"Come Prima Celebration"

Robert Burton is filling the calendar with days to celebrate, mostly focused on his personal "milestones." The February 28th "Come Prima Celebration" is explained by a Fellowship insider:

“Come Prima”  now seems an annual event, celebrated on February 28th to mark the first appearance of Robert Burton's "higher centers.” It turns out that Burton took the name, Come Prima, from a song of the same name popularized by Mario Lanza. (See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmW39MO0nBQ)

Word from a Galleria insider is that Robert listens to it every morning. It’s also performed live for him before breakfasts and dinners.

Recapping some of the previous Fellowship of Friends “theme songs”:

First there was Pachelbel’s Canon in D, as you all remember.

In the early 2000s, it was Humperdinck’s “Evening Prayer of 14 Angels,” from Hansel and Gretel, which Robert liked so much that it was performed before each meeting and at numerous other occasions.

Then came “Amigos Para Siempre,” performed every Saturday night  prior to a Mexican/Margarita dinner, by a very amateurish mariachi ensemble. That lasted from about 2008 to 2012. (See by Sarah Brightman & Jose Carreras' version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmUS9vu-O1s)

And now, there is Come Prima!

[ed. - This description of Burton's "higher centers" first appearing comes from Fifty Years with Angels, page 1:]

December 25, 1963:

"I formed my magnetic center at Big Sur on the Monterey Peninsula in Northern California. Here [referring to a photo] we see a little girl sitting in the same spot in the Nepenthe Restaurant where I once stood, even before I met Alex Horn. I was there by myself on Christmas Day when I was twenty-four." - Robert Earl Burton, Fifty Years with Angels

Robert Burton's fundraising machine

Apollo Schedule of Events (searchable text below)

[ed. - The use of "vouchers" as an important part of the Fellowship's underground economy has been described for a dozen years. It is unknown to this writer when the practice originated, and whether any of this bartering is reported on Fellowship tax returns. See also: "Apollo Schedule of Events as of February 26, 2019" and "Jeopardizing Tax-Exempt Status"]

"Ames Gilbert" wrote on the Fellowship of Friends Discussion blog, February 2, 2019:

And of course, there will be fundraising, always fundraising. An item that crossed my desk recently [above] shows this is in full swing—but then, when is it not? No doubt the ‘pace of fundraising will quicken’ right along with Burton’s acceleration of students’ evolution as the predicted time nears.

Here is the schedule for just one week! Bear in mind that each of these events costs $$$, one way or another.

Apollo Schedule of Events: As of January 29, 2019

Wednesday, January 30

6:30 PM Voucher Meeting with Robert @ Apollo Festival Hal
7:44 PM Dinner with Robert @ Galleria Goethe Room
7:30 PM Dinner at Small Tables

Thursday, January 31

6:30 PM Voucher Meeting with Robert @ Da Vinci Grand Salon

Friday February 1, 2019

9:30 AM Voucher Breakfast Tea with Robert @Apollo Festival Hall
6:30 PM Voucher Meeting with Robert @ Galleria Goethe Room
7:44 PM Dinner with Robert @ Galleria Goethe Room

Saturday February 2

10:30 AM Voucher Meeting with Robert @ Da Vinci Grand Salon
6:30 PM Dinner with Robert @ Galleria Goethe Room

Sunday February 3

10:30 AM Non-Voucher Meeting with Robert @ Apollo Festival Hall
12 Noon Benefit Lunch with Robert @ Apollo Festival Hall
4:44 PM Dinner with Robert @ Galleria Goethe Room

Tuesday February 5

6:30 PM Accademia Leonardo Fundraising Dinner hosted by Mary Frazer @ Angela and Geoffrey’s

You have to give Burton credit, he has unbelievable stamina when it comes to grabbing cash or dicks. He is probably in training right now for Valentine’s Day, it’s going to be a hectic schedule, and there are records to be broken.

