Mind Control and How to Stop it – Neil Brick
Information from conference PowerPoint
S.M.A.R.T.
The 2021 Online Annual Ritual Abuse, Secretive Organizations and Mind Control Conference Aug 14 -15, 2021
All accusations are alleged.
Please note: None of the material on these pages or at the conference is meant as therapy, or to take the place of therapy. These presentations may be very heavy to read for survivors. Survivors may want to read this with a support person.
Biography
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 26 years. http://neilbrick.com
Abstract
This presentation will explain how mind control and different suggestive techniques work in a variety of individual and public settings. These will include interpersonal relationships, abusive relationships, ritual abuse settings, social media, political manipulation and hypnosis. Ways to expose and prevent mind control will be discussed. Social views of mind control will be presented.
Learning Objectives:
1) Participants will learn how different suggestive techniques can control thought patterns.
2) Participants will be able to discern how mind control techniques can be used in different settings.
3) Participants will be able to describe how different hypnosis and post hypnotic suggestion can be used.
4) Participants will be able to list the different social views of mind control.
Definition of Mind Control
WHAT IS MIND CONTROL?
Mind control, like ritual abuse, has both a broad and narrow definition. In a sense, all advertising is an attempt at mind control, an attempt to make people buy certain brands or objects. Propaganda (my country is right and good and the other country is wrong and bad) is also an example of attempted mind control.
Mind Control Definitions
In the survivor community, however, the definition is much narrower and more sinister. It means that part of a person’s mind has been programmed (that is, trained) to obey another person without question, while other parts of the mind are unaware of this situation.
What is Programming?
Programming refers both to the process of teaching part of the mind unquestioned obedience and to the content of what is taught.
Who Practices Mind Control?
Many cults that practice ritual abuse use mind control, in that their members are not aware, most of the time, that they are participating in the cult or in abusive acts or ceremonies. Governments also have experimented extensively with mind control, primarily through federally funded intelligence agencies and military research projects.
Suggestive Techniques:
Interpersonal and Abusive Relationships
There is a big difference between psychological or emotional manipulation and simple influence. Healthy social influence appears naturally without anyone trying to force it. We may affect others’ choices, preferences and judgement without threatening their health and emotional or physical well-being.
In case of psychological manipulation, however, manipulator’s goal is to create an imbalance of power in order to exploit others’ weaknesses to serve their own interests. The roots of emotional manipulation are quite complex.
Reasons why an individual may choose manipulative behavior
Generally, the reasons why an individual may choose manipulative behavior include
personal gain,
desire for power and superiority,
desire to control,
self-esteem issues,
boredom
Interpersonal and Abusive Relationships
If you suspect you are being manipulated, you need to find a way to stand up for yourself in a safe way. Sometimes the manipulator will apologize and temporarily correct his behavior only to return to it later. Avoid isolation and nurture relationships with other people to keep a healthy perspective. Romantic relationship with a manipulator can be especially damaging and must be avoided. https://psychologia.co/emotional-manipulation/
“I believe the only solution to the damage done to people in destructive cults is to “immunize” the general population against mid control groups. The most effective way to do this is to expose people to information about how the group works.” Combatting Cult Mind Control, Hassan p. 5.
Abusive Relationships in Groups (and Cults)
Isolation
Physical isolation can be very powerful, but even when physical isolation is impossible or not practical, manipulators will typically attempt to isolate you mentally. This may be achieved in a number of ways from one week seminars in the country to criticizing your family and circle of friends. Limiting any other influence by controlling information flow is the ultimate goal.
https://psychologia.co/mind-control-techniques/
Mind Control Techniques To Be Aware Of
Criticism
Criticism may be used as an isolation tool. The manipulators will usually speak in “us against them” terms, criticize the outside world and claim their own superiority. According to them, you must feel lucky to be associated with them.
Social proof and peer pressure
Those who attempt to manipulate large groups of people will typically use social proof and peer pressure to brainwash newcomers. Social proof is a psychological phenomenon where (some) people assume that the actions and beliefs of others are appropriate and, because “everyone does that”, must be justified. This works especially well when an individual isn’t sure what to think, how to behave, or what to do. A lot of people in such situations will simply look at what others do and do the same.
