Rev. Sun Myung Moon and Sathya Sai Baba Cults: Some Striking Similarities

In his blog Mind your Mind, Chris Doktor, a Dutch psychotherapist, writes instructively of certain similarities between the renowned cult leader, the late, self-proclaimed Korean ‘Messiah’ and multibillionaire tycoon Reverend Sun Myung Moon and the late Sathya Sai Baba. See:  Grand Send-off to Moon: Strikingly Similar to Sathya Sai Baba in Life and Death.

That charismatic and authoritarian cultic figures like Moon and Sai Baba, can gain such a grip on the masses suggests the need for a serious social thinking. Although it is important to look at the dangers they present, it is also crucial that we consider what rational and emotional deficits exist in society. And, dare we say, in ourselves.

Sathya Sai Baba. For a decade, increasingly succumbing to decrepitude, despite foretelling that, from his 60th birthday, he would not physically age

In his last few years Sathya Sai Baba succumbed to dementia and a raft of other ailments. These troubles falsified his own repeated prophecies – species of his megalamania – that he would look forever young, travel to various parts of the world, die in his 90’s effectively ruling the world by that time, and reincarnate shortly after as ‘Prema Sai Baba’.  Here is but a sample of his well-documented, terribly failed statements, which his followers blindly ignore:

In a February 1 16, 2007 ‘divine discourse’, Sai baba said: 

“I intend to undertake a world tour, shortly”.

“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

“In the days ahead, the whole world will be obliged to come to Prashanthi Nilayam” (p. 320, Sanathana Sarathi December 1991)

“The whole world will be transformed into Sathya Sai Organisation and Sathya Sai will be installed in the hearts of one and all”.  p. 16 Sanathana Sarathi January 1999)

“Swami’s mission has made this turn to face the runway. The 70th birthday was the signal from the tower to accelerate. In the 75th birthday, the airplane will leave the ground”. Sri Sathya Sai Newsletter, USA, 31, Winter 1996-1997, 29.)

“Bhagavan told the group of his students, that His mission can be compared with an aeroplane that is going to take off. Up to 70th birthday his mission would be like an aeroplane going along the take-off track and gaining speed. These days the aeroplane is rushing and speeding up and will take off at the 75th birthday”. Sai Reflections: The UK Sai Organisation. Quarterly Magazine: February, 1997, p.15)

See my articles:  

Sick and Ailing Sathya Sai Baba 85. His Promises to Look Young Have Failed

Sathya Sai 85th Birthday. Has Said He Will Soon Rule World, And Not Age

Sai Baba 83. Has Said He Will Rule World

‘World Hindu’ by 2030. VHP’s Singhal Reports Sathya Sai Baba Told Him

The Danger We Invite In Ignoring Cults and Cultists

If we focus solely on the cult phenomenon – or the other great fault, ignore it – we invite failure to look at the human conditions of which we are a part, which create the hunger for the irrational, and, as too often, the appeal of the authoritarian figure who has all the ‘answers’.  

The threats to the open society of cults increase according to how we tend to ignore them. My writings on society’s powerful turning of blind eyes to insidious problems like pedophilia make, essentially the same point:  it is the social failure to face difficult issues. It is the failure to come clean, and to speak out, and to support those who are speaking out.

Allowing a few whistleblowers and advocates for social chance to shoulder the brunt of the work is, simply, cowardice. It is also unreality, because, sooner or later our own families and communities are stricken. 

Crowds at Sathya Sai Baba’s birthday celebrations at Puttaparthi, Andhra Pradesh, South India, 2008

Chris Doktor notes:

“Like Sai Baba, Moon was a deeply narcissistic man, who reveled in mass adoration and was in dire need of constant and singular attention, claiming to be a special spiritual entity who, if accepted as a personal master, protected you from harm and opened up the gates of Heaven to his true followers”.

