In the autumn of 2018 Sagarpriya asked me to help out in the Psychic Massage training she was running in Miasto, Italy. On the very last day, as I came back from fetching water in the kitchen, I met the assistant Safar who looked somehow out of sorts. “Sagarpriya would like to see you, Deeva” he told me, and I went looking for her. She was sitting in her room carefully signing the certificates to be given to her students in the evening. “Deeva, Osho has told me that I will leave my body on December 11 th” A pause followed where we just looked at each other -“and I want you to write my obituary!”
To say I was surprised is an understatement. I felt a rush of conflicting emotions: Respect for her and the open channel she had to Osho; disbelief and sadness; worry that I would never be good enough to write about her. I think I answered something like: “Oh Okey, but I hope you don’t die” and she told me not to be sad, she was ready. So, I became the custodian of photos she wanted to post when the event occurred. Around 11th December 2018 I was breathlessly watching my Inbox, but thankfully no news of her demise arrived. When we next met, she was very much alive and told me: “Osho got the date wrong”
But on January 1st 2026 she really left.
Sagarpriya, or SP as she was affectionately known, was born near Seattle. After studying philosophy and music at university she joined the Esalen Centre in California, learned to give massage and was soon in charge of their massage program. When connecting to people through touch she started effortlessly receiving information about the person. This could happen as images or sounds or simply knowing. For SP to receive this information was a natural state of affairs, and she developed her own massage technique – Psychic Massage – which included connecting to the client’s being and reading their energy. She wrote the book “Psychic Massage” and it was published in 1975. You can still buy it on Amazon.com. After Esalen she went to London, and it was here she first heard about Osho, and her inner guidance led her to Poona in 1977. She took sannyas soon after, and quickly became a group leader in the ashram.
I first met Sagarpriya in 1990 shortly after Osho’s death. Without knowing much about it I had signed up for a 6 week Psychic Massage training. One day SP was going to give a demo session. Maybe it was demonstrating how to do an Energy Reading. We were about 20 of us, all gathered around the empty massage table waiting for the demonstration client. SP stood at the bottom of the table and closed her eyes for a moment, her head gently turning from side to side, then she opened her eyes, her face lit up, and she looked around at us. “I need to find the right person to do this particular demonstration with” she said to no one in particular. “It could be you” she pointed at an Italian girl who looked pleased, “or you…” pointing at a Swedish boy, “or you down the back “ she said and singled me out through the crowd. That session blew me away and after the training I felt so grateful I asked her one day if I could give her a massage. She said yes, and from that moment we became friends. What a good fortune for me!
I asked about her in the ashram and heard how Osho had told her to run a group called “Urja” (which means energy) back in the seventies. The group was about how to experience your real energy through non-doing. True to form Sagarpriya gave no instructions in this group. She would enter the group room with the participants and then:….nothing! Sometimes people would sit in a circle and wait for instructions which didn’t come. SP might stay in the circle, or go and start doing some stretching of the body against a wall. If someone asked her when she would start, she might say “We have already started” and then look the other way. She told me later that typically on the first day, some people would get frustrated with this no structure (Germans?) , some would start complaining and wanting their money’s worth, some would start flirting (Italians?) etc.
On the second day, often there would be a whole lot of sleeping happening, and then perhaps on the third or fourth day the magic, when real energy started rising in the group. Not the energy from being told what to do, from following a structure, but inner creativity bursting forward from nowhere. Sometimes half the group would be creating operatic shows while the other half were resting or giving each other head massages. Mostly the room would be full of inexplicable love by this time.
I have experienced this state in many of Sagarpriya’s guided meditations. We start off with no particular instruction. We may walk, or lie, or sit or dance. SP will pick up the energy of the room and guide us deeper into the moment, and what our energy wants to do. After a while everybody is doing something different. Some are active, some are resting, some are alone, some are making contact – everybody true to this moment and paying attention to what will increase their satisfaction level right now.
She also famously led a “If I say Yes right now” meditation, which is like a kind of Latihan where you always pay attention to what you are already doing, not what you desire to be doing in the future. I got so high when we did this in her presence.
On the Ranch and in the eighties Sagarpriya was part of the Counselling training in the commune. But by the late eighties/early nineties her own work had taken stronger shape, and she started giving the longer Psychic Massage trainings. At this time, she also wrote her second book about Psychic Massage “The Master’s Touch”. Writing the book came easily for her and it contains beautiful descriptions from many sessions she gave in the ashram. Getting it published was more difficult. I remember how she deliberated over different publishers, and in the end she went with a Norweigian firm because of their excellent paper quality. When the book was finally printed it was so heavy, postage became an issue. This book is still a great read if you like working with people.
