Misinformation Campaigns Against Survivors – Neil Brick
Child and ritual abuse survivors and their advocates have been
attacked by misinformation campaigns the last several years. These
campaigns use various harassment and propaganda techniques to distort
the research and silence the efforts of those who are working to help
trauma survivors and rape victims. These techniques will be compared to
past and present public campaigns that have distorted information and
used unethical tactics to manipulate public opinion. Propaganda and
suggestion techniques used will be discussed and analyzed.
Neil Brick is a survivor of ritual abuse and mind
control. His work continues to educate the public about child abuse,
trauma and ritual abuse crimes. His child abuse and ritual abuse
newsletter S.M.A.R.T. https://ritualabuse.us has been published for over 25 years. http://neilbrick.com
Today we will be comparing three different negative social movements.
All three movements had different goals and different levels of popular
support in their times. Comparisons of their techniques will be made.
For the purposes of this lecture, the term social movement will be
defined as a group of people sharing common goals to effect social
change.
1) Nazism – The Third Reich 1920 – 1945
2) Modern American Right Wing Political Movement – 2016 – 2020
3) The Satanic Temple – Grey Faction and Doug Mesner/Lucien Greaves (both aliases) – 2000 – 2020
Origins:
1) Nazism – The Third Reich 1920 – 1945: Some
believe that the origins of Nazism include the historical belief in a
unified Germany. A unified Germany developed in the mid 19th century. It
was considered authoritarian and undemocratic. Nazism was also
influenced by ethnic nationalism. (Volkisch groups) Some German
nationalists were strong anti-semites.
https://alphahistory.com/nazigermany/the-origins-of-nazism/
2) Modern American Right Wing Political Movement:
The Republican party conservative and pro-business philosophies of the
20th century led to present day right wing political movement.
Republicans often opposed progressive economic social programs, like the
New Deal (Roosevelt), though at times moderates and conservative in the
party clashed and fought for power. Far right social positions and
anti-immigrant policies were endorsed by Donald Trump, who was elected
in 2016 as president.
3) Grey Faction and Doug Mesner/Lucien Greaves – considers themselves to be “a clean break from LaVeyan Satanism.” “From the beginning, The Satanic Temple offered a stark contrast to the Church of Satan’s anti-altruistic philosophy of self interest.” The Satanic Temple endorses several political and social causes. https://thesatanictemple.com/pages/what-is-the-difference-between-the-satanic-temple-and-the-church-of-satan
Misinformation and Propaganda:
Nazism – The Third Reich 1920 – 1945:
In 1924, Adolf Hitler wrote that propaganda’s
“task is not to make an objective study of the truth, in so far as it
favors the enemy, and then set it before the masses with academic
fairness; its task is to serve our own right, always and unflinchingly.”
Nazi propaganda was distributed through a wide variety of media and
social channels. Jewish people in particular were the targets of Nazi
propaganda and negative social policies which led to the Holocaust and
murder of millions of Jewish people as well as others.
Film portrayed a large role in the development of pro-Nazi and
anti-Semitism in Germany. Film and propaganda were used to cover up the
atrocities and murders in the concentration camps.
Like many countries, propaganda was used to encourage public support of war.
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/nazi-propaganda
Modern American Right Wing Political Movement – 2016 – 2020:
Fox News has been considered the right wing’s “Ministry of Truth.”
https://www.newsweek.com/fox-news-donald-trumps-ministry-truth-cia-analyst-1378208
From Orwell’s 1984: “The government puts into manufacturing its own
version of reality, from rewriting history to producing propaganda to
trying to remove as many words as possible from the English language to
reduce people’s ability to think. Its main role is to help control the
population through misinformation, outright lies and lack of information
so that the state can maintain total power over the people.”
https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/book-1984-what-was-main-role-ministry-truth-720
At times, the modern American right wing has been compared to Nazi
Germany and other previous fascist movements. The American Alt-Right at
times quotes Hitler and promotes racist and anti-Semitic philosophies. https://ritualabuse.us/mindcontrol/trump-and-fascism/
The Satanic Temple – Grey Faction and Doug Mesner/Lucien Greaves (both aliases) – 2000 – 2020
The Grey Faction uses a wide variety of propaganda techniques to misrepresent the pro-survivor movement.
“….Collective or cultural gaslighting, pushing society at large to
question the sanity of its members who perceive politics
counter-hegemonically and question the falsified historiographies of the
ruling class. A linchpin of this societal gaslighting is formed by
mechanisms which trigger the attribution of the “conspiracist ideation”
label to certain discourses and by efforts to cause certain discourses
to become dominated by or associated with faulty conspiracist ideational
reasoning.”
“….the allegation that someone is a “conspiracy theorist” is almost
always a figurative way to charge them with faulty reasoning or, at the
very least, to imply skepticism of their claims.”
“we have seen that Misicko often ridicules his opponents as
believers in conspiracy theories related to “MK Ultra,” comparing them
to believers in “UFO’s” and “Past Life Regression”
Cultural Gaslighting; or, “Falsified History Syndrome”
Propaganda and Mind Control:
Nazism – The Third Reich 1920 – 1945:
“The Nazi propaganda machine exploited ordinary Germans by encouraging them to be co-producers of a false reality….
Joseph Goebbels, the appointed minister of propaganda of Nazi
Germany, once said: “There are two ways to make a revolution. You can
blast your enemy with machine guns until he acknowledges the superiority
of those holding the machine guns. That is one way. Or you can
transform the nation through a revolution of the spirit ….”
Propaganda was the operational method of the Third Reich, the idea
that projected the ideology. Hitler’s chief architect, Albert Speer,
told the Nuremberg Tribunal “that what distinguished the Third Reich
from all previous dictatorships was its use of all the means of
communication to sustain itself and to deprive its objects of the power
of independent thought.”5 Hitler was a magician of illusion.”….
Repetition
The essence of the Nazi propaganda method was repetition. Goebbels
argued that the skill of British propagandists during the Great War
resided in the fact that they used just a few powerful slogans and kept
repeating them.”
Enemies
“Hitler understood, as few others had ever done, the need for the serial
creation of enemies. He was a political entrepreneur possessed of the
truly devastating insight that all recent enemies could eventually merge
into the one super-enemy, the Jews.”
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2017/03/how-nazi-propaganda-encouraged-the-masses-to-co-produce-a-false-reality.html
Modern American Right Wing Political Movement – 2016 – 2020:
Fox News is Donald Trump’s ‘De Facto Ministry of Truth,’ Ex-CIA Analyst Says
“With Fox News covering his back with the Republican base, he has a
fighting chance, because he has something no other president in American
history has ever had at his disposal—a servile propaganda operation,”
Taylor said.
Trump has made his appreciation of Fox News well known. The
president regularly compliments the conservative network while bashing
competitors including CNN and MSNBC.”
https://www.newsweek.com/fox-news-donald-trumps-ministry-truth-cia-analyst-1378208
The Satanic Temple – Grey Faction and Doug Mesner/Lucien Greaves (both aliases) – 2000 – 2020
Name Calling
“The organization S.M.A.R.T is run by this little shit named Neil Brick,
he’s actually when I first saw him, he’s this staggering little moron
with this greasy combover and thick glasses, and he’s very short and
very frail …” The Grey Faction repeatedly uses the term “quacks” to
describe trauma practitioners.
https://ritualabuse.us/smart-conference/2019-conference/possible-hate-groups-how-do-they-effect-survivors-and-their-resources/
Exaggeration
“The crude sales booth at the far end of the conference room marketing a
more advanced species of tin-foil hat does nothing to allay the
suspicion that this is to be a congregation of raving delusional
paranoiacs.”
The use of one event or occurrence to purposefully mischaracterize the
work of an organization and movement. The Grey Faction does this
frequently, looking for licensing complaints against therapists and
taking quotes out of context to mischaracterize and malign trauma
professionals.
Enemies
Ritual abuse survivors and their helpers
Propaganda Film
“Mental Health Counselor Paranoid Presentation”
https:// youtu.be/btQaGxTp_m8
This video was taken and published without my permission at a Survivorship conference.
This video incredibly has scary music played in the background and
mislabels my statements asking people not to use cult hand signals
during the conference as “paranoid.”
This video purposefully mischaracterizes my work, including their attacks on my professional license, all of which failed.
False Analogy
“In the technique of false analogy, two things are compared that may or
may not really be similar are presented as being similar. In most false
analogies, there isn’t enough evidence available to support the
comparison.
Mesner compares ritual abuse survivors to alien abductees. In this false
comparison, he lists what he considers certain parallels between the
two. Yet, this does not prove that either are the same. One can take any
item or concept and then list hundreds of qualities and then take
another item and do the same thing. Then one could make a short list of
the similar qualities on these lists. This does not make either item
similar, nor does it prove that ritual abuse memories are not real.”
http://neilbrick.com/articles/douglas-misicko-alias-douglas-mesner/
Bullying:
Nazism – The Third Reich 1920 – 1945:
Auschwitz Exhibition
@auschwitzxhibit
Before their killing nazis tried to dehumanize Jewish men and women in
multiple ways. In these pictures, SS men forcing a Jew to bathe in a
large basin in the street and German soldiers and local people watch a
local man spray Jews with water before their murder at Kovno (1941)
https://twitter.com/auschwitzxhibit/status/1229561176968908801
Modern American Right Wing Political Movement – 2016 – 2020:
Trump’s Nicknames and the Psychology of Bullying By Ronald Pies, M.D.
“During and after the presidential campaign, Trump bestowed offensive
nicknames on several of his opponents. There was, famously, “Crooked
Hillary”, but there was also “Little Marco”, “Crazy Bernie” and “Lyin
Ted” for Marco Rubio, Bernie Sanders, and Ted Cruz, respectively. Trump
also repeatedly referred to Sen. Elizabeth Warren as “Pocahontas,” a
jibe at her assertion of Native American heritage. More recently, Trump
has given Sen. Chuck Schumer a series of nicknames, including “Head
Clown,” “Fake Tears” and “Cryin’ Chuck.”
https://psychcentral.com/blog/trumps-nicknames-and-the-psychology-of-bullying/
The Satanic Temple – Grey Faction and Doug Mesner/Lucien Greaves (both aliases) – 2000 – 2020
Mesner: “The conference is so self-evidently full of bullshit that
exposing it may seem no more productive than pulling the false beard
from a shopping mall Santa Claus. But, absurd as the premise of the
S.M.A.R.T. conference is, and deranged as the speaker’s tales clearly
are…”
https://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/harassment-by-false-memory-proponents/
Hate Speech and Hate Groups (including antisemitism):
“A hate group is a social group that advocates and practices hatred,
hostility, or violence towards members of a race, ethnicity, nation,
religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation or any other
designated sector of society. According to the United States Federal
Bureau of Investigation (FBI), a hate group’s “primary purpose is to
promote animosity, hostility, and malice against persons belonging to a
race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, or ethnicity/national
origin which differs from that of the members of the organization.”
https://ritualabuse.us/smart-conference/2019-conference/possible-hate-groups-how-do-they-effect-survivors-and-their-resources/
Nazism – The Third Reich 1920 – 1945:
“The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is the most notorious and
widely distributed antisemitic publication of modern times. Its lies
about Jews, which have been repeatedly discredited, continue to
circulate today, especially on the Internet. The individuals and groups
who have used the Protocols are all linked by a common purpose: to
spread hatred of Jews.
