Anatomy of a Crypto-Fascist Sect: The Unauthorized Guide to “The Satanic Temple” Daniel K. Buntovnik

 

Anatomy of a Crypto-Fascist Sect: The Unauthorized Guide to “The Satanic Temple”

Daniel K. Buntovnik’s latest work is a major investigative exposé of crypto-fascism, white supremacism, anti-psychiatry fanaticism, historical revisionism, and sexism and misogyny within the “new religious movement” known as modern Satanism and its foremost proponents inside The Satanic Temple. https://danielkbuntovnik.wordpress.com/anatomy-of-a-crypto-fascist-sect/

 

Table of Contents

Preface

1. Introduction

2. Emergence of “The Satanic Temple”

3. Leading Lights: Douglas Misicko and Cevin Soling, Co-Founders of “The Satanic Temple”

3.1 The Frontman: Douglas Misicko, better known as Lucien Greaves and Doug Mesner

3.1.1 Evidence of Possible Familial Ties to Nazi War Crimes

3.2 The Behind-the-Scenes Mastermind: Cevin Soling, also known as Malcolm Jarry

3.2.1 “The Satanic Temple” and “Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth”

3.2.1.1 The “Shoe Repair” Connection: Xemu Records and Subtle Nods to “Underground Cult Movements”

3.2.2 The “War on Kids” Connection: “The Satanic Temple” and the Church of Scientology

4. Lingering Ambiguities About the Genuine Worldview of “The Satanic Temple”

4.1 How Not to Do Satire

4.1.1 Breakdown of Semiotic Fission: How “The Satanic Temple” Fails to Ironically Detach the “Satanic” Signifier from “Evil” Signified; or, A Case Study on Anti-Black Racial Prejudice and “The Satanic Temple”

4.2 What Are the Real Objectives of “The Satanic Temple”?

5. Esoteric Influence of “The Process” upon “The Satanic Temple”

5.1 The “Grey” Metaphor: From “Force” to “Faction”

5.1.1 Anti-Psychiatry Discourse

5.2 Political Implications of the “Grey” Metaphor: The Neo-Fascist Embrace of Satanism as Aestheticized “Rebellion”

6. “Moral Panic” in the 1980s and 1990s: A Critique of the Satanist Narrative

6.1 Echoes of McCarthyism: How Anti-Communist Scaremongering Gave Rise to the Satanist Narrative of “Moral Panic”

6.1.1 Facts Neglected in the Satanic Construction of “Moral Panic”: How Satanism Was Used as a Weapon of Psychological Warfare During the 1960s and 1970s

6.1.2 How Anti-Feminist Backlash Contributed to the Myth-Making of the So-Called “Satanic Panic”: The “Red Nurse” and “Nanny State” as Folk Devils

6.2 The Actual Moral Panic Behind the So-Called “Satanic Panic”: Exaggeration and the Weaponized Labelling of Historical Episodes as “Moral Panics”

6.2.1 Gaslighting and the Backlash to #MeToo: How the “Satanic Panic” Meme Aids in the Cover-Up of Sexist and Sexual Violence

6.3 Scientology’s Anti-Psychiatry Protocols: “Brain-Washing” and the Myth of the Judeo-Bolshevik “Psych”

6.3.1 Political Misdirection of “MK Ultra” Indignation in Alignment with CIA Interests: Scientology and Other Dubious “Critics” of Psychiatric Abuse

6.3.2 Cultural Gaslighting; or, “Falsified History Syndrome”

6.3.3 On the Psychological Projection of Antisemitism by Satanists

7. Reactionary Sexual Politics of “The Satanic Temple”

7.1 “Satanic” Statues and the Priapic Model of Masculinity: From Ancient Phallic Symbolism to Modern Fascist Rape Culture

7.2 Engagement of “The Satanic Temple” with the Theme (and in the Act) of “Ritualistic” Sexual Abuse: Vicarious Necrophilia as a Weapon of Psychological Warfare

7.3 Witchy Protests and Fake Feminists: The “Satanic Panic”-cum-“Burning Times” as Völkisch Myth and its Basis in Antiziganism

7.4 Pinkwashing: How “The Satanic Temple” Exploits LGBTQ+ Causes as a “Progressive” Fig Leaf

8. A “Literary” Satanism? Decrypting Proto-Fascist and Antisemitic Themes in The Revolt of the Angels by Anatole France

9. Conclusion

 

Alison Miller’s reply to Evan Anderson, Grey Faction Director of The Satanic Temple (TST)’s Grey Faction

“The reason I discontinued my membership in the College of Psychologists has nothing to do with the Grey Faction’s harassing complaint about my writings and online videos. I left the College because I am 78 years old. I retired two years ago.”  – Alison Miller

“That is why I resigned, not because I was about to be found guilty of promoting unscientific conspiracy theories. Anderson has posted his complaint and the College’s response, distorting the story by omitting the College’s letter to me and my response to it. As for not being allowed to call myself a “psychologist,” that is the situation for every retired psychologist. It is similar for other health professions, and it does not indicate that the work I did was inferior or that I was found guilty of unethical behavior.”  – Alison Miller

Here is a brief history of the Grey Faction’s efforts from:

Grey Faction, Satanic Temple and Lucien Greaves Fact Sheet  https://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/grey-faction-satanic-temple-and-lucien-greaves-fact-sheet/

(Alison Miller’s article will follow.)

For almost a decade Douglas Misicko using several aliases (including Douglas Mesner and Lucien Greaves) has harassed groups helping child abuse, rape and trauma survivors. He has also harassed groups providing research in support of child abuse, rape and trauma survivors.

In 2013, he and others created a group called the Satanic Temple. One part of this group is called the Grey Faction. The Grey Faction states they “invade” conferences. These conferences are provided to help and educate child abuse, rape and trauma survivors and their helpers.

Their representatives that invade these conferences misrepresent their reasons for attending these conferences. They film people at these conferences without permission and publish these films without the permission of those filmed. The Grey Faction repeatedly misrepresents the research and statements of the people at these conferences. It uses repeated ad hominem attacks against child abuse and trauma researchers without rebutting their research or stories.

