Testimonial letter from Ken Anderson
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 Ken Anderson MD, PhD. It is "Exhibit A-247" 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.
 KEN ANDERSON, M.D., Ph.D. To Whom It May Concern: This letter is written in support of the status of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh as a person of exceptional ability in the Sciences and Arts of International Renown. I'm a psychiatrist practicing in Newport Beach, California. In addition to my medical and psychiatric training, I have a Ph.D. in molecular biology and have published in that area (see attached curriculum vitae). I can best illustrate Bhagwan's exceptional status from the perspective of the effect of his teachings on my work as a psychotherapist. I have been reading Bhagwan's books for about three years and have been practicing his unique meditation methods and participating in the workshops offered at one of his meditation centers (Utsava Meditation Center, Laguna Beach, CA.) since September of 1982. Bhagwan's influence on my personal growth and growth as a psychotherapist far exceeds that of any individuals I encountered in my training years either directly or through their writings. I have also observed rates of psychological growth and change in a large number of people participating in the programs at Utsava Meditation Center that amaze me. In my work as a psychotherapists, I find myself more intuitive, more flexible, more creative, more risking, more provocative and more loving. I find myself working in the context of a ever expanding potential for psychological growth. I see my clients responding with more rapid rates of change. I would expect similar positive change in my professional abilities if I were still active as a scientist, particularity in the area of creativity, the most essential quality in that endeavor. I am confident you will receive many other positive reports of Bhagwan's influence from people representing many other professions, as well as, nationalities. Sincerely yours, |
(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.)
