Testimonial letter from Ma Prem Mukur
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 Mukur (Elaine Christianson). It is "Exhibit A-475" 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.
 July 14 1983 TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN I would like to introduce myself and indicate to you how the teachings of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh have influenced my professional life. I have a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Alberta (1971) in Canada, and an additional 2 years of specialized study in Adult Education and Multicultural Studies. The Canadian Government employed me for 4 years as an instructor of English as a Second Language (working with refugees and immigrants) and my teaching techniques were published (Government of Alberta, English as a Second Language Teaching Techniques Vol. One and Two), and implemented in other training centres across the country, It was near the end of these 4 years (1976) that I came into contact with the teachings and meditations of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh through a university professor who had become his disciple . I made my first trip to India in 1977 and saw that even then Rajneesh was an exceptional philosopher and orator who had attracted seekers from all over the world. In a brief personal meeting with Bhagwan, I realised a new creative expression was possible for me; just being in his presence my potentiality seemed to expand. He asked about my work as a teacher, and I also mentioned "I sing”. At this he smiled broadly and nodded his head. Nothing spoken ... but what results! Shortly thereafter I found myself back in Canada in an intensive 2-year music training program, and embarked on a new career as a singer in select clubs and recording studios. This in turn led to a major contract developing and writing scripts for a 26 part radio series to teach music for school broadcasts. I was host on the series and it is aired for 4 successive years (1981 - 1984). My work as a part-time teacher continued simultaneously, and I introduced Bhagwan’s meditations to these refugees as an "anti-stress/relaxation" technique, without any need of bringing in the associated philosophical background. The result was an accelerated learning of the language from this more relaxed space. My work with them in a counselling capacity was also very much strengthened and enriched by my studies at Rajneesh International Meditation University in Psychology and Human Development. There is no question in my mind that he is a man of outstanding ability both as a religious teacher and as an inspiration to other artists and professionals who have come into contact with him. 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.)