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This information is being posted with the permission of its author, Alison Miller. Please note: All accusations are alleged. The views, facts and opinions mentioned in this article are the opinions of the author and are not necessarily the opinions of this website or its editor.

Note from Alison Miller:

The reason I discontinued my membership in the College of Psychologists was nothing to do with the Grey Faction’s harassing complaint about my writings and online videos. I left the College because I am 78 years old. I retired two years ago. When I retired, I maintained membership in a non-practising (retired) category because I still had clinical records from past clients. I mistakenly assumed that the provision of psychological services which is prohibited for non-practising members extended only to providing direct service to clients, and that I was still permitted to speak at conferences and write articles. When Evan Anderson complained about my work, the College asked me about my professional activities since retirement, and let me know that (a) I did not have to remain a member after retirement as long as another member knew the location of my clinical records, and (b) speaking and writing were considered to be providing psychological services, which was forbidden to non-practicing members—but if I discontinued membership, my speaking and writing activities would no longer be the concern of the licensing body. It became evident to me that I no longer needed to maintain this unnecessary membership which now prohibited me from speaking and writing, so I resigned from the College.

That is why I resigned, not because I was about to be found guilty of promoting unscientific conspiracy theories. Anderson has posted his complaint and the College’s response, distorting the story by omitting the College’s letter to me and my response to it. As for not being allowed to call myself a “psychologist,” that is the situation for every retired psychologist. It is similar for other health professions, and it does not indicate that the work I did was inferior or that I was found guilty of unethical behavior. Anderson has distorted the meaning of the College’s response to his complaint, as if the complaint itself were validated. It was not.

I am accused of being a conspiracy theorist because I believe there exist organized groups of pedophiles, some of whom use the trappings of Satanic religion to intimidate children and make child pornography, and some of whom exploit knowledge of traumatized children’s ability to dissociate. It appears that the leadership of the Grey Faction believe there is a conspiracy of highly credentialed mental health professionals, including psychiatrists, psychologists, clinical social workers, criminologists, psychotherapists and counselors, all of whom agree with my understanding of this kind of trauma. They suggest that the limited understanding of trauma and dissociation and of organized abuse which was common around 1990 should replace the better-informed modern approach which characterizes members of our conspiracy of professionals. Don’t let them fool you.

Alison Miller

(Please note: Parts of the formatting in the original letter have been changed for the Internet.)

Inquiry Committee
College of Psychologists of British Columbia
#404, 1755 West Broadway
Vancouver, BC
V6J 4S5

August  18, 2019

Re: Pursuant to the Health Professions Act
Complainant: Mr Evan Anderson
File No. 2019-C26

I am responding to your letter dated July 31, 2019 regarding the complaint by Evan Anderson.

The Complainant

I should like to point out that I have never met Evan Anderson. From speaking with the Chair of the Survivorship conference, Neil Brick, and from an online search, I believe that he is the Director of the Grey Faction of the Satanic Temple. Their website, on which they lay out their objectives, is https://greyfaction.org/….This group has the specific objective of discrediting all professionals who speak or write about delayed recall of child abuse memories or about dissociative disorders caused by severe child abuse, and particularly about ritual abuse. They misrepresent and ridicule the beliefs of such mental health professionals. They take the extreme position that ritual abuse never occurs. Many well known authorities in the field of complex trauma and dissociation have been attacked online by this group, and other professionals besides myself have received complaints to their licensing bodies. Members of the Grey Faction show up at professional conferences on a regular basis without registering to attend these conferences. They put up little shows in the hallways, shouting accusations against leaders in the field. The “Take Action” page on their website encourages people to take action against “conspiracy therapists.”

My Current Professional Activities

Let me first address the Inquiry Committee’s additional query, about whether I might be practising despite being in the non-practising category.

I retired in 2017. I maintain my registration only for the purpose of maintaining my clinical records, as at retirement I moved from Victoria to _____________, and I have been unable to find a local psychologist in this area willing to take responsibility for my records, as I am not known here. I stopped seeing clients in 2017. I also at that time stopped providing online or telephone consultations to therapists in other parts of the world who requested my expertise in treating adult survivors of organized child abuse who suffer from complex trauma and/or dissociative disorders. I do not intend to return to practice, as I am seventy eight years old and have deliberately moved to a rural community in order to have a different kind of life.

I presented in person at the 2017 Survivorship conference in May 2017, when I was still in active practice. I actually stopped seeing clients when I moved away from Victoria, at the beginning of July 2017.

My only professional activities in 2018 consist of writing books and articles, and I have continued to contribute to the field of trauma and dissociation via writing in 2019:

Miller, A. (2017). Dissociation in families experiencing intimate partner violence. Journal of Trauma and Dissociation, 18 (3), The Abused and the Abuser: Victim-Perpetrator Dynamics, 427-440.

Miller, A. & Gingrich, H.D. (2018). The treatment of ritual abuse and mind control. In Gingrich, H.D. & Gingrich, F.C. Treating trauma in Christian counselling. Inter-Varsity Press.

Hoffman, W. & Miller, A. (2018). From the Trenches: A Victim and Therapist Talk about Mind Control and Ritual Abuse. London: Karnac.

Miller, A. (2019). Therapeutic neutrality, ritual abuse and maladaptive daydreaming. Frontiers in the Psychotherapy of Trauma and Dissociation, 1(3).

Miller, A. (2019). Organized abuser groups’ use of supernatural powers to intimidate victims. ISSTD News.

In May of 2019 I presented once more at the California Survivorship Conference via Skype, and I also presented the same material at the East Coast SMART conference, also organized by Neil Brick. I do not believe that my 2019 conference presentations were in breach of my registration status as non-practicing. I presented via Skype, and although the participants could see my face on a computer, I could not see theirs. I was not treating any clients/patients at these conferences, and when I allowed the conference organizer permission to videotape my presentations, I was not providing direct service to any persons in need of psychological services. I presented pro bono as an invited speaker.

In June of 2019 I provided an evening workshop (also pro bono) in London, UK, for therapists at the Centre for Dissociative Studies. I am not currently planning any presentations, books, or articles, although I am scheduled to be interviewed for ISSTD News as part of a series of interviews with pioneers in the field of trauma and dissociation treatment.

