Growing up in the Rajneesh cult: ‘We were pursued and abused by men who wanted to take our virginity’
telegraph.co.ukthe movement led by Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, a man with a long beard, flowing robes of his own and, later, 96 Rolls-Royces.Disciples were known as sannyasins.
They were encouraged to have vasectomies and sterilisations and hand over vast sums of money – many gave their life savings.
By the late 1970s and early 1980s, followers were well-educated, middle-class Americans and Europeans, just like Dunn’s father, looking to escape the mundanity of ordinary life.Disciples, Rajneesh preached, could ‘live in love’, which meant having as much guilt-free sex as they desired.
Freedom was to be found through love, surrender and sex. Children were seen as an obstruction to their parents’ sexual journey.It was an enticing sell for Dunn’s father, an established serial adulterer. ‘He just disappeared out of our lives with no mention of when he would return,’ says Dunn.Dunn remembers when her father did return to north London after six months away in India.
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