Time to give yourself the gift of love to heal #PTSD

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
February 3, 2023

There are all different kinds of love, so I thought it was appropriate that The Visionary Of Salem be offered for free until Valentine's Day.

THE VISIONARY OF SALEM at Barnes and Noble or wherever you read eBooks.

Never underestimate the power you have within your skin! While your body came from your parents, your soul came from God. With it came everything you need to do for the purpose you were sent here to do. In Chris's case, he was sent in a time of darkness sweeping over the world to light the darkness with the flame of hope.

Chris and his friends face more battles as he struggles with trying to finish his third book. He's haunted by terrifying dreams of a woman. He is stalked by a fraud who passes himself off as a reverend while having hallucinations of Reverend George Burroughs who was hung during the witchcraft craze in 1692.

Chris always wondered what those people would think about what Salem turned into as a tourist destination. He just never thought that real witches were all around him and he wasn't the only one keeping secrets.

He discovered that the people in his life were there for a reason and a higher purpose. He had to fight to heal, reconnect to his spiritual faith, and believe in miracles again. The only thing standing in his way was his inability to believe in himself. It took a witch named Mandy to show him the power within himself. He healed, became a best-selling author of two inspirational books, a series being filmed, reunited with friends, and had more wealth and fame than he ever dreamed of, but still, he fought against changes in his life. His new psychologist was trying to get Chris to figure out what she already knew about him. She gained his trust, but he had no idea what she did in her free time.

This book explores possibilities and empowerment, especially if you have survived child abuse, in whatever form. Bullies at school, parents that should have never been parents, adult predators, and even those who simply refused to show you all the wonderful things inside of you. Your possibilities are endless.

The characters in this book tell the story of what happened to them when they were young. All grown up, successful leaders, and inspirational lives, they still carry pain from when they were young. The difference is, that pain does not limit them from what they can do. They carry it with them so they have the fuel to do even more! It is about defeating the #PTSD demon trying to remove all hope.

Travel to Salem in This Deliciously Macabre Tale of the Occult

BookTrib
Monique Snyman
January 18, 2023

The Scribe of Salem by Kathie Costos

In The Scribe of Salem: Ministers of the Mystery, the first book in the Ministers of the Mystery series, Kathie Costos takes readers on a wild fictional journey that has one foot in reality. Filled with suspense, historical intrigue, magic and scripture, get ready for an edge-of-your-seat novel that’ll leave you wanting more.

A Darkness Looms Over Salem 

Most people who have the slightest interest in the occult, hard-to-believe historical occurrences, or early settlers of North America will be familiar with the Salem Witch Trials. While specifics may not be easy to recall, it’s difficult to forget how so many people were brutally tortured and executed due to hearsay and gossip.

In The Scribe of Salem, we are introduced to Chris Papadopoulos, who has seen his fair share of life’s horrors. Having traveled across the world as a newspaper reporter, he covered quite a bit, including the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Then, his life fell apart …

We first find Chris in the bar of The Bishop Hotel in Salem, which has become somewhat of a place of comfort since moving back to Salem. There, he hears the name Mandy, an enigmatic woman who had supposedly saved the life of his friend, a veteran soldier, Bill, and some others in the bar from teetering into darkness.

It is here, as he is invited to the Puritan Lawn Cemetery, where Chris’s life will take another terrible turn … You’ll have to read to find out!

A Supernatural Thriller With a Cultish Feel

From early in the novel, readers will realize that Kathie Costos’s writing has an atmospheric quality to it. The sinister feeling that forms in the pit of your stomach as soon as Bill calls his companions “Brothers” or quotes scriptures to make a point is intensified as the story continues. The feeling soon turns to dread as this whirlwind, dark tale mixes witchcraft, history and Christianity together and offers it up to readers on a silver platter.

There’s almost a cultish quality to the book, especially in the way that Biblical scriptures are sprinkled throughout the dialogue. I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of looking up the various verses and finding the deeper meaning in what was being said by the characters. Having verse juxtaposed with talk of witchcraft gave the novel a slightly unsettling edge.
read more here

I hope you read the rest but what I find intriguing is that everyone in the series has #PTSD from different causes and they joined forces to help Chris. This fabulous review never mention PTSD because she didn't have to. It isn't a typical PTSD book. As a matter of fact, it isn't a typical "any" kind of book. This is the kind of review that means this author, did what I set out to do!

The Scribe Of Salem is also on Amazon

Did you ever wonder why God allowed it to happen?

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
January 3, 2023

Whatever caused you to have #PTSD, you probably needed to find an explanation as to why it happened to you.

