SMART Newsletter July 2025 - Issue 183 is now online, SMART Online Conference Registrations - Low Prices available

 

The SMART Newsletter is now available online at  https://ritualabuse.us/2025/06/issue-183-july-2025/  

The 2025 Online Annual Ritual Abuse and Mind Control Conference   August 16 – 17, 2025 Internet conference information: http://ritualabuse.us/smart-conference/  Speakers include:  Wendy Hoffman, Randy Noblitt, Lynn Brunet and Neil Brick 

Prices are as low as $50. We have low prices until July 7th.

Information in this newsletter issue includes:
– SMART is celebrating our 30th anniversary.
– The 2025 Online Annual Ritual Abuse and Mind Control Conference August 16 – 17, 2025

– Self’s Stony Soil, a new book by Wendy Hoffman
– Survivorship Conference 2025 Online Presentations
– Dissociative Identities Attachment-based Approaches to Psychotherapy
– Trace the Rise and Fall of an American Cult in The Oracle’s Daughter – follows the story of the Aggressive Christianity Missions Training Corps
– ‘Murder cult leader’ behind alleged neo-Nazi plot to poison students at Brooklyn Jewish schools extradited to US following arrest in Moldova
– Survivors testify: MKs participated in sadistic sexual ‘rituals’ involving minors (Israel)
– Inside Cults: How Ordinary People Get Pulled In
– Rescuers alarmed by suspected ritual animal abuse
– Harvey Weinstein guilty of sexual assault after New York retrial

 

 

Ritual Abuse News in Israel, Ritual Animal Abuse, Cults: How People Get Pulled In

 

Survivors testify: MKs participated in sadistic sexual 'rituals' involving minors

Rescuers alarmed by suspected ritual animal abuse across tri-state parks & beaches

Inside Cults: How Ordinary People Get Pulled In

 Survivors testify: MKs participated in sadistic sexual 'rituals' involving minors
‘Doctors, educators, police officers, and past and present members of the Knesset were involved in these abuses,’ survivor says. Jerusalem Post/Israel News

By ELIAV BREUER JUNE 3, 2025 (Warning: The following contains sensitive material, reader discretion is advised.) Several women on Tuesday testified in the Knesset about sexual abuse they suffered as minors as part of religious ritual ceremonies. The testimonies came during a joint meeting of the Knesset’s Committee on the Status of Women and Gender Equality, chaired by MK Pnina Tameno-Shete (National Unity), and the Special Committee on Young Israelis, chaired by MK Naama Lazimi (The Democrats).

The joint meeting was organized in the wake of an investigative report published on April 2 by Israel Hayom journalist Noam Barkan. Yael Ariel, one of the abuse survivors, shared: “I experienced ritual abuse over many years until my late teens and was forced to harm other children. I chose to speak out and make my voice heard. I received threats after revealing my story. From age five to age 20, I was harmed in these ceremonies.”

According to Ariel, she received testimonies from several women who claimed that doctors, educators, police officers, and past and present members of the Knesset were involved in these abuses.  “I filed a complaint with the police that was closed after a few months, and I know of other cases that were closed. Speaking out today in the Knesset is a historic moment,” she said.

Another survivor, Yael Shitrit, testified: “You have no idea what ritual abuse is. The human brain cannot comprehend it. You can’t imagine what it means to program a three-year-old girl through rape and sadism so they can do whatever they want without anyone knowing. “Their trafficking of me happened all over the country. They moved me from ceremony to ceremony. Naked men stood in a circle. My therapist, her husband, and her son harmed me, and there were dozens of other girls and boys who harmed me.

“There were ceremonies and rituals meant to make me forget,” Shitrit continued. “The police have known about this for a year, but they don’t have the tools to deal with it.

The people who will fall are very, very senior figures. These people run communities and government agencies. They threaten us. I have children I need to protect. Something needs to be set up that can deal with this. They tried to make us like them – the people who caused us endless pain,” Shitrit said. “Your role is to make this stop in Safed, Jerusalem, Jaljulya, or anywhere else,” she declared.

