About Maneesha

                                                                As a trainee in the Intensive Care Unit

of the Alfred Hospital, Melbourne.

Meeting the Indian mystic, Osho, in 1974 unexpectedly changed the entire course of my life. A 6-week stopover segued into what would be fifteen years of living close to Osho for his last years.

Under the name of Juliet Forman I have recorded the growth of Osho's work and something of my own story in a trilogy.

Appointed by Osho as his chief editor, I was also the guinea pig in his early experimentation with meditative methods, a member of his emergency medical team, and the recorder of his work. I felt honoured when Osho said of me, "I have found a better recorder than Ramakrishna has ever found in Vivekananda, or even Socrates has found in Plato... [She has] the special work of collecting my words, of editing my words. When we are all gone, Maneesha's collections will be remembered for centuries." (See Youtube interview)

For 15 years I traveled 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.

A meditator of 36 years, I have written a regular meditation column for The West Australian, and for the American web magazine, 'Natural Journeys'. I have also facilitated meditation courses with TAFE (Perth, Western Australia), and given numerous radio and TV interviews. Along with the trilogy mentioned above I have 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).  I have also created numerous guided meditations CDs, and a second website: www.activemeditation.com. In addition I appear 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'). I was the script-writer and presenter of 'Meditation: Stress-Free Living for Busy Women.'

Within more recent years I completed Certificate 1V in Assessment and Training of Small Groups (Australia), and trained in Hypnotherapy (Italy).  Now a qualified Psychotherapist and Counseller (Jansen Newman Institute, Sydney), I am based in Sydney.

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

"Even if there is a good chance we'll pull through, when we've seriously ill the fear of dying is bound to be present. Fear is not just a thought; it is a contraction of energy – energy that is needed for healing. In my work with clients I know that facing our fears can release that energy. That, in turn, opens one up to new insights, new learnings, about oneself, and about the nature of life and death.

"The people I've worked with or listened to who have survived a serious illness talk of the transformation that their illness unexpectedly brought with it. They regard their illness as having been a 'wake-up call,' a 'gift', a turning point in the way they view life, and an opportunity to reconsider their priorities. 

"People who have a regular meditation practice are well equipped to not only enjoy life to the max. but also to pass through the particularly precarious times of crisis of being ill, recovering from illness or moving into dying. Meditators can acquire a centering, and a trust in life, along with the ability to disengage from unhelpful thoughts and feelings, and so many other, essential qualities." 

Maneesha offers seminars and workshops to health professionals, volunteers, and the general public, both for their personal benefit and as a resource to offer clients, patients and friends. In addition, her private practice is centered around supporting clients through health crisis, on their way back to health, or in their preparing for dying.