Rajneeshee

English

Noun

Rajneeshee (plural Rajneeshees)

1. A member of a countercultural sect, founded by Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, that combines elements of religion and Western philosophy
   • 1999, Joshua Lederberg, Biological Weapons: Limiting the Threat, The MIT Press, →ISBN, page 292:

     ... terrorists who sought to incapacitate rather than kill a large number of people might use a non-lethal biological agent. In 1984, for example, the Rajneeshee cult in Oregon contaminated restaurant salad bars in the town of The Dalles with Salmonella typhimurium (food-poisoning) bacteria in a plot to sicken local residents and influence the outcome of a county election.

   • 2000, Jonathan B. Tucker, Toxic Terror: Assessing Terrorist Use of Chemical and Biological Weapons, The MIT Press, →ISBN, page 115:

     Although the U.S. government has expressed growing concern about potential biological terrorist attacks, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has documented only one successful incident of bioterrorism. In August and September 1984 a religious cult known as the Rajneeshees employed biological agents against the inhabitants of a small town in Oregon, sickening 751 people.

   • 2001, Jessica Stern, The Ultimate Terrorists, Harvard University Press, →ISBN, page 67:

     The single U.S. case involving the actual use of biological agents occurred in September 1984, when members of the Rajneeshee cult in Oregon poisoned salad bars with Salmonella typhimurium.

   • 2002, Harvey W. Kushner, Encyclopedia of Terrorism, SAGE Publications, →ISBN, page 74:

     Terrorists have used bioweapons before. In 1984, the U.S.-based Rajneeshee cult used salmonella bacteria to poison citizens by spreading the bacteria via salad bars in restaurants in an Oregon town.

   • 2004, Jeanne Guillemin, Biological Weapons: From the Invention of State-Sponsored Programs to Contemporary Bioterrorism, Columbia University Press, →ISBN, page 158:

     The FBI had already had a brush with a cult group's hostile use of a pathogen. In 1984, the Oregon members of the Indian Rajneeshee cult covertly sickened 751 people by contaminating ten local salad bars and coffee stations with Salmonella typhimurium purchased from a US medical supply company.

   • 2005, James R. Swearengen, Biodefense: Research Methodology and Animal Models, CRC, →ISBN, page 9:

     The first episode of bioterrorism in the United States occurred in 1984. The Rajneeshee cult was founded by an Indian guru named Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. Rajneesh was a master at manipulating people and was highly successful in attracting followers from the upper-middle classes as well as gaining vast amounts of money from donations and proceeds from sale of books and tapes.

Quotations

For more quotations using this term, see Citations:Rajneeshee.