Don't Ask. Don't Tell.

Originally posted 6/14/09

Updated today.

Now that the First Amendment rights of every ex-member of the Spiritual Rights Foundation has been upheld, I went back to Steve Sanchez's book "Spiritual Perversion". Steve's book is an accurate account of what happened behind the scenes at the Spiritual Rights Foundation. It is so accurate, I felt like I was re-living all those insane years at the cult.

Of course a lot of what Steve wrote was inspirational for me. Without his groundbreaking book, I would not have mustered the courage to create this blog and begin the process of relating my side of the SRF story.

At the Spiritual Rights Foundation, as in many cults, the inner workings and daily interactions between leader and member and even between peers is considered sacred, inspired and holy. So much so, that we were told to not repeat anything that was said - especially to those outside the cult. We even had to sign a document to that effect.

This document (the "agreement statement") said, in effect, that no student or minister of the Academy for Psychic Studies may speak of any event involving any person or leader, the techniques presented, the color of the walls, the horrendous odor of the back rooms, or the appearance of the leaders (who splashed their repulsive countenances online and in the newspaper anyway) FOR ALL ETERNITY.

That someone could be held to non-disclosure is OK up to a certain point. I have signed dozens of non-disclosure statements for various reasons. None were like the kind we signed at the Spiritual Rights Foundation.

Normal non-disclosure statements are limited in scope by either the kind of information to be held secret, in time or both. But the SRF/Academy for Psychic Studies statement tried to cover any event, any leader for all time.

Steve Sanchez wrote in "Spiritual Perversion" a piece about his own hesitation about signing such an oppressive and unlawful agreement. One of the founders of the Academy for Psychic Studies even flatly refused to sign because of it's one-sided nature.

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

Steve describes the following:

Rev. Bill wrote a long “agreement statement’ which that went on and on and on about the sanctity of SRF and the dire consequences for any individual who broke their vow of confidentiality to the Church. He said that as ministers we were sworn to never repeat what we hear inside the walls of SRF because it is the same as a priest receiving a confessional from a Church member. He made everyone sign it, but Rev. Harpreet wouldn’t sign it.

We were all profoundly in awe of this document and what it implied. If we didn’t sign it, we knew we would be shunned and probably kicked out of SRF. I didn’t want to sign it, but it seemed unthinkable not to.

I was in a horrendous dilemma about this signing the document, but I didn’t want to show this. Part of me just wanted to sign it to show my loyalty and be ‘in’. But I also felt a nagging, painful stress doubt and rage in my heart and head. I was haunted by the fear I was being screwed and making a horrible mistake. After delaying, I signed it.

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

I delayed signing it as well. Actually I went for several years without having signed any kind of non-disclosure. The reason I was uneasy about it was simple: the "agreement" was so oppressive in it's nature (an ETERNAL contract would not be enforceable), with consequences so dire it looked like I was about to sign away my testicles.

After some amount of time (years) they finally figured out I didn't put my mark on the dotted line and made me sign it anyway. By then, I realized the statement was worthless, in a legal sense and unenforceable. You can't have a private agreement to hold someone to confidentiality through eternity. It just does not make sense.

But what about it made sense? As explained to me, the document was intended to maintain the sanctity of the "psychic readings" by keeping them confidential and that state and federal law supported said confidentiality by defining the reading as a "religious confession".

OK. Confidentiality in a "religious confession" is reasonable - but that duty of confidentiality within a confession is between "priest and penitent". Let's say someone dropped into the SRF "healing clinic" for a brief reading. Let's also say you were assigned to read that person. Your duty of confidentiality was to the person you were reading and no one else.

In actuality, all the things said in the readings conducted at the Academy for Psychic Studies were freely discussed among the gathered faithful for ridicule, humiliation and disdain.

If you were a member of the public, whether getting your reading for the first time or even your 10th time, your "confidential" reading would be spread around the Academy for Psychic Studies as fast as a rumor spreads through a trailer park. Your "spiritual faults" will be laid bare for all to hear, your troubles spread around from person to person. And it's not so we can rally around you to help ease your pain.

Instead, we gathered to laugh like we are listening to a celebrity roast and ridicule you with any of a number of insults. If you returned, we would know how to pounce on you and we used the information disclosed from your "confidential" reading to love bomb and deceive you. Without exception, $150 dollar classes were recommended to those who received a reading. Of course, even more $60 readings were suggested.

Most of the public walked out - but not because of any disclosure of their "confidential" reading. It was more like the middle-aged ladies and hippie-chick wannabes of the cult followed them around so closely, the visitors wondered if they were being watched like thieves.  But whether you walked or stayed, you would be treated the same: like an ignorant, uneducated, unenlightened, easy mark.

Psychic Readings at the Academy for Psychic Studies are just like "Three Card Monty" where everyone who plays eventually loses it all right in front of people who are laughing behind your back.

But that was nothing compared to what the ministers and students went through.

Whenever a minister or student received a reading, the entire contents of that reading were promptly communicated to SRF leadership for appropriate response.

Usually that appropriate response was a demand for more time working for free at the Bethel Island farm, performing a "love project" (another way to work for free), or putting in endless hours of "volunteer" labor on other endeavors. "Reform through labor" was a suggested way to help one emerge from the doghouse. Just work your ass off at the leaders' farm for free, for the leaders business for free, for the "church" for free, hell, work for anything SRF for free and you may have a chance at redemption in ten years or so.

But the faithful few see this demand as a helpful thing, intended for their own spiritual growth and unfoldment. They faithfully discuss the personal, intimate details of every "psychic reading" with any member of the Spiritual Rights Foundation while laughing their ass off or while describing the shortcomings of the person they read with a healthy, healing dose of disdain.

Even though, in California, a minister of a church can indeed conduct "pastoral counseling" without having to obtain a license, that ability is somewhat limited and the minister's duty to follow the law, accepted therapeutic practice and above all: confidentiality remains.


Ministers at SRF are told they are healing and helping their flock process emotions, but only at a price: 60 or more dollars an hour and 120 bucks for each class.  Make 'em pay was the motto.  Put business first was the command.  Get them in for readings and more classes was the dictate.


It's all in the name of making a million dollars a year for the leaders.

I wonder: how can the Spiritual Rights Foundation expect to attract new members if they see their new prospects the way the leaders see the existing members - as piggy banks and disposable diapers.

But don't let me stop you from getting a psychic reading from the Spiritual Rights Foundation. Let them do their thing and see whatever it is they see.

When you get to the part where you can ask them to address your questions and give them feedback on the reading, think of this:

DON'T ASK. DON'T TELL.

Don't even bring home the little pamphlet they give you.

Psychic Suicide

Provender said...

Horrific. Sometimes it amazes me that people can recover after experiences in these controlling groups. Some do. Some don't. That picture of the teddy bear is going to stick in my mind for a long time. It is a too-accurate representation of what these power-hungry manipulators do to people.

December 23, 2009 8:10 PM 

Janehellen said...

This awful cult groups shuldnt be allowed to exist. I was there to, close to suicide. I thought that jumping of Golden Gate should do it, but fortunatelly I was to confused and in to bad shape to even get there after leaving SRF.

December 23, 2009 11:29 PM 

The people at the Spiritual Rights Foundation are a pretty close-knit community of the few who are the "spiritual elite", small in number. Not so much out of choice but more of necessity. SRF is such a secretive and foreboding place, there simply wasn't anyone else you can talk to outside the cult. In fact, the "contract" we were forced to sign forbade contact with psychologists, therapists or practically any mental health or medical professional.

