there were enough Sanyasins residing in Antelope to completely block it. So it didn't work. 

[00:42:18] This becomes a global news story made even more terrifying by the fact that Jonestown had just happened just a few years ago. So throughout all of the reporting, there was a lot of comparisons being made between Jim Jones and the People's Temple versus Bhagwan and the Rajanishis. 

[00:42:33] The thing that made this such a compelling story was Sheila herself because she provided the media with the most incredible soundbites on television. Like she was so confident and so domineering in front of the press, which is exactly why Bhagwan had appointed her to this role.

[00:42:51] Bhagwan's key philosophy was that the more kind of antagonistic and arrogant you are, the more people will respect you. And this was [00:43:00] something that Sheila did extraordinarily well. And of course, her catchphrase, she was most famously known for when asked about the complaints from the locals who were unhappy with the Rajinishi's presence and their practices. She just dismissively replied, tough titties, 

[00:43:16] Adam Cox: tough titties. 

[00:43:17] I don't feel like we say tough titties enough. I feel like it's a great way to come back and go, you know what? I just don't care. Tough titties. I agree. 

[00:43:26] Kyle Risi: Another brilliant soundbite was when she was asked in an interview, like, are all Rajanishis encouraged to play out their sexual fantasies and indulge in free love with multiple people, she responded like, very demurely, Rajanishis are taught not to be like the Queen of England, who is afraid to show her tits.

[00:43:48] I don't know if she's afraid. That's a nicer, I think she's afraid. And ironically, all this immediate attention only ended up benefiting the Rajneeshis recruitment drive.

[00:43:58] Because people around the world were hearing [00:44:00] about this group that encouraged lots of sex and being as greedy as they wanted to be so footage of these carefree individuals all just sunbathing naked in parks just drove thousands of horny teenagers to come and join this cult. People wanted in. 

[00:44:15] Adam Cox: What a time to be alive. 

[00:44:18] Kyle Risi: So Oregon tried to fight against the ranch becoming a city in the courts, while at the same time, the immigration department made moves to deport people. And who was in the country on a tourist visa, but he kept extending it on medical grounds.

[00:44:35] So to counter this, Bhagwan arranged to meet with the immigration department to explain that he was actually a religious leader and that he deserved special residential visa so that he could kind of stay and guide his people. 

[00:44:48] Adam Cox: Right. I wondered if they were going to try and become a religion and how like I'm assuming they didn't achieve that status.

[00:44:54] Kyle Risi: So on the day Of the meeting, he'd arranged for all the sannyasins to arrive ahead of him [00:45:00] and literally roll out a red carpet And on either side They would lay down roses and then they would stand in lines with their hands in the prayer position So that when he entered he would enter the building with a dignity deserving of a religious leader. 

[00:45:16] So inside The argument the Immigration Department gave was that they didn't see how he could be a religious leader since he hadn't spoken in public in years. Because remember he was still engaged in this vow of silence. 

[00:45:30] And Bhagwan claimed that he used a highly involved combination of written words and energetic fields when sitting in silence before his followers. And that's how he was able to teach and impart wisdom. 

[00:45:43] Adam Cox: Or through like thrusting and like wiggling in the air. 

[00:45:45] Kyle Risi: Yeah, probably. They also pointed out that one of the key philosophies of the sannyasins was that organized religion was just a big fat scam. So if the sannyasins didn't acknowledge themselves as a religion, Why should we acknowledge you as a [00:46:00] religion? And so they denied his visa. 

[00:46:02] Adam Cox: I'd be like him if he was there and they were giving him that rationale. I'd be like, Ah. Yeah, ok. 

[00:46:09] Kyle Risi: But The thing is, though, that's exactly what happened. Oh, really? So he went off and he started, like, 

[00:46:14] Adam Cox: getting a sculpture made?

[00:46:16] Kyle Risi: No, he set in motion to transform themselves into an officially recognized religion, which meant that they would have to write their own Bible complete with the Rajneeshi Ten Commandments and their own kind of unique apocalyptic doomsday predictions that kind of the end was nigh.

[00:46:32] Now, while all that was in place, it was all just done, ironically, just to satisfy. The, the needs of the immigration. So they didn't believe any of this, like, they made up these really weird Ten Commandments, and they made up this phony kind of, like, story, but it was just purely To get past. To get what they wanted. They still were very anti religion. 

[00:46:50] Adam Cox: Wow. But okay, it was done ironically. Fair enough. 

