This totally snuck up on me. Didn't even realize it was out. Probably gonna start watching tonight. Looks right up my alley. Anyone check it out yet?
Very very wild, fun fact that they discuss briefly in the last episode. The complex the "cult" was living in got bought and converted to a Christian camp. Growing up in the area I'd been there 5-6 times so this documentary was trippy as hell to watch
This was very good. Can't believe I never heard about it until this came out. Sheela was so stone cold and calculating.
"The Dollop" podcast does an episode on this and it's super funny. Episode 22: Dollop: Acharya Rajneesh » The Dollop Dot Net
Yeah I blew through this in the first two days it was released. It just gets more and more insane. I'm super into cults and read up on them regularly, and I know this is basically the tagline/cliche of the show, but I can't believe I never heard of them before this. I actually forgot about the part where they blended up beavers to poison the towns water supply until a couple days ago because 100 more insane things happened after that reveal.
for sure and I also forgot about it! I started telling my family about this on easter and their immediate reaction was like the townspeople and I was like I HAVEN'T EVEN TOLD YOU ANYTHING YET. THEY WERE GOOD. and I was like so heated and then had to be like why am I defending this cult rn?? lmfao. I guess just because for the first part of the series I definitely felt empathy for them and defensive of them, and all the crazy stuff they did wasn't even revealed until like the very end. Even then it's unclear if it was just the top tier group who knew what was going on or what.
It's definitely a story where you feel like everyone was a piece of shit at the end. The parts where the ignorant, racist town folk kept trying to use red scare tactics in interviews made me literally laugh my ass off. There are still a lot of people who use that style of meditation to this day so at least there was some positive impact.
This was one of the best docs I’ve ever seen. Deserves awards. Did a great job of showing both sides of a story and not favoring either one.
Watched this over the last two weeks and my attention wavered a lot during the second half. Pretty good, crazy story, but way overlong imo.
I thought it was overly long as well but totally front heavy...I have no idea how your attentioned waned when everything was just getting interesting haha
Interesting story and laid out and told very well, but should have only been four episodes. It was a struggle to finish. Each of the "characters" they had for interviews now were fascinating. As usual with most cults, I can totally see why it was appealing and for the most part, seemed like a nice commune full of good people. I loved Sheela after the first episode or two since she's charming, funny, and smart, but man... that turns pretty quick.