Testimonial letter from George V. Reynoldson
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 V. Reynoldson. It is "Exhibit A-302" 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.
 Space Time Designs inc. To Whom it might concern: This letter is in support of allowing a permanent visa for Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, formerly of Poona, India, now residing near Antelope, Oregon. Let me introduce myself first. I am a builder, businessman and author of a housing planbook entitled Let's Reach for the Sun. I lived in Western Washington all my life until I relocated to Sedona, Arizona in 1980 in hopes that this region would be more conducive to the construction of solar energy homes and communities. I am currently involved in community affairs and am an officer in the local Lion's Club, and on the board of directors of the local builder's association. I am also currently Chairman of the Arizona Solar Energy Association. My primary interest is in self-sufficient community design and construction and I have spent considerable time contemplating the nature of this subject. This is what interests me about Rajneesh Purham near Antelope. I have read many of Mr. Rajneesh’s books over the last several years, and find his thought to be most interesting. For sure, he is a gifted man in many ways. His works never seems to get boring, and a certain string of humor weaves its way somehow through nearly everything he talks and/or writes. It is this aspect of his thought process which has personally been rewarding to myself, because during personal troubles, it helps much if you can learn to laugh at your own stupidity and mistakes. Perhaps this part of his character can be a help to many others someday as well. I do not consider myself personally to be "His deciple", but I do enjoy his work and feel most strongly that if deportation now becomes his fate, that the country could miss a chance to take a little different look at our personal lives and business and political relationships. Obviously, something is wrong, but perhaps the only thing wrong, might be our own outlook on ourselves. Personally through Bagwaan's writings, I have discovered much in the way of personal dishonesty.....mostly in the area of my own self-understanding. In a larger sense, unless of course the people near Antelope are in some way working against American Constitutional values, it seems foolish to even consider deporting Bagwaan when we regularly ignore Mexican illegal aliens and even welcome over 100,000 Cuban prisonors and misfits. Lastly, if what I have recently heard about Mr. Rajneesh's community near Antelope is true, that it is in fact evolving into a self-sufficient community without need for outside economic ties, it could become an example in community planning which other communities might someday emulate. Perhaps if this town or village could be made beautiful as well, even people like myself who consider ourselves part of the "American Establishment" but hate smog, congested freeways, cold office buildings and the fears of inner city crime, not to mention acid rain, and ground and water polution etc. would begin to reconsider how we build and maintain our environments more carefully. This is my primary interest in the success or failure of Rajneesh Purham. Perhaps the construction of a beautiful self-sufficient city needs a strong spiritual leader as a catalyst. For sure, this seems to be a formidible project among us in the establishment who write and speak on this subject and want badly to do similar things. Best wishes. May God guide you in making the right decision at this time regarding Bagwann Shree Rajneesh's visa. Yours 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.)
