Laying on of Hands: The Guru Who Thinks He's God Is Exposed as Far from Divine

Billen, Andrew, New Statesman (1996)

Secret Swami (BBC2)

A rather desperate divinity teacher once asked my class to define faith. A clever clogs replied: "Believing in something you know can't possibly be true." "Wrong," snapped Dog Collar. Having watched BBC2's documentary Secret Swami(9pm, 17 June), I rather think that I was right after all. One of the richest supporters of the Indian guru Sai Baba--no less than Isaac Tigrett, co-founder of the Hard Rock Cafe--told his interviewer that he was perfectly willing to believe that Baba was simultaneously a) quite likely a paedophile and b) God incarnate.

Sai Baba does not look divine. He looks like a version of Diana Ross whose bumpy fall down the ugly tree has delivered her the worst hair day of her life. When he was a child, his parents found a cobra sleeping with him in his …

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Publication information: Article title: Laying on of Hands: The Guru Who Thinks He's God Is Exposed as Far from Divine. Contributors: Billen, Andrew - Author. Magazine title: New Statesman (1996). Volume: 133. Issue: 4693 Publication date: June 21, 2004. Page number: 46. © Not available. COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group.

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