Testimonial letter from A. Orchard
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. Orchard MA. It is "Exhibit A-242" 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.
 Inner London Education Authority To whom it may concern, I am a practising teacher at present working at the above secondary school in the public sector in London, England, teaching children aged from eleven to eighteen years of age, that is, up to 'A' Level standard. I specialise in English, Drama and Modern Languages at present, but in my past ten years of teaching experience, have been called upon to teach a complete cross-section of disciplines in various sorts of educational institutions in England, ranging from schools with a high academic bias, to situations dealing with ’problem’ children, and also in private schools. I was educated and obtained my B.A. and M.A. degrees at King’s College, Cambridge, England and obtained my teaching certificate of competence at Exeter University, England. I was also for a year exclusively in charge of the well known and very successful school exchange between Sevenoaks School, England and L'Ecole St Martin, Pontoise, France. I came to know of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh over seven years ago initially through his books and in particular 'The Mustard Seed' which I found to be the most clear and inspired commentary on a Christian gospel that I have ever come across. This acquaintance then deepened through listening and viewing tapes and videos of his discouses in Poona, India and, in particular, through personal contact and conversation with him in Poona, when I had many opportunities to ask him about educational issues in particular and also about my own religious and spiritual development. From these meetings and contacts I have no hesitation in acclaiming Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh as the most gifted, inspired, perceptive and positive religious and spiritual teacher that I have yet come across. In addition, I have also had many opportunities to witness and experience Bhagwans’ vision of life at work in his own schools and can testify to the very high quality of education available there, both as regards basic skills and the enthusiasm and delight in learning that the children in these schools display. From my wide experience of a large variety of schools I can honestly say that I have yet to find an institution where the standards are higher and where, at the same time, the children's delight in learning and discovery is so wholeheartedly safeguarded and promoted. Also I have throughout seven years of close acquaintance with Bhagwan, been privileged to witness the most remarkable transformations towards general positiveness and increased creativity, both in young and older acquaintances and friends. Finally, I would like to testify to the fact that Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh is an internationally famous figure in most countries and has had a profound influence on educational outlook and practise on an ever-growing number of people in those countries. 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.)
