The Rajneeshis in Oregon
One of my favorite reads is Frances FitzGerald’s Cities on a Hill (1987), which explores five diverse communities in the United States, including the town in Oregon that became headquarters for the Rajneesh community.
A new documentary, called Wild, Wild Country, tells the story of the community and its rural neighbors, and is now airing on Netflix.
Wild, Wild Country explains how a large gathering of followers of a spiritual leader from India (Bagwan Shree Rajneesh) made Oregon home in the 1980s.
Some 2,000 devotés took up residence in the community near Antelope, according to the Oregonian newspaper.
When I tuned in to the documentary, I was struck by the long-time residents of Antelope, whose worries sounded familiar.
When asked about their community before the Rajneeshis arrived, one offers:
“Everybody knows everybody else, and everybody got along.”
Another remembers getting a phone call from someone who urged him to “keep those guys from getting in” to the community, once news leaked that an 80,000-acre ranch had been sold to the Rajneesh commune.
“We wondered who these people are, why are they here [and] how long are they going to be here,” says another inhabitant.
Their anxiety sounded familiar because I had heard about it from Native Americans perplexed by the influx of visitors to our communities.
Before the arrival of the Rajneeshis, Oregon inhabitants worried about “bearded, hairy” strangers–who looked like bears–arriving unexpectedly.
In their “perfect paradise” at the mouth of the Columbia River, the Clatsop people treated the hirsute Russian traders with courtesy, and traded fish for furs.
Then the Russians packed up and shoved off in their boats.
With Cloven Hooves
I am inching toward becoming a Buddhist and find myself torn.
Cynthia (Ištá Tȟó Tȟó) Coleman Emery's Blog 