The "Sandweiss Principle"

For those who don't know who he is, Samuel H. Sandweiss, M.D., is a practising psychiatrist from San Diego, USA, who is also an author of two popular books about Sai Baba. Much of his fame arises from the fact that he has been close to Sai Baba since 1972 and has many tales to tell as a result. Incidentally his first book, 'Sai Baba: The Holy Man and the Psychiatrist', was the first book that I ever read about Sai Baba. I even told Sandweiss as much when I met him in the summer of 1997 in Sai Baba's ashram, to which he shyly appreciated my complimentary remarks.

But one thing had been nagging me in the back of my mind ever since I read the text; how could a person such as Sandweiss, a practising psychiatrist who knows so much about the innermost workings of the mind, buy into the notion of being "spiritually tested". I am currently a Psychology student and it boggles my mind to think that such an elementary occurrence could be taken as evidence of a higher reality.

Excuse my waffling, without delay I'll show you what I'm referring to. Describing the events of a private interview with Sai Baba and a few others, Sandweiss writes as follows:

"Jeff said that he had received a mantra from Indra Devi and wanted to know the correct way of saying it. Baba agreed to help. I knew that in advising people to repeat the name of God, Baba frequently instructs them to use a japamala, a religious necklace with 108 beads, similar to a rosary ... I said to myself, 'Ah ha! I bet Baba is going to create a japamala for Jeff.' As I watched him, he brought out from behind his back in his left hand what indeed appeared to be a japamala. He continued speaking to Jeff and it seemed to me that nobody else was looking at his left hand, that I was the only one who noticed it. My mind began to work.
"'Could it be that Baba is really just a cheap magician, who hides objects behind his back all the time - so forgetful that he takes this necklace from behind his back now and plays with it in front of my nose? ... What a stupid thought!' But even as my mind attempted to argue away its own doubt, I could feel my heart sinking. No, I would not let him trick me into thinking he is just a bad magician. He continued to talk to us, smiling blissfully, and I continued to watch his left hand carefully.
"Back it went behind his back, then out in front again, and I just knew he was going to give the japamala to Jeff as if he had materialized it. Then all of a sudden he made the familiar circular gesture with the right hand and there appeared in it a beautiful japamala - but quite different to the one in his left hand. The one I had seen in his left hand was gone. I was stupefied by this turn of events. My doubting was certainly not new. It raises its ugly head whenever I'm beginning to take pride in my faith, beginning to believe that it is solid and unshakeable. A fog of confusion comes over me; I know that Baba is destroying me, and I feel almost helpless before this reaction ...
"After this kind of demonstration, I've learned to say to myself, 'Sam, don't fall for any of those tricks, and don't be destroyed. Just expect nothing, want nothing and demand nothing.' I left the interview full of smiles rather than suspicions or hurt feelings, and Baba said we would be called back in another day or so for additional private interviews." - p. 137-139

Sandweiss describes this experience in the context of a chapter discussing Sai Baba's deliberate ignoring of him in order to effect the apparent destruction of his ego and mind, as well as subscribing to the concept of being "spiritually tested" to see if his faith in Sai Baba is whole. But in fairness to Sandweiss he is not the only one who thinks this way, they all do. Each and every one of Sai Baba's devotees affirm the experience of being tested and which they jocularly refer to as being placed in the "repair shop".

I don't need to state here that Sai Baba's suspicious behaviour in regards to materialisations have been observed by many other people; he has even been caught cheating on film. In light of my own discoveries, I have to wonder about the level of sanity and intelligence in these people, how do you figure direct observation of a fraudulent miracle and subsequent rationalisation of it, explicitly going against his own better judgement and instincts about poorly performed magic tricks? It seems to me that the one of the most basic principles of psychology, rationale, is not being applied here. Frankly I'm dumbfounded that a psychiatrist would even allow himself to think in this manner, exposing the depths of his own need to believe in Sai Baba.

It's no wonder that the (past and present) leaders of the International Sai Organisation deliberately ignore and dismiss reports of Sai Baba's fraudulence, child sex abuse, homosexual pedophilia relations and involvement in murders; many of them have been trained by Sai Baba himself according to the "Sandweiss Principle": Repress and kill your doubts and instincts; Become an automaton - Baba is God no matter what.

Sad.

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