The result of that restriction had a profound effect on the congregation.

Of course, there is the story of our friend "Santa". Santa followed the meditative teachings faithfully. He was also known to have some "issues" in his life that led to some odd behavior at first then finally to a full-blown psychotic episode in the SRF headquarters. He was not referred to emergency psychiatric care but was thrown out on to the street and left pounding on the gate.

But that is only one story.

One man named Larry was a successful general contractor and had a thriving construction business. He joined the Spiritual Rights Foundation's elite Clairvoyant Training Program. After admission, the taunts, the cheating and a lot of general exploitation began. Larry spent a lot of money on SRF. Larry spent a good deal of time at SRF. He even employed several SRF members in his construction company.

Despite Larry spending so much money and providing jobs for many of the SRF members, he was treated like a doormat and played like a fiddle.

There are several tales of Larry being demeaned and spoken of in terrible ways. The people doing the talking were the leaders of SRF. For what purpose is anyone's guess. How the result came about is unquestionable, though.

After a few years of this abuse, Larry sat down in his home in the Berkeley Hills shoved a shotgun in his mouth and pulled the trigger.

Larry blew his brains out.

While Larry's is the only suicide I know of, there are several who speak of suicidal thoughts and actual suicide attempts. None could find the strength or will to contact a mental health professional or even call a suicide prevention hotline.

Why?

Because that kind of contact was prohibited.

The Spiritual Rights Foundation operates a "Psychic Help Line" charging $4.95 for the first minute and $1.95 for each additional minute. Some of those calls were from people who spoke of suicide.

As one who kept answering the "Help Line" I fielded my share of those kind of calls. I did refer a couple of them to the national suicide hot line. Later, I suggested that we keep that hot line number near the "Help Line" so persons better served by mental health professionals may receive the help they really need.

That not only got shot down, it was ridiculed with the taunt that I was more interested in getting someone else in the caller's head than helping them "blow that picture".

I did hear of one person at SRF who was admitted to emergency psychiatric care. Apparently that referral was made by way of a relative - not anyone at SRF. After some months of treatment, that person returned to SRF.

And of course, there is Santa.

Of all the companies and organizations (religious and non-religious) I have been associated with, suicidality was a pretty rare thing and when recognized, was immediately addressed with medical and mental health care. I remember one event at a retail store I worked at as a young man. A salesperson called his colleague to say: "I'm sitting here with a bottle of Scotch and my gun on the table. The gun is telling me to shoot myself." The mental health emergency team was immediately contacted and he got the treatment he needed. His life was saved.

Nationally, the rate of suicide is about 0.01% of the population. Factor in suicide attempts and ideation and I'll bet it's at or below 1%. So for a small group like SRF, suicidal thinking or suicide attempts should be rare indeed.

However, I have heard from many who escaped the Spiritual Rights Foundation that the experience there led to thoughts of suicide and attempts at suicide. More so than I have ever encountered at even the most dysfunctional company, club or street gang.

From that small number of the elite, the number of those who have contemplated, attempted or even succeeded in suicide is truly mind-boggling. I won't say how many but the number of those who disclosed they have thought about or attempted suicide is one hell of a lot more than one.

Proportionally, I would bet you a dozen Krispy Kremes that the suicidality at the Spiritual Rights Foundation (and suicidality means thinking, attempting or accomplishing suicide) is far higher than anyone would expect in a group that small or in a group of any size.

The time, place and means of suicidality varied. But it all boiled down to just one issue. A evil and horrid issue: the constant harassment, the vile and animalistic verbal assaults on your thoughts and daily life, the relentless drive for control over your being, your money and your family.

I have never encountered so many from such a small, "elite" group who share such a dark experience.

I have never encountered an organization so disdainful of those who follow it.

I have never encountered an organization who would stand silent and sacrifice the lives of those who support it to continue the vile greed that sustains it.


Those who survived their experience with the Spiritual Rights Foundation are survivors in the purest and truest sense of the word. Not only did they live to start again but they survived long enough to have that second chance at life.

Unfortunately, Larry doesn't have that chance. As for his widow, after Larry's death Bill Duby offered a pitiful sum to take Larry's construction company right out from under her. I am told the offer came only a few days after Larry's suicide - apparently in order to use that horrible event to bargain from the position of strength. Still in shock, she accepted.

So, think of that before you attend that free healing clinic or get a psychic reading at the Spiritual Rights Foundation. After a few years, you may wind up looking down the barrel of a shotgun.

And your widow may as well...

Drinking with the Woman at the Well

I would have added a caption here but it's just too obvious...

I like to keep abreast of what is happening at the Spiritual Rights Foundation. Even up to listening in on their broadcasts, reading the web site and just plain asking around. After my exposé on the nuttiest church service I ever heard, not only has there been no more church services broadcast on the net, all live internet broadcasts by the Spiritual Rights Foundation have been suspended.

Spirit Talk radio (the live talk show broadcast at midnight) on Live 365 has been offline for a while now. The church services are no longer broadcast. The live Total Prosperity radio show on KEST radio continues and The Paranormal Connection TV talk show (recorded) is on the Comcast Cable Public Access Channel, however.

Update: The Paranormal Connection has mercifully vanished from the San Jose Public Access Channel (called CreaTV). This collection of vomitus has lived on borrowed time for the last two years. It has now been ejected from public view. I hope it stays off the air forever.

I'd like to take credit for that development, but it may be because the equipment broke down or there is some other event preventing live broadcasts.

Naaah. I'll take credit for that. I mean, why would the Spiritual Rights Foundation want to give me even more fodder for the cannon?  Besides, they are a fucking CULT and as such are prone to placing responsibility everywhere but where it belongs - themselves.

[note: SRF and their lawyer used the above statement in their failed attempt to sue me. Their argument was I personally pulled the plug on SRF's crappy radio and TV shows. So, how is it that I have complete control over THEIR broadcast activities?

At any rate, we pummeled them in our legal defense and sent them back to the gates of hell where they belong.]

No one is really fighting back with a counter-message to this blog, though. But a pro-SRF blog has appeared. It's small (and I hope it stays that way). Take a look at it. In fact, why not comment on it?

Woman At The Well Ministries (you'll have to Google it as I cannot link you there directly).

Here's my take on the Woman at the Well: I know the person who is writing it. She is basically good and decent. And like all of us, she fell in with a really bad crowd. You know - that crowd in the big Victorian house on Ellsworth Street. I hold nothing against her. She is speaking her mind as I am here and that is a great testament to the freedoms we have here in the USA. But, since the right of free expression extends to the freedom to dissent, let's take a look at her writings.

One standout paragraph is this one:
----------------------------------------

Tonight I listened to my friend struggling with watching our mutual friend isolate themselves more and more, finding long-time friends too irritating to spend time with. Our friend was losing their spiritual awareness; becoming more selfish and self-centered, and LONELY without even knowing it. This is the subtle trap of following the foolishness of the personality. One day we wake up and wonder, "Where has Love gone?"

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

Of course, many of us woke up one day and wondered "Where has my bank account gone? Where has my spouse gone? Where has my child gone?" Oh, right. They went where love went. Especially the bank account. Too many of us have lost spouses and children to SRF. It's a rant I want to express later. But now, how about the above paragraph?

