Blog #1: Reception

In general, the media has a very bad habit of portraying things that are different from the mainstream in a negative connotation. For example, as we have covered in this class several times, they are often regarded as a cult instead of what they truly are: a new religious movement. The world cult excites a closed off feeling from readers and it simply turns them against whatever movement it is because they associate cults with horrific events. The Rajneesh Movement is no exception. There are so many examples of this negative portrayal, but I will provide a couple examples. 
One example is the accusations of terrorism that they faced.  In 1981 Osho left India very reluctantly, because of his health problems. He migrated to the United States in efforts to obtain more advanced medical care and treatment. There were many rumors circulating that he committed income tax evasion and insurance fraud, but there was insufficient evidence to prove these claims. Despite this lack of evidence, there was so much media presence about this. 
Another example can be found during the construction of the communes' ranch. Authorities were denying them legal permits to do construction and renovate the ranch seemingly because of conflicts in their beliefs, religions, lifestyles, and traditions. When the construction was started illegally, the city attempted to stop the illegal construction. Their office was attacked by unknown person, yet the commune was blamed for the damages without proper evidence. While it very well could have been a member, the media jumped at making the story headlines before even getting all of the facts.  
I also attached a link to one article I came across during my research seemed like it could be a reliable source because it was .org source and the author was seemingly credible, but when I read the title, it completely turned me off. The world cult is not used sparingly and while some parts of the article appear to be unbiased, some of the content is pointedly against the commune with the way it presents certain information.
The point is that the media was so against the new religious movement that they published things without getting the facts. They published things that lead readers to be against the commune and view them in a negative light.  To the media, it was just for the sake of turning people against them without giving people the opportunity to think for themselves. I mean, there is almost literally no publications that were good or positive events or beliefs coming out of the commune. The ones that do are only accessible if you truly search for them and that speaks volumes to me at least. 

I am not sure if I did the external link properly, so here is the link again just in case: See Article Here

Natasha Young

Comments

  1. UnknownNovember 12, 2017 at 7:07 AM

    Good discussion of the negative portrayal of the religious movement. The article is by a Christian website, not going to be objective. It would be interesting to know why they chose to write about the Rajneesh in light of their other work on the Bible.

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownNovember 14, 2017 at 2:29 PM

    Great post! It's very interesting to me that you say "the ones that [show them in a positive light] are only accessible if you truly search for them". With all the technology we have now, we've become so accustomed to only look at what's on the first page of a google search. This was actually a conversation I had with Pia, I noticed I had trouble finding good sources and she pointed out to me that I wasn't truly looking. Of course, most people looking for information on the Rajneesh movement aren't doing it in a scholarly setting, and are only looking at that first page of the google search. The fact that only negative media portrayals show up in that initial search says a lot about how people "decided" to portray this particular commune to the world.

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownDecember 12, 2017 at 9:28 PM

    Great article! I loved how you touched on the potential acts of terrorism faced by the Rajneesh. The media decided to portray the violence was caused by OHSO and his followers. This was very negative and damaged the Rajneesh drastically.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Reception

Maggie Billingsley The Rajneesh was first exposed to media in 1978 when Time magazine featured an article called "God Sir." This article was not the best article for the Rajneesh considering the fact that the media was never really on their side. The Rajneesh commune was harassed by media and overlooked by society into thinking this commune was so negative. It almost seemed as if the FBI's goal to tear this commune down. The FBI went out of their way to investigate even further after the Rajneesh commune had already collapsed, to break it down even more. The Rajneesh have been a form of fascination and horror according to the media. The media has very much affected the way people that do not follow the Rajneesh look at them and think about them. Rajneesh is known for his revelation on sex and has constructed a vision of the new man that holds reputation to prior norms.  According to Rajneesh, a man is free to carve out the cosmos of his own image. This means th...
Read more

Blog 2

Maggie Billingsley http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/rajneesh-is-a-desperate-man-ma-anand-sheela/1/354660.html Ma Anand Sheela, was the woman that ran the multi-million-dollar Rancho Rajneesh world headquarters of the 350,000-member cult established in Rajneeshparum.  This article explains how Sheela was the starter of these headquarters, and ended it herself because she had had enough. --Sheela was the first lady of the commune and everything was going the way she wanted. Explained in an interview, Sheela was the happiest she had ever been until one day when she came across a scandal-laden development that forced her to storm out of the Rancho Rajneesh and denounced Rajneesh and his followers. The day after she had left, Rajneesh was informed that she had taken 55 million dollars of the sect’s money to Europe, where she left with "her gang." Rajneesh was lashing out on his followers and accused them of several crimes. The crimes being attempted murder, arso...
Read more

Blog # 2: From Within

After some searching, I came  ac ross  this article published by the New York Times titled   SHOCK SETS IN AS GURU'S FOLLOWERS IN OREGON LEAVE TO FACE OUTSIDE WORLD . The article covers a few key followers of  Bhagwan  Shree  Rajneesh  and  their departure from the  Oregon  commune. I felt it really captured the feelings of uneasiness they felt. Plus, I  chose  to  use this article instead of someone who willingly left, so I could see it from a different perspective.  I thought it  w ould  be beneficial to see both sides since the first thing that is usually at the  forefront of searches regarding former movement members tends to be very biased.  While I would not normally choose to use a source that uses the word "cult" so carelessly, I felt this article really captured what I wanted to be illustrated. When  Rajneesh  moved  back to India people were faced with some li...
Read more