Testimonial letter from George H. Litwin
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 George H. Litwin. It is "Exhibit A-1723" 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.
 HRI, Ltd. To Whom It May Concern: I am a former member of the faculty of Harvard University, and was for a number of years Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior at the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration. I hold an A.B. with Distinction and High Honors in Psychology from the University of Michigan, and a Ph.D. in Social Psychology from Harvard University. I have published two books, one of which was awarded the prize "Best Book In Management - 1968" by the American Academy of Management. I am writing this letter in support of the immigration application of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. I have met Bhagwan personally during visits to India in 1978 and 1980, and can report that he has had a substantial and positive effect on my life and my personal effectiveness as a teacher and consultant to major American corporations. Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh is an important thinker, writer and international religious leader. - His ideas are widely discussed in both academic and religious circles. His work in sponsoring new forms of therapy has brought together scientific and religious interest in improving the human conditions we face today. My ability to provide effective research and consulting to major American corporations such as IBM and Citibank has been benefited substantially by my direct contact with Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. With regard to the rational outcomes of human resource planning, I have a clearer understanding of what organizations can accomplish and a better grasp of the built-in limitations and thinking habits that executives often bring to their work. With regard to my personal involvement with people in positions of great power and authority, I am more spontaneous and direct, less concerned about whether I am meeting their standards and being approved, and much more focused on the task required to improve the effective utilization of human resources. All of this is not a result of some spiritual accident. Rather, contact with Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and involvement with some of the learning activities he has sponsored has allowed me to put in perspective talents and abilities I already possessed. I have degrees from two major universities. I have won awards and honors. I have been successful in my profession. Yet looking at my own development and balance — I was focused on mastery of the external environment, on knowing the answers, on proving myself. My inner education was deficient, my lack of self-acceptance was certainly evident to those around me and limited my effectiveness as a researcher and consultant. Mine is by no means a unique circumstance. I know personally of dozens of professionals and talented artists whose lives and works have been benefited by contact with Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. We are fortunate to have such a rare individual in the United States. We should take every step to make him welcome, and assure that his immigration application is handled with full consideration of his positive impact on the lives of many Americans, and world citizens. Sincerely |
(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.)
