Re: Osho / Rajneesh Cult Sexual Abuse of Minors
There is a disturbing video (unfortunately on pay to view) that details the sexual abuse that a young girl experienced at an Osho / Rajneesh ashram (probably Pune?).
See: [
www.youtube.com]
From the 'LivingOsho' Group on Yahoo Groups:
Quote:
Seems there have been a number of cases recently where sannyasin kids, now grown up, have said they were neglected or sexually abused in Osho communes (incl. Ko Hsuan school).
The programme the above trailer refers to is available on a pay-per-view TV site (link at the end of the clip), haven't seen it though yet.
My all-seeing eye hasn't passed over it. How could it? I had a link on my website to the full-length documentary until it went obsolete.
[There is] the Dutch documentary, "Communekind" (Commune Child) on Belgian TV. It's made by Maroesja Perizonius, and tells us about her experiences as
a young teenage girl (around 14 years of age) in an Osho commune in Amsterdam and England. These experiences - especially the sexual ones - weren't entirely positive, but there's more to the documentary than sex. The thread is on looking at herself, how she as a young girl was willing to do everything to be accepted and be part of the scene, and on her relationship with her mother, now and at the time (her mother was and still is a sannyasin). It's about the general liberal attitude with regard to sexuality in Osho communes in the late seventies and early eighties of the twentieth century, and on how the choices the mother made had consequences for her daughter; the mother didn't take her responsibility as a parent as much as she probably would have in ordinary society.
Maroesja says that she wanted her documentary to shed light on the responsibility of parents towards their children. She is glad that her mother was willing to cooperate in the making of this challenging and confrontational film. "I was on a search and because of it you are on a search yourself now", her mother says. It's a warm and intelligent documentary in which both mother and daughter do not condemn, but discover more of themselves and of each other, and come to understand each other better...
Very impressive. This kind of honest (re-)examination of such material is very rare.
There are many stories of sexual exploitation of very young women in sannyas contexts, Ko Hsuan School included. Unlike in the general population though, it seems that few if any involved pre-pubescent girls. This is actually an enormous difference, as is the absence of fathers preying on their daughters.
But little consideration was given at the time to the possible presence of pedophiles in sannyas, so they slipped under the radar somewhat. Parents trusted and some were somewhat neglectful of giving their daughters adequate supervision or guidance, so older men who were attracted to the youngest women had a fairly free rein.
Still, the culture of (relative) openness that prevailed must have ameliorated the worst possibilities of that, since:
1. The lack of sexual repression would have meant less of the worst kind of secrecy and shame that attends sexual abuse in the mainstream world.
2. Gossip (sharing in the teen peer group) would have weeded out some of the worst perps.
3. The general culture of the naturalness of sex would have given enough sexual opportunity to horny people that they wouldn't need so much to exploit powerless youngsters.
4. The culture of self-empowerment would again have weeded out the worst perps by giving kids sufficient dignity and autonomy to not be exploited,
or to be less so.
5. The culture of self-examination -- such as it is / was -- would have softened the harshest aspects in perps, both by their own self-examination
and by the feedback of peers.
6. Osho's guidance (samples below - deleted here) has helped us to go through this stuff via experience and understanding, rather than suppressing and hiding.
All that said, there were some casualties and suffering. It is great to know about Maroesja and her story, a rare kind of healing.
Love, Sxxx
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/12/2008 06:44AM by SeekingTruth.