The Golden Guru: The Strange Journey of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh

Not that I was there or know anyone that was. But having friends who were part of another cult type group and hearing their stories and reading this I am amazed at the similarites in these guru/cult like organizations. It is like there is a guru acadamy somewhere and they have all had the exact same courses. Be prepared to be dismayed and alarmed at the numbers highly intelligent, learned professionals who are ready to succumb to infantilization, sucking their thumbs and giving their power to the omnipotent Daddy. I recommend this one along with Enlightenment Blues and Mother of God. The only others I have read so far on the fallen guru track.

I found this book to be endlessly fascinating. Written by a research psychiatrist,it's an amazing document of the lengths people will go to in order to avoid taking responsibility for their own lives.One has to admire the author James S. Gordon, for his integrity as a writer, as he seems to have at times totally lost himself in his subject matter, and yet retained his critical faculties until the end. He witnessed many others, however, who seemed to lose all capacity for independent thought when in the presence of the man they referred to simply as "Bhagwan".It is also interesting to be reading this book today, in light of the events that have been set in motion by the tragedy of September 11th. While some of the Bhagwan's religious practices, bizzare though they were,might still have been toleratedin a relatively open society such as ours, the actions he and his converts undertook in fighting governmental authority wouldundoubtedly have been suppressed with lightning speed.All in all,this is a fascinating and chilling testimonial to the frailty of the human psyche. Any reader who assumes that highly educated professionals ,including those in the psychiatric and medical fields, would be the least likely of us to succumb to mind control in the guise of spiritual growth might feel differently after reading this book.One caveat, however: if you start this book, you yourself may fall victim to a kind of mind control. You may have a very hard time putting it down.