E-mail David Christopher Lane
directly at dlane@weber.ucsd.edu
Author: Jed Geyerhahn Publisher: The NEURAL SURFER Publication date: May 1997
E-mail David Christopher Lane
directly at dlane@weber.ucsd.edu
I
want to go back to the home base now.
Dear Prof. Lane, I was a Sai Devotee for about 4 years. In that time I had several interviews with Sai Baba. On my final trip to Sai Baba, I began to question his philosophy and powers. On that trip, among other things, I examined closely the proscess which he "materialised" objects. It soon became clear to me that he used sleight of hand. He hides rings between cushions, etc. It is not hard to recognise, if you want to see the truth in the situation. I soon left the organisation. I am interested in finding more people like myself. Unfortunately I had experiences similar to those described by Tal Brooke. I have unsuccesfully tried to contact him. Do you have any advice for me? Regards, Jed Geyerhahn ----------------------------------------------- Dear Dave, Thank you so much for your prompt response to my message. What I really need to do is get to my old computer in Maine and look through papers and letters from my college years at Fordham. (I was a philosophy major, '96) I'm pretty sure that I have some essays and also relevant journals. At that point, I will put them in a comprehensive form of my history with Sai Baba. My Sai history is what would really be compelling about my word against Sai Baba. I have received 3 rings, many interviews and lots of personal attention. I was a very close friend of Hal Honig, an aquaintence to Sam Sandweiss and others. These names may not be familiar to you, but they are prominant names in Sai circles. My aunt is Elizabeth Elwell, a well known Bhajan teacher, who lived in the Puttaparti Ash Ram for 9 years, and is still active in the organisation in New Hampshire. I have rings, a pictures of me with baba, and could get more witness accounts of sleight of hand. As I said, I just need to get this stuff together, and I am very excited for this oppurtunity. I also need to decide how I would like to do this. What is really striking to me is that little has been written using Erlandur Haraldsson's book. He has done a ton of research, mostly intended to show that that there is compelling evidence that Sai has some powers. However, were his thesis that Sai does not have many of the powers which he claims, which Haroldsen has much evidence to support, he could show that Sai Baba is, to a great extent, a hoax. Haroldsen's work shows that Sai Baba is not God, is not Omnicient, Omnipotent, and Omnipresent. To show this puts other aspects of Sai Baba's life in question. If he's not God and nearer human, and furthermore claims his life is his message, then his followers should start collecting Mercedes Benzs and aquiring servants. There is much that is very questionable about Sai Baba's life, however devotees do not question it because they believe him to be God, as he claims the like. My first witness account of sleight of hand was in Brindaven. I saw Baba come out of the personal interview room and sit down. As he was sitting there I noticed a large gold watch under his small hand, which he was unsuccesfully trying to hide. A moment later he made the familiar circular motion with his hand as if he were materialising the object, and then gave a student the watch. On another occasion I saw Sai Baba reach between the cushions of his chair for something, and then moments later he made the circular motion and showed everyone a small container filled with vibhuti, the gray ash. I then noticed that behind the cushion in his chair there was something shiny, and he paid careful attention to correct the position of the cushion to hide the object. Another time I saw him take a worn bracelet from a man, then with his hand cupped blew on it three times at the same time moving his hand up and down. On the final movement, he tossed the chain into the side of his chair so it slid down between the inside of the chairs large arm and his leg. He then discreetly took took something from his other hand and made the circular motion and gave the man a new bracelet. What is really funny about that situation is that Sai Baba forgot to take the old bracelet from his chair when he left, so when he got up, there it lay in plain view for everyone in the room. A student I was with, and who was very devoted to Baba, picked it up and looked at it, confirming that it was the old bracelet. When Baba returned and noticed his mistake, he scolded this student, who was sitting right at the foot of Baba's chair and could not miss the bracelet. Then Baba sat and in a flash picked up the bracelet and very discreetly tossed it into the outside upper corner of the arm of the chair. There were no visible pockets there, but there is a very large seem, and the arms of the chair are huge enough to store lots of things. The student, in the first account, who received the watch is an American who emigrated from India. He came from a very wealthy family in India who were big contributers to the Sai cause. What I came to realise, is there is a system in India similiar to our mafia. Very prominant families in India support gurus who have great political power, and this is how these families have there influence over political policy. Of course I don't have any evidence for all this, but in my conversations with students at Sai's University, this was explained to me. It is also well known that prominant figures in the Indian government make fairly frequent stops to visit with Sai Baba, including the president of India. (I was in India when the president came to visit Sai Baba. When this happens there is huge comotion and Indians crowd darshan to see the president, not Sai Baba). The students also know that Sai is a hoax, that he does not materialise a thing. However they are getting a very inexpensive education, so they keep there mouths shut. The student I talked with most, would not tell me other things that he knew, but I am sure that it had to do with the students who spent the night with Baba. I know this because this is where he would no longer answer my questions. Everyone knows that Sai Baba has students spend the night with him. They stay up to "serve" him at night. It's a very well kept secret as to how they serve Sai Baba, but little will come out because no student wants to be kicked out of Sai Baba's school. As stated, they are receiving a very good educations there, very inexpensively. I say very inexpensively because many believe it to be free, but this is not the case. Stundents pay for room and board, which to many is rather expensive. The education part is free, but there are bills. This brings me to my very questionable experiences with Sai Baba. On my second trip to Sai Baba I had four interviews. Each time I saw Baba, his hand would gradually make more prominant connections to my groin. The first interview was a slight swipe, the second a definite touch and the third time he grabbed me and with a very stern face looked me directly in the eye and said "you are very weak!" Needless to say, he scared and embarassed me. I was guilt ridden to have sexual passion, though I was a healthy 16 year old boy, a testosterone machine. I was not going to talk to anyone about the experience. In the final interview he asked me to take my pants down. I was totally confused, so he took them down for me. He then made vibhutti and rubbed it on my genitals. On my third trip, he did the same thing, but rubbed oil on my genitals. Fortunately I was never taken advantage of any worse, but I was humiliated when I realised his true intentions, and I felt I had really lost an innocence that I would have cherished keeping. When I finally did talk about what happened to me, the first two reactions were to never speak of it with others because the whole thing would be taken out of context and misconstrued. Then I talked to others my own age and they told me of similiar experiences. I even heard terrible stories of children who would meet with Sai Baba twice a week to play "sex games" and the like. Oral sex and masturbation were common in these meetings. Many of my own friends told me about attempts by Sai Baba to touch them, but they wouldn't let him. I need to really put this together better, but this is a sketch of what I have. Any comments would be helpful, and you can do what you like with any of this material. You can also post my e-mail address for anyone who like to contact me. (JGeyerhahn@aol.com) I would be very greatful to talk with any X-devotees who have had similiar experieces with Sai Baba. It might encourage me to get this all together quicker, and they might help me put something larger together. Sincerely, Jed