The Protocols is entirely a work of fiction, intentionally written
to blame Jews for a variety of ills. Those who distribute it claim that
it documents a Jewish conspiracy to dominate the world. The conspiracy
and its alleged leaders, the so-called Elders of Zion, never existed.”
“Beginning in 1920, auto magnate Henry Ford’s newspaper, The
Dearborn Independent, published a series of articles based in part on
the Protocols. The International Jew, the book that included this
series, was translated into at least 16 languages. Both Adolf Hitler and
Joseph Goebbels, later head of the propaganda ministry, praised Ford
and The International Jew.”
“Nazi Party ideologue Alfred Rosenberg introduced Hitler to the
Protocols during the early 1920s, as Hitler was developing his
worldview. Hitler referred to the Protocols in some of his early
political speeches, and, throughout his career, he exploited the myth
that “Jewish-Bolshevists” were conspiring to control the world.
During the 1920s and 1930s, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion
played an important part in the Nazis’ propaganda arsenal. The Nazi
party published at least 23 editions of the Protocols between 1919 and
1939. Following the Nazis’ seizure of power in 1933, some schools used
the Protocols to indoctrinate students.”
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/protocols-of-the-elders-of-zion
Modern American Right Wing Political Movement – 2016 – 2020:
“We won. America belongs to white men.” – Richard Spencer
Another clip recorded by Winkler — and a live stream of the entire event
posted online by the school’s student newspaper, The Battalion — shows
that Spencer went on to praise Donald Trump as “an alt-right hero” for
reminding white Americans of what, he said, “makes the white race truly
unique and truly wonderful.”
Richard Spencer praises Donald Trump as an alt-right hero
https://theintercept.com/2016/12/07/america-belongs-white-men-alt-right-founder-says/
Alt-Right Exults in Donald Trump’s Election With a Salute: ‘Heil Victory’
www.nytimes.com/2016/11/21/us/alt-right-salutes-donald-trump.html
But now his tone changed as he began to tell the audience of more than
200 people, mostly young men, what they had been waiting to hear. He
railed against Jews and, with a smile, quoted Nazi propaganda in the
original German. America, he said, belonged to white people, whom he
called the “children of the sun,” a race of conquerors and creators who
had been marginalized but now, in the era of President-elect Donald J.
Trump, were “awakening to their own identity.”
Fascism spread in 1930s America. It could spread again today.
“At the time, Jews served the same role for U.S. fascists that
immigrants, Muslims and other minorities serve today: a vague but
malicious threat they believed to be undermining America’s greatness.
Surveys of U.S. public opinion from the 1930s are a startling reminder
of just how widespread these attitudes became. As late as July 1942, a
Gallup poll showed that 1 in 6 Americans thought Hitler was “doing the
right thing” to the Jews. A 1940 poll found that nearly a fifth of
Americans saw Jews as a national “menace” — more than any other group,
including Germans. Almost a third anticipated “a widespread campaign
against the Jews” — a campaign that 12 percent of Americans were willing
to support.”
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/commentary/ct-trump-fascism-nazis-hitler-0170816-story.html
Trump and Fascism
This
page is a data dump of articles about Donald Trump, those working with
Trump and historical articles about fascism. Fascism uses different
types of mind control to control people. Donald Trump has been accused
of using propaganda and mind control techniques to win the election, to
control people’s opinions of him and to control their opinions of other
topics. This page contains excerpts from articles related to this topic. https://ritualabuse.us/mindcontrol/trump-and-fascism/
The Satanic Temple – Grey Faction and Doug Mesner/Lucien Greaves (both aliases) – 2000 – 2020
Examples:
Where the Witch-Hunters are: Satanic Panic & Mental Health Malpractice
By Douglas Mesner and Sarah Ponto Rivera
“But where is Randy “L’il Knob” Noblitt today, now that social
conditions aren’t nearly so amenable to the tin-foil hat Torquemada
whose doctoral thesis was on The Celestial Concomitants of Human
Behavior, more colloquially known as Astrology?”
(“Deeper Dive” Grey Faction Website)
Report from the S.M.A.R.T. Ritual Abuse/Mind-Control Conference 2009, Part 1
by doug — August 25, 2009
On the weekend of August 15-16, journalist Douglas Mesner (process.org)
attended a conference for alleged victims of Satanic Ritual Abuse and
Mind-Control in Windsor Locks, Connecticut. This is the first of his
2-part report:
“The crude sales booth at the far end of the conference room marketing a
more advanced species of tin-foil hat does nothing to allay the
suspicion that this is to be a congregation of raving delusional
paranoiacs.”
Doug Mesner’s connection to the book “Might is Right”
“First published in 1890, it heavily advocates egoist anarchism,
amorality, consequentialism and psychological hedonism. In Might Is
Right, Redbeard rejects conventional ideas of human and natural rights
and argues that only strength or physical might can establish moral
right….
There are also controversial parts of the book that deal with race and
male–female relations, claiming that the woman and the family as a whole
are the property of the man and proclaiming the innate superiority of
the Anglo-Saxon race. The book also contains many strong anti-Semitic
statements.”
“The author and Doug at a book signing for Might Is Right, 2004….
Lucien Greaves of the Satanic Temple first showed up at my door over a
decade ago. He wanted a copy of a book I had republished called Might Is
Right. It was a 100-year-old tome, long forgotten by most, with the
exception of Anton LaVey,… The release of this new version of Might Is
Right became a phenomenon within the underground, and that is what
brought the future leader of the Satanic Temple to my door. Only his
name wasn’t Lucien Greaves at the time, it was Doug Mesner. (This isn’t
the first time Doug has been connected with the Temple, though it is the
first time he has publicly admitted his involvement.) When he first
came to my home, Doug brought a stack of his drawings and writings with
him. It was amazing stuff, and much to my surprise he left it with me.
Not long after our first meeting, and after reviewing his sketchbooks at
length, I reprinted a limited edition version of Might Is Right and
asked Doug to illustrate the chapter headings for it. His work on the
book was truly excellent.”
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/4w7adn/unmasking-lucien-greaves-aka-doug-mesner-leader-of-the-satanic-temple
http://childabusedata.blogspot.com/2019/07/might-is-right-lucien-greaves-satanic.html
Anti-Semitism connected to Doug Mesner:
“Like, I think it’s okay to hate Jews if you hate them because they’re
Jewish and they wear a stupid fuckin’ frisbie on their head [correct
term: yarmulke or kippah] and walk around [and] think their God’s chosen
people, but it’s not okay to hate somebody [‘born of Jewish blood’]
just because their parents were stupid fuckin’ Jews and wore stupid
frisbies on their head and thought the Jews were God’s chosen people […]
Not everybody of Jewish blood is okay with me, it depends on if they
follow the Jewish, uh… […] Satanic Jews are fine,” (Adam, “Doug Mesner
[Lucien Greaves/Douglas Misicko] Satanic Temple Anti-Semitic Rant”
(transcribed).”
On the Psychological Projection of Antisemitism by Satanists https://danielkbuntovnik.wordpress.com/
Doug Mesner (Lucien Greaves, Satanic Temple) Alleged Anti-Semitic Statements
https://www.videosprout.com/video?id=98aafea9-df67-416d-998d-46348a626005&fbclid=IwAR3uIHF8pl3sgLGCSsdJKyE9QJK3JpfH4j2H8DLhd1yYHuc_pPLFdPHIMtE
(audio excerpt)
Harassment:
Nazism – The Third Reich 1920 – 1945:
“Through hundreds of legal measures, the Nazi-led German government
gradually excluded Jews from public life, the professions, and public
education. The goal of Nazi propaganda was to demonize Jews and to
create a climate of hostility and indifference toward their plight. On
Kristallnacht—the Night of Broken Glass—Jewish businesses and synagogues
were destroyed in the first act of state-sponsored violence against the
Jewish community. Many Jews who had the means tried to leave Germany
but encountered countless bureaucratic hurdles.”
“The goal of Nazi propaganda was to demonize Jews and encourage Germans
to see Jews as dangerous outsiders in their midst. After 1935, everyday
antisemitism was a regular part of carnival parades and floats. Public
displays of antisemitism reinforced a climate of hostility toward Jews
in Germany, or at the least, indifference to their treatment.”
https://www.ushmm.org/learn/holocaust/path-to-nazi-genocide/chapter-3/from-citizens-to-outcasts-1933-1938
Modern American Right Wing Political Movement – 2016 – 2020:
Neo-Nazi website founder owes $14 million to woman he urged readers to harass, judge says
Tanya Gersh said she and her family received threatening and horrifying
messages for months after Daily Stormer founder Andrew Anglin encouraged
a “troll storm.”
HELENA, Mont. — A judge on Thursday ordered the publisher of a neo-Nazi
website to pay a Jewish real estate agent $14 million for inciting his
readers to harass her family with hundreds of threatening and
anti-Semitic messages and calls.
U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen entered Tanya Gersh a default
judgment in her civil lawsuit after The Daily Stormer founder Andrew
Anglin refused to appear for a scheduled deposition in the case.
He ordered Anglin to pay Gersh over $4 million in compensatory damages,
$10 million in punitive damages and told him to permanently remove all
posts, comments and images about Gersh, her husband and son.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/neo-nazi-website-founder-owes-14-million-woman-he-urged-n1040671
The Satanic Temple – Grey Faction and Doug Mesner/Lucien Greaves (both aliases) – 2000 – 2020
Grey Faction, Satanic Temple and Lucien Greaves Fact Sheet:
For over a decade Douglas Misicko using several aliases (including
Douglas Mesner and Lucien Greaves) has harassed groups helping child
abuse, rape and trauma survivors. He has also harassed groups providing
research in support of child abuse, rape and trauma survivors.
In 2013, he and others created a group called the Satanic Temple. One
part of this group is called the Grey Faction. The Grey Faction states
they “invade” conferences. These conferences are provided to help and
educate child abuse, rape and trauma survivors and their helpers.