While the Psychic Massage trainings were at their peak, SP started developing another methodology the “Star Sapphire Energywork”. It contained the elements of Energy reading and Resonance from Psychic Massage, but the format was verbal and it used Gestalt type of techniques to help clients explore their own inner male and inner female energies. I was helper in two Star Sapphire trainings in Pune, and it was the time of my life.
Sagarpriya told me she lived 16 years with Paraprem in Ardesh France in a beautiful stone cottage, when they were not in Poona. It was wonderful years. They had met on the Ranch, when they were both sent to man a fire lookout station together for a week. They just hung out easily together and entered into a natural beautiful relationship. He was a handyman and beekeeper, had a beautiful voice and also a great lover of Osho. And he was very, very funny. Not at all into psychic massage and therapy. They split up eventually when SP had an affair with another man. Somehow, she felt something was missing with Paraprem, and she found that something with the other man – though the relationship didn’t work out. Paraprem also left this shore quite some years ago.
Sagarpriya had a strong love for Conscious Living – paying attention and love to all the small things in daily life. In Poona she ran the “Quality of Life” training several times. In this training we would be washing dishes and flossing teeth with awareness. Personally, I preferred the therapy groups and trainings. I just wasn’t ready to find ecstasy in flushing teeth and washing dishes. I think SP was ahead of her time. At some point in the nineties SP stopped going to Poona and running trainings there.
Instead, she wished to start a Conscious Living commune in Europe and Freiburg was a possible place. But for some reason this didn’t really work out. Some say she had a difficult personality. I don’t know, but for sure she was very precise and particular with details. Other friends can tell more about this period of her life. All I know is that after Freiburg she moved to Milan, where she was close to, and worked with, Siddhu for years.
She also wrote the book Inner Man, Inner Woman: the Two shores of Love
I once asked her how she ended up in Imola after Milan. She answered that when she wanted to leave Milan, Osho told her (as he did) to move to somewhere near Bologna airport: Imola and Fresco Senso were some options. Osho said “yes” to Imola south of Bologna. Swedish Smaran helped her, by driving her around looking for an apartment. When they saw the flat on Via Marsala, and met the owner Dino, they knew this was it, and like that she ended up living right downtown. Dino renovated the flat beautifully for her with a new kitchen wall, stylish bathroom and lovely wooden windows and door frames throughout. SP had some bespoke pieces of wooden furniture with her from France. They were made by a sannyas cabinet maker and much treasured by her. The flat was simple yet beautiful.
In July 2023 I got an email from Sagarpriya that she had just been in hospital for 3 weeks, because she had lost so much weight. I decided to travel down and visit her. She looked very emaciated when she opened the door, but her face still lit up, and her spirit was luminous. She told me most of her “work” these days was inner work. In particular resolving things from a past life, where she had been a head nun in a monastery and abused her power. She also said, she sometimes wished she hadn’t been born being a psychic. I asked her if we could talk about her life, and I could record it on my phone. But she wasn’t interested. “When the time comes, you will know what to write. Let me show you my Eating Meditation”. So instead, we ate lunch very slowly together totally absorbed in the present moment.
At dinner time when preparing the food, I looked at it and said: “That just isn’t enough for the two of us!” So, I went out and bought some organic take away from a place she said she liked. When I came back with Buddha bowls, dumplings, salad and pakoras, we had a feast and ate it all. Leaving the next day, she thanked me for helping her eat un-consciously. Perhaps a dubious honor, but I felt very satisfied. That was the last time I saw her in person.
Just recently, in the beginning of December 2025, we had a long chat on the phone. I asked if she wanted a visit, but she said she was very weak, and would soon be moved to a Hospice, so now was not the time. When we said our “goodbyes” and “I love you”s I felt that I would not see her again.
Remembering her now, a few unusual things pop into my mind: She had an impeccable ear for music and a perfect pitch. She had heard Jimi Hendrix live once and cried from the beauty of his guitar. She took at least 3 days to pack her suitcase, but when she sat at the keyboard she typed with a rocket-like speed.
I always saw OSHO as someone from another planet, and in my opinion it’s quite likely Sagarpriya came from that planet as well. I hope they are both dancing with the stars out there now.
Thank you beloved Sagarpriya for everything you gave us.