Gross fraudulence: Gerald Moreno tries to ridicule Robert Priddy

On Gerald Moreno’s countless hundreds of anti-Priddy websites, blogs and comments, few show such patently manipulated (i.e. falsified) screen captures than the one shown below. [Yet he took care to accuse me - also falsely - of fraudulent screen-caps, which were actually made from Google caches, which differ from the original site in details, and which I have reduced in size to save space, and in which not a single word of his was altered]

Exposing The Anti-Sai Activist: Robert Priddy

Laurens Van Der Post – The Night Of The New Moon:

Just how gullible was Robert Priddy when he was a Sai Devotee for 17-26 years?
Comment: firstly, Moreno tries to make an issue of how long I was a Sai follower (he has written page up and page down to develop this petty theme of my supposed ‘deception’. Such niggling is how Moreno tries to ‘prove’ a lack of integrity of my entire character. The fact is, there are many degrees of commitment involved. I first heard of Sathya Sai Baba in 1954. I learned more about him in 1971. Around 1978 I became interested in Shirdi Sai Baba (though with considerable reservations as to the claims about him). Only in 1983 did Sathya Sai Baba enter my awareness strongly enough to say I became a would-be follower (not all are equally definitive, not all accept everything uncritically.. as in my case). I was the de facto leader (i.e. organizer and leader of all events in the Oslo group) and in Norway from 1983, the pro forma centre leader from 1985 until about 1996-7 and the national leader throughout until 2000. All that explain the variations in dates, which Moreno pettily tries to make into a big issue. Moreno continues (black bold text):-

The answer is very gullible. For example, Robert Priddy published (in his book “Source Of The Dream”) the following scans to Laurens Van Der Post’s “The Night Of The New Moon” book-cover and claimed that one could easily discern the form of Sathya Sai Baba in them.

The manipulated (falsified) scan on Gerald Moreno's website made as yet another reprehensible but vain attempt to ridicule Priddy

Notice how Robert Priddy enhanced the color on the edited scan and had to carefully shape Baba’s hair from the clouds?

Comment: This is really gross of Moreno! I never enhanced anything, the photos were processed by professional publishers before being put in my book. I reproduce – below the falsified image Moreno posted -, the exact replica of the photos which appear identically in three editions of my book “Source of the Dream” (Sun-Sky Publications, Samuel Weiser Inc. and a Portuguese edition), without a jot of enhancement. The cut-out version was to help readers discern what attracted our attention (in the unusual situation where it came to our notice). Instead, Moreno darkened the images and made one dise different in contrast to the other so as to be able to claim he could not see Sai Baba (in either image!). Where he got the image from with the Penguin logo on I can only guess, I never published such an image myself. Moreno continues:-

I looked long and hard at the images and cannot see Sathya Sai Baba in them. I suppose if one were desperate enough, one could see Sathya Sai Baba in the clouds (no matter how vague the perception). However, these scans show how gullible, naive and “backward intellectually” Robert Priddy was when he was a Sai Devotee.

About the alleged form of Sathya Sai Baba on the book-cover, Robert Priddy said:
“A second leela, which we felt was a form of recognition by Baba for our carrying out regular study of his teachings, occurred similarly one evening when we plodded on with our reading, even though we were very tired. My eye was suddenly drawn to the form of Sathya Sai in the clouds of an evening sky on the front cover of a book that I had recently read. The book is a deeply spiritual account of the life and death in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp by Laurens van der Post, titled Night of the Moon. It is curious, too, that the night of the new moon is known in India as the night of Shiva. The figure of Sai, leaning forward as if to dispense vibuthi, can be figured out from the background.” (Source Of The Dream, ‘The Universal World Teacher’, pg 212) Robert Priddy was one of those gullible, naive, “ignorami”, “backward intellectually” and “ignorant peasants” when he was a Sai Devotee for 17 years…

COMMENT: Now ever inconsistent Moreno himself decides that I was a devotee for 17 years… which is basically correct, as I only reckoned myself such from 1983 until 2000. “Ignorant peasant” and an “ignorami” hardly describes me, considering that I was the top philosophy graduate at the University of Oslo and lectured in social science and philosophy (tenured) for most of my professional life before I went to India. If that qualifies me as an ‘ignorant peasant’ and ‘backward intellectually’ readers must decide. Note that Moreno leaves out the word ‘new’ in the title “Night of the New Moon”, which is a significant point (a lapse or intentional distortion?)

In that time when the truth about Sai Baba has hardly emerged in public and only a very few came to learn the astonishing and depressing facts, I was in the company of hundreds of Ph.Ds – mostly Indian but not all – and dozens of pro-Sai writers and a great number of other educated devotees who related very similar experiences of ‘seeing’ the form of Sai Baba in many things (which indeed he insists every devotee should always strive to visualize and see everywhere and in everything!). My friend – Sai Baba’s distinguished editor -  V.K. Narasimhan showed the form of Sai Baba’s head on a bowl of cream to many devotees who visited his apartment. There are many images showing Sai Baba’s form in many other objects, such as in ritual fires. (See a supposed ‘appearance’ of Sai Baba in a ritual homa fire at Prashanthi Nilayam) Dr. Jack Hawley enthused in his book about seeing Sai Baba before him, Sandweiss, Hislop, Murphet, Krystal… all regarded this an important phenomenon. Sai Baba himself has given the teaching (see at foot of blog for source references).
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Moreno, however, claimed he saw Sai Baba in the flesh in New Mexico… and took it for a miracle straight off.

I was not so gullible or naive either, as I rejected a whole lot of the stories I heard, and was privately most amused by many of the beliefs of a large number of truly uncritical and mindless devotees. The fact is, I was systematically deceiv

Image of page 212 scanned exactly as it appears in 'Source of the Dream'

ed by Sathya Sai Baba and his entire cadre and most of his following, as many people around the world were. I am no longer deceived, but far too many still are, and especially Gerald Moreno, who tries to ridicule me further:-

(Priddy) … who believed in Avatars, lilas, divine manifestations, gnomes, trolls, fairies, possessing demons, elves, UFOs, extra-terrestials, leprechauns and elementals.

Comment: I believed for some years that Sai Baba most likely was an avatars – as he so rigidly claim and which millions still believe (unfortunately). That belief is a requirement of all members of the Sathya Sai Organization. As to earth spirits, I wrote: “There is a great wealth of testimonial evidence from the whole of the world and history that belief or faith – involving intense emotional or mental preoccupation of some kind – can open the experience of visions, apparitions and apparently miraculous phenomena.” I did not positively affirm their existence, but the likelihood that they may exists as science has not been able (or even tried) to explain them. But Moreno wants it to be quite otherwise. See my article on ‘elementals’ and why modern science has begun to provide experimentally-based explanations of these phenomena. Note that Moreno believes in miracles… and many other doubtful phenomena (which I do not and never have – such as crystals, kundalini, healing mandalas etc.)  He is very cagey about everything else he believes as he knows that to make this public would be very embarrassing. Moreno continues to undercut the beliefs of virtually all Sai devotees (most of which he promotes wildly on his blog ‘Love, Light and Spirituality.. and under the name ‘sathyasaibaba’ too). But he has at least prompted me to explain my former experiences in greater detail, as I otherwise would have neglected to do.

Robert Priddy is bitter and vindictive because he fully documented his own gullible, naive, brainwashed and non-intelligent devotee behavior in his Pro-Sai book for the world to see! What’s even more funny is how Robert Priddy bashes Sai Devotees for acting and believing in the very same manner he did when he was a Sai Devotee. Laughable!

How Moreno overplays his eternally weak hand. I am exposing the gullibility of Sai devotees only now, who should know better after the many revelations of the facts they will not or cannot face. Moreno promotes the VIP devotee and author Howard Murphet (see here), who goes far further that I ever did in the matter of extra-normal spirit influences – including discarnate spirits of ‘ascended masters’ and what have you. But Moreno attacks only dissidents, not Sai Baba favourites.  I did not act as most devotees do at darshan, constantly pressing forward, wanting sweets, blessings and material trinkets… I believed mainly only in the power of doing what good service one can, advancing human understanding and that spirituality is only a private experience between oneself and ‘the divine’, but not something to be paraded and off-handedly boasted about as so many I met did. I always tried to inform the public in as reflected a way as I could in the circumstances (i.e. while being the victim of what is mostly a massive fraud) and my book was one of the very most restrained in praise – compared to the hundreds of besotted panegyrics still on sale about Sai Baba.  Rather than “bashing” Sai devotees for being gullible, naive and brainwashed (and most were far more so than I ever was), I have shown from a very wide range of documentation that – in addition to the huge mass of evidence of his sexual abuses and involvements in dark matters – most of Sai Baba’s belief system – once penetrated (which is far from easy to achieve in that environment) is either direct and cynical deception by SSB and his diverse minions, or wild inventions so as to try to extract some holy interpretation, blessing or personal advantages from this typical Indian guru-hysteria phenomenon.

