i particularly like this non-rebuttal to comparisons to alien abduction:

“Mesner continues to make the false claim comparing alien abductions to ritual abuse cases. The fact is that there have been criminal convictions for crimes with ritual abuse elements and ritual abuse survivors suffer from the severe trauma symptoms survivors of extreme abuse do.”

of course, claiming that there have been convictions with “ritual abuse elements” begs the question of what “elements” are we talking about? which cases, so that we might examine these claims and determine if they bring us any nearer to validating neil brick’s claim that he was brainwashed and abused by masonic illuminati?
clearly, brick (as the defamation blog is posted by some anonymous source, it is posted “with permission” from brick’s own site) hasn’t kept up with the science.

“abuse survivors suffer from the severe trauma symptoms survivors of extreme abuse do.”

in a paper titled: Psychophysiological Responding During Script-Driven Imagery in People Reporting Abduction by Space Aliens, Dr. Richard J. McNally, et al, at harvard university found that alien abduction victims “suffer from the severe trauma symptoms survivors of extreme abuse do.”

the abstract:

Is recollection of highly improbable traumatic experiences accompanied by psychophysiological responses indicative of intense emotion? To investigate this issue, we measured heart rate, skin conductance, and left lateral frontalis electromyographic responses in individuals who reported having been abducted by space aliens. Recordings of these participants were made during script-driven imagery of their reported alien encounters and of other stressful, positive, and neutral experiences they reported. We also measured the psychophysiological responses of control participants while they heard the scripts of the abductees. We predicted that if ‘‘memories’’ of alien abduction function like highly stressful memories, then psychophysiological reactivity to the abduction and stressful scripts would be greater than reactivity to the positive and neutral scripts, and this effect would be more pronounced among abductees
than among control participants. Contrast analyses confirmed this prediction for all three physiological measures (ps < .05). Therefore, belief that one has been traumatized may generate emotional responses similar to those provoked by recollection of trauma (e.g., combat)."

hmm. so what straw can be grasped at now? and, perhaps more poignantly, why bother? it's not as though S.M.A.R.T. hasn't had overlap with the "UFO" community. don't renounce them just on my account. from the march 1999 S.M.A.R.T. newsletter:

"The Rally To End Secrecy will be held on the steps of the Capitol Building at Noon on October 24th 1999. Information on the rally is at http://www.endsecrecy.com The rally will include those joining together as one voice to change the course of business as usual in Washington, including those in the UFO community, the “new energy” or “zero-point energy” community, supporters of industrial hemp legalization, anti-HAARP activists, all those horrified by out-of-control military spending and mind control experiments. Please use caution at this site and other sites connected to it, they may be triggering.”

“Please use caution while reading this. It may be triggering. Michael Donovan (E-mail: michaeldonovan@ddaccess.com) is looking for computer literate people with alleged military mind control issues, ritual abuse and abduction issues (possible UFO and paramilitary). As always, please use caution when contacting any resource in our newsletter.”

also, a search for UFO-watcher william Schnoebelen on brick’s site yields 13 hits.

here’s an online video clip that will introduce you to the ideas of mr. schnoebelen:

http://socioecohistory.wordpress.com/2010/08/31/bill-schnoebelen-ufos-aliens-masonry-and-satanism-in-the-occult-social-order/

“In this excellent lecture, Bill Schnoebelen gives his personal experience and understanding on the UFO and Alien Abduction phenomena. Bill Schnoebelen, ex-Illuminati, 90 degree FreeMason, ex-vampire, witch, Satanist… before he turned to Jesus Christ, recounts his personal experiences with UFOs, Aliens, demonic entities, fallen angels, occult Satanic ceremonies, rituals”

With attention, support and guidance from their specialized therapist, these patients finally feel safe, validated and understood. Never mind if their therapist has a God complex, to the patient, that counselor is truly, omnipotent and all-knowing. Patients with iatrogenic DID and memories of SRA function only by working a program where their alleged abuse is ‘honored.’ Questioning the veracity of their memories would have devastating consequences. (Their therapist has already advised them of this fact, by the way.) When an outside source has the tenacity to scrutinize a therapists’ methods, both counselor and patient, becomes outraged.

Who do you turn to when there is a growing amount of scientific sources that point to problematic therapies for inducing sensational memories of cannibalism that are false? Neil Brick, for starters.

