Revelations in waves through the years: In various interviews stretching over several decades, Sathya Sai Baba (SSB) has informed of a coming huge scandal about him, which clever bit of precautionary 'fall-back' against the day it actually came has since deceived many into doubting and/or ignoring the mass of facts and credible, courageously-published accounts. If, as very widely reported, he engaged in constant sexual activity, he then would certainly have realised that even he, with his very secretive and power-wielding confederates, could most likely not keep it a secret for ever. Thus, he would have tried to prepare the ground against the day it came out, so as not to lose too much prestige, or too many followers and donors as a result. It has actually come out on a number of occasions in different parts of the world, at least since the 1970s.

One major question about what are alleged by Sai followers to be 'rumours' about his homosexual activities remains: How could such allegations arise from so many countries and individuals over decades, independent of one another, and backed up by many written accounts and signed affidavits by alleged victims, and by television interviews with such victims made by reputed national broadcasters who investigated the matter? By examining in some detail the history of these allegations, one can better decide whether or not these instances can be a case of 'no smoke without fire'.

Due to the general difficulties prior to the 1990s web revolution of locating or contacting other ex-devotees spread around the world, the scandals that broke remained fairly local and did not become widely known, especially throughout the Sai movement, which is systematically compartmentalised precisely so as to maintain intternal control and censorship on all dissent of any kind. Accounts of Sai Baba being a homosexual and paedophile have circulated in diverse circles in India during the 1970s (to be summarised here later). His predilection for homosexual relations was reportedly widely known in Puttaparthi when he shared his rooms with a young man called Krishna (they were called 'Radha-Krishna' where they went together everywhere hand in hand). of Denmark firmly indicates what have been known all along to many villagers, none of whom dare say a word about it due to the huge power wielded threateningly by the Sai Baba camp.

The scandals about sexual abuse of male students among Malaysian devotees around 1980 which caused resignations from the Org. in Malaysia, apparently was very little known in the West. The following information was sent to me by a person who wishes to remain anonymous, having distanced himself socially from all connection with Sai Baba. "When I became aware of Sai Baba's activities on some male Malaysian students studying at the Sai institutions in Whitefield and Puttaparthi, I carried out my own inquiries and dropped out from that movement. So did many devotees in Malaysia. In the interest of these male students, I am unable to reveal their identities. It is not fair to them. I remember having advised them in 1980 to keep their identities confidential and not be overzealous since they have lives to lead and they should forget about what had happened to them. An American boy, Terry Scott, who was a contemporary of these Malaysian students, left the Sai College together with the rest of the Malaysians. There were many devotees who left the cult. Those holding office in Sai organisations in Malaysia did not do so but quite a number of them may have quietly slipped out of the cult."

Barry Pittard also writes of another former Australian devotee, Connie R. of Cooma, in the State of New South Wales, who visited a Malaysian devotee family during a stopover to India. She said that she heard a disturbingly authentic cassette tape of an Indian Malaysian boy's account of sexual molestation by Sathya Sai Baba. The boy had attended the Sathya Sai college at Whitefield, where Pittard had taught for two years. Horrified, his parents had withdrawn him from that institution. Convinced of the truthfulness of the account by the boy and by the family, and deeply disgusted, Connie R. cancelled her trip. (View document)

Likewise, a scandal about sexual abuse of a Greek boy in the Sai College in Greece and similar accounts in Yugoslavia in the 1980s did not reach or affect other countries in Europe. Meanwhile, a major scandal arose independently in the USA in the early 1980s about which the leader of the US Sai organisation, Dr. John Hislop, wrote letters to leaders in the Sai Org. there advising them to suppress the facts as unconfirmed. Again, in France and Belgium around 1990, there was apparently much talk about Sai Baba being a homosexual, which only seeped through to some followers in a few other countries. Only when the Internet provided the means for communication between alleging victims spread and isolated here and there, did the world-wide exposé of SSB's various activities begin to come together from 1999 onwards.

As long ago as the 1970s, SSB told two 'old-timer' American devotees (one was 'Vidya', a lady known to many followers) that the day would come when the number of devotees would dwindle to very few. He also told other interviewees similar things now and again, such as that "a great scandal is coming". By the 1980s, when Tal Brooke published his first whistle-blowing book on the sexual abuses of students and foreign young men (Avatar of the Night), SSB would most likely have read the increasing signs - or been advised by some of those relatively few Indians who do not turn a blind eye to such practices - that it would eventually lead to his exposure. His warnings of coming scandal went on until the late 1990s in interviews, such as when, for example, David Jevons was present (as he has posted on his website).

A most lucid comment on these "predictions" came from Mr. John Bright, whose account of being sexually molested by SSB is found on various websites, referring to what the British 'psychic' Craig Hamilton-Parker (a believer in Sai Baba) had replied to him on his website as follows:-

How allegations about SSB's sexual proclivities and abuses are silenced & ignored: The 'fully paid-up' believer clings to ideas like 'if he had wanted it otherwise, SSB would have taken steps to avoid it', or 'it must have been part of some predestined plan to sort the grain from the chaff' (read, "good from bad persons") - a favourite quote from an SSB sixtieth birthday discourse which was as long ago as 1985. But separating 'chaff from grain' in fact equally signifies removing 'the sensible people from fully gullible believers'. It is believed in Sai circles that "the grain" are those who plug their ears, willingly stick their heads in the sand and believe firmly in SSB, despite any evidence of his wrong-doings that may come forth! For my part, I wish to be counted among those who act on their conscience for the sake of the good of society (i.e. dharma) by facing up to the mass of information, investigating it thoroughly and so promulgating the truth of the matter as far as it is known... at least until yet more thoroughgoing and fair investigations should be conducted in the public sphere by an independent court.

During Christmas 2000, however, SSB did rail in public at his accusers as 'thousands of Judases', meanwhile beating his rostrum angrily and also calling them demonic and saying they spread scandal about him for money. He gave no details or any evidence of payments or who had made them, and none has ever been made public anywhere. On past experience, he could be confident that his word would never be questioned or doubted by his devotees. In a later discourse he spoke of his critics as "demons without the spark of divinity". This is a major turnaround, since he has previously repeatedly held in many discourses that the spark of divinity is in all living beings and in a higher potency in all human beings. Now some of us are apparently not human beings, but demons! He has thus changed his former attractive teachings about his universal compassion and love for everyone! His new tack is transparently an angry threat (even though he claims to be totally pure and hence free of any anger, and that he merely pretends to be angry when he deems it suitable). Apparently, spiteful anger had already (in his Christmas 2000 discourse) got the better of him at his being fully found out and challenged.

Months later SSB repeated his warning to devotees: "If you listen to bad speeches, don't repeat them to anybody. Absolutely never tell it to anybody. You have to pay the greatest attention to this argument. You may have heard some things by chance. Forget to have heard them. Don't tell to your friends, don't disturb their mind." (From a speech of 15 May 2000, personal translation by Achary, who also asks," is this "Divine Transparency?"

SSB's bluff called by a major favourite devotee, David Bailey in 'The Findings': The latest and most decisive phase of the exposé so far took off with the publication in 1999 of 'The Findings' by David Bailey, one of SSB's closest ever devotees (over 100 interviews within a few years only). As he lectured about SSB around the globe, David Bailey was eventually so inundated with reports from parents of abused sons and of sexual molestations from students who he taught music at SSB's colleges that he began to investigate with an open mind. He began to discover various kinds of fraud by Sai Baba (valueless synthetic stones given as 'diamonds' in rings etc.) and in various of his projects (especially the much-trumpeted Rayalaseema Water Project). He has since withdrawn from actively exposing further, for not only had he made his decisive contribution, but he understandably must have wanted to rest from the abusive and defamatory reactions and threats that poured in on him from Sai devotees. Yet his discoveries set off a chain-reaction among those who describe how they have been abused, defrauded and otherwise seriously maltreated by SSB.