There was real evil in Salem in 1692. It did not live in the accused but in the accusers. They broke most of the 10 Commandments. They murdered innocent people, put another God ahead of God, blamed God by Name for what they were doing, stole, lied, and used the power of faith to corrupt others into the service of the father of lies. They turned against the faith they claimed to have and turned to the lust for power over others. The survivors were left to wonder why it happened to them after they were falsely accused, tortured, and faced death. Then, after they were released to live among their accusers, imagine how they felt. The more I know about PTSD, the more I don't have to imagine what that is like. How many times did it happen to you when you were falsely accused by people you knew because they didn't know any better? If you take nothing else away from this post, imagine how the people at the time had no other explanation for any of it, yet we do. We know that as survivors, there is a reason for the cause of our suffering, just as much as there is a reason for our healing!

 

It did not just happen in Salem.

Beyond Salem: 6 Lesser-Known Witch Trials

Lancaster Castle, where all but two accused witches were put on trials. (Credit: Dave Moorhouse/Getty Images)

Pendle: England, 1612–1634

"Required to report anyone who refused to attend the English Church or take communion, the local Justice of the Peace, Roger Nowell, was also tasked with investigating claims of witchcraft." 

People all over the world suffered because of wars, illnesses, famine, and things they could not explain. They had to find someone to blame. Some said God let it all happen. Others said the devil did. They pointed their fingers at others. 200,000 dead. They died because people lied about them and called them witches. They died because some of them were poor. They died because some of them were rich. They died because some of them did the right thing and tried to stand up for them against the false accusations, and ended up being accused too. They died because of greed, power, and hatred. They died in the name of their religion.


Did you ever wonder why God allowed it to happen? He couldn't have been pleased to see His name used to cause all that happened. While we know eventually all the trials ended, we question why they were allowed to happen at all.

Whatever caused you to have #PTSD, you probably needed to find an explanation as to why it happened to you. No matter what it was, it caused you harm and made you fear for your life. When it was over, and your life was no longer the same as it was, either you were grateful you survived, or you took the event itself as a judgment from God.

I know because I did the same thing. I think it can be worse for those who do believe in God than for those who do not. After all, if you believe in God then you know nothing is impossible for Him. So why didn't He prevent it if He didn't cause it?

That is why I wrote the Ministers Of The Mystery Series.

In The Scribe Of Salem, Chris was born and raised in Salem. He always saw the love that conquered the evil done there because people did the right thing even though they had seen others pay the price for defending the innocent people accused and tortured as witches when they too became the accused.

In chapter 2, David was trying to get Chris to seek the help of the woman that healed him five years before. Chris survived all the times he went to Afghanistan and Iraq to report on the wars. He survived a bomb blast that left him covered with scars on the right side of his body. He survived his ex-wife trying to kill him. The night before this conversation, Chris also survived the threat he was to himself as he held a gun to his own head.

“What did all that do to you?”

“You know, with the wars I covered and getting blown up didn’t do as much damage to me as she did. I had nightmares and flashbacks, mood swings off the charts and so filled with anger, I had to go to the gym just to beat up a bag.”

“How did you manage to get the divorce if she didn’t want it to end?”

“I told her I kept the knife with her fingerprints and my blood on it and I’d turn her in for attempted murder if she didn’t agree to it. Then the day of the divorce, she told me I’d never be done with her and I’d always be looking over my shoulder. The thing is, she was right. I left her in LA and came back here, and was still looking over my shoulder, having a panic attack whenever I saw a red Mustang.”

“How long did that last?”

“Strange thing is, until last night when I found out she died. It was the first good night of sleep I’d had. On the way here, there was a red Mustang on the road and it didn’t bother me at all, other than the fact I was shocked I didn’t care.”

“I think you may want to take a trip to Gabriel and see if you can talk to Mandy.”

“No, I’m not a veteran.”

“She helps anyone God sends her. Trauma doesn’t just hit veterans.”

“I don’t have any extra money and besides, I wouldn’t know how to find her.”

“If you’re supposed to find her, trust that and you will.”

Chris shook his head. “You have no idea how strange that sounds to me right now. Up until you guys walked into the bar at 7:00, I would have told you what I thought about God,” he looked down, “that He’s a vindictive son of a bitch playing around with people’s lives and making us suffer for fun. Now I don’t know what to think.”

“You suffered for seven years, so ya, I get how you would feel that way. I did too for a while. The thing is, the explosion happened at 7:00 too, so maybe this time, He’s moving things around so you open your eyes to how wrong you were. Come on Bill is still waiting for us.”

It took his friends and strangers coming into his life to open his eyes so he would see that God did not do anything to him, but tried to prevent it from happening. When He couldn't, He saved Chris.

Chris thought it would have been easier to have not loved God in the first place, so it would have made it easier to walk away from Him. He had to be able to see what God did to try to prevent what happened to him. The same thing He does for all of us, but because we all have the free will to do as we are asked, or guided to do, we are free to dismiss it. Chris dismissed it and then blamed God for letting it all happen to him.

