Theos-Talk Archives (November 1997 Message tt00268)

Nicholas Weeks wrote:
> On his deathbed Pope John XXIII is said to have had a vision of a man
> that would usher in a new Golden Age such as mankind has never known.
> He described him as a small, barefooted man with brown skin who will
> wear a distinctive red robe.

 Who said it?

> Similarly, the great 16th century seer
> Nostradamus and American prophet Edgar Cayce predicted that a holy man
> from the east would challenge the major religions of the world as a
> prelude to a Golden Age.

 And the significance of this?

> Born on 23rd November 1926 Sri Sathya Sai Baba demonstrated remarkable
> materialisation phenomena from an early age.

 Did he pull a rabbit out of a hat? Did he pull quarters out of people's
ears? I was performing materializations just as real from a young age.

> At the age of thirteen,
> after a two month period of illness and unconsciousness, he announced
> to the startled villagers that he was an avatar- a teacher sent
> directly from God. This, he said, was his second incarnation, the
> previous being as Sai Baba of Shirdi a Muslim fakir who had died in
> 1918, and there would be a third to come as Prema Baba. Over these
> three lives he intends to bring the religions of the world together as
> one brotherhood with universal love as their foundation stone.

 He is the savior because he says so?

> Never before has anyone displayed such remarkable PK powers. The
> reports coming out of India are mind boggling. Sai Baba has raised the
> dead, multiplied food as Christ did at the Last Supper, materialises
> jewellery out of the air and turned water into petrol when his car ran
> out of fuel. There are tales of him materialising sweets directly into
> people's mouths, appearing in two places at once and making a
> photograph of the face of Christ appear on film. Most of his
> manifestations have been demonstrated in front of highly respected
> professional people and are particularly well documented by Dr John
> Hislop and Howard Murphet.

 He has been caught on VIDEOTAPE using stage magician's tricks to
perform his "miracles". Also, if you are familiar with Theosophical
writings, you would know well that expression of siddhis is not a sign
of spiritual development.

> There are of course sceptics who argue that Sai Baba's miracles are
> nothing but cleaver conjuring tricks. The fact that he has levitated
> in front of hundreds of people or can materialise jewellery from thin
> air can be explained by simple trickery and sleight of hand.

 And the sleight of hand has been recorded for all to see.


> But when
> you read the thousands of testimonials or meet intelligent people
> whose lives have been completely transformed after an encounter with
> Sai Baba

 Lots of intelligent people were fooled by Uri Geller, as well.

> you soon realise that to trick people on this scale would be
> impossible.

 Cross out "impossible" and put in "trivial".

> fruits out of season, a perpetual motion watch, a map of the world in

 A perpetual motion watch? I rest my case.

> Amoungst the 'Sai Stories' told by devotees are some very strange
> stories.

 Any evidence of any basis in fact of any of the stories? With the
Rolex, is the name of the shop where the watch was bought known?

> Another intriguing story, although accounts differ, concerns an
> Australian who visited Sai Baba in the hope that he could cure his
> wife of terminal cancer. Sai Baba spoke to him saying "You shouldn't
> be here. Your wife needs you. She will be well." He then tapped the
> Australian three times on the forehead. The man vanished in front of a
> crowd of people and reappeared besides his wife's hospital bed in
> Australia. Baffled by what happened he checked his passport. It was
> stamped correctly with that day's date yet only moments ago he was in
> India. His wife recovered.

 Once again, is there a shred of corroborating evidence?

> Remarkable as these stories about Sai Baba are, they are unlikely to
> convince traditional scientists until he is tested by researchers
> under laboratory conditions. Sai Baba considers that this is
> unnecessary.

 Because if he were, he would once again be proven the fraud he is.

> occasion "My greatest miracle is Love" His spiritual teachings and the
> character transformation it triggers are far more important than the
> tantalising PK phenomena he displays: "For what purpose were you born?
> Man has been sent into the world to realise the truth that he is not
> man, but God. The wave dances with the wind, basks in the sun, frisks
> in the rain, imagining it is playing on the breast of the sea; it does
> not know that it is the sea itself. Until it realises the truth, it
> will be tossed up and down; when it knows it, it can lie calm and
> collected, at peace with itself."

 That is not the story the escapees from his cult tell.

> No doubt you are wondering what I mean about palming objects. It is
> Swami is seated in private with four or five of us, and opens his
> empty right hand, palm up. He says, `see it is coming' and in a few
> seconds, just ABOVE his palm, a golden ring appears in midair, then
> falls into his hand. He passes it around. The metal is warm to the
> touch. Swami tells a story about how changing the heart of man into
> gold is not his job, but ours, and it takes effort, heat. At that
> moment a student enters to deliver a message. Swami then very clumsily
> palms the very ring he had just materialized and we all see him
> palming it, but he then waves his hand as if creating an object, and
> no surprise "produces" the gold ring, which he gives the student. I
> could almost feel the student's thoughts "but but but you palmed
> that!" .We all knew the student had not seen it appear in mid-air, and
> I for onethought surely the boy was now filled with doubts about
> Swami. `Why he just palms things!

 Go into alt.magic.secrets, and they will tell you at least a dozen
different ways that trick could be accomplished.

>From "The Skeptic's Dictionary":
The film "Guru Busters" (Equinox) demonstrated that these alleged
miracles are little more than a magician's parlor tricks. My favorite
line from that film came from an Indian physicist who had been given a
ring allegedly materialized by Sai Baba. The physicist said that he had
a doctorate from Harvard and could not possibly be fooled by a magician.
How many times have we heard brilliant, though deluded, people issue a
similar declaration! The film depicts a group called the Indian Science
and Rationalists' Association [ISRA] as they travel throughout India
debunking and exposing as frauds local fakirs, godmen and godwomen. The
ISRA debunkers are to India what James Randi is to America and Canada.
They utilize scientific and rational principles to expose the magical
art of illusion used by Hindu mystics in performing feats of levitation
and other alleged miracles.

For more infomation about the Indian Rationalist Association contact
Sanal Edamaraku
779 Pocket 5
Mayur Vihar 1
New Delhi 110091
India

 Bart Lidofsky