Testimonial letter from Donna Brander
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 Donna Brander. It is "Exhibit A-1293" 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.
 The Growth Centre,Tynesi(?) To Whom it May Concern; I have been requested to write a letter concerning the famous spiritual leader, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, which I am happy to do, as I consider him to be a benevolent and beneficial leader to all his followers. I am the director of this Growth Centre, and a group leader and Gestalt therapist; this centre is well known in England as a counselling and educational centre. I have an M.Ed. from Newcastle University, and have almost completed a Ph.D. at Durham University. I have been a teacher and lecturer for more than 25 years. My sons are followers of Bhagwan, and are with him in Oregon. I have been to see them in Poona, and have seen Bhagwan and heard him speak many times. It seems to me that Rajneeshpuram is an ideal place for Bhagwan's followers to be together with him, and I hope that the visa will be granted so that the community can develop and flourish. I am sure that it will be a great asset to the state of Oregon, and that it will bring many visitors and also commercial benefits. But the main point is that Bhagwan is internationally known, with many thousands of devoted followers, and is an Influence for peace and can only be an advantage to the state of Oregon. Sincerely, [signed] |
(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.)