Since leaving Victoria in 2017 I have seen no clients and provided no supervision or consultations. I was the 2017 Chair of the RAMCOA (ritual abuse/mind control/organized abuse) special interest group (SIG) of the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation (ISSTD), a large body of mental health professionals from many countries. I have been a member of this society since 1994, and a Fellow since 2013. The ISSTD sets professional standards for practice in the field of trauma and dissociation, and treatment guidelines: See https://www.isst-d.org/resources/adult-treatment-guidelines/. We do engage in some peer consultation online, with client identities disguised. There are other members who are retired from various helping professions: psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, counsellors, psychotherapists and psychoanalysts. We retired members remain involved to assist and encourage younger professionals who venture into the trauma field, especially because this area of practice is undergoing rapid development. Our present SIG chairperson, who has many speaking engagements, is retired from her professional practice in the U.K.

The Allegation of Perpetuating False Beliefs

Mr. Anderson alleges that I am perpetuating false beliefs about cults and ritual abuse that are not informed by the scientific or professional literature. Surely he must be aware that my writings on this subject constitute part of the scientific and professional literature. Besides Healing the Unimaginable (2012) and the some of 2018 and 2019 publications listed above, my writings include:

Miller, A. (2016). What’s different about ritual abuse and mind control? Chapter 10, pp. 221-232 in Sinason, V. & Van der Merwe, A. P. Shattered but Unbroken: Voices of Triumph and Testimony. London: Karnac.

Miller, A. (2016). Reflections on having my name used. Pp. 24-29 in Sinason, V. & Van der Merwe, A. P. Shattered but Unbroken: Voices of Triumph and Testimony. London:Karnac. (This article refers to a memoir written by a client of mine.)

Miller, A. (2015). Foreword to Breitenbach, G. Inside Views from the Dissociated Worlds of Extreme Violence: Human Beings as Merchandise. London: Karnac (translated from German).

Miller, A. (2014). Becoming Yourself: Overcoming Mind Control and Ritual Abuse. London: Karnac.

Miller, A. (2012). Dialogue with the higher-ups. Pp. 111-132 in Vogt, R. & Vogt, I. (Eds.) Perpetrator Introjects: Psychotherapeutic Diagnostics and Treatment Models. Kroning: Asanger Verlag.

Miller, A. (2008). Recognizing and treating survivors of abuse by organized criminal groups. Chapter 17, pp. 479-490 in Noblitt, R. & Noblitt, P. P. (Eds.) Ritual Abuse in the 21^st Century. Bandon, Oregon: Robert D. Reed Publishers.

Mr. Anderson states “The idea that there are Satanic cults abducting and abusing people has an unfortunate history in the mental health field. They have been long-debunked, and have absolutely no place in modern mental health treatment.” I wish this were the case. Recent criminal investigations in various countries show that organized child abuse with multiple perpetrators is very common, and results in many different mental health conditions, especially dissociative disorders. A number of these investigations revealed Satanic trappings being used as part of the abuse. In the early 1990s there was a massive attempt via the media to promote the message that Mr. Anderson is stating here.

These abuses do occur, and severe child abuse (including multiple-perpetrator organized abuse) is a major cause of many mental and physical health difficulties (see the Childhood Adverse Experiences (ACE) study, https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/childabuseandneglect/acestudy/index.html.)

The literature regarding ritual abuse has evolved a great deal since I published Healing the Unimaginable. See, for example,

Cheit R. (2014) The Witch-Hunt Narrative: Politics, Psychology and the Sexual Abuse of Children, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Richardson K. (2015) Dissecting Disbelief: Possible Reasons for the Denial of the Existence of Ritual Abuse in the United Kingdom. International Journal for Crime, Justice & Social Democracy 4: 77-93.

Salter M. (2012) The Role of Ritual in the Organised Abuse of Children. Child Abuse Review 21: 440-451.

Salter M. (2013) Organised Sexual Abuse, London: Glasshouse/Routledge.

Schröder J, Nick S, Richter-Appelt H, et al. (2018) Psychiatric Impact of Organized and Ritual Child Sexual Abuse: Cross-Sectional Findings from Individuals Who Report Being Victimized. International journal of environmental research and public health 15: 2417.

Schwartz HL. (2000) Dialogues with forgotten voices: Relational perspectives on child abuse trauma and the treatment of severe dissociative disorders: Basic Books.

Schwartz HL. (2013) The Alchemy of Wolves and Sheep: A Relational Approach to Internalized Perpetration in Complex Trauma Survivors: Routledge.

Scott S. (2001) Beyond disbelief: The politics and experience of ritual abuse, Buckingham: Open University Press.

There are now a number of prosecuted child sexual abuse cases in which ritual abuse was substantiated, including that of Marx Dutroux in Belgium in 2001 (which included substantive evidence of widespread political involvement and corruption), the Ponchatoula church case in Louisiana in 2007 and Colin Batley’s prosecution in Wales in 2011. It is my opinion that Mr. Anderson and his group are trying to turn back the clock to the early 1990s, when the false memory advocates succeeded in silencing and intimidating leaders in the field of therapy with survivors of severe and organized childhood abuse through lawsuits and complaints to licensing bodies. The few outspoken leaders in this field were slapped with lawsuits. This delayed the dissemination of knowledge about these crimes and the organized criminal groups who perpetuate them.

Code Standards Regarding Registration Status

3.8, 7.1, 7.7, 18.1, 18.2   I find it difficult to believe that being an invited speaker teaching at a conference in another country (pro bono) is a violation of non-practising status for retired members. Such a prohibition would deprive our profession of the wisdom of its elders.

My Statements about What Organized Abuser Groups Do

The majority of the statements of mine which Mr. Anderson states are false and supposedly “demonstrate my lack of knowledge about these issues” are statements about what many survivors report that some organized perpetrator groups actually do to their victims in addition to sexually abusing them. I stand by these statements.

