Share Your Thoughts

Hello Everyone,

I'm taking the chance that at least one or two of you good readers want to take a few moments to write an article or something of your own. But since it's a lot of time to set up and maintain a blog and there is always the danger of being targeted, I thought you could use this blog for your own self-expression.

Since anonymity is important to many of us ex-members, I had to figure out a safe and anonymous way for you to get an article or other writing to me.

Well, I just figured it out. Upload your article to this MSN SkyDrive folder

or paste this in your browser: http://cid-124cc4866e2e37cd.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/Public?authkey=*XWjIqt6K20%24


It's a folder called "Articles from Contributors" and it is a public folder. I'll check it regularly and get your article up as soon as possible.

I'd recommend converting your article to a plain text file. It's easy to do, just select "Plain Text" when you save your article. The use of a plain text format pretty well eliminates any way to trace the file back to you. You can send up other formats like MS Word but you need to remember that Word saves the name of the author with the article. You may not want that.

Sure, you can email your writing to me as well. Just use the email address on my profile. Even if you email me, I'll keep your article anonymous unless you tell me to tell the world you wrote it.

I hope many of you send in an article as a guest writer. I'll tell you something: being able to write about the insanity we faced helps. And if you are worried about anyone getting back at you, this blog and my supervision of the users here will protect your identity.

Remember that I name only a few people - those who are responsible for the destruction of the lives they claim to improve and others (such as author and cult survivor Steve Sanchez or Jeff, our Psychdoctorate) who are already visible to the public eye. Unless you are already outed, you won't be.

This blog is your shield. I have proven the First Amendment prevails over the petty tyranny of the Spiritual Rights Foundation. Joy and I scared them so thoroughly, they ran with their tails between their legs and hid in the basement. We're still standing there holding a rolled-up newspaper if they piss on our carpet again. I think they won't come after you.

Why not take that opportunity to tell the world what the Spiritual Rights Foundation really stands for?

Why not take the chance to save a life?

How about it?

Upload an article of any length on any subject (as long as you stay on-topic). Even if you want to say the Spiritual Rights Foundation is the representation of Heaven on Earth, go right ahead and say it.

Your freedom of speech is protected here. Say what you want to say. Even call me whatever you want.

Just do not insult, demean or otherwise annoy my readers.

Because if you do, I'll just have to post your vomit prominently with my usual tart comeback.

Mort Litwack In Memoriam

In Memory of Morton Litwack, PhD.

On the morning of December 11, 2009, Morton "Mort" Litwack. PhD. passed away peacefully.

We all remember Mort as a unique individual with a vast amount of knowledge and wisdom that befitted his maturity and advanced education. As a lifelong student and teacher, we remember Mort for his ability to reach out and share his wealth of information through his teaching and for his enthusiasm for life. Mort was also an active real estate and securities investor, managing a sizable portfolio.

Maintaining his sense of independence and self-image upon receiving ordination as a minister, Mort insisted on the title "Rabbi" in honor of his heritage and faith.

Mort is survived by his extensive family and those who were equally blessed as his friends, colleagues and students.

VICTORY!

Your rights, our rights and the rights of those in fear of speaking out have been upheld.

We signed a final settlement agreement ending the lawsuit conducted by the Spiritual Rights Foundation, et. al (Angela Silva, Robin Dumolin, ISHI Hypnosis).

This settlement ends the controversy. The Spiritual Rights Foundation, ISHI Hypnosis et. al. (Angela Silva, Robin Dumolin, ISHI Hypnosis) have agreed to stop harassing us in the legal system. In return, we will allow them to post a rebuttal comment - ONE rebuttal comment. This condition of the settlement is laughable. As all of you know, comments here are not moderated and no one has ever been banned.

SRF could have just entered their comment at any time, without having to file an expensive lawsuit.

However, that SRF decided to sue first and comment later proves they continue to display outrageous and unrestrained behavior to achieve even the most insignificant results.

The Spiritual Rights Foundation did not require us to pay money, post retractions, remove certain materials or anything else. They just plain had no legal reason to force anything from us. In fact, they had no legal reason to have conducted legal action in the first place.  However, they were compelled by the court to pay US for all the expenses we incurred for our defense.

Thanks to our brilliant and talented attorney (a First Amendment specialist who is a member of the California First Amendment Coalition who was senior editor of the Yale Law Review and reviewed legislation for Barney Frank), we responded to their complaint by filing a demurrer and anti-SLAPP motion with the court. Those motions argued the SRF complaint was as bogus as it gets and has no legal standing.

They were angry I called them a cult. We had a quote from the Spiritual Rights Foundation's own lawyer saying, in effect: Who gives a damn if you call SRF a cult? So's the Catholic Church.

They said my writings here were false, defamatory and libelous. We showed several articles from the Spiritual Rights Foundation's own newspaper that supported what I wrote here.

We presented SRF-related court cases related to what I write here. We presented a lot of stuff. Most of it was from SRF's own mouth. The stack of documents was a good four inches thick.

SRF did not file with the court a legal response to our motions.

Instead, they offered a settlement showing their true nature: cowardice.

Never again will the Spiritual Rights Foundation obstruct the right of free expression and free association.

This settlement is a victory for those who speak out now and those who would but for fear. We have proved the strength of the First Amendment will vanquish petty tyranny.

And those who will speak out in the future may now feel confident revealing their own experiences and expressing their own thoughts and opinions.

We hope to hear from all of you soon.

Until then, enjoy Joy's Victory Video:

Paying It Forward

After taking our yearly trip to my in-law's house for turkey day, I was finally able to come back home and get a chance to sit down for a few quiet moments.

I took a few minutes to review some of the comments here (which I have to admit, I have been running behind). A couple of them from Marilyn and Jeanette spoke of their financial losses thanks to the evil practices of the Spiritual Rights Foundation.

Well, like them, I had mine as well. So has everyone else. That the Spiritual Rights Foundation can claim to give you a higher level of enlightenment while they pick your pocket and slap you in the face is just amazing.

I've spent quite a bit on those guys. Like everyone else, it was tens of thousands of dollars. Even more than that, I think because my wife didn't pay taxes for two years (SRF tells people to not pay taxes - unfortunately). That bill came to somewhere around $7500 and it got paid out of my pocket, not hers. Well, that's part of being a couple, you know. I'd do it again but I'd rather not do it again.

Anyway, looking back I figured what I spent on them was some $30K. Probably more. One of their great accounting tricks was to claim you did not pay what you know you did pay. Double billing and fudging the numbers was commonplace at the Spiritual Rights Foundation. They keep people in debt to them in order to keep them compliant and to keep them enslaved to the leaders.

Whenever you get a little bit of gain, they try to take it from you. The Witches of Ellsworth cast their squinted eyes at my modest inheritance and did their best to pry it from me.

It didn't work. I still have it.

Although I did not lose my property, I know others who have. I also know of at least one other person who was pressured to "relieve" themselves of the burden of "family programming" by giving away that person's inheritance (which was also property and cash) to the cackling Witches of Ellsworth.

Even though I didn't lose my most valuable asset (my house) to the Witches of Ellsworth and the Spiritual Rights Foundation, should I attempt to get my money back?

Well, probably. I do have the ability to go after them for improper prosecution via the SLAPP-back process. And there may be some personal injury claims that can be made.

Those are actions I can undertake in the future (but not too distant future).

For now, I feel like I already got my refund.

How's that, you ask?

It's like this: I got the court to force them to pay a decent amount of money because they lost their lawsuit against me. Add to that the fee they paid their idiot attorney. Add to that court costs and the costs they had to incur to make the lame argument that I did not actually beat them and that they should not be punished for doing something illegal...

