Not long ago, in the dusty deserts of Central Oregon, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh—an Indian philosophy professor turned entrepreneurial spiritual leader—bought all 64,000 acres of the Big Muddy Ranch. From 1981 to 1985, Rajneesh turned it into his vision of a utopia, calling it Rajneeshpuram.
Rajneesh called his followers the sannyasins—and at their peak, there were thousands of them, many of them young professionals. These devotees dressed entirely in oranges and reds while they helped turn the land into a functioning community complete with a mall and a transit system. While Rajneesh promised his followers spiritual enlightenment, some of his motivations and the corruption of Rajneeshpuram’s leaders contrasted sharply with the group’s supposed ideals…