Scientific Paper that Debunks Deccan Chronicle 1992 Claim of Materialization Miracle Exposure

In my humble opinion, the Sai fraternity came under tremendous assault from many sections of the media, national and international, at the time of and after Bhagawan's Mahasamadhi. The Sai fraternity had to largely keep quiet, try to ignore the negative reports and let its work do the talking. Perhaps it was an inevitable and inescapable phase in Bhagawan's ongoing mission. Of course, the media co-ordinator(s) of the Sai mission did a very good job in putting out the factual picture but perhaps some sections of the media chose to ignore it, at least initially.

Now that the media knows that the Sai mission is continuing with vigour perhaps it may be a good time to examine an infamous incident in the past where the role of some sections of the media was exposed to be wrong by a scientific paper. That paper is titled, "Reactions to and an assessment of a videotape on Sathya Sai Baba", by Erlendur Haraldsson and Richard Wiseman, in the Journal for the Society of Psychical Research, http://www.spr.ac.uk/main/page/spr-publications-parapsychology, April 1995, https://notendur.hi.is//~erlendur/english/Sai%20Baba%20Indians/SBvideotape.pdf.

[BTW I loved the quote of Carl Gustav Jung, the famous Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Jung, put up on the above JSPR web page, "I shall not commit the fashionable stupidity of regarding everything I cannot explain as a fraud."]

In the above scientific paper, Prof. Haraldsson scientifically debunks Deccan Chronicle's article dated 23rd November 1992 (wrongly) claiming that a Doordarshan videotape exposed Swami's miraculous creation of a chain at an event in Hyderabad on 29th August 1992 where the then Prime Minister of India, Shri P.V. Narasimha Rao, was present.

Prof. Haraldsson along with Mr. Richard Wiseman (authors of the paper) visited India in July 1993 and met the executive editor of Deccan Chronicle who arranged to give them a copy of the videotape. The authors then thoroughly analysed the tape which included taking assistance from a (UK?) company which investigates corporate fraud to enhance the video (using noise filters). The authors concluded that the tape does not prove fraud.

But the Deccan Chronicle seems to have gone to town on the matter, perhaps made a lot of sales of its newspapers, and spread the impression that it had exposed trickery! Not only that, this claim of 'exposure' was echoed in other newspapers, Indian as well as international! Deccan Chronicle and some other media outlets had given judgement!

The above scientific paper debunks the Deccan Chronicle 'exposure'. I am quite sure most or all of the media would not have publicised such exposure by a scientist of its own flawed conclusions! The paper states in its conclusion, "This is a clear example of how a videotape containing a scene where sleight-of-hand may have occurred can become an allegation that trickery has in fact taken place (besides getting other facts wrong). This is then interpreted as an exposure, and is echoed unverified by the media."

In this context we know that Swami's teachings are far more important than Swami's miracles. But then it is also a fact that Swami has demonstrated his phenomenal miraculous power to so many people over so many years. Some of us have experienced his paranormal powers and know for a fact that they were genuine. Scientists like Prof. Haraldsson and Dr. Karlis Osis have done a great service to the field of scientific knowledge by carefully documenting their direct experiences of paranormal powers of Sathya Sai Baba, though not under controlled conditions. Today we also have tons of video evidence of Swami's materialization miracles which can be examined by parapsychology researchers/investigators.

The About Us page of White Crow Books, the publisher of Prof. Haraldsson's latest book on Swami, http://whitecrowbooks.com/us/about, has a wonderful explanation of its title. "The name 'White Crow' says much about us.  It pays homage to the great 19th century spiritual adventurer, William James: ‘To upset the conclusion that all crows are black,’ he said, ‘there is no need to seek demonstration that no crow is black; it is sufficient to produce one white crow; a single one is sufficient.’"

There is enough video available today, some of it even on youtube, to demonstrate clearly genuine instances of Swami's materialization miracles. That would make it at least hundreds, I guess, of video "White Crows" which is sufficient for a rational and logical person to accept that Swami did perform materialization miracles.

Even if some video evidence seems to be suspicious of trickery (nothing proven, mind you), it does not negate the hundreds of "White Crow" videos that clearly demonstrate Swami's awesome and phenomenal power to materialize objects at will. The scientific community should take note of these "White Crow" videos and ponder about them.