Testimonial letter from Sw Prem Chris
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 Prem Chris (Van de Velde Chris). It is "Exhibit A-704" 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.
 TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN. After education in College, I started studies in Art, with diverse teachers : Kazue Hashimoto(Japan) and G. Gibson (B.F.A.-degree, Art Institute San Francisco.) Since then I participated in exhibitions in Tokyo, Oshawa, Berlin, Paris and Amsterdam. Meanwhile I held several exhibitions in Belgium. In 1979 I read "Tantra the supreme understanding" a book written by Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. Its inpact was immediate and one year later I found myself in the ashram in Poona India as a disciple of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. This changed my whole vision on the Art I’m creating. Now I just returned from the Second Annual World Celebration in Rajneeshpuram, Oregon. I’ve tasted what is happening there and it left me the following impreesion: It is a real challenge to face this community with non-prejudiced eyes : fast-expanding, incredibly organized, productive and creative; people work in a beautiful and loving atmosphere where everything is taken care of : a living example of a contamporary and harmonious way of being. A community consisting of people from so many different countries, with such a rich variety of professions and so much respect for the individuality of every single being, can only be realized by a man who has realized Himself! Bhagwan is undoubtedly one of the rarest human beings on this earth and many thousands share this feeling! I f only you could catch a glimpse of the significance of His work, you would realize the responsability you have : Don't let it become 'Pearls for the swine', for that would be a poor response from a prosperous country as the United States. Yours respectfully, |
(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.)
