Testimonial letter from David Downey
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 David Downey. It is "Exhibit A-1493" 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.
 27, Moore Street To whom it may concern In 1975 I graduated from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (Australia) with a Diploma of Mechanical Engineering, and received the Institute's prize for top student of the final year. My secondary education had been taken at one of Australia's oldest private schools, "The Geelong College", founded in 1860, and maintained under the auspices of the Presbyterian Church. In 1976 I pursued a thesis for the "Tralfamadore Co-operative" on the production of wind-powered electricity. During this year I came into contact with one of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh's books (The Book of the Secrets) and was immediately attracted to his rare intelligence. I had previously shown an interest in comparable great minds such as Walt Whitman, William Blake, etc., and found in Bhagwan's writings and taped discourses an understanding of life beyond anything I had experienced, and in a very down to earth way which suited my scientific background. I simply had to meet the man himself. At the end of 1976, therefore, I went to India, supposedly for 3 months, but finding so much wisdom around Bhagwan, I stayed in India with Bhagwan for years. For example, I became a well-known musical instrument maker at the Poona ashram, a part of my life that Bhagwan quite simply encouraged and inspired with his loving support of the creative spirit. Previously I had been a frustrated and dissatisfied person in many ways, especially this practical creative side, and was prone to laziness. There is no doubt to me that Bhagwan is a man of higher intellect and understanding, and whose love of mankind is such that he inspires and encourages the human spirit in many people. In this way he is comparable to great men of all times. I know him to be a patron of the arts, a patron of the sciences, and a supporter of all sincere and heartfelt human endeavours. It is easy for me to champion Bhagwan as a great asset to any country, because I have sincerely known as experienced him as a true and warm friend with exceptional vision and understanding - a genius. I belive that the "Rajneeshpuram" experiment is one of the most important projects happening in the world to-day. I have attended the two Annual Celebrations at Rajneeshpuram and I am amazed at the growth I see here. Thore is a level of integrity in all phases of this city that would be a model for every other community in the world. People love their work and they are honest in their dealings with one another. Standards of workmanship and materials are high in all the projects I have seen and everyone has the desire to continue to make things better and better. I know that the creative presence of Bhagwan is responsible for this community and that this city is in reality a tangible manifestation of Bhagwan's love and vision. I will be taking this beautiful inspiration back to Australia with me and helping to share Bhagwan's work with all I meet and work with there. Yours faithfully |
(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.)
