First of all, we're looking at a love story, perhaps one of the greatest romance tales to date. We are seeing a 16-year-old girl fall in love with a thirty some year old dude in India, and give up any dreams she had up until that point to follow this weird-looking man around.
She travels to the United States to go to school, becomes familiar with the idea of freedom and equal rights in the constitution, and returns to India to meet her guru again only to be turned into his top aid.
Osho, going by the name of Bhagwan at the time, has this desire to form an international commune in a desert. Next thing we know Sheela, the young girl now in her early 20s, gets a visa for the guru and buys a HUGE ranch in the middle of nowhere Oregon.
Long story short, the followers of the guru were so enchanted by him that they tagged along to this remote place, built a city on a voluntary basis with pretty much everything in it including a phamaceutical lab, and even their own banking operation. To make the situation more shocking, considering this all happened in a relatively short amount of time, the organization managed to gather 150 American citizens to vote for the creation of a new town.
Creating a town, mind you, this all was done legally, enabled the commune to circumvent bureaucracy as they were able to issue their own building permits and whatnot, which is very smart if you ask me.
Trouble, as all who watch the documentary are expecting, develops quickly. Apparently one of the businesses of the organization was bombed, and as a result the community leaders, Sheela amongst them, decided it was time to buy some protection.
In addition to the purchase of high capacity weapons, since the organization had formed their own town they were also entitled to their own police force. It was having their own cops, which were easily identifiable as part of what the surrounding neighbors saw as a satanic cult, the straw that broke the camel's back in my opinion.
Think about it, how would you feel like if all the cops you came in contact with were christian? You'd probably be indifferent if you too are a christian because at least you believe that you can make yourself be understood with this person, who has tremendous power over you and your future. But you come across a situation were all cops are Muslim or a religion you're unfamiliar with and you're going to be very unconfortable, because you don't know if you can even talk to that person let alone negotiate.
I'm not going to go into what ultimately happened, I do want people to watch the show. I'm not going to go into the accusations that were made and I won't speculate as to whether I think crimes were in fact commited as a matter of record.
Part of me wants to denounce the fact that those hippies weren't hurting anyone, that all they did was legal. There's part of me that sees value in the US contitution, that understands there are still people who cherish the conditions that the constitution is supposed to provide. But by now I've seen enough incongruences to admire the constitution in abstract, as if platonic, just like the life-long love affair between Bhagwan and Sheela.
I guess what is most incredible about this production is seeing how all these people who were involved, even the ones who might have some negative stories, still speak of this Guru with such adoration. Like, what was up with that Osho guy and why did all these wealthy and smart people just couldn't help themselves around him? How is it that after everything, I am watching these people describe their experiences and they are still talking like it was the most wonderful thing that ever happened to them?