An e-mail friend wrote this to me about Moreno’s above-quoted page:-
“Didn’t  JM defend the 2007 Moon claims against your and BP’s criticisms? He seems to want to have his cake and eat it – again! A riposte on the gullibility angle might hit his Achilles heel Number 317 (- i.e. he has so

many) Does he condone gullibility in all other devotees except you?” (identity not given so Moreno can’t attack him too, as he surely would!) Gerald Moreno went into peculiar mental contortions to try to deflect criticism from – and defend – the moon miracle Sathya Sai Baba predicted, but which never happened (due to cloud coverage!). Sai Baba proclaimed he would appear on the moon later one evening… thousands flocked to the Sai airport and were totally disappointed. Laughable?

Sai Baba bending in this way is what inspired me to see his form on the Laurens van der Post cover.

Source references; See God in each form for 3 days: divine results 300 Sanathana Sarathi  Nov. 1993
Lovers of God see God everywhere p. 254 Sanathana Sarathi  Oct. 1991 & p.252 Sathya Sai Speaks Vol. 24
See God in a stone, don’t change a stone to God 180 Geetha-Vahini
See God in everyone you meet/in everything Sathya Sai Speaks Vol. 8
Self-seeking students & teachers today 233 Sanathana Sarathi Sept. 1988 & p.162 Sathya Sai Speaks Vol. 21
Self-surrender is to see God in everything always p.148 Sathya Sai Speaks Vol. 15
Lovers of God see God everywhere 254 Sanathana Sarathi: p.252 Sathya Sai Speaks Vol. 24
Meaning of human life only to use it to see God: p.122 Sathya Sai Speaks Vol. 3

Not strange therefore that so many who still believe in God – and especially in Sathya Sai Baba – see his ‘divine form’ in objects. Perhaps Moreno has too little real devotion to his would-be God? However, it is a function of the brain to see human features in all and any kinds of materials and things, only when one believes they have spiritual significance does it become dodgy.. but one has to be liberated from all notions of supernatural miraculous phenomena to appreciate that.

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Student sex abuse testimony has come out all the time

Though many young men have not been comfortable in telling of their experiences with Sathya Sai Baba – for obvious reasons of the dangers it may involve and not least due to internet harassment etc. – they have contacted some of us privately ad in strict confidence.Others have posted anonymously on various bulletin boards, discussion groups and the Sai petition.

The following mail was originally sent Sathya Sai Baba Discussion Club, http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/sathyasaibabadiscussionclub message 1082 and 1285 Date 18 november 2000 – 13.44 It was also posted at saibabaguru.com (no longer on-line) now found at http://web.archive.org/web/20010304152001/saibabaguru.com/Davidpaulstatement.htm

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am writing to you regarding your article in India today last week relating to the abuse allegations I am now an ex devotee of Sai Baba and have been a devotee since 1985 and have undertaken two pilgrimages to Puttaparthi in 1990 & 92 I went to the ashram with a group from London led by Aimee Levy in November 1990 during which time I was about to turn 29 and was taken with the group for an interview a few days after arriving during the interview he materialised vibhuti and took a ring off one lady told her she had a good heart and blew on it and it was supposedly transformed into a white gold and emerald ring another chap received a watch. During the interview he gave a short discourse on the nature of god and shortly thereafter looked at me and said

Swami: Are you well?
David: Yes Swami!!
Swami: What do you do? -Work?
David: Aromatherapy Swami
Swami What??
Aime Levy: massage Swami
Swami: yes yes very strong!
Swami: you have wife??
David: No swami!
Swami: Girlfriend?
David; No swami
Swami: I see!! Before!!
Swami: Do you love swami??
David Yes swami!!!
Swami: how much??
David: very much swami!

At this point he talked with others for a few moments and the said to me come and extended his hand for me to help him up and around the devotees sat around the interview room and the took me into the inner sanctum as I walked into the room I was holding in my right hand a cassette tape called “road to prashanthi” which had been recorded by a friend of mine who was wishing for it to be blessed, Swami then closed the door and was stand ing and front of me when he then touched my penis through the suit i was wearing and said “What’s this” a little embarrassed I said “tape swami” and thrust the tape i was holding up towards him he said “yes Yes but what’s this and touched me again” “undo” he said motioning to white pyjama type suit I was wearing which I did but was somewhat confused at this point he then pulled my underwear down below my scrotum and said “sometimes you dissipate too much energy this way” he let the underwear ping up and then waved his hand in the fashion he does and apparently materialized some oil and rubbed it on the pubic region above the penis and around the stomach and told me to ” do up” after which he said to me ” sometimes you get depressed with your work I will bless your work!! And with a cock of his head smiled and said all your work”! He then took me to the outer room back to the group where he talked a while longer and i sat wondering what had happened. After a short time he disappeared behind his curtain and came back with a basket full of small packets of vibhuti which he gave to all devotee’s he came to me and said” you would like swami to make a ring for you! I will but not now some other time! After which the interview was concluded. During my second trip the interview was almost the same except i was not drawn into the back room this time and the talk he had with me on that occasion was almost a carbon copy of the first time but as I stood up to leave at the conclusion of the second interview he whacked me in the testicles with the back of his hand and it was a deliberate move.

At this point I would like to say that although I was somewhat confused by the events i tried to rationalise it by thinking he was balancing one of the energy centres when another Indian devotee who was questioning me about my interview said ” No No Swami is doing this because all the time you are wanking” I must say I felt a complete idiot and some what humiliated by that but nevertheless was still in awe of sai baba but was already feeling something was a miss and this feeling became stronger during 1992 which I feel is better discussed elsewhere. However I feel that murmurings that those of us who have the courage to speak out are being labelled anti Indian or anti Hindu is complete nonsense I and many other ex devotee’s and victims still have great respect for India and her people and the fact that we feel cheated by this man who is quite clearly now shown as a charlatan has nothing whatsoever to-do with being anti Hindu we still have great respect for all faiths it is Just Sai Baba and his organisation that are in doubt and should be taken to task one of the main reasons I am writing this is to confirm that these “Oilings” do indeed take place which has been denied by a spokesperson for the U.K Sai organisation in a recent interview on a BBC Radio4 programme called This Is Sunday which was broadcast on Nov 19th my view is if they are lying about this what else are they lying about. I do not personally know any other “moles tees” and can not comment on their experiences I can only give a true account of what I myself have experienced But certainly it seems to me that both the organisation in India and abroad as well as Sai Baba himself requires thorough investigation especially relating to incidents such as the bedroom murders.

I hope this clarifies the situation somewhat for you

Yours sincerely

David Paul

One may compare the above account, the same in what it describes to numerous other similar accounts from all over the globe… to that of Gerald Joe Moreno, the most vehement and full-time defender of Sathya Sai Baba and his Organization and followers against ALL sexual accounts… through name-calling, harassment, web stalking and more.

See also:-

Gerald Moreno firmly defends sex abusers and cover-up

Gerald Moreno’s wildest attack so far?

Moreno and sexual abuse, denial and subterfugeGerald Joe Moreno and genital oiling by Sai Baba Sai Baba sex abuse testimony in revealing detail

Gerald Moreno and “oiling between the pubic area and the navel”

Sathya Sai Baba oils genitals (boys/young men)

Author admits genital oiling by Sathya Sai Baba

Further genital oiling, kundalini claims and more

Sathya Sai Baba Sex Abuse and Cover-up – the facts

List of some of Moreno’s postings against Sathya Sai Critics

Convincing 1′st hand sex abuse testimony by young man

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http://home.no.net/anir/Sai/enigma

This page is for the benefit of those who used to visit my former website about Sathya Sai Baba and may be looking for titles that were present there. The page is now regenerated and re-linked

CLICK HERE TO ENTER THE PAGE OF HOME.NO.NET/anir/Sai/enigma

Kasturi and VKN manipulated and suborned

Sathya Sai Baba has sometimes put on the appearance of a ‘raging lion’ against people who he perceived as a threat to himself. In his ‘official biography’ of Sai Baba (in Sathyam , Sivam, Sundaram Vol. 1), Prof.N. Kasturi reported accounts he had heard of the young Sai Baba terrifying some fractious villagers when he was but a teenager by raging and growling like the ‘lion-man avatar’ Narasimha. This is taken as evidence by many of ever-uncritical devotees that he truly is the avatar who was all the other avatars in the Indian pantheon, as he has actually claimed himself too! I once saw him with a raging lion-like face one day when he was looking at some people on the veranda. Sathya Sai Baba had raged lion-like at his confidante, Prof. N. Kasturi, when he had returned from a tour of North India holding talks about Sai Baba upon which Baba himself had sent him. There is no doubt that Kasturi was literally terrified by him then, as he openly told a small group of us this in the old lecture room in South Prashanthi in 1985. That was real intimidation… and for a relative bagatelle which Sai Baba would not even explain to him. Kasturi vividly evoked the fear he had felt and his extreme anguish for weeks, sitting outside the compound which he was banned from entering. There was no reason he could understand.

