To
Dr. Erlendur Haraldsson,
University of Iceland, Faculty of Social Science,
101, Reykjavik, ICELAND.
4-6-1988
Dear Friend,
I thank you for your letter of 16th May 1988. As required by you I am sending the following:
1. Sanathana Sarathi 16(4), June 1973 pp. 120-125.
2. News Chronicle SSB's birthday number dated 23-11-73 pp. 102-107.
3. Page 10 of Fanibunda's "Vision of the Divine".
I have noted a very interesting fact in the incident of SSB presenting a ring to KO, his losing the stone and SSB again creating it. Please carefully note the underlined lines:
Modern Miracles - Page 25
"As we were talking, he again made with his right hand the typical small, circular movements that last for two or three seconds, and lo:- there was a large shining golden ring in his palm. He put it on Dr.Osis' ring finger and said it was for him. It fitted.
Page 43 & 44 you describe how SSB made the stone on the ring disappear. It is strange that after one year of the presentation of the ring to Karlis Osis and before two days of losing the stone, Dr.Osis had been wondering if the setting of the stone was strong enough. "He had taken out his nail clippers and with the file end of it had tried hard to press the four prongs which held the enamel picture and satisfied himself that they were as tight as possible.
Two days before he lost the stone, there is no mention of the ring being tight on Dr.Osis hand when he removed it for the above experiment.
On the above pages you are describing how SSB produced the missing stone on the ring:
"It fitted tightly and it was difficult for Dr.Osis to get it off."
"As far as we could judge, it was similar to the one he had just taken from Dr.Osis, but not quite the same. Again it was a beautiful ring. The stone and its setting looked the same but the band seemed some what altered. He put the new ring on Dr.Osis's finger, and it fitted well.
Now the question is whether Dr.Karlis Osis was an accomplice of SSB. The above incident leads to it. When SSB presented the ring first to him it was large and it fitted. Before two days of SSB allegedly vanishing the stone on the ring, Osis had tried to tamper with it using the nail clipper. Then also there was no difficulty of the ring being fitted tightly. But on the day when SSB wanted to make the vanished stone appear, the ring without the stone fitted tightly on the finger and it was difficult for Dr.Osis to get it off.
When the vanished stone appeared on the ring, again it fitted well on the finger of Dr.Osis. This brings the whole incident to a question: i.e. "that the ring without the stone was a different ring and Dr.Osis as an accomplice of SSB might have stealthily exchanged the ring with stone, with the ring without stone which was slightly smaller and thus fitted tightly and on the second day SSB produced the first ring with stone using sleight of hand! In 1972 Dr.Gokak and Dr. Bhagwantam were in United States and have met Dr. Osis there.
I wait eagerly your reply to my past letters and questions and also your opinion on the above finding.
With my best wishes, I am dissecting your whole book and comparing the incidents which you have narrated in your book with such incidents already published by SSB in his journal and other books comming to more than a hundred books. The incidents are changing to suit the publicity and there are such enomalies in the first story published when it happened to the last narration in later editions and also with different witnesses. I am preparing my study of your book with records and proofs and any one will come to the conclusion that SSB's miracles are false and your book has never been an objective Scientific investigation. At any rate I find that you have done the best what you could do from the information you have gathered from the witnesses and for this you have to be congradulated as SSB nor his inner circle members co-operate with anyone who would like to investigate into his miracles or even collect datas. And your book has brought out enough ammunition to blast the miracles of SSB.
Wishing to hear from you,
Yours sincerely,
B.Premanand.
Back to the Indian Skeptic page
The University of Regensburg neither approves nor disapproves of the opinions expressed here. They are solely the responsibility of the person named below.
[email protected]Last update: 15. October 1998