copied with permission
Tuesday, March 5, 2024
SMART Ritual Abuse and Mind Control Newsletter - Issue 175 - March 2024
S.M.A.R.T.
E-mail: SMARTNEWS@aol.com
The Survivorship Trafficking and Extreme Abuse Online Conference 2024
Speakers and topics include:
Monday, March 4, 2024
Survivorship Notes available for free online - New Conference Speakers and Low Prices
Survivorship March/April 2024 Notes are available for free online at https://survivorship.org/notes-and-journal Information includes new speaker information about the May 2024 conference with low prices until March 15th.
The Survivorship Trafficking and Extreme Abuse Online Conference 2024
Survivor Conference - Saturday and Sunday May 4 - 5, 2024
Clinician's Conference - Friday May 3, 2024
https://survivorship.org/the-survivorship-trafficking-and-extreme-abuse-online-conference-2024
Please write info@survivorship.org if you would like to get on our conference mailing list and/or are interested in speaking at our 2024 conference.
Special Low Prices:
Register and pay before March 15, 2024:
Fri: $125 - clinician’s conference
Sat: $75 - $50 low income survivors
Sun: $75 - $50 low income survivors
Conference Speakers
Recovery Tips for and by Survivors
Survivors and their helpers have developed a variety of techniques toward healing from traumatic experiences. This presentation will encourage an open discussion of these techniques. Techniques will include those used in individual and group therapy and in survivors’ personal lives. This will be an open discussion for survivors and their helpers. The moderators will be Dr. Randy Noblitt and Neil Brick.
Teaching Trauma and Dissociation in Higher Education Randy Noblitt PhD
Clinicians can contribute to the well being of extreme abuse survivors directly by providing competent professional services. We can also assist by training graduate students who will become future clinicians. Folz and colleagues (2023) found deficits in trauma-informed training in their sample of 193 APA-accredited clinical psychology programs. Only 5% required a course relevant to trauma-informed care, resulting in only 8% of graduates receiving such formal training. We will discuss opportunities for being a college or university guest speaker, adjunct faculty and core faculty member. Participants will also discuss leading topics and trends in the contemporary trauma and dissociation literature.
Randy Noblitt is a professor of Clinical Psychology at Alliant International University, Los Angeles and a licensed psychologist in Texas. He has evaluated and treated extreme abuse survivors clinically since 1979. He has authored three editions of the book Cult and Ritual Abuse with Pam Noblitt (1995, 2000, 2014). Together they also edited Ritual Abuse in the 21st Century (2008) and they have authored a recent book, Navigating Social Security Disability Programs: A Handbook for Clinicians and Advocates (2020). https://ritualabuse.us/smart/randy-noblitt/
Tackling Complex Trauma Assessment Problems with Cybernetic Big 5 Theory Dr. Rainer Hermann Kurz
This presentation draws on contemporary personality assessment theory to illustrate opportunities and risks when using psychometric questionnaires in situations where extreme abuse has been alleged. DeYoung (2015) outlined a comprehensive ‘Cybernetic Big 5 Theory’ that revolves around the Five-Factor Model (FFM) of personality that psychologists converged on (e.g. Digman, 1990). Digman (1997) found that Conscientiousness, Agreeableness and Low Neuroticism form a meta-factor ‘Alpha’ whereas Extraversion and Openness form a meta-factor ‘Beta’. DeYoung refers to these as Stability and Plasticity respectively and associates them with serotonergic and dopaminergic systems. Furthermore, DeYoung differentiates two Aspects for each of the Big 5. Johnson (2014) developed public domain versions of the ‘gold standard’ Big 5 personality questionnaire NEO which can be used free-of-charge: https://drj.virtualave.net/IPIP/index.html
The application of NEO IPIP and NEO-PI-3 to challenge poor assessment practice in a case of alleged organized child sexual abuse/exploitation will be illustrated including item level nuances (Stewart et al., 2022). Another case study will illustrate results of a multi-tool assessment of a self-identified survivor of extreme abuse using the Big 5 as an organizing framework in line with Bainbridge et al. (2022). A third case study will illustrate the use of Great 8 Totals (Kurz, 2014) as a proxy for the General Factor of Personality (Musek, 2008), conceptually the opposite of the general factor of psychopathology (Forbes et al., 2021), to challenge misleading results on the Millon MCMI questionnaire. The presentation shows how Cybernetic Big 5 Theory can help to overcome complex psychological assessment practice problems.