Therefore, for all his claimed 'divine prescience', SSB had evidently not reckoned with David Bailey and his wife Faye, whose report on his wide-ranging investigations called his bluff in grand fashion. His findings were reported widely in the media. Comdot Free Information Exchange summed it up:

Well-regarded former disciple, musician David Bailey and his wife went public with accounts of their experiences from spending three years as two of the guru's closest disciples. This prompted the release of yet more material from former devotees around the world. Response to these claims from Sai Baba's ashram appears so feeble that to many it would seem an admission of his guilt. It is said that sources close to the guru claimed that as "a living incarnation of God", Sai Baba could do what he pleases and it is not appropriate for mortals to question his activities.

“Faye’s own son had been kissed repeatedly on his cheeks and the corners of his mouth when alone in the inner room with Sai Baba, and also sexually touched. And when it was obvious to Sai Baba that this behaviour was unwelcome, he began berating the young man in subsequent interviews with Faye, calling him ‘Mad dog! Hard hearted!’ and so on. At the time this seemed incongruous; it was only after we began travelling the world that the inconceivable and incomprehensible began to make itself clear. When I asked various co-ordinators about these many disturbing incidents reported to me in our travels, I was told that Swami was ‘raising kundalini’. I questioned this in my mind. If he was capable of doing anything, why did he have to physically touch the boys, especially when they were unwilling? And what about when he had them actively engage in sex to him? It seems that an ongoing, serious and untenable infringement of basic human rights is being scurrilously perpetrated, in the name of ‘divinity’.”Also see this quote:“On my last visit to Puttaparthi, a male student came and asked me for help, on behalf of some of his fellow students, because they were desperately in need of someone to stop Swami sexually abusing them. I was told how Sai Baba had for years been demanding that these particular boys have oral sex, and group sex for his pleasure. Their details matched what I had already been told so many times round the world. I asked him if this was an acceptable practice in India, and his look of horror as he denied it, spoke volumes. Then he asked me a question I couldn’t answer. ‘Sir, why do you think ex-students tried to kill him in ’93 ...?’ (!!!)

So-called "Sai devotees" have tried to drag Bailey's name through the mud as a condemned paedophile in prison and even spread the story that he hanged himself in his cell. These are the depths to which many have sunk to preserve their false faith. Of course, these allegations are totally incorrect and David Bailey is alive and well, still playing (his up-dated website can be visited any time, just search on Google).

Neither had SSB reckoned with the outspokenness of another of his (former) favourites, Dr. Bhatia, who he had made Head of Blood Transfusion at his Super-speciality Hospital and who was a chosen lecturer at the ashram for years. Dr. Bhatia really spilt the beans, telling of his having been the beloved sexual partner of SSB for years, and was in the position to know and tell of massive sexual exploitation by SSB of students, including a report on the physically-injurious anal rape of a minor, a boy student, with which he personally confronted SSB.

These reports brought the allegations to massive prominence because of the former closeness of Bailey and Bhatia to Sai Baba. However, for years before this the well-known Indian rationalist Basava Premanand had tried with very limited public success to warn the nation of the sexual abuse issue, among other criminal counts. He wrote an article 'The True Story of Life in the Sri Sathya Sai Hostel for Boys', summing up the situation and posted it on the internet to assist in the exposé there. Premanand also details further the information he had at the time in an article in the Indian Sceptic magazine.

These reports were but three of many more who have very bravely published their highly credible accounts on the internet and have signed sworn affidavits to that effect. A certain young man from Sweden known to many of us in Scandinavia as 'the golden boy', and the then-underage 'Sam Young' (Alaya Rahm) - the son of Al Rahm, regional leader in the Sai Organisation in USA, were both shattered by their predicaments when, as favourite boys, SSB abused both their trust and their bodies very much against their will. But they very bravely dared to speak out. The long-term devotee who was close to SSB for decades (too close, he came to understand), Conny Larsson, stood forth with exceptional courage and told of how SSB misused him sexually in very base ways, which Larsson believed to be some kind of divine healing from his terrible childhood sex abuse by his father's male friend. Since he recovered from the terrible disillusionment, Conny Larsson has courageously and tirelessly campaigned on TV around the world with regard only for bringing out the truth about Sai Baba and he is soon to publish a new and exceptional book in which he tells of his experiences with Sai Baba most credibly. (I say this as one who formerly had considerable doubts about his accuracy and credibility when he was a constant and not always accurate propagator of Sai mythology. But he is clearly now transformed in his understanding after the long process of catharsis that followed his liberation from the Sai Baba cult).

SSB's prediction that "a great scandal is coming" only got devotees asking why he would not have taken steps to avoid it, and to conclude that the scandal must have been designed by him somehow as part of his wonderful plan for the world and humanity. For example, Millie Phillips, a rich donor and long-term follower from Australia, told David Bailey in a widely circulated and often vituperous e-mail that he was just an instrument of SSB's will. (These so-called 'Sai devotees' soon turn nasty if their faith is put in question, it seems). If it was SSB's will, then - on this assumption - he would have exposed himself beyond reasonable doubt as an active homosexual, a fraud and a liar who has not cleared himself of the suspicion that he condoned four executions in his own bedroom (in 1993). This took place without any court examination of the incident - or even the slightest police questioning of SSB who was present when the intruders killed his attendants and who remained close by throughout the whole episode - just shows how totally defenceless any SSB victim in India is. How then could he at the same time possibly be the truthful, all-good, non-violent example upon which he claims a teaching depends for its credibility? The insurmountable fact is, SSB has been exposed as not being what he claims to be in many different respects, and not least in world media. It seems most likely that SSB's repeated vague predictions were an on-going attempt to limit this damage and not lose all his followers (plus their financial and other support).

Failed predictions or outright deceptions... take your pick! Finally, since SSB is widely known and seen now to use sleight of hand trickery as part of his repertoire, and to lie about the objects he gives away (as I have proved fully that he did with an alleged 'green diamond' he gave me in expectation of a large financial donation I had offered), he must have known the day of accounting for such fraudulence would be coming sometime. Hence the occasional warnings through the years about the 'great scandal'. It was quite a sure bet.

In the 1980s, when the flow of foreign visitors to Prashanthi Nilayam had increased considerably, SSB himself, (and, following him, his staff and Organisation leaders) frequently warned foreigners not to have close contact with residents or other locals, but instead to concentrate on their own spiritual practice and keep to themselves. Likewise he regularly instructed ashram residents only to have necessary contacts with foreigners. He sometimes warned that personal friendships between Westerners and Indians, especially men and women, could lead to serious problems for those involved. The heads of the ashram at that time (Kutumba Rao and Chiranjiva Rao) carried out regular surveillance of persons who mixed too freely with certain talkative residents, and were especially vigilant in suppressing such contacts after the brutal gate-keeper Kumar was murdered inside the ashram in February 1987. In hindsight, quite other reasons for the cult of secrecy that this actually implied are evident. SSB would have presumably wanted to ensure that such matters - known to many residents and locals, not least his sexual activities with boys and young men - should not become known to visitors and thus stem their flow.

'Hearsay' and 'rumour' vs. 'circumstantial and corroborative evidence': The first question is 'what is hearsay'? There is a crucial difference between someone who gives a first-hand report of being sexually abused and reports which are at a second or third remove. The former is not 'hearsay' but evidence. Neither are second-hand reports hearsay, if based accurately on first-hand reports - and especially when they are investigated soundly as to the credibility of the original report and the person reporting. So hearsay evidence is usually vague, sloppy reports based on something of uncertain origin which the person telling it has not investigated, and such reports give rise to 'rumour'.

It is of importance too to realise that there can be both 'negative' and 'positive' hearsay or rumours. Some people believe in all hearsay which is positive and build up an unfounded view of a matter, while others do the same on the basis of negative hearsay. Where Sai devotees are concerned, a very great amount of what they believe is based on 'positive hearsay', as anyone who has circulated in the movement for a few years will doubtless know. The secrecy about SSB, what he says and does in private, and the care taken about who one tells what, all contribute to the multiplication of hearsay. Since negative thoughts or words are strongly discouraged by SSB and his followers, 'positive hearsay' rules the roost in the movement and organisation.

