Testimonial letter from Richard J. Benfante

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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 Richard J. Benfante PhD, MPH. It is "Exhibit A-213" 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.

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES
Public Health Service
18 July 1983
National Institutes of Health
Bethesda, Maryland 20205
HONOLULU HEART PROGRAM
347 NORTH KUAKINI STREET
HONOLULU, HAWAII 96817
TELEPHONE - 536-7283

To Whom It May Concern,

Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh is a world renowned religious teacher and spiritual leader. That he has a large following of already successful psychologists, doctors, scientists, educators, and clergymen is testimony to his importance as a resource for learning and self knowledge. It has always been so, that intelligent people seek out people wiser or more skilled than themselves in order to further their development. The eminent American psychologist, Abraham Maslow has stated, "It has been my experience through a long line of exploratory investigations going back to the thirties that the healthiest people (or the most creative, or the strongest, or the wisest, or the saintliest) can be used as assays, or perhaps I could say, as advanced scouts, or more sensitive perceivers, to tell us less sensitive ones what it is we value.” There have been more than 350 books published on the discourses of Rajneesh covering the widest range of topics in science, religion, psychology, and literature, both historical and modern. They are popular because they give a fresh clarity and deeper understanding to their themes and lead the reader or listener to clearer perceptions of themselves, with less doubt, confusion, and uncertainty. With all our universities and the advanced science and technology of the present age, doubt and confusion are as rampant as ever. It is a sad sign of our times that the three best selling prescription drugs are an ulcer medication, a hypertensive drug, and a tranquilizer.

Having been a follower of Rajneesh for more than seven years, I have learned that developing clear vision dispels confusion, developing consciousness dispels ignorance, and discovering health and harmony are the best remedies for disease. Having been a public health scientist for years, I can tell you that most of research has been more a 'war' on disease with little effort toward understanding what health actually is. Have you ever heard of anyone studying healthy people; only rarely. We can learn more about health, whether psychological, spiritual, physical, or otherwise, by knowing and learning from people who already know how to be healthy, happy, wise, and harmonious with their existance. Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh is one of those rare individuals who not only lives it, but can teach it as well. The ecological living experiment currently under way at his center in North-Central Oregon is testimony to the success of his vision and teaching. Such distinguished individuals become national treasures wherever they reside. I, therefore support, without reservation, the granting of permanent legal residence to Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh in the United States.

Yours sincerely,
[signed]
Richard J. Benfante, Ph.D. M.P.H.


(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.)