In this summer special of the Liberty Weekly Podcast, I team up with Robert and Daniel from the Actual Anarchy Podcast for an in-depth discussion and analysis of “Wild, Wild Country.”
“Wild, Wild Country” is a hit Netflix docuseries which tells the story of Indian guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh–a man whose followers attempted to create a commune in the high deserts of Oregon. In doing so, they came at odds with the local townspeople . . . and eventually the US Government.
In this first episode, we cover the first of six total episodes. We introduce the story, explain the players, and immediately tackle the question of “who first reached for government force?”
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Hi, I lived at Rajneeshpuram from November 1983 thru the summer of 1986.
The property was bought in July of 1981. The intention of the commune was to form an intentional community to honor their guru Bhagwan Shree
Rajneesh. Their previous ashram was in Pune, India from early 1970’s thru 1980.
The Muddy Ranch which was 20 miles from the nearest town of Antelope, Oregon. Now you need to understand that the property was at the bottom of a valley on rural two lane road which was a 45 minute ride from Antelope.
As you commented if the commune would have had its way we would have closed the property at our property line and the folks in Antelope would not have heard much from the Ranch. However there were two factors that would not allow the commune to do this: one there was a public access county road that the Ranch could not close and ran through the most developed part of the property. Second the State of Oregon has very strict land use laws which prohibited non agricultural activities from being performed on what was zoned as agricultural land which was the case for the Muddy Ranch. This would prove to be a fatal flaw for the commune. (Okay I want to hear your next episode so I’m going to go to your next page)
(Oh someone asked when did Sheela come to the commune: Rajneesh designated Sheela to be the leader of the commune. She had been part of the leadership group of the Pune India ashram. So Sheela was there from day one. She made the decision to buy the property and Sheela decided who could come to live at the Ranch )