Contortionistic, prolific Brick, who purports to have ‘been there and done that’ when it comes to Satanic Ritual Abuse and mind control. His uber copious postings and re-postings of one-sided mass conspiracy SRA rhetoric are under the guise of advocacy against child abuse – but if you pay attention, they are largely self-serving in nature. Neil wants credit for all his hard work. (Hence, the same long-winded, out-dated information blogged, and ballyhooed, everywhere from yahoo groups to business marketing sites.)

Brick’s beliefs are quite conspicuous – anything and everything is plausible… except of course, the possibility of false memories. Many of his online entries are so extreme and preposterous, it is hard to visualize him competent elsewhere. But to someone who believes themselves a victim of atrocities, whether real or imagined, Brick offers a safe harbor of unbridled acceptance and alliance. Utilizing the S.M.A.R.T. newsletter and conferences for his evil-is-everywhere platform, Brick does a major disservice pedaling propaganda to the growing population of patients (and their loved ones) who are already, painfully misled. Brick’s apparent agenda is to be THE specialist on ritual abuse … and on dissociate identity disorder,,, and on how to spot a perpetrator… and how to recognize a victim.

It is my belief that Brick is hurting far more people than he could ever help. His years of campaigning have completely lacked balance regarding updated, scientifically-founded studies and statics he seems so keen on sharing. (Yet this man makes presentations to share his knowledge and methods with other therapists!) I wonder, if Brick is so devoted to identifying and halting abuse, why does he refuse to acknowledge actual incidents of iatrogenic DID and false memories? Why IS he so intensely invested in wearing proverbial blinders?

I want to briefly clarify something that An Anonymous Entity posted on a blog titled – “defamation case”:
“An alias states in essence that Neil Brick promotes the idea that the abuse of a child could be the cause of anything other than dysfunctional traits (when discussing how survivors may be tortured to do other roles) and that this is equal to saying that child abuse is beneficial for its victims. Neither SMART nor Neil Brick have ever stated child abuse is beneficial in anyway. SMART and Neil Brick’s strong stance is that child abuse is always traumatic to its victims”.

I have never claimed that Neil Brick ever made this precise, direct statement: “child abuse is beneficial for its victims”. Nor have I ever claimed that Neil Brick has directly, explicitly denied that child abuse is traumatic to its victims.

However, Brick has been quoted claiming that – as a child victim of extreme abuse – he
” was very small and I was kept small and thin by programming until the age of 9, when a primary perpetrator went into the hospital for a while and I was no longer afraid to eat. This programming started around the age of 3. This is why I am so small today and I am smaller than my siblings. I was kept small to fit into vents and ducts to work on missions to go into places to open doors, to let others in, steal materials or records, spy on meetings or kill people”.

This statement by Brick contains some obvious, implicit claims.
Brick is claiming that the development of very specific physical traits that he possesses, were caused by abuse he suffered in childhood: “I was kept small and thin by programming” “This is why I am so small today”.

Brick is claiming that these physical traits bestowed on him the ability to perform certain kinds of tasks, at a level beyond the ability an average person who did not suffer extreme abuse could perform: “I was kept small to fit into vents and ducts to work on missions to go into places to open doors, to let others in, steal materials or records, spy on meetings or kill people”.

Brick is therefore claiming that extreme child abuse can be the cause of a victim developing super-human capacities to perform specific tasks. This means he is claiming extreme abuse can be the cause of constructive (greater capacities) development in a victim, rather than destructive development (diminished capacities).
He is also claiming that the development of these traits caused by abuse: “I was kept small and thin by programming”, bestowing greater-than-normal capacity to perform certain tasks, allowed him to be succesful in carrying out demands made upon him by his alleged “programmer-controllers”. Since he implies that his life depended on such success, the obvious conclusion is that the development of these traits caused by abuse – however traumatic the abuse might have been – was ultimately beneficial to him.

many of you are probably aware of the johnson verdict in WI: http://www.examiner.com/underground-in-boston/historic-wisconsin-verdict-rules-for-3rd-party-false-memory-case
a newspaper writing about the case in WI failed to make any mention of the nature of the recovered memories in question which included the standard satanic ritual abuse folklore. instead, disappointingly, ignoring any issue of corroboration, disproving evidence, or even responsibility, they went to our little pal, neil brick, for comment:

“Neil Brick, founder of SMART (Stop Mind Control and Ritual Abuse), a Massachusetts organization that works with survivors of extreme abuse, said it’s a misconception that there are therapists out there initiating courses of therapy that lead to the surfacing of repressed memories. Rather, something in the patient’s adult life may have triggered the memory, and the therapist helps him or her explore its relevancy, Brick said.” http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/crime_and_courts/article_753791e0-2822-11e0-9cd7-001cc4c002e0.html

of course, brick has endorsed stories of recovered memories by people who flatly tell of their therapists “initiating courses of therapy that lead to the surfacing of repressed memories”. so what is he saying? that this doesn’t happen? that it IS wrong to do this? would he care to elaborate on his position regarding techniques like hypnosis and guided imagery? or is he just dodging the question, as he so often does?

this also raises some very serious questions about brick’s licensing as a mental health counsellor in MA. keep in mind, brick’s employer at behavioral health network, inc. wrote:

“Mr. Brick has never organized a conference or promoted any writings as an employee or affiliate of [his employer]. As you may be aware, Mr. Brick has his own web site, sponsors workshops and generates a newsletter all independent of his employment with [us]”

in what capacity, one wonders, does S.M.A.R.T. work with “survivors of extreme abuse”? ostensibly, S.M.A.R.T. is only a newsletter and an annual conference. neil brick is cautious enough to append the disclaimer that these aren’t intended as therapy. again, what “work” does S.M.A.R.T. do with these “survivors”? is it work that would fall within the confines of his expertise according to his licensing board?

neil brick was licensed by ALLIED MENTAL HEALTH: http://license.reg.state.ma.us/public/pubLicenseQ.asp?board_code=MH&type_class=CC&license_number=000006716&color=blue&lb=MH

allied mental health conforms to the codes of ethics outlined by:
(1) (a) Ethical Standards of the American Counseling Association;

(b) Ethical Standards and Code of Ethics of the American Mental Health Counselors Association;

(2) Model Code of Ethics for Marriage and Family Therapists of the Association of Marital and Family Therapy Regulations Boards;

(3) (a) Code of Professional Ethics for Rehabilitation Counselors of the Commission on Rehabilitation Counselor Certification; and

(b) Code of Professional Ethics of the Certification of Disability Management Specialists Commission; and

(4) Professional Conduct Manual of the National Association of School Psychologists.

some of the possibly relevant sections of the ACA code of ethics state:

Counselors practice only within the
boundaries of their competence,
based on their education, training,
supervised experience, state and national
professional credentials, and
appropriate professional experience.
Counselors gain knowledge, personal
awareness, sensitivity, and skills pertinent
to working with a diverse client
population. (See A.9.b., C.4.e., E.2., F.2.,
F.11.b.)

C.4.a. Accurate Representation
Counselors claim or imply only professional
qualifications actually completed
and correct any known misrepresentations
of their qualifications
by others. Counselors truthfully represent
the qualifications of their professional
colleagues. Counselors
clearly distinguish between paid and
volunteer work experience and accurately
describe their continuing
education and specialized training.
(See C.2.a.)

C.6.c. Media Presentations
When counselors provide advice or
comment by means of public lectures,
demonstrations, radio or television
programs, prerecorded tapes,
technology-based applications,
printed articles, mailed material, or
other media, they take reasonable
precautions to ensure that
1. the statements are based on appropriate
professional counseling
literature and practice,
2. the statements are otherwise consistent
with the ACA Code of Ethics, and
3. the recipients of the information
are not encouraged to infer that
a professional counseling relationship
has been established.

http://www.counseling.org/Resources/CodeOfEthics/TP/Home/CT2.aspx

from the AMHCA code of ethics:

g) Mental health counselors have the responsibility to ensure the accuracy of, and to
indicate the validity of, data shared with other parties.

3. Conflict of Interest
Mental health counselors are aware of possible conflicts of interests that may arise between
the counselor and the client, the employer, consultant and other professionals.
Mental health counselors may choose to consult with any other professionally competentAMHCA CODE OF ETHICS (REVISED 2010)
10
person about a client assuring that no conflict of interest exists. When conflicts occur, mental
health counselors clarify the nature of the conflict and inform all parties of the nature and
direction of their loyalties and responsibilities, and keep all parties informed of their
commitments.

2. Advocate
Mental health counselors may serve as advocates at the individual, institutional, and/or
societal level in an effort to foster sociopolitical change that meets the needs of the client or the
community.
a) Mental health counselors are aware of and make every effort to avoid pitfalls of advocacyAMHCA CODE OF ETHICS (REVISED 2010)
14
including conflicts of interest, inappropriate relationships and other negative consequences.
Mental health counselors remain sensitive to the potential personal and cultural impact on
clients of their advocacy efforts.
b) Mental health counselors may encourage clients to challenge familial, institutional, and
societal obstacles to their growth and development and they may advocate on the clients’
behalf. Mental health counselors remain aware of the potential dangers of becoming overly
involved as an advocate.

