The Ullrich Zimmermann Lie From Barry Pittard

Exposing Barry Pittard
The Australian Pit-Bull Of The Anti-Sai Movement

Just recently, Ullrich Zimmermann (a German ex-devotee) claimed that he had "white tantric" experiences with Sathya Sai Baba when he was 21 years old (which he originally recalled while drunk at a Ramtha "wine ceremony").

Zimmermann claimed that he first became aware of Satya Sai Baba when he was 14 years old and he would occasionally attend Sai meetings with his mother in Germany. Ullrich Zimmermann made it very clear that his very first visit to India (to see Sathya Sai Baba) occurred when he was 20 years old. During that first visit, Zimmermann said that Baba completely ignored him. He returned the following year when he was 21 years old and claimed that he had 5 interviews in which he received rings, a bracelet, an "oil-treatment" (that instantaneously cured him of a breathing ailment) and "white tantric" experiences that included Sathya Sai Baba literally and miraculously transforming his genitals from female to male twice.

Alan Steinfeld (the interviewer) asked Zimmermann for clarification about his age when he had these alleged experiences and Zimmermann said he was 21 years old (a couple of times). Funny enough, Zimmermann believed that the "white tantric" experiences were an "honor" conferred on him and after the experiences, he was "exhilarated", "uplifted", in "complete joy", in a "happy state" and was in "bliss". Ullrich said that he received spiritual benefits and changes from the "white tantric" experiences, which included an incredible kundalini experience and "strong energy dreams". And to top it all off, Zimmermann said, a couple of times, that he felt (and still believed, at the time of the filming of the videos) that he was not abused by Sai Baba!

I wrote about this in my article entitled Ullrich Zimmermann And Sathya Sai Baba.

Leave it up to the pathological liar and embellisher, Barry Pittard, to completely misrepresent the facts on his Anti-Sai conspiracy blog and claim that Zimmermann was sexually abused when he was 14 years old! A complete, total and easily confirmable fabrication!


These are the types of shameless lies and distortions of the truth that Barry Pittard purposely engages in to mislead others about Sri Sathya Sai Baba. Of course, I have been saying this for a long time. Now, the general public can easily confirm it for themselves. All I can say is "It's about time!".

Ullrich Zimmermann Videos On "Blip.tv"

Barry Pittard, Nexus & Ducan Roads

Exposing Barry Pittard
The Australian Pit-Bull Of The Anti-Sai Movement

Barry Pittard has cited and advocated for Anti-Sai material that appeared in the Nexus Magazine. Nexus is a magazine that is devoted to spiritual issues, alternate health therapies, free-energy devices, UFO's, paranoia and suppressed science. Unfortunately, the Nexus Magazine (whose editor is Duncan Roads) has been rightly criticized for publishing far-right and anti-semitic material in its publications.

Mark Koernke (who was a correspondent for Nexus) was named by the FBI for suspected terrorism (Reference). Despite Nexus' questionable far-right and anti-semitic associations, since 1992 (at least), Barry Pittard not only defended Duncan Roads (calling him "courageous") and Nexus, but even corresponded with Mr. Roads, wrote an article for Nexus and seemed to think that there was something significant about Nexus publishing Anti-Sai material in their magazine. Other people affiliated with Nexus are simiarly oriented towards paranoia and conspiratorial views. For example, Marcus Allen (publisher of the Nexus magazine in the UK) is a well known conspiracy theorist who believes that Nasa faked the Apollo Moon landing (Reference).

This is the type of conspiracy and paranoia magazine that Barry Pittard thinks is worthy of referencing against Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba. This is not surprising considering that Barry Pittard's smear campaigns against Sai Baba are not based in fact, but are rooted in conspiracies and paranoia.

