Nexus - 0201 - New Times Magazine-pages

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Death of a mystic — or murder? The death of the controversial Indian mystic Osho, formerly known as Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, on January 19 this year received worldwide media coverage. The true cause of one of the most supp- ressed Stories of the year so far. A detailed en ne Pe Oe Sd medical history of Osho’s physical illness has been compiled by his doctor, a 45 year-old British physician called Swami Amrito. He states that the mystic suffered an inexplicable and severe decline in health following his imprison- ment in the USA in 1985 after being arrested by federal agents on charges of immigration fraud. The arrest was orchestrated by senior officials of the Reagan Administration, including the Attorney General Ed Meese. At a bail hearing in Charlotte, North Carolina, federal prosecutors went to extraordinary lengths to persuade the judge to keep Osho in jail, even though he had been arrested without a warrant, and in spite of the fact that bail is routinely given for technical immigration tte ee offences. The reason why NEXUS 36 federal officials so badly wanted to keep Osho in their hands did not emerge until two years later, in 1987, by which time the mystic was very ill. It was then that Dr Amrito and other members of the ‘mystic’ s medical staff were forced to conclude, after conducting an exhaustive series of tests that ruled out every kind of disease, that Osho must have been poisoned while in jail? “The London clinics who carried out the tests told us that the symptoms from which Osho had been suffering since being incarcerated by the U.S. Government were consistent only with poisoning by a heavy metal such as thallium,” Dr Amrito explained. These symptoms included hair loss from his beard, general weakness, chronic bone pain, nerve damage, impaired eyesight, and an inability to resist infection. “No organ in his body escaped damage from the poison,” stated Dr. Amrito “Osho’s poisoning by the Reagan Adminis- ee es re eres lhe tration may never be proved,” says Swami Amrito. “But | would like the context in which the poisoning happened. Osho was regarded as a ‘The severity of Osho's punishment contrasts markedly with the treatment of the threat by religious and political leaders all over the world, especially in the United States. Just conspirators in the Iran- Contra affair, which was nothing less than an attempt to subvert the US Constitution. Richard Secord, one of the conspirators, was recently convicted, given a $50 fine and put on probation for two years. As the magazine “Nation” put it: his only punishment was that the judge asked him to empty the loose change out of his pockets as he left the court.” recently an Indian newspaper confirmed our suspicions that Cardinal Joseph , Ratzinger, the Vatican's chief watchdog on other religious movements, was also instrumental behind the scenes in getting Osho expelled from the USA,” Amrito added. And this is the story, the real story, of Osho's death, which has yet to be told in full by the media. “Incarceration, poisoning, deportation and a $400,000 fine — all for allegedly ‘arranging a marriage’,” said Amrito. BEHIND THE NEWS Osho’s death became the world to understand