Testimonial letter from Erik Götlind
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 Erik Götlind. It is "Exhibit A-2188" 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.
 Uppsala July 14, 1983. To whom it may concern. As a psychotherapist and supervisor I am mainly concerned with therapies of psychoses. Within this complicated field resources of many kinds are needed. In this connection I want to mention: relevant philosophical insights, a feeling for existential problems and positions, and an ability to sort out healthy and integrative spiritual experiences and strivings from dynamically driven caricatures. However, in order to acquire this kind of insights and train the abilities in question you must have guides that can be trusted. When I for the first time read a book by Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, six years ago, it struck me that here was something exceptional, a writer with a professional philosophical background who combined deep insights into the contemporary schools of psychotherapy with a first-hand knowledge of the religious and spiritual field. Through a journey to Shree Rajneesh Ashram, Poona, India, during December 1979 I could see for myself what profound effects this outstanding spiritual leader had on his followers, but also that psychotherapists from all over the world profited from the teachings and guidance given by Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. [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.)