DR. NAAMA GOLDBERG, head of an NGO called Lo Omdot MeNegged (Hebrew for “Not Standing Idly By”), which assists prostitution survivors, explained that the depictions are sometimes so gruesome that they are hard to believe, but this incredulity serves the abusers, who convince victims not to complain by arguing that they will not be believed.
“Several years ago, I received descriptions of sadistic abuse of children,” Goldberg said. “The accounts sounded absurd. [But] the testimonies kept coming and would not let up. They described gang rape by men, and sometimes by women. The abuse was filmed, and drugs were used. There were ritual practices and symbolism.  “I presented the police with written testimonies from five women. To this day, no one has contacted me. Since the report, additional testimonies have surfaced,” Goldberg said....

MKs who attended the meeting were visibly shaken by some of the testimonies, with one calling it a “watershed moment” and another calling the revelations “titanic.” Tameno-Shete said, “Reality shows us that the police are not strong in handling sexual offenses. No one wants to talk about brutal rape and children being raped. There are unimaginable cases of monstrosity here.”

Two other survivors spoke at the meeting on condition of anonymity. One testified that a cousin trafficked her beginning at age 11. “At 14, he took me to sadistic clubs. I endured torture and starvation at the hands of well-known and prominent individuals. I suffered harm in endless ways.

“There were public events, and there were internal ceremonies where I was tied to a tall post with handcuffs. Around me, there were other handcuffed victims with rituals of drinking menstrual blood and the slaughter of cats and other animals. They told me no one would believe me if I spoke out.”

She continued that she filed a complaint with the police five years ago. “The prosecution closed the case due to lack of evidence, so I appealed, and it was accepted. I came to testify while on pregnancy bed rest, but the case was closed again due to lack of evidence. “They said I was imagining things. I presented a recorded testimony from someone who admitted to harming me, but she was never summoned for questioning. Treat this as terrorism.”  https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-856407

Rescuers alarmed by suspected ritual animal abuse across tri-state parks & beaches - A Turn to Tara investigation has revealed that signs of suspected ritual animal abuse have been found from Brooklyn to Long Island, including wooded areas, cemeteries and beaches. Tara Rosenblum Jun 2, 2025

WARNING: Some of the images in this story are extremely disturbing.
Wildlife rescuers across the tri-state area are raising alarms after a series of disturbing discoveries in public parks and beaches. A Turn to Tara investigation has revealed that signs of suspected ritual animal abuse have been found from Brooklyn to Long Island to Connecticut, including wooded areas, cemeteries and beaches. Karenlynn Stracher runs Long Island Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation, a nonprofit dedicated to protecting wildlife. She says she’s been busy rescuing animals from increasingly disturbing rituals involving torture.

Sloane Quealy, the president of Zion's Mission Animal Rescue, says she's also spent months responding to sacrifice scenes and the toll is mounting. The majority of their reports trace back to Spring Creek Park in New York City, which is on federal property.
Senior Reporter Tara Rosenblum found that animal sacrifice is protected by the nation and the state's highest courts – yet there is a critical exception in New York state. If law enforcement can prove an animal suffered during a ritual, criminal charges for animal cruelty can be filed....

However, local law enforcement officers have confirmed a troubling rise in incidents reportedly tied to ritualistic animal torture, including 41 cases in Nassau County, 11 in Suffolk County and cases in New Jersey, the Hudson Valley and Connecticut. 

Councilwoman Joann Ariola is pushing for a crackdown. "These are fringe groups mutilating and killing animals. They're criminals, nothing more, nothing less. These are heinous acts, and they are not protected under the law," says Ariola.  By shining a light on the unsettling scenes, rescuers and lawmakers hope to put an end to future sacrifices before more animals are harmed. https://bronx.news12.com/rescuers-alarmed-by-suspected-ritual-animal-abuse-across-tri-state-parks

Podcast: Inside Cults: How Ordinary People Get Pulled In
Cults don’t always start with Kool-Aid or crime scenes — sometimes, they begin with yoga classes, utopian promises, or someone saying you’re special. In this episode, Gabe Howard sits down with journalist and author Wendy Biddlecombe Agsar, whose book “Cults: A True Crime Collection” explores how seemingly “normal” people fall into manipulative groups.
From love bombing and spiritual seduction to sleep deprivation and isolation, Wendy unpacks the subtle tactics cults use to recruit and retain followers — and why it’s not about being gullible or broken. She shares her own brushes with cult-like communities and explains how even caring interventions can backfire by reinforcing a cult leader’s narrative.
If you’ve ever wondered, “How could anyone fall for that?” — this episode is your answer. Thought-provoking, emotional, and packed with insight, it just might change the way you see cults — and yourself.

