Testimonial letter from Bob van Leer

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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 Bob van Leer. It is "Exhibit A-754" 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.

Curry County Reporter
OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER FOR CURRY COUNTY
GOLD BEACH, OREGON 97444
ROBERT AND BETTY VAN LEER, PUBLISHERS
510 N. ELLENSBURG, BOX 766
(503) 247-6643
7-31-83
Ma Prem Isabel, Editor
Rahneesh Times
Box 1
Rajneeshpuram, OR 97741

Dear Isabel:

I was asked to write you a letter concerning the recent report we printed in our newspaper about Rajneeshpuram. I can add little to the report except to affirm that I did write it.

As to whether the Bhagwan is a religious leader, to me this appears self-evident. He brought thousands of you from around the world to the Oregon high desert, some as visitors and some as permanent residents. From conversations with you and others at Rajneeshpuram there seems to be no doubt that all of you consider him the leader and your discipline a religion.

Regards,
[signed]
Bob Van Leer
Copy of newspaper report attached


Indeed, and following is the transcription of that report, leaving out the paper's masthead and stuff. Note that there are a couple of small areas of incompleteness, due to 1) incomplete photocopying, page at an angle, etc, and 2) a few words hole-punched out.

Tour of Rajneeshpuram interesting

By Bob Von Leer

Recently, Betty, Molly and myself attended the Oregon Newspaper Publishers association meeting at Sun River, south of Bend. Since we were that close we decided to visit Rajneeshpuram, near Antelope, Oregon's newest, and most unlikely, city. The city, its inhabitants and their leader Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, have received a lot of publicity in the last couple of years, much of it bad, so we decided to see for ourselves what the situation is. It is not o place you get to by accident. Located about 30 miles north and east of Madras, the best way Io it is through the town of Antelope and a few miles east turn south on a gravel road. The new city is 10-12 miles from Antelope, a tiny city that is now mostly populated by the Bhagwan's followers who have elected a majority on the city council and now run the town. But the main activitiy is on the ranch.

The ranch is large, 64,000 acres, and with leased BLM land totals 126 square miles. It is not a choice ranch, very hilly and, we were told on the ranch, only 1500 acres are better than class VI soils or farmable land. Two thirds of the ranch is in Jefferson county and the other third in Wasco county. The city itself is ail in Wasco county. The ranch is bordered on the east by the John Day river.

The permanent population of the ranch is about 1000 but at the time we arrived a celebration was just winding down that brought 15,000 visitors to the ranch from around the world. The striking immediate impression was thousands of people dressed in every imaginable shade of red or near red. This, we were told, is following the colors of the rising sun and is worn by all the followers, the Sannyasin. We checked in at the newspaper office (The Rahneesh Times) with Ma Prem Isabel, the (?) and were assigned a guide, Veena. We had called ahead the week before. (?) of the ranch are available on a regular basis except during the festival. As newspaper representatives we were taken on a tour during festival week and as a member of the LCOC task force were assigned Veena as guide. Her knowledge of the ranch is encyclopedic. (LCOC is extremely important on the ranch.)

A general impression of the ranch-city is that it is extremely well run and an example of what can be done with unlimited manpower, properly directed. Nothing is wasted ond everything is done on a grand scale. This is a commune, decisions are made collectively, not individually. Thus, to accommodate the visitors, it is not a matter of each accommodating several but 3625 tents set up to accommodate the 15,000 visitors. I hadn't seen anything like that since military tent cities in World War II, and maybe not that many at a time then.

The city itself is divided into two geographically separate areas, Jesus Grove and Buddha Grove, with Jesus Grove the site of the old ranch house and the most developed. A county road bisects the ranch and along it in Jesus Grove a public area has been developed that includes two stores selling merchandise to the public, a building housing a book store consisting entirely of the Bhagwan's books, tapes, [text lost here due to off-the-edge photocopying .... ] open to the public. The rest of the ranch is private and non-members may only visit accompanied by a guide. An exception to this is the airport at which Veena said private planes are welcome and a few are now landing there as a lunch stop. The ranch has its own airline, Air Rajneesh, which includes two engine DC 3 transports.

The importance of LCDC is that the city has been, and still is, in a continuing struggle for its existence because of land use planning. Henry Richmond’s organization, 1000 Friends of Oregon, working with some local ranchers, is trying to prevent urban development at Rajneeshpuram and declare the city invalid and has had some success in the courts. On the other hand, we were told that LCDC July 2 approved the city's plan for 13 of 14 goals, requiring modifications only in the Urban Growth Boundary to be more compact. Agricultural land was excluded which LCDC said should have been included to make the city UGB more compact. A general overview of the ranch is that these people are good stewards of the land - actually their development of the property would seem to be more of a model to be pointed out as the way to do it. Creeks running through the ranch are the normal eroded (?)t washes except areas now stabilized and we are told this work will be continued. The ranch was purchased only two years ago but already a 40 acre lake has been created with a dam and several miles of creek stabilized with check dams to slow runoff, banks hove been sloped and seeded with grass and shrubs and at water level junipers have been staked to prevent bank cutting.

