Testimonial letter from William C. Yeomans
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 William C. Yeomans. It is "Exhibit A-223" 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.
 Rashneesh Hotel TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN: It has come to my attention that Bhagwan Shree Rashneesh of Rashneeshpuram, Oregon, is scheduled for hearings with the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service at an early date relative to his qualifications for remaining in the U.S. under that country's current immigration quota. This letter expresses full and vigorous support for Bhagwan's retaining his present status as a member of the Oregon community and the U.S. at large. I am a consulting landscape architect residing in British Columbia. My specialty is ecology and I recently completed eight years as a Research Landscape Architect with the B.C. Ministry of Environment. In that capacity I was involved in promoting and sustaining land conservation policies and practices with strong ecological implications. In 1982 I toured Rashneeshpuram, Oregon, since I had heard of Bhagwan’s intense concern with optimizing man's balance with nature by putting into practice sound principles of erosion control, steep bank stabilization, impoundment of seasonal runoff and returning impoverished soil to productivity. I was immensely impressed. Community efforts there under Bhagwan's guidance could and should become a model for all other communities to follow. I consider him a man of exceptional intelligence and ability in my own field of endeavor and an asset to any country fortunate enough to profit by his direction and energy. I have also read Bhagwan extensively and find his teachings the most positive and personally rewarding I have yet experienced. I have also become personally acquainted with some of those who work directly with him, although I am not a Sannyasin myself. The Oregon community of which they are a part is a direct and living example of application of his ecological teachings. With good reason he is now of international renown and certainly well known and respected in Canada. This letter testifies to my unqualified support of Bhagwan in this matter and wish that he be allowed to remain in Oregon for the work that remains to be done, both with the land and with the people who share his vision. Although not there in person, I am certainly one of them. 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.)