“(You may be thinking) I would never hurt another person. I would never believe in aliens. But the way cults work, you’re not really joining a destructive organization. You’re joining a group based on some ideology that is probably a little bit different from the news headlines. . .” ~Wendy Biddlecombe Agsar, Author of Cults: A True Crime Collection...

Wendy Biddlecombe Agsar: ....I think research shows that cult tactics involve getting closer to a person who might be vulnerable. You have terms like love bombing. So approaching someone, making them feel like the most important, telling them they’re special, they’re different. Oh, I can tell you’re different. You know, come join our group. We’re really working towards something great. And someone might say, yeah, you know, I’m lonely. I’m heartbroken. Like, I want to be a part of this group. And another person might not be interested and walk away. So I would say it’s casting a wide net and seeing what sticks, because a cult needs people. Like it’s it’s not going to be a cult without people....
Wendy Biddlecombe Agsar: ....One important tactic is sleep deprivation. So you hear this constantly. Jonestown. Heaven’s gate. More contemporary cults like Nexium, like people working hours and hours a day, being up for almost 24 hours, having to work in cult businesses and repeating that cycle. And it makes it very hard. Sleep deprivation. Maybe there’s drug use. It makes it hard for when that reality shifts and becomes more dysfunctional to realize that it’s happening because someone is so disoriented....

https://psychcentral.com/blog/podcast-inside-cults-how-ordinary-people-get-pulled-in#block-088e2ffc-6b6c-4884-a13b-0abe8f5ccd3a

 

Ritual Abuse Online Conference - August 16 - 17 - Low Prices until July 7th. Speakers include Wendy Hoffman, Randy Noblitt, Lynn Brunet and Neil Brick.

 Ritual Abuse Online Conference - August 16 - 17 - Low Prices until July 7th.

 

Speakers include Wendy Hoffman, Randy Noblitt, Lynn Brunet and Neil Brick.

We will also have discussion groups. 

SMART Ritual Abuse Online Conference -  Saturday and Sunday August 16 – 17, 2025

If you are interested in participating in our conference or getting on a mailing list, please write: smartnews@aol.com

Internet conference information: http://ritualabuse.us/smart-conference/ 
Low Prices extended until July 7th.  Prices as low as $50.

Speakers will include:

Please use caution while reading this information.  It may be triggering for survivors.

“Masonic Themes and Trauma in the Novels of William Golding (1911–1993)” Lynn Brunet (PhD)

The English novelist William Golding is the author of Lord of the Flies (1954), a book that was studied by school children around the English-speaking world; his oeuvre of a further twelve novels cemented his reputation to the extent that he was awarded a Nobel Prize in Literature in 1983. But he was also an author who struggled with terrifying but inexplicable childhood experiences, so much so that they haunted his dreams right throughout his life. This talk will look at one of his novels, The Spire (1964), set in the Middle Ages with the building of a new spire on a cathedral, but where the foundations are completely inadequate to support it. Through a stream-of-consciousness technique, the novel shows the gradual psychological disintegration of the protagonist, the Dean whose lofty project this is. This talk will demonstrate that Golding has encoded into this novel multiple features of the Masonic Royal Arch rite. He also appears to be making connections between the Royal Arch rite and his own traumatic childhood memories. From this perspective The Spire can be seen to be a critique of the Church of England’s close connection with Freemasonry. His disdain for this link is summed up with his description of The Spire as “this great finger sticking up”.

