“He wanted to know why people there were so genuinely joyous,” Massad, who worked in press relations at Rajneeshpuram, tells Rolling Stone. Sunny Massad (aka Ma Prem Sunshine), one of the former sannyasins interviewed in Wild Wild Country, decided to participate because Maclain Way called her and told her that he wanted to do something different than anything that had been done on the group before. Speaking with Rolling Stone, they emphasized that most of the group lived blissfully unaware of Sheela’s Machiavellian maneuvers – and many of those who were cognizant of it either attempted to stop her, or at least actively looked forward to the day when her regime collapsed. However, some of the current and former sannyasins featured in the docuseries – as well as others who weren’t – felt as though they were not accurately represented in the series, and that they were painted with the same brush as megalomaniac Sheela.
#Wild wild country osho series
Through a mix of archival footage from existing documentaries and media coverage from the 1980s, paired with recent original interviews with current and former members, the Way brothers created an instantly popular, extremely bingeable series that shines a light on a fascinating yet overlooked chapter in recent American history. Though unsuccessful, both women were convicted of attempted murder and served jail sentences. In addition to that, Sheela also convinced fellow sannyasin Jane Stork – who is also interviewed in the docuseries – to try and murder Bhagwan’s doctor.
In this role, she facilitated the group’s move to Oregon and, according to the documentary, attempted to secure the future of Rajneeshpuram through any means necessary, including allegedly orchestrating a mass poisoning of a town, bussing in hundreds of homeless people and registering them to vote in order to influence the outcome of a local election.
During her reign as the de facto leader of the group – when Bhagwan was in a three-and-a-half-year period of silence – Sheela acted both as his spokesperson as well as the manager of day-to-day operations on the ranch. That would be the rise and fall of Bhagwan’s personal secretary, Ma Anand Sheela, who wielded much of the group’s power during the Oregon commune’s brief existence, from 1981 to 1985. While at first it appears that the focus will be on the sannyasins (those who have given up material possessions in favor of a more spiritual life), their efforts to build and sustain Rajneeshpuram (their technologically advanced and environmentally friendly version of heaven on earth) and their devotion to Bhagwan (their leader, later known as Osho), it quickly becomes apparent that is not the main plot of Wild Wild Country. Over six one-hour segments, the directors – brothers Chapman and Maclain Way – tell the story of how the followers of Indian guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh relocated from an ashram in Pune to a ranch in rural Oregon, where they built their version of utopia, despite opposition from the nearby residents of Antelope (population: 40). soil, murder plots, machine gun drills, large-scale voter fraud and hundreds of people wearing red and orange creating a city from scratch in the desert. But only a few minutes into the first episode, it’s evident that this veers far from the traditional narrative, complete with one of the largest bioterrorism attacks on U.S. On the surface, the Netflix docuseries Wild Wild Country appears to be the latest addition to the utopian-commune-turned-cult cannon.
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