C. Service on public or private boards and other organizations
When serving as members of governmental or other organizational bodies, mental health
counselors represent the mental health counseling profession and are accountable as
individuals to the Code of Ethics of the American Mental Health Counselors Association.
V. Commitment to the Public
Mental health counselors recognize they have a moral, legal, and ethical responsibility to
the community and to the general public. Mental health counselors are aware of the prevailing
community and cultural values, and the impact of professional standards on the community.
A. Public Statements
Mental health counselors in their professional roles may be expected or required to make
public statements providing counseling information or professional opinions, or supply
information about the availability of counseling products and services. In making such
statements, mental health counselors accurately present their education, professional
qualifications, licenses and credentials, expertise, affiliations, and functions, as well as those of
the institutions or organizations with which the statements may be associated. Public
statements serve the purpose of providing information to aid the public in making
informed judgments and choices. All public statements will be consistent with this Code of
Ethics.
https://www.amhca.org/assets/news/AMHCA_Code_of_Ethics_2010_w_pagination_cxd_51110.pdf

http://www.mass.gov/Eoca/docs/dpl/complaint.pdf

i do find that little defamation blog amusing. interesting that he hasn’t mentioned how the lawsuit itself is going any time recently. as he is clearly reading these comments, i’ll leave it to him to update you on the case. if he declines, i’ll fill you in, but i’m just terribly curious to hear how he will interpret events that, just to divulge the least, don’t seem to be going his way…

Brick is really going to make a collosal fool of himself, if he’s trying to sue you – Doug – for things that I have said. The IP address for my postings here, on Amazon, on DFQ2, etc. will all resolve to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
CANADA, Mr Brick – you nitwit. Perhaps he thinks Doug flies thousands of miles every week, to this frozen wasteland, just to post supposedly “insulting” remarks about him on internet comment threads.

Did you hear that ‘ritual abuse & mind control victim claimant’ advocate, Devin Norris, was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment for possessing and distributing pictures and videos of little boys being sexually violated? He pleaded guilty to having 86 child porn videos and more than 3,000 child porn pictures on his computer:
http://www.newsobserver.com/2010/10/20/750321/computer-owner-guilty-of-child.html

http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/01/20/931725/man-to-serve-12-years-for-child.html

Compounding the irony in this case, Devin Norris had been arrested and charged with possession of child pornography less than 48 hours after doing a radio interview with Nick Bryant – author of “The Franklin Scandal”. The Franklin case has been one of the major sources of and inspirations for CIA-satanic cult ritual abuse & mind control rumors, over the past 20 years. Nick Bryant was a featured speaker at the 2010 SMART conference:
http://ritualabuse.us/smart-conference/2010-conference/

The RA-MC True Believers cult are now doing their best to pretend that Devin Norris never existed. That’s what they do whenever one of their friends or allies gets exposed as a fraud, a con-artist, a sex offender, a supremacist/militia domestic terrorist, etc – things which have occurred many times over the last 30 years.

They never talk about John Todd aka Christopher Kollyns, anymore. Todd was once the foremost “ex-illuminati satanist” fraudulent testimonialist. He predated Mike Warnke, and once accused Warnke of stealing his ‘material’. Many modern concepts about secret satanic cult control of Western governments, intelligence agencies & law enforcement, originated with him. Todd/Kollyns did have a secret, but it wasn’t about satanic infiltration of government. Todd’s secret was that he was a pedophile and a rapist:
“Todd was arrested in May 1987 for the rape of a University of South Carolina graduate student. After his arrest, he was additionally charged with sexually molesting two children who attended a karate school where he worked. He was convicted of the rape in January 1988 and sentenced to 30 years in state prison”.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Todd_(occultist)

You don’t hear Brick et al talking much about Fritz Springmeier aka Victor E. Schoff, anymore either. Springmeier “is an American conspiracy theorist and militant religious right wing activist, formerly a resident of Corbett, Oregon, who has written a number of books claiming that satanic forces are behind a move toward world domination by various families and organizations” such as “The Illuminati Formula Used to Create an Undetectable Total Mind Controlled Slave”.
“Springmeier has been linked to a violent extremist group called the Army of God, and it was alleged that he had been growing marijuana with a member of that organization in order to supplement his income.He was arrested, together with his wife, on charges of drug trafficking after investigations into a white separatist group revealed evidence of marijuana cultivation. In 2003 Springmeier was sentenced to 9 years in prison for his involvement in an armed robbery in Damascus, Oregon in 1997, in which he set a bomb at an adult video store as an accomplice in a bank robbery by another right-wing militant”:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fritz_Springmeier

