Testimonial letter from Sw Anand Devam

From The Sannyas Wiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search

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 Sw Anand Devam MD. It is "Exhibit A-801" 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 4 pages.

MEDICAL SPECIALTY ASSOCIATES, P.C.
710 D. Street, Madras, Oregon 97741 • (503) 475-2238
SWAMI SHUNYO, M.D., M.P.H. Physician Internal Medicine
SWAMI ANAND DEVAM, M.D. Physician Psychiatry
SWAMI DHYAN TARSHITO, M.D. Physician Allergist
July 20, 1983

My name is Swami Anand Devam, M.D. I am 33 years old and I am a physician. I am a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of New York University (BA, 1970). I graduated from medical school in 1974 from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine of the City University of New York. My internship was at San Francisco General Hospital, 1974-75, where I was a Fellow of the University of California. I was a resident in the Department of Psychiatry, University of California School of Medicine, San Francisco, 1976-79. I was President of the Residents Association in 1978 and a member of the Residency Training Committee of the Department of Psychiatry, 1976-77 and 1978-79. I was a Councillor of the Northern California Psychiatric Society, the district branch of the American Psychiatric Association, 1978-79; I served on the Northern California Psychiatric Society’s Nominating and Member Recruitment Committees, 1978-79, and on the Committee on Well Being of Psychiatrists, 1979-80. I was a member of the American Psychiatric Association's Council on International Affairs, which dealt extensively with the issue of Soviet abuse of psychiatry for political purposes, 1977-79. I was a Falk Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, 1977-79.

I am Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, University of California School of Medicine, San Francisco. I am board-certified in psychiatry by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. I am licensed to practice medicine in Oregon and California. I have worked as an emergency physician for Contra Costa County, California, 1975-76; as a physician in the venereal disease clinic of Highland Hospital, Oakland, California, 1977-80; and as an emergency psychiatrist for Alameda County, California, 1979-80. I am currently a member of the American Psychiatric Association, the Oregon Medical Association, the Oregon Psychiatric Association, and the Central Oregon Medical Society. I am a member of the medical staff of Mountain View Hospital, Madras, Oregon; I am on the courtesy medical staffs of St. Charles Medical Center, Bend, Oregon, Mid-Columbia Medical Center, The Dalles, Oregon, and (temporarily, pending permanent status) Central Oregon District Hospital, Redmond, Oregon.

I have authored one paper which appeared in the Journal of Medical Education, two letters in the New England Journal of Medicine, and two papers which were presented at the 1980 annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association. At that meeting, I chaired one symposium, served as secretary of another, and as discussant in a third.

I first heard of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh in 1975, when I read his book, Hammer on the Rock. Over the next few years, I read more of His books. I was impressed with the clarity of His message, which was in tune with my experience. Throughout my psychiatric training, where I performed very highly in the externals of my role, Bhagwan was a guiding light for my inner issues.

In 1980, I left California to take sannyas in Poona.

I spent 13 months in India, participating first in the group program and later in the voluntary work of the Shree Rajneesh Ashram.

Bhagwan is uniquely qualified in the field of psychology to provide a synthesis of Eastern and Western psychological experience. In the West, psychology is a relatively young science and is firmly based in the Western scientific heritage. Even the therapies in the West seek to validate their findings in the context of the scientific method as it has evolved in the West.

In the East, by contrast, psychology has evolved over the millenia along starkly different lines. Though the field of study is the same, the concepts are different and the experience is different. Translating this knowledge into terms comprehensible to Western audiences is difficult. The Western literature is full of anecdotal reports of the startling findings of Eastern experience, yet these fail to communicate to Westerners the rich heritage of Eastern psychology. Westerners have gone to Asia in search of mystical enlightenment and psychological growth, yet on their return, because of their inability to penetrate the Eastern experience, they have not been able to communicate clearly what they saw. There has been no successful effort to synthesize Eastern and Western psychological experience.

Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh is uniquely qualified to bridge this gap. He has come from the culture of India. He was educated in a relatively Western institution. Thereafter, He has pursued an astounding program of self-education in a clear and deliberate effort to be able to reach the Western mind. At the same time, He pursued His experiences in Eastern psychology, culminating in His Enlightenment in 1953 and His subsequent travels through India.

The result of this education and experience is clear. His discourses and darshan diaries, all printed as they were spoken, all spoken with little use of notes, reflect amazing erudition in all areas of human psychology. It is clear that Bhagwan can communicate, clearly, uniquely, to Western audiences from His Indian perspective.

Of course, if we take the position that in America of 1983 we know all there is to know about human psychology, then one might attempt to defend the position that there is no need for Americans to have access to information of experience from a different culture. However, human knowledge has never flourished in a xenophobic atmosphere. There is a strong need for Americans to become more aware of the findings of Eastern psychological experience dating back thousands of years.

Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh is a unique resource in this context: an Enlightened Master in the Eastern tradition, able to communicate in 1980s language to 1980s American audiences. On this ground alone, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh represents a unique world-level contribution to modern psychology.

In addition, I would comment on the implications for the advancement of human psychology represented in the commune which has grown around Bhagwan, first in Poona, and now in Rajneeshpuram. It is a hazardous undertaking to vilify contemporary experiments in religion and human psychology, simply because one never knows whether history will regard your target as a Jesus or a Socrates. American government officials need to be particularly careful in this regard, simply because religious freedom is such a cornerstone of this democracy.

The Rajneeshee commune is an unusual experiment, easy to distort. Yet the psychological verities of the commune are clear.

Here is a community without drug abuse. Here is a community without alcoholism. Here is a community without violence. Here is a community of people living together with the purpose of supporting each other on paths of personal development.

These goals contrast sharply with the goals of mainstream American life. Similarly, the absence of violence, alcohol, and drugs contrasts sharply with the reality of contemporary American culture. The inspiring presence of this commune is Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. The continuation of this experiment, a unique opportunity for American psychology, is a unique opportunity for the United States.

Therefore, I affirm that Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh is a unique resource for the United States in the scientific field of psychology. I support His application for residence in the United States on these grounds.

[signed]
Swami Anand Devam, M.D.


(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.)