Kevin R.D. Shepherd Exposes Sathya Sai Baba Defender Gerald Moreno
Posted by Barry Pittard on August 24, 2009
Certainly, prominent critics of Sathya Sai Baba and his sect number those who take more scholarly or, to say the least, civil approaches in writing on these topics. Nonetheless, it is good to find an independent scholar who has spent real time in studying these issues. One finds that he too, has come under aggressive, defamatory, unprincipled attack from Gerald Moreno. It is something that others of us who have written on the Sathya Sai Baba issue have become well used to.
I refer to the independent British author on religion and philosophy Kevin R.D. Shepherd.
Kevin R.D.Shepherd. British author and scholar, Philosophy and Religion
His older website – http://citizeninitiative.com/ – cites academics of renown who have supported his work, such as the eminent British psychologist, Robert H.Thouless, (1894-1984) who wrote the best-selling “Straight and Crooked Thinking”. Shepherd has just put online another website – http://www.kevinrdshepherd.info. It deals with topics on which he has written widely – philosophy, religion and psychology. Although Kevin Shepherd has never had affiliation with Sathya Sai Baba or his worldwide movement, nor friendship with former followers of Sathya Sai Baba, one section deals with Gerald ‘Joe’ Moreno, a highly aggressive, vituperative, defamatory pro Sathya Sai Baba defender, who works with assistance – they in the background – from prominent as well as rank-and-file Sai Baba personnel in different parts of the world.
The Attack of Scurrility Upon Urbanity
It is an extraordinary state of affairs when writers who have spent their lifetimes in civil, academic and urbane discourse are set upon – especially by those who would presuppose a moral highground of love, light and spirituality.
The title of one of Moreno’s nest of attack sites is: Sathya SaiBaba – Love, Light and Spirituality. If anyone can find much of these qualities at that and at his other sites (via which, complexly and interactively, he constantly manipulates search engine ratings), I shall be most surprised. See:
Sathya Sai Baba Love, Light and Spirituality Exposed
Below, I have included a number of readings relating to individuals of a serious and civil sort who have been set upon by Moreno.
Kevin R.D.Shepherd writes in his introduction to the several sections:
“Certainly, Moreno can be interpreted as the exact opposite of the benign sentiment quoted. Joe Moreno of New Mexico has been described as a web harasser and internet terrorist, a role which he has recently demonstrated in relation to an outsider, namely myself (who has never been a devotee or an ex-devotee). See my Web Tactics of Pro-Sai Activism (2009).
The sectarian blogger has mistakenly identified me with with ex-devotees. I am not one of that unfortunate category. Those people have frequently expressed their grievances on the web, and in a variety of forms. I do not agree with all the idioms and strategies visible in that field. In particular, the blog domain is foreign to my own disposition”.
A glance at Kevin R.D. Shepherd’s index appearing on his new website where he deals with Gerald Moreno is instructive in and of itself, indicating the sheer range and aggressive severity of Moreno’s preoccupations:
CONTENTS KEY
5.1 Harassment on Google Search
5.2 Hate Campaign of Gerald Joe Moreno
5.3 Offensive Descriptions on Google Search
5.4 The Findhorn Foundation Misattribution
5.5 Misleading Tactic of Gerald Joe Moreno
5.6 New Age Confusions and Sectarian Misinformation
5.7 Defamatory Sectarian Blog
5.8 Self Publishing as Distinct from Vanity Publishing
5.9 Web Harassment Requires Exposing
5.10 The Militant Sectarian Campaign of Gerald Joe Moreno
5.11 Penetrating the Blog Underworld
5.12 Duplicated Items on Pseudonymous Blog
5.13 The Reductionist Anti-Guru Label
5.14 The Anti-Sai Complexity
5.15 The Proof of Internet Terrorism
5.16 The Sheilawaring User Name
A Philosopher Sleuth Vs An Unprincipled Sleuth
For those with an interest in the ever-pressing topic of the nefarious manipulation of Internet technology by obscurantist forces – I might point my readers to the latter section, 5.16. Dated July 2009, it is a lucid exposition of a few types of deception characteristic of Moreno, who has made a speciality of cyber attack via manipulation of search engine characteristics and methodologies. Step by meticulous step, Shepherd lays bare some of the Moreno modus. Screen captures, date-spotting and and forensic revealing and exposition are of Kevin R.D. Shepherd’s essence here. The alert reader can distinguish between sleuthing sprung of philosophical skill and habit and Moreno’s roughneck sleuthing which would hunt for shaky pegs on which to hang endless distortion and fabrication. Shepherd speaks of Moreno’s “prolific imagination”, commenting that “The conflatory and distorting tendencies of Joe Moreno are extreme”.
