Osho sanyassins introduced ecstacy MDMA to the rave scene

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In informal conversations, sannyasins circulated rumors about visitors,
usually first-timers, who developed some emotional disorder during a
workshop or who were sanctioned by a director.12 The subtle impression
was that this paradise was not as harmonious as the magazine Osho
Times intended to convey. Visitors were pounded with the idea that they
ought to express their feelings and opinions, as a proof of inner authenticity.
However, expression was conditioned by a system of expectations,
rewards and sanctions that delimited the scope of permitted behavior,
with very little margin for dissent. As previously seen, even within the
therapeutic setting, self-expression was monitored and even shaped according
to the therapist’s intentions.

Global Nomads, p 159

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As a consequence of Osho’s critique of civilization as repressive, the notion
of ‘expression’ gained a central role among sannyasins, often more emphatically
so than the notion of ‘witnessing,’ the core category of his spiritual
philosophy. More than a therapeutic procedure, being expressive was
highly valued and pervasively expected. Therapists urged and sometimes
coerced participants to be assertive (or leave the group). As a source of
jokes and anxieties, visitors often reported the awkward situation in which
they ‘did not have anything to express’ during a cathartic exercise and
wondered, ‘Do I have a problem?’. Spontaneity, flamboyance and even
some bluntness were seen as desirable traits. In tandem, formal politeness
was seen suspiciously as a symptom of repressed personality. ‘Politeness
is a repression from your parents,’ I once heard during an argument. On
a different occasion, Git Prem (a German expatriate from Ibiza) introduced
me to an acquaintance in Pune who plainly refused to shake my
extended hand. Finally, a temporary flatmate, whom I had never spoken
to, angrily demanded that I kept the toilet seat up (rather than down).
As such, ‘being in touch with oneself’ could trigger episodes of sentimentalism
or hostility, which were, at least in theory, accepted by
sannyasins. Their interactions tended to be candid yet intempestive, either
affectionate or aggressive, resulting in that minor confrontations over
minor issues marked much of their ordinary life in Pune.
As a consequence of such ideological pressure, exerted in a bubble-like
environment in a remote country, most visitors reported some form of
emotional hardship during their stay. This was particularly noticeable
during midweek afternoons, when cathartic workshops were peaking.
Observing the number of distressed faces wandering in the resort, Dimitri,
who regularly attended the workshops, noted:

You see all these people in the ashram. They look unhappy and miserable.
It didn’t have to be like that, but that is what they need to go
through for a while. And all these fights . . . They behave like assholes

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Eccentric behavior was accepted insofar as it did not challenge order
and authority in the resort. Those running the organization tended to overreact
against any form of unaligned or recalcitrant behavior.

For example,
a disagreement over a garment (robe) detail could lead to the expulsion of
a resistant visitor.

Yet, more worrisome is the treatment that the resort
dispenses to mentally derailed visitors. A young Spanish man told a workshop-
mate during a break that he had been brought to Pune by a ‘cosmic
conspiracy’ orchestrated by resort directors – a very unlikely claim. A day
later, while staring at a noticeboard, he froze in a catatonic state. The
gatemen took him to a psychiatrist downtown and left him there alone.
During the appointment, he recovered his mental faculties, as if returning
from a trance state. The physician said that there was nothing to worry
about, prescribed light tranquilizers, and charged Rs. 400 (US$9) for the
consultation. The young man refused to pay and angrily returned to the here because they cannot be like that at home.
So, this is a relatively
safe environment to behave like that, without suffering serious consequences.
In this sense, in order to be peaceful at home, one ought to be aggressive
in Pune.

Because of this intense emotional work, visitors developed
unusual forms of behavior, reasoning and sociability. This could be inferred
from answers given to trivial statements. For example, I invited someone
for a coffee and got a response in gravitas: ‘No, today I am connecting
with myself.’ Or, I told a volunteer at a registration desk that I was not
interested in attending workshops, and heard, ‘What are you escaping
from? . . .’.

Also, visitors often developed acute self-distrust, intensely questioning
themselves, ‘Are these thoughts mine or my parents’?’.

In various degrees, such unusual statements usually came from participants
of high-impact workshops, but excessive meditation in the Buddha
Hall triggered similar effects. Some individuals claimed to have developed
paranormal abilities, and even implied that they had achieved some form
of spiritual awakening. In concordance with this analysis of psychic deterritorialization,
a study notes that, ‘too much meditation may interfere
with logical thought process, because the whole technique is geared to
take one beyond reason and thinking’ (Basnet 2002: 59).

As an example of such transformations, a young woman from Los
Angeles (US) was visiting the ashram for the first time. Apparently sociable
and sensible, she was a dance student in college, spending her vacation
in India. She gave up traveling across the country as planned in order to
spend all her time at the resort. While attending a sequence of therapy
workshops, her behavior altered in strange ways. Wearing the ‘silence’
badge, she moved slowly, with eyes looking somehow mesmerized. She
took Sannyas, broke up with her boyfriend over the internet and extended
her stay in Pune for an extra month, to attend more therapy groups.

Global Nomads pp 161 - 162

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https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01438300600625457?src=recsys&journalCode=rcar20Abstract
Interrogating the fusion of ‘religion’ and ‘leisure’ in contemporary societies, this article analyses how adepts of a countercultural religiosity (Osho sannyasins) have influenced the club and rave scenes in Ibiza (‘clubbing capital of the world’), Pune and Goa (global centers of self-spirituality and digital dance). As ‘rave studies’ has concentrated on the experiential dimension of raving, this article focuses instead on the socio-economic components of a ‘nomadic spirituality’ that underlies multiple forms of digital dance culture throughout the world. It compares four cases of dance parties (exotic, up-market, underground, and resort), all of which are promoted and attended by Osho sannyasins both in Ibiza and India. Such nomadic spirituality is evinced by the conjunction of transpersonal experiences, spatial displacements and expatriate identities found among ravers and sannyasins. The article concludes that the commodification of alternative lifestyles by tourism and entertainment industries indexes not only the ambivalent desires of mainstream societies toward utopian lifestyles; it also suggests that transnational countercultures constitute a privileged analytical site that anticipates emerging social trends and predicaments of complex globalisation.