Susan Boyle: ‘Wild Horses’ Won’t Hold Her Back

There are, of course, more beautiful things in life than writing about Sathya Sai Baba and his movement. Duty can have its own beauty, though it is far from an absolute form of it. The exquisite and stereotype-challenging saga of Scots singer Susan Boyle affords something closer to the absolute. (And those who have come to this page who are simply interested in her can scroll down this page to the information about her).

Though the thought of my own engagement in anything significantly-other in life courts disbelief by a prominent Internet detractor and gross defamer, my work on Sathya Sai Baba constitutes but a minor part of my frequently delightful and deeply fulfilling days. Working quickly, and having other life interests, is native to a number of former followers of Sathya Sai Baba who have stood forth to call for media and government investigation of Sathya Sai Baba and certain of his core leaders.

Indeed, many former devotees, including those active in unmasking him and his powerful worldwide cult, have long had – as has  Susan Boyle (see in the two photos below) – strong responsibilities in regard to family (she dedicatedly nursed her mother for many years), cultural activity – e.g., with involvement in bringing  joy and loving company to those such as the elderly and other marginalized groups – (Susan Boyle was a member of her Church Choir and active in her small Scottish village community), and other worthy pursuits.

Susan Boyle, Wonderful Chanteuse 

Belle Scots Chanteuse Susan Boyle Continues To Delight

Last April, deeply moved, as was so much of the rest of the world (she, by degrees of magnitude, broke all-time records for the number of hits on YouTube), by the Scottish singer Susan Boyle, I wrote of her in relation to having been the target of ageist discrimination not unlike, in its own way, that shown by the Sathya Sai Baba proxy defender on the Internet in relation to Robert Priddy, Brian Steel and myself. See:

Susan Boyle. Unexpected Divine Chanteuse. Sweet 47.

Sai Baba Internet Man’s Attacks Based On Age and Physical Appearance

Susan Boyle Sings ‘Memory’. Worldwide Audience Not Likely To Forget (See Video)

After some hardships in facing her possibly even  more than meteoric rise to super stardom Susan Boyle has now re-appeared. You can hear this lovely voice and courageous personality singing ‘Wild Horses’ by clicking on Susan Boyle’s photo or the article title below, which is at the music-related website:  http://www.undercover.com.au

 Susan Boyle Covers Rolling Stones Wild Horses – by Paul Cashmere – September 14 2009

The first single from the forthcoming debut album from Susan Boyle is indeed an interesting choice. She has covered the Rolling Stones `Wild Horses`.

The original Stones version was from the 1970 ‘Sticky Fingers’ album.

Boyle has taken the Stones acoustic track and reinvented it into a haunting Tori Amoseque version.

The album will be released in November and last week outsold the new Whitney Houston album on presales alone at Amazon.com.

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General

Excerpt From Public Petition (With Barry Pittard’s comments)

 

(Note: 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:

PETICIÓN PÚBLICA PARA INVESTIGACIONES OFICIALES DE SATHYA SAI BABA Y SU ORGANIZACIÓN A NIVEL MUNDIAL)

Sathya Sai Baba’s Slurred Speech Due To Old Age. ‘Eenadu’ News Report

Telegu Press Report Cites ‘Old Age’ Signs In Sai Baba 

 ‘Eenadu’, with over 10 million daily readers in Andhra Pradesh, the state of India in which Sathya Sai Baba lives, has reported of a speech problem he faces.

Sathya Sai Baba’s Lack of Clarity in His Speech Due To Old Age

 “Lacking in Clarity: There was a lack of clarity in Sathya Sai’s speech because of his old age. The interpreter struggled much to translate his speech into English. Satya Sai was seated in a special wheel chair which was brought very close to the car, so he could very slowly get into it. At the time of the speech, he stood up with great difficulty with the help of his assistants.”  (See reproduction of ‘Eenadu’ newspaper page, below).