The allegations form what is known to various legal systems as 'circumstantial evidence', or 'indications of presumptive guilt'. These indications must corroborate the main allegation(s), that is... confirming them formally by evidence. Courts in Scandinavia, for example, can convict without concrete evidence but on the balance of probabilities, if the 'indications of guilt' are strong enough. This means that the allegations need not be judged as proved 'beyond all reasonable doubt'. This ensures that crimes of such a nature that they can be extremely difficult or impossible to prove definitively - not least sexual abuse - can be prosecuted, and indeed have been prosecuted successfully. (Conviction without conclusive or decisive physical forensic evidence is accepted in varying degrees in other European legal systems which reflect Napoleonic rather than British law). Such indications of guilt include testimony which is subjected to thorough investigation, involving diverse documentation and cross-questioning. In cases such as sexual abuse, circumstantial and corroborative evidence, including personal testimony, is most often all that can be required for a judgement.

Most of the allegations that have been levied at SSB by alleging victims of sexual abuse are written statements open to a considerable degree of factual checking of details given by persons who have been contacted by writing, phoning and personal meetings. Some have also given filmed interviews. Accounts of sexual abuse are obviously second-hand (unless one was personally involved). This, of course, does not mean that such accounts are 'rumours', as they are called by those who want excuses for not considering them. There can be no 'smoking gun', no 'corpse' in such cases. The facts can very seldom be proven by physical evidence such as forensic data, audio, visual recordings etc. - and then mostly only in quite exceptional circumstances. Therefore, no one can fairly assume that reports from people - whether first-hand victims or at second-hand via a friend etc. - are baseless. Unconfirmed assertions are the unavoidable first step in uncovering nearly all sexual abuse. The huge obstacles faced by its victims individually - whether personal, social, financial or a combination of these - are by now well-known and in addition to all that comes the emotional upheaval and threats to stop the victims from telling. Increasing worldwide experience shows that the road to conviction and imprisonment of abusers is exceptionally long and relatively very few paedophiles are brought that far anyhow. It almost always must begin with allegations coming into the public sphere (often indirectly or anonymously so as to protect the victims).

Many remain in danger of being discriminated, harassed, persecuted, attacked or worse by the original perpetrators of the abuse (or by others who are complicit in such abuse, such as in a 'paedophile circle'). This applies to a high degree in India where SSB has demonstrated to the full that he exercises virtual control of the judiciary and government on all matters concerning his own reputation. Various anonymous Indian ex-students have mailed exposé workers and our websites, or have posted on bulletin boards, that their careers, their families and sometimes even the lives of any who were to stand forth with full name in public would be in jeopardy. Quite apart from this, it can take many years - up to decades - for victims to come to terms with their experiences, while it is highly likely that many never do so enough to speak out. For it requires a robust personality to take the criticism, suspicions and threats which are so often met, including the ever-present likelihood of lurid and inaccurate 'tabloid media' coverage.

As an example of how some critics have been met by Sai officials, the European Central Coordinator of the SSO, Thorbjørn Meyer, and at least two of his Danish collaborators followed Sai Baba's cue and maligned as a paedophile one of the victims of some of SSB's worst sexual and psychic abuse, including oral sex etc., namely Conny Larsson of Sweden. This was an untrue and tendentious defamation, quite evidently to divert attention from their Lord and Master by accusing his critics of the very thing for which they accuse him. No less than the Swedish Government, which still finances Conny Larsson's therapeutic institution for criminals and drug addicts, has investigated these allegations and found them to be baseless. Further, these allegations were investigated and firmly refuted in public by the thorough investigations of the Danish journalist, Øjvind Kyrø (also maker of the hour-long Danish National TV film documentary 'Seduced by Sai Baba'). However, the Danish defamers have so far failed to withdraw their baseless, serious charges. The arch-instigator, Thorbjørn Meyer, has for about 20 years been the top man responsible for SSB's Education in Human Values in Europe, but one wonders what values he lives by himself.

This episode should suffice to demonstrate to any independent observer the level of integrity of these VIPs in the Sai organisation who preach "human values" and "love in action". On National Danish TV, the Sai devotee Mr. Peter Pruzan - an economist now involved in 'leadership and values' at the Copenhagen Business School - accused those victims who described SSB's sexual abuse of them, of being deluded as to their own experiences without giving a shred of evidence. He is no psychologist, of course, but a businessman. One can only put all this denial of directly reported facts down to minds having been so thoroughly manipulated through their half-understood experiences with SSB and all that follows from having resigned both their freedom and responsibility to such a deceitful guru.

The case against Sai Baba is no one-off affair, for it involves dozens of open allegations - many backed up by signed affidavits - plus a time span involving decades and a spread across the continents. Members of the JuST group like myself have been very cautious about forwarding allegations until we made extensive investigations. We have eventually had to conclude from the evidence that this cannot be other than a case of 'no smoke without fire'.

"A great scandal is coming"- SSB's bogus Divine Prescience and the unstoppable exposure: There are many cogent reasons to question SSB's prediction that "a great scandal is coming" as a sign of his alleged divine knowledge of the future, which devotees repeat to one another almost like a self-protective mantra. It is as worthless as many other unfulfilled predictions and promises he has made through the years. Many of these I followed up assiduously and found them very largely wanting when compared with what actually occurred. Most of his 'wild guesses' have been exposed fairly widely by his critics, and even by somewhat outspoken devotees, such as Ra.Ganapati in the up-dated second volume of his otherwise excessively fanciful 'Baba: Satya Sai' biography! Anyone who realised some of the extent of SSB's deception, plus his alleged sexual and other unprosecuted crimes, might easily have predicted the same.

I have heard any number of SSB's predictions (often straight after interviews) and they are quite simply proven wrong by events, though sometimes can seem roughly right if one struggles hard to make something or other fit them! So far to my knowledge nearly all have been unfulfilled. Sometimes his vague and general 'predictions for the year' made annually at the Yugadi festival are roughly right, if one struggles hard to make them fit something or other! One small example is his saying that there would be much volcanic activity, floods and theft in the coming year. Some seem to come about through the luck of the draw. To predict, as SSB did in his youth, his own coming fame and riches has been done by very many, though only few may have achieved it. So nothing very extraordinary that he did so.

However, he told various persons known to me that the ashram was to be almost empty in 2000 (i.e. 10 years after he told people we knew, and as long ago as the 1970s (incl. the long-term US resident of PN, known to all as Michelle) and as recently as 1992 to friends of mine. I'm sorry to say that this also did not come true. He predicted a major worldwide airline failure over several days in 1998 due to changing earth magnetism spoiling the compasses (but they no longer use magnetic compasses). He also told students in 1990 that the PN ashram would stretch as far as Dharmavaram (the nearest town with a railway station) before the millennium! That is about 40 miles or so! Yet the ashram has not expanded beyond its area since then until 2004. He told people I met at Whitefield that he would be using PN mostly "only as an office" by 1998, and would live mainly there in 'Brindavan', Whitefield, but this of course has not happened. (They offered me to come in on an exclusive bungalow scheme they started there). The list goes on and on...

By 2002, some further major media exposures based on global investigations with abused ex-followers were made. 'The Sunday Telegraph' of Britain published "Divine Downfall" in October 2002, a well-researched article reporting interviews with a sexually-abused minor and one of SSB's closest associates and sexual partners, Dr. N. Bhatia, formerly employed in the SSB Super-Speciality hospital. An important critical front page article also appeared in the nationwide India 'Today' magazine called "A God accused" on 4 December, 2000.

On-screen interview testimonies by sexually abused young men (one a minor at the time of abuse) were seen in Denmark when Danish National broadcasting showed the documentary film "Seduced by Sai Baba". This was later shown in a few other countries, causing a major fall-off of Sai Baba followers there.