Thousands gather for elaborate farewell to Moonie church founder known as their ‘True Father’

By JILL REILLY

PUBLISHED: 08:50 GMT, 15 September 2012 | UPDATED: 10:36 GMT, 15 September 2012
Ten of thousands of followers gathered today at the funeral of Sun Myung Moon, a self-proclaimed messiah who founded the Unification Church. 

He was buried at a church-owned mansion modelled on the White House after a two-week mourning period.

His followers gathered at Gapyeong, an hour outside the capital Seoul, to say a final goodbye to Moon, a man who dubbed himself the ‘True Parent’ of those he married in mass ceremonies and who once proposed himself as ‘supreme chairman” of a reunited Korea.

Family affair: Hyung-Jin Moon (front second right), International President of the Unification Church and youngest son of Evangelist Reverend Sun-Myung Moon, leads the honor guards in carrying the body of his father. 

Well-wishers: A packed crowd watched as the casket carrying Sun-Myung Moon e late founder of the Unification Church was carried at the CheongShim Peace World Center in Gapyeong, about 60 km (37 miles) northeast of Seoul

United: Mourners raise arms after the funeral of the controversial founder

Ornate display: A giant image of the late founder was displayed at the service in front of hundreds of flowers

The church claimed that about 35,000 followers and mourners with some 15,000 from abroad attended the funeral service at the Cheongshim Peace World Center in Gapyeong, about 60 km east of Seoul.

The ceremony was officially titled ‘Sun Myung Moon, the True Parent of Heaven and Earth, Memorial and Ascension Ceremony.’

Men dressed in black suits with white ties and women in white or ivory dresses for the ceremony. 

Many sobbed quietly as the cortege carried Moon’s red-and-gold casket to the altar inside a vast hall in the church complex.

Grieving: Han Hak Ja, wife of late Unification Church founder Sun Myung Moon, weeps during his funeral ceremony. His wife remains the symbolic head of the mission that oversees the entire Tongil, Korean for Unification group

Red roses: Flowers were a central theme of the service and single red roses encased in cellophane were handed out to mourners

Procession: Moon is survived by his wife and 10 of their 13 children. But his eldest son Hyun Jin, the chairman of UCI, which owns the UPI news agency, did not attend the funeral. Church officials did not give details about why he was not there

Many mourners watched on live broadcasts around the campus.

Some offered roses and lilies, Moon’s favourite flowers, and bowed before the portrait ringed with roses.

Church officials did not give details about why he was not there. 

‘His will is a divine will, different from normal people,’ said 69-year-old office worker Jeong Hye-ok.

‘I believe he will establish a foundation to build a heavenly world that unifies peace on earth.’ 

‘He will be in our minds permanently,’ said Lee Ok-su, a church choir member, her face flushed with emotion. ‘He is our benevolent yet strict father.’

Followers: Critics for years have vilified the church as a heretical and dangerous cult and questioned its murky finances and how it indoctrinates followers, described in derogatory terms as ‘Moonies’

Memorial: Believers of the Unification Church make a deep bow during the ceremony 

Mourning: A family member carries a portrait of late Rev. Sun Myung Moon – he built a multibillion-dollar business empire stretching from the Korean Peninsula to the United States

Remembrance: More than 30,000 mourners, many weeping openly, attended the elaborate, flower-strewn funeral in South Korea

The funeral, which lasted more than two hours, began when men wearing military honor guard-style uniforms carried Moon’s coffin into a multipurpose gymnasium. 

They slowly carried it up red-carpeted steps decked with flowers and placed it in front of a large portrait of Moon. 

Many mourners wept as a top church official said in a speech that Moon was moving into a spiritual world after completing the messianic role that God had asked of him.