Rainer Kurz is a Chartered Psychologist based in London. Since 1990 Rainer has worked in Research & Development roles for leading test publishers. His PhD dissertation was on enhancing the validity and utility of ability testing. Rainer developed 50+ psychometric tests and authored more than 100 publications. He is a Consultant Editor for Test Reviews at the Psychometric Testing Centre (PTC) of the BPS. Rainer has been investigating complex trauma assessment problems since 2012. He presented 30+ posters on trauma, dissociation and healing at international peer-reviewed conferences that are available here: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Rainer_Kurz2
Ritual Abuse, Sex Trafficking and Mind Control Neil Brick
This presentation will explain how ritual abuse, mind control, and different suggestive techniques work to control sex trafficking survivors (Karriker, 2008). The presenter will describe different historical examples of how mind control and ritual abuse have been used. Legal cases will also be discussed from various parts of the world (McGonigle, 1999; New York Times, 1988). Research studies, like the Extreme Abuse Survivors Survey, will be presented, as well as examples of different cults and their techniques (Hassan, 2018).
Mental health diagnoses, like Dissociative Identity Disorder and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and their origins in sex trafficking survivors will be explained. The presenter will discuss his personal experiences of being in a cult as a child experiencing torture, sexual abuse, and mind control techniques. The forced development of these diagnoses and their symptoms will be connected to how they are used to control sex trafficking survivors. Ways to expose and prevent ritual abuse, mind control, and sex trafficking will be discussed. Finally, there will be a discussion of the future of advocacy efforts to stop ritual abuse, sex trafficking, and mind control.
Masonic Ritual Abuse: Its Characteristics, Prevalence and Expression in Western Art and Culture. Dr. Lynn Brunet
This presentation will examine the subject of Masonic ritual abuse. Based on the presenter’s personal experience and accumulated art historical research over the last two decades it asks a series of questions about its prevalence, how it is similar and different to other forms of ritual abuse, how it is expressed in art and culture and what its implications are for us today. Freemasonry is sometimes described as the ‘cult of the establishment’ and there is a great deal of material available about it and its rituals that can enable research into its practices, which is not necessarily the case for other cults.
The research, to date, suggests that the children of Freemasons are particularly vulnerable to abuse, but while they might be struggling internally with something inexplicably profound, disturbing or terrifying, they may not necessarily appear at a therapist’s office as many of them are encouraged by their abusers to express their trauma in creative ways. Driven to obsessively release the effects of the trauma, this can become a lifelong way of coping, resulting in the creation of cultural artefacts that are imbued with the traces of cruel ritual practices without the creators themselves being consciously aware of their source.
Uses of Art Therapy, Sensory Awareness and EMDR in Treating Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) Patricia Quinn
This presentation will describe the fluid uses of art therapy, Sensory Awareness and EMDR in treating Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID). The didactic portion will entail justification for using each modality, the benefit if the client being able to choose a treatment modality themselves, and examples of their clinical use with two clients with very different levels of access to memories of their past trauma. This effective, responsive healing approach will be useful for all counselors and therapists working in a variety of settings. The general descriptions of client responses may contain triggering content. The presentation contains a calming experiential that combines a body-based relaxation and use of art to counter-act traumatic memory.
We recommend that survivors bring a safe support person to the online conference who is familiar with the issues ritual abuse survivors may need help with.
None of the material on this page, on linked pages or at the conference is meant as therapy, or to take the place of therapy.
Wednesday, February 14, 2024
Jeffrey Epstein victims sue FBI, allege coverup
The victims, using Jane Doe pseudonyms, said the FBI received credible tips as early as 1996 that Epstein trafficked young women and girls, yet failed to interview victims or share what it knew with federal and local law enforcement.
Victims said the FBI finally began a probe in 2006, but ended it two years later after Epstein pleaded guilty to a Florida prostitution charge, and kept ignoring tips until his July 2019 arrest....
"Jane Does 1-12 bring this lawsuit to get to the bottom -- once and for all -- of the FBI's role in Epstein's criminal sex trafficking ring," it added....
Wednesday's complaint filed in federal court in Manhattan seeks damages from the U.S. government, the only defendant.