Let's say you were leaving a bad situation. Maybe something like a destructive cult. Maybe this cult cost you your marriage (by encouraging, even forcing divorce), compromised your child's love and faith in you (as a result of special attention given by the cult leadership - you can figure that out for yourself) and cost you tens of thousands of dollars. Would you want to put some distance between you and them?

Wouldn't you want to have a healthy separation from your old, dysfunctional life? Wouldn't that help you in your own healing? I mean, recovering alcoholics don't associate with unrepentant alcoholics and those on parole are prohibited from associating with criminals. The purpose is to keep those who are re-claiming a healthy, productive and functional life from slipping back into bad habits.

Sounds to me that this "friend" was losing their slavish devotion to the cult and is creating that healthy separation so they can reclaim their life. They say it's a lonely thing. I say it's an independent thing. I say it's a strong thing. I say it's a brave thing. I say it's the way to get your life back.

Those who knew you as who you once were tend to want to continue to see you in that light. The drinking buddies tend to want you slamming shots and your partners in crime want you to help steal a car. It's a pretty well known phenomenon. Ask an AA sponsor (hmmm, I guess you can't as they are anonymous) or a parole officer.

It's also that High School clique thinking: if you don't stick with us, you'll suck. For someone approaching the magical age of 40, you'd think they were past all that. But as the Spiritual Rights Foundation thrives on gossip, rumor and sophomoric behavior (sounds a lot like life in a trailer park, doesn't it?) this person seems to be right there.

Besides, the bottom line is: if your "friend" won't spend time speaking with you, how do you know how that person feels?

Oh, yeah. It's clique think.

There's more. Read this gem from the same blog:
---------------------------------------------------

What did Rev. Bill teach me and my friend? That you offer a healing to those who irritate you. You ask your worst enemy for a reading. Why? You NEED that person. The irritation you feel in their presence is not the other person. Let me repeat that:

The irritation you feel is NOT the other person.

It is energy blocking the connection between you and your body. Its evidence is the division and corruption of the communication between human souls. It is what separates us from Heaven.

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

We have gatherings at our house with our fellow recovering cultists regularly. Those gatherings allow us to create community outside the context of SRF and that is great.

And I know that this blog, my wife's blog, the knowledge that people are reading our blogs and, in fact, my very existence is irritating to the Spiritual Rights Foundation and the author of the pro-SRF blog. Since I have reported on the SRF activities and comment freely (to the extent that Google-ing Spiritual Rights Foundation, the Academy for Psychic Studies, Angela Silva or Robin Dumolin brings up this blog with the rest of the SRF-related bodily discharge), how can I not be considered a thorn in their side?

So, in the spirit of my pledge, I am making an offer: come and say hello. Sit with me. Have a cup of coffee and some good eats. Stay as long as you like. Say whatever you want. Do as you please. Come get a healing and give a healing.

If you really want to honor your teacher, why don't you come unblock the communication between your body and soul? You NEED me.

The coffee pot is on. The healing is free.

And the irritation you feel is not the other person.

Let me repeat that: The irritation you feel is NOT the other person.

The Dead Cat Bounce

I recalled this article during a conversation with the psychdoctorate. Jeff was reminiscing about the relaxing trance retreats at BPI and how he had to sleep for 12 hours to recover from the relaxation.

The Spiritual Rights Foundation was famous for dragging everyone together for a weekend of trance, after trance, after trance until you had so much trance you had to enter another trance to get any kind of sleep at the retreat. Then after two days of trance, it's back home to sleep from Sunday afternoon to Monday morning. Weekend trance retreats were so common, and I went to so many of them, I even lost my once-rabid interest in football so I can drop my aching head on a pillow for ten hours.

Although this article is actually about something other than the effects of trance, I thought it would be appropriate to move it up front in honor of the upcoming SRF retreat to Lake Tahoe.


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

Anonymous said...

Hello Mike, I remember that incident. I was being completely shunned by everyone. I shouldn't have even gone, but they made Linda make me go, so that I didn't sink into greater evil, that is, get lose from their control. I was accused by Bill of disloyalty to SRF in front of everyone all night long he day before. Loneliness is exponentially greater when you are alone among a group. Being useful crawling underneath the house and burying the cat was a perverse way of feeling useful. It was better than doing nothing. Maybe I could get a morsel of approval.
It was a shock when Mike offered to help, and it was deeply touching. It caused me to be less dissociated and to feel pain and emotion. I enjoyed doing it even though it was meant to be humiliating. Mike was the real minister of Christ in this story, I was the poor in spirit.

With love and forgiveness

Steve

March 11, 2009 8:37 PM

Anonymous said...

lets not forget that leaders of the retreat could do no wrong and had to pay nothing while
charging outrageous prices to others for horrible food cooked up by the cult chef ( a short order cook who had deluded himself that his food and meal plans tasted good) typical meal was cheese bread and salad

May 3, 2009 8:37 AM

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

Guilt by association. A term well-used in the McCarthy days. A logical fallacy like: all dogs have four legs. My cat has four legs. Therefore my cat is a dog. Q.E.D.

It makes no sense for those, like you, who have their brains intact. To those who gave themselves up to a mind control cult (as I had) it makes perfect sense.

The Spiritual Rights Foundation loved to hold weekend relaxation retreats. These retreats were big money makers for SRF, bringing in some $250 per person for two days of trance, hot tubs, saunas, sleeping on the floor, eating greasy food, sitting on hard chairs and being treated like a leper if you did anything wrong. These retreats were so relaxing, most people had to go straight home to sleep off the relaxation.

I remember one retreat, held early in the year in wet and cool weather. At that time, Steve Sanchez was in the doghouse for imaginary crimes, as usual. And as usual, everyone avoided him so they would not catch his disease. Despite the ridiculous and juvenile behavior of the congregation, Steve attended anyway.

While relaxing in the hot tub, two attendees of the retreat (a robust man who bragged of his physical prowess and a woman in a smallish swimsuit) began complaining of an awful smell. I recognized it. It was the smell of a dead animal. I didn't leap up immediately to find it. Instead, I waited to see if the man in the tub (a self-styled "skilled and enthusiastic worker") would rise to the challenge to identify and address the smell. Instead, he sat there drinking in the attention the woman in the smallish swimsuit was giving him - while he complained about the smell.

Knowing that there wasn't a soul attending who had the desire, skill or responsible nature to locate and address the source of the smell, I grabbed my flashlight (a tool I always keep with me that many at SRF had ridiculed me for carrying) and went on a search.

It didn't take long. After looking under one of the backyard houses (oddly, it was the one Bill and Angela lived in) I saw a dead cat all curled up and moldering. I had just announced my discovery and began the task of gathering the materials I needed to dispose of it when I heard (from I don't recall whom) "Hey Steve, go take care of that cat!"

Two people came up to me to ask me to stop what I was doing so that Steve can serve his penance by digging up that dead cat without benefit of a pair of gloves, a shovel, a bag to contain the animal or the help of anyone present. After all, Steve was in the doghouse and digging up a dead cat and disposing of it with his BARE HANDS was exactly the punishment God intended.

That situation was absolutely untenable to me.

As Steve dutifully began his disgusting task, I stopped him, saying that I have some tools and materials we can use to go take care of the problem.

That's right. I said WE.

After gathering some disposable gloves, plastic bags, a shovel and some other items, Steve and I both went where the animal lay, dug him out and disposed of him properly. The smell vanished and the "skilled and enthusiastic worker" got more attention from the woman in the smallish swimsuit but without the complaints.

