Testimonial letter from Sw Prem Praveera
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 Praveera (Ken Adams). It is "Exhibit A-746" 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 3 pages.
 Inner London Education Authority TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN I write in appreciation of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. He appears to me to be one of the most highly developed human beings, and a gift to the rest of us. My own work has been in Philosophy and Psychology, for which I received a 1st class BA Hons at Oxford University, subsequently lecturing at London University. I did research in Visual Perception and Design, and went on to practice Industrial Design. At the same time I became a sculptor, and my work is in collections in UK, USA, Canada and Holland. I am now teaching at this college. From my own experience I know that underlying the various specialisms which are neccesary to society today, and the harmony in which they must work together, are some general human qualities to which we need from time to time to be recalled. Rajneesh has developed the gift of recalling to a great many people their essential humanity which is the origin of their creativity, however variously that may be expressed in different disciplines. "Originality is the return to the origin". That is why so many creative workers have found their way to him, in both science and art. In my own case, as an artist and teacher, it is not the hardness of steel or stone that constitutes the main problem, but the hardness of human prejudices. Bhagwan has been a catalyst for my own development, and in helping me to be clear about what I am doing his influence is also towards doing it better. Rajneesh beautifully transcends the dichotomy between science and art. He is a ruthlessly observant psychologist, speaking with the voice of a poet. His knowledge of therapeutic techniques is encyclopedic, and it is applied to the generation of a more energetic working life. I would regard his presence in any community as an asset both spiritual and material. [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.)
