Sai Baba miracles

The Dutch psychologist Piet Vroon investigated Sai Baba’s materializations and wrote an article in the Indian Sceptic (‘Santa Claus in India‘)  Working on behalf of the Dutch newspaper DE VOLKSKRAANT, Piet Vroon was at Puttaparthi to film Baba at “work”. He and his partner reported that they saw Baba remove rings, necklaces and watches from behind flower vases and from pillows on his chair. They also detected Sai Baba holding vibhuti balls in one hand, transferring them to the other hand, pulverizing them and distributing them. Vibhuti was also alleged to be hidden in his mouth and removed while wiping his face, which Baba does very often. In his report of December 5, 1992 Vroon’s conclusion is unambiguous: “we just think that he’s a trickster and a cheat.”

Sai Baba slammed in Newsweek
from Newsweek’s  ‘The God Debate’ April 9, 2007 – see on page three

• Author Sam HARRIS: Let’s go back to the Bible. The reason you believe that Jesus is the son of God is because you believe that the Gospel is a valid account of the miracles of Jesus.

• Pastor Rick WARREN: It’s one of the reasons.

• Sam HARRIS: Yeah. It’s one of the reasons. Now, there are many testimonials about miracles, every bit as amazing as the miracles of Jesus, in other literature of the world’s religions. Even contemporary miracles. There are millions of people who believe that Sathya Sai Baba, the south Indian guru, was born of a virgin, has raised the dead and materializes objects. I mean, you can watch some of his miracles on YouTube. Prepare to be underwhelmed. He’s a stage magician. As a Christian, you can say Sathya Sai Baba’s miracle stories are not interesting, let’s not pay attention to them, but if you set them within the prescientific religious milieu of the first-century Roman Empire, suddenly miracle stories become especially compelling.

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The above exchange serves to emphasize the fact that there are countless accounts of miracles in history, actually going right back to the time when primitive tribal mankind believed rain, thunder, floods, quakes and just about anything they were unable to explain was therefore ‘a miracle’.

The many sciences have already explained a vast amount of phenomena which were formerly ‘believed’ to be miraculous – that is, without rational or demonstrable explanation. A considerable number of the supposed ‘miracles’ of Sathya Sai Baba (those which could be filmed or observed by critical thinkers) have been exposed as legerdemain – and many devotees have admitted that they have seen him faking the ‘materialisation’ of rings, lockets and other small objects – firstly taking them from behind his body in his chair in the interview room. One really need say no more as to the credibility of Sai baba’s supposed miracles than that… except that one cannot actually expose definitively anything which is known about only though second- and third-hand accounts – often by local villagers and other full believers in Sai Baba’s many claims about himself and his powers.

Professor Dale Beyerstein made a comprehensive survey of the most publicised Sai Baba miracles and it can be read here