Harvey Schwartz, whose writings I have mentioned above, wrote in a recent online post:

“Demystification is essential to our work. If therapists do not know or understand the specific methods, madness and dynamics of organized perpetrator groups … our patients will be insidiously abandoned (without professionals treating them even realizing it) to their own dissociative worlds of internalized domination, annihilating shame, and soul murder. And, their heartbreaking spirit-crushing isolation will be reinforced without anyone ever realizing this. Then, patients’  acting out, retreat, or other mysterious behaviors in therapy might be misrecognized by ill-informed, or limited informed therapists who may end up frustrated and perhaps even acting out their helplessness and frustration on the patient, further reinforcing the pathological belief systems installed by the perpetrators and cultivated in years of living hell.

“It is so important for our field to educate the larger trauma and mental health field about what survivors have actually lived through, as well as the what and how of the machinations of the perpetrators  so therapists’ minds and hearts can stretch to provide the kinds of holding, witnessing, containment and demystification necessary for healing extremely malevolent trauma. More than anything it is essential to realize that traumatized patients will not reveal to us or themselves, these extremely bizarre and sadistic experiences if they do not sense that we have some ability to “go there.” And, more than that, an ability to willingly and courageously go there with them, but to go there with a combination of compassion, ferocity, and acceptance.”

My primary sources of knowledge about these crimes are:

• My own clients, seen over the period from 1990 to 2017.

• Other therapists’ descriptions since the 1990s (through written handouts, a few early articles, workshops and conferences, a private online discussion group for therapists working with this population, and the large and ongoing online Dissociative Disorders discussion group, and eventually the ISSTD’s special interest group);

• Exploratory research, especially the Extreme Abuse Survey, whose results are published online: https://extreme-abuse-survey.org/.

• More recent publications, such as those I listed above.

My Statements Regarding My Own Experiences

A number of the items on your list refer to experiences of mine which I spoke or wrote about (all from the early 1990s.) These unfortunate and traumatizing experiences are not products of my imagination; rather, they opened my eyes to abuses of which I was previously unaware. Just what is Mr. Anderson alleging when he identifies these personal experiences of mine as problematic? That I am mentally ill myself? That I am lying? I wish these things had not happened but they did, and they opened my eyes to the activities of organized perpetrator groups. He calls my statements “delusional ramblings” and “bizarre and unhinged statements.” I am aware that my style in the videos is informal, because I was speaking to a group of people at a conference, not writing a formal document. That does not mean I am delusional or unhinged. The practices about which I spoke are indeed bizarre, and there is no information which disproves their existence.

My Allegedly False Statements regarding Diagnosis and Treatment

The remaining items on the list deal with diagnosis and treatment:

He says that I stated that memories can be stored in the body. I did not mean that memories are stored, as Anderson says, “in the body rather than the brain.” This is not the meaning of the well known term “body memories.” Rather it means that a traumatic memory includes the physical sensations of what happened, and these physical sensations may give a “flashback” of pain (or electroshock sensations) rather than a visual sensation or a narrative. This is widely known among trauma therapists. See Dr. Bessel van der Kolk’s The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind and Body in the Healing of Trauma.

I stated that baby memories from infancy need to be “processed for full integration”, which might require a temporary regression to infancy. This is out of context. I do not recommend that every person who has survived such abuse needs to do this. I was only stating that if a person wants to integrate all the part-selves separated by trauma, they need to also be aware that there may be infant abuse experiences.

Survivors of ritual abuse have many misdiagnoses; in fact, multiple diagnoses are characteristic of persons with dissociative disorders. Schizophrenia is only one of those misdiagnoses, and flashbacks of ritual abuse can be misunderstood as schizophrenic hallucinations and delusions. It is, of course, possible for someone to have a dissociative disorder as well as schizophrenia, and hearing the voice of God or Jesus is only one symptom which may reflect either. Depression, bipolar disorder, and notably Borderline Personality Disorder are more common misdiagnoses (or additional diagnoses). Since the education of mental health professionals, especially psychiatrists, is woefully lacking with regard to the sequelae of trauma and the dissociative disorders, misdiagnoses continue to happen.

I stated that the ritual abuse and torture of young children leads to splitting of their minds into pieces that later results in Dissociative Identity Disorder. Yes, indeed. This is not “repression” of memories, as Mr. Anderson alleges. The DID is present in childhood, not just later, and the child, and later adult, has very separate ego states in which one does not know what the other one experienced or did. I actually think of this as the separation of circuits in the brain, rather than splitting of the “mind”, but the research has not yet been done to prove this, although persons with DID do have different areas of the brain light up when different alters are occupying consciousness.

The Code Standards

3.2         Maintaining competency: I am confident that I have maintained full competency, particularly in the areas of ritual abuse, mind control, and the dissociative disorders. I have published articles in peer-reviewed journals on the subject, in edited collections, and in books of my own with a reputable academic publisher, Karnac Books. However, since retirement I have not sent in summaries of my continuing education to CPBC because I do not intend to return to practice.

3.3         Demonstration of knowledge: My writings demonstrate my knowledge. The fact that I have had no complaints from clients over all the years of my practice is also significant.

3.5         Since 1990 I have gained proficiency in work with this unique population through experience and what training has been available. I have taught courses in treating dissociative disorders, and presented a workshop on this for BCPA.

3.6         This emphasizes the importance of referral to an expert in the field. When I began practice with this client group in 1990, there were few or no experts in the field anywhere. Learning from my clients with this history, I became the therapist in Victoria to whom other therapists referred clients who showed symptoms of DID or made disclosures of ritual abuse or mind control. There was no recognized professional book on diagnosis and treatment, until I wrote HealinHealing the Unimaginable, the first book in the field to present a complete treatment protocol for such clients.

3.7         I have indeed maintained current professional knowledge. See the references above.

3.9         Empirical foundation of interventions: I did not use any improper techniques. I followed the treatment guidelines provided by the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation.

3.12       Objectivity of opinions and interventions: See my article in Frontiers in the Psychotherapy of Trauma and Dissociation, a peer-reviewed journal, as it addresses this very issue.

3.14       Opinion based on proper information: My sense is that this item refers more to opinions regarding clients rather than opinions regarding whether certain abuses actually occur. As Mr. Anderson’s organization takes the position that ritual abuse simply does not occur, his opinion of what is proper information is very different from that of a large body of licensed professionals working with survivors of such abuse.

