Stuck in Neutral

I lifted one of Joy's posts because it's a really good one and I'm too damn tired to come up with my own anyway.

It's worth reading.  The post is all about the concept of "neutrality".  What in hell is it?  How is it used?  OK, so I can figure out how it is used.  But What Does It Mean?  Especially to you.

Please feel free to comment on your own impression of "neutrality" and how the concept was employed with you.


we now return to your regularly scheduled programming....


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Hear is a Question for you. Please comment.

I have always been confused about what the Academy doctrine of the word NEUTRALITY meant. I understand the meaning of the word but the Academy way of acting neutral somehow eluded me...to a certain extent that I could never put my finger on.

There always seemed to be something people weren't saying but we were doing it!

Anyone understand what I am saying?

If any one can enlighten me on this, or even a guess of what it could be, that would be great.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

In the academy to be nuetral meant to dissociate from your true feelings and see yourself as above those you are dealing with.

The reason it manifested this way is because they wanted to deflect members from their natural instinct of self-protection - even while that member was being treated abusiveley. So to be nuetral in the academy really meant to deny your healthy anger and other emotions.

This is a subtle and sinister mind control technique. The effect of this is that those who undergo it have a constant underlying rage that they cannot recognize; and when it did peek through, Bill or the other leaders pounsed on it as proof that there was something terribly wrong with that member.

The member was then publicly shamed in front of everyone, which imbeded self condemnation and created a viscious cycle in that person. This is why some of the kids from SRF and others who comment in this blog write the way they do - When triggered their emotions have one note to play, and that note is fueled by rage. The live on that plain adn can't really see anything else.

This is why what Bill did is so dangerous, becuase if this viscious cycle becomes cronic it can suck your soul away. In other words if you really begin to enjoy being in rage and feeling superior to others you are in trouble.

This is also why it is so hard and painful to leave, becuase we have to deal with the rage that has been trapped within us by the mind control, and even worse, we have to unravel the toxic shame and self condemnation that became habituated.

All of us who have left know this is true in own varying ways. Those who are in the academy have not become willing to face it. This is why everything they do and say is pretty predictable. They are pretending to be nuetral while they are really n rage, and the only alternative to feeling the pain is to insulate themselves in superiority (as Debi does in her sermon), or to rage righteously (as debi does in her sermon). It is a monotonous way to live.

Bill was a rage-aholic, and had no conscience about the levels of psychological cruelty he would subject people to. The higher people go up in the acadmey, the deeper they are in the trap Bill set. I hope that Dave reads this. Becuase if we begin to understand some of this together, we understand, as I know Mike and Joy do, that we need to have compassion for ourselves, and each other, for the rage and anger we feel. We need to keep on getting the anger out, and define the injustice we suffered to deeply, but not get stuck in that one plain.

Dave, I ask your forgiveness for the ways I hurt you in the cult, and for my part, I forgive you for anything you did to me. We don't have to be like we were in the academy. Mike and Joy are good people and, if I am not mistaken are ready to forgive. It is possible to feel compassion for the people in the academy, like Mike and Joy do towards the kids, because at least we can identify the source of the rage, but they are still entrapped in bill's web. It is also good, when one feels up to it, to sort out our thoughts and feelings about the Lord (or any other form of religion one may embrace; I understand Mike has a deep and wonderful love for buddhism and Christ). For me this became an essential part of my on going recovery. kind regards, Steve Sanchez

March 8, 2009 3:42 AM

PsychDoctorate said...

I cant add much more than what Steve said here. Essentialy, those who put into practice Neutrality as a technique, be they Spiritual Rights Foundation memmbers, Berkeley Psychic Institute members or Scientologists (I don't know what term they use for this) are told DONT REACT! supress your feelings and pretend like it has no effect on you! After all it is just foreign energy in your space, and not your own feelings.

In many workplaces, we need to utilize Neutrality towards those we serve. If we do not, we can loose our jobs! However, when we have the chance to talk about our feelings with our collegues about the interaction, we can vent our feelings instead of being non-reactive and stuff all of it down.

However, in the aforementioned circumstance, we choose to be neutral rather than react. In this circumstance it is useful. At the place I work, I was confronted with a raging guest. In this circumstance, I had to not react. I had to deal with the problem and attempt to resolve it in a timely fashion. If I had been defensive, angry or reacted in any other way, I would only have made the situation worse. So I put my feelings asside for a short period of time and dealt with the situation. Later on I was thankfully able to vent and get it off my chest.

If we attempted to vent at the Berkeley Psychic Institute, we were told we were not being neutral and that we needed to ground the energy out of our spaces. Lots of invalidation.

March 9, 2009 12:44 AM

Joy Butler said...

Thanks for the comments you guys. I was aware that there was a strong encouragement of divorce from ones feelings at the Academy but never related it to an affect of being neutral.

March 9, 2009 6:27 AM

Joy Butler said...

Furthermore I always felt that there was something off with what this neutrality meant. We were given so many contradictory commands of how to feel.

The women and men were told that they needed to vent but then we were discouraged from opening up and talking about sensitive issues. We were allowed to in readings to a certain extant but it became business like and the reader generally had an air of authority and control of; how much you could say (One was often interrupted when asking a question and told that is enough, they have a picture of what is going on and they don’t need any input from you anymore.

This is so absurd and arrogant to me now.), two the reader became the expert of your experience and what you were really feeling, three there was a sense of being in debt to the reader because through their insight into your soul and their healing work you were suppose to be all better, healed when most of the time nothing had really changed.

Through this whole process you were told the reader can see what you can’t see and if you doubt what the reader is saying then you or an energy or spirit inside of you is being invalidating to the reader. To invalidate the reader was to invalidate the teaching, the concepts, your teachers, your fellow students. What a bind to be in?

So during readings, during rants from the fellow ministers and not just Rev. Bill we had to be neutral, not react to what they were saying, accept what was being told to us and about us even if it was not true. I and everyone I knew and know at the Spiritual Rights Foundation have been intensely cut off from as Steve put it, “natural instinct of self-protection”.

Jeffrey I hear what you said about being neutral at work and that there is a reason for this. Actually what brought up this question was in one of my classes, my teacher was lecturing on how counselors need to be neutral. I understood what she meant but then the Academys definition and action interrupted my thoughts which was upsetting to me. And I wanted to gain greater clarity and differentiate the two different definitions in my mind.

I recognize that even now I fall into the trap of trying to be neutral which causes me to not say what I need to say or feel in the moment. I have to consciously try to tap into my feeling and thoughts because I have been trained to repress so much and hold it in till I get a reading. This is a trained reflex. But there is no way I am getting a reading so how do I deal with these feelings?

I have to work on being aware of what is going on inside me and I have to sometimes force myself to open up to people and take a chance of being vulnerable. I understand what you are saying Steve about being in rage. The feelings, the repressions build and build. I have felt many times like there is a volcano inside of me ready to erupt. The Academy did more damage to me and most others that were there for more than a couple years than we give credit to.

I know I am still fighting the commands inside of my brain from various teachers there to be neutral when I know better. There is one experience that keeps on tugging at my coinsiousness as I am writing now. This experience happened probably almost 10 years ago when Rev. Bill popped into our year class lecture night. Everyone as usual acted so honored to be graced with his presence.

