{"product_id":"poisoned-faith-the-rajneesh-cult-and-the-salmonella-plot-9798277689042","title":"Poisoned Faith: The Rajneesh Cult and the Salmonella Plot","description":"\u003cp\u003e • Author(s): Linda Davidson\u003cbr\u003e • Publisher: Independently Published\u003cbr\u003e • Publisher Imprint: Independently Published\u003cbr\u003e • BISAC: Abductions, Kidnappings \u0026amp; Missing Persons\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePoisoned Faith: The Rajneesh Cult and the Salmonella Plot\u003cbr\u003eby Linda Davidson\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn the autumn of 1984, hundreds of people in The Dalles, Oregon, sat down to ordinary meals-salad bars, pizza, coffee with friends. Within hours, emergency rooms were overflowing. Doctors first blamed bad luck and bad food.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt wasn't bad luck.\u003cbr\u003eIt was America's first large-scale bioterror attack.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePoisoned Faith takes you inside Rajneeshpuram, the utopian desert commune built by followers of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, and into the sealed back rooms where devotion quietly hardened into conspiracy. Through immersive, meticulously researched narrative, Linda Davidson traces how a spiritual experiment promising freedom and enlightenment produced petri dishes, wiretaps, sham marriages-and a plan to contaminate local restaurants with salmonella to sway an election.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFrom the early days of orange-robed meditation in India to the Rolls-Royces in Oregon, from the rise of Ma Anand Sheela to the poisoning of salad bars and the FBI raid that exposed a secret lab, this book follows both the believers who thought they were building paradise and the investigators who slowly realized the town was under deliberate attack.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eInside you'll find: \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cp\u003eA vivid, scene-by-scene reconstruction of the 1984 salmonella outbreak in The Dalles-and how doctors and epidemiologists pieced together that it was no accident.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe story of Rajneeshpuram's rise in rural Oregon: a \"city of love\" that became a fortress of surveillance, internal security teams, and high-stakes political schemes.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cp\u003eA chilling look at Ma Anand Sheela and her inner circle as they move from loyalty to wiretapping, from election manipulation to biological warfare.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe secret lab behind the commune's medical center: how salmonella was grown, tested on insiders, and carried into town in vials and perfume bottles.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe federal investigation, raid, and court cases that followed-plus the uneasy question of what Bhagwan knew, and how he walked away while others went to prison.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cp\u003eA deeper exploration of cult psychology, moral justification, and how intelligent, idealistic people can be led to believe that making strangers violently ill is \"self-defense.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003cp\u003eFor readers of serious true crime and narrative non-fiction, Poisoned Faith is an unflinching, humane account of the Rajneesh bioterror plot-neither demonizing every follower nor excusing the crimes of their leaders.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis is not just the story of a cult.\u003cbr\u003eIt is the story of how belief can be weaponized-quietly, scientifically, and in plain sight.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Independently Published","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":47593664544919,"sku":"9798277689042","price":1438.0,"currency_code":"INR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0666\/3471\/1191\/files\/9798277689042.webp?v=1774982883","url":"https:\/\/atlanticbooks.com\/products\/poisoned-faith-the-rajneesh-cult-and-the-salmonella-plot-9798277689042","provider":"Atlantic Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}