Their representatives that invade these conferences misrepresent their
reasons for attending these conferences. They film people at these
conferences without permission and publish these films without the
permission of those filmed. The Grey Faction repeatedly misrepresents
the research and statements of the people at these conferences. It uses
repeated ad hominem attacks against child abuse and trauma researchers
without rebutting their research or stories.
https://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/grey-faction-satanic-temple-and-lucien-greaves-fact-sheet/
The website muckrock.com has been used by the Grey Faction to
investigate and then attack clinicians working with cult survivors.
Pseudoscience:
Nazism – The Third Reich 1920 – 1945:
“From 1933 to 1945, Nazi Germany carried out a campaign to “cleanse”
German society of individuals viewed as biological threats to the
nation’s “health.” Enlisting the help of physicians and medically
trained geneticists, psychiatrists, and anthropologists, the Nazis
developed racial health policies that began with the mass sterilization
of “genetically diseased” persons and ended with the near annihilation
of European Jewry. With the patina of legitimacy provided by “racial”
science experts, the Nazi regime carried out a program of approximately
400,000 forced sterilizations and over 275,000 euthanasia deaths that
found its most radical manifestation in the death of millions of
“racial” enemies in the Holocaust.
This campaign was based in part on ideas about public health and
genetic “fitness” that had grown out of the inclination of many late
nineteenth century scientists and intellectuals to apply the Darwinian
concepts of evolution to the problems of human society. These ideas
became known as eugenics and found a receptive audience in countries as
varied as Brazil, France, Great Britain, and the United States. But in
Germany, in the traumatic aftermath of World War I and the subsequent
economic upheavals of the twenties, eugenic ideas found a more virulent
expression when combined with the Nazi worldview that espoused both
German racial superiority and militaristic ultranationalism.”
https://www.ushmm.org/collections/bibliography/nazi-racial-science
Modern American Right Wing Political Movement – 2016 – 2020:
What does Trump actually believe on climate change?
US President Donald Trump’s position on climate change has been in the
spotlight again, after he criticised “prophets of doom” at the World
Economic Forum in Davos.
At the event, which had sustainability as its main theme, and
activist Greta Thunberg as its star guest, Mr Trump dismissed
“alarmists” who wanted to “control every aspect of our lives” – while
also expressing the US’s support for an initiative to plant one trillion
trees.
If you judge the president based on his words alone, his views on climate change appear contradictory – and confusing.
He has called climate change “mythical”, “nonexistent”, or “an
expensive hoax” – but also subsequently described it as a “serious
subject” that is “very important to me”.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-51213003
The Satanic Temple – Grey Faction and Doug Mesner/Lucien Greaves (both aliases) – 2000 – 2020
Calling science psuedoscience:
1) Denial that memories can be repressed.“The notion that traumatic events can be repressed and later recovered is the most pernicious bit of folklore ever to infect psychology and psychiatry. It has provided the theoretical basis for ‘recovered memory therapy’ — the worst catastrophe to befall the mental health field since the lobotomy era.” Prof. Richard McNally” “ the scourge of repressed memory pseudoscience in mental health care” https://greyfaction.org/
https://www.theravive.com/therapedia/dissociative-amnesia-dsm–5-300.12-(f44.0)
“Dissociative amnesia (DA) is one of three dissociative disorders listed
under DSM-V. The disorder involves the temporary loss of recall memory
caused by disassociation, which may last for a period of seconds or
years. The interruption in memory may be voluntary or involuntary and is
most often a result of psychological trauma. DA involves episodic
autobiographical memory loss inconsistent with normal forgetfulness.
Episodic autobiographical information is associated with contextual
information, such as what happened in the minutes leading up to a
traumatic event. The individual may, however, remember semantic
autobiographical information such as the date, time and weather
conditions of the accident. Dissociative amnesia often arises from
traumatic childhood events.”
2) Denial that DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder) is caused by trauma.
Pope Interview
You’ve treated some thousand-odd patients, many of whom experienced extreme trauma, from what I understand –
Yes.
And you didn’t see evidence of DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder,
otherwise known as Multiple Personality Disorder) in any of them?
I have seen a number of people who were diagnosed with DID, or where the
patients themselves felt that they had DID, so it depends on what you
mean by the question. In other words, there are certainly people that
I’ve seen that were quite convinced that they did have different
personalities that had amnesia for one another. But, even though it was
“real” in the sense that the patients believed that they had it, I’m not
convinced that it was real in the sense that it was a naturally
occurring phenomenon, as opposed to something that had occurred through
the power of suggestion.
https://greyfaction.org/resources/grey-faction-reports/pope-interview/
“Dissociative identity disorder. Formerly known as multiple
personality disorder, this disorder is characterized by alternating
between multiple identities. A person may feel like one or more voices
are trying to take control in their head. Often these identities may
have unique names, characteristics, mannerisms and voices. People with
DID will experience gaps in memory of every day events, personal
information and trauma…
Causes
Dissociative disorders usually develop as a way of dealing with trauma.
Dissociative disorders most often form in children exposed to long-term
physical, sexual or emotional abuse. Natural disasters and combat can
also cause dissociative disorders.”
https://www.nami.org/learn-more/mental-health-conditions/dissociative-disorders
Conclusions
It could be stated that each of the three negative social movements
above served a purpose (at least in part) to help the rich get richer.
Nazism was used to stop communism. The American Conservative
Movement has been used to shift wealth from the poor and middle classes
to the upper classes. The Grey Faction has been used to discredit those
fighting cult abuse. Cults at times are used for sex trafficking, drug
smuggling and other high profit activities.
All three negative social movements have used nefarious techniques
to manipulate and control opinion and stifle accurate social debate
through harassment and misrepresentation of facts. The Grey Faction has
attacked theories regarding different forms of social suggestion, such
as post hypnotic suggestion and the existence of certain cults and mind
control techniques controlling different aspects of society.
Knowledge is power. It appears these groups share techniques causing
harm to those around them. By exposing these techniques, we can develop
healthy social movements meant to help and not hurt others.
Information is also at: https://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/articles/misinformation-campaigns-against-survivors-neil-brick/
Copied with permission from: http://neilbrick.com/articles/misinformation-campaigns-against-survivors-neil-brick/
A Survivor’s View of Recovery from Ritual Abuse by Neil Brick
Presented at the 2019 Annual Ritual Abuse, Secretive Organizations
and Mind Control Conference on August 17 – 18, 2019 by Neil Brick
Please note: All accusations are alleged. This presentation may be
triggering for some survivors. None of the material on these pages or at
the conference is meant as therapy, or to take the place of therapy.
A Survivor’s View of Recovery from Ritual Abuse by Neil Brick
Recovery from ritual abuse can take many years. Recovery may include
working through memories, building functionality and developing more
effective ways of interacting and integrating emotions. Every individual
has different experiences that lead them through the recovery path.
Neil Brick will discuss his long journey healing from severe abuse. This
will include ways he has learned more about himself, ways he has
learned to develop healthier interactions with others and ways he has
helped others along the recovery path.
Neil Brick is a survivor of ritual abuse and mind control. His work
continues to educate the public about child abuse, trauma and ritual
abuse crimes. His child abuse and ritual abuse newsletter S.M.A.R.T. https://ritualabuse.us has been published for over 24 years. http://neilbrick.com
Defining Terms:
(These are self defined. Not necessarily meant to be definitions for others.)
What is a survivor?
A person who has survived.
What did they survive?
In my case, severe trauma. An attempt to break my will and destroy my soul. Neither of which happened.
What is recovery?
Healing from an event. In my case, a lifelong battle to uncover myself from the damage done to me and the lies fed to me.
What is Ritual Abuse?
There are many definitions. Mine is severe abuse repeated in a ritualistic manner to manipulate and hurt others.
Recovery from ritual abuse can take many years.
Working through severe trauma takes a lifetime. There is always more
to learn. There are always different ways to look at trauma and see how
it has effected our lives.
Recovery may include working through memories.
We have to know our past to learn where we came from, how it effected us and how we can heal from the past.
Building functionality
How do we become more functional? Does this mean we become less
damaged, more able to navigate the world we live in? Does this mean
being able to work, to pay bills, to take care of our basic needs?
I have always been fairly good at these things. I have survived with
minimal support all of my life. I have also helped others survive.
Developing more effective ways of interacting and integrating emotions.
How do we build awareness and improve our interactions? Are our
interactions chaotic? Are we emotionally all over the place or blunted?
Are we causing more damage in the world by our drama or are we moving
toward a place of healing and peace we can present to others?
Bring all of our emotions together into one part of ourselves is
very important. Having our ideas, voices and feelings in one place in
our mind is crucial to healing and being aware. This development of the
natural way we would have been without trauma allows us more effective
ways of living with others and our world.
Every individual has different experiences that lead them through the recovery path.
There are similarities in our paths, such as building an awareness
of what happened, processing feelings about what happened and living a
new way. There are differences, like following different recovery paths
and using different techniques.
I will discuss my long journey healing from severe abuse. This will
include ways I’ve learned more about myself, ways I’ve learned to
develop healthier interactions with others and ways I’ve helped others
along the recovery path.
This journey will continue and includes the present moment. Never
believe someone when they say they have fully healed. To me, Nirvana is
not an end point but a process where progress has been made. The rosy
picture of Nirvana is meant to attract people in the earlier stages of
recovery.
Sorting out and clarifying what is in my mind has been the major
part of my recovery. Being able to say that something is wrong,
something needs to be fixed, things need to change is living without
denial. Those that deny there is grave injustice in the world, that the
United States is evil and is horribly flawed, that things are getting
worse in the world are unable to see what is going on.
Those that need to join a group to think, to feel, to believe are
drugging themselves. These are not healthy interactions. There is no way
to really help others in these situations. One is teaching spiritual
and intellectual death.
We can’t help others if we haven’t helped ourselves get better. Of
course, this is a process. What is considered the 12th step in recovery
programs (carrying the message to others) can be done at all levels of
healing, but it is more effective with deeper healing.
One cannot truly help others if one is still programmed.
Those that have not worked through their memories and the connected
parts of these can’t really help others. This applies to helping
professionals as well. If one is not grounded, but is uncontrollably
emotionally labile, or fear driven, they are not healed and present an
unhealthy model.
What works for me?
Learning – always being willing to learn, wanting to know more,
reading between the lines and not taking things as present value. Like
the news were are given every day. Understanding why certain stories are
given to us and others are never reported.
Understanding that programming runs from media and social control to
controlling human beings by ritual abuse and mind control. We aren’t
thinking for ourselves if we are copying others without analyzing our
motives.
How others manipulate (unethical actions).
They control information. Important data about social injustice
(poverty, hunger, lack of housing or health care) or severe child abuse
is hidden from most of the public.
