Guruji Mahendrakumar Trivedi daily sacrifices goats to make humans have better sex and chickens taste better (or maybe vice versa), he can also enchant water, disinfect trees and transform minerals (possibly into chickens), all via his mighty spiritual energy biofield, and without ever going to toilet. That is funny enough, but it all passed peer review with respectable publishers.

Now some of that got retracted, so I forced Smut Clyde to write this article, and invited Trivedi to sue us into chickens.

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I hereby change every single person in this cathedral into chickens! Except me!

by Smut Clyde

Mahendrakumar Trivedi does not need a Potion to make you fatter and more delicious; his psychic emanations are enough. In the scholarly study titled “Impact of biofield energy treatment on broiler chicken […] meat quality“, we learn how Trivedi bestowed his blessings upon fertilized chicken eggs and hatchlings so that the broiler hens they grew into had those desirable qualities. It remains unclear how the chickens benefited from being blessèd and later consumed.

Mahendra Kumar Trivedi , Sandhya Parameswaran , Chhaya Gadgoli , Maggie Jo Alex , Dahryn Trivedi , Alice Branton , Sambhu Mondal , Snehasis Jana Impact of biofield energy treatment on broiler chicken growth performance, feed efficiency, carcass characteristics, and meat quality Open Veterinary Journal (2025) doi: 10.5455/ovj.2025.v15.i8.29 

“The biofield energy treatment (Trivedi Effect^®) was provided through the healer’s unique, inherent thought intention process and prayer (channeling universal life force energy and the energy of consciousness) to the blessing group of eggs and chicks by laying his hands without touching the eggs or chicks.”

This is serious academic research but Sholto David still had reserves about the paper and PubPeerified it. So next time Guruji Trivedi showed up on PubPeer – this time for the retraction of Neuropsychopharmacology Reports papers Trivedi et al 2024 and Trivedi et al 2025 – Sholto was the obvious choice for a guest-post about the Trivedi Effect^®, and Trivedi Laboratories, and Global Trivedi Inc. Instead, that duty somehow devolved upon me, on account of my absence from the For Better Science offices at the time of the vote (having been sent out to replenish the office supplies of Chocolate Tim-Tams).

But I am getting ahead of myself (a phenomenon that happens regularly due to the multiple-worlds interpretation of Feynman’s path-integral approach to quantum physics). I’ll start again… this time with the pineal gland or conarium.

This wee appendage to the brain has always been close to the hearts (or vice versa) of the alternative-reality everything-is-connected community. There it is an article of faith that the pineal is the organic antenna that links us to the Extremely-Low-Frequency radio waves channelled in the ionosphere, which is why the EEG alpha-wave has the same frequency (8-12 Hz) as the 7.83 Hz main harmonic of the Schumann Resonance. Through it we can tap into the Akashic Records information of the ionosphere / noösphere, or upload our consciousness there, because the physical scales of ~1 cm and 38000 km are so well-matched as aerial / wavelength. The late lamented Michael Persinger integrated this tradition into his own eccentric scholium of thought. Sometimes Nikola Tesla is woven into the story. I choose to trace the tradition back to Descartes’ dualist conviction that the gland is where the mental plane of existence intersects with the physical level and allows our conscious minds to intervene in the robotic, predictable operations of our brains.

It is natural, then, that as a corollary of these godlike powers, our man Trivedi should have a pineal gland the size of an egg (a hummingbird’s? An emu’s? The simile lacks precision) [his pituitary, says the text, but that is less funny]. The converse is true for Beckett’s character Murphy whose “conarium has shrunk to nothing”. Just saying, an enlarged pineal is a common symptom of misusing the Tillinghurst Resonator and things always go rapidly downhill from there.

Trivedi’s esoteric physiology is also distinguished by profuse sweating, a thirst for phenomenal quantities of water, and the alchemical sublimation of that water so that he does not need to eliminate it in the usual bladder-related way. Or so his acolytes informed Dr Tania Slawecki when she studied the Guruji at Penn State University in the hope of documenting his psychic powers beyond cavil or doubt (she could not personally vouch for the absence of toilet breaks):

“When he arrived at our office, he was reportedly drinking 17 liters of water a day and rarely using the bathroom [we did not count the liters: his chelas (followers) reported this to us; we did note he did not often use a bathroom]. According to his followers, this was an improvement over the 30 liters/day he used to consume! We observed that he often visibly perspired on his forehead and wiped his forehead often or the water literally ran down his face. He constantly cleared his throat, as if chronically congested, and his voice was often gruff as if choked with phlegm.”

