Testimonial letter from Guy L. Claxton

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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 Guy L. Claxton D Phil. It is "Exhibit A-179" 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.

CENTRE FOR SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS EDUCATION
Chelsea College
University of London
Bridges Place, London SW6 4HR
01-736 3401
10th July 1983

To whom it may concern

I am a Lecturer in the Psychology of Education at the University of London Chelsea College. Previously I have taught at the University of London Institute of Education and at the University of Oxford where I was College Lecturer in Psychology. I have a first class degree in Psychology from Cambridge, a doctorate in Psychology from Oxford, and am an Associate of the British Psychological Society. I have been a member of the National Coordinating Committee of the Psychology and Psychotherapy Association and have contributed articles to many technical and popular journals. I have published three books. The Little Ed Book, Cognitive Psychology: New Directions and Wholly Human: Western and Eastern Visions of the Self and its Perfection (all by Routledge and Kegan Paul) and a fourth, Live and Learn: Growth and Change in Everyday Life is in press with Harper and Row.

I came to know of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh through his books and through personal contact with his disciples, and was immediately drawn to him. My major interest, both personal and professional, is in the domain of experience and debate that lies at the intersection of psychology, psychotherapy, philosophy and religion. Insights into the way people experience themselves, and what they believe themselves to be are urgently needed by individuals and societies world-wide. The dissemination and elaboration of deep knowledge in this area I consider to be the most pressing task in the world today. Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh is, to my mind, the most important and most successful teacher of this knowledge that we have. Through his taped lectures, his books, and most importantly through the experiential methods, syntheses of ancient meditational and modern psychotherapeutic techniques, that he has devised and that are conducted under his guidance, he succeeds, often to an astonishing extent, in increasing the intelligence, compassion, clarity and power of who are drawn to him. His appeal, his integrity and his grasp, both practical and theoretical, of the psychology of modern man, make him unique amongst "spiritual" teachers.

My own understanding of psychology, already well developed, has been enhanced considerably by my contact with Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. The book Wholly Human was completed, and Live and Learn started whilst on a sabbatical visit from the University of London to the Rajneesh International Meditation University in Poona, India in 1981, and both benefitted as a result. In giving me leave of absence and financial support for this visit, the University of London has in a small way knowingly sanctioned and supported the dissemination of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh’s teaching. I believe they were right to do so, and I earnestly hope that further recognition of his exceptional value and ability will be forthcoming.

[signed]
Guy L. Claxton, M.A. (Cambridge),
D. Phil (Oxford), A.B.Ps.S
Lecturer in Psychology of Education.


(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.)