Reply to the Satanic Temple’s Grey Faction online guest post.

Doug Mesner/Lucien Greaves (both aliases) is the co-founder of the Satanic Temple and one of the presenters for the Grey Faction. This article discusses the continuing attacks and online harassment of Neil Brick and S.M.A.R.T. by these groups and others.

This article represents the views of the S.M.A.R.T. Newsletter and this website.

Copied with permission for neilbrick.com

Original article is at:
Reply to the Satanic Temple’s Grey Faction online guest post
https://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/reply-to-the-satanic-temples-grey-faction-online-guest-post/

Recently another article attacking S.M.A.R.T., Neil Brick and the child abuse/ritual abuse field appeared on the Internet, called “The Satanic Temple sent observers to a Ritual Abuse survivors’ conference.” The article states it is a guest post and a collaboration produced by The Satanic Temple’s Grey Faction. S.M.A.R.T. has replied to the Grey Faction’s misinformation previously in this article:
Rebuttal to the Grey Faction Lucien Greaves presentation about SMART and additional Grey Faction information about Neil Brick
https://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/rebuttal-to-the-grey-faction-lucien-greaves-presentation-about-smart-and-additional-grey-faction-information-about-neil-brick/

The Grey Faction’s views of the ritual abuse field and recovered memory are inaccurate.

Accurate scientific information is at:

Proof the Ritual Abuse Exists
https://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/

Ritual Abuse References
http://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/studies/satanic-ritual-abuse-evidence-with-information-on-the-mcmartin-preschool-case/

Research:   https://ritualabuse.us/research/

Recovered Memories
https://ritualabuse.us/research/memory-fms/recovered-memory-corroboration-rates/

Please don’t forget to read the conclusion at the end of the article.

Update: Continued bullying, online harassment, name calling and personal attacks are occurring in the comment section under the Satanic Temple’s Grey Faction online guest post. New aliases believed to belong to Doug Mesner/Lucien Greaves (also aliases) continue these comments.  These comments continue to attack Neil Brick for not allowing hands to go to the face which could be hand signals at the conference.

One poster (defending survivors) in the comment section wrote:
“Thank you for allowing my clarification of hand signals to be posted on the website. These signals function as post-hypnotic suggestions, as anyone who is familiar with hypnosis will know. You might also remember Pavlov’s dog, who salivated at the sound of a bell. This is basic conditioning, stimulus-response. Child traffickers teach such signals to the children they traffic and they condition these children to respond immediately in particular ways.”
Hand signals are also discussed below.
Yet commenters below the article continue to make fun off and insult Neil Brick for this conference guideline.

–

The guest post has a video of Neil Brick, recorded without permission at a private conference where video and audio recording is not permitted to protect the anonymity of the attendees, who were rape and trauma victims. It appears the person who recorded the video of Neil Brick misrepresented their reasons for attending the conference and did not tell the truth about their personal information.  The video falsely insults Neil Brick by using the word paranoid to describe his presentation. Neil presents material backed by research during the video. The video discusses the use of hand signals to trigger certain mind states.

It is well known in the scientific field that triggers or certain stimuli can trigger mind states and/or thought patterns.  In the modern era, Pavlov did extensive research on classical conditioning, where a conditioned stimuli produces a conditioned response. His dogs would salivate when they heard a bell without the presence of food. More complex conditioning can be done on human beings.

It is well known that PTSD flashbacks can be triggered by certain stimuli (like sounds, smells or colors) in veterans, trauma and accident survivors. These survivors may totally believe they are back in the trauma situation and react as if they are in that situation. This is similar to the programmed triggers discussed in the conference and their programmed reactions.

An article written by Neil Brick describes this phenomenon:
How Cues and Programming Work in Mind Control and Propaganda
https://ritualabuse.us/mindcontrol/how-cues-and-programming-work-in-mind-control-and-propaganda/
“Programming is similar to this in several ways. A survivor may be tortured repeatedly until an new alter is created. This alter will be given a cue to let them know when to come out, this could be a smell, word, number, sound, color and so on. This cue is either paired with the alter’s creation and is given to the alter to listen for or to look for.”

The Grey Faction’s guest post makes other factually inaccurate statements.
The article calls these bizarre, irrational and paranoid claims.  But are they?

1) “Your spouse or your lover is not to be trusted” as they may be used by the cult to control the victim. The reality is that many famous cults use this technique frequently. Some people are used to report back to the cult on their spouse. Others are used to remind people of what will happen if they leave the cult.

2) “using trauma-based mind-control to completely subjugate their victims, begin programming victims at the earliest possible age.” This is very possible. It is well known that very early childhood trauma can destabilize a victim and make them susceptible to attachment, anxiety, mood and trauma disorders.

3) In “the conference there was a….prohibition against touching one’s face.” Touching one’s face can be a triggered just like Pavlov’s dogs hearing a bell or a war veteran hearing a firecracker and having a flashback.
The guest post states: “Researchers have found that the average individual touches her/his face 3.6 times per hour.” It describes that this is a natural, human behavior.
This does not mean touching one’s face cannot be used a conditioned stimuli, just like a firecracker could trigger a flashback in a veteran or a bell could trigger Pavlov’s dogs. Anything can be a conditioned stimuli, including hand signals.

