Testimonial letter from Sw Satyam Simon
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 Satyam Simon (Simon McLean). It is "Exhibit A-421" 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.
 Simon McLean TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN : I have recently heard of a permanent residency application for Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh in America and I would like to help you in your decision making process. I received an Honors Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Western Ontario, Canada, in 1974 and have been working since as a laboratory technical analyst at the University of British Colombia. I first had contact with Bhagwan three years ago through one of his many books, and since that time my vision of the sciences and biology have never been quite the same. The attitude of experimental sciences has, over time, become more and more aggressive, more and more destructive, more and more removed, and in a way, less and less involved. Bhagwan teaches that life is a love affair - at present there is no love in the laboratories, nor in the classrooms. My concern is; how can a basic attitude such as this produce people and technologies which will create a better earth to live on? Bhagwan's religion is not against science, his religion encompasses technology and science in itself. It seems that as technology escalates in this world, so does the heat for war - and the capability for war. Bhagwan teaches that to regain balance, superior technology is needed, but with emphasis on caring, an emphasis on being one with nature, not against it. The only hope for mankind is through this awareness that man is deeply connected, is in fact one with nature. Once this love for life grows, a totally different approach through these students, and through these laboratories will happen. This vision Bhagwan has is incomparable. In my nine years involvement with higher education I have never encountered such a man with incredible foresight whose understanding can guide humanity to a higher level of living. Thie month I visited Rajneeshpuram in Oregon where Bhagwan is presently staying. Sitting silently with him in Satsang, another world begins to open, a world of compassion and delight. I have seen a glimpse of life as it is meant to be - a joyous festival, an overflowing. Just to sit with him is no less than a benediction. My own feeling is that Bhagwan is a man of extraordinary capability, and would be an incredible asset to your country - or any other. 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.)