Our man originally trained as an engineer. Inspired perhaps by the success of $cientology and Transcendental Meditation, he became aware of his awe-inspiring destiny to dedicate his powers for the benefit of humanity, which led him to the US where there are more credulous fuckwits with $$$ people in need of Blessings of Deliciousness. Acquiring a Trivedi Effect trademark and a Global Trivedi company along the way; and a dealership in blessings-infused Magic Water (100% not bladder-sourced).

Attesting to his authenticity at the 2010 ‘Sages & Scientists Symposium’ was a certain TM pimp and erstwhile University of California San Diego clinical professor named Deepak Chopra (MD)… from which we can infer that Chopra is better-qualified than most to recognise fraudulence. Chopra is adamant now about not endorsing Trivedi, and he scrubbed the recordings from his website – slightly more successfully than his attempts to erase an Epstein association (which is why he’s no longer at UCSD).

I have not delved deep enough to tell how this grasp of great power came about, and how it first manifested. Inherited from an actual divinity who had incarnated in human form in order to father him? Karmic dividends from an investment in good behaviour in previous lifetimes? It does seem (from Trivedi’s periodic slaughter of hecatombs of goats) that access to the Biofield must be maintained by a yearly blood-sacrifice subscription. However, I choose to believe in an Origin Story in which he was bitten by radioactive bullshit.

Trivedi’s promotional literature informs us that his demiurgic abilities to meddle directly with reality, editing genomes and reshaping the properties of matter, are unique. He is sui generis. A nonpareil. Also a guru without chelas – for the Trivedi Effect is not a method, that can be studied or taught; he has devotees (and customers), not students. Confusingly, the powers are still transmissible, so that Mrs Dahryn Trivedi (business partner and frequent co-author as well as wife) infuses her range of beauty products with bovine-sourced fertiliser blessings of her own, after she became “the first female brought to the level of Mastery“.

“A great way to think about a Divine Blessings membership is in the context of having fertile soil for a garden.“

dahryn.com

So far, the element missing from this narrative is science. But what elevates Trivedi above all the other energy wizards and entitles him to our attention and derision is his conviction that wealth, worshippers and political influence are not enough; he also feels in need of the further adornment of academic acceptance. That is to say there are papers… even in supposedly serious journals, not just predatory ones. And there are retractions.

At the time of our man’s visit to Penn State University in 2009, the Global Trivedi documents boasted of validation from thousands of scientific studies, but very few could be found (perhaps the others were archived in the ionosphere, in Akashic Record format). But that would change!

“I am sorry to say that I have been unable to locate even one of these 4,000 studies that has been published in a reputable scientific journal. Many are published in predatory open access journals.“

skepdic.com

The invitation to Penn State came from Professor Rustum Roy, the Head of the Materials Research Laboratory: a celebrated, India-born physicist. Also a mate of Chopra and a Trivedi fanboy. Roy had always kept his mind open to quackery Homeopathy and Integrative Medicine – espousing De Selby’s philosophy that ‘there is more to water than meets the eye” – so although he was rich with years, he had not merely gone emeritus. But contrary to the hopes of the researchers, as Trivedi blessed water and minerals for their examination, the materials stubbornly resisted change. An N=1 study of biological effects proved no better, as a series of in-person and by-telephone blessings of Roy were only followed by a decline in his health. Disillusioned, Roy withdrew his earlier endorsement of Trivedi… though after Roy died in 2010 aged 86, Trivedi went back to claiming to have it anyway, and to describing the Penn State studies as a resounding success.