Well, you get the point. And my point is that I cost them about as much as I dumped in the Witches of Ellsworth's cauldron. Probably more.

So, my Thanksgiving dinner was a thankful one indeed. With that thought, I never had turkey that tasted so good.

No one in history has ever been that successful at kicking their ass.

Well, actually I did not kick their ass (which they heartily deserved). What actually happened was they kicked me in the ass and I clobbered them with a sheleiligh. No one has ever done that either.

In fact, I would bet you no one has cost the Witches of Ellsworth and the Spiritual Rights Foundation more money than I have.

I am proud of my accomplishment and will celebrate accordingly.

I plan to drink champagne out of a glass shaped like Robin Dumolin's vagina.

Shaved, of course.

The Name Game

OK, I think I have just about had enough of this idiocy.

In the last year or so since this blog has been outed, I've heard one false or exaggerated claim after another.

The worst was that neither I, you or anyone else in the world can say anything about the Spiritual Rights Foundation the Spiritual Rights Foundation does not like. Of course, the Spiritual Rights Foundation does not like any statement except "SRF: heaven-sent enlightened masters of spirit and Godly, compassionate stewards of my money, children and personal life - me: dirtbag unworthy of licking the soles of their goose dung encrusted shoes." This they proved in their FAILED lawsuit against me.

There are some other claims that are false, exaggerated and quite a few that are from astral planes that go way past "Deep Space 9".

But a common false claim made against this blog is that I name everyone I have ever encountered and have attributed to them personal details that are damaging and embarrassing.

This claim is absolutely false.

I'll tell you who I have named:

Bill Duby

Angela Silva

Robin Dumolin

Debi Livingston-Boushey

Steve Sanchez

If I missed someone, let me know and send your citation. By citation, I mean to point out exactly where this error occurs, print it out and send a PDF of the page with the name or passage highlighted.

I name the leaders of SRF because they are public figures who lead a very public organization and tout that organization in a very public way on a public radio and internet talk show every Tuesday morning and have done so for some 20 years.

I name Steve Sanchez because he wrote a compelling book about SRF and is also a public figure in the context of his book and experience at SRF. Besides I like him and I think he was a guy who got screwed terribly by the aforementioned leaders. I think Steve's story is a powerful cautionary tale that he and I believe needs to be told.

But some have levied false charges that they and others they know are named directly here in this blog.

Those persons have run though their phone book and whatever else they have available to them to rant, rave and otherwise act foolishly.

Is that statement an assassination of character? Am I just doing the one thing I detest - an ad hominem attack?

No.

I say that claim is foolish because it is plain untrue. False. Without substance or merit - it it just plain wrong.

The whiners claim their names or the names of those they know are contained here.

I say: use the search function. Type in your names. See what you get back.

Unless your names are:

Bill Duby

Angela Silva

Robin Dumolin

Debi Livingston-Boushey

Steve Sanchez

Philip Zimbardo

Psychdoctorate

Stanley Milgram

John Knapp

Michael Tamura

Madeline Tobias

The Woman At The Well

Sara Crain

Colleen Russell

...aw hell you get the idea. Those of you who read this blog know I am scrupulous about who I name and who I do not.

Nearly every time, I do not - especially if you are not a public person.

The leaders are public figures. They are fair game.

Those of you who are the followers, the congregants (and to the idiot reader who loves to stand ready to criticize my grammar: the word means "member of a congregation". Like in a church - that place people go to on Sundays so they don't have to hear a bishop say her church and its founder are "Jesus Effing Christ"), you have been and remain anonymous.

Just so we are clear: the word "anonymous" means "without a name" - you know, like where I call someone ****** instead of "Tom" or "Dick" or "Brain Damaged Drooling Ignoramus".

I guess I'll have to explain (whoever said SRF expands your range of thinking never dealt with the knuckle-draggers I have deal with).

OK, "Captain Caveman" listen up, anonymity is kind of like the Witness Protection Program where you and your name are known somewhere but people who know you want you dead so you are moved to where people do not know you so you won't be dead. That is called: being anonymous or "without a name" and it is done to protect you.

And so when I use the symbol "*" typed several times like this: ***********, it's like the Witness Protection Program, except it is in print instead of you being sent to North Dakota in the middle of winter so you look like all the other people bundled in snow suits. Get it?

It's for your protection - just like the Witness Protection Program.

Now, do me a favor: type your name in the search box. That is the white rectangle-ie thingy in that blue part on the top of the page (for those of you who still watch Sesame Street and Barney).

Unless you are one of the public people I mention or unless you are living in Sweden or if you are a researcher at Stanford or UConn (that's the University of Connecticut, which is on the East Coast of the USA. I hate having to explain where American States are located TO AMERICANS.) you will not find your name mentioned here.

Outside of the leaders of SRF, I have written in complementary terms regarding many people I named. JaneHellen got a big shout out from me because I admire her courage and determination to recover from SRF. Same goes for Marilyn. And Steve. And Jeff the Psychdoctorate (except he's recovering from BPI). And many more.

Now I could make another list of those who have complained they were outed on this blog. I could apply the tactics they learned from the master manipulator and trailer park gossip, Mr. William Duby, against them by planting rumor, false statements, inaccuracies, exaggerations and reasoning so impenetrable that no one could see their stupidity.

But I won't.

I can say to you in all honesty that the people who have complained their identity was revealed have not only remained anonymous but I have written about them in very complementary ways.

Amazing. They maintain their anonymity while they are lionized as heroes but they still complain mightily.

As for the two who claim they were directly named here frequently, well they were not - even after they outed themselves on Joy's blog. The other person or persons who complained were never named here at all. In fact, people who should have recognized the descriptions of those persons did not recognize them at all.

I have deleted or obscured more names than I have made public. And those of you who believe you or someone you know was named at any time (apart from those I list above), well you are just plain wrong.

(I will say that some comments by a person named "Anonymous" - and that is not me, by the way, do name certain individuals who I am careful to not have named. I think it is apparent I would not have done as "Anonymous" has.)

I get email from people all the time asking who I was writing about. Oddly, the people who ask are generally the people who know who I was writing about - and know that person very well.

I'm not sure if that says I did a great job of concealing the identity of the person I wrote about or if that means I wrote like a blockhead. Either way, they did not who I was writing about.

Except one guy. He was the one who was with me when Santa melted down at a steakhouse.

This post is not some attempt to discredit the people who make false accusations of me. That I am mega pissed is without question.

However, unlike Bill Duby's infamous "Faith Under Fire" article (which derides the people who speak out in opposition to Bill's brand of dominance, and evil tyranny. I also submitted this article to the court as part of my winning defense against the SRF lawsuit - making it public record) I'm stating fact.

It's a fact that those who have complained they were directly named in some of the incidents I refer to are in fact NOT NAMED ANYWHERE IN THIS BLOG.

And it appears to be a fact that they did not take the time or have the presence of mind or maybe even lacked the skill to take a moment of fact checking of their own.

That is what give me the right to tell those people they are wrong.

And their foul, emotional and uncalled-for complaints to me on the phone and in email are just another one of their jaw-dropping embarrassments.

For those who would rather complain before reading this blog to determine the truth for themselves: then do yourselves and the world a favor: shut up.

To those who respond to rumor without checking fact: you are still in the mindset of the despots who have corrupted you. I would suggest you obtain counseling at your earliest opportunity.

Remember the world is a much different place than the dysfunctional and demented world that is the Spiritual Rights Foundation. Here, we operate on fact. Here, we use our minds. And here, we rely on the integrity of others and reciprocate with our own.

And most of all, we remember that fools speak first and think later.

Anyone who would like to make an intelligent comment are welcome to do so.

