In the Shadow of Enlightenment: A Girl's Journey through the Osho Rajneesh Cult

by Sarito Carroll

Overview

In 1978, nine-year-old Sarito Carroll's life took an unexpected turn when her mother brought her to India to visit the ashram of guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (later known as Osho). What was intended to be a brief trip over her summer vacation quickly became permanent when her mother decided they would stay and join the ashram. Three years later, when Rajneesh relocated to the United States, twelve-year-old Sarito arrived alone to Oregon, becoming one of the first thirty-five settlers at what would become Rajneeshpuram-a bold and controversial city built on the Big Muddy Ranch. The commune soon attracted thousands of devotees, lured by the guru's promises of love, spiritual enlightenment, and a utopian society free from conventional constraints.

In the Shadow of Enlightenment is the gripping story of Carroll's childhood inside the Osho Rajneesh cult-one of the most controversial spiritual movements of the 20th century. While in the commune, Sarito was submerged in a world where devotion and freedom clashed with manipulation, sexual misconduct, and neglect. This was the life she knew until the movement collapsed amid scandal and criminal charges in 1985, when sixteen-year-old Sarito was thrust into a society she knew little about.

Decades later, after battling shame, fear, and self-doubt, Sarito breaks her silence to expose the abuse, exploitation, and disillusionment she endured in the Rajneesh community. She stands up against this formidable spiritual institution that promised liberation while concealing dark secrets behind its facade of love and joy. With raw honesty and heart-wrenching clarity, she recounts her fight to reclaim her identity, confront the community's betrayal, and heal on her own terms. It is a powerful story of survival, resilience, courage, and hard-won freedom.

In the Shadow of Enlightenment is a profoundly moving exposé about the hidden dangers lurking behind charismatic leaders and spiritual movements. It will inspire and challenge you to question where you place your trust.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9798991686617
Publisher:	Heroine Publishing LLC
Publication date:	11/11/2024
Pages:	314
Sales rank:	732,918
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.70(d)

Editorial Reviews

2024-12-18
A young girl and her mother are swept up by Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh’s movement in this coming-of-age memoir.

From the beginning, Carroll’s life was unusual: Her parents were a New York City beatnik father who suffered from addiction and couldn’t keep a job and an artist mother who rejected her more conservative Jewish upbringing. Eventually, the author’s father’s instability led her and her mother to leave New York, and the memoir follows their lives on the road, settling in New Mexico and then Hawaii as they tried to find a lasting community with like-minded, free-spirited people. The young Carroll and her mother didn’t have much, just the clothes on their backs and, occasionally, a vehicle; they salvaged furniture from the dump and, in Hawaii, picked guavas to pay rent. Everything changed when the author’s mother grew interested in the teachings of the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh—she started wearing orange and making plans to go to India. In the summer after Carroll’s third grade year, the two embarked for India, where they joined the community in Rajneesh’s ashram. The mother became more absorbed in Rajneesh’s teachings, and they moved again from India to Antelope, Oregon, home of the infamous Rajneeshpuram, subject of the documentary seriesWild Wild Country. The book chronicles Carroll’s unorthodox upbringing in the cult and the related sexual predation she experienced as a child. Her story includes some of the sensational events that anyone who’s familiar with the docuseries will remember—there’s the bombing and the guns and the “fleet of ninety-six Rolls-Royces”—but at its core, this memoir is a record of the experiences of a young girl whose memories are textured by horribly abusive structures: most of the underage girls in Rajneeshpuram lost their virginity to adult men. Told in plain, unvarnished prose, Carroll’s memoir adds a harrowing chapter to the story of the Osho movement—this book will be appreciated by fans of Jeannette Walls and Tara Westover, or by anyone interested in extreme religious movements.

A searing look at a rootless childhood growing up in Rajneeshpuram.

Kirkus Reviews