So.... do we think that making a website is the groups attempt to legitimize? Or are they hurting for membership?

They are trying to cultivate a mysterious image, with a artsy photo and their slogan,
"silence, service, ecstasy".
Translation: keep your yapper shut, work for RW for no pay and do what you are told, for a promise of future happiness.

The website advertises for the for-profit RW Ranch, which brings in good money for them. They had another website for the ranch.

This room looks quite creepy, a cross between a LGAT room with some "royal" looking drapes, etc.

Royal Way Spiritual Center Session Room
[royalway.org]

Also for their Gardens they say,
"The spiritual work of Royal Way encompasses maintaining and caring for our parks, lawns, flower gardens, organic vegetable garden, fruit orchards, streams, and ponds."
Translation:
If you are a Royal Way member, you get to do the heavy yardwork, farming, and landscaping chores for the for-profit RW Ranch for no pay in the heat, and Royal Way doesn't have to hire any workers! Pretty sneaky, that is like a retreat saying come and PAY to stay at our spa and you get to cut the grass and wash the dishes and cook the meals for other paying clients. These guys have all the angles figured out. UNPAID LABOR in a for-profit business happens in all groups like this.
There have been many comments about Royal Way members working all day on that ranch. That RW Ranch is a for-profit business.

And they must figure they can pick up some new recruits as well, they advertise for "spiritual seekers" and then get you to come in an meet with them privately, and then start to work their system on you, get you to sign up for a retreat, etc.

Notice how they SAY NOTHING about what goes on there. NOTHING.
That is a very carefully thought out website, very simple, yet visual, meant to intrigue people with the "mystery". Notice they don't mention their Godman Micheal.


___QUOTE from recruiting page on website ___________________
If you are a spiritual seeker, we invite you to contact us at
****@royalway.org



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/19/2008 02:12PM by The Anticult.

Its really interesting how much in common these groups have. One could go through the entire list.
But just take one thing.

For example, Byron Katie has something she calls "STAFF". These are people who PAY Byron Katie to go and WORK at her seminars! [forum.culteducation.com]
Yes, that is correct. They go there and work at the seminar, not for free, but they PAY. (she disguises it somewhat, but its still paying for everything).

Notice also the George Orwell Doublespeak word 'STAFF'.
They are not staff, staff get PAID to work. Volunteers work for free, but not for a for-profit enterprise!
What do you call a person who PAYS to work for a for a for-profit enterprise? What is that?


Many groups do this, why?
The cost of LABOR is the major cost of any business, its extrememly expensive, hotels, per diem, salary, benefits, travel, etc.

For example, if Royal Way needed to hire 10 people to maintain the Royal Way Ranch, lets say they hired some unskilled labor for about 20K and year each, or whatever. That is $200,000 a year in labor costs, plus many other expenses.
So instead, Michael Gottlieb gets the same idea as Byron Katie...why PAY people when you can get them to PAY YOU to WORK for you! Brilliant.

So if RW gets only 50 people over the year to pay $10,000 to RW, and work at the Ranch all day, also do the cleaning, etc. (you betcha they do that too). That would bring in 500K right there.
Also, Michael did not pay out the 200K in labor, but made 500K from the workers.
So very conservatively, he is ahead $700,000 a year.

So this is why all of these groups do this. They have the techniques to get followers so pumped up that these folks will PAY a fortune to go and cut the grass, farm, clean toilets, change sheets in the guest hotel, etc.

Its a Win/Win/Win.
For the group leader that is.
They win in saving labor costs.
They win by making money from people doing the work that has to be done.
They win by flexing their Power.

Don't kid yourself, that is what it is about.
Money and Power.

(also, notice that the Royal Way slogan is SILENCE...again, a nice double meaning...silence like a Monk, and it also shuts down ALL critical intelligence in people.
All these groups do that as well.
also, they use the word SERVICE, it makes everyone think they are Mother Theresa when they work for free for the group in a for-profit enterprise. Landmark does that as well, they all do it.
These people are very crafty, they have it all figured out).

yes, the Royal Way Ranch, RW Ranch, in Lucerne Valley, California, is being advertised quite a lot. It must pull in some good income when they rent it out to various groups. Their new website is more advertising for that, as well as recruting. Its multi-purpose.

Again, the RW Ranch is a very clever idea.

They have the RW Ranch which they can rent out and make a lot of money.
So they also have a place to meet for their own members, that does not cost anything, but turns a fat profit.

Its all pure profit as RW members are the unpaid RW Ranch 'staff', who are expected to do all the work at the Ranch, so there are no labor costs.

The groups they bring in tend to be new agey and also affluent, and thus they can cherry-pick people to recruit from those attending the Royal Way Ranch as clients.

Again, a Win/Win/Win for Michael. He is very clever, that is for sure.
He gets a free RW Ranch that serves as a home-base for his group, and this makes a ton of money and does not cost the group a penny.
And while they are raking in the cash from rentals, they can cherry-pick potential new members from those who are attending the RW Ranch, as the "staff" are all Royal Way members and recruiters.

Hey, they probably sell the organic food they farm for 10x the cost too.
Talk about multi-use properties.

Also, Michael is so cynical. He even gets people to spray-paint ROCKS with gold paint, and then unloads those rocks for probably 10 grand a piece. Man, if you are able to sell people gold spray-painted boulders...(Royal Way could even get paid a commission by local famers to collect those rocks from their fields, then slap some gold spray-paint on them, and flip them for 10 grand.)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/23/2008 03:09PM by The Anticult.

I just wanted to let everyone know that I continue to receive Michael's letters. I have to admit I can't even stand reading them all the way through because they are rehashed ideas that I've ALREADY READ ABOUT...

