The email sent to me in 2000 is fairly typical of those sent out or posted on boards by Sai devotees who make huge claims about Sai Baba's "miracles" of materialisation and other kinds. Someone who has taken the self-enhancing name 'Radhe' and who gushes tears of joy supposes here that it was very remarkable that Sai Baba called this same person to interview five times ("as it happened"??) wherever he was sitting! Has not Sai Baba eyes to see and recognise a person he has granted an interview the day before? I think even I could manage the remarkable feat of picking out the same face at darshan five times running! After all, Sai Baba has assiduous ashram officials who must register the details of every visitor. For example, all passports are delivered on each visitor's arrival at the ashrams and usually kept for some time, and photocopied, etc.). A list is kept of all those who have already donated (large) sums of money. It is well known that SSB is told all the news early every morning by the head of his ashram.

This kind of tunnel vision shows the naiveté of the devotee and the excessively overdone assertions about the extraordinary, "unfathomable nature" of Swami, a besotted deluded uncritical witlessness well known from hundreds of other similar accounts in Sai devotee e-mails and books galore. It is hard for many to disbelieve such accounts when one is surrounded by thousands in a similar state of mind, many with their own 'incredible' wonder stories. It is so easy to be swept along because one is hoping it is all true and one would like some attention too, hoping for some relief from suffering and escape from the human condition generally and wanting some grace or at least to find some positive role in life for oneself.

The container referred to in the writer's email had in it a "diamond ring" and some vibuti the supply of which "apparently" does not exhaust itself. Firstly, consider the alleged "diamond" ring. In 1986, Sai Baba gave me what he confirmed was a white diamond set in a gold lotus ring, then he changed it for an even better one (in his own words), which was much larger and green coloured, having a considerable brilliance. I never questioned it's genuineness until I had learned about and thoroughly investigated many of the massive Sai Baba deceptions and the many sexual abuses of which he is accused. Then I got it assayed by the official jeweller to Queen Margarethe of Denmark, the opening of the ring being filmed by a team working for Danish Broadcasting (see my full account with photos). The green stone turned out to be a cheap synthetic sapphire (which was why it did not scratch even though worn constantly during all tasks I did for ca. 14 years) with greenish tinfoil set behind the stone (in a 18 carat gold setting closed off at the back) to enhance its brightness! (an old trick used by deceivers in the gem trade).

The vibuthi which "apparently" never runs out is of a very elusive kind. I have tried to investigate this alleged phenomenon during 9 visits to the ashrams - a total of well over 1 year sitting at one or two darshans daily - but never could anyone show it to me. The fraud 'Halagappa' - a (supposedly) reformed thief who has long presided over what is often called 'the Thief's Temple' in Sri Ranga Patnam near Mysore - was reported by Sai Baba's biographer, N. Kasturi, and many others to possess such a box but he did not have one when I visited him in 1985 and I discussed for hours with him alone. I have seen how people take smaller and smaller pinches of the stuff to make it seem that it never runs out... and somehow it gets more precious as the amount diminishes!! Why have devotees never got independent, critical scientists to carry out fully controlled experiment to prove that vibuthi does "never run out" or manifest itself on pictures and elsewhere. The answer is clear to most people and not least those who see the exposures on the web and in films of Sai Baba's legerdemain.

So it is the present Pope Benedict XVI (Joseph Ratzinger) who is to preach Sai Baba's message. The latter's message is "Why fear when I am here?", i.e. that he is the Saviour/Avatar, his life being his Message, only he will redeem the world from disaster and so on. (He stands widely accused of homosexual abuse and covering up murders in his own bedroom). This would mean, not Jesus' message any more, but Sai Baba's (which is further proven to conflict with both Jesus' and the Papacy's teachings in crucial respects). This papal preaching has not been observed so far. In short, no such Papal Bull! I just wonder if this is yet another "Sai Baba miracle" for "loving his uncertainty" and his holding us in suspense...