[00:46:53] Kyle Risi: So what they did as well is they also needed to assign and appoint priests and things like that. So members of the cult were assigned [00:47:00] roles as ministers and priests, even without volunteering for those positions. So you have this scene where you've got these very inexperienced, horny, LSD fueled teenagers who are being appointed as priests.

[00:47:12] It's really fucked up. However, all of this only ended up backfiring, giving kind of the state attorney more grounds to have Rajneeshpuram disincorporated completely because under the U. S. Constitution, church and state have to remain separate. So you can't have a religious leader in charge of a city.

[00:47:30] So for a time, it seemed like the city was just going to be completely demolished because of that. So they, they fucked themselves essentially.

[00:47:40] And this whole time, the Rajinishis often claimed that this was all just an attack on them and that they were being persecuted for their beliefs, as all cults do anyway, right?

[00:47:48] We've seen it time and time again. And the belief was only solidified even more when A Muslim extremist group set off a series of bombs at a hotel that the Rajneeshis owned in Portland. 

[00:47:59] [00:48:00] So the Sanyasins mobilized themselves collectively as an army called the Peace Force and they just basically said that they were ready to fight back at any means necessary.

[00:48:11] They brought hundreds and hundreds of high powered guns like AK 47s, which they would literally carry around with them wherever they went. So you see these people in these yellow togas with these fucking AK 47s, man.

[00:48:23] Adam Cox: The Peace Force. 

[00:48:24] Kyle Risi: The Peace Force. They even invited news crews to come and watch them training on the ground. And Sheila would go on camera and say again and again, that for every Rajinishi that was harmed, she would arrange for 15 non Rajinishis to be killed. 

[00:48:40] So imagine watching the 6 o'clock news, watching someone report on that, watching this lady who is not a national in your country, 

[00:48:48] Adam Cox: Telling you that she's gonna come kill 15 of you. That's horrendous. 

[00:48:52] It's terrifying. From this like free loving kind of place. Yeah. I guess they're, they're attacking back. Mm.

[00:48:58] Kyle Risi: So for everyone watching at home, they're like, oh [00:49:00] shit. They're not just doing the sex. these people are potentially very dangerous. Yeah, they're doing the shooting as well. 

[00:49:05] Occasionally throughout the years, the US government would deploy forces to the area just to ensure nothing bad was going to happen. And Sheila just saw this as an aggression. And they would just ramp up their own defense strategies even more. So this entire situation was just escalating very, very quickly. 

[00:49:21] So, as 1984 rolled round, Sheila decided that the most effective way to protect the city from being disincorporated and then demolished was to win seats in the Wasco County Circuit Court.

[00:49:35] Now, if she could gain control of a couple of the positions there, then that would then give them control over the building and development permits across like huge chunks of the state. Including, of course, their own.

[00:49:49] So, she nominated two Rajinishi candidates to be elected, but she knew there weren't enough eligible voters in Rajneesh Pooram to guarantee that they would be [00:50:00] able to win those seats in the vote. There were 7, 000 Sanyasins living in the commune, Less than half of them were eligible to vote either because obviously their age or their citizenship and of course in America to be eligible to vote in election you had to be a US citizen over the age of 18 and you've had to have lived somewhere in Wasco County for the previous 20 days .

[00:50:23] Adam Cox: Right? 

[00:50:23] Kyle Risi: That's key,

[00:50:24] So Sheila put out word to all the Sanyasins living across the USA who were over the age of 18 to come and stay in Rajneeshpuram for three weeks leading up to the election. And they will be obviously provided with discounted accommodation and food and whatnot. But before long it was apparent that they didn't have enough numbers that they needed to help swing the vote So they needed another plan. 

[00:50:45] Adam Cox: Okay, 

[00:50:46] Kyle Risi: so what they did is they sent teams of Rajneeshies out to all the major cities across the country with empty buses and they were instructed To bring back as many homeless people As they possibly could fit [00:51:00] in a car into these buses.

[00:51:01] Basically they would approach these people living on the streets and offer them a free ride to Oregon, where they would be given a fresh new start. They'll be given free accommodation, food, clothing, and education. 

[00:51:13] And for many, this was like a dream come true. But the thing that persuaded them the most was a promise of two free beers a day.

[00:51:21] Adam Cox: So you've got maybe these alcoholics that are on the street and like, yeah, 

[00:51:25] Kyle Risi: I'll come. 

