From: "Dhyani Jo" <dhyanijo@hotmail.com>

Date: Fri, 02 Mar 2001 12:22:08 -0800

To: Douglas Todd dtodd@pacpress.southam.ca
Subject: Van Sun Article

(cc. Patricia Graham, Managing Editor

Dear Mr. Todd,

I am an ex-Sai Baba devotee and I want to thank you for your recent article on SB, but I wish to clarify some points.

You have written “Followers in Canada and elsewhere acknowledge they’ve taken part with him in what they call “sexual healing.” This is a misleading comment, since only a very few people have considered it to be a healing. The vast majority of victims have considered it to be sexual abuse of the worst kind.

Although SB often begins by “oiling the genitals” and sometimes does not go further than that, in many cases he goes on to aggressive and invasive sexual abuse.

Furthermore, if the victims do not readily comply, he issues threats. Since he is revered as God by these devotees having interviews with him, their compromised situation is very confusing to say the least.

Fortunately more and more victims have been sharing their stories over the last few decades so that a clear picture has emerged of what is really going on. You can find scores of personal testimonies on the website www.geocities.com/allegationsSB

When he begins these acts, Sai Baba sometimes makes comments about the kundalini (latent energy at the base of the spine) or uses other tactics: he says he is soothing the boys’ raging hormones or that they are thinking too much about girls.

This is sheer whitewash. Please be aware that kundalini raising is not done by rubbing the genitals, and it is something that cannot be forced but can only happen when a person’s spiritual channels and nervous system are capable of receiving this very powerful energy.

To call sexual molestation kundalini raising is naive.

You have quoted Ann Jevons at the end of the article, asserting that “Sai Baba is faultless.” I have spoken on the phone with Ann Jevons and she said something very different to me. (I am reluctant to share a personal conversation but I think it is necessary in the interests of truth.) She said that for a long time she was horrified by what had happened to her son. It was only later that she decided to call it a healing.

Knowing this latter fact, I asked her about the hundreds of other boys/men who have been abused, and she admitted that these actions by SB are “horrific.” But she has rationalized it in a peculiar manner. Sai Baba once told her that to gain liberation (from the wheel of life on earth) we must lose our reputations. Therefore, she said, “He is sacrificing his reputation, and the reputations of all of us who adhere to him, in order to bring us to liberation.”

Secondly she said that all the molested boys must have karma from past lives (i.e., they committed harmful sexual acts in the past), so SB “by his Grace” is giving them sexual abuse as their karmic repayment so that they don’t have to receive it elsewhere.

Considering her confused state of mind, it is unfortunate that you ended the article with her words, “His accusers are wrong. And we’re no gullible believers.”

Without knowing more background, a reader cannot possibly recognize the irony of these statements.

I do thank you again for your article, but I hope this letter might be printed.

Sincerely

Dhyani Jo Sinclair