Testimonial letter from B. C. Menzies
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 B. C. Menzies MSW. It is "Exhibit A-420" 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.
 July 21, 1983 TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN I am writing at this time to give total support to the application for Bhagwan to be granted permanent residency in America. I should first say that I have been a professional social worker for twelve years, having acquired a Master of Social Work degree in 1971; although currently on a sabbatical, I have engaged in a variety of counselling and therapy settings throughout the course of my practice; this has included work with ex-prisoners, children with emotional difficulties, as well as marital and family counselling. I am also happy to have the great privilege of being a disciple of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh for the past five years. It was during the course of my professional practice as a social worker that I encountered the works of Bhagwan, primarily through a close friend who himself had personally encountered Bhagwan. After a certain amount of suspicion and skepticism, I felt it important to carefully examine what Bhagwan had to say, especially as relevant to my own special area of interest: psychology. Initially, this examination came through the form of books, tapes, videos and, later, through personal contact with Bhagwan, so much so that I decided to take sannyas, a decision that I have never regretted since. There is absolutely no question in my mind that Bhagwan's contribution to my own area of expertise is undeniably significant and unique. His understanding of man, of his problems and complexities far surpasses anything available in the field and in any university curriculum that I have encountered. All too often, the current practice of therapy is concerned with helping individuals become "better adjusted", "normal", to be in a society which is itself insane and chaotic, and at the same time denying his uniqueness and creativity. It does little to help them grow, to become unique. Compassion, the heart of Bhagwan's approach, is after, if not entirely absent, from the current practice of therapy. And yet compassion is the heart of all therapy, the "unconditional positive regard" of other's being as he is. Ordinary psychology speaks of it, but it is a rare phenomenon in practice; it simply goes on labelling; the individual is no longer an individual but just another "patient".
Bhagwan's contribution to the field of psychology goes beyond mere words, as beautiful and meaningful as they are. His presence in America and the creation of Rajneeshpuram is a living proof of the verities of these words. Besides being a major boost culturally and economically to Oregon and America, it is also a living laboratory where compassion is the "experiment". In my own view, individuals who have come in touch with Bhagwan and Rajneeshpuram have and are blossoming into loving, happy and incredibly alive people. I cannot overemphasize how fortunate America is to have such a being as Bhagwan in its presence. As a Canadian, how I have wished for the honour of His presence in my country! America, you don’t know how fortunate you are! To me, to deny this application for permanent residency would be to deny America's belief in freedom and dignity of the individual and the need for both our countries to stand for that belief in a very unloving and discompassionate world. Yours 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.)
