Testimonial letter from Ma Deva Shabda
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 Shabda (Renate Seidemann MD). It is "Exhibit A-1222" 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 3 pages.
 Numerous anomalies appear in the text due to cut-off photocopying. Most can be pieced together with a careful reading. Ma Deva Shabda TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN I am a disciple of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. I am 45 years of age, M.D. specialized in the fields of neurology and psychiatry. After Qualification as a nurse in 65, I qualified as M.D. in in Hamburg W-Germany. During medical studies I had been taken the Opportunity to spend one year at the University of Edinburgh Scotland in 67. From there I went to see Dingleton Hospital in Melrose, which was then led by Maxwell Jones, founder of the concept of the Therapeutic Community. This concept which allowed much more understanding and personal growth than was possible before in the psychiatric field, was then not yet fully recogni(?) However since then it has been spreading worldwide through the free western world, and is now a most powerfull concept of modern social psychiatry. Max Jones himself went to USA Denver/ Colorad in 1969 to carry on his work in the mental health field.- As I w(?) deeply impressed by the work done at Dingleton Hospital and Max Jones’ new approach to psychiatry, I felt motivated to move into this field myself. - After Qualification and clinical experiences in Hamburg, I came to Berlin West, and worked for several years in Neurosurgery end Neurology at the Freie Universität Be(?) After that until now I am working at a Psychiatric Hospital sin(?) 8 and a half years. Additionally I have been doing a 4-year training in Gestalt from 76- 80 ( with Ischa Bloomberg, Isadore From, Laura Perls et al). During the last five years 1 am espec concerned with the ever increasing problem of alcoholism and drug addiction. I am working therapeutically with Gestalt metho in a special unit which is run by the principles of a Therapeut Community for alcohol and/or drug addicted men and women. Besides for the last five years I have been treating mentally handicapped children living in a home and given support and advice to the staff. (?)first came to know about Bhagwan in 1977 (?)ing a Gestalt-Seminar in England, where I met and lived with people calling themselves Sannyasins, discciples of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. I was impressed by their openness, freshness, livelyness and inspirating presence as well as their intelligence and humanity. At the same time I tried their meditations just for interest, ar I experienced the effect of it, reaching far into my subconsciou revealing insight of a new quality that astonished me. - Later c I came accross more sannyasins and in Nov. 81 attended a big sannyasin meeting, which took place in Berlin. I then experience an outstanding athmosphere of joy which was expressed by the sannyasins and was combined with great sensitivity, awakeness an sense of reality which impressed me and made me feel good. This even more as during the last years I had been observing and feel a more and more pessimistic tendency, an increasing insecurity throughout the population, and an arising fear as to the future and the undissolved seemingly ever growing worldwide problems. This was especially felt in the condensed athmosphere of Berlin and even more so in the psychiatric field. So I questioned from where the sannyasins drew courage and strength for their positiv mentality and attitude towards life, which obviously was not com bined with a vagueness or blindness, but rather a very clear sig Then slowly I started to feel the warmth and loving connection of the sannyasins, which obviously found their centre in Bhagwan I then allowed myself to look more openly and attentively at his fotos and found a quality of exceptional love in his expression. I realized that there was a path, which led beyond that, what I had known before. So I took Sannyas at the age of 42. As the scientific field is concerned I have by now been reading several of his large amount of published books, and I am most impressed and enriched by Bhagwan’s immense and deep knowledge both of the oriental philosophy and theology and of his kn ledge of our occidental western world, from ancient to modern in a huge bow, and for the first time acknowledging and putting tog to a whole, the different aspects, which at first sight may look as if opposing each other. It seems to me now, that looking at t in the oriental way alone is one dimensional, and looking from o occidental mentality and background alone, also gives a one dime ional picture. However looking at both and not denying one, help helps us at least to a two dimensional sight, so that open questions of one side may be answered by the other side and vice versa. If however the aspects can be merged to a new Gestalt there might even emerge a new dimension, as a Gestalt is defined as being more and other than the mere sum. As to my special field of medicine and psychiatry, I find in Bhagwan’s books an immense insight in human nature, acknowledging that what has been known (eg Freud, Jung etc.) and going far beyond that point. In the Sannyasin communes and especially at Rajneeshpuram I have got to know and experienced - besides the powerful meditations- a variety of most effective methods allowing healing and growth in psychic as well as somatic aspects and other respects, to a much larger degree than is possible by our medical and psychiatrie means alone, as far as I can see it. His approach includes and connects all aspects from nutrition to growing and aging, death birth, male, female, soma, psyche, stress energy and so on. Finally I wish to conclude that as we see our todays world problems, beeing more and more interconnected one influence the other, we cannot afford any more to stick to narrow mindedness and stagnation or closing our eyes, but we must now start being open for developement into new constructive and positive directi(?) and dimensions, and reducing the fear, for which we urgently need the guidance of exceptional teachers and scientists such as Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. I myself am convinced that a big effort is needed, which not only includes the developement of our mental state, but mean a much more total approach with an expanding awareness and consciousness - a "quantum leap of consciousness" - to allow maturing towards the essential. [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.)
