(May be challenging for survivors of RA/MCOA)
Doing the following recovery work requires a survivor to have adequate support. I encourage you to do this type of healing with your therapist if possible.
Survivors of ritual abuse and mind control have similarities in recovery, in regard to coming across structures, objects and other phenomenon that is "suggested" during programming sessions.
Recently I had a conversation in an email with Ellen Lacter, an expert in RA/MC who has worked with survivors of ritual abuse and mind control. Find her website here: wwwendritualabuse.org She had shared my presentation "Rising Above Illusions" Demything the Power of Perpetrators in RA/MC" to 2500 therapists in a listserve.
She received feedback from a therapist in regard to structures within a system particularly "a wall" and some folks suggested to relate to the wall as an alter or part.
I think it could be harmful for a therapist or survivor to talk to the wall like you would a part or alter. Although it is a part or alter within the survivor's system that holds the belief (conditioned lie) that is a "suggested structure" inserted during a programming session, the part is separate from the program or wall. To a survivor, the programming can feel like that is their identity, role/job and to talk to it like it is a part may possibly reinforce the belief that the wall actually exists or that the part and the wall is one and the same.
Challenge to read for survivors:
During a programming session a survivor is tortured, drugged, given electric shock, hypnotized and shown videos, images, pictures and very real external things like a wall to reinforce the belief that a wall has been erected in the landscape of the mind.
The mind and body is in such a vulnerable state of mind during the conditioning that a child part is powerless to do anything but subconsciously believe what they have been told and shown. The victim is conditioned to perceive any structure as a part of their inner unconscious world. Walls can block deeper levels of programming, other structures and may contain other parts who believe they are trapped. Behind the wall there may be information that is not supposed to be accessed and more. My parts and I found barded wire that was not to be crossed protecting the structures with bombs lined everywhere that would "allegedly go off". Conditioning is very effective and does what it is intended to do; control the survivor and protect the perpetrator/group and their secrets from being exposed .
The parts unquestionably believe the wall or other items are there. PERIOD. They don't question it. Conditioning is unconscious and hidden; out of the awareness of the front personality. They have no idea of the wall's existence or that they have even been programmed. The belief has been suggested to the part/alter and reinforced with threats of harm and the part/parts carry the terror of what will happen to them or others if they cross it, go around it or go against the commands that have been put in place. In the mind, the threat usually includes the belief of "deadly consequences." Attempting to remove structures can have negative consequences and may set off self destruct programs to run that can be physical (somatic symptoms), mental and can cause emotional overwhelm or set off a conditioned loop of not being able to sleep or eat and a multitude of self-harm and self-addictive behaviors. Some structures and inner worlds that I myself have found within my system had imaginary guards that policed the area to keep the parts in captivity. As long as we believed these things were real they held us in bondage and our abusers continued to have power over us. The wall and other structures were never to be crossed or removed. I found torture devices, objects, dungeons, closets, rooms, grids, and parts who still believed they were being held there. Some parts perceived they were still being tortured and felt the physical pain of being tortured and the torment of being isolated and alone. Finding these parts of myself led to being able to have more of my own free will as they chose to leave the structure or inner world where they were trapped. By realizing that the structure was suggested we didn't have to remove it. It seemed to just disappear when we realized that it was never real in the first place but a "suggested perception". By changing the inner world from a prison, dungeon, basement, closet or other illusion to knowing this was a "suggested" place within we felt empowered to challenge the programming. We wanted our freedom more than we believed the consequences of going against the conditioning. Parts now knew they were free to stay if they wanted but had a choice. With each structure we "undid" in our mind parts blended with me the front personality. We became more whole and more healed. Some parts left the structure right away. For some it took a little longer to believe they were able to go against the perceived belief that they can't go against anything the abusers had suggested or commanded. One survivor had a therapist who asked her client if there was something she could do to change the "wall" or do something to make it different on her side of it. She spruced it up, did some decorating, put up things that made it a more comfortable place to be, but she still resides on her side of the wall because parts are too afraid to do anything more.
Another survivor has known about their "wall" for years and is literally paralyzed to make any progress in her recovery in the area of any structures within.
It saddens me that many survivors lack the freedom they deserve (through no fault of their own) because they are held captive by the programming that placed the belief that these structures exist within them. It saddens me to hear therapists not know how to help their client break free when the survivor literally hits a wall in therapy. Maybe as survivors and therapists alike learn that these structures are easily undone with simpler methods than "deprogramming" and looking at it as "dismantling complex programming" there will be progress in recovery. There is an easier way to undoing the structures and objects that mind control programming puts within a survivor's mind. Let me make this clear. For the survivor it is not easy. But when it comes to having a part remember how the wall was put there and be able to realize the wall is just an illusion, they will be able to face the truth.
