Gary Olsen's "Master Path" - anybody familiar? (Neanderthal, quote, pray)
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Welcome xanadau, thanks for your courage in speaking out.
You're right on with the money and wondering why there have been no recent tax filings. MasterPath hasn't filed since 2005 when the organization had $3.5 million and Gary and Joy were making a combined salary of around $150,000-175,000/annually...with their home paid for by MasterPath as a "spiritual retreat". They also had good sized expense accounts for travel, and as you said, probably plenty of seva and gifts that aren't reported. Gary and Joy's personal expenses are likely limited to things like food, hairspray, golf memberships, pot, and tanning bed bulbs.
As mentioned in this forum before, Gary and Joy purchased several hundred thousand dollars worth of olive trees, palm trees, and other landscaping. If the person who donated the $400,000 for this would like to come forward and explain the circumstances and missing paper trail, it would be most helpful!
Gary and Joy have a personal gardener paid from the MP budget to do a variety of tasks for them. One of their chelas is a lawyer who does any legal work for free, and another chela is the official accountant. The accountant, Sherry Simmons, is the head of an entity called Sky View Corporation that we know holds the title for Gary and Joy's home to keep it safe from legal action.
The cost of printing MP books and materials is very easily recovered (and more) since the chelas pay for the books. The free introductory materials are pennies in printing/production, so the profit from book sales covers that.
The $40 seminar fee paid by chelas would result in a profit for MP, unless they're offering a sit-down dinner for everyone. If say a thousand paying members attend, that would be $40,000 collected by MP for each seminar. To rent a ball room at a convention center (with coffee, water, tea, soda, and even pastries, etc.) would cost maybe a quarter of that. It's not like he needs wireless for laptops or high tech equipment. His kindergarten-ish charts and easels are toted around everywhere at no charge.
In addition, I'm assuming chelas pay for their own hotel rooms and probably book them under the "MasterPath" lot of rooms. With that many guests, the hotel is making a killing from MP, therefore the cost of the ball room would probably be generously discounted. The recording and audio - is that done by chelas with equipment either owned by them or MP? There is also a charge for chelas to connect to the seminars online that far outweighs the cost of paying a host for this service.
As you said, MasterPath is not involved in charitable causes. MasterPath is a business and a sleazy one at that. This may all be old news, but it always bears repeating, so thank you for bringing it up again xanadau.
Well! I has been about 24 hours since my first post and I am pretty sure that I have already been "found out" by the "inner circle". I wonder if it was the last post about the $$$. Let the games begin. This is going to be interesting.
Wow, seriously? So if MP or their "spies" have discovered your identity, what can they do about it now? Maybe badmouth you and attack your character - but from the sounds of some prevous posts, they even badmouth their own loyal chelas too. How can they mess with you? I'm not doubting it, I just don't know all the methods of MP insiders or what power they really have over those who've left. How could they have found you out? I'm curious, but understand if you cannot share much about that.
I am sorry. I cannot say why I think I have been found out here. It may be circumstantial and some paranoia shining through. It has been a long journey. When you leave the path many friends drop you like a hot potato. So when they recontact it gets suspicious. I've seen it happen to women I have worked with when they leave Jehova Witness. Members will cross the street to avoid X-Jehova Witnesses. It can be very isolating. Fortunately I made other friends and acquaintances who helped me to see the truth about this chrlatan before leaving. But you are right. what can they do? Talk bad about me. Sue me for slander and wait for counter suit on the counseling bill plus pain and suffering. I don't know a lot about security on these forums, so I don't know how easy it is to access my information. I am trying not to divulge too much personal information, but as I relax more things can come out, because I really don't care. When I dropped the path I just dropped it. I don't owe any one of them an explaination. That is just the way I am. I paid my dues and Oh yes the tapes and books. My space if full of them. I am going to burn them. Boy did I pay my dues. The number of years that I was on the path... had I put my energies and money into continuing education I could have a PhD in computer sciences now and know lots more about how to navigate this computer. So thank you for repeating the money information. That is what I really want to focus on here with a little healing time thrown in for good measure.
I forgot about the fact that taxes have not been filed since 2005. Now that's criminal. I would still like to know about his fascination with Mexico? Probably the pot. Didn't I read here that he has a vacation place outside the US? I would like to find out why and how they have gotten away without filing taxes. Is it the tax laws, etc? I beleive there are some new tax laws coming down the hill about religious exemption.