Not a word of thanks. No acknowledgment at all. But the guy in the tub did have a bigger grin on his face.

Steve received a hard time at that retreat. I expected that. But was was surprising to me was that I had a hard time there as well.

You see, everyone avoided me as if I had a contagious disease. Ebola? The plague? Flu? None of that. It's the disease of association. It's the sin of defiling yourself with the presence of the damned. The sickness of helping a fellow parishioner, a brother in Christ, a minister of the lord in a time of need.

I'm not sure what verse in the Bible is relevant to this particular situation (I wouldn't really, as SRF doesn't study the whole Bible - only small fragments of it). But I think I know what it might be.

It's guilt by association: Steve is evil. Those who help Steve are evil. He helped Steve. Therefore he is evil. Q.E.D.

It's a stupid association. One that no well-educated person (or even any reasonable, church-going person) would make. Would you shun a minister who visits those in prison, even on death row? I guess you would if we all think as those at SRF.

The remaining captives at SRF are afraid. Afraid that those of lower vibration will contaminate their good feeling. Afraid that those who are on the outs with the cult leadership will expose them to incurable ills. And there is the ever-present fear that the leadership will call them out next.

Since SRF is always on the lookout for the demon of the week, the Judas, no wonder the congregation shun anyone they believe is in disfavor. And no wonder they shun those who may be charitable and who practices love for his fellow man.

It's fear. Fear that only a cult can engender.

So, if you do want to join SRF and attend those refreshing and relaxing weekend retreats, be alert and aware. You don't want to be around the demon of the week. And God forbid that you display some Christian charity for said demon.

But make sure your linens are fresh and your bed is made. You'll need it to sleep off the relaxation.


And all the single babies like the single ladies:

Checkbook Spirituality

All Spiritual Rights Foundation escapees have experienced various mental and emotional issues upon their return to the real world. Things like PTSD, insomnia, fear, and so many other things are common among ex-cult members.

SRF's ex-members are no different.

I've certainly had my share of sleepless nights in the recent past (and still do, unfortunately). Being able to write in the blog here helps. And knowing I clobbered them with my psychic, uh, that is, legal shillelagh helps a little too.




Anyway, enough about me. This blog is supposed to be about the practices of the Spiritual Rights Foundation and the Academy for Psychic Studies.

I've been looking over the comments here and have been recalling a lot of conversations I had with other escapees. There is a common thread that haunts me. It's a common experience and a common affliction visited upon my friends and colleagues by the Spiritual Rights Foundation and the Witches of Ellsworth.

To a person, everyone experienced financial distress and a loss of assets while affiliated with the Spiritual Rights Foundation.

Some lost their hard-earned wages.

Others lost their family inheritance.

Too many gave away more than they should have in the unattainable quest for spiritual perfection. I have heard of some selling prized musical instruments, selling investments, giving away real estate - even not feeding their children so they may be near the master and have that chance to reach enlightenment.

You may think it is worthwhile to experience short-term pain for a long-term gain. However, the long-term gain is so long, none has yet reached the end zone. In fact, few cross their own 20 yard line.

No matter how relentless an individual's drive to reach that goal of ultimate spirituality, the goal line moves ever farther away with every step. The goal line is in a place unseen, unspoken and unattainable. Whatever it is you are looking for, SRF does not let you find it.

What you do find is there is a relentless drive to make payments.

Payments for any worthy cause.

Causes like buying building materials for a farm owned by Robin Dumolin and Angela Silva.

Maybe like using an SRF-owned construction firm to remodel and update Angela's apartment for free.

Or filling up the personal accounts of the leadership with the cash they so badly desire. Sorry, that should have been "need". My bad...

What can you say about an organization that plays "pass the hat" at every opportunity? Before classes, the "envelope" was passed so we may dump our hard earned money into it. Of course, that money was intended for the above mentioned worthy causes - and others.

We were told to spend every available penny on lavish gifts for our poor, impoverished leaders. These gifts sometimes cost more than the monthly net earnings of the followers.

And before you think these "fund raising" events happened only ad hoc (for that person who criticizes my vocabulary because she can't read, that means "for a purpose") those events were so regular, we expected to have to fill an envelope with money at every class, healing clinic, impromptu meeting, reading night, reading fair, church service, "work day", "love project", or even when waiting for the goddamn bus.

Whenever we showed up at SRF headquarters, the envelope was open.

No matter what your demeanor, pleasant, helpful, social or whatever, you would be shamed, degraded, humiliated and otherwise browbeat if you even hesitated to fill the envelope with stacks of your hard earned cash.

Of course, checks and credit cards were accepted as well.

There is no charitable giving by the Spiritual Rights Foundation. People in need are directed to the welfare office or other public assistance. Those in financial straits are told "bring your tithing space into present time", meaning to pay even more to SRF to make room for money to come in.

How does spending more on an organization that spent you to near death help you make room for more when your resources are already near zero?

You might be told to attend a tithing or prosperity class you can learn how to prosper. However, apart from the tithing class, you have to pay to attend. And you still face the prospect of feeding the envelope if you attend the tithing class.

Even while "learning" how to prosper, we had to pay and pay and pay some more.

Nothing was without a price.

Even the "warmth and nurturing" the Witches of Ellsworth claim to provide.

If you miss a few payments or speak with them in a candid and honest way about your financial situation, hoping for a negotiated arrangement, you are more likely to be heaved out the door than to be treated in a "warm and nurturing" manner.

It appears to me that your bank account is more important than warmth and nurturing to the Witches of Ellsworth.

Apart from the oppressive costs of the "classes" and the requirement to tithe away an enormous portion of our assets and earnings, there were so many "extras" we had to pay for (oh, sorry, I meant to say "contribute with a good attitude". My bad...) that whatever funds we had left for food, clothes, transportation, housing became more and more depleted.

So many I knew at SRF were mired in debt. Many were forced to file for bankruptcy. Some spent years digging out of their situation.

But we were all happy and giving with a happy heart and doing all we could to clean our polluted soul. So we gave. And gave. And gave some more.

Because you have to give to live.

Even if you give so much, you can no longer live.

So many of us were forced into a situation of financial pain, it was almost expected.

Bill called it the "financial growth period".We called it: "I can't believe I spent all my goddamn money on this fucking place! I guess I'll run my energy and get readings until I forget I am in debt and have to work until I am 178 to pay off what I owe"

When everyone who leaves SRF from a co-founder, to a esteemed minister, to a low-life such as myself find themselves in financial straits while at SRF and may find themselves needing years to fix the damage, would you wonder what in hell is happening to the faithful followers of SRF? And wouldn't you love to know where all that money went?

I would too.

I hope you won't experience the same as us.

Knowing all that, I wonder: If we gave money ostensibly to the non-profit Spiritual Rights Foundation but some (at least) of that money wound up in the hands of the decidedly for-profit Robin Dumolin or Angela Silva, wouldn't there be some kind of legal liability with that?

Isn't the diversion of non-profit funds to individuals something the IRS has a really hard time accepting?

My checkbook wants to know.

I'll bet yours does too.

PR 101

Beer + Girl = uh, well, I guess she'll have
quite a tale to tell in the morning.
Please mail her teeth back when you find them.

Uh, could you pass some Academy for Psychic Studies PR plan?