3.15       Relying on scientifically and professionally derived knowledge when making scientific or professional judgments: In a newly opened up field of enquiry, we rely on the larger community and what information is available. I have done so. However, this client population suffers from abuses by organized criminal groups. The Mafia was once thought not to exist, sexual abuse was thought to be rare, and domestic violence was considered unimportant. Vested interests do not want information regarding these abuses to become public.

3.18       Limitations on opinions: When I state that certain types of groups engage in certain activities, I usually qualify my statements by saying that such behaviors are not universal among such groups, and different groups do different things.

5.1         Preserving client welfare: The activities of mine about which Mr. Anderson complains do not involve any clients.

5.26       I had no professional relationship with persons to whom I spoke at a conference or with persons who read my book. I do not believe Mr. Anderson has any evidence that my talks or book have harmed anyone.

10.1       Misleading information: I do not believe I provided any false or misleading information in these public statements.

10.14     In these talks and this book I was not “interpreting the science or the practice of psychology or psychological services.” I believe I was presenting information fairly and accurately, although the talks were more informal than the book.

10.15     Media presentations: I have taken care to ensure that readers or conference attendees do not believe themselves to have a professional relationship with me. Many persons have tried to contact me online and obtain my services as a result of my public profile, and I have declined, suggesting instead that they find a therapist in their location via the ISSTD.

10.16     False and deceptive statements: Perhaps Mr. Anderson believes that some of my statements, particularly regarding what perpetrator groups do, are false. I do not.

15.5   Accuracy in training: I believe I have presented psychological information accurately and with a reasonable degree of objectivity. However, I may have expressed some outrage and disgust when talking about the abusive activities in which some abuser groups engage, according to their victims.

15.8       Prohibitions on training: I do not teach techniques to unqualified individuals.

I would guess that Mr. Anderson and his Grey Faction cohorts have made and will make complaints to the licensing boards of many persons working in this field. This is a litigious complainant, and related organizations in other countries do the same thing, according to a UK colleague of mine.

I think it is important that such harassment of competent therapists, especially those who teach others, fail before it gains traction.

Alison Miller, Ph.D., R. Psych. #654

21st Century Proletarian Literature - Daniel K. Buntovnik - Selected Quotes - The Satanic Temple, Grey Faction, Doug Mesner, Lucien Greaves

Daniel K. Buntovnik
21st Century Proletarian Literature
https://danielkbuntovnik.wordpress.com/

Note:  All accusations are alleged. The views, facts and opinions mentioned in this article are solely the opinions of the author and are not necessarily the opinions of this blog or blog authors.

Selected quotes:

A “Literary” Satanism? Decrypting Proto-Fascist and Antisemitic Themes in The Revolt of the Angels by Anatole France

"In the attempt by The Satanic Temple’s leadership to construct a new, coherent idea of “Satan” which they calculate will be an acceptable exoteric ideological façade to present to the world, the sect has a program of two “Primary Readings” for new members. These readings are The Revolt of the Angels (1914, originally La Révolte des anges) by Anatole France (1844–1924, born Jacques Anatole François Thibault) and The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined (2011) by Steven Pinker (1954–present)"

 "The kind of antisemitism promoted in the work of Anatole France is that found in some strains of the primitive, pre-Marxian “utopian” or unscientific socialist movement. French historian Laurent Joly describes the origins of the antisemitic “Jewish banker” trope which can be found in Anatole France’s The Revolt of the Angels in a review of fellow historian Michel Dreyfus’ book L’antisémitisme à gauche. Histoire d’un paradoxe, de 1830 à nos jours (or Antisemitism on the Left: History of a Paradox from 1830 until Today)"

Pinkwashing: How “The Satanic Temple” Exploits LGBTQ+ Causes as a “Progressive” Fig Leaf
 
"The Satanic Temple’s claims to represent a “progressive” or “left-leaning” tendency within modern Satanism is constituted by the group’s efforts to attach itself to LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, etc.) causes. This can be seen, for example, in the fact that in recent years, contingents of TST members have made appearances in Pride marches (TST AZ, Satanic Temple Seattle). TST’s supporters often cite their support for “LGBTQ+ rights” as a way of derailing conscientization of their underlying ties to white supremacism and neo-fascism.

We see an example of this in Satanic Temple co-founder Douglas Misicko’s essay “Down the Spiral of Purity,” written in response to the secession of the Los Angeles chapter of TST in an act of protest against his decision to associate TST with Marc Randazza, a lawyer who habitually defends right wing extremists in court and has been involved in the case Sines et al v. Kessler et al, whose defendants include members of the neo-Nazi terrorist groups that orchestrated the violent attacks on anti-racists during the infamous August 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia."

"We can observe that Misicko’s application of the “But We Are Inclusive” trope appears to be executed with a noticeably higher level of sloppiness than Aquino’s however, due to the impoverishment of his argument in terms of intersectionality theory. In “Down the Spiral of Purity,” Misicko demonstrates some awareness of the fact that having TST members who “are in the LGBTQ+ community” means nothing in terms of disproving the fact of the group’s lack of diversity in terms of “race,” noting that “[i]t is true that People of Color have been slow to embrace Satanism.”

Witchy Protests and Fake Feminists: The “Satanic Panic”-cum-“Burning Times” as Völkisch Myth and its Basis in Antiziganism

"Despite the fact that The Satanic Temple has openly made a spectacle of symbolically perpetrating male sexual violence against a woman’s corpse, its leader having rubbed his genitals on a woman’s grave under the nonsensical pretense of pretending to turn her into a lesbian (7.2), the sect nevertheless attempts to portray itself as being aligned with feminism and women’s liberation movements by posturing as a group engaged in pro-choice activism and which defends the rights to abortion and access to contraception."

"Part of what makes it possible for cryptic neo-fascists to use the aesthetics of “Satanism” as an entryist vehicle into left-wing political causes is the fact that there is some scattered precedent for the use of quasi-“Satanic” aesthetics by the political Left, although these have generally fallen short of actually claiming to uphold “Satanism” as a religion."

"By examining the “Burning Times” myth and seeing that it fails to measure up to the reality of witch-hunting in the early modern era, we will see that, in a completely analogous way, the “Satanic Panic” myth fails to measure up to the reality of the “moral panic” narrative’s status as a meme for those eager to dismiss concerns about neo-fascist operations and the organized aspects of sexual abuse as “exaggerated.”

