Therapist who joined controversial Osho movement of 1980s still using teachings today despite ‘cult’ criticism

A former member of the controversial 1980s Osho movement has said she still uses its teachings today, and her knowledge from the commune helps her provide “energetic medicine” treatments in London and worldwide.

Cassandra “Punita” James, 65, was a member – known as a sannyasin – of the new religious movement led by Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, later known as Osho, which was established in India in the 1970s before relocating to a remote area of Oregon in the USA.

Cassandra first visited the commune for a festival attended by tens of thousands in 1984, the same year a non-fatal food poisoning attack carried out by some members affected more than 750 nearby Wasco County residents – as depicted in the Netflix documentary series Wild Wild Country.

She stayed for four months and returned in 1985 to witness the final months of the commune, when Osho was “put in shackles and treated as a criminal”, Cassandra told PA Real Life, as he was deported from the US on immigration-related charges.

In 1987, Osho moved the commune back to Pune, India, and Cassandra followed him, staying for over a year, before moving on and later working at Osho Leela, a community in Gillingham, Dorset.

Now an energy coach and therapist, and seasonal nomad between the UK, France, Australia and elsewhere, she claims to have helped “tens of thousands” to unblock stress and heal from trauma using her teachings – charging £160 for an hour-long session.

As a leader, Osho advocated for meditation and promoted sexual liberation, but the Oregon commune – called Rajneeshpuram – was controversial due to tension with Wasco County residents and the state government, illegal acts carried out by some prominent members, and suggestions the group was a cult – as well as later allegations of abuse.

Cassandra, originally from Sydney, Australia, said she first met “very smart, inquiring, big hearted” sannyasins for the first time in Vancouver in her early 20s.

Inspired, she decided to undertake the necessary ceremony to become a sannyasin, receive her new name “Punita” and attend the annual festival in Oregon.

“Osho would drive by in one of his Rolls Royces in the afternoon and we would line up along the road… helicopters would drop rose petals, masses of them and we put flowers on his car,” she said of the festival.

“There’d be music along the side of a road, like gypsy style music, and people would basically just be hanging out, chatting, connecting, meeting new people if they weren’t working, doing something to help make it all run.”

Sannyasins worked hard at the ranch during the year and the festivals were “party time” during which thousands lived in tents for around two weeks and experienced the “eco-city” that had been created.

Cassandra decided to stay for a further three-and-a-half months to attend counselling training, which involved 12-hour days, six days a week of workshops and active meditation at dawn.

“It was amazing… it would involve jumping or dancing, shaking, and then there’d be sitting – Osho said the Western mind was very busy, so you had to empty it first, and then you could sit with a still mind by the end,” she said of the active meditations.

“We would have had a big gathering once a day, at least, where Osho would come and sit in silence and we would all meditate, which was very powerful, to meditate with thousands of people.”

Cassandra said the commune was “completely the reverse of free love” during her stay, as the Aids crisis gripped the US and “Osho talked about it a lot and warned people about it”.

In 1984, a group of prominent Osho followers carried out the largest bio-terrorist attack in US history, when more than 750 people were non-fatally poisoned with salmonella in an effort to impact the 1984 Wasco County elections.

Cassandra, who was at the ranch at the time, said she felt “definitely shocked” upon hearing of the poisoning, but added: “We didn’t really find out how big a thing it was until quite a while later, maybe years later.

“We heard there was some food poisoning – I wasn’t aware of the degree of it until later.”

Cassandra said it was “shocking” and “sad” to watch the community disintegrate “when the drama really came out” in 1985.

“Osho had gone, so the purpose of the community had gone and everybody was leaving,” said Cassandra.

“The American air force used to divebomb us, that happened for months.

“Basically America didn’t want the community there – Osho was very outspoken and loud about politicians and it was just finished.”

Osho was deported and then revived the ashram in Pune in 1987 before dying in 1990.

Cassandra lived at Pune for more than a year to listen to Osho speak about various poets and zen masters and while there carried out various jobs in the ashram.

In 2007, Cassandra established a business in Europe helping people to unblock stress and heal from trauma using “energetic healing”, focusing on the pelvis and lower body.

She began running speciality clinics at the regular festivals at Osho Leela, a community in Dorset inspired by Osho’s teachings, and lived there for a few months from the end of 2020.

She said the Gillingham community focuses on connection, creativity and understanding oneself, while holding morning meetings, workshops, trainings, as well as hosting theatre and music in the evenings.

Explaining her work, Cassandra said she talks first with the client about what they want to change in their work and life and then the client lies on a table fully clothed and she treats them, “clearing any energy channel blocks in the way of what they want, which includes pelvis, heart and mind”.

“My focus is on the pelvis and lower body as this area holds hidden stresses and that affects our money, energy, creativity and lower body health,” she said.

“In my work, I use AcuEnergetics at the core and include what I learned from Osho and my life as a seasonal nomad.

“I’ve helped thousands of people around the world, but I help people primarily from the midlife era, which is late 30s to late 40s because it is a time of such intense stress, change and opportunity.”

Cassandra, who describes herself as “the UK’s leading practical energy coach/therapist for inspired change,” offers clinics in London, starting at £160, as well as a three-day retreat in Provence or the UK for just under £5,000.

Asked what advice she would give, Cassandra said: “The secret to unlocking what we might be looking for in our life is often in our lower body, and when this is freed up energetically, doors can open and our life can shift and open in ways we might never imagine.”

To find out more about Cassandra’s business, visit cassandrajames.com or for more go to: linktr.ee/cassandrajamesenergy