Breaking the Spell

Breaking the Spell: My Life as a Rajneeshee and the Long Journey Back to Freedom is a non-fiction book by Catherine Jane Stork about her experiences as a Rajneeshee, a follower of Indian guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (now known as Osho). It was published in April 2009 by Pan Macmillan. Stork was raised in Western Australia in a Catholic upbringing, and met her first husband while at university in Perth, Australia. After a psychotherapist introduced Stork to teachings of Rajneesh, she became involved in the movement and moved with her husband to an ashram in Poona, India. Stork later moved to the Rajneesh commune in Rajneeshpuram, Oregon. She became involved in criminal activities while at Rajneeshpuram, participated in an attempted murder against Rajneesh's doctor, and an assassination plot against the U.S. Attorney for Oregon, Charles H. Turner. Stork served time in jail but later lived in exile in Germany for 16 years, after a German court had denied extradition to the United States. She returned to the U.S. to face criminal charges after learning of her son's terminal cancer condition. Stork discusses her process of reevaluating the effects her actions within the Rajneesh organization had on other people and on her family. The book received generally positive reception in the press and media. The Australian Associated Press commented that Stork "provides an insight into the mind of the Bhagwan and his mouthpiece Ma Sheela", and The Sunday Mail called the book "An amazing story of self-delusion, followed by self-determination and redemption." The Sunday Telegraph highlighted the book in the newspaper's "Must Read" section, and The Gold Coast Bulletin called it "Shattering". A review in The Age commented that the book exposes "the ultimately selfish nature of apparently selfless fanaticism". Background Born in 1945, Catherine Jane Stork was raised in Western Australia, in a family of five children. She is the daughter of a math teacher from Albany, Western Australia. Her family maintained a strict Catholic household. Stork met her first husband Roger while attending university in Perth, Australia. Catherine and Roger married and had children Kylie and Peter. After suffering from bouts of anger which Stork directed at her husband, a psychotherapist recommended she attend meetings at a centre in Perth, where addresses by Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh were shown.