My Life in Orange

Archival Summary & Scope

Tim Guest's memoir chronicles a formative childhood spent in Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh communes. At six, Guest and his mother were drawn into the orange-clad world of Sanskrit names and eclectic teachings—from Eastern mysticism and chaotic therapy to sexual freedom—under a guru notorious for collecting Rolls Royces and preaching from a dentist's chair. While his mother devoted herself to the cause, Tim (then Yogesh) experienced well-meaning but profound neglect, moving between communes in England, Oregon, India, and Germany. The movement's 1985 collapse amid allegations of mass poisonings, attempted murder, and tax evasion left him once again Tim. This "hilarious and heartbreaking" (Daily Mail) account powerfully reflects on a childhood where he felt "left alone on earth while his mother hunted heaven." It is an "intelligent, wry, openhearted memoir of surviving a childhood and a cultural phenomenon that were both extraordinary" (Booklist, starred review).