APOLOGIST  FOR  SATHYA  SAI  BABA: GERALD  JOE  MORENO

This webpage affords a compact version of my blog Not Exposed: Analysis of a Cultist Defamation. With some extensions, this page amounts to an abbreviation for purposes of ready assimilation. The blog features 27 entries, accordingly numbered below. The relevant episode of defamation exhibited symptoms of cyberstalker attack in a sectarian mode.

Sathya Sai Baba

1.  Cult  Campaign  of  Equalizer

Gerald Joe Moreno was an American supporter of Sathya Sai Baba (d. 2011). He became notorious for his polemical approach and attack strategy. First appearing on the web in 2004, he developed a network of websites and attack blogs. His primary website saisathyasai derided critics of his guru and gained a reputation for extremism. In 2006 he became a Wikipedia editor using the pseudonym of SSS108; his aggressive role on Wikipedia became such an issue with other editors that he was banned indefinitely in March 2007 on the charge of activist editing.

Moreno did employ his real name on his primary website, but in general he favoured pseudonyms such as Equalizer, an identity which featured on a series of attack blogs at blogspot.com. He became identified by victims as a cyberstalker, and conducted a campaign of internet terrorism against all critics of Sathya Sai Baba. Moreno believed that his guru was beyond criticism, and therefore the critics had to be punished by counter-critique. The critics were mainly ex-devotees of the guru. I was not an ex-devotee, but a complete outsider to the Sathya Sai movement. I was victimised because I dared to counter the tactic of Moreno on Wikipedia. I was not a Wikipedia contributor, and discovered the potential for stigma that can be exercised by pseudonymous Wikipedia editors of a suspect background.

In 2008, Moreno (Equalizer) launched a series of attack blogs against me. This output was entitled Kevin Shepherd Exposed, and eventually comprised 27 entries. Many of these attacks were adapted from his primary website. Moreno also claimed to expose various ex-devotees on the same "hate campaign" cycle at blogspot.com. He has been defined as a sectarian troll with very unpleasant cyberstalker characteristics. The total number of his diverse victims has been stated in terms of over a hundred.

Moreno is believed by some to have died in 2010, but others are sceptical of this. Some critics are inclined to believe that he is still alive, and has more recently created totally anonymous web features for suspect purposes. Certainly, his libellous attack blogs have remained in evidence on Google.

2.  Tulasi  Srinivas  and  Moreno

Professor Tulasi Srinivas

In 2010, Moreno made a reckless move that was disastrous for his strategy, alerting more academics to his excesses. In June 2010, he attacked (on the internet) a University Professor, namely Tulasi Srinivas, an anthropologist at Emerson College. The reason for this development was that Professor Srinivas had included in her new book reference to critical reports of Sathya Sai Baba by ex-devotees. The book was Winged Faith (2010), published by Columbia University Press. Moreno was evidently piqued that Professor Srinivas had made only one reference to himself, and in the context of engaging in "vituperative arguments" with an Indian critic of Sathya Sai Baba. See further  Tulasi Srinivas and the Politics of Religion.

3.  Basava  Premanand  and  Moreno  Attack

Moreno (Equalizer) identified me as "a malicious critic" of Sathya Sai Baba who "fanatically accused Moreno" of being an internet terrorist. Such statements illustrate aspects of the Pro-Sai attack formulations. Moreno customarily referred to himself in the third person, as though Equalizer was a different entity. Critics were malicious because they did not believe in Sathya Sai and instead countered Moreno strategy. Their resistance decoded to being "Anti-Sai," a label of stigma which meant that they were suitable targets of attack (and cyberstalking). I had indeed described Gerald Joe Moreno as being an internet terrorist, a conclusion that met with widespread agreement from ex-devotees and others.

Basava Premanand

Moreno (Equalizer) asserted that I had ridiculously accused Sathya Sai Baba of being "closely associated with terrorism." My cue for this reflection was the major Indian critic of the guru. Basava Premanand (1930-2009) was a well known Indian Rationalist who had strongly opposed Sathya Sai for many years. This suppressed voice "referred to numerous murders and other problems which he associated closely with Sathya Sai" (paragraph four). Although many details are unconfirmed in this respect, it is not reasonable to ignore such accusations from a well informed party. In contrast, Moreno repudiated Premanand, dismissing him as an "Anti-Sai" villain.

