Testimonial letter from Sw Anand Moses
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 Moses (Howard H. Moses Msc). It is "Exhibit A-456" 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 3 pages.
 Swami Anand Moses TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN: I am writing in support of the visa application submitted by Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh currently under review by the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh is an acknowledged religious leader and a person of exceptional ability whose potential contribution to America and its well-being is incalculable. Based on 20 years of experience as a health care administrator and planner, I can attest that Bhagwan's teachings and presence could produce long-sought attitudinal changes in health care delivery systems. My qualification for making this observation includes a Master of Science in Hospital Administration from Columbia University, School of Public Health and Administrative Medicine, 1962; positions as assistant hospital administrator at Knickerbocker, Morrissania and Montefiore Hospitals in New York City between 1960 and 1965; positions as planning associate and senior planning associate at the Health and Hospital Planning Council of Southern New York from 1965 to 1977; member of the Long Term Care Committee of the Comprehensive Health Planning Agency of New York City from 1975 to 1977, member of the Board of Directors and Program Chairman of the Public Health Association of New York City from 1976 to 1979; and Senior Planning Associate for the Urban Health Institute in East Orange, New Jersey from 1977 to 1979. During those years of active participation in health care policy formulation I observed, along with others, that profound change and improvement in America's health care delivery system would not come from merely spending more and more money on more and more programs. A fundamental gap existed between the professionals who were attempting to provide services and the communities or patients who were receiving them. The professionals were congratulating themselves on the high quality of their services and the patients and community organizations were decrying poor care and no compassion. Health care agencies and institutions were competing for available funds rather than cooperating to provide services. Health care programs were characterized by poorly understood goals, excessive political dealing, enormous expenditures and outcomes which were found to be almost universally unsatisfying. Like most health care professionals I accepted this state of affairs as normal and assumed that the very nature of the profession was to work through these struggles, forever hoping that some new or different program or administrative change would make a difference. Programs came and went and administrations changed regularly yet the health care professionals and community organizations continued to experience no real difference, no real improvement. At a certain point in 1975 I was introduced to the works and meditations of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and saw immediately the tremendous impact it had on me as an individual and as a health care professional. For one thing, I became aware that those were not different from each other. I saw that my responsibility to myself included my responsibility as a health care professional. I saw that my ability to create satisfaction for myself in my personal life depended upon my ability to create satisfaction in my professional life and vice versa. I began to experience my relationships with co-workers in a new way, with co-professionals, patients, politicians, friends and even with apparent adversaries. They all began to feel more and more like family to me and my interest in them became more ordinary and real and less professional and distant. I became increasingly more silent - talking less and achieving more. As I went deeper into Bhagwan’s meditations and allowed myself to become more and more open to Him, His meditations and His teachings, it became apparent to. me that the confusion and dissatisfaction in health care was an expression of the personal confusion and dissatisfaction of the individuals who were providing and receiving care and services. This was the reason that transformation of the health care delivery system could never come from either program or administrative changes: all the changes were coming from the same confusion and being administered with the ever-present dissatisfaction. It was obvious that transformation of health care was possible but only as a result of personal transformation in the individuals who were working in the field. This transformation is a process which begins with meditation and happens in silence. It is I believe especially important that the transformation of American health care workers be encouraged now. First because of the enormous increases in health care expenditure that we, as a nation are willing to put up with despite the only marginal increases in benefits that we are experiencing. The continued hope that increased expenditure will produce increased satisfaction is senseless and extravagant. Secondly, because we owe it to ourselves, to those of us who are ill or elderly and infirm and to those of us who are working in health care to create an environment in which we can experience satisfaction with our lives. And this is why it is essential that Bhagwan be permitted to remain in America. Producing personal transformation is the work of an enlightened Master such as Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. For the past two years I have been associated with the commune which surrounds Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh in America and have seen that the kind of cooperative action and loving, compassionate support required to transform social and political organization actually exists in Rajneeshpuram. The clarity and satisfaction is produced first by the Master and then it suffuses the work by means of silent communion with Him. The kind of transformation which is required to make a significant change in health care is, in fact, occurring in the community of Rajneeshpuram which serves as one example of how this is being put into practice. His presence has and will continue to benefit the health care field. I believe it would be a great service to America to encourage Bhagwan to remain here so that His presence and his meditations might enhance more and more of American society. We are privileged to have Him here and common sense requires that we make Him welcome. Yours truly, |
(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.)