4) The guest post discusses that Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) may be intentionally induced as a means of mind-control. There is scientific evidence this is true. Journal articles and scientific research discussing this phenomenon are at https://ritualabuse.us

5) Cults may look for former members in different social and clinical settings. This has been verified by many trauma survivors. The article states “This served as a way to discredit medical professionals outside of” certain ritual abuse survivor groups. This is not true and no statements were made to this effect at the conference.

6) The guest post stated “Ritual Abuse was presented throughout the conference as the first place to start when investigating any personal ailment, rather than a last option after all avenues of modern medicine are exhausted.” This is totally false. Professionals recommend ruling out medical causes before looking at mental health causes. It is true that trauma may cause certain health symptoms. This is discussed and well researched in the very large study: Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/acestudy/
“Childhood experiences, both positive and negative, have a tremendous impact on future violence victimization and perpetration, and lifelong health and opportunity.”

7) The guest post states “Therapy is not a quest for truth, and the reality of what may or may not have happened is irrelevant.” The guest post states this is an absurd claim. A doctor may be more concerned about fixing a broken leg than finding out the cause of why it was broken and proving whether this cause is true or not. Another doctor may be more concerned about stopping an infection than finding out the cause.  Therapy is the same. Symptom relief is often the most important goal of therapy. In other words, if a client suffers from depression, the goal is to decrease their depression symptoms. This may or may not entail discussing the symptoms’ causes and it is unlikely there would be an investigation of the reasons why the person is depressed.

8) The guest post states therapy should help “provid(e) mental health consumers with the cognitive tools to distinguish fantasy from reality.” The important question here is what is fantasy, and what is reality. Child abuse skeptics do not believe these ritual abuse crimes exist, and this belief is inaccurate. It would be inappropriate to promote this false skeptical belief.

9) The guest post states: “Whenever someone tried to ask about efforts to catch the cults and bring them to justice, the presenters turned it around by claiming that the cults are too secretive and far reaching to expose and that their primary focus as therapists and ritual abuse survivor advocates is to heal the victim rather than go after the abusers.” How would one go after the abusers if these crimes happened 30 or more years ago? The other problem is getting adequate support to bring perpetrators to justice. It sometimes took decades to bring the Catholic Church, certain Satanic groups and even Bill Cosby to justice, even though there were many victims and some came forward to authorities and were ignored. Of course, bringing the perpetrators to justice would be the best idea, but inaccurate skeptical articles like the guest post make this more difficult.

10) The guest post states; “[one is advised not to] try to understand why these cults do the horrible things they do.” Actually this was discussed at times during the conference.  But more importantly, stopping these crimes and helping the victims of these crimes comes first.

The article repeats Doug Mesner’s (alias Lucien Greaves) claims about a vendor table at the 2009 Connecticut conference selling hats meant to block out electromagnetic signals.  These were sold for health reasons. Doug did not tell conference coordinators he was coming to the 2009 conference to write an article, nor did he state he was a journalist. Since the conference was for rape survivors, the media was not allowed to attend to protect the conference attendees’ anonymity and safety.
S.M.A.R.T. replied to this in our “Douglas Misicko alias Douglas Mesner update 6” article.
https://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/douglas-misicko-alias-douglas-mesner-update-6-examiner-com-article/

Doug Mesner (alias Lucien Greaves) repeated the fact that one display table out of many at the conference had a hat (as well as many other items) used to protect the wearer from electromagnetism. He took this one thing totally out of proportion to attack the conference. He used this to attack and insult our conference and our work, ignoring the strong research base backing the reality of ritual abuse and the many presentations at our conference verifying the reality of ritual abuse. In the original article, he used the terms “lunacy” and “delusional assertions” to further insult the work of S.M.A.R.T.  Mr. Mesner continues taking facts out of context and using these to disparage Neil Brick and S.M.A.R.T.

The guest post states: “Combating child sexual abuse and human trafficking are unquestionably noble causes.”  Yet it appears that the Grey Faction and Doug Mesner spend much more time attacking child abuse survivors and their stories, than combating them.

Ellen Lacter wrote an interesting article a few years ago called
“Common Forms of Misinformation and Tactics of Disinformation about Psychotherapy for Trauma Originating in Ritual Abuse and Mind Control” December 18, 2012.
This page on my website seeks to expose a number of common forms of misinformation and tactics of disinformation about psychotherapy for trauma originating in ritual abuse and mind control. Disinformation is distinguished from misinformation in that it is intentionally fraudulent. Misinformation and disinformation about ritual abuse and mind control trauma and psychotherapy to  treat such trauma appear in both paper and electronic media, but are particularly abundant on the Internet on websites of individuals and organizations, bookseller reviews, blogs, newsletters, online encyclopedias, social networking sites, and e-group listservs…..Disclaimer: This page neither cites, quotes, names, nor alludes to any specific paper or electronic articles or statements by individual. Any similarity between examples of misinformation or disinformation used herein and actual articles or other statements is purely coincidental. http://endritualabuse.org/activism/misinfo/

The guest post then goes on to attack Neil Brick. It discussed how a complaint was filed against Neil Brick’s licensure in Massachusetts. This was filed by an out of state party that did not know Neil Brick professionally or personally. An previous online video discusses how the complaint was filed through one of their Grey Faction members and to his licensing board and they dismissed the complaint without prejudice.