4.  Wikipedia  and  Jimmy  Wales

The "anyone can edit" situation on Wikipedia has led to some extremes and resultant grievances. In 2006, Gerald Joe Moreno became an editor of the Wikipedia article on Sathya Sai Baba, using the pseudonym of SSS108. He discovered that one of his ex-devotee opponents (namely Robert Priddy) had been favourably cited in my book Investigating the Sai Baba Movement (2005). Moreno was annoyed to find this book listed in the Wikipedia article on Priddy. The listing meant, to Pro-Sai reasoning, that my book must be eliminated from Wikipedia. SSS108 contrived a Wikipedia User page stigmatising my books on the pretext of self-publishing. The general context for this prohibiting User page (dated October 2006) was an argument in favour of Sathya Sai Baba. The argument cordoned against disquieting implications of the 1993 "bedroom murders" at the Puttaparthi ashram of the guru. These murders had been mentioned in a Wikipedia editorial quote relating to my book. Moreno eliminated the quote.

The undeclared and underlying objective of this procedure, and attendant tactics, was to suppress the Wikipedia article on Moreno's major opponent Robert Priddy. The supposed NPOV (neutral point of view) in such calculations is farcical.

Jimmy Wales

Six years later, the Wikipedia manager Jimmy Wales personally deleted the SSS108 User page from Wikipedia. This was five years after Moreno had been banned from Wikipedia. The confusion and damages caused by that User page were extensive. The "anyone can edit" policy remains in contention amongst critics of Wikipedia.

5.  Countering  SSS108  and  Jossi  Fresco

In 2007, I countered the SSS108 User page contrived on Wikipedia. That User page was assisted by Jossi Fresco, who had become very influential on Wikipedia. A strong supporter of the guru Prem Rawat, Fresco was regarded by partisans and critics as an endorsing figurehead for the promotion of religious sects and "cults." The tide of opinion eventually turned against Fresco, who "retired" from Wikipedia at the end of 2008.

My protest was mounted from my first website (2007), in the article now called Wikipedia Issues. I complained at the evident sectarian complexion of the SSS108 cordoning tactic. Moreno (SSS108) quickly retaliated from his website saisathyasai, and attempted a complete justification of his policy. He presented me as the erring party. Moreno offered numerous misleading arguments in relation to subjects associated with the "Sai controversy." Some readers were confused by his format. His libellous statements were obvious to more informed parties. "A strong underlying theme was that any criticism of Sathya Sai Baba amounted to the critic being wrong and deserving censure" (paragraph three).

Alert readers noticed that although Moreno had been banned from Wikipedia in March 2007, his hostile and influential Wikipedia User page against myself showed high on Google for long after.

6.  Introduction  to  Kevin  RD  Shepherd

In 2007, Gerald Joe Moreno improvised at his website what he called an Introduction to Kevin RD Shepherd. He subsequently duplicated this libellous deceit on his blogspot feature. The invective may be gauged from such descriptions as: "Kevin Shepherd: The 'serious amateur' non-academic writer who conducts seriously amateurish and biased research." Moreno was a non-academic blogger who had not written any books. He did not understand the academic tag of "serious amateur," and invented a Pro-Sai lore that included publishing imprints. For instance, I was credited with the creation of New Media Books Ltd, which did not exist (even the imprint of New Media Books was not mine).

A well known institution is Cambridge University Library (CUL), but in Moreno/Equalizer lore, this was "not to be confused with Cambridge University itself." The blogger was here agitating at the private research I had undertaken at CUL, something which he dismissed as irrelevant, thus justifying his cordoning action on Wikipedia.

7.  Serious  Citations  Are  Not  Comical

In 2007, I referred to two Wikipedia editors who had argued in my favour. In his website response, Moreno blacklisted these two entities under the heading of Comical Citations to Anonymous Scholars. He implied that I was naively unaware of the Essjay controversy, meaning the episode in which a Wikipedia administrator claimed to be a professor of religion, but afterwards transpired to be a 24 year old college drop out. Moreno argued that I fitted a similar situation of error in referring to two Wikipedia editors as academics. The implication was that anyone who supported me must be a fraud. His theory was subsequently shattered, but typically, he never acknowledged the deficit.

Simon Kidd

One of these editors had divulged his real name on Citizendium six months before Moreno invented the theme of "comical citations." Dr. Dean was a genuine Ph.D, and then in flight from Wikipedia impositions of sectarian editorship. The other editor had stated on Wikipedia that he possessed a degree in philosophy, and subsequently proved this detail when he became a real name editor on Wikipedia. This was Simon Kidd of Australia. Even after disclosing his real name, the academic Simon Kidd was mocked by the sectarian polemicist Gerald Joe Moreno for supporting me in Wikipedia discussions.

8.  BBC  Secret  Swami  Documentary

In 2007, Moreno continued his blacklisting of the BBC documentary Secret Swami (2004). He stated accusingly that I had referred to this documentary. His readers were evidently supposed to believe that I had committed a crime in mentioning the Secret Swami with approval. Very briefly, the BBC had duly investigated the allegations made against Sathya Sai Baba, and covered both sides of the controversy in a one hour film of relevance. This documentary was greeted with widespread astonishment and applause. The BBC programme included Basava Premanand, the major Indian critic of the guru. Allegations of sexual abuse and the infamous bedroom murders were part of the BBC focus.