I'll let the trolls know, though, if your comment is the usual kind with excessive profanity or without a point or is incomprehensible to anyone without brain damage or who has not abused LSD I will delete it after making fun of you on a posting.

JaneHellen Rocks our World

Here's JaneHellen!

She spent time at SRF in the early days and was employed as an au pair and took several classes from the place. Of course since she was employed as an SRF au pair, she wasn't paid what she was owed from all the pairs who hired her. You can guess who those pairs may be. Despite not paying her, the pairs demanded she pay for classes anyway. So, like many of us, she escaped with few assets and a determination to start again.

She's got her own blog and I hope you all read it. Jane speaks from her experience at SRF and has her own unique insight into that sloppy mess called SRF.

Give her blog a good read and leave a shout-out from the USA and all of us SRF survivors.


http://janehellen-janehellen.blogspot.com


JaneHellen is a brave soul who is telling her side of the SRF story. It's not exactly a pretty one but that's what the dark side of the SRF moon looks like.

Here's one tale from the dark side:

Living in a SRF family you might have asset to a tv, but no newspapers and mabye no phone, we didnt. It took me many years to start keeping track of the date and what was going on in the world. I dont know why but I think so many things disapered and it was difficult to repair it all at once. SRF teaching is sort of loosing once intelligence instead of developing. You loose it all. Simple things takes long time to be able to do again. For me also it took long time to be able to read books again. I dont know what happend I used to read a lot of books before i got involed with SRF. To go out in society again was scary and choking. This is also a thing that cults and sekts do, they isolate people, its a form of abuse and control.


Bravo! I agree completely. You probably do as well.

I haven't met her (just as I haven't met many of those who read this blog). But her stories are strangely familiar. Got take a read of her blog. I think you'll find it to be helpful and healing.

Here's my video tribute to my new friend. It's the biggest part the the new musical Wicked - where Elphaba decided he Wizard isn't all he's cracked up to be and she will be going her own way, and would be much better for it.






I thought Defying Gravity would be the best thing I can post for her as this song reflects her own quest to defy the force of SRF gravity holding her down.

Hello Little Girl

OK, I can't stand it anymore.

We all know about Bill Duby's, uh, peculiarities. There's a lot I could say about them, but I think this clip from one of my fave musicals "Into the Woods" says it all:





If you check out the Wolf carefully, you might see he's carrying a package of his own.

And I took a date to this show...  No wonder she got interested in wolves after this.


So what happens after you discover you've been had by a wolf?  This I hope:

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood

Man, what a depressing picture.


That's more like it! A glass of Guinness for you!


"Counsel should have tried negotiation before litigation."
William J. Rogers, Esq., attorney for the Spiritual Rights Foundation
who LITIGATED a lawsuit against us and LOST.
(gee, I guess that's why he wanted us to negotiate...)

It's Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood. It's a neighborhood where the law is whatever his client wants it to be. It's a neighborhood where right is wrong and wrong is right. Mr. Rogers' neighborhood is the SRF neighborhood.

And it's no pleasant suburb. Bosnia is more like it.
We received a response to our request to compel the Spiritual Rights Foundation to pay our legal fees.

I've seen some crazy responses to legal petitions before (one from a person who called me something on the order of criminally insane). This one takes the cake.

Will starts off telling the judge that we are not allowed to demand our legal fees back because we settled the issue and he dismissed his lawsuit with prejudice.

WRONG!

My ten-minute search on Google showed articles from defamation attorneys who said to NEVER settle a SLAPP then dismiss with prejudice. If you do, you guarantee the court will award the defense ALL their legal fees.

Strike One.


Next, Mr. Rogers says the fees we are demanding (over $77,000.00) is too much. Well, we can justify all those fees for a lot of reasons. And, after looking at other First Amendment/SLAPP cases, $77,000.00 looks to me to be on the CHEAP side!

The judge sees a lot more SLAPP cases than Mr. Rogers ever has. In fact, from the looks of it, this may be the ONLY SLAPP Mr. Rogers ever litigated. Anyway, I think the judge has seen enough anti-SLAPP motions to know when a bill is too much and that our attorney is honest and has billed only what he had to (and it was a lot of work - Josh worked a straight 36 hours without sleep to finish our motions). Our demand for fees is reasonable.

Rogers tries to split hairs, saying only a small part of the hard work we and our attorney did was used to address his lawsuit. Huh? The only damn work we COULD do was address his lawsuit! And that work is expensive.

I've just gone through a textbook that lays out the anti-SLAPP procedure. They emphasize that defending against a SLAPP is really hard work that costs a lot of money. And this book said any idiot who dismisses his SLAPP with prejudice will likely need to get his client's boot surgically removed from his ass, once the defense sends their bill.

Anyway $77,000.00 was not out of the ordinary for a SLAPP defense.

Strike Two.


This next thing is really strange and it takes some explanation.

For some strange reason, Rogers believes he can bang the libel drum even after he promised everyone he'd stop that damn racket!

Rogers began his response with a statement that our blogs are purposed for anything but the revelation of the truth. He added declarations from two young women who state: "I was outraged at the lies" and "I began posting my own comments to correct the lies".

I have no idea why he's trying to persuade the court that our blogs do something we do not - especially after he dismissed his suit with prejudice.

Rogers made hay about those two young women (the adult daughters of one of his clients) who left really nasty, profane, insulting and personally threatening comments on Joy's YouTube channel. They got other SRF members and children of SRF members to join in.


It got them banned. Which I thought was appropriate. You might too if one of them vowed to deliver "spiritual retribution" to us and the comments weren't on the line of "gee, I would like to disagree" but were more like: "you fucking fat cunt piece of shit bitch and your cocksucker asshole motherfucker husband..."

In what has to be some kind of epileptic seizure, Rogers claims that Joy's exclusion of the two young women from her YouTube site showed that in fact, the two young women were the victims and Joy was the bully when she banned them.

To drive his point home, Rogers attached a crappy, blurry printout of a page in Joy's blog. In his printout, he points to Joy explaining in her blog that due to the threatening, bullying, intimidating, nasty comments left by the two young women and others, she was in fear for her safety, in fear for my safety and was compelled to take action. So she banned the two young women (and others) from YouTube and only from YouTube.

So to Rogers, because the two daughters of his clients left threats and taunts that put us in fear for our safety, their banning was all Joy's fault because Joy was the one who forced them to threaten, bully, harass and intimidate her. He's actually trying to blame the victim - just like his clients!

I think I heard this one before... Oh yeah, a guy who tries to rape a woman gets kicked in the balls instead. So, while in San Quentin he files assault charges against her and sues for personal injury while he takes the soprano part in the prison choir. Right. Makes sense. I can totally see why those two are victims.

Anyway, what the hell does that have to do with denying our demand for attorney's fees?

As you have seen, there have been hostile comments posted on this blog and several comments posted by people believed to be SRF members, ministers or their supporters.

And you might also know (especially if you also use Blogger - as SRF does) there is NO mechanism to "block" any individual reader.

For some reason, Rogers wants to convince the court uhh.. well... Hell, there's no damn thing to convince. The statements from those two young women are relevant to NOTHING. Nothing, that is, but the way they embarrassed themselves.

Anyway, if spinning the aggressive and intimidating actions of the two young women as mere defense of a maligned parent isn't enough, Rogers tries to say since we settled, we can't go after SRF for our attorney fees. So, to prove his point, Rogers digs the hole deeper: he added a copy of the settlement agreement (HE wrote it).

Rogers agreed to this: "Nothing in this Agreement shall be construed as limiting in my way the claims K&B (that's Me and Joy) may have against SRF, including but not limited to any claims to attorney's fees..."

Uhh... it is just me, or did his clients agree to let us go after them for attorney's fees?