ABOUT DUNCAN ROADS AND THE NEXUS MAGAZINE:

Isreal Ministry of Home Affairs:

"The Nexus magazine published a section from the book The Money Makers: How International Bankers Gained Control which describes the power of the Rothschilds in the past and blames them and three other Jewish families for causing wars and revolutions." (Reference)

Stephen Roth Institute for the Study of Anti-Semitism and Racism:

"Exposure, a glossy magazine sold by subscription and at newsstands, was influenced by the worldview of UK eccentric David Icke and publicized the material of several far right Australian groups. In February, editor David Summers sold the magazine, which is now called Hard Evidence. Judging by its promotion during the year of The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, videos of speeches by League of Rights stalwart Jeremy Lee, a half-page advertisement for Nexus magazine (see below), and aggressive advertising for past issues of Exposure, the magazine’s content remains little changed. There is a large overlap between far right organizations and New Age (see ASW 2000/1) or other fringe, alternative lifestyle groups, whose rhetoric is heavily laden with conspiracy theories. The New Age magazine Nexus, available widely at newsstands and by subscription, has for some time promoted extreme right writers, organizations and conspiracy theories. In 1995 its links to US-based militia groups were exposed; Nexus advertisers, the Loyal Regiment of Australian Guardians, were later investigated for possession of 'dangerous weapons,' in the midst of the gun-ownership debate in 1996." (Reference).

Angry People:

"You can find Nexus Magazine in your local health food store. It looks like another flying saucer and pyramid power 'New Age' mag full of conspiracy theories and alternative health care advice. But sitting tucked away next to the voices of the great pyramid and the dangers of electro-magnetic exposure we have the blatant propaganda of the fascist extreme right. Take a look at the June-July '95 edition and you'll find for starters, an editorial column that claims the Oklahoma bombing was masterminded by the CIA: there was a second bomb and Timothy McVeigh, the man charged with the bombing carries an implant put there by the military to control him. That's right, Nexus seriously wants us to believe the US government blew up one of its own office blocks plus a day-care centre full of kids. This is material direct from the right-wing extremist militia's of the US and further justification for the militia's arming up against the total government control that the US government is supposedly putting into place. While the truth is that it was the paranoid, conspiracy fantasies of the militia's which led directly to the bombing. Nexus also carries an article entitled 'Big Brother's Recipe for Revolution' which details the supposed impending government control in six conspiracy filled pages. The magazine is also replete with references to the 'New World Order' - an old standard bogey for the extreme right, as it is the 'New World Order' which will supposedly bring this total government control. Any lingering doubts about the attitude of Nexus to the fascist right is made clear in the ad's carried in the mag. Next to the ad's for hypnotherapy courses and books on UFO's we have a special offer to Nexus readers, two for the price of one, for purchacing a copy of 'The Fine Print' by Sydney's own Brian Willshire. This book is a veritable catalogue for the conspiracy theories of the extreme right and is a basic text for right wing groups here in Australia. Nexus also carries ad's for Veritas Press, the publishing house for the Australian League of Rights. The presence of right wing propaganda in Nexus goes way beyond niavity or unawareness on behalf of the publishers. It goes beyond the sympathy that New Age conspiracy nuts might feel for another bunch of conspiracy nuts. Nexus is knowingly involved in spreading the fundamental tenets of the new fascists and is propounding their propaganda as gospel. So do your bit, get Nexus out of your local health food store and off the shelves where ever you see it and act against the rising voice of the new fascists." (Reference)

Corporate Europe Observer:

"Nexus -- published monthly from Australia, distributed worldwide -- covers 'the fields of health alternatives; suppressed science; Earth's ancient past; UFOs & the unexplained; and government cover-ups.' Articles with titles like "Mind Control Slavery and the New World Order", "Meetings With Remarkable Aliens" and "UK Crop Circles of 1999" are illustrative for the content of Nexus. More seriously is the fact that the magazine has repeatedly printed texts by authors belonging to the far right, which has resulted in Nexus being listed in the Tel Aviv University archive of anti-Semitic literature. Its website has links to the homepages of the controversial new age icon David Icke as well as to websites with telling titles like 'The Ashes of Waco' and 'The Militia of Montana'." (Reference)

Searchlight:

"Searchlight's Australian correspondent has revealed that the owner of Nexus, Duncan Roads, has visited Colonel Gaddafi's Libya at least twice and is believed to have sworn an oath of loyalty to that country. In doing so, he has followed the road to Tripoli already taken by a mixture of far-right activists. including the British third positionists Patrick Harrington, Derek Holland and Nick Griffin and Canadian nazis. Nexus's agent in Britain is Marcus Allen, a small-scale peddler of antisemitic material. A more important supplier of such literature. and one of the few people in Britain from whom those around Icke could have obtained copies of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, is Don Martin. Born in Australia. Martin runs a far-right and antisemitic publishing business in Sudbury, Suffolk. and maintains his longstanding links with Australian nazis. He came to Britain in 1970, where he founded the British League of Rights as a pseudo-respectable right-wing front, campaigning against the Common Market. Four years later the organisation became the British chapter of the World Anti Communist League. and the veteran racist Dowager Lady Jane Birdwood became its general secretary." (Reference)