"Earlier (6.2 and 6.2.1), we saw how the desire to dismiss contemporary concerns about sexual abuse (concerns which have found expression in recent years via the #MeToo movement) as “exaggerated” are read through the falsified historical lens of the “Satanic Panic of the 1980s and 1990s,” the term “moral panic” often being invoked to suggest that false accusations of sexual abuse are a much bigger problem than actual sexual abuse."

"Instead of treating Satanic sects’ ideological pretensions with suspicion, such “moral panic” narrative true-believers use the ahistorical claims of rape culture-permeated groups against the victims of sexual abuse, using the absurdity of the claims of occultist sects to represent “ancient traditions” to sow disbelief in the existence or extent of organized “intergenerational” sexual abuse. That is, the “SRA skeptics” who shriek on about “the Satanic Panic of the 1980s and 1990s” would sooner take the ONA’s claim to represent the continuation of an occult tradition going back to ancient Britannia at face value than acknowledge its obvious roots in “US intelligence community” operations."

"If the so-called “Satanic Panic of the 1980s and 1990s” was a “modern day witch-hunt,” then the attempt of The Satanic Temple to represent Satanists as the actual victims of the “Satanic Panic” represents the “modern day Burning Times” myth: a time when innocent Satanists were persecuted by an oppressive Judeo-Christian society, bent on wiping out the benign religion of “Satanism.”

"Nevertheless, we can see that this is an absurdity in that, even if we do acknowledge that false accusations of sexual abuse do sometimes occur, of those who were accused of sexual abuse during the 1980s and 1990s and were actually Satanists (or “Setians” or “Magickians” or whatever they want to call themselves), such as Michael Aquino (accused in 1986/1987) and Genesis P-Orridge (accused in 1992), there is enough evidence to cast a reasonable amount of suspicion on these individuals."

"This is compounded by the fact that the meme of “Satanic Panic” is often invoked to sow disbelief in disclosures of sexual abuse having zero connection to Satanism, as we have seen with the frequent comparisons made by reactionaries between “Satanic Panic” and the #MeToo movement in their efforts to paint the latter as a “moral panic” (discussed in 6.2 and 6.2.1).

A number of additional factors contribute further to the assessment that the attempt to portray the so-called “Satanic Panic of the 1980s and 1990s” as a “modern day Burning Times” is a farce:

    Unlike the witch-hunts of the early modern era, a perusal of reports on “Satanic ritual abuse” cases indicates that most persons accused of perpetrating sexual abuse within the context of Satanic rituals have been male.
    Contrary to the construction of the “Burning Times” as a völkisch “feminist” myth, the “moral panic” narrative of “the Satanic Panic of the 1980s and 1990s” never had any pretense of being a “feminist” narrative. On the contrary, the Satanic “moral panic” narrative was constructed by rabid anti-feminists such as “False Memory Syndrome Foundation” leader Ralph Underwager, who blamed feminist psychotherapists and psychiatric social workers for the alleged implanting of “false memories,” contending that “radical feminism” causes “child sexuality hysteria” because “men […] say[ing] that maleness can include the intimacy and closeness of [‘male bonding’] and [‘paedophile sex’] may make women jealous [and say,] ‘Wait a minute, we’re not going to let you do that!’” (Underwager).
    Given former “False Memory Syndrome Action Network” administrator Douglas Misicko’s history of recruiting actors to speak on behalf of “The Satanic Temple,” including an actress who spoke about being “an aspiring pre-school teacher” (alluding to the concept of “day-care sex abuse hysteria” expounded by rape culture apologist proponents of the “moral panic” narrative [see Van Sickler; Chapter 2; and 5.1]), we may suspect that women speaking on behalf of The Satanic Temple’s “Grey Faction” are pawns in a male-dominated, crypto-fascist organization’s efforts to promote rape culture and sexual abuse negationism."

The Satanic Temple’s Engagement with the Theme (and in the Act) of “Ritualistic” Sexual Abuse: Vicarious Necrophilia as a Weapon of Psychological Warfare

"While we have seen that The Satanic Temple and other purveyors of the “moral panic” narrative attempt to create much ado about “false allegations” of sexual abuse, assimilating them to “ritual abuse” and maximally farfetched conspiracist claims and generally working to promote the (false) “belief that we live in a society where men are constantly at risk from a false rape claim epidemic” (de Gallier), it may come as somewhat of a shock to learn that The Satanic Temple has itself engaged in and attempted to make a public spectacle out of a form of sexually abusive Satanic ritual.

In 2013, Satanic Temple co-founder and principal spokesperson Douglas Misicko was charged with “grave desecration” (a misdemeanor offense) after posing for a photograph (shown below, censored) in which he can be seen rubbing his genitals on the grave marker of a dead woman, during what The Satanic Temple portrayed as a “gay conversion” ritual, which the group called a “pink mass.”"

"Douglas Misicko engages in an act of vicarious necrophilia, ostensibly (and nonsensically) turning a dead woman into a lesbian by rubbing his genitals on her grave, located in Mississippi (thegauntlet.com)."

“Satanic” Statues and the Priapic Model of Masculinity: From Ancient Phallic Symbolism to Modern Fascist Rape Culture

"In the introduction to the present study, it was mentioned that a significant amount of phallic and sexual symbolism is displayed by The Satanic Temple’s monumental “Baphomet” sculpture (shown below), which has been central to a substantial portion of the media coverage surrounding the Satanist sect due to the group’s persistent lobbying for the statue to be permanently erected in a public location." 

Reactionary Sexual Politics of “The Satanic Temple”

"....from The War on Kids’ promotion of petit-bourgeois social enclosure through anti-psychiatry and anti-pedagogy conspiracy theories about ADHD medication and the trumped up hazards of public education or “compulsory schooling” (3.2.2), to The Process’s anti-“Grey” conspiracy theories about the inherent evil of psychiatrists encouraging individuals to remember their childhood (5.1.1); from the misogynistic and openly rape-encouraging Satanic elements of the so-called “Alt-Right,” which, rooted in The Process, are the ideological cousins of The Satanic Temple (5.2), to the pedophilia-condoning arguments of “False Memory Syndrome” advocates Ralph Underwager and Hollida Wakefield (3.1);"

 On the Psychological Projection of Antisemitism by Satanists

"These constatations invite further analysis of the relation between antisemitism and The Satanic Temple, including the latter’s anti-psychiatry and gaslighting campaigns and the group’s political interpretation of Satanism in general."