This hole is getting so deep, it's reaching China.

Inexplicably, Rogers adds a declaration from the Spiritual Rights Foundation itself. Again they bang the libel drum then repeat the claim that SRF members were always banned from our blogs (I've already shot that notion down) and whine they "did not want to draw more attention to the defendant's accusation" (so instead, they filed an idiot response - ensuring even more attention would be created.) .


Here is a great tidbit from the SRF declaration. Say hello to your grounding cord or get your tomatoes ready, as appropriate:

"The second reason that the plaintiffs agreed to dismiss the lawsuit was because, after a period of reflection, meditation, and prayer, we decided to take the high road. We forgave the defendants. We decided that engaging in litigation over the defendants' statements, even though false, was not reflective of our religious teachings and spiritual ideals."

Actually, they only saw the road when they got hit in the face with four inches of anti-SLAPP motion. As our inspiration, we relied on Bill Duby's adage: "Whip it out and slap her in the face with it!" Thanks for the advice, Bill!

As for whether that road is high or low, well maybe their posted response (saying you, me and everyone who ever heard of SRF is a spiritually defective malcontent projecting his shortcomings on poor little them) will give you a clue.

As far as forgiveness is concerned, If they drop a dozen Krispy Kremes on my doorstep (without poison or hidden explosives, please) that would be a tremendous gesture. Behaving above the law - not so much.

And of course, they repeat that this blogs contains "lies". Since there are many, many references that confirm and support what is presented in this blog, the "lies" must be the first media reports describing the dysfunction, deceit and malfeasance at SRF some ten years ago. If those reports are indeed lies, then those media would have received similar suits as Joy and myself. They never did.


Now for the item that has me shaking my head in amazement: a declaration from Mr. William J. Rogers himself. Mr. Rogers wrote the most fearsomely worded and aggressive cease and desist letter and lawsuit I have ever seen - and most factually incorrect and legally confused.

After reading the documents and knowing the plaintiffs as well as we do, Joy and I realized we were facing fanatical religious zealots who would stop at nothing in their quest for our total destruction.

However, Mr. Rogers says in his declaration: "I'm a lover, not a fighter." (sorry, MJ - God rest your soul)

Rogers points with pride his ability to settle 98% of his cases and that we could have settled the case if we only sat down to tea with his clients.

And that statement, his claim of being a negotiator tells it all. His clients never really intended to go to trial so they never really needed a legally substantial case.

They hoped their bluster and swagger alone would be enough to force us to capitulate. They never expected to obtain a judgment - they wouldn't need it. Fear, intimidation and the tactics of a schoolyard bully was all they thought they needed to make us fall to our knees.

They never considered they would face an appropriately vigorous defense and they never expected to face a wall of protection so strong, their attempts at legal combat would blow up in their faces. They never thought they would face an opponent who had such a strong resolve to defend his right to speak the truth and the right for all ex-members to live in freedom.

Freedom from the fear of the Spiritual Rights Foundation.

It's all clear now: since they dismissed their lawsuit with prejudice, Mr. Rogers and his clients presented a claim that could not stand up to the rigors of judicial review or to the scrutiny of a jury of their peers.

Obviously, SRF wanted to beat Joy and I into submission in order to force us into silence and to create an atmosphere of fear and intimidation among the dissidents so the Witches of Ellsworth may perpetuate their insane climate of denial, control and exploitation.

And that makes their suit a textbook example of a SLAPP. You couldn't imagine a more perfect reason for the lawmakers to have created the anti-SLAPP process.

Their claims of victimization can't overshadow their bluster.

Their claims of spiritual piety can't overcome their swagger.

And their statements to the court will not only prove to be ineffective, they do more damage to the holy SRF image than a million Joys and Mikes can do in a century.

That's what happens when SRF blows their own horn with someone else's lips - the tune they play is "retreat!".


Strike Three. You're Out!

Thanks Marilyn!

Welcome to our new reader Marilyn.

Don't worry, she's on the good side. She left the following comments. If you are an SRF survivor, join me and friend her on Facebook.


Marilyn Daily Junkins has left a new comment on your post "This is your brain on SRF <http://leavingsrf.blogspot.com/2009/08/this-is-your-brain-on-srf.html> ":

An SRF survivor from 1984-1991, I'd love to reconnect with others who were there when I was. I was a lonely, needy woman, who didn't know how to keep her mouth shut and got everything she said used against her on a regular basis. Thank God I finally had the courage and strength to leave SRF and have a real life!

Friend me on Facebook and I'll give you my email address.


Marilyn Daily Junkins has left a new comment on your post "Ultimately Prosperous, Ultimately Bankrupt <http://leavingsrf.blogspot.com/2008/06/financial-abuse-through-tithing.html> ":

I left 19 years ago financially bankrupt after seven years of tithing 10% of everything, not paying taxes and working my ass off in a 40 hour a week job and donating the rest of my time to SRF. I can't imagine if I'd have made more or gave more or left later. They kept me around longer than they wanted to as I was one of the few with a full time job when I was there.


Marilyn Daily Junkins has left a new comment on your post "Silence = Death <http://leavingsrf.blogspot.com/2009/07/silence-death.html> ":

I left SRF 19 years ago after 7 years of tyranny. The last two years, after I was "ordained" were brutal, horrific years of shame and torture where I felt I was living in two worlds without anyone to whom I could really talk; who could really understand what I was going through. I knew I couldn't speak with Angela, Robin, Debi or Bill ... they would only make me feel worse, or demand money to heal me.

What a relief when I left SRF and discovered my own inner healing over time.

Even after all this time, I was so glad to find Mike and Joy's blogs and to learn that I was not alone in my experience. Thank God the two of you, Steve, and Mason, all had the courage to speak of your experiences and free yourselves from the bondage of Bill's mind. I hope that the others still there can find the way out and SRF can be disbanded without ruining any more lives.

Friend me at Facebook to get my email address.

Posted by Marilyn Daily Junkins to The Spiritual Rights Foundation Cult <http://leavingsrf.blogspot.com/> at September 23, 2009 3:28 PM

==========================================

Thanks for being here, Marilyn!

I'm looking forward to connecting.

You know, I'm reading an article by Bill called "The more things change the more they stay the same" Ironic. Your contributions just goes to show that in 19 years, the only thing at SRF that changed was the passage of time.


Hey everyone, big shout out to Marilyn!

Kim Jong Duby

After taking a look at psychoctorate's blog on the Berkeley Psychic Institute, I ran across the entry on "Gaslighting".

The wikipedia definition of "gaslighting":
Gaslighting is a form of psychological abuse. It involves an increasing frequency of systematically withholding factual information from, and/or providing false information to the subject, having the gradual effect of making the victim anxious, confused, and less able to trust his or her own memory and perception. A variation of gaslighting, used as a form of harassment, is to subtly alter aspects of a victim's environment, thereby upsetting his or her peace of mind, sense of security, etc

In SRF's zeal for control or their members, news from the outside world or events were always interpreted for the members. Reading, watching or listening to the news was not exactly forbidden but was discouraged. Listening to such information was said to "get into your head" and would disrupt your spiritual growth. The leaders would interpret the news and relay that information back to the membership.

Since the founder would always say "God doesn't let the left hand know what the right hand is doing", he would always give incomplete, contradictory or incomprehensible instructions and information.

Many couples (such as myself and my wife) were separately told conflicting instructions and information. Women were told that men were not to be trusted under any circumstances - all men except the leader Bill Duby, that is. Men were told that women could only make emotional decisions and that they were to be the "head of the woman" by any means necessary.

