Tag: synchronicity

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In brief: Happy hour, Master Charles, prof charged and more

Being able to advertise $1-off drinks for happy hour is a “great business opportunity” to bring more people out and to compete with bars on the Corner, says Kelly Creighton, bartender at Jack Brown’s. Eze Amos

Dead or alive

Virginia’s General Assembly has been hard at it for three weeks now, tackling the 2,000 or so bills legislators filed. While most bills will die quietly in subcommittee, here are a few survivors—and committee casualties.

Alive

A judge has already ruled Virginia’s law that suspends driver’s licenses for unpaid court fines is likely unconstitutional. The Senate got with the program January 25, and passed a bill that repeals the state “debtor’s prison” law 36-4.

Finding out about the best happy hour could get easier, thanks to legislation allowing the advertising of drink specials that has passed both the House and Senate. This, too, was preceded by a lawsuit in which a northern Virginia restaurant owner claimed ABC regs violated free speech.

A bill that would exempt menstrual products from sales tax cleared a Senate committee 14-1 January 25, but the “Dignity Act” still needs to make it out of a House subcommittee.

While all the gun safety bills championed by Governor Ralph Northam died in subcommittee, Republican Senator Dick Black’s packing heat in church bill cleared the Senate January 24 in a 21-19 vote on party lines.

Dead

A bill that would allow localities to set their own minimum wage was killed in a House subcommittee 5-1 January 22.

Undocumented immigrants are not allowed to have driver’s licenses in Virginia, and that won’t change with the January 23 demise on party lines of a Senate bill that would have allowed temporary driver privilege cards.

Delegate David Toscano’s measure to limit campaign contributions by utilities like Dominion to $500 died in a House subcommittee January 24.

Quote of the week

“It doesn’t help us as a community for our mayor to be out there in the public criticizing the people who live here.”—Adam Healey, Charlottesville Albemarle Convention & Visitors Bureau interim executive director, on marketing guru Jerry Miller’s Facebook live, to which Mayor Nikuyah Walker replied, “[Y]ou are the type of citizen who allows the soul of Charlottesville to remain ugly.”

In brief

Experiment gone wrong

The mother of a Greer Elementary student said her 6-year-old was traumatized by a social experiment teacher Vicky Chen conducted. Chen, who has been placed on administrative leave, separated her students by eye color, and gave candy to only the ones with blue eyes for her MLK Day-themed lesson on equal opportunity and inclusiveness. Activists say Chen further marginalized students of color, who typically have brown eyes.

Another creative writing prof

UVA Professor Jeffery Allen has been placed on administrative leave with pay after being charged with felony strangulation and misdemeanor domestic battery in November. He follows English Department colleague John Casey, who was on leave for a year and then retired in December after a disciplinary panel found he violated policies on inappropriate sexual contact with a student.

Synchronicity swami

Master Charles developed high-tech meditation at Synchronicity. Photo courtesy Synchronicity

Master Charles Cannon, founder of the Faber spiritual community, died January 24 at age 73. In 2008, Cannon was in Mumbai at the Oberoi Hotel when it was attacked by terrorists and 162 people were killed, including father and daughter Alan and Naomi Scherr, who were with a group from Synchronicity. After the attack, Cannon and Kia Scherr, wife and mother of the two slain Nelson County residents, called for compassion and forgiveness of the murderers.

Juneteenth organizer

California-born Tamyra Turner, 73, a former Charlottesville School Board member who started the city’s Juneteenth celebration in 2000, died January 16. A professor of English literature who taught most recently at PVCC, she met her husband, former Charlottesville NAACP president Rick Turner, at Stanford. She served on a number of boards, including the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center, the Jefferson Madison Regional Library, and the Virginia Festival of the Book steering committee.

Bye, Buyaki

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The man who wore a Confederate flag-patterned tie to a county school board discussion of  banning Confederate imagery will not seek another term. Jason Buyaki, who’s been on the board since 2011, also caught the ears of community parents and activists in October when he questioned climate change and the nature of fossil fuels.

