Testimonial letter from Ma Prema Veena

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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 Prema Veena. It is "Exhibit A-511" 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 3 pages.

PO Box 10
Rajneeshpuram, OR 97741
July 24, 1983

To Whom It May Concern

Of necessity I earned my living through fashion design and upholstery but intellectually my interests lie in the fields of psychology, education and literature.

A vast amount of reading and private study lead me to the conclusion that all the knowledge and expertise accumulated by psychologists and educators had hardly begun to scratch the surface. Exising knowledge and methods appeared impressive in theory but in the actual practical work of helping people we were exactly nowhere.

It seemed to me that novelists, poets and artists - more able to sound the depths of the human psyche in intangible realms like emotions and intuitions - were more successful. Novelists - the list is too long to mention except for a few greats such as Nietzche, D.H. Lawrence, Kahlil Gibran - in particulr seemed able to touch and reveal a certain human essence.

Nowhere, however, in either of the above-mentioned dimensions, was there any great mind who had something comprehensive to offer.

I met Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh in Bombay, India in December 1971. After listening to him speak on just a few occasions it was apparent with obvious certainly that all the questions being asked by scientists, psychologists and artists, past and present, could be answered by this one man. Being at that point very dissillusioned with the hypocrisy of established religions I was not interested in any religious dimension; it was only later that I came to understand that religion was the essence behind all human enquiry. Einstein had a grasp of this - all very great minds have seen it - but no one had been able to put it into one comprehensive whole as Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh was doing.

For a few years I ran a meditation centre in London, England. It fast become a meeting point for psychologists such as R.D. Laing, scientists, musicians, artists and actors, for all of whom the teachings of Bhagwan provided an unlimited source of inspiration and direction in their particular fields. In the years that followed journeying between the Rajneesh Centre in England and the Rajneesh Ashram in Poona, I saw people from every country and every profession migrate to Poona like eager moths to a flame. These were courageous minds who acknowledged their own limitations and saw a chance to go further and deeper thorugh Bhagwan’s teaching and new meditation methods, new dimensions in their chosen fields were constantly opening.

For myself, teaching Bhagwan’s dynamic meditation techniques was an amazement. Having rejected current psychological methods as being largely theoretical and not of any real practical benefit, I saw these techniques helping people dramatically. In a few short weeks I saw people alter, throwing off the shackles of depression, neurosis and perversion created by a society filled with stress and unnaturalness.

The excitement was shared by other psychologists as a therapy program was developed in the commune in Poona by which people were helped beyond their wildest expectations.

For the past one and a half years I have worked in the public relations department of Rancho Rajneesh. I have welcomed a stream of professional people - politicians, scientists, educators (functioning specifically in the fields of education, political science, geography, urban planning, sociology, psychology, religious studies) novelists, writers, artists, actors, sculptors, musicians, and students, who are intelligent and open-minded enough to see beyond petty boundaries of ignorance and prejudice and who want to examine the phenomenon of a man of such exceptional ability existing in their midst. People are coming from all over the United States, from all over the world.

All have gained vast new insights into their particular fields. Researchers are studying the Rajneesh phenomenon from all angles -religion, psychology, sociology, science. Those involved in the arts have found untold inspiration.

Without doubt, a man of the calibre of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh is of extreme importance in the quest of all intelligent, inquiring poeple for dimensions beyond what they already know. As such, he is an asset to any country in the world, but particularly the United States with its acknowledged tradition of furthering the understanding and progress of mankind.

[signed]
Ma Prema Veena


(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.)