All of the leaders would give different and conflicting depending on who they gave the information to. If a student resigned or was expelled, the real circumstances of their departure was never revealed. However, many different stories about them were circulated to the members. We would hear of former woman students "she was more interested in men" or "she was more interested in buying clothes" or "she could not blow her family pictures". Men were treated less kindly, with things like "he is just a taker and not a giver", "he has wolves in his space", "his energy is bad and we can't trust him" were some of the things said about male ex-members.

The truth was always obfuscated. History was conveniently revised (a great example was Bill's personal history). Events were given an official interpretation - an interpretation that had little with reality or reason.

We've all heard of the exaggerated and fabricated stories concocted by the loyal Apparatichiks of fine democratic dictators such as Stalin, Nicolae Ceauşescu, Kim Jong Il. Now we can add Kim Jong Duby to the list.

I've never been there, but I think I know what life in North Korea is all about. A Dear Leader. An impossible personal resume that no follower dare challenge. Supernatural skills that are unverifiable and unwitnessed.

And there was the fear: The constant fear of being called out as a fraud. The fear of being labeled "Judas". The fear of the repercussions.

Those in cult-owned apartments found themselves constantly wondering when the cult leadership would present them the "opportunity" to move. Occasionally, these moves were favorable. More often, though, the move was from one rat-bag apartment to another, smaller one. Some found themselves moved from a semi-comfortable bedroom to a less private and even less comfortable portion of living room, separated by only a thin curtain - a curtain that you would have to provide yourself, if you wanted a modicum of privacy.

I've known members abruptly evicted from their apartments and housed in trailers, decrepit motor homes or unceremoniously dumped in the back yard with only a sleeping bag. Once removed, those members (always men) were not let back into the buildings for more than brief periods, even in the middle of winter or in stormy weather.

While manipulation of information was subtle, the physical relocation and disorientation was sudden and severe. Married men were in constant fear of being removed from their homes at any time by the wave of a leader's hand.

One could be sent to SRF's Siberia for a determinate time or sentenced to an endless journey through the SRF gulag. It all depended on how the leadership felt that day.

But in the end, members were subjected to an endless merry-go-round of packing and unpacking; moving in and moving out; having roomates and living alone.

I'm not surprised that the people there are incapable of making wise decisions. Apart from having crappy role models, after twenty years on a merry-go-round how could you see straight?

It's a good life

One of the creepier episodes of "The Twilight Zone" is one called "It's a Good Life". In it, an 8 year old boy is able to control the adults in his town through the adult's fear of the boy's magical powers. With the flick of a finger, anyone in disfavor with the boy is banished to the corn field, where the adult is imprisoned forever.

With every pronouncement of the boy's child-like and impetuous acst, the adults say "it's a good thing you did". Burgers are to be served with a topping of peanut butter because it's better that way. Singing results in banishment to the corn field, as does playmates who displease him and dogs that bark. Several residents and animals have wound up in the corn field.

In the end the one person who attempts to rally the town into a revolt to kill the boy who is destroying lives faces an indifferent and submissive adult population and is himself sent to the corn field.

The boy then causes snow to fall on the corn field, killing all who are banished there and half the corn crop (a crop the town depends on for food and survival). Through it all the adults smile and say he's a good boy and that he has done a good thing. A very good thing.


All right, so what the hell does this have to do with any goddamn thing?

Take a quick read of this comment (quoted in its entirety):

I know the guy who left in rancor as you described.

He saw the hypocrisy going on among the two top people in the organization and how they were manipulative in there dealings with people.

He was verbally attacked by his sister for not relinquishing his passenger seat to an older woman in the church who was riding in a truck full of kids. The sister tried getting her daughter into the truck, so they can kick out the older woman and put her into the guys car.

Mind you, this was during a church sponsored retreat.

He wasn't feeling well and he was pressured by his sister to get her into his car. When he finally gave in, the sister was insulted by his slow reaction to her command and told him in front of other church retreaters: FUCK YOU! He left the retreat immediately.

She denied saying this to him, but finally copped to it later on. A woman of God can't be bothered by small trivial things like compassion, patience, because they are not in her position I guess? She then didn't personally apologize to him when they tried to hash things out, because she was to busy ranting for 40 minutes about how much pressure she was under.

He was finally given an apology like the politicians or sport athletes give which is written out for them by there publicist or lawyer. I'm sorry if I offended anyone, blah blah blah!

He too was blackballed by the rest of the congregation. In fact, he was told that his sister and another church elder spun that meeting into there version and made him look like he was a big baby and wouldn't listen to reason.

I guess there reason is to lie to the rest of the congregation to make you look like the victim.

They since have not spoken from what I heard.

He is sad that the people holding onto these lies are the ones who have them planted into them by the higher ups in the organization.

Can you imagine taking orders from two woman who haven't worked in over 40 years, and think they are business savvy and spiritually enlightened ordering people around based on lies?

He said the sister Robin and friend Angela are grooming her daughter to take over in the 10 years or so, and they demand respect for her daughter like she is royalty already.

The daughter is quickly becoming a game player and insulting adults and other children still in the church.

The daughter is being taught to stay away from certain people in the church, which Robin and Angela are smiling at the same time and telling them how wonderful they are to be around.

Two faces of SRF.....starring Robin and Angela...Deceit and conceit!

The portion in italics tell you what you need to know.

Before you people become up in arms about what is written here, you have to know the "child" mentioned here is an adult child. That means 18 years old. That means a legal adult - not a minor. If you bought a plane ticket with your Visa card so you can visit your parents, you are still your parent's child but an adult child.

Sorry for that, but there are a few (well, a lot of) new age dingbat meatheads with a low intellect to match the pus-filled, putrid mass in the heads of the SRF leadership. Obviously, those people need to get straightend out before I go on so we won't have to deal with their inane and pointless commentary.

A child instilled to rule through fear and intimidation. Adults who are submissive through their fear of the leaders Robin DuMolin and Angela Silva. Leaders who exploit a child in the most egregious manner apart from prostitution - for the furthering of their own power and privilege and the continuation of the heritage of abuse and deceit.

This adult child is the daughter of the founder, Bill Duby, and was kept apart from the world from her birth. She has had no formal education, no socialization and no contact with those outside SRF. Robin and Angela give her anything she wants and demand that the members do as well. Any of his daughter's whims are indulged, anyone in disfavor with her is marginalized.

In one event described in Steve Sanchez's book "Spiritual Perversion", this child interrupted Steve's child during breakfast, wanting to play. Steve's child was enjoying some time with her mother and asked the golden child to wait a few minutes until breakfast was over. The golden child returned home.

Almost immediately, the leader sprang into action appearing at the door with a stern experession, loudly berating Steve's child and mother for not putting aside their time and their meal to accomodate his child's urge to play. Several things were said about Steve's child, wife and Steve himself during this incident. And much hay was made of it.

In the end Steve's child was so traumatized at this event, she was always more than willing to drop anything at any time to do the golden child's bidding.

This child is frequently held up as the epitome of psychic awareness and spirituality. The membership is constantly told that "she has her father's mind" and because of that, has more psychic ablity than the entire world combined.

We'll see about that. With Bill frequently boasting "The government considers me so insanse, they said I can't work!" while waiving his Medicare card, this girl should hope her father's mind skips a generation.

However, what is most troubling is the exploitation of a child. It's the use and abuse of a child who has no worldly knowledge, and little education. It's the installation of power to one who would be ill-prepared to lead through means other than fear and intimidation.

Not only would there be a devastating effect for the adults involved through this rein of terror, no child should ever be used to satisfy the whims of an adult. This kind of action rivals prostitution or molestation in its depravity.

Without the dysfunctional, depraved and sadistic environment provided by the Spirutal Rights Foundation, this child, when faced with her own limitations and her inability to understand or participate in society will confront a situation that I'd hate to even think about, much less witness.

