Byron Katie International Inc, is a private company, so that info is all secret.
Obviously, the information below about $87,000 a year is completely false! BKI is raking in millions a month at this point. But there do seem to be all these stories about "cash donations"...and there could be other entities, etc.
No one knows what is really going on there...

Here is the basic BKI listing.

[kepler.sos.ca.gov]
Corporation
BYRON KATIE INTERNATIONAL, INC.
Number: C2177769 Date Filed: 9/29/1999 Status: active
Jurisdiction: California
Address TUCSON, AZ

Quote
amiryeti

Business InformationThis company profile is for the private company Byron Katie International Inc , located in Ojai, CA. Byron Katie International Inc's line of business is religious organization.

Contact's Name: Byron Katie
Contact's Title: Principal
NAICS: Religious Organizations
Data above provided by D&B.

I found this when I googled 'Byron Katie International Ojai'. It takes you to a website called www.manta.com. $ 87.000 as their estimated annual sales seems a bit low to me.

Anticult wrote:

Quote

But one will never really escape from that kind of trap, without really connecting to one's own powerful emotional boundaries.

and

Quote

Being blunt is very important, that is why personally I am blunt. Gentle flowery words can't work against a cultic structure.

Repeat--

Gentle flowery words can't work against a cultic structure.

Gentle flowery words do not work against a certain kind of bully. Ive read accounts by parents who tried and tried to raise their children, especially boys, to behave nonviolently in response to playground bullying, only to find that in some cases, the only way to stop the bullying was when their kid slugged the bully.

In New Age and Dharma Lite circles, there is a phobia against honest, frank speech.

And it may be that people who allow themselves to be emotionally spayed or neutered may at an unconscious level get off on following a leader or guru with anger management problems, because the leader gets to indulge the anger and other behavior forbidden to the followers.

One also sees this where a guru or leader milks his or her sufferings for pathos, and monopolizes compassion, while the followers are forbidden to see their own pain as equally valid.

The followers care for the guru while failing to give a damn about their own well being and fail to give a damn for the well being of each other.

All compassion is monopolized by the leader, while denied to the followers.

The leader becomes an insatiable black hole, absorbing all the emotional energy and vitality of the group. The leader is allowed to be angry. The leader is allowed to be cared for. The leader's sufferings (even when its just something that can be remedied by surgery) is exaggerated as drastic.

The followers are forbidden anger, forbidden care when suffering, told to 'turn it around' when they feel perturbed, forbidden to defend themselves or see thier own perspective as valid.

Only the leader's perspective is valid. Only the leader's experiences and emotions are real.

But from Janaki's account, the leader never has to turn it around.

A guru who is greedy and nasty can become a emtional surrogate of sorts, carrying and acting out impulses and emotions forbidden to the followers.

In Janaki's case, she mentions being in some Indian gurus ashram at age 14, then she follows Muktananda, then gets involved with BK.

That is a very very long time to be in guru-land. That very likely meant she was socialized to disown emotional boundaries early on and then rationalize this disowning of valid anger and emotional boundaries under the guise of spiritual rationalization.

Regarding blue collar frankness, I was once in on a support team for a multi day athletic event.

We were in a van, dotty from lack of sleep. The driver drove into this big-ass pothole and the whole van went THAWUMMP!! and we bounced so hard our noggins went to half an inch of the ceiling, then we bounced back down.

My brains were just oozing out my ears from utter sleep deprivation.

As we lurched, I let out a slow, low, from the belly moan of 'Fuuuuuuuuccckkk.'

Another guy turned around, looked at me, and said, 'Now I know you are real.'

Its that low, in the belly energy that grounds us, and gives juice to our boundaries.

And enables us to fight off sleaze.

When we are trained to feel shame and distrust toward our anger, we are emotionally
lobatomized, no matter what gender we are.

This is not a mandate to run around being an abusive bully all the time, but if we are cut off from anger, we are cut off from a vitality more ancient than our word driven neo cortex application programs.

Anger is part of the biological fight-flight response. Its part of our operating system, part of our MS-DOS.

IF someone manages to estrange our word driven minds from our bellies, our adrenergic fight or flight responses, then we become putty in the hands of shysters.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/23/2009 02:13AM by corboy.

Quote
Jay Cruise
Turnaround. Things you believe to be true are now the opposite. Disassociation in the making. I can just hear "Is that true? Is that really true?"

Is her name backwards?

Haha, that's a good one!

Her given name is supposedly Byron Kathleen, thus the Byron Katie.