Crowds: A funeral car loaded with a portrait of the late Sun Myung Moon drives past followers after his funeral ceremony

Weeping: Men dressed in black suits with white ties and women in white or ivory dresses for the ceremony. Many sobbed quietly as the cortege carried Moon’s red-and-gold casket to the altar inside a vast hall in the church complex

Flower-covered transport: A funeral car containing the body of late Unification Church founder Sun Myung Moon drives past followers. He was buried at a church-owned mansion modelled on the White House today after a two-week mourning period

Han Hak Ja (front), wife of late Unification Church founder Sun Myung Moon, mourns her late husband while his the youngest son of the late Rev. Sun Myung Moon, sings a hymn 

Legacy: Rev. Sun Myung Moon died aged 92 on Sept. 3 of complications due to pneumonia. The church he founded is now run by his youngest son, while the business entities are run by another son

Popular: Those who could not get into the service watched on live broadcasts around the campus

Moon started the church after claiming Jesus appeared to him while he was praying as teenager 

‘God, why … why did you call back our True Father so hurriedly?’ Bo Hi Pak, chairman of the Unification Church-supported Korean Cultural Foundation, told the crowd. 

‘I’m so sad, and I just want to listen to his voice again,’ said Jeon Myung-hu, a 43-year-old man who said he fasted for four days after hearing the news of Moon’s death. ‘His teachings about peace will remain forever.’ 

About 180,000 people visited Gapyeong during the mourning period before the funeral, according to church officials. 

An estimated 7 million people paid homage at mourning sites around the world, they said. 

The Unification Church claims to have 3 million followers around the world, though critics say the figure is no more than 100,000. 

Moon, a staunch anti-communist who ran a business empire as well as a church and spent 30 years living in the United States, was born in what is now North Korea in 1920 and escaped to the South in 1950 after being sentenced to hard labour.

He died aged 92 on September 3 of complications due to pneumonia. 

The church he founded is now run by his youngest son, while the business entities are run by another son.

Blessing: Moon and his wife bless the brides and the grooms in a mass wedding ceremony at Chamsil Olympic Stadium in Seoul in 2000

Mass nuptials: Couples from around the world participate in a mass wedding ceremony arranged by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon’s Unification Church at Sun Moon University in Asan

His wife remains the symbolic head of the mission that oversees the entire Tongil, Korean for ‘Unification’ group.

Previously thousands of mourners had gathered for the ten-day as the founder lay in a glass-covered coffin at the headquarters of his Unification Church in South Korea.

Only senior church members and specially invited mourners were allowed to view the body. But that didn’t stop the general public turning up in droves to pay their respects.

Critics for years have vilified the church as a heretical and dangerous cult and questioned its murky finances and how it indoctrinates followers, described in derogatory terms as ‘Moonies.’

Moon is survived by his wife and 10 of their 13 children.

But his eldest son Hyun Jin, the chairman of UCI, which owns the UPI news agency, did not attend the funeral. 

Church officials did not give details about why he was not there.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2203645/Sun-Myung-Moon-funeral-Thousands-gather-South-Korea-elaborate-farewell-Moonie-church-founder.html#ixzz2ChPi8MiC 

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

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Relative Weightings of Allegation and Proof In Exposing Corrupt Institutions (Pt2)

This article continues from:

Relative Weightings of Allegation and Proof In Exposing Corrupt Institutions (Pt1)

Posted by Barry Pittard on June 29, 2010

Let us suppose that not all facts are uncovered. There are some distinct advantages of stating facts or clues such as they are understood at the time. One is dealing with a powerful institution bent on cover up. Excellent media investigations show how badly whistle-blowers and other dissenters who expose institutional corruption have been treated. The more one holds to telling the truth, the higher the price. But, then, truthfulness is deemed by many belief systems as priceless. It is therefore ironic to see the chasm of difference between preaching and practice.

One of the advantages of allegation (where it is not vexatious, defamatory and libelous) is that issues that are all too susceptible to dismissal and cover up can be brought out into the open. The unquestioning nature of human beings in general, so lamented for example by parents and teachers who make a stand for urbane attitudes of questioning, is badly exacerbated in the case of cultists. For example, the title of this blogsite is:  Call For Media and Government Investigation of Sathya Sai Baba. That is to say, that the contentions of those who allege are under public scrutiny just as are those of an institution under question.