I did look at his ranch house in the desert on this site. I bet he has expensive secruity systems and maybe mobile patrol, since it is like Deliverance country I don't know but I am pretty sure one would have to pay a lot of money to attend a retreat there or get to have a one on one with him. There are a lot of very wealthy people in this organization that probably would not like books opened. I think what he is doing is criminal, and I hope this site is costing his bottom line. Since it may be criminal we shouldn't do to much talking about it on this site, I know. But I would be happy even if he would just take a powder and move away.
Xanadau - It is fear that is a part of what the programming of the MP does. It is surrealistic, you are giving them far too much power in the situation.
I would suggest giving that up, what purpose does it serve? Who is helped is by this? If it does not serve you, yet keeps you in bondage, (i.e. afraid, lost, victimized, etc...) know that it is not the solution path or a direction worth pursuing. To continue to do so, does you a disservice. If you like being miserable, keep buying into the fear. There is only one answer, deny this paranoia or fear any space whatsoever, and that is called courage.
The real danger and tactics of the MP, Scientologists, and other cults is the effect on the mind and the emotions.
You have to remember you have been programming your mind for some time, by your own admission. This will take time to undo that programming. You are hardly going to get over this crap over night, but it doesn't have to plague you for the rest of your life either. But it will take concentrated effort to unf*** this.
The MP'ers do not have powers of insight into who, what, where, when, or whatever, to think so is to continue to drink the kool-aid of what you have been told about Gary and the rest of the MP'ers. Those that are in the office can't even tell anything, they have already sacrificed their own integrity and ability to discern when they work in a office like the MP and then turn a blind eye to what they know is a lie, they're a bunch of losers, and they don't even know it. That is the walking dead for you.
Stop drinking the kool-aid and believing anything about the MP, it is NOT TRUE, IT IS NOT REAL, IT IS A LIE. And keep repeating that mantra until you no longer hear the droning of lies about Gary or the MP in your head.
The bigger problem that the MP and it's proponents present is that they make your mind your enemy from the get go, and you are left to sort out the mess that getting onto the MP creates.
Namely, and you've heard it before, "you have to make your mind your friend" that is usually after the destruction of your life, or parts of it, after you've gotten onto the MP. A life that may or may not have been well led up until the point of getting on the MP. (All who enter into the MP get misdirected by their seemingly simplistic answers to the challenges that we all face as humans).
Why is that a problem? I'll have to explain it by way of example.
Have you ever wondered why women (typically) stay in physically and emotionally abusive relationships despite the damage that is done to them? Their usual response on why they go back is that "I LOVE HIM", and then they go back time and time again to the same abusive mate. Not very wise, intelligent, or sane, and I think we could all agree on that right? Since the outcome is likely to be death, hence why I call the MP a death path.
Why do it? Let alone stay in such a abusive relationship, even thought the love that one is expressing towards the beloved one is not in actuality reciprocated, in fact the recipient (Gary in this case) is about exploiting the giver, not loving them, despite what he or they might say. They only pull out the 'love" card as a blue smoke and mirrors tactic to deflect that they are in fact a self-serving narcissist, only out for your money. Usually used as means to subvert any suspicion that that he/they might be just out for your money.
(Thank you Violet11 for the breakdown on costs to actually run the MP seminars and how revenues are collected from other sources)
The old saying that love is blind is true, and when the heart leads it does NOT always lead in the direction of truth or effectiveness or even what is right or even necessary.
Now if you put the standard, guideline or rule of "effectiveness" in front of yourself for you to live by that directs the heart and the mind to only seek what is effective, you will eventually achieve harmony in your little particular part of the world. It's a simple guideline that the enlightened have taught their students for a long time, and they don't even charge for that little piece of sage advice.
To seek to be right, is the path of ego. Hence when Gary says that the MP is the only true path is an expression of his own ego, since there is no proof provided other than what other people say about it directly or by inference. In marketing and sales terms this is called a testimonial, an empirical proof if you will, but when it is twisted to serve ulterior motives (i.e. misleading someone's emotions, another word for someone's heart), then it has become the lie, the lie that is never addressed.
You are further bamboozled by the programming of his image and listening to the tapes into your mind and all of that ca-ca reinforces the message, so it is no wonder that you can't find your way clear of your mind or your emotions once you decide to leave.
You see there is no need to even make your mind your enemy to begin with, let alone your heart to lead the way when it should not, it is the emotions remember. And the emotions are not necessarily the best way to lead one's life.