Brick needs to understand that I’ve been researching his cultesque community since 1987, that I’ve worked with law enforcement and academics investigating “satanic panics” – including some people he references as sources for his “proofs” – that I have access to all the sources of info available to him, and some sources that will never be available to him. I know where ALL the ritual abuse/mind control victim claimant skeletons are buried, and I haven’t even started to publicly disclose the sordid details in a serious way.

Ms. Bartha, you are not fooling me, and I suspect you are not fooling many others either. Here is a quote from your own front page that you just posted:

Multiple personalities and/or dissociative identity disorder is not a mysterious illness, an exotic malady, a creative way to cope with trauma, or a psychiatric condition largely reserved for the highly intelligent. You do not need a psychiatric degree, special education, insight, clinical expertise or experience to understand it. There are a lot of terms and concepts that, once demystified, will enable you to know the inside of this condition too.

You seem desperate to recruit people to belief in the fiction of MPD/DID, as it is described by non-professional self-appointed believers in the so-called “survivor community”. Seriously. If a condition does not exist, then we don’t seek to understand the condition that does not exist.

It is a little like a discussion about God between two people. If one person is a Christian and the other is a Muslim, then they will be discussing the nature of God: is God a Trinity with three names or is God a single person, Allah, with only one name? But if one person is either Christian or Muslim and the other is atheist, then there is no point to discussing the difference between the Trinity and Allah. The discussion between this second pair of people will be about the very existence of a being called “God” and not about the nature of that being called “God”. The atheist would be right to accuse the other of being disingenuous if the other continued to discuss as if the only question was the difference between Trinity and Allah and not the question of existence of God in the first place. It would be as if the believer were talking straight past the intellectual integrity of the atheist. See what I mean?

We might seek to understand why people believe in something, why they delude themselves or why some of them put so much energy into trying to spread their delusions to others, but that is obviously not the same thing as attempting to understand a fictitious condition.

Doug, I hope you don’t mind me posting this – if you do, of course delete it.

I have heard from survivors who weigh in heavily as you can expect, but “our” side of the issue remains silent, so come on over. If you want, you can be a guest writer, or just comment.

Thank you for keeping this issue alive. @induced. I was into SRA at one time to. I wish people would not fall for this crap. It is so ingrained in their identity, they can’t let go and see reality. Regards, JB

“Noblitt’s book is full of the same style of self-serving misrepresentation common throughout the True Believer community. Noblitt cites studies as representing “empirical evidence of ritual abuse”, quoting short statements from them out of context, when the truth is that the study’s authors state their work DOES NOT support ritual abuse conspiracy theory. One example of this, is studies by Dr. Gail Goodman, Dr. Phillip Shaver, and Bette Bottoms, cited by Noblitt repeatedly as “empirical evidence”, despite Dr Goodman’s own summation of those studies:
“Our survey revealed that there was essentially no hard evidence of organized, child abusing, satanic cults that had infiltrated preschools or the FBI or that had kidnapped or slain babies. In contrast there was much indirect evidence of clinical induction of false memories and plentiful evidence of religion-related abuse, including sexual abuse by Catholic priests. Although much of my research indicates that children can have largely accurate memories and can resist strong suggestions, they can, in contrast (as indicated by the dramatic examples of ritual abuse claims) also tell wild tales, cave in to misleading questions, and make important errors. The same is true of some adults, of course. All of the books about personal cases of SRA were written by adults who seem to have believed their own stories”

notice, when you can’t be argued against effectively, they try to use the amazon function of voting a comment unhelpful in an attempt to expunge it from view.

My situation was highlighted to address problematic therapies in an issue of Scientific American Mind years ago. The article was a topic of fervid debate on the (now defunct) Wall Street Journal’s “The Informed Reader,” yielding 642 comments. Among the posts, were proponents defending S.M.A.R.T. and Brick’s knowledge and brave fortitude.

The article was then featured in Spain, Italy, Japan and France. This therapy and fallout from it, is clearly global. (As are reports of SRA, which skew whatever statics that are being offered to legitimize cults gone rampant.) If you could wrap yourself around the staggering implications regarding what, why and how – would you report it? You’ve a good start Doug.