[00:51:26] Adam Cox: Yeah, I'm in. I mean, it sounds quite noble in a way. Obviously it's got an underlying motive. But it's kind of like, there might be some people that are down on their luck. Actually, this is really helpful. I get my two beers.

[00:51:38] Kyle Risi: That's it. And that's how they pegged it, as a charitable deed. The guarantee was that if they didn't like their new life in Oregon, they would be given a free ticket back home. The only condition was, of course, that they needed to be over the age of 18 and they needed to be a US citizen eligible to vote.

[00:51:53] And so thousands of people, mostly men, came to Rajneeshpuram from all around [00:52:00] the USA. The problem was that they didn't have enough accommodation for them. So they were cramming them all into tents, sometimes 10 to 20 people in a tent built for six.

[00:52:10] Adam Cox: Okay, 

[00:52:11] Kyle Risi: so it's not good, Adam. And the way that this was pegged, as I said, to the press was that this was a humanitarian initiative that Bhagwan had come up with called share a home, designed essentially to give back to the community and provide them with a second chance when America had all given up on on these All they've given them is a tent.

[00:52:31] Yeah, they are giving them food and two free beers a day. 

[00:52:33] Adam Cox: Yeah, but don't forget about the beer It's not quite, I'll be like, hang on a minute. I heard about the sex and that one I'm not getting any sex. Two, we've ran out of beer. I think they are getting the sex, but remember most of them are men 

[00:52:46] Kyle Risi: They can still do that Find a friend. But even though they were pegging this as some kind of humanitarian kind of initiative, it was all really obvious to everyone. This was just a complete and blatant lie. And it was clear that they were trying to swing the [00:53:00] votes in the upcoming election. So the county office announced that they're not accepting any new enrollments for these new citizens who just moved to Oregon. 

[00:53:08] Now they needed a new plan. This is just plan after plan after plan after plan, Adam, and each time it's just going to keep backfiring. So just buckle up. 

[00:53:17] Adam Cox: Okay, so how many more times do they 

[00:53:19] Kyle Risi: have?

[00:53:19] So what they decided to do is they announced that the entire share a home project was now over and they instructed all the new recruits to leave. About 60 percent of them were happy to go since obviously they've been living in these overcrowded tents with hardly any food, right?

[00:53:35] But for the ones that felt that they'd found their second chance, they were really pissed off and angry. So to add insult to injury, the promise of the free bus ride home was just withdrawn. And instead, they were just driven to a nearby city somewhere in Oregon, and they were just left there to just figure it out for themselves.

[00:53:56] And so because of course, these people had no money, nearby [00:54:00] towns and cities, they were just inundated with thousands of homeless people with no means of getting back to where they were previously living.

[00:54:06] So the state arranged for local wealthy business people to help try and discreetly get these homeless people back to where they wanted to go in the country. And this is where they noticed that a lot of the homeless people seem to be really stoned. Stoned. Turns out that the Rajneeshis had started spiking those two free beers with a combination of sedatives and anti psychotics.

[00:54:30] Adam Cox: Psychotics. Why? Why would you want to spike people that you're trying to get rid of anyway? 

[00:54:34] Kyle Risi: The justification was that some of the men had been attacking the Rajanishis, including obviously Sheila. So in response, they started drugging them. And when the press kind of, Came at them for this. Sheila didn't give a shit. Her focus was on plan B to try and win the county election. But they were Tough titties. Tough titties. They were drugging these people because I guess a lot of them were unhappy about the fact that they were being sent home. So they just drugged them, load them on a bus.

[00:54:58] I'm really sorry, but here's two [00:55:00] more beers to go. Last two beers. Enjoy. Wow. So the new plan was that if they couldn't increase the number of pro Rajinishi voters, then they would find a way to decrease the number of anti Rajinishi voters in the area. 

[00:55:17] Adam Cox: Of course, go after the opposition. 

[00:55:20] Kyle Risi: So a while before, she'd instructed a few biologists and pharmaceutical educated kind of Rajinishis to start figuring out how they could cultivate Salmonella.

[00:55:31] God. And at the time, Sheila wanted to use the Salmonella cultures to give people the shit. So this was purely for the sole purpose of preventing town inspectors from being able to inspect the facilities. 

[00:55:44] Adam Cox: Yeah yeah. Somewhat smart I guess but like they're gonna recover at some point. 