National spotlight

Charlottesville native Natalie Hoffman was convicted January 18 after leaving water and food for migrants crossing the desert into Arizona. Hoffman, who was working with the group No More Deaths, was charged with entering and driving in Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge without a permit.

New clerk

City Council hired Lynchburg deputy council clerk Kyna Thomas to become its clerk and chief of staff for $105,000. City spokesman Brian Wheeler, who makes $116K, has filled in since former council clerk Paige Rice took the chief of staff job in July for $98,000 and left in September.

Child porn charges

Forrest Butler, ACPD

Albemarle police charged Avocado Capital co-founder Forrest Butler, 58, with two counts of child pornography distribution January 22. He was released from jail on bond and will appear in court April 8.

Wawa on the way?

The county’s Architectural Review Board has approved plans for a Wawa convenience store and gas station off Route 29 and Proffit Road. It could be built by the end of the year, as long as the Board of Supervisors gives it a thumbs up.

Free tax help

The local branch of the United Way is offering free tax preparation for most taxpayers with household incomes of $55,000 or less. Through its program called Cville Tax Aid, partners such as the UVA Community Credit Union have prepared nearly 20,000 returns since 2007, and organizers expect to help more than 2,700 community members this year. To schedule an appointment, call United Way at 434-972-1703 or visit www.CvilleTaxAid.org.

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Psychic’s husband gets 33 months in prison

Sandra Marks’ psychic reading business on Seminole Trail was raided in June 2014, and she was arrested a year later in New York. Staff photo

The husband of Sandra Marks, aka Psychic Catherine, was sentenced to 33 months in prison and ordered to pay $5.5 million in restitution to the clients seeking spiritual solace the couple bilked.

Donnie Marks, 43, who was charged with mail fraud and money laundering, appeared in the same U.S. District Court February 10 where his wife was sentenced to 30 months in prison in November.

The couple ran Readings by Catherine on U.S. 29 North, and Sandra Marks, 42, offered palm, tarot card, astrological and spiritual readings, and he was the money manager.

When Sandra Marks was sentenced, her attorney contended she would still be doing $35 palm readings had she not crossed paths with Master Charles Cannon in 2003. Cannon introduced her to his Nelson County spiritual retreat, Synchronicity, and to clients with higher incomes.

Donnie Marks’ attorney, Fred Heblich, objected to one of the points in the pre-sentencing report, because the criminal conduct occurred at Synchronicity. Sandra Marks was there every day, and her husband didn’t know what was happening there, he said.

Attorney Fred Heblich says he believes his client, who bilked victims of millions, is remorseful. Staff photo
Attorney Fred Heblich says he believes his client, who bilked victims of millions, is remorseful. Staff photo

Prosecutor Ron Huber disagreed, and said Marks was managing his wife’s work. “I would say they were equals with different skills,” he said. “Hers was to persuade, face to face. His was finance and opening accounts. I think they’re equally culpable.”

Huber did acknowledge that Sandra “definitely had closer ties to Synchronicity. I don’t think they were fond of him. I don’t think they were interested in him.”

The couple used the money they obtained from victims who were “looking for hope and relief” to support a “lavish lifestyle,” said Huber. “Sandra Marks never had the ability to cleanse money. What they did have was the power to swindle people.”

In discussing probation, Huber expressed some concerns that with limited education and “lifelong ties to the gypsy lifestyle,” and that Marks would “return to a life of crime.” Judge Glen Conrad ordered Marks to get a full-time job upon his release and not be self-employed.

Huber and Conrad commended Marks on his cooperation with authorities. And Conrad noted that six family members were there.

Marks addressed the court before he was sentenced. “For the past 26 to 28 months, me and my family have grown to realize the extent of hurt. If I could turn back the clock, I would. I will do my best to make amends and restitution.”

He did not complete a financial statement, said Huber, and Marks told the court he was not able to begin the restitution.

“This was pretty serious stuff and the victims were hurt to a serious degree,” said Conrad. He ordered Marks to file the financial statement within 10 days and to begin restitution payments while in prison, using income from a prison job. And he ordered a “rigorous” four years of probation.

