Testimonial letter from Judith Arisman

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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 Judith Arisman. It is "Exhibit A-700" 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.

Houghton Mifflin Company
College Division
One Beacon Street, Boston, Massachusetts 02108
(617) 725-5000 Cable Houghton

To Whom It May Concern:

I have a background in liberal arts and commercial art, and I have spent the last fifteen years professionally as a college textbook designer and manager, for three major Boston publishers.

During these years, my interest in the philosophical and psychological aspects of life led me to do a lot of reading (in these areas). About three years ago a friend introduced me to one of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh's books, THIS IS IT. I couldn't believe how he approached so many areas with such understanding—it just pulled everything together for me!

Since then, after books, tapes, and visits to Rajneeshpuram, I feel that Bhagwan is one of the most profound human beings of our day. I am most struck by his compassion and the value he places on individual integrity. His silence to me reflects so much of his love, and it is awesome.

I am so thankful a man like this exists; fortunate to have him here in my lifetime. I know many feel the same way, and more will discover what he has to offer, if they will stop to look.

[signed]
Judith Arisman
Special Projects Designer
Dallas / Geneva, Illinois / Hopewell, New Jersey / Palo Alto


(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.)