The last letter included some smaller insert that implied I was too stupid and naive to know what the letters mean by just reading them and that they required study. Whatever. This is nonsense.

Wait. I was told that it was a non-profit organization, hence all the money that people pay is tax deductible.

The guy (my exboyfriend) that got me to go to that first retreat kept saying this as though it was supposed to make me feel better. He was a pretty intelligent guy...I was really kind of suprised that he thought that Michael wasn't making any money on the deal. DUHHHHHH

Non-profit...yeah...after Michael get's his "salary". How can people be so stupid? I mean...they must be so desperate for some kind of connection with people.

Yes. People do go to the ranch a give free"service" and then pay every month too.

I tell you...I could not believe how I was left alone for a whole freak'n day in my boyfriend's house with no car or anything while he went and did his service. I flew in from Northern CA to see him on Fridays, some Saturdays he would leave me to return in the late afternoon, then Sunday I flew home. It was a brand new relationship, yet he had the need to leave me and go drive an hour away so that he could do whatever it was that he needed to do there. Yeah...I was young and stupid. I'd never EVER let a man treat me that way today.

Secrecy was paramount too. I mean, not a word about what it was all about. All I knew was that he didn't eat yellow cheese, wasn't supposed to drink, did not eat any ocean bottom feeders or pork. What?!? What was that about? I wonder about the naked thing though...that REALLY creeps me out. He never said anything about being naked. I'd really rather not think about that part.

I'd love to give "Michael" a lecture on eating right and exercise...from what I saw, he needed some learning in that subject. After all, he could sit there and tell me that I'm a destroyer. I feel that I can have my own opinion of him. It goes both ways. For him to label someone without even talking to them is absolutely beyond comprehension.

There is some important information in this thread.

Royal Way is a non-profit, as listed earlier in the thread. All these groups and leaders do that.
Then the group just pays for the cars, houses, furniture, trips, clothes, and everything for their Leader, and its all TAX-FREE. The leader lives like a Royal King and its paid by the "non-profit" group. Its a loophole in the system, and this is why all these groups become "private religions".
They don't even have to "pay" the Leader anything, they just provide it for him for free. Then the Leader is not taxed at all. Another Win/Win, for the Leader.
He can also claim he is just a humble servant, and pretend to not control everything.
This is why they all set up their own private religions.

The FOOD stuff probably comes from the old testament. But again, all these groups like this use FOOD CONTROL as yet another way to control their people. The specific foods change, but its about the CONTROL of the people in the group. Control their behaviors, and nothing is more regular than eating!

And their Secrecy is a part of the same thing. Even your spouse or lover has to be kept in the dark. Again, a very common tactic to control people's relationships, and force the relationships to end if the spouse won't join up. They all do this too.

So Royal Way operates literally by the book on how to control people.

Its interesting that Michael is supposed to have labeled someone a Destroyer? If one reads earlier in this thread some entries by a username called "Paprika", there is some very similar tactics being used there.

Members, and former members of Royal Way need to understand and learn the very specific techniques being used on them by their Guru, Leader, Teacher, Rebbe, father, or whatever you want to call it. Its classic, by the book stuff, done brazenly. Dozens of the specific techniques are listed in this thread so far...

any more details people can post could be very helpful to others.

I am really glad that I found this forum because for years I have wondered what ever became of this group and Michael.

Labeling me as a "destroyer" was clearly a ploy to try and get me "interested".

I'm sure Michael was hoping that I would go to him with questions, or better yet... pay more money to go to more "retreats" so that I could find out why I'm a destroyer (ha!).

By the way...he DID tell me to my face that I was a destoyer. That was the exact work he used. That's all he said. He never took the time or effort to explain himself. I'm sure it was a tactic. I have no doubt.

That is very interesting.
Michael probably heard, and could see you were resisting joining his group, so he's learned there are ways to get control over people rapidly.
One of the main ways these groups use is to try to prey on people with lower self-esteem. So what they do is look for a "chink in the self" or a weak spot, and then HIT that. Very often, the person will become submissive to the Leader King Michael right after that.
Many groups do this. They collect information on you, maybe doing a worksheet, or questions, etc.
Then if they see a weak-spot, they go for it.

If the person has a weakness, often that gives the Leader power right in that moment.
If the person gets ticked off, and then tells Michael to take a look in the mirror, and RESISTS, then that person can be instantly cast out of the group.
If they break up relationships, that's great for Royal Way, as the person is drawn deeper inside the group.

They look for soft-targets.
So an insult like Destroyer, is rather clever. If a person had some self-esteem issues, they might believe it, and then submit, go to more classes, etc. Then you are under King Michael's thumb, and become a Royal Subject...to Him.

If you tell him to get lost, then you are out.

In this very thread, some Royal Way members used the exact same tactic.

The poster Paprika, called his critics JUDAS, and tried to "curse" them by saying they were going to end up like Judas. How did Judas end up? Dead, either by suicide, or his guts got blown-up, as the story goes. [www.rationalchristianity.net]

So there you have the same tactic, very clever.
Call critics Judas, which means Michael = Jesus Christ. Then "curse" the critics with the fate of suicide or death by gut-explosion in a field.
Now Royal Way believers would be afraid of that curse.

but for people who see Michael & Co for what they really are, they just see a failed therapist, with delusions of self-grandeur, and infinite personal greed, who is happy to use the tools of the trade for personal aggrandizement.

But the ugly and vicious personal attacks...clearly, that is part of the Royal Way way. That is the verbal beat-down, to create submission in the Royal subjects. (slaving on the Ranch for no pay, and cleaning toilets also works quite nicely too, so they don't get too uppity).



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/06/2008 08:03AM by The Anticult.