Testimonial letter from Janet Perry

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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 Janet Perry. It is "Exhibit A-618" 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.

Janet Perry
c/o Salzburg Festival
Salzburg,
Austria
July 16, 1983

Concerning Residence Permit Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh

As an American citizen abroad, I am often called upon to describe, explain and discuss my country’s essence, its policies and qualities. Being a well known artist of the operatic stage and performing in all the major European opera houses and festival places me in a position to express important things to a large public. Just to give you an example at what level I work, I am presently singing a major role at the Salzburg Festival with Herbert von Karajan, Pavarotti, James Levine etc. and was recently personal guest of the American Ambassador in Paris after one of my opera performances.

During the last few years I have had some contacts with the Rajneesh communes, and I must say, although I am not a member, that his methods of meditation have positively influenced my personality, my art amd my career. In my opinion Rajneesh is a very important philosophical and religious leader.

That the United States should not welcome such a personality with open arms is inconceivable to me. The U.S. is what it is because of all the strong mixtures of races, creeds and ideas. This tolerance, which is also built into our constitution, is what makes our country unique. You who live in the U.S. do not realize how Europeans admire the freedom and generosity of thought that the Americans may exercise and incidentially, in contrast to a certain other world power !

Rajneesh definitely brings an enrichment for our culture. He is introducing a type of spirituality which is very ancient, but little known to our western Thought. The results are tremendous energy and vitality.

In addition to his philosophical amplitude, he is a realist in the best sense of the word, building his community according to the newest scientific and ecological discoveries. This has made a great impression on many Europeans.

It would be a great mistake, an unforgivable lack of insight to expulse this man, also from the political standpoint. I ask you to reconsider his case with intelligence, diplomacy, and fairness.

Sincerely yours
[signed]
Janet Perry


(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.)