Testimonial letter from Ma Prem Ida

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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 Prem Ida (Ida Hasselbalch). It is "Exhibit A-696" 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.

Ida Hasselbalch
Husumgade 12 II
DK-2200 Copenhagen N
Denmark
Copenhagen the 17.th of July 1983

To Whom It May Concern.

My name is Ma Prem Ida. My profession is mimer and classical balletdancer.

I dance at the Pantomime Theatre in Tivoli, Copenhagen; the only place in the world with a living tradition of Commedia Dell'Arte handed down some 300 years in direct continuous lineage. Since 1911 also ballets' has been performed at the theatre.

I act the main female part (Kolumbine) in the pantomimes and I am a soloist in the ballets.

I was first acquainted with Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh through His taped lectures. Later I met Him personally in India, Poona.

My experience of His beeing and precense was a turning point in my life. I became His disciple and He my religious teacher and spiritual leader.

Since then, Bhagwan has been a great inspiration in my theatre work as I through His guidance, meditations, and therapy has opened up for more spontaneity and creativity.

Ida Hasselbalch
solo dancer and mime
[signed]
[notary stuff]


(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.)