Testimonial letter from Jack Sawyer
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 Jack Sawyer PhD. It is "Exhibit A-178" 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.
 JACK SAWYER. PH.D. To Whom It May Concern I write as a social psychologist, formerly on the faculty of the University of Chicago and of Northwestern University, who is interested in the relation of psychology and religion. Next year I will be studying theology at Harvard Divinity School. I understand that there is the possibility of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service admitting to permanent resident status the religious teacher and psychologist Rajneesh, under a category for "exceptional and outstanding" persons. He is definitely that, and I hope he can be admitted. He is a serious teacher of an authentic and significant tradition whose study has value and interest to scholars and others in this country. At Harvard Divinity School, his work is to be included in a new course to be offered by Professor Malcolm David Eckel of the Center for the Study of World Religions. There is much interest in Rajneesh's work, and his presence in this country is a substantial contribution. Very truly yours, |
(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.)
