Knowra Rajneesh movement Rajneesh movement A spiritual movement founded by Indian guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, later known as Osho. It combined meditation practices with teachings on consciousness, sexuality, and human freedom.
Osho : Indian spiritual teacher Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, who later adopted the name Osho. His teachings and leadership formed the movement’s central authority.
Dynamic Meditation : A vigorous meditation practice devised by Osho, combining movement, breathing, emotional expression, and stillness. It exemplifies the movement’s use of physical activity to approach meditation.
Ma Anand Sheela : Osho’s personal secretary and a leading administrator of the Rajneesh community in Oregon. Her political and organizational actions became central to the movement’s Oregon controversies.
1984 Rajneeshee bioterror attack : A 1984 bioterror attack in Oregon in which Rajneesh followers contaminated restaurant salad bars with Salmonella. The attack was part of an effort to influence a local election and became a defining criminal scandal.
Rajneeshpuram : A Rajneesh commune established in Wasco County, Oregon, in the 1980s. The movement’s Oregon experiment made its communal ambitions visible to the wider public.
Kundalini meditation : An Osho meditation practice structured around shaking, dancing, stillness, and relaxation. Its staged sequence shows how the movement organized meditation into accessible daily practice.
Ma Yoga Laxmi : An early close associate of Osho who helped organize his movement in India. She helped build the institution that preceded the Oregon settlement.
United States v. Oregon : A 1985 federal court case concerning the proposed incorporation of Rajneeshpuram, Oregon. The case tested the commune’s effort to establish a city under the U.S. Constitution.
Pune : A city in Maharashtra, India, that became the site of Osho’s ashram. The Pune ashram was an early institutional center before the Oregon commune.
Neo-sannyas : A spiritual movement initiated by Osho that reframed renunciation as inward awareness amid ordinary life. It gave followers a shared identity while rejecting conventional monastic withdrawal.
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