You have likely heard the term of "wearing your emotions on your sleeve"? This is an example of what is not considered to be mature or wise by many, and likely you as well?
In Zen it is well known that emotionalism is the blockage to enlightenment.
Only when the emotions and the mind are guided by a truly objective goal with its own relative metrics, relative to you, since these are your measures of success or harmony.
It is only then when you are striving for EFFECTIVENESS that will you be able to look at all of the other aspects of your life as being in harmony or not, and whether or not you are being effective in achieving your goals, aspirations and the like, thus being in harmony with yourself.
BTW the easy way to deal with most situations is to ask yourself what is the effective choice or direction to make or take when dealing with whatever it is that you are faced with. There are variations on the "effective" question, but when you do so, your mind (conscious and subconscious) will work to solve the gap or problem that you are faced with. Make sure you truly want to know what is the effective direction to go, otherwise you will cause yourself to be self distrustful (an undesired experience).
Now the one other big thing that can destroy your life, besides not moving in an effective direction, it is to be blind to the self-interest of others.
These are the others in your life, who you may even love, or who you meet who will willingly throw you under the bus for their own agenda to be met. They do not care about you or your goals, or who you are, no matter how vulnerable that you may be, only that they get what they want. Gary has created an organization that gets his needs met, at your expense, that is if you stay in it.
At the end of the day, life is about problem solving, the MP, having a master and their guidelines, policies, and directives thwart that; thus the MP thwarts life itself. Thus the saying of "Shabda is Life, and Life is Shabda" is yet another lie perpetrated to snag you into their web of deceit, I would suggest not buying into that one either.
Nature and it's evolutionary examples is illustrative of what is effective and what is not, the latter being death and extinction.
Thanks for the reality check. I have done quite a lot of my own research exposing the political vs esoteric motivations of such spiritual practices such as Sufism, Radaha, Muslim,and even Christianity. The programming in cults such as this is akin to controls going on en masse in other parts of the world. We were "encouraged" not to read anything but MasterPath materials. I am glad I could not do that. The tenants of MasterPath are insidious. The circualr reasoning is a mindf***. Interesting that you would suggest such a mantra Still Kicking. That is what I have been telling myself for the last three months. NOT TRUE, NOT REAL...now I will add the IT IS A LIE part. I like it because THAT is the TRUTH.
I don't have a lot of money but that steady income from dues, videos/tapes, seminars, books sold at every seminar (there is a new one coming out almost every seminar now). There is an old book entitled "Letters to the Master" where actual letters to Gary are published. I don't know if he still publishes the actual letters now. I have not read any of the materials in a long time. Many of the letters in that book and his lame responses are so sad. This is just memory I do not read any more of the drivel.
Let me make myself very clear. I am not afraid, lost, or in bondage although I was for awhile. I was victimized and my anger about this fact is a very natural response. I have accepted this and I am moving on. I will glean the good and leave the bad in the past. Thank you for your encouragement and support. The decision made by End of Faith and those servants like her has been inspiring to say the least. The disclosures on this thread helped me to open my eyes wider. If any one of these many hits on this thread are questioning MasterPath I suggest they go back through the entire thread and access the links provided.
Truly,
xanadau
Yes, I have that one. As a matter of fact I think I have two copies. I don't need money for it. Give me a few days to find it and let me know how to send it to you. Do you need any rice and beans?
Nope - full up on rice and beans - took the extras of a pather when I moved her out of the bomb shelter she hid in for a year to hide from the birds. Not a total waste of time - got a bunch of duct tape from her too. Still unsure as to what she was planning to do with that...
If and when you find the tape? Let me know, my new best friend! (sorry Violett1 - still love ya)
Never mind the few days. Found it right at my fingertips. 5-28-06 "Master Satsangs the Bird Flu", 80 minutes.
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Nice response Violet 11
. Sue me for slander and wait for counter suit on the counseling bill plus pain and suffering. I don't know a lot about security on these forums, so I don't know how easy it is to access my information. I am trying not to divulge too much personal information, but as I relax more things can come out, because I really don't care. When I dropped the path I just dropped it. I don't owe any one of them an explaination. That is just the way I am. I paid my dues and Oh yes the tapes and books. My space if full of them. I am going to burn them. Boy did I pay my dues. The number of years that I was on the path... had I put my energies and money into continuing education I could have a PhD in computer sciences now and know lots more about how to navigate this computer. So thank you for repeating the money information. That is what I really want to focus on here with a little healing time thrown in for good measure. 
You are right it is paranoia
