by Marco Cagnotti Caflish from Scienza & Paranormale, year IV, n.l
(translated from the Italian)
On the evening of Tuesday 3th December 1991 the National Italian language Swiss Television Channel broadcast a documentary entirely devoted to Sai Baba as part of the Thesis, Issues and Witnesses programme.
The portrayal of this Indian Marabout was completely biased, taking for granted the truth of his alleged "miracles".
Sai Baba had been seen producing "vibhuti", a kind of ash that it is said he is able to create out of thin air ( even by proxy when his photographs are used !) Sai Baba also materialised other objects such as valuable rings encrusted with diamonds.
After this a Dane woman suffering from cancer witnessed her miraculous healing after being admitted to Sai Baba's presence in India. In addition S. Bhagavantam, a known Indian physicist, also declared these "miracles" as real and unexplainable by science. S. H. Sandweiss a teacher of psychiatry in San Diego University witnessed the healing of one of his (her?) patient's thanks to Sai Baba and various other people have also spoken on behalf of Sai Baba.
In my opinion, the most outrageous thing has been the ensuing discussion that followed the documentary. The panel included, besides a journalist and a moderator, P. Roche de Coppens, a sociologist and religious expert, Don Mario Mazzoleni a clergyman and theologian and (...wait for it) Paola Giovetti, introduced to the audience as a "well-known parapsychology researcher".
I must admit to being a great admirer of Paola Giovetti. I am a faithful reader of her column in the Italian magazine "Astra" since it gives me great satisfaction to see Signora Giovetti constantly reaffirming my favourite Italian saying "Bad things can always get worse" and I always try not to miss her TV appearances.
The discussion opened with Signora Giovetti quoting a number of other materialisations performed by trance induced mediums. She drew attention to the case of the Italian medium Roberto Setti that had allegedly materialised for her a finely crafted shrine containing a shred of the mantle of the Virgin Mary. Giovetti's explanation of this sort of phenomenon had been a rigmarole on the possibility of de-materialising objects using the mind, transforming the matter that constitute these objects into energy (even Einstein stated that matter-energy transformation is possible didn't he?) and then materialising again the same things wherever we like. Evidently Giovetti doesn't seem to have the slightest idea of the magnitude of energy that would be obtained by the complete transformation of only few grams of matter.
Later we heard the opinion of the sociologist and religious expert who gave the impression to be more a Sai Baba's follower than a balanced and disenchanted scholar. The last to speak was Don Mario Mazzoleni, who left me feeling terribly bewildered: I wonder how he is able to reconcile being a Roman Catholic priest with what he says about Sai Baba. To the question "Who is Sai Baba?" Don Mazzoleni answered "I could state that Sai Baba is God, but before we need to know who God is" How are we supposed to know better, if he is the theologian? Don Mazzoleni issued another statement worth stressing: "Science bows down to Sai Baba presence—science bows down on its knees".
'With the greatest respect I would say to Don Mazzoleni that in Sai Baba's presence he could fall to his knees, if he likes but that science doesn't kneel to anybody. Science limits itself to observation of facts and to building some theoretical models that suit them. It is necessary, though, that these facts are real and that the phenomena have really been observed. Is that the case with Sai Baba? Quite the opposite. Should we be impressed by an Indian Marabout that materialises heaps of dust from an um? If that is the case should we not also admit a miracle when the Italian conjurer Silvan draws rabbits and pigeons out of his hat. Even the testimonies of the well-known scientists have not true weight. We know very well how regularly honest researchers have attested in good faith the authenticity of certain unexplainable phenomenon made by first rate swindlers. Because of their inexperience and unability in discovering tricks, those scientists had later to retract their assertions when those tricksters were caught out by a conjuring expert.
I don't want to bore the reader further with the detail of all the other nonsense I had to listen to during the discussion. I would like to end with a consideration: there is a lot of fuss about the minimal spread of scientific popular culture. An understandable but comprehensive popularisation is badly needed and the mass media, particularly television, should take charge of it. I dread to imagine what the opinion of the average TV viewer would be, after a programme that in a matter of fact way takes for granted that is possible to materialise things out of thin air.
Intellectual honesty should at least present, beside the (so called) experts of one side, somebody representing science (the real one) as well as a skeptical and rational standpoint as well. In fact at the end of the discussion, to the question: "Who is Sai Baba in your opinion?" Paola Giovetti answered "I think that he is what he says he is, a divine incarnation...". Sai Baba's words. We can trust them, can't we Signora. Giovetti?
N.B: At the IV Euroskeptics Conference held in St. Vincent on the 17th-19th July 1992 a report was given by B. Premanand a Indian that devoted years pursuing Indian marabous and disclosing the clever tricks used by most of them to deceive their followers . Particularly he feigned for months to be a Sai Baba's disciple till he understood all the skilled conjurer's methods. Recently he was beaten up by some fanatics and has being recovering after a period of time in hospital. Premanand at St Vincent showed how to handle fire, eat glass, pierce your arm with needles, stop the heart beating and produce apparently enormous amounts of "vibhuti" (the holy ash that Sai Baba get from perfumed starch and sometimes dried cow dung... !). Now even your affectionate area manager is able to stop his heartbeat.
