My Life in Orange

Growing Up with the Guru

By: Tim Guest

Narrated by: Shaun Grindell

A memoir of formative years spent on a series of communes: A “[W]onderful account of a frankly ghastly childhood.... Hilarious and heartbreaking.” (Daily Mail).

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.

©2018 Tim Guest (P)2018 Tantor

Incredible story

He starts the story by telling of an article he reads that he says he can relate to when a boy kills himself. I never felt his hurt at that depth until the last couple chapters. I would have wanted to know more about his feelings as he was experiencing it.

Narration is so bizarre.

I have listened to hundreds of books. This narrator was intolerable for me. I had to read the book instead of listening. Incredible story, but I just couldn't listen to it anymore.