Oh, you don't have any either?  crap...

Anonymous said...

since srf is having problems with pr I would like to make some suggestions, maybe they could publicize their staff meetings where the cult leader berates the poor culties to do more recruiting, snd tells them she needs to make a million dollars a year

April 30, 2011 4:34 PM 

PR 101: Control the message or the message will control YOU.

Lately there's been a bunch of opinion all over the interweb about these new-fangled new-age kind of outfits.  Not a lot of it is good - meaning there are people who don't like it.  When a new-age guru packs a sweat lodge with faithful followers and makes them stay until they start dropping dead, when a chain of pseudo-religious joints attract protesters in Guy Fawkes masks and more and more speak out against the oddball beliefs and practices of new-age nitwits you might think the real world has a real problem accepting them.

The perception the real world has of new-age belief can be turned around with a little work, but new-age nurseries like BPI and the Academy for Psychic Studies have no awareness of how the real world works.  Since they can't embrace, much less understand the real world, the Academy prefers to remove all substantial information about themselves from public view to silently huddle in the shadows.

So instead of getting out in front of a potentially unfavorable story by putting out lots of feel-good PR and investing in communications that position them in the image they want for themselves, they just make simple, straightforward requests for the curious to take a class (which will run $150) or get a reading (which runs $60) or get a psychic house cleaning (for $300 to $600 per house) buy a recording, buy a book, attend a weekend retreat (for the bargain price of some $200 to sleep on the floor or receive a special healing or treatment for an appropriate donation BEFORE the curious get to know what's behind the wrought iron fence.

For the curious who are special enough (or rich enough) to "have it", they can spend $300 for a special psychic reading from one of the Witches of Ellsworth Street.  Once they have your 300 bucks, you'll get it all right: your wife will let your have it for blowing good money on a Three-card Monty game.  My suggestion: hide the lamps, frying pans, rolling pins and take a minute to file down all knives before you go to the psychic reading. It worked for me.

They tell the tale of how only the special can "have" what they offer and that only the elite can understand the mission of the organization and only the spiritually superior are worthy of their communication.  Those considered unworthy were primarily the press.

Everyone at the Academy for Psychic Studies were warned to never speak to news reporters no matter what the intent of the writer - even if his or her intent was to write a glowing and supportive article.  Their paranoia, inability to communicate except in the warped parlance of cult-speak and their overall lack of awareness of how the real world operates allowed the entire world to control their image - and that image wasn't a good one.

The Academy for Psychic Studies' initial response to my blog was to remove the videos they posted on YouTube. Over time, they slowly but surely removed their audio recordings, videos, online newspaper, radio "talk" show, internet "talk" show, public-access cable channel "talk" show and any other outlet they had to make themselves look good.

Not such a good idea.  As they were retreating from communication from the public, the public was getting a taste of the perverse and psychotic practices behind the iron gate of the Academy for Psychic Studies.

The control of marriages, the usurping of the parent-child relationship, the relentless drive for money were only a few of the dark secrets the Academy kept behind their iron curtain.  All of it appeared in newsprint, on video and between the pages of a tell-all book.

If you want details, you'll need to read Steve Sanchez's book "Spiritual Perversion" or read the print articles about the Academy for the details.  It's just too much for me to include here.

One thing that is for sure, as the Academy for Psychic Studies retreats into the shadows with the rest of the cockroaches they fire a parting shot over my bow, blaming me for their withdrawal.  They made that clear in their losing lawsuit against me, saying I forced them to become silent and withdraw their public messages.

Gee if that's all it takes, I'm going to see if I can do the same to Rush, Rachel, Bill O, Glenn (crap, someone beat me to it) and whoever else.  I'm sure those guys never have anyone say they are idiots.  So, they'll run and hide as soon as anyone says so. I mean the Academy did it, so must be true right?

The lawsuit they filed against me backfired.  Badly.  Not only were they defeated soundly, the back blast covered them in soot like the Coyote lighting up a quality Acme exploding cigar.  Now that the world knows how foolishly they behaved, half the world is laughing, the other half is winding up to let loose a massive green loogie straight at them.

The anti-cult organizations have been updated with information about the Academy - including the full text of their lawsuit and our detailed and successful anti-SLAPP motion.  They have new pictures of the key actors in that demented psycho-play as well as having refreshed information for their archives.

Since the Academy is not controlling the message, the message is controlling them.  This blog is currently the primary source of information on the Academy for Psychic Studies.

That is not my fault.  Since the Academy is silent about themselves, they are allowing the tsunami of contrary opinions and less than flattering commentary to frame their image into something they'd rather not wear in public.  Just as I wouldn't want to wear my old, worn-out 90's chic in public (which my wife insisted on) the Academy has to change their old, worn out image (which so many of us have had a lot of fun ridiculing) into something they could wear to the prom.  But I guess as none of them could get a prom date, they have no damn idea what to wear.

I hope I don't sound like I am pitying the poor fools at the Academy.  I'm not.  I am actually a little surprised. Well actually, I am not surprised as much as I am laughing so damn hard I am gasping for air.

You see, it never occurred to the Academy they had the ability to rehabilitate their image and turn their image  around right there under their noses.

There were several talented individuals affiliated with the Academy for Psychic Studies who had the skills to create and execute an effective PR plan.  I won't name them but I will say generally they had skills in the areas of film making, corporate and commercial videography, business marketing, social networking, video production and editing and many more relevant areas.  I've looked at their work myself.  It was terrific.

So with this wealth of talent, why hasn't the Academy for Psychic Studies tapped it?

Easy: a PR program was seen as a vehicle to spend money, not one to MAKE money.  So as the press was seen as an obstacle to revenue, the Witches were unwilling to see how the press can be used to create revenue.  There would be no effective PR campaign as PR requires the use of a medium the Witches reviled: the press.

Vividly showing their lack of foresight and poor business knowledge, the genius Witches of Ellsworth Street detoured those with the skills needed to effect a sorely-needed revival and polish of their image into more important endeavors such as painting a spare bedroom so boxes of discarded objects may be stored in a spiritually-meaningful way or forcing them to stay up late at night to package CD's and DVD's for customers who never arrived.

The Witches were too consumed with greed and addled with their lack of knowledge, education and good sense to see that a positive public image is the key to attracting loyal followers to the iron gate.  Of course, they'd have to remove "Arbeit Macht Frei" from above it but I suppose all gain requires sacrifice.

Looking back, I have to wonder what they were thinking.  It certainly wasn't the well being of their organization.

From what I saw, it was the Witches' penchant for surrounding themselves with as many obsequious. brown-nosing, status-seeking, soul-less and blind boot-lickers that caused them to ignore true talent for what boils down to false idolatry.  Why use people who can think independently when you have people who will gladly lick your shoes clean after you walk through a barnyard?  Why use talented people who can point out what you are doing wrong and how to correct it, when you have sycophants who bow, scrape and applaud every stupid and impractical idea you defecate?

Had that talent been unleashed and had they been able to form a cohesive PR campaign group from their pool of considerable talent without inserting the unbearable trailer park politics that permeates the Academy for Psychic Studies, I believe that group would have released a juggernaut of promotion and a polishing of image that would have rivaled a big firm's ad campaign.  It would have had the same success, too.