Bullying to silence the abused. Name calling, insults, harassment, threats, creating false fear.
Ad hominem, off topic discreditation:
Instead of debating a person’s position, make fun of them or insult a point not related to their research to make them look bad
Attempt to destroy their professional status:
destroy careers, licenses, ignoring the detrimental effects this may cause.
They have developed a severely distorted view of reality, the opposite of what is going on in the world.
Damage of negative philosophies and actions.
What we do and how we do it is more important than the results. (Means vs Ends)
We have built a world where disrespect is often the norm and encouraged.
This has developed due to an unmonitored Internet with almost no
repercussions, the decay of family and social systems, the continued
reliance on capitalistic economic systems and the increase and
development of social propaganda and mind control techniques.
George Orwell:
War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.
Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.
If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.
Political language. . . is designed to make lies sound truthful and
murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.
Breaking free.
Recovering and growing regardless of social decay and the development and promotion of evil philosophies.
Follow your own path. Most paths are corrupted. Some that pretend to
be just and fair are the opposite. Don’t get fooled by others. See
things clearly.
Refuse to give in. Do what is right. Help others. Care about others. Give all you can of yourself to make things better.
Things appear to be falling apart, at least here in America. More
shootings, more roads falling apart, more homeless and lost people and
more hate everywhere.
This does not stop personal growth. It can increase it and increase our awareness of how things are and what is right.
Do the right thing.
Neil Brick Conference Presentation 2018
Changes in Awareness of Severe Abuse and Child Abuse Crimes Over Twenty Five Years
Presenter: Neil Brick
The awareness of severe abuse and child abuse crimes has changed
over the last 25 years. In the early 1990s, severe abuse survivors were
often believed and supported. Then a backlash started and severe abuse
survivors and their supporters were harassed and attacked. The child
abuse survivor movement changed and adapted. Ten years ago, research
began again to help expose severe abuse crimes. More recently, first in
the UK and Australia and now in the United States, a variety of child
abuse, severe abuse, sexual harassment and rape cases are bringing
public awareness again to the mainstream media of severe abuse crimes.
This presentation will discuss the changes of the last 25 years, with an
emphasis on the more recent exposures of organized child abuse crimes
and social systems that have been part of the cover up of these crimes.
Neil Brick is a survivor of ritual abuse and mind
control. His work continues to educate the public about child abuse,
trauma and ritual abuse crimes. His child abuse and ritual abuse
newsletter S.M.A.R.T. https://ritualabuse.us has been published for over 22 years. His research articles are at http://neilbrick.com
Disclaimer: This presentation is solely my own thoughts and research
and not necessarily the thoughts or any other persons or groups I work
with. This information is not intended as treatment or therapy.
Survivors may want to use caution while reading this page. All
accusations are alleged.
In the 1980’s several severe child abuse cases became publicly
known. The largest case was the McMartin Preschool Case. At the same
time, there was already an organized backlash against survivors which
later developed into more powerful backlash movements like the FMSF.
Up until the early 1990’s, both sides of the issue of child abuse
crimes, our side and the backlash side, were at times presented equally.
This is shown in newspapers like the New York Times.
On my website at https://ritualabuse.us
There is a large page called the McMartin Preschool Case – What Really Happened and the Coverup. https://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/articles/mcmartin-preschool-case-what-really-happened-and-the-coverup/
This page repeatedly shows evidence of guilt in this case. At the time,
it was one of the longest cases in legal history. There were split
juries and in one trial a majority of jurors believed the children were
abused. Tunnels were found backing up the children’s stories.
Sadly, this case was repeatedly spun in the media as some sort of
panic. Without examination or balance, the media has presented only the
backlash side of the story and not ours. Evidence showing abuse was
repeatedly ignored. A good example is Wikipedia, where repeated efforts
were made to balance the child abuse and day care pages of the 1980’s
and 1990’s without success. These pages primarily present only the
backlash side of the story. Those attempting to balance these pages with
research were silenced or banned by Wikipedia editors.
In the late 1980’s, with Survivorship starting and other groups
following after, the topic of ritual abuse was increasingly discussed.
This culminated in 1992 with a lecture by D.C. Hammond, originally
entitled “Hypnosis in MPD: Ritual Abuse,” but now
usually known as the “Greenbaum Speech,” delivered at the Fourth Annual
Eastern Regional Conference on Abuse and Multiple Personality Disorder
(MPD), Thursday June 25, 1992, at the Radisson Plaza Hotel in
Alexandria, Virginia.
Dr. Hammond was and is a highly credentialed clinician. He presented scientific evidence discussing government mind control in detail http://whale.to/b/greenbaum.html
This page may be very heavy for survivors, it describes government
mind control in detail. Dr. Hammond discussed how his work was
corroborated by other clinicians. He talked about how he and others were
very careful not to suggest information or lead clients.
Soon after this in 1993, the FMSF changed the landscape of the media
discussion. What had been at times a balanced discussion, turned into a
mostly one sided discussion of false memories and a lack off
credibility of ritual abuse and government mind control crimes.
“A study published last year by a University of Michigan
sociologist, Katherine Beckett, found a sharp shift in how four leading
magazines — Time, Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report, and People —
treated sexual abuse. In 1991, more than 80 percent of the coverage was
weighted toward stories of survivors, with recovered memory taken for
granted and questionable therapy virtually ignored. By 1994, more than
80 percent of the coverage focused on false accusations, often involving
supposedly false memory. Beckett credited the False Memory Syndrome
Foundation with a major role in the change.”
“Rarely has such a strange and little-understood organization had
such a profound effect on media coverage of such a controversial matter.
The foundation is an aggressive, well-financed p.r. machine adept at
manipulating the press, harassing its critics, and mobilizing a diverse
army of psychiatrists, outspoken academics, expert defense witnesses,
litigious lawyers, Freud bashers, critics of psychotherapy, and
devastated parents. With a budget of $750,000 a year from members and
outside supporters, the foundation’s reach far exceeds its actual
membership of about 3,000.”
During the 1990s there are several documented cases of harassment
against child abuse researchers and practitioners. Two well documented
cases are David Calof and Anna Salter.
Calof, D.L. (1998). Notes from a practice under siege: Harassment, defamation, and intimidation in the name of science, Ethics and Behavior, 8(2) pp. 161-187. https://ritualabuse.us/research/memory-fms/notes-from-a-practice-under-siege/
Confessions of a Whistle-Blower: Lessons Learned by
Anna C. Salter – Ethics & Behavior, Volume 8, Issue 2 June 1998 ,
pages 115 – 124 Abstract – In 1988 I began a report on the accuracy of
expert testimony in child sexual abuse cases utilizing Ralph Underwager
and Hollida Wakefield as a case study. “The argument between the field
of child sexual abuse and the backlash against survivors is not an
academic debate between two well meaning groups equally invested in
ascertaining truth. It is not an academic debate at all; it is a
political fight.” P. 121 “What wins political fights is organization and
stamina and a refusal to be intimidated.” P. 122 https://ritualabuse.us/research/memory-fms/confessions-of-a-whistle-blower-lessons-learned/
Sadly, much of the child and ritual abuse field went underground due
to this harassment after the mid 1990s, with little media help and
often one side media attacks against child abuse survivors and their
stories.
In 2001, an excellent book that received little attention was published. It was named
Secret Weapons – Two Sisters’ Terrifying True Story of Sex, Spies and Sabotage by Cheryl and Lynn Hersha with Dale Griffis, Ph D. and Ted Schwartz. New Horizon Press
Is a well-documented, verifiable account of not one, but two
childrens’ long untold stories of being CHILD subjects of Project
MKUltra. Quotes from the book: “By the time Cheryl Hersha came to the
facility, knowledge of multiple personality was so complete that doctors
understood how the mind separated into distinct ego states,each unaware
of the other. First, the person traumatized had to be both extremely
intelligent and under the age of seven, two conditions not yet
understood though remaining consistent as factors. The trauma was almost
always of a sexual nature…” p. 52 “The government researchers, aware of
the information in the professional journals, decided to reverse the
process (of healing from hysteric dissociation). They decided to use
selective trauma on healthy children to create personalities capable of
committing acts desired for national security and defense.” p. 53 – 54
The book also contains a variety of documents on mk-ultra and different
projects as well as reports to the Presidential Committee on Radiation
and Mind Control, including information on the five Canadians’ lawsuit
against the U.S. Government. http://www.abebooks.com/book-search/author/lynn-hersha-dale-griffis-ted-schwarz/
In 2008, there was a worldwide survey of ritual abuse and mind
control survivors. This study has been reproduced in both English and
German.
The Extreme Abuse Survey final results are online with
findings, questionnaires and presentations for download as pdf-files.
More than 750 pages of documentation http://extreme-abuse-survey.net/
Understanding ritual trauma: A comparison of findings from three online surveys –
Handout for Karriker, Wanda. (2008, November). Understanding ritual
trauma: A comparison of findings from three online surveys. Paper
presented at the meeting of the International Society for the Study of
Trauma and Dissociation, Chicago, IL.
10 Extreme Abuse Survey Findings Helpful to Understanding Ritual Trauma
1. Ritual abuse/mind control (RA/MC) is a global phenomenon.
2. A diagnosis of Dissociative Identity Disorder is common for persons who report histories of
RA/MC. (84% of EAS respondents who answered that they have been
diagnosed with DID [N=655] reported that they are survivors of RA/MC).
3. Ritual abuse (RA) is not limited to SRA, i.e., satanic ritual abuse, sadistic abuse, satanist abuse.
4. RA is reported to involve mind control techniques.
5. Some extreme abuse survivors report that they were used in government-sponsored mind control experimentation (GMC).
6. RA/MC is reported to be involved in organized “known” crime.
7. RA/MC is reported to be involved in clergy abuse.
8. Most often reported memories of extreme abuse are similar across all surveys.
9. Most often reported possible aftereffects of extreme abuse are similar across all surveys.
10. In rating the effectiveness of healing methods, therapists tend to
favor stabilization techniques; survivors are more open to alternative
ways to cope with indoctrinated belief systems.
https://ritualabuse.us/mindcontrol/eas-studies/understanding-ritual-trauma-a-comparison-of-findings-from-three-online-surveys
MEDIA PACKET – Torture-based, Government-sponsored Mind Control Experimentation on Children
– Documentation that torture-based, government-sponsored mind control
(GMC) experimentation was conducted on children during the Cold War.