The list ends with a preview of future opportunities, including:

Tuesday March 5

6:30 PM Fundraising Dinner hosted by James Kowalick @ Angela and Geoffrey’s

"Cult Survivor" wrote on the Fellowship of Friends Discussion blog, February 4, 2019:

65. Ames Gilbert [above]

I calculated the funds raised every week at FOF events (assuming the cost and attendance of November 2016 when I left and that the current market value of a voucher is $40 as it was then):

WED Voucher meeting w/RB / 150 x $40 = $6,000
THU Voucher meeting w/RB / 150 x $40 = $6,000
FRI Voucher breakfast w/RB / 50 x $40 = $2,000
FRI Voucher meeting w/RB / 150 x $40 = $6,000
SAT Voucher meeting w/RB / 150 x $40 = $6,000
TOTAL VOUCHER EVENTS = $26,000 / WEEK
WED Dinner w/RB / 18 x $150 = $2,700
WED Dinner at small tables / 125 x $25 = $3,125
FRI Dinner w/RB / 18 x $150 = $2,700
SAT Dinner w/RB / 18 x $150 = $2,700
SUN Non Voucher meeting w/RB / 150 x $55 = $8,250
SUN Lunch w/RB / 75 x $25 = $1,875
SUN Dinner w/RB / 18 x $150 = $2,700
TUE Fundraising dinner / 50 x $25 = $1,250
TOTAL NON VOUCHER EVENTS = $25,300 / WEEK
GRAND TOTAL = $51,300 / WEEK

I remember that when Asaf was still the dean of the FOF, he told me once that 80% of the income of Apollo comes from Robert’s events because the members that live at Apollo are even retired or make minimum donations. Considering that people that are not “on salary” ($350-450 monthly salary depending on the position) only work for vouchers now (nobody does “third line” and donates their time and energy like in the good ol’ days) and that Robert is the sole redeemer of the vouchers, it would be interesting to see what happens with the FOF income when Robert “ends his task” or becomes too crazy or weak to host events.

"Cult Survivor" wrote on the Fellowship of Friends Discussion blog, February 4, 2019:

81. brucelevy

...Fortunately I didn’t have to pay any debts to the FOF when I decided to leave (I come from a Mercurial country so that would be unthinkable); on the contrary, I left the cult feeling that they owed me money for of the 4.5 years that I was “on salary” being paid $350-400 per month.

They did send me an email 6 months after I left to tell me that if I wanted to come back they would waive the “reentry fee” ($1,500) and that I could pay only $150 per month for 6 months ($420 was the minimum monthly “donation” at that time). I found that comic.

They must be really desperate for cash, as the absurd number of weekly events with Robert indicates (5 meetings and 6 meals per week, compared with 2 meetings and 3 meals when I left in November of 2016). That’s a meeting with Robert every day of the week except Monday and Tuesday! Since I heard Robert saying several times that when students don’t go to meetings C Influence often gives them a terminal illness “for them to work with it”, it’s not an option for members to attend.

You have to have stomach to pay $55 (or work 4-6 hours for a voucher) and sit quietly for 60 minutes hearing Robert rambling about the Sequence and the predictions 5 times per week, that’s for sure.

"Ames Gilbert" wrote on the Fellowship of Friends Discussion blog, February 5, 2019:

Cult Survivor, thanks for doing the financials (#80) [above].

I had often wondered just how the Fellowship of Friends could keep going if so many followers were paying reduced ‘donations’ as a way to keep them onboard. Now we know. $51k a week! That’s serious moolah.

And having an alternative currency, that is ‘vouchers’, means keeping most of the taxes due on the loot out of the purview of those pesky IRS auditors. It seems hardly likely that this income is declared in full, given past history, does it?

It is amazing how far practicing ‘intentional insincerity’ combined with Burton’s assertion that ‘we are abandoning Judeo–Christian morality and will replace it with our own’, will take one on the road of crime!

Taking my own advice and looking through page 86 reminds me of other wholesale and pervasive criminal activity undertaken by the sheep on Burton’s orders.

Let’s see:

• Stealing valuable books from libraries—check.
• Purchasing fake passports—check.
• The ‘religious visas’ scam—check.
• Smuggling currency from abroad—check.
• Fake prescriptions by Fellowship of Friends doctors—check.
• Avoidance of payments to the state for workman’s compensation—check.
• Avoiding payment of legally mandated minimum wages by forcing return of the “excess”, as stipulated by Burton and the Board —check.

And of course:

• The assembly–line rape factory—check.

This just on one page of this blog!