Modern miracles and Sathya Sai Baba

Charismatic religious personalities often become recognized in India as God-men, particularly if they obtain a reputation of possessing supernatural and “divine” powers. Sathya Sai Baba’s reputation of performing miracles has been important for the immense growth of his movement, which has spread to most countries of the world. He passed away in 2011. Such was his reputation and popularity in India that he was given a State funeral that was attended by the Indian Prime Minster Manmohan Sing, and Sonja Gandhi, the leader of the Congress party.

A variety of miraculous phenomena have been profusely reported about Sathya Sai Baba. They range from materializations of objects to New Testament-like multiplications of food and Lazarus-like resurrections of the dead. Almost all who met him observed how he gave away small objects, sweets, etc., that appeared in his hands, as if produced out of nothing. Phenomena occurring in faraway places were attributed to him; such as appearances of vibuti (a widely used sacramental substance) and unexplained fragrances, and even his appearing in distant places. Sai Baba rejected our attempts to involve him in a scientific investigation, and he later come under loud criticism, particularly outside India. Several close observations of him and extensive interviews of devotees, former associates, ex-devotees and critics, carried out in the 1970s and 1980s and after his death, reveal a perplexing picture.

Prashanti Nilayam, the center of the movement in South India, has huge prayer-halls but also schools, institutions of higher learning, and large high-tech hospitals, for much emphasis is given to service to fellow-men, traditional religious values, and education.

Erlendur Haraldsson is Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the University of Iceland in Reykjavik. He obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Freiburg in Germany and did further studies at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. He has published over two hundred papers, mostly on anomalistic experiences, conducted national surveys, field studies and experiments related to such phenomena, and also on psychological testing and interrogative suggestibility. He is the author of six books that have appeared in 17 languages and numerous editions, in  particular “At the hour of death” and “Miracles are my visiting cards”/“Modern Miracles” and “Departed among the Living”, all of which have appeared in new editions in the last year or two (see White Crow Books). For further details see his homepage: http://www.hi.is/~erlendur/