Testimonial letter from A. J. Thomson-Tobey
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 A. J. Thomson-Tobey. It is "Exhibit A-283" 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 one page.
 ROOTS & WINGS To whom It MaY Concern: It is my opinion that Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh is a remarkable and unique religious teacher and spiritual leader. His writings are exquisitely clear, and his philosophical grasp of ideas concerning the human condition is quite outstanding in the world today. We are indeed fortunate that he is currently with us in America today. It is my hope that he will be able to continue to offer his exceptional ablities to us here. He is ahead of his time in the application of religious thought and systems to psychological understanding and treatment. He has, as no-one else has done yet in this century , pointed out the next steps in psychology beyond Freud, Adler, Jung etc, and beyond Maslow, Reich etc,; in other words beyond the psychology of pathology and the psychology of the sO-called healthy personality to what he calls the "Psychology of the Buddhas"- the psychology of enlightened beings. This material and approach very aptly speaks to the concerns of persons in my field that are searching and consciously looking for meaning in life. I have seen his work as a religious teacher and spiritual leader demonstrated time and time again. I was first introduced to Bhagwan’s work over 12 year’s ago in Europe, and met him personally in India for the first time almost 10 years ago, and so my connection is neither fleeting or passing. I visited Indai three times to be in his community, while continuing my professional work in Scotland as a College and then University Professor, and for the last years in New York in private practice as a therapist and consultant, and for part of the time as Co-ordinator of the Association for Humanistic Psychology 's Eastern Regional Network. Thus both in an academic setting with teachers, social workers, group workers, and with those preparing to work in the helping professions, and with those with whom I have worked privately in individual and group contexts, I have found Bhagwan’s books tapes and meditations very pertinent to my work in education stress reduction and therapy. His approach greatly encourages students and clients of all ages as they face various life crises at each stage of development. When I first met him , Bhagwan did not have the international renown that he now has. However it was clear to me then as it is now that he is THE outstanding religious figure of our century. His presence is a great gift and catalytic agent for peace and harmony within persons and therefore in the world. I am proud that he is in this country at present, and wholeheartedly support his application for official recognition of his exceptional ability. YOURS FAITHFULLY, |
(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.)
