Testimonial letter from Darrel Harden
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 Darrel Harden. It is "Exhibit A-209" 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 2 pages.
 The University of Oklahoma To Whom It May Concern: I am a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Oklahoma teaching Energy Dynamics and Design Synthesis to senior level engineering students. Both of these subjects are considered difficult to teach because of the large component of creative thought needed to understand these subjects. These subjects also deal very directly with two national level problems, i.e., energy availability and technology development. Without energy our economic machine doesn't move. Without technology development, we lose our position in the international markets. Through reading Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh's ideas about evoking our natural creative potentials and by participating in workshops offered at the Rajneesh International Meditation University I have enhanced my abilities to demonatrate and communicate creative activity to engineering students. Creative activity flowers when students learn that saying yes to problems transforms themselves and the problems into activity more likely to produce solutions than any other approach. I have been experimenting in teaching this approach to problem solving for approximately two years and feel much more satisfied with students manifesting creative solutions. Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh is without doubt the foremost general systems engineer alive today and I have much to learn from his writings. And in my learning I will be able to share with students taking my classes. General system theory deals with the relatedness of energy events — a shot fired here is heard round the world. Engineering is frequently criticized as being too narrow in vision, advancing optimun solutions for narrow problems but creating bigger problems in the larger context. With the vision of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh I am able to see more clearly potential problems I can share with my students so we can optimize our designs for a larger context. Using the writings of an Indian mystic and religious leader to support my engineering activities may seem strange but history shows all good engineering came from men with visions of the relatedness of nature and the physical world. Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh’s knowledge of relatedness is a fertile field of ideals for me as I search for solutions to some of mankinds pressing problems, e.g., where to put the ashes from nuclear fires, how to use electronics to make life more pleasant yet use less energy, how to enjoy life with less physical stress. Clearly, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, is a first class creator of ideas and wealth, two things the U. S. has historically treasured. I support wholeheartedly his application to stay in the U. S. and contribute to our economy. Yours truly, |
(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.)
