Testimonial letter from George Mitchell
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 Mitchell. It is "Exhibit A-973" 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.
 4 Belford (?)lace, Re Bagwan Shree Rajneesh It gives me great pleasure to write on behalf of Bagwan Shree Rajneesh. I came across a Rajneesh group in Leeds last year April 1982, and since then I have kept in constant touch, attending their meetings courses, educational programmes, pshhological supportives and I have found such contacts very interesting and at times helpful. Last year in August I attended their "Adventure Holiday” in Wales and enjoyed a wonderful and refreshing holiday. I spent my early years in orthodox Church of England matters, being instructed in its faith and doctrine. I was at one time a choir boy in a small village called Scissett near Huddersfield. Later I studied piano and organ, the latter under Arthur Pearson, at one time Borough Organist of Huddersfield. I also studied Aural training and conducting under Dr. Moody at Ripon Cathedral, this was much later, 1948/52. During pre war years I was musical director of Scissett Operatic Society. During the war I served in the R.A.F. ground staff, starting off at Mountbatten then Wick and later abord ship as radar operator on board H.M.S. Bulolo. H.M.S.Bulolo acted as a co-ordinating H.Q. ship and took part in the following landings: Algiers 1942; Scicily, Anzio and, last of all Normandy. Since the war I was accepted for training for teaching which profession I have followed up to 1975 when I retired from permanent teaching and took on part-time work. During my professional teaching I held a post in Knaresborough Jun., School Castle Boys, later I took up full time music teaching in the state schools in Redcar teaching violin, viola and cello. I have always been interested in education and I have read widely. In addition I have studied various spiritual leaders such as Rudolf Steiner, Swedenborg, Edgar Cayce and I have also, in the past, studied Yoga. During 1977/79 I studied academic sujects at Newbattle Abbey College, a two year residential course and gained 'A' levels in the following: English Literature, History and Philosophy. As stated earlier T was brought up in the Church of England serving as choirboy, organist and choirmaster. I am still a member of the C.of E. attending regularly St. Mary’s of Harrogate. My point in mentioning this again is to say that many churches would do well to give some thought to the Rajneesh philosophy with its fresh approach life , its openness to welcome that thing which most are searching for: Love. And not only do they welcome it but they give it. I speak from experience. Bagwan Shree Rajneesh is a great supporter of the ’Arts’ and the spirit of Sangeet, the Leeds centre, would seem to be bubbling over with joy in artistic living so it would seem that this new way of life is worth more than a passing consideration. George Mitchell. |
(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.)