From the very beginning I had a hard time with that name. It seemed so odd, disturbing even.

Very interesting look at neo or faux Advaita (non-duality) by Timothy Conway, which I believe Byron Katie is propagating:

[[url=http://www.enlightened-spirituality.org/neo-advaita.html]Neo-Advaita[/url]]

Does anyone have full access to a business database, to get specific corporate details?
There are numerous public company listings for Byron Katie.

There could also be MANY other companies, with no name attached, in family members names, offshore, in europe, etc.


BYRON KATIE INTERNATIONAL INC
287 S MONTGOMERY ST, OJAI, CA

BYRON KATIE INC
4640 ADMIRALTY WAY STE 402, MARINA DEL REY, CA

BYRON KATIE INTERNATIONAL
880 APOLLO ST STE 336, EL SEGUNDO, CA

THE CENTER FOR THE WORK OF BYRON KATIE
236 E FREDRICKS ST, BARSTOW, CA

BYRON KATIE INTERNATIONAL, INC.
4101 S AVENIDA DON FELIPE, TUCSON, AZ

Quote


Here is the basic BKI listing.

[kepler.sos.ca.gov]
Corporation
BYRON KATIE INTERNATIONAL, INC.
Number: C2177769 Date Filed: 9/29/1999 Status: active
Jurisdiction: California
Address TUCSON, AZ

Quote
amiryeti

Business InformationThis company profile is for the private company Byron Katie International Inc , located in Ojai, CA. Byron Katie International Inc's line of business is religious organization.

Contact's Name: Byron Katie
Contact's Title: Principal
NAICS: Religious Organizations
Data above provided by D&B.

I found this when I googled 'Byron Katie International Ojai'. It takes you to a website called www.manta.com. $ 87.000 as their estimated annual sales seems a bit low to me.

The full information in the tax forms, for The Work Foundation Inc, could be accessed at Guidestar.
The Work Foundation Inc, RIDGEWAY & WARNER CPA, SANTA BARBARA CA
EIN: 87-0559189
[www2.guidestar.org]

Reputable non-profits all post those public forms on their websites.
The Work Foundation does NOT post any of them. Why don't they openly post their 990 tax-forms, like every other reputable non-profit?

But those forms could be accessed above. This would show how much money is going where.
With the amount of promotion about The Work Foundation, you would think it must be distributing millions of dollars. But no, there is some info out there.
It seems to say it has assets of about $400,000 revenue of about $250,000.

Where is all the millions of dollars coming in going? Not into The Work Foundation, that's for sure.
It must be going into the network of private BKI companies? (all that info is private and secret).
Do people know that?

Who are the members of the board? Why is all kept secret?
Is Stephen Mitchell on the board? Any family members?
Does it own any real estate, investments, savings, or other property?

When they "give books" to prisons, do they buy THEIR OWN books and CD's FROM THEMSELVES??!!
Isn't that a conflict of interest?

When they give "coaching" to prison inmates, how much do them pay themselves an hour?

Exactly how much do they give in "scholarships" and to how many people?
If they are partial "scholarships" to their own commercial seminars...then isn't that another conflict of interest?

Do they give more for "research", and who gets that payment?


How about the alleged "cash donations"? See below about the story about the "vast amounts of cash" that is collected, and how it is moved around. Why is that former BK insider the only person asking any questions?

Why doesn't anyone ask any questions?

Quote


As far as "The Work Foundation" they claim it is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization, and that the federal tax identification number is 87-0559189

If someone is registered with Guidestar, they could access all the financial details for The Work Foundation! It should list salaries, etc...those could be posted in the thread.
[www2.guidestar.org]


Also, did anyone notice the text from the website from a former insider, about the cash in Europe? What would the IRS have to say about that?
[forum.culteducation.com]
QUOTE:
"And then there is the cash. Every single year that she comes to Europe, she collects vast amounts of cash that are given for the donation programs, or tickets that are paid for at the door...Often money was given to staff and friends to take home to the States for her. Some would get up to $10,000 to put into their suitcases, that being the amount you are allowed to carry on your person to the U.S. without having to declare it."

Quote
Jay Cruise
...

Known location of her organization is Ojai, California? Her address in Ojai is worth just over a million dollars.

"The Work of Byron Katie Foundation" 2000 (dissolved)

Cannot find "The Work Foundation" registration.

Her website thework.com was created in 1996 although Byron Katie International, Inc. was registered in '99. What was her organization registered as prior to this? Address of the BKI business is Tucson, Arizona.