After a little while of him making jokes and addressing the energy at the Academy he became dark as he usually did and began berating some of the bad ministers (Steve you were probably on his list at that time). I think he even talked about some of the people in the room. Then he became cruel in his speech, spewing off things, he was in rage.

Somehow being neutral did not apply to him. I was so uncomfortable and scared, I felt trapped because we were not suppose to leave the room especially if Bill was talking. I closed my eyes and attempted to ground and blow roses but I felt myself going so out of my body which I know now that I was in a state of dissociating which is a defense mechanism. I probably looked very tense because Bill literally shouted at me to open my eyes. He yelled at me because I was so uncomfortable. He told me I needed to be neutral and that I had to keep my eyes open and that if he saw me close my eyes again that he would kick me out of the class. I was shocked. And I felt even more trapped.

I just wanted to cry but I could not. So I had to sit there and practice being neutral. It was a horrible feeling. When I look back on this I still feel terrified. It was difficult having to sit through his gross lectures and tear down sessions of people I thought at the time and still do of people whom I liked and admired.

I wish now that I could have seen him for what he really was and could tell him, “Fuck you Bill, these people you talk about are so much better than you that they should wipe there asses with you.” Maybe in his next lives he will keep on being reincarnated as toilet paper. What a happy and just thought for those that believe in Karma.

March 9, 2009 7:11 AM

Mel said...

SRF neutrality means to stop what your doing, thinking and discerning and let me slime you with my way of thinking....

SRF neutrality means to let go of all your human frailties and let me take over your thinking for you.

SRF neutrality means those thoughts and emotions welling up inside of you are of use to you only if we see fit to using them for the church benefit.....Doing hard work at the farm in Bethel Island.

SRF neutrality means to be paired up with someone you or they resist on a personality level and told to get a reading from them. Kind of like hostages being held captive turning on each other within the high stressful scenario of not wanting to make a false move or say anything that will jeopardize your well being...

In other words, let us help you grow and sit there while another reads from there personality and fire off insults pretending to be a reading for your benefit.

Neutrality at SRF means: For your own good, listen and do what they say like a parent and not question it. Then watch hypocritically as Bill, Angela, Robin and Debi continue with the same dark energy patterns that they projected in your space.

Neutrality at SRF means to jack you up emotionally ala a pit bull, by building up someone to be a total jerk or bitch,..and then have you go with them in a camping/bonding type setting to neutralize the fucked up energies that pervade at the academy.....

Go clean out the funky energies in there space, because you have similar energy patterns in yours. O

h wait, you have to give up some of your privacy, work space, family space, and monies so that we don't have to deal with them....Is this the lazy mans guide to enlightenment?

March 9, 2009 8:22 AM

Anonymous said...

Dave's comments remind me of something that Lisa Lochsted said, "To Bill people at SRF are pawns in his own pscyodrama. Their own lives and story are of no regard.

People outside the academy are even less, they are empty pods." Joys comment and story she tells is a wonderful example of recovery. It is an acutely painful point the first time Bill is seen to be vicious to others and especially when he does it to yourself.

I had almost the same experience as joy. Joy remembered (it welled up) and experiences the anger and injustice of the awful situation. The mind control had her dumbfounded and deeply conflicted at the time, which is understandable.

Now she can see it and respond with the appropriate anger. At the same time we feel compassion for her. When I experienced what she did I also felt shame and a tendency to condemn myself. This is part of the mind control, so I see that she is being abused and deserves compassion and help.

Her anger helps her to get her strength back and the compassion tempers the the rage and self condemnatioin and brings her own voice into the situation so she can act from her true self. Thanks Joy, we appreciate you creating this blog so we can have a place for recovery.

steve March 13, 2009 1:57 PM

Anonymous said...

I find it interesting that so many of you maintain a spiritual or religious belief after your experiances. After several years of involvement (OK, not as a minister-in-training), I am a devoted atheist. Go figure. - DF

June 17, 2009 3:06 AM

I Do Declare...

Now before you guys read the following, I have to ask you to be sure you do not have a full stomach and that you have something to heave in nearby.


What follows are declarations from various persons and parties to the SLAPP suit the Academy for Psychic Studies, et. al. filed against you, me and Joy.


You'll notice a few things:  first, the Witches have used and exploited two young women in a manner that is so vile, I think calling it abuse would be putting it mildly.  The Witches are attempting to use the young women as human shields hoping the court and the public will agree they are only warm and nourishing spiritually perfect beings who have done nothing to deserve the tomatoes thrown at them - except for the cheating us out of all our money and leaving us scrambling to get by part.


You might also notice the Witches state they wanted to do exactly the opposite of what they actually did.  It appears they still believe the gobbledygook and idiot phrases concocted from their debilitated minds have any meaning in the real world.


Most important: you just might notice the highlighted portion of the cover sheet (which the attorney unnecessarily repeated all over this worthless document) names a defendant named "Doe".  Actually there are 99 defendants named "Doe".  Those are the 99 people who have read or contributed to this blog.

So, when people ask for proof the Witches of Ellsworth declared war on anyone who speak of the truth about the goings-on behind the wrought iron gate of the Academy for Psychic Studies, just show them the cover sheet.  If you read this blog, if you contributed to this blog, Angela Silva and Robin Dumolin have declared war on you by way of their lawsuit.


Now before any of you SRF trolls start whining about me posting statements of "children", first, these are statements of ADULTS.  They happen to be the adult children of their parent (which I know sounds obvious but you'd be surprised at how dumb these culties can be - well maybe you wouldn't).  

Second, these documents were not initiated by the two young women involved.  The attorney wrote the declaration (which is common) and the plaintiffs had the young women sign them.  You have to assume these statements were made only as an attempt to deflect attention away from the Witches and move it towards me and Joy.  Only the brain-dead followers of the Witches would think they are valid and legally relevant statements.


Last, these documents are public records related to a case that was filed in the Superior Court of California.  Therefore, they are privileged.  Therefore I have the absolute right to publish them.  So you bogus Nancy Grace wannabes can shut up.  When the obese SRF idiot tells you another lawsuit would be afoot, you can tell him my Doc Marten-clad foot will be happy to deliver yet another Beckham kick to the Witches' upturned hams by way of the Superior Court.  I beat them when they filed this lawsuit and I will beat them again - even in a lawsuit I would file against them.

Just as a quick refresh:  these two young women somehow discovered our blogs.  I would imagine they found out when the Witches were compelling them to go yell at their father, their friends, their friends fathers and anyone at all as a proxy for the Witches.  We all know that the Witches would never do what they could have another unsuspecting person do for them - especially this kind of dirty, underhanded and vile retaliation.


So, the young women began posting some pretty vile stuff on Joy's YouTube channel.  These comments were them without a doubt - they left their names on their posts.  The comments were warm and nourishing comments like "fuck you" and "you fucking bitch" and a warm an nourishing warning or two for Joy and I to watch our backs as one of the warm and nourishing members of SRF would conduct a special healing session with a baseball bat.