On a personal happier note, I finished therapy today and so glad I did it when I needed it.

PTSD in Salem "It’s hard to make that diagnosis 300 years in the past."

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
December 12, 2022

If you listen to people talking about PTSD, you'll often hear the word "demon" used. It is almost as if the person has been invaded by something evil and what is good within them is battling it on a daily basis.

an evil spirit or devil, especially one thought to possess a person or act as a tormentor in hell.
a cruel, evil, or destructive person or thing.
reckless mischief; devilry.
a forceful, fierce, or skillful performer of a specified activity. (Oxford)

Since trauma has existed since the beginning of time, while the term PTSD is relatively new, what survivors dealt with afterward, is far from new. Considering what the people survived in the time of witchcraft trials, here, as well as in other parts of the world, it is easier to understand how they would not be able to grasp psychological reasoning, and jumped straight into possession and Satan,

A Storm of Witchcraft: The Salem Trials and the American Experience (Pivotal Moments in American History)

Historians have speculated on a web of possible causes for the witchcraft that stated in Salem and spread across the region-religious crisis, ergot poisoning, an encephalitis outbreak, frontier war hysteria--but most agree that there was no single factor. Rather, as Emerson Baker illustrates in this seminal new work, Salem was "a perfect storm": a unique convergence of conditions and events that produced something extraordinary throughout New England in 1692 and the following years, and which has haunted us ever since.

 

The theory that may explain what was tormenting the afflicted in Salem’s witch trials
Boston.com

Baker says it’s possible that a few of the accusers were purposefully faking their symptoms. However, he says that his ultimate conclusion after years of studying the events is that they were actually suffering from psychological ailments.

Foremost among them is something called mass conversion disorder, a psychogenic disorder that — ironically — made a suspected return to the Salem area more than 300 years later.

“People are in such mental anguish, for a variety of reasons, that literally their minds convert their anxieties to physical symptoms,” Baker told Boston.com.

“They’re not faking it,” he said. “They don’t know what’s going on. If it happens to people, they’re terrified that it’s even happening.”

From there, the “step from affliction to accusation was a short one,” Baker writes in his book about the trials, A Storm of Witchcraft. While societal scapegoats have evolved over time, he writes that “in 1692 the omnipresent threat was witchcraft.” And those identified in Salem were either marginalized members of the community or enemies of the powerful families leading the witch hunt.

Baker acknowledged that the conversion disorder — a term introduced by Sigmund Freud and otherwise known as mass hysteria — is “still kind of a controversial diagnosis today.”

“It’s hard to make that diagnosis 300 years in the past without the person right in front of you,” he said, adding that it’s possible that a combination of psychological elements played into the girls’ odd behavior.

When you think about what life was like back then, it is easy to think that the Puritans would have little knowledge of what trauma did to them, or what they were doing to others.

PTSD in the Massachusetts Bay Colony
Historic Ipswich
by Gordon Harris

From the founding of the colony, the Puritans were highly selective of who they allowed to live with them. In the first year of its settlement, the Freemen of the Ipswich established “for our own peace and comfort” the exclusive right to determine the privileges of citizenship in the new community, and gave formal notice that “no stranger coming among us” could have place or standing without their permission. Beginning in 1656, laws forbade any captain to land Quakers, and any individual of that sect was to be severely whipped on his or her entrance, and none were allowed to speak with them. Newcomers who were unable to support themselves and their families were “warned out.”

Think about what the survivors were dealing with.

In Salem Village in February 1692, two prepubescent girls Betty Parris (age nine) and her cousin Abigail Williams (age 11) began to have fits, complained of being pricked with pins and accused their neighbors of witchcraft. Some of the afflicted girls had been traumatized after losing one or both parents in King William’s War. The afflicted girls routinely described the Devil as a “dark man.”George Burroughs, the unpopular predecessor to Rev. Parris in Salem Village, had come from Maine, and returned there when the parish refused to pay him. Only five weeks before the accusations began, Indians had burned York Maine, 80 miles north of Salem, killing 48 people and taking 73 captives. When one of the accused confessed that the Devil had tempted her in Maine, Reverend Burroughs was arrested, charged with witchcraft and encouraging the Indians, and was hanged on Gallows Hill.

Think about what Reverend Burroughs went through. The arrest warrant was issued ten years after he left Salem Village and was in Maine. He lost everything, including his first wife, whom he couldn't afford to bury and had to borrow money. The villagers refused to pay his salary and he had to leave for the sake of his family. The hatred from the people of Salem Village was so powerful, they were out to get him no matter how long it took to do it.