“I believe he is remorseful,” said Heblich outside the courthouse. Marks will self-report to prison.

 

 

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Synchronicity Foundation recalls compassionate response to terrorism

Master Charles Cannon, leader of Synchronicity Foundation in Nelson County, says his followers’ devotion to meditation equipped them to handle the deaths of two of its members in the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks. Photo courtesy of Synchronicity Foundation

A journey to India for meditation and enlightenment in late November 2008 turned into a terrorist bloodbath that left 164 people dead throughout multiple locations in Mumbai. Among them were a father and daughter from Synchronicity Foundation in Nelson County.

Days later, the modern spirituality community made international news again when the mother’s response was compassion and forgiveness to those who killed her family.

Alan Scherr and his 13-year-old daughter, Naomi, were staying at the luxurious Oberoi Hotel when they were slain and four other members of Synchronicity were wounded.

Charles Cannon, known as Master Charles to his followers, was there November 26, 2008, and remained barricaded in his 12th-floor suite for nearly two days. Eight years later, he recalls, “Of course it was a horrendous experience of being in a terrorist context when you have no history of that. It hit us hard when two of our members were killed and four seriously injured.”

Upon his return to the United States, he and Kia Scherr, who lost her husband and daughter in the attack, held a press conference. She attributed her calm demeanor to years of meditation training at Synchronicity that allowed her to remain balanced during a time of personal tragedy.

“In the aftermath, we were compassionate and forgiving of the terrorists,” says Cannon. “We got literally thousands of responses from people wanting to know how we can do that.”

He wrote a book, Forgiving the Unforgivable, and says sharing his philosophy of a balanced and spiritual life has “radically increased” his audience and the number of people coming to Synchronicity for retreats.

Scherr spends most of her time in India, staying in the same hotel where the attack occurred, and is president of One Life Alliance, which focuses on children in third-world countries who are often uneducated and marginalized, says Cannon.

Children are sold by their parents and groomed to be terrorists, which he says was the case in the Mumbai attacks.

The State Department had a psychiatrist who was an expert in post-traumatic stress disorder meet with all the Americans after they were rescued from the Oberoi. “He took me through the process, and educated us on how that’s going to play out the next few years,” says Cannon.

The psychiatrist was impressed with the Synchronicity group and how well they handled the experience, “a testament to our lifestyle of meditation,” says Cannon.

The members didn’t require specialized therapy and had “very minimal post-traumatic stress,” he says.

With the upcoming anniversary of the attacks, Synchronicity held an open house and commemorative program November 13 at its facility on Adail Road in Nellysford, where sightings of the Blessed Mother still take place, according to Cannon.

“The Blessed Mother and I have a long history that started when I was 3 years old,” he says. “My life has been a journey trying to understand it.”

In the facility’s meditation hall, a statue of the Blessed Mother, whom Cannon calls a “divine feminine archetype,” stands to the left of the raised platform. Attired in a white tunic and scarf, he speaks to his followers. After donning headphones for high-tech meditation with ambient sounds, the three dozen or so attendees line up to approach Cannon with a bow and to be blessed.

The occasion also provided an opportunity to unveil his latest book, Living an Awakened Life: The Lessons of Love, which offers 52 weekly explorations of a life based on modern spirituality.

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Psychic sentenced to 30 months, blames Synchronicity

Attorney Bill Dinkin says his client, Sandra Marks, is "extemely remorseful" for bilking vulnerable victims of millions. Staff photo

Sandra Marks, aka Psychic Catherine, was sentenced to 30 months in jail November 18 in federal court for bilking victims in search of spiritual solace, and she was ordered to pay more than $5.4 million in restitution.

In court and in a sentencing memo, Marks’ attorney, Bill Dinkin, said that she didn’t start bilking clients big time until she met Master Charles Cannon, who visited her in 2003 and invited her to his Nelson County spiritual organization, Synchronicity.

“If not for Synchronicity, she’d probably be reading palms for $35,” said Dinkin. “That brought her clients with higher incomes.”

