Testimonial letter from Judith M. Maselli
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 M. Maselli. It is "Exhibit A-1306" 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.
 7-19-83 To Whom it may concern; I am writing to you out of my concern that Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh may not be allowed, to remain in the United States. I am 42 years old, a product of 16 years of parochial education, taught secondary school for 10 years, was in professional sales with a national firm for five years and presently manage a boutique in Denver. For a significant number of years I have committed myself to the research and study of major religious philosophies, both Eastern and Western in an effort to enhance my understanding of my own religious preference - Christianity. I have also been involved in many of the more respected human potential movements as a participant. Six or seven years ago, I discovered one of Rajneesh’s books and became interested in his religious philosophy. I discovered a master teacher who embraced and respected all the major religious traditions and who could speak fluently and intelligently in these subject areas, and was at the same time grounded in a sound psychological approach. I then took advantage of workshops and seminars offered at the local Rajneesh Center in Denver and became aware of his wide spread popularity in this country and abroad. During this time a personal friend of mine became a committed disciple of Rajneesh and had the opportunity to visit his ashram in Poona, India on several occasions and shared her experience with me. Because of this association, I have had the opportunity to meet a number of his followers and find them to be well-educated, productive, responsible members of society who have "chosen to embrace an alternative life-style. I also discovered when looking through a bulletin from the Rajneesh University in Poona, that many of his educational staff members held dgrees of higher education from respected American colleges and universities. Also, friends of mine who hold positions in the social, religious and therapuetic professions are familiar with his teachings and respect his religious philosophy. I am aware of much of the negative, senstionalized publicity he has received in this country and find it unfortunate. I believe this ignorance and fear to be a result of the influx of the many phony gerus coming to this country in the late 6o's and early 70's and the presence of fanatic so-called religious leaders who sought to manipulate and control their follwers for their personal benefit. There is nothing in the teachings of Rajneesh or in the attitude or behavior of his disciple whom I know that is similiar. On the contrary, the concept of a self-contained religious community dedicated to labor and spiritual meditation and prayer is more like the long monastic tradition respected in this country. I think it will be a loss to us spiritually and culturally if Rajneesh is not allowed to remain in our country and share his teachings, I personally find him inspiring. Thank you. Respectfully, P.S. I might add that it was out of reading his book, THE MUSTARD SEED and his volumes COME FOLLOW ME on Christ that I was inspired to go back and study the early tradition of Christianity, which I find rich and inspiring. His writings continue to make a positive contribution to my social and spiritual growth. |
(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.)
