Guardians of Our Young? Or De Facto Sexual Abuse Pimps?
Posted by Barry Pittard on March 30, 2007
Glen Hart. Valmai Worthington. Peter Rae (Australia). Hal Honig (NY, USA). Kindly explain yourselves. Given your ‘Lord’ Sai Baba’s long fascination with boys and young men, are you warning them and their parents, and those who you lead to Sai Baba, of what you know to be the facts?
In her interview in April 1998, a close friend of mine, an Australian member, as was I, of Valmai Worthington’s group told me she saw Sai Baba covertly grasp the penis of a young man, Michael, who was a member of a group led by Glen Hart of South Australia who seemed to me to be in his mid to late twenties. Another such incident, told to me by Maria Quoos, who now leads the Sathya Sai Organization in Poland, I report in my piece “Sai Baba and Sexual Grooming”:
https://barrypittard.wordpress.com/2007/02/26/sai-baba-and-sexual-grooming/
Seeding Kundalini – or Sowing Confusion and Angst?
Straight after the interview, on the ‘hill’ behind the Mandir (Temple), my informant spoke to Michael, who told her that he was “spun out by it all” (highly confused). One keeps discovering that many Sai devotees know at the very least of Sai Baba’s holding of the penises of young males. They need to stop to ask themselves why it is that this practice is confined to young males. It is no use their responding – as they commonly do – that Sai Baba is e.g., “calming raging hormones”, “balancing the kundalini”, and other such vacuity. Do young girls not have raging hormones? And even if there were such a thing as kundalini, do young girls not have it? Whatever may be the case, Sai Baba is not a licenced medical practitioner who would, in very strictly defined clinical situations, be permitted to examine or treat genitalia. In short, Sai Baba breaks the law – on countless occasions.
Sai Baba Lacks Even Basic Circumspection
In my own interview in August of that year, I saw Glen Hart draped over Sai Baba in a most intimate way, with Sai Baba and Hart showering mutual affection – for example, both playing with each other’s hands. It looked, for example, like two young girls displaying intimacy and affection for each other. In over two decades of devotion to him, I had never seen such a display by him. Over time, over a dozen reports that Sai Baba was not the celibate Swami he purports to be I had dismissed as impossible. In retrospect, I realize that I had seen in the Glen Hart and Sai Baba display a situation that no circumspect elder would allow. What we may expect from proven letches like Bill Clinton we do not expect from a mature leader, religious or otherwise!
It may also be recalled that allegations of young male sexual molestation by Sai Baba were intensifying on the Internet right at this very time. We now learn from Mark Roche and Al Rahm (for example, in the BBC television documentary The Secret Swami, 2004) – but from innumerable others – that Sai Baba’s handling of young males’ genitals – has been going on for many decades.
Peter Rae – the ‘Sai Brother’ I Really Didn’t Know
My ex-partner’s and my group was led by Valmai Worthington of Queensland, who in the last quarter of 1997 told me by phone that Sai Baba had appointed her to look after the interests of a Sai devotee family whose two children had been very badly sexually abused by Peter Rae, an Australian documentary film maker, an old ‘Sai brother’ of mine, and attend court proceedings against Rae. I did not tell Mrs Worthington that I had also an account of this terrible occurrence from a (then) very dear Sai Baba devotee friend of mine, a medical doctor who knew the family and had received from his own sources very indicting information concerning Peter Rae. (An unusually reliable source I will share with bona fide investigators informed that the damage to one or both of the children required surgical intervention). I noticed that Peter Rae still had a priviledged seat at the entrance to Sai Baba’s mandir (temple) and was still, along with James Redmond (Sai Baba’s videographer who was also there during these months), permitted to take photographs and videos of Sai Baba in a way permitted to almost no other individual from any country. (I may add that James Redmond has told a number of us former followers of Sai Baba he has various film footage in which it is clear that Sai Baba is faking miraculous materializations)
I subsequently learnt that back in Australia, Peter Rae was still permitted to visit Sai Baba centers but must be accompanied by responsible adults in the presence of young children. However, in Puttaparthi, Rae – who I knew well, or rather thought I did! – could be often seen in the company of very young boys from a nearby village where he was making a film about Sai Baba when young. I sought out a senior member of Sai Baba’s ‘Security and Intelligence wing’ and expressed my concerns. He assured me that they would be taken seriously. Today, I would not be so naively trusting! I would at the very least do a rigorous follow-up to see whether proper accountability mechanisms had locked into place.
