Author’s Note
Prologue
Part I: New Jersey, 1981
1. The Godman of Mumbai
2. Oasis in Pune
3. The New Commune
4. Exeunt
Part II: Oregon, 1981–1982
5. Foundations in the Desert
6. The Mirage
7. Between a Rock and Antelope
8. “Better Red Than Dead”
9. A Small Farm Town
10. Making It Legal
11. Bhagwan Takes a Trip
12. Truth and Consequences
Part III: Oregon, 1983
13. Religion at Its Highest
14. Children of the Commune
15. Horse Trading
16. Terror in the Buddhafield
17. God Versus the Universe
Part IV: Oregon, 1984
18. The Spook
19. The Enemy Inside
20. Sharpening the Sword
21. The Chinese Laundry
22. How to Win an Election
23. Something in the Water
24: Desperate Times
25: Sannyasin Hospitality
26. The Election of 1984
27. The Lost Discourse
Part V: Oregon, 1985
28. Desperate Measures
29. Downward Spiral
30. The Turning Point
31. Internal Affairs
32. The Garden of Epicurus
33. Master’s Day 1985
34. Catharsis
35. Plan B
36. Collapse
37. Glad News
Part VI: Flight, 1985
38. Cracks in the Dam
39. Life and Death
40. Meanwhile in Europe
41. Flight from Oregon
42. Wind Down
43. Aftermath
Acknowledgments
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index
Russell King is a writer, investigator, and attorney. In 2018 he created the podcast Building Utopia: Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, which explores the history of Bhagwan and his disciples using an immersive narrative nonfiction approach. A former partner at an international law firm, King draws on his experience piecing together factual narratives based on contradictory evidence to tackle this rich and complicated history.
"Russell King has written the most definitive account of this grand
American saga. Rajneeshpuram is rich storytelling, weaving together
behind-the-scenes testimonies with factual precision. King has
crafted an investigative brew of religious zealotry, xenophobia,
local politics, personal betrayals, and warfare. This is a rabbit
hole you cannot wait to go down; at times you'll ask yourself, 'Did
all this really happen?' And the answer is, yesit did." Chapman and
Maclain Way, directors of Wild Wild Country
"Rajneeshpuram was my home in the '80s as a child and a teenager.
Russell King's book powerfully tells the very dramatic story of
this 'utopia.' Through his words I can feel the many voices he's
interviewed and researched to try to tell this story from a place
of wanting to understand 'what happened here.' As an ex-resident I
truly appreciate that approach as many voices are included, and
neither the good or the bad are being sensationalized. This story
is not only about one or two people who gained a lot of notoriety
at the time, and it touches on many lives and many emotional
topics. There's always more to any story, especially one that
involved so many players, and this book is a very well conceived
introduction to it all. If anyone asks me for the most complete
recounting of the story of Rajneeshpuram that I've seen, I would
point them to this book." Dickon Kent, former commune member
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