war Archives - The Sociable

Technology

Effects of AI on nuclear strategies, weaponizing tech, and why wars are fought

Tim Hinchliffe4 years ago

9.63K

The desire for the powers that be to weaponize every technology ever developed has given rise to the threat of...

Technology

The AI revolution in defense technology is happening faster than we think

James Rosenfield4 years ago

9.61K

As the legendary Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw mused in his "Maxims for Revolutionists" (1948), "If history repeats itself, and...

Technology

Photojournalist uses VR in war exhibition to ‘expand moral imagination’

The Sociable4 years ago

2.89K

Virtual Reality isn’t a mere fad which will come and go - it is technology that will soon turn empirical...

Web

How the Iraq war still isn’t over: The upcoming Battle for Mosul

Tim Hinchliffe6 years ago

7.93K

The Iraq war still isn't over as a US-led coalition plans to conduct a major military offensive five years after...

Web

Big Banking & Oil: Which country do we invade next after Syria?

Tim Hinchliffe6 years ago

7.68K

The war in Syria is in its 5th year, and it is all part of a global plan to invade...

Brains Byte Back

We explore how our brains, psychology, and society are impacted by the ever-evolving technology that surrounds us. If you want to be better prepared for the new information age, have a healthier relationship with technology, and get more out of life using top technology and psychology hacks, this is the podcast for you! Every other Friday we bring you interviews with leading experts in the fields of technology and psychology combined, with past guest speakers such as New York Times journalists, MIT Professors, and C-suite executives of top tech companies.

You may have heard of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and his followers, commonly known as Rajneeshees or sannyasins, from the incredibly popular Netflix documentary “Wild, Wild Country.”

Well in today’s episode we speak with a former follower of the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh cult to get a better understanding of how this society functioned, what it was like to live in normal society as a member of the cult, and what it was like on the famous Oregon ranch.

With our guest, Annie (who has asked to remain anonymous but showed her mala that she wore during her time as a Rajneshee to prove her affiliation with the cult), we find out how she first find out about Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and the Rajneeshees, and what inspired her to join their cult, where she goes into great detail about how she found them when she was 16 at an Alcoholics Anonymous event.

She also shares why life as a Rajneeshee was difficult off the ranch in normal society, as society often treated them with a mixture of suspicion, curiosity, and fear. In fact, she was fired from all of her jobs due to her membership in the cult, but she also explains how she saw this as a positive, “a trial by fire” as she claims.

Annie also goes into detail about what it was like visiting the ranch in 1983, when, she believes, much of the footage used in the documentary was filmed. She talks about the important role meditation played in being a Rajneeshee and what a normal day was like on the ranch.

She also shares her thoughts on how accurate the documentary was, how close she came to meeting Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, and finally, how she left the cult in the end.

Overall, Annie explains why she doesn’t see the following as a religion or cult, but instead as a community and how this community had such an overall, lasting positive experience in her life.