I should note that even more than validation from Academia, Trivedi craves it from the legal system. That is, he sues people. When the Penn State group reported their negative findings, their lack of faith disturbed him, and he sued Slawecki for defamation and for breaking an unwritten contract. An unexpected consequence of the lawsuit was to ventilate allegations from employees in Trivedi’s scampire, of sexual and workplace abuse. Whoops! Journalist Dennis Lang provided a platform for those allegations, and yes, he was sued. Initially an Arizona judge awarded Trivedi $59 million [!!] in damages; the judgement was vacated in Minnesota; Trivedi sued again; the suit was thrown out again, by (I am not making this up) Judge Awsumb. Our host is feeling left out from the lawsuits, which is why he wanted this blogpost.

Somehow ‘Neurocritic‘ has been deprived of that honour, despite following Trivedi’s antics from way back. By ‘following’ I mean ‘contacting the editors of journals that publish Trivedi paper-shaped advertisements and inviting them to rethink their decisions’.

Which leads me at last to this study in a Wiley journal:

Mahendra Kumar Trivedi , Alice Branton , Dahryn Trivedi , Sambhu Mondal , Snehasis Jana The role of biofield energy treatment on psychological symptoms, mental health disorders, and stress‐related quality of life in adult subjects: A randomized controlled clinical trial Journal of General and Family Medicine (2023) doi: 10.1002/jgf2.606 

Neurocritical messages reminded the Editors that the journal’s remit did not include lab-coat cosplay disguised as science, and prompted them to investigate for themselves… A retraction was published in January 2025:

“The retraction has been agreed upon following an investigation into concerns raised by a third party, which revealed an inappropriate control group used as the placebo group of the trial, inconsistencies in the Psychological Questionnaire Scoring, highly implausible functional biomarker values that are out of the typical physiological range, and unsupported claims regarding the scientific evidence behind the biofield energy treatment. The authors were informed, however, the explanation and the partial raw data provided were deemed insufficient to address the concerns. […] The authors disagree with the retraction.”

As a diagnosis of the unsalvageably high proportion of bullshit burdening the paper, that seems explicit enough. Yet the editors of one of Wiley‘s emergency back-up journals were somehow persuaded to republish these soiled goods, with a new title and cosmetic amendments.

Mahendra Kumar Trivedi , Alice Branton , Dahryn Trivedi , Sambhu Mondal , Snehasis Jana Amelioration of Adults’ Mental Health Conditions and Symptoms Through Spiritual Energy Therapy: Randomized Controlled Trial Neuropsychopharmacology Reports (2025) doi: 10.1002/npr2.70050

Neuropsychopharmacology Reports being the same journal whose editors had earlier flushed their credibility down the toilet by publishing this – I can only suppose that Trivedi clouded their minds with Jedi mind-tricks Biofield Energy (no, Autocorrect, I am not trying to type ‘Blofeld’):

Mahendra Kumar Trivedi , Alice Branton , Dahryn Trivedi , Sambhu Mondal , Snehasis Jana Assessment of cognitive–motor functions in adults with perceived neuropsychological problems using NIH toolbox after remote biofield energy treatment as non‐pharmacological intervention: A randomized double‐blind placebo controlled trial Neuropsychopharmacology Reports (2024) doi: 10.1002/npr2.12482 

And there was great agita at PubPeer. A Trivedi minion coauthor named Snehasis Jana tried to assuage the concerns of the commentariat, with a modest proposal that the reported results were not really so implausible because Quantum Entanglement. [Dons ‘quantum-physics qualification’ hat] I am not saying that invocations of that intriguing manifestation of quantum reality are not the last resort of shameless fraudsters… but only because they are usually the first resort. Meanwhile the editors received more Neurocriticism:

The authors added Appendix 2 (file ‘npr270050-sup-0002-datas1.xlsx’) to the republished paper, which contains the raw data. However, the Table 2 data contain some irregularities. In the Table 2_PQ_Treatment tab, the scores for ‘Stress from the Spiritual Energy Therapy Group (Day 180)’ are all ‘2’. It is statistically unlikely that 35 people would all endorse the lowest possible score for those two questions. For Sleep Disturbances, 32 out of 35 scored ‘2’ and for Depression, 30 out of 35 scored ‘2’.

The evidence of fraud was too great to ignore and both Trivedivia were retracted at last (?).

