Testimonial letter from April Manganiello
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 April Manganiello MS. It is "Exhibit A-273" 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.
 April Manganiello, M.S. TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN I am a professional counselor and trainer of counselors in family therapy and systems thinking. I have taught at major northeast universities, practiced at various mental health clinics and conducted biochemical research at a well-known health clinic. I have 13 years experience dealing with people’s problems, conflicts, neuroses and misery. Five years ago I came in contact with the religious teachings of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. While I do not follow all of his teachings, his perspectives on human misery and problems are most enlightening. I have incorporated some of his active meditation techniques into my counseling practice with outstanding results. They provide for stress reduction, relaxation and emotional clarity far superior to the "relaxation response" of Mr Benson from Harvard University. New insights and more positive, constructive attitudes emerge with these techniques. They have greatly helped people suffering from asthma, eczema and other physical/ emotional ailments. I am seriously considering working with several medical researchers to scientifically test my clinical observations. In the several universities I was involved in, Rajneesh's books were used in the psychology, counseling, religion or philosophy departments. He is considered one of the great teachers of our time. Whether or not one agrees with the teachings of this exceptional man, it seems a bit ludicrous on the part of the government officials not to recognize and honor him as an outstanding thinker, philosopher, humanist, or above all religious leader. 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.)
