Testimonial letter from Timothy J. Smith
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 Timothy J. Smith MD. It is "Exhibit A-500" 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 6 pages.
 The International Institute of Chinese Medicine To Whom It May Concern: I am Founder and President of the International Institute of Chinese Medicine. This Institute is a graduate school for acupuncturists, granting the degree Doctorate of Philosophy in Chinese Traditional Medicine. I am also a private practioner of both Eastern and Western medicines in Berkeley, California. Following my medical school internship and residency training in Psychiatry, I have studied and practiced acupuncture and Chinese medicine. I have also spent several years studying nutritional biochemistry. In my practice I integrate western medicine, Chinese herbal medicine, acupuncture, nutritional therapy, and psychiatric treatment, when necessary. In addition to my ten years' experience in Chinese Traditional medicine, I have served as Acupuncture Examining Commissioner for the State of California, as consultant to the Florida Acupuncture Examining Committee, and as Faculty Member at the American College of Traditional Chinese Medicine in San Francisco. I have also served on the faculty at the University of California, Berkeley, and have taught several courses in Chinese Traditional medicine to physicians and medical students. The Chinese philosophy called "Taoism", little known in America, is at the root of my balanced East-West approach to healing. I was introduced to the works of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh a few years ago by some of my patients. I was immediately impressed by his understanding of both Eastern and Western healing methods. From his writings and from conversations with his followers it became apparent that he is familiar with non-traditional Western methods such as vizualization, meditation, homeopathy, massage, and with various Oriental methods including acupuncture, acupressure, and Chinese medicine. Nonetheless, Rajneesh retains a solid respect for Western traditional medicine, recommending it for most serious physical conditions. I observe how fully his followers are taught to integrate meditation into all aspects of their daily lives, contributing greatly to physical and mental health. My own integration of East-West healing modalities has been enriched by reading books by Rajneesh which weave together an excellent synthesis of Eastern and Western thought. It is his works on Taoist masters (Chuang Tzu, Lao Tzu, and Lieh Tzu) which have contributed most directly to my Taoist-like synthesis of Eastern and Western medicine, adding basic philosophy to my practical training. The scope of Bhagwan's writings demonstrates how fully he has integrated Eastern and Western thought. His nine volumes on Taoism, nine volumes on Buddhism, seven volumes on the Upanishads of India, and at least twenty volumes on Zen display his astounding command of Eastern thought. Throughout these works he integrates concepts from Jesus, and from a host of modern Western writers including Freud, Jung, Walt Whitman, Sartre, Alan Watts, Fritz Pearls and countless others. A more obvious display of Bhagwan's mastery of Western religion, philosophy, and psychology is demonstrated in his seven volumes on Jesus, two volumes on Jewish Hassidism, and individual volumes on Heraclitus, Phythagoras, and several other Western philosophers. It is my pleasure to acknowledge Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh as world-famous and exceptional as a scholar, teacher, and religious leader, effectively mastering and communication a harmonic synthesis of Eastern and Western philosophy, psychology, and health science. Particularly in his understanding and exposition of the Chinese philosophy of Taoism and its application to modern living and health, he is indeed exceptional. 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.)
