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The worst thing is that this inane anecdote was copied to Wikipedia or was it the other way round? Andries
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T: Oh, I love this entry! I wonder if Dr. Gallo knows his name is being used to promote a cult and to give credibility to its leader? Google Dr. Gallo's name and you will learn more about him. He has had a very high profile medical career. Maybe Rawat can give Dr. Gallo some insights on how to cure AIDS! Marianne
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Renowned virologist Robert Gallo, now Director of the Institute of Human Virology of the University of Maryland, approached Maharaji to ask where he might find the origin of cancer. "Look within the mysteries of life itself," Maharaji answered. ...All very odd, why would somone seemingly totally out of the blue, ask Rawat this question?This is priceless. Whether Robert Gallo really did ask M this question, or not, clearly someone thought it worth recording and reporting. I suspect it was a premie, who thought something like this: 'Having a respected scientist asking Maharaji this kind of question shows that said respected scientist respects Maharaji. This puts the lie to all those whacko ex-premies who try to paint Maharaji as some kind of ridiculous has-been. Clearly Maharaji is an important and believable force for good in this world that someone like said respected scientist feels it worth consulting.' On the other hand, to everyone else it shows clearly that the premie reporter must think Maharaji is God or God-like or at least have privileged access to the deeper mysteries of life, and that to bolster this viewpoint said premie has to record this juicy titbit. -- Mike
www.MikeFinch.com
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"Look within the mysteries of life itself"means absolutely nothing. I guess this is how gurus became fashionable way back when. Ask a guru some sensible question and get a supposed wise, mysterious and all-knowing answer back - when in reality, the guru knows nothing about the subject matter. But then I thought the mystique of the Indian holy man ended with punk. Uh, I just read the post below. Maharaji's quote was pre-punk.
Modified by Dave at Wed, Jan 04, 2006, 09:20:35
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Is M dishonest or uncaring? Or both? Suppose that the Gallo/Maharaji meeting has been faithfully reported (it is obviously a quote that EV is happy to see on their site). What does that actually say about M? Consider: 1) Cancer is a disease – or group of diseases – causing horrific suffering to millions and is, too often, incurable. 2) Maharaji came to put an end to human suffering. He is asked about the cause of cancer. If he doesn’t know, the only honest reply is ‘I don’t know’. If he does know, the only compassionate reply is ‘virus x interacts with enzyme y in the z cells of the duodenal doodly-dong…etc … go pass it on, quick!’ What do we make of the reply: ‘look within the mysteries of life itself’? I think this roughly translates as: ‘I don’t know, but I am the Perfect Master who is supposed to be all-knowing, so I can’t admit I don’t know, but perhaps it will sustain your loyalty and fascination if I offer a hint, a glimpse, an inkling of my deeper understanding, of my intuitive grasp of the Divine cosmic mind that channels its wisdom through me in its eternal dance. Something like…er…the needle lies deep in the haystack … to find what you seek to know, you must know what to seek … you cannot plough a straight furrow with a three-legged mule…’ Anything bar a straight reply that risks giving the game away. He reminds me of Mystic Meg. (For the benefit of non-UK readers, Mystic Meg was this self-styled psychic who appeared for years on the National Lottery Show with her crystal ball.) She’d make a pile of vague predictions as to what sort of people were going to win prizes that week – ‘I get an image of someone who works around horses’ … ‘on the sea’… ‘a strong smell of flowers’ … ‘tall men from Lancashire are looking lucky’… ‘a bus driver’…‘terrorist bomber’ etc. Everything except the bloody winning numbers, of course. Facts are an unsafe currency for Messiahs and charlatans. Content-free riddles and platitudes are where the big money lies.
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I mean, really. According, to Jon Knight, at age 15, Rawat knew more about economics that graduate professors at Boston University. According to Bihari Singh, Rawat was declared as a great saint as a baby. According to this Jose person, Rawat as a teenager knew how to find the cure for cancer. This is just bizarre. I hope that website stays up. It is doing ex-premies' work to keep Rawat from denying the past and putting a lie to his claim that he never claimed to be God. Is anybody in charge over at TPRF? Is it Linda Pascotto? Is it Willow Baker? Is it Prem Rawat? Who is making these stupid decisions?
Modified by Joe at Wed, Jan 04, 2006, 15:26:24
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i bet Jossi Fresco has done his part with that!