But no.  At a cult like the Academy for Psychic Studies, talent is not to be used - it is to be abused.  One of the people I mention was constantly reviled for their talent in the corporate area.  Another was relegated to cleaning apartments and offices after their career plans were demeaned.  So many of the rest of us were ridiculed for having personal ambitions the Academy for Psychic Studies staff, students and leaders could not and would not understand.  They all gave up their professions for the privilege of working low-level, menial jobs that barely paid a living wage and was certainly less than they were worth so they can honor the Witches with their show of loyalty to the cult over money.  Too bad the cult was honoring money more than anything else.

The highest honor at the Academy was to give up your ambitions to devote your time to serving the Academy.  Those fuckers were only happy if you had a job paying just enough to dump all of it into their bucket every payday, not when you had a real job with real responsibilities, real benefits and a real opportunity for career enhancement and advancement.  The Witches of Ellsworth value those who pay hundreds a week without fail and without thought to where the money is really going.  Even more valuable were those who became dependent on the Witches housing and attention.  Those members were in a position to dump even more money into the Witch's cauldron.

Anyone with professional skills were quickly re-directed into menial tasks designed to break their will.  Actually the tasks weren't so bad.  The Witches were the ones doing the will-breaking.  Any other pursuits such as building an organization that looked organized and operated by people who seemed professional, competent as well as personable was not on the agenda.  There were visitors to the Academy who later commented on the overall lackadaisical and haphazard operations of the place.  No staff member seemed to know the right thing to do and most of their time was spent on menial tasks and asking the leadership what to say and what to do.

Even with the constant asking for permission and asking for direction and instructions, the Academy conducted themselves like an insane asylum with people running in circles. So many of the projects and operations at the Academy were conducted sloppily, we expected anything we would undertake to become so weighed down with individuals trying to gain the attention and good graces of the Witches and the Witches giving orders that were impossible to execute.  The overall incompetence of the Witches and their most trusted lieutenants (what was that about "birds of a feather"?) just nailed those coffins shut.

I came to expect failure and complete chaos in every project after a long, protracted period of agony watching the Witches apply their ghetto logic while the followers ran in circles like headless barnyard animals.

So apart from flunking Public Relations 101, the Academy for Psychic Studies seems to be IS so incompetent, they are unable to control any more than the last dozen or so of their deluded, weary and unambitious followers.

They certainly are making no effort to control their public image - it's much cheaper and the profits more immediate to keep their followers under foot.

Farmyard Follies

Steve Sanchez has generously contributed this chapter from his book "Spiritual Perversion".  In it, Steve describes his experiences with the "SRF" Farm in Bethel Island, California.  As we all later realized, the "SRF" Farm was an unqualified disaster, killing more livestock than they ever raised and providing yet another hole in the ground for the faithful to throw their money.

And as we realized even later, the "SRF" Farm isn't owned by SRF at all - Robin and Angela are the titled owners of that property (according to the records office in Contra Costa County).


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

Rev. Bill decided to buy a farm in Bethel Island.

It took him a long time to decide to buy it. He involved as many of us as he could in making the decision. He discussed construction with me and Don, money with Mort, Robin, and Harpreet, and animals and work projects with almost everyone. I think he wanted to get everyone involved and committed as possible. After three months of trials he bought the farm, so the days of working at the farm began on top of everything else we did. I had some fun work days there, and made the best of it.

Out time was structured and we didn’t have to think too much about what we going to to do. But for me. I quickly grew tired of it. I wasn’t the only one who didn’t like it, Robin hated it, or at least Rev. Bill always said she did, and some of the other ministers were less than enthusiastic.

Most of the ministers professed to love it and put all their energy into it. Linda and Kaitley started going to the auction with Rev. Bill and Ang twice a week to buy goats and other animals. There were constant chores to do and endless projects, most of them all conceived by Rev. Bill. After a few months there were hundreds of goats on the farm. There were several cows, turkeys, horses, ducks, cats, a dog, rabbits, chickens, and chicklets, for a while even a lama.

Bethel Island was a flood zone, and in the winter it was very swampy. Any vehicle that went off the road would get stuck, and sometimes they’d get stuck on the road. We built several goat houses, roads, and fences all over the place. There was a constant battle to try and pump out the swampy areas in the winter and to landfill in the summer. I set up the pump system and found it an interesting challenge to try and empty the little lakes in the field.

Plumbing lines and electrical lines were run all over, and retaining walls were built out of creosol logs. A schedule was made so that there were always two ministers or students at least at the farm. All the ministers were assigned to do spirit patrol two nights a week now - one at the farm and one in Berkeley. The two different spirit patrol teams kept in communication via the internet about all the chores, psychic work, and healings we did. (Rev. bill even had Ross and Rick set-up little cameras on the computers so we could watch each other all night.) Linda became a mainstay at the farm, she considered herself a big country girl.

Eventually Rev. Bill bought a farm tractor, a trencher, trucks and a big giant loader. Linda was good at driving a truck and the tractors and doing all the chores with the animals. She started spending five days a week at the farm, and Kaitley was often with her. If Kaitley wasn’t with her she was with Robin, or Rev. Ang and Bill. I began to see both of them even less. I didn’t mind so much about Linda. All her devotion was toward Rev. Bill in a love/hate way, but I was internally horrified that my daughter was beginning to shun me. I was a bad guy, a second rate citizen to her as I was to all the SRF members. All her loyalty was going toward Rev. Bill and Ang and Robin.

Rev. Bill constantly talked about how all the kids loved him because he was ‘one’ of them; he constantly told us how much the kids loved the farm and wanted to be there. He would ask me or Linda to take Kaitley and I usually consented because I knew Kaitley wanted to go. He always talked about how badly he needed a companion for Selena . Kaitley would often spend the night in the mobile home with Bill and Robin or Ang, as did Moira.

Linda and Rev. Bill and the kids started buying lots of baby goats at the auctions. Soon we had 60 to 70 baby goats at a time. Shelters were built for these, and a schedule was set up to feed them three times a day, one of those being in the middle of the night, another very early in the morning. We would get up in the middle of the night and mix the goat milk formula. If there were baby cows we’d have to do that too.

Some of the goats franticly fed at the bottle, others could hardly be coaxed into it. You could tell these were going to die, often they had a bad smell and diarrhea in their bin. We wanted them to live but every night (and day) we encountered the awful smell of goats dead in their bin. Everyone did psychic mock-ups for them to live, and Linda consulted with the vets, but they kept dying.

Rev. Bill kept buying more, and they kept dying. He blamed Linda and others for their dying. He ‘joked’ about Linda being a ‘goat killer’. Feeding the baby goats got to be a nightmare. I felt like the smell of dead goats and diarrhea was always on me. It was hard enough getting up at night, but it was awful to struggle to hold and feed these cute goats you knew were going to die. We dug many big holes and buried the dead goats.

This went on for a whole year. Kathleen, a staunch farm supporter, said that 90% of the baby goats never made it to maturity.

Rev. Bill began to severely berate Linda all the time at the farm. They were always at the farm together and going to auctions. Several times Linda would come home shaking with distress at having been severely chastised. It usually started with some ‘mistake’ she made at the auction, or the farm, which Rev. Bill claimed was a willful act of rebelliousness.

Linda would try and defend herself and he would claim Linda had a bad attitude, and that her energy was trying to sabotage ‘his place’, and he would yell at her for hours. Rev. Ang would get upset because it was distressing Rev. Bill’s nervous system to have to ‘work’ on Linda all the time.