Eventually after weeks of his suffering, when many others had asked SB to relent, he spoke to Kasturi in most disapproving tones, telling him that he now thought himself a big man who condescended to “give interviews” like himself. The fact was that his hosts had been flooded with requests to meet Kasturi in private, and they had set up times for them to meet him in a private chat. Kasturi, who was grateful for the special hospitality he was receiving. had gone along with this and their pre-planned schedule… ostensibly out of a sense of duty. THAT alone was his great sin! Sai Baba told him very angrily that it was only He who gave interviews! What remained of Kasturi’s will was thereafter as if castrated (pun) and he went more like a lamb than ever. One can read a watered-down account by Kasturi in his autobiographical book ‘Loving God’.

This is a manipulative technique well known as typical of psychopaths/sociopaths and narcissistic power-brokers… a clever way to cow followers and keep them totally in line… through naked fear after initial charm and praise! Then finally becoming charming and forgiving again… Already totally trapped and dependent on his guru for everything, Kasturi rationalized the “punishment” away as being a necessary process to soften him and rid him of ego! This is how one turns black into white – daring not to say ‘boo’ to a goose while hoping credulously that it will lay the golden egg – and continues one’s own self-deception through weakness of character.

The same kind of “punishment’ – though less severe, was meted out to V.K. Narasimhan in 1980 when he had taken over the editing of Sanathana Sarathi from Prof. Kasturi. He made what Sai Baba chose to consider a very grave mistake, and he was sacked as editor immediately and the aging and failing Prof. Kasturi had to take over the reins again for a long while. Narasimhan had published an announcement which he had been pressed to do by the top Sai official in Europe, Antonio Craxi (brother of the later Prime Minister of Italy, who ended as a convicted criminal fleeing justice). It announced that all copyright for Sathya Sai Baba books in English was in the hands of Craxi, the egocentric and domineering leader of the Sathya Sai Organization in Italy. This had been challenged by the Central Council of the Sathya Sai Baba Organisation. Narasimhan had been assured that this was legally in force already by Craxi, but Sai Baba took the opportunity to put VKN through his mill and he was made to suffer at a distance… for about a year!

That he was not punished as severely as Kasturi is easily explainable… in the first place he was a very important pawn for Sai Baba since he was respected very widely in India and knew personally most of the leading figures, including college friends such as the then-President of India. Sathya Sai Baba could not afford to lose Narasimhan for such reasons, including his great editorial skills and willingness to promote Sai Baba’s social projects (above all). However, he was not a believer in Sai Baba’s miracles or in his having healed anyone. He had spent his life as a journalist and told me he was not that naive. He shocked my by denying Sai Baba’s claims of omnipotence/omniscience and avatarhood.  His reticence compared to his predecessor Kasturi can be seen from his entire written output – he was very far from those sentimental and gushing panegyrics and gaping wonder of Kasturi and all the other pro-Sai authors, for that matter. He had many doubts and these he voiced to people according to how far he felt he could trust them. So a too strong reprimand would probably have caused him to move away from the ashram, where he first came primarily because of his very Sai-devoted wife’s insistence. After the 1993 murder in SB’s bedroom, VKN was virtually forced – through repeated demands by Sai Baba – to give false witness about the Central Trust. Only his son, editor of The Tribune – was willing to publish VKN’s whitewash of the Trust, though VKN knew fully that this was untrue, as he also told me it had been corrupted. He also began to learn definitively of the blackmail by Sai Baba’s younger brother and others into executing four devotees, and the first-hand of the criminal cover-up by Prime Minister Vajpayee’s right-hand man S.B. Chavan together with Sai Baba’s brother, he grew more and more negative towards the ashram. Later he told me how Sai Baba could not account to him at all satisfactorily for the facts of the murders – click here. He became an unwilling accomplice to the cover-up, for to have spoken out would have been a very huge risk for him, so strong were the opposing forces.

VKN was blind to his own real importance to SB in his role as an endorser of Sai Baba to the rich and famous and would now and again say “I have no idea why Swami is so nice to me”. After he was taken back into favour, he was called by SB to many interviews and constantly attended SB’s meetings with students and selected groups of VIPs. During weeks I was with him, he was called almost every day by Swami – sometimes twice a day.

Sai Baba failed to heal his eye when it got infected after an operation Sai Baba had arranged for him and told him would go well. He only moved away from the ashram in the last weeks when he was dying in much long-lasting pain from water-filled lungs etc.

See also http://www.saibaba-x.org.uk/16/Narasimhan_RobertPriddy.htm

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PLEASE SEE THE SAI PETITION AND DECIDE WHETHER TO SIGN IT

Yaani Drucker’s hypocrisy about academic qualifications & enlightenment

Yaani Drucker made some comments on my blogs. Most of them are so deluded that I can’t be bothered to reply. But two of them required a reply, I though, because of her false and unchecked assumptions about me and the hypocrisy that drips from her… a suppose ‘enlightened soul’! She has taken up with another person who is not only deluded but very nasty and will stop at nothing to try to destroy the character of others… Gerald Moreno.
Here are her comments:yaani9@yahoo.com

75.219.205.160
2010/05/24 at 3:29 pm

Dear Dr. Priddy,

I find it interesting that you stake so much value in the fact that you have earned a PhD.

Sometimes too much information can get in the way of enlightenment. I do not know any PhD’s who have attained, do you? I do know that Ramakrishna, illiterate, Ramana Maharshi, barely literate, and Nisargadatta, also barely literate, all attained. The obvious conclusion is that scholarly learning more probably leads to arrogance, which gets in the way of enlightenment.

I would suggest to stop idenitifying with yourself as any label and come with wholly empty hands unto your chosen form of deity, or formless… this will bring you quickly to your enlightenment.

The greatest service we can render to the planet is to wake up to the truth of who we are, for in that we expose ego as an impostor for all mankind.

That is why at the moment of my enlightenment I was told, Your aura has just exploded to infinity and you are shooting off sparks of love and joy to all humanity. It is a gift to all humanity to wake up, for we are all one.

Enlightenment is the greatest expression of selfless love. And everyone qualifies – you don’t have to have a PhD, to go for your enlightenment. You just have to be willing to be wrong about everything you taught yourself thus far, probably a tall order for a PhD, thus we don’t see any enlightened Drs.

Have a sweet day.

Yaani failed to recall that her husband, who is a Ph.D. has claimed to be self-realised, like herself. My reply to her was uncompromising, as follows (some typos corrected here):-

Yaani, Enlightenment is not just a sudden personal version of sat-chit-ananda. Your pretentious preaching at me I find laughable and also repulsive. I experienced infinity, intense sweet bliss and paranormal intuition of minds and much more when I was 26. Doctorates meant nothing to me – and never have, not have professorates (Note: Norwegian version of ‘professorships’). I never used any academic title in any of my many articles in Sanathana Sarathi, published books and articles – nor in India where Sai followers have to have letters after their names (Narasimhan once inserted tiles ‘Doctor’ and ‘Professor’ on his own guesswork – neither of which titles I have ever myself used – and so I had him cease to do!). I virtually only took my degrees with a family to support (Continental Magister degree), despite great scepticism about philosophy, psychology and science. (I wrote widely, deeply critically on these subjects in that vein too. From all you write it is perfectly evident to me that you are ensconced in a strong ego, and that you have most certainly not got anywhere near the maximum enlightenment possible. I note you also inform about having taken a BA in psychology… why so? And your husband promoted himself vastly as a Professor and scientist – but he has no academic record that can be found. I only set my record straight once because of attacks by Moreno and de Witt!! You should be deeply ashamed of your support to him (dogs barking, indeed. How unoriginal). You were caught far more deeply in the Sai cult than I, and you cannot liberate yourself or face up to reality (which is patently not in your solipsistic cloud-cuckoo land of bogus ‘oneness’).

I took my university education having a family to support (Continental-style – Norwegian Magistergrad degree), despite my great scepticism about philosophy, psychology and science at that time due to personal experiences of many kinds – and in half a dozen previous kinds of employment world-wide. (I wrote widely, deeply critically on these subjects in that vein too. Do a little research. From all you write it is perfectly evident to me that you are ensconced in a strong ego, and that you have most certainly not got anywhere near the maximum enlightenment possible. In fact your ideas about it are largely deluded and immature. It requires a thorough knowledge of many things concerning humanity, the origins of religion, deep psychology (in practice), and not just some subjective experience which once blew your mind.

I do not intend to continue any correspondence with you because I have seen how hypocritically you treated Barry Pittard. I have no help to offer you either, but you sorely need it. I am not moved by mere sweet words, as I recognise they conflict with the main body of how you react to others. I am not dear to you, you do not know me – I am a real person, not some abstraction of the kind you deal in. I do have very sweet days with my family, friends and existence, without your wishes or help. One often reaps what one has sown (not always though!)
Robert Priddy

Yaanidrucker also commented:- 2010/05/23 at 6:02 pm

Dear Dr. Priddy,

You are a PhD, correct? And by your definition of a cult, you got caught in one. Now your definition and mine differ, therefore I do not think you were so stupid as to get stuck in a cult, however you do. I find that very interesting, despite your complete faith in those PhD who lead the world, who breath that rarified air of enlightened knowledge, that is so superior to the rest of us peons.

