Letter from Dennis Hanisch to R. T. Carroll,

 

Date: 10-29-04

Document date: April 2004

Copied from: http://seti.sentry.net/archive/bioastro/2004/Apr/0149.html

 

I received the following disturbing letter from a retired mathematics teacher who for many years was a follower of Sai Baba. The evidence is very strong that this Indian guru who has been faking miracles for years, has also been molesting boys. So far, he has not been charged with any crimes. There is a petition on the Internet asking for an investigation into these allegations. I ask you to please sign the petition. A link to the petition is at the top of my entry on Sai Baba. The URL is www(dot)petitiononline(dot)com/saibaba

Here is the letter:

Dear R. T. Carroll,

Pease consider my following personal story regarding Sathya Sai Baba (SSB ). My purpose is to give out this info in a most loving way as possible.

Allow me to introduce myself. I am a retired math/science teacher who was an ardent devotee of SSB for 27 years and active in the SBB Org in the U.S. for 20 years. This included holding offices in a SSB center and attending SSB services and study groups on a weekly basis. Furthermore, I have been called into interviews by SSB at his ashram in India, read his official monthly publication, Sanathana Sarathi, for about 15 years. and have attended at least 20 SSB conferences/retreats.

During the month of June, 2000, I was devastated to learn of the sexual molestations of a young friend of mine from Arkansas by SSB. At that time I was a member of the successful SSB Center of Dallas.

It is an irony that I had been acquainted with the family involved for over 15 years when I heard this very disturbing news. SSB had engaged in sex with the boy over 20 times during about a 4 year period. The prominent U K newspaper THE DAILY TELEGRAPH was one of the first publications to print this story.

When I was faced with this scandal, some prominent devotees and officers were resigning from the South Central (SSB) Region of the U.S. I decided to conduct a slow and careful investigation. I got on the phone and made calls all over the world talking to victims, and parents and friends of victims..... What influenced me most was the pattern of the many cases involved. (For example, first the oilings, then maybe just a touching or probing, and then finally the unthinkable.......)

One of the most disturbing accounts of sexual abuse in the U.S. involves a 15 year old boy (now 19) who attended the Hemet Sai center of southern California. A personal friend, Glen Meloy of Palm Desert, Calif, relayed the story to me by phone.

The 15 year old was known to keep a diary especially when he traveled. In fact, the family had published notes from previous trips in pamphlet form. It is revealed that the boy, who was taught from birth that SSB was God, was abused by SSB on 2 consecutive days during Sept, 1999.

The mother had noticed that her son was acting strangely. She did something rarely, if ever, done before--read the boy's journal without his permission........The first person who received a photo copy of the diary from India was Glen Meloy, a retired management consultant and high profile SSB for 26 years. Mr Meloy was "looked up to" and very much respected by the family involved.

In hindsight, there are many contradictions or "red flags" which I "put on a shelf" when a devotee. For example, there had been evidence that SSB cheated when materializing objects. I admit, however, that paranormal activity surrounds him.. He proved to me his power to 'imprint on people's perception' during my visit of the summer of 1987..... So much more could be said such as SSB's complicity in the murder of four young men in his apartment during the summer of 1993. Furthermore, SSB claims to be the FATHER WHO SENT JESUS CHRIST ON EARTH and the greatest divine incarnation ever. And according to my investigations, there exits solid evidence of a cover-up by the Sai Org. in the US since 1976.

Would you, as a person engaged in a spiritual area, kindly respond to these very proper, genuine, and persisting concerns? I don't think anyone wants to directly or indirectly be the cause of a young boy being molested by SSB! Nor do I think that a Sathya Sai Organization member would wish forever to be branded with the reputation for failure of duty of care and compassion for those many reputable persons who have reported such allegations to its leading officials over many years. Shouldn't people at least be told that there are allegations!? And why can't there be at least an official investigation? Your ideas are most welcomed.

Dennis J Hanisch
Former SSB Devotee of 27 Years
 

***