Testimonial letter from Terry P. Ammon-Hendlin
This letter is one of a remarkable series of over 2650 letters amassed in 1983 to support Osho's attempt to get permanent resident status in the US at the time of the Oregon ranch. The image is reproduced here with the kind permission of The Oregon Historical Society. Information about their collection of these letters and other supporting material -- the "Jeffrey Noles Rajneesh Collection", named for Osho's immigration lawyer Jeffrey Noles, who compiled them in 1983 and donated them to the OHS -- can be found at this page. The wiki is grateful to the OHS for making access available for these documents. For more information and links to all the letters, see Testimonial letters.
This letter is from Terry P. Ammon-Hendlin MSW. It is "Exhibit A-1252" in the Noles collection.
The text version below has been created by optical character recognition (OCR), from the images supplied by OHS. It has not been checked for errors but this process usually results in over 99% correct transcription. Most apparent "errors" are correct transcriptions of typos already in the original. The image on the right in the text box links to a pdf file of the original letter, it has 2 pages.
 Terry P. Ammon-Hendlin To Whom It May Concern: I, Terry P. Ammon-Hendlin, do hereby declare: I am a secondary school teacher for Sweetwater Union High School District where I have worked for the last 9 years. I have taught adult school and junior college classes. I have a M.S.W. degree and have previously worked for the Department of Public Welfare for the State of California. I am currently attending the San Diego Writer’s Project at the University of California, San Diego as a Project Fellow for which I am compensated. I was chosen from a large group of applicants to be one of the 22 summer participants in this prestigious program. I would like to voice my sense of appreciation for the high level of expertise of Bhagwan Rajneesh in the areas of philosophy and psychology. I recently experienced a case of the "doldrums" in returning to work after spendng a year and a half at home with my child. Rajneesh has served as an inspiration especially this past school year in reminding me that "anything is possible." I have completed possibly the most successful year ever of my teaching career. In attempting to apply his psychology of expanding horizons and limits, I have discovered creativity within myself that I have been able to pass on to my students. In addition to functioning effectively as a wife and mother, I was able to work on a GATE committee (Gifted and Talented Education), develop and implement an entirely new writing curriculum for my classes, serve as English department chairperson for my school, and apply to and be accpted to the San Diego Area Writing Project (recent teachers of writing are rarely accepted, and this application involves recommendation of candidates and then written and formal interviews). Although this has been a busy year, somehow I have found the energy to do it all. I have been amazed at myself. In analyzing this, I would have to give much credit to Bhagwan Rajneesh. In reading his books, listening to his tapes and occasional videos, I am impressed at this man’s brilliance and knowledge. He appears to be the true Renaissance man, good at so many things. I have been watching the progress of what has been developing in Oregon, and I find it amazing that in such a short period of time, so much has been accomplished on that formerly barren land. He either has a thorough knowledge of technology or is concerned enough with it to do all of the things that have been done. Should you have any questions or wish to discuss any of these things in more depth, please feel free to call or contact me either at home or at school. Sincerely, |
(Please note: We assume that the above letter is still copyrighted, but we regard its historical interest to constitute a Fair Use exception for publication in this wiki.)
