Testimonial letter from Anna Leone

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 Anna Leone. It is "Exhibit A-1942" 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 original letter, written in Italian (presumed), appears first, followed by its English translation. The image on the right in the text box links to a pdf file with the whole original letter, the translation and a notary statement attesting to the validity of the translation. It has one page.

As it turns out, no image of the presumed Italian original letter has been supplied by OHS; nor is it known whether the original was typed or hand-written. translation Anna Leone Via Bottai 17 Palermo Italy TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN I graduated from the University of Palermo in 1977 with a degree in history and philosophy. I also have a degree in painting from the Academy of Fine Arts of Brera, Milano, 1967. I am the author of a book called "From Artisanry to Design" which was acquired by the Public Library of Monza in 1969. I participated in national and international exhibitions of painting, winning several prizes. I had personal exhibitions in several Italian cities. I collaborated with the national Italian televison (RAI) for several programs. (2nd channel and Sicilian regional radio). I took part in psychological research with the Italian C.N.R. I worked in the faculty of architecture of the University of Palermo as an expert in 1978, I teach painting in a public high school in Palermo. But the extraordinary event of my life was meeting Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. In 1977 when I was writing my thesis in philosophy, I read his discourses on art and the realization that I had come into contact with an extraordinary person of the greatest and most sublime genius that the history of humanity has ever produced exploded within me. Everything I had looked for during years of study and experience was simply being offered to me by Bhagwan with love and compassion. I finished my thesis, obtaining the highest marks and the praise and compliments of the commission, and I went to Poona to see Bhagwan to thank him and to become his disciple. 5 years have passed since then. M gratitude, my respect and my love for the master continue to grow day by day. Every country, every state on earth should feel honoured to be host to such a genius, offering him honorary citizenship, and especially the U.S.A. which has always distinguished itself in history for its feeling of liberty and democracy and for its special intelligence; open to the new and unknown. Anna Leone

(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.)