As a result of the nasty and threatening comments these two (and at least one of their colleagues) left on Joy's YouTube Channel, their nasty, hostile and dangerous comments were deleted and they were banned.


For good reason, I think.


However, the Witches believe these two are the aggrieved parties as their own actions brought them public shame and embarrassment.  I think most guys in prison believe the same thing.


More important, they invaded Joy's blog and left idiotic posts.  There is no way to exclude any person from posting on Blogger.  So, they were quite able to post as much as they please.  And post they did.


In response to their badly worded and poorly considered commentary, an enormous wave of blow back came their way.  They were pummeled for their comments as you might have expected.  They also stopped commenting on their own.  Probably the Witches told them to stop so the young women could be held up as victims of the evil and hostile world around them.  Unfortunately, that blew back as well.


It blew back in a very circuitous and strange way.  As you know, many of us have been saying the only kind of deal the Witches of Ellsworth will enter into with a follower is "heads I win, tails you lose".  Guess who always wins.  Guess who always loses.


Not too long ago, the Witches' Bishop was presented with exactly that kind of warm and nourishing deal.  This time, she wised up and walked out.  After the bishop became an ex-bishop, at least one of these young women discovered just how warm and nourishing her Witch of a godmother really was.


Angela the Witch of the, well, the witch, demanded the young woman's horse be removed from "the farm" at once.  Angela also related that the rest of the horses would be sold for dog food.


After a lot of hard work on the young woman's part, the horses were given better homes than Angela's decrepit ranch.  Some were sold at fire sale prices, some were just given away.  Of course like a mafia boss, Angela demanded the young woman give up any money received from the sale of the horses.  "Heads I win, tails you lose."


And the young woman got a whole new perspective on the woman she defended in a foolish, childish way.  Acting like a fool on behalf of a woman like Angela Silva is a lot like voting for Michelle Bachman for President - you'll live to regret it.


Looking back, it's funny, crazy and altogether strange to read these declarations.  At least one of them is written by someone who got screwed by the very person she intended to support and a party to this defeated lame effort got screwed by Angela Silva as well.


It's not often you see a total meltdown of an organization but this past few years have shown how an organization built on a bad intention and sustained through greed and exploitation will fall apart under its own evil payload.


Who would like to make a prediction on how much longer this place will last?

What the Hell are the Nine Great Scriptures?

The Nine Great Scriptures:

We would always hear about the "Nine Great Scriptures". Those nine great scriptures contained all the wisdom of the world. Bill Duby would frequently tell us that he actually sat down and studied each of those nine scriptures in detail. Once that course of study was completed, he was confident enough to become a spiritual teacher in the sacred home he called the Spiritual Rights Foundation.

But what are they and what pearls of wisdom do they contain?

Here is an excerpt from the founder of the Academy for Psychic Studies and Spiritual Rights Foundation site:

There are nine Great Scriptures upon this planet that in essence relate the same thing. Not to mention thousands of fabled stories from varied sources, and all of them are relating a divine message of import for the seeker of truth to become nourished upon for well being.

OK, there is no mention of exactly where those nine great scriptures came from, who wrote them or where they can be found.

Don't ask me what they are. In the more than a decade in Bill's presence, he never told me what those nine great scriptures are.

He never told anyone else, either. If the Academy for Psychic Studies knows them, I think the world would like to know what they are. If you Google "nine great scriptures", you will receive hits from this blog and the SRF web site. And a reference to the Ayurveda Healing Center's nine great Buddhist scriptures.

If you try to search for them outside of Google, you'll be at it for a long time. Quite a few people have been searching for years to figure out just what Bill was talking about. No one can find a thing.

So maybe we are just too stupid, misguided, unenlightened to know what they are. Maybe we just can't have the teaching. Maybe we are deceived by the world and are too consumed with our own avarice and crimes against God and SRF to recognize the nine great scriptures even if they dropped out of the sky and landed on our head.

So maybe those nine great scriptures are out there. But what are they?

Each of the major religions of the world have a scripture as its foundation. So, would those nine great scriptures be the foundation of:

1. Christianity
2. Judaism
3. Islam
4. Buddhism
5. Hinduism
6. 
   
7. 
   
8. 
   
9. 
   

OK, so I can't name them. If anyone can, a dozen Krispy Kremes with your name on them are waiting.


In fact, I'll throw in nine more - one for each of the Great Scriptures.

Keystone Krooks

...but fair to the Witches of Ellsworth

Today's Guest Post is from "Anonymous".   Anonymous has generously contributed this piece on how the cult breeds and encourages minor criminal conduct.


I have a lot to say about this, but as I am exhausted from a very busy week, I will have to add my two cents after I get some fifty or sixty winks.




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

The wannabe criminals 
  
In the cult there is a weird mentality that prevails and is very harmful to those who get sucked into it.  Much like a criminal gang there is a price that must be paid in order to belong.  You have to get along by going along.   If you didn't, they cult would make sure they pressured you or degraded you in front of others in meetings or classes until you did the same as everyone else. 
  
Even if what they wanted was illegal or not morally right, you would still have to go along with them if you wanted to stay there or if you wanted to keep from getting totally put down in front of everyone.  One of the things they liked best was to pretend they were criminals who didn't give a damn about obeying the law. 
  
Within a very short time after attending classes I was subtly persuaded to buy a motorcycle.  I had no desire to buy it and I couldn't figure out what was the reason for this until later. The culties had bought motorcycles and enjoyed cruising the highways like a motorcycle gang. They could pretend they were a gang without any of the problems with the cops that real gangs have. 
  
Of course there were certain culties who liked to pretend they were a gang more than others.  One of them used to always proclaim he was real tough and that the rest of us were wimps because we did not have balls as big as his.  He was rumored to have a criminal record.  A fair number of the men in the cult admitted they had a criminal past and the cult was a way they could hide out.  These men could recruit relative innocents into the cult where they wouldn't get into the trouble they might get into if they joined a real gang. 
  
While proclaiming how spiritual they were, the cult would cruise like bats out of hell on the tourist highways of Northern California with "The Dubster", Rev. Bill Duby.  The Dubster would show how macho he was by gunning his chopper to 100 MPH with a pack of culties behind him struggling to keep up. This was just after he gave a sermon on being spiritual and how much of a caring man he was.    
  
The wannabe criminals who used the cult to develop their criminal ways loved this because they loved breaking the law and not getting caught.  Everyone had to do something illegal or they wouldn't be accepted in the cult.  The leaders loved it because they can make the culties do criminal acts or anything outside the law whenever they wanted. 

After the Dubster dropped dead, the witches kept his tradition of behavior and mind control alive with weekend Male retreats. The witches would tell us males how important it was to have male companionship and would send us up to their house at Lake Tahoe for a weekend of indoctrination.

The witches would pick two of the culties who followed their orders to be retreat leaders in charge of the weekend.  The retreat leaders would start ranting and raving about following the teaching and would totally de-humanize and insult anyone who was enjoying the weekend on his own terms.  If any male showed a little bit of spunk and had his own opinion, he was reported on when they got back.  It was a way of monitoring who was controlled and who was going to be put in Kangaroo Court.  All the while, the leaders kept saying cult members had complete freedom.  But we felt like trapped animals.
  
