Testimonial letter from Ma Shanti Denise
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 Shanti Denise (Denise Holzman MS). It is "Exhibit A-2136" 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 20, 1983 TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN: I am a Licensed Psychological Associate with a private practice in Burnsville, North Carolina. I work out of a local community health center in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains. I have been living in the North Carolina mountains for the last eleven years, but I grew up in Brooklyn, New York and until I went to graduate school at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, I worked in New York City. Therefore, I think I have some understanding of both the rural and urban cultures and have made the choice to live in a less populated and more healthful environment in exchange for making less money and being more socially isolated. And not much could get me to leave my beautiful farm until Bhagwan came into my life. That Bhagwan could find me in my quiet, remote 'hollar is significant in and of itself, but that he could grab me so strongly that I was willing to go and live in India for three and a half months is even more significant. Bhagwan is by far one of the most exceptionally gifted persons in the world today and he has influenced countless numbers of people to become more positive, healthy and constructive human beings. His ability to bring out the best in all of us is truly a gift worth keeping. 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.)
