Testimonial letter from Sue C. Steiner
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 Sue C. Steiner MA. It is "Exhibit A-227" 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.
 20 St Dunstan's Road TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN I would like to draw your attention to the outstanding contribution that Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh is making as a spiritual leader, in particular to the important ecological experiment being conducted in arid Central Oregon, under his guidance. I graduated from Cambridge University in 1975, having specialised in applied biology. I have since spent several years studying ecologically sound methods of farming. I met Bhagwan in 1978, while I was working in a Rural Development Project in India. I found the meditation techniques he has devised of great help to my peace of mind, as did thousands of other people from all over the world. In my opinion, the agriculture being practised at Rancho Rajneesh, by the disciples of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, constitutes an experiment of ecological importance. Bhagwan's vision of the possibility of harmony between man and nature, between city and countryside, is being brought to reality. Ecological improvements over the past two years are noticeable. Erosion of the creek beds has been drastically reduced. Wild life, both flora and fauna, is returning to the previously overgrazed and denuded land. Soil is being improved while crops are grown. Food wastes from the City of Rajneeshpuram are returned to the farm as chicken feed or compost. This exciting experiment is the result of the genius of the religious vision of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, and of his ability to communicate with and inspire his disciples. Yours faithfully |
(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.)
