Testimonial letter from Sw Nijananda

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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 Nijananda (Robert J. Dunham PhD). It is "Exhibit A-814" 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.

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:

With this affidavit, I affirm my conviction that Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh is a religious teacher and spiritual leader of world stature, who has made unique contributions to mankind.

During the past year alone, he has inspired his people to outstanding advances in the two areas familiar to me.

1) His disciples have brought about the metamorphosis of a piece of semi-arid waste land into an environmental and ecological model for all others interested in living harmoniously with the land and each other while creating an oasis, geographically and culturally. One only has to inspect Rajneeshpuram and compare it with the adjacent countryside to appreciate the truth of this view.

2) His religious vision has further led his people, and all who will listen, on the inner path to one-ness with God. As one of his disciples I can personally attest to the spiritual flowering into greater aliveness and sense of celebration of life that he has created in me.

I speak of environmental and ecological affairs with the authority of 34 years of scientific work in the field of earth sciences, which have brought me to an active retirement from Shell Oil Company’s research laboratory in Bellaire, Texas. I am, or have been, a member, fellow, honorary member, editor, and officer in various professional societies, including the Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists, Geological Society of America, American Association of Petroleum Geologists, West Texas Geological Society, Geochemical Society of America. I am generally recognized as an international authority in my field of speciality, as attested by the measured frequency with which my publications are cited by workers dealing with problems of exploration for oil and gas in limestone and dolomite, in Asia and Europe, as well as in Latin America, Canada, and the United States.

I urge the authorities involved to act favorably on Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh’s application for permanent resident status.

Signed: Swami Nijananda
aka Robert J. Dunham, PhD
Chuang Tzu Temple
P.O. Box 10
Rajneeshpuram, OR 97741
Date : July 11, 1983
[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.)