Testimonial letter from Peter R. J. Richardson

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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 Peter R. J. Richardson. It is "Exhibit A-924" 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.

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN

I, the undersigned, am Peter R.J. Richardson. By profession I am a social worker. I was born November 23 1948 in Shipley, West Yorkshire, Great Britain, and have British nationality.

My address in England is 27 Scholebroke Avenue, Leeds 6, West Yorkshire.

I studied at the University of London and in 1970 received a Bachelor of Science degree with Honours in Sociology.

Since that time I have worked as a social worker for the County Council of Lincolnshire, the London Boroughs of Lambeth and Haringey and the Metropolitan Council of Bradford, West Yorkshire.

During this time I was a non-practising Christian with a deep interest in philosophy and human affairs. In 1980 I came into contact with Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh through a meditation centre in Leeds. I practised the meditations for six months and in 1981 I became an initiate into the sannyas of Bhagwan.

I have since visited Rajneeshpuram on two occasions - the headquarters of the Rajneeshee religion - and I have read over 20 of the many books written by Bhagwan.

It is my opinion that Bhagwan is an exceptional religious leader. It is also my opinion that Rajneeshpuram is a very advanced commune using modern up-to-date technology to create a living situation which is harmonious between man and nature.

I believe that Bhagwan's work in the USA shall have immense social importance, as well as great personal significance for me and many other individuals.

July 17, 1983
[signed]
Peter R.J. Richardson , B.Sc.
[notary stuff]


(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.)