Put genetic engineering under a single, worldwide team of scientists—not politicians—with strong checks, so it serves human goodness instead of war.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Beloved Osho, my fear around your vision of the birth of the new man through test-tubes and genetic engineering comes not from the technology itself, but from fear of who might control the technology. How can we guarantee that this knowledge will be used by conscious human beings, rather than the idiot politicians who would turn our brave new world into orwell's 1984?
Who controls the technology today? Who controls all your nuclear weapons? Who controls all your scientific discoveries? Have you raised your voice against it? Have you even thought that the whole life on the earth is now in the hands of idiotic politicians? And it has been always so. Anything discovered is immediately captured by the governments, so why is the question only about genetic engineering? Are you not afraid that the politicians have nuclear weapons which can destroy you seven hundred times? Although destroyed once, you will not need to be destroyed again -- because you are not the only begotten son of God, you will not resurrect; and messiahs are not around who will bring you back to life. But you are afraid -- I can understand -- that if this genetic engineering is in the hands of politicians, certainly they are not going to produce the man…
Beloved master, in a recent discourse you gave your total support to genetic engineering. I am very much in trouble. For me such engineering is against nature. Who should be in charge of creating that superman? Often a so-called genius was later regarded as the devil. And people like hitler, stalin or reagan are only possible because of all the others supporting them. Genetic engineering also is against my freedom of self-development. Could you please explain to me this science which bothers me?
A very famous noble emperor, Akbar, was bringing swans from the Himalayas. It must be the highest point where a lake exists of the purest water, Mansarovar. And strangely, in Mansarovar live the biggest swans and the whitest swans. They come to India when it becomes too cold. For nine months it is frozen: you can drive on it without any fear; it is solid rock. For only three months it melts. So for three months those swans go back to Mansarovar. Akbar had seen those swans -- and they were so beautiful. He said, "Make a beautiful marble lake in my garden. Make every arrangement so that those swans don't have to go to Mansarovar again." The lake was made and it was the season when the swans would be coming soon. He said, "It is not an ordinary lake. It is a royal reception, so inform the whole…
Question: BELOVED OSHO, I HEARD YOU SPEAK OF SCIENTISTS CHOOSING FUTURE PEOPLE FROM THEIR GENETIC ANALYSIS OF SPERMS. I HAVE NO TRUST IN SCIENTISTS, OR DOCTORS OR ANYBODY WHOSE KNOWLEDGE EXTENDS NO FURTHER THAN THEIR HEAD. I INTUITIVELY FEEL THAT GENETICS PLAYS ONLY A SMALL ROLE IN DETERMINING WHAT A PERSON BECOMES. A GARDENER MAY WELL HAVE BECOME A MUSICIAN; A SOLDIER MAY HAVE THE POTENTIAL TO BE A SCIENTIST. SURELY WHAT A MAN IS, IS NO MEASURE OF WHAT HE MIGHT HAVE BEEN IN DIFFERENT CIRCUMSTANCES. BELOVED MASTER, WHO COULD HAVE FORESEEN A OSHO IN THE SPERM AND EGG OF YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER? PLEASE SPEAK MORE ON THE UNDERLYING SANITY BEHIND YOUR SUGGESTION -- WHICH I CANNOT SEE BECAUSE OF MY FEAR OF TOTALITARIAN REGIMES.
Beloved Osho, the world of tomorrow is a world that will see a significant play of science and technology. This is bound to affect the lives of people as is already happening dramatically, sometimes for the better, sometimes adversely. Do you think we should say goodbye to all science and technology; if not, how do we prepare for the future citizenry? What is your advice?
But Indian politicians are not interested at all. Just to conceive the idea... all around you there will be corpses, not even enough people to carry them to the cemetery or to the funeral pyre. The only people who will be benefited by it will be the vultures. Right now they are benefited only by the Parsees... One should go and see the place in Bombay where the Parsees leave their dead a beautiful place, surrounded with ancient trees. And all over the trees, thousands of vultures. You cannot conceive that there could be anywhere in the world a place where so many vultures are always meeting. That conference continues because the Parsees go on dying and they have only one place; no other city allows them. In fact they are not spread far; only Bombay is their world and a few branches here and there Poona and Lonavala and…
Beloved master, what is your vision of a world academy of sciences for creativity?
I have been in contact with scientists, Nobel Prize winners, who have been fighting for my rights in other countries. In Italy eighty-four of the most eminent people have just signed a protest against the government. Amongst those eighty-four there are at least six Nobel Prize winners. The same is the situation in Germany and in Holland. These Nobel Prize winners, eminent scientists, artists of different dimensions, will constitute the academy, and they will make efforts to change science's whole trend of being destructive. Our sannyasins -- and there are many who are scientists, artists, physicians -- will help the academy. We will arrange scholarships, and people from all over the world can come and study a new way of science, a new way of art that affirms life, that creates more love in humanity and that prepares for the ultimate revolution. That ultimate revolution is a single world government…