Testimonial letter from Sw Anand Rajen

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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 Sw Anand Rajen (Alan R Lowen BSc ). It is "Exhibit A-840" 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 2 pages.

P.O.Box 1
Rajneeshpuram, OR 97741

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:-

I am writing to support the application on behalf of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh for permanent residency in the USA on the grounds of his exceptional ability and outstanding contributions in the science of human behaviour - that is, in the fields of Psychology and Psychotherapy, and also of Education.

I trained as a teacher at the College of SS. Mark and John (1962-65), graduating with distinctions in the theory and practice of Education. Fifteen months later I became Head of the English Dept. at Durrants Comprehensive School, Manor Way, Croxley Green, Rickmansworth, Herts., England, where I taught for 5 years, at the same time studying Psychology at London University. In 1971 I was awarded an Honours, degree, B.Sc. and spent the next 2 years at Oxford University working on a Doctoral thesis in the Dept, of Experimental Psychology. In 1973, I left Oxford to train in Psychotherapy, at Dr. Carl Rogers’ Center for Studies of the Person, La Jolla, California, and with a variety of humanistic psychotherapists practising in Europe. In 1976 I became a Director of one of London’s 2 main humanistic personal growth centres, ’’Community".

A year later I became a disciple of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. The reason I did so was because, having experienced the work of the best psychotherapists in the Western world, it was - and still is - irrefutably clear to me that Rajneesh’s understanding of the human psyche, and his contribution to the goals of psychotherapy, surpasses all. He is clearly the world’s greatest living psychotherapist, even though he would not give himself such a label.

In the 360-odd books he has had published, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh has evolved the Psychology of Consciousness, which is as far in advance of Freud’s and Jung’s Psychology of the Unconscious as the words suggest. For 3 years I lived very close to my Master, and was privileged to watch his way of working with his disciples, including myself - to watch, that is, his Psychology of Consciousness in action. It is difficult to describe genius! His boundless compassion, his diamond-like clarity, his uncanny vision, his unimpeded blissfulness and his brilliant creativity have restored to thousands upon thousands of people a quality of living that they had not experienced consciously in their lifetimes. In the 6 1/2 years I have been with him I have witnessed my own transformation, and have seen my own work blossom beyond what I had imagined was possible.

The simplest way to describe what is so exceptional about Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh is this: he is what he teaches - total consciousness! Every psychotherapist is guiding his clients and himself towards the full blossoming of his potential. In Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, the potential has been realized, and this is what enables him to guide his sannyasins and all who come to him so potently and so safely towards their own fulfillment. He has gone beyond the limitations of every other living psychotherapist, and he is inviting humanity to discover its consciousness too. This sets him in the tradition of Buddha, Christ and the other Masters down the ages, which may sound a little strange and far-fetched until one allows oneself the experience of being with him. Also, as a psychotherapist, it has long been clear to me that anyone who pursues what psychotherapy is to its ultimate goal must arrive at the state called "enlightenment”, which is what characterizes the Masters. .

Finally, as an educator I have witnessed his - Rajneesh's - capacity to draw out, through the life-style he has taught us to adopt, the full potential of the children who have had the opportunity to grow up in his presence and his, environment. I have seen consistently more compassion, more intelligence, more creativity, more playfulness and more happiness among the children who live close to Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh than I ever imagined was possible in the years when I worked closely with children in England.

His presence is an immeasurable gift to any country.

[signed]
Swami Anand Rajen
(Alan R. Lowen, B.Sc.)


(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.)