Ang and Bill would threatened to kick Linda out of the academy if she didn’t straighten up. Sometimes Linda would warn me saying with devastation in her voice, “You might hear stuff at the academy about me getting kicked out, try not to make it worse by reacting to it.”

There were times too when Rev. Bill would tell me about the fight. When he did he always acted like him and I were buddies and had lots of stress to deal with from our women. He’d say, “We were about to kick Linda out today. This women is insane. I don’t know how you deal with her. Ang wants to kick her out. I told her I was going to, but I can’t kick her out...She’s been here too long...I am just going to tell you this now. What I am going to do Steve, is tell her she can’t come to the farm anymore. I am just letting you know first.” This utterly devastated Linda but his plan to keep her from the farm lasted less than a week, and he let her back.

I secretly wished she would get kicked out so we could be more separate from SRF, but I knew that wasn’t going to happen. Linda didn’t cry often, but one time she came home so distressed, she was crying and telling me about the fight and how unjust it was and asked me what she should do. I told her, “Linda this is never going to end, you can do nothing right, he is projecting all his faults onto you and us. You are a pawn in his psyche. You need to let him know you can’t be treated that way. It’s not right. What we should do is leave Liberty and go into business ourselves.” She wouldn’t agree to this, no matter how bad it got. Even though she was in desperate survival for money all the time, she wouldn’t agree to support me no matter how much I reasoned with her.

Linda told me at the farm near the end Rev. Bill started saying, “Fuck You,” to her on sight. But Ang made him stop this.

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

I remember another story involving Bill and Linda.  One day, Bill intercepted me in the infamous "fireplace room" of the SRF headquarters.  Bill began groaning about the mass death of some goats he purchased from an auction.  He began to complain that "Goddamn Linda went to a pumpkin patch right after Halloween.  She scooped up all the unsold pumpkins with my pickup truck and dumped them in the middle of the fucking farm.  All the goddamn goats ate them and died!  That fucking dumbass Linda!"

Not knowing the true story I replied, "What the hell?  Anyone knows you can't feed just anything to a goat!  They eat any damn thing at all and don't know when to stop!  Even a guy like me knows that."

Soon after that exchange, I heard Bill telling everyone how "...even a dumb city girl like fucking Linda should know goats eat any damn thing and don't know when to stop."   So in Bill's warped mind, it was indeed Linda's fault the goats were overfed a poor diet and died as a result.

Some years after this event, I related this whole story to another ex-member.  This person listened carefully, then said, "I was there at the time. That's not what happened.  Sure, Bill blamed Linda for the whole thing but he's lying."

Intrigued, I asked for more (in kind of an Oliver Twist sort of way).  This person said, "Bill told me to take a pickup truck and head over to a pumpkin patch.  I was instructed to speak with the guy running the patch, who would let me take all the leftover pumpkins.  After I came back with them, Bill himself told me to dump all of the pumpkins in the middle of the farm for the goats to eat.  Linda was not involved at all."

I wonder if this is a case of really bad memory that comes with middle-age or maybe it's something else.  Maybe it's something like, oh I don't know, being a goddamn sociopath, psychopath or idiot-path?

This example is only one of many.

Who's got another one?  Leave us a comment.

PsychDoctorate said...

The term psychopath litterally translates into "suffering soul". Robert Hare, a man who studied sociopaths and psychopaths for many years in the prison system would say that this is an accurate description of these individuals. They are truly suffering souls, with a baren inner world filled with nothing but desolation, lonliness, isolation, rage and anguish. They take their deep suffering out on others because they lack empathy. Without empathy, they cannot love, they can only feel negative emotions such as hatred. They lack the moral and ethical components that make us human.

Their personalities are a facade. Something they hold onto, especially since all psychopaths are Narcissistic. However, this facade cannot be maintained and over time the "mask" falls off. Their glibness and false charm falls away and we (the victims) see the "suffering soul" for what they are. An emotionally bleak and baren landscape. It is a hard thing to view, for it is a void where there should be something. It has been said somewhere that if you look long enough into the void something will eventually look back! To those now leaving SRF and those who have left, they saw that void and they ran for their lives. Steve saw it, Mason saw it, Joy saw it and Mike all saw it. So have many others.

The women, Angela, Robin and Debbie saw it and embraced it letting the void despoil them. It eroded their sense of self, claimed their morals and corrupted their ethics. It made them mockeries of what they could be. It is sad.

It is good that Bill is dead, it is good that his "suffering soul" is now at rest. The desolation and corruption of his "subjects" and his reign of terror is over. Although the women cary his "essence" they cannot and do not have his charisma or glibness and too many have seen through their thin veneers.

Rest in peace Bill Duby, your reign of terror is gone. Your suffering soul will claim no more lives and harm no one else. From what I have heard, you are a pitiful thing.

Mike told me that near the end Bill called him, something deep inside of him knew his life was coming to a close. If I am correct (if not, Mike will fill in the proper details) you were showing some regret for you behaviors. You were feeling guilt and shame. Emotions you can feel as they do not require empathy to be understood. You knew and you were being forced to acknowledge your immoral and unethical (and illegal) behavior. The terror of seeing ones self so clearly is a humbling experiencing, espeically for the you the suffering soul.

I have nothing but pity for Bill, that is all he deserves.

Right now I am facing a huge loss in my life, my own sister is dying. We have never gotten along but she is trully suffering from a horrendous thing. She is dying of cancer that has spread. I wish her peace, I wish her strength and I wish her courage as she now leaves this world.

For all of the surviviors of Bill Duby's reign, I wish you courage, I wish you strength and I wish you peace. I also wish you a speedy recovery as you reclaim your own souls and rid yourself of the pain and suffering he inflicted upon you. I offer you compassion and deep empathy. I offer anyone coming from SRF who needs it, a safe place to speak about your trevails. Please contact Mike and he can put us into contact.

Best Regards;

Jeffrey

August 12, 2010 10:15 PM 

Mike Kawahara said...

Yes Jeff, Bill Duby called me on the phone some weeks before his timely death with an unexpected message.

Bill usually called people to tear them new orifices. One such call I witnessed started with "**** You Fucking Cunt!" and ended an hour later with "Fuck You!". At the time, I happened to be in the back seat of the car he was driving so I had no way to escape. Besides, the son of a bitch used my phone so I had to sit and listen.

Anyway, Bill gave me a call out of the blue. I steeled myself for an ass-chewing.

Instead, Bill spoke in a calm and somewhat peaceful tone - a voice I had not heard coming from him ever. Bill thanked me for some things and then said Joy and I were truly blessed and that our union would be fruitful and blessed as well.

Now, that call came some time after he made countless attempts to rip Joy and I apart and after he conducted several brutal and perverted "trance sessions" on Joy to not only remove any memory of me but to support the insane effort Bill made to pair me up with HIS choice of mate - a woman who was heavily indoctrinated into the cult.

At the time before Bill called, I noticed a definite change in his demeanor. Bill was less prone to tantrums and uncontrollable outbursts. He became more intorspective and more interested in the hereafter than ever. Bill even had us attend a class series on "Immortality" for the bargain price of some $600 (a guy like him changes only so much, you know).

I think Bill was looking back at the fruits of his perversion and insanity. He knew he had all the material comforts and status he had been seeking. But when the famous dissedent members of the cult began speaking out to the press, he was forced to look at the destruction left in his wake and knew it was time for him to go.

