Testimonial letter from Thomas W. Paegel

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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 Thomas W. Paegel. It is "Exhibit A-764" 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.

July 18, 1983

To Whom It May Concern:

My name is Thomas W. Paegel. For what it's worth, I am a native Californian, a baptized Roman Catholic, and was raised in Whittier. Educated in parochial school, I graduated from Whittier High School in 1965 and received a bachelor's degree from Whittier College in 1970. I am a homeowner in the city of Seal Beach.

My employment at the Los Angeles Times began in 1965. I have worked my way up from the position of copy boy, to reporter, to finally, my present position—Night City Editor—which I have held for two years.

I am writing this as a private citizen, however, to express my regard and admiration for Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh.

Over the past five years I have read more than 30 of this incredible man's written works, listened to an equal number of recorded audio and video tapes of his discourses and have participated from time to time in many workshops and social events sponsored by the Rajneesh Foundation. I meditate dally, using several techniques developed by Bhagwan.

I. am not a true follower (Sannyasin) of Bhagwan, having found that my own "path" does not require me to belong to any organization. But as an Individual trying to develop my own spiritual awakening, I have found the works of this man from India to be invaluable as an inspiration toward that end.

And I am grateful that Bhagwan is now in Oregon. In fact, I have traveled to Rajneeshpuram to "be at the foot of the master."

Of course, I am disappointed that Bhagwan has chosen "silence" as his present form of "spreading the word" as a religious figure. I, like others who know and love Bhagwan, hope that someday he will choose to speak to us again. But I feel his present lifestyle in no way hinders his stature, or ability to work effectively as a religious leader.

The man has said enough to this point. You need merely look at the more than 300 published works by Rajneesh that are readily available throughout the world.

To say that because Bhagwan—a religious leader of international stature—no longer speaks, he no longer is a religious leader is about as absurd as saying the Pope would no longer be the head of the Roman Catholic Church, should he suddenly decide to. take a vow of silence. I. feel we are fortunate to have Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh in the United States. And I firmly believe he should be made welcome here and allowed to remain in Oregon, where he and his followers have made what was once an abandoned ranch in the desert into what is fast becoming a showplace of what can be done with wasteland—when love and hard work is applied to it.

Cordially,
[signed]
Thomas W. Paegel
115 12th Street
Seal Beach,
California 90740


(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.)