A few days later Rajneesh "accused her of arson, wiretapping, attempted murder, and mass poisonings." He also asserted that Sheela had written the book titled Rajneeshism and published it under his name. On September 13, 1985, Sheela fled to Europe. As a result, the salad bars at ten local restaurants (in The Dalles, Oregon, U.S).were infected with salmonella and about 750 people became ill. Later, when that effort failed, Sheela conspired, in 1984, to use "bacteria and other methods to make people ill" and prevent them from voting. Sheela attempted to influence the Wasco County Court's November election and capture the two open seats by bussing in hundreds of homeless people from within Oregon as well as outside, and registering them as county voters. Main article: 1984 Rajneeshee bioterror attackīy 1984, the ashram was coming into increasing conflict with local residents and the county commission (Wasco County Court). According to Sheela, Rajneesh was complicit in and directed her involvement in criminal acts she and a group of Rajneeshees committed later. She was appointed the president of Rajneesh Foundation International, managed the commune and met daily with Rajneesh to discuss business matters. In July 1981, Rajneesh Foundation International purchased the 64,000-acre (260 km 2) Big Muddy Ranch in Wasco County, Oregon, which became the site for the development of the Rajneeshpuram commune. In the same year, she convinced Rajneesh to leave India and establish an ashram in the United States. In 1981, Rajneesh appointed her as his personal assistant.
After her husband died, Sheela married a fellow Rajneesh follower, John Shelfer. They became disciples of the Indian guru Rajneesh and Sheela took the name Ma Anand Sheela. She moved to India in 1972 to pursue spiritual studies with her husband. Sheela married Marc Harris Silverman, an American from Highland Park, Illinois, and took the name Sheela P. At age 18, she moved to the United States and attended Montclair State College in New Jersey.
Sheela was born Sheela Ambalal Patel in 1949 at Baroda, in Gujarat State, India, the youngest of six children of the Gujarati couple Ambalal and Maniben Patel. In 1999, she was convicted by a Swiss court of "criminal acts preparatory to the commission of murder" in relation to a plot to kill US federal prosecutor Charles Turner in 1985.ĭavid Berry Knapp, aka Swami Krishna Deva, former mayor of Rajneeshpuram, told the FBI in his testimony that “Sheela told him during a trip to India which they took in 1985, that she had injected her first husband with an injection that caused his death.” After prison, Sheela married Urs Birnstiel, a Swiss citizen, who died of AIDS shortly after their marriage. Sheela later moved to Switzerland, where she married, and purchased two nursing homes. She was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison and paroled after 39 months. In 1986, she pleaded guilty to attempted murder and assault for her role in the 1984 Rajneeshee bioterror attack. In 1986, she pleaded guilty to attempted murder and assault for her role in the 1984 Rajneeshee bioterror attack.Īs the secretary of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh from 1981 through 1985, she managed the Rajneeshpuram ashram in Wasco County, Oregon, United States. Ma Anand Sheela (born 28 December 1949 as Sheela Ambalal Patel in India, also known as Sheela Birnstiel) is an Indian-born Swiss woman who was the spokesperson of the Rajneesh movement (aka Osho movement). Personal Secretary to Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh
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