Testimonial letter from Joan Halifax
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 Joan Halifax. It is "Exhibit A-1715" 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.
 THE OJAI FOUNDATION Kinzai To Whom It May Concern: I recently learned that the status of religious teacher, Rajneesh, is in jeoparty with regard to his presence in this country- As director of the Ojai Foundation, a medical anthopologist, who has worked all over the world, and an author of numerous books, I am deeply troubled by the obvious discrimination against this individual. Although I have not met Rajneesh, nor have I had any inclination to participate in his teaching, I am aware that he has touched profoundly in a beneficial way, the lives of thousands of people. His books contain rare and insightful teachings, and many of the members of his community have developed into responsible individuals. I have been a student of the world's religions and a published author in this area for over 20 years. I have personally witnessed discrimination against, and Fascism, in relation to figures such as Rajneesh in other parts of the world. I am writing this letter in order to let it be known that I consider the possibility of Rajneesh’s departure from the United States an act against the condition of personal and religious freedom of this country. I would like to be informed of anything I can do to clarify his status. Sincerely, |
(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.)