One of Sai Baba’s many readily falsifiable statements is this:

“The attributes of the Avatars are beyond human comprehension…. Rama and Krishna were ever youthful. Have you ever seen a picture of Rama or Krishna with grey hair?….. Usually old people have wrinkles on their faces … I do not have any signs of old age. (loud applause). There is not a single wrinkle on My face”. Sanathana Sarathi, October, 2002.

That Sathya Sai Baba has made egregious historical and scientific blunders does not inspire confidence in his statements about pre-historical events. See my article: 

Huge Sai Baba Gaffes

He has also proclaimed:

“Many people wonder that I look so young even at the age of 73. The reason is that I have the three P’s in Me. One is Purity, the second is Patience and the third is Perseverance. It is because of these three that I shall remain like this for any number of years to come. (cheers)”  p. 302 Sanathana Sarathi, 11-1998

Various commentators have pointed to Sathya Sai Baba’s ‘turkey throat’ and other signs of ageing and disease in him. His episodes of falling over are well known – in 1998, I observed such an incident at fairly close quarters along with many shocked observers at a Puttaparthi afternoon darshan. There are also close-up, reliable eye-witness reports of his uttering of inanities, his fits of crying, his walking round and round in circles, his blank stare and mask-like face. He has also made some extraordinary faux pas, which were of such a dimension that they could not be covered up, and got into some mainstream Indian media – See:

Sai Baba Fails to Grant Great Moon Darshan

Sai Baba Fails To Appear In The Moon, IANS Reports

Is Indian ‘Godman’ Sai Baba’s Moon Waning Still Further

Sai Baba Sparks Political Furore

Examination of many photos of this octogenarian may prompt the notion that hair dye is used on his hair. 

See videos which reveal Sathya Sai Baba as unable to cut his birthday cakes any longer.

NOTE:  In an article, the context of the critique in regard to Sai Baba slide into senility, I have made it clear to any observant reader that the issue is: that his statements that he would not age are abundantly falsifiable. To interpret such a remark as in any way ageist indicates the cast of mind of a foremost Sathya Sai Baba apologist. Who in all decency and reason would wish to cast aspersions upon conditions that, alas, the flesh is all too heir to? See, Robert Priddy’s article in response to that mischief:

Joe Moreno’s schoolyard tit-for-tat attacks

See too, my article:

Sai Baba Internet Man’s Attacks Based On Age and Physical Appearance

Select Reading

Sathya Sai Baba Tells Untruths About His Health?

Sathya Sai Baba’s Hip Joint Injury and Surgery – 2003. What are the actual facts of the matter?

Sathya Sai Baba Continues To Ail

2006 – Puttparthi Village Without Water? Sai Baba Sits and Cries?

G.J. Moreno’s ’senile dementia’ slurs, avoidances & irrationality

Sathya Sai Baba Man Gerald Moreno – Banned By Eight Wikpedia Editors

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Sai Baba Internet Man’s Attacks Based On Age and Physical Appearance

I referred to the wonderful Scottish songstress Susan Boyle in my article:  Susan Boyle. Unexpected Divine Chanteuse. Sweet 47. Posted by Barry Pittard on April 17, 2009. Many others, also deeply moved, have written of her – in the media, blogs and elsewhere. Her lovely example, as seen earlier that April on Britain’s Got Talent, challenges us all. 

Many have felt that Susan Boyle can teach us a lot about qualities of true grit. Her singing and courage against stereotyping grounded on age and appearance have swept much of the industrialised world. All of us have something to learn from her, including  Gerald Moreno, of New Mexico, USA, whom important members of the Sathya Sai Organization have encouraged and assisted.