I am neither a Ph.D nor a Professor, though I was a professor in the wider general sense, a university lecturer. I have a Ph.D. equivalent – 7 years university studies and thesis, dissertation etc.). Many people have given me these titles, and I have always responded asking them not to do so, I prefer to rely on what I actually write and stand for, not on titles. So Yaani is completely mistaken about my self-evaluations, and she never even met me. She seems to have a problem about knowledge and learning… even though she has announced that she took a BA in psychology herself. As to peons… well, she regards humanity in its virtual entirety as trapped with their egos… while she thinks she is enlightened beyond all measure? What an egocentric self-appraisal!

Yaani evidently has no idea of how I view and define cults in accordance with world experts on this subject. She could benefit from reading about them! Her view is that only a group one cannot leave is a cult. That is very simplistic. One can even leave the most oppressive cults, but it is the harassment afterwards that is the defining quality. Such as her confidante Moreno’s constant harassment of all Sathya Sai Baba ex-cult members. The Sathya Sai cult is not as extreme in the sense that some are, not unless you are in India and confront them (Basava Premanand was burgled three times (see BBC report) and suffered attempts on his life from Sai Baba goondas (i.e. killer thugs). He was convinced from his evidence that his son and helper was murdered in a Bangalore hospital too! Numerous Indian students have been murdered at the ashrams, and also a considerable number of Westerners, while other Western visitors have ‘disappeared’ from the ashram and have never been traced. Indian ex-students in fear of their livelihoods and even their lives still write to me (for they know I can be trusted, unlike continuing devotees). But for the majority it is admittedly a very subtle kind of cult, relying on voluntary donations (after deep indoctrination). Sai Baba gives people almost worthless rings (claiming they are diamond rings), fake watches, all manner of trinkets – and he gets huger donations in return out of thankfulness – but the donors were thoroughly deceived!

See The Nature of Cults examined

Projecting one’s whole autonomy onto Sathya Sai Baba

All Sathya Sai Baba followers who visit his ashrams have always had to queue, sit and wait almost endlessly before he appears – let alone before they get the chance of an interview, which almost no one does any longer due to his invalidism. Many pray and wait for years on end for the ‘Lord and Master’, and ‘spiritual seekers’ who travel across continents are all constantly hope for some form of personal attention, eye contact, some words… then more and more of the same. All this is shared by all followers, excluding very important persons, such as heads of state, royalty or the super rich and famous, who mostly get comparative red carpet treatment.

Sathya Sai Baba used to walk about very slowly, making gestures (which many people took as personal messages to them!) and when he looked even in a person’s general direction, they took this as a blessing! Not a few report how waves of happiness, bliss, even ecstasy floods through them, tears come to their eyes. If he smiles at them or takes a letter from them, it seems to them that they at last have confirmation of being personally acceptable to God himself. In most cases, these emotions are the culmination of a very long period of approaching through meditation on him, prayers to him, letters sent (often with the writer’s most private thoughts ‘in advance’) after much reading of books which all praise him beyond the clouds, videos which seem to prove he is a divinity, hearing miracle and amazing healing stories galore, and making diverse efforts to live according to his directions, do everything in his name.

Many followers sacrifice much time and money, put up with all manner of difficulties and disappointments on the way, meanwhile meeting many other persons telling of wonderful (subjective) experiences seen through their own faith. But by then they have already become highly open to suggestion (becoming what are called ‘good hypnotic subjects’). Despite this, or precisely because of it, various persons have been surprised, as was I, upon first observing him show himself (i.e. “give his holy darshan“) because. he seemed just too ordinary. But then, one already ‘knows’ that it could just not be true…has he not told them not to be deceived by his short stature, for in reality he holds the entire universe in his hands?

Longing and Yearning are ‘projective’: The intensity developed by followers’ desires and beliefs amount to psychological projections. Projection is a very complex process with many aspects and can vary in strength, scope and content. Nonetheless it is a common occurrence among followers of all idols, especially those who have created an aura of holiness or wisdom around themselves, by whatever means.  Even one small apparent paranormal event – taken as the longed-for Sai leela or small miracle – is enough to set one  self-reinforcing ones indoctrination to last for life! This may take the form of statement like the following which was sent to me by a colleague at some stage as an illustration of how mental projection words in those who have invested much time and energy without noticeable attention from Sathya Sai Baba:

“I vividly recall looking at his form with utter peace and no thoughts. He stopped and turned and gave me this amazing smile, piercing me with his eyes and I felt this incredible warmth enter me. “What did he do that for,” I thought, on that day three years ago. Today, the penny dropped. Thought has to stop.” by Sai Baba devotee Christopher (Chris) Parnell – Australian Sathya Sai Organization

The dropping penny – after first awakening new thoughts – evidently causes thought to deteriorate – and that is precisely the programme Sai Baba sets out – overcome one’s thoughts through mantras, prayer, bhajan singing and meditation. Kill the mind – supposedly letting mindless ‘universal consciousness’ take over!  I have observed through many years observing others how their minds tend to drift without incisiveness or efforts at improvement, getting ever more uncritical and unreliable. Impressionable persons who have been actively indoctrinating (or ‘brain-washing’) themselves for a long time within the cocoon of beliefs and mostly within the circle of other believers… especially in the otherworldly and unrealistic ashram mental environment where all one’s wildest hopes may (but most likely will not) come true.

Powerful projection reinforcements: Projecting all kinds of desires and ones best imaginings onto Sathya Sai Baba and his circle, one produces a self-conversion by oneself. These circumstances are known to be conducive to sudden healing and many other extra-normal effects, but these always prove to be partial and temporary… the enthusiasm wears off after the famous ‘honeymoon’ period is past. Such phenomena are well known, far from being limited to Sai Baba or other Indian gurus – consider Billy Graham, Lourdes. Pastor Moon and literally thousands of other personality cults. One develops a partly delusional world-view and can then become easily manipulated by powerful forms of suggestion of the kind otherwise called ‘hypnotic’. These can cause considerable distortions of sensory perception, even though one does not enter an actual sleep-like trance (viz. Derren Brown). The intensity of the ‘projection’ makes likely not only changes in outlook, but a new sense of purpose and energy. All one needed was a catalyst (a relevant  object or person to project onto in the specific case), and that is how idol-worship and personality cults work.

More on mental-emotional projection and Sai Baba’s methods of using it to come.

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Selfhood and self-confidence in Sai Baba’s teaching

Self confidence versus denial of selfhood: Due to the use of a very ambiguous word – ‘ego’ – which is held in most Eastern-influenced ‘spiritual ways’  to be the cause of virtually all the ills of humankind, people subject themselves to doctrines which can only undermine true self-confidence. The human ego can refer to the what results from the development of an independent, secure and self-sufficient personality or contrariwise to the unmitigated selfishness of people who put their desires and interests before almost all else. True self-confidence belongs to the well-rounded and balanced personality or ego-identity and not at all to the selfish egomaniac. Preaching about the need to ‘kill the ego’ or ‘surrender of the self’ is well-known from many religious movements – due to the misunderstanding about what ‘ego’ means. If the word refers only to the possessive and self-seeking “me and mine” aspect of a person, to try to help people limit and contain this is acceptable. However, this goal is all too often connected to the subjugation of people under authoritarian gurus, church or other spiritual organizations and cults. One aim in preaching ‘surrender of the ego’ is the humbling of people – such as before a supposed perfect God, or – what is yet worse – ‘holy’ representatives of this or that deity in the form of gurus, swamis and priesthoods of all kinds. This submission to authority figures as superior figures is also a form of dependency – a ‘spiritual crutch’ – and involves the gradual loss of self-determination and a creeping inward self-depreciation or inferiority which are very difficult for its victims to recognise. It usually comes along with living mostly within a belief community or limited circle of more or less like-minded people, trying to follow strictly moralistic ideals and overly self-denying precepts.

“A particular form of seduction that the group participates in with those flirting with joining is similar to sexual conquest. The group pours an enormous amount of focused energy and attention into potential recruits until they surrender to the group’s authority, which of course has the guru and his belief system at its center. When someone does surrender, everyone celebrates the new bonding. This is a bit like a new marriage, and for the recruit, it is the honeymoon phase. This lasts as long as it does, and then the focus of the group shifts elsewhere. (This also happens in romantic love, for after the conquest the wooer’s interest and focus often move somewhere else.) When the honeymoon is over, the new converts must shift roles – from being the wooed to being the wooer.” (from ‘The Guru Papers’ by Joel Kramer and Diane Alstead  p.79)

Those who experience a conversion to a divinity, sect, doctrine, guru and so on often seem to get a surge of self-confidence, one which may last for years until the lifestyle and beliefs become habitual and worn. This is often seen in keen missionaries and promulgators of their faith. The apparent self-confidence is however based not least on the strength of belief in a kind of superiority derived from having joined the community of the saved, the holy, or perhaps the prospective saints. This is hardly the result of a secure and balanced personality, it is rather pseudo-self-confidence which is frequently recognisable in signs that it is an adopted role rather than an expression of genuine insight and knowledge. Such people usually come across as too over-emphatically convinced, too masterful, patronizing or otherwise semi-fanatical in their opinions and approaches to other people.

