Maneesha James S.R.N., S.C.M., R.M.N.
Born in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia in 1947, Maneesha [formerly known as Juliet Forman] is a graduate in general nursing (Alfred Hospital, Melbourne), midwifery (Queen Victoria Hospital, Adelaide), and psychiatry (The Maudsley Hospital, London, UK).
She was involved in the Humanistic Growth Movement in England in the early 70's, then, en route home to Australia, she made a stopover in India. It was a detour that changed the entire course of her life: in October 1974 she met the enlightened master, Osho. She soon realized that she had found what unconsciously she had been searching for, and threw away her onward ticket, remaining in Pune for seven years. [Along with a detailed record of the growth of Osho's work, something of her personal story is recorded in a trilogy.]
Maneesha lived and worked in close proximity to Osho for the last fifteen years of his life. She was the "Guinea pig" in the early days when he was creating new meditation techniques, and an energy medium in his work with individual seekers. Maneesha was his personally appointed chief editor, a member of his emergency medical team, and the recorder of his work. Osho said of her, "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."
Over the past 20 years she has traveled internationally - visiting the US, the UK, Scandinavia, Eastern Europe, Turkey, Israel, Japan, New Zealand, and Australia - giving seminars, groups, and individual sessions on diverse aspects of meditation.
She says: "I'm passionate about meditation. It's such an amazing resource: it's known to improve immune system functioning, to promote longevity, greater intelligence, optimism, creativity, clarity, centering, awareness, empathy, and an increased sense of responsibility; flexibility, humor.... If there were a pill that delivered even a third of the benefits of meditation, we'd be downing them by the mouthful!"
Within the last few years Maneesha has undertaken the Cert.4 course, Assessment and Training of Small Groups (Australia), and has also been trained in Hypnosis (Italy). She has put her group and individual sessions on hold, as she is now living in Sydney, studying for a Graduate Diploma in Psychotherapy and Counselling.
[Visit www.osho.com to find out more about Osho's vision and the Meditation Resort.]