In contrast, Gerald Joe Moreno denied all the negative reports about Sathya Sai Baba as being an erroneous creation of the "Anti-Sai" critics. Worse still, as early as 2004, he was attacking or "exposing" victims of sexual abuse as though they were mentally unstable. This gave rise to a complaint the same year from one victim that "Moreno and a whole procession of Sai devotee activists assail without proof those who testify to being sexually molested by Sai Baba." Many observers were puzzled by events, and sometimes believed the detractors of abused persons.

9.    Conspiracy  and  Michael  Goldstein

Some ex-devotees of Sathya Sai Baba believed that Moreno (Equalizer) was financed in his web campaign by the wealthy Dr. Michael Goldstein, a very prominent American devotee and international leader of the Sathya Sai Organisation. Goldstein became notorious for ignoring pressing questions about the allegations of sexual abuse applying to Sathya Sai. Goldstein featured in the BBC documentary Secret Swami, which appeared in 2004.

Michael Goldstein filmed by the BBC

However, Dr. Goldstein was so evasive on the subject of sexual abuse that the BBC resorted to a hidden camera technique. In this manner, Goldstein was filmed at his home in California, where he was questioned about the allegations by reporter Tanya Datta. "His rather heated response was considered intimidating by some viewers" (paragraph eight). There was subsequently a belief amongst critics that Goldstein prompted (or paid) Moreno to appear on Wikipedia as a deterrent to opponents; this contention was never confirmed.

10.  Troll  Boast, No  Image

Gerald Joe Moreno claimed that he was victorious in his 2007 online repudiation of my protest. He posted a declaration of triumph on the popular American site digg.com. Moreno here used the pseudonym of Joe108. His blogger message comprised only a few lines:

"Attempting to portray himself as a serious researcher into the Sai Controversy, Kevin Shepherd wrote a rambling diatribe against Joe Moreno. Moreno responded to Shepherd and exposed him as a shabby and biased researcher."

This troll boast gave no further details. The "Sai Controversy" was an apologist phrase. Moreno customarily gave the impression that he was an expert in this subject, contrary to his unversed opponents. The full context to this episode is supplied at Wikipedia Issues. I responded to the overbearing gestures with a detailed refutation of the presumed victory. "My lengthy Response to Moreno (2007) was conveniently ignored by the contested entity, in preference for the five line frivolity posted on digg.com" (paragraph eight). The Sai Controversy, in the format of Moreno, basically consisted in the denigration of all attempts to communicate the urgent problem denoted by numerous allegations of sexual abuse.

11.  Missing  Image  of  Gerald  Joe  Moreno

Another glaring discrepancy was in evidence. My image was reproduced over eighty times on the Equalizer blog series of 2008-9 at blogspot. Yet the aversion of Moreno to any reproduction of his own image was acute. In my 2007 web article of protest, I included his sole known image, as a means of identifying the Wikipedia editor SSS108 (i.e., Moreno, alias Equalizer). He berated me for this action, and threatened legal consequences if I included his image in any book (which was not my intention). Gerald Joe Moreno "was so opposed to the employment of his image that eventually I deleted this from my sites in April 2010" (Troll Boast, paragraph nine). Instead of reciprocating, he retained all three of the images he displayed of myself so frequently; the context of presentation can be considered abusive. Moreno (Equalizer) also continued to exhibit five images of my mother, a gesture which has been considered excessive.

12.  New  Age  Sceptic

The header title of the Equalizer attack series at blogspot paraded such accusations in my direction as "vanity self-publisher," "pseudo-intellectual," and "new age sceptic." Of course, Gerald Joe Moreno (Equalizer) was not pseudo, but instead the real thing - nothing less than a Pro-Sai apologist resorting to libel. My books featured 4,000 (four thousand) annotations, which is not the sign of a vanity publisher. The classification of new age sceptic is more accurate, but not necessarily a proof of error or pseudo-intellectuality.

13.  Kevin  RD  Shepherd  Not  An  Academic

Moreno (Equalizer) was incensed when some ex-devotees (of Sathya Sai) described me a scholar. His adamant blog Kevin RD Shepherd is NOT an Academic appeared in 2009. Since I first appeared in print over thirty years ago, I have made clear that I am not an academic. The Moreno rant was superfluous. The denial was evidently intended as a severe aspersion. More desperate was the assertion of Equalizer identifying me as a "sectarian bigot." He did not keep to normal terms of argument, but moved at extremist tangents of whim and misrepresentation.