It is so stupid, that itis funny again, like the life of brian .
toby
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According to John Crewdson, Gallo is a liar and a fraud at the centre of a scandal/debate over who was first to isolate the HIV virus. Don't have time to investigate further, but I'm not sure John Crewdson's quote is meant to be flattering to either Maharaji or Gallo. I suspect the exact opposite: http://www.twbookmark.com/books/4/0316134767/
Modified by Nigel at Wed, Jan 04, 2006, 06:17:47
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So he's with good company with Rawat. And the Band Played on by San Francisco Chronicle reporter Randy Shilts came out as a book and a movie. It doesn't paint Gallo as the good guy or hero in the discovery of the AIDS or HIV virus. Quite the opposite. Gallo pulled some low down and dirty stunts to be named a co-discoverer of the virus when it was the French who got it first. An embarrassment to Americans. Here's the review of the movie at Imdb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106273/
Related link: Amazon
Modified by Cynthia at Wed, Jan 04, 2006, 07:23:12
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It was a rare weekend that didn't find Todaro or Gallo in their labs, but Gallo seemed to have a determination that even the other virus hunters lacked. "Gallo's a student of Roman history," recalled Dave Gillespie, who had left Spiegelman to become Gallo's chief molecular biologist, "and he ran his lab like a battlefield. Sometimes he would put two people on the same subject independently, knowing that one of them was going to get screwed and the other one would publish." On a visit to India, Gallo had even taken the trouble to seek out the briefly famous fifteen-year-old guru, Maharaj Ji, to ask where he might find the origin of cancer. "Look deep within the mysteries of life itself," the Perfect Master had replied, not a bad piece of advice. http://www.twbookmark.com/books/4/0316134767/chapter_excerpt14557.html And EV 'researcher' Jose Benaim's misuse of the quote, while not plagiarism, is certainly misrepresentation. (Look at what's been left out). Typical shabby cult behaviour.
Modified by Nigel at Wed, Jan 04, 2006, 07:44:04
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The book that was taken from, as you say, was an indictment of Gallo, and clearly, that statement about Maharaji was NOT meant to be complimentary, rather it was to show that Gallo was a tad "eccentric."
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Yes indeed!
I don't know about Gallo, not that I'd ever heard of him until now, but clearly his reputation is controversial. This is a common feature of top drawer scientists, many of whom are just as liable to derangement, & are given as much to bitter professional feuding, as are competing theologians or philosophers.
I don't see that his present standing, whatever it may be, has any connection with what he did whilst on holiday during his youth.
It's pretty clear from the full quote, that the young Gallo was in fact challenging the even younger Lord of the Universe, to stump up on one of the implications of being God in human form.
Rawat, of course, gave one of his oblique & meaningless answers, no doubt with his famous total confidence.
I think the misuse of this incident by EV is very revealing. It reveals a total lack of connection with anything commonly known as reality, & at the same time reveals the underlying contempt which the true devotee feels for anyone who isn't connected to the feet.
How the mighty are fallen though. Back in the dreamtime when Rawat was God, a jerk (in premie terms) like Gallo, would've raised a knowing titter with that question. Now he's famous, or infamous, it doesn't really matter which, he's trotted out as backup.
Doesn't it make ya puke.
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I think it might be a made up name for another premie who just got this stuff from Wickipedia and put it up there. I have my suspicions about who it might really be. The new cult website is supposed to be about personal interactions with Maharaji. Clearly, this guy Jose did not witness the supposed interaction between the boy God and Gallo. But then, this cult has never been known for consistency of truthfulness.
Modified by Joe at Wed, Jan 04, 2006, 14:05:10
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No wonder Gallo was seeking out Rawat for answers. Looks like Gallo learned a thing or two from "the master" afterall. What set Gallo apart was his profound disinclination to acknowledge his mistakes, preferring instead to ignore them, insist they hadn't occurred, blame someone else, or fabricate outlandish explanations that only confused science further. In the end, the most compelling question was one only Gallo could answer. Had he somehow convinced himself that all those lies were true?
-from Crewdson's Science Fictions
Modified by Dr.wow at Wed, Jan 04, 2006, 20:00:06
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I received this information, from someone I don't know, so it is only hearsay, but here is what they wrote:I am writing to inform you the the person presenting himself as Jose Benaim is no other than Jossi Fresco himself who is using his Spanish-Moroccan official name.
It is interesting to note that in 1973, the year Dr. Gallo supposedly had a conversation with Rawat, Mr. Fresco was not arround, so obiously he was asked to publish this absurd piece of information by somebody else (his boss?) I do know that Jossi was originally Spanish-Morrocan, so it fits together and could well be true. So although I am reporting hearsay, it has the ring of truth, which is why I am posting it. -- Mike
www.MikeFinch.com
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Whether instructed by his boss, or off his own bat, Sr Jose Fresco Benaim lifted the quote word for word, albeit -ahem - tidied up for the sake of good literary style, from John Crewson's 'Science Fictions' (link above - quote included in online sample chapter), but where Crewson got it is anybody's guess. It's unlikely ev supplied it. I think the origins of the quote, and even the accuracy of the story are irrelevant compared to the fact of wanting this absurd piece of testimony on a cult-sanctioned web-board. They'll be telling the one about M bringing a dead child back to life in India, next (or was it a squashed cyclist..?) I did some googling for 'jose benaim' and found examples in both Spain and Argentina, but no obvious cult links.
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Jossi did live in Argentina for a while, so it does all link up, even though not proved conclusively.However, I think it is a fairly common name, so perhaps we should not read too much into it. -- Mike
www.MikeFinch.com
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