Savanne:

"Many contemporary 'conspiracy fans' were drawn towards the anti-MAI campaign. The campaign office received frequent calls from these nuts, probably alerted by the long article on the MAI published in their favourite magazine Nexus. This article was written by a left-wing organisation that is central to the international anti-MAI campaigns. Until the beginning of the nineties the Australian-based Nexus was openly anti-Semitic, but after that it backed down a bit. However, the stories remained essentially the same. In recent issues, articles on the political power of 'Jewish capital' popped up again." (Reference)

Monitor:

"While Jermas/Shamir has chosen Brendberg as his Norwegian errand boy, he has found other and even more extreme friends in Sweden. One of his Swedish translators, a certain Lars Adelskog, is not only a leading figure in the Swedish UFO movement but can also be found in the jungle of conspiracy theories where the Illuminati, the Freemasons and lizards in human form are supposedly working together to end civilisation as we know it.

Adelskog’s last publication was a book with the profound title 'En tom säck kan inte stå' (An empty bag cannot stand), published by the openly nazi publisher, Nordiska Förlaget. Nordiska Förlaget also sells books by the above-mentioned Kevin MacDonald together with books by, among others, Adolf Hitler and David Irving. In his latest book, Adelskog tries in typical nazi style to "prove" that the WWII genocide of the Jews never took place.

Earlier, this same Adelskog was editor of the Swedish 'alternative' magazine Nexus, where he also spread his pet conspiracy theories. Unsold issues of Nexus were later touted by the Nationalsocialistisk Front through its web-store." (Reference)

Indymedia:

"Nexus - a forum for the militias and conspiracy theorists. In America he is known to listeners of hate radio stations as 'Mark from Michigan', to the mainstream media as 'the grand guru of hate' and to the FBI as Mark Koernke: a militia leader and far-right fanatic who was wanted for questioning about the Oklahoma bombing. In Australia he is a correspondent for Nexus, a monthly magazine available from most local news agencies.

Nexus is one of the New Age and alternative lifestyle publications that have proliferated in Australia over the past five years. Its cover stories give the impression that it is devoted to alternative medicine and UFOs. But one of the alternative lifestyles that Nexus consistently promotes is rooted in the paranoid conspiracy theories of the US midwest. Since 1992 the Queensland-based magazine has published numerous articles from American far-right militia activists accusing the US government of plotting to murder 'patriots' and hand America over to a socialist "one world government headed by the United Nations.

It also runs advertisements for far-right Australian groups and publications, including the book Fair Dinkum, published by an ultra-right militia group, the Loyal Regiment of Australian Guardians. The Regiment, which is based in Canberra, was the subject of a six month top secret investigation by the Australian Defence Department and the Federal Police.

The handbook describes the Australian government as 'unconstitutional and therefore may be considered as operating as a criminal organisation'. Rick Flavell, the book's publisher, is currently in hiding from the police, who have a warrant out for his arrest on weapons charges.

Nexus's publisher, Duncan Roads, said that he did 'not support any of the views' he published in his magazine, yet confessed that he shared his contributors' belief that America was 'corrupt to the core, right from the top'.

Roads, who was born in Britain, is a close confidant of Robert Pash, one-time leader of Aryan Nations in Australia and the man who organised a trip to Libya for Patrick Harrington, Nick Griffin and Derek Holland of the British National Front's 'political soldier' faction in 1989. Pash, now organiser for the Libyan-Arab Cultural Centre, was a key player in the establishment of the Lyndon LaRouche cult in Australia.

Roads himself has visited Libya at least twice and Nexus regularly carries advertisements for Pash's antisemitic magazine, New Dawn (Reference). Even so he is not entirely trusted on the Australian far-right. A document was recently circulated to media outlets claiming that Roads's loyalty was to Libya rather than Australia, adding an obscure reference to an alleged bomb discovery in a British bus terminal where Roads once worked as a clerk.

