Testimonial letter from David I. Barrett
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 I. Barrett. It is "Exhibit A-2060" 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.
 D. I. BARRETT Re: Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh Whom It May Concern: I would like to communicate my feelings regarding Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, in support of his Visa application. I have been a practicing attorney since 1964, having obtained my Doctor in Juris Prudence from N.Y.U. Law School. I have worked both in the private and public sector, i.e.: during the period of 1966 to 1969, I worked as the Law Secretary to Judge John J. Mangan at the New York City Civil Court, I have sat as a Senior Hearing Examiner at the New York City Parking Violations Bureau, a Hearing Examiner at the New York City Rent Commission and Arbitrator at the New York City Small Claims Court, as well as the New York City Civil Court. I have maintained my own private practice of law since 1970. I met Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh through his books and tapes and through personal contact with his students in 1979. I became and still am, extremely impressed by the depth and clarity of his understanding of psychology and philosophy and his ability to communicate this understanding to others. I have personally derived great value as a result of reading his books and attending seminars sponsored by his students. I consider him to be a person of exception and outstanding ability in the arts and sciences and a person who would be a great asset to our country. He is not only an internationally renowned teacher but a spiritual teacher whose teachings significantly affect the sciences and the arts. I would respectfully request that his application for a Visa to stay in our country be granted. Please feel free to contact me should I be able to provide you with more information regarding this exceptional individual. Yours very 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.)
