Re "My tantra guru knew Osho and thought he was nuts.": Don't all gurus bad-mouth the opposition? At Oregon, Osho had withdrawn from public appearances (apart from drive pasts in his Rollers), he was already heavily into Valium - up to 300mgs a day - way above a regular prescription dose, and he was dictating books while under the influence of laughing gas. He did make a partial recovery after he was expelled from the States - his humiliation there seems to have stripped him of some of his illusions and concentrated his mind. His last talks (back in Puna) are quite affecting as he obviously knew he was making his final bow.
Re "said he was going to give the people what they wanted: sex": It's still selling like hot cakes. The sex aspect is worth a brief look. Osho thought that people's experience of orgasm was the closest most would come to having a transcendental experience. (Colin Wilson had similar ideas!) He also had no time for the puritanical Indian mindset and wanted to import western liberal attitudes. Is an orgasm a pointer to an experience of expansion of spirit? I think the answer to that must vary considerably from one individual to another but the importance of fantasy in so much sexual activity suggests that for many a sexual climax intensifies their sense of self rather than releasing it. Tricky subject to discuss though! Especially on a public forum. Although I think that for a few people sex could initiate an awakening it is clearly open to abuse and there is no shortage of low-lifes happy to simply exploit the freedom on offer. I doubt if in Osho's wildest dreams he anticipated the sexual license that was a feature of his (first) Puna ashram as he attracted a lot of ex-hippie types. (There was a lot of drug use then.) Being a man - and the dominant male - he took full advantage in that rather sad and sordid way that failed gurus take their pick of the nubile females. At Oregon people were too tired and over-worked for too much hanky-panky and drugs were banned - and then AIDS reared its ugly head. And the Puna site today sells typical, bland new-age nostrums and sounds boringly respectable. At the end Osho came to believe that sex was a dead end as a route to "enlightenment" and only meditation was of any use.