For a systematic study of the early exposé on the web, see the article For and Against Sathya Sai Baba on the Internet by Alexandra Nagel.

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WORLD-WIDE EXPOSURE OF SEXUAL ABUSE AND SATHYA SAI BABA, THE 'SECRET SWAMI' Part 2 - Smoke Not Without Fire - Claims and Evidence of Serious Molestations A new series of articles examining questions on the alleged sexual abuses.

The Genital 'oiling' of young males by Sathya Sai Baba: Many Western devotees believe that Sathya Sai needs to rub naked genitals vigorously and voluptuously to kiss young men and boys so as to raise their kundalini (i.e 'dormant sexual-spiritual energies')! This is a travesty of so-called 'kundalini yoga', which has long been widely practiced in India and requires absolutely no 'massaging' of genitalia or kissing. Meanwhile devotees proudly claim and believe that SSB never touches females. Others known to me who are thought to be 'very important persons' in Sai circles (only) still privately defend SSB's sexual abuse as 'healing' or- more ridiculously - as the repayment/working off of 'terrible past karma', which they see as a great boon for his victims to get! These views, intended to exonerate SSB from any blame as a sexual molester and pederast, have been published on the internet by someone calling himself Ram Das Awle and are circulated widely among those very puzzled among the blindly faithful who are nonetheless aware that the sexual allegations have real substance. The belief that whatever SSB does to a person is for his own good, is held by many followers and expressed openly by some! This would include the anal rape of underage boys, as reported by Dr. Bhatia who described carrying out a medical examination of a young Sai student who he said he found had been raped by SSB. Sai followers therefore view the great mass of mankind to be misguided that this is a bad thing, since they are defending as 'divine' a low form of depravity.

The fantasies engendered by SSB's claims easily turn black into white. Both values and facts become gradually more and more distorted by devotees who have got caught up in SSB's catch-22, pick-and-choose menu of teachings by his powerful manipulations of their desires and dreams, his flattery, primadonna behaviour, great chutzpa, and his all-embracing megalomaniacal claims and pretensions etc.

The many and detailed descriptions by former male devotees of SSB's various homosexual advances and behaviour towards them, the series of good-looking young European men who have gone through the SSB 'centre of attention' experience are almost self-explanatory. I say only 'almost' because a number of defendants of SSB in the Sai Organisations are conducting a damage-limitation misinformation campaign, not least because some of the leaders have admitted in public that they know that SSB 'anoints' young men's genitals in secret and afterwards warns them to tell no one about it. One leader - Thorbjørn Meyer - has carefully described this unasked for genital manipulation an "age old Indian oil ceremony", without being able to produce even a fragment of documentation for this from Indian scripture or reliable historical sources. Even if he had, it would surely just amount to a primitive and perverted superstition. Another word for 'anoints' could well be 'interferes physically with' or 'sexually molests' young men's genitals. There are yet other verbal alternatives. Such an act is more likely a testing of sexual availability or a prelude to seduction, such as are described in sexual psychopathological works. As soon as we confront these matters from the viewpoint of a propaganda-free, normally non-prejudiced standpoint, they take on a fairly easily understood character.

Major abuse testimonies world-wide by young men and their relatives: Sharon Purcell was a devotee for 32 years and together with Elsie and Walter Cowan, Fritz and Victoria Ellis and her then husband, Gary, started the first official Southern California Center in the hilltop home of Elsie and Walter in the Cowan Heights section of Tustin, California. Sharon and Gary Purcell were told by SSB to name their child Sathya, which they did. In 1993 Sathya Purcell went to India with Hal Honig's group of boys. One week later, Sharon followed her son to India with her friend, Jill, where they had an interview with SSB. Later, Sharon reported to others, including a long term office-bearer, Glen Meloy, that SSB had molested 3 of Sathya's friends in private interviews which caused him to tell her that he no longer believed in Sai Baba. One of the boys in his group, whose genitals were oiled by Sai Baba, was Josh Kintz, son of Mahri and Bruce Kintz, long term members of the former Cherry Valley, California Center under the leadership of the late Joy Thomas and now currently active members of the Hemet, California Center. A third boy was also molested in this way. Sharon Purcell also knew Mark Roche well, who has courageously and wholly convincingly testified on the BBC documentary 'Secret Swami' to Sai Baba having tried to gratify his desire for oral sex with him in 1976 when Mark was a young man and believed him to be the God Avatar, as all the others in the group did, including Dr. J. Hislop and Mr. & Mrs. Cowan.

Sharon, a founder member of the Sai Organisation in California, knew some of those had been forced into sex by Sai Baba and, discovering this 'incredible' fact, left him and his organisation well before the internet revelations took place and she contributed to them via Glen Meloy. Would a person who had devoted her time, energy and become so deeply involved take such a step for no reason? She is just one example of over 100 unselfish persons working for the good of all as other ex-office-bearers in the Sai Organisation who have done the same.

The results of their inquiries in various countries were first seen on BBC Channel Two on June 17th, 2004. The only direct statement that SSB made was "Swami is pure"! and that was a private assurance to the top leader of the international Sai movement, Dr. M. Goldstein, who has gone on record reporting it. He accepted it at face value without any further questions, explanations or investigations. Thereafter he returned unopened all mail from all former leaders in the US Organisation who tried to contact him making complaints of sexual abuse. In the BBC documentary 'Secret Swami' Goldstein tells that Sai Baba told him that if he wanted to fight "gutter people", he would have to go into the gutter, so he should forget it. Goldstein claimed that he is a knower of human nature and tried to intimidate the young lady interviewer by vehement finger-shaking and a forceful attitude. He said that he is a doctor: "I am a consummate professional", and claimed he can tell infallibly by looking at young men whether they have been sexually abused! Viewers judged that he came across as an authoritarian ego-inflated 'doctor from hell' with raw conceit and aggression seldom seen even on TV (for it was filmed with a hidden camera so he would show his true nature). He is the Number One rich and powerful mover and shaker of the Sai Organisation, which also speaks volumes about its despotic internal nature.

An entirely undisputed and shockingly clear account of major sexual abuse by Sai Baba was made on film, firstly on 'Seduced by Sai Baba' (Denmark 2002) and secondly in 'Secret Swami' by the BBC (June 2004). The young man, who was underage at the time, is Alaya Rahm, son of Al Rahm, who provides support and his side of the episode. He and his family tell most convincingly of his ordeals at the threatening hands of Sai Baba. The despicable actions of Goldstein are documented beyond all doubt on screen. This documentary amounts to a transparently damning indictment of Sathya Sai Baba as a fraud, a suspected murder accomplice and a homosexual abuser. Their experiences and findings were fully in accord with those of the Danish documentary of 2002.

This footage shows the deceitful and conceited totalitarian and fanatical nature of Goldstein, which is shared by many leaders in the Sai Organisation. The following is an excerpt from the Danish documentary:

In 1989 when I was 15 years old I went to India for three weeks. And on that trip I had four interviews. And in the third interview he actually asked me to untie my pants. And he forcibly pulled my pants down and with his bare hand grabbed my groin and rubbed some oil on the side of my scrotum. And I went again on the following year, and on that trip when I was 16 years old, SB called me again for a private interview. At that point I was even actually more uncomfortable because it seemed like this had already taken place, there is no reason why it needed to take place again. ...he waved his hand and turned it over and showed me some oil. And he started to rub it on my testicles and started kissing me. And as he was kissing me, he started kissing me deeply, you know. And I started tensing up and, you know, not understanding what was happening. But it seemed to me as if SB was trying to make my penis erect. "One time he had his robe almost completely off and he tried to have anal sex with me, because he came from behind me and started climbing up on top of me, you know, and being that I'm so much taller than him, in order to keep prevent it from happening, I just stood straight up and didn't allow him to do anything, you know, and I kind of kept pushing him away and keep him there until ??... I know, I want to talk to you, I want to be with you and I love you. He said, "You don't love me? You don't love me?" And I would say, "No, I love you, but I just don't want to have sexual relations with you." ... But every time we would go back into the personal room, his wants got to be very intimate. And he was constantly having me take out my penis and he would hold it, sometimes put it in his mouth and look at me, and then ask me to do the same thing or push my head down and lift his robe up. And I was gagging and almost about to vomit. And, you know, that was probably the most mentally break down type of thing I've ever done in my life, because if I didn't feel like at that time, like my life or my family's happiness or … was depending on it, I wouldn't have done it. But my mentality at that time … I felt like it was a life or almost death situation. You know, this was God in human form, but that was my mental program - this is God in human form. How could I deny him what he was trying to make me do? There must be some deeper reason or deeper meaning that what I see." What really helped me was when I had some conversations with some other people who had had similar experiences. Because I felt, that if they had had experiences as intense, or close to as intense as mine, I could talk to them about it more openly than I could talk to my dad. So we had talked about it, and all the people that I had talked about it were equally confused about it as I was. However, also equally brainwashed and allowing it to continue to take place. So I would say that finally I decided that I was not going to put myself into that position again, because life without SB was going to be a better life." See full transcript of the whole interview.