"Informed readers concluded that the extremist Moreno assertion closely reflected his own ill-repute as an obsessive stalker of 'Anti-Sai' critics and ex-devotees.... Moreno was much more than a troll, gaining the repute of a cyberstalker who went to almost unbelievable lengths to blacken the reputation of his adversaries. For instance, he was reported to distort images of ex-devotees, and to harass victims by emailing their contacts with adverse portrayals. It became obvious that he targeted Google name lists with multiple entries visibly agitating against the victims. At one time there were seven hostile Moreno web entries listed in a row on my own Google listing, and with many others following in a more scattered density" (paragraph five).

Such manic activities do unfortunately occur in the field of cyberstalking, where psychological peculiarities can be in strong evidence. In the current climate so strongly influenced by computer technology, the subject of web deviancy is startlingly relevant as an index to what can go wrong.

14.  Gerald  Joe  Moreno  and  Sai  Critics

A number of Moreno blogs bore the proclaimer of "Sai Critics Exposed." His attacks at blogspot (using the name of Equalizer) exhibited the motto of "Campaign to Stop Anti-Sai Activist's Abuse." The abuse here referred to allegations of sexual abuse lodged against the guru, and also complaints about other problems at the Puttaparthi ashram in Andhra. This apologist maintained nine blogspot features pillorying "Sai Critics." Most of these persons were ex-devotees, including retired academic Robert Priddy and Dr. Timothy Conway. Priddy was treated to a despising pictorial depiction as a primitive ape-like creature. Moreno had prohibited the use of his own image.

Robert Priddy as depicted on a Moreno blog in 2008

Another ex-devotee on the hit list was Barry Pittard of Australia. Moreno misrepresented data on a website to mean that Pittard was guilty of "paedophilia," a verdict posted at yahoo.com. The rebuttal from the victim was so decisive that Moreno was obliged to retract his allegation (in a very grudging manner). The libeller nevertheless continued his defamation of Pittard at his website and also on web bulletin boards.

15.  Ullrich  Zimmermann  and  Sathya  Sai  Baba

In his campaign to squash the allegations of abuse made against Sathya Sai Baba, Moreno distorted the instance of Ullrich Zimmermann, an ex-devotee who reported anomalies at the Puttaparthi ashram. Inventing a superficial argument, Moreno reduced this case to the description of Zimmermann as "a New Age follower of Ramtha." In fact, the report of Zimmermann evidences details of sexual abuse by Sathya Sai Baba, along with the information that such (homo)sexual activity of the guru was well known and commonly accepted at Puttaparthi.

Ullrich  Zimmermann

Zimmermann was only fourteen years old when he became a devotee, and his suggestibility left strong traces in his speech of concepts and syndromes deriving from the "miracle" projection encouraged by the guru. "Some of them [devotees] could not think clearly in emerging from their predicament" (paragraph seven). Some relevant details were reported by ex-devotee Robert Priddy. In contrast, the apologist rant and blog artifice of Moreno is very unconvincing.

16.  Timothy  Conway  and  Gurus

The deceptive web campaign of Moreno (Equalizer) was eager to ridicule Dr. Timothy Conway, an American ex-devotee who seceded from the guru in 2001. Conway became an opponent of Dr. Michael Goldstein, leader of the Sathya Sai Organisation. Moreno resorted to the inane argument that I was an anti-guru advocate and therefore should not reference Conway, who was known to elevate some gurus. Such arguments reveal the basic poverty of Pro-Sai polemic.

Timothy Conway

Conway notably countered the pro-Goldstein charge of Moreno that the John Hislop letters of 1981 were forgeries. This forced argument of the apologist was a telltale sign of his affiliations. The Hislop letters have elsewhere been regarded as proof of an early suppression of sexual abuse episodes by devotees indoctrinated with miracle lore. Conway became a strong critic of Sathya Sai, and also contributed an unusually detailed critical article on Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, a factor acknowledged in my own web article on Rajneesh alias Osho, the new age "therapy guru" whose career is open to strong question.

17.  Robert  Priddy  and  VK  Narasimhan

The militant tactics of apologist Gerald Joe Moreno frequently amounted to libel. He could not win arguments in a rational mode (which he lacked), so he relied upon extremist explanations to preserve the image of a great cause he was supposedly serving. Whether or not he was a paid hireling of Goldstein, Moreno was definitely a creator of numerous defamations which resulted in negative legal verdicts contradicting his vaunted role as a guru defender.

