According to Osho, being totally crazy feels “just far out”—a liberating leap beyond the mind’s fences and society’s rules. It’s an expansive, ecstatic openness where spontaneity replaces control, wonder replaces worry, and life is felt directly rather than managed carefully.
It’s like dropping all the rules and just enjoying the big, exciting world exactly as it is.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Question: OOOH OSHO! THE WHOLE LIFE WATERFALLING ON ME! HEAVEN AND EARTH, WORK AND PLAY, EVERYTHING I HAVE EVER BEEN AND DONE, ALL THINGS I HAVE EVER WANTED TO WILL BE, PAST AND FUTURE SWELLING SWELLING IN BALLOON DANCING NOW! THIS ENLIGHTENMENT IS SOME CRAZY BUSINESS! Crazy baby, crazy... absolutely crazy! But don't be afraid. Go into it, and soon you will see the sanity of insanity, soon you will see that it is not crazy. You have been crazy all along before it. It looks crazy compared to your life that has happened up to now. People are living in madness, so when they come closer and closer to some inner light, compared to their life it looks crazy. Once it settles, the whole of life looks crazy, and only this light, this awareness, looks sane.
Beloved Osho, a few years ago I asked you a question, with great fear and trembling: "Osho, is it inevitable that I will go crazy?" and now, beloved Osho, at last it has finally happened: I have gone crazy. Thank you, Osho, thank you.
There are all types of people here at different stages of craziness. But don't be satisfied. Rejoice! -- but remember that there are still crazier states. A moment comes when you start talking with the trees, playing with the stones, arguing with the ocean... because your very idea of being separate has disappeared. Now this whole existence is one organic unity. And it is not that when you talk to a tree it does not respond to you; if you are crazy enough, there is a dialogue. Perhaps one time you have to speak from your side; another time you have to speak from the tree's side -- because the tree cannot speak, but you can understand what it wants to say. Just remember the basic criteria -- that your happiness, your blissfulness should go on growing; your intelligence, your clarity should go on growing; your love should go on…
I hoo my guts out in the dynamic, I laugh with you in the lecture, I dance for you in nataraj, I cry and scream after nadabrahma, I watch my tensions in kundalini, and listen to the birds which come together specially for the meditations with music -- they enjoy tremendously. I provide dinner for the mosquitoes in gourishankar. In and between the meditations it seems I am doing all the groups at once. I feel very very crazy. I know you love it -- how can I love it too?
What is wrong? A man wants to live naked under the sky, with the wind, with the sun; a man wants to be open to nature -- what is wrong in it? Why should a man be forced to wear clothes? If he likes to -- perfectly good. There is no need to force him to remain naked, because then you do the same again. But if somebody likes to be naked, what is wrong in it? Just think of yourself sitting naked in your drawing-room, and a guest comes, and you welcome him -- he will escape! He will not come again. He will go directly to the police station. And you were not doing anything to anybody: just sitting in your drawing-room, naked, enjoying, listening to music. You don't allow even small children to be naked. Such a repressive and violent society! The by-product is craziness, madness. I…
Question: BELOVED OSHO, THE WHITE CLOUD IS NOW AN EXPERIENCE. THE WHOLE WORLD CHANGED THE MOMENT I LET GO. EXISTENCE TAKES CARE, AND LIFE IS AN ADVENTURE. SO THIS WAY OF LIFE -- NO NATIONALITY, NO HOUSE, NO SOCIETY -- IS TREMENDOUSLY RICH AND BEAUTIFUL INSIDE. THE OUTER WORLD SEEMS SOMETIMES LIKE A BAD DREAM. EVERYWHERE I GO I AM A PROBLEM FOR PEOPLE, AND EVERYWHERE THERE ARE HOUSES IN WHICH THERE IS SOMEBODY WHO SAYS, "THIS IS MY HOUSE." MANY ARE AFRAID OF DROPPING THEIR MASKS, BUT HAPPINESS IS MY BLESSING. THANK YOU, OSHO, FOR CREATING ME. AS YOUR LOVER NOW, IN THIS REALITY, MY CHARACTER HAS BECOME LIKE YOURS. WHEREVER I GO, IT FEELS YOU GO THERE -- OR SHIVA, OR KRISHNA. THIS IS MY REAL FAMILY. IS EVERYTHING OKAY WITH ME, OSHO? Shanti Vikalpa, everything is absolutely okay with you. That's what I was telling Premda.
Deep inside, the volcano, and on the surface is peace. So when you start meditating, that volcano comes closer to the surface. That's the whole effort: to bring the unconscious closer to the conscious so you become more aware of your craziness. Not that you become more crazy -- you simply become more aware of things that have always been there but at which you were never looking. You were never courageous enough to look at them. They were there but you were always putting them behind you, escaping from them, avoiding them. Now you have become a little more courageous -- you allowed it. You want to be acquainted with yourself. Anybody who wants to move towards self-knowledge has to go through this period when he starts feeling that he is becoming more crazy. Not that he is, he is becoming more aware.