But they've done a good thing. A very good thing.

All I ask of You

We got married to this song. So maybe we weren't the only couple married to Andrew Lloyd Weber but I keep thinking of our wedding day every time I hear this song.


We did the processional to "All I Ask of You". And the recessional was "Kiss Me" from Sixpence None the Richer. Kind of wish you guys were there...



I've showed the performers here before. Christine is played by Claire Moore, who is in "Miss Saigon" and Raoul is played by Michael Ball who played Marius in "Les Miserables".

And Joy and I did see "Phantom". In Las Vegas. It was the first time Joy got to see it and she got us seats front row center stage. It was the best performance of Phantom I ever saw.

Another View of Your Brain on SRF

I was perusing the blog of my "nemesis" Ms. Rosebud Maid herself. I am referring to the following post and subsequent responses so I can illustrate to you one way a follower's brain can meltdown and who was responsible for the melting. In fact, if this "Rosebud Maid" person is who I suspect, it would be an example of a brain melting down after a major meltdown. You'll have to figure that one out for yourself but if you have a sense who I am talking about, I guess you already got it.

Please read the comments with your full attention. They illustrate the the practice of "lighting up your personality" and the true effects it has on your soul. And another little tidbit: As he described, Bill was not liked where he got his "spiritual training". Not by his fellow students, not by the staff and certainly NOT by his supposed "mentor" Lewis Bostwick.

So, where did Rev. Bill Duby get his training about "lighting up" your personality, "tearing you down to build you up", healing you with taunts, insults, racial epithets, sexual epithets, profanity, scatology and obscenities unleashed upon his victims?

How did we come to accept a situation, a body of knowledge, an impossible circumstance that was in itself, unacceptable?

I'd like to ask Bill but he's DEAD.

So, I'll leave it up to our friend and colleague, Ms. Rosebud Maid as she is the sole expert on the subject.

Kind of makes you question the "spiritual knowledge" we got at the Spiritual Rights Foundation, doesn't it?


=========================================

Walking in the World

It is not for me to judge those that condem the teachings of Rev. Bill Duby and devoted wife Rev. Angela. But God will judge you and you who are trying to make a bad name of the Rev. Bills blue eyed devotee Rev. Debi Livingston. Rev. Bill would allways joke that Rev. Debi was mystisising blue eyed girl that would put any man in trance. he was such a joker. Rev. Bill liked to keep things lite by telling jokes and liting up peoples personalitys.

Maybe some people didnt like there personalitis lite up but who does. Rev. Bill was one of a kind he did not go along with the world but did what he know he needed to do. people just didnt understand him. I do. Rev. Bill I know you are looking down on all of us and smiling and laughing and joking and telling us what we need to do like an angel. God bless you ad all your woman who are carying on your teaching being in the world but not of it, following Gods laws not mans laws. Praise Jesus. Praise Rev. Bill. Praise the spiritual rights foundation and the teaching.

Posted by Rosebud Maid at 10:34 PM

4 comments:

Joy Butler said...

Is it right to yell at people until they cry, until they begin to believe that they are the scum of the earth because Bill is telling them so? I call this emotional abuse. When you see people in the movies act like Bill dosen't it make you mad or sorry for the person receiving the yells, put downs ext. I think we all could step back and look at Bill with new understanding and perspective. I have at least and it has led me to many new conclusions.

February 25, 2009 10:44 PM

PsychDoctorate said...

Lighting up someone personality doesn't sound that nice. It sounds like Bill enjoyed teasing people and making them feel bad about themselves. But instead of saying that it hurt their feelings, they just learned to laugh and pretend not to think that it really hurt. 

Mean people don't think that they are hurting someone else's feelings. They don't think that they are saying anything wrong. 



Normal people don't say things which Bill said to people. Sometimes they do but they usually apologize afterward when they realize that they hurt the other person.

Mean people never apologize for hurting someone else. 

They think that they are right and that it is ok for them to speak that way.



It is not!



Words can hurt! 



How would you feel Rosebud if someone continually was mean to you all the time.



I never met Bill, but a lot of people I knew at the Berkeley Psychic Institute, where Bill got his training, did think he was mean!



I like to make people laugh and smile, but I am never intentionally mean.

February 26, 2009 3:17 AM

Joy Butler said...

RosebudMaid,

PsychDoctorate makes a very good point that I can attest to from personal experience. Bill was really mean to me allot. 

I remember one period of time he was always coming up with something to put me down and make me feel bad and afraid for months. I began to feel nervous and sick every time I came into the Academy during this time. He would seem to come out of his house as if he knew I was there, maybe he had house control call him to let him know I was there, I don't know. He made a point to ride me, to break me down. 

After a couple months of this I began to feel suicidal, that was just the first time I felt that way there. I felt hateful, scared, rageful. It's like Bill brought out all the worst of me. It was horrible. And it did not do me one ounce of good. 

When Bill was done with me I was so afraid of making any perceived "bad" move. I learned to internalize all negative feelings and store it up. I did not get a healing from Bill doing this. I did not get a release. I did become so afraid of his seeming power over me I began to lie that I was ok when I was not because I did not want him to do this to me anymore.

So yes many people at the Spiritual Rights Foundation hide their feelings, deny being angry because they are afraid. Almost everyone I have talked to honestly from there or are still there have admitted to this as well.



Bill ruled by intimidation and fear. And I am afraid that those he mentored are doing the same. I am afraid for the people still there and those who may stumble upon this organization innocently.

February 26, 2009 9:04 AM

Mel said...

Rev. Bill saw fit to have license to taunt, sadistically berate, rip a new asshole, make others cry, lash out at the drop of a thought form and generally be mean spirited in the guise of taking your money and teaching you to be a special psychic and spiritual being. We had the privileged to pay them for this treatment..A big mistake for all of us that thought we were going to be enlightened and shown a brighter future.

We were recruited with much love and complimented on our insight. That changes slowly but surely, through indoctrination, intimidation, long all night classes and general personality changes that occured in all of us. We were given license to be little Bill tyrants because our psychic readings were encouraged and validated by Bill and Angela. Today its Angela and Debi Livingston Boushey.

Everyone went out of there way to pay loads of money for special classes with Angela Silva, and all the holidays and birthdays surrounding top management were met with loving praise, giving up your self respect, seniority and pocket book to buy gifts for the Angela Silva and Robin DuMolin team.

Every person I know who has been in that environment that was a female all gushed and enthusiastically poured money towards gifts for them. If you'd heard there minds at the time, you could hear peer pressure thoughts crushing down and around common sense and holding it captive while the mouth said give and be like the rest and in this energy! Reminded me of all the Rashneesh followers who gave cars and money after cars and money to the guy. The video of these people all excited and in a frenzy as he strolled by them in his many vehicles a la The Pope was incredible.

I would see glimpses of this with the woman who spoke reverently of Angela Silva, Robin DuMolin and in some later cases Debi Livingston. Bill didn't like this type of behavior, and I will give him that, but Angela Silva and Robin DuMolin fed off it and expected it as entitlement to there positions in the church. They kept it going during Bill's life and long afterwords. Except now, Robin's daughter is the heir apparent along with Angela and Robin.

Lighting up the personality was Bill's favorite passtime, and in retrospect made him feel superior when he would tear down others.

Rosebud Maid never saw this side to him because Bill cared not to work with her, passing her off to Angela and Debi to work with instead.

Michael's previous blog stated those who are still there are SUCKERS! It's true, we were all suckers, in a misdirected way, ala the confidence man scam. We were maid to believe that psychic vampires are in our midst and come to get readings, church service and take classes, if not want to take the year class, all in search for peoples soul energies, rather than spiritual truth.

