Safety Management for Conference Attendees

Safety Management for Conference Attendees

S.M.A.R.T. P. O Box 1295, Easthampton, MA 01027-1295 USA

E-mail: Smartnews@aol.com

This was originally written for our conference attendees. These guidelines are available via US Mail or E-mail. Please do not copy or re-use without permission. All rights reserved. Copyright 2002 S.M.A.R.T.

This information is for educational value only and is not intended as therapy or treatment. Reading this information may or may not help your recovery process, so please use caution while reading this. This may be very heavy for survivors.

Below please find several tips for safety management.

1) If you find something in a presentation triggering, write down what it is and discuss it with your support person at the conference. Writing in a journal can be very helpful. If you’d like to, take notes of what certain phrases or pictures remind you of. Later, with the help of a support person, you can try to figure out what the possible trigger might have been.

2) To stay present, take deep breaths and try to feel the chair you are sitting on and the floor under your feet.

3) If you feel very dissociated (spaced out) or triggered, you might want to go for a walk with a support person or friend. Trust your instincts and try to be as careful as you can.

4) Take lots of breaks if necessary. I have found that one part of my recovery has been to learn not to push myself so hard. Healing doesn’t always have to be painful.

5) Some of the presentations might be very heavy due to content. There will be several discussion groups held on both days. If you are feeling very stressed out, you might want to attend those groups or a “lighter” presentation. Tapes of most of the presentations should be available after the conference, so please keep in mind that you can listen to presentations later with a support person away from the conference.

6) A discreet object which you find comforting that might help you stay present may be a good idea to have at the conference.

7) Please feel free to talk to me or write me a note during or after the conference if you have any concerns or problems during or after the conference about any presentation or anything else that may happen during the conference.

Conference Safety Guidelines

This information is for educational value only. Reading this information may or may not help your recovery process, so please use caution while reading this. This may be triggering for survivors. This was written for S.M.A.R.T. by a previous conference attendee. You may want to read this with a support person present.

While the Conference organizers are doing everything possible to make this conference safe, they are not able to make guarantees, and attendees should also take their own precautions. Because of the controversial nature of the topics covered in this conference, you might want to take additional precautions. The following are some ideas:

1) Try to use caution when shaking hands with anyone you don’t know. Make a mental note of everyone with whom you do have any physical contact.

2) Try to bring a support person who can help you observe. Most people are going to act fairly normal, and because programmers/handlers or scouts for secretive organizations or cults are not likely to look any different than most people, it is helpful to be alert to possible signs of attempted accessing or triggering. Please notify S.M.A.R.T. during or after the conference if you see any of the things mentioned in this article. Try to let us know what happened in as much detail as possible. Survivors are in different places in their healing, and their knowledge about programming methods and their ability to recognize such things. There are two ways to catch triggers: one is by your own reactions. If you notice you are suddenly dizzy or foggy, or spaced out, you may be triggered. Try to remember what just happened around you. The second is by looking for some specific behaviors, odd out of place phrases, or discrepancies between behaviors and words. Pay close attention to hand gestures, winks, taps, etc.

3) Most people are probably safe, but it is a good idea to be aware of your surroundings as much as possible. You might want to watch who is around you, who is within your physical space, who brushes shoulders with you, who touches you, who sits next to you, who is near your food, in all areas of the hotel, as well as watch where you drive and what cars are behind or near you.

4) You might want to use an alias at the conference. This can be done during or after the registration process. You may want to use an alias on your name tag.

Identifying responses in yourself

The Conference is an unusual circumstance and so you might feel odd or pressured. Merely hearing the presentations could be triggering. If you find something upsetting or disturbing, feel free to leave the room or building at any time with a support person.

Triggering can occur in so many forms that it is impossible to delineate them all here. Some signs of triggering may be: feeling like you’re looking or walking down a tunnel, feeling “unreal” or invisible, feeling like something bad is about to happen, ominous sense, inability to concentrate, spacing out, blanking, dizziness, fogginess, stomach upset or pain, tingling in arms or legs, twitching on any part of the body, dropping objects, mishearing things or inability to hear (where others appear to hear okay), seeing visual flashes (such as a flash of another object where a chair is), hearing voices in your head.

These are things you might want to be aware of. Your support person should also try to be aware of your condition. If you dissociate or switch, it is helpful to have a support person to keep track of things. Try to stay with your support person as much as possible, especially if you are triggered or disoriented.

Observing others

It is helpful to know the accessing methods of secretive organizations and/or cults. Following are some known methods. Look for odd hand gestures, such as opening a book, making the shape of a gun with the pointer finger and thumb and “shooting” it, using the cut sign (hand drawn horizontally across the throat), tapping something (a book, the wrist (as in asking for the time), forearm, leg, etc., drawing something in the air (like a letter of the alphabet or an unknown sign)). Winks or facial expressions: winks, or eyes shutting and opening in sequence, or eyebrows, weird grins or bared teeth, snarl (raised upper lip), pout (dropped and protruded lower lip), lopsided smile or grimace (corner of mouth down or up). Though some of these may or may not always signify triggers, it is important to be aware of them.

Some forms of programming use religious phrases or dogma to cue people. Other media alleged to be used are Disney themes, such as Alice in Wonderland, Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, etc. Gulliver’s travels, time travel, Peter Pan, NeverNeverland.

Other more general methods are any form of double-talk or double entendres, or words or phrases with double meanings, off-color jokes, and so on. Any out of place references to morbid, violent, ugly, sexual topics. Disorienting or confusing speakers: such as those who start a sentence on one topic and use an incongruency to finish it.” e.g., “My glasses are red [because/and] it’s raining outside.” When questioned about what s/he means, the speaker may say something like “I’m hungry” (which may be an excuse for the confusion, or may just be another non sequitur). Disorientation increases suggestibility. Disorientation is used in some forms of hypnotic induction. Word plays or sayings, especially those which could refer to political or famous persons.

A good article to read about conference safety management is at http://ritualabuse.us/smart-conference/conf1999/trigger-management-and-conference-safety-presentation/

Support person additional guidelines

Survivors may be triggered without knowing it. One thing to be aware of is that whole groups of people can be entranced or dissociated. A good URL for information on this is : “The Battle for Your Mind – Persuasion & Brainwashing Techniques Being Used On The Public Today” by Dick Sutphen http://www.sutphenpublishing.com/articles/battle.htm By listing this resource, I am not necessarily recommending the use of this person’s products. As always, please use caution when checking out new resources.

Safety Management for Conference Attendees

2002 Conference