In many ways the process of undoing the structure or object becomes as easy as telling a frightened child that what they are afraid of is not real. But that is not enough. When a child believes there is a monster in the closet of their bedroom, we dissolve the power the "alleged monster" has over them by turning on the light and opening the door to show them there is no monster. We can go with them into the closet to see for themselves. We can help them to identify why they are afraid; a big brother scared them, or they saw a scary movie which helps them to see where the belief originated. Of course the fear they feel is very real. Encourage them to identify and name the feelings they feel and express what they believe will happen to them. All of this can diminish the power the image of the "monster in their mind" has over them and they can realize that it was a concept in their mind, not a real object in their closet. We help that child to take back their power over their bedroom at night and the survivor to take back the power their abusers had over their life.
When I would connect with a part who revealed that there was a structure or object like a wall, snake, black widow spider, etc it helped to name the structure or object kind of like when we identify emotions and name them. By doing so it lessens some of the power it has over us. I believed the part who told me about it. I would tell them I believed them. I acknowledged their fears. Their fear lessened. They felt safe enough to have me as an adult go with them. We bravely looked at the programming together and how it was put there. Using our logic and reasoning skills as an adult we discovered no bad things happened when we touched it, crossed it and took steps to go against the belief that it was there. We discovered the wall wasn't real! We reasoned that no person could really have a structure like this inside of our mind or body. The belief that the object had over that part brought more freedom to the entire system. Over and over again we found that the objects and structures were illusionary and we gained back more of ourself.
Our recovery became like a rescue mission and dismantling became easier when taking on the next structure or object. After attending a presentation at the Healing Together conference about infant and baby parts I connected with a locked safe that held some of my infant and baby parts. The belief was that only my abusers had the code to let them out. Like most of what my abusers said, this was untrue too!
The things that abusers suggest during programming sessions can be undone when parts learn that it is an illusionary structure that was a suggestion to a vulnerable child whose mind was manipulated. I also found parts who were conditioned to believe that by staying in the structure they were kept in, that somehow they were protecting me from further torture, harm or pain. They saw through that lie too because we realized that it was only enslaving us. Then it was very easy for them to just freely leave. When parts get it at a gut or heart level they can leave the structure or cross over that wall that isn't really there just as easily as it was constructed (suggested) in their mind. By simplifying that the wall is a suggestion that was made to the mind of the whole person that a terrified child part was conditioned to believe, it is far better than trying to "deprogram" in a way that treats the programming as a very complex sophisticated thing to undo. Child parts are simply terrified that the wall or eyeball or matrix or black widow spider is real and it keeps them in bondage to the program. Believing the truth; that it is impossible for a person to have a wall, barbed wire, snake, eyeball or whatever the program "suggested" inside of them and for that structure to do the things that they were told that the wall, etc could do can bring much freedom, awareness, healing and system cooperation.Â
I do not recommend doing the following, but I did want to share what a survivor who was having self-harm programming did. She talked to her programming, but not specifically to the part of them that held the conditioned urges to commit suicide. It was something that helped them as they were determined to not act on the impulses.
They said things like, "Wow, you're strong, intelligent and sophisticated. You really have an important job. I can hardly believe how difficult it is to resist you. I gotta hand it to you. You do your job well and I'm proud of you for how determined you are." She praised it for what it did and acknowledged it as programming and in a way you could say she talked to the
alter, or at least the part of her mind that carried the program. With her self harm programming she was then able to give someone knives, extra pills and anything else they could have used to keep from harming themselves.
I recommend survivors have a safety and crisis plan in place at all times and to make contracts that they sign with their therapist and support person that they will not act on any urges during times of SI.
When we know that all structures and objects are suggested and are a tactic that perpetrators use that can diffuse the power that they had over us. They are not real, but something that was taught to that part without their permission. It is not our own thinking but a conditioned lie. When we can realize the perpetrators lie about other stuff so they probably lied about this too, it loses the power that it once had.
When identifying a structure for the first time I encourage you to journal and bring it with you to your therapy session, deal with any conditioned effects like fear and the negative consequences that are conditioned within as a result of finding such a "suggested structure." Name the structure, identify the emotions and say them aloud. Your therapy session is a safe place where you and your therapist and your parts go together to the time when the programming was done and find how the suggestion was first made. The power the structure has over you will lessen as you and your parts find that the wall is an illusion and parts make decisions for themselves to have the freedom they deserve when the truth that there is no wall permeates the system.