Testimonial letter from Lorraine Thomas

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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 Lorraine Thomas. It is "Exhibit A-76" 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.

53 Lyndhurst Street,
Palmerston North,
NEW ZEALAND.
22nd August 1983

To Whom It May Concern:

I hold a Bachelor of Arts degree from Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand, majoring in both Psychology and Religious Studies and also hold a Certificate in Counselling from the Palmerston North Teachers Training College. Because of this background I am invited to lecture in both the psychotherapeutic and religious fields at various institutions such as Massey University, Manawaroa Psychiatric Unit and Theosophical Societies and was employed to set up and run the Palmerston North Mental Health support Group Drop-in Centre, a Government sponsored programme for current and ex-psychiatrie patients, social deviants and other distressed people from the community.

I have been aware of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh for at least eight years and have avidly consumed those of his three hundred odd publications that I have been fortunate enoughtto have acquired. His understanding of the psychological and religious areas is truly impressive. He elucidates not only the "why" but the "how", thus his teachings are not only of theoretical or academic value but are also of immense practical worth.

The study of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh as Founder and Leader of the Rajneesh Movement is included in both the Religion in Culture Paper and the Recent Religion Paper at the Religious Studies Department at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand. His psychotherapeutic techniques are also examined critically but favourably in the Abnormal Psychology Paper within the Psychology Department. In the University Publication, Beliefs and Practices in New Zealand. A Directory. Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh is revealed as the head of a religious movement which has a world-wide following including New Zealand.

The whole programme of the Mental Health Support Group Drop-in Centre is based on the philosophy of Rajneesh Therapy. Basically, this is to help the client help himself. Some of the Rajneesh Meditation Techniques and many of the therapeutic aids have also been incorporated. Our success rate is astonishing. The files are full of case histories in which our clients, many of whom had been labelled "hopeless", "chronic", ’’incorrigible”, etc., have acquired a sense of self worth, and not only have become integrated within themselves but also within society, in quite a few cases becoming full and creatively functioning members of the community.

Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh is a man whose breadth of vision and understanding within the psychological, philosophical and religious fields is truly awesome.

Yours faithfully,
[signed]
Lorraine Thomas


(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.)