Mind Your Own Spiritual Business

So, SRF has launched several businesses. Bill Duby frequently announced that he is a businessman - a businessman who was also a church pastor, spiritual teacher, wise as a serpent and harmless as a dove.

Well, I guess the harmless as a dove part may be up to considerable debate given what is revealed in Steve Sanchez's book. But the businessman part is unquestionable.

Somehow, SRF went from its humble founding to a "company" with real estate investments, publishing operations and other money making ventures. That SRF "owns" companies that create revenue isn't an issue. It's where the seed money came from and who actually owns it that is the issue.

Bill Duby was fond of telling us that he was considered "insane" by the U.S. government and was drawing disability payments.  He was also fond of having "rescued" his partner and co-founder of SRF, Angela Silva, from a mental health facility. The exact details of how she wound up there was never revealed but he did occasionally say that she is "brain damaged" and had a long history of drug abuse - even after she received a leadership position within SRF.  Bill would also speak about tying her to a chair and beating her to unconsciousness, supposedly to keep her from obtaining drugs.

Once SRF was established, Bill, like any faithful partner, became more and more concerned about Angela's support. To accomplish this, he strongly suggested that she be "elected" president of SRF. And as new for-profit companies were formed from SRF's coffers, he was sure to appoint her as president of those new companies.

Bill proudly said that his women are "well taken care of." while exhorting his male followers to do the same.  Of course, given the environment where every spare nickel (and even nickels we couldn't spare) was dropped into the Spiritual Rights Foundation's coffers..

Now, one of the policies of these companies was to tithe. And tithe big. Companies such as Patagonia, Ben and Jerry's and others would donate a percentage of profits to independent charities. SRF's for-profit companies would donate a percentage of revenues to non-profit SRF and no one else.

The difference there is that a percent of revenues is bigger than a percent of profits and profits exist after you pay expenses like employee wages and health care.

Paying donations based on revenues creates tremendous pressure on the business to control costs in order to survive, grow and re-invest in itself.  In fact, the tithe amounted to an amount greater than many businesses would reserve for capital improvements, or growth opportunities or things like taking care of employees with health insurance.

To the knowledge of all involved, no SRF-owned company ever provided employees with health insurance - forcing some to use public health hospitals. Not that these companies couldn't afford to provide health insurance, though.

The president of the SRF owned companies got a cut of the revenues and she wanted to maintain that as much as possible. The company's tithe also supported the president's church stipend.  Why reduce your already-big cut to, you know, take care of the people making your cut possible?

That greed, and that desire to maintain secrecy on the financial affairs of the Spiritual Rights Foundation explains why the SRF for-profit companies were:
1) operated and "managed" only by Angela Silva and Robin Dumolin - no one else could come near.
2) donating up to 30% of revenues to the Spiritual Rights Foundation, so more of the company's money could be "shielded" from state and federal income tax, and could be retained by the Spiritual Rights Foundation to be spent on Bill Duby and his two sister wives.
3) always operating on a shoestring, unable (or more likely unwilling) to spend money on real marketing, hiring employees (outside of "employing" Robin Dumolin and Angela Silva), and where employees were hired (at Liberty Construction) they were not offered basic, simple benefits such as paid time off or simple health insurance.
4) never open to scrutiny or debate.  There were no transparent practices supervised by the congregation as other ethical churches would conduct.  Nope, the practices there were as opaque as those fucking black window shades those paranoid bitches installed in the premises.  (you know, black-out window shades are NOT black - they are just made with an inner layer that blocks light, such as aluminum foil.  The shades themselves can be an attractive color and do not need to be black.)

In fairness, the tithe would be spent on Spiritual Rights Foundation facilities (sort of) and for the living expenses of the leaders.  Things like expensive luxury motor homes.  I recall Rev. Bill Duby and Angela hauling me out to an RV show to look at a brand-new luxury motor home.  Bill borrowed my phone to call an SRF board member.  After that brief discussion, Bill drove the motor home back to SRF headquarters.  It was his new toy and his alone.

If a fair and equitable stipend were paid to Angela Silva, Robin Dumolin and whoever the fuck else, there would be no real controversy.  However, that those two appear to be living well in excess of the average standard of living of their followers and that the net wealth of those two are well in excess of any one of their followers (in excess of their living follower, at least) you would have to think there is something a bit out of line with not only their stipends but with whatever else they are dipping their gnarled fingers in.

Oh right, they say the Bethel Island farm they own is an "SRF Farm" despite that the county recorder says otherwise.  But when caught, they say they are just holding the property for the benefit of the congregation - and all the "businesses" SRF operates is really for the congregation anyway, even if those two reap all the benefits.  I think I heard that one before.  Oh yeah, it sounds like my 14-year-old niece saying the marijuana we found in her backpack belonged to a friend and she was just holding it for her.

Uh, yeah...

Anyway, the way the tithe works is: money goes to SRF which would then pay Angela and the other leaders a tax-free stipend. This was in addition to Angela taking a cut of the for-profit company's proceeds as a payment for her "management" position.  No matter how much or little work or management she provided for the for-profit companies owned by SRF, this kind of payment may have violated generally accepted accounting principles and is absolutely not an ethical manner to operate a business.