• The Trivedi et al 2025 re-run was retracted in February 2026 because “issues regarding the appropriateness of the control group and the psychological questionnaire scoring method remain unresolved. Additionally, some biomarker values remain implausible without sufficient justification and claims regarding the efficacy of spiritual energy therapy continue to lack independent supporting evidence“.
• The Trivedi et al 2024 peer-reviewed paper was retracted in February 2026 because “the study’s design, methods, results and conclusions are essentially the same as another article published elsewhere by the same author group in the same year, without any attribution to that article. Furthermore, the study contains physiologically implausible data and statistical anomalies“.

It appears that there is much more Mahendrivel still out there. A worrying thought. For instance, one published by Springer and another by Elsevier:

• Snehasis Jana, Mahendra Kumar Trivedi & Dahryn Trivedi, Quantum Biofield Energy Therapy for Psychological and Mental Health Problems, Palgrave Encyclopedia of Disability (2025) doi: 10.1007/978-3-031-40858-8_281-1
• Mahendra Kumar Trivedi & Rama Mohan Tallapragada, A transcendental to changing metal powder characteristics, Metal Powder Report (2008) doi:10.1016/S0026-0657(08)70145-0

But (coming at last to the point of all this) faith in the scientific-publishing industry is not improved by accepting these transparently fictional works of laboratory cosplay, waving more red flags than a May Day parade, from a high-concept grifter whose $-million / year business model of “give me money and I promise to pray for you” is no secret. I can excuse Professor ‘Rusty’ Roy for helping give this fraudster a platform – clearly he focused all his cold-eyed rationality on his material-sciences day job. I can even shrug indulgently at Nu-age impresarios like Chopra and Ken Wilbur who renounced Trivedi when the sex predation came out (blaming the conveniently-dead Roy for convincing them that Trivedi was genuine); and at the predatory journals that published Trivedi’s press releases in the past, because that’s their $-million / year business model. But the wizened-warder wicket-gatekeepers at Neuropsychopharmacology Reports need to stand in the corner and think about what they did wrong.

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Coda

The whole blood-sacrifice goat-slaughter business pre-dates Trivedi’s relocation to the US. The more I read about it, the more bonkers it gets. Thanks Patrick Wanis for translating from a 2003 Indian magazine:

“When there was huge turmoil in this area after this sacrificial ceremony, the correspondent of this magazine then spoke with the spiritual guru Mahendra Kumar Trivedi who said he “performs this kind of ceremony twice every year after both Navratris, and a lot of distinguished devotees of his participate in this and they come from all over the world, but they have nothing to do with the sacrificial programs. This program of sacrificing goats is solely for my own personal ceremony. I conduct this to enhance my spiritual powers to higher level. There are provisions for this ceremony in the religious scriptures like the Vedas, the Purans and Upanishads. I have been performing this kind of ceremony continuously for the last 8 years. In the ceremony I just did recently, I sacrificed 51 goats each day. Therefore in 11 days in total 561 goats were sacrificed.”

Another report from 2003 described Trivedi as a practitioner of Tantra:

“BJP’s national secretary Shivraj Singh Chauhan and State vice-president Raghunandan Sharma in a joint statement have alleged that the sacrifice was done by a politician from Maharashtra, who was accompanied by a tantrik named Mahendra Trivedi.”

Here Tantra is not the plural of ‘Tantrum’, but rather an often-transgressive mode of classical Yoga practice. Readers will note that aside from arousing revulsion from local villagers, Trivedi backed the losing side when he used his wizardry to dabble in secular politics, so it is quite possible that his relocation was one step ahead of an angry mob.

Disappointed to learn from the 2014 Trivedi v. Slawecki defamation-trial evidence that our man’s physiological anomalies are merely symptoms of performance-enhancing drug abuse.

“We now know Trivedi is taking human growth hormone injections which is what causes his pituitary to be enlarged, causes him to need to drink all that water, increases his virility and makes him irritable and nasty. Thus the data shows his cartilage is like that of a 20 yr old is true because this is an effect of the HGH. He pretends to be celibate but is driven to sex because of taking HGH.”

There is more to write, but it will have to wait until I’ve finished using my vastly-hypertrophied pineal gland and the Schumann resonance to back-up my consciousness to the Ionosphere.

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