The weekends were hell, like boot camp with a full schedule of slave labor to be performed while you paid for a relaxing weekend. One thing that they were scared of was the cops, and you were always given a lecture on keeping your mouth shut about anything that happened.  And a lot happened. 
  
I was afraid to speak to the police about some criminal stuff at first but was pleasantly surprised to find out that the cops have some knowledge of cults and take whatever they say about you with a grain of salt. After I left the cult, the cult leaders and their cronies decided to kick me out into the street and attempt to leave me homeless.

They started to vandalize my car to get me to move off the cult-owned apartment complex where I lived.  I really wanted to move out but I had nowhere to go because they had taken all my money.  If they just waited a while, I would leave on my own.  But no, they wanted to force me out by damaging my car.  I reported the vandalism of my car to the cops.  When the cops came, the culties looked out their windows.  While the culties watched, I showed the officer the damage to my car.  During the police report, one of the wannabe criminal culties stared at me from the cult compound with a nasty look on his face.  The cop was not surprised that I was being targeted and noted what had happened so that it was documented if the harassment escalated. 
  
Another example of their criminal attitude was them stealing internet service.  One cultie would pay for the service and pirate it out to the other culties.  They routed their lines through my apartment so I could be blamed if the internet company found out.  Each cultie in the apartment complex was required to pay a fee for the internet service. 
  
I decided I didn't want to be involved and cut the lines going through my apartment. Even though what they were doing was illegal they acted as if they were the ones who were wronged.

The Academy for Psychic Studies - Forced Feeding

Here's what the Academy for Psychic Studies contributes to their annual Thanksgiving Dinner.

What, you expected them to feed you?

During my internment, at the Academy for Psychic Studies, I attended their annual Thanksgiving Dinner.   It was a large affair (well, large for them), where a ton of food was served from huge foil trays by smiling people.  There were several turkeys, some ham, salad, vegetables and all the trimmings served.  Dessert was served as well.

For this spread, our captors at the Academy for Psychic Studies didn't make us pay a dime.  Honestly. The damn coffee still cost a buck, though.  So to so many who experienced this bounty of generosity, the dinner seemed to give them a softer side, a generous, warm and nourishing appearance.

It took me years to finally realize this dinner as well as the food served at each of the church services was not purchased by the Academy for Psychic Studies itself.

The ministers had to buy it with money from their own pocket.

They had to cook the food as well.

And they had to go to the store, then take it to the church.

How in the hell did I know this?  Because my wife was told she and a minister were assigned to purchase items for said events.

No minister was recognized for providing the food.  In fact, no one was to even ask for recognition.

The Academy told the ministers to bring the food because it was the ministers responsibility to nourish the congregation with food as they do with spiritual and psychic mumbo jumbo.

That each minister also ran up bills of hundreds or even more than a thousand dollars a month payable to the Academy for Psychic Studies didn't matter.  The fact that the couple of hundred or so a huge Thanksgiving dinner for your congregation would be affordable to the Academy given that they rake in a enormous profit every month didn't deter the Witches from forcing the ministers to buy the food for the church's event - then break their backs serving it up.


Well this year, you can enjoy your Thanksgiving meal.  Unlike the unfortunate souls remaining at the Academy for Psychic Studies, you can be thankful you aren't feeding people because you were forced to.  You can be thankful that you are serving yourself and your fellow man and that the light of freedom is shining upon you.

I'm really going to enjoy my dinner.  Hey, it's cooked one hell of a lot better than the crappy, salty, greasy, overcooked and otherwise deficient Thanksgiving meals the Academy served.

And that's because our dinner is cooked in freedom and served with true love for our fellow man.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving.

Revelations Class - where Bill's true nature was revealed.

Steve Sanchez has generously contributed this excerpt from his book "Spiritual Perversion" (available by digital download from Amazon and in book form).

It's a powerful and chilling account of the rage and manipulation that Bill  Duby exhibited at the Spiritual Rights Foundation and the Academy for Psychic Studies.

I can't put into words how this segment of the book made me feel.  I was at SRF when this all happened.  But since beginning students like me were not allowed to know the inner workings of the cult and we were certainly not allowed to see how the ministers were treated, I never actually saw this particular incident.

That didn't mean I never heard of this event.  It was legend in SRF history - this time when Bill Duby himself "told off" the hothead Mason.

This event was the first time Mason turned the tables on Bill but it would not be the last.  Mason spearheaded a tell-all, front page piece in the San Francisco Chronicle, revealing the depravity and perversion at the Spiritual Rights Foundation and Academy for Psychic Studies.  At last, the truth came out.

It was a seminal, watershed event, opening the doors to further revelations about cult life at the Spiritual Rights Foundation and ultimately, to this blog.

As painful as the situation Steve Sanchez writes of turned out to be, it was indeed an inspiration to myself and so many others to turn their backs on the abuse, exploitation and depravity that was a near every-day event.

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

Spiritual Perversion

Chapter 23: Judas

During sessions when Mason wasn’t present, and sometimes when he was, Bill talked a lot about how Amy loved him; how he was able to give her the higher, or Godly, consciousness that all women need.

He talked to us all in the center room confidentially. “That is Masons problem. All women want two lovers. That‘s why women are always running to the doctor, gynecologist, psychologist, Indian chief, or guru. Mason’s problem is that I am giving her the Christ consciousness, and a woman is going to respond to that every time. If Mason can’t give her the light, he will lose her. She loves me for giving her the light of truth. 

If Christ were to walk in here right now all the women would instantly be in love with Him, and all the men would be in competition. That’s the way it is, folks. I didn’t write the book. If it weren’t for me Mason’s abusive ways might work on Amy, but I am here to give her the truth that grounds her. I know what she needs. Her own inner consciousness wont let her stray from the truth. She wants to keep her soul. 

It’s an awesome responsibility I have. I could fuck any woman in here. That is their job—to try and get you to fuck them— but as soon as you do they lose respect for you; you become a “mere male.” They wont listen to you. It’s not fair, but that’s the way it is. The woman has to feel innocent. If Mason were smart, he would take the blame for everything, but he’s not.”

   Part of me hated it when I heard this. It didn’t seem right that everything was the man’s fault, but everyone took what he said as sacred truth and we tried to work with it.

Mason’s term on the hot seat went on for months. Almost every Sunday night was an all-nighter.  At times unexpected twists were added to the mix, which Rev. Will extrapolated out to their worst severity. Such a twist took place when Rev. Will suddenly turned all the blame on Amy. Usually men were the culprits of all the problems, but it wasn’t uncommon for the woman to suddenly take the heat. 

This turn of events was precipitated in Revelation Class one night when, under Rev. Will’s questioning Rev. Amy admitted that she had been “trading pussy for money.” Rev. Will said she was being a prostitute and not a wife. The whole tide of fault now fell on Amy. He compared Mason to me as a man who was lost and yearning for a woman who had no intention of treating him right. All Mason wanted, like any man, was the pussy, and all Amy wanted was the money. It was all her fault now because she had misled him and she was the one who had “conjugal love.” As a female, she was the one who was a superior being. She had a made a monster of Mason by giving him too much pussy and hiding her motivations. Amy was devastated with guilt. She admitted it was all her fault. This went on for few days.

