What comes up for me with the word 'violence' is another world, called the United States. In New York City I had the opportunity to live and run around this violent jungle - I was mainly hanging out in the violent areas. I was a small small-time drug dealer. I was making just enough to keep my addiction going. When things got rough, I thought it was time to check in for detoxification. They bring you down from your addiction with drugs: they bring you down very nicely. Then you can leave and... start again.

I remember once sitting in Spanish Harlem; I was at my lowest point. I carried an open knife in my shoe, because I was so scared. Everybody had to have a knife. There were about five of us sitting on the stoop and we had no drugs. Imagine the scene: Puerto Ricans - sweaty, ugly and feeling angry. Then there was this tourist walking down the street, taking pictures. The five of us stood up together. It was a silent understanding: a tourist walking around in Spanish Harlem...

People were yelling and screaming; the faucets were on; people were banging drums in the street. It was all Spanish, and this guy was walking along, going click, click. We walked across the street without saying anything. We grabbed him, picked him up and brought him into a hallway. He started to scream, and of course nobody in the neighbourhood would say anything. We took his clothes off, so he wouldn't run after us and we took his camera and everything else he had.

Our leader had a big iron file without a handle and he wanted to stab him with it. I stepped in and said, 'No, you don't have to hurt this guy. We have got the money, we have got everything!' He kept trying to stab him, but I interfered. The guy was on the floor, on his knees, screaming and crying - some stupid European that walked into Spanish Harlem at the wrong time.

When I got into therapy groups in the beginning, they were addressing this violence all the time. They were encouraging us to be emotionally and verbally violent with each other, because in the streets it was just pure 'I'll stab you'. In the encounter sessions they were encouraging us to say all the stuff that you never say to anybody, because that's called 'ratting'. You don't put your business out on the street to anybody.

It was quite a freedom to be verbally and emotionally violent without having to hurt somebody or feel that somebody was going to hurt you for being honest. I learned that for the first time in the Encounter groups in New York.

We learned to turn our violence into a constructive emotional catharsis that we never allowed ourselves, because we were just shooting our dope, killing ourselves with painkillers. They encouraged these feelings to come out, and that's exactly what I needed. I needed three years of screaming my brains out over and over, 'I hate you, I hate you, I hate you!' - 'I kill you!' - 'You hurt me!'- and - 'Never again!' - and all that.

And then I went to London to open up my own project.

I remember in Pune in the seventies, there were Encounter groups where people were allowed to be physically violent in the name of therapy, and I didn't like it.

At the time I went to Pune for a rest. When I had been there for a day or so, the group leader got sick, and I was asked to take over his group. I guess he was tired of doing the group and he was happy I had arrived.

When they were in the building stage of the Chambers (the therapy rooms in the basement), they had invited me down and they asked, do we need anything? I said, 'Yeah, you need mattresses all over the walls, like a padded cell.' They said, 'Why?' 'Because people in groups do all kinds of things.' So that was a big decision. Finally at a big meeting somebody said, 'Veeresh thinks that there should be mattresses.' I was very happy to see that they had padded all the walls.

The group had been going for three days, and after the third day I walked in. The people were sitting against the wall and nobody was talking to each other. Everybody had their position, everybody wanted to know whether somebody was going to get up and smack somebody...

It was a strange kind of encounter group. The rule was that the only thing that can happen is that you die - a very clear rule. You could see it in the group, nobody was talking to each other; everybody was very scared and isolated. I knew it was a process, and that after about seven days the group would slowly come together and be beautiful, but when I walked in I said, 'I am changing the rules. The only thing that can happen in this group is that you can live'.

Then I asked about this physical violence. They said that you were not allowed to hit the group leader. I said, 'Well, I agree'. That was a rule I liked. Then I told them that they were not allowed to hit each other either. That was another rule and the group couldn't believe it. I said, 'Physical violence is easy, and it makes me sick. I hate it, you know, I am one of those abused kids that grew up seeing abuse all over me, and I know how to do it very well, so we are going to drop that.' They were very happy.

Then an older woman got up and walked over to this big guy who was sitting down and she started to tell him what a horrible guy he was for slapping her. The guy slowly got up. I could see he was getting pissed off and he was about to hit her, when I said, 'If you touch her, I will beat the shit out of you!' This is me trying to establish a non-physical violence contract in a group room. That's how nuts I was.

I don't want physical violence, I don't like physical abuse and if you do it, I will show you what physical abuse can be. That guy understood and he sat down.

