Testimonial letter from James Broughton
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 James Broughton. It is "Exhibit A-118" 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.
 JAMES BROUGHTON • BOX 183 • MILL VALLEY • CALIFORNIA • 94942 To Whom It May Concern: I wish to express my high admiration for the person and the abilities of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. Here is one of the most extraordinary men of these last decades of this century. He is a teacher and author of exceptional abilities, having brought into the history and understanding of religion a fertile new insight and illumination. I have read most of his many books, and listened to tapes of his talks, and I am convinced that in the spiritual tradition here is a mind of intellectual brilliance and persuasive ability as an author. He has given me new comprehensions of Christian, Buddhist, Taoist, Sufi, and Hindu teachings, mystical practice, and historical significance. It is Bhagwan’s special talent, that he helps one to a deeper awareness of all religious experience in a manner that is both necessary and appropriate to present day society. I believe him to be a major force for religious consciousness in our time. Humbly submitted, |
(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.)