It cited a Dec. 5, 2023, Senate Judiciary Committee hearing where FBI Director Christopher Wray was asked why the FBI didn't do more. He promised to "get with my team and figure out if there is more information we can provide."
The number of Epstein's victims is believed to be well over 100.
Victims previously reached approximately $500 million of settlements, before deducting legal fees and costs, with a program funded by Epstein's estate and with two of Epstein's banks, JPMorgan Chase and Deutsche Bank. It is unclear whether the 12 plaintiffs received compensation from those settlements....
The case is Doe 1 et al v United States, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 24-01071.4, 2024
https://www.aol.com/jeffrey-epstein-victims-sue-fbi-185614994.html
Monday, February 12, 2024
Kenyan doomsday cult leader charged with murder of 191 children, Former La Luz del Mundo 'cult' members protest, Ex-Olympian pleads guilty to sexually assaulting boys
NAIROBI, Feb 6 (Reuters) - Kenyan cult leader Paul Mackenzie and 29 associates were charged on Tuesday with the murder of 191 children whose bodies were found among more than double that number buried in a forest.
The defendants all denied the charges brought before a court in the coastal town of Malindi. One suspect was found mentally unfit to stand trial.
Prosecutors say Mackenzie ordered his followers to starve themselves and their children to death so that they could go to heaven before the world ended, in one of the world's worst cult-related disasters in recent history.
The followers of his Good News International Church lived in several secluded settlements in an 800-acre area within the Shakahola forest. More than 400 bodies were eventually exhumed.
Mackenzie was arrested last April. He has already been charged with terrorism-related crimes, manslaughter and torture. He was also convicted in December of producing and distributing films without a licence and sentenced to 12 months in jail. A former taxi driver, Mackenzie forbade cult members from sending their children to school and from going to hospital when they were ill....
https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/kenyan-cult-leader-charged-with-murder-191-children-2024-02-06/
The Houston First Corporation, which manages the George R. Brown Convention Center downtown, said it has "no legal basis for denying" the megachurch to host an event. By Eric Killelea Feb 12, 2024
The leader of La Luz del Mundo, a Mexico-based Christian megachurch with 18 Houston congregations, has been locked up in a California prison since being arrested on child sexual exploitation charges in 2019. Naasón Joaquín García, the 54-year-old self-described "Apostle of Jesus Christ," pleaded guilty in 2022 to sexually abusing three minors and has been serving a nearly 17-year sentence in prison. He is now facing another 40 years after being charged in October with two felony counts of producing and possessing child pornography.
Meanwhile, documentaries on HBO and Netflix have featured stories from former church members who claim they were brainwashed and sexually abused by leaders in the Christian church.
Regardless of the church's reputation, La Luz Del Mundo—"The Light of the World"—has managed to book an event meant to attract thousands of members from Houston and across the United States and Mexico to the George R. Brown Convention Center near Discovery Green downtown, taking place Monday through Wednesday. In the past two weeks, Houston church members have been distributing digital flyers displaying animated versions of García on Facebook to promote the "Holy Supper 2024" event....
Judith Castillo is among the growing number of former members of the church's Houston congregations that have been asking state lawmakers, Mayor John Whitmire, city council members and Houston First, the government corporation that operates the George R. Brown Convention Center, to cancel the event. Castillo told them that both she and her daughter had been sexually abused by church members in Houston.
"This convention is a way the church tries to prove that they're still powerful," Castillo, a PhD student at the University of Houston, said Sunday. "We need to protect the integrity of the city and protect our kids from the members of the church who will attend this event. So, knowing all the facts, why is the city allowing this message of corruption?".... https://www.chron.com/culture/religion/article/la-luz-del-mundo-houston-convention-18662983.php
This documentary series explores the horrifying, yet relatively unknown story of the Christian church La Luz del Mundo (LLDM) and the sexual abuse that scores of members, many of them minors, say they have suffered at the hands of its successive leaders, known as the “Apostles.” Told from the point of view of the survivors who met to share their stories of abuse, the series chronicles the history of one of the most powerful religious groups not only in Mexico where it was founded, but also in the United States, while giving voice to the men and women who were brave enough to stand up and call out the heinous crimes.
