TV Series: Wild, Wild Country

A documentary on the Bagwan Rajneesh and his followers -- how they took over Antelope OR in 1980-3, and gradually turned from a love, sex & enlightenment cult into an armed encampment.

Released yesterday March 16. Six 1-hour episodes.  Only watched two of them so far.

The documentary tries to be balanced, interviewing followers and non-followers alike, both period interviews and present-day.  It's true, what they did was perfectly legal at the time, and they only became extremist when threatened by violent ranchers.  Anxious to see how it comes out.

Don't cults almost always turn dark eventually? I think what happens is people start to wake up and drift away from these things, so these cult leaders, sensing their movement breaking up or fearing it, have to up the ante and do everything they can to isolate their followers from the outside world. I'm writing a dark fantasy book series (first book is done, on the second one now) and there is a huge multidimensional cult involved, so I've been doing a lot of research on cults. Some really disturbing shit.

Scientology.

Catholicism.

NRA.

I guess you're right!

The twists and turns in this story are what justifies a six-hour treatment.  What the city of Antelope did, and later Wasco County, to try to limit the Rasneeshes was patently illegal.  Granted, the Rasneeshes were a scary bunch — they set up their own government, their own police force, plus, there’s some question whether a GOVERNMENT set up by a religion violates the Establishment Clause*.... — but from the point of view of the Rasneeshes, they followed all the requirements, they got all the permits, they did everything legally and then they got shut down illegally by a bunch of redneck ranchers who did not share their views about nudity and open marriages.

It’s a fascinating morality play, where the good guys and the bad guys keep changing roles.


* - the producers use the example of Boston and the Catholic Church, and Salt Lake City and the Mormon Church, as examples where the Establishment Clause has not been invoked