Marks ran a business known as Psychic Readings on U.S. 29 North that was the site of a 2014 raid. She was arrested a year later and charged with 34 counts of wire and mail fraud for telling her victims that she detected a curse or a “dark cloud,” which she could get rid of by cleansing large sums of money through prayer, meditation and rituals.

She said she’d return the money, but instead, she and husband Donnie Marks used the funds to support a “lavish lifestyle,” buying cars and expensive jewelry, according to prosecutor Ron Huber. Donnie Marks entered a guilty plea following his wife’s sentencing Friday.

Marks’ original indictment listed five victims, but in her plea, she was charged with embezzling from two, one who suffered from depression and another, Kerry Skurski, who had ALS and has since died, and who met Marks at Synchronicity.

“That’s quite a light amount of incarceration considering she was charged with 32 counts,” says Mike Skurski, Kerry’s ex-husband, in Colorado. “It’s a mathematical improbability she can’t pay the restitution so she should pay with her time in jail.”

In a sentencing memo, Dinkin alleged that as an “employee and counselor at Synchronicity,” Marks was introduced to a practice Master Charles Cannon called “the Big Process,” in which clients placed funds ranging from thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars into the care of Synchronicity as a sign of “unwavering faith in Cannon as a deity” and to keep his followers from the “negative temptations of materialism.”

“This is the first time I’ve ever heard that,” says Master Charles. “It’s really shocking to me because it isn’t true.”

He says Marks was a shaman and a paid consultant at Synchronicity. “The work Catherine did for us was excellent,” he says. “All the people who worked with her never had any complaints. We were really shocked because it was a different person from what we knew.”

Synchronicity cooperated with the federal investigation, he says. “They found we weren’t complicit in this.”

And while most of the victims met Marks at Synchronicity, Master Charles cautions against calling them members. “We have retreats and programs,” he explains. “You might meet a massage therapist here and contract with them outside of Synchronicity. That’s what happened here.”

In court, both the prosecution and defense said Marks did not target her victims because of their vulnerabilities.

Judge Glen Conrad disagreed. “I think these  folks were targeted for these very reasons.”

Marks, 42, cited her Romani background, also known by the politically incorrect term gypsy, which contributed to her illiteracy and her marriage at age 16 to Donnie Marks. She was the family’s primary breadwinner, working as a spiritual counselor and conducting “mystic exercises involving prayer, the use of crystals and idols, tarot card readings and attempted communication with the dead,” while her husband took care of the financial aspects, according to court documents.

Mike Skurski calls Marks’ claim of illiteracy “flat out false and offensive.” He has copies of texts Marks exchanged with his ex-wife, including one in which Marks provides her bank routing numbers. He also has what he says is a 2010 contract Kerry Skurski signed retaining Marks for “shamanic consulting services” for $50,000, which was witnessed by a Synchronicity staffer.

A statement was read in court from victim J.D., who was “embarrassed” by the bilking and had not let anyone in her family know. J.D. also called Marks “manipulative.”

Dinkin stressed that his client, who has been in jail for 16 months, cooperated fully with law enforcement, and has already been punished for fingering her husband. “The couple was extremely loving,” said the attorney. “Within her culture, she wasn’t the one in charge. Her husband was.”

Judge Conrad was concerned that Marks, with limited job skills, would slide back into psychic activities, and ordered three years of “rigorous” supervised probation, including of her financial documents.

“Your case was a little out of the ordinary from what we normally see with white collar crime,” he said. “I realize your culture is one where women have limited opportunity to realize their potential and fulfill their dreams. And I realize you’re virtually illiterate.”

The judge added, “Those are good chunks of money. It was a big scheme.”

He ordered that Sandra and Donnie Marks pay $5,479,994.60 in restitution, but acknowledged their ability to do so would be limited. The couple will forfeit $87,000 in assets held by the government.

After the hearing, Dinkin said his client “feels extremely remorseful. She became very close to these folks.”

And when Marks addressed the court, he said, “She had tears in her eyes and it was heartfelt.”

Related links:

Sandra Marks sentencing memo