Testimonial letter from Sw Hafiz
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 Hafiz (Charles N. Caldwell). It is "Exhibit A-1491" 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.
 Sw. Hafiz TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN I am writing to encourage you to allow Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh to remain in this country. I am a 40 year old father of two who for eight years was the owner of a residential construction company in North Carolina. Previous to that I had earned a Masters degree In Biochemistry and served two years in the Peace Corps. For a year and a half my wife and I operated a home for emotionally disturbed teenagers. In the course of human history any true visionary has been recognised only in retrospect. Most contemporaries, especially those in established positions in society, are slow to realise that they are in the presence of a great man. I feel quite sure that time will reveal Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh to be such a great visionary. The resistance he is meeting with now, although a natural phenomenon is especially regrettable in these days when we walk a tightrope between a world of unsurpassed freedom, opportunity and well being, and one of total annihilation. His message, his view of man, has far-reaching implications all throughout the field of the humanities. They could, If accepted, produce the same quantum leap in the evolution of consciousness, and of the way man treats his fellow man, as did the teachings of Christ or Buddha in their time. America has a tremendous opportunity to support this possibility. This man with his powerful vision, in this country where new and courageous ideas have always been free to flower, has a unique contribution that shouldn’t be missed. Yours sincerely, |
(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.)