About 3000 acres have been cleared and cultivated and planted to wheat and barley with peas being tried. Irrigation is all from surface water - wells are used only for domestic water. Examples of the recycling prevalent all over the ranch is the junipers cleared for cultivation are not piled and burned but used for posts, railings and the tops for streambank protection. Wastewater is treated, stored in a reservoir and used for irrigation. Incidentally we were told that wastewater treatment was another fight with 1000 Friends which wanted the city to use septic tanks instead of reusing the water. On a bench on the John Day the commune has a large truck form, irrigated from the river on an old water right, which supplied the greens for the 15,000 visitors with a surplus available. Leftover greens are used for chicken food. Much of the tent city is on flat agricultural land. As the visitors go home the tents are to be lifted, stored, and the site, in the next few weeks, will be cultivated and planted. Given the way these people are treating the land the zeal with which 1000 Friends is trying to block their activities raises questions of motives. We have a distinct feeling that if the Bhagwan was a white Protestant who had attended an Ivy League school he would not be subjected to this continuing harassment.

Our tour of the ranch included the agricultural areas including the poultry and dairy areas. I wanted to compare notes on raising emus as they have a pair.

We visited the bakery which was still busy turning out 1700 loaves of bread a day for the visitors, the city hall, where shoes have to be removed before entering and other areas of the ranch. Members of the commune are vegetarians but some livestock is raised for sale.

We did not explore their religion at any depth and no one seemed interested in converting us. The people there seemed quite content. Theirs is not a grim religion - on the job they seemed happy and industrious even though Veena told us they all worked 12 hour days seven days a week. Living for oil is double-wide mobile homes ond A-frame houses made from the tent floors of lost year's tent city. There is a considerable amount of holding and hugging for extended periods all through the city, A most unusual and impressive sight is the daily drive the Bhagwan takes just after two p.m. in one of his 25 Rolls-Royces. He drives himself preceded and followed by other cars. On the driver's side of the rood for as far as we could see in either direction, about a mile, people were lined up two and three deep ond all (except us) dressed in red, for o glimpse of the Bhagwan as he drove slowly by waving and smiling. He now maintains public silence but hours of his recorded words are on sale. He, incidentally, is fending off an effort by the U. S. immigration service to deport him.

The members of the commune are older than we would have guessed. Veena said the largest age group is 33-37 years of age and the second largest 38-42. Visual observation seemed to confirm this. The membership is international with about 300,000 world wide. On the ranch foreign accents are common, perhaps even the rule. Isabel the editor is a French national raised in Chile. Veena was born in Britain, raised in South Africa, and spent 12 years in India alternating there with setting up a group in England. She also taught high school for three years in Canada and became the most animated when describing the commune's educational system. There are 55 children on the ranch with 10 teachers and state-certified through grade 12. But the direction of teaching is far different from other schools. Children do not compete with one another, but each as on individual. Asked as to whether this kind of an education would ever allow them to join the outside world Veena adamantly insists that the children grow up secure in themselves and are thus able to handle anything that comes.

The relations of the commune with the neighbors are a mixed bag. A reporter at the Madras Pioneer, newspaper in the nearest sizeable town, said the paper's relationship with the commune has been good. The reporter had been on the ranch several times and was given a call when there was something newsworthy. Some of the churches in Madras were not reconciled to the ranch. We found on uneasiness among some about the commune but others who had no problem with it. The reporter said there were bad feelings about commune members taking over the Antelope city government and there are others who view the city as a way of getting around the land use laws. The reporter said the Bhagwan used to drive to the weight station at Madras to turn around on his daily drive but abandoned this after a potentially troublesome situation grew up.

People gathered to heckle the Bhagwan, the commune began sending busloads of members for his support, a trucker blocked his turnaround, officers come to maintain order and finally he stopped driving to Madras. There is not much social mixing between the sannyasin ond others off the ranch. Two doctors, a specialist in internal medicine and a psychiatrist from the commune, have set up some practice in Madras. There are five physicians in the commune which seems weighted to professional people.

Members of the commune seem embattled, and with some good reason. They are harassed by 1000 Friends and the immigration service, and viewed with suspicion by some of their neighbors. However, some of this reaction is brought on by Ma Anand Sheela Silverman whose title is personal secretary to the Bhagwan but in a private business would have the title of chief executive officer. She can be acid-tongued and makes few friends by describing opponents as "stupid" and worse on television appearances. This brings her little criticism from the commune members we talked to who gave the impression they really wish she wouldn't but describe her manner as that of a mother tiger when her cubs are under attack and they as the cubs are on her side.

Conclusions? Basically the Rajneesh appear to be good people doing a good job. As a closed society they are likely to have some problems with neighbors always. 'But in many ways they are being unfairly [text lost here due to off-the-edge photocopying .... ] the country can handle one middle-aged guru who brought millions in resources with him. The grating style of Sheela Silverman adds to the commune's problems instead of solving them. The most troubling situation is that of Antelope where the commune, quite legally, has taken over the city by buying property and registering to vole and voting. Perfectly within our democratic rules yet if I were one of the residents of Antelope before the commune arrived I'd not be real happy with the present situation.


(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.)