I went to the Osho Meditation Resort thinking I would stay there for 8 weeks. After 4 days I moved out! And I will try to explain why...
The people who work there are on a 3 month residential program, and are not trained in customer service at all. Several of them seemed to be going through their own personal dramas, they acted grumpy, mean, and were not nice and friendly as you would expect in a place like this. They didn't smile to others than their co-workers and I was told by one of them they are being taught to be strict with the guests. So they talk to you in a very harsh way - and to me it seamed like they were trying to put us down if they could.
They go through your luggage before you are being allowed into the guesthouse, and you have to pay 700 Rupees for the Daily Meditation Pass even if you arrive at 9.30 in the evening and all the meditations are done for the day... If you stay in their Guesthouse ( 3850 Rupees a night in low season) you have to pay for the Daily Meditation Pass regardless if there are days where you're not attending any meditations. And you have to buy and wear their maroon robes (5 - 700 Rupees) from 6 AM to 6.40 PM, and their white robes from 6.40 PM and until the evening-meeting is over.
You have to pay 150 Rupees every time you use the swimmingpool. In addition you have to buy their maroon swimming-suit (4-500 Rupees)... But please don't try to open the cabinet where they keep the swimming-suits, because then they get angry and yell at you...
It's not allowed to bring any bags, cellphones, waterbottles etc. into the meditations so you also need to rent a locker (50 Rupees a day), and pay 250 Rupees in deposit. They close the office at 4 in the afternoon, meaning you cant attend any meditations after 4 o'clock if you want your deposit back...
The place has become a terror target, so they check your purse and bag every time you cross one of the gates, and they check you with metal detector every time you enter the meditations. If your robe is too short, meaning that one of the strict guards can see your ankles, you are not allowed in. There better not be any ribbon, pattern or "wrong shape or fabric" of your robe either, than they reject you as well - and tell you to buy a new robe in their store the next day... And if you carry an "I'm in silence-button" they don't care and talk to you if they want... because the rules are apparently not for them...
If you stay at their guesthouse and are being rejected to the evening-meeting, you will be removed to where they keep the sick people - which happened to me my first day after a grumpy guard said: "I HAVE A PROBLEM WITH YOU!" And the reason why he had a problem with me was because he could see my ankles..! So the robe they had sold me was a little too short... Nobody had told me the rules yet, but there were no mercy..
During the evening meeting they close all the gates, the guesthouse, the restaurants and its not allowed to be outdoors at all. So I was forced to sit 2 hours in a room with sick people who were screaming out all their anger and frustration "in a language they didn't know", shouting OSHO x 3 several times with their hands in the air, falling "dead" to the floor on Osho's command on speakers etc... One woman was dancing with a flash-light, and was told by a guard to stop. Another woman was clapping her hands and was told by the guard to stop... And in the Pyramide (where most of the meditations find place) you better not do anything outside their rules if you don't want a guard to walk you out... So don't cough or sneeze if you are planning on being there until the end...
Its not easy to stay in this place before you have adapted to all the rules. I left my room with my voucher (Osho-money) and a credit card to buy the Daily Meditations Pass, and was told they only accepted cash. Fair enough, but the problem was that I was not allowed back into the Guesthouse to get cash because I didn't have today's date on my Meditations Pass... The guard didn't care about my explanation even if I had just passed him two minutes earlier and that I could show my room-key... I was not allowed in. Periode! So I had to go find one of the workers in the Welcome-Center who had to follow me through the gate - like I was some kind of a prisoner...
Everything in this resort is very expansive compared to the outside. For example the laundry at the guesthouse. Each underwear cost 25 Rupees. Outside Osho it cost 3-5 Rupees.
A 90 minutes massage cost 4100 Rupees, and outside Osho it costs 400 - 1000 Rupees.
A one-day-course cost approx. 5000 Rupees, a weekly course approx. 40 000 Rupees, but please be aware that some of the teachers speak very bad English. It might also be interesting to know that Indian men are rejected to courses that involves some kind of physical contact.
It's not allowed to take photos, or do any recording, but you can - of course - buy lots of postcards with pictures with strangers on instead. 15 Rupees each.
There is a second meditation-house - in addition to the Pyramide - which is called Chuang Tzu. Here the marble is so exclusive and expansive (imported from Italy) that it's not allowed to touch the floor. Yes, it's supposed to be the biggest meditation center in the world, and most meditations happens on the floor... but yet it's still not allowed to touch the floor here... So you need to bring white socks, sit on a row of pillows, make sure your robe doesn't touch the floor, and please don't touch the floor with your hands as the marble might absorb your sweat... Why it's like this? I was told it was because Osho (who died in 1990) wanted the house to last forever...
To me this place was all about FEAR - FEAR - FEAR. Stress - Stress - Stress. Restricted freedom - given on their premises. And ten times more mind than heart... And when I questioned the strict rules and lack of freedom this place provides their answer was: "You have to stay here for a long time, several weeks or months, and go deeper into the meditations.. then you will understand..."
Is this how people become brainwashed?????
Greetings from someone who travelled to Rishikesh instead :-))
I came here because I liked Osho's books and thought that there would be a good vibe here. I was so wrong, most of the local men come here to give the foreign girls a hard time, the tenant living in the next room gave me a real hard time, and the resort encourages this.. I had no idea he was infamous as the 'sex' guru, gave me nightmares, and its not about spirituality anymore, everything is played by CD, its all about money making.. most people that were coming here in the 80's & 90's don't go anymore.. because the vibe is no good. I agree, AVOID.