The Academy for Psychic Studies' Numbers Racket

Hey, look at that: Angela finally got that face lift!

A few years back, a reader left a comment asking about a guy named Michael Anaast, who these days seems to go by the name Michael Fikaris.

I really had to dig for that.  You see, I never met Michael Anaast or his alter ego Michael Fikaris.  In fact, I had barely heard of the guy(s).

Mr. Anaast was at the spiritual cesspool well before I was interned.  In fact, I believe Mr. Anaast was one of the founders of the Spiritual Rights Foundation.  For a long time, I wasn't aware of that.  I only found out when a picture of Bill Duby, Angela Silva and two other SRF founders surfaced.  The picture was so old, I had to ask who those people with Bill and Angela were.

Despite being a founder of this vile and disgusting collection of bodily fluids, Michael Anaast wasn't exactly a household name at the Academy.  His status as a co-founder wasn't ever mentioned.  Accounts of Michael Anaast's background and pre-cult life were, as usual, confused and varied depending on who you asked, when you asked and whether or not they had their medication that day.

The best I can do is say Mr. Anaast or Fikaris was said to be a founder of SRF.  He lived in the backyard apartment on Ellsworth Street for a time, with his wife and three children.  Supposedly, Mr, Anaast/Fikaris had affairs and other un-ministerial activities but that would be no different from any of the other ministerial staff at SRF.  After some time, Anaast departed to found an organization called the Foundation for Spiritual Freedom, possibly located on Dana Street in Berkeley.

Under what circumstances and what reasons Anaast made his exit is not clear to me.  Some say he had some kind of argument with Bill Duby, who responded by telling Angela to throw his ass out the door.  Others say he was so headstrong, he had to move on to his own organization for his own sanity.

All I know is that he vamoosed with a couple of SRF women to begin his own place and that long-time SRF members as a whole were apprehensive about talking about him or acknowledging him.  There was never any mention of him by the head psychotic or his witches.  Barely anyone said anything about him at all.

I can only think Michael Anaast/Fikaris departed the Spiritual Rights Foundation under less-than-warm-and-nourishing terms.  And that puts him in the same position as the rest of us.

Today while I was doing my usual perusal of the interweb, I happened upon the decayed and festering web site of the Academy for Psychic Studies.  Apart from the dilapidated and uninspired appearance of the site, one item caught my eye.

The Psychotic Academy is offering a two-day seminar on Numerology readings.  For the bargain price of only $350 and giving the public a whole two weeks before the class begins to make up their mind to attend, the Academy hopes to fill their empty coffers with dozens of eager (and likely gullible) students of Numerology readings.

That's not surprising.  We have all seen how the Academy uses time as a tactic to induce pressure to pay absurd prices for classes of dubious value.  What is surprising is who is teaching this two-day class:

Michael Fikaris

If what I heard about his relationship with the Academy for Psychic Studies is true, Michael Fikaris returning to teach a seminar at the very place he was separated from is a shocker.  It's even more shocking if Duby indeed told Angela to get rid of him.  Even more shocking than that, that corpulent and overbearing enforcer is probably the one who made the arrangements for the weekend seminar.

You have to wonder what circumstances came about for what ever is left of the Academy to allow him (or perhaps ASK) him to lead a class at the haunted house on Ellsworth Street.  You  have to wonder - crap, you already know what prompted this whole arrangement.  It's the $350 a head admission price.  The only real questions are how big is Angela and Robin's cut, how much of it did they promise to the portly disciplinarian and what will they say when they cheat him out of it?

Anyone want to throw down a Benji that SRF won't see more than, say, nothing out of this perverted endeavor?   Anyone else want to lay a wager this event will be the watershed event that reversed the Academy for Psychic Studies' reversed fortunes?  Anyone else stupid enough to take that bet?

How many of the newly-departed from the Academy would do their duty and go to this event only because Robin and Angela want another chance to pick their pockets?  Do you think Angela and Robin can succeed when they send their waddling strong-arm with the gut that jiggles when the wind is blowing to pressure whatever former members he can accost?

Well, let's hope the people who just left the insane asylum didn't have a relapse.

What about Numerology requires a 2+ day seminar?  The technique was so simple Rev. Bill Duby himself can look at someone in the eye, assign numerals to each letter of his name then in his usual rapid-fire delivery proclaim:  D-is-4-I-is-12-C-is-8-and-K-is-3-divided-by-9-and-the-hypotenuse-of-the-square-quadratic-of-pi is uhhhhhhh: you're_a_fucking_asshole_now_give_me_your_goddamn_money.

If Rev. Bill Duby, stricken with dyslexia and other learning disabilities could figure out numerology, why the hell does it take an entire weekend for someone with full capabilities to learn it?

None of that matters to the Witches of Ellsworth Street.  What matters is there are no more hapless and deluded followers throwing money at them, no one to do their bidding for free (well, there's only one), the people they would publicly excoriate for their own follies are no longer in the center room awaiting execution and they need people to bring them stacks o' cash and sit in terror while the Witches blame them for imaginary crimes. 

However, if they really were interested in numerology, they might find something like this:

Angela Silva  Your number is: 4

The obligations that you face may tend to create frustration and feelings of limitation or restriction. You may sometimes find yourself nursing negative attitudes in this regard and these can keep you in a rather low mood. Avoid becoming too rigid, stubborn, dogmatic, and fixed in your opinions. (I guess it's too late for Angela, huh?).
You may have a tendency to develop and hold very strong likes and dislikes, and some of these may border on the classification of prejudice. The negative side of 4 often produces dominant and bossy individuals who are disciplinarian to an excess. (not much I can add to this...)

Robin Dumolin  Your number is: 11

Attitudes associated with the number 11 expression include a continuous sense of nervous tension; you may be too sensitive and temperamental. You tend to dream a lot and may be more of a dreamer than a doer. Fantasy and reality sometimes become intermingled and you are sometimes very impractical. You tend to want to spread the illumination of your knowledge to others irrespective of their desire or need. (yep, Robin tired to impress us with her vast knowledge of every damn thing. The presentations of her intellectual prowess sounded more like the Golden Book of Puppies your grandmother gave you for your 6th birthday than the definitive reference work we expected. I never decided if she did that because it was her usual condescending manner or if she was really that stupid. Actually, I have decided. She really is that stupid.)

How about that?  I'll be teaching a class on numerology next weekend!  350 a head and not one penny goes to Angela or Robin!  See you there!