The monastic type of detachment from worldly things may be less troublesome to more elderly persons who have already lived themselves out in an engaged and active life in the world with broad experience, for they are often less affected by the desires and life-seeking tendencies that are only natural and indeed necessary to real health and personal security in younger persons. But for anyone whose life’s meridian is not well passed and who is not psychologically very robust, the Sathya Sai Baba doctrine will in most cases hinder personal growth (IF it is possible for one to adhere to it to any large extent). A main reason for this lies in the feeling of impotence instilled by Sathya Sai Baba’s constant talking-down of people as imperfect (sometimes he calls people worse than dogs, or cawing crows etc.)… and his corresponding admonitions to focus all ones thoughts and desires on him alone. He teaches that everything stems from him, the creator of the universe from whom only good things come! Yet he also says, conflicting as usual, “everything that happens comes from God”, think about that!. His insistence on the super-importance of concentration on repeating his name, inwardly worshipping his form (and his person in actual practice at endless darshan sessions etc.) works effectively as an opiate that dulls personal reflection and living self-awareness, which is the true basis of genuine self-confidence and personality growth.

Modern psychology has developed and tested against experience many conceptual devices for tracing the multiplicity of personality traits, the growth of the ego and the influences operative on emotional and mental conditions of all kinds.  Sai Baba hardly ever refers to any of these discoveries and is very evidently not conversant with their theories or terminologies.  Though claiming to be in complete touch with the psyche of anyone, knowing it in and out,  his discourses repeatedly demonstrate that he suffers from many of the most common fallacies about nature of the human mind and psyche,  and this shines through even his words have been heavily edited and sanitized as far as reasonable by editors who are rather more knowledgeable.

In brief,  one may say that his teachings on psychic development and spiritual behaviour rely wholly on Indian religious tradition and are primitively fundamentalist, set in black-and-white terms with an iconography and ideology of  ‘gods versus demons’, a world view applied ad lib to the present almost without nuance or proper factual basis.  He almost always speaks in the most sweeping terms and is prone to almost hair-raising over-generalisation about the nature of people, governments, world conditions and on any number of issues.  The degree of exaggeration and factual inaccuracy is quite extraordinary for a supposedly intelligent teacher!

Sathya Sai Baba’s recipe for  anti-living: I have shown something of how Sathya Sai Baba’s directions for living are so demandingly puritanical and unrealistically idealistic that most of his followers seem to end up living a virtual non-life.  There is much more in his recipe to break down not only the objectionable egoism of morally primitive persons, but the entire personality structure of a democratic and effective civil citizen. One can meet many such cases (especially foreigners) who reside at the ashrams but are doing no work, no ‘active service’. Often they are virtually just existing in limbo, coping only with the constant daily problems of subsistence there, and waiting for grace and blessings to fall into their laps. Some have said this to me quite openly!

If you manage to get rid of most or all of your personal desires,  as Sai Baba insists everyone should immediately or – failing that – as soon as possible, then existence loses much of its meaning (let alone charm) and the desire to live is itself seriously weakened in the process. It is hardly surprising that constant Sai devotees, esp. single foreign ladies at the ashram,  tend to be suicidal.   One such a suicide took place while we were visiting in 1990 (covered up by the PN officials immediately).This resulted in the ashram accommodation office not allowing any woman  to have an apartment on her own.  Various other suicides of disappointed devotees are documented elsewhere, including one involving most members of a large Indian family. There are numerous reports of suicides, of which not more than a handful have reached the press in any country. The ashram authorities enforce immediate damage limitation precautions as soon as anything untoward happens there and very short shrift is given to anyone who persists in inquiries. In this respect, the Sai Baba ashrams are indistinguishable from totalitarian mini-states.

One Sai Baba follower, Mr. Kanheia Jee , a retired Indian army major who had become more or less socially and mentally trapped for 30 years and more as Head of the Administration at Vidyagiri in Prashanti Nilayam together with his leading Seva Dal worker and wife (Mrs. Caveri),  put it very succinctly:  “If you try to do even half of what Baba says you should,  you’ll go stark raving mad!” Looked at in sane social terms, these attitudes develop the basis for despotism and repression,  ignorance and weakening of the individual human spirit to stand up for what is right and true.  There is no more ingenious way of taking away people’s freedom than teaching them that they cannot control their fates except by prayer to him,  that only God is free and decides all in his inscrutable way.  It is despicable!  Thus making people obey and censor themselves entirely so as to give up more and more autonomy and all normal rights,  while it works as the subtlest known means of gaining power, fame and wealth by Sai Baba and his men.

Manipulating vulnerable consciousness: Though his extremely puritan moralism and demands for massive self-denial, Sai Baba develops a ‘vulnerable consciousness’ in many people, particularly those who are vulnerable from before for reasons of repressive childhoods, social discrimination, personality problems etc. His doctrines lay much weight on ideas which are nothing short of self-destructive, though they go under the emotively acceptable label ‘removal or destruction of the ego’ . Even while he outwardly says some positive,  supportive things about how to relate to oneself,  they are mostly tied up with expectations of a (better)  life in the hereafter.  Meanwhile,  he asserts all kinds of things which mainly bring a person down, cause them to feel low self-esteem or reduced worth…  the typical self-denigration spread by all fundamentalist sin-oriented religion and sects.

Projecting one’s whole autonomy onto Sathya Sai Baba …  the enthusiasm wears off after the famous ‘honeymoon‘ period is past. Such phenomena are well known…

See more on disempowerment in worshipping gurus and cult entrapment here:

Sathya Sai Baba Sex Abuse and Cover-up – the facts

Hundreds of former followers of Sathya Sai Baba – from India and abroad – have related their negative experiences with him  and have protested at his immunity from prosecution. There is much official and documented evidence on the www. Sai Baba is protected from prosecution by India’s politicians and judges who had for years invested their prestige in supporting him before the sex and murder facts became widely known. (They have many other interests in him – like votes, money). For example, it is illegal by Indian law to proclaim one is God Incarnate, but Sai Baba does this constantly without prosecution.

He makes many provably false claims and ‘prophesies’ and countless errors in his published words. He preaches the literal truth of fantastic events in scriptures like Bhagavatha, Ramayana etc. His claims of total purity and non-violence, total adherence to truth, are belied by his close involvement in the suppression of all investigation of the murders of his devotees in his own bedroom apartment. Some of his fraudulent materializations and other miracles claimed for him have been thoroughly exposed, both by witnesses and in revealing video clips. The Sathya Sai Organization is an authoritarian cult using every means they dare to cover up his actions and their members’ involvement in denying them. He and they preach only about all the good he has supposedly done, ignoring those who tell how he has ruined their families and even their lives. Many young men have testified to being sexually abused by him, sometimes in particularly vile ways.

See the history of the massive sex abuse allegations against Sathya Sai Baba – links to items listed below here

The long history of Sathya Sai Baba sexual abuse evidence and testimonies
Sexual abuse complaints with impunity against Sathya Sai Baba
Powerful sex abuse testimony against Sathya Sai Baba
Revealing letters on sexual abuse claims by Dr. John Hislop
Public testimony by Alaya Rahm
Transcript of A. Rahm’s abuse testimony on Danish documentary
Author admits genital oiling by Sathya Sai Baba
Very damaging Sai student testimony
Dr. Naresh Bhatia’s exposure of Sathya Sai Baba
A searing testimonial about Sathya Sai Baba
Ashok Bhagani denies fully documented facts‘
Genital Oiling’ by Sathya Sai Baba
Former Sai-follower exposes sex abuse on US TV
Conny Larsson is interviewed in ‘Cyprus Today’
Sai Baba school closed because of reported sex abuses
Sharon Purcell’s personal story
Joseph. Early Sathya Sai Baba Whistleblower
More sexual abuse evidence emerges against Sathya Sai Baba
Outright defenders of sexual abuse by Sathya Sai Baba
Gerald Moreno -staunch defender of sexual abusers & cover-up
Sebastian Engelbarts experiences with Sathya Sai Baba
See news on the International Sai Petition and its dissidents who have signed to date

PLEASE SEE THE SAI PETITION AND DECIDE WHETHER TO SIGN IT

Jaani Drucker, The Truth, open inquiry and truthfulness

Having noted the exchange of views between Barry Pittard and Jaani Drucker (aka Yaani Drucker), I am prompted to provide some more detailed examination of the issues at stake. With her self-promoted superior insight into The Truth (as if it were something hypostatized and ontologised) Jaani Drucker rejected Barry Pittard’s questions without answering them, writing “When you are determined to find denial and resistance, there is no honest debate or discussion possible. You have already closed your mind.” This is a typical cult-defensive reaction where questioning itself is viewed as something negative.