V. K. Narasimhan and Robert Priddy

Moreno persisted in describing ex-devotee Robert Priddy as an LSD advocate. "Priddy had taken LSD long before in the 1960s; his own report invalidates the accusation" (paragraph one). Moreno also asserted that Priddy had made huge mistakes in his account of V. K. Narasimhan (d.2000), a devotee of Sathya Sai who lived at the Puttaparthi ashram. Moreno described Priddy's version in terms of "subjective and non-verifiable hearsay." In my own recognition of relevant events, I was accused by the apologist of "bias and unsupported viewpoints."

The proof against Moreno rhetoric is afforded by diaries of Priddy, dating from the 1990s and earlier, when the diarist was still a devotee and in personal contact with Narasimhan (a former journalist of repute). One of the revealing diary statements about Narasimhan is that he "always harboured doubts about Sathya Sai Baba's extravagant assertions." Again, the bludgeoning tactic of Moreno proves to be a distraction.

18.  Not  a  New  Age  Promoter

Gerald Joe Moreno was not widely read. His assessment of opponents generally suffered from acute constrictions imposed by his own web diet of devotee lore. As an example, he described me as an author "whose writings mostly revolve around (or include numerous references to) the Findhorn Foundation, Stanislav Grof and Holotropic Breathing." My bibliography of books and web features should be sufficient proof to the contrary.

Possessing such a myopic talent for misrepresentation, the apologist got into further difficulty with his peculiar assertion that I was a "New Age Promoter," the title of a Moreno (Equalizer) blog appearing in 2008. This invention was related to the blogger's obsession with ex-devotee Conny Larsson, one of the testifiers to sexual abuse on the part of Sathya Sai Baba. Moreno asserted that I had endorsed the "workshop" activities of Larsson. I had done no such thing, but merely reported (on a website) Larsson's FECRIS address concerning sexual abuse and other matters, a report which was anathema to the Goldstein contingent (decoding to the Sathya Sai Organisation). Moreno may have got paid well for the nonsense he transmitted on blogs. There is an imperative need for a critical attitude to the cult blogosphere.

19.  Conny  Larsson  and  Sathya Sai  Baba

The Swedish ex-devotee Conny Larsson is a source of relevant information. He gave an address at a FECRIS conference in 2006. Larsson here referred to sexual abuse and economic advantages achieved by Sathya Sai Baba. When I reported that address on my 2008 website, Moreno reacted by wrongly accusing me of endorsing Larsson's "new age" activities in "workshops." I did not endorse those activities, which are nevertheless preferable to the sexual abuse practices of Sathya Sai.

"The idiosyncratic reasoning of Gerald Joe Moreno preferred to assume that anyone who mentioned what an ex-devotee said was necessarily in agreement with all the thinking and behaviour of the other party" (Larsson, paragraph three). This amounted to yet another blog smokescreen intended to divert attention from the abuses disclosed. In more general terms, Moreno's character assassination of Larsson is not attractive.

Conny Larsson

Moreno failed to mediate the contents of Larsson's book Behind the Mask of the Clown (2005), which includes the episode of how the author was inducted into homosexual activities of the guru; Sathya Sai masturbated him in a private interview, and collected his sperm in a handkerchief. The victim was enjoined to keep this event a secret. The repulsive nature of such sensual preoccupations is a grave reflection upon a wealthy guru whose homosexual appetite was out of control.

Larsson appeared in the relevant Danish documentary Seduced, a film which is not flattering to Sathya Sai Baba. This ex-devotee is noted for the phrase: "My God, my guru, Sai Baba, raped children." Further, his communication in 2001 about the denials of abuse by American devotee Dr. John Hislop is a revealing document. The evasive Hislop evidently knew of Larsson's early grooming in "kundalini" sexual practices (masturbation, oral sex, and so forth) by the guru of Puttaparthi.

20.  Copyright  Muddle  of  Gerald  Joe  Moreno

The objective of Moreno was to silence all criticism of the homosexual guru Sathya Sai Baba, who exploited numerous young males at his ashram, according to many allegations of sordid behaviour. Moreno resorted to distortion and libel in his attacks. In this manner, he invented a "copyright issue" in 2009, saying that "Shepherd implied he may take legal action against Moreno" for duplicating images. It was not me who had threatened legal action for image reproduction, but Gerald Joe Moreno (in 2007). I had indeed mentioned the possibility of legal action, but not in relation to images. Instead, the libellous output of Moreno was my explicit concern. The apologist wanted to give the impression that only photographs were at issue.

Five images of my mother which Moreno obtained from my website. Copyright Kevin R. D. Shepherd.

