Testimonial letter from Sw Ned
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 Ned (Ned Romano). It is "Exhibit A-852" 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.
 Swami Ned To whom it may concern I graduated with a B.A. degree in 1951 from Adelphi University. I also served after graduation as a trustee of the University. I am 55 years old, and a veteran of World War II. I was a professional ice-hockey player from 1948 to 1951. In 1954, I founded the Frontier Fence Corp, with an investment of $3,000. Over 13 years, the Corporation expanded as a national company with several manufacturing plants, 250 employees and 125 dealers nationally; our sales were in the millions. In 1970, I founded the Grogkill Corpю which developed 350 acres of land in Woodstock, N.Y. It was an ecologically balanced community with minimum plot sizes of 3 acres, with houses built deep off the main roads and secluded from each other. A 2 acre pond was constructed on the Grogkill stream which was available communally to all residents. Covenants in each deed required that land owners in the community adhere to aesthetic guidelines and that water and sewage regulations meet or exceed county requirements. We built a series of innovative homes including geodesic domes, solar homes and a variety of pre-fabricated homes. No two homes were built alike. An unspoken requirement was that purchasers have an immense respect for nature and people. The project was an unqualified success. Based on my experience as a landdeveloper, Rajneeshpuram is the most remarkable renovation and utilization of abused and sub-standard land I have ever seen. The miracles of reclamation, erosion control and water conservation effected at Rajneeshpuram can serve as a beautiful example to Oregon, America and the world. In 1976 I started the Smoke While You Quit program on the island of Maui in Hawaii. My years-long difficulty with quitting smoking forced me to research smoking to find answers to why I couldn’t quit even though doctors pressured me with dire threats about imminent death if I didn't. I changed a variety of things in my lifestyle, and stopped easily and without further difficulty. I decided to help others quit to increase my own resolve about not smoking. While I was doing the considerable research necessary I was introduced to the writings and tapes of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. I felt then and still do, that his unique and unparalleled insight into human behaviour transcended anything I had ever read or heard. I immediately incorporated his techniques into the program. Specifically, his discourses on non-repression moved the smoking program into another dimension. It was now possible for people to smoke as much or more than they did formerly, and stop. It was an astounding breakthrough in the field of smoking cessation. The National Smoking and Health Program engaged me as a consultant in 1978 and advised that our program was the most successful in the country. I also produced a pilot TV program on smoking cessation for the NS & H Program. In 1980, I went to Poona, India to the Shree Rajneesh Ashram. I participated in a variety of Bhagwan’s innovative therapy groups and experienced a transformation impossible to describe. I also became one of His sannyasins. I have since incorporated my experience in those therapy groups in the Smoke While You Quit program with even greater and more dramatic success. I have given the Smoke While You Quit program in eight different cities in the U.S., and have help over 1,300 people stop smoking. Most graduate respondents report that their lives have undergone similar transformations. I now live in Rajneeshpuram, Oregon. Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh is an essence. He is simply beyond our experience. One has to live near His presence to understand - and the word "understand" is used as a compromise here, because we don’t have words in our language which can describe an unspoken communion between Master and disciples. Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh frightens people who have no experience of him because he doesn’t fit neatly into any mold. He is unique. He is a consummate genius who is making the world look at itself before it demolishes itself. How can we - Americans - even think of doing anything other than welcoming him with open and grateful arms? [signed] |
(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.)
