My Life in Orange: Growing Up with the Guru

At the age of six, Tim Guest was taken by his mother to a commune modeled on the teachings of the notorious Indian guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. The Bhagwan preached an eclectic doctrine of Eastern mysticism, chaotic therapy, and sexual freedom, and enjoyed inhaling laughing gas, preaching from a dentist's chair, and collecting Rolls Royces.

Tim and his mother were given Sanskrit names, dressed entirely in orange, and encouraged to surrender themselves into their new family. While his mother worked tirelessly for the cause, Tim-or Yogesh, as he was now called-lived a life of well-meaning but woefully misguided neglect in various communes in England, Oregon, India, and Germany.

In 1985 the movement collapsed amid allegations of mass poisonings, attempted murder, and tax evasion, and Yogesh was once again Tim. In this extraordinary memoir, Tim Guest chronicles the heartbreaking experience of being left alone on earth while his mother hunted heaven.


Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Mariner Books
Published: 02/01/2005
ISBN: 9780156031066
Pages: 301
Weight: 0.85lbs
Size: 8.00h x 5.20w x 1.00d

Review Citations: Kirkus Reviews 11/15/2004 pg. 1078
Booklist 12/01/2004 pg. 622
Ingram Advance 02/01/2005 pg. 34
Publishers Weekly 01/10/2005 pg. 48
Entertainment Weekly 02/04/2005 pg. 137
People Weekly 02/21/2005 pg. 47
New Yorker (The) 02/28/2005 pg. 89