According to Osho, the information industry exploits our conditioning—our bias for either the old or the new—to program our moral reactions and distort reality. When we think through beliefs, media narratives deceive us and manufacture consent. Cultivate a clear, mirrorlike awareness that believes nothing in advance; then you respond directly to facts, immune to propaganda and able to discern truth for yourself.
News plays on what you already believe, so stay clear and look freshly before deciding what’s true.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Question: Second question: Osho, why is untruth so influential? Vidyasagar leapt onto the stage and began to pull the man down and beat him with his shoe. People were shocked: what is this? What kind of play is this? They grabbed him: “What are you doing, Panditji?” He came to his senses—but he was drenched in sweat, eyes blood-red, shoe in hand. The actor, though, was very skillful. He said, “Give me the shoe.” He took it and said, “This is the greatest award of my life. What bigger prize can an actor receive than that someone forget it’s acting?” They say that shoe still remains in that actor’s home. The actor is dead, but his children have preserved it—the prize of Vidyasagar—because the actor played so well that Vidyasagar forgot it was acting. One Vidyasagar—who, seeing acting, forgot it was acting and thought it real life.
But Osho, as I understand, communication means direct communication. As I see it, that is a very difficult problem, because human beings have been conditioned, as you said, for millions of years. That is, a person carries all those impressions, and whatever he communicates will also be the imprints of the past. How should we see through our conditioning so that we can have direct communication?
Understand it this way: what has been conditioned is the mind. What is conditioned is the mind; in fact, mind means the total conditioning. But behind the mind there is an awareness, a consciousness that cannot be conditioned—it is impossible to condition it. It is necessary to point toward that consciousness. That is why I put such emphasis on meditation. Because I hold that the moment one descends into meditation one goes behind the mind. Meditation means going behind the mind. And the very first time one steps behind the mind—leaving all thoughts, all emotions, all conditionings—at once it becomes clear: I am something entirely different from what I took myself to be—not a Hindu, not a Muslim, not the body. What I thought I was, I am not; I am something else. The deeper this realization goes, the more direct communication becomes possible with that person—because then we are…
Osho, you always praise a simple, innocent consciousness. What is this simplicity, this innocence?
The man said, “Then send me to the Indian one; I don’t want the German.” That difference was enough. The Germans refined it further—they read your scriptures and perfected them. German intellect knows how to refine things, arrange them, run everything by the clock. Even in the ashram I have given the electricity work to Haridas—a German sannyasin. However many times Pune’s electricity fails, the ashram’s does not. Let Pune fail, but not the ashram. Haridas takes great care; he has arranged everything—automatic generators: the moment the power fails, they kick in; you can’t even tell there was a failure. Where has this been learned? This much evil in the world—your saints had already arranged for it in the scriptures. Hell for others, heaven for themselves. These are not marks of simple-hearted people. A simple person—why would he think of hell and heaven? He has no such notions, no such…
Question: BELOVED OSHO, WHY IS IT THAT WESTERN SOCIETY REACTS SO STRONGLY TO ANY INDIVIDUAL DEVIATING FROM THE NORM, PARTICULARLY AS FAR AS HIS MENTAL STATE IS CONCERNED? IT LOOKS ON THOSE WHO HAVE FALLEN BELOW THE MIND IN SUCH A WAY AS TO CAST A STIGMA ON THEM, AND REGARDS THE POSSIBILITY OF GOING BEYOND THE MIND -- ENLIGHTENMENT -- -WITH SKEPTICISM. IT DOES ALLOW A SLIGHT MARGIN OF DEVIATION IN ITS CREATIVE PEOPLE AND GENIUSES; HENCE SUCH PEOPLE ARE EXCUSED FOR THEIR "ECCENTRICITIES." IT IS AS IF THE MIND IS THE TOUCHSTONE OF ONE'S ADJUSTMENT TO SOCIETY, AND ANY ABERRATION THAT MIGHT THREATEN THE STATUS QUO IS REGARDED WITH FEAR. WHAT IS THAT FEAR? -- BOTH OF THE SICK MIND AND THE ENLIGHTENED NO-MIND? Every child's mind can be easily implanted with an electrode.
Beloved Osho, for a commercial organization, marketing is the ultimate life source; however, some marketing professionals suffer from an element of contradiction in their personal lives. Vis-a-vis professional objectives, are we selling things to people that they don't need?
The responsibility of the journalist is to bring before the people authentic facts, to make them aware how to avoid perversions. Homosexuality is not a disease; it is just a symptom of a disease. The real disease is celibacy, which is being preached by all religions. Now it is a strange game. The same people who are the cause of creating AIDS are condemning homosexuals. And they are the real criminals -- if anybody needs to be behind bars, it is all your saints and all your preachers and all your priests. But not the homosexuals, they are victims -- victims of an absolutely wrong psychology being preached for centuries. Don't fulfill sick needs. Expose the fact that those sick needs are arising from a certain source. And create a protest in the minds of people so that the sources can be stopped. You cannot fight with the sick needs…