A British woman who grew up in the disgusting ‘Sannyasin’ sex cult run by Indian mystic Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, where she was allegedly abused and raped several times as a child, has revealed her hell amid the upcoming release of a documentary chronicling her history. .
In an interview with The timesPrem Sargam, 54, spoke of the rampant sexual abuse he suffered from the age of six in the three Sannyasin communities – o’ashrams– she grew up on.
Sargam detailed how Rajneesh’s Sannyasin spiritual movement that her parents joined when she was a child believed that boys should see sex regularly and that girls going through puberty should be guided by adult men on their sexual journeys.
“It was considered good for children to be exposed to sexuality,” she told The Times, explaining that seeing adults having sex was common for her.
Sargam began witnessing these very public sexual displays at the age of six, when his family moved from their home in Devon to a sannyasin commune in Prune, India, after his father, who had become disillusioned with his job, sought the enlightenment of Rajneesh, a bearded, mystical guru whose New Age sex cult was unsurpassed in its embrace of “free love.”
Prem Sargam, 54, speaks out about the sexual abuse he suffered in a cult that groomed children to have sex with adults.
Sargam says the abuse began when his parents became followers of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (pictured).
The cult that Sargam was raised in was previously explored in the 2018 Netflix documentary ‘Wild Wild Country’. The image shows documentary images of the cult commune in Oregon.
But the movement also believed that children were obstacles to their parents’ sexual journey.
This meant that Sargam lived away from his mother and father in the children’s home, where he received no education and worked 12 hours a day in the kitchen.
But just a year after his arrival in India, Sargam’s innocence was taken away.
At only seven years old, Sargam was taken care of by an adult man, who made her follow him “like a puppy” and bribed her with Swiss chocolate.
“It wasn’t until I was 16 that I understood what had happened,” he said.
The sickening sexual abuse committed against children in the Rajneesh communes is explored in the upcoming documentary ‘Children of the Cult’. The film will tell the story of three British women, including Sargam, who escaped the clutches of the cult.
And while the documentary will see her bravely speaking out about her abuse, Sargam only opened up about her past three years ago on Facebook, when she wrote an open letter to her abuser.
In it, he detailed how ‘he asked me to take off my panties, said he was going to ‘introduce me to sex’, that I should lie down on the bed and that was when he performed a sexual act on me for the first time,’ he wrote on the social platform. in September 2021.
‘I was scared and I just didn’t know what to do… my body froze with fear and a sick feeling came over me. This is not okay, or maybe this is what adults do to children, maybe this is normal? But if it’s normal, why do I feel so bad and can’t move my body?
In the photo: Rajneesh in 1985.
In the photo: Sannyasins in their orange robes.
Rajneesh founded a spiritual movement and commune in Pune, near Mumbai (formerly Bombay) in 1970.
Rajneesh’s unorthodox meditation techniques and utter extravagance attracted tens of thousands of followers from around the world.
‘Even in my (seven) year old mind, I thought what a strange thing I was doing. I was already feeling very confused mentally and emotionally.’
Sargam also told The Times that between the ages of seven and 11, she and her friends were expected to perform different sexual acts with adult men who lived in the commune.
She would then be sent alone to the Medina ashram in Suffolk to attend a “boarding” program, where the abuse continued. At the age of 12, he moved to the United States to be with his mother, who worked at an ashram in Oregon.
There she was raped by a man who had also groomed her.
“Then I was raped 50 times by different men,” she told The Times, adding: “Him stealing my virginity at 12 opened the door for the other 50 men or so.”
Despite the abuse that hundreds of young children were subjected to in Rajneesh’s global communes, little has been documented so far.
According to The Times, there was only one investigation by US child protective services into the Oregon sect.
Even when Netflix released a blockbuster documentary about the cult’s Oregon branch in 2018 called ‘Wild Wild Country,’ there was no mention of the children’s experiences of abuse and neglect.
But by speaking out, survivors like Sargam encourage others to come forward, she said.
However, the 2018 Netflix documentary offers more insight into what life was like in the free love cult.
Rajneesh’s unorthodox meditation techniques and sheer extravagance attracted tens of thousands of followers around the world, including celebrities such as British journalist Bernard Levin and London film star Terence Stamp.
In the United States, Rajneesh was nicknamed the ‘Rolls-Royce guru’ as he owned 93 of these luxury cars.
A philosophy professor who, in 1970, founded a spiritual movement and commune in Pune, near Mumbai (formerly Bombay), Rajneesh’s teachings were a strange mix of pop psychology, ancient Indian wisdom, capitalism, sexual permissiveness and dirty jokes. which he extracted from the pages of Playboy magazine.
Rajneesh argued that monogamous marriage was unnatural and advocated unlimited promiscuity, including partner swapping, from the age of 14.
In India he was known as the “sex guru”, while in the United States he was nicknamed the “Rolls-Royce guru”, since he owned 93 of these luxury cars.
Like Sargam’s fathers, his followers were often highly educated professionals willing to reject the structures of middle-class convention and seek enlightenment first in India and then in the communes of Oregon, Colony, and Suffolk.
Some left behind spouses and children, while others donated everything they had to the cult.
But it was the group’s attempt to build a $100 million utopian city in a remote corner of the northwestern state of Oregon that became its downfall in the 1980s.
Rajneesh’s move to Oregon in 1981 was prompted by an investigation by Indian authorities into immigration fraud, tax evasion and drug smuggling. The group purchased a 64,000-acre ranch near the small settlement of Antelope, and the 7,000 disciples who moved there swamped the Bible-critical resident population of 50.
He began construction of a self-sufficient Rajneesh city intended for 50,000 residents, with dozens of houses, shops, restaurants and even an airport built, but faced strong opposition from local politicians who believed he was leading a dangerous sect.
In 1985, he asked authorities to investigate his personal secretary, Ma Anand Sheela, and his supporters for a series of crimes, including a mass food poisoning attack intended to influence county elections, an aborted murder plot of lawyer Charles H. Turner, as well as the attempted murder of the guru’s doctor.
Sheela was also accused of embezzling $55 million in funds and bugging her room.
This led the FBI to discover 10,000 recordings of their massive wiretapping operation, as well as an arsenal of unregistered weapons.
While interrogating the disciples, the feds uncovered even more diabolical plots.
In an attempt to incapacitate non-Rajneesh voters in the local area, the Rajneeshis attempted to poison the water supply of the nearest large city and also contaminated food displayed in restaurants.
This led to Sheela’s arrest. She was sentenced to 20 years in prison, but only served 29 months behind bars before being released and deported.
Three other disciples were imprisoned.
Meanwhile, Rajneesh was accused of immigration fraud, for which he was deported back to Pune, where he died at age 58 of heart failure in 1998.
Today, there are still a small number of Rajneeshi devotees around the world.