Testimonial letter from James S. Gordon

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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 James S. Gordon MD. It is "Exhibit A-130" 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.

JAMES S. GORDON, M.D.
3733 OLIVER ST., N.W.
WASHINGTON. D.C. 20015
(202) 244-0545
July 24, 1983

To Whom it May Concern:

I am a Board Certified Psychiatrist, a graduate of Harvard Medical School (1967), and a Clinical Associate Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Community and Family Medicine at the Georgetown University Medical School in Washington D.C.

During the last ten years, I have been particularly interested in the healing and health care systems of other cultures and their possible integration with our western medical and psychotherapeutic practices. In connection with the interest and as part of my work with the National Institute of Mental Health (when I was a research psychiatrist from 1971 to 1982) I visited India in 1979. During that time I had the occasion to spend three weeks at the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh Ashram in Poona studying and participating in the synthesis of traditional meditative and modem psychotherapeutic techniques which he and his disciples have developed.

I was extremely impressed with Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh’s work, and with the high quality of the groups in which I participated. Since that time I have adapted a number of techniques he developed to my own psychiatric and medical practice, and have found them to be extremely helpful. I have also continued to listen to his lectures and to read his books on the world’s religious and meditative traditions and to gain important insights into the psychological dilem as that I and my patients face.

In conclusion, I regard Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh not only as an important and influential religious leader, but as an extraordinarily gifted psychologist and a rich source of therapeutic concepts and interventions. I believe that his continued presence in the United States will be of great help and indeed importance to others who wish to learn and apply the wisdom of other healing traditions.

Sincerely yours,
[signed]
James S. Gordon, M.D.


(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.)