Testimonial letter from Bernard Levin
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 Bernard Levin. It is "Exhibit A-1735" 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.
 10 DEVONSHIRE PLACE, TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN I am a British journalist of some thirty years’ standing, working in newspapers, magazines, television and radio. I am at present chief columnist for The Times [of London] and chief book reviewer for the [Sunday] Observer. I also have a regular programme of extended interviews on BBC Television; among those who have appeared on it are Henry Kissinger, Henry Moore, Dr Jonas Salk, Aaron Copland, Arthur Rubinstein, Krishnamurti, Field-Marshal Lord Carver, Anthony Burgess, Professor Friedrich von Hayek, Vladmir Bukovsky and Leonard Bernstein. I am the author of five books, I write the above solely in order to establish my credentials; the purpose of this letter is to testify to my experience of Bhagwan Rajneesh. I have spent time at his former ashram in Poona; I have read many of his books and heard his spoken discourses; I have also met and talked with many of his followers. I regard him as an outstanding figure of very great distinction and ability, and a most remarkable and profound thinker and teacher. I emphasise that I am not a disciple of Bhagwan Rajneesh, nor do I have any connexion with his organisation; I am an observer who has seen and heard him at close quarters, and studied his work, and in that capacity I have come freely and objectively to the conclusion above. FROM BERNARD LEVIN |
(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.)
