Testimonial letter from Rufus P. Browning

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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 Rufus P. Browning PhD. It is "Exhibit A-186" 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.

San Francisco State University
1600 HOLLOWAY AVENUE • SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA 94132
DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE
July 19, 1983

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:

This letter addresses the application of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh for residence status in the United States. I support his application. Though not at all a follower of his, I have known of his work for several years and know him to be a person of truly exceptional ability in the study and interpretation of philosophy and religion, and in the application of principles of behavioral science to problems of individual adjustment, creativity, and social organization.

I hold the Ph.D. degree in Political Science from Yale University and have taught at University of Wisconsin, Michigan State University, University of California at Berkeley and at Davis, and now at San Francisco State University. Among other subjects, I have taught public administration and organizational behavior and theory. A prominent theme in the literature of these fields is the possibility of self-realization in everyday life and work, and the opportunities and problems this creates for the individual and for his or her coworkers and employers or superiors. A significant part of Bhagwan's work relates directly to self-realization, its achievement, and its effect on others. I view him as an important voice in this area; he is really internationally known for his work.

It would be extraordinarily unfortunate and inappropriate if he were not allowed to remain in this country.

Sincerely,
[signed]
Rufus P. Browning
Professor of Political Science


(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.)