Rajneeshpuram

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A tent city at Rajneeshpuram, in 1983.
A tent city at Rajneeshpuram, in 1983.

Rajneeshpuram, Oregon was an intentional community in Wasco County, Oregon, briefly incorporated as a city in the 1980s, which was populated with followers of the religious leader then known as Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh.

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[edit] History

Rajneesh greeted by followers on one of his daily "drive-bys" in Rajneeshpuram, 1982.
Rajneesh greeted by followers on one of his daily "drive-bys" in Rajneeshpuram, 1982.

The city was located on the site of a 64,000 acre Central Oregon property known as the Big Muddy Ranch, which was purchased for $5.75 million (nearly 30 times its assessed value.) Within three years, the ranch had turned from an empty rural property into a city of up to 7,000 people, complete with typical urban infrastructure, including a fire department, police, restaurants, malls, a 4,200 foot airstrip, and a reservoir.

However, the city soon ran afoul of many in the state. Oregon Attorney General David B. Frohnmayer maintained that the city was essentially an arm of a religious organization, and that its incorporation thus violated the principle of separation of church and state, enshrined in both the Oregon Constitution and the United States Constitution. 1000 Friends of Oregon, an environmentalist group, claimed that the city violated state land-use laws. Followers of Rajneesh have long maintained that religious intolerance, rather than any legitimate legal or environmental objection, was the cause of opposition to the city.

A lawsuit was filed by the State of Oregon to invalidate the city's incorporation in 1983, and many attempts to expand the city further were legally blocked, prompting followers to attempt to build in nearby Antelope, Oregon, which was briefly named Rajneesh when sufficient numbers of Rajneeshees registered to vote there and won a referendum on the subject.

The Rajneeshees largely left Oregon late October 1985 when several leaders of the group, including Rajneesh's secretary Ma Anand Sheela, were indicted and convicted of serious crimes, including immigration fraud, wiretapping, first and second degree assault (poisoning) of two public officials, and the attempted murder of Rajneesh's personal physician.[1] Sheela was imprisoned for these crimes, as well as for her role in infecting a salad bar in The Dalles (the county seat of Wasco County) with salmonella, sickening over 750 (including several Wasco County public officials) and sending 45 people to hospital. Known as the 1984 Rajneeshee bioterror attack, the incident is regarded as the largest germ warfare attack in the history of the United States.

Rajneesh himself was accused of immigration violations, to which he entered an Alford plea. He was subsequently deported and eventually returned to Pune, India.

The legal standing of Rajneeshpuram remained ambiguous. In the church/state suit, Federal Judge Helen J. Frye ruled against Rajneeshpuram in late 1985, a decision that was not contested, since it came too late to be of practical significance.[2] The Oregon courts, however, eventually found in favor of the city, with the Court of Appeals determining in 1986 that incorporation had not violated the state planning system's agricultural land goals.[2] The Oregon Supreme Court ended litigation in 1987, leaving Rajneeshpuram empty and bankrupt, but legal within Oregon law.[2][3]

The Big Muddy Ranch was sold. Presently, a Christian youth camp, Wildhorse Canyon, operated by Young Life,[4] and the Big Muddy Ranch Airport are located there.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Lewis F. Carter: Charisma and Control in Rajneeshpuram, page 237
  2. ^ a b c Carl Abbot (1990). "Utopia and Bureaucracy: The Fall of Rajneeshpuram, Oregon", The Pacific Historical Review, Vol. 59, No. 1. (Feb., 1990), pp. 77-103
  3. ^ 1000 Friends of Oregon v. Wasco County Court, 703 P.2d 207 (Or 1985), 723 P.2d 1039 (Or App. 1986), 752 P.2d 39 (Or 1987)
  4. ^ Wildhorse Canyon web site

[edit] Bibliography

  • Lewis F. Carter, Charisma and Control in Rajneeshpuram: A Community without Shared Values (American Sociological Association Rose Monographs) 1990 ISBN 0521385547
  • Frances FitzGerald, Cities on a Hill: A Journey Through Contemporary American Cultures (Simon & Schuster) 1986 ISBN 0-671-55209-0

[edit] Further reading

[edit] External links

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