Testimonial letter from Ma Gyan Gitena

From The Sannyas Wiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search

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 Gyan Gitena (Monika Faller-Schwandt). It is "Exhibit A-517" 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.

Monika Faller-Schwandt
Ma Gyan Gitena
1000 Berlin 61
Baerwaldstrasse 52
July 21, 1983

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:

During the many years I have been in my profession of a physiotherapist I have worked with patients in many branches of medicine; orthopaedic, surgery, gynaecology, as well as working with mentally retarded children. When I began to work with chronically sick patients I started to question the causes of their suffering and their problems and to look for methods of working with and healing terminal sickness. At the same time, I began to question and to search for the meaning of my own life.

I went into intensive study of different methods of psychotherapy taken from Sigmund Freud, Adler and Jung. I also became interested in the work of Wilhelm Reich and Arthur Janov. Then I began to experiment with myself in groups that were available using many methods from these psychologists and using elements of bio-energetics, Neo-Reichian massage, psychodrama, and transactional analysis. I used methods in my work as well as traditional physiotherapy and shiatsu massage which is a natural healing method taught in Japan, which balances the energies of the body.

One day I was given a book by Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and after reading this I bought many others of his books and then began to take part regularly in the various meditations available at the nearest Rajneesh Meditation Center.

Taking part in these meditations and listening to cassette tapes of his discourses, I felt more and more strongly that Bhagwan was beginning to answer my many questions about life and death so one day I received a new name and a mala and became a sannyasin and know from that day to this that I have come home after a very long search.

Now I have the experience of coming home in the City of Rajneeshpuram where the presence of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh has inspired a commune to come to life. In this commune among the sannyasins, I find that the paradoxes of life and death are being lived out and comprehended and brought to harmony within the people 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.)