Testimonial letter from Laurie G. Sherman

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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 Laurie G. Sherman. It is "Exhibit A-200" 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.

KINGSTON COUNSELING CENTER
41 PEARL STREET
KINGSTON, N. Y. 12401
Telephone 914 - 331 - 2870
July 19, 1983

To Whom It May Concern:

I am presently a community education specialist and psychotherapist with the Ulster County Community Mental Health Services, a psychotherapist in private practice at the above mentioned counseling center, while completing my doctoral studies in psychology at New York University. In recent years I have also taught at the State University of New York in New Paltz.

As a graduate student and psychotherapist I have had the opportunity of meeting and studying with many highly educated and learned people. However, it was not until I discovered the books, meditations and community of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh that I really began to understand psychology, psychotherapy and the healing force of awareness and love.

Bhagwan embodies these traits of awareness and love, and serves as an example not only to his followers, but to the world at large. He is an extraordinary teacher and spiritual leader. I look upon my time spent with this man and his community, both in India and New Jersey, as an invaluable learning experience. I am honored to have him in my country, and hope that we can continue to learn from this rare and beautiful being.

Sincerely yours,
Laurie G. Sherman, M.A., Ph.D. Can(?)


(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.)