Repeatedly, media investigators and scholars who have tried to investigate Sathya Sai Baba and his international Sathya Sai Baba Organization. They have found that it is a monolith, strongly impervious to questioning – even my independent researchers no matter the excellence of their qualifications and note. As Sir Karl Popper has well described in his classic ‘The Open Society and its Enemies’, the foes of the open society are those who use its very openness to achieve their closed and devious ends.

A decided advantage of speaking out, even though one may not be in command of all material evidence, is that individuals who are well-positioned to know – or to ascertain more evidence – are then able to do their own sleuthing. Sometimes, this situation entails attempts, by the institutions, to further cover up trails, such as using threats to silence witnesses, hushing up leaders and rank-and-file members within their own midst, destroying paper trails or simply by letting crises blow over and attending to damage control by other means. See: ‘Secret Swami’ Cult Recruits At Prime Public Venues and The Quiet Weeding Out Of Sathya Sai Baba’s Embarrassing Statements

The additional evidence provided by strong allegations repeatedly confirms the sad experiences of those who had not thus known of, or at least heeded, the allegations.  

Attackers of Sathya Sai Baba’s prominent critics do not face this fact. Without much stir from prominent critics, revelations concerning the turpitude of Sathya Sai Baba’s and certain of his leaders come to a head, sooner or later, in his centers round the world. Here, crises arise from revelations of abuses and anomalies which are uncovered in the centers themselves or in any corresponding center. Some centers have had professional, experienced psychological counselors, who have themselves led the exit from Sathya Sai Baba centers.

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The Public Petition   

Information 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 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)   

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Relative Weightings of Allegation and Proof In Exposing Corrupt Institutions (Pt1)

Obtaining proof of crimes can be hard and sometimes impossible. It is the nature of evasion to make it so. Sadly, innocence, too, can be hard or impossible to prove. I have long observed that authoritarian cults such as the Sathya Sai Organization make far too little of the role of allegation and large-scale public testimony and far too much of the demand for legal proof. Frequently, the superficial understanding of liberal and democratic notions, such as the freedom of religion or other beliefs, allow authoritarian cults in their self-interest to undermine these cherished notions.

 

Such cults threaten genuinely civil society. Societies that espouse democratic values from top to bottom often accord and vigorously uphold rights in some sectors while, in practice, denying these same rights to other citizens who are equally entitled to them. In countries worldwide, we can see individuals devastated and families and communities torn apart by the activity of cults. Typically, political parties see the issue as too prickly a nettle to grasp. They fear that they will be attacked for subverting the notion of freedom of religion, for example.

Many of these cults have great financial resources, and pump vast amounts into types of promotion that flourish the broad smile and outstretched welcoming arms, but conceal their heavy agendas. Well-heeled cults are prompt to hire high-paid lawyers, and often need but to threaten litigation. Cults, like any other sort of authoritarian regime, bully and harass so as to silence dissent.

I do not say, of course, that rights cannot thrive in a court of litigation. But for those without great funds, it can be a perilous avenue to take, irrespective of the merits of one’s cause. Nonetheless, the Rahm family (whose story was a mainstay of the BBC’s 2004 one-hour documentary on Sai Baba ‘The Secret Swami’) morally supported their young son, Alaya, in civil litigation in the Orange County Superior Court, California, USA. Alaya Rahm alleged that Sathya Sai Baba serially sexually abused him (as, similarly, have many males, or families speaking for minors, around the world). The case was heard by Judge John M. Watson of the Superior Court, County of Orange, California, on April 28th, 2006. See:  Alaya Rahm’s Lawsuit vs Sathya Sai Society of America. Joint Statement by the International JuST Group and the Rahm family (Date: July 16, 2006), and Alaya Rahm’s Testimony – Some Key Statements . California leaders of the Sathya Sai Society of America include the world chairman of Sathya Sai Baba’s organization, Dr Michael Goldstein.