[00:55:48] Kyle Risi: Exactly. So now Sheila wanted to use these same Salmonella cultures as part of plan B to capacitate anti Rajinishi voters on the day of the election.

[00:55:59] So Sheila's [00:56:00] team quickly start experimenting with different ways that they could distribute the Salmonella to a large group of people. They try basically wiping the salmonella cultures on door handles in public buildings. They visit restaurants all around the county and they pour the salmonella into kind of creamy pasta salads. They pour it into kind of milk jugs in coffee shops and in diners. They spray it on fresh produce in supermarkets. Sometimes they would even kind of rub it on their own hands. And then when they would shake, the hands of officials at meetings that they were going into, they would then infect them with the salmonella.

[00:56:33] Adam Cox: Wow. I mean, that's quite a big operation and very sneaky, but yeah. And this 

[00:56:38] Kyle Risi: is just an experiment at this time. 

[00:56:40] Adam Cox: Okay. 

[00:56:40] Kyle Risi: So overall during the experimentation phase, they managed to infect 751 people over the span of just a few days.

[00:56:48] So you've got all these people that have come down with a bad bout of the shits, essentially. 

[00:56:53] Adam Cox: I mean, that just goes to show how Anyone could possibly do that by sneaking in milk jugs and all this kind of [00:57:00] stuff. That's kind of worrying. 

[00:57:01] Kyle Risi: It is, it does make you question what do the cultures look like? Because they did pick a lot of creamy things. So was it creamy in nature? 

[00:57:08] Adam Cox: Milky. 

[00:57:09] Kyle Risi: Yeasty. Yeasty. Yummy. Fortunately, no one died. However, one pregnant woman did nearly lose her baby. So like, that's sad. They could have put people in serious danger. Understandably, the whole state goes into panic mode.

[00:57:23] And it was very obvious that they were under attack from someone and that the Rajanishis were the obvious culprits, but nobody could prove anything and Sheila, when confronted, took the kind of the stance of outright indignation and outrage at the mere suggestion that they would be involved in this in any way, all while quietly being pleased with the results that they managed to achieve.

[00:57:45] Adam Cox: Yeah, it's like, how dare you accuse me as there's people in the background, like shipping salmon melon giant tubs. 

[00:57:52] Kyle Risi: But the problem was that they were going to have to infect a lot more than 751 people if they were going to successfully sway the [00:58:00] votes on election day.

[00:58:01] So they needed to ramp things up a bit. And in doing so, they plotted to cause what was reported to be the first and largest bioterror attack in U. S. history. 

[00:58:12] Adam Cox: How do they do this then? 

[00:58:14] Kyle Risi: They figured that if they wanted to infect thousands of people, they needed to somehow contaminate the water supply of The Dalles, which is the largest city in that county.

[00:58:24] So they came up with a plan to put a bunch of dead beavers in the water supply of the city. Apparently beavers are riddled with salmonella pathogens and they figured that if they could get enough rotten corpses into the drinking water they could potentially make the entire city very sick. Right.

[00:58:42] When they went to dump the beaver bodies into the river reservoir, they discovered that there was a kind of a mesh covering protecting kind of, yeah, contaminants entering into the water supply.

[00:58:54] Adam Cox: Of course, someone's gonna have thought about this beforehand to make sure that. We don't want no dead beavers in our water [00:59:00] supply. And it feels like you need more than a few. 

[00:59:02] Kyle Risi: Yes, essentially. What they did is they fished out the dead beavers. They took them back to Rajanishpuram and then they liquefied them in blenders so they could easily pour the slurry into the dam through the mesh grate.

[00:59:17] Adam Cox: That is gross. 

[00:59:18] Kyle Risi: Thankfully, just before they went back to pour the beaver slurry into the dam, even Sheila felt that this was a line that she wasn't willing to cross. And it wouldn't be until years later that investigators discovered how close it actually came to pulling this off. To the point where they had the beaver slurry ready to go.

[00:59:39] Adam Cox: Like, they unscrewed the lid. 

[00:59:40] Kyle Risi: Yeah. 

[00:59:41] Adam Cox: About to pour it in when 

[00:59:42] Kyle Risi: RANK! That's terrible. So this whole poisoning scheme ended up just being abandoned, thank god. 

[00:59:48] And a few days before the election, Sheila just announced that Rajanishis were pulling out of the race and they were going to boycott the election altogether.