Lynn Brunet (PhD) is an Australian art historian, artist and survivor of Masonic ritual abuse. Her research examines the coupling of trauma and ritual in modern and contemporary Western art and literature. In particular, it traces the connection between Masonic and other fraternal initiation rites and complex trauma in the work of so-called ‘tortured’ artists and writers.

Self’s Stony Soil, by Wendy Hoffman

A novella, written in free style poetry and flash fiction, Self’s Stony Soil is about the sexual trafficking of children. They are packed tight into cages, taken by airplanes to other countries, abused by politicians, the wealthy, royalty, and known people in the world. It tells the story of a child’s only friend, a doll, and how much she needed it. A trafficked person had amnesia until late in life. Remembering began the healing of deep scars. She began to find her true self. This is her story and unfortunately the story of many more. It is also about memory and healing from these horrendous acts. Wendy will talk about how the book came about and read from some of its passages.

Wendy Hoffman has published four memoirs: The Enslaved Queen, White Witch in a Black Robe, A Brain of My Own and After Amnesia. The Enslaved Queen has been translated and published in Germany. Her book of poetry, Forceps, was also published along with a book of essays, From the Trenches, co-authored with Dr. Alison Miller. Her second poetry book Belonging was nominated for the Eric Hoffer Book Award. The Theft, a novel, is forthcoming. She does consultations for therapists working in the field of dissociative disorders and presentations internationally.

 

Recovery from Extreme Abuse – Randy Noblitt

This presentation is about some of the ways people recover from extreme abuse. Some survivors seek therapy, but others do not. Psychotherapy is expensive and not always available to all abuse survivors. Graduate schools and other training programs typically do not teach their students about extreme abuse.  My best teachers were the survivors who were seeking psychological treatment from me, and who were willing and able to communicate what they had been through, and how these traumas had happened. I have also learned from survivors who have not participated in trauma-informed therapy, and how some have made progress using other resources. Many have told their stories in books, other publications, or though internet postings.

Randy Noblitt is a Professor of Clinical Psychology at Alliant International University in Los Angeles and a licensed psychologist in Texas and New Mexico.

 

 

Thirty Years of Publishing and Advocacy – Neil Brick

Neil Brick will discuss how and why he created the SMART Newsletter.  He will talk about how the newsletter and the field of ritual abuse have changed over the years. He will discuss the importance of advocacy and public education.  Ideas for the future growth of the field will be discussed.

Neil Brick is a survivor of ritualistic abuse. His work continues to educate the public about child abuse, trauma and ritualistic abuse crimes. His child abuse and ritualistic abuse newsletter S.M.A.R.T. https://ritualabuse.us  has been published for over 30 years. http://neilbrick.com 

 

The conference is sponsored by S.M.A.R.T., a newsletter that examines the possible connections between ritual abuse and secretive organizations. SMARTNEWS@aol.com http://ritualabuse.us/

The conference is co-sponsored by Survivorship. Survivorship is one of the oldest and most respected organizations supporting survivors of extreme child abuse, including sadistic sexual abuse, ritualistic abuse, mind control, and torture. Survivorship provides resources, healing, and community for survivors; training and education for professionals who work with survivors; and support for survivors’ partners and other allies.  https://survivorship.org

Please note: None of the material on these pages or at the conference is meant as therapy, or to take the place of therapy.

Survivorship Conference Video and PowerPoint Presentations

Survivorship Conference Video and PowerPoint Presentations are now available online at: https://survivorship.org/the-survivorship-trafficking-and-extreme-abuse-online-conference-2025-presentations/

   

Presentations include:

“Progress made against Ritual Abuse in Scotland since 1980” by Laurie Matthew.

“Researching, Writing and Publishing about Masonic Ritual Abuse – What are the issues?” by Lynn Brunet.

“People Who Identify as Plural” by Randy Noblitt PhD.

“Successful Investigations of Extreme Abuse Cases – The Role of Mental Health Professionals in Family Courts” by Dr. Rainer Hermann Kurz.

“Ritualistic Abuse Survivors Difficulties Obtaining Services” by Neil Brick.