Data from two international surveys that give voice, visibility, and
validation to survivors of these crimes against humanity. (Page may be
heavy for survivors.) http://my.dmci.net/~casey/GovernmentSponsoredMindControlExperiments-MediaPacket.pdf
You can probably predict what happened. Efforts made to make the
research public mostly failed. The research was removed from Wikipedia
and another major wiki. Most articles written about the research
attacked it. One good pro-survivor source about the research is at: http://childabusewiki.org/index.php?title=Extreme_Abuse_Surveys
In 2009, a new type of harassment began.
This harassment included people sneaking into ritual abuse
conferences, insulting survivors publicly, harassing survivors and
clinicians in their personal lives by contacting clinicians’ employers
and writing their licensing boards.
Grey Faction, Satanic Temple and Lucien Greaves Fact Sheet:
https://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/grey-faction-satanic-temple-and-lucien-greaves-fact-sheet/
For almost a decade Douglas Misicko using aliases (including Douglas
Mesner and Lucien Greaves) has harassed groups helping child abuse, rape
and trauma survivors. He has also harassed groups providing research in
support of child abuse, rape and trauma survivors.
In 2013, he and others created a group called the Satanic Temple. One
part of this group is called the Grey Faction. The Grey Faction states
they “invade” conferences. These conferences are provided to help and
educate child abuse, rape and trauma survivors and their helpers.
Their representatives that invade these conferences misrepresent
their reasons for attending these conferences. They film people at these
conferences without permission and publish these films without the
permission of those filmed. The Grey Faction repeatedly misrepresents
the research and statements of the people at these conferences. It uses
repeated ad hominem attacks against child abuse and trauma researchers
without rebutting their research or stories.
His organization uses propaganda techniques in its articles, movies
and social media pages to manipulate readers’ opinions. They continue to
repeat inaccurate information, even though it has been clearly rebutted
in several of the articles listed below.
Douglas Mesner/Lucien Greaves has continued using insults and
attacks against survivors of ritual abuse and the professionals that
work with them. He has harassed and followed survivors and survivor
advocates around the Internet for several years.
This page is a synopsis of critiques of the Grey Faction’s
misinformation. Additional links have been added rebutting their
statements about trauma, abuse and dissociation. It also contains
information critiquing The Satanic Temple and Douglas Mesner/Lucien
Greaves.
The Urban Legends of Those Attacking Ritual Abuse Theories
and the False Logic of False Memory Proponents and Their Occultist
Supporters – Presentation by Neil Brick
https://ritualabuse.us/smart-conference/2016-conference/the-urban-legends-of-those-attacking-ritual-abuse-theories/
“My license to practice therapy has been threatened with filed licensing
complaints by people connected to a group called the Grey Faction, a
part of the Satanic Temple. My job as a therapist has nothing to do with
my advocacy efforts to stop child abuse and I have very clear
professional and private boundaries that I maintain to ensure this
continues to occur. Yet, the Grey Faction associates keep harassing me
and others in the field. These attacks are factually inaccurate and
meritless.”
“I believe that the work of the Grey Faction is meant to
purposefully dehumanize and insult ideological opponents, so our ideas
are derided and not believed.”
Reply to the Satanic Temple’s Grey Faction online guest post
https://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/reply-to-the-satanic-temples-grey-faction-online-guest-post/
“In conclusion, the guest post by the Satanic Temple’s Grey Faction
criticizes the strong research and theories of ritual abuse survivors
and those with years of research, experience and education in the trauma
field. (The members of the Grey Faction have unknown credentials and
may not have the experience to accurately determine trauma theory and
research.) The guest post by the Satanic Temple’s Grey Faction presents
inaccurate arguments, which are refuted in this article.”
“The Grey Faction claims they are combating pseudoscience with
rational inquiry, but this rational inquiry is actually predetermined
opinion, bolstered by name calling, ad hominem attacks and insults.
There is no real rational inquiry because there is no evidence that all
of the facts were looked at neutrally to derive a conclusion. It appears
the only facts considered were the ones that back their arguments. In
its articles, the Grey Faction hides behind the name of science and
rationality, when in reality it appears it is an advocacy organization
used to discredit ritual abuse survivors realities’ and their
resources.”
Reply to the Grey Faction’s Petition to Revoke the License of Neil Brick
https://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/reply-to-the-grey-factions-petition-to-revoke-the-license-of-neil-brick/
“The petition states that The Allied Board of Health Professionals
licensure division, having previously received a complaint…did nothing.
The fact is that no violations were found and no disciplinary actions
were taken (against Neil Brick after a one year investigation). We
believe that this new letter is part of the continued actions of
harassment against Neil Brick and those that help child and ritual abuse
survivors.”
“The (Grey Faction) petition states “While we are not privy to records
that indicate methods of treatment employed in Neil Brick’s
practice.”….There is no evidence there are any problems with any methods
of treatment Neil uses.”
(Note: The Grey Faction continues to publish misinformation regarding
Neil Brick in continued ad hominem attacks on his research.)
Instead of rebutting the research of child and ritual abuse
survivors, the tactic is to attack the people directly, calling them
paranoid, delusional and so on without factual evidence of this.
In my opinion, the argument boils down to this:
We don’t believe them, therefore they are delusional.
Few stories or pro-survivor facts are rebutted. Few real facts are
presented to rebut any of our data. Protests are staged outside of
conferences to further disrupt conferences that help trauma victims.
To quote Anna Salter:
“The argument between the field of child sexual abuse and the backlash
against survivors is not an academic debate between two well meaning
groups equally invested in ascertaining truth. It is not an academic
debate at all; it is a political fight.” “What wins political fights is
organization and stamina and a refusal to be intimidated.”
The Good News
Even though our work is being marginalized in the media and we are
being viciously attacked on the Internet, there have been many child
abuse coverups that have been exposed over the last few years.
Jimmy Savile
Though he died before his story came out, a major famous British
figure in their music industry was exposed as having hundreds of victims
and was allegedly protected from prosecution.
Jimmy Savile: timeline of his sexual abuse and its uncovering
Investigators now believe the late Top of the Pops host preyed on around 500 vulnerable victims as young as two years old
It is now known that Jimmy Savile sexually abused hundreds of children and women at the height of his fame.
Investigators believe the late Top of the Pops host preyed on around
500 vulnerable victims as young as two years old at institutions
including the BBC’s broadcasting studios, 14 hospitals and 20 children’s
hospitals across England.
Since his death in October 2011, a string of official inquiries have
been launched into his offending at hospitals, schools and the BBC.
Today an independent inquiry found that Savile abused 60 people,
including at least 33 patients aged from five to 75, at Leeds general
infirmary. Other hospitals have also released the results of their
Savile investigations….
October 2013: BBC asks Dame Janet Smith to investigate the culture
and practices of the BBC in the decades that Savile worked there.
11 January, 2013: Scotland Yard labels Savile a “prolific,
predatory” sex offender after its investigation reveals 214 criminal
offences across 28 police forces, between 1955 and 2009. Its report,
Giving Victims a Voice, found that 73% of his victims were children, and
the allegations of abuse span 14 medical establishments.
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/jun/26/jimmy-savile-sexual-abuse-timeline
Catholic Church
Collated USCCB (United States Conference of Catholic Bishops)Data
On the Number of U.S. Priests Accused of Sexually Abusing Children and the Numbers of Persons Alleging Abuse
1950–2016
Compiled by BishopAccountability.org
From reports commissioned and released by the USCCB
Updated June 30, 2017
As of May 30, 2017, information published by the United States
Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) indicates that the conference has
counted 6,721 clerics “not implausibly” and “credibly” accused of
sexually abusing minors in the period 1950 through June 30, 2016, with
several gaps in the USCCB data. Out of the 116,690 priests who have
worked in those years, the 6,721 priests accused of abusing children are
5.8% of the total.
This percentage is a useful corrective. As recently as November
2002, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, then in charge of all abuse cases for
the Vatican, said in an interview that in the United States “less than
1% of priests are guilty of acts of this type.” Meanwhile, in the few US
dioceses where investigations or disclosures have provided adequate
data, including Boston, we are seeing rates as high as 10 percent. If
that is ultimately found to be the percentage nationally, the US total
would rise to 11,669 priests accused of abuse.
As of May 30, 2017, the USCCB has counted 18,565 victims who are
known to the bishops in the period 1950 through June 30, 2016. Many more
survivors have yet to come forward. In 1993, the late Fr. Andrew
Greeley estimated that 2,500 priests (fewer than half the USCCB’s
current total) might have molested “well in excess of 100,000” children
in the United States…..
The USCCB hired the John Jay College of Criminal Justice to evaluate
data submitted by member bishops regarding the sexual abuse of minors
by Catholic priests, bishops, deacons, and seminarians. In its 2004
report, the John Jay College found, according to survey forms completed
by the bishops, that the bishops had received in 1950-2002 “not
implausible” allegations of sexual abuse of 10,667 minors committed by
4,392 priests, including 12 bishops.
The John Jay College report also provides an estimate of the number
of priests who worked in the United States 1950-2002. The surveys
collected for the project reported 75,694 diocesan priests and
approximately 34,000 religious priests, for a total of 109,694. In the
years 2003-2016, the Catholic church has ordained 6,996 men to the
priesthood, according to the Official Catholic Directory’s General
Summary of diocesan data. That brings the total number of priests in
1950-2016 to 116,690.
http://www.bishop-accountability.org/AtAGlance/USCCB_Yearly_Data_on_Accused_Priests.htm
A recent case is that of Larry Nassar, a doctor who treated young Olympic athletes.
Larry Nassar sentenced to up to 175 years in prison for decades of sexual abuse
(CNN)Once a world-renowned sports physician treating America’s
foremost Olympic women gymnasts, Larry Nassar now will spend the rest of
his life behind bars.
The disgraced former USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University doctor
was sentenced to 40 to 175 years in prison, a judge announced
Wednesday, after more than 150 women and girls said in court that he
sexually abused them over the past two decades….
Nassar had pleaded guilty to seven counts of criminal sexual conduct
in Ingham County in Michigan and admitted to using his trusted medical
position to assault and molest girls under the guise of medical
treatment….
“There are no words that can describe the depth and breadth of how
sorry I am for what has occurred,” Nassar said. “An acceptable apology
to all of you is impossible to write and convey. I will carry your words
with me for the rest of my days.”….
“I was a good doctor because my treatments worked, and those
patients that are now speaking out are the same ones that praised and
came back over and over,” Nassar wrote. “The media convinced them that
everything I did was wrong and bad. They feel I broke their trust.”….
Many of the women said that when they spoke up about the treatment,
they were ignored or their concerns brushed aside by organizations in
power, primarily USA Gymnastics, Michigan State University and the US
Olympic Committee….
https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/24/us/larry-nassar-sentencing/index.html
Michigan State’s $500 Million for Nassar Victims Dwarfs Other Settlements
Lawrence G. Nassar, the sports doctor accused of sexually abusing
hundreds of young women, committed his crimes with impunity for decades.