Under the guise of the only true church offering eternal salvation, LLDM, which claims to have congregations in over 50 countries and over five million followers, was founded in 1926 by Aarón Joaquín Gonzalez. Joaquín Gonzalez was succeeded by his son and then grandson, all three Apostles said to be appointed by “divine revelation.” Now, scores of former members have come forward to describe how the Apostles built and maintained a system to procure and groom children for abuse. The series culminates in the events leading up to the 2019 arrest of the current Apostle, Naasón Joaquín García and his present-day trial, shedding light on a story that was all but ignored by mainstream media, and illustrating the positive power of social media to unite and provide agency to the survivors.
The Darkness within La Luz del Mundo 2023 Netflix Documentary
For the first time, complainants against La Luz del Mundo megachurch leaders expose the abuses they suffered through exclusive interviews. https://www.netflix.com/title/81404182
As boys, they trusted him as a revered coach and mentor. As men, they say he’s a “monster” who used his Olympic fame to manipulate young athletes and sexually assault them.
Now, more than four decades after Conrad Mainwaring trained young athletes at a Massachusetts sports camp, the 72-year-old pleaded guilty this week to 14 counts of indecent assault and battery involving nine male victims.
In addition to the criminal cases in Massachusetts, at least seven men have accused Mainwaring of sexual assault in civil lawsuits in New York state, an attorney representing them told CNN. And there could be more victims who have yet to come forward....
Immediately after the Olympics, Mainwaring moved to Massachusetts to work at Camp Greylock – a boys’ sports camp in Berkshire County – from 1976 to 1979, the district attorney said. “While working at the camp, the Defendant is confirmed to have sexually abused nine children,” Shugrue said in a written statement. CNN has reached out to Camp Greylock for comment. For decades, the victims’ abuse was a closely guarded secret. Some accusers told CNN they had felt too uncomfortable or even ashamed to speak out....
Waxman said Mainwaring was such an “expert manipulator” that he didn’t realize he had been sexually assaulted until years later, when he was in college. Then he felt a wave of shame and self-loathing, the victim told his abuser in court Thursday.
“Over time, as I realized what you had done, I began to experience many self-damaging thoughts: ‘What was wrong with me? Why did you choose me in the first place? Why didn’t I stop you? I must be defective in some way or ways,’” Waxman told Mainwaring. “Those negative thoughts took up space in my head for decades.”
Mainwaring pleaded guilty to 14 counts – or instances – of sexual assault involving nine male victims who were between 13 and 19 years old at the time. As part of a plea deal, he was sentenced to 10 to 11 years in prison, a spokesperson for the Berkshire County District Attorney’s Office said. But more allegations of rampant abuse by Mainwaring have emerged....
After Mainwaring left Camp Greylock in 1979, he moved to upstate New York to study guidance and counseling at Syracuse University, according to a civil court filing. He was also employed as a resident adviser.
In 1980, Mainwaring also started working with “high school student athletes at the nearby Nottingham High School,” another court filing says....
In a statement to CNN, the Syracuse City School District said it “has no records that Conrad Mainwaring was ever a staff member or a sanctioned volunteer at Nottingham or in the Syracuse City School District.” But the Olympian quickly earned the teenager’s trust and friendship, and the pair would speak regularly – often in a guidance counselor’s office, Kriesberg said. “We would talk about school and sports and whatever teenage boys want to talk about,” Kriesberg told CNN. “He was part counselor, part mentor, part coach, part friend, big brother, therapist.”
But later, Kriesberg said, he realized Mainwaring was actually a manipulative “monster.” “I was being groomed – sort of set up for the kill, so to speak.” In the summer of 1981, when Kriesberg was 17, he visited Mainwaring at his Syracuse University campus home.
Mainwaring then started massaging Kriesberg....” the complaint says. “Mainwaring used intimidation, fear, fraud, force and his position of power and authority over Joseph,” the lawsuit says. “Mainwaring told Joseph that this procedure was necessary so he could properly understand Joseph’s sex drive and provide proper counseling. Joseph did not consent to Mainwaring’s sexual assault.”
The lawsuit names Syracuse University as a defendant, saying it “did not conduct a background check, did not contact Mainwaring’s prior employment, including his employment with Camp Greylock, and did not collect references from Mainwaring” prior to allowing him to live on campus and hiring him as a resident adviser. A Syracuse University spokesperson declined to comment on Mainwaring and the sexual assault allegations against him, citing “still active litigation.”