Select Further Resources
The Sathya Sai Baba Cordon in Wikipedia
Kevin Shepherd’s detailed discussion (not that writings of this scholar are at virtually any time less than detailed, though the style is engaging and incisive) of Moreno’s aggressive tactics in the ‘Sathya Sai Baba’ article on Wikipedia. For this incessant misconduct, senior administrators banned Moreno. Shepherd writes:
“ In March 2007, Gerald Joe Moreno (alias SSS108) was banned indefinitely from Wikipedia after transgressing against one of the administrators who had warned him. The official report relates that he was voted against unanimously by the six arbitrators in the case. See the Wikipedia file Requests for arbitration/Sathya Sai Baba 2. The vote meant that he was banned from editing the Sathya Sai Baba entry and related articles or talk pages.Two of his colleagues (named elsewhere as Lisa de Witt and Simon Brace) were also banned in this manner”.
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Gerald “Joe” Moreno’s Google infovandalism
Alan Kazlev, yet another writer who is typically guarded in his use of words, has applied the term “infovandalism” to Moreno’s cyber attacks:
“We tend to assume that information found online will be reliable. That Google provides unbiased search results, that Wikipedia is a decent alternative to Brittanica. My experience with the abusive and totalitarian Sai Baba follower Gerald “Joe” Moreno has shown me one example of how Google and other resources like
WordPress and
So extensive is the disinformation and biasing of the original search results that the term “infovandalism” may appropriately be applied. All three screenshots were made on the 2nd April 2008. Doubtless results will change with time. Note that although Google has a
complaints form, they don’t seem to have acted on this matter”.
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Diversionary Tactics by an Internet Demagogue. The pro-Sathya Sai Baba Campaign of Gerald (‘Joe’) Moreno. Brian Steel, December 2007 (Updated March 2008)
For brief introductions to select writing of Brian Steel, see my articles:
- Brian Steel Demythologizes Early Foreign-led Sathya Sai Baba Myths
- Brian Steel On John Hislop’s 27 Years as Sathya Sai Baba’s Spokesman
- Brian Steel On Sathya Sai Baba’s Credibility Gap. John Hislop Contributions
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Timothy Conway Ph.D.
Al Rahm
In regard of Moreno’s extraordinary ability to contort and misrepresent facts, and his attacking style, two writings that would invite the description: grace and self-restraint whilst under fire are by Timothy Conway Ph.D. and Al Rahm (both former prominent leaders in the Sathya Sai Baba movement):
The crucial John Hislop letters, Sathya Sai Baba, & Sathya’s defender Joe Moreno
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(Former longtime leader of the Sathya Sai Organization, Norway, author and retired academic, University of Oslo, Norway)
Joe Moreno – massive internet abuse
The Gerald Joe Moreno dossier – part 1
Moreno’s deception re David Bailey Phone Conversation
Sai Baba Proxy Attacker of Ex-followers and the Media
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(Former lecture in English: Sri Sathya Sai College, Whitefield, via Bangalore, Karnataka, South India)
Sathya Sai Baba’s Former Devotees. A Personal Note
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List of Notable Former Devotees Who Have Honorably Spoken Out – Despite Attacks Upon Them
The list also excludes many who are known or understood to have spoken out but of whom we lack proper documentation. Many who have spoken up were prominent leaders in the Sathya Sai Organization – who, the moment the stood forth, became non-persons – demeaned, shunned, defamed. Some outspoken individuals have been:
Britt-Marie Anden, Serguei Badaev, David and Faye Bailey, Stephen Carthew, Timothy Conway Ph.D, John and Ella Evers, Terry Gallagher, Hariram Jayaram, Conny Larsson, William Lo, Dave Lyons, Glen Meloy, Alexandra Nagel, Richard Nelson, Roy Pendragon, Shirley Pike, Sharon Purcell, Reidun and Robert Priddy, Al Rahm, Marisa Rahm, Alaya Rahm, Rick Raines … (For latter family, See: Alaya Rahm’s Lawsuit vs Sathya Sai Society of America – Joint Statement by the International JuST Group and the Rahm family and Al Rahm’s Explanatory Letter), Diana Scott (Payne), Brian D. Steel …
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General
Excerpt From Public Petition
(Note: The above articles contextualizes. Or you may prefer to proceed straight to the Petition):
Public Petition For Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization
There is a Spanish version available:
Call For Media and Government Investigation 
Up-date on blogs exposing Sathya Sai Baba « Forum for critics of Sai Baba & his cult said
[…] R.D. Shepherd Exposes Sathya Sai Baba Defender Gerald Moreno A wide-ranging author whose civil and scholarly approach to the subject he treats had – among many others – become the target of unprincipled, derogatory and low-minded attacks by Sathya Sai Baba’s chief campaigner on the Internet. […]