Here’s how.
Victims of Lawrence G. Nassar, the Michigan State University
physician who sexually abused young women under the guise of medical
treatment, would receive $500 million from the university in a
settlement that is believed to be the largest ever reached in a sexual
abuse case involving an American university.
It dwarfed the size of the settlement reached in the sex abuse
scandal at Pennsylvania State University. And it was larger than many of
the settlements that followed the child sex abuse crisis in the Roman
Catholic Church.
“I think the number being so large sends a message that is
undeniable, that something really terrible happened here and that
Michigan State owns it,” said John Manly, a lawyer for many of the 332
women who sued the university over abuse by Dr. Nassar. “When you pay
half a billion dollars, it’s an admission of responsibility.”
Women who say they were abused by Dr. Nassar still have lawsuits
against U.S.A. Gymnastics, the United States Olympic Committee and
others, and the settlement with Michigan State could add pressure in
those cases. The settlement by Michigan State, a public university that
is the state’s largest, also sent a loud warning to other colleges about
the potentially devastating cost of ignoring misconduct.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/16/us/larry-nassar-michigan-state-settlement.html
These three cases are only a few of the many cases where
perpetrators were allowed to abuse children for years without any
repercussions. These perpetrators in essence were allowed to continue
abusing children because no one believed their victims. The system
failed the victims.
Our Future
We have not received justice for the crimes perpetrated against us
as child abuse survivors. The opposite has occurred. We have been
attacked for speaking up. Our stories, our evidence and our research has
been belittled, insulted, ignored and hidden. Not only have we spoken
up about child and ritual abuse crimes, we have spoken out about how
individuals and our society are controlled by propaganda, mind control
and post hypnotic suggestion. We have discussed how for years
individuals and groups have been allowed to torture and sexually abuse
children.
The hope is that justice will occur. That we will be heard and those
that have attacked us will be exposed for their vicious tactics and
their misinformation. That society will regain its moral balance and
people will treat others fairly and decently and those that are being
abused will be heard and believed and that this abuse will stop.
How to Avoid Being Mind Controlled at a Conference and Freedom from Mind Control
(copied with permission)
These articles present scientific research verifying previously made claims about mind control, propaganda and hypnosis.
This is a written copy of two presentations made at the Survivorship Ritual Abuse and Mind Control 2017 Conference.
Neil Brick is a survivor of ritual abuse and mind control. His work
continues to educate the public about child abuse, trauma and ritual
abuse crimes. His child abuse and ritual abuse newsletter S.M.A.R.T. has
been published for over 20 years. http://neilbrick.com
Conference page: https://survivorship.org/the-survivorship-ritual-abuse-and-child-abuse-2017-conference/
Disclaimer: This presentation is solely my own thoughts and research and
not necessarily the thoughts or any other persons or groups I work
with, including Survivorship. It includes information from an adapted
version of a paper with the same name at the Survivorship website. This
information is not intended as treatment or therapy. Survivors may want
to use caution while reading this page. All accusations are alleged.
Parts of the first presentation were adapted from a paper at ritualabuse.us which was later re-edited by Survivorship.
How to Avoid Being Mind Controlled at a Conference
While the Conference organizers are doing everything possible to make
this conference safe, we are not able to make guarantees, and attendees
should also take their own precautions.
You might want to use an alias at the conference, and put that alias on
your conference name tag. Do not give your real name or information
about where you live or your contact information to other conference
attendees.
We encourage conference attendees to travel in pairs with a safe support
person as much as possible at the conference If anyone has any trouble
with anyone at the conference, please let us know either verbally or on
paper during or after the conference. We have tried to make the
conference as safe as possible, but it is impossible to make anything
totally safe. A safe support person can be an excellent help at a
conference. Such a person can help a survivor avoid and process
post-traumatic and programming triggers.
However, sometimes persons that survivors think are their supports are
actually their handlers, persons who report their behavior to the abuser
group and make sure they are obedient. Such a person can be a
therapist, a spouse, a friend or another survivor. If you knew the
support person before you knew you were a survivor, this person could be
a handler. It is difficult in early recovery to know if a support
person is a handler. Someone in your life may be a handler if seeing
that person makes you feel overly dependent, in a trance state or
addicted to being with that person.
Before you bring a support person to a conference, you need to check
with your inside parts to make sure that all parts trust this person and
do not believe them to be a handler.
Due to the purposeful misinterpretation of this presentation last year
here online, which resulted in creating basically a propaganda film used
to falsely discredit our work and harass me in my personal life, I am
presenting scientific research showing the rational for avoiding
triggering others at the conference.
Hand signals
Scientific information proving that subjects may be unaware of suggestions given to them and may act on them post hypnosis.
Post hypnotic suggestions
Posthypnotic Suggestion: Attention, Awareness, and Automaticity
Amanda J. Barnier, Ph.D. (Sleep and Hypnosis 1999;1:57-63)
Posthypnotic Suggestion as Responding without Awareness
Posthypnotic suggestion is an excellent example of the processing of
stimuli in the absence of subjective awareness. Indeed, Kihlstrom (28)
suggested that posthypnotic behaviour is “a prime example of
nonconscious mental processes at work” (see also 29). Typically, a
posthypnotic suggestion is given during hypnosis and asks the individual
to show a particular behaviour or to have a particular experience in
response to a specific cue following hypnosis. In the empirical and
clinical literature, posthypnotic suggestions range from very simple,
behavioural suggestions (e.g., touching the forehead, or scratching the
nose) to very complex cognitive, perceptual, or experiential responses
(e.g., visual hallucinations, mood alterations). As an example
of “unconscious” responding, posthypnotic suggestion is of special
interest because the individual is no longer hypnotised. For all intents
and purposes, everything is back to normal; yet, subjects still
demonstrate a lack of awareness for their behaviour. This aspect of posthypnotic responding has long been recognised as one of its defining features (28,29).
http://www.sleepandhypnosis.org/ing/Pdf/63790b4456c24c56848e1d924d7b0847.pdf
This is the reason we asked people to be aware of doing hand signals (or going to one’s face) without conscious knowledge.
Hypnosis and MPD
Thought derided by “skeptics” the research around hypnosis and MPD (now called DID) was extensive in the early 1990’s. D.
C. Hammond was and is highly credentialed and respected in his field.
He corroborates his work in this article with the accounts of others. He
shows how he did not lead his clients but carefully questioned them.
Unfortunately, soon after his speech occurred, the false memory groups
started taking over the media coverage and severe harassment of
clinicians and researchers occurred, stopping and silencing much of this
type of research.
Hypnosis in MPD: Ritual Abuse (excerpts are posted below)
D. Corydon Hammond, Ph.D. (“Greenbaum Speech,”)
Herein is the lecture by D.C. Hammond, originally entitled “Hypnosis in
MPD: Ritual Abuse,” but now usually known as the “Greenbaum Speech,”
delivered at the Fourth Annual Eastern Regional Conference on Abuse and
Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD), Thursday June 25, 1992, at the
Radisson Plaza Hotel, Mark Center, Alexandria, Virginia. Sponsored by
the Center for Abuse Recovery & Empowerment, The Psychiatric
Institute of Washington, D.C.
In the introduction the following background information is given for D. Corydon Hammond:
B.S., M.S., Ph.D. (Counseling Psychology) from the University of Utah.
Diplomate in Clinical Hypnosis, the American Board of Psychological Hypnosis.
Diplomate in Sex Therapy, the American Board of Sexology.
Clinical Supervisor and Board Examiner, American Board of Sexology.
Diplomate in Marital and Sex Therapy, American Board of Family Psychology.
Licensed Psychologist, Licensed Marital Therapist, Licensed Family Therapist, State of Utah.
Research Associate Professor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Utah School of Medicine.
Director and Founder of the Sex and Marital Therapy Clinic, University of Utah.
Adjunct Associate Professor of Educational Psychology, University of Utah Abstract.
Editor, The American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis.
Advising Editor and Founding Member, Editorial Board, The Ericksonian Monograph.
Referee, The Journal of Abnormal Psychology.
1989 Presidential Award of Merit, American Society of Clinical Hypnosis.
1990 Urban Sector Award, American Society of Clinical Hypnosis.
Current President, American Society of Clinical Hypnosis.
Okay. I want to start off by talking a little about trance-training and
the use of hypnotic phenomena with an MPD dissociative-disorder
population, to talk some about unconscious exploration, methods of doing
that, the use of imagery and symbolic imagery techniques for managing
physical symptoms, input overload, things like that. Before the day’s
out, I want to spend some time talking about something I think has been
completely neglected in the field of dissociative disorders, and that’s
talking about methods of profound calming for automatic hyper-arousal
that’s been conditioned in these patients…..
What I came out of that with was a grasp of a variety of brainwashing
methods being used all over the country. I started to hear some
similarities. Whereas I hadn’t known, to begin with, how widespread
these things were, I was now getting a feeling that there were a lot of
people reporting some similar things and that there must be some degree
of communication here.
Then approximately two and a half years ago I had some material drop in
my lap. My source was saying a lot of things that I knew were accurate
about some of the brainwashing, but it was telling me new material I had
no idea about. At this point I took note and decided to check it out in
three ritual-abuse patients I was seeing at the time. Two of the three
had what they were describing, in careful inquiry without leading or
contaminating…..
Here’s where it appears to have come from. At the end of World War II,
before it even ended, Allen Dulles and people from our Intelligence
Community were already in Switzerland making contact to get out Nazi
scientists. As World War II ends, they not only get out rocket
scientists, but they also get out some Nazi doctors who have been doing
mind-control research in the camps…..
What they basically do is they will get a child and they will start this
in basic forms, it appears, by about two and a half after the child’s
already been made dissociative. They’ll make him dissociative not only
through abuse, like sexual abuse, but also things like putting a
mousetrap on their fingers and teaching the parents, “You do not go in
until the child stops crying. Only then do you go in and remove it.”
They start in rudimentary forms at about two and a half and kick into
high gear, it appears, around six or six and a half, continue through
adolescence with periodic reinforcements in adulthood….
http://www.whale.to/b/greenbaum.html
Behavioral Techniques used to manipulate people.
THE BATTLE FOR YOUR MIND, by Dick Sutphen
Persuasion & Brainwashing Techniques Being Used On The Public Today
The Three Brain Phases
The Christians may have been the first to successfully formulate
brainwashing, but we have to look to Pavlov, the Russian scientist, for a
technical explanation. In the early 1900s, his work with animals opened
the door to further investigations with humans. After the revolution in
Russia, Lenin was quick to see the potential of applying Pavlov’s
research to his own ends.