The Witchcraft Trial of Reverend George Burroughs
History of Massachusetts
Burroughs encountered the same problems as his predecessor as well as hostility from Bayley’s friends and supporters, according to the book Salem Witchcraft by Charles W. Upham:

“Immediately upon calling to the village to reside, he encountered the hostility of those persons who, as the special friends of Mr. Bayley, allowed their prejudices to be concentrated upon his innocent successor. The unhappy animosities arising from this source entirely demoralized the Society, and, besides making it otherwise very uncomfortable to a minister, led to a neglect and derangement of all financial affairs. In September, 1681, Mr. Burrough’s wife died, and he had to run in debt for her funeral expenses. Rates were not collected, and his salary was in arrears.”

By now I hope you see that PTSD is not new. People accused others because they did not know what was causing everything they were dealing with.  Over the years, I've learned that those who claim PTSD is not real, have never survived something, or are under some delusion that they may also have it. I remember one veteran many years ago, attacking me for posting on PTSD and claiming that it was not real. It took him a while before I received an email apologizing and he admitted he had it but fought for years to bury what it was doing to him, instead of trying to recover and heal.

We cannot do anything to educate those who do not want to learn. We cannot do anything more than learn what we can so we can be happier in our own lives and then reach out to others fighting their own demons.

We live in a time when we know there are psychological as well as spiritual aspects to what makes us, us. No human is designed to endure trauma over and over again without paying some kind of price. We also know that the price does not have to take over our lives. It does not have to destroy us after we survived what caused it. We are survivors! Say that to yourself over and over again until you finally realize that and then, be empowered to heal so you can rejoice as one. 

Kathie Costos author of Ministers Of The Mystery Series.

Ministers Of The Mystery Series, a time for you!

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
November 25, 2022

Ministers Of The Mystery is for anyone trying to heal Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. All the "people" in these books are recovering from different life-altering events. I believe the most important thing to take away from this series is simple, yet the empowering fact is, all of them healed with the support of someone else.

"Nothing is impossible, the word itself says 'I'm possible'!"

Audrey Hepburn

MINISTERS OF THE MYSTERY
Series Description:
The Vision Awaits Prophecy: "The 13th Minister shall arise from the shadow of Proctor’s Ledge and demons will dread the sword of truth in the hands of the powerful scribe."

In modern-day Salem, The Master Ministers were preparing for the most powerful one of all would take his place as the 13th Minister. All they had to do was convince him to do it.

Ministers Of The Mystery Series explores the miraculous power within all of us to help one another achieve the purpose we were all sent here to fulfill.

Some churches say that no one can be a Christian and a witch at the same time. Are Christian witches, witches, or ministering spirits? “To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” 1 Corinthians 12:7. The churches point out the passages condemning witchcraft while ignoring the fact that in each case, those practicing witchcraft were accused of doing it for evil purposes. In all the other passages, someone using gifts of the spirit was accepted because they were using their gifts to help others. So are these Christian witches, really witches or are they ministering spirits empowered by God to do good in this world?

We know evil exists. The question is, why did God let it happen? Did God try to prevent the Salem Witchcraft Trials? Did He try to prevent the suffering of His servants here on earth? If you believe the Bible then you know that God does not create evil, but He does create miracles. What if Reverend George Burroughs was sent to Salem Village to prevent the trials but the people who were supposed to help him, turned against him?

What if there is someone on this earth today sent to help heal the world and prevent suffering but is receiving the help he needs to do what he was sent to do? What if everything is in place for it to all happen, but he decides to not do it? The Scribe of Salem is book one. The Visionary of Salem is book two. 13th Minister of Salem is book three.

If you have PTSD, you'll understand what it was like for Chris in his darkest days. You'll be able to feel the fear he has facing more changes. What I hope you also feel, is having friends come to help you heal, believing in you because they know you and care about you.

If you think God did it to you or didn't prevent it, you'll understand Chris.

“If you’re supposed to find her, trust that and you will.”

Chris shook his head. “You have no idea how strange that sounds to me right now. Up until you guys walked into the bar at 7:00, I would have told you what I thought about God,” he looked down, “that He’s a vindictive son of a bitch playing around with people’s lives and making us suffer for fun. Now I don’t know what to think.”

“You suffered for seven years, so ya, I get how you would feel that way. I did too for a while. The thing is, the explosion happened at 7:00 too, so maybe this time, He’s moving things around so you open your eyes to how wrong you were. Come on Bill is still waiting for us.”

Chris isn't a veteran. He was a reporter covering the war in Afghanistan when a bomb nearly killed him.

If you don't go to church, but believe in God, and even if you don't, you'll understand Chris and all of his friends. None of them go.

If you are a veteran, there are several you'll understand including Vietnam veterans and a female MP.

If you are a police officer, you'll understand one of the people in these books.