His countless attacks upon former devotees who have spoken out include very nasty references to age and appearance.  For example, denigrating Robert Priddy, Brian Steel and myself and “septuagenarians” (which I do not yet for some time have the honor of being). Another of Sai Baba’s marked insistences is respect for elders, but Moreno’s indulges in slurs such as “senile” and “half senile” etc. He refuses to see that those who have pointed out Sai Baba’s marked physical and mental decline are not making ageist remarks. They are pointing out the failure of his own prediction that, after his sixtieth birthday he would not age physically. He has also said as recently as

The merest glance at his various sites on the Internet, including his ‘Sathya Sai Baba – Life, Love & Spirituality’ show that his preoccupations are far from Sathya Sai Baba’s teachings. One of Sai Baba’s best known sayings is: Help ever. Hurt never. Moreno even intrudes into the lives and attacks those whom he thinks – based on his typically poor logic and tendency to leap to ‘worst-case’ conclusions  – are connected with the exposure of the idol for whom he has such a profound fixation. One whose teachings, moreover, stress the importance of not getting attached to the person of the guru. Practically all of Moreno’s vast output is bent on stereotyping and depersonalizing people. One result is that he demeans himself and the loving person he could be. Truth is what Moreno wants it to be.  To see the Moreno’s photo-tooling grotesqueries is to be able to determine at a glance whether this conduct exemplifies ‘love and spirituality’:

Sathya Sai Baba Man Joe Moreno’s Diabolizing Photo Alterations of Sai Baba Critics

Sathya Sai Baba Man Gerald Moreno’s Photo Attack On Robert Priddy

Who better than Susan Boyle to refer to as someone that many readers can relate to? Despite Sai Baba and his machine’s propaganda, most of the world does NOT know who he is. But vast numbers, at least in the West, and in an extraordinarily quick time, DO know who Susan Boyle is.  At the end of the first section in my article, I put this note: 

NOTE:  Those who came to this blog in regard to Susan Boyle may like now simply to go down to the section highlighted in green

Further Reading

Sathya Sai Baba Man Gerald Moreno – Banned By Eight Wikpedia Editors

Sai Baba Hatchet Man Picks On A Young Child

Joe Moreno – massive internet abuse

Sathya Sai Baba Apologist Joe Moreno’s Random Personal Attack Style (1)

Independent British scholar and author of books on philosphy and religion Kevin Shepherd on Gerald Moreno 

 Sathya Sai Baba: problems

Part Two: Profile of Gerald (Joe) Moreno and the Testimonies to strongly alleged sexual abuse by Sathya Sai Baba

See Part three on the same webpage as this last link:  ‘Part Three: Wikipedia, the rival Citizendium, and the Wikipedia ban on Gerald (Joe) Moreno’.

Susan Boyle. Unexpected Divine Chanteuse. Sweet 47.

‘Full many a gem of purest ray serene’ …

Divine British Nightingale Susan Boyle. Sweet 47. ‘Never been Kissed’ (Though Ms Boyle, given to country humour, said later that this was a joke’)

Judgementalism on the grounds of a person’s body shape, place of origin, social status, and so on, is, course, one of humanity’s most destructive tendencies. Is there a profound lesson to be learnt by every one of us? In a few moments, I shall come to the wondrous Susan Boyle, from a small village in West Lothian, Scotland, U.K., whose triumphant performance on ITV1 in UK in April 2009 would, I should think, make many of you weep freely and give her a standing ovation in your heart. May already have done so, because she has now been heard by tens of millions of people around the world.

Ms Boyle’s story inescapably reminded me of the lines of the English poet, Thomas Gray (1716-1771)

Thomas Gray. A Favourite English Poet

in his poem ‘Elegy written in a Country Churchyard’:

Full many a gem of purest ray serene
The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear:
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air.”

And I thought, too, of the stark lines in Leonard Cohen’s song ‘Chelsea Hotel’:

Leonard Cohen. Ever Loved Singer-Songwriter

“for the ones like us
who are oppressed by the figures of beauty,
you fixed yourself, you said, Well never mind,
we are ugly but we have the music”.