Alongside Nexus's articles on UFO sightings and ways to grow new teeth are conspiracy theories identical to those propounded by the militia groups at the centre of the FBI's investigations. Many involve supposed black helicopters filled with UN troops and nefarious plots by the Bureau of Alcohol. Tobacco and Firearms.

Apart from Koernke, Nexus's far-right contributors have included Bo Gritz and Linda Thompson. Gritz, a former Green Beret soldier and one-time vice presidential running mate of the former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard David Duke. attracted worldwide notoriety when he described the Oklahoma bombing as "a Rembrandt - a masterpiece of science and art put together".

Thompson, a leading member of the militia movement was arrested in Indianapolis in July 1994 after using her vehicle to block a bus carrying supporters of President Clinton. When police searched her van they seized two pistols and an assault rifle with 295 rounds of ammunition.

Koernke was the man who was said to have faxed a letter to a Republican congressman immediately before or just after the bombing describing key aspects of the attack.

He is a prominent member of the Michigan Militia and advocates armed defiance of the federal government. Timothy McVeigh, the chief suspect in the bombing, has acted as Koernke's bodyguard. McVeigh is believed to have been inspired by anger at the 1993 siege of the Branch Davidian compound at Waco, Texas. Last December Koernke told a Militia of Montana rally: "Waco is a call to arms. We don't have a choice. The next time this happens we will be armed to the teeth. We are not going to be reading history, we are going to be making history, and that's exciting."

In a six-page feature article published in the February-March 1994 issue of Nexus, Koernke claimed that presidents Reagan. Bush and Clinton had all plotted to bring about a New World Order under the direction of the UN by disarming "patriots".

Roads has also published articles supporting Lyndon LaRouche, the convicted US con man and extremist, including long excerpts from his book Dope In'.., and has serialised an antisemitic and racist book War Cycles, Peace Cycles. Its author, Richard Kelly Hoskins, a long-time far-right activist, argued elsewhere in the book that it was justifiable to kill "interracial" couples and claimed that Jewish people are usurers.

Nexus's global news section carries regular excerpts from the racist and antisemitic US newspaper The Spotlight, published by Willis Carto's Liberty Lobby. David Irving's book Churchill's War was fawningly praised in the July 1993 issue, which described Irving as "Britain's top historian". The following edition praised Irving's Hitler's War as giving "a very different picture of Hitler and World War II as that of the Hollywood movies".

With more than 90 pages and sporting a glossy full-colour cover, Nexus is dominated by advertising for alternative health cures. minor religious groupings, anti UFO abduction kits and mind-altering techniques. It has also had advertising supplements from Time-Life Books and Community Aid Abroad. The March 1994 issue carried an advertisement for the notorious antisemitic work The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion." (Reference)

Australia/Isreal Review:

"Mr Cumming's book Lucky be Damned on "the real power behind the elected governments" is advertised for sale in the current editions of those lunar journals for space cadets, conspiracy and right wing nuts - Nexus and New Dawn. These grand relics of Colonel Gaddafi's big spending days in the Pacific now run reams of psychotic twaddle about CIA conspiracies, real life X-Files, UFO's and, yes, the New World Order. New Dawn pumps it out courtesy of Mr Robert Pash, Colonel Gadaffi's former bag man down under while Nexus is produced by Pash's old buddy Duncan Roads. Pash, a.k.a. Rashid Robert Pash, caused great consternation during the 1980s running Gaddafi-funded operations from Melbourne. One of his many activities included co-ordinating Libyan government funded delegations to Tripoli. In the 1980s Nexus editor Duncan Roads tripped off to Libya several times courtesy of Colonel Gaddafi. He later established Nexus, which The Review revealed after the Oklahoma bombing to be running reports in Australia from senior figures in the US militia movement. A third new age newstand lunar-right magazine is entitled Exposure. We don't know whether it sells Mr Cumming's book. But its latest issue reprints in full Ms Hanson's maiden speech, so perhaps it doesn't really matter." (Reference)

More About Robert Pash:

"Another Radical-Nationalist initiative which promised much was that of 'Australian National Vanguard' (ANV) / 'Australian People's Congress' (APC) in the years 1982–88. This Brisbane effort was directed by Robert Pash (born 1962). From an unstable family with a history of psychiatric illness, Pash was attracted by religion, finding a berth with the U.S. 'Church Of Jesus Christ Christian' (or Aryan Nations). His paper Vanguard had announced: 'Jewry rules the West …' and ' … only the pure aryan race … (can) … achieve His Noble Purpose.'[64] A transition was made to Libyan 'Third Universal Theory' in 1983, with funding provided by the Libyan Embassy for distribution of Gaddafist propaganda.[65] In 1984, Pash approached National Action with promises of 'unity' and Libyan support for anti-American propaganda, but arrangements were forever provisional.[66] When van Tongeren launched ANM, Pash decided to reconstitute ANV." (Reference)

Ducan M. Roads is a non-reputable editor whose paranoia and weird conspiratorial views compromise his reliability as a respectable writer and undermine his conflated, embellished and unverifiable claims against Sathya Sai Baba. As stated many times before, the objective facts speak for themselves:

• Sathya Sai Baba has never been proven to be a "charlatan".


• Sathya Sai Baba has never been convicted of any crime.


• Sathya Sai Baba has never been charged with any crime.


• Sathya Sai Baba has never had even one single complaint lodged against him by any alleged victim, first-hand, in India. As a matter of fact, not even one alleged victim has even tried to file a basic police complaint or court case against Sathya Sai Baba in India (the only place where courts would have jurisdiction over Baba as an individual defendent).

These are the cold, hard facts and no rationalist, critic, conspiracy theorist, skeptic or ex-devotee can provide a scintilla of verifiable evidence to the contrary.

Referenced From Sai-Fi.net

Barry Pittard Attacks Rabbi Zeller

Exposing Barry Pittard
The Australian Pit-Bull Of The Anti-Sai Movement

In early August 2005, I was forwarded an email editorial that came from Barry Chamish. Chamish is a well known and controversial Israeli researcher (including UFO researcher), journalist and author. Chamish developed international notoriety with his coverage of the assassination conspiracy of Yitzhak Rabin. Chamish also sends out a number of editorials that deal with Isreali politics. Chamish archives his email editorials and although I expected the August 2005 email editorial to be published in his archives, it wasn't. This was probably because I emailed Chamish about Barry Pittard's defamations against Sathya Sai Baba and he was afraid of yet another legal suit. Chamish refused to discuss anything pertaining to Barry Pittard.

Although Chamish chose not to publish his August email editorial in his archives, Rense.com published the editorial in question. Rense.com is a site that celebrates Ernst Zundel (calling him a "modern day Galileo"). Ernst Zundel ran Samisdat Publishers, one of the largest distributors of Nazi and neo-Nazi propaganda and memorabilia in the world. Rense.com and Chamish's site link to each other. Chamish (like Pittard) associates himself with Nexus and Duncan Roads (who have also been blamed of having Anti-Semitic ties). Click Here to view a site dedicated to exposing the ties between Barry Chamish and neo-Nazi organizations and websites.

Chamish has rightly been criticized for his questionable ties to Holocaust Revisionists. Click Here to view an excellent article, written by Daniel Pipes, that gives disturbing facts about Chamish's questionable Holocaust Revisionist ties. It is important to point out that Chamish has clarified he is not a "Holocaust denier" (but does not seem to address the word "revisionist"). Chamish is also featured, numerous times, on the Adeliaide Institute's website (which is considered Anti-Semitic and a hate group by the Israel Ministry of Home Affairs). Click Here to view 50+ articles, about Chamish, published on the Adelaide Institute website. Obviously, the Adelaide Institute feels that Chamish's opinions are, in some manner, supportive to their cause and beliefs.