Fear of alienation
Newcomers to manipulative groups will usually receive a warm welcome and will form a number of new friendships that seem to be much deeper and more meaningful than anything they have ever experienced. Later on, if any doubts arise, these relationships will become a powerful tool to hold them in the group. Even if they aren’t completely convinced, the life in the outside world may seem very lonely.
Repetition
Constant repetition is another powerful persuasion tool. Although it may seem too simplistic to be effective, but repeating same message over and over again makes it familiar and easier to remember. When repetition is combined with social proof, it delivers the message without fail.
Fatigue
Fatigue and sleep deprivation result in physical and mental tiredness. When you are physically tired and less alert, you are more susceptible to persuasion. A study mentioned in Journal of Experimental Psychology shows that individuals who had not slept for only 21 hours were more susceptible to suggestion.
Forming new identity
Ultimately, manipulators want to re-define your identity. They want you to stop being yourself and become a robot, someone who mindlessly follows their orders. Using all methods and mind manipulation techniques mentioned above, they will attempt to extract a confession from you — some form of acknowledgement that you believe that they are good people doing a good thing (slight variations are possible).
In the beginning it might be something seemingly insignificant like agreeing that the members of the group are fun and loving people or that some of their views are indeed valid. Once you accept that one little thing, you may be more ready to accept another one and then another one and another… Before you know it, out of desire to be consistent with what you do and say, you start identifying as one of the group. This is particularly powerful if you know that your confessions were recorded or filmed — just in case you forget, there is a physical proof of your new identity.
Ritual abuse has been defined as:
a brutal form of abuse of children, adolescents, and adults, consisting of physical, sexual, and psychological abuse, and involving the use of rituals. Ritual does not necessarily mean satanic. However, most survivors state that they were ritually abused as part of satanic worship for the purpose of indoctrinating them into satanic beliefs and practices. Ritual abuse rarely consists of a single episode. It usually involves repeated abuse over an extended period of time. The physical abuse is severe, sometimes including torture and killing. The sexual abuse is usually painful, sadistic, and humiliating, intended as means of gaining dominance over the victim. The psychological abuse is devastating and involves the use of ritual/indoctrination, which includes mind control techniques and mind-altering drugs, and ritual/intimidation which conveys to the victim a profound terror of the cult members and of the evil spirits they believe cult members can command. Both during and after the abuse, most victims are in a state of terror, mind control, and dissociation in which disclosure is exceedingly difficult
WHAT IS RITUAL ABUSE?
WHAT IS RITUAL ABUSE? (BROAD DEFINITION) Ritual abuse is the abuse of a child, weaker adult, or animal in a ritual setting or manner. In a broad sense, many of our overtly or covertly socially sanctioned actions can be seen as ritual abuse, such as military basic training, hazing, racism, spanking children, and partner-battering. Some abuse is private…some public. Public ritual abuse may be either open or secret.
WHAT IS RITUAL ABUSE? (NARROW DEFINITION) The term ritual abuse is generally used to mean prolonged, extreme, sadistic abuse, especially of children, within a group setting. The group’s ideology is used to justify the abuse, and abuse is used to teach the group’s ideology. The activities are kept secret from society at large, as they violate norms and laws.
(From Survivorship – Frequently Asked Questions)
Hypnosis in MPD: Ritual Abuse
D. Corydon Hammond, Ph.D. (“Greenbaum Speech”)
….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.”
“Ellen Lacter…gives this definition:
Ritual Abuse consists of conditioning and torture, carried out in a ceremonial or calculator manner
for the purpose of effecting control over a victim’s mind and behavior. It is international in scope, with similarities and variations across cultures.”
Dr. Miller describes the techniques (p. 12) used to mind control victims, including torture, abuse and druggings.
The tactics of these groups, however, are quite different from, and more extreme than, those found in visible cults. They are much more violent, for one thing. Their methods are more sophisticated and the consequences of those tactics more complex.” p. 13
Battle for the Mind – William Sargant
William Sargant first looked at combat PTSD and compared it to Pavlov’s classical conditioning. He extended Pavlov’s model to explain how people could change their world view suddenly. This was caused by intense trauma, followed by a person’s personality breaking down, followed by the application of new ways of thinking.
Pavlov’s dogs during a flood either forgot or reversed their previous training. First, Pavlov’s “equivalent” phase of brain activity or breakdown occurred.
