Testimonial letter from Ma Prem Idama
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 Idama (Ann Scambler). It is "Exhibit A-319" 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.
 Ma Prem Idama To Whom It May Concern: I am writing to attest to the exceptional ability of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh in the field of psychology and to wholeheartedly urge you to approve his pending application. In 1974, I graduated from the University of California at Los Angeles with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology. While an undergraduate, I began to do research work with a UCLA professor, Michael Goldstein, who is also a clinical psychologist. At that time, I intended to obtain a Ph.D. in psychology. However, both my undergraduate studies and the research work convinced me that the understanding of man for which I was seeking was not presently to be found in that field. All of the analyses I came across struck me as limited; something was missing. In 1977, I read a book of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, and then I read another. I was impressed by his understanding of man and drawn to the aliveness that sprung from the pages. I visited a Rajneesh Meditation Center in Los Angeles and the Geetam Rajneesh Sannyas Ashram in Lucerne Valley, California. I listened to several tapes of his discourses and I read more of his books. Here was the limitless understanding of man I'd been seeking, and unexpectedly, it was in a living form. In December of 1977, I packed my bags and flew to Poona, India, where I soon became a sannyasin (disciple) of Bhagwan. I spent the next year attending his daily discourses, participating in the meditation and human potential growth programs offered and then working in the ashram. Traditional psychology studies man as an object and then assumes that this objectivity proves that it really knows what it's studying. But as the nuclear phsycistis have shown us on the atomic level, so it is on a larger scale: one can never "know" an object. Fritz Kaproff has beautifully documented this in his "Tao of Physics." Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh has given and continues to give his genius to the field of psychology. He has introduced hundreds of thousands to new forms of meditation. His concept of totality is a major contribution to the field. Freud and the rest were capable of describing how man is split, but none of them had the vision to show man how to unify himself, to become whole: to be total. His concept of unconditional self-acceptance is another milestone. Only by saying yes to ourselves in whatever state, condition or environment is the inner peace born. Once again, traditional psychologists have done a fine job of helping us identify our problem, of helping us to label ourselves as sick - and they call themselves humanitarians! Carl Rogers was considered to have made a major breakthrough in the field by simply echoing what the client said, by being a friend rather than a doctor. This is such a miniscule step compared to the leap taken by Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. Bhagwan asserts that all men are gods. This is revolutionary to the field. The humanitarian benefits include: men and women no longer think in terms of inferior/superior, there is no longer some undefined goal to aspire to or problem to be solved, just "a mystery to be lived." Another fundamental contribution of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh to the field of psychology is love. It appears others in the field have either been afraid to mention it or felt it was inappropriate. Bhagwan contributed a major gift to the field by stating that love is the greatest healing force. He also points out that only a person who knows both love and meditation is fully alive. This is a new synthesis, a vision of man not encountered elsewhere in the field. I am now living and worshipping in Rajneeshpuram. This is my home and has been for the last two years. I have been with Bhagwan when he was speaking and reaped the benefits from his words. Thanks to technology, those words are still available to all in video, audio or book form. I am now with Bhagwan in his silence. He continues to lead me to the deeper, stiller quarters of my being, daily providing me with fresh new insights. It is America’s honor to host a man of such exceptional abilities. I urge you to approve his petition. With love, |
(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.)
