Testimonial letter from Bernd Stapf

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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 Bernd Stapf. It is "Exhibit A-1330" 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 3 pages.

Bernd Stapf
Dipl.-Psychologe
D - 7800 Freiburg,
Maria-Theresia-Str. 3
July, 22nd 1983

To whom it may concern

Hearing about the difficulties for Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh to be allowed to stay in der USA I would like to tell you about my experience with Bhagwan and the inspirations I got by him and the effects for my person and profession.

I am born in 1938. I am Psychologist since 1970. After having finished my studies I first worked in School-Psychology for 1 year. Since 1971 till now I work in the formation and training of teachers at a "Padagogische Hochschule" (High School for Education) in Germany. There I teach Educational Psychology, Psychology of Development, Child Guidance and Counselling. In 1974 I began to learn Client-Centered-Psychotherapy (ROGERS) in Germany, since 1980 I am "Klinischer Psychologe" (Clinical Psychologist) according to the statutes of the "Berufsverband Deutscher Psychologen" (according about APA in the USA). Since 1978 I work as teacher in instructing children between 11 and 15 years, too.

First I heard of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh in 1980. In the follow time I took part in Growth-Groups with Sannyasin-Group-Leaders and in 1980 I began to practise Bhagwans Meditations. I often hear his lectures and read his books. Since this time I follow his teachings. Although I am not living in an Ashram or Sannyas-Commune, I often like to do work in the Sannyas-Centre in our town.

Since I follow Bhagwans teachings and practise his Meditations I can observe a remarkable change in my life: I live much more centred in myself; in situations, where I have been excited and nervous before, I now am calm and confident. I feel much better than before.

Being together with other people, I am much more able to cencern with the other person, to see really the other person where I before had only projected myself or my wishes. I am much more able to act not for my own egoistic interests, but for the interests (especially the emotional and psychological interests) of the other person. I must say that since the time I have opened myself to Bhagwans inspirations, I live a much more loving life.

It is obvious that in my professional sphere, where I am mostly concerned with people to be educated, trained or helped I now do a much better work than before.

It is true that during my studies and the formation to become Clinical Psycholgist I often took part in Growth-Croups and Encounter-Sessions and got own experience with Freudian Psycho analysis - but all these experiences did not at all have such an important and positive change in my life than the inspirations I got through Bhagwan.

I have experienced that only by the deep wisdom and the great love what a man like Bhagwan has to give, there will be a possibility to change the hard egoistic strucures in our soul, and only this gives a real chance to mankind to live happier, less aggressively and more lovingly.

May-be Bhagwan is one of the rare chances for mankind to survive.

Freiburg i.Br., den 22. Juli 1983
[signed]
[notary stuff]


(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.)