I went to Osho and I told him that the group was going completely one way with the regular leader and I didn't like it, so I decided to go completely another way. Osho said, 'Very good. The groupies didn't know how to be groupies with you, because they were trying to be groupies for the other leader. You came in with a whole different approach, so they didn't know what was going on. You threw them into complete chaos.'

It was true; the group was totally confused.

'In the future you have to develop groups where everything is chaos. The groupies cannot believe what is going on, they don't know how to be a good groupie for you. They don't know how to expect you to be a leader and nobody knows when it begins and nobody knows when it ends, and nobody knows what happens. If you keep taking people into this chaos, they will go very very deep.'

Once, at the time of the Falklands war I did a group in England and got into a physical fight with one of the group participants. I went to Osho after that. I felt a failure as a therapist. I wanted to give up groups; I wanted to give up working with people. I went to Osho with the purpose of telling him, 'This is it. I can't work with people any more. I violated the whole idea of working with people.' Then, in his trailer in Rajneeshpuram, he gave me a long talk. He told me that man has always been at war for the last three thousand years. I was listening and listening, and at the end, he said to me, 'This has been a good lesson. Something very very deep inside of you was released and you will never do such a thing again.' I made that commitment. 'No, I will never...' Then he gave me the assignment - and I take this very personal - to train the best therapists in the world, and I said, 'Of course.'

In the work we do here at the Humaniversity, physical violence is not allowed. I don't care how you want to justify it - maybe you get frustrated, but physical violence - we have to draw a line there. That's not the way I like to work with people. That's from experience.

We do not allow people to engage in what I call 'gorilla tactics'. As I said before, anger and rage can be channeled into a constructive emotional catharsis. That is part of the work of the Humaniversity. And then the other side, if people have been violated and abused in their life, we can work with it in therapy groups. First they need to share it; then they can be brought to re-experience the feelings and this time also show the other side - the rage - that side rather than just the victim side. And finally getting the person to move on to something more positive in their life, rather than be caught up with the history. Because at some point you have to say, 'OK - it's enough.'

You don't need to do therapy for ten years. Two or three years of therapy should be enough for anybody. Then you need to start meditating. That's what we do here: when you are open, we force you to hug and scream hallelujah.

When you are in a situation where you are abused, or there is something going on that turns you off, trust your feeling, and step out of the situation. You don't have to be an experiment for somebody else's frustrations. A beautiful way to channel aggression is through Martial Arts, Osho-Do. You need to learn how to say 'yes', how to open up, how to hug, and you need to learn how to say 'no' when it is needed, to defend yourself against abuse.

The Israelis and the Palestinians know that it is in their interest to reach an agreement and have peace. Both sides know - everybody in the world knows - it makes sense, for the economy - but do they do it? No, they are all committed to some blind, irrational force, and the violence continues.

There need to be some really amazing people that would say, 'Enough! Let's sit down and work this out. Let's stop this. Let's both cooperate in stopping this and work for a peace and live together and open the borders and share economies and intermingle and prosper and become the hottest place in the Middle East, with all of us partying together.' That would be really great.

But no… They are into all this, 'You did this!' 'Yes, but you did this' And then centuries of hatred come up. Everybody's got a vendetta - everybody's been hurt. It will really take some exceptional people who can say, 'Let's stop this.'

Our answer to violence in the market place is the AUM Meditation. It can be adjusted; you can create what is needed for the group and the specific situation in the country you are in. It works. It really works. There are parts that may be unnecessary in a certain situation, and there are parts that need to be expanded, or you need to bring in other things. As a basis the AUM is a perfect tool.

I did the AUM in Israel, and one woman at the end said in her opinion that's not the way the AUM goes. She was used to doing the regular AUM. Then I come in and I prolong the 'I hate you' into more stages. I had them all screaming by themselves, I had the women scream at the women, and the women screaming at the men and then the men and the women screaming like a 'free-for-all'. I thought it was very important that they did that. After they screamed I had them close their eyes, make two tight fists, raise their arms to the ceiling and scream, 'I have the power!' Then boy, you felt it, like they were really behind it. It was amazing.

I would like to teach the Israelis and the Palestinians to do the AUM, because it is a good tool to teach people how to deal with violence, how to use the same energy to bring about friendship.

The AUM is a good tool for the whole world to use. It makes sense; everybody can do it; you can have mixed groups; you can get Israelis and Palestinians together; you can create an emotional release and a coming together. It is needed. Everywhere I go it seems to be needed: Argentine, Brazil, Israel; and people that do it really appreciate it. They really feel it - they get this transformation feeling look. It seems we are getting some more Israelis coming; they want to do the AUM leader training, so there is hope for the future!