[00:59:57] And she claimed it was outrageous how [01:00:00] those poor homeless people could do that. had been treated by the government because they had been refused the right to vote. I'm like, completely ignoring the fact that she had treated them awfully by cramming them all into tents, then sedating them, and then just dumping them into nearby towns. Yeah, the government's the bad guys. 

[01:00:15] Adam Cox: Tough titties, Kyle. Do you think, She chickened out because she felt bad or she think this could come back on them because people suspected that they had already Given other people Salmonella. 

[01:00:27] Kyle Risi: I don't know honestly. I don't know. 

[01:00:29] Adam Cox: Okay. Yeah I just I just wondered because she feels quite sort of She has very strong beliefs And she's willing to get the job done. And I just wondered if it's actually, was it a moment of realization or actually more about concern for herself? 

[01:00:44] Kyle Risi: I think it is true that it's a step too far. Like this is thousands of people we're talking about. She also becomes really distracted and she also becomes really paranoid as well, which we're going to go into in a second. So it could be that it's a combination of these different things and the shifting of attention to all these different plans [01:01:00] that doesn't allow her to stick to one thing.

[01:01:03] So Sheila just says that she was never serious about the election anyway, and it had all just been a joke. And if people didn't understand their sense of humor, then that was all just on them.

[01:01:11] And so the whole plan to win the election was just a complete bust. So desperate, behind the scenes, Sheila decides that if they couldn't gain power themselves, the next best option was to eliminate those in power. And by eliminate, I, of course, mean murder.

[01:01:29] Adam Cox: Okay, so she's, she's, I mean, poisoning several thousand people, a bit too far, but killing, that's fine. 

[01:01:36] Kyle Risi: Yeah. 

[01:01:37] Adam Cox: Okay. 

[01:01:37] Kyle Risi: So her team start making plans to kill the state attorney, the attorney general, and the county commissioner. Basically, anyone that was standing in the way of the Rajanishis and building their city. But in order to get the other disciples on board. She first needed to, kind of, make them all paranoid to the point that they were all convinced that someone was going to try and kill Bhagwan. So, she secretly [01:02:00] records Bhagwan saying that he believed that the life of an enlightened man, basically referring to his own life, was far more valuable than 10, 000 non enlightened people and that sometimes extreme measures were necessary to protect someone whose life was exceptionally valuable like his was.

[01:02:14] So she basically uses this recording as a very effective way of convincing the others to then go out and commit murder. Right. 

[01:02:21] What they do first is attempt to try and burn down buildings with their enemies inside them. But that fails miserably because, you know, this is why fire drills and procedures exist. Everyone just filed out of the building and congregated in the car parks. So, like, the arson attacks never worked. Right, okay. 

[01:02:39] Then when that didn't work, the plan was to try and shoot the US Attorney, Charles Turner, in a parking garage in Portland. But it failed miserably because, you know, this is why fire drills and procedures exist. And so, like, the plan was to try and shoot the US Attorney, Charles Turner, in a parking garage in Portland. The idea was that they would send a sanyasin to pretend to have car trouble inside the parking garage, blocking the exit. And then when Charles gets out the car to try and assist, two sanyasins would then approach [01:03:00] and assassinate him.

[01:03:01] That was the plan. But this plan never happened because during these plots, Sheila herself was starting to become extremely distracted and paranoid that there were other people in the cult that were dead set on bringing her down. 

[01:03:15] In particular, there were a group of very wealthy new sannyasins who had just recently joined from Hollywood, including one of the producers of The Godfather and his Uh, Wife.

[01:03:29] Oh, really? 

[01:03:30] So, with them, they had brought a lot of money, a lot of influence, which ended up affording them loads of special privileges inside the commune, which also meant that they got very close to Bhagwan. 

[01:03:40] Bhagwan was very seduced by power and the whole Hollywood kind of glamour of everything. 

[01:03:45] The final straw for Sheila, however, was when one of those new recruits was appointed as Bhagwan's private doctor, which Sheila felt was becoming a potential risk to her position in [01:04:00] power.

[01:04:00] So she tells all of her inner circle that the Hollywood folk were planning to kill Bagwan with an overdose and make it look like a suicide. 

[01:04:08] And so, at a special festival celebration, the doctor is injected with a syringe filled with adrenaline intended to give him a heart attack and to make it look like an accident.