Some lines of Ms Boyle’s song – ‘I had a dream’ from Les Miserables – English lyrics by

Herbert Kretzmer, Lyricist

– deepen yet futher such a theme and its resonance for us:

“But the tigers come at night
With their voices soft as thunder
As they tear your hope apart
As they turn your dream to shame”

I shall come to Ms Boyle in few moments. Her moments will last forever …

NOTE:  Those who came to this blog in regard to Susan Boyle may like now simply to go down to the section highlighted in green

Judgementalism and Discrimination

Scarcely hours before I had the beatific priviledge of viewing the Susan Boyle footage, I had been musing on the topic of judgementalism on the grounds of (supposed) physical appearance.

Gerald Moreno – allied with key individuals close to Sathya Sai Baba – e.g., the saibabaofindia.com consortium – and involved in extreme defaming one after another of many around the world who have called for proper third party investigation, and raised terribly serious questions about Sai Baba and core leaders of his worldwide Sathya Sai Organization, has this to say:

“Let us see if Barry Pittard looks any better than Sathya Sai Baba does (according to one email source, his face is heavily and deeply wrinkled, his head is mostly bald and he is physically unattractive). Barry Pittard also collects a disability pension (the details of which are fanatically guarded secrets) and shows all the signs of old age. Despite this fact, Barry Pittard hypocritically points out faults in a much younger-looking Sai Baba! Barry Pittard sounds more intent on revenge & ridicule than he does on “justice”.

This piece of high spiritual felicity appears on Gerald Moreno’s ‘Sathya Sai Baba – Life, Love & Spirituality’  blog, which fairly bursts with content that surely no genuine Sai Baba follower could ever regard as embodying Sai Baba’s teachings on life, love and spirituality whatsoever.

Barry Pittard, of course, does not – as does Sathya Sai Baba – claim that he will not age or that he is, and will forever be, the fullest incarnation of God to appear on the earth. Or that he will save the entire the world before he dies circa 2022.

Strangely, Moreno published a photograph which he most mistakenly claimed to be of me with my son, whom he disgracefully named. This action, he has continued, with his customary spurious logic of a sort that will long continue to mar his work, to justify. The photo was in fact of her model! There is not a wrinkle to be seen, not a luxuriant hair out of place. He carries some other child not known to me.

Moreno set up a series of stratagems to divert business away from the company which she, with great courage, integrity and hard work has built up. He justified his misconduct by arguing from dates that he has entirely misinterpreted. It is his typical practice. Take a fact, or alleged fact, and spin it with hostile intent.

But can Moreno, at all, be referring to the fine creature I see before me in my never-cracking mirror each morning? Might this gentle critic have got me mixed up with the Elephant Man?

Sathya Sai Baba Has Said That He Will Not Age After His Sixtieth Birthday

But of course, pointing to Sai Baba’s present physical condition is entirely proper comment. It is known to many devotees and former devotees alike that he said that, after his 60th birthday, he would not age. It is but one of his many unfulfilled prophecies – impossible for Moreno or anyone to refute. See:

When Disasters Overtake S. Sai Baba’s Promises

Behold Gerald Joe Moreno’s Ageless Idol

…  the “much younger-looking Sai Baba”

“Usually old people have wrinkles on their faces … I do not have any signs of old age. (loud applause). There is not a single wrinkle on My face”. Sanathana Sarathi, October, 2002.

Usually, elderly people don’t have their hair dyed, either, but go along with nature’s inevitable processes.

Sathya Sai Baba Video. Too Weak To Cut Birthday Cake

Sathya Sai Baba Continues To Ail

Sathya Sai Baba’s Tips To Keep Ageing Away.

The Magnificent Susan Boyle

Now to Susan Boyle, the British television video of whom will, I think, give you some wonderful moments of genuine life, love and spirituality. I rather suspect some will want to download the footage and keep it as a treasure. There are some versions on the Internet which do not include the extra minutes. But the off-stage moments, the many revealing shots of the audience and judges AND her singing of  ‘I Dreamed A Dream’ from Les Miserables are all to be savoured in the YouTube version, see below. No doubt many parents and teachers will use it in educating their charges on the issue of judgements and stereotypes. Not too much use doing that unless we educate ourselves, first.

