Testimonial letter from Bruce M. Glassner

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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 Bruce M. Glassner. It is "Exhibit A-1009" 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.

Pinne, Garvin & Hock, Inc.
July 23, 1983

To whom it may concern:

Although I am not a follower of the Rajneesh movement, I have been aware of Bagwan for over four years through media coverage.

In the past two years, I have also had the chance to discuss the Rajneesh faith with a number of my professional colleagues in the advertising industry and media, several of whom have attended religious meetings both in India and at the Rajneesh facilities in Antelope. They have convinced me that Bagwan’s teaching is serious and spiritual in nature, and is of prime importance to the spiritual lives of his many followers.

I can also attest that Bagwan and his teachings have been central to the rehabilitation of a young woman who bore both the physical and psychic scars of a sexually-abused childhood, drug addiction and prostitution as a teeage runaway, and a series of adult felony convictions. Having known her as a gaunt and troubled young woman, I hardly recognized her after a year of intense involvement in the Rajneesh faith, including two pilgrimages to Antelope, Oregon, to visit Bagwan. She has been employed continuously for over a year, has developed a stable and positive lifestyle, and is in robust good health. She is absolutely clear in attributing her improvement to the written and personal teaching of Bagwan.

Although the techniques and lifestyle of Bagwan and his followers can be easily misunderstood by those accustommed to Judeo-Christian traditions, it is clear that any official resistance or interference is in direct conflict with our constitutional guarantees of freedom of religion.

I personally support and, in fact, urge that Bagwan be allowed to settle permanently in the United States, where is presence will affirm to the world that America is still open to, and enriched by, a wide variety of religious and cultural traditions.

Sincerely,
[signed]
Bruce M. Glassner
Associate Creative Director
& Group Supervisor
200 Vallejo Street, San Francisco, California 94111. Telephone (415) 956-4210


(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.)