The unyielding spite of Moreno (Equalizer) was again in evidence. His "copyright issue" was accompanied by his action of reproducing eight offending images on the same blog, five of my mother and three of myself. The aggressive agenda of libellous guru defenders is not impressive, no matter how much they try to deny abuses. This dissimulating blogger resented my use of his sole known image, an attitude indicating his preference to remain a troll with no pictorial identity. The vengeance programme was obvious: one image of Moreno was to be punished by eight family images relating to the victim who protested at his 2006 Wikipedia cordon of unread books.

In this distorting apologist campaign, the advantages for an exploitive homosexual guru, the evasive Goldstein, and a libellous blogger, are clear enough. The fact that Wikipedia took six years to eliminate the sectarian User page of SSS108 is another indication of drawbacks in the online chaos.

21.  Findhorn  Foundation

In 2009, Moreno (Equalizer) produced a blog entry glorifying the Findhorn Foundation. This was obviously intended as a counter to my own criticisms of that "commercial workshop" organisation (for example, see Myth and Reality). Moreno evidently thought that he had scored a point against me, because the Foundation was regarded as a centre of ecology by the distant European bureaucracy of UNITAR. As an inhabitant of New Mexico, he had little or no idea of what was occurring in Europe and Scotland at "new age" level. His innovative manoeuvre left the Foundation with a problem, because they were now associated once again with the controversial Sathya Sai Baba, via a cyberstalker whose libels were recognised by lawyers in different countries.

Equalizer mentioned with approval such controversial "workshop" exemplars as Caroline Myss, William Bloom, Eckhart Tolle, and Neale Donald Walsch. All of these entrepreneurs had made commercial appearances at the Findhorn Foundation, with Myss and Bloom being regular attractions for the affluent clientele. There are strong critics of such entities. Eckhart Tolle TV is an "internet subscription service" created by Eckhart Teachings Inc. New Age capitalism is not the best guide to "spirituality," currently a meaningless word.

22.  Attacking  All  Connections

The cyberstalker orientation of Gerald Joe Moreno was reflected in his policy of deriding and stigmatising relatives and supporters of victims. Coming courtesy of Google, such events are not to be welcomed by persons living outside America, even if they can do nothing about google blogspot features without expensive legal operations to counter Californian neglect.

Simon Kidd

In December 2009, Moreno attacked Simon Kidd, an academic in Australia who defended me on Wikipedia against a hostile faction of pseudonymous editors influenced by Moreno blogs and the 2006 User page of SSS108 (Moreno). "Kidd was incongruously mocked by Moreno in his role as a Senior Research Officer in Education Policy at the University of Western Australia" (paragraph two). Moreno urged that Kidd could not be taken seriously for supporting me. The audience were here being told to accept the dictates of a sectarian apologist instead of a more conventional education policy.

There is another dimension to this cyberstalker argument, which boils down to the unedifying persuasion of Moreno to ignore the numerous allegations against "private interview" activities of Sathya Sai Baba, who was depicted by victims as an adept in masturbation and oral sex.

23.  Wikipedia  Editor  Alex  Jamieson

The cyberstalker incentive for attacking all known connections was demonstrated once again when Moreno took a swipe at Alex Jamieson, who contributed a Wikipedia article about myself in late 2009. Moreno belligerently called Jamieson a "Kevin Shepherd devotee," which is not an appropriate description. Jamieson was the pseudonym of Stephen J. Castro, a civil servant and science enthusiast (who also studied Eastern religion). He is the author of Hypocrisy and Dissent within the Findhorn Foundation (1996), and was duly applauded by ICSA (International Cultic Studies Association) for his critical stance in the face of new age commercial management.

Stephen J. Castro

Castro found that the situation on Wikipedia was not very different to Foundation Foundation drawbacks. "Wikipedia was afflicted with cult supporters and passive parties who played along with them, the latter sometimes being deceived by the former. He [Jamieson] changed to his real name, and composed a distinctive article entitled Critics of Meher Baba. However, he soon found that the Meher Baba article on Wikipedia was dominated by exclusivist devotees who disliked outsiders and due critical apparatus" (Jamieson, paragraph thirteen). This milieu was to some extent influenced by Moreno blogs, links to which were visible on the deletionist page that terminated the article about myself. Although he had been banned for activist editing, SSS108 was here resurrected in triumph by Meher Baba devotees, who preferred cyberstalking to an annotated book on their own figurehead (see arguments).

The ultimate affiliation of these converging American sectarians was revealed by Moreno himself, in a rather memorable commemoration of Nietzsche. Moreno stigmatised Jamieson and myself as pseudo-philosophers. A dismissive remark was made. "They obviously have been sipping too much cuckoo juice." This preferred scenario was equated with imaginary "paragons of morality and wisdom." Jamieson had never claimed to be a philosopher, though I had used the phrase citizen philosophy. The word philosophy currently means a form of analysis, not wisdom or morality.