If anyone has closed their minds it is surely Jaani [Yaani] Drucker. How can one tell? Because she has not had anything new to say except continually to preach that she has the TRUTH and is – by implication – self-realized, all the while parroting nothing but the ideas of Sathya Sai Baba – where these concur with ‘The Course in Miracles’ (better called ‘Pollyanna Positive Prayer and Preaching’). This is more of a dogma than a doctrine for it is closed to any basic modification and is isolated from all further development and – above all – criticism. In general it is an extreme form of religious puritanism as found in the Judaic Talmud, the Old Testament and the strictest Hindu doctrines.

In continuing to promote and defend Sathya Sai Baba, Yaani acts as if her supposed Truth is so precious as always to have to be attended by an unquestioned bodyguard of supporting liesºº… those which have been exposed on a large scale by many former followers, not least Barry Pittard and myself. Al Drucker admitted – when pressed – to the former Central Coordinator of the UK Sathya Sai Organization, that many parents had complained to him of sexual abuse by Sai Baba while Drucker was resident at the ashram. Jaani is no doubt also well aware that Sai Baba has escaped justice only because the entire Indian system of corrupt topmost politicians and judges who worship him have protected him from all accountability! This is part of the body of lies the Druckers prefer to condone, supposedly to protect their Truth, which would need not protection or even promotion if it really were that immutable and powerful.

Those who have invested their prestige in Sai Baba and his teaching on the ego etc., like the Druckers, live largely within a community of persons and ideas divorced from all research, informed debate, the stringency of peer review because the doctrine they embrace is that the Truth, as preached by advaitists and Sai Baba among them, is immutable, requires no modification or development. They can reject without informing themselves of the entire world-wide advances in human psychology by hundreds of thousands of practitioners and researchers garnering experience from all corners of the globe and the human psyche… none of it could ever upset a figment of the ordained and immortalized Truth of their favourite religious speculations, static and stagnant as it has been for centuries! It’s main method of persuasion is repetition. One can only sustain this claim to total knowledge within the cocoon of ashrams or circles of New Age type persons, for it cannot stand the slightest buffets of well-informed intelligence based on tried and proven hypotheses by a global host of professionals.

If we look a little into this supposed Truth, we find it depends on the ‘death of the ego’. The doctrine of ‘ego’ that is most central to Sai Baba and I understand also to the would-be self-realization group run by the Druckers is really nothing more than a long harangue against selfishness (Me and Mine). This naked and stark belief – that selfishness is the root of ALL evil – is dressed up in portentous ideas about the ‘true egoless self’ within (and hidden from) all mankind . The belief posits the wishful dream of a total awareness of selfless unity within divinity, described in highly fanciful terms like ‘the golden womb’, the Heart and so on. Now, a doctrine of self-denial – if moderated by common sense and free of dogmatic certainty and absolutism – would not be unwelcome. Yet the anti-ego dogma is lacking in realism or practicable and compassionate humanism. It is actually very naively formulated in reducing the entire personal ‘ego’ to something far less than it is: a dynamic psychic development necessary to life as we know it. There is conceptual confusion involved – the word ‘ego’ is misapplied by Sai Baba, imitated uncritically by Jaani, to include one’s entire identity ‘as a separate being’, which again is seen as being blinded by ignorance (of the Truth of its own nature) and dominated by egoism in the form of selfishness and greed.

The human ego is to be understood as a dynamic development of every psyche through coping with the demands of the environment (others) and instinctual urges (survival, sex, fear, power, suppression, dominance, sex, hunger etc.). The ego, as psychologically understood, balances and reacts properly to the external and internal demands impinging on the person and is a very necessary achievement without which one cannot avoid one or another form of cognitive disorder up to and including severe and chronic mental illness. Looking after oneself and one’s own interests is the very basis of being human, without which one cannot even recognise or appreciate the same unavoidable need in others. Pursuing self-interest is unavoidably important, both for individuals and societies. It is the excess of such pursuits – greed of all kinds, economic and social insecurity, excess in power-seeking and all the related ills we all know so well – that are the problem. The self-realization through death of the ego brigade do not recognise this… they consider they have progressed beyond such needs (but often I have noted the actual consumption of goods and services are above average among the most outspoken ‘Ceiling on Desires’ advocates).

This fails to recognise the vast achievements of ego psychology (which it almost entirely rejects as illusory worldly untruth). It is not based on the slightest research – it cannot be tested (except by sacrificing one’s entire life – a fool’s risk). It is a puritanical and typically Indian religious doctrine – such as Sai Baba’s advice ‘Die Mind’ (one of his many execrable poor puns), which he symbolizes by giving away diamonds (all synthetic stones, yet more symbolically!). Obviously, undue selfishness is a trait without which the world would surely benefit, but taking it to the point of self-annihilation (i.e. killing the ego, ‘killing the mind’ – such as through prayers and mantras) is probably only for those who are ultimately tired of the whole of their own lives.

As seen in so many religious sects – it most often ends in moralism of the most unwelcome kind, sustaining and increasing people’s sense of personal inadequacy, leading to depression and even suicidalism in those who feel incapable of meeting its constant demands. Those who strive to follow the unworldly practices involved get no lasting benefit from the process either (except for possible temporary exhilaration of the kind ‘Now I have solved it all, what to do?’). Those who have made a vocation of it and sunk their prestige in preaching it may manage to keep up the required outward Pollyanna smile.
More to follow shortly…

See also The Ways of the Mind – on the issue by a Swedish psychologist
Strawberry Fields Forever? plus comments on Jaani & advaitic doctrine
Barry Pittard Replies To Sathya Sai Center Rape Survivor’s Note To Him
Dangerous to Rationalize Rape. A major Sathya Sai Baba Follower’s Example
God is everything, in everyone – as a spiritual teaching
Advaita – historical flight into abstraction and speculation

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PLEASE SEE THE SAI PETITION AND DECIDE WHETHER TO SIGN IT

Sathya Sai Baba claims of bribery!

Sai Baba lied outright about his accusers taking bribes to betray the guru!

“Some foreigners are trying to bribe them. They are saying, “See, foolish ones! I will give this much money. I will give so many dollars. I will give this many pounds. You write and give some stories against Sathya Sai Baba.” A lying smear – and without a shred of evidence – against the many young men who accuse him of sexual abusing them!

To denounce people in public with an angry face (and most unforgivingly on Christmas Day itself!), beating the lectern before him, he said almost in the next breath: “There is no trace of anger or hatred in Me and hence everyone loves Me” (Sanathana Sarathi September 2002, page 257f).

“… we should disregard abuse and hold to our righteous ideals firmly.” “Love even those who abuse you. I am a standing example of this.” (p. 267)

“There are some jealous and petty minds who do false and imaginary propaganda. I take no note of this” -but he had taken notice just there!

Sathya Sai Baba contradicts his main tenet!

Sai Baba later refuted the main tenet of his own lifelong teaching: “All beings are sparks of the Eternal Divinity” [page 101, Discourses in Kodaikanal 1998] “… a hard-hearted person cannot be called a spark of Divinity; he is verily a demon.” [p. 323, Sanathana Sarathi, November 2002].

He clearly tried hard to limit the damage he had himself done to his movement (through his own actions) not least to try to stop the loss of foreign donations.

“In the single family of humankind, where is the room for jealousy or hatred? These are all imaginary.” Sai Baba teaches he is never wrong, “doubt only yourself!” He teaches the absurd pseudo-philosophy of ‘whatever you imagine, is true for you’. This is a trick of mental enslavement and a get-out for himself. Above all, he wants to stop his followers facing the staring facts.

He clearly tried hard to limit the damage he had himself done to his movement (through his own actions) not least to try to stop the loss of foreign donations.

See the unexpurgated literally translated full version published by the (banned) premsai group of students
See the entire infamous Christmas Discourse as published in expurgated version in Sanathana Sarathi here.

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See Public Petition for Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and his Worldwide Organization
(Spanish version PETICIÓNPÚBLICA PARA INVESTIGACIONES OFICIALES

Damning sex abuse testimony against Sathya Sai Baba

In three lengthy TV interviews the former Sai Baba follower, Ullrich Zimmermann, gives a thorough description of his experiences with Sathya Sai Baba (on blip.tv.com in USA), which further prove what  is already widely reported by those involved, that Sathya Sai Baba practices sex on young male devotees.

The frank and detailed account Ullrich gives of his experiences and his interpretations of them for better and worse may be of great help to some of the hundreds of others he claims to know have been through similar sexual experiences with Sathya Sai Baba, whether of lesser or greater degree. His common sense as well as his more esoteric musings may well be helpful to others who have experienced the same or similar violations of their privacy. The question whether this oral sex was sexual abuse or a ‘divine blessing’ is raised, but the factual description of what occurred remains whatever one may think of it.

