Jones, I suggest you read something other than Wikipedia, which we all
know caters to the narrowest mind. Read some of the books written by
people who have spent time with Sai Baba, talk to a person who has met
the man, question people from India who have some knowledge of his life.
In other words, experiment rather than theorize. I have done all of
these things. Regardless of the difficulty in accepting the claims and
observations, when thousands of people keep experiencing the same
reproducible events, something real must be happening. I don't want this
to be a discussion of Sai Baba. Nevertheless, his existence raises some
important questions about how we evaluate reality. Since we are
discussing reality and how to separate the real from the imagined, we
must evaluate such phenomenon by the tools of science. The questions
are, can we trust the experience and observations of thousands of
people? Can the conclusions reached by sincere and competent men, who
have examined a claim, be accepted? Can individuals, who have nothing
to gain, be trusted when they state what they saw? If you can not
rationally examine such questions, how can you trust any claim made by
anyone? These are the methods used by science and the law. They need to
be applied faithfully no matter how hard the claim is to accept.
Ed
Jones Beene wrote:
--- Edmund Storms wrote:
study the life and teachings of Sai Baba
These details do not do justice to the man:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirdi_Sai_Baba_movement
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirdi_Sai_Baba
A lazy-boy-lab "experiment" for the spiritually
inclined, or even the spiritually declined, might be
of interest ...
...direct from the Church of the Presumptuous
Assumption.
... that is, if you should want to take a flyer on
"push/pull" meme transference at the most visceral
level, darshan, then this particular meme is fairly
well-developed and active - without priestly or guru
assistance ... and being more geographically and
culturally removed, may be more surprising...
Procedure- you must sit still for twenty minutes
without nodding off and in a quiet focused meditation.
You do not need to know anything about the subject or
teacher - just begin the experience with a mantra like
sai-baba, and concentrate on deep breathing.
Precautionary warning to xenophobes:
A single meditation experience, informal and
unstructured, but focused on such memes can result in
unintended guru-less shaktipat.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaktipat
Sai baba shared Martin Luthur's 'priesthood of
believers' ideal in a different cultural context
(which ironically is most often completely ignored by
modern Baptists - who typically adore and cling to
their Pastors).
Anecdotally, the phenomenon seems to occur in a few
per hundred individuals, almost at random... so
scientifically - it could be called insignificant. The
advantage of cross-cultural meditation is that in many
cases you may try to consciously avoid a positive
reaction, out of fear, but cannot....
... worth noting: if you consider yourself to be "born
again" you probably already understand what shaktipat
is about, under a different guise.
... a rose by any other name...
Signed,
Pastor Rod Flash
Church of the Presumptuous Assumption.