In reality, the sucking was going on within, as Bill would say I suck the souls of those who come to throw them away. He said he could fed of these energies, aka spiders and snakes from people and use it to his advantage. He definitely liked to taunt, rip us a new asshole on endless occasions, made some of us cry with cruel and sadistic comments pretending to be healing sessions amongst those in the environment. It was an excuse for Bill to indulge in his delighting in others human flaws and frailties.

The one thing I remember so well, is Bill saying how when people left they broke the confidence and trust of talking to others about private conversations or entire church experiences. Yet, when you said something to him in private and thought it to be in strict confidence, was laid out in front of others in the congregation to be the punch line to thousands of cheap laughs by others.

He delighted on seeing others so called exposed for there hang ups...or in psychic terms..ala Scientology mental image pictures. SO MUCH FOR CLERGYMAN PRIVATE CONFIDENTIALITY!

Angela Silva, Robin DuMolin and the bishop Debi Livingstion Boushey still follow in Bill Dubys tradition. Claim foul and victimization when others do it them after they leave. They want it only one way. THEIRS!

Rosebud Maid your are truly blessed of having not had to go through that so called spiritual teaching. It was actually SPIRITUAL TAUNTING. They got paid for doing this to us, so we are just now waking up seeing the truth from the lie and speaking out on these blogs.


Man oh man, I hope these blogs are effecting change like it has in America, and will shut down these GOD AWFUL places such as Spiritual Rights Foundation and Berkeley Psychic Institute. The cockroaches running these places need to run and hide once the light of exposure of there misdeeds are blogged about and spread out onto the internet.

February 26, 2009 4:45 PM

========================================

She Said, He Said. Or is it the other way around?

The Female Energy Classes and Female Readings.

The pinnacle of womanly understanding. The ultimate knowledge how energy works in a woman's body. Information for women, by women. Information so exclusive, no males are allowed to possess it or even become casually exposed to it. Information passed down from only from woman to woman. As female energy is equivalent to 140 volts to a man's puny 40 volts, any man with that information would be burned out like a used match due to its power and force.

Or so we students at the Spiritual Rights Foundation thought.

The founders of the Spiritual Rights Foundation all attended the Berkeley Psychic Institute where they received training as Psychic Ministers. Of the four SRF founders, three were men. One of them was Bill Duby. The only woman founder was Bill's partner and former lover, Angela Silva.

When the founders decided to form SRF and continue the psychic, spiritual education they received from the Berkeley Psychic Institute, they essentially had to create the curriculum (such as it is) from memory.

This wasn't a huge deal as a couple of the founders had good heads on their shoulders and remembered the class information and the teaching structure. So, all that was committed to paper.

The only problem was the female class. The male founders were, obviously, not allowed in the female class. Worse, the only female in their group was too drugged up and delirious to remember a thing.

So, what's a male founding member of a new psychic school going to do about that?

In this case, they made it up.

Yes, they made it up.

A male founder sat down to figure out inner workings of female energy. It wasn't Bill.

Angela was no help at all. She was dragged to BPI by Bill kicking and screaming. She was still using drugs at the time and had some issues remembering, well, anything. So, from his grounded space the male co-founder used his divine knowledge, channeling the spirit of, uh, whoever to reveal how the sacred inner goddess of womanly energy flowed through a female body.

Never mind that he never went to a female energy class. And of course, he never conducted a female reading. He never had a female body either. But that never lead Bill Duby, the pastor of the Spiritual Rights Foundation, to give a second thought. Bill snatched up the syllabus and proudly proclaimed it the sacred female teaching of the newly created Spiritual Rights Foundation.

From the day the psychic teaching program at the Spiritual Rights Foundation began to today, the curriculum stayed more or less constant. And the syllabus for each class remained the same: a fading, typewritten sheet of paper frayed along the edges, dogeared and wrinkled - kind of like the way we SRF members looked after a while.

So, that female teaching from the mind of men is presented to every woman at SRF, even to this day.

Given that the female energy class was concocted from the inferences and deductions of the male founders of SRF, how feminine could it be? And what becomes of the myriad of women who attended a female energy class?

Your guess is as good as mine.

Boyle and The Dream

No offense to Susan Boyle but this is THE performance of "I Dreamed A Dream" you need to hear.

In fact, if you listen to the lyrics you might begin to think about your own dreams, how they changed and why.

And for comparison, here's Susan Boyle's version of "I Dreamed A Dream". It's nice. Really nice considering Susan is an amateur. She came in second place in "Britain's Got Talent" losing only to a dance group (they were tough to beat, actually). So, that's pretty good. Susan even got a makeover thanks to a magazine and is looking forward to a career in music. I think it will be a long and successful one.

How to gaslight for fun and profit.

Gaslighting is a form of intimidation or psychological abuse in which false information is presented to the victim, making them doubt their own memory and perception.

Bill Duby, founder of the Spiritual Rights Foundation, undertook several tactics to keep his followers confused in doubt of their own memories and distrustful of their own good judgement.

Bill would frequently resort to sophomoric, juvenile behavior liberally peppered with racial epithets and sexual behavior to throw people off-guard and to induce them to doubt their "tired, old morals and ethics". Bill loved gaslighting. In fact, he'd gaslight us so damn much our sense of self, our ability to engage in rational and clear thought became impaired. Bill's antics were so outrageous, incendiary and anti-social he could put someone in apoplexy nearly at will.

Imagine this: if Bill were to see you with your (female) spouse, he'd sneak up behind her, and while honking her boobs in your full view, lovingly coo in her ear "Would you rather suck my dick or his stinky dick?" while you stood there mouth agape. Your formally loving spouse was now smitten with attention from Bill while you were forced to re-double your efforts to drag her back to earth. Soon after this disgusting display, he would usually call your spouse a "whore" who only wanted sperm and money and you a "loser" for not providing enough of either.

Bill gave one newlywed man the sage advice: "Take your goddamn (epithet for African-Americans) to the big house and fuck her like you're her slave master." Later, after the newlyweds performed as instructed, Bill berated and humiliated the man in front of the entire congregation for being "addicted to pussy juice" then turned on the wife, scolding her for "mothering" her husband's desire for intimacy. Hell, be beat her up for wanting intimacy too!

Frequently, Bill would espouse: "God doesn't let the left hand know what the right hand is doing". Obviously, that sentiment sets up deception, obfuscation and concealment.

Here is only one example: Bill would often tell one spouse one thing, then immediately tell the other spouse contradictory or confusing information before the first spouse could deliver his message. It should be no surprise that situation would never fail to result in marital conflict and rancor.

Husbands were told they were the "head of the woman". Wives were told "control your men". "Make her WORK and don't let her stay home eating bon-bons" we men were told. "Make him PAY for wanting sex or children (or food or any damn thing)" the women were told. "Turn off to the bitch so she won't get in your head" we men were told. "Use your womanly charms to get what you want" the women were told.

When the wife controlled her man as instructed, she were hauled in front of the SRF Kangaroo Kourt for judgement and compelled to conduct self-criticism for the crime of being a capitalist roader before being perp-walked to community service answering the SRF phone and cleaning SRF floors.

In the man's case, well we never were deemed successful in being the "head of the woman" and were alternately sent to live alone in motor homes, trailers with no running water or dumped in the back yard of the SRF tenement building with a sleeping bag. Good thing we "turned off to the bitch" as our penance was "reform through labor" for an indeterminate period. Usually years of "reform through labor". "reform through labor" performed on the SRF Farm. Uh, actually that wasn't SRF's farm, it belongs to Angela Silva and Robin Dumolin, the heads of SRF. But it's all the same because we all worked on it for free while they made money selling animals and skimming the take for the retreats we paid to attend there - no discounts for our "reform through labor". [p.s. I stole that little tag line from Bill and Hill's new "friend" Kim Jong Il]

Anyway, you worked hard to earn a reform that never came. You worked hard and endured the pain and grief of humiliation in front of your peers. You suffered through the betrayal of your friends as they abandoned you until the day Bill and the leaders believed you can have them back.

