I have read about Sai Baba and have met some of his devotees. For those that don't know, he is supposedly an Indian Saint who often performs materialisations in front of people. He will materialize ashes, rings, crosses ect. His devotees will claim many miracles related to him, such as healings ect. In his last life he claims to have been a Muslim holy man. He also claims to be incarnations of two of the hindu gods, male and female

Of course, as with everyone, he has his detractors that call him a fake, a sexual predator who likes boys, ect.

I am curious if anyone on this site has every seen him first hand or knows someone who has. Or those that have heard about him, what do you think about him?

He has at this point millions of followers, and so I find him to be an interesting point of discussion.

I found a website:

http://www.sribalasaibaba.org/index.html

It sounds about like any other religion. I hope he makes a lot of money.

Thanks for the link. I have read other sites before and have read books about him. I was kind of wondering if anyone has any first hand experience with him. I am sure he is making lots of money, but he also has opened schools with this money and has done other charitable things.

I don't think I had heard of him before. He seems pretty charitable. Nothing unusual about another "incarnation of God".

True, but what is unusual is the materialisations that he performs. He does this in front of lots of people very often. As in he does a circular motion with his hand, and then an object will appear in his hand. I have not seen him do it though. Of course there are people who believe, he does have millions of followers, but there are some that accuse him of trickery in conjuring up the objects. So, I am not sure whom to believe, not that it's vital to me one way or the other. He says the usual spiritual messages, some of which are not very original. But what got me thinking about him is a discussion of conciousness, energy and matter (the usual mystical discussion). If what he does is real, that would be some food for thought. I think it is these materialisations that have enabled him to develop such a large following.

Whats the difference between what he does and Criss Angel? Just misdirection and illusion.

Truth needs no tricks or smoke. What is he teaching in his schools?

Perhaps so. Then again, perhaps not. If he is fooling people, then he is being dishonest as Chris Angel does not claim it is real.






You are right Darkwind, I agree. If he is indeed using trickery, than obviously I don't support what he's doing.

The schools that he supports as far as I am aware teaches conventional education. He does have an ashram however, where he teachs spritual subjects, i guess.

His spiritual messages are generaly okay, and are inter-religious which I like. However, he does claim to be reincarnations of hindu gods, which is a rather large claim and would be rather offensive if he is just faking everything.

But I try to keep and open mind and so in this thread I am asking if anyone has witness his materialisms before, as i have not seen them. He definitly has convinced a lot of people, not that that is a sign of truth.

Oops. I just took a closer look at the link. Wrong guy. I thought that he had put on a little weight, turns out it's not the same Baba. Baba means father in hindi, so it is a common religious title in India. Below is a link to one of his devotee websites. There are a few sites that try to discredit him, but every one has there enemies, even God.

http://www.sathyasai.org/

My grandma was a big fan of his, and since shes passed I now have all of her books on him. Seems intresting.

Personally, I like to believe its real

Where do I start? Firstly, you have to mention WHICH Sai Baba you are talking about? Shiridi Sai Baba or Puttaparthi Sai Baba. Shiridi Sai Baba is no more, he lived between mid 1800's to early 1900's, and he was a phenomenon. One thread is not enough to write about him. He is treated as god by Millions of people, thousands of his temples exist today in India. He never cared for money, he lived and died poor. If you want to know more about him, let me know but I guess you are not talking about him here, you're speaking of Puttaparthi Sai Baba, also called as Satya Sai Baba who lives even today.

Satya Sai Baba is a 78 year old South Inidan billionaire and so-called Godman and Miracle worker. He is a popular figure and people see him frequently on TV and in person; to see him you have to visit Puttaparthi which is basically HIS town He rules there. There are an estimated 1,200 Sathya Sai Baba Centers in 130 countries world-wide. He has millions of followers who earn him his millions. His materialisms include creating holy ash/gold rings/ gold chains etc, etc, etc from thin air, and puking golden eggs (no, I'm serious).

He has been caught on camera fooling people with tricks, but yet somehow his believers wouldn't have any of it. I have personally seen the videos where he cheats the public with the help of his assistants. There are several reports of missing women and men linked to him. He is stinking rich and VERY influential, so to prove anything would be next to impossible even with concrete evidence, what with his fanatic followers around. If you go to his town and say he's fake, you'll probably be dead. Some of my friends are strong believers too and I make it a point not to discuss this topic with them, they will never take anything against him.

I'm from India and I know a lot about both Sai Babas. If you have any specific questions, let me know, I'd be glad to answer.

Well explained!

Thanks for your reply Bone Collector. My understanding is he claims to be the reincarnaiton of Shirdi Sai Baba. He also claims to be a reincarnation of Shakti and Shive combined. If he has been caught on tape fooling people, that lowers my opinion of him considerably. Do you have a link to that video by any chance? A biography of him tells how he used to do magic tricks to fool his friends at school. Sounds like he is still doing it. But his devotees make many claims about him. It would be a shame and a terrible thing to fool millions of people. Religious fakes really make me angry and religious fanatical followers are worrisome. I see a lot of religious fakes on TV here in America, they are making their money by telling people what they want to hear.

Thanks for posting BC. And please don't forget that link if you have it.

Yes, he claims a lot of things. Once he gifted a TITAN watch to a devotee, supposedly creating it out of thin air; the journalists asked him why he created a TITAN company watch and why not something more original? From then on, he stopped creating watches out of thin air, he stuck to his gold thingies.

I had those videos with me earlier, not anymore, however, I looked it up a little and found some of his videos on You Tube, here's the link...
Video

I have heard and read a bit about Satya Sai Baba.From everything that I've heard and read about him,it appears to me that he is just another fake,taking adavntage of the gullible.

Unfortunately, the video is of poor quality and I got no sound. But, even so, if that was a materialism, it looked very fake to me. Its hard to believe he has fooled millions if thats the best he can do.

The gullible see what they wish to see.The original Sai Baba was apparently a good man who helped everyone,and when he died he was missed by many.So when someone comes along claiming to be a reincarnation of him,their hopes get raised to a level where they are willing to believe without much proof.

Did you notice how his accomplice passes him the chain from under the trophy?
There are several other Satya Sai Baba videos on that link in the related section, have a look.

It was difficult to see him passing the chain due to the poor quality of the videos, but I think I saw it. The other videos were not very good either and there was not sound, but I am now very skeptical that his materialisations are real. Thanks for the link BC.

As mentioned by BC before the original "Shirdi" Sai baba was the real deal.
The puttaparthy guy is an out and out fake.
There was an instance where a magician by name P.C.Sorcar requested an audience and was always rejected. He finally managed to wangle his way in incognito and performed the same tricks as the charlatan. The bodyguards quickly threw him out.
Had a couple of great debunking video links of the fraudster, will search and post them if I can lay my hands on them again.

more than 10 video files i have in my system. Not able to attach that file

There are literally thousands of stories and first-hand accounts to miracles attributed to Sathya Sai Baba. Even some ex-devotees (to this day) still attest to Sathya Sai Baba's paranormal abilities.

The following links show a small sampling of manifestations and materializations typically associated with Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba. These manifestations occur in the privacy of devotee's homes all around the world, thousands of miles away from Sathya Sai Baba's physical form:

• Manifestations At Sai Sruti Temple in Harrow, Middlesex, UK
• Vibhuti Manifestation in a Devotee's House in London
• Vibuthi Manfestations In Bali, Indonesia
• Manifestations In Colusa, California
• Manifestations At Sri Ragnapatnam, Mysore, India

My wife and her family are great devotee of this sathya sai.. their experience made them to beleive him.. nothing can change their belief..