Testimonial letter from Laura Baron

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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 Laura Baron. It is "Exhibit A-149" 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.

Laura Baron
Box 25
Avery, California 95224
July 26, 1982

To Whom it may concern:

I have a degree in natural resource development from the University of Rhode Island. It continues to be my main interest and commitment in terms of personally contributing to the betterment of our country. I am particularly excited by new approaches in this field which expand our potential resources and lead to more efficient use of them. Without a doubt, the most inspiring example of this has been what I have seen happening at the Rajneesh commune in Oregon. The improvement of the land and water resources that has happened there in a year's time is outstanding — in fact, what is happening there would seem impossible had I not seen it with my own eyes and discussed development plans with the resident experts there. What is so beautiful there is that the development of each resource is integrated with that of all the others—-there is a comprehensiveness that should be exemplary for all of us.

I was initially invited to visit Rajneeshpuram by an old friend who has become a disciple of Rajneesh, and is now living there. Returning to California after a weekend, I felt as if I was riding on a fresh breeze. I returned to what I had considered a rather mundane job with a totally new attitude.

It made such a deep impression on me to see that all the work at Rajneeshpuram was done out of love, not out of an idea of what someone thought they would like to be doing. Since that first visit, I have been fortunate enough to return and participate in the darshan festivities in the presence of Bhagwan. In fact, just last night there was a celebration with him for an hour. It is clear that I initially visited the ranch out of a professional interest in its development. What has happened as a side effect of that is that I have come to know a most profound experience which enhances my life immeasurably, and it has come to me in times of silence with Bhagwan.

If someone has the effect of exciting others about life and enabling them to feel part of this world rather than isolated from it, in this day and age, that person is exceptional and outstanding. That Bhagwan has this effect on the wide array of people which he does, and that he and bis people are creating a vision of hope and creative development for the future is enough to warrant his staying here. We should be grateful and glad that he would like to stay here with us. I sincerely hope that you can recognize this.

In love,
[signed]
Laura Baron


(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.)