About Maneesha

Maneesha James
S.R.N., S.C.M., R.M.N. Grad.Dip. Psychotherapy & Counselling; Meditation Facilitation. Hypnotherapy. Transition Midwife; Educator. (Member BACP)

Born in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia in 1947, Maneesha graduated  in General Nursing (Alfred Hospital, Melbourne), Midwifery (Queen Victoria Hospital, Adelaide), and Psychiatry, (The Maudsley, London) . 

Meeting the Indian mystic, Osho, in 1974 unexpectedly changed the entire course of her life. 

A 6-week stopover segued into what would be fifteen years of living close to Osho for his 15 last years. An incomparable priviledge. To watch and listen to the American writer, Tom Robbins, talk about Osho, visit

www. youtube .com/watch?v=Gq7IUM4lCrs.

Appointed by him as his chief editor, Maneesha was also lucky enough to be the guinea pig in Osho's early experimentation with meditative methods, a member of his emergency medical team, and the reader-of- questions (on behalf of his people and other seekers) in his daily public discourses. Under the name of Juliet Forman she wrote what he referred to as the 'historical documentation' of his work in the form of a trilogy.   (See Youtube interview)

After those many years with Osho, for a further 15 years Maneesha travelled internationally  – visiting the US, the UK, Scandinavia, Eastern Europe, Turkey, Israel, Japan, India, New Zealand, and Australia  – giving seminars, groups, and individual sessions on diverse aspects of meditation.

 She has written a regular meditation column for The West Australian, and for the American web magazine, 'Natural Journeys'. She has also facilitated meditation courses with TAFE (Perth, Western Australia), and given numerous radio and TV interviews. Along with the trilogy mentioned above she has written two books on meditation:Una Vita Viva (to date available only in Italian) and My Peak Moments with Osho, the Unsurpassable Man (currently available only in Japanese).  She has also created numerous guided meditations CDs, and a second website: www.activemeditation.com. In addition she appears in the documentaries, 'Meditation: The Art of Ecstasy' and 'Death: The Greatest Fiction' (a small excerpt of which is featured in 'A Dialogue with Death'). She was the script-writer and presenter of 'Meditation: Stress-Free Living for Busy Women.'

Maneesha has completed Certificate 1V in Assessment and Training of Small Groups (Australia), trained in Hypnotherapy (Italy) and is a qualified Psychotherapist and Counseller (Jansen Newman Institute, Sydney).

Meeting Anna Freud in London some years ago, and being with her in her last moments, was a turning point for Maneesha. While maintaining her interest in meditation as a resource for all aspects of living, through that experience, she also saw the potential in bringing meditation to the dying process (See 'A Dialogue with Death').

Maneesha now lives in Devon, England. Along with a growing group of interested people, she is establishing a support service, facilitated by meditators, for those wanting to die consciously. The first step in this venture is the creation of a training for those who would like to support others through their dying. (See the portal 'Workshops, Seminars & Sessions' and then click on: The Sammasati Support-Person-Training) Updates on the Project are available through Facebook. Search for The Sammasati Project.