Jim Baker left Kauai with a handful of family members that included Makushla and a couple of his other women who did not have infants, because the women with infants were left behind. A small handful of sons went along; Damian primarily to take care of arrangements along the way. Baker and the small entourage went to San Francisco to plan his escape to Nepal, under the guise of searching for a new place for the rest of the family to move. When in reality, it was only Jim Baker wanting to escape the worsening conditions on Kauai. So, when another former family member recently suggested that I listen to the taped recording of Jim Baker at The Fairmont Hotel in San Franciso on 3/1/1975 because they had listened to it recently and were appalled at how callous, uncaring and self-absorbed Jim Baker actually sounded listening to him speak all these years later. The tape is available here https://www.gragroup.com/sourcefamily.html on Series I for anyone who wants to listen for themselves.
I will summarize what is on that tape. Jim Baker is sitting in a hotel room at The Fairmont Hotel in San Franciso with not more than 7-8 people in the room sitting around him and are considered the "we" who Jim Baker continually refers to when he said the following to one of his wives/women who answered the phone at the Kauai compound, after she tells him that everything is going smoothly; Jim Baker says, "Everything is going smoothly? Alright we're going to take care of that. You know that money that Ahom asked for the other day, well we're not going to send it and the reason we;re not going to send it is not because we don't have it. We have it. But, we're not going to send it. Whaddaya think of that?" he says laughing along with those around him. Again, who was the "we" he was referring? If the majority of the family members were still on Kauai; then he must have been referring to himself and the handful of family members there with him in San Franciso. He created a smaller version of an us vs them scenario where "we" were the small handful of family members with him at the hotel in San Franciso, and the "them/they" the remaining 100 family members left on Kauai. Although, no one would have questioned anything that Jim Baker did or said at that point; especially if you were lucky enough to have escaped Kauai with him and be staying at The Fairmont Hotel in San Franciso enjoying the perks that went with all of that! While the rest of us were abandoned and left behind on Kauai to fend for ourselves by prevailing upon the island of Kauai for welfare support. That is what Jim Baker was counting on.
The tape begins with Jim Baker talking about welfare for the family members on Kauai may come through because, "For the life of me, I don't know what else they can do." Jim Baker believed the island of Kauai should be held responsible for the remaining family members on Kauai.....not him. One minute he's saying, "Now with everybody here taken care of with a safe place, a legal place to live; for just a few thou (thousand dollars); I can go to Nepal and check that out and begin the wheels turning over there to bring us all over there." Then the next minute he's telling Atla not to deposit a $1,000 check, because he's not going to send the money to Kauai. He says "So, those in Hawaii are alright....they're alright. However, we cannot afford $1,000 to send over there. (Again, who was we?) Atla, so you redeposit that check and next time your talk with Ahom you drop the sad news to them."
So, basically one minute Jim Baker has agreed to send $1,000 to the remaining group of family members on Kauai where all of the women and children still remained, including his own three women/wives and his three babies! Because he refused to send money. Why, because it would be less for him to spend on hotel rooms and room service and first-class tickets to Nepal with Makushla? He proceeded to say, "I want them to really suffer." Everyone around him laughed. It didn't seem to matter that 'them' included his own babies! It was really disturbing to listen to Jim Baker rationalize his actions while trying to present it all as spiritual lessons that he wouldn't want to deprive the family members on Kauai of. Dress it up as a spiritual teaching or lesson and your followers will believe anything you say and so he proceeds to tell the members on Kauai, "Sweethearts, now you can teach like never before. I think you hear me." Telling the handful of followers surrounding him at The Fairmont Hotel, "I want the island to see it. If they (the family on Kauai) left there now; if we pulled them out now when they're in a position to teach like that; it would be a tragic mistake. Provided we don't get weak and pull them out through our concern in the matter." Concern in the matter??!! What the hell! How could Jim Baker and the small group of followers not be concerned with the welfare of all the children left on Kauai? He continues on saying, "The matter is perfect. Let it fulfill itself now that the city (meaning the welfare department on Kauai) is going to have to feed them. What are they going to say about that? What if they're all out there on the road and they've moved them out with no food, no place to lay their head. What's the island going to do?" The tragic mistake was how Jim Baker was using some made up spiritual bs how the women with babies and small children three of whom were his own needed to fend for themselves while he sat in a nice comfortable hotel room in San Franciso being waited on hand and foot and obeyed by the small contingent of followers lucky enough to have escaped the worsening conditions on Kauai.
It was difficult listening to the tape of Jim Baker from 1973 of him shouting in a very loud, bombastic voice telling Atla, "Get them on the phone for me. I want to talk to Ahom.....or Isis, or any of the women. I will talk to the first woman of Yahowhaho's who picks up the phone. If she's not a woman of Yahowhaho's, if she's not one of my wives then she's to get the nearest wife. Now is the time for the champions" in Jim Baker's usual histrionics. Because throughout the length of the family, Jim Baker would continually create distinctions between people in the family to make some feel more chosen and special to him as in "my wives" to evoke their loyalty and obedience to him and by showering praise on them. Loud and bombastic, literally shouting into the phone. But, Jim Baker had become so deluded in his role as Yahowhaho which made it easy for him to tell the little group of "we" sitting in front of him in San Francisco, "What a learning experience for my children. What a tightening experience. No, no I wouldn't deny them or they, they or them that; so you're not to send them that $1,000." Money that would have gone to feed the children, his own three babies among them.
Jim Baker was literally shouting into the phone, "Now is the opportunity for my children to learn so rapidly it will blow their minds. Now, do you have the stomach for it? If they move you out on the road, it's the best thing that could happen. If they allow you to remain there without food; it's the best thing that could happen. There's the situation. You're there on the property. You are without food. You are without sustenance." Making it all sound so nonchalant. Then he says something unbelievably petty, "Listen, I'm not going to pay for a lot of long distance phone calls. Now, when you call me, I want it to be something heavy. See?" Laughing he says, "I'm a news hound" When he gets off the phone he addresses the small group in the hotel room saying, "Ahom still thinks she married to Jim Baker (which she legally still was) He continued saying, "See, Ahom has never quite been ready for this much spirit."
Sounding even more unbalanced he starts saying, "Even if they (the locals on Kauai) come with guns we're ready for that too. If they come with guns, they ain't ever going to arrest them (meaning the sons at the compound) if they kill em all. You know what I mean? Man comes on your property with a gun; you can shoot his ass off." Then he began shouting about a No Trespassing sign that he wanted posted on the gates of the compound on Kauai with the exact size and color and where to post it! Insisting that it included Absolutely No Trespassing telling the woman on the phone, "You better put that absolutely in woman. I'll have your head when you get off the phone. I don't care if you're pregnant or not." It was all so insane sounding saying things like, "Nobody's going to get hurt. Even if they get hurt know what I mean? Somebody gets killed it's just a release. They've just been granted release peace."
He had the same attitude towards the infants at the Father House who were in dire need of medical help; that if they died it was just a release.....no big deal.
