Philip Toelkes | |
---|---|
2nd Mayor of Rajneeshpuram | |
In office 1985–1986 | |
Leader | Rajneesh |
Preceded by | David Berry Knapp |
Succeeded by | Position abolished |
Personal details | |
Born | Philip John Toelkes Tigard,Oregon,U.S. |
Education | University of San Francisco (BA,JD) |
Website | nirentoelkes |
Philip John Toelkes,also known as Swami Prem Niren and Philip Niren Toelkes, [1] is an American lawyer and follower of Rajneesh who served as the second mayor of Rajneeshpuram from 1985 until the commune's disbandment in 1986. [2] He also served as the personal lawyer of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh.
Toelkes was born in Tigard,Oregon and raised Catholic. [3] He earned an undergraduate degree from the University of San Francisco and a Juris Doctor from the University of San Francisco School of Law. [4]
Toelkes began his career as an attorney in Los Angeles,working with the Manatt Law Firm which was,at the time,the fastest-growing law firm in the U.S. [5] After traveling to Pune and meeting with Rajneesh,he left his job and relocated to the newly established Rajneeshpuram commune in Wasco County,Oregon. [6] From 1981 to 1990,Toelkes served as Rajneesh's personal attorney,until Rajneesh's death. [7]
Toelkes was the director of the Rajneesh Legal Services Corporation [4] and later became the mayor of Rajneeshpuram,succeeding Krishna Deva. After his first marriage ended,he remarried Ma Prem Isabel,who was the director of public relations for Rajneeshpuram. [4] No legal charges were ever filed against Toelkes,he continues to practice law,and remains loyal to Osho. [4]
He is featured in Wild Wild Country ,a Netflix documentary series about the controversial Indian guru [8] [9] and has written an account of the legal aspects of the cases against Osho and Rajneeshpuram brought by the U.S. Government. [10]
Wasco County is one of the 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2020 census,the population was 25,213. Its county seat is The Dalles. The county is named for a local tribe of Native Americans,the Wasco,a Chinook tribe who live on the south side of the Columbia River. It is near the Washington state line. Wasco County comprises The Dalles Micropolitan Statistical Area.
Antelope is a city in rural Wasco County,Oregon,United States. Antelope had an estimated population of 47 people in 2012.
Rajneesh,also known as Acharya Rajneesh,Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh,and later as Osho,was an Indian spiritual leader,philosopher,and founder of the Rajneesh movement. He was viewed as a controversial new religious movement leader during his life. He rejected institutional religions,insisting that spiritual experience could not be organized into any one system of religious dogma. As a guru,he advocated meditation and taught a unique form called dynamic meditation. Rejecting traditional ascetic practices,he advocated that his followers live fully in the world but without attachment to it. In expressing a more progressive attitude to sexuality he caused controversy in India during the late 1960s and became known as "the sex guru".
Rajneeshpuram was a religious intentional community in the northwest United States,located in Wasco County,Oregon. Incorporated as a city between 1981 and 1988,its population consisted entirely of Rajneeshees,followers of the spiritual teacher Rajneesh,later known as Osho.
The Rajneesh movement is a religious movement inspired by the Indian mystic Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (1931–1990),also known as Osho. They used to be known as Rajneeshees or "Orange People" because of the orange they used from 1970 until 1985. Members of the movement are sometimes called Oshoites in the Indian press.
1000 Friends of Oregon is a private,non-profit 501(c)(3) organization that advocates for land-use planning. It was incorporated on October 11,1974,following the creation of Oregon's statewide land-use system in 1973 by then-governor Tom McCall and attorney Henry Richmond. By 1994,the organization had about 2,500 contributors and supporters. Richmond served as the organization's first executive director.
Ma Anand Sheela is an Indian-Swiss woman who was the spokesperson of the Rajneesh movement and a convicted criminal. In 1986,she was convicted for attempted murder and assault for her role in the 1984 Rajneeshee bioterror attack.
In 1984,751 people suffered food poisoning in The Dalles,Oregon,United States,due to the deliberate contamination of salad bars at ten local restaurants with Salmonella. A group of prominent followers of Rajneesh led by Ma Anand Sheela had hoped to incapacitate the voting population of the city so that their own candidates would win the 1984 Wasco County elections. The incident was the first and is still the single largest bioterrorist attack in U.S. history.
In 1985,a group of high-ranking Rajneeshees,followers of the Indian mystic Shree Rajneesh,conspired to assassinate Charles Turner,the then-United States Attorney for the District of Oregon. Rajneesh's personal secretary and second-in-command,Ma Anand Sheela,assembled the group after Turner was appointed to investigate illegal activity at the followers' community,Rajneeshpuram. Turner investigated charges of immigration fraud and sham marriages,and later headed the federal prosecution of the 1984 Rajneeshee bioterror attack in The Dalles,Oregon.
