'Miracles Are My Visiting Cards'
1 journaler for this copy...
Subtitle: ‘An investigative report on the psychic phenomena associated with Sathya Sai Baba’.
***
This well-travelled book has been published in UK, India, and (with a slightly different title) in USA. It has been translated into several foreign languages. In the mainly eulogistic hundreds of devotee books published about their guru in the last 30 years, a work by a practising academic
parapsychologist (with many academic articles to his name) was welcomed 16 years ago by devotees and others as a serious and authoritative-looking study of the uniqueness of Sathya Sai Baba and his alleged paranormal powers.
Dr. Haraldsson was not able to carry out his original academic project of making scientific experiments on the alleged public miracles performed by Sathya Sai Baba because the guru refused permission. Nevertheless, Haraldsson made several prolonged research visits to the guru’s ashram over a period of ten years (1973-1983). He was able to observe Sai Baba in action at close quarters, and some of the materialisations that he (and his occasional assistants) witnessed impressed him greatly. Over that same period, Haraldsson also painstakingly
assembled a large amount of tape-recorded testimony from longtime devotees of Sai Baba.
The resulting book records Haraldsson’s analysis of a collection of evidence about the alleged paranormal activities, including much hearsay testimony dealing with events of the 1950s and
1960s when devotee numbers were much more limited. It also contains other valuable research results which cast doubt on a few of the statements and claims made about Sai Baba by writers and devotees (on alleged resurrections of devotees, for example). (Following a familiar behavioural pattern, devotees seem to pay no attention to such counter-evidence.)
At no time did Haraldsson become a devotee of this guru; instead, he endeavoured to remain impartial. Nevertheless, the image of Sathya Sai Baba which the reader perceives in this book is far from negative.
After 60 years of Sai Baba’s spiritual activity and virtually unanimous adulation, some of his claims have recently been attracting an increasing amount of critical scrutiny. Some disquieting revelations are now on record and freely available on the Internet. In these changed
circumstances, on which, to my knowledge, Dr Haraldsson (as an acclaimed expert on Sathya Sai Baba) has made no public comment, the biographical aspects of this popular book (especially some of the information based on the evidence the author collected from devotees and writers)
are in urgent need of a reappraisal.
***
***
This well-travelled book has been published in UK, India, and (with a slightly different title) in USA. It has been translated into several foreign languages. In the mainly eulogistic hundreds of devotee books published about their guru in the last 30 years, a work by a practising academic
parapsychologist (with many academic articles to his name) was welcomed 16 years ago by devotees and others as a serious and authoritative-looking study of the uniqueness of Sathya Sai Baba and his alleged paranormal powers.
Dr. Haraldsson was not able to carry out his original academic project of making scientific experiments on the alleged public miracles performed by Sathya Sai Baba because the guru refused permission. Nevertheless, Haraldsson made several prolonged research visits to the guru’s ashram over a period of ten years (1973-1983). He was able to observe Sai Baba in action at close quarters, and some of the materialisations that he (and his occasional assistants) witnessed impressed him greatly. Over that same period, Haraldsson also painstakingly
assembled a large amount of tape-recorded testimony from longtime devotees of Sai Baba.
The resulting book records Haraldsson’s analysis of a collection of evidence about the alleged paranormal activities, including much hearsay testimony dealing with events of the 1950s and
1960s when devotee numbers were much more limited. It also contains other valuable research results which cast doubt on a few of the statements and claims made about Sai Baba by writers and devotees (on alleged resurrections of devotees, for example). (Following a familiar behavioural pattern, devotees seem to pay no attention to such counter-evidence.)
At no time did Haraldsson become a devotee of this guru; instead, he endeavoured to remain impartial. Nevertheless, the image of Sathya Sai Baba which the reader perceives in this book is far from negative.
After 60 years of Sai Baba’s spiritual activity and virtually unanimous adulation, some of his claims have recently been attracting an increasing amount of critical scrutiny. Some disquieting revelations are now on record and freely available on the Internet. In these changed
circumstances, on which, to my knowledge, Dr Haraldsson (as an acclaimed expert on Sathya Sai Baba) has made no public comment, the biographical aspects of this popular book (especially some of the information based on the evidence the author collected from devotees and writers)
are in urgent need of a reappraisal.
***