Second, Pavlov’s “paradoxical inhibition” occurred where weak stimuli would produce strong responses and strong stimuli would produce weak responses (inappropriate responses).
Third, in the “ultraparadoxical” stage, responses changed from positive to negative and vice-versa. Current models of PTSD suggest that PTSD can be understood as learned helplessness, a set of foci in the brain firing repeatedly and inappropriately.
Cognitively, a person’s world view is so changed as to become untenable. Pavlov’s observations on animals breaking down under extreme stress could be applied to humans and survivors.
Pavlov was able to build up and break down behavior patterns in dogs. Pavlov’s work seems to have influenced confession getting and brainwashing techniques.
Pavlov’s dogs had four basic temperaments, strong excitatory, lively, calm imperturbable type and melancholic. Each type reacted differently to stress.
Pavlov could cause a dog to break down by increasing the intensity of a signal (electricity), delaying the time between the signal and food, confusing them with positive and negative signals interchanged or tampering with its physical condition.
If a dog of stable temperament acquires a behavior after extreme stress, it is hard to break this behavior. The could be compared to a person of strong character becoming a one-track minded fanatic. Some survivors may also become fanatics.
Social media
Propaganda techniques are similar in many ways to programming techniques. One could say a person is being programmed when being propagandized. The combination of vision and sound on TV make a person more suggestible.
Most people get their news from TV. Once a person is overly emotional or numbed out, they become more suggestible and less likely to critically think about their choices. Subliminal learning is then enhanced.
Examples of propaganda in our media today are all too obvious. It is unfortunately too easy to direct people’s attention away from the fraudulent elections in our country and the outright thievery of the rich corporations against the populace, by creating enemies and fear.
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
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.”
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”
Political manipulation
“Fascist politics includes many distinct strategies: the mythical past, propaganda, anti-intellectualism, unreality, hierarchy, victimhood, law and order, sexual anxiety, appeals to the heartland, and a dismantling of public welfare and unity….The danger of fascist politics come from the particular way in which it dehumanizes segments of the population. By excluding these groups, it limits the capacity for empathy among other citizens, leading to the justification of inhumane treatment, from freedom to repression, mass imprisonment, and explusion to, in extreme cases, mass extermination.” Stanley, How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them. p. XXVIII -XXIX
“In Mein Kampf…Hitler writes it is a gross misunderstanding to dismiss simple language as stupid. Throughout Mein Kampf, Hitler is clear that the aim of propaganda is to replace reasoned argument in the public sphere with irrational fears and passions…(Bannon) anger and fear is what gets people to the polls.” p. 55
“Fascist politics includes many distinct strategies: the mythical past, propaganda, anti-intellectualism, unreality, hierarchy, victimhood, law and order, sexual anxiety, appeals to the heartland, and a dismantling of public welfare and unity….
The danger of fascist politics come from the particular way in which it dehumanizes segments of the population. By excluding these groups, it limits the capacity for empathy among other citizens, leading to the justification of inhumane treatment, from freedom to repression, mass imprisonment, and expulsion to, in extreme cases, mass extermination.” Stanley, How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them. p. XXVIII -XXIX
Mythical past:
“In all fascist mythic pasts, an extreme version of the patriarchal family reigns supreme….further back in time, the mythic past was a time of glory of the nation” p. 3
“The function of the mythic past is to harness the emotion of nostalgia to the central tenets of fascist ideology – hierarchy, purity, and struggle.” p. 5
Hierarchy
‘Fascist politicians represent the myths that legitimize their hierarchies as immutable facts.” p.80
“Might Is Right or The Survival of the Fittest…rejects conventional ideas of human and natural rights and argues that only strength or physical might can establish moral right”
Stanley describes the denial of fascism in society even when it is occurring, similar to Trumpism from 2016 – 2020. He talks about how Jewish people in Germany in 1937 did not realize the danger they were in. The Nazis of course covered up many of their crimes. Mass media today made it more difficult for Trump to do this (immigrant camps). This is like the denial of child abuse crimes today by false memory proponents with their gross misrepresentations of fact.
Hypnosis
THE BATTLE FOR YOUR MIND, by Dick Sutphen
Persuasion & Brainwashing Techniques Being Used On The Public Today
https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Secrets/TR/sutphen.html
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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 States
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.”