In Part Two of our jointly written four-part article The Sathya Sai Organisation’s Deception and Propaganda Exposed, Robert Priddy and I wrote:

(Dr G.) Venkataraman, with back-up from the facile attorney Robert Baskin, now dares come out into the open, mistakenly asserting that the Alaya Rahm’s self-dismissal of his case against the Society is a triumphant vindication of the Sai forces …

In a statement by the Rahm family, their attorney and the International JuST Group 9, we read: “No court found Alaya’s allegations to be false. Simply, the suit could not continue on a technicality, and the claims of sexual abuse stand irrefutably true, just as before”. Dr. Venkataraman is himself making a false allegation! Attorney William Brelsford Esq., seeing formidable legal obstacles set by the defendants, and not least working against a statute of limitations deadline, advised Alaya Rahm to self-dismiss the case. Along with other difficulties encountered, his attorney has explained, June 29th, 2006, to Alaya Rahm and his family:

“We were successful at the demurrer stage in establishing that a duty would be owed by the Society in the event they sponsored and/or endorsed the trips that Alaya went on when he was abused by Sai Baba. As it turns out, the Society is not the “hub” of all of Sai Baba’s corporate activities. Rather, the Society, pursuant to declarations under penalty of perjury, confirmed they are a bookstore… nothing more. Accordingly, we do not have the necessary factual requirements to establish liability on the Society/Book center.”

(Note:  Eminent legal opinion that I have sought opines that Alaya Rahm, son of one of the formerly highest profile Sathya Sai Baba leaders, Al Rahm of Akansas, USA, had far from the best legal advice. Alaya Rahm’s lawyer, William L. Brelsford, represented him on a profit-seeking, no-win-no-pay basis. It became, all too late, glaringly evident that Brelsford’s research/discovery processes relating to the body he sought to pursue were badly lacking. What a shock it is for a litigant, once the case is in court, to find that there was no incorporated entity to litigate against. The lawyers for the Sathya Society of America represented that the only entity was a bookshop. How could that be sued? What clever foresighted provisions the lawyers of the Sathya Sai Organization had taken against future legal challenges! The blundering Brelsford then advised Alaya Rahm client to self-dismiss his case. 

Should any reputable, bona fide legal, academic or media or agency investigators wish to look at the case, I am happy to refer them to those legal experts consulted.

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Part 2 of Relative Weightings of Allegation and Proof In Exposing Corrupt Institutions is due to appear shortly

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The Public Petition   

Information 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 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)   

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Sathya Sai Organization: World Communities Need To Treat This Sect Cautiously

Typical of cultists (which they deny themselves to be), the key leaders of the international Sathya Sai Organization are highly secretive, authoritarian and unaccountable.

They know:

• That there has been profound cover up of countless responsibly-made allegations of spiritual and moral betrayal
• The quality, and years of dedicated service, of many families and individuals who have gone to them with deeply distressing concerns about Sai Baba’s immoral conduct with boys and young men, cover up of murders in his bedroom, and other crimes.
• That the top echelon exerts strong pressure to ensure that the allegations are not discussed

The BBC’s appellation ‘the secret swami’ was entirely apt. Sathya Sai Baba and his leaders speak constantly of Truth, Right Conduct, Peace, Love and Non-Violence (Sathya, Dharma, Shanti, Prema, Ahimsa).  Many within the Sathya Sai Organization know perfectly well that devotees have often been shocked by the unspirituality, callousness and authoritarian behaviour by many core leaders hand-picked by Sai Baba himself.

