| calderhome@yahoo.com 2005-05-22, 5:53 pm |
| http://www.registerguard.com/news/2...eaver.0522.html
quote from article:
"A few years later, I went through the abandoned city of Rajneeshpuram
and saw things that were almost unbelievable. Ma Anand Sheela's
headquarters, a group of mobile homes pieced together, was a hive of
secret doors and hidden tunnels, her private room a command post with
electronic listening gear tapped into every room in the development.
The Bhagwan's parquet-paneled quarters had nitrogen oxide spigots by
his bedside, and was surrounded by huge bathrooms with multiple
showers."
--------------------------------------------------
May 22, 2005
Guest Viewpoint: How the Rajneesh land swap in the =D580s was stopped
By Jim Weaver
Bill Bowerman came into my congressional office in the Federal Building
one day in the early 1980s. A gruff, outspoken man, he was someone I
liked a lot. Bill told me of a religious band called the Rajneesh, that
he considered evil.
I was shocked, thinking the Rajneesh were a harmless cult that could be
left to go its own way. They had bought a huge ranch called the Big
Muddy in Central Oregon, across the John Day River from Bill's old
homestead. They had built a city populated with their young,
saffron-robed acolytes. The Big Muddy was a checkerboard of land
sections owned by the Bureau of Land Management and the Rajneesh.
Now the BLM was proposing a land swap with the Rajneesh, and Bowerman
said they had to be stopped.
At Bowerman's instigation, I began paying close attention to the doings
of the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and his followers - namely Ma Anand
Sheela, a gun-toting, swaggering dervish. When 700 citizens of The
Dalles suddenly came down with salmonella poisoning, I concluded that
the Rajneesh had sprinkled salmonella culture onto salad bars in
restaurants in The Dalles.
In a speech on the House floor on Feb. 28, 1985, I gave a detailed
presentation of how I thought the Rajneeshees had terrorized The
Dalles. The Oregon press was merciless, scourging me as a bigot. Health
authorities - including the federal Centers for Disease Control - were
unanimous in blaming restaurant food handlers for spreading the
illness.
But the evidence of Rajneesh culpability was so strong - it is still a
mystery how the health authorities remained blind to it - that I stuck
to my guns. Two years later, Ma Anand Sheela confessed in federal court
in Portland to perpetrating the terror in just the way I had outlined
in my speech.
But at the time of the poisoning, the BLM was still determined to
proceed with the land swap. I had been chairman of a subcommittee that
had oversight of such land swaps and had seen some highly questionable
proposals. I had kept the Big Muddy land swap on hold for a year, but
in 1985, the regional director of the BLM told me the agency was going
ahead with it.
The Prineville BLM chiefs took me on a helicopter ride over the Big
Muddy, then on a jeep tour of the land. One thing struck me with force:
the two BLM officials were fervently for the land swap, arguing all the
way for the benefits the land swap would hold for the BLM. Why were
they so enthusiastic? Had they made personal arrangements with the
Rajneesh?
I sat in Bowerman's house across from the Big Muddy for a week, poring
over the maps and looking at the banks of the John Day. With one of
Bowerman's sons, John, who operated a ranch to the south, we rowed a
boat along the river, and even swam to the shore of the Big Muddy to
see guards armed with AK-47s patrolling their perimeter. A great
thunderstorm rolled across the prairie one night, one of the most
spectacular sights I have ever seen. And the next morning, as if the
storm had wiped away blinders from my eyes, a revelation occurred to
me.
The Rajneeshees wanted to build a large resort and housing development
along the John Day, and I saw how they were stymied by a promontory
that went right into the river, blocking access to the area where the
resort would be located. I saw how the land swap would give them a road
route from their ranch land to the resort location. The value of the
land would increase enormously, enriching the leaders of the Rajneesh.
I drove swiftly to Eugene, for it was only days before the BLM and the
Rajneesh were to sign the papers for the land swap. I called the
regional director. ``Bill,'' I said to him, ``kill the land swap.''
``I don't think I can do that, congressman,'' he replied.
``Bill, you kill that land swap, or I will raise so much hell you'll
wish you never heard of the Rajneeshees.''
He said he would look into it. Apparently, what he found did not smell
so sweet, for the next day he called me and said the swap was
terminated.
Two days later, the Bhagwan and Ma Anand Sheela absconded from the Big
Muddy, attempting to flee the country, and leaving their acolytes high
and dry. On the same day, the two Prineville BLM chiefs announced their
resignations.
A few years later, I went through the abandoned city of Rajneeshpuram
and saw things that were almost unbelievable. Ma Anand Sheela's
headquarters, a group of mobile homes pieced together, was a hive of
secret doors and hidden tunnels, her private room a command post with
electronic listening gear tapped into every room in the development.
The Bhagwan's parquet-paneled quarters had nitrogen oxide spigots by
his bedside, and was surrounded by huge bathrooms with multiple
showers.
One of the most prized mementos of my congressional career is a
handwritten note from Bill Bowerman, received a few days after the
Rajneesh debouched, saying, ``Thanks, Jim.''
Jim Weaver represented Oregon's 4th District in Congress from 1975 to
1987.
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see also "Osho, Bhagwan Rajneesh, and the Lost Truth" at:
http://home.att.net/~meditation/Osho.html
Christopher Calder
http://home.att.net/~meditation/ - home page
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