However, such distinctions were lost in the Wikipedia realm, where activist editing was ennobled by sectarians. Their inspirer (Moreno) deferred with approval to Louis Henry Mencken (d. 1956) and his dismissal of philosophy. "Philosophy consists very largely of one philosopher arguing that all others are jackasses; he usually proves it, and I should add that he also usually proves that he is one himself." Mencken, the author of those words, was an American journalist who admired the European nihilist Friedrich Nietzsche. Menckenist and Nietzschean relativism now blended menacingly with Pro-Sai cyberstalking. The elitism of Nietzsche and Moreno was accompanied by such phenomena as the insular Meher Baba article on Wikipedia.

24.  Marianne  Warren  and  Shirdi  Sai  Baba

When a cyberstalker turns to commenting on a book, caution will be needed. The terms of analysis will not be those found in learned journals. In 2009, Gerald Joe Moreno contrived a misleading blog entitled Marianne Warren PhD Criticised Kevin RD Shepherd. The late Dr. Marianne Warren (d. 2004) wrote a book on Shirdi Sai Baba, namely Unravelling the Enigma (1999). Moreno (Equalizer) chose to emphasise brief criticisms she had expressed about an early book of mine; he relegated her acknowledgment of discoveries I had made. Moreno deceitfully gave the impression that I had not mentioned the Warren criticisms, and could thus be accused of dishonesty. He cited only a single brief comment from one of my web articles.

The cyberstalker totally ignored my 300 page book Investigating the Sai Baba Movement (2005). In that work I gave much space to Dr. Warren's version of Shirdi Sai Baba, and mentioned the points of disagreement between her and myself. That book (page 320) has a total of 25 index references to Dr. Warren, all of these ignored by Moreno.

A basic problem in the attitude of Moreno was that he had tried to ban the same book from Wikipedia, because it favourably mentioned his opponent Robert Priddy, a leading critic of Sathya Sai Baba. Moreno consigned this book of mine to oblivion in 2006 via his Wikipedia User page bearing the pseudonym of SSS108.

Marianne Warren

The cyberstalker also neglected to inform that Dr. Warren had been influenced by her partisan approach to Sathya Sai Baba. Nor did he mention the significant sequel. Shortly after her book was published, Warren became an ex-devotee, recognising the relevance of the many allegations of sexual abuse that became well known at circa 2000, and via such critical reports as The Findings of David Bailey.

In acute contrast, Moreno was concerned to deny the allegations; his entire web strategy revolved around an apologist agenda. This outlook was well known at his primary website, where he emphasised the motto: "Exposing Critic's Smear-Campaigns Against Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba." All the allegations of abuse were supposedly "smear campaigns." The cyberstalker retribution amounted to a Pro-Sai fundamentalist manhunt in which all critics were attacked and misrepresented, their punishment laced with libel, their relatives and supporters stigmatised with blog invective and innuendo. Michael Goldstein and other agents of the Sathya Sai Organisation looked on complacently, ignoring all complaints.

25.  Wikipedia  Slap  from  Gerald  Joe  Moreno

At the end of 2009, a Wikipedia article on myself was deleted. According to Wikipedia editor Simon Kidd, Moreno was giving very close attention to that deletion, and was influential amongst the deletionists. "As Kidd was the only real name editor involved in that situation, his testimony has to be taken seriously" (paragraph one).

Moreno produced an extremely distorted and unreliable version of the deletionist event. He does not classify as an impartial observer. His blog was entitled Wikipedia Slaps Kevin RD Shepherd on the Face. An essential point to grasp is that the slap involved a convergence (or coalition) of cult sympathisers, one of whom went to the extreme of making links to Moreno blogs on the deletion page. This belligerent agent of Pro-Sai hate campaign was Dazedbythebell, a devotee of Meher Baba, and part of a devotee circle active on Wikipedia.

On the deletionist page, Dazed cited a lengthy passage from Moreno polemic as proof that I was unreliable and therefore deserving of deletion. The episode is certainly proof that Moreno had become influential on Wikipedia. Furthermore, my unofficial studies at a university library counted for nothing, as Dazed explicitly argued, and in relation to themes cordoned by Meher Baba devoteeism.

In 2007, Moreno had been banned indefinitely from Wikipeda on the serious charge of activist editing. Now his blog defamations were championed by another religious movement active in America, and centred at Myrtle Beach. There were various activist editors on Wikipedia, including the contingent attaching to the Meher Baba article. There was no due supervision of sectarian anomalies and biases, as long term events proved.