  A couple of days later the word was that Mason was completely wrong in letting Amy take all the blame. Rev. Will said, “Mason if you had a spiritual bone in your body you wouldn’t have let Amy take the blame. That is the same mistake Harpreet made. Can’t you people learn from other people’s experiences? Now you have ruined any chance of her coming around. By trying to be innocent you are being a woman, not a man. Her femininity is scarred beyond repair. She is pissed as hell at you. You have ruined her sex life by not being an upright man. A real husband would not let the woman take any of the blame because he knows that is the only way he can get her back. She has to be able to feel innocent. This is why Amy is blowing up, putting on weight. Her heart is hardened toward you. As long as you could take the blame, Mays, I had something to work with to put your marriage back together. Now you are fucked. Before you can have a marriage you have to get the divorce out of the way. I suggest you get a divorce, and then start dating again.”

Mason desperately tried to reason with Rev. Will and justify his own actions and point out Rev. Will’s hypocrisies, but we all sided with Rev. Will. We all agreed with Rev. Will that Mason had betrayed the teaching and his wife. Rev. Will began to speak of Mason as a “Judas,” and we all sensed the unthinkable—that he might leave SLF.  We all started to completely emotionally disengage from Mason, and at the same time we were strangely thrilled and delighted that it was him and not us.

 Rev. Will claimed, “Now Mason’s own gender is turning against him. When that happens, it’s over.” So later, at the 10-unit Alcatraz Street apartments, which SLF owned and which only SLF members lived in, I tried to do my duty to get through to him. In the middle of the beat-up concrete courtyard, I approached him and said, “Mays, I’d like to try and help if I can. I’m afraid you are closing down to getting a healing. It all comes down to an attitude.”

“I know what you are saying, Steve,” he replied, “but I am seeing things differently This same shit just keeps happening over and over, no matter what I do. It’s insane. I don’t think Rev. Will really cares about me, or you. He advised me to get a divorce and give up my daughter to Amy. That makes no sense. It’s insane advice. He is not what you think he is, Steve.”

  This shook me up, but I felt I knew better than he. I didn’t believe him, and I was astonished at how firm he was in his stance. Did I dare think about what he said? It made some sense, but no. I thought he was lost.

The end finally came. We all knew it must be coming, but it was still unthinkable to us that it was actually happening. At about 2:30 in the morning in a Sunday night Revelation Class, Mason and Bill were locked in argument. Of course Bill was doing most of the talking. Of late Mason had started retorting more and more. He made arguments to show how he had been wrongly painted to be a monster. No one had ever dared to do this before. He started presenting factual inconsistencies in Rev. Will’s positions and counseling.

  Mason blurted out as he swung his hands in the air, “You are influencing Amy to turn against me. Your advice is to get a divorce, and then start dating again? That is absurd; it makes no sense to a reasonable person. Currently there are five divorces or relationship breakups going on in here. I don’t think there has ever been a successful relationship in here. Ya know, everything is black and white to you. You always say “always,” but what was “always” one day is the opposite the next.”

  This really seemed to set Bill off. He interrupted, “Ha haaa! You just can’t handle the truth, Mays. The highest levels of truth are black and white. I am teaching from the “I am” consciousness. The others can see it. Why can’t you? You are always complaining about how I am influencing you.

 Everybody influences everybody. The world is influencing you people right out of your own bodies. Your mommy, your daddy, teacher, Indian chief, and guru are all influencing you, but you want to complain about me because I have the guts and tenacity to stand up to your personality programming. I am influencing you all for your own good. You guys are in the hypnotic trance of the world, and I am trying to wake you up to the truth! Mine is a thankless job! You complain, complain, complain —stuck in your poor-little-me world, thinking your intellectual logic is going to get you somewhere.

“That is too slow for me. I know the answer before you even think it, because I am in the “I am” consciousness. You better think about this if you want to save your soul: What does the man with no shoes say to the man with no feet? Huh? You are always wanting me to clean blocks out of your space. What if the block in your space is blocking you from hell? Huh? You haven’t looked at it that way. I am not above sticking you on a picture if it will save you from hell. I am working for your benefit, and you are fighting and scratching for your sick addictions to the world, which are taking you straight down. This is what I get—hell from you for doing a good deed! Go ahead, go out there.

 I will be a lot better off without all you maggot-breath motherfuckers! As soon as you get your carcass out of here with your funky energy, I will attract in ten more students who can really have the teaching. You are holding me back! You are blocking others from having this teaching. If the shoe fits wear it.

  “You guys don’t understand the power of being a spirit in your body. With the holy presence of Christ in your aura you could kill somebody and be blessed for it because it was God’s purpose. For those who understand, no words are necessary, and for those who do not, no words are possible.”

Mason got up and went to the bathroom. Rev. Will laughed confidentially and told Chuck for all of us to hear, “His mind is gone. He is possessed; see how he looks vacant. The hothead beings in his space are going to go over the edge when I talk to him now. He can’t handle it anymore. He is going to try to hit me. Watch. Then I’ll have his ass legally. Ha haaa! Be ready.”

When Mason came back, Rev. Will said, “Now Mason, listen to me. A word to the wise is sufficient while a whole book is wasted on a fool. I have the divorce papers here from Amy. You know, don’t you, that she is looking for full custody of Lindsey. If you have any brains left, which I am not sure that you do, you will give her what she is asking. She is going to get it anyway. You know that don’t you?

Rev. Will’s flat, intense face stared right into Mason’s, his eyes watery and blazing. You could almost feel the pock-marked texture of his skin as he held his gaze on Mason with other-worldly confidence. Mason remained still and stared back. He was red with anger but didn’t move his body much. His composure was surprising to us, but everyone watched Rev. Will, who said, “That woman will make you pay for it. I know her. She has learned her lesson. She loves ME now. If you keep this up, you are going to lose your daughter, and I will have them both.”

Mason said in a firm tone laced with anger, “I’ve done my homework. Even if I wanted to do it, the court’s job is to see that both parents have a relationship with the child.” No one really listened to or believed what he said.

“I operate from the spiritual plane, Mays. This is the toughest moment of your life. Your test from God is to be able to let go. The spiritual thing to do is to let go of your daughter in a faith action to God. If you can’t do this, your egotism will destroy you; you will turn black inside. Right, Maggie? Right folks?”

Mason and Rev. Will were practically face to face. We expected Mason to react, but he remained still.  As I watched him his eyes were raised slightly as all his awareness seemed to be engaged in pursuing a deep inward reflection. He seemed to be having some epiphany. What, I didn’t know. He remained rigidly guarded on the outside.

“No, that is not how it works,” Mason said. Then he turned to me and said, “Steve, would you ever do such a thing. Would you let your child go and give up custody?”

I didn’t expect this, and it put me in a strange position. At first fear and nervousness gripped me, but then I realized I boldly wanted to say that I wouldn’t… I agreed with Mason? 

As I started to speak, Rev. Will quickly interrupted, addressing Mason, “Mays, I think there is something wrong with your brain stem. You say you don’t have diabetes, but you have all the symptoms, and you are showing them now.

