How SSB-devotees, like Dr. Michael Goldstein, are weaving protective cocoons of self-deceit around themselves.   Date: 09-25-02 From: Åsa Samsioe Email: asa.samsioe@leksand.mail.telia.com  When people once are stuck on the hook of SSB and his organization, it is almost impossible to get free again. There are many different factors behind this. One important thing is, that when his devotees have been brainwashed to a certain amount, they themselves take over the brainwashing of both themselves and others. The mental mechanisms, which take an active part in this process, remind me of those which can be found in people with paranoic delusional thinking. Those persons constantly seek confirmation in the external world, to strengthen their own egocentric and sick internal world. They frequently read hidden meanings in remarks or events and are intertangled in a web of allusions. An outstanding example of an SSB devotee, brainwashing himself and others, being intertangled in a web of allusions according to his guru, is Dr. Michael Goldstein. In his “A Discourse for Devotees” on http://www.oocities.org/saideep_inv/gold/mg.htm (mirror) Dr. Goldstein describes an event when he was in PN and SSB had planned to give a discourse. Dr. Goldstein had not been pre- selected by SSB to speak that day before SSB gave his discourse. But when he was sitting at darshan, SSB three times asked him “Are you prepared”. The third time SSB asked him this, he answered yes... SSB then leaned close to him and said “ To be prepared.... Is the state of the inner self”. “Instantly I knew the significance of His words!!!” Goldstein says... “With a simple word or phrase, Swami teaches us many lessons at many levels”. Before that event with SSB, Dr. Goldstein describes how he had been “ immersed in a conflict which was the result of my own attachments.” “ I was feeling uneasiness and conflict with respect to matters of the Sai Organization”.... Indeed he should have every reason for feeling uneasiness according to matters of the Sai Organization! For further information about this subject, read Robert Priddy´s and Serguei Badaev´s articles at http://www.saibaba-x.org.uk/saiorg/index.htm (nota available look here in stead.) In this context it is important to remember that Dr. Michael Goldstein isn´t just an ordinary devotee. He is the head of the Sai Organization in the USA and head of the Prashanthi Council, which governs all overseas Sai organisations. A great part of the economical resources of the Sai Organization in India originates from the USA. To permit Dr. Goldstein to give a discourse is probably a tactical choice by SSB. And no wonder that SSB gives him special attention! Note too that SSB´s tried and tested questions like ‘Are you ready?’ etc. are frequently used by him. He uses the same limited phrases over and over again in English, being too uncomfortable with the language ever to hold a discourse in plain English! These telegraphic utterances can be interpreted in dozens of ways by devotees, all according to their minds and the situation. And it doesn´t take telepathy or divine gifts to discover if somebody is upset and worried. You just have to read the person's face. In his book “The Conscious Universe” Dean Radin, PH. D., writes in page 62: “In many cases what appears to be telepathy probably is due to psychological factors, such as selective memory, wishful thinking, misremembered events, or subliminal cues. Regardless of how convincing, interesting, or personally moving any given story may be, we know that evidence relying solely on eyewitness testimony or memory is notoriously inaccurate, and there are simply too many normal explanations for such experiences.” This ought to exhort SSB´s devotees to be more careful drawing conclusions from their own experiences and from all those stories and books about SSB, which compete with each other according to SSB related “miracles”. And even if SSB has the gift of telepathy, that doesn´t prove his divinity. On page 88 Dean Radin confirms the existence of telepathy. Among others he mentions the Ganzfeld experiments: He writes: “We are fully justified in having very high confidence that people sometimes get small amounts of specific information from a distance without the use of the ordinary senses. Psi effects do occur in the ganzfeld.” But Dr. Goldstein makes a great fuss about this small and insignificant event between him and SSB. For him it is the proof that confirms his internal world in which SSB is the Lord and God- man who walks amid us. “Who among men knows all that we have thought, felt, said, done and also dreamt” he says among other things and goes on quite over-excited in his discourse and talks about the Lord who “manifests himself in the universal human values; Sathya, Dharma, Shanti, Prema, Ahimsa; truth, right conduct, peace, love, and non- violence.” If I were Dr. Goldstein I would change to a lower gear and realize that SSB has himself violated all these universal human values. Violating these values are neither the expression of maya (delusion due to ignorance), nor the expression of God´s leelas (divine play). God would never have challenged these values and put them in opposition to his devotees´ faith and love. Below is further illustration of Dr Goldsteins vulnerable mentality, when SSB is violating these universal human values. 'Sam Young' is an American youth who was interviewed by Mick Brown for his article "Divine Downfall" in the Sunday Telegraph and filmed by Øjvind Kyrø for the Danish documentary. Having described how SSB made sexual advances to him in interview after interview, including initiating oral sex with him and attempting anal entry, and having threatened the boy (then still a minor) by saying that his family would not get any more interviews, Sam told his parents and his father went to Dr. Michael Goldstein and told him all. Excerpt of text from the Danish Film 'Seduced by Sai Baba' SAM’S FATHER: We told him [i.e. Dr. Goldstein] every single detail. And honestly, I would say that he was genuinely shaken. He made comments like, "Faith has to be restored. Words will not be enough. I hate to think that 25 years of my life had been for nothing, had been a waste. We MUST talk to Baba about this." And he asked us, "Please, please, do not tell anyone about this until we’ve had a chance to talk to Baba." He said, "I will go, I will be there for his birthday." He was called in and he specifically adressed the situation with our family. Baba was very clear exactly which family it was. He said, "Baba, I need to talk to you about inappropriate action that this family says you’ve had with their son." Baba’s response was: "Swami is pure." The next day Baba gave his big birthday discourse, and in that discourse he praised this individual, that man who is the head of the organisation, more than he had ever praised anyone else before, saying what an incredible devotee he was, and all that he had done. And a friend of mine who had videotaped it and had it, was approached afterwards by this man. He said, "Oh, did you get that on tape?" He said, "It was the peak of my life." So when he returned and he called me, he said, "I’ve done what I said I would do. I’ve kept my word. I spoke to Baba. Baba’s response is: 'Swami is pure,' and he said that you would return." And he said, "My heart and my mind are on Swami. You have to do whatever you have to do." And I just ... I felt that he just couldn’t face it. Sam's own description: 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. But there were several occasions that really made it snap in my mind that it was no longer even possibly a spiritual experience. I was constantly feeling the pressures of the thousands and thousands of people outside the room that all wanted to be in the position that I was in, and who every day almost treated me with anger or resent, you know, because I got so much attention from SB. My feeling, however, was, if you guys only knew what was actually going on back there, you wouldn’t even want to be in my shoes, because it’s not very funny.