When Moreno delivered his blog "slap," he was effectively doing so on behalf of the cultist coalition involved in the deletion. Involved in that coalition were partisans of Adi Da Samraj, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, Meher Baba, and Sathya Sai Baba. One of the opposing pseudonymous editors (apparently an American) even stated the reason for his pro-deletionist stance: I had objected to entities whom he rated highly. Scanning the background context, those entities discernibly included Adi Da Samraj, Ken Wilber, and Stanislav Grof. It is here a crime to disagree with such popular new age superstars of America, and therefore all reference to opposing views must be eliminated. American democracy on Wikipedia is a myth. Instead, the situation is just the same as in other suppressive sectors like the Findhorn Foundation and the Meher Baba community at Myrtle Beach. Moreno was only part of the overall problem, although he was singularly triumphant in the 2009 deletionist event.

Closely informed observers were convinced that Moreno personally conducted a web mission in early 2010, in the guise of a new editor, to sabotage a Wikipedia link to my article on the Sai Baba movement. I can here express my own conclusion that the aggressive new editor WikiUserTalk was Moreno; the accents and attitudes very closely matched those of the cyberstalker in every detail.

WikiUserTalk was successful in his objective of eliminating the electronic link, thereby removing the critical references to Moreno in the final section of the article linked. WikiUserTalk also tried to impede real name editor Simon Kidd, who was another blog target of Moreno. It was relatively easy for a cyberstalker to accomplish this mission. The extensive pseudonymous activity on Wikipedia served to conceal sectarian schemes, and to assist dubious personnel in their undeclared campaigns. Even the cover-up tactic employed by Moreno was unconvincing; he supplied an IP which supposedly proved that he was not responsible. The IP reflected an Indian web address. Moreno was known to visit India frequently.

26.  Sectarian  Internet  Terrorism

In late 2009, the cyberterrorist created a blog designed to mock my book entitled Pointed Observations (2005). Moreno did this by conveniently ignoring page numbers, avoiding due citations, quoting a passage out of context, and misrepresenting references to universities. This blogger mess was designed to portray the victim as a hopeless case with "disappointing personal data," lacking academic credentials. Critics of Gerald Joe Moreno were customarily dismissed by the apologist as being of no consequence, as having criminal tendencies, as being egotists, or resorting to deceitful stories about sexual abuse. Protests against Moreno were to be crushed, because he was defending the avataric guru.

The cyberterrorist here asserted that I criticised "the research and associations of MIT, Harvard, Oxford and Cambridge Universities." No quotes were provided. The proof was entirely lacking. Moreno was not an ecologist. A relevant passage in the misrepresented book reads: "Even Cambridge and Oxford are rumoured to be under pressure from big business to modernise and to make a much stronger commitment to technology. The Massachussetts Institute of Technology is well funded, but conceivably lacks the perfect philosophy to face the ecological problems so strenuously denied and camouflaged in some areas" (Pointed Observations, p. 350).

As for Harvard, Moreno was chronically misrepresenting my references to the controversial figures of Timothy Leary and Ira Einhorn, "whom many academics lament for being Harvard affiliates; Einhorn was a murderer who tried to hide behind his Harvard facade" (Terrorism, paragraph sixteen). The instance of Einhorn is repulsive, but like many other lurid and violent instances, was ignored by Moreno in his obscurantist role as guru defender.

The apologist was continually averse to mentioning episodes contradicting his dogma. One critic reported: "A Tamil friend of mine was murdered in Sathya Sai Baba's backyard.... He had his stomach cut out while he was sleeping and they found him still alive in the morning. Sathya Sai Baba did not do a thing to assist anybody in the investigation" (Shepherd, Investigating the Sai Baba Movement, p. 297). The physically injurious anal rape of a minor was reported by Dr. Bhatia, the rapist being Sathya Sai; Bhatia himself was threatened at the ashram by five men with knives (ibid:272). This well known instance was mediated by ex-devotee David Bailey. According to Basava Premanand, "a youth was murdered [by burning] in 1987 after fleeing from being sexually abused by the guru of Puttaparthi" (Zimmermann, paragraph thirteen).

27.  Issue  of  Defamation  on  Google

The campaign of Moreno (Equalizer) "proved nothing except that the role of a cyberstalking sectarian apologist is acutely misleading and reprehensibly libellous.... This situation has served to illustrate the extent of abuse which can occur on Google, along with the satellites blogspot and wordpress, a largely unmonitored field with no due regulations in force" (Defamation, paragraphs one, seven).

In January 2009, a lawyer passed a negative verdict upon the output of Moreno in my direction. This judgment included the reflection: "I think that [Gerald] Joe Moreno has been quite defamatory, and I would be very surprised if he has not taken the precaution of ensuring that no property of any value is in his own name, and thus not available to execute against action exerted to satisfy an award of Damages for Defamation."

Kevin R. D. Shepherd

September 2014 (modified October 2014).