I have been thinking about a lot of stuff related to the Academy for Psychic Studies. Mostly about the things that are failing there. Things like the failing revenues.
I figured they have to be in pretty dire straits if they have to resort to suing Joy and me for $700,000.00 to prop up their flagging fortunes. Too bad for them they LOST. Even worse that they had to pay Joy and me!
It had to be even worse we had to threaten them with the Sheriff before they decided to pay the judgment.
I just love it when not only does the Academy for Psychic Studies lose when they do something stupid (which is a lot things) they proceed so stupidly they lose a lot of money!
So, I was wondering just how much money the oh-so-prosperous Academy for Psychic Studies brings in every month. It is a lot of money or not all that much?
In its heyday, the Academy for Psychic Studies had some 40 members and ran several "businesses". One successful business was named Liberty Construction. The guy making the money for Liberty was Steve Sanchez. Steve got paid but he wasn't paid much. And as soon as he made it, the Academy found a way to make him pay it right back to them.
Freedom Estates operates as a property management firm. They collect rents on the Academy for Psychic Studies rodent-infested apartments. The renters just happen to be the members of the Academy for Psychic Studies.
Health and Wealth is an independent company selling self-help recordings and publications of the Academy leaders and a few others. The materials were manufactured by members of the Academy for Psychic Studies and even by some of the children. To anyone's knowledge, none of them were paid. However, control of Health and Wealth rested in the hands of the leaders. There's not much question about where the money wound up.
The Academy for Psychic Studies operates two locations. One is located in the mother ship in Berkeley, another in San Jose, CA. The "Academy" in San Jose historically lost money every month. Well, it lost money every month except for the time a guy named Steve Sanchez ran it (hey, I'm sensing a pattern here).
The hard-core members were cajoled, browbeat and otherwise coerced into coughing up hundreds or even close to a thousand dollars a month to attend mandatory classes, workshops, retreats, special events, very special events, the most special event you ever saw and the power-packed special power events of powerful information that cost hundreds of dollars apiece.
And after you paid for the power of the special power workshops, you had the spiritual responsibility of giving 10% to 30% of your weekly paycheck (before taxes) as your holy tithe to the un-holy Academy and an additional 10% to 30% of everything you own to them every January as well as your first two weeks of income before taxes (this is called the "first fruits").
We were all dragged into paying thousands of dollars for the training at ISHI Hypnosis. Only a few (well, it look like only ONE) of we Academy dorks is practicing. At least getting an ISHI Hypnosis certificate was guaranteed - even if you fail the test!
And of course, there was the ever-present envelope you had to fill with the few dollars you had left in your pocket to "contribute" towards gifts for the leaders, the leader's car payments, the leader's farm expenses or whatever else the leaders wanted you to pay for.
There's more but I'll cover it later.
So how about now?
There are maybe a dozen or 15 hard-core members of the Academy for Psychic Studies (not any more - half of the remaining members bailed out since then). Those class and workshop fees have come down by a lot. Since there are fewer members who have any meaningful income, those tithes are down a well. And since those remaining members for the most part haven't any real estate, investments, savings, retirement plans or any net worth at all, the Academy doesn't get much every January for the "first fruits" tithe.
How about the "new students" who come in to experience the Academy for Psychic Studies for the first time? Well when Joy and I started out, there were a lot of us. The fees of the new people brought in thousands of dollars a month.
Not any more.
There is a trickle of interest in the depraved and warped teachings of the Academy for Psychic Studies. Well, that's probably not accurate. It's more like a drop or two - and even that has dried up.
There are NO students in the Clarivoyant Training Program, to the knowledge of anyone outside the Academy. One or two people turn up for healing clinics now and then. A few are getting psychotic readings and the occasional person shows for a six-week class - then never returns.
How about ISHI Hypnosis? Surely there is a line of people around the block waiting their turn to receive ISHI Hypnosis training or to enter hypnosis by an ISHI Hypnosis hypnotist.
Uh, not really. At each weekly ISHI Hypnosis open house event there is usually no one there. The ISHI Hypnosis training sessions draw one or two students. If that represents a line around the block, it's a really small block.
How about the businesses?
Liberty Construction is defunct. Mostly because the top managers got paid salaries for doing nothing and because they snatched a percentage of the company's income for themselves (according to Steve Sanchez).
Freedom Estates still manages rat-hole apartments. However, lately they have been obsessed with throwing out ex-members of the Academy for Psychic Studies and leaving those units empty than they are with attracting new tenants. If you aren't a good cultie, you can't live in their apartments. If you are, well you'd better be ready to figure out how to pay the rent along with the other fees and mandatory contributions.
Health and Wealth is mysterious. Like all of their businesses, transparency and accountability are unknown. The recordings are still made. There just aren't any new ones being made. The members still toil late at night packaging CD's, DVD's and other old-school media for no pay. Health and Wealth used to make money on the weekend "retreat" events in the past. Who knows what they make money with today.
As far as their payouts go, the mortgages on their real estate holdings may be mostly paid off. But the retail space in San Jose is rented and that isn't cheap. The "SRF Farm" is actually owned by Robin Dumolin and Angela Silva but you can bet the members of SRF pay for it. The "farm" was intended as a place to raise livestock and board horses as well as to con people to pay hundreds of dollars for a weekend of walking in goose dung, sleeping in filthy trailers in the freezing cold of winter or oppressive heat of summer. None of that is happening anymore.
How about their activities?
They don't go out and rent space at county fairs and so on to parade their follower's pschic skills to the world. They don't have enough people for staffing. It's not worth it to them anymore.
But Total Prosperity is still on the air on KEST radio (not anymore, though). Total Prosperity is a paid program and has no advertising. I believe it costs thousands to air it. No one listens (which I guess is one reason they stopped doing it). People do call in for a free psychic reading though (at least, they did).
There's noting left that brings in a significant amount of money for them.
My estimate is the Academy for Psychic Studies is earning some $200,000.00 per year within 10% or so (well, now that half the followers are gone, I guess that would mean the yearly earnings are half as well. That would mean maybe $100,000.00 a year give or take 5%). That falls short of what you would need to sustain an organization like that. I mean, Robin and Angela arent' exactly cheap women. Easy, maybe but not cheap.
How much longer can they hold out?
How much longer would those faithful few hang in there?
Wouldn't it make sense for the Academy for Psychic Studies to cash in, take the money left and shuffle off into the sunset?
It would. But they aren't well known for making sensible decisions. They aren't known for taking good advice. They can't recognize a good thing when it lands on their head and they can't stop trying to polish a turd.
There's a reason the Academy for Psychic Studies keeps going on and on. No one is sure why - not even those who are still there.
Robin Dumolin, Angela Silva, the Academy for Psychic Studies and The Spiritual Rights Foundation all claim I am trying to destroy them.
Why would I try to destroy them if they are doing a bang-up job on their own?
I will, though, tell you what I am finding out and what I am thinking about that situation so you can make up your own mind on your affiliation with the Academy for Psychic Studies. I think it's a sinking ship riddled with leaks. There are those who utilize their right to think for themselves and disagree. Having your own opinion is one of the great things about America.
So if you so disagree, please feel free to go ahead and join the Academy for Psychic Studies. You might find spiritual enlightenment and personal peace there.
Or you might find your bank account a lot lighter.