Timothy Conway - Follower for 22 years, President of the Sathya Sai Baba Center of San Francisco from 1982-4 wrote and posted the following:

"We now have trustworthy reports from over two dozen credible eye-witnesses (and sworn affidavits from many of them) indicating that probably hundreds of young men and boys have been molested (far beyond "touching the perineum") and/or forced to perform oral sex and masturbation on Baba over the last 30 years or more. Baba has masturbated them and sometimes performed oral sex on them, sometimes to the point of ejaculation. Baba has threatened to deny interviews to many of the boys' parents if the boys resist his sexual predatory behavior. He has paid or bribed most of these male youth for sexual favors and for their silence with money, rings, watches, etc.-- up to $10,000 for one boy (an American youth well known to several former members of our Santa Barbara Sai Center). Baba has also evidently gotten angry at and berated those male youth who try to resist his molestations or who fail to become aroused when Baba is molesting them. He verbally manipulates and coerces them to engage in sex with him. It's clear that Baba is not "detachedly" "raising the kundalini" or "healing old sexual karma" of these male youth. (If this were the true reason, why is he denying young women and girls, older men and non-preferred younger men this "healing touch"?) Rather, Baba appears to be caught up in terrible lust and attachment: eyewitnesses describe him making "moaning" and "gurgling" sounds, thrusting his pelvis and erect organ toward the boys and young men, grabbing them when they try to move away, trying to persuade them how "lucky" they are to be having this "great opportunity." See full letter

Many very serious allegations of sexual misconduct - including extreme sorts - have been made openly and in public by a number of named persons. There are over score of detailed accounts of molestations to be found on the web which are credible and have mostly been checked by those ex-devotees who, like myself, have investigated this issue as fully as we could for years. In the following one reads short excerpts of key statements from web postings on several sites.

Several more accounts from around the world alleging sexual molestations by Sai Baba have - in addition to some of those detailed here - been formally signed as depositions or affidavits and are securely in the keeping of a professional person who is willing to be contacted ( such as via this website) for further validation by formal authorities and international bodies, lawyers and serious media persons.

Afshin Khorramshahgol (Iranian) - I travelled to India three times, from 1991 to 1993. On my first visit to India I was already a devotee of Sai Baba and believed he was God. I had a total of seven private interviews in the first two trips. In the first private interview Sai Baba asked me to undo my pants and drop my underwear. Since I believed he was God I did as he asked. He had already ‘materialised’ oil and he applied it in the area between my penis and anus. In every private interview after the ‘initiation’ private interview, Sai Baba asked me to drop my pants and underwear, and he would rub my penis. Once he was rubbing it so hard it was obvious to me that he wanted me to get an erection. I was busy talking to him about my problems, the problems of my country Iran, and my family’s problems, and I was asking him for his blessing for all of them. I was not interested in sex or anything, especially with a guy, and so my penis did not grow, now matter how hard Sai Baba tried. Finally, he gave up and threw my penis up and turned away with a very angry face and mumbled something. When he turned back to me, he told me to put my pants on again and the private interview was over. You may ask why I didn’t stop Sai Baba doing what he was doing if it was so obvious to me that he wanted me to get an erection. Due to my being brainwashed... (etc.) See the original posting of the full document.

Jens Sethi (German) - On 20th January 1996 I got the second interview. Already days before, he had established a strange eye-contact with me indicating the coming interview. My wife and I went to the interview and he acted very disappointed at seeing me together with my wife. He took me alone into the interview room and said “She is diseased and much older than you. Please separate from her”. I was really shocked and replied “She is attached to me”. I asked him to give her some spiritual instruction, which he readily agreed to do, but he had something else on his mind. Without asking permission he started kissing me on my lips for some time, and later asked me to open my trousers and ‘materialised’ some oil which he rubbed on the skin above my genitals. I felt very bad about all of this, but accepted, as I fully trusted Sai Baba. Then he took my wife into the private interview room alone, and told her “Either you separate from the boy or I throw you out of Puttaparthi!”. He appeared wild and furious (my wife told me afterwards) and she shivered all over. When she reappeared in a very short time, looking red faced and very scared, nobody dared ask her what happened in there. He saw me again some days later in darshan and asked whether I had separated or not. I said “Not yet”. He turned away and shouted so all people could hear “Bad, Bad boy!!!” He was so aggressive and seemed to radiate such an aura of evil that I was really shocked. We immediately left and went to north India for some pilgrimage. When Jens and his wife returned to try to clear up the matter with Sai baba somehow, his passport was confiscated by a Mr. Reddu of the ashram authority: On 30th October, late in the evening, two people whom I know and an unknown person came to our unit and one of them warned me that my life was in danger and I should leave immediately. My wife and I left very early next morning, for Delhi. At Dharmmavaram rail station the police were searching for us, but we entered the train at Anantapur. There is a police station near the platform which we had to pass to enter the train, and the very moment I saw that I told my wife to go into the train separately. My wife heard a group of policemen talking about searching for somebody and caught the words ‘passport, Delhi and telegram’. We were in serious danger but fortunately I was dressed like an Indian, and escaped identification. So we escaped and reached Delhi, and went immediately to the German Embassy. See the original posting of the full document.

Jed Geyerhahn (US citizen): I have talked with students at SB's school and they have had sexual relationships with SB. And it's really common knowledge that several students stay with SB all night on an ongoing basis. And of course nobody talks about what takes place with these students with SB, but from the students I've talked to (it's) clear that there are sexual relationships taking place. And in fact one student I talked to directly was a person that was staying with SB. And from the conversation it was clear that it was very difficult for him to come forward with this information, because he'd be rejected by his family and by his culture and by his people, unlike American students who have the support of their culture and society and family. They come forward and talk about the fact that they have been mistreated by SB.