Three distinct and progressive states of transmarginal inhibition were
identified by Pavlov. The first is the EQUIVALENT phase, in which the
brain gives the same response to both strong and weak stimuli. The
second is the PARADOXICAL phase, in which the brain responds more
actively to weak stimuli than to strong. And the third is the
ULTRA-PARADOXICAL phase, in which conditioned responses and behavior
patterns turn from positive to negative or from negative to positive.
With the progression through each phase, the degree of conversion
becomes more effective and complete. The way to achieve conversion are
many and varied, but the usual first step in religious or
political brainwashing is to work on the emotions of an individual or
group until they reach an abnormal level of anger, fear, excitement, or
nervous tension.
(Note: This is comparable at times to shock techniques in the media and sometimes the loaded language of propagandists.)
The progressive result of this mental condition is to impair judgment
and increase suggestibility. The more this condition can be maintained
or intensified, the more it compounds. Once catharsis, or the
first brain phase, is reached, the complete mental takeover becomes
easier. Existing mental programming can be replaced with new patterns of
thinking and behavior.
Other often-used physiological weapons to modify normal brain functions
are fasting, radical or high sugar diets, physical discomforts,
regulation of breathing, mantra chanting in meditation, the disclosure
of awesome mysteries, special lighting and sound effects, programmed
response to incense, or intoxicating drugs.
The same results can be obtained in contemporary psychiatric treatment
by electric shock treatments and even by purposely lowering a person’s
blood sugar level with insulin injections.
….hypnosis and conversion tactics are two distinctly different
things–and that conversion techniques are far more powerful. However,
the two are often mixed . . . with powerful results.
https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Secrets/TR/sutphen.html
Research on mind control cults
The Manipulation of Spiritual Experience: Unethical Hypnosis in Destructive Cults
Linda Dubrow-Marshall, Ph.D. and Steve K. Eichel, Ph.D., ABPP
The following paper was initially presented to the Association of
Advance Ethical Hypnosis Twenty-Ninth Annual Convention Boston, MA
October 26, 1984. It appeared in Hypnosis
Reports
The process of cult and mass therapy indoctrination may involve
repeated inductions of trance-like states of consciousness similar to
hypnosis. Environmental (milieu) control, social manipulation, isolation
and the use of prescribed consciousness-altering techniques (e.g.
repetitive and/or continuous chanting, meditating, or praying) are some
of the methods employed by cults to produce these altered states of
awareness. Recent studies suggest that memories, emotions and
even spiritual experiences can be manipulated while in hypnosis. Lack of
informed consent and questionable concern for individual needs and
wishes makes the use of these hypnotic techniques unethical. Being
subjected to repeated and prolonged hypnotic inductions can impair the
convert’s ability to make decisions and evaluate new information;
moreover, the convert’s altered awareness can “lock in,” and become a
conditioned personality response pattern. One result can be periodic
episodes of unwanted trance experiences (“floating”) that occur for
months or even years after a cultist exits his/her group….
A large part of the cult debate is concerned with whether or not these
techniques constitute an objectively verifiable process of mind control.
Behavioral scientists Clark and Langone (1983) claim they do; they have
stated that “social psychology research … demonstrates rather
conclusively … that environmental variables can influence behavior in
remarkable ways … that mind control sometimes occurs in cults (p 28)….
Trance is characterized first and foremost by heightened
suggestibility followed closely by diminished critical thinking or
reality testing–what Shor (l969) refers to as receding of the
“generalized reality orientation.” Repeated induction often result in
still greater degrees of suggestibility and deeper hypnotic states
(Arons, 1981). By prolonging trance states, and with the use of repeated
inductions, the cultist may become more and more pliable, less
critical, more dissociated from him/herself and more apt to accept
spurious and even preposterous notions as “facts.”….
thought reform techniques seem to work best when the subject are either
motivated to cooperate or manipulated into believing they have some
degree of free choice. (Cunningham, l984) Hypnosis is a powerful tool…..
http://www.carolgiambalvo.com/unethical-hypnosis-in-destructive-cults.html
These four research articles (and many others) clearly show that
our work is neither “pseudoscience” nor “paranoid” but these phenomena
clearly exist, suggestible mind states can be produced and post hypnotic
suggestions can be acted on without conscious awareness.
So, survivors may sometimes be triggered without knowing it. Whole
groups of people can be put in a trance and given instructions through
cues. This has proven in cult research. This is why we ask people to
avoid putting their hands near the face repeatedly during the
conference, to avoid acting on post hypnotic suggestions and to avoid
triggering others subliminal mind states.
If you feel you are getting hypnotized or spacey on the phone or in
other situations, shake your head hard and excuse yourself from the
conversation. Texts and e-mails received during the conference might be
designed to make you susceptible to your programming.
Attending Presentations
Some of the presentations might be triggering due to their content.
If you feel triggered, please step back and do some self care. To stay
present, take deep breaths, touch your clothing, and try to feel the
chair you are sitting on and the floor under your feet. Use the small
object you brought to let you know where you are.
If this is insufficient, take a break but do not go for a walk alone.
Tell your safe support person, if you have one, that you are feeling
triggered and need to leave with them and go outside.
Check inside to see which parts of you are upset and why. Inquire
internally whether you are having a post-traumatic reaction, in which
something reminded you of some past event or person in your own life, or
whether programming has been triggered.
Try and figure out what the presenter did or said which caused these feelings.
Most people are going to act fairly normally, and because
programmers/handlers or scouts for secretive organizations or cults are
not likely to look any different from most people, it is helpful to be
alert to possible signs of attempted accessing.
Do not give any personal details about your life to conference
attendees, even if you believe you have met them online. Almost every
ritual abuse survivor has parts inside who are trained to report on
other survivors to the perpetrators. You do not want anyone reporting
about you.
Don’t shake hands or exchange hugs with anyone you don’t know. Certain
cults use handshakes to remind people of their programming and/or access
certain alter states.
Survivors are in different places in their healing, and their knowledge
about programming methods and their ability to recognize such things.
There are two ways to catch triggers: one is by your own reactions. If
you notice you are suddenly dizzy or foggy, or spaced out, you may be
triggered. It is good to know some grounding techniques to use when this
begins to happen. Try to remember what just happened around you. The
second is by looking for some specific behaviors, odd out of place
phrases, or discrepancies between behaviors and words. Pay close
attention to hand gestures, winks, taps, etc.
Most people are probably safe, but it is a good idea to be aware of your surroundings as much as possible.
One important thing is if you are feeling triggered or dissociated or
tired or weak, don’t let people that you don’t know or trust and/or
people that aren’t safe ask you to leave the conference room to talk
with you. If you see someone you don’t know walking up to you when you
are feeling triggered or dissociated you might want to say “excuse me”
and quickly walk away from them and find a support person or a
conference organizer.
Trigger Management
Triggers are more than phrases. They can be pictures, sounds, smells,
tastes, gestures or touches on the body. The added dangers for triggers
for ritual abuse survivors are that triggers can be used to open alter
states, or very complex programs. These programs could be used to cause a
return to the cult or cause someone to hurt themselves or someone else.
Triggering can occur in so many forms that it is impossible to delineate them all here.
Trigger management is one of the keys to recovery. By being able
to manage your triggers, you can hopefully keep from being triggered
into alter states that could possibly be used to get you to return to
the cult. This entails knowing the trigger and the feeling accompanying
the trigger, the memory connected to the trigger and the action required
of the trigger.
Working through programming is having the memory in a safe setting with a
safe support person and learning the accompanying trigger and
subliminal instruction.
Trigger management involves learning to recognize the feeling of falling
into a deep hypnotic state, snapping out of it, and then trying to
figure out why it happened. It also involves learning how not to fall
into these states while feeling the “pull” of them. One technique that
can be used is: Shake your head side to side (fairly hard) or walk
around.
Susceptibility to triggers can come from being tired or confused. This
is why it is important to try not to be tired or confused in possibly
triggering situations. Try to stay awake and alert and get enough sleep.
Safety at Home
Please remember that your recovery is your own. It is important for
survivors to choose their own spiritual systems. Unfortunately, certain
religious and healing techniques are used for programming people (to put
people into hypnotic states) sometimes and are also used on RA/MC
survivors. Be wary of those that emphasis that there is only one way to
heal. Educate yourself about cults and their techniques also. There are
several very good books that can help with this.
Look very closely at the relationships in your life. Does a certain
person in your life fit the profile of a handler or an abuser? Can you
say something about the profile of a handler or an abuser? Ask inside
whether anyone recognizes things the person is doing or saying which
indicates they may be one?
The important thing is not to have any gurus. To critically analyze everything someone says. This is a learning process.
Discernment is crucial here. It is also important not to be constantly
paranoid, though caution can help at times to avoid programming. There
are safe people in the world that want to help us. The important thing
is figuring out who is safe and who isn’t. Staying present rather than
dissociating can really be helpful in this area.
Make your own decisions. There are good support systems and advice out
there, but make sure you make your own decisions. Healthy intelligent
change is good. Follow you own path or way and be strong enough to do
this. If you do this, you will begin to take control of your own
triggers and develop a healthy, trigger management system. Please feel
free to let us know how you feel about this topic.
This was the second presentation at the Survivorship Conference 2017.
Neil Brick
Freedom from Mind Control
Subliminal methods and mind control influence all areas of our lives.
Social and cultural forms of mind control keep us from growing as human
beings. These forms of control make it difficult for us to grow and
learn as survivors. They make it more difficult to work through our cult
control programming to free our minds and our lives. Techniques will be
discussed that can help survivors and others break through their mind
control programs and influences.
Neil Brick is a survivor of ritual abuse and mind control. His work
continues to educate the public about child abuse, trauma and ritual
abuse crimes. His child abuse and ritual abuse newsletter S.M.A.R.T. has
been published for over 20 years. http://neilbrick.com
Conference page: https://survivorship.org/the-survivorship-ritual-abuse-and-child-abuse-2017-conference/
Disclaimer: This presentation is solely my own thoughts and research and
not necessarily the thoughts or any other persons or groups I work
with, including Survivorship. This information is not intended as
treatment or therapy. Survivors may want to use caution while reading
this page. All accusations are alleged.
Cultural Influences and Specific Groups
It is impossible to fully grow and heal from mind control unless one is
aware of the specific techniques groups use. There are direct
brainwashing and torture techniques that many of us here experienced.
There have been many excellent books written about ways to start working
through and healing from these techniques. This is an important part of
healing.
This presentation looks at a different aspect of healing from
mind control. We will be discussing cultural influences and specific
groups that use propaganda and mind control techniques. Awareness of
these influences, groups and techniques can speed up one’s recovery from
ritual abuse and mind control and can also help one avoid getting
re-accessed or revictimized by another group later in one’s recovery.