Click Here to view a recent email editorial from Barry Chamish that has a section contributed by Barry Pittard (who is referred to as one of Chamish's "correspondents"). The passage reads:

"Another correspondent exposed the activities of David Zeller, one of 'rabbi' Melchior's cohorts in Meimad: 'You have referred (see below) to David Zeller. My interest in him is that he has waxed exceeding abundant before a huge audience at in Sathya Sai Baba's ashram at Puttaparthi in south India. This latter is India's most famous guru and, with India's power brokers irrespective of Party affiliation, extremely influential. However, I once lectured for two years in one of his colleges and have since investigated at first hand worldwide allegations against Sai Baba of huge-scale, serial pedophilia, not to mention involvement in other terrible matters and cover-ups on quite the grand scale. I recently consulted to the BBC on its searing expose' of Sai Baba, 'The Secret Swami', and have done so to many other leading media like Times of London, Daily Telegraph, etc., etc., and am an international coordinator in attempts to bring Sai Baba to justice."

David Zeller is a well-known Rabbi who had spoken at several Sai Interfaith Conferences at Prashanti Nilayam. This article shows Barry Pittard's deep involvement with Chamish (Mr. Pittard is referred to as a "correspondent" of Chamish). Not only does this further my original concerns about Mr. Pittard's questional involvement with Holocaust Revisionists and the Adelaide Institute website, it also highlights the low and vidictive spirit of Mr. Pittard, who goes to great lengths to attack not only Sathya Sai Baba but anyone seen as supporting the Sai Movement (in this case, attacking a Jewish Rabbi simply because he had not been swayed by Anti-Sai propaganda).

Barry Pittard Attacks Dr. K.J.S. 'Sunny' Anand

Exposing Barry Pittard
The Australian Pit-Bull Of The Anti-Sai Movement

Barry Pittard waged a vicious smear campaign against Dr. K.J.S. 'Sunny' Anand simply because he is a prominent Sathya Sai Baba devotee and for no other reason.

On the ExBaba site, Barry Pittard wrote an article against Dr. Anand, entitled "Dr Kanwaljeet Sunny Anand's Pregnant Myths". In true pit-bull attack mode, Pittard replicated this artice on:

1) The Mumbai Indymedia site under the title "Dr. Kanwaljeet (Sunny) Anand Fails Science Test".

2) The Pressbox.co.uk site under the title "Dr. Sunny Anand's and Sathya Sai Baba's Pregnant Myths".

3) The Suleka.com forum under the title "Dr. Kawaljeet Sunny Anand Extols Sathya Sai Baba as God".

4) The Arkansas.indymedia.org site under the title "US Birth Scientist's Pregnant Myths: A Sathya Sai Baba Travail".

5) The I-Newswire.com site under the title "The Top Bush Advisor Says Sathya Sai Baba is God".

6) The free-press-release site under the title "Sunny Anand and Sathya Sai Baba: Pregnant Myths".

7) The Conspiracy Theory Research List (CTRL) site under the title "US Birth Scientist's Pregnant Myths: A Sathya Sai Baba Travail".

Dr. Sunny Anand has never publicly spoken out against Anti-Sai Activists or Barry Pittard. It is Barry Pittard's typical vindictiveness and mean-spiritedness that prompts him to attack notable Sai Devotees, apparently out of jealously and spite.

ABOUT DR. SUNNY ANAND:

K.J.S. ('Sunny') Anand , M.D., D.Phil.

Title
Professor of Pediatrics, Anesthesiology, Pharmacology & Neurobiology

Medical School
M.B.B.S., Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College, University of Indore, Indore, India

PhD
D.Phil., Jesus College, University of Oxford, UK; F.A.A.P., American Academy of Pediatrics, Elk Grove Village IL

Residency
Research Fellow, University Department of Paediatrics, University of Oxford, Oxford, U.K.; Research Fellow in Anesthesia, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA; Clinical Fellow in Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA

Fellowship
Clinical Fellow, Neonatal and Pediatric Intensive Care Units, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts

Post Doctoral Training
Intern, Maharaja Yeshwantrao Hospital, Indore, India; Intern, Hindu Rao

Board Certification(s)
1981, Registered Medical Practitioner, Madhya Pradesh Board, Bhopal, India; 1991, Board Certification in Pediatrics, American Board of Pediatrics; 1994, Board Certification in Pediatric Critical Care, American Board of Pediatrics; 1997, Arkansas State Medical Board, Little Rock, Arkansas

Major Interests
Neurobiology and behavioral effects of neonatal pain.