Kriesberg said he could not pursue criminal action against Mainwaring for the alleged 1981 incident at Syracuse because the statute of limitations in New York state has passed. That’s why he’s pursuing civil action.
At least six other men have also accused Mainwaring of sexual assault in civil lawsuits filed in New York state, said Kat Thomas, an attorney representing those plaintiffs.... https://www.aol.com/news/ex-olympian-pleads-guilty-sexually-211219752.html
Monday, February 5, 2024
6 who went missing may be tied to a cult. Here's how social media draws people in.
In an era when almost anyone can reach millions on the internet, where is the line drawn between a social media influencer and an influential leader who draws followers to something more sinister?
Six people are missing out of Missouri after investigators believe they were sucked into what appears to be a “spiritual cult” on social media called the University of Cosmic Intelligence. The group is run by convicted child molester Rashad Jamal....
Jamal is currently in prison on child molestation and cruelty to children convictions. Authorities say he built up an online following of hundreds of thousands of followers on platforms including YouTube, TikTok and Instagram, and shares his theories about Black and Latino people being gods and goddesses, while people of other races and ethnicities are not from this planet. He also shares conspiracy theories in his videos about government controlling the weather and elites and politicians being “reptilian shapeshifters” who drink blood.
The missing people became increasingly isolated from family members, quit their jobs and were seen engaged in nude meditations outdoors, according to the Berkeley Police Department in Missouri.
The “pot of odd beliefs that’s bubbling outside of mainstream society” has always existed, said Stephen Kent, emeritus professor at the University of Alberta’s sociology department. But experts say with the internet and the dominance of social media, people have easier access to them, and targeted content can drag them further in.
What is a cult?
What sets cults apart from other organized groups is they operate to benefit only a leader, and their authoritarian structures leave no room for critical thinking, according to Dr. Steven Hassan, a renowned cult expert with firsthand experience escaping the Unification Church. Hassan founded the Freedom of Mind Resource Center to help other survivors heal.
Cult leaders, Hassan said, construct authoritarian rulings that benefit only themselves either financially or by fueling their narcissistic beliefs. They become tyrannical, with no allowance for free will or anyone else's needs.
“If you can create uncertainty, doubt and fear, it makes people’s minds more susceptible to an authoritarian voice,” Hassan said.
Dr. Janja Lalich, a professor emerita of sociology at California State University, Chico and founder of the Lalich Center on Cults and Coercion, was also in what she describes as a political cult. She said in a Wired video that cults have four common characteristics: a leader who is charismatic and a narcissist, a transcendent belief system “that gives you the answer to everything,” a system of control that dictates things like how followers live or what they wear, and a system of influence that draws on emotions such as fear or grief to get followers to comply.
“Probably 99% (of cult leaders) are con artists and they know exactly what they’re doing. Some of them may eventually become delusional because they get away with so much for so long,” Lalich said in the video.
“The dangers depend upon how one uses the internet and information,” Kent said.
Hassan suspects other agents are also at work. “If you look at (Jamal's) YouTube, how did he get so many followers? Was it really organic, or were there bad actors amplifying it, or was it just algorithms of YouTube trying to make money?” Hassan said....
Police in Berkeley, Missouri, have said the missing people were followers of Jamal on social media, shared his content and referenced his teachings. Their behaviors included engaging in polygamy, changing their names to "a spiritual God or Goddess" and "referring to their mother as a 'shell' that brought their spirit into the universe," police said.
It's possible the missing people never had any in-person contact with Jamal, Kent said, because the social media influencer has been imprisoned and was previously living in a different state. But that doesn't mean they were not among his followers, Kent said.
“That’s one of the consequences of the internet: People can feel like they know a leader even if a leader doesn’t know them,” he said.
While cults are often thought to only attract a fringe group of people, Hassan warned virtually anyone is susceptible, though cult leaders may take advantage of weak moments. They use behavioral tactics to gradually rope people in, such as sleep deprivation, manipulative language and instilling irrational fears to prevent recruits from leaving or fighting back. And in the age of the internet, recruiting a wide breadth of people is made even easier for cult leaders, Hassan said....
Lalich said in the Wired video that people on the outside of a cult should make sure to be a "safe haven" for anyone who might be involved in a cult to know they can go to. "It's not easy to leave a cult," Lalich said in the Wired video. "It's one of the hardest things someone's ever going to do."