A Cry For Blood Is Not A Far Cry Away From A Cry From The Heart

And then to drive the question, first, to ourselves and then to our societies: What supposing Ms Boyle had not triumphed in her song?! Are we some frenzied mob at the athenaeum-bear pit-meatmarket? Are we forever to cooperate with the forces that only allow ‘glamorous’ figures and faces to appear on stage and in videos and movies?

“I’m going to make that audience rock”.

Did you ever see a standing ovation like this one? Was there anything that did not tell against her?

Unless it was her cheeky and absolutely justified self-confidence. With her radiant naturalness and marvelous self-purpose, seconds before going on stage, the Divine Ms Boyle says, “I’m going to make that audience rock”.  At first, the audience and the judges barely prevented themselves from falling over.

Wave on wave of scorn, disbelief, judgementalism, ageism and cynicism crashed towards her. For no better reason than the profound brainwashing of all of us by the movie, fashion and advertizing industries and other forces of human immaturity and oppression.

There were her age, her bodyshape, her dress sense (or lack of it), her … um … primal hairdo, her el cheapo neck chain, her humble village origins. Her whole self, as she purposely strode onto the stage, stood against the stereotype of success, whether on stage or in (so-called) ‘real life’ at large. Moments before going on-stage she even grabbed a bit of a sandwich – white bread and all!

In the video, note audience’s and judges’ air of barely concealed cynicism, disbelief, patronisation, and judgementalism. And then, from the first moments of her opening her mouth to sing – the powerful wave of change … Or rather, of transformation. Our transformation. She is already transformed, having duteously served her sick mother over the years, and became love in the village which, too, gave her life.

All mockers are confronted by their good angel. Dressed like it is thought that angels don’t dress.

Judging and Self-judging

In the moments after Susan Boyle has sung in her crowning triumph, the judges – Amanda Holden, Simon Cowell, and Piers Morgan – variously make comments such as:

“We were all being very cynical. That was the greatest wake-up call – ever!”

“Without a doubt, this is the biggest surprise I have had in the three years of doing this show”.

“The biggest ‘Yes’ I have given anybody”

Widetrends reports:  “Susan Boyle is also being lined up for an appearance on the Oprah Winfrey Show which would give her the chance of a number one album in the US”.

Here are the responses of two children to whose lovely responses on the Susan Boyles video segment I was privy, and wrote down verbatim straight after:

6-year old girl

Adult: Why did all the people laugh at the lady when she walked on stage?

Girl: Because she is fat they think she can’t sing, and they don’t want her to be on the stage.

Adult: Why did the people change their mind?

Girl: Because she sang so beautifully.

9 year old boy

Adult: What did you reckon about the lady?

Boy: She’s not scared. She didn’t care what the people thought, she walked fastly and stood straight.

The Divine Ms Boyle. Coming World, Ready Or Not

Source: YouTube. 2009. To view, click on photo

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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:

PETICIÓN PÚBLICA PARA INVESTIGACIONES OFICIALES DE SATHYA SAI BABA Y SU ORGANIZACIÓN A NIVEL MUNDIAL)

Sathya Sai Baba’s Former Devotees. A Personal Note

Against a formidable instinct in human nature, most former devotees have, for not far short of two decades, refrained from striking back at those who have so massively vilified and defamed them.

A Personal Note 

My own notion shared with other internationally networked former followers was that we had best focus on our central task of exposing the central figures, Sai Baba himself and the leaders of his international Sathya Sai Organization.  Only in the tiniest minority of cases was there not agreement with this conservative view. A small number, quite young in age, wished to engage the other side in, as it were, fierce aerial combat, and any difference on either side of the “cyber wars” lines of battle was scarcely, if at all, noticeable: flaming, volley for volley of abuse. The spectacle was all so inspirationally edifying that one had no desire to read further. 

