There is no reason for an enlightened man to know these things, that they are happening. It is not part of enlightenment. People have strange ideas about enlightenment. Enlightenment simply means I know myself. It does not mean that I know that my room is bugged. Enlightenment and bugging has no relationship.

So you didn’t know Sheela, even though you have known her since she was nineteen?

I started slowly, as I started hearing the stories. Something was wrong. And when she disappeared and started moving into other communes in the world and became afraid facing me because I will ask about things, how it happened, how the Planning Office in the Wasco County was burned, who burned it, how Dalles reservoir was poisoned – to kill the whole city.

Are you saying she tried to kill a whole city?

Yes. She killed a man here. She has brought three thousand street people. To me she said, “This is just a humanitarian gesture. We have…”

How did she drug them?

She imported certain drug Haldol.

That’s a tranquilizer?

Yes. Drums of Haldol. And with every food – tea, coffee, everything – they were drugged, for twenty-one days, so they became almost like robots. The whole idea was that they will now do whatever she wants them to do. They will vote for her. One man was overdosed and died. She simply threw her body out of Rancho Rajneesh, without any feelings. As these stories started slowly coming to me – because it was difficult for people to reach me, I had prevented them not to reach me, otherwise what is the point of being silent? I was not reading newspapers, I was not seeing television, I was not reading books, I was simply relaxing into my silence…

Have you told the police?