The complaint was dismissed and Neil Brick was found fit to practice with sound moral character after a full year of review from several sources. SMART believes these type of complaints may be part of a harassment campaign to silence anti-child abuse advocates and helpers.

The guest post states: Neil Brick “had claimed that he’d committed rape and murder while in an altered state of mind.” Neil Brick does write about being forced as a small child to kill in a cult. This was against his will and many others have written about being forced to kill as children in cults and gangs. It is incorrect to extrapolate this further as an issue of moral character or adult competency. Children are victims forced to do things. We would not blame a child forced to hit another child by an adult.  Nor would we blame or question the grown child now fully grown who was forced to do this.

The guest post discusses Neil Brick’s statement about cult members trying to look normal to find former cult members to possibly victimize. Most criminals and people who want to hurt others want to look normal. A thief would not have a sign stating “thief” on them.  Likewise, one wanting to hurt a cult member or survivor would not want to indicate they are doing this. It makes sense to look for other indicators to check a person out.  This is similar to a person who is a victim of violence as a child checking out a partner thoroughly to make sure they do not become a victim of domestic violence as an adult.

In conclusion, the guest post by the Satanic Temple’s Grey Faction criticizes the strong research and theories of ritual abuse survivors and those with years of research, experience and education in the trauma field.  (The members of the Grey Faction have unknown credentials and may not have the experience to accurately determine trauma theory and research.) The guest post by the  Satanic Temple’s Grey Faction presents inaccurate arguments, which are refuted in this article.  The Grey Faction claims they are combating pseudoscience with rational inquiry, but this “rational inquiry” is actually predetermined opinion, bolstered by name calling, ad hominem attacks and insults. There is no real “rational inquiry” because there is no evidence that all of the facts were looked at neutrally to derive a conclusion. It appears the only facts considered were the ones that back their arguments. In its articles, the Grey Faction hides behind the name of science and rationality, when in reality it appears it is an advocacy organization used to discredit ritual abuse survivors realities’ and their resources.

Update:  David Shurter has been repeatedly making factually inaccurate statements about S.M.A.R.T. and Neil Brick, some that are incredibly bizarre in nature.  David Shurter makes the entirely false statement that a survivor was removed from the Survivorship conference.  This is entirely untrue. No survivors were removed from this conference or any Survivorship or S.M.A.R.T. conference.

David Shurter makes another false statement that Survivorship allowed the person who infiltrated the conference and filmed speakers without permission to stay. This is also false.  They were removed from the conference. Sadly, David Shurter states he agrees with Lucien Greaves and the Grey Faction about Neil Brick, a group that has attacked survivors and their supporters. David Shurter makes false statements about the North American Truth and Reconciliation Coalition (NATRC). David Shurter makes the false statement that Neil attacks other survivors’ conferences. This is totally untrue.

The reality is that David Shurter has attacked several survivor organizations viciously and many people in the survivor movement do not trust him at all anymore.

A good article to read about this is: Evolving as a Movement – Taking a Step Forward  https://neilbrick.com/articles/evolving-as-a-movement-taking-a-step-forward/

“Survivors that publicly attack other child or ritual abuse advocates are not helping others nor are they helping the movement move forward.  The child abuse “skeptics” watch these attacks, promote and encourage them and benefit from them. Survivor resources are only destroyed more by these attacks.  Certain members of the survivor movement are sent to the movement to disable the movement in different ways. Some are programmed to attack others. Their goals (usually unknown to them) is to fragment the movement and destroy legitimate sources of education and support for survivors.

It appears that this may apply to David Shurter.  David Shurter’s attacks have hurt the survivor movement.  We recommend reading this article to find out more about this. Evolving as a Movement – Taking a Step Forward  https://neilbrick.com/articles/evolving-as-a-movement-taking-a-step-forward/

Update:
David Shurter has continued making false statements about Neil Brick and S.M.A.R.T. David Shurter writes “he and his group are deperately (sic) trying to associate me with them.” This is absolutely false. S.M.A.R.T. and Neil Brick have made no efforts whatsoever to contact David Shurter, work with David Shurter in any way or “associate” with David Shurter. David Shurter closes his post with another insult toward Neil Brick “Brick can kiss my ass- but I don’t want his hairy monkey lips anywhere near me.” David Shurter previously made additional erroneous statements about Neil Brick and his research. David Shurter stated “MANY secret groups- 20 of them or so are run by a man named Neil Brick- who are telling survivors that they can be mass programmed by hand signals- that bad guys are everywhere, behind every bush.” There is absolutely no truth to this statement by David Shurter either. Neil nor anyone connected to S.M.A.R.T. has ever stated there are “bad guys everywhere” nor are there 20 secret groups run by Neil or anyone else he works with.