In an interview with The Daily Wire’s Michael Knowles, Federalist contributor Bridget Phetasy talks about the time she spent in a sex cult depicted in Netflix’s new documentary “Wild Wild Country.”
While traveling in Australia, Bridget says she happened upon the ashram which practiced Dynamic Meditation and followed the teachings of the controversial guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, called “Osho.” The cult’s namesake was deported from the United States for suspected fraud and other criminal activity he allegedly perpetuated on an ashram his followers built in Oregon in the 1980s.
During her month-long stay, Bridget was encouraged to “let go” of herself and let herself become anew. Through Dynamic Meditation and total isolation, the guru broke individuals down and stripped them of their old identities.
“There’s an internal sense of restlessness or longing for a feeling of connection to something bigger so it would be very easy to manipulate that — for money, or power, or prestige,” she said of the people who seek out spiritual experiences on an ashram.
“I think we all want something to believe as humans,” she said. “The human condition is very confusing because there’s this sense of order — the sun rises, the sun sets, there are seasons — and yet, there’s all this chaos.”
Phetasy said she was encouraged to isolate herself from her friends and family while spending time on the ashram. She added that what makes people susceptible to brain washing is “any situation, whether it’s Scientology or the ashram, or anything where it’s isolating you from your friends and family and people that know you and love you.”
Phetasy also detailed her experience on the ashram in a piece published in Mel Magazine, which you can read here.
All ashrams have their own culture and theology. A certain amount of indoctrination comes with any culture, especially a closed-system in the middle of nowhere like the ‘Ram. A large part of the Guru’s rhetoric focused on our identity, letting go of whatever ideas of ourselves we clung to the most desperately. He focused on it so intensely, though, that there was something unnerving about it. In particular, he asked, ‘What remains when everything has been washed away? When there are no distractions? When there’s nowhere to run to? No one to affirm your existence, stroke your ego, favorite your Instagram? Who are you when you can no longer hide from the loneliness, the fear, the pain and the insecurity? What happens when you let your old self go?’
I’ll tell you what happens: You go bat-shit crazy.
