Tiffany Blackmon

The Ashram Next Door: Alternative Religion and Community Acceptance in Rural Pennsylvania Tiffany Blackmon

In November 1986, one year after the notorious Indian guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh was deported, a new social and religious institute for teaching classical Indian studies in a communal setting opened in the United States. Unlike Rajneeshpuram in Oregon, Arsha Vidya Gurukulam, in Saylorsburg, PA has never made headlines because of legal battles with the surrounding community. Unlike the People?s Temple in Guyana or the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, the Saylorsburg ashram has not ignited the fear and distrust of the local community. This project focuses on the emergence of Arsha Vidya Gurukulam as a new religious movement that has never been at odds with the surrounding community into which it arrived, despite predictions suggesting that groups with strong cultural differences come into conflict with each other while trying to live together within a community.