If you like books about Salem witches, you'll understand the master ministers of the mystery using the powers they were born with while forced to keep secrets.

If you are a Christian witch, feeling vilified by the "church" you'll understand these incredible people doing whatever they can to help heal others. After all, the one Chris needed to meet was called a witch too!

Read The Scribe Of Salem and let me know what you think. I value your opinion as much as I value your time reading my posts. Now that the three books are done, I'll have time to focus on this page again. To tell you the truth, I missed it, and you.

Twisted history lesson of Salem Witchcraft Trials and PTSD

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
November 21, 2022

If you have PTSD, then you know what it's like to have something terrible happen. If you're like me, you also know what it's like to wonder where God was when it did. I mean, it's really easy to wonder what He was doing when something horrible happened to you. It's not easy getting an answer from Him.

This series is a twisted history lesson since history is often twisted between what is perceived as "known" with the simple fact that what we think we know, is not all that is known by others.

I went beyond wondering why it happened, and full swing into wondering why the hell did I survive it? We all do that but not all of us end up like the people in the new series I wrote called The Ministers Of The Mystery.

Don't look for the book yet on Amazon. I'm not releasing it until the end of November, (hopefully, if I have the other two ready)

If you read the Lost Son series, I apologize. Instead of writing them the way I intended, I tried to conform to what other people thought. Big mistake. In a way, I'm really glad only a few people read them. These books are different because I went beyond what we perceive as all there is to know and fill in what could have happened.

Start with the Salem Witchcraft Trials. When I read about a minister being hung as a witch, a child went up my spine. Maybe I knew that when I was young and grew up near Salem, going there often, along with loving New England history. If I knew it back then, I forgot all of it.

His name was George Burroughs.

Burroughs graduated from Harvard University in 1670 and, in 1673, married his first wife Hannah Fisher.

In 1674, Burroughs moved to Falmouth, Maine where he served as the pastor at the Falmouth Congregational Church. He continued to serve as the pastor until the town was attacked and destroyed during a Wabanaki raid on August 11, 1676.

A lot has been said about what was behind the accusations against the townspeople of Salem. One of the factors behind it was that the accusers were suffering from PTSD tied to the attack Burroughs and others survived. This link goes to one of those claims along with a history lesson. I'm pointing that out because while Burroughs survived, he did not arrive in Salem Village until 1680 and served as their minister. He was only there for two years before he left after the villagers decided to not pay him.

Long story short, but even after he left, resentment held tempers strong and in 1692, they ordered his arrest to stand trial as an accused witch. What is even more telling about their determination to put an end to his life was the fact they had to go all the way up to Wells Maine to get him. Guess it didn't matter to them that he had been gone for ten years.

The more I researched what happened to him, the more questions popped into my mind. I started with the fact that this guy survived a lot of things, including losing three wives, on top of the slaughter of the people in Falmouth. Then, still holding onto his faith, he was sent to Salem as a spiritual leader trying to bring peace to people who seemed to enjoy fighting with one another. That was an easy assumption to make considering what they did to Burroughs was only part of it. They accused 200 others of witchcraft, hung 19, and crushed one to death. They got away with it simply by saying "they believed" something and never had to prove a single word of it.

The following is from SALEM WITCH TRIALS CHRONOLOGY

August 19- George Jacobs, Martha Carrier, George Burroughs, John Proctor, and John Willard are hanged. Although George Burroughs recites the Lord’s Prayer perfectly on the gallows (task witches were allegedly unable to complete without error), Cotton Mather insisted that “…the Devil has often been transformed into an Angel of Light.”

October 29- With public opinion turning against the trials, Governor Phips dissolves the Court of Oyer and Terminer

October 3- Boston minister Increase Mather, the father of Cotton Mather, addresses a meeting of ministers in Cambridge to warn against reliance on spectral evidence. Mather writes, “It were better that ten suspected witches should escape than one innocent person should be condemned…”

It all got me thinking about what if God called him to become a minister, saved him in Falmouth, and brought him to Salem Village to prevent the witchcraft trials? What if the people with power, position, means, and ability to help him in 1680 did it instead of turning against him?

That all fit with the story of Chris Papadopoulos in Salem on September 13th, 2019. He was a reporter covering the War On Terror. There was a bomb blast that he survived but ended up suffering for it. His body was scared and he had to have help to recover, but his wife regretted he came back home. She hated him. He survived her trying to kill him. He survived 7 years of agony and decided to end it all his way because he lost all hope. The thing is, God had other ideas. 

Now, no matter what God wanted him to do with his life, he wouldn't have been able to do a damn thing if the people sent to help him refused to do it. The long list of characters in these books includes Master Ministers of the Mystery with the ability to use their gifts far above what is "normal" and were, at one time, called witches. Everyone sent to help Chris was ready, willing, and able. The only thing they had to do was convince Chris to do it!