But that day never happened. Bill changed his message as often as a teenage girl re-loads her iPod. He would forcefully exclaim his hate for a particular person in the morning then proclaim his love for them at night. His rules and expectations of conduct for anyone changed like the wind.

Bill's mood swings, his violent hatred of anyone or anything in opposition or even in sight doubt of his maniacal and delusional outbursts finally got the best of him. Bill dropped dead of a cardiac arrhythmia in front of his Clairvoyant Training Program students in December 2001.

His successors have carried on his evil tradition in honor of his memory.

We were fed "filtered" information. This information may be an opinion of a person or event. The information would change from day to day, depending on the mood of the day or the requirements of the leadership. The result of the constantly changing information was we lost our ability to perceive the events around us and thus became completely dependent on the leadership for all but the most basic decisions. Of course, no information source but the leadership would be considered as valid, exacerbating and continuing the gaslighting.

An example: One young man brought into the SRF fold was faced with a dilemma: his new girlfriend became pregnant. This young man thought a quickly arranged wedding was in order, but he needed advice to be sure. His best first step was to ask his parents. However, his parents (long time SRF members) declined to provide it for some reason and surrendered their parental responsibility and privilege to the wise counsel of the SRF president.

This president is a 5th grade dropout (seriously), has little experience with the outside world (apart from the drug addicts and petty criminals she met on the street) and had been called "brain damaged" by Bill Duby himself. Well, she did spend many years as a drug addict, so I guess that is a great qualification to counsel the life of a young man.

I hope they didn't share a needle.

Anyway, a marriage was recommended and the union was blessed by the wise and enlightened president of SRF. I'm not sure what substance provided the enlightenment but the marriage was hastily conducted with the intent of providing the child a father and to instill a sense of responsibility upon this young man. The young man was also given the "gift" of a church-owned ghetto apartment (managed by an SRF president who gets a piece of the revenues - before taxes) at a rent only slightly higher than it's worth.

The Spiritual Rights Foundation was abuzz with the excitement of a wedding and aglow with the pride of watching a fine young man do an honorable thing by seeking out the sage advice of the SRF president. A new family for the pleasure of the SRF faithful would sprout from the heavenly blessing provided by God's own servant and holy body of the church herself, Angela Silva.

However, there was one problem: the baby was NOT his. The young man's now-wife admitted that to him after arrangements were made and plans were set. No backing out of that one, I guess.

Obviously, the wise and enlightened president of SRF neglected to ask the first thing the rest of us would: "So, how in the hell do you know this goddamn kid belongs to YOU?" Followed by: "Look kid, no offense but you have got to run a DNA test. We will help you and her through the pregnancy, but if she squirts out a baby who looks more like your third cousin twice removed than YOU, we are cutting her loose. So, don't marry her until we know who the baby daddy is."

I mean, would any parent, much less any MATURE ADULT want a young man to make a mistake that could haunt him for a lifetime? And would you want your son saddled with a lifelong responsibility while letting the real perpetrator get off (so to speak) scot free?

Well this young man's parents are more than capable of acting in a reasonable and sensible manner - if they were not members of the SRF cult. However, years of gaslighting, years of being set up to distrust your own memory, thoughts, common sense and natural initiative left them and their son utterly vulnerable and submissive to the whims of one who has little interest in their best interest.

I'll bet there is one other person happy with that advice: the real father. He's either breathing a sigh of relief or more likely, laughing his ass off.

And if that wern't enough, I've been told the spouse of the young man I wrote about had put the child up for adoption. The baby was whisked away to its new family soon after birth.

So now, that young man has nothing to show for his honorable intent. Well, a lease on an apartment that's now too big is something, I suppose.

Well there's yer problem: yer in a cult!

I grabbed this from Provender's amazing blog on spiritual abuse:
From Spotlight Ministries, Are You the Victim of Mind Control? contains a useful checklist to see if your group is becoming a cult (I changed the word "group" to "leader" in some instances):

• Do you feel that no matter how hard you try, the ‘good deeds’ you perform for your group or leader are never quite enough? As a result of this do you often feel plagued with feelings of guilt?
• What are you motivated by? Is it genuine love for God and the group etc., or is it fear of not meeting the desired standards.
• Is questioning the group, or the group leaders, discouraged or frowned upon?
• Does the group you belong to believe that it is an elite and exclusive organization which alone has ‘the truth’ and answers to life’s questions?
• Does the leader pour scorn upon, attack, and mock other Christian churches and their interpretation of the Bible?
• Is reading any literature critical of the group discouraged? Many cults will warn members not to read anything critical of the group, especially if written by an ex-member (who are called names by the cult such as “apostate”, “hardened”, or “of the devil” etc.). This is a well known information control technique to stop the member from discovering the clear and documented errors of the cult. Members abilities to think for themselves is effectively disarmed in this way. Instead, they will think more and more as the rest of the group thinks.
• Take a look at the way the group looks and acts. Does everyone dress more or less the same, act the same, and talk the same? One observer, speaking of his particular involvement with a cult, said that the group encouraged its members “to do everything in exactly the same way - to pray the same, to look the same, to talk the same. This in psychology is a classic example of group conformity. Its purpose is to ensure that no-one tries to act differently or become dissident, thus nobody questions the status quo.” (Andrew Hart, Jan. 1999).
• Does the group discourage association with non-members (except, maybe, for the possibility of converting them to the group)?
• Does the leader give you ‘black and white answers’? What the leader agrees with is right and what the leader disagrees with is wrong.
• Does everyone in the group believe exactly the same things (i.e. what the group leaders tell them to believe)?
• Is there no room for individual belief, or opinion even in minor areas?
• Does the group wear ‘two faces’? On the one hand, does it attempt to present itself, to potential converts and the public at large, as a group of people who are like one large family, who have love among themselves, where everyone is equal? But on the other hand, the reality is, that many members inwardly feel unfulfilled and emotionally exhausted?
• Have you attempted to disable your own God-given critical thinking abilities by ‘shelving’ various doubts about the leader or group’s teachings etc.
• Are others in the group, who do not conform to the requirements of the movement’s teaching, treated with suspicion, and treated like second class members?
• Does the group tend to withhold certain information from the potential convert? Are the more unusual doctrines of the group not discussed until an individual is more deeply involved in the movement?
• Do you feel fearful of leaving the group? Many cults use subtle fear tactics to stop members from leaving. For example, the group may imply that those who leave will be attacked by the Devil, have a nasty accident, or at least not prosper because they have left ‘the truth’.

I was reading all the media reports on SRF on the sly for quite some time. It still took a while to re-activate the educated and discriminating mind I used to have.

Think of all the things we were told by the leader of the Spritual Rights Foundation. What did Bill Duby, Angela Silva and Robin Dumolin tell you? How much of that proved true? How much of it proved false? I'm still finding falsehood after falsehood.

They are still lying. In their failed lawsuit aginst me, they said my claim the "Blue Sky Ranch" is a private, for-profit enterprise NOT owned by the Spiritual Rights Foundation was "false" and "libelous". In fact, I proved beyond all doubt I was correct.

The list of falsehoods goes on. And on. And on.

After you read the above list, how much of it seems familiar to you SRF escapees? I'd imagine all of it.
And if that does seem familiar, do yourself a favor - find someone to talk with about that experience. Start by checking out the Cult Recovery links on the right side. You'll feel better about it.