Cooperation In Serving Those Most Betrayed

One of the refreshing characteristics of internationally networked former Sai Baba followers is that members have used consensual approaches among ourselves. Unfortunately, yes, secrecy was essential. There were very vulnerable psychological survivors among both individuals and families.

There has been a lot of listening and sensitivity to each other, and of poring carefully over essential documents. It is strange how, out of something so terrible, once we share in a deep trust and compassion, there can be something emerge that is so wonderful. It has not quite felt that we are the demons that Sathya Sai Baba has portrayed us as being in his angry, lecturn-thumbing, name-calling, self-vaunting Christmas discourse (December 2000), that had precious little to do with Christ. He called his critics ‘Judases’, ‘demons’, and claimed that there would be no salvation for them. He also said that the dissent against him was motivated by money. (What a jaw-dropper that was for that not-insignificant number of economically challenged critics, who have, indeed for reasons of spiritual development, long taken the path of simply living!)

It should never be lost sight of that many in the Sathya Sai Organization, from the leadership to the rank-and-file knew that this was not true. For his statements were about individuals they had for decades known, honored, loved and served alongside in so many service and other activities.

Regrettable Secrecy

Certainly, in the movement of organized exposure, there has been the need for what I have elsewhere called a “regrettable secrecy”. It is likely that there will be those in Sai Baba’s organization who feel the same way. However, this should not absolve them from their accountability. In the article Secrecy Needs In Exposing A Top Global Cult, I wrote:

“Curiously, here were we – noting how the core leadership of the Sathya Sai Baba cult was so extremely secret. To the less analytic, our position can but appear to be a blatant contradiction. But it is an irony, not an hypocrisy …

… What does the layperson know of sexual abuse? The exceptions in our midst were those very qualified mental health professionals such as Shirley Pike and (the late) Elena Hartgering, Barbara Shocket, Dave Brandt and others who have preferred that their names not be used. We were entering a world of anguish and complexity. What we learnt was that the first requirement is to listen with compassion. It is the opposite of what cultic defenders show, who race to judgement, leap to the worst imaginable conclusions, and condemn  any who should dare to attempt to communicate their account of abuse”.

Survivors of Sai Baba’s serial, widespread sexual abuse of boys and young men and other abuses have been advised to debrief their shocking experiences with very qualified, respected professional counselors. And indeed to go all out to ensure that those of real ability are found, and not someone who will see the answer in suppressive drugs or ‘counseling’ from some narrow or partisan agenda.

The Savage Attacking of the Vulnerable and Wounded

Even without traumatic psychological upheavals that attend sexual molestation, youth is typically (remember it?!) a time full of disruption, confusion and anguish. Internet attackers – e.g., Gerald Moreno – on the statements of those such as Alaya Rahm and many others show – have been deemed by complete third parties from law and the healing professions etc., to show acute lack of sensitivity to this framework. They also question whether it is advisable for young who are so very wounded by their experiences to have so publicly bared their troubles. To be confused, forgetful of dates, times or places, or behave neurotically does not mean that abuses have not occurred. One of the chief difficulties comes when those with a responsibility – as had the Sathya Sai Organization – for proactive and healingful responses do not acquit their duties with understanding and compassion. Because of its profound failure here, that organization has brought upon itself the massive exposure that has occured especially from circa 2000 to this day. Renewed opprobrium falls upon it yet more so because of its acquiescence with the state of affairs that closely links Gerald Moreno with saibabaofindia.com. This is a highly active group little short of being official, but whose members include those close to Sathya Sai Baba.

No Sathya Sai Baba devotee who is a properly qualified and competent psychologist, psychotherapist, psychiatrist, social worker etc., could ever condone Moreno’s attacking styles, which have been constant.

