The Passively Aggressive Academy for Psychic Studies

At the Spiritual Rights Foundation and the Academy for Psychic Studies, work will set you free.

The members were (and are still) expected to spend what would be time for themselves and their families to work for absolutely no pay in one of the leader's money-making enterprises (money-making only because there are no labor costs) for to perpetuate the evil objectives of the Academy for Psychic Studies.  The unpaid work assignments given to the hapless members were called "love projects".  You would have to work these "projects" (usually in support of those enterprises) and you'd better "love" it - or else.

If you didn't "love" your "love project" you might find less Academy for Psychic Studies "love" coming your way.  Less-than-enthusiastic workers were marginalized, denigrated and held up to the congregation as people who were obstructing the heavenly aims of the leaders.  Even if you did "love" it, you might find the leaders putting you on yet another "love project" so you can spread your "love" around to another one of the money-making enterprises of the Academy.  There is a never-ending supply of work and a never-ending demand to perform it.

The "love projects" also became a thorn in the side of the leaders.  Forever, they would complain about how one person or another would be less than an enthusiastic worker, thereby losing his or her opportunity for "freedom" and worse, delaying or screwing up the leader's project (which was usually one of the money-making ventures they headed up, delaying or reducing their cash flow).

Always it was a different person.  Every week, every time.  Somebody was singled out as a villain, someone who wasn't working as often or hard as the leaders wanted.  In fact, no matter how hard someone worked, no matter the quality, the leaders would always expressed their dissatisfaction - aggressively.



My wife runs an activity group for her women friends (and only for women).  They meet at the house a couple three times a week to do all the things they like: cooking, watching a chick flick, review books, play poker.  Yeah, they are at it pretty late sometimes and to the only man in the house, a dozen or so women doing whatever it is they do can be a little intimidating.  I usually stay in my man-cave (and if you guys out there don't have one, it's pretty kick-ass to have it).

It could be worse: could you imagine a dozen teenage cheerleaders in your house three times a week?

Anyway, there are a few standout personalities in that group as there are in any group.  Joy called one such personality a "passive-aggressive" type.  While she spoke of that person, I realized I had no damn idea what the hell that kind of personality is all about nor did I know how it appeared.  The only thing I really know about that was what I learned from a management training class I had way too long ago so I thought I'd look it up.  It was a shocker.

Being Passive-Aggressive means to aggressively resist a person or situation by using passive measures such as: deliberately screwing up work and calling it an accident or being late to important events.  It's anything you can do to screw up someone without having to face that person or to directly confront him or her with the things that bother you.  I found out at some times, in some instances, the Passive-Aggressive behavior is a survival method used by people to just cope with a situation they cannot change, influence or control.

While I was at the Academy for Psychic Studies, I noticed a few things.  One big thing was how we men were made to do all the heavy physical work and we "resisted" it by blowing off as many things as possible for as long as possible, and fucking up the things we hated to do so we wouldn't have to do it again.  Another was how some of the women were assigned some banal, trivial tasks and "resisted it" by behaving just the same as us men.  Yet another was how the leaders would go behind your back to tell everyone else what a bastard you were - usually without you even knowing what was said to whom.

The shocking thing about what I found is that those behaviors we and the leaders engaged in regularly were classically passive-aggressive.

The passive-aggressive person will aggressively show his displeasure in indirect and "passive" ways that do not require direct confrontation with their target.  You know, it's like your normally-hyperactive kid suddenly becoming sullen, morose and otherwise stubborn when you have to take her to the dentist.  So you wind up dragging her by the seat of her pants.  Or when Angela Silva goes from happy she filed a lawsuit her spirit guides said would destroy me to becoming sullen, morose and stubborn when she loses and has to pay me tens of thousands of dollars.  So you tell her the Sheriff is around the corner and will pay a visit to help her find her checkbook.

Now, from what I read, that kind of behavior is not always unhealthy.  I'd rather a large guy with a baseball bat walk away sulking and refusing to talk to me than see him take a Mark McGuire swing at my head.

