Testimonial letter from Ma Prem Maneesha
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 Maneesha. It is "Exhibit A-675" 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 TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN I am an American citizen who is a disciple of religious teacher Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh - and very glad to be able to be near him, involved in this religious community, as well as be here in my own country. I am also grateful that the fruits of his work, through his disciples' creativity, can be contributing to this country which I love. And so I appeal on behalf of all involved that Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh be granted permanent residency in America. It is clear that the Rajneesh community's new and innovative approaches in land use and ecology, and in the field of psychotherapy, have made big contributions to growth and well-being here, and provided example for others to be more adventurous and creative. But what I wish to speak about is my own experience in my field as a creative artist. I am a dancer who studied mainly at the University of Wisconsin, and then went to study different styles and approaches to dance in various places in the U.S., mainly New York City, Salt Lake City and Chicago. I was still studying when I became a disciple of Bhagwan, (he was residing in India at the time) and so I stayed in the States for a long time to continue this. When I had the very strong feeling to go to India to meet him, I went for 6 months and returned to Chicago and continued working with dance. While in India, I studied no formal dance, but I danced every day, made and listened to music, worked in the Rajneesh commune and meditated. Bhagwan did speak to me about dance, but it was not the words; it was his presence and the environment of the commune; my connection with him and with the disciples working together around him, that gave me a very deep, new, alive, inspiration. Now I had something to dance about! When I returned to the US and resumed studying dance, a new flowering started. I felt different, my work was different, and others noticed the expansion. I was asked to perform in dance concerts given by other artists and teachers who had city grants to do choreography. I also started working on choreography myself, traveling and teaching dance in various growth centers. I realized that something had been released in my creativity that had nothing to do with any classes or formal training. I could offer many beautiful quotes from Bhagwan's lectures on dance, on art, on creativity, but I wish to emphasize once more, it is not the words. It is the living presence of this exceptional man, and the love of the people who have gathered around him, which has the potential to really sway the course of humanity away from fear and war, and towards a new awakening and sharing. Please take an intelligent look at this case; it will make a big difference to everyone in America. I sincerely thank you, |
(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.)