These leaders, and their often unsuspecting and decent rank-and-file, would link up with you, smile happily with you, act in a manner that has every appearance of professional and ethical responsibility. They seek to enter into shared endeavours with you in regard to your schools, universities, civic,  religious, cultural and sporting organizations, your municipal, state and central governments, etc. They do worthy works of social uplift, but in fact they have agendas that they keep from you. That is to say,  salient information – that you have every right to know – they keep under tight seals of prohibition as instructed by the guru and his core servitors. They do not tell you that:  Sathya Sai Baba claims to be the fullest incarnation of Godhood ever to have visited earth. Or that he has said he will rule the world before he leaves it circa 2022.  Officials are told not to mention it in their public interfaces.

Just a few of the plush venues in which the Sathya Sai Organization pursues its recruitments (although it will not use this factual word) have included:

Cooper’s Union, New York; Town Hall, Melbourne; Copley International Conference Center, San Diego; Super Dome, Sydney; La Mirada Theatre, Hilton Ballroom (both Los Angeles); Sheraton Hotel & Towers, Chicago; Copley International Conference Center, San Diego; Super Dome, Sydney, etc.

We are reliably informed that the cult has furthered its purposes in nodes of great power such as the United Nations and the White House, and among leading politicians and powerbrokers around the world.

Select Readings

Sai Organization’s Spending Spree In Super Dome, Sydney

 ‘Secret Swami’ Cult Recruits At Prime Public Venues

 The BBC’s ‘The Secret Swami’ – A Revision 

BBC Hidden Camera in ‘Secret Swami’. Ethical?

 Sathya Sai Baba and his Organization Permit Attacks On Ex-followers

Golden Throne of India’s Sathya Sai Baba. He says he will Rule the world soon

              Some Video Resources    

              The Secret Swami (BBC Television):               (154 MB, Broadband)   

Seduced (DR, Danish Broadcasting, Denmark’s national television and radio broadcaster):
(80 MB, Broadband)    http://home.hetnet.nl/~seduced/seduced.wmv
(21 MB, Modem)   

Right Hand. Sleight Hand. Watch Sai Baba Cheat With Sacred Ash (Film clip)

 BBC and Other Film Footage Shows India’s Top Guru Sathya Sai Baba Faking Miracles

 BBC Footage Exposes Fake Sathya Sai Baba Miracle « Call For Media and Government Investigation

 ‘The Secret Swami’ showcased with selected transcripts and brief
video clips  

Sathya Sai Baba Chief, Dr Goldstein, Explodes. “I am the consummate professional” (See Film Clips)

Raising ever more serious questions about how spiritual is the international head of what Sathya Sai Baba has called THE divine organization in the world

Dr Michael Goldstein. Love All Serve All

Michael Goldstein explodes with anger (710kbs)

at the BBC’s perfectly reasonable questions about accountability

Dr. Goldstein again reveals his higher self (1.500Kb)

Michael Goldstein and the sexual allegations (2,10 Mbs)

Michael Goldstein admits his view is merely a belief (456kbs)

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Wider Resources  

 Sathya Sai Baba: ‘Considerable Concern’ In Wider Hindu Community   

 Sathya Sai Organization: World Communities Need To Treat This Sect Cautiously   

Will World Accept Sathya Sai Baba? He Says Yes. Very Soon    

 Has ‘World Saviour’ Missed His Plane?   

The Decline and Fall of the Showman Empire

Sai Baba Exchequer Worth Billions. Many Countries Donate

 Self-documented Folly of India’s Would-be God 

The Sathya Sai Organisation’s Deception and Propaganda Exposed.  Article by Robert Priddy (former leader of SS Org., Sweden) and Barry Pittard (former lecturer at Sathya Sai College, Whitefield).  Part One Two Three Four  Quote:  

