Testimonial letter from Kirk Vincent Gale
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 Kirk Vincent Gale. It is "Exhibit A-894" 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.
 Kirk V. Gale To whom it may concern: For the past several years, I have engaged in the active practice of law in California, specializing in corporate finance and business matters, among my clients, the now declining Itel Corporation ranks as perhaps the most well-known. In addition to my professional committments, I have also pursued active professional participation in the arts, specifically in the field of jazz and classical piano. I both teach and perform in these mediums. I write this letter to express my unflagging opinion that Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh is a person of exceptional ability in the arts and sciences. I have held this opinion since 1972 when I first encountered him during my undergraduate studies in Northern India. Although I was never personally moved to become his student, I have always been impressed with the scope of his academic foundation. This, of course, is reflected in the volumes and volumes of literature he continues to produce for a readership much broader than his direct followers. However, in my estimation, the main contribution of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh to the twentieth century, is his valiant and timely attempt to blend western psychology with eastern religious practice. Obviously, in his effort to do so, he exposes himself to the worst insults both camps can muster. And yet, he has found an audience, both among modern thinkers in India and among Americans and Europeans who feel that psychology would be better off if it hadn’t deserted God. We do not need the benefit of hindsight to realize that such cross-cultural experiments are necessary not only to keep pace with the ever-growing economic interdependence of the world, but also in order to preserve that modicum of political stability which requires a continuing exchange of methodologies for its existence. I find no better example of this exchange in the field of art and human growth than Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. 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.)
