A Visit by Mimi Goldman from the University of Oregon, USA

Last Saturday I was fortunate to be able to welcome Mimi Goldman, Professor of Religious and Social Studies at the University of Oregon to my home in Somerset.

I first became aware of Mimi Goldman when I heard of a new book published by Oxford University Press – Controversial New Religions, edited by James Lewis – in which she wrote a chapter about Osho and sannyas. Despite the title: "When leaders dissolve: Solutions to controversy and stagnation in the Rajneesh movement." *

I thought it was an interesting and fair (from an outsider’s point of view) piece of work with some interesting, to my mind, ‘insider’ bits of information. Intrigued, I entered her name in Google and found her website, email address and information about another book, Passionate Journeys, which she wrote about ‘the successful American women who left the mainstream to follow Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh to his communal city in central Oregon’.

I emailed Mimi saying I appreciated her work except for a number of points which I objected to – especially the word ‘stagnation’ – and she kindly replied, mentioning that she would be in the UK in April and could we meet. She said she had met me at Rajneeshpuram during my stint in PR when I talked to the many kinds of visitors who came to see what we were doing.

Mimi managed to find time in her busy schedule to come down to Somerset for the day. She loved the countryside in spring and Croydon Hall where Kanta invited us to have lunch and explained what Croydon Hall was about. She also had a very good chat with Gupi who was there at the time. The meditation weekend was happening and I was keen to show her that there was certainly no stagnation in sannyas. Change, yes, stagnation, no!

From my side the best part of the trip was the fact that she wanted to record an interview with me to store in the Archives of the University of Oregon. The University has constructed an archive about Osho and sannyas with a particular emphasis on Rajneeshpuram – but much of the material they have is from press and media reports which are almost wholly negative. Mimi asked me questions to which I was able to give our side of the story so I hope that, if somebody is researching Osho, maybe many years down the line, there will be a record of something more positive. I also gave her my two books to store in the archives and I will now be collecting other written material eg Neeten’s amazing work on Osho and his books to send.

I am grateful to Mimi for going out of her way to give us the opportunity to explain our points of view and to accept them without judgement. I felt she really did have an understanding that there was more to what Osho was about than what the media portrayed. Her status as a professor has credibility, so her well-considered opinions are important.

I thoroughly enjoyed meeting her and showing her around. It was a very lovely and satisfying day for us both.

*We tried to get permission to publish her chapter on our OSHOinUK website but it would have cost us over £400! A good portion of the chapter can be found on: the following link, then go to Contents > more » > Osho Rajneesh Movement.

text by Veena – April 2008