A Slice of Orange: loving and leaving the Osho/Rajneesh cult

Forty years ago, the FBI raided the Rajneesh commune in Oregon, uncovering the source of the largest domestic bioterrorism attack in modern U.S. history. Nicola Ranson was on security duty the day her secluded community imploded.

In A Slice of Orange: loving and leaving the Osho/Rajneesh cult, Ranson delivers a deeply personal account of her experiences inside the commune, offering a raw exploration of cult indoctrination and the power of coercive control—an issue more relevant than ever in today’s polarized world.

Her journey begins with an immigrant childhood and a rigid Canadian convent school, followed by an escape into adventure, counterculture, and upheaval. A traumatic experience in the Sahara severs her ties to family, setting her on a path to transcendence through magic, theatre, and ultimately the teachings of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. Immersed in the guru’s radical vision, she travels from India to Oregon, embracing an open marriage and the commune’s spiritual ideals—until paranoia and criminality take hold. As revelations of poisonings, wiretapping, and attempted murder surface, Ranson is forced to confront the unsettling truth about the movement she once believed in.

Now a psychotherapist, she uses her expertise to examine how easily we all fall under the sway of influence and control. With the book’s publication in Oregon, she offers a personal act of reconciliation for the harm inflicted by the cult.