This kind of double dipping arrangement is generally not considered acceptable in the business world. Making tax free money from the church as its leader and making money on the side from church businesses is not only unethical, it make you wonder if the real purpose of SRF is for the spiritual enrichment of the members or the financial enrichment of its directors.

As for where the capital to start the SRF for-profit enterprises came from, much of it came from non-profit SRF's revenues. While no person was told where their donations, tithes, and other payments were being spent for, I believe that the federal government takes a dim view of soliciting donations by leading the donors to believe they are supporting the work of the non-profit then spending that money on for-profit companies.

Ask Jim Bakker and Dr. Gene Scott. They found out the hard way.

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Trading Places

After I had been around the Spiritual Rights Foundation for a while, I started wondering, as most have, what the hell I was doing there. That's not in the sense of looking at the nearest exit and planning the quickest path to freedom. It was more like: what is my purpose here?

The founder and pastor of the Spiritual Rights Foundation, Bill Duby, said several times that I did indeed have a purpose to him personally. Bill related his experience during his education and training at the Berkeley Psychic Institute (BPI). Bill claimed that during his tenure at BPI, many of the directors and teachers there were less than friendly to him. He claimed that his first appearance at BPI resulted in him be rejected immediately. Then he claimed that on more than one occasion, he was expelled from the BPI Clairvoyant Training Program by a teacher or director then reinstated by the founder of BPI, Lewis Bostwick.

He went on to say that one person in particular, Michael Tamura (a long time and respected director of the Berkeley Psychic Institute) was particularly harsh with him. Bill related that Michael would smirk whenever he was in the room, would say various insulting statements to Bill and was apparently instrumental in Bill's expulsions. Bill would say that Michael would always say things behind his back and that he was a mean and vicious guy. Bill was not really a fan of Michael Tamura, obviously, and admitted that the thought of Michael was personally disturbing to him.

So, what was my personal purpose to Bill? Bill would say to me that I physically resembled Michael Tamura. As I recall, Bill said I even spoke like Michael Tamura, and did the same things, had the same kind of qualities . Bill hated Michael Tamura and that my presence at SRF was to confront Bill with his "pictures" regarding him.

Fucking great.

I was given the impossible task of changing another person's attitude towards a person, I did not know, never met, knew nothing about and my likely never encounter. Further, I would have to atone for that person's sins against Bill and anyone or anything else Bill could think of. I couldn't even imagine what I could do that would not offend Bill in some manner. So, I figured I would just try to lay low and just go along with the program.  

I saw Bill when he was displeased and unhappy or upset. The average two year old was easier to deal with than Bill on one of his tirades. There was no way I was looking for Bill's wrath.

Fortunately for me, at least, shortly after those revelations were disclosed to me, SRF began a rancorous involvement divorce cases, child custody disputes (one of which is apparently still ongoing), truancy charges and other legal issues. That kept Bill's attention on settling the messes he made over the years than scrutinizing my behavior for signs of the spirit of Michael Tamura.

Now, years later, I decided I'd better start looking into this guy Michael Tamura and figure out why I had the honor of representing a guy who my teacher hated.

Michael has a web site. His picture is on it. I don't look a thing like Michael Tamura. But I guess since all those goddamn slant-eyed gooks look alike, then yeah, that guy must be a spitting image of me. Michael Tamura actually looks more like a friend of mine than he ever looked like me. Oh, I forgot. All those sonofabitch yellow devils look alike. Never mind.

I don't exactly speak like Michael Tamura, either. One co-worker said to me: "is it even possible for you to utter a sentence without the word 'fuck'?" I gave him the finger.

Michael Tamura does have a reputation, based on my research. But not the kind that Bill portrayed.

There are many people on the web who sing Michael's praises. Not a single negative comment regarding this fellow can be found. At least, not by me. And I have been looking for quite some time now.

Those who know Michael extolled his generosity, kindness and broad knowledge of spirituality and the nature of psychic techniques and phenomena. He is said to be quicker to drop a twenty on a homeless person than he is to lose his temper.

In contrast, there has been much written about Bill Duby by his former students - Bill is certainly not the kind of guy who would give a homeless man a buck and his tirades were legendary for their length and overwhelming force. I'm still waiting for someone to speak about Bill as Michael's students speak about him. I may be waiting for a while.

Now what is up with this? I come to a spiritual home for wayward souls (as Bill would often call SRF) to represent someone who is reprehensible to him? And I am now responsible to help a guy I barely knew get over his anger towards another guy I never met? WTF?

That's the insanity that is part of SRF. Once you hook up with them, you are who you aren't and you have to overcome all the sins the person you resemble may have committed to various persons. Any if you represent someone the founder hates, you could be set up for something you never expected.

Now, I'd like to know what, if anything, set Bill off in regards to Michael Tamura. Bill is one of those thin-skinned Irish with a temper to match. Did he do something at BPI that required the intervention of the founder, Lewis Bostwick? It might be interesting to find out.

Stay tuned...