Yes Bill was a suffering soul. He made us suffer along with him. It was all he knew how to do. And Jeff you are right, the realization that his creation was perverse, corrupt and morally bankrupt is what really killed him.

Now that he is dead, we must carry on creating our own legacies. I think we can make them something everyone will feel proud of.

August 13, 2010 12:01 AM 

Perverted Relationships

Now that's what I call a perverted relationship - in a really hot way.

Relationship perversion.

You know what that's like.  At least, you know what it is in the real world.  In the cult world, it's nothing like you've ever seen before.

At the Academy for Psychic Studies, relationships between men and women weren't encouraged.  At least they weren't encouraged for the usual reasons: love, intimacy and potentially, procreation.  Well, the procreation part was encouraged but only so the leader's could consume your child with their own perverted brand of parenting and so they could use the threat of losing your child to keep you in line.

As for the relationships between men and women, it's all about the women keeping the men in line.  In line for what?  To serve - not a higher purpose but to serve those in charge.

Steve Sanchez's book "Spiritual Perversion" has page after page of tales of the leaders of the Academy for Psychic Studies using wives to enforce the will of the leaders upon the men.

Here's one such tale:

Rev. Bill continued, “Now the dark forces got you, Steve. What is sad is that you can’t see it. You’re possessed. You are going to have to let the dark forces cycle through you now.” He went on for a long time in full berating mode, sometimes addressing the whole class, but always coming back to bash at me. A dark and devastated mood gripped the class. I was shocked and shivering inside. I just wanted to get away. I couldn’t take it anymore. I just wanted to leave. This was insanity. I saw for the first time a side of Rev. Bill that was mean and insane. I felt all this was completely unnecessary. It was destructive, and there was no reason for it; I felt that he willed there to be crisis and devastation. I got up and started moving toward the door, although I wasn’t sure I could carry through with it. It was now about 3:00 in the morning, and I badly wanted to go. Rev. Bill Said, “What is this? Where are you going?”

“I am going to go. I don’t want this.”

“Linda, are you going to let this guy go? He needs help.”

Linda said with a fierce snarl on her face, “Steve, if you go it’s over. Get back here and sit in your chair. You need to learn. Or I will make you pay.”

The next day when I got up from bed, Linda was hurrying around getting ready to go to a fair. She was scooting Kaitley around as if she had a cloak of energy around her trying to keep her from talking to me, all the while acting like she wasn’t doing this. I had been supposed to go to the fair with her, but I doubted that was going to happen. I tried to ask in a normal voice, but it came out feebly, “Are we going to the fair today then, Linda?” She snarled with remarkably intense disapproval, “No, I don’t think so Steve. Jesus!” She sighed, and shook her head indicating how insane she thought I was. “I got a call this morning saying that you should stay here today—that means not leave the house! —and meditate on what you have done and what it means to be a minister. Alright? ALRIGHT?!”

“Sure,” I said, but I was growing angry.

Then she put her face close to mine and said more quietly so Kaitley couldn’t hear, “Also, you know how you asked me to ‘get friendly’ with you last week? That’s not going to happen. Not any time soon. Maybe never.” She stared in my eyes fiercely as she said this, digging for the maximum devastation. She knew I had been wanting it bad, and that I had really gotten my hopes up, because until last night it was almost imminent. But this morning it was almost comical because she knew I already knew it was hopeless. Most of all, she suddenly struck me as incredibly pitiful, because she loved it when I was down. Oh God, she lived for it! I said nothing as the pain of this realization moved deep within me. I tried to keep my emotions a mystery to her as she stared at me. She seemed a little frustrated that I didn’t react how she wanted. I wondered if Rev. Bill had told her to say this, too.

She seemed to be motivated by nothing but fear. Rev. Bill controlled her hook, line, and sinker. She hated it and she loved it. She’d been operating that way for a long time.

This event as described by Steve Sanchez was only one of many where Bill Duby worked to enforce his own brand of control through a man's spouse. Steve wasn't the only one who was the target of Reverend Bill Duby either.

This interference in the sacred relationship of marriage continued even after Bill's death in 2001. I remember Joy telling me how the current leaders of the Academy for Psychic Studies would tell her how to "handle" me so that I'd be more devoted to their freakish cause: to leave me and her even more vulnerable to their exploitation.

My wife and I met at this perverted group in our early years with the Academy.  But before we were "allowed" to have our relationship, the lead psychotic, William Duby, decided he wanted me hooked up with the woman of HIS choice.  Now, before I go on, I have to say she's a great person apart from being brainwashed by this charlatan.

One night, Bill got me in front of the whole damn church and put me in a hypnotic trance.  Then he called the woman up and put her in trance.  The sick bastard performed a "spiritual marriage" right there on the spot. To him and the church, this woman and I were husband and wife.

What he did to my real future wife is something so sick,I can't bring myself to talk about it.  Let's just say we were in a small infatuation with each other at the time and he did something pretty evil to break it up.

Bill said the purpose of the perverse union between me and the woman he chose for me was for our spiritual growth.  He also told me "Stick with me and I'll get you laid for sure!"  What was unsaid to me was he told the woman "Keep your knees together, damn it!".

I later found out this woman and I were only to see each other under supervision (no threesomes for us!). Besides, her task was to get me to work every damn night on the Academy's web site and get streaming media, real-time chat and every possible thing running on it. It worked. The web site got an award that year. Bill got what he wanted.

What did I get?

Well, as Rev. William Duby was playing a game with the relationship between two people I didn't get a damn thing.  In fact, it was a lot like dangling a can of beer just out of reach of a young man (like me).

I learned later Bill would delight in relating tales of his mischief to the ministers gathered for his weekly mandatory class. Bill would chortle with a Cheshire grin while he described how only he had the spiritual skills to "guide" two people in the direction only his divine mind could concoct. Did I say "divine"? I meant "diseased". My bad...

Today, that Cheshire grin is replaced by the punishing scowl of the Witches of Ellsworth. Maybe Bill's interference is long gone but it is replaced by the Witches' thirst for control and their lust for all things of value. Things like your money and children are the core items they desire. If you can't get your spouse to give, then you just can't have the teaching and those who can't have can't stay.

Their span of control wasn't limited to your spouse.  In fact, even now when the children of the members are grown adults, the Witches of Ellsworth use them to send insults to the members who are not in the Witches direct control.

Joy and I traveled to visit our friend Steve Sanchez last year.  Not ten years ago as some claimed (I can read a calendar, you fucking SRF troll).  When we arrived Steve looked a bit pale and held his drink in a shaky hand.  Steve related to us that his adult daughter called him to complain that our visit was an evil act of the devil and that she would not only be ashamed of Steve, she would hate him and would be convinced Steve was stupid and rebellious to God, Country and all things unholy - like Angela Silva and Robin Dumolin, the leaders of the Academy for Psychic Studies. 

Obviously the Witches of Ellsworth Street caught wind of our blogs and of our plans to visit him.  Incensed that Joy and I could have a friendship with Steve, the Witches waylaid Steve's child and told her all the things she must say to her idiot and evil father.  Conjecture?  Those of you with experience with the Witches know it isn't..

So, if you get reeled in to the Academy for Psychic Studies along with your spouse do make your spouses do as they should - if you want the approval, warmth and nourishment of The Witches of Ellsworth Street.

It's all in the name of Bill and the Witches of Ellsworth. Your good name and that of your spouse won't matter to them and after a few years of them it may not matter to you either.