[01:04:18] But, unfortunately, he survives and while no one officially accuses Sheila, I think it was very obvious that she was potentially involved in this. And so because she could feel like maybe 

[01:04:31] Adam Cox: people are suspecting her. 

[01:04:32] Kyle Risi: Yeah, the walls could be closing in on her. She decides to get out of Dodge and she packs up all of her stuff and she leaves. She charges a jet and she takes all of her closest cronies and she disappears to Germany for a while. 

[01:04:44] Adam Cox: Interesting. And so they know that he was spiked there with adrenaline. They know that he wasn't Jack. 

[01:04:50] Kyle Risi: But they don't really know who it was. This only came out when they did an investigation. They discovered all of this years later.

[01:04:56] Adam Cox: I mean, it does sound like she was guilty based on the fact that she [01:05:00] fled. 

[01:05:00] Kyle Risi: Yeah, of course. So when Bhagwan finds out that Sheila is gone He's obviously absolutely furious Like he'd just recently started speaking publicly again earlier that year doing daily lectures where he would just spontaneously talk About whatever he wanted, but now he was using those lectures to make wild accusations about Sheila and her cronies. Claiming, basically, that she had stolen 55 million dollars and that she had tried to kill him. He said whatever he felt that he needed to say to try and turn all the other Rajneeshis against her, and it worked! She was excommunicated and Sanyasins all around the world just started kind of like shunning her.

[01:05:39] Adam Cox: Wow. She's gone and like transformed and really pushed forward to their movement, or whatever you want to call it. And now, just because she's fled and whatever, he's now wanting to get rid of her? 

[01:05:51] Kyle Risi: Well, I mean it's a big betrayal, right? 

[01:05:53] Adam Cox: Yeah, I guess so, but she's just saving herself a little bit. But yeah, fair enough. So she's still in Germany at this point then. 

[01:05:59] Kyle Risi: [01:06:00] Yeah. So she's hanging out there but of course the side effects of these accusations against Sheila are only acted as an invitation for the FBI and the local state authorities to come in and search every corner of Rajneeshpuram and find evidence to support these very serious claims that Bhagwan was making himself, right?

[01:06:18] Adam Cox: Yeah, you've drawn too much attention. 

[01:06:20] Kyle Risi: And this is where they discover all the evidence of all their failed plans. They discover the Salmonella lab, the plot to contaminate the water supply in the Dalles. They discover all the murder plots and the arson attacks that all failed miserably. And they find records of hundreds and hundreds of sham marriages that had been arranged to help Rajneeshies get American green cards. 

[01:06:42] Adam Cox: Interesting. So hang on. Um, they didn't, so they had a lot of plans, but they didn't really succeed. Pointless. They're kind of like the worst bad people ever, if that makes sense.

[01:06:54] Kyle Risi: Yeah, they just weren't very successful with their little plans. But I mean, they built a city. So I mean, 

[01:06:59] Adam Cox: that's [01:07:00] impressive. I'm glad they didn't kill anyone and everything like that. So that's good. 

[01:07:04] Kyle Risi: So what they also do is they discover that Shida had arranged for most of the city to be bugged with recording devices so they could secretly spy on everyone 24 seven, including Bhagwan himself.

[01:07:15] And all of this just proved that Bhagwan actually knew a lot more about what the sannyasins had been doing over the previous few years, when this entire time, he'd been claiming that it was Sheila all acting against his orders. So he had, in fact, been more involved than he admitted.

[01:07:31] Adam Cox: I find it funny that she bugged everything. That's, like, uh, starting the community in America, just things became more sinister. 

[01:07:40] Kyle Risi: Yeah, that's the thing though. It's just that there were once this peace loving kind of people who just like resorted to murder and bioterrorism.

[01:07:47] Adam Cox: Yeah, you started by sleeping around and look what happened. 

[01:07:50] Kyle Risi: Yeah, sex is the root of all evil. So now Bagwan himself is being investigated and so he too packs up all the Colt's valuables, including all of his Rolex [01:08:00] watches, which at the time was the largest private collection of anyone else's in the world.

[01:08:04] How many did he have? Like hundreds, hundreds of really expensive Rolex watches. He packs up all of his artworks, his Rolls Royces. He takes a bunch of people with him, mostly the Hollywood kind of elite crew, and they fled to the Bahamas, leaving all the Sanyasins behind without a leader once again. 

[01:08:22] Adam Cox: Wow. So he's like, he's picked all the rich people and we're like, can you cover my, my hotel room bill?