Research Interests
Dr. Anand's research interests are focused on mechanisms of cell death during critical periods for human or rodent brain development, primarily including:
(a) NMDA receptor-mediated excitotoxicity resulting from repetitive pain and (b) enhanced naturally occurring neuronal apoptosis during early development due to maternal separation. The pattern and magnitude of cellular changes depend on genetic variability as well as the timing, intensity, and duration of adverse environmental experiences:

1. Diverse developmental inputs during infancy cause activation and increased cell death in specific areas during the first postnatal week. These data suggest that early enrichment may allow the increased survival of neurons during cortical development.

2. Acute pain causes uncoupling of opioid receptors in the forebrain, leading to a decreased tonic inhibition of foci associated with pain processing in the brain-stem and spinal cord. This novel mechanism explains why tissue injury leads to prolonged periods of hyperalgesia.

3. Inflammatory pain occurring in the right forelimb leads to the bilateral activation of somatosensory and other cortical areas, as well as multiple foci in the limbic system, thalamus, and hypothalamus. Supraspinal pain processing shifts from subcortical areas in rat pups to cortical areas by two weeks after birth. Near-infra red spectroscopy in the human neonate showed similar patterns with bilateral activation of the somatosensory cortex following a unilateral painful stimulus (venipuncture).

4. Inflammatory pain increases neurodegenerative changes in newborn rat pups with specific regional changes noted in the first week after birth. Thus, repetitive pain may explain the poor cognitive outcomes of ex-preterm children.

5. Pre-emptive continuous morphine analgesia does not alter the incidence of early intraventricular hemorrhage or periventricular leukomalacia, but intermittent morphine boluses may increase the vulnerability of preterm neonates to develop these lesions.

Thus, converging lines of investigation, including clinical studies and basic neuroscience research, are focused on investigating the role and mechanisms of neuronal cell death caused by repetitive or prolonged pain. These changes may help to explain the behavioral abnormalities and poor cognitive outcomes noted from follow-up studies of ex-preterm neonates during their childhood and adolescence.

Selected Publications By Dr. KJS Anand:
Anand KJS, Peterson B, Hall RW. Gastric suction at birth: not an innocent bystander. Journal of Pediatrics, 2004 (in press).

Anand KJS, Hall RW, Desai NS, et al. Effects of pre-emptive morphine analgesia in ventilated preterm neonates: Primary outcomes from the NEOPAIN trial. The Lancet, 2004, 363: 1673-1682.

Anand KJS, Runeson B, Jacobson B. Gastric suction at birth associated with long-term risk for functional intestinal disorders in later life: A case-control study. Journal of Pediatrics, 2004; 144(4): 449-454.

Anand KJS, Soriano SG. Anesthetic agents and the immature brain: are these toxic or therapeutic agents? Anesthesiology 2004, 101(2): 527-530, 2004.

Liu JG, Rovnaghi CR, Garg S, Anand KJS. Hyperalgesia in young rats associated with opioid receptor desensitization in the forebrain. European Journal of Pharmacology, 2004; 491 (2-3): 127-136.

Anand KJS, Suresh S. Tracheal intubation in neonates, infants and children: Is there a right way? Critical Care Medicine, 2004; 32(2): 614-616.

Sharek PJ, Powers R, Koehn A, Anand KJS. Evaluation and development of potentially better practices to improve pain management of neonates. Pediatrics, 2004 (in press).

Anand KJS, Aranda JV, Berde CB, et al. Analgesia and anesthesia for neonates: Summary of findings from the FDA/NICHD Task Force. Pediatrics, 2004 (in press).

Simons SHP, van Dijk M, van Lingen RA, Roofthooft D, Duivenvoorden HJ, Jongeneel N, Bunkers C, Smink E, Anand KJS, van den Anker JN, Tibboel D.

Routine morphine infusion in preterm newborns who received ventilatory support: A randomized controlled trial. JAMA 290: 2419-2427, 2003.

Bouwmeester NJ, Hop WC, Van Dijk M, Anand KJS, et al. Postoperative pain in the neonate: age-related differences in morphine requirements and metabolism. Intensive Care Medicine 2003; 29(11): 2009-2015.

Simons SHP, van Dijk M, Anand KJS, et al. Do we still hurt newborn babies? A prospective study of procedural pain and analgesia in neonates. Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Med. 157:1058-1064, 2003.