Testimonial letter from Robert W. Beck
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 Robert W. Beck. It is "Exhibit A-1578" 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.
 Robert W. Beck (M.A. Ed.) To Whom It May Concern This letter is to testify to the extraordinarily high calibre of the work of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh in the fields of education, psychology and religion. My academic background is as follows: B.A. (English) University of British Columbia, 1967. Professional Basic Teaching Certificate, S.F. University, 1968. M.A. Ed. S.F. University, 1973. My thesis was an analysis and reconstruction of the concept of education, focusing on the work of R.S. Peters. My training was in theory construction, logical analysis, foundations of the logic of science, and oneirics and psychosomatics. My initial contact with Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh was through one of his many books - Above All Don't Wobble. After reading sections of the work in 1980, I formed a strong opinion that this man, from a foreign culture, had not only understood the 'mind' of western man, but was possessed of a clear understanding of human nature, far in advance of any single person known to me, either through writings (e.g. Freud, Carnap, Peters, Wittgenstein, Einstein, Nietzsche, Jesus or Buddha) or in person (R.Y.R. Loehrich, Jonathan Bennett). So strong was my impression that I journeyed forthwith to this ashram in Poona, India, to study. What I have found. This man, Rajneesh, is the most remarkable man, from many points of view, in the world today. Freud, Jung and Adler, at whose feet we all sat in their day, are stumbling precursors. Kant, Moore. Carnap and Schlick, whose work shaped our understanding of the foundations of knowledge and theories of existence, fade away by comparison. Rajneesh, whose vision of what man is (and is not), experience, sensibility, compassion, and breadth of knowledge will revolutionize those fields whose subject matter is Man and the understanding of experience and behaviour. Christ, Moses, Buddha, and many other great masters have been understood and their work transformed into a modern context. Rajneesh has shown that he has transcended their work through a higher integration of their religions and of his own background. In teaching that transcendence he is instrumental in creating a more advanced consciousness. Taken altogether, the work of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh - now continuing in practical application in Rajneeshpuram, OR USA - is staggering in its impact. He and His sannyasins are the only force in the world today capable clearly of providing the loving assistance needed to help the human race through this most difficult period in our evolution. 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.)
