In the mid-eighties, the controversial spiritual teacher Osho suggested that both Democracy and Communism should be replaced by Meritocracy, as an overarching political system.

Shortly before his death, Osho suggested that one or more audience members at evening meetings ( now referred to as the White Robe Brotherhood ) were subjecting him to some form of evil magic.

According to Osho, " homosexuals, because they were perverted, created the disease AIDS " and also suggested that " homosexuals should be given different localities.

She claimed in her acknowledgements that the book was suggested and blessed by " my teacher, Osho " ( Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh ), " who thought highly of Sir Francis Bacon and gave the book his blessing.

At a public meditation event in spring 1970, Osho presented his Dynamic Meditation method for the first time.

Osho views the mind first and foremost as a mechanism for survival, replicating behavioural strategies that have proven successful in the past.

In 1984, a group of followers of Osho ( then known as Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh ) carried out what has come to be known as the first bioterrorism attack in the United States.

Osho became the first Eastern guru to embrace modern psychotherapy.

She was a student of Osho and first began to teach tantra in his ashram.

Conflicts with various Indian religious leaders aggravated the situation — by 1980 the ashram had become so controversial that Indira Gandhi, despite a previous association between Osho and the Indian Congress Party dating back to the sixties, was unwilling to intercede for it after her return to power.

In late 1981 Osho, through his secretary Ma Anand Sheela ( Sheela Silverman ), announced the inception of the " religion of Rajneeshism ", the basis of which would be fragments taken from various discourses and interviews Osho that had given over the years.

Osho held that families, large cities and nations would ultimately be replaced by small communities with a communal way of life.

According to Osho, only persons with appropriate qualifications should be allowed to vote.

Osho aimed to create a " new man " combining the spirituality of Gautama Buddha with the zest for life embodied by Nikos Kazantzakis ' Zorba the Greek: " He should be as accurate and objective as a scientist ... as sensitive, as full of heart, as a poet ... as rooted deep down in his being as the mystic.

Nearly three quarters of those surveyed attributed their decisions to become Rajneeshees to their love for Osho or his teachings.

In 2009, she stated that she had become a fan of Osho, his books and meditation techniques, which she had discovered a few years earlier.

On 16 September 1985, a few days after Sheela and her entire management team had suddenly left the commune for Europe, Osho held a press conference in which he labelled Sheela and her associates a " gang of fascists.

In Uruguay, the group moved to a house at Punta del Este where Osho began speaking publicly until 19 June, after which he was " invited to leave " for no official reason.

Osho devised new " meditation therapy " methods such as the " Mystic Rose " and began to lead meditations in his discourses after a gap of more than ten years.

Especially after his move to the United States, Osho became increasingly critical of homosexuality and also believed that homosexuality created or caused AIDS, though it is unclear what he believed about the concrete biological mechanism by which a sexual orientation may create a contagious virus.

She joined the movement in the 1980s and was among the disciples Osho appointed to the " Inner Circle ", the group entrusted with administering his estate after his death.

To decide which therapies to participate in, visitors either consulted Osho or made selections according to their own preferences.

Commune administrators tried to resolve Osho's own difficulty in this respect by declaring him the head of a religion, " Rajneeshism ": in November 1981 Osho applied for residence as a religious worker, which was refused on the grounds that he could not lead a religion while unwell and in silence.

Nevertheless Gordon ( 1987 ) reports that Charles Turner, David Frohnmayer and other law enforcement officials, who had surveyed affidavits never released publicly and who listened to hundreds of hours of tape recordings, insinuated to him that Osho was guilty of more crimes than those for which he was eventually prosecuted.

" Sheela initiated attempts to murder Osho's caretaker and girlfriend, Ma Yoga Vivek, and his personal physician, Swami Devaraj ( Dr. George Meredith ), because she felt they were a threat to Osho ; she had secretly recorded a conversation between Devaraj and Osho " in which the doctor agreed to obtain drugs the guru wanted to ensure a peaceful death if he decided to take his own life.

After initially pleading " not guilty " to all charges and being released on bail Osho, on the advice of his lawyers, entered an " Alford plea "— a type of guilty plea through which a suspect does not admit guilt, but does concede there is enough evidence to convict him — to one count of having a concealed intent to remain permanently in the U. S. at the time of his original visa application in 1981 and one count of having conspired to have sannyasins enter into sham marriages to acquire U. S. residency.

Osho developed other active meditation techniques, such as the Kundalini " shaking " meditation and the Nadabrahma " humming " meditation, which are less animated, although they also include physical activity of one sort or another.

Hindu groups which have presence in Russia are ISKCON, Brahma Kumari, Ramakrishna Mission, Ananda Marga, the organizations associated with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Sahaja Yoga, Chinmaya Mission, Satya Sai Baba and Osho Rajneesh.

Rajneeshpuram, Oregon was an intentional community in Wasco County, Oregon, briefly incorporated as a city in the 1980s, which was populated with followers of the spiritual teacher Osho, then known as Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh.

Urban has commented that the most surprising feature of the Osho phenomenon lies in Osho's " remarkable apotheosis upon his return to India ", which resulted in his achieving even more success in his homeland than before.

About Osho, he stated: " He is the conduit along which the vital force of the universe flows.

A few later said that, while Osho was not directly involved, they discussed such plans and activities with him in darshan and he gave his blessing.

Osho had by all accounts been informed neither of the impending arrest nor the reason for the journey.

Osho ( Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh ) commented that to understand the phenomenon it was necessary to understand that all that exists is energy and that " the way of consciousness is exactly the way of a river-it goes downwards, following the path of gravitation ".

By the latter 1970s, the Poona ashram was too small to contain the rapid growth and Osho asked that somewhere larger be found.

Tupe claims that he undertook the attack, because he believed Osho to be an agent of the CIA.

In late December, he said he no longer wished to be referred to as " Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh ", and in February 1989 took the name " Osho Rajneesh ", shortened to " Osho " in September.

Osho presented meditation not just as a practice but as a state of awareness to be maintained in every moment, a total awareness that awakens the individual from the sleep of mechanical responses conditioned by beliefs and expectations.

" Ultimately though, as an explicitly " self-parodying " guru, Osho even deconstructed his own authority, declaring his teaching to be nothing more than a " game " or a joke.

Osho believed humanity was threatened with extinction due to over-population, impending nuclear holocaust and diseases such as AIDS, and thought many of society's ills could be remedied by scientific means.

The popular press reported widely on the large collection of Rolls Royce cars Osho had amassed, reported to be 93 at the final count.