Ullrich Zimmermann (speaking about Sai Baba in the private interview room “So when he says that ‘always thinking about girls’ and I know and I don’t want to… … he says “Oh. Don’t worry” … … and he materialises an oil and he lifts up my T-shirt and he puts that here.” (he describes the places as “on the kundalini line”). “Then he kissed me on my mouth…” “It was awkward… and it was also not disgusting.” “He is looking at me and I know – knew – in my mind that he wanted me to suck his penis.” “and he took my hand… … to his genitals and it felt through the robe like a female with hair – there was no penis and he took my hand again and it was the male and ‘Suck finger, suck male’…” “So he pushes me down, lifts up his robe…” “His penis is… ….like from a child, no hair, small.” “And I took his penis in my mouth… …it was erect…. I had it in my mouth for a while and it was not like doing bliss, it was not like doing a big job or so – at least there was some movement but it was not like a big sexual act or so, and I didn’t feel ejaculation in my mouth… can’t give the time to the minute, maybe one and a half…” Asked by his interviewer whether Sai Baba ejaculated, Ullrich replied: “I didn’t feel that in my mouth. If you had asked me then I would have said ‘no’ but… I think he did.” “… really very quick. Robe up and the interview was over.” Interviewer: “Well, did you tell anyone about this, your mother?” Ullrich: Yes. I did. .. I was in the taxi back to Bangalore… she had also heard rumours and asked me what happened but she saw me in this happy state and so I told her.. I mean she didn’t experience… view that as abuse at all. She’s a Sai Baba follower and she trusts. And of course, having such an experience I wanted to have answers. After that, talking to other people who are living in the ashram and who are there for years with my knowledge and know about these things to happen anyway – it’s happening on a really big scale.” Interviewer: I mean, it happens every day with some – or – he has a lot of followers so he’s always doing interviews and… Ullrich: Yeah, but I only say my experience and that is I know – I know one person in eye-to-eye who has had that happen to him, also a young German, and I talked to another person who knew a lot of other people – I mean, I talked to a lot of people… Interviewer: But they also thought it was a good experience, or some of them were angry? Ullrich: They were not in anger. I mean, they’re still there. (editor’s note: i.e. in year 2000) They are just confused and for some of them it presses the button more than others but for me the bottom line was what I got, it is white Tantra.

Many other young men from across the world have testified to sexual abuses by Sathya Sai Baba through many years (see here). None came to see any of the sexual interferences of varying degrees of seriousness  as any kind of healing or blessing.

The natural openness and truthfulness of Ullrich is evident in his account of his whole Sai Baba experience – including the sensitive subject of oral sex – is admirable. His bravery and honesty in standing forth with information to help others and from which he can gain nothing himself other than a sense of doing a painful public duty (and attacks from fanatical Sai defenders) cannot be commended highly enough. As his interviewer says, these revelations will come a major shock to those Sai devotees who watch the video, but they will recognise that he describes details of life at the ashrams most credibly.

Ullrich Zimmermann emphasizes the big distinction between a ‘guru’ and a ‘teacher’: gurus unempower their followers and steal their freedom, a teacher (giving so-called spiritual guidance) always leaves seekers to decide for themselves and fashion their own way in life. Ullrich followed Sai Baba as a guru, but rejects gurus entirely now, even though there may have been be some clear temporary benefits from such following.

The full-length videos can be viewed on-line:
Part One (introductory) -
Part Two (the main account of sex etc.) -
Part Three (reflections)

The International Chairman of the Sathya Sai Organization, Dr. M. Goldstein – along with his defender and fanatical attacker of all critics, Gerald Moreno, – denies that anything improper has ever taken place. He has been exposed as running a despicable cover-up of facts that we have proof were known to him (who actually claims to be a ‘consummate professional’ sex abuse expert) and to many other top leaders, especially his predecessor as US leader, Dr. Hislop, whose famous letters tried to cover up the same kind of allegations in the early 1980s. That Sai Baba has escaped conviction is due to his protection by Indian Prime Ministers and Home Ministers who worship him and to his virtual control of the High Court of Andhra Pradesh and the Supreme Court of India through devotees who preside there. His unaccountable Sathya Sai Organisation cannot be sued in the US, not being registered as an accountable organisation (it operates and sends its donations to India through a bookshop).

In the first part of this series, Ullrich Zimmermann tells how he came to Sathya Sai Baba and got his first interview. Those who have not been involved in visiting Sai Baba will find some interest in watching this. He brings out the way in which he experienced this at the time, not concealing how indoctrinated he was – similar to most devotees – well before he ever saw Sai Baba. His conclusions about it all years after the sexual events (stated in Part Three) – reflect a most critical perspective.

In Part Two of the series: Since the live video interviews are lengthy, they are summarized  for the sake of those who will not have time to watch all of it, with transcripts of portions which are particularly important from the viewpoint of the expos of Sai Baba’s secret and controversial and doings.

Full coverage of Zimmermann’s testimony, with transcripts and discussion – click here

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Why Former Devotees Feel Obliged to Expose Sai Baba

Having for so long contributed to so many people becoming Sathya Sai Baba followers, I cannot escape the sense of duty I have to make known to them – and all comers – what I unavoidably learned about him – his deceptions and widely and firmly alleged crimes – despite all I had accepted and hoped to be true about him.

My promotion of Sai Baba was mainly through running a Sai centre for many years with my wife - and working hard to fulfil all its requirements [without appreciable help from the members or others for most of the 18 years]. It continued through my writings – a positive book (which he accepted) well over a score of articles in his journal or in other official Sai publications. Besides, I devoted 18 years of my life to trying to realise some of the ideals I came to believe that Sathya Sai Baba really stood for (yet no longer can). My nearly two decades in the organization was full of him and his teachings. During that time I practiced his various directions like selfless service and strictly following human values to the best of my abilities.  We visited him on nine occasions and come to know him (5 interviews – plus 5 private interviews total ca. 8-9 hours) and countless darsan contacts. I knew various persons very close to him, and not least because of that I happen to be unusually well placed to expose what I found out about him. In fact, Sathya Sai Baba is the one subject in my later life about which I am most informed, and it is natural that I should not just run away from the matter but instead expose all his countless deceits and alleged crimes. I have a  large catalogue of mails from persons who have been damaged by him, and from families that have been broken up due to his influence, sometimes from very prominent people in the West.

I might have preferred it had I not felt obliged to follow up my exposure of what I came to know about him. I am in no doubt that what I am doing is right in all senses of the word, for I know so many people whose lives have been seriously upset by him, his directives, broken promises, outright lies and taking advantage of them. I have suffered only mildly in comparison with many who write to me. As to those whose faith is challenged by my work in promoting all the testimonies against him etc., they have a choice… to seek the truth at whatever cost to their own feelings and dependency on him, or to continue in an illusion that he is what he claims to be. I am not responsible for any pain they may suffer from realisation of the facts, because I did not do the things I report on… it was Sathya Sai Baba who did wrong, not I. I have not deceived anyone, he most certainly has – and on a massive scale. Those officials who support him in the cover up of everything he does which he not wish should come to light are themselves also responsible for their part in it… As my activity up to now shows, I am fully determined not to allow Sathya Sai baba, his officials, his organization and the politicians and judges who protect him to get away with a total cover-up of all the many allegations of sexual abuse and murder involvement, or to hush up his megalomaniac claims and countless false and ignorant statements… whatever good he may have done or his followers have achieved. The truth shall out!

Footnote: Years of a major slur and libel campaign against me and other critics of SB by Gerald Joe Moreno have caused some of us at long last to respond in some detail to his endless bending of the truth, distorting facts about us and insultingly accusing us of many things which are entirely false.  Because there are so many deceived or deluded followers who know little or nothing other than the stories and propaganda, his many pages are read by some – a tiny proportion of the alleged millions of followers nonetheless. The transparency of his bogus arguments is such that the more who read them, the more seek out our responses, and we are confident that we stand for nothing but the facts and the truth, which will convince those who are not over-indoctrinated. Moreno’s smear and character assassination campaign against dissidents further ensures that the exposé continues with full force, also to expose his dirty tricks.

Barry Pittard, a former lecturer in Sathya Sai Baba’s education establishment and a devotee for 25 years, has recently written a series documenting his leave-taking of Sathya Sai Baba:

Barry Pittard – Leaving the Sathya Sai Baba Cult (Part 1.)- Ex Leaders + Rank-and-File
On Leaving A Powerful Global Cult. Sathya Sai Baba  (Part 2)
On Leaving A Powerful Global Cult. Sathya Sai Baba  (Part 3)

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See Public Petition for Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and his Worldwide Organization
(Spanish version PETICIÓNPÚBLICA PARA INVESTIGACIONES OFICIALES

The ‘test of faith’ and Sathya Sai Baba

Self-transformation as self-deception When Sathya Sai Baba devotees experience personal setbacks from the most serious to the most trivial, they have to consider why Swami let this happen to them… for as devotees they are required to believe what he says about everything that happens is ordained by him. They may lose near and dear persons in accidents, disasters or from otherwise curable illnesses… and the general reason for these in the Sai doctrine is that they are tests of themselves set by him. This thought is not uncommon in other religions, one rationalizes away in much the same ways anything that goes against faith in such an invisible being. Everything has, in fact, to be regarded as a divine blessing. Everyone who really believes in God as a creator and ruler of the universe has to accept that everything – however gruesome or or malign – that is done to them is good, for their own good too. But only the most deluded persons can sustain this attitude in real life, which means that believers always become split in their affiliations and reasoning. Unless they drop their faith. However much anything clashes with present needs or longings is to be regarded as a boon which can further one’s own self-development is Sai Baba’s ‘teaching’. Self-sacrifice, putting oneself aside totally is the doctrine Sai Baba preaches most often.