A 15-year old boy, Neptune, wrote a diary (facsimile exists - surname withheld for obvious reasons) 1st interview: "Oil," he said. "Open." (He started lifting my shirt; I lifted it up, thinking he wanted to rub it on my navel. Then, with his left hand, [his right was full of oil.] he motioned downwards with his fingers. I understood. I untied my pants. He lifted my penis, put his fingers at the base of it, and started rubbing the oil into me. It didn't hurt, but he was making a motion as if he was pinching me there repeatedly with his fingers. He stopped, and waved his hand again. I guess he made some more oil. He resumed rubbing. With his other hand, he drew me close. He rubbed some more, and drew me closer. I could hear him murmuring some things, so I turned my ear towards him so I could catch what he was saying. He again pulled me tighter towards him this time by the waist, until my crotch was right by the side of his leg, and our chests were almost touching. I had my chin on his right shoulder both arms around him, his hair touching the side of my face, the front of my pants down. It was so bizarre. I could now feel him pulling the base of my penis back and forth. It felt kind of good. He finally let me go, and I pulled my pants up.) (He looked at me and said: ) "Don't tell anyone. Don't tell Mother. 2nd interview: He took Papa into the private room for a minute or so, then called me. Papa left. As soon as we got inside, he pulled me close, gave me a big hug, and started untying my pants. He dropped them to the ground, then pulled my underwear below my butt. He grabbed my penis, and while hugging me again, started masturbating the base of it. He kept repeating "Purification. Purification." I felt his other fingers grip around my crack and pull me closer, uptight. I held him tight in return. He turned his right cheek to me, I kissed it, with his prompting. He turned his mouth towards me, I gave him my cheek. He turned my head and kissed me on the mouth for a long time. When h stopped, I started to pull up my pants. He made sure my shirt didn't get stuck in the knot, and straightened me out. He kept telling me: "This is good chance; good chance; look, there are so many people outside. They all want to be here. It's your good luck." "Sometimes you are wasting money. Sometimes mother doesn't give. There's no income." (He waved his hand and out popped six 500 rupee bills. He counted them [Rs. 3000]) "For food. Spend it. keep it inside. Inside! (I put it in my wallet.) Don't tell anyone!" even Mother? "Mother you can tell." And father? "not father."

Keith Ord (British) - His written testimony is about his English friend Michael who had between 10 and 15 interviews with Sai Baba, but was not his usual self and was holding things back, until eventually, wrote Keith... Michael said, "that every day he attended darshan, Baba called him for an interview. And that after a while, he just refused to go." Keith "Don't you realise that people follow Baba round for ten years without ever being invited for one interview?" His reply turned me to stone : "Because he wanted to have sex with me. Every interview I had with him was the same. All he wants is sex." There was a kind of stunned silence in the room for a long time; I was trying to digest what I had heard, wondering what it could mean... Of his own experiences in the ashram, Keith wrote that he talked with several other young men: "One was an English boy named Kestrel Boyle and the other an Australian called Edward --- I can't remember his surname because he was. born of Bangladesh! parents In Australia and 4 was a rather difficult name. I didn't really know what to tell them, or even if I should tell them, so instead asked them if Baba had ever done strange things to them in their private interviews. Edward replied immediately, and in such matter of fact tones that it surprised me into silence. He said "What, you mean playing with your dick? Oh don't worry about that, he's done that to me loads of times. It doesn't mean anything bad - I actually like it, and think it's good for me.' Kestrel basically said the same kind of thing, so I didn't dare say any more, but I wondered what else Baba had done with them." Conclusion: January 1990 - 'Islington Gazette' carried the coroner's report on Michael's death, but didn't find anything suspicious - listing it simply as a suicide. See the original posting of the full document.

Koert van de Velde posted: "The following is an excerpt from a long article (Published in Spiegelbeeld October issue 2000) by Matthijs van der Meer, Holland. Matthijs considered himself a victim of Sai Baba's inappropriete sexual approaches seven years ago, and (since) left the Organization." Nobody wanted to listen, but now we have the internet and I am no longer alone...Boys and men from the ages of seven and thirty, if they look handsome, could count on "special attention" from Sai Baba.He is very fond of light colored skin and blue eyes". Van der Meer understands why many adults were molested by this men."In my way of feeling I had no choice (in the matter). How could I choose not to follow God?", he wrote in the New Age Magazine "Spiegelbeeld" (The Mirror Picture)" "...so I came to remind myself of a story in the Dutch magazine HP/De Tijd of January '92: the story of the London Keith Ord who declared Sai Baba had repeatedly sexually intimidated him. As it turned out when I finally brought myself into contact with the people interviewed in the article, one of these devotees had been Keith's friend Michael Pender. Within one-and-half month after a journey to Baba and 10 interviews, he had committed suicide. In June '95 I visited Keith. He turned out to be an exceptionally beautiful negro boy. We talked and talked and I made recordings on cassettes. >From one detail to the other Keith related what he had gone through at the time. About the vilification by devotees after he had finally opened his mouth while still being there. About a moment at which he found himself being threatened to be stoned to the ground. About the initial envy for the interviews he got. About Baba’s hugs and touches. About the despair, the loneliness, the fear... And finally, in more detail, about Baba’s striking signs of excitement. Worst of all possibly was the fact that while after the first palpations Keith was pulling up his trousers, Baba, putting a finger to his lips, had summoned him "Don’t talk!" An Indian ex-Sai student whose credentials were checked by the BBC and who gave them an interview on film, but who must remain anonymous for family reasons, originally wrote:- "At the time, i was 17 years old, i am now 32 years old, have been married and recently widowed. My wife knew of my former faith with sai baba, but she never knew of this abusive experience. Some of my family members know the truth now (they are sympathetic to me and want me to get help). The shame i felt was very bad. I grew up in the bal vikas program from the age of 10 years old, in the UK. i knew many sai devotees including Dr Ghadia who travels the UK AND US (where i am now located). I did not begin to speak out until i realised a few years ago that i am not the only person he has abused. He is a menace to teenage boys who are to afraid and ashamed to speak up. Peer pressure from my family made me shut up at the time , but i am an adult now and i can speak the truth. As what to do about it i dont know, if he were here in the US he would have been prosecuted and convicted long ago.He is a pedophile who blankets himself with the reputation of a god/living saint drawing people to him through his "miracles", and speeches."

Hans de Kraker (Holland) wrote: During these four years of travels to India, Sai Baba would perform a certain ritual each time he would call me in for a private audience or interview. He would ask me to take down my pants. He would than "oint" my umbilical area; testicles and penis with oil which he "materialised". After this ritual he would ask me to pull up my pants and tidy them up. During one of the last visits, there was a young guy who had travelled with us from Italy. He had not been to India before. He accompanied his girlfriend and her father, who was part of the group. Sai Baba called in this particular young man a few days later by him self. He came to me fairly shortly after and was quite shocked (like most people were, all for their own different reasons). He asked me to explain him something;"Swami hugged me, and then kissed me, on the lips and tried engage me by probing my mouth with his tongue". When I heard I was very shocked. This young boy (18/19) was quite confused and asked me what I thought of it. He had thought of Kundalini and that it was to "balance his energy". I did not know. I told him that that could be the case but that I did not know. We both talked about it for some more time. I told him about the ritual that I had been going through over the past years and this was maybe something in that line... ... While leaning over to get something from a lower shelf in the closet, when rising he pointed at his cheek, indicating that he wanted me to kiss him. I did so, very surprised and kind of suspicious. I come from a country though where man and women irrespective of sex, kiss each other on the cheek three times. So after my first suspicion, relativised everything back to normal (I am still amazed today, how far ones mind can go!) So back to that moment where he asked me to come closer. He then hugs me ( I am on my knees and he is seated on his chair-there are no people present). He now turns his face and puts his lips on mine; my head his spinning and my mind is running at 500 kilometres per hour. I don't know what to do! My mouth tightens up, and I feel extremely uncomfortable and confused with this "perceived incarnation of GOD on earth trying to kiss me on and in my mouth!! Sai Baba slaps me on my cheek and says "Loosen up!!! With other people not OK with Sai Baba OK " I am even more uncomfortable now and feel disgusted at the same time. Sai Baba realised his and my predicament and decides not to continue. He now tells me again that he will give me everything and stands up and tells me to do padnamnamaskaar. As I go on my knees, and touch his feet with my forehead, he pulls up my arms and indicates he wants his calf muscles massaged. Although very uncomfortable with everything that had happened I still continued to listen to him. Many people knew how he liked having his calve muscles massaged and I had seen respectable men and women of all walks of life do the same thing....he now takes my head and pushes it quite firmly into his groin...he then pulls up my arms and asks me to go higher and higher and higher...NOW I AM HOLDING HIS BUTTOCKS AND WONDER WHAT THE HELL MY DIVINE MASTER IS ASKING ME TO DO!!! Fuse!!! Crash! I let go my arms and now I am even more shell shocked...he pulls up his dress, presents me his half-erect penis and invites me to take up my "Good Luck Chance": "This is your Good Luck Chance" I am now on my knees facing his erect penis, being asked to perform oral sex. He stands there, and I think: AM I SUPPOSED TO DO THIS? COULD I DO THIS? I then instinctively stretch out my right arm and put it on the part of his chest which hides his heart and say: "I don't want this Swami, I want your heart". He now drops his dress and tells me: "Yes yes yes of course you have my heart" He now asks me to take my pants down, "discovers" my penis is not erect and tells me that that is how it is supposed to be! "Swami is inside there see, Swami is inside there." Hell NO! That is Mine and Mine! And you are certainly not in there! I thought. He asks me to do Padnamnamaskaar again and again he pulls up his dress "This is your second Good Luck Chance" he said. View full document.