"Front matter displaying neo-Nazi symbolism from the 1999 edition of the book Might is Right, published by “14 Word Press.” This edition was edited by Katja Lane, who also contributed to the “Bugbee Books” edition published in 2003 alongside Douglas Misicko, the co-founder of The Satanic Temple. Her husband, David Lane, was a neo-Nazi terrorist who coined the “14 words” slogan, which is featured at the bottom of the image. The “14 word” slogan has gained widespread usage within white supremacist, neo-fascist movements."

"The Satanic Temple’s spokesman Douglas Misicko sums it up this way:

“Like, I think it’s okay to hate Jews if you hate them because they’re Jewish and they wear a stupid fuckin’ frisbie on their head [correct term: yarmulke or kippah] and walk around [and] think their God’s chosen people, but it’s not okay to hate somebody [‘born of Jewish blood’] just because their parents were stupid fuckin’ Jews and wore stupid frisbies on their head and thought the Jews were God’s chosen people […] Not everybody of Jewish blood is okay with me, it depends on if they follow the Jewish, uh… […] Satanic Jews are fine,” (Adam, “Doug Mesner [Lucien Greaves/Douglas Misicko] Satanic Temple Anti-Semitic Rant” [transcribed, bold added for emphasis])."

"Photos published in the L.A. Weekly of a “Black Mass” event hosted by The Satanic Temple in January 2017 at a nightclub in Los Angeles show that the crypto-fascist sect’s penchant for Nazi aesthetics becomes noticeably less cryptic when members and supporters of the group gather together in large numbers"

"Another method to shift blame for antisemitism onto proponents of anti-Satanism is to paint discursive speculation by mental health workers about the connection of some of their patients’ trauma to abuse perpetrated under the aegis of the CIA’s “Project MK Ultra” as antisemitic. The accusation of antisemitism on the part of the medical community that specializes in mental disorders related to trauma and dissociation (namely the ISSTD) has been leveled by The Satanic Temple’s “Grey Faction” particularly with regard to a speech titled “Hypnosis in MPD: Ritual Abuse” (note that MPD stands for multiple personality disorder, now called dissociative identity disorder), also known as the “Greenbaum speech,” which was delivered by a psychotherapist named D. Corydon Hammond at a 1992 conference and which posited that there had been a Jewish inmate in a Nazi extermination camp who, having been “raised in a Hasidic Jewish tradition,” knew about Kabbalah and was therefore spared death and instead recruited to assist the Nazis in conducting “mind-control research” before being brought to the United States after the Second World War to work on the CIA’s mind control or “behavioral modification” program (“Project MK Ultra”), becoming known to victims as “Dr. Greenbaum” (Hammond , Hammond [text]).

In April 2018, The Satanic Temple’s anti-psychiatry operation “Grey Faction” produced and published a short video titled “The Greenbaum Speech: The Satanic Panic’s Central Folklore.” By presenting clips from the “Grey Force”-advocating psychologist’s speech in a lurid way, with “spooky,” old-timey footage of creepy-looking people holding a seance, the video attempts to portray discursive exploration of links between Satanic psychological operations and the CIA’s “Project MK Ultra” as quasi-psychotic, irrational, and, moreover, antisemitic. The “Grey Faction” video falsely asserts that the so-called “Greenbaum Speech” makes “wildly implausible claims” which “lack corroboration.” Taking into consideration the following arguments, we will see that although the narrative associated with the so-called “Greenbaum speech” may well contain some distortions or corruptions, the essential elements of the historical narrative summarized above (involving the recruitment of Jewish concentration camp inmates for participation in Nazi research and experimentation—not only as human guinea pigs, but as researchers—and the recuperation of Nazi research by the post-WWII CIA “behavioral modification” program[s] known as “Project MK Ultra”) are plausible and can in fact be corroborated by a wide variety of reliable sources.

Let’s examine the “Grey Faction” video’s first claim, which is the assertion that “the story of ‘Dr. Greenbaum’” is the story of “a folkloric villain who manages to fulfill nearly all conspiracy theory stereotypes by being a Jewish Satanist Nazi brought to the U.S. by the CIA to conduct mind control experiments.” One of the main objectives of this statement seems seems to be to make the viewer respond, “A Jewish Nazi? How absurd! What an outlandish conspiracy theory!” It is pretty clear that the idea which The Satanic Temple’s “Grey Faction” wants to plant in our heads is that the “Greenbaum” narrative, by “fulfilling all the conspiracy theory stereotypes” with its allegations that Greenbaum was not only a Jew and a Nazi-collaborator, but a Satanist, taps into antisemitism."

"But what exactly is “Grey Faction” claiming is “wildly implausible” and lacking in corroboration? That Nazi scientists came to America after the Second World War? The establishment of significant numbers of Nazi war criminals in all parts of the Americas after the war (many through “Operation Paperclip”) is a well-known fact and has already been covered in the preface to this work and need not be re-examined here.

Is it possible that The Satanic Temple’s “Grey Faction” is trying to say that it is “wildly implausible” to claim that the Nazis would have been interested in acquiring knowledge about “Kabbalistic mysticism” from a Jew or that a Jewish inmate in a Nazi concentration camp could have become an active participant in unethical human experimentation? Yes, those do indeed seem to be the parts of the narrative which TST would like us to think are “fantastic” and “wildly implausible.” An examination of the historical record demonstrates otherwise, however."

"But what exactly is “Grey Faction” claiming is “wildly implausible” and lacking in corroboration? That Nazi scientists came to America after the Second World War? The establishment of significant numbers of Nazi war criminals in all parts of the Americas after the war (many through “Operation Paperclip”) is a well-known fact and has already been covered in the preface to this work and need not be re-examined here.

