Chronology of Events Relating to Rajneeshpuram, Oregon (source document)

Title page of the document

Author: Roshani Shay Curtis, PhD, Professor Emeritus of Political Science, Western Oregon University.

This is a 573 page typed document, scanned by Sw Prem Niren and OCR'd by the Wiki-team, published here with the kind permission of Roshani Shay. It is copyrighted material. All rights reserved by the author.

Download as PDF

volume 1: Media:Chron RS v1 5-81 thru 12-82 - OCR.pdf

volume 2: Media:Chron RS v2 1-83 thru 4-84 - OCR.pdf

volume 3: Media:Chron RS v3 5-84 thru 12-84 - OCR.pdf

volume 4: Media:Chron RS v4 1-85 thru 9-85 - OCR.pdf

volume 5: Media:Chron RS v5 9-85 thru 9-90 - OCR.pdf

INTRODUCTION TO THE CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS AT RAJNEESHPURAM

It was the Spring of 1982. My then husband and I were political scientists teaching at different universities in the Willamette Valley of Oregon. My husband’s friend had been hired by Ma Anand Sheela to represent The Ranch in its relations with Oregon’s governments and citizens. He had invited my husband to attend the fascinating federal mediation talks between sannyasins and nearby ranchers in Central Oregon. The tales he brought home of the meetings between the two groups were fascinating. We talked of the unique opportunity to study the culture clash and the creation of a new city from scratch, which led to our first visit to The Ranch.

I was immediately taken by every sannyasin I met. I also had the strong feeling of having found “my tribe.” It was such a joy to find other people on the planet who were attempting to live a spiritual life, while fully engaged in the practical, everyday world.

I forget when I first met Swami Prem Niren, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh’s/Osho’s attorney. But I do recall a dinner at which he expressed the wish for a simple chronology of developments, court cases, Ranch progress, the reactions of Oregon government and the like. He voiced his need for such a research document to help him prepare his cases. That was the moment that this Chronology was born.

I started on a typewriter, but soon purchased my very first computer. For the next many years of the decade, I gathered information from a news clipping service, from the courts, from city council minutes, from legislative actions and much, much more to create a comprehensive historical document about The Ranch, the City of Rajneeshpuram and City of Rajneesh/Antelope.

I have since shared this Chronology with several authors of books on the events surrounding Bhagwan Shree Ranjeesh’s/Osho’s time in the United States and beyond. I have deposited a copy in the Roshani Shay Collection on Rajneesh (archive) at the University of Oregon and with the Communal Studies Association collection at the University of Southern Indiana. It is also available as a source document in the US, Denmark and The Netherlands.

This chronology is only a compilation of factual material related to The Ranch. It in no way conveys the remarkable stories of the transformation of people’s lives which occurred. However, my hope is that it will at least help those who wish to write those stories to put them into context. If it is useful in that way, it will have been worth the many hours and years it took to create it.

Roshani Shay Curtis, July, 2020

see also

Test -- Rajneeshpuram Timeline 3

Rajneeshpuram news summary 1981-1986 (source document)

The Oregonian: Chronology of major events