More "Good Chances" for Sex with the Avatar: One is reminded here of a book about his time near to 'the avatar' by the American devotee Howard Levin, entitled "Good Chances", and one naturally wonders how that title was chosen. Levin was a young man having very close daily contacts with Sathya Sai Baba during the 1970s when he reports Sai Baba as having said those words to him and to other young American men staying there with him, including Tal Brooke (to whom SSB made clear sexual advances, as detailed by him from 1980 onwards in his books). Here is another account sent to me by a young man, Greg Gerson from Houston, USA, who was 'oiled' by SSB:-

Said Khorramshahgol from Iran, wrote a long article, from which the following excerpts are taken verbatim: "My first two trips I had seven interviews and a total of seven private interviews, with just me and Baba in the private interview room. Baba had materialized a gold ring with three stones which he told me were diamonds. In my first private interview, Baba did a ceremony... putting oil on his hand and pushing his hand upward between the front testicle and the back area. That area is supposed to be a special area which is very important to spiritual practice of the devotee. In every private interview after that Baba would ask me to put down my pants while he massaged my testicle. I would reason that Baba perhaps is passing some energy to that area. In one occasion, Baba was not just massaging it, he was trying to give me a hard on... he was pushing his hand back and forth on my testicle, I was telling him about many different things on my mind. Of course, I was so sure that he is doing the best thing for me that I was thinking of something else. I was telling him about the problems in my country of Iran, how the people are suffering, the problems of my family and my own problems. He couldn't get me hard so all of a sudden with anger and an angry face he threw my thing up against my stomach and with an angry face he turned his back to me. This was the only occasion which he kept some distance between me and him while he was playing with me. Every other time, he would hug me and do it. In almost all of such interviews, Baba would breath harder and sometimes he would make noises too. In one interview, he stood up while I was kneeling on my knees. With his right hand, to took my head and put it against his stomach. With his left hand he took my right hand and put it against his testicle. He rubbed my hand there for a short while and this time he was making loud noises of .... I tried to look up to his face to see it, but he pushed my head hard against his stomach and did not allow me to look up. So, I didn't try again. While he took my hand there, I felt his testicle, although I didn't grab it, I just let him direct my hand and do whatever he wants. At the same time, I would touch him by the outside part of my hand. As I said before, he was making loud voices while he was doing that. This took about two minutes before he let go of me and my hand and said "This is God"!!!" Said Khorramshahgol's account of the effects of Sai Baba and his teachings etc. can be read at http://members.tripod.com/~dlane5/saideb3.html

During my visits I had five interviews. The first four of which I received private interviews alone with Sai Baba. Sai Baba also gave me two rings: one is silver with his face in gold and the other is a "green diamond". I no longer wear either. During one interview, which occurred just before I was scheduled to fly home to America, while we were alone, Sai Baba had me pull down my pants. He then "materialized" oil and pulled down my underwear and applied the oil on my lower abdomen below my navel and above my penis. He did not touch me sexually or ask me to do anything to him. He did embrace me for what seemed like a long time (perhaps 30 seconds or more) but nothing else. During that visit I was 26 or 27 years old. At another point in this interview when I was with three or four others in the smaller interview room, Sai Baba slapped me across the face quite hard when I was not looking. I injured my green gem ring in about 1996 and discovered the silver foil inside. I took the ring to a qualified jeweler in Houston and he confirmed that the "gem" was worthless junk. I spent almost a year and a half of my life living in Sai Baba's ashrams. I heard stories from other young men to whom Sai Baba applied oil. So perhaps it is not especially noteworthy. I also heard of a young man who Sai Baba kissed on the mouth and another young man Sai Baba touched inappropriately (on his genitals). But, as I am sure you are very aware, these types of second and third hand stories are useless. What is desperately needed is the Indian students of Sai Baba's schools who supposedly underwent true molestation to come forward with their stories (apparently there are a lot?). Only then will progress be made in exposing Sai Baba appropriately.

Edwin Reurings, the Netherlands posted: During an interview Sai Baba touched me in the groin once under the pledge that he would give me a woman. Although at the time I did not regard this as an indecent act, the way he did it I thought peculiar. After studying the overwhelming number of negative experiences given on the website saibabaexposed/ my doubts were confirmed. Now I think that his feeling my private parts is not the worst. The worst thing of all I find is the enormous waste of time, the deception, the feelings of huge insecurity and self-doubt that have weighed on me all those years. I am very much aware that I, having all this happen to me, must bear responsibility for it. But it is Sai Baba's responsibility to practice his own teachings and be true to his self-proclaimed divinity. I tell you, in reality he is shockingly different from what he pretends to be.

One young man - who needs to be anonymous because he experiences persecution in Denmark by Sai devotees - did not believe the allegations, so he visited Sai Baba and wrote:- "I am a 34 years old male who has just survived a 11 weeks trip to Sai Baba. Sai Baba is teaching us that all religion is welcome and that he is God himself.After his return he wrote: I created a whole theory about how he was the messiah and the creator of it all as described by Isaiah. In my mind I was on the brink of surrendering to him as I could see that my prayers to him had helped me out of several troubles. Then I finally got an interview during which he "made" a watch for me (while I was looking the other way). I then got into the inner interview room where he told me that sometimes I have very very bad thoughts. I told him that it was certainly because of the darkness in me. He said that he would remove everything, and he then told me to take down my pants and then he massaged my lower stomach with oil. I couldn't help wondering that the atmosphere was more one of desire than of the divine. Notice how he always talks about his desires for... ! I then got out of the inner interview room and after talking to some other devotees he told me to come into the inner room again. Then I was told to kiss his feet, but I couldn't really surrender to him as I really didn't feel anything divine. Then as he was standing up he told me to put my head to his hip; he then gave me a massage on my back as he told me to forget everything and just let everything go (to him). I still couldn't surrender. He then gave up. I had some question about the divine Mother Mary, so I said what about Mother Mary. He just said: I will find a good girl for you. Then I said that I just want to serve God. He looked at me as if I was a hopeless case and then the interview was over."

WORLD-WIDE EXPOSURE OF SEXUAL ABUSE AND SATHYA SAI BABA, THE 'SECRET SWAMI' Part 3 - More smoke and fuel to the fire A new series of articles examining questions on the alleged sexual abuses.

Here I summarise some of the indirect and circumstantial evidence which by its nature and extent in general supports the direct allegations on many points of detail. Admittedly, the information collected here does not formally 'prove' SSB's guilt, being reported allegations (not least since I have never myself been a victim of sexual molestation by SSB... but then he doesn't seem to have taken a sexual interest in older men). But the reports are so numerous and include accounts by victims, their families and friends plus other reliable persons, that they strongly support the contention that SSB is a major sexual abuser. In the main, I present information that came to me during the course of my time as a devotee and during my subsequent follow-up of such incidents. For the record, I am willing to swear on oath that what I write here is true to the best of my knowledge, being as accurately stated as I can make it, and that I have investigated and cross-checked all facts to the utmost of my current faculties and facilities.