There is the sad fact that Moreno’s gross misconduct, and that of the Sai Baba leaders and other members who co-operate with him, brings into discredit others who do not merit it. For many Sai Baba devotees, who genuinely strive in their spiritual endeavour to be compassionate, good and caring individuals, are not as he. They have done and continue to do, for example, much worthy and unselfish work for the less fortunate in society, just as, be it noted, is the case with many former devotees active in exposing Sathya Sai Baba. It would be hard to imagine that Moreno, who inhabits the cyber world by night and day, would have any time left for it. The reason why writers like Priddy, Steel, and Pittard can write prolifically, and yet have ample time left for family, friendships and community involvement is because our university training and disciplined work habits of a lifetime allow us to achieve much work in shorter time.

Former Devotee Working Relationship

We have been with each other, even though mostly via ‘hands across the ocean’, in times of birth deaths and marriages, job change, retirement (refreshment!) – the joys and sorrows, the great rolling of the Seasons. We deeply and happily remember sadly-departed wonderful spirits like Glen Meloy and Elena Hartgering (who was one of the first professional counselors called on to hasten to New York to attend those shattered lives among the smoldering remnants of the 9/11 events).

The rapport – far from the dread conspiracy that Sai Baba apologists (See HERE and HERE) have tirelessly and offensively speculated to exist – is especially gratifying when one considers how widely national, cultural, religious and non-religious has been its composition. There could have been so many cross-purposes, but those that did exist were usually resolved well, with people learning from each other, rather than making shallow compromises.

This quality of listening and sorting out is very different to the top heavy, Soviet-style that has, over the years, developed in the international Sathya Sai Organization. One seriously discordant note that I recall is when a Christian fundamentalist was, frankly, a pain-in-the neck. When he marched off in high dudgeon (the issue was whether to include people’s professional qualifications in a joint letter) great were the sighs of relief. Pretty obviously, the response would have been the same had he been a fundamentalist of any kind. Even then, ALL participants remained courteous to him, though certainly not agreement.

A small list of those who have spoken out is below. It omits many names. This is because individuals have wanted, as they express it, to move on or not to have their names plastered over the Internet by profoundly insensitive, unconscionable individuals such as Gerald Moreno. A quick test in the latter’s case is to Google this name, and immediately you will note the countless usages of words that are: defamatory, libelous, disparaging, vituperative, aggressive, strident, malicious, strong-arming, and so on. A more recent addition has been Moreno’s repeated ageism.

These are not the words that befit any of the great spiritual or ethical paths, and are directly counter the teachings of his own idol, Sathya Sai Baba and other famous spiritual teachers whom Moreno has referenced – Sri Ramana Maharshi, Mata Amritanandamayi, etc. Brian Steel has written:

With such powerful links to devotees and others through the unofficial promotional SSB network and further boosted by his tireless Search Engine Optimization activities, Moreno has engineered, for the moment, a high Internet profile to project his own “smear campaign” with its egregious deceit and dishonesty – and smokescreens.

But this has its difficulties for Moreno, and for the Sathya Sai Organization that is now so closely linked in public fora to his name and and protean activities. Steel writes further: 

Already Moreno’s reckless behaviour has earned him public condemnation on the Internet for one high-profile but minor part of his extensive campaign. Thanks to his aggressive attempt to dictate to Wikipedia contributors what should and should not be included in their (controversial) article on Sathya Sai Baba he has received an official rebuff from that prominent Internet institution. After months of Moreno’s abrasive demands and provocative   filibustering, the already heated Wikipedia debate became incandescent and vituperative, leading, inevitably, to the intervention of an Arbitration Committee. After three months of discussions, in March 2007, Joe Moreno (as ‘User SSS108’) and others involved in the debate were banned indefinitely from contributing to the Wikipedia Sathya Sai Baba article, its Discussion page and related articles. (Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Requests_for_arbitration/Sathya_Sai_Baba_2)

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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Select Readings

Brian D. Steel

Research on Sathya Sai Baba and the Sathya Sai Organisation. New Factors for Researchers to Consider

Kevin Shepherd

 Sathya Sai Baba: problems

Timothy Conway

 Timothy Conway Ph.D – On ‘The Hislop Letters’