As he spoke, I said, “I wouldn’t do it. I wouldn’t let her go.” No one paid any attention because Rev. Will was forcefully pulling the current in another direction. But I heard myself.

Bill grew furious. He was yelling right in Mason’s face, radiating a threatening, barely controlled fury. “You want to hit me, don’t you, Mays? This is what men do—draw blood. Women bleed out of their pussy, men draw blood.” 

Bill’s spit hit Mason in the face. Chuck stood up from his seat. “You want to take a swing, don’t you? It is only the first punch that hurts; then it’s all adrenaline. Are you too much of a coward? I thought you had more balls than that, Mr. hothead!”

As Rev. Will taunted Mason an impatient fury leaked through his aura of inviolability. Mason grew red but didn’t respond. He said with frigid assertiveness, “I’d appreciate it if you’d stop spitting in my face. You are trying to get me to hit you, but it’s not going to happen.” 

This was awkward because Bill guaranteed he would react. The embarrassing thought went through the class that this could clearly be interpreted as a mental/spiritual defeat for Bill, but the class wouldn’t go there. Bill made light of it and then dismissed it and went on. Class went on till 7:00 in the morning.

  

Oh Shut Up and Keep Marching

There's a new theme for the faithful few at the Academy for Psychic Studies:

For a little more information on this topic, I'd ask you to get in touch with the Academy for their side of the story.  In fact, there is a "church" service this coming Sunday that has endurance as its theme.  It's a great opportunity to go see how warm and nourishing they really are.  Just don't go there without at least 50 bucks in your pocket because after all the donation buckets are passed around and the sales pitches for the after-church trance experience (which is available for a donation of 20 bucks or so), the helpful recordings are sold to you and whatever else has been laid on you, you'll need that much to pay for it all.

Considering the current straits of the Academy, I think endurance is a topic that fits - if the remaining eight or ten or whatever fearful souls don't hang in there, the Witches will lose out on a chunk of income.  And you know how much they hate that.

So, it's a good time to tell the remaining few to stick to their guns or whatever their weapon of choice and keep dumping their spare money into the cauldron.  At least, it's a good time for the Witches to do that.

After considering what that church service may contain, I looked around on the interweb and found a piccy that might be a bit more apropos...

The things they wish for are the things that are out of reach.  Things like public interest; public adulation; getting the public to come on over to experience the warmth, nourishment and pickpocketing that only our beloved Academy for Psychic Studies can provide.

Looks like all these kinds of orgs are having some kind of crisis.  Interest in the wacky and weird teachings these guys have are not exactly setting the world on fire - especially now that Oprah is off the air and that sweat lodge guy is sweating it out behind bars.

But there is some good evidence that good PR can indeed reform and re-establish a once tarnished image.

Take a look at the Berkeley Psychic Institute site.  Not only are there smiling pics of their ministerial staff (it's on their DejaVu site and one of them can possibly be called HOT) there is a sense of activity there, a sense that there is a mission (what that mission is, I don't know but you'd have to ask PsychDoctorate about it) and a sense there is an atmosphere of warmth and nourishment you wouldn't find at a Victorian house a few blocks away.

And amazingly, there is a piece that aired on ABC's Nightline right there up front.  It's not scandalous.  Not in the least.  In fact, it puts BPI in a pretty favorable light.  It's exactly the thing BPI needed to maintain their position of prominence in the psychic world.

Of course, it took a while to get that piece and it required some luck and some good PR to gain the visibility to interest Nightline.

I always considered BPI to to the smart thing.  That's not to say I endorse their teachings or methods.  But if you really look a t their activities from a marketing standpoint, it's all the right things to do.

So, here is really no need for BPI to round up the troops and inspire them to continue a Death March straight to hell. BPI doesn't have a Death March at all.

I just wonder what those unfortunate faithful few in that Victorian house down the street are marching towards besides the edge of a cliff.

   

As we are near the 2 year anniversary of the day we powned the Spiritual Rights Foundation, I thought I would give you all a look at the document that did it.

Below is the anti-SLAPP motion we filed in response to the Spiritual Rights Foundation complaint.

In the interest of fairness (or maybe a good laugh), the SRF complaint is available for download here:

Reverend William "Bill" Duby's Duby-ous Achievements at the Academy for Psychic Studies

 Yeah, I know it's not St. Paddy's Day
but a pic like this make me want a Guinness.

In honor of the Academy for Psychic Studies' attempt to re-write their own crooked and perverted history, I thought I would recycle an older article describing just a few of the outrageous and unlikely miraculous accomplishments claimed by the Academy's founder.

Bill Duby (Reverend Bill to his followers) made several claims that were dubious.  He claimed to have once de-materialized with Angela Silva.  Of course, he did it before any of us met him and he never did it again because we would disintegrate if we knew the truth so there was no way he'd show us how it happened but of course, he did it and you'd better not question that fact or even joke about it or he will completely destroy you because Bill was a minister of peace.

Yeah, right.

Bill claimed several accomplishments that were miraculous or very difficult to have attained.  It wasn't just one or two of them.  He had a whole bunch of them.  Anyone who questioned his dubious achievements were relentlessly hounded, demeaned and pummeled into submission before being dragged out the door and dropped in the gutter.  While Bill's claims of great accomplishments were questionable, that he would utterly destroy anyone who doubted them, wasn't.

Still, Bill Duby was honored and deified as the psychotic founder of his psychotic church, the Spiritual Rights Foundation.  Bill's visage was plastered all over the building and on the web site, newspaper, audio recordings, video recordings and anything else where he could be seen.

SRF headquarters looked like Pyongyang (that's the capital of North Korea, you fucking SRF troll) with the portrait of Bill displayed just like portraits of Kim Jong Il.

Today, there's a whole different face of the Academy for Psychic Studies presented to the public.  There's no face displayed.  Look at their web site: a few names, no pictures and no personal stories from the trained psychotics of the Academy.

Most prominent:  no pictures of the psychotic founder.

What's that all about?

It's the Academy for Psychic Studies trying to un-ring the bell they started clanging so many years ago.  While it's nice they finally stopped all that racket, it tells you something about them.  After the Academy assaulted our hearing with their long and annoying testimonies of the benefits of all they have to offer, they have been falling silent.  They are sounding more and more ashamed of the perverse legacy of their founder, Reverend William (Bill) Duby.

I'm not the first to write about Bill Duby's odd and utterly destructive manner of psychological manipulation.  I'm certainly not the only one who has exposed the crazy practices behind the iron gates of the Academy for Psychic Studies.  I'm just one of many and I am one of a few who are writing about this crazy group online.

But to the Academy for Psychic Studies, when their own history is exposed the only response is silence.  In fact, their silence is so strong those who are looking for information on the Academy have nowhere to look but right here.

The Academy for Psychic Studies has completely eliminated all reference to Rev. William (Bill) Duby from their website. They have also removed all reference to Angela Silva and Robin Dumolin.

The Academy's commercial site offers audio recordings, videos and books on meditation and spiritual matters.  Materials featuring Rev. William Duby are still offered for sale.  Recordings featuring the soothing presence of Angela Silva and Robin Dumolin are very absent from the product line.  Why is that?