Post hypnotic suggestions
Posthypnotic Suggestion: Attention, Awareness, and Automaticity
Amanda J. Barnier, Ph.D. (Sleep and Hypnosis 1999;1:57-63)
“Hypnosis is not only intrinsically interesting, but also research into hypnosis can shed light on issues across the psychological domain.
This article explores ways in which hypnotic phenomena, in particular posthypnotic suggestion, can provide approaches to and understanding of complex issues in cognitive psychology.
For instance, when subjects respond to a posthypnotic suggestion, they are presented with a stimulus that they appear to be attending to and which influences their behaviour, yet they lack phenomenal awareness of it.
This discontinuity between attention and consciousness suggests that the assumed mapping of attentive processing and awareness is problematic.
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).
For instance, Bernheim (30) described a typical response to a posthypnotic suggestion in the following way:
The patient hears what I tell him in his sleep, but no memory of what I said remains. He no longer knows that I spoke to him. The idea suggested arises in his mind when he wakes, but he has forgotten its origin, and believes it is spontaneous.
Ways to expose and prevent mind control
“NO ONE HAS EVER BEEN BRAINWASHED AND REALIZED, OR BELIEVED, THAT HE HAD BEEN BRAINWASHED.” THE BATTLE FOR YOUR MIND, by Dick Sutphen
Persuasion & Brainwashing Techniques Being Used On The Public Today
Solutions
“I believe the only solution to the damage done to people in destructive cults is to “immunize” the general population against mid control groups. The most effective way to do this is to expose people to information about how the group works.” Combatting Cult Mind Control, Hassan p. 5.
References
Hassan, S. (1988) Combatting Cult Mind Control. Rochester, Vermont: Park Street Press
Miller, A. (2012) Healing the Unimaginable: Treating Ritual Abuse and Mind Control. London: Karnac Books
Miller, A (2014) Becoming Yourself: Overcoming Mind Control and Ritual Abuse. London: Karnac Books
Sargant, W, (1957) Battle for the Mind: A Physiology of Conversion and Brainwashing. New York: Doubleday
Stanley, J. (2018) How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them. New York: Random House
Survivorship – Frequently Asked Questions
Psychological Manipulation
https://psychologia.co/emotional-manipulation/
https://psychologia.co/mind-control-techniques/
Mind Control Techniques To Be Aware Of
Child Abuse Wiki – Ritual Abuse
Report of the Ritual Abuse Task Force – Los Angeles County Commission for Women
Hypnosis in MPD: Ritual Abuse
D. Corydon Hammond, Ph.D. (“Greenbaum Speech”)
http://www.whale.to/b/greenbaum.html
Ritual abuse and mind control: the definition evolves
(Allison Miller – Healing the Unimaginable)
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Healing_the_Unimaginable/U0daDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Ritual+abuse+and+mind+control:+the+definition+evolves+(Allison+Miller+-+Healing+the+Unimaginable)&pg=PT39&printsec=frontcover
Excerpt from How Cues and Programming Work in Mind Control and Propaganda
Propaganda & Mind Control
Misinformation Campaigns Against Survivors – Neil Brick
How Hitler Conquered Germany
The Nazi propaganda machine exploited ordinary Germans by encouraging them to be co-producers of a false reality.
BY NICHOLAS O’SHAUGHNESSY
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2017/03/how-nazi-propaganda-encouraged-the-masses-to-co-produce-a-false-reality.html
Fox News is Donald Trump’s ‘De Facto Ministry of Truth,’ Ex-CIA Analyst Says
BY JESSICA KWONG ON 3/28/19
https://www.newsweek.com/fox-news-donald-trumps-ministry-truth-cia-analyst-1378208
Possible Hate Groups – How Do They Effect Survivors and Their Resources
Douglas Misicko alias Douglas Mesner Information
THE BATTLE FOR YOUR MIND, by Dick Sutphen
Persuasion & Brainwashing Techniques Being Used On The Public Today
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
http://www.carolgiambalvo.com/unethical-hypnosis-in-destructive-cults.html
Posthypnotic Suggestion: Attention, Awareness, and Automaticity
Amanda J. Barnier, Ph.D. (Sleep and Hypnosis 1999;1:57-63)
http://www.sleepandhypnosis.org/ing/Pdf/63790b4456c24c56848e1d924d7b0847.pdf
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.