Former National Sai Baba Leader Warned of At-Risk Situations
Terry Gallagher, the former national Spiritual Coordinator of the Sathya Sai Organization of Australia and Papua and New Guinea, has since confirmed to me that he spent many hours with Mrs Worthington patiently going through extensive evidence he had collected (including from Sai Baba’s college students) of Sai Baba’s sexual molestations, which had caused him to resign as head of the Australian organization However, Valmai Worthington has continued to lead groups, including boys and young men, to Sai Baba.
(Ironically, Terry Gallagher is the brother-in-law of the current leader of the Sathya Sai Organization in Australia, Neville Fredericks. Terry and his wife after years of intense devotion left Sai Baba on acute ethical grounds. He has told me that, after considerable efforts but failing to convince the organization of the seriousness of the sexual abuse allegations, he now remains silent so as to maintain a business relationship with Fredericks and to keep the peace within the family). Why is it that the prophet Jeremiah’s lamentation keeps coming into my mind when I think of those who shut up in favour of the quiet life, and lie down with grievous offenders? Jeremiah 6:14 (GWT): “They treat my people’s wounds as though they were not serious, saying, ‘Everything is alright! Everything is alright!’ But it’s not alright”. Or, if you prefer the King James version: “Peace, peace; when there is no peace”.
The Truth Commission Model May Show Sai Devotees The Honest Way Out
Other group leaders from various countries who we know to have been informed that Sai Baba sexually abuses boys and young men still take groups of all ages to see him. There is repeated evidence that they still do not inform parents of global allegations concerning Sai Baba, nor that highly respected individuals like Terry Gallagher and many other former and esteemed leaders and members, make them. Leaders tell rank-and-file members that those making the allegations are a small disgruntled handful. Blind to commonsense, deaf to basic reasoning processes, rapid to leap to worst case speculations about the motivations of Sai Baba dissenters, Sai Baba’s devotees typically believe that former devotees have become, in an instant, transformed into demons. Racing into deep denial, vacating all commonsense, these devotees chronically deny the good standing of those they have long loved and respected, and worked and worshipped beside. History is bound to ‘out’ those who do this. They cannot possibly defend themselves on the grounds of truth and compassion. They will need, above all, to express profound sorrow, and admit profound failure in Duty of Care, towards those Sai Baba has so criminally, and for so many decades, abused. Perhaps some of the Truth Commission experiences and insights may assist Sai Baba devotees to pull themselves out of their dilemma. It would be a great pity if the good social uplift works done by many good and decent Sai Baba devotees were to be damaged by the revelations already so extensively available, with many more on their way. Starting points are:
http://www.truthcommission.org/
http://www.doj.gov.za/trc/
Highly Qualified Abuse Psychologist Shirley Pike Accuses Hal Honig: “A pimp for Sai Baba”
Over the years, concerns have been expressed relating to groups led by Hal Honig of Manhattan, New York, a U.S. cultural attaché in Rome in the 60’s and now one of the most senior leaders of the Sathya Sai Organization in the U.S., including being, Peter Pan-like, the head of the Sai Youth wing. See my article “Will Sai Baba Keep Hal Honig Smiling?” at:
https://barrypittard.wordpress.com/2007/03/22/will-sai-baba-keep-hal-honig-smiling/
In the late 90’s, Shirley Pike, a very qualified psychologist with years of experience sexual abuse counseling, including of many children, began to to discover compelling evidence that pointed to Sai Baba’s serial sexual abuse of boys and young men. Mrs Pike was President, North Carolina Region and President of Cedar Rapids Center, Iowah. She denounced Hal Honig at a large Sai Organization gathering as “Sai Baba’s pimp.”
But then – how many pimps does Sai Baba, India’s most powerful and influential guru, who has millions of devotees, have? And must we not hold the many group leaders who have young males in their groups – supposedly in loco parentis – extremely accountable? And what to mention Sai Baba’s often very wealthy and influential leaders around the world who cover up for him on the grand scale – even, the evidence makes clear, ensuring that governments do not ‘rock the boat with India in matters pertaining to Sai Baba?
The Public PetitionInformation on the Public Petition for Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization
About the Petition For Official Investigation Into Sathya Sai Baba Cult
(Note: You may prefer to go straight to the Petition): Public Petition For Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization
Call For Media and Government Investigation 
A Sathya Sai Saga. Barry Pittard Recollects. Part 4 « Call For Media and Government Investigation said
[…] serial sexual abuse of young males. He told me that he had extensively shown documentation to Valmai Worthington, a Brisbane leader of the Sathya Sai Organization, who has led many groups to from Australia to see […]