Is it possible that The Satanic Temple’s “Grey Faction” is trying to say that it is “wildly implausible” to claim that the Nazis would have been interested in acquiring knowledge about “Kabbalistic mysticism” from a Jew or that a Jewish inmate in a Nazi concentration camp could have become an active participant in unethical human experimentation? Yes, those do indeed seem to be the parts of the narrative which TST would like us to think are “fantastic” and “wildly implausible.” An examination of the historical record demonstrates otherwise, however."

"But what about the more “esoteric” aspects of the “Greenbaum speech”? It is plain to see that the “Grey Faction” desires to discredit the historicity of the narrative (of a [coerced] Jewish contribution to Nazi research conducted during the Holocaust that would later be recuperated by the US military and implemented under the aegis of the CIA’s “Project MK Ultra”), but behind or in parallel to this first desire there is also a desire to discredit the validity of dissociative identity disorder (DID) as a medical diagnosis. While these two things—(1) the historicity of (aspects of) the Holocaust and (2) the validity of DID as a medical diagnosis—are separate from one another, we nevertheless find them conflated with one another in terms of “Grey Faction” desire. It seems that, for “Grey Faction,” if people can be convinced to doubt and dismiss the “Greenbaum” narrative as nonsense, so too will they doubt and dismiss as nonsense the validity of DID as a medical diagnosis (and, by extension, so too will they doubt and dismiss the legitimacy of psychiatry, practitioners of which are labelled “Doctors Inventing Demons” by members of the so-called “Grey Faction”)."


Cultural Gaslighting; or, “Falsified History Syndrome”

"The concern of The Satanic Temple’s “Grey Faction” with spreading the “moral panic of the 1980s and ’90s” and “witch-hunt” memes under the label of “Satanic Panic” throughout mass media (often shallowly buried under the pretext of leading a “separation of church and state” fight) has as much to do with trying to harass the medical community into altering science to match the group’s pseudo-rationalistic religious beliefs (e.g., by revising positions on the existence, prevalence, and/or treatment of various mental disorders, implying the ultimate negation of the medical model of mental health care) as it does with sowing doubt in the public mind about matters of 20th century history which continue to have important political implications today. In this way, it is possible to speak of the problem of gaslighting not only in terms of pushing individual victims of abuse to question how sound the perception of their atomized personal experience is, but also in terms of a broader phenomenon of 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. Much like the labelling of an historical episode as “moral panic,” the labelling of the interpretation of an historical episode as “conspiracy theory” has taken on pejorative connotations, despite the phrase “conspiracy theory” having, just like the phrase “moral panic,” no intrinsic sense of being “based on fantasy, hysteria, delusion and illusion” (Cohen vii). In other words, 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."

"n examining the links between the anti-psychiatry activism of The Satanic Temple and the Process Church and their roots in the conspiracy theories of the Church of Scientology about Judeo-Bolshevik “psychs,” we have been led to the CIA’s “Project MK Ultra,” which, we have seen, can be supposed to have benefited from the Church of Scientology’s anti-psychiatry discourse because the latter disseminated a false motive for the widespread psychiatric abuse occurring under the aegis of “Project MK Ultra” (i.e., they aided CIA blame-shifting operations by attributing responsibility for psychiatric abuse to Communists—the enemies of the CIA—rather than the actual culprits: the CIA and US imperialism). Any semi-deductive discourse relating to “MK Ultra” (which all “MK Ultra” discourse necessarily is, due to the level of secrecy surrounding the program and the cover-up evinced by the destruction of records) appears to run a high risk of being subjected to gaslighting. Indeed, 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” (3.1)."

"Whereas we have seen that there is a sound basis upon which to infer that the Church of Scientology effectively helped to cover up “Project MK Ultra” during the 1950s, ’60s, and ’70s by making itself—insofar as it prominently positioned itself as an “opponent” of “psychiatric abuse”—likely to attract and recruit victims of “MK Ultra” experiments while nevertheless aligning itself with the same Red Scare politics which were (and still are) quintessential to the whole CIA enterprise, we now see that it is equally reasonable to affirm that The Satanic Temple does the same thing today, playing its part in the covering up of not only the full historical significance of the CIA’s “Project MK Ultra” (i.e., its connections to religiously-inclined psychological operations making use of, besides drugs, many semiotic trappings of Satanism, such as witchcraft and ritual sacrifice [6.3.1]) but also its subsequent and ongoing legacy, including, for example, the so-called “enhanced interrogation” program of CIA torture and human experimentation (PHR, Soldz)."

"Ironically, the historical negationists’ invariable delimitation of the “Satanic Panic” to the decades of “the 1980s and 1990s” is indicative of the fact that it is this “moral panic” narrative itself which is apt to be viewed as an attempt to implant false memories. By getting enough major media outlets to repetitively broadcast enough times that steady refrain of Satanic Temple spokesman Douglas Misicko (i.e., “the Satanic Panic of the 1980s and 1990s”), the public may thus begin to falsely “remember” that the “Satanic Panic” began in the 1980s."

"We thus observe another example of cultural gaslighting and psychological projection; The Satanic Temple’s “Grey Faction” accuses psychiatrists, particularly those working with dissociative patients, of implanting “false memories” into their patients, although it is the “Grey Faction” which attempts to do exactly this to the public at large by continually repeating the historical negationist phrase “Satanic Panic of the 1980s (and ’90s).” Moreover, if “False Memory Syndrome” is, as the “Grey Faction”-linked False Memory Syndrome Action Network claims, “appropriately descriptive terminology” for individuals who “[come] to believe an untrue memory and re-structur[e their lives] around that false memory,” then we are absolutely justified in saying that, if Douglas Misicko and other individuals caught up in the “Grey Faction” operation believe their own falsified historical narrative, then it is they who suffer from “False Memory Syndrome.” When history and collective memory are falsified and gaslighting is applied to entire cultures and societies, bringing physical, mental, and emotional harm to their members, it may be possible to speak of a “Falsified History Syndrome,” or perhaps a “False Ideology Syndrome.”

Furthermore, by virtue of The Satanic Temple adopting an ostensibly “politically progressive” and “scientific rationalist” façade and having its “anti-conspiracist” message propagated far and wide by ruling class mass media, “Project MK Ultra” is covered up from “both sides”: historical and political."