Testimonial letter from Jurgen Koch

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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 Jurgen Koch. It is "Exhibit A-474" 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.

July 23, 1983
Jurgen Koch
Schloss Str. 60A
7000 Stuttgart 1
WEST GERMANY

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN

I have been studying philosophy, history and political science at the Free University in Berlin from 1963 to 1970 and after graduating I was working as a college teacher and then as a university professor from 1973 to 1977.

As my field at that time was the science of education and the psychological implications of the educational process generated by institution-like school, I was doing some research in new psychological approaches and methods, many of which were developed in America. The purpose of these studies was to find out how these new psychological insights could be used to create different educational environments as a condition for better results in the process of learning.

To get a direct experience of that matter I was attending a group workshop with a therapist from England, who turned out to be a sannyasin, which means a disciple of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. The experience of this group, the teaching -at that time communicated verbally during morning lectures, available also in books - and finally the very presence of this man Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, which I experienced when I became a disciple soon after the group workshop, were of deep impact on myself, on my life situation and also on my vision on education, I had as a professor. Everything connected with Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh- and with the city of Rajneeshpuram, which is growing around him now, is of utmost practicability, efficiency, clarity, creativity and beauty, which cannot be said all the time of universities and its representatives, of cities, communities, countries, as everybody knows. Out of reasons which are obviously connected with Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh being an enlightened master and an outstanding religious leader, the city of Rajneeshpuram is going to be the realization of the most valuable elements of human culture and human thinking in general. This community is not only gathering advanced experts of many fields and many countries all over the world, but is also creating an atmosphere of love, care and creativity around the manifold projects, which is certainly unique in the world.

Out of this reasons the community of the city of Rajneeshpuram can be regarded as a model of how humanity could live in a better way, with less mental diseases, destruction, wastage of human potential and of ecological resources.

To refer to the latter, Rajneeshpuram is a good example of how a semi desert area can be transformed into an oasis again by the creative work of sannyasins, inspired by Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh.

It is of no doubt, that all this would not be possible without the presence of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. And this is not a matter of ideas or of philosophy, but it’s his very presence, his being which is permeating into his disciples, who by learning meditation, have become very receptive.

Like plants absorbing the sunlight, which is necessary for their growth, they are absorbing his being, and that’s how they get taught in silence. Also the sun doesn’t use words to get her essence across to the plants. The fact is simple, but nevertheless an innovation in human relationship, communication and last but not least in the art of teaching, as I may add out of my professional perspective.

Sincerely yours,
[signed]
Jurgen Koch


(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.)