Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh Expelled

Oregonians Get Fed Up

Mar 16, 2007 Elizabeth Gibson

Some of the homeless expose what is actually going on in the commune. Eventually Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh is arrested and expelled from the United States.

In September 1985, there was an outbreak of salmonella poisoning at The Dalles, Oregon, possibly the largest known outbreak of salmonella in the United States up to that time. The state health department and the Center for Disease Control traced the cause to salad bars in eight different restaurants in The Dalles. About 750 people got sick and Rajneesh was blamed. Sheela later admitted the poisonings were part of the community’s political agenda, to show that they could do anything they wanted.

For the fall election, Secretary of State Norma Paulus instituted a screening process for prospective voters. After the election, about half of those who had come to Oregon left the state. The loyal followers just drove them out to the property line and dumped them off. This incident finally got the attention of the state legislature. The state had already sued Rajneesh for illegal incorporation of a city and considered charging two Rajneeshis who registered to vote in two cities. In addition, seven people hired a lawyer to sue Rajneesh on the basis that they were defrauded, coerced, and suffered physical abuse.

On June 30, 1985, The Oregonian launched a twenty-part investigative series on the group. They found an extensive wire tapping operation and two biological warfare laboratories. They also found evidence of an experiment to develop a live AIDs virus to be used against dissidents.

The end of Rajneeshpuram was just on the horizon. On September 15, Rajneesh called a press conference to announce that Sheela and a dozen others had left the country. He said she had big plans in the works. In actuality, she was looking for a new location for the commune. Others left Rajneeshpuram, claiming they were tired of the deception and manipulation.

To deflect culpability, Rajneesh publicly accused of Sheela of engineering the salmonella outbreak and of poisoning The Dalles water system. He also claimed she conspired to murder his doctor, his dentist, his girlfriend, and the county district attorney. He claimed Sheela mismanaged the colony’s finances. Rajneesh tried to blame everything that went wrong on Sheela.

In the end, it was relatively easy to eliminate Rajneesh and his commune. The courts charged Rajneesh, Sheela, and six other executives with thirty-six criminal and civil violations. It only took violation of certain immigration laws to oust Rajneesh from the country. He was also convicted of illegal aiding of marriages between his members and U.S. citizens. He tried to escape on a chartered Lear jet, but federal customs agents stopped him and sent him back to Portland for trial. In return for a suspended ten-year sentence, Rajneesh agreed to pay $400,000 in fines and to leave the country within five days. He would not be allowed to return for at least five years and even then only with permission from the U.S. attorney general.

Sheela thought she was safe in her hideout in Germany, because immigration fraud is not an extraditable offense there. Unfortunately for her, attempted murder is. German police picked her up and put her on a plane to the United States. Sheela was sentenced to spend twenty years in federal prison for burglary, arson of the Wasco County planning office, racketeering, immigration fraud, wiretapping, and causing the salmonella outbreak.

After awhile all the excitement died down. State maps no longer showed the town of Rajneeshpuram. Antelope reverted to its original name. A used car dealer in Texas bought all 74 of the Rolls Royces at public auction. Connecticut General Life Insurance owned the mortgage on the Rajneesh property and bought it outright, minus what was owed for back taxes.

After leaving the U.S., Rajneesh returned to India. He tried to establish a new commune, but his reputation had preceded him. No one wanted an ashram in their backyard. He spent time in Nepal and Crete before returning to India. He died of a sudden heart attack on July 19, 1990, when he was 58 years old.

SOURCES:

"Roadside History of Oregon," Bill Gulick, Mountain Press Publishing Company, Missoula, MT, 1991.

"Great Moments in Oregon History," Win McCormack and Dick Pintarich, ed., excerpted from Oregon Magazine, Portland: New Oregon Publishers, Inc., 1987.

Oregonian (Portland, OR), June 30-July 16, 1985.

The copyright of the article Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh Expelled in American History is owned by Elizabeth Gibson. Permission to republish Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh Expelled in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.