The other thing they have in common is, they all have PTSD! No one understands what you're going through better than someone else struggling to make sense of it too, no matter what it is. While we know we're all different, those of our kind, are the only ones that know what it is like to live with the heartache of unanswerable questions, or what it is like to rejoice when we discover a fuller life than we thought we could have.

I found comfort over the last 40 years, by reading about others like me and being inspired by them. Whatever we know today, was written by authors and reporters. Chris was a reporter, turned author, created as a scribe to translate the messages from God to help heal the world.

This series is a twisted history lesson since history is often twisted between what is perceived as "known" with the simple fact that what we think we know, is not all that is known by others. It is the same when we live with the reality of surviving the cause of PTSD. What we know is not what the general public knows. To them, PTSD only hits veterans, because that is all the reporters focus on. They ignore the rest of us. What chance do we have to open our eyes if no one is talking about us?

It was so bad for me, that after 40 years of helping people heal PTSD, I had no clue I had it. I never read anything about someone like me. Getting help for myself was impossible because I couldn't explain it enough that anyone would understand. I finally found a therapist that did get what I was saying.

She's helping me heal after losing one of my best friends and it was a grief I couldn't just get over. He died at the beginning of the year. I was writing these books, feeling more connected to the dark parts of the story than I did to the hopeful parts. After a while, she got me to see that I did need to connect to the darkness so that I'd feel the hopeful parts more. She was right!

If people see our pain, and struggles and understand how much power they have to help us, this world will become a better place for all of us!

Series Description:
Whenever something terrible happens, we all wonder why God let it happen. Have you ever wondered why God allowed the Salem Witchcraft trials? What if someone had been sent to prevent them from happening? What if the one sent, didn't get the help he was supposed to have waiting for him?

It was a time when people claimed to be Christians but proved they did not follow the values faithfully. They made false accusations against over 200 people and rejoiced when 20 were put to death because Puritans decided to hate them. It wasn't a new phenomenon. The Puritans may have given up the persecution of so-called witches but their use of the power of lies was a lesson far too many learned. The people with gifts beyond nature were forced into hiding knowing a time would come when they too would be vindicated.

In modern-day Salem, The Master Ministers were preparing for when the most powerful one of all would take his place as the 13th Minister. All they had to do was convince Chris to do it.

The Scribe of Salem is book one. The Visionary of Salem is book two. 13th Minister of Salem is book three.

Coming next week!

Would you vote to convict accused witches without evidence today?

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
November 4, 2022

I am an Independent voter, just like the majority of people in this country, and have witnessed too much to remain silent. To me, being silent is the same thing as those who chose to remain silent while people were accused of witchcraft in Salem. Now I'm wondering if some of the people in this country would vote to convict people accused of witchcraft without evidence today.

"Over the course of the following decade, the residents of Salem had come to the realization that the witch trials had been a mistake and that innocent people may have been executed.
Although they still believed in witches and believed witches may have invaded Salem, they had doubts that so many people could have been guilty of the crime." Rebecca Beatrice Brooks, The Witchcraft Trial of Reverend George Burroughs

If you read the account of the trial of Burroughs, what you see, over and over again, is "I believed" when witnesses gave their testimony. What someone believes is not always what can be proven. Once someone was accused of witchcraft, the only way to prove their innocence was if their execution was successful or not. The theory was that real witches would survive, and then they would be killed.

22-year-old Elizabeth Johnson was not executed after being charged with witchcraft. She was the last to be vindicated this year, 329 years later because she did not have children and no one was fighting to prove her innocence and clear her name.

"We will never be able to change what happened to victims like Elizabeth but at the very least can set the record straight," DiZoglio said. NPR After 329 years, a woman accused of being a witch in Salem has been exonerated

These trials and wild accusations resulted in the Bill Of Rights the rest of us live with,

More than 300 years later, the Salem witch trials testify to the way fear can ruin lives of innocent people and the importance of due process in protecting individuals against false accusations. Some of those who insisted in 1787 that a Bill of Rights was necessary for the ratification of the Constitution undoubtedly knew about the treatment of the “Salem witches” and how they had been deprived of the rights to which they should have been entitled under English common law. With the Bill of Rights in place, interpretations of the First Amendment consistently ruled that slander and defamation were not protected by the Constitution. Salem Witch Trials By Elizabeth R. Purdy

Right now we see people running for office claiming the 2020 election was "stolen" because it is what they say they believe. They have no evidence such a thing happened. Courts presented claims, but courts demand evidence of a crime being committed, and what someone says they believe, is not enough to file charges against anyone. No one can prove what they say they believe actually happened.

