Testimonial letter from Roger R. C. New
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 Roger R. C. New. It is "Exhibit A-356" 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 11, 1983 To Whom It May Concern, I am a scientist with an international reputation working in the field of tropical disease under the auspices of the World Health Organization. I have worked in the field of medical research for many years, and my attention has been drawn to the religious teachings of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh because of His innovative approach towards general health care and preventive medicine. In countries all over the world, including Western Europe and the United States, he is making an outstanding contribution to the development of an integrated system of therapy by virtue of His exceptional insight into humanistic psychology and its relation to the etiology of the disease of modern man. The centres where His work is carried out are growing rapidly and increasing in popularity as a result of the undoubted efficacy of the combinations of methods used, and I have seen many cases myself where dramatic changes have been brought about, to the benefit of the patient. As a practising Quaker in England for many years, the religious teachings of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh have impressed me greatly. He has succeeded in bringing to life the message of Christ in a way no other contemporary theologian has done, and His application of such a unified interpretation to all the major world religions is an important step towards the goals of peace and religious tolerance enshrined in the American Constitution. 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.)