 

August 2025 SMART Ritual Abuse Conference http://ritualabuse.us/smart-conference/ with Randy Noblitt, Wendy Hoffman, Lynn Brunet and Neil Brick speaking. The conference is co-sponsored by Survivorship. Prices are as low as $50.

 

Ritual Abuse Evidence https://survivorship.org/ritual-abuse-evidence/

 

Child Abuse Wiki – Ritual Abuse http://childabusewiki.org/index.php?title=Ritual_Abuse

Ritual Abuse Online Conference - August 16 - 17 - Low Prices until June 14th.

 Ritual Abuse Online Conference - August 16 - 17 - Low Prices until June 14th.

SMART Ritual Abuse Online Conference -  Saturday and Sunday August 16 – 17, 2025

If you are interested in participating in our conference or getting on a mailing list, please write: smartnews@aol.com

Internet conference information: http://ritualabuse.us/smart-conference/ 
Low Prices extended until June 14th.  Prices as low as $50.

Speakers will include:

Please use caution while reading this information.  It may be triggering for survivors.

“Masonic Themes and Trauma in the Novels of William Golding (1911–1993)” Lynn Brunet (PhD)

The English novelist William Golding is the author of Lord of the Flies (1954), a book that was studied by school children around the English-speaking world; his oeuvre of a further twelve novels cemented his reputation to the extent that he was awarded a Nobel Prize in Literature in 1983. But he was also an author who struggled with terrifying but inexplicable childhood experiences, so much so that they haunted his dreams right throughout his life. This talk will look at one of his novels, The Spire (1964), set in the Middle Ages with the building of a new spire on a cathedral, but where the foundations are completely inadequate to support it. Through a stream-of-consciousness technique, the novel shows the gradual psychological disintegration of the protagonist, the Dean whose lofty project this is. This talk will demonstrate that Golding has encoded into this novel multiple features of the Masonic Royal Arch rite. He also appears to be making connections between the Royal Arch rite and his own traumatic childhood memories. From this perspective The Spire can be seen to be a critique of the Church of England’s close connection with Freemasonry. His disdain for this link is summed up with his description of The Spire as “this great finger sticking up”.

Lynn Brunet (PhD) is an Australian art historian, artist and survivor of Masonic ritual abuse. Her research examines the coupling of trauma and ritual in modern and contemporary Western art and literature. In particular, it traces the connection between Masonic and other fraternal initiation rites and complex trauma in the work of so-called ‘tortured’ artists and writers.

Self’s Stony Soil, by Wendy Hoffman

A novella, written in free style poetry and flash fiction, Self’s Stony Soil is about the sexual trafficking of children. They are packed tight into cages, taken by airplanes to other countries, abused by politicians, the wealthy, royalty, and known people in the world. It tells the story of a child’s only friend, a doll, and how much she needed it. A trafficked person had amnesia until late in life. Remembering began the healing of deep scars. She began to find her true self. This is her story and unfortunately the story of many more. It is also about memory and healing from these horrendous acts. Wendy will talk about how the book came about and read from some of its passages.

Wendy Hoffman has published four memoirs: The Enslaved Queen, White Witch in a Black Robe, A Brain of My Own and After Amnesia. The Enslaved Queen has been translated and published in Germany. Her book of poetry, Forceps, was also published along with a book of essays, From the Trenches, co-authored with Dr. Alison Miller. Her second poetry book Belonging was nominated for the Eric Hoffer Book Award. The Theft, a novel, is forthcoming. She does consultations for therapists working in the field of dissociative disorders and presentations internationally.

Thirty Years of Publishing and Advocacy – Neil Brick

Neil Brick will discuss how and why he created the SMART Newsletter.  He will talk about how the newsletter and the field of ritual abuse have changed over the years. He will discuss the importance of advocacy and public education.  Ideas for the future growth of the field will be discussed.

Neil Brick is a survivor of ritualistic abuse. His work continues to educate the public about child abuse, trauma and ritualistic abuse crimes. His child abuse and ritualistic abuse newsletter S.M.A.R.T. https://ritualabuse.us  has been published for over 30 years. http://neilbrick.com