Yet these same people are running for office. Many of them are already saying if they lose, then the election was stolen from them. It hasn't even happened yet, but, that doesn't matter to them at all. What does that say about other members of their own party that may be on the same ballot and actually win their votes?

Supporters of former President Trump say they "believe" the election was stolen, but no evidence was ever given. People in Salem said they "believed" the accused were guilty, but again, no evidence was provided. No one can "prove" what someone says they believe is true or not and that is why evidence is required. It is ironic that he is claiming that all the court cases against him are a "witch hunt" and nothing more, but the courts required evidence to move forward and allow charges to be filed against him.

If they claim a crime was committed but don't have proof, do you really want to put them in charge of the laws for all of us? We may be accustomed to political commercials lying to us. (I usually yell liar at the TV) We may be accustomed to politicians lying to us. What none of us should ever be accustomed to is when they say what they "believe" to win their primary and then deny they said it when they want the votes from the rest of us. It's all on video! That's proof of what they said and proof of what they lie about now.

Don Bolduc is like the accusers. CNN has the video up on this.

“Guess what? We have furries and fuzzies in classrooms,” Bolduc told the crowd. “They lick themselves, they’re cats. When they don’t like something, they hiss – people walk down the hallway and jump out,” he said, as a hissing sound could be heard.

Bolduc claimed the 2022 election was stolen until he won the GOP primary.

Don Bolduc, the Republican Senate nominee in New Hampshire, changed his position as he faces a tough fall race, saying the 2020 presidential election “was not stolen.”

People like him were responsible for thousands of people attacking the Capitol, demanding the hanging of Vice President Pence and Speaker Of The House Nancy Pelosi, because they "believed" the election was stolen. False claims caused the deaths of innocent people in Salem. False claims now, because of people like Bolduc, can cause the death of our country by eliminating the only voice we have, OUR ABILITY TO VOTE FOR WHAT AND WHO AND WHAT WE BELIEVE IS WORTH FIGHTING FOR!

The loudest voices do not speak for the rest of us!

Kathie Costos
June 25, 2022

I woke up this morning in a country I no longer recognize. Every time I heard a pro-birth person say they "believe" life begins at conception, all I could think about was when others believed they were the only Godly people in Salem. Everyone else, not believing or acting like they decided they should, was subjected to accusations, imprisonment, trials, and often, death.

Today on PTSD Patrol I posted SCOTUS: Salem Witch Craft Trials 2.0 It was because the ruling from the Supreme Court eliminating the rights of females to decide what they choose is right for them, was so vital, that the right to choose was the first sentence of the 1st Amendment to the Consitution.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;

In other words, even back then, people were supposed to have the freedom to make their own choices. While this was written, women had very little choice over much at all. SCOTUS ruled against the 1st Amendment by the ruling based on religious reasons and not medical ones. 

The pro-birth movement kept screaming that life began at conception but the Bible does not agree with that. There is a lot that some people believe, but that is their choice. The problem came when they wanted to enforce their rights while making everyone else surrender their own rights.

That is what happened during the Witch Craft Trials. Pilgrims came here for various reasons but one of them was religious freedom. They turned around in the next generation and used it against 200 people and putting 20 of them to death.

You can read more on the link to the post but it was because of this, that I wanted to make sure people knew, this was one of the reasons why I felt it was necessary to write The Lost Son Alive Again and Stranger Angels Among Us. I had to rewrite them because the loudest voices in this country are pushing people away from God.

Over 90% of the people I helped during the last 40 years, said they believed in God, and most believed in Jesus, but none of them attended church. I had to reassure them that Jesus didn't attend a church building either. As a matter of fact, He wasn't free to preach in a Temple either. He prayed and preached outside most of the time. Then I had to reassure them that they could reach God all on their own with a direct line of communication from their soul directly to the One that sent it into their body the second they were born.

Why was that important? Because spiritual healing is vital in healing what other humans do to us. It is vital when a health issue or natural disaster causes PTSD along with everything else. If they understand what PTSD is, then they will go for help. When they understand it, they go for mental health help and the healing begins. Add in spiritual help and there is greater healing.

The National Center for PTSD even approves it! Are you going to go if you think it is all about what the zealots, haters, and corrupters of Christianity have delivered? I wouldn't. The thing is, it doesn't matter what you believe spiritually because the power is in feeding your soul. 

If you believe in God as a Christian, then please understand that the people with the loudest voices do not speak for the rest of us! If you don't believe as a Christian, then please still seek spiritual healing from people of groups who believe as you do. PTSD isn't a Christian thing. It's a survivor thing! 

what we know is not all that can be seen

Wounded Times

Kathie Costos

April 5, 2022

Fox News' viewers can change their attitudes with exposure to CNN on MSNBC shows that what we think, is always based on what we know. The problem is, what we know is not all that can be seen. And that is usually the reason why things don't change for the better. 

