stripping the gurus - Brahma Kumaris Info

... TO A NUNNERY 299
instigated a surveillance in 1927 that purportedly produced
definitive evidence in favor of her claims, but the observations
were only for fifteen days. Therese’s urine was monitored
during this time and for the following fortnight. A
study of the results ... is as expected for the period of observation
(Nickell, 1998).
However—
the post-observation data [see Wilson, 1988] were indicative
of “a return to normal, suggesting that once Therese was no
longer subject to round-the-clock observation, she went back
to normal food and drink intake.” Magnifying the suspicion
was Therese’s subsequent refusal to undergo further surveillance
(Nickell, 1998).
Neumann’s claimed stigmata fares only marginally better, in
spite of Yogananda’s (1946) equal certainty as to its validity:
Therese showed me a little, square, freshly healed wound on
each of her palms. On the back of each hand, she pointed out
a smaller, crescent-shaped wound, freshly healed. Each
wound went straight through the hand. [That must be a
mere assumption on Yogananda’s part, as he would not have
physically verified that the wound was continuous from front
to back, by passing anything through it.] The sight brought
to my mind distinct recollection of the large square iron nails
with crescent-tipped ends, still used in the Orient.
Others less credulous, however, have given additional, uncomplimentary
information:
[A] Professor Martini conducted a surveillance of Therese
Neumann and observed that blood would flow from her
wounds only on those occasions when he was persuaded to
leave the room, as if something “needed to be hidden from
observation” [i.e., in manually inflicting superficial wounds
on herself]. He added: “It was for the same reason that I disliked
her frequent manipulations behind the raised [bed] coverings”....
[The stigmata shifted] from round to rectangular over
time, presumably as she learned the true shape of Roman
nails (Nickell, 2001).