What Is a Conspiracy Therapist?

A Conspiracy Therapist is a mental health professional who transfers, intentionally or otherwise, their own beliefs in bizarre and unsubstantiated phenomena to their patients via false memories or the reinforcement of patients’ existing delusions. The false memories they sometimes instill in their patients can be extreme, bizarre, and literally impossible - making them excellent examples of how dangerous the search for "recovered" memories can be to patients. After all, if these techniques can convince someone they've been abducted by extraterrestrials, how much easier would it be to induce false memories of much more ordinary - although no less devastating - phenomena?

How bizarre are the ideas these therapists promote? Here are some direct quotes from mental health professionals currently in practice:

“Mental illness, like schizophrenia, or another medical problem is the result of sin. Generational sin or our sin.” (Eileen Aveni)

“Demons can be at fault.  Sometimes, our behavior opens up the door to demonic oppression and other times demons have used other events in the sufferer’s life to gain a foothold.  But no Christian can be fully possessed by a demon because we are possessed by God.” (Eileen Aveni)

“I think we underestimate the mind’s ability for health or destruction of human tissue.  Multiples can tap healing powers that normal people don’t usually tap.” (Bennett Braun)

“What you’re trained to do is self destruct if you should remember too much. (Bennett Braun)

[Braun speculated that the lack of physical evidence of Satanic Ritual Abuse] could be due to “...mobile crematoriums, which we do know exist from the time of Hitler. In terms of the small babies, the leftover bones, cartilage, etc., were fed to dogs, ground [into] fertilizer.” (1989)

“I have one memory of killing someone in Eastern Europe, it felt like that part of the world. He was sort of asleep and he knew this would happen, it must have been in the late 60’s by the way he looked. He was some sort of up and coming political person the CIA/Illuminati didn’t want in power.” (Neil Brick)

"Underneath all the sensationalism and midnight activities-the graveyards, the blood and the upside down crosses-this is about people engaged in calculated abuse to control children for some kind of nefarious purpose, […] From a business standpoint, they want children they can control for child pornography, prostitution and drug smuggling. Through ritual abuse, these people can create the near-perfect courier." (Kevin J Connor)

“People are impregnated, uh, by these reptilians in a laboratory type environment whether it’s ETs or on a military base but, uh, or underground, I’ve definitely heard a lot of those stories.” (Sandra Fecht)

“I have had several clients who had to raise the reptilian offspring that they bore, uh, by feeding them live animals or in some cases, uh, babies.” (Sandra Fecht)

"In abusive rituals, witchcraft (not Wicca) abusers seek to attach evil entities (spirits of abusers and demons) to dissociated identities to harass and control victims for their entire lives. […] Curses, hexes, vexes, and spells are used to attempt to inflict physical and psychological harm. (Ellen Lacter)

Personalities are usually programmed to take executive control of the body in response to particular cues (hand signals, tones, etc.), and then follow directives, with complete amnesia for these events. Personalities are programmed to become flooded with anxiety or feel acutely suicidal if they defy program directives. (Ellen Lacter)

"...the Illuminati meet every 28 years for a whole year, during which Satan appears and tells them what he wants done in the next 28 years.” (Jean Riseman)

"A child who is attached to an infanticidal caregiver experiences reduction of stress when he or she is in the proximity of a person who aims to torture or kill them." (Adah Sachs)

'On one major festival, the babies are barbecued. I can still remember one survivor saying how easy it is to pull apart the ribs on a baby. But adults are tougher to eat.' (Valerie Sinason)

“She believes she was born in space from a star planet called Sirius. And if you look up Sirius it’s got all kinds of all kinds of multiple layer meanings it’s got satanic connections, it’s got ancient Egyptian connections, it’s got connections to the ancient Gods and this is quite a typical picture that one finds with mind control patients who have been abused in this kind of way through occult identified groups.” (Rachel C. Thomas)

As a group, these therapists commonly:

  • Distort and deny the widely accepted mainstream research that indicates their theories on memory are unsupported or contradict the best available studies;
  • Treat patients with methods proven to be capable of producing false memories, including hypnosis, guided imagery, regression therapy, and more, sometimes without informed consent;
  • Promote conspiracy narratives that lack reliably sourced corroborative evidence;
  • Insist that any skepticism directed at their beliefs constitutes an attack on victims, denial of all forms of abuse, and/or an attempt to protect perpetrators;
  • Provide a veneer of respectability by publishing in fringe outlets and peer-reviewing each other's work.

Conspiracy therapists often incorporate additional forms of pseudoscience, discredited therapies, and controversial diagnoses, while generally overlooking or minimizing the very real problems that caused the patient to seek treatment in the first place. For example, a patient presenting with anxiety or depression may be told that their symptoms are a result of repressed memories of trauma of which the patient has no recollection. They practice at all levels, from social workers to psychiatrists, and in all branches of the mental health profession. Many specialize in the treatment of trauma, dissociative disorders, and eating disorders. Their motivations are largely unknowable - and, quite frankly, irrelevant. Even if their intentions are good, the effect of their actions on vulnerable patients and their families is often devastating.