Testimonial letter from T. L. Shay
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 T. L. Shay. It is "Exhibit A-159" 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.
 Willamette UNIVERSITY To Whom It May Concern; This is a letter in support of the application of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh for permanent residence status in the U.S. There are perhaps no other religious leaders in the world with his remarkable qualities. He has produced over 350 books, has a worldwide following of 300,000 people, has attracted to his teachings some of the best educated minds of Western Europe and the U.S., and has inspired his followers to create a remarkable "City in the Wilderness" at Rajneeshpuram, Oregon. I am a Professor of Political Science at Willamette University, where I have taught for the past 27 years. My interest in Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and his followers started over a year ago when I had an opportunity to observe some of the political negotiations of his group with representative of the Antelope, Or. area. I have subsequently been following the legal and political issues involved with the Rajneeshee activities in my home state. In addition, I have visited Rajneeshpuram several times and read a great deal of Rajneesh literature. It is the inspiration of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh that has brought this exceptional group of individuals together to create a religious commune and a city in the semi-desert of Central Oregon. I have never seen a more dedicated, effective, intelligent and inspired group of people accomplish so much in so brief a period of time. Their efficiency has, in part, led to local opposition. The new religion has also generated an unusually vitriolic prejudice against them, essentially from the most fundamentalist religious circles. I know the anti-Rajneesh spokespersons have brought pressure on the I.N.S. to deny Bhagwan a permanent status in the U.S. I hope that the I.N.S. will not be influenced by this bigoted campaign. I am not a follower of Bhagwan. I am an admirer of his teachings, of his vision which his followers are carrying out, and of the achievements his people have made in Oregon. He is obviously one of the world's most exceptional men. I have no reservations concerning his contribution to American life, and urge that he be encouraged to continue to live in the U.S. and carry his work to its fulfillment. 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.)
