After a brief spell in Montclair, New Jersey, his followers bought (for US$6 million) a 64,000 acre (260 km²) ranch in Wasco County, Oregon, previously known as "The Big Muddy", where they settled for the next four years and legally incorporated a city named Rajneeshpuram.
Osho stayed in Rajneeshpuram as the commune's guest, living in a modest home with an indoor swimming pool. Over the coming years, he acquired fame for the large number of Rolls-Royces his followers bought for his use. Osho ended his period of silence in October 1984. In July 1985, he resumed his daily public discourses in the commune's purpose-built, two-acre meditation hall. According to statements he made to the press, he did so against the wishes of Ma Anand Sheela, his secretary and the commune’s top manager.
Increasing conflicts with neighbors and the state of Oregon,as well as serious and criminal misconduct by the commune's management (including conspiracy to murder public officials, wiretapping within the commune, the attempted murder of Osho's personal physician, and a bio terrorism attack on the citizens of The Dalles, Oregon, using salmonella),made the position of the Oregon commune untenable. When the commune's management team who were guilty of these crimes left the U.S. in September 1985, fleeing for Europe, Osho convened a press conference and called on the authorities to undertake an investigation. This eventually led to the conviction of Sheela and several of her lieutenants.Although Osho himself was not implicated in these crimes,his reputation suffered tremendously, especially in the West.
In late October 1985, Osho himself was arrested in North Carolina as he was allegedly fleeing the U.S. Accused of minor immigration violations, Osho, on advice of his lawyers, entered an "Alford plea" – through which a suspect does not admit guilt, but does concede there is enough evidence to convict him – and was given a suspended sentence on condition that he leave the country.
Osho then began a world tour, speaking in Nepal, Greece and Uruguay, among others. Being refused entry visas by more than twenty different countries, he returned to India in July 1986, and in January 1987, to his old Ashram in Pune, India. He resumed discoursing there.
In late December 1988, he said he no longer wished to be referred to as Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, and shortly after-wards took the name Osho.
On January 19, 1990, four years after his arrest, Osho died, aged 58, with heart failure being the publicly reported cause. Prior to his death, Osho had expressed his belief that his rapid health decline was caused by some form of poison administered to him by the U.S. authorities during the twelve days he was held without bail in various U.S. prisons. In a public discourse on 6 November 1987, he said that a number of doctors that were consulted had variously suspected thallium, radioactive exposure, and other poisons to account for his failing health:
“ It does not matter which poison has been given to me, but it is certain that I have been poisoned by Ronald Reagan's American government.”
His ashes were placed in his newly built bedroom in one of the main buildings (LaoTsu House) at his last place of residence, his Ashram in Pune, India. The epitaph reads, "OSHO. Never Born, Never Died. Only Visited this Planet Earth between Dec 11 1931 – Jan 19 1990."