 “The foes of the ‘open society’ (Sir Karl Popper’s term) are those who use its very openness to achieve their closed and devious ends. Sai Baba and his highly authoritarian and cultist organisation have such ends, which critics have tried to make known. Its foremost leaders silence all those who question it- and never face substantive criticisms. For the first time – after six years of pained and guilty silence – since hundreds of long-term devotees left it in disgust – the Sathya Sai Organisation has found it necessary to try to defuse the debate about Sathya Sai Baba’s alleged crimes, deceits and fraudulence. Dr. Venkataraman’s tendentious cover-up article expresses untruths which have long circulated within the cult, giving an opportunity to confront him with facts and truth”  

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 Excerpt From Public Petition (and 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)   

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Sathya Sai Baba Chief, Dr Goldstein, Explodes. “I am the consummate professional” (See Film Clips)

The clickable film clips, see below, from the BBC’s ‘The Secret Swami’ documentary show a great deal about the soul of a cult’s top organizational leader, Dr Michael Goldstein (USA), in every few seconds. The bombast, anger and authoritarianism seen within the core leadership of the Sathya Sai cult are often hidden, including from the rank-and-file members. But in 2004, the BBC decided it was time to tear away the heavy mask.  See also the article:

BBC Hidden Camera in ‘Secret Swami’. Ethical?

Sathya Sai Baba Organization International Chairman, Dr. Michael Goldstein, heads one of the most monied cults in the world.

 

 

 

 

 

Dr Michael Goldstein. Expert in Sathya Sai Anger (Mis) Management

Have You Met Them Yet?

For by their real fruits they – if after years of effort to expose them – shall be known. These are organization heads of considerable power. That they should not be opened to account is one of the recurring absurdities among Sathya Sai Baba’s proxy defenders on the Internet (who have links to high-ranking luminaries in the organization, which they do not disclose)

The chances are that this cult operates in or not so far from your own house, town or city. It attempts to link up with reputable mainstream civic, religious and governmental instrumentalities. Its members are mandated not to bring to your attention that its founder, Sai Baba, claims that he is God fully incarnate in a manner that has never been seen in history, and that, in his own life, he will draw all the contending religions into harmony and save the world in the direst peril mankind has ever encountered.

Sai Baba:  ‘from 60 years I won’t look old’. But Minister Renuka Chawdhuri has to cut his cake

See the article, including footage and pictures:

Sathya Sai Baba Video. Too Weak To Cut Birthday Cake. Posted on November 25, 2008. Sathya Sai Baba, in November 2007, is revealed as unable to cut his birthday cakes any longer. For some time, he has had a mask-like face, suggestive of a degenerative disease. These images completely falsify his own statements in recent years that he would not age

The Secret Swami’s Hidden Agendas

Should you point out to many devotees that Sai Baba says he is God, their stock answer is:  “But you see, Baba says that we are all God but we have not realized it yet”.  A recently documented slight variant of this response can be seen in the video footage of charismatic Sai Baba cult leader Moyia O’Brien’s response to the Australian television interviewer Chris Allen on Channel NineMSN: ‘Infiltrating A Cult’. (A close television source confirms that threats by the Sai Baba cultists to the Channel have been made. Details are available for responsible media or other investigators). To click on the footage, go to the articles:

Australian Current Affair: ‘Infiltrating A Cult’ (Sathya Sai Baba)

Sathya Sai Cult Under Media Scrutiny In Australia

View BBC Video Clips of Dr Michael Goldstein

The delightful man in the edifying picture above, lives in Covina, southern California, USA, and is chairman of the international Sathya Sai Organization. This footage was caught by hidden camera, an uncommon resort that required BBC management and legal sanction at the highest corporate levels.

Michael Goldstein and the sexual allegations (2,10 Mbs)

Michael Goldstein admits his view is merely a belief (456kbs)

Raising ever more serious questions about how spiritual is the head of what Sathya Sai Baba has called THE divine organization in the world,

Michael Goldstein explodes with anger (710kbs)

at the BBC’s perfectly reasonable questions about accountability

Dr. Goldstein again reveals his higher self (1.500Kb)

Related Excerpt From Transcript of BBC’s ‘The Secret Swami’

Tanya Datta: Why don’t you have thorough investigations, instead of just asking one question to one person?

