from David Lane’s ‘neuralsurferbookPROOFCOPY.pdf.
The Neural Surfer A DIARY 1999-2001
“A few weeks ago I got a phone call from an ex-devotee of Sathya Sai Baba who used to be very tight with the “Supreme” Avatar. Indeed, so close that he literally “caught” Sai Baba cheating on one of his miracles. As Sai walked into the room to do his wondrous vibhutti trick (where the guru waves his hand and miraculously produces ash out of thin air), he unexpectedly “dropped” a tiny capsule which contained tightly packed ash. Immediately, Sai yelled out to his nearby assistant, “Eat it.” Hmm, my informant was perplexed to say the least. But the story he told me is much more than the obvious fact that Sai is a sleight of hand magician who parlays his simple tricks in front of adoring devotees. Sai Baba also has a continuing fascination with … how shall I say this politely … young boys and their “Shiva” sticks. I have known about this for years. Indeed, I first learned about it from Tal Brooke’s book, Lord of the Air (Delhi: Vikas Publishing House) which I happened upon accidently at the GTU library in the late 1970s. I later got the chance to talk with Tal personally about his “close encounters of the scrotum kind” in San Diego, California, in the mid-1980s [Tal is currently the head of the Spiritual Counterfeits Project in Berkeley, California.] I have heard so many stories about Sai’s “bachelor oil treat ment” from so many different quarters that I am amazed that it is not better known. But my informant has a much larger tale to tell: from murder intrigue to child molestation to money laundering to grandiose government conspiracies. All of which have the ring of authenticity. Why? Because my informant is ready to name names, provide documentation, bring forward witnesses. But, I have no stomach for it now. Why? Because it is an endless tale and I know from observing the guru scene for some 25 years that Sai is not unique. He is merely the latest and most visible example of what is a long line of pseudo masters who want to dress up like God, pretend to be All-knowing, and still get laid on the side.
[19] I think the reason these gurus deserved to get roasted for their behavior is because of their “claims” to be God.
If Sai came out and said, “Hey, I am not God. I am not even a very good magician. I dig young boys by the dozens. I want to preach love, but I have lots of failings as well…,” I would be the LAST guy to toast him. Why? Because we are all human; we all make mistakes–but instead of confessing that we get caught up with our images. And it is those images that crash and burn and rightly so. But, quite frankly, I am too burned out to expose any more gurus. I have been exposed way too much myself. It is no fun to lose a lawsuit, especially when you are convinced that you were in the right. It is no fun to have your wife’s life threatened, to have your home ransacked, to be the object of an international smear campaign. Yet, I do think that people should be allowed the opportunity to have as much information as possible about these parading God-men. Although I have known a number of Sai devotees throughout the years and have consistently found them warm and kind and loving (in particular, the late Jack Hislop– former President of the Sai organization in North America), some of them can be downright mean. The reason I no longer have a website at UCSD is directly related to a letter writing campaign made by certain Sai devotees around the world. They also wrote en masse to Mount San Antonio College and elsewhere, trying their very best to shut down my website. While I believe they have every right to protest and to write letters to whomever they please, I do think that some of the tactics they employed were childish. But then again that’s exactly how we all act when we try to ideologically defend that which is indefensible. I think some of the Sai contingency were irritated by my crude remarks, especially my most infamous line describing Sai’s predilections:”Yea, that’s believable, God incarnates on the planet palming shit looking for dick.” I thought it captured the whole controversy quite well, actually. Sai likes young boys and Sai palms vibhutti to win devotees. And vibhutti, lest we forget, is nothing more than dried/burnt Cow Dung.
But, then again, who I am to judge? At least that’s what I keep asking myself. But in my deeper moments of reflection I realize that I am not so much judging Sai’s desires as I am his pose. The guru pose is what I am truly exposing, not the human face behind that mask. We are all better served by our confessions of humanity than by our exclamations of divinity. Claim to be God and you will be critiqued. Claim to be human and you have already “exposed” yourself and nobody is that interested in doing it again–too much redundancy.”
Sathya Sai Baba Deceptions Exposed 