When Bill Duby was still around to annoy us he presented Robin Dumolin and Angela Silva as not just heads of his psychotic church, he presented them as the embodiment of his psychotic church.  Any affront to the perverse belief system he presented to us as divine information found only through his personal interpretation of the Bible and his ability to channel the spirit and presence of God Himself and Jesus Christ was also a personal insult to Angela and Robin which would be punished with water boarding and crucifixion.

Despite the above women holding prominent positions at the Academy for Psychic Studies, they choose to hide in the shadows.  They would rather pretend their founder never existed.  They hope that people would ignore what is being said about them here and choose instead to ring the bell on the iron gate in person to experience for themselves the warm and nourishing love and acceptance of the Academy for Psychic Studies.

The folly of the Academy's response is pretty clear:  by not getting ahead of the story, by not defining themselves in the public eye, they are allowing this blog and the others who write about, collect stories about and otherwise document what is said about the cult that is the Academy for Psychic Studies to provide un-challenged opinions and they are allowing themselves to be defined.

And that definition isn't always something they'd like to see.

When any interested party Google's the Academy, the Spiritual Rights Foundation, Rev, Bill Duby, Angela Silva or Robin Dumolin  they wind up right here on this blog.  And this blog isn't exactly their friend.  They've gone so far as to remove their Facebook page.  There's no Twitter feed for them but I guess there never was one.  The public access TV talk show has been removed and so has the infamous radio show "Total Prosperity".

After so many years of blasting their faces online, in print, on public access television, on the radio and everywhere they can try to look good, they are now pretending to have never existed.  As far as Bill is concerned, he has gone from their beloved founder to "who's that?"

Well, none of his followers knew much about Bill - he never told the same story about himself twice.  All I know is that Bill claimed to be a lot of things - things he could have never been.

As for his Witches of Ellsworth Street - it's pretty clear who they are and what they are feeling right now.  They are empty shells of themselves in fear of the world and in fear of the things said by the people they have touched with their gnarled hands.

The time has come for the Witches to close that den of perversion, greed and spiritual dominance.

Closure would be the decent thing to do but when was the last time they ever did a decent thing for the people around them?  Would people who will host anniversary dinners, Thanksgiving dinners, Christmas dinners demand the food be purchased by the ministers and staff who serve them (purchased with the personal funds of the staff and ministers' personal funds - not SRF's); people who demand their followers say nothing but praise for them and people who chase all their flock for the lunch money in their pockets do the decent thing for those who serve the church?

Well, I think we all know the answer to that.

As we wait to see how this nightmare will end, I'll dredge up some of the crazy and impossible achievements of the founder of the Academy for Psychic Studies, Reverend William Duby.

And as the Spiritual Rights Foundation, the Academy for Psychic Studies or whatever the hell they are calling themselves today, remains silent, they can't ignore that they were the ones who started all the noise.  They were the ones who contributed to the nutty and demented visage that is their public persona.  They are the ones who have the ability to rehabilitate themselves.

This is a open and public forum.  Despite the wailing of the Witches of Ellsworth, not one person has been banned from this blog.  No one.  Blogger doesn't allow for the exclusion of any individual commenter anyway.  And only one comment has been removed for cause.  That cause was because the commenter made a personal attack on a reader that did not advance debate or present a cogent and relevant position.  You may notice that I have retained several intelligent comments such as "fuck you" that are directed at me. I allow attacks on myself and will retain them and display them prominently.  Attacks on other readers are not allowed.



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



update:  see the link at the bottom of this post

Rev. William Duby made several "Duby-ous" claims about his background. He claimed to be Psychic, Father and Husband, Soldier, Computer Programmer, Government Employee, Card Room Worker, Preacher, Construction Worker, Card Cheat, Stand-Up Comedian, student and simultaneously disabled for insanity all in a 16 year span of time.

In that period, Bill claims he took 7 years off (so the above actually happened in 9 years) to study all nine of the great scriptures. If you can name all nine, I'll give you a dozen Krispy Kremes. He also spent most of these 7 years meditating.  In bed.  In Bill's words: "I only got up to eat, sleep, shit and fuck."  So I bet he studied by putting the "scriptures" under his pillow so the words would float into his brain, then wiped his butt with the pages.

He also claimed to have healed some 25,000 souls while carrying on affairs with hundreds of women - far surpassing Tiger Woods' Duby-ous achievement.

Bill speaks of a close relationship with Lewis Bostwick, founder of the Berkeley Psychic Institute (BPI) saying often "Lewis took me under his wing." and that "Lewis" blessed him with the blow-off: "Now go out and learn."

According to those who saw it, Bill was near Lewis Bostwick only long enough to be considered a pain in the ass (who says they weren't a good judge of character?) and get dragged out of BPI HQ to be banished to the Walnut Creek facility and far away from Lewis Bostwick permanently.

We could confirm some of the things William Duby claimed (he was certainly married, a Soldier and a pest at BPI). Some we just knew was true - like his claim of insanity.

The rest of it was all blather. Mere fantasies of Bill's damaged mind intended to make him the holy man he could never truly be.

Maybe he's no different from the rest of them?

At any rate, Reverend William Duby exaggerated his background and applied a spin to the key events in his life to entrance and impress his followers and to trick them into elevating him into the spiritually superior, holy and blessed leader he never really was.

So if you can see Reverend Bill's Duby-ous achievements as what they really are, you might find a series of events that only a loser, a con man, a charlatan could have experienced.


Instead of idolizing losers, how about we all recognize the hero in all of us? Why not create a miracle of your own?

Do something simple: help a kid with homework. Feed someone. Pick up trash. Say good morning to your neighbor.

I'll bet your grandkids will idolize you for it. So will your neighbors.


What Duby-ous achievements do you know about?  Feel free to leave them in the comment field.  Let us know!


----------------------------------------------------

Below is a link to another infamous article in American Spirit Newspaper describing having an experience called "the light".  An experience with "the light" was said to be the defining experience of spirituality, the holy grail of enlightenment and the peak of one's spiritual openness.  Despite that status, the spiritual significance of "the light" was never explained (not, at least, to anyone at the Academy for Psychic Studies) and whatever relevance this experience had to your belief in the things Rev. William Duby taught was never explained.  It was said that the experience was all you needed to believe.

Read this mess carefully.  If your brain cells are still alive you'll see a shocking thing: the people in this article are describing their own dissociation from the real world (which can be a real mental disorder) and Angela Silva at least, describes what seems to be an LSD trip.  How do I know this?  Well, in speaking with people knowledgeable in psychology and with people experienced in taking LSD, I found that their descriptions of those events match what those in the article describe - especially the LSD hallucination.

And as one guy said, "Look at the guy in the picture.  He's gone.  You can see it in his eyes."

Bill being the ever-crafty con man, probably slipped Angela some LSD in a drink so he could impress her with his psychic prowess.  Who knows what else he did to her but if it all happened, it would explain a lot about them both.

It all happens for a reason - SRF's reason.

Props to Psychdoctorate for providing the inspiration I needed to write this article.

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

Every time I have an evil thought about Sarah Palin, SRF takes a dollar from someone.  Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc!