Process server for BKI is Steve Ridgeway of Ridgeway & Warner Accountants Santa Barbara. Same accountant firm is listed as a contact on both sites thework.com and blog byronkatie.com.

Why would she use her accountant for contacts?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/23/2009 07:35AM by The Anticult.

Quote
corboy
I heard someone claim that in some states BK SHIT is being offered in some states as Continuing Education credits.

We need to research this.

The person seemed to assume that if something was offered as CE credit, that meant the method was okay to use as a resource for clients.

If BK crap is being offered as CE credit, that means someone on the review board for that particular state is snoozing on the job.

But if true, it has a far more worrisome meaning--it means therapists cannot automatically trust that just because something has been accorded CE accreditation by their state, that it is beneficial---or even that it is harmless.

If it is actually true (research this someone!!) that BK stuff is good for CE credits for professional care providers, that means something potentially harmful has slid under the accreditation radar in that particular state.

It also means that in that particular state, a health care professional cannot trust the CE process and had better be able to do his or her own literature reviews and background checks on ANYTHING offered for CE.

Lemme tell you, not all therapists know how to do this..or if they were trained to do it, are willing to continue doing this after graduation.

Too many working therapists are not trained to do their own literature reviews and dont understand they are high value recruits for entrepreneurs/euses who have not been willing to take on the responsiblity of getting licensed.

The therapists who did get licensed and are carrying the malpractice insurance (unlike BK)..they are the ones to take the rap if a client feels harmed and registers a complaint.

Someone needs to do some research and find out if BK crap is actually on offer for CE credit in any state.

And I can tell you some states with formerly excellent licensing standards are now being clobbered by the recession and that means folks being let go or not replaced when they retire.

Review boards are under pressure and may fail to investigate snake oil and let it get a CE credit.

Corboy, I was looking at the Omega Institute's website: [eomega.org]. Omega is offering a Byron Katie workshop, "Loving What Is," from April 3-5 at the Sheraton New York Hotel in New York City. This workshop is worth 10.5 Continuing Education credits, to certified counselors.

The page [eomega.org] discusses Continuing Ed credits in more detail. The Omega Institute itself is somehow partnered with (or part of?) the Institute for the Advancement of Human Behavior (IAHB). If I'm understanding this correctly, IAHB interfaces with various certification/licensing boards for social workers, nurses, counselors, fitness trainers, etc.

If you are a Nationally Certified Counselor, and you take this "Loving What Is" workshop, you can apparently submit your course completion certificate to the National Board of Certified Counselors (NBCC) for Continuing Education Credit. If you are a counselor who is certified by your state, you would have to contact your state's licensing/certification board to see if your board will give you CE credit for this workshop.

i'm not sure how to express this properly; but on the issue of flowery language versus bluntness: particularly in groups where secrecy ( where do those 10 000 dollar donations go?) is part of the picture , honesty is crucial.
But sometimes gentleness is also helpful in cult recovery.

To be blunt here; in some groups particularly those that practice versions of the "Hot Seat" type stuff, then if your communication with followers consists of rants explaining how narcissistic etc they are, then you may not actually sound that different than their group leader who has probably insulted them in much the same way.

Or they may have had to watch while others were ripped into psychlogical shreds.

I think Steve Hassan often also promotes a gentle approach;I think (though I may have remembered it wrong) that he talks about a time when, while working for the moonies, an outsider fed him and asked him about his family.In one of his lectures I believe he suggested that if he met a moonie he would be sympathetic, ask them when they last spoke to their family,and offer to pay for a phone call so they could speak to their family again, pointing out how much their family must be missing the cult member.

Anger is a wonderful protective mechanism,helping people to rebuild boundaries, and an important part of the recovery process for many people.
It is also useful to be aware that there are many different approaches to helping people.

Disclaimer regarding Steve Hassan

The Ross Institute of New Jersey/May 2013

See [www.culteducation.com]

The inclusion of news articles within the Ross Institute of New Jersey (RI) archives, which mention and/or quote Steven Hassan, in no way suggests that RI recommends Mr. Hassan or recognizes him in any way.

News articles that mention Steve Hassan have been archived for historical purposes only due to the information they contain about controversial groups, movements and/or leaders.

RI does not recommend Steven Hassan.

RI has received serious complaints about Steve Hassan concerning his fees. Mr. Hassan does not publicly disclose his fee schedule, but according to complaints Steve Hassan has charged fees varying from $250.00 per hour or $2,500.00 per day to $500.00 per hour or $5,000.00 per day. This does not include Mr. Hassan's expenses, which according to complaints can be quite substantial.

