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News Release
Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. Oregon Historical Society Research Library, bb002919
Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. Oregon Historical Society Research Library, bb002919
Four Key Players in the Rajneesh Episode Come Together for Panel Discussion in Portland June 27 (Photo) - 06/19/19

Portland, OR –  In 1981, the Indian guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, his personal assistant Ma Anand Sheela, and their community of followers purchased the Big Muddy Ranch near the tiny Oregon town of Antelope. The ambitious experiment soon ignited great concern among the citizens of Antelope as well as among state and federal officials. The resulting legal and cultural controversies – many of them caused or exacerbated by supporters of the Bhagwan – played out in state and national media and in state and federal courtrooms.

On Thursday, June 27, the U.S. District Court of Oregon Historical Society (USDCOHS) and the Oregon Historical Society (OHS) are pleased to welcome leading advocates from both sides of the Rajneeshpuram episode, who will address issues that continue to reverberate today. Three speakers made prominent appearances in the highly acclaimed Netflix Original documentary series Wild Wild Country. The program begins at 7pm at the First Congregational Church in Portland. Tickets are $25 and are available via brownpapertickets.com. This program is the latest in USDCHS’s Famous Cases lecture series and is sponsored in part by Perkins Coie LLP.

Oregon Supreme Court Justice Tom Balmer will moderate the panel discussion, featuring:

  • Philip Toelkes (a.k.a. Swami Prem Niren), attorney for the Rajneesh
  • Robert Weaver, assistant U.S. attorney at the time and lead federal prosecutor
  • William Gary, lead counsel for Oregon Attorney General Dave Frohnmayer on the matter
  • U.S. Magistrate Judge John Jelderks, who presided over a number of the state court legal proceedings

“Thirty five years later, Oregonians continue to grapple with the Rajneeshpuram episode. It is an extraordinary story of a religious utopian experiment gone wrong,” said Douglas Pahl, board member for the USDCOHS and OHS. “The strong feelings engendered by these events remain, highlighted poignantly by proceedings in Oregon courtrooms. We’ve brought together the leading legal advocates to reflect on the most significant issues they faced during that tumultuous time.” 

Interest in the Rajneesh episode skyrocketed with the premiere of Wild Wild Country in 2018. The majority of the archival footage used came from the Oregon Historical Society, primarily the KGW News Collection. To learn more about the inspiration behind this Emmy winning documentary, read the OLA Quarterly article, “Wild Wild Archive: Analog Videotape of the Rajneesh Movement at the Oregon Historical Society” written by OHS Film Archivist Matthew Cowan. For more history of the Rajneeshees, visit the Oregon Historical Society’s online Oregon Encyclopedia.


About the Oregon Historical Society

For more than a century, the Oregon Historical Society has served as the state’s collective memory, preserving a vast collection of artifacts, photographs, maps, manuscript materials, books, films, and oral histories. Our research library, museum, digital platforms & website (www.ohs.org), educational programming, and historical journal make Oregon’s history open and accessible to all. We exist because history is powerful, and because a history as deep and rich as Oregon’s cannot be contained within a single story or point of view

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