re: Wild Wild Country on Netflix

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I don't know. I do think a community, the county in this case, should have the right to choose before a master planned city, intended to eventually number over 50,000 people, is suddenly plopped down in the middle of their county.

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I agree. I'll add, I believe the Raj could have brought value to the area. They seemed to attract intelligent people, allbeit, highly devoted.

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The Raj didn't believe they had this right and poisoned 750 in a vote suppression scheme, so I'm not very sympathetic when they crow about their constitutional rights.

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Surely wasn't their intention at the start of the idea, at least I hope not. They were all caught up in the hysteria and thought everyone would be thrilled to join them. Or stupid not to.

Queen Sheela let it all get to her head. Real quick.

I felt like it really dragged a lot. Watched all of it but it should have been 3 episodes max. Also, there should have been much more focus on the tenets of the cult itself and many of its followers, rather than literally like 4. It's really not about Bhagwan at all, it's 90% about Sheela. Must be the only cult in history where the number two person was more evil than the cult leader. I also felt they gave 85% speaking time to the cult and 15% to the townies.

I absolutely hated the confusing and non-linear style of the documentary. I mean I love Twin Peaks and Lynch films, but when I'm watching a documentary I don't want to feel like I'm watching Inland Empire and can't tell what year it is and what is happening in order because of all the time jumps.

I'd give it a C- overall. Interesting but I've seen many better documentaries on cults like Jonestown and they were done in a way where there was much less ambiguity about what all was actually going on.

That Niren guy was as annoying as Sheela, if not more so.

And how is legally okay for Sheela to run nursing homes in Switzerland when she served time for poisoning and attempted murder?

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They also left out critical information,

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Very true and there also seemed to be ambiguity about how many members came and lived at the commune. One local said hundreds of thousands, which sounds unlikely, but another said around 6000, or 6000 homeless plus those alresdy there.

I think the only way to get Sheela to participate was to kiss her arse for the most part, but that's lazy filmmaking, IMO.

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Agreed. I think Sheela was the guiding hand in all that and I thought she came across as extremely narcissistic, almost beyond belief.

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Agreed.

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They might still be in Pasco County today if the guru had reigned her in

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This is what bugs me. He starts out saying religions are all about giving up this and that and I don't want us to be a new religion and give up sex, etc.
Then proceeds to not talk for 3 years (I think)
He let's Sheela run the people seemingly free reign.

Anyone else give a WTF to that?

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didn't view see the Raj as a religion. The only religious aspect of it was them adoring Bhadwan. I saw it as a bunch of people wanting to continue the Hippie movement.

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ThatMakesSense

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But really, I agree I was mainly talking about how he was talking shite about religions giving things up, then gives up speaking for 3 years

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It was pretty good but I was kind of irritated they coviently left out the fact that the hotel bombing was carried out by a Pakistani radical group. They certainly want the viewer to think it was one of the townspeople.

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Yeah, I thought that crossed the line from a simple omission to outright dishonesty. It set up a major false narrative.

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It was pretty good but I was kind of irritated they coviently left out the fact that the hotel bombing was carried out by a Pakistani radical group. They certainly want the viewer to think it was one of the townspeople.

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I'm sure this was on accident.

It was still a very interesting documentary. I've got one more episode to go.

I thought it was pretty good. They could have trimmed some of the bushes though. But it was a different time back then. I did enjoy watching dude roll through Antelope everyday in his 20 Rolls Royces like a Cash Money All Star

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This is what had me confused as hell. What exactly were the beliefs of the cult besides loving one another and utopian society? Did they/do they believe in any hindu principles (i.e. reincarnation)? The Raj reminded me of "The Mandarin" in the iron man movie.

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They definitely could have went more in depth, but from what I gathered, he was sort of a modernized hippie in that he was rejecting a lot of the free love, anti-technology, turn the other cheek crap in favor of a more materialistic and scientific approach. He was about "total human optimization." He probably would totally get along with the Tim Ferriss, Tony Robbins, Aubrey Marcus, etc... crowd who are into the nootropics, meditation, working out, etc...

Evidently, now that the tawdry details have started to fade into posterity, his teachings are really starting to pick up a lot of credibility and a following in modern India as well as the rest of the world.

I have some friends who were involved in a somewhat similar cult (Spiritual Human Yoga). As with most cults, the majority of the people involved are well-meaning, "good" people in search of some meaning in their lives. Once you get exposed to the inner workings of these types of organizations, then they can be pretty jacked up. My friends, as they ascended in levels with Spiritual Human Yoga, not only gave more and more of their money to attend meetings, but they also found out such fascinating teachings as the fact that the cult had scientists living in the center of the earth preparing for a Doomsday. It was totally bizarre to see these friends go from relatively normal hippies who were all jazzed on this benign energetic healing to full on wacko cult members who were giving away their last dime to Master Dang and spouting off about crazy shite.

Of course, anyone who has ever attended a Southern Baptist "business" meeting with the deacons after church on a Sunday knows that weird political manipulations and machinations behind closed doors aren't limited to small cults.