Netflix’s Wild Wild Country is Garbage, Covers Up Osho Rape Culture
Apr 11, 2018
We here at The Tilted Glass mix satire with the serious. But to be clear, in this article, we directly and unequivocally call out Wild Wild Country for being a piece of garbage propaganda, one that grossly skips over well-documented facts regarding rape within the the cult of Osho and from Osho himself.
The 6-part documentary presents itself as a fair and balanced treatment of the cult of Osho/Rajneesh, but it is anything but that.
In fact, while watching Wild Wild Country, you might be left with a somewhat rosy impression of the cult, a feeling that “some bad things were done by certain people, but overall it is more a tale of how the ‘regular’ people of Oregon couldn’t handle the ‘spiritual’ ways of devotees a little ahead of their time.”
While the film does mention the bioterror attack, the stockpiling of weapons, and the sedating of homeless people used as pawns; it specifically covers up reports of rape, incest, and child molestation.
Rape was a big problem in Osho’s ashrams in India and in Oregon. Any filmmaker worth their salt knows this. It is not hidden information. Yet there is:
- No mention of when Osho would fondle his followers’ breasts in order to “feel their chakras”
- No mention of the bastard children of Osho, born from impregnating women through aggressive and unasked for seductions
- No mention of Osho’s lectures where he condoned parents having sex with their kids
- No mention of Osho permitting middle-aged men to sleep with prepubescent girls
- No mention of forcing devotees to sterilize themselves
- No mention that STDs became quite common within Osho’s ashrams
The most common form of sex crime involved the coercion that women faced. The lingo of the group was that women must say “yes to life” and that if you were not open to free love then you were "frigid, selfish, and rejecting."
The film did show some undercover footage of the charged and violent energy of the group therapy samarpan (surrender) sessions. The footage depicted men and women, often naked, screaming, crying, and fighting with each other in an animalistic manner.
Yet it does not mention that these sessions lead to the gang rape of women by men and by cult leaders. The culture of the ashram coerced women to submit to whoever who wanted them. Osho would say of women that “she needed to be raped" as part of the surrender therapy.
Many women felt more manipulated and coerced than healed. Instead of being heard, they were labeled as frigid, selfish, and rejecting. Women who did not accept their rape was evidence that they were broken, crazy, and too caught up in traditional values. They were someone whose opinion did not matter, because broken people say broken things.
Women at the Pune ashram in India were also encouraged to participate in prostitution as a means of earning their livelihood. The activity was known as “getting sweets.”
STDs became epidemic there. After one retreat, for example, 10 women developed Gonorrhea after the tantra advances of one infected male.
Osho was a gifted orator with a knack for marketing. He was also a reckless drunk who began to lose his mind. Osho would become so intoxicated in his Oregon ranch that he would urinate in the halls of his own home. His massive intake of Valium, along with experiments with LSD, caused paranoia. Osho was so far gone that he said “I have fallen in love with this man (Adolf Hitler). He was crazy, but I am crazier still.” This washed up power hungry junkie could not handle himself around women either.
For us here at The Tilted Glass, the fact that this Netflix “documentary” does not even mention Osho and sex crimes, is a sign that:
- As a condition of getting excluding interviews with Sheela and other key talking heads, the filmmakers were forced to censor themselves
- The filmmakers have their own biases which support the cult
This is a disgrace to the #MeToo movement. We demand that the filmmakers—brothers Chapman and Maclain Way—explain why they avoided any mention of the rape culture in their 6-part series.
As a result of such negligence, Wild Wild Country is a dangerous piece of garbage, not worth being on Netflix. A piece of fiction. Trite propaganda.
If you would like fact-based solid journalism of Osho’s cult, please turn off Wild Wild Country and instead check out Win McCormack’s Rajneesh Chronicles.
We look forward to a response from Netflix and brothers Chapman and Maclain Way.