But at the Academy for Psychic Studies, they took this passive-aggressive behavior (as they did with all perverse and destructive behavior) to new heights.

When the men were gathered to work on the "SRF" farm, it was expected the work would be shoddy and well behind schedule.  Despite Bill Duby's psychotic ranting and raving about the low quality of our work, despite Angela Silva complaining mightily that things must be done faster and cheaper and Robin Dumolin looking up from her stacks of quarters just long enough to give us a dirty look, we still made it shoddy, crappy, over budget and over schedule (which sounds a lot like software development).

And as we worked, the above-mentioned leaders would circulate among the women and children to tell tales of our spiritual deficiencies, personal weaknesses and ineffectiveness as fathers, husbands, potential husbands, potential fathers, and members of the human race.  Of course, we men were never directly told any of that - that would take guts.  If confronted, the leaders would never own up to what they said - that would take integrity.  Well, maybe not integrity, but maybe just the common courtesy and personal responsibility to own up to saying something (which I think actually is integrity).  Such qualities do not exist at the Academy for Psychic Studies.

Since the Academy for Psychic Studies and ultimately, Angela Silva had so much control over our lives (we lived in her housing, attended her school, worked to improve her farm) we were completely dependent on her for our survival.  Pleasing her, at least keeping out of her doghouse was the key to success.

Unfortunately, that was impossible for anyone.  Impossible, that is, unless you had so much money there was a prospect of having you pay a tithe on all of it (hell, you'd wind up paying ALL of it as a tithe) or if you were one of Angela's Agents who could provide counsel or dig up dirt or gossip she could use to control her slaves.

Inevitably at some point, you'd do something, at some time to piss off Angela Silva, Robin Dumolin or both.  Even taking a moment for a quick bathroom break has caused consternation and rebuke.  If you made the mistake of having a heart-to-heart with one of your colleagues, you'd better grab some blankets quickly.  That little talk will certainly find its way to Angela and Robin who will misinterpret and exploit your vulnerability to toss you out of the rat-hole where you exist to eat, sleep and bathe in the yard.

Once in the Silva doghouse, you are usually barred from entering your apartment because your energy would pollute the sacred space of Angela's crap-hole apartment complex.  Of course the fact you were still paying money to Angela to live in that crap-hole never mattered to her.  Or anyone else.  The victims either.  It was either the yard or hit the road; the only things you take with you is what you have on your back.  I've known people who have had their possessions summarily removed from their Academy-owned dirt-bag apartment to be disposed of in the dumpster.

When trapped where you can't directly confront your captors, you are reduced to using passive-aggressive methods to fight back and maintain some semblance of sanity.  Those of you with military service, you might recall the saying: "what the brass calls a personality disorder we call an effective strategy to keep from getting killed".  The passive-aggressive behavior was a way to survive physically as well as mentally.  It's no different at the Spiritual Rights Foundation.

The foot-dragging, the just-well-enough quality of work was all part of staying alive.  Taking longer to complete our work than the leaders demanded and tinkering and fiddling around for no apparent reason was just a small way we can screw with those who screwed with us.  That was the passive part.

As far as Angela Silva and Bill Duby's back-channel complaints about us?   Aggression.  Pure aggression.

They would tell every one else that you and you alone are the root of all evil, spiritually deficient, "crystallized" (whatever that means), and would use many other SRF derogatory terms well before any of it was communicated to you.  To the Witches of Ellsworth, the practice of destroying the spirit of their targets is the devastating first strike they employ any time they don't get what they want - which we have observed is damn near anything at damn near any time.

Angela Silva and Robin Dumolin have all complained mightily about me calling their beloved Spiritual Rights Foundation "a prison".  The insane control of your relationships, your living conditions, your livelihood and the constant shakedown for contraband items (such as the few extra dollars you have hidden in your mattress or information and possession of news not approved by the leaders) were everyday occurrences and being caught was a constant fear.

Despite this, we could not leave.  In fact, for some any perverse reason they can think of, the leaders tried every reason to compel us to stay under the influence of the cult and keep living inside the wrought iron gates of the compound.

How does that match up with a prison?