Testimonial letter from Ma Marga Akasha
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 Marga Akasha (Laura Halsey Owens). It is "Exhibit A-1440" 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.
 Rajneeshpuram OR 97741 TO WHOM IT MAY CONCER: My name is Laura Halsey Owens, and I come from a family of long-standing and considerable influence in the deep South. I attended Converse College, a private women's college, and graduated from the University of Alabama in 1968, with a double degree in Psychology and English Literature. Upon graduation, I worked for McCann-Erikson, the largest advertising agency in the U.S., for five years, but eventually found the work unsatisfying. I traveled for some time in Europe, the Middle East and Asia, where I became interested in eastern philosophies. Upon my return to the U.S., I spent several years studying various "new” psychological approaches to the understanding of man, including the work of Fritz Perls, Wilhelm Reich and others in the field who were offering options that seemed to explain man’s behavior in a clearer way. I went to the Middle East again in 1977 as a teacher, using the techniques I had studied while in the U.S., but still felt I was somehow just missing really communicating with my students; that we all had a common bond and I would really be able to make learning a joy for them if I could find it. In 1982, upon my return to the U.S., a friend gave me a book by Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. It lay unopened for several weeks; I was in no hurry for another set of "theories". When I did open the book and randomly began to read, I was stunned. Bhagwan had hit the chord I had been looking for; he had found the bond that was missing. I began going to see video tapes of Bhagwan and reading as many of his books as I could get my hands on. From the first moment I read Bhagwan, some part deep inside of me responded to what he said with an intensity I have never felt before. He had taken all the old masters in the field I loved and all the new knowledge and developed a synthesis that encompassed and surpassed them both. That he is an outstanding leader and teacher in the field of psychology is without question. For Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh to remain in the United States would be a great gift to the people of America. In a time when there is so much self-doubt and the world totters on the brink of self-destruction, Bhagwan offers not only new insights into man himself, but valid suggestions for world peace. I cannot think of a more outstanding person to claim as an American. 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.)