An example of this is survivors that get free of their ritual abuse
programming, but end up in a Christian or other religious cult like
situation. This often happens due to the lack of survivor supports.
These groups are often the only ones willing to help ritual abuse
survivors.
Survivors are also susceptible to right wing political groups. All
mainstream US political groups use propaganda techniques, but right wing
groups are more likely to use different techniques like loaded words
(words that carry a lot of emotion), name calling (mudslinging or
pointing out negative elements) or an emotional appeal.
The present US regime uses several of these techniques. Our president is
a good example of this. I believe that another group that has viciously
attacked the resources and research of ritual abuse survivors and our
organization called The Grey Faction of the Satanic Temple also does
this.
Discussion of Propaganda Techniques
Here is some of the terminology used by The Grey Faction from their website:
“Irrational Mob Panics”
“absurd and irrational conspiracy theories”
“conspiracists, hack reporters, and opportunistic cons”
“psychology’s pseudoscientific fringe; feeding delusion to the mentally vulnerable”
“Mental Health Counselor Paranoid Presentation”
One not aware of the use of name calling and loaded language
being used here may be taken in by this language and will apply these
labels to ritual abuse survivors and their support systems without
critical analysis. I believe that this is one reason propaganda is used by these types of groups.
These name calling insults are from supporters or members of the Satanic Temple:
“Mr. Face-touching-is-mind-control-signaling”
“face-touch triggers for mind dominance”
“can feel me touching my face?”
From the Satanic Temple twitter account:
“The deranged tinfoil hat quacks”
These are only a few of the many insults on the Internet after the last
conference in various comment sections. The repeated name calling by
this group and its supporters shows the emphasis they use on these types
of propaganda techniques.
Lucien Greaves also known as Doug Mesner (both aliases) is known for
using some of these techniques. Many of these techniques have been used
against myself and others I have worked with.
Here are a few examples from his 2009 article:
“this is to be a congregation of raving delusional paranoiacs”
“The organizer of the conference, Neil Brick, stands about 5’6? with a
greasy dark curly comb-over, large-thick glasses, and a voice that
sounds exactly like Elmer Fudd”
“why they came to manufacture their paranoid fictions”
There are many examples of name calling and insults far more severe than
these being used against myself and others working to stop ritual
abuse.
I believe these insults are used not only for propaganda value, but also
to intimidate and silence child abuse and ritual abuse survivors and
their advocates.
Propaganda (1928) – Edward Bernay
“ THE conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and
opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society.
Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an
invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country.
We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas
suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical
result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast
numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to
live together as a smoothly functioning society.“ http://www.historyisaweapon.org/defcon1/bernprop.html
Though I totally disagree with using this to manipulate others, this is
what has happened to much of our world today. Previously TV and now the
Internet are being used to mold and form opinion for the benefit of the
wealthy and those in power.
Religion as mind control
I believe that religions use forms of mind control and the manipulation of others by their leaders.
Disorientation and repetition are two of the major forms of
indoctrination used by different religions. Disorientation causes
dissociation and allows suggestions to be planted into one’s mind. This
was discussed in my first presentation today.
Those that use these mind control and propaganda techniques may attack those exposing these techniques.
Any spiritual technique or moral guideline can be learned without being
in a religion. When one joins a religion, they give up their freedom of
thought and ability to create their own unique spirituality.
The Satanic Temple is a religion that has tenets like other religions.
Quotes from their website:
“One should strive to act with compassion and empathy towards all creatures in accordance with reason.”
“People are fallible. If we make a mistake, we should do our best to rectify it and resolve any harm that may have been caused.”
I personally have not experienced either of these tenets from the
membership of the Satanic Temple or its co-founder. I have rarely seen
“compassion” or “empathy” used by this group. The examples given above
show a different orientation, in my opinion, one leaning toward cruelty
and viciousness.
Ridicule
From the Twitter web page of Lucien Greaves
The claims shouldn’t only provoke skepticism but ridicule & a resolve to end debunked recovered memory therapies (bold added)
Internet definition of ridicule:
“the subjection of someone or something to contemptuous and dismissive language or behavior”
In my opinion, ridicule is meant to insult others and at times to
silence or bully others. It is not a rational technique, nor is it meant
to be used to fairly debate others.
The Satanic Temple recently released:
“The Satanic Temple’s Guidelines for Effective Protest”
This list includes the phrases:
“protesters must respect free speech”
“If your protest calls for the deprivation of rights and liberties of others, intimidates others,
harasses or threatens others, silences others, then you are an enemy of freedom no matter what the justification”
I believe that the Satanic Temple through some of their statements
against child abuse and ritual abuse survivors as well as their
co-founder Lucien Greaves or Doug Mesner (both aliases) violates the
above guidelines.
I believe I have been severely harassed by this person and group in
attempts to silence me and my work. They have filed complaints against
my license, called my work place, called my employers, made harassing
phone calls to my house and followed me in comment sections on the
Internet to harass me further. These attacks are well documented on the
websites https://ritualabuse.us and http://neilbrick.com
Lack of morals
We live in a world where people can say almost anything about anyone on
the Internet using an alias. People have little to no protection from
this. This has been created by the Communication Decency Act where
Internet providers are not legally liable for the words of third parties
who use their services. Other laws have been passed in the last 30 – 40
years that have caused a further deterioration of social morality.
Everything needs to have limits, including speech. Developing limits
needs to be done carefully, not to squelch legitimate ideas, but to
eliminate the vicious harassment and Internet stalking I and others have
been subjected to. This harassing phenomena has unfortunately become a
major Internet phenomena. It has often been used to silence and limit
the freedom of speech of many.
Infiltrating or “invading” conferences shows a lack of morality. Our
conferences are for survivors of torture and rape. The refusal of groups
to respect the privacy of the severely traumatized attendees and those
that are trying to help them shows a basic lack of respect and decency
for those severely injured by others.
Groups that violates trauma survivors’ rights may claim to do so because
they want to get information they believe is closed to the public.
However this information is available on the Internet in presentations.
They may state they are stopping a social injustice, like unjust legal
proceedings. However these legal proceedings’ decisions had far more
backing than just the ideology of trauma and ritual abuse and were well
adjudicated with legal teams on both sides. I believe the real reason
for “invading” these conferences is to try and stop them and to
intimidate those that run and attend them.
Discussion of Harassment Creating Milieu Control
This concept is about controlling people via the control of their
environment, including what is communicated and how. This terminology is
applied to cult dynamics, but it also can be applied to social dynamics
in general. I believe that the harassment of The Satanic Temple’s Grey
Faction and other false memory type groups have at times silenced child
abuse and ritual abuse survivors and their supporters. The cultural
environment of lack of morality and open Internet without rules has
given these groups the opportunity to do this.
Hate Groups
Hate groups are defined as social groups that advocate and practices
hatred or hostility towards members of a designated sector of society.
I believe the Satanic Temple through the Grey Faction is being used as a
hate group (as per the definition above) to verbally attack survivors
of ritual abuse and their supporters. The viciousness of these attacks,
as shown above, is used to promote animosity and hostility toward
survivors.
Narrative as Eye Witness Testimony
False memory type groups criticize narrative. It is important to
remember that trauma research including research around cults and ritual
abuse has more than narrative to back up its conclusions. But narrative
itself, including self reporting is used without critique in a wide
variety of studies. Narrative is a form of eye witness testimony that is
used with other evidence to verify or adjudicate claims.
The attacks by false memory type groups on narrative as evidence is
disingenuous. We define reality certain ways based on our senses. Our
senses have not been verified scientifically, but are used as unproven
hypotheses from which we build further theorems. Claiming that one form
of evidence is stronger than another is using science as weapon,
especially when a debate is being used to silence others.
Using “Science” and “Rationalism” as a Weapon
False Memory groups will use these concepts without backing to convince
the reader or listener that they have the correct answer. I believe this
is a propaganda technique. They have no more and often less science and
research than those they are attacking. To the best of my knowledge,
the Grey Faction has never published the full credentials of their
members, showing that they have any specific training or evidence in the
field of trauma, dissociation or the study of cults. Many of those they
attack have published articles in scientific journals and have several
high educational degrees.
False Skepticism
“Skeptics” in the false memory field for years have claimed that because
they are skeptical, they have an advantage over others. Yet it appears
these “skeptics” start from the perspective of not believing in ritual
abuse crimes and then proving their own point. I believe that true
skepticism questions both sides of an issue to derive a conclusion. An
example is calling survivors of ritual abuse delusional or paranoid.
There is no legitimate evidence survivors are either. False memory
supporters have no evidence a survivor’s story is not true. Therefore
they have no evidence any survivor suffers from paranoia or delusion. I
believe this is just name calling, a propaganda technique.
Media
The media has done little to help the debate and has often hurt the
debate, by refusing to print our research and facts. They often simply
repeat the ideas of the Satanic Temple or Grey Faction and do not even
ask us for our perspective and research. One example is when the Satanic
Temple started three years ago, they claimed their founder was “Neil
Bricke.” The Satanic Temple’s website stated: In 2012, Neil Bricke,
raised in a multigenerational Satanic Temple tradition of worship,
decided, with the blessings of his fellow Satanic devotees, to
officially found the Satanic Temple. I believe this was just more
harassment and another personal attack against me. The media printed
this idea widely, did not fact check it and did little to correct it
even if I contacted them.
Damage Caused to Research and Trauma Survivors by Propaganda and Harassment
The more recent attacks have been toward conference supporting trauma
survivors and survivors of cult and ritual abuse crimes. These attacks
hurt the work of researchers helping trauma survivors and those reaching
out for support from trauma crimes. The number of groups still existing
since the mid 1990s when the False Memory groups began these attacks
began had dwindled down to only a handful. I believe this causes
inappropriate treatment protocols to be applied to trauma survivors at
times, or for trauma to not be recognized by professionals. Instead of
treating trauma, professionals may medicate trauma or only work on
behavioral treatment protocols. This causes symptom issues and other
addiction problems to continue. In my opinion, the work of false memory
type groups has caused a great deal of suffering for those survivors
effected by either a lack of resources or inappropriate treatment
protocols. I believe these social costs may also be increased, due to
continued addictions, hospitalizations and legal issues.
This is the damage that can be done by not recognizing how mind control
and propaganda techniques work. On a personal level, one may follow
damaging belief systems that impede their recovery from ritual abuse and
other traumas. On a social level, we end up with presidents, from
either party, that work for the rich and cause massive social suffering.
Or we may see the repeated damage of support systems for trauma
survivors.
The concept “think for yourself” entails learning about the
techniques that can be used to manipulate and control your mind and not
letting them control you.