Steven Hassan has charged families tens of thousands of dollars and provided questionable results. One recent complaint cited total fees of almost $50,000.00. But this very expensive intervention effort ended in failure.

Dr. Cathleen Mann, who holds a doctorate in psychology and has been a licensed counselor in the state of Colorado since 1994 points out, "Nowhere does Hassan provide a base rate and/or any type or accepted statistical method defining his results..."

Steve Hassan has at times suggested to potential clients that they purchase a preliminary report based upon what he calls his "BITE" model. These "BITE reports" can potentially cost thousands of dollars.

See [corp.sec.state.ma.us]

Steve Hassan runs a for-profit corporation called "Freedom of Mind." Mr. Hassan is listed as the corporate agent for that business as well as its president and treasurer.

RI does not recommend "Freedom of Mind" as a resource.

RI also does not list or recommend Steve Hassan's books.

To better understand why Mr. Hassan's books are not recommended by RI read this detailed review of his most recently self-published book titled "Freedom of Mind."

See [www.cultnews.com]

Steve Hassan's cult intervention methodology has historically raised concerns since its inception. The book "Recovery from Cults" (W.W. Norton & Co. pp. 174-175) edited by Dr. Michael Langone states the following:

"Calling his approach 'strategic intervention [sic] therapy,' Hassan (1988) stresses that, although he too tries to communicate a body of information to cultists and to help them think independently, he also does formal counseling. As with many humanistic counseling approaches, Hassan’s runs the risk of imposing clarity, however subtly, on the framework’s foundational ambiguity and thereby manipulating the client."

RI has also learned that Mr. Hassan has had dual-relationships with his counseling clients. That is, clients seeing Mr. Hassan for counseling may also do professional cult intervention work with him.

Professionals in the field of cultic studies have also expressed concerns regarding Steven Hassan's use of hypnosis and Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP).

Based upon complaints and the concerns expressed about Mr. Hassan RI does not recommend Steve Hassan for counseling, intervention work or any other form of professional consultation.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/10/2013 09:31PM by rrmoderator.

I love what you say here Anticult,

"Being blunt is very important, that is why personally I am blunt. Gentle flowery words can't work against a cultic structure.
That's my blunt thought!
The End of Suffering is a marketing trick, preying on the deluded fantasy of humans to escape the human condition."


The greatest freedom I experience is only when I face what had happened to me square on. I have to go through the gut wrenching feelings in order release them from my mind. Otherwise they sit there like a lump of creepy doom over me.

Byron Katie is like a drug for people. They take her advice, it's a quick fix, you need more, and more. She snares people that way. She doesn't help them to see their own empowerment.

FF



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/23/2009 10:38AM by freedom fighter.

So we now know why Katie uses her accountant as a contact. Stephen Ridgeway is a director of "The Work Foundation, Inc".

Byron Katie Mitchell (President - Ojai)
Stephen Mitchell (Secretary - Ojai)

Directors from 2005 to 2007:
Josh Baran (New York)
Jeff Gold (Venice CA)
Melony Malouf (Aspen)
Virginia Thorson (Same address as Katie and Mitchell)
Stephen K Ridgeway (Santa Barbara)

...

Josh Baran: Practicing zen buddhist, former Zen priest and author of books on the Tao. chetday.com/inthismoment.htm

Baran is a Communications and Public Relations professional who has had clients such as Bill Gates and the Governator. barancommunications.com

"manages media relations for His Holiness the Dalai Lama's visits to the Eastern United States."

In a post from Corboy mentions a Josh Baran exit councillor (in 1996):
[forum.culteducation.com]
Interesting. Same person do you think?

...

Jeff Gold: Former Warner Bros. Records executive.

...

Virginia Thorson. Media contact for Byron Katie.

...

Melony Malouf: Facilitator for BK.

By law non-profit companies are required to make the last three 990 tax forms available to the public. Most do put them on their websites for disclosure purposes.

Where is The Work Foundation Inc registered?

There is not much money going into Work Foundation. A quarter of a million dollars from public support (i.e. contributions from individuals and foundations) half is going to prisons in the form of book distribution. You are correct Anticult, The books would be purchased from BKI (or whichever company distributes her books) for a profit where the money is going directly back to BK. Note: BKI does not donate money to its own charity.

The other half goes to research grants and scholarships. The money for scholarships would also be put back into BKI.