Why do so many young foreign boys given much attention almost invariably leave Sai Baba? Through the years I saw, on numerous occasions, that SSB selected for very frequent interviews certain young men from 16 to 20 years old from Scandinavia, the USA and Germany who I knew or was acquainted with. They would often be invited on their own without the group they belonged to and would get private interviews each time. All of them received gifts like rings, bangles or watches etc. from SSB. This was puzzling, but the classic explanation was that SSB knows the karma of everyone and he fetches these young men because of their merits (or also certain 'demerits') in past lives both to protect them and possibly 'correctively punish' them... all so as to sow the seeds of spirituality in them. However, I found that those who I came to know fairly well were all already spiritually inclined, often very much so. The more surprising it was to note that, one after another, these much 'blessed' young men soon fell away from the Sai movement altogether and were never seen again at the ashrams. Devotees lost touch with them altogether. Who could possibly understand this? The minds of followers are heavily programmed by SSB teachings to think "we cannot understand everything, probably we cannot really understand anything... and especially where SSB is involved." The fall-off of followers, especially young men who have been feted by SSB, was a subject of discussion among many devotees (esp. prior to the public furore), which can also be noted in various accounts by writers of pro-Sai books.

At our various interviews, my wife and I have seen SSB choose a male youth to sit close to him on nearly every occasion, whom he strokes, claps, slaps and fondles on and off throughout the couple of hours. Being fully signed-up believers in SSB then, we did not regard these as signs of homosexual behaviour with SSB. One Norwegian journalist lady we later met, however, told how her unmarried partner was taken into a private interview without her, and that she had seen SSB grab surreptitiously at his genitals twice as they came out into the main interview room, which fact her partner had confirmed to her.

One of the several known Scandinavian victims was a very young man from Sweden (nicknamed 'the golden boy' due to the many trinkets 'materialised' for him by SSB) whose revelations in 2000 caused a serious decline in the following in the Swedish Sai Organisation and were also the occasion of Conny Larsson finally making known to all his own history of long abuse by SSB. A Sai Organisation meeting of leaders and active devotees was held in Stockholm where the 'golden boy' and another boy told of the repeated and serious molestations they had suffered at the hands of Sai Baba. Among others, the President of the Swedish Sai Organisation and leader of the Sai school in Gothenberg, Britt-Marie Andén, whose son was also molested sexually by Sai Baba, closed down the school and left Sai Baba altogether. The National Coordinator for Education in Human Values, Magnus Vrethammar, a long-serving and founder devotee in Sweden also formally resigned with his wife - who had written two books on Sai Baba in Swedish and was then ready to publish a third.

Another Swedish boy I knew quite well from several visits to the ashram - he was active in the Organisation too - had a dozen interviews in a brief period... and some say he had many more within a few weeks before he left SSB and the organisation, despite the lavish attention he received, (i.e. fairly evidently precisely because of it!) That boy sat close beside SSB at interviews (my wife and I also observed this) and was constantly touched and handled in various ways by SSB as he sat there. SSB nicknamed him 'the coconut tree' because he was very tall. I also met in Prashanthi in 1992 a third Swedish boy in his late teens with a group mainly from Gothenburg and he was in a very evident state of confusion and withdrawal already after his first private interview with SSB, which I found most extraordinary then but which I now realise could well have been due to sexual molestation.

In another instance, a young man from Denmark who was a very active worker in the Sai Organisation and whom I knew well from Prashanthi and Denmark, visited me in Norway and told me that Sai Baba kissed him voluptuously on the mouth when alone with him inside the private interview room. I did not believe him! He had also removed the silver ring Sai Baba gave him (with SSB's own image on), which my wife and I could not understand at all. He did not say why! He had already apparently put Sai Baba behind him, and probably was hoping I would hear him out.. He did not then tell me of oiling of his genitals, for I was too convinced a devotee, but a friend who contacted him years later reported that genital oiling was also involved, but also that he did not wish to make a public statement about it, though he had been the most active seva worker in Denmark prior to that. Another young man from Denmark gave an account of visiting Sai Baba in 2002 to find out if the allegations could be true. He was invited to a private interview and was genitally massaged himself, whereupon he posted his account on the www.exbaba.com exposé website. He later withdrew his account, having expressed to me his anxiety of the reactions he met from his contacts and by other consequences he feared. A tall, dark young man in his early 20s from Germany whom I met at Prashanthi Nilayam around 1990, and whom I saw called to 5 interviews within about 2 weeks and who received a gold(?) ring from SSB, was never seen or heard of subsequently. I do not publish the names of the above persons since I do not have their permission, which I must say I understand, however regretful it is that they feel unable for one reason or another to stand forth.

I have also heard from three long-standing friends of incidents that support these allegations which they happened to have heard about from the persons involved. These reports, often thought peculiar or even doubtful at the time, became all that much more significant after the main wave of allegations broke, because they fitted the general pattern and added weight to the credibility of the exposé. Another good friend of ours, a Norwegian who visited Sai Baba several times with his Rumanian wife, Felicia Fotland, upon hearing about the allegations, told that they knew a male Italian devotee who had told him how Sai Baba had handled his genitals. I also knew an American lady, Marge Hendel, who had been a Sai follower for decades, who told me that some of her US friends had brought their young son to SSB sometime before the 1980s, but had left permanently when he had taken down the boy's trousers alone in private and massaged his genitals with oil. I had discounted this at the time as being either untrue or, at best, perhaps some kind of spiritual treatment. Only in view of subsequent very credible-sounding accounts, of which there are too many to disregard, do these other incidents appear noteworthy, to say the least. Though these second-hand accounts may be presented by some who are keen to ignore them as 'mere hearsay', I regard them rather as part of the ever-mounting mass of circumstantial evidence coming from all kinds of identified and unrelated persons around the world.

The long-serving US devotee, Al Drucker, who lived at Sai Baba's ashrams for well over a decade, was later forced in 1992 by SSB to leave them 'for ever' and was banned completely from the Sai Organisation. According to an US lady who was present at the interview in SSB's costly residence Trayee Brindavan and related the details to us directly afterwards, the reason for the ban was that Drucker would marry against SSB's expressed command. Though I saw Drucker visiting Prashanthi years later in 1998 (somewhat difficult to recognise due to a beard) for the presentations of holy sandals (paduka) ceremonies and my wife and V.K. Narasimhan spoke to him, he has signally failed to come out with the truth about why he left SSB and his many experiences with very disturbed parents of sons sexually abused by SSB. This information has come to us (which fact I can document) through two trustworthy friends of ours, long-term former National Sai Organisation leaders, who managed to get Drucker to tell them in private the main reason for his disaffection. They have since withdrawn from Sai Baba. I vouch fully for the veracity of my own account here, which I strongly feel has to be made public not least for the sake of helping warn persons at risk from similar attentions by SSB or student victims he may have led astray into similar tastes as his own.

The serial abuse of Sai college boys and young men?: Among several ex-students who contacted one or another of those of us who have declared our firm conviction that the evidence is overwhelming, is the Tamil ex-Whitefield student Meenakshi Srikanth. He published a long article describing Sai Baba's homosexual abuse under the title Sai Baba: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. He attests that he was told by many students what they had experienced (and what he fortunately did not suffer) saying:

"Many of these students were made gay ('sodomized' would be an unrefined word) by Swami, who himself is a gay. I did not believe it when they told me this. But not long after, I heard the experiences as narrated by the students who had undergone the trauma themselves. ... lets call him Nandan, always had a grim face as he walked into the bungalow. He never attended classes those days in which he got an interview. I have often seen him show marks in his chest and chin and say things like, "innikku kadichtaarudaa!", followed by a flow of choice words of slang. Nandan often used to get covers from Swami in public and sometimes he would be asked to open it. It would contain crisp hundred rupee notes. There is another word for giving money for such acts. Nandan was helpless. He could not go home and complain. His family and parents were devotees for 30 years and their very lives have been defined around Baba. Nandan since he knew the world has been knowing Swami and none else as god. He was first initiated into doing this by Swami when he was in school. Swami told him that he (