Osho’s impressions on Hippies

About this time Osho comes into contact with Western hippies, many of whom become his disciples. In March 1969, Osho gives a discourse entitled: The Hippie Rebellion

The hippie refuses to play the role of a yes-man. He believes in doing whatever he feels is right. It undoubtedly creates difficulties, but in a way the hippie can be called a sannyasin. Truly speaking, the sannyasin must have been a sort of a hippie at some time. He had also refused to tow the common line. He was a non-citizen and a run-away from society just like Mahavir who stood naked. The day Mahavir would have stood naked in Bihar discarding clothes, I do not think the orthodox people would have accepted this strange person without any protest. whatr01

The view point of the hippies is quite dear to me. They say, "We would like to live like natural men and women, as we really are, without deceiving. We will practise neither deception nor hypocrisy. We know that our path will be strewn with troubles, but we would put up with all these and try to live as we are." If a hippie feels that he should tell somebody that he is becoming angry with him and feels like abusing him, he would go to him and quite plainly speak out his mind without any hesitation or reservation. I think it is a great human quality. And he will not come afterwards to apologize until he really feels its necessity, because he will argue that he had a mind to abuse, so he abused, and he was now ready to face the consequences. But he refuses to be a hypocrite and to don a smile on his lips while his heart feels like abusing. But as far as we are concerned our exterior is not the same as our inner feelings. We are harbouring all sorts of hellish ideas within whereas our exterior betrays a completely different picture of us. Every man is, so to say, a personification of untruth. whatr01

The second thing which the hippies say is "We are as we are. We do not wish to obstruct our natural behaviour. We do not wish to conceal anything." One of my friends had an occasion to live for a few days with the hippies in a small village inhabited by them, and he reported to me that to live there is quite perturbing because they cast aside all the masks imposed on humanity and civilization. There, a young man, instead of saying all sorts of round-about things in poetical language or flowery words to a maiden to plead for her love, goes to her and straight-away tells her that he has a desire to sleep with her. He argues that when behind all this jugglery of words the central idea is sex, then why not express it frankly and plainly, and why it should be concealed behind the facade of flowery language. He can very well say to a girl in simple words that he wishes to sleep with her.
It may appear quite disturbing to us, but according to hippies, if after all this talk of poetry, music and love, the same thing is going to happen ultimately, it is quite proper to say it straight-away so that at least no one may be deceived. If the girl is not willing to oblige him, she can very well beg to be excused….
The second principle of the hippies is "natural living"—to be as one is. But it is a terrible thing to be as one is. It is indeed a very difficult thing because artificiality has gripped us to such an extent, and we have travelled so far in the domain of pretending that for us to return to our original state of naturalness has become well nigh impossible. whatr01

Another stand point of the hippie is expansion of consciousness. He is seeking how to expand his consciousness, and for this purpose is making all sorts of experiments—consuming ganja, opium, bhang, hashish, LSD, mescaline, marijuana, and even taking refuge in yoga and meditation. He is trying all these in his endeavour to expand his consciousness, to attain expansion of the contracted consciousness. Therefore, he makes use of chemical drugs: LSD, mescaline etc. Through the help of which his consciousness travels to another plane for at least a short time.
The law opposes it. As a matter of fact law takes up a cudgels against anything new because a law gets enacted at a particular time, and though ages roll by yet it remains static. So naturally there has to be opposition on its part to the use of drugs. The law condemns LSD as sin. I at least fail to comprehend how it is so. whatr01

I was staying in a house. On the roof of that house, few Westerners—their two families were staying. Whenever I used to stay in that house, they would say, "Westerners are very materialistic. They know nothing except eating, drinking, dancing and singing, they are absolutely materialistic."
Whenever I visited them they would say the same thing: "They dance till 12 o'clock in the night. Just eating, drinking and dancing. This is their whole life."
Once again I happened to stay in that house. But it was quiet upstairs, so I enquired whether they had left. The housewife said, "They have gone. But they were strange people, they distributed all their possessions." The woman continued, "They gave all their utensils to the woman who washed dishes, and the utensils were all stainless steel, pure steel. There was radio, radiogram. They distributed everything. They were strange people."
I asked the woman, "You always used to say that they were very materialistic people, they just danced and sang, ate and drank and did nothing else." Dekh Kabira Roya