Testimonial letter from Ma Deva Barkha
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 Ma Deva Barkha. It is "Exhibit A-821" 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.
 July 21 1983 To Whom It May Concern I have been working in the field of education and psychology for fourteen years now as a teacher of handicapped individuals, and as a teacher of teachers. I have a BS. in Art from Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY, and an MS. in Special Education from Lesley College, Cambridge, MA, in addition to a multitude of graduate classes since receiving my Masters degree. Throughout the past seven years I have been inspired and strongly influenced in my work by the teachings of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. I want to express my concern and wholehearted support that every effort be made in order to keep Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh in this country. For eleven years I was a teacher of severely mentally handicapped students. The main experience and barrier I came up against in working with both the students and their parents was one of limited expectations. As I became aware of Bhagwan’s teachings, and his understanding of man, I was able to see how we, as non-handicapped people, limit the possibilities and experiences for handicapped people through our thoughts and expectations. By changing my expectations as a teacher and by teaching parents to change their expectations, many exciting things began to happen for the handicapped individuals. Such remarkable changes occurred for the handicapped individuals as well as their families that my classroom became a model classroom in the State of California, and many teachers and parents began visiting the class. I started travelling to other classrooms throughout the state and was able to bring an increased awareness to many of the professionals in the field of special education. For the last two years I worked with a project sponsored by the California State Department of Education, whose entire work was in the area of expanding the possibilities for severely handicapped individuals to live a life where they participate in their communities to the fullest extent. The teachings of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh played a key role in reminding me of those possibilities. I am now a resident of Rajneeshpuram, and my job here is in an entirely new field, law-enforcement. Again I find a unique opportunity to be able to work in the realm of expanding awareness and changing expectations. The entire community here is inspired by the teachings of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. As Peace Officers here, our work is in "keeping the peace" rather than "preventing crime". The Citizens residing here do not expect or involve themselves in crime. To live in a crime-free city, one where assault and rape and drunk driving simply do not happen is an incredible delight. This is the only city in the world that I know of where this is true. The peacefulness of the citizens here in Rajneeshpuram, and the expression of love, celebration and health that is evident within them is a direct result of the spiritual guidance of one man, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. The presence of this man is a tremendous asset to our country, and to the state and city where he resides. His contribution is already immense, and the possibilities for creating a peaceful world are strengthened by his presence here. Please add my support to keeping him here. [signed] |
(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.)
