Tuesday, April 19, 2005

Hira Bluestone: Better Red Than Dead


Hira Bluestone's blog is about her life, from very early childhood, as a Rajneesh [1] sannyasin; a Rajneeshi. She grew up partly in Pune, India, and on Rajneesh's 65,000 acre operation/"Ranch" in Antelope, Oregon. These fantastic tales in her blog so far cover only the ground up to her seventh birthday. It is a colorful, strange, enthralling, fascinating, and heartbreaking story. Please keep them coming Hira!

[1] The Bhag (a/k/a Osho and Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh) seems to have basically taught Monism--that God was everything and everyone. There is no division between "God" and "not-God". People, even at their worst, are divine. He recognized Jesus Christ as having attained enlightenment, and believed that he survived his crucifixion and moved to India where he died at the age of 112. That's part of what he believed. He also appears to have believed in "free love" and that children should be raised communally. His top aides were charged with a number of crimes, including attempted murder of his doctor, and another attempt on a lawyer trying to close down the ranch. There were allegations of mishandled money. There are rumors they had a hit list. There was a lot of public outrage over him and his lifestyle. You hear a lot of good along with the bad. The volume is dialed way up on both sides of the question. It's hard to tell which story is right (but like most stories, you probably need to split the difference between the extremes). /jb
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