My Life in Orange:Growing Up with the Guru is an account of a child growing up in the Rajneesh movement led by Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. The book is a firsthand account,written by Tim Guest at the age of 27,years after his experiences. The book was published in 2004 by Granta Books. The book's title is a reference to the term "the orange people",which was used to refer to members of the Rajneesh movement due to the color they dyed their clothes.
Byron v. Rajneesh Foundation International was a 1985 lawsuit filed by Helen Byron in Portland,Oregon,against Rajneesh Foundation International,the organization of Indian guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. Byron had been recruited to join the Rajneesh movement by her daughter,Barbara. She traveled to India to join her daughter and the organization. Byron provided over US$300,000 to the organization,and some of the money was used to buy an armored Rolls-Royce for Rajneesh. Byron spoke to the legal leader of the organization,Ma Anand Sheela,and requested that her money be returned,asserting that it was a loan. Sheela reportedly told her that the money would be returned to her once the group moved to Oregon. Byron followed the organization to its location in Oregon,known as Rajneeshpuram,and requested through an attorney that her money be returned. In 1985,she filed a lawsuit against the organization in federal court,in the United States District Court for the District of Oregon.
Charles H. Turner was an American lawyer who served as the United States Attorney for the District of Oregon. Prior to his presidential appointment as U.S. Attorney,Turner worked under his predecessor,Sidney I. Lezak,for 14 years. He was appointed as Lezak's replacement by President Ronald Reagan.
Breaking the Spell:My Life as a Rajneeshee and the Long Journey Back to Freedom is a non-fiction book by Catherine Jane Stork about her experiences as a Rajneeshee,a follower of Indian guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. It was published in April 2009 by Pan Macmillan. Stork was raised in Western Australia in a Catholic upbringing,and met her first husband while at university in Perth,Australia. After a psychotherapist introduced Stork to teachings of Rajneesh,she became involved in the movement and moved with her husband to an ashram in Poona,India. Stork later moved to the Rajneesh commune in Rajneeshpuram,Oregon. She became involved in criminal activities while at Rajneeshpuram,participated in an attempted murder against Rajneesh's doctor,and an assassination plot against the U.S. Attorney for Oregon,Charles H. Turner. Stork served time in jail but later lived in exile in Germany for 16 years,after a German court had denied extradition to the United States. She returned to the U.S. to face criminal charges after learning of her son's terminal cancer condition. Stork discusses her process of reevaluating the effects her actions within the Rajneesh organization had on other people and on her family.
Wild Wild Country is a Netflix documentary series about the controversial Indian guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (Osho),his one-time personal assistant Ma Anand Sheela,and their community of followers in the Rajneeshpuram community located in Wasco County,Oregon,US. It was released on Netflix on March 16,2018,after premiering at the Sundance Film Festival. The title of the series is drawn from the Bill Callahan song "Drover",which features prominently in the final episode,and it also echoes the comments of Jane Stork about first seeing the ranch,shown at the beginning of episode 2:"it was just so wild,so rugged,but vast—really wild country".
Jane Stork,or Ma Shanti B,is a former follower of Rajneesh. She wrote Breaking the Spell:My Life as a Rajneeshee and the Long Journey Back to Freedom (2009) about her experience,and is featured in Wild Wild Country,a Netflix documentary series about the controversial Indian guru.
David Berry Knapp,also known as Krishna Deva,is an American former disciple of Rajneesh and was mayor of Rajneeshpuram from August 11,1982 to September 15,1985.
Ma Prem Hasya,or Françoise Ruddy or Hasya-Françoise Ruddy,was a French-American follower of Rajneesh who served as his personal secretary after Ma Anand Sheela. She is featured in archive footage in the Netflix documentary series,Wild Wild Country about Rajneesh,and is depicted in the 2022 miniseries The Offer about her then-husband Albert S. Ruddy's experience making The Godfather (1972).
Peepal Baba or Swami Prem Parivartan is an environmentalist who along with his team has planted over 20 million trees in 202 districts across 18 states in India. He was born to a doctor of Indian Army on 26 January 1966 in Chandigarh,India. His English teacher inspired him at the age of 11 to plant trees in 1977. He is the founder of Give Me Trees Trust which was later registered as a non-governmental organisation in 2011. He took asceticism in 1984 from Osho Rajneesh,who gave him the name "Swami Prem Parivartan". Now he also is an inspiration for others interested in the Nature.
Air Rajneesh was a carrier based at Big Muddy Ranch Airport from 1981 to 1985.
Chapman Way is an American documentary film director and producer. He is best known for producing the Netflix documentary series Untold,Wild Wild Country and The Battered Bastards of Baseball.