[01:08:27] Yeah. 

[01:08:27] Kyle Risi: Luckily, word spreads to the authorities that he's taken off and his jet is intercepted in North Carolina, where he is arrested and then taken back to Oregon and charged with 35 counts of deliberate violations of immigration law, including sham marriages, false statements, uh, to immigration officials.

[01:08:46] And obviously, knowing he was doomed, he just pleads guilty. He's just like, yeah, I did all of it. It was all me. And the judge was, of course, aiming to send him away for 10 years behind bars. But when it's pointed out that [01:09:00] this is just going to make him a martyr. And it's not going to kind of solve your other issue whereby you've got all these other sannyasins just kind of essentially taking up residence in the state of Oregon.

[01:09:12] So his sentence is instead suspended. They give him a 40, 000 fine, which is nothing. And then they just deport him to India. They ban him from reentering the United States for five years. The hope was that all of his followers will then follow him. And they do, that's exactly what happens. They all leave. 

[01:09:30] Adam Cox: That's smart. Yeah, good way of doing it. Otherwise, they probably would be doing revenge attacks or whatever, wouldn't they? 

[01:09:35] Kyle Risi: Yeah, of course, India banned him from starting up a new ashram because they already got burnt once, right? 

[01:09:41] Adam Cox: Oh, really? You're back? 

[01:09:43] Kyle Risi: He's back! And so he spends the next year bouncing around different countries trying to find a new location, but every single country is says the same thing. No dice. Yeah. He goes back to Pune with his tail between his legs and his reputation is completely in tatters. [01:10:00] So he decides the best thing for me to do is to just rebrand and he changed his name to Osho, since obviously Bagwan is now associated with a disgraced sex guru. So yeah, smart move to change the name. But meanwhile, Sheila, she is extradited from Germany to the States, and she's charged with attempting to murder Bagwan's personal physician. She's charged with first degree assault for poisoning Judge William Hulse, second degree assault for poisoning the DARS commissioner Raymond Matthews, and product tampering related to obviously the salmonella poisoning by going into supermarkets and spraying it on all the produce and shit.

[01:10:38] Adam Cox: So she's sent to prison, then. 

[01:10:40] Kyle Risi: Yeah, she gets 20 years in prison, which, she only serves 29 months. Which is so dumb! Like, what is the point in a sentence if someone is only gonna serve a fraction of their time? I don't get it. 

[01:10:51] Adam Cox: 29 months, that's nothing. So she's out in 29 months for what, good behaviour or whatever it might be. Are they trying to just ship her out of the country now?

[01:10:58] Kyle Risi: Essentially, yeah. Some [01:11:00] of the most devoted sannyasins, they end up moving to India to be obviously close to Bhagwan or called Osho now. And a lot of others, do you know what, they just go like, enough's enough and they just go back to reality.

[01:11:11] Adam Cox: yeah, that was a nice summer. Um, yeah, back to my real job when I had to five. 

[01:11:16] Kyle Risi: Sadly, just five years later, Bagwan, who's obviously now rebranded as Osho, he died. He died in 1990. But he still has a huge following, around about the time he died, Sheila, she's released from prison. She ends up moving to Switzerland and she opens up a couple nursing homes and that's exactly what she's doing to this day. 

[01:11:36] Adam Cox: Nursing homes? Yes! I do not, I do not trust her with my mum or dad if they were ever in a nursing home.

[01:11:42] Kyle Risi: She's like, oh, don't act up, Karen. I'll give you some salmonella salmonella drink this so she still talks to the media every now and then. She stands by and defends all of her choices, she defends Bagwan, even though, like, he excommunicated her, she still loves him. 

[01:11:59] Adam Cox: [01:12:00] Hmm, interesting. Yeah, I guess she doesn't, she never really quit him, she just saved herself a little bit. I 

[01:12:04] Kyle Risi: guess so, yeah. But then he said loads of bad things about you, that's enough to kind of like go, Hang on a minute, I did all this stuff for you and you're talking smack about me behind my back. 

[01:12:12] Adam Cox: Talking smack? 

[01:12:13] Kyle Risi: I heard you've been talking schmack!

[01:12:16] So, there was a documentary released in 2018 called Wild Wild Country. I think it's still on Netflix. When that came out like she got her own cult following because people loved how she was portrayed in this documentary and since then she's gone on to have a couple other follow up documentaries made about what she's doing now. So she's become a real cult. 

[01:12:37] Adam Cox: Where's Sheila now? Where is she now? She's still in Switzerland right now. 

[01:12:42] Kyle Risi: Yeah, she's running these homes, she does a lot of talks and stuff. She's gone on a few speaking tours. Like, since then, she's done speaking tours across India about her redemption, but completely refuses to answer any questions about her crime, saying, like, I went to prison. And I've moved on with my life. So why [01:13:00] should we need to discuss this any further? Yet she continues to express how much she just adores Bagman to this day. 

[01:13:07] And like, you can still access all of Osho's books and lectures. Like there are hundreds of them and they're still available for sale in almost every single country in the world.

[01:13:17] Oh, Osho's meditation centres still exist. Really? Yeah, where you can go and participate in these dynamic meditation workshops. 

[01:13:25] I'm not sure if the sex is still happening though. If they are. then it's very weird because they now offer different corporate retreat packages. So you go on this team building kind of excursion where at the end of it you just end up having sex with Sharon for finance. 

[01:13:42] Adam Cox: Wow. I'm gonna put that in the suggestion box at work. 

[01:13:47] Kyle Risi: Can we go to a dynamic meditation? Oh my god. So there are still hundreds of thousands of Neo Sannyasins all around the world to this day. And even though Osho has died, like [01:14:00] they never appointed a new leader. The entire kind of organisation is now just run by a board, which is worth hundreds of millions of dollars, even today.

[01:14:09] Adam Cox: How is this still going? The people are still making money from his books and all that sort of stuff, and, wow, that's impressive. Like, he managed, he did achieve something. It's weird.

[01:14:20] Kyle Risi: And the crazy thing is that all this happened because of this one naturally charismatic kid who just didn't want to follow the rules set by his society that he was living in. So he just ended up pushing the boundaries to the point where he formed a cult, built a city and waged war against the United States. It's just mad. 

[01:14:39] Adam Cox: Yeah. I can't believe we don't know. It feels like this should be a Netflix show, like a drama. It is a Netflix show! No, but a dramatization. 

[01:14:45] Kyle Risi: Oh, you reckon?

[01:14:46] Adam Cox: Yeah. That'd be really good. I love that he's not Indian, but, Jeff Goldblum in this. Yes, 

[01:14:53] Kyle Risi: yes, Jeff Goldblum would be pretty good. Yeah. 

[01:14:56] Adam Cox: Yeah. 

[01:14:56] Kyle Risi: As Sheila. 

[01:14:58] Adam Cox: Exactly, that's where my mind was [01:15:00] going. 

[01:15:00] Kyle Risi: Finally, before we wrap up, probably the best bit of irony in this whole story is that Big Muddy Ranch, which was the then Rajesh Pra, once the epicenter of a sex cult, is now a Christian youth camp where children are taught about the benefits of abstinence and waiting until marriage.

[01:15:18] Adam Cox: The irony of that, yeah. 

[01:15:20] Kyle Risi: I know. And Adam, that is the story of Bhagwan Rajneesh and the sex cult who try to take over America. 

[01:15:28] Adam Cox: That was wild. And bloody Sheila. I know. She's pesky. 

[01:15:32] Kyle Risi: I liked her. I really, if you go onto YouTube and you look at some of her footage and her interviews online, Mm hmm. She is a force to be reckoned with because she's quite small and quite petite. She's young, but she's so confident She's so arrogant and her presence in front of the camera. I can see why she was in the position that she was in. Yeah in that cult 

[01:15:55] Adam Cox: I'll have to give that a watch. But yeah, great story. 

[01:15:57] Kyle Risi: Yeah, so should we wrap up? [01:16:00]

[01:16:00] Adam Cox: Let's do it 

[01:16:00] Kyle Risi: And that wraps up another episode into the fascinating and intriguing On The Compendium.

[01:16:05] If today's episode tickled your curiosity, then don't forget to hit that follow button in your favourite podcasting app. It makes the world of difference when you do. For our diehard listeners next week's episode is waiting for you right on our Patreon which is completely free.

[01:16:19] If you're hungry for more then you can join as a certified freak and unlock our entire archive of unreleased episodes.

[01:16:27] New episodes drop every Tuesday and until then remember not every path to enlightenment has to involve bioterrorism. You could just have a chat about it.

[01:16:39] See you next time. 

[01:16:40] See ya. [01:17:00]