Testimonial letter from D. E. Brown

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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 D. E. Brown. It is "Exhibit A-343" 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.

105 Cornwallis Road
London N.19.
July 20th 1983

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN

I am a graduate of Cambridge University, England, where I took Honours Degrees in Classics and Geography. For thirty-three years I taught and was Head of Department at Shrewsbury, one of Britain's leading Independent Schools; which in the past has included among its pupils such eminent figures as Sir Philip Sidney, Samuel Butler and Charles Darwin; and in my time the sons of famous scholars, doctors, politicians and men of letters of our own age.

My work as a teacher brought me increasingly in touch with those researching in the field of educational theory and communication; and so by natural progression to a study of Humanistic Psychology and Group Therapy as presented by Carl Rogers, Alexander Lowen, Maslow, Fitz Perls and others. In common with many students on both sides of the Atlantic I found increasingly that these disciplines are seriously lacking in what could be called the spiritual dimension - so that the work of Rajneesh, who uses many of these Western systems but marries them to the traditions and experiences of Eastern Philosophy and mysticism, naturally attracted my attention; and so I came to spend eighteen months in Poona, India, to listen to his message and take part in the activities which constitute its practical application.

In recommending that Rajneesh should be seriously considered as the Indian Candidate for special immigrant status, I know that I am speaking of someone of universal significance of the calibre of an Einstein or a Stravinsky; and the importance of his work in the philosophical field, but even more of his vision of a possible way forward for society, is at this time inestimable; and surely any country would be proud to open its doors to a man of such positively cosmic stature.

Yours Faithfully,
[signed]
D.E. Brown


(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.)