There is absolutely no way one can subject such a doctrine to any kind of valid test which can prove it. It depends entirely on faith. One can at least carry out the test of viewing them as mere ordinary occurrences, much in the way that anyone would tend to, and also to regard them with a more critical eye as possible manipulations to further interests and purposes quite other than the good of others than Sai Baba himself. Virtually all human experience tends to deny that everyone is under divine protection – backed up by diverse statistical studies which compare what happens to those who are believers with those who are not tend strongly to show there is little or no difference. Not as regards proneness to accidents, illnesses or – contrariwise – to winning large fortunes by chance or any other even experiences as positive and beneficial to the person involved. All common sense and observation also rejects that faith in such fanciful ideas as a ‘divine providence’ or God’s supposed ‘executives’ (i.e. guardian saints or ‘angels’ etc.) Faith means to accept that no test of divine doctrine is ever required, that it is a truth known in the heart, or some other such baseless fancy. Whatever problems that arise have to be taken as a spiritual challenge from God (or, failing his/her/its immortal presence, the divine guru) – a test as to whether one is ‘holy’ enough to keep faith (in him and what he teaches) and thus generally to be come more otherworldly or ‘detached from worldly affairs’ in favour of ‘attachment to God’. Which really implies, to lose touch with reality and live in an escapist world, a subjective hall of imaginary distoring mirrors.

If by following his supposed or imagined ‘will’ or ‘inner advice’ one has to face unhappiness or personal loss, bodily or worse suffering, or even death, it is said to be the best of all possible outcomes. So there is no way for a fully indoctrinated Sai devotee to find out whether much worse – or much better – could have taken place without Sai Baba’s guidance! That is what I have analysed at length as the ‘guru trap’. The convinced devotee will invariably ignore all other interpretations, and will studiously avoid all advice to the contrary and refuse to learn or read anything which could weaken their faith! For millennia, most religions – and not least the Indian priesthood and spiritual gurus have used this form of indoctrination, very often no doubt mainly for reasons of control and manipulation of others and for self-enhancement, wealth and power. The inwardly groveling dependency of thought and of outward may be with the best of intentions that the persons who have such faith can discover within themselves, but it most certainly is not a sign of personal or ‘spiritual’ development, but one of a static condition and self-delusion.

Sathya Sai Baba constantly argues that all people (excluding his holy self) have impurities or ‘dross’ that must be ‘burnt away’, comparing the process to the reduction of gold in a crucible, or to the grinding down of rough diamonds to perfect them as jewels. The VIUP followers hold that this process is stronger and faster when one gets closer to Sai Baba’s person, as they have. It must be observed that these VIPs are, in the experiences of very many persons who have complained to me about them when I was the national leader in Norway, are often stuck up, arrogant, manipulative and self-serving. They speak of their ‘service’ which is overwhelmingly talk and directives to other, and in physical terms seldom exceeds moving a few chairs back into place after a meeting. They defend everything Sai Baba does that people find unfair, wrong and heartless and, when they very seldom deign to discuss criticisms of him, they explain away his lies and broken promises. All the common – and also socially vulgar – qualities observable in him are excused as a part of his necessary divine plan… for no devotee dares to point out that they could possibly be fault and impurities in Sai Baba without risking exclusion or worse,

I have recounted some of the supposed ‘tests of faith and purity’ including some extraordinary one imposed by Sathya Sai Baba (See here) http://www.saibaba-x.org.uk/5/Transformation_by_tests_of_faith.html#test1

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(Spanish version PETICIÓNPÚBLICA PARA INVESTIGACIONES OFICIALES

ON VISITING THE SAI BABA ASHRAMS

Why foreigners visit his ashrams and some of the many and tiresome difficulties plus outright dangers they risk from theft, corruption, embezzlement and yet far worse. Buying a mini-apartment is now exorbitantly expensive, and one gets absolutely no legal rights, even of occupancy for more than up to 1 month per annum! The overall impression given by hundreds of books and videos of the ashrams is highly misleading positive propaganda. Both in the past, but especially since 2000, most non-ethnic foreigners have been discriminated against increasingly by many of the staff, the result being that visitor numbers from Western democracies have fallen very considerably and many such residents have left the ashram. In the ashram one is supposed to keep oneself strictly to oneself, not talk, not form friendships or other associations. The reason given is pseudo-spiritual, the actual reason is doubtless the attempt to control information, especially suppress negative facts. The security arrangements with metal detectors, undercover and armed security staff, close body searches (men and women) to remove all objects that may threaten Sai Baba! [claimed to be for the protection of devotees!} Out of the supposed millions who have been through the ashrams during 60 years, remarkable few claim healing of any significant kind. Read more vital information so you are prepared if thinking about visiting these ashrams – click here

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Gerald Moreno and his pathological denial

After virtually ignoring the vast majority of the constant attacks on a wide range of web outlets by Moreno for some years as below contempt, the sheer volume and nastiness decided me (in April 2009) to expose at some length for the unwitting public some of the most obvious untruths he spreads, and to summarise his agenda and methods as they are liberally demonstrated in his mass of web pages, blogs and many other postings. The public may then examine his output and decide just how accurate and truthful my descriptions are.

However, a full point by point rebuttal of all of his countless footling comments, elaborate ruses and paranoid petty criticisms would take a year of work, which is out of the question since it would divert attention from the important issues dissidents have raised, namely the deceptions of Sathya Sai Baba, his organization and many of those associated with him, not excluding the crimes of sexual abuse and numerous murders.

To make a study of extreme psychological denial one could hardly do better than read Moreno’s massive pseudo-documentation of why he believes Sathya Sai Baba is NOT a sexual abuser (after having believed he was for years) plus his denial in the face of a published affidavit (by Timothy Conway PH.D.) and overwhelming supporting evidence – of the authenticity of the infamous Hislop letters on sex abuse – comparing all this with the massive evidence to the contrary, plus the fact of total legal protection of the guru by successive Indian governments whose PM and Presidents were and are his worshippers.(see pdf file from UK Government Cabinet Office)

How ‘popular’ is Moreno among Sai followers? Moreno’s impact is clearly very limited, even on Sai devotees The percentage of Sai devotees who have supported Moreno in public must be well under 0.001 %, even if one believes that there are only about 5 million followers of some kind or another. If there were, as often claimed by official Sai sites, 60 million or even 300 million (as the Swedish Sai Organization firmly states “The organization has about 300 million devotees”, as usual without a figment of evidence (see http://www.sathyasai-se.org/org.htm). Further, Moreno’s efforts have evidently not converted one single person who has left or rejected Sathya Sai Baba. Just two critics who have stood forth have been mailed by well over a thousand who have left since 2000. (He has alienated some of his supporters (see Alan M. Kazlev here).

Since his various attack blogs on wordpress and blogspot had all too few visitors, Moreno registered an anonymous blog at http://sathyasaibaba.wordpress.com/ taking no less a pseudonym than ‘sathyasaibaba’ (and keeping his ownership anonymous on the blog). All the entries are registered as by ‘sathyasaibaba’ and he freely posts materials from other Sai Baba propaganda websites so to attract as many Sai Baba devotees as possible. His attacks on critics of Sai Baba are also posted there regularly – and have pride of place in his front page links – the purpose of his blog is no doubt to promote his libels and web-stalking activities. The general public who know little or nothing about the guru will easily believe that Sathya Sai Baba himself may be writing all this praise of himself (there are many genuine precedents). With the title “Sathya Sai Baba – Life, Love & Spirituality” where he shamefacedly flouts all the guru’s injunctions about not criticising others but looking to one’s own faults instead, speaking softly and with respect and so on. His blog has become the main face of the Sathya Sai Baba movement in blogging, unchallenged by the Sathya Sai Organization or other Sai Baba appointed officials, which further demonstrates what an aggressive cult it has become. Nonetheless it attracts only a disappearingly small fraction of the claimed hundreds of millions of Sai Baba followers! Moreno’s heartless contrived attacks on alleging sex abuse victims are a demonstration of how much ‘love in action’ there is in this movement, for no current devotee has ever uttered a word of criticism of this obnoxious pseudo-devotee Moreno.

See also:-
Gerald Moreno’s wild attack on Priddy?
The Gerald Joe Moreno dossier – part 1 The Sai Organization first-line defender who projects 100% acceptance of Sathya Sai Baba while showing that he is an aggressive cultist
The Gerald Moreno dossier – part 2 On his deep psychological denial about sex abuse and every criticism of Sathya Sai Baba
Moreno and sexual abuse, denial and subterfuge

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Please go to the Public Petition for Official Investigations of Sathya (or Satya) Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization