Testimonial letter from Ma Dhyan Puja (American)
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 Dhyan Puja (Nancy Dobson). It is "Exhibit A-1351" 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.
 July 28, 1983 To Whom It May Concern: I am writing on behalf of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, who I consider to be a man of exceptional abilities in the areas of art, science, religion and philosophy. I became a deciple on Nov. 5, 1979 while directing a growth center named Life Arts, in Ben Lomond, Ca. I was unable to go to Poona as my work here was too consuming to afford the time. I studied Bhagwan through audio and video tapes and finally turned my eleven acre retreat center into a Rajneesh Retreat Center called Purnam, (see enclosure) There, I continued to offer a full program of meditaions and groups, as well as individual therapies. Our center (Life Arts) was incorporated as a non-profit educational foundation, by the state of California. I was also occupied at this time with husband and family, as well as further training as a psychologist and eacher, giving lectures around the Bay Area in conjunction with the Association for the Advancement of Clinical Philosophy. I was program director for them in 1980, even though I was a Sannyasin, or Rajneeshie. This group consisted of doctors, therapists and teachers who were involved in the helping-professions, who wished to enrich their depth by studying with Dr. Peter Koestembaum, a renoun philosopher in San Jose. My work with these people was intesely creative, bringing together Eastern and Western Philosophy with the arts and psychological theories used today. It was basically to present the study of consciousness with a new model of being. The corelation between inner and outer worlds and he interdependence of man and nature was my focus for years becoming a Rajneehie. My responsibility to clients and professional obligations, leaves me too occupied to do more than visit Bhagwan in Oregon.... or wherever he might be. But His presence in America seems right to me as America is tha land of innovative pioneering and our traditions support the adventurous spirit of his experiment. Bhagwan's ideas are far too progressive for most societies who are still primarily occupied with survival. His experiment will attract the most innovative creative people and should result in tremendous creativity which will benefit our whole society. Sincerely, |
(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.)