BBC's Tanya Datta Exposes Sai Baba's International Chief

Michael Goldstein: What do you mean by thorough investigation?

2’nd Interviewer: Objective investigators, not someone asking the perpetrator whether he, he carried out the act. But someone, you know, a proper legal process or a legalistic process should I say.

Tanya Datta: Yes.

Michael Goldstein: Because I don’t believe that’s appropriate with Sai Baba.

2’nd Interviewer: Why not?

Michael Goldstein: Because my heart and my conscience tell me that it’s not possible.

All of these years I’ve seen him interact with his students very, very frequently, in very informal circumstances over many, many years. And because I am a physician I also understand human behaviour. Because of that, if Sai Baba had done anything of this kind with any one of those boys at any time, ever, I would see something in one of those children’s eyes, I would see something in one of the expressions on their faces that would indicate to me fear, apprehension, depression, something unsavoury, something inappropriate, something scary, something ominous, I would know it in my heart because I am what I am a consummate professional. Can you understand that?

The international Sathya Sai Organization leaders have profoundly failed in the most fundamental duties of care. This, in the democratic world, when accountability and proper processes have become de jure.

Further Reading

‘Secret Swami’ Cult Recruits At Prime Public Venues

Dato J. Jegathesan, a ‘Secret Swami’ cult top leader-roving ambassador

Secrecy Needs In Exposing A Top Global Cult

Our security needs are pragmatic, and are not in the nature of the secrecy and cover-up of scandals so endemic to an authoritarian cult that has so much to hide. The BBC’s own experience in investigating his cult and the testimonies of those who have left it led to its calling Sai Baba ‘The Secret Swami’, and the somewhat Soviet-style secrecy and authoritarianism of Sai Baba’s religious cult have been repeatedly observed by media, institutions and academics who have attempted to examine this founder and his organization.

Regrettable Secrecies

The need for sensitive non-disclosure of the accounts that came to us of sexual abuse by Sai Baba and some around him in his education wing, and other alarming information, was rapidly apparent to some of us, but – rather disturbingly! – to others came only slowly and, astoundingly, to yet others scarcely at all.

If there was an extenuating circumstance for bewilderment at all it may be this:  suddenly, to our great surprise, we found ourselves cast in the role of activists and crusaders. What does the layperson know of sexual abuse? The exceptions in our midst were those such as Shirley Pike and (the late) Elena Hartgering, Dave Brandt and others who were mental health professionals of various kinds. 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.

Males from various countries – in some instances many years later (as in the case of Mark Roche in appearance in the BBC television documentary The Secret Swami) – have attempted to give their accounts of sexual abuse at the hands of Sai Baba. Those devotee apologists for Sai Baba and his Sathya Sai Organization (or rather, cult) who make ready and cruel assumptions about the abuse survivors might well contemplate on a saying of the English philosopher, scientist, statesman and essayist Sir Francis Bacon  (1561-1626) adding the word ‘hear’ and, ‘view’ in the case of television footage from The Secret Swami, and Danish national broadcaster DR’s Seduced (in Australia, Seduced by Sai Baba, SBS) to Bacon’s  ‘read’:

“Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted… but to weigh and consider”.

For Viewing

Video clip of Mark Roche interview from  The Secret Swami, BBC 2, This World

The Secret Swami. 1. Broadband. 2. Modem (Both .wmv)

Seduced (version in English over-dub)  1. Broadband. 2. Modem (Both .wmv)

Ullrich Zimmerman Interview, Part 2., Broadband.

Further Reading

• Sai Baba. Some Dissenting Themes and Resources
• The BBC’s ‘The Secret Swami’ – A Revision
• BBC’s ‘Secret Swami’ Clip. Man Claims Abuse When Young
• Psychotherapist’s Note On Ullrich Zimmerman’s Sexual Abuse Allegations Against Sathya Sai Baba