Damn.  Now I have to get treatment Tiger Woods style. 

OK, so that's a crappy example.  Here are two much better ones:

From Attacking Faulty Reasoning by T. Edward Damer:
"I can't help but think that you are the cause of this problem; we never had any problem with the furnace until you moved into the apartment." The manager of the apartment house, on no stated grounds other than the temporal priority of the new tenant's occupancy, has assumed that the tenant's presence has some causal relationship to the furnace's becoming faulty.

From With Good Reason by S. Morris Engel:
More and more young people are attending high schools and colleges today than ever before. Yet there is more juvenile delinquency and more alienation among the young. This makes it clear that these young people are being corrupted by their education.

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

"Post hoc ergo propter hoc" is the belief that an event is caused by whatever happens before it no matter when that previous thing happened, no matter how it happened, no matter if that first thing is totally not connected to what happens afterwards.  It's like saying "step on a crack and break your mother's back" and is considerd a logical fallacy.  It can explain some predictable and reproducable events (like if I bash my thumb with a hammer, I curse loudly - it's true!  Ask Joy about it!) but not much more. 

Oddly, it seems to be a basis for people to believe "everything happens for a reason" - you know, like when the trained psychotics at the Spiritual Rights Foundation say "you mocked it up!".

Cults and "spiritual" organizations rely on the fallacy of "post hoc ergo propter hoc" to maintain the illusion of effectiveness and truth of their teachings.

When they have an example of a miracle, they rely on that delusion and kindergartener logic to support and promote their unreliable and morally bankrupt teachings by touting that a favorable and beneficial event was certainly a result of their enlightened and spiritual activities.

SRF used it all the time.  I encountered it from the day I wandered in the door, thinking I was visiting a hair replacement center.

The first thing I remember is the time William Duby was hospitalized for a diabetic crisis, having an elevated blood glucose level. Bill's blood sugars was claimed to be the highest ever seen and scared the living crap out of his doctors. He responded to treatment and was released. For years, his recovery was attributed to his strong psychic skills - not to good medical treatment.

I was hospitalized for heart failure. I came into the ER with a record-setting heart ejection fraction (EF) of only 15%. That is so low, my doctors nearly dropped from heart failure themselves - normal is about 55% to 65%.  With cautions that I would experience only a limited recovery, I responded to treatment and was released from the hospital with an armload of medicines and comprehensive treatment program to follow.

My recovery took much longer but was as miraculous as Bill's.  I can walk and do more than I expected.  While there is no complete recovery from a serious illness (Bill Duby and I had to take lots of medicines to remain in recovery and maintain our health - I will always need them), I had said and still say it's my strict adherance to my treatment plan that effected my recovery. I did receive psychic healings and all that. However even then, I was clear that I believed the miracle of modern medicine healed me - the healings helped me just calm down and focus on maintaining my treatment.

Of course, there were several oddballs who came by to offer new age and spiritual healing advice.  They gave recommendation for full body scans for nutritional deficiencies to Indian healing rituals to the use of vitamins, minerals, motor oil, recycled pond water and re-processed rat poison to purge my body of the negative forces consuming me.

For reasons unclear to me, one of the cult members, considered to be their resident "health and body healing expert" dropped in to deliver a special healing concoction and instructed me to take a full dose three times a day. 

Each dose of this new age mess of "healing minerals" contained about twice the amount of salt and potassium a healthy person should have per day.  For them, taking this stuff three times a day can lead to heart health problems.  Big problems.  Like what I had.  For those of us with cardiovascular issues (hypertension and heart disease) that much salt and potassium can lead to death.  Ask your doctor if you need to know why.

Yes, that result is  predictable and reproducable and no, I am not about to participate in your reproduction experiment.  However if you follow the next execution at a Texas prison, you'll see how salt and potassium are used to send a condemned person to meet his maker.

I never took the stuff and that person is still the SRF healer.  I recovered despite that person's help.

Unfrotunately, my recovery gave SRF a reason to believe their deluded, psychotic healing methods caused my heart to work a lot better. If they were responsible for my recovery, it would be the only time in medical history that heart failure was treated successfully by doing not a damn thing.

In fact, they gave me a "healing" just before I dragged my one-foot-in-the-grave ass to the ER of our local hospital.  That alone should tell you how effective that "healing" was - instead of a pathway to a prosperous life, it was a near-death experience I hope they will not foist upon you.

Despite being in a post-recovery haze of prescription medicine side-effects (which still plagues me) I wrote about that healing in the SRF organ "American Spirit Newspaper". In the past, they touted my recovery as the reason to come in to SRF for healing.  They've read my article on the air and proudly waved it in front of prospective victims.

Now that I am on the other side, all that changed.  As I am an official SRF infidel, my words are suspect, corrupt, blasphemous, deceitful.  Yet they remain on the SRF web site and is still prominently displayed on the American Spirit.  How in hell are they going to explain THAT?

I just love the irony.

At any rate, whenever someone has a small victory in thier life - one that would have happened even without SRF, they jump in front of the parade waving their arms and any other parts of their bodies exclaiming the power of their techniques and the strength of conviction that SRF and only SRF will heal your cracked-up life.
 
But if you have a personal crisis or encouter one of the many speed bumps along the road of life, those same caring, warm and nourishing psychics of the Spritual Rights Foundation turn away, blaming your troubles on your innate evil and your habit of "mocking-up" issues that are not in your best interest.  SRF healings are available, though, for a nominal fee and are recommended to you for the duration of your troubles - which is usually forever.
 
In order to prevent more evil from entering your un-spiritual life, you will be hounded to "bring your tithing space into present time".  You will be advised that by following God's law to give the head psychotics of SRF up to 30% of your assets every year and up to 30% of your income on top of that, you will remove the evil, deceit and overall bad energy from your life and will maintain a truly spiritual and holy existance.
 
Don't those women staring into crystal balls, chopping off chicken's heads and doing things with religious icons I don't want to hear about say exactly the same thing?  Aren't many of them jailed and sued as well?
 
Can you put your faith into an organization and a group of people whos only support for their dysfunctional operations and outrageous claims is "Post hoc, ergo propter hoc."?
 
Many of us did.
 
And because we did, we continue to pay the price in rebuilding lost assets and wages.  We struggle to re-establish the relationships with our families and friends that fell apart.  We pray daily we can continue to maintain the freedom of our lives.
 
If you believe that because one thing happened a subsequent event is always related, then the Spiritual Rights Foundation is for you.
 
Yes, if you knock over a glass of water, you will get a spill.  If you crash your car and don't wear a seat belt, you'll be injured.  Those kind of events are predictable and reproducable. 
 
But if you think a man who proudly called himself "legally insane" healed himself from diabetes by using the same psychic energy techniques he used to con you out of your life savings, your weekly paycheck, your spouse, your children and any self-respect you ever had maybe you might think twice about accepting that something happens for a reason.

If you think the wives of that same man are annointed to carry on the delusional and idiotic teachings of their spiritual husband, if you believe they and they alone must be presented with your hard-won assets and hard-earned wages because, well, their husband said they could and they have always done it so you'd better hand it over, please take some time to reconsider the reasons why.

Because many of those reasons are all the wrong ones.