The research was conducted by Political scientists David Broockman of Stanford University and Joshua Kalla of Yale University. What they found is that people only know what the source of their information tells them. We live in a time when we want to learn the easy way, the quickest way and all too often, we learn based on what we already think. If we are not curious, we do not search for answers. We stopped reading manuals as soon as we were able to find a video on YouTube about how to do what we want to do. What this research shows is, when people have a different source of information, they begin to realize that what they know, is not always what is real.

Part of what’s interesting about the study is that it captured not just the difference between CNN’s and Fox News’ ideological outlooks, but also their differing commitments to sharing certain facts. Most notably, CNN was more likely to offer factual information that reflected more poorly on Donald Trump — and the Fox viewers who switched realized this: Participants who switched were less likely to agree that “if Donald Trump did something bad, Fox News would discuss it.”

This happens all the time. It happened with COVID. How many times have you had conversations with people who said COVID was a hoax and did not want to believe any facts? I know it happened a lot of times with me when I was shopping and people would ask me why I was wearing a mask, as if I was the stupid one. I'd look at them and think they were selfish and ingorant. I wore one because I didn't want to infect anyone else if I had been exposed to it, including my husband. I didn't want to be faced with living with regret that I did not do something so simple to protect him. The study shows where COVID deniers got their information from.

The switchers were more likely to care about Covid, learn different information about current events and feel more negatively toward Trump and the GOP. This isn’t to say the experiment revolutionized people’s worldviews. The Fox News viewers who switched to CNN generally continued to hold perspectives that accord with a right-wing media diet and worldview, and the experiment didn’t change whom they’d vote for. Even so, it's still striking that it took just four weeks for some of them to shift in some attitudes and observations of facts.

When I wrote part 2 of The Lost Son, Alive Again, this was the topic of the book. Chris and his friends wanted to help people see the truth because all they knew were lies. Chris didn't just battle ignorance of #PTSD, he battled the ignorance of people thinking they mattered more than anyone else. He showed how evil people were outnumbered by people doing good.

Read ALIVE AGAIN and learn how to fight to get people to see what they have not seen.

 

The Lost Son and Me

Wounded Times

Kathie Costos

February 23, 2022

When I created this image of me, I was trying for something that looked more like an elf. It didn't work but I got a big kick out of it and decided to keep it. It made the point I was trying to make, that although my wrinkles, scars on my face, bags under my eyes and graying hair, make me appear to be mean, I am far from it. The thing is, people who know me, know what I am all about, and know my character, don't need convincing about that. Only strangers do.

When I wrote The Lost Son, people in my life saw parts of me in the main character. Christopher Papadopoulos is mostly the male version of me.

The scars on his body were reminders of what he survived but the scars in his soul were reminders of why he didn’t want to anymore. Chris Papadopoulos was tired of waiting for his life to get better while he grew more bitter. Tired of paying the price for covering suffering while working as a report for an LA newspaper. Tired of the seven years he survived the bomb blast that ripped through his body while covering the war in Afghanistan. Tired of watching all he had erode like the fire escape from his window.

Seven years was long enough. He sat on his bed with a gun in his hand while a war between hope and despair kept him from lifting the gun to his head. He gave up and went to the bar figuring that if he got drunk enough, he wouldn’t have to think about anything much longer.

Chris thought everyone he knew burned down the bridges between them and him. He couldn’t see he was the one with all the matches and his friends were trying to find the firehose. Chris was dismissing the fact he had PTSD. He was right about one thing. Seven years was too long for him to be suffering instead of healing, but God had other plans for him. That night, Chris was sent on a mission to save himself and millions of others when he discovered a secretive society changing the world one soul at a time.

This is for the "churchless" children of God so you will know, that miracles do not come from a church, but they come from God.

Like Chris, I survived an attempted murder when my first husband came home from work one night and decided to beat me. He almost killed me. He stalked me, just like Chris's wife did to him.

Chris wanted to become a Priest in the Greek Orthodox church, so did I but, as a female, that was never going to happen. Later in life I was told I missed my calling and should have converted to another denomination they would let me preach. I became a Chaplain instead. My church does not support women in ministry, so I felt as if there is no place for me there.

Chris didn't know he had #PTSD and thought he would just get over it. I thought the same thing too. After all, I had devoted 40 years of research, writing and helping other people discover how much power they did have and nothing to be ashamed of as survivors of whatever caused it. The problem is, just like Chris, I turned it into a contest that I didn't want to win. So many others over the years, had it a lot worse than I had it. My panic attacks, mood swings, flashbacks and nightmares, only came to life when I heard the sound of a muscle car, because that was what