Osho Academy, Sedona
The Osho Academy in Sedona AZ was founded in the early 90s by Kaveesha, David, Avirbhava, and Yogi**, all of whom except David, Kaveesha's nephew, had been part of Osho's original "Inner Circle". They left Pune in 1991 en masse, abruptly, fairly secretively and, rumour had it, in a state of some conflict with the "upper management" of the IC, though neither group ever publicly criticized the other.
For a while, the Academy was one of the largest Osho centers in the United States. Alongside the Academy, The Sage, a sannyasin restaurant, and Osho Plaza, with a book store, café, massage and spa facilities also sprang up. The Academy property was about 1.9 acres, a little over 3/4 of a hectare and featured a 135-person-capacity spacious meditation hall, session rooms, classrooms and other facilities.
The attractions were many, with Sedona itself having considerable cachet as a mystical magical natural energy place. Waduda and Wadud ("the Dudes"} got on board as teachers, and the Osho Mystery School was effectively transplanted. And Kaveesha was at the center of it, just as she had been in Pune, where she had run the Mystery School, including even personally "channeling" Osho in free and open "Synchronicity with the Master" sessions in Radha Hall.
In Sedona, Kaveesha was now said to be enlightened and sat at the front of nightly (?) gatherings in the Academy's meditation hall. She became the main attraction for many, and so it came as a major blow when she left her body in 1998. Possibly from that moment, the Academy became unsustainable and it eventually relocated to Santa Barbara CA and ultimately closed. The Sage restaurant and Osho Plaza also closed.
The Academy property was sold in 2017. Pictures and descriptions of the buildings as they were can be found on Zillow. The buyers, a group who wanted to use it for meditation, yoga and other retreats, rebranded it as Sedonya Conscious Living Center. Remaining in Sedona is a loose-knit collection of sannyasins who meet in homes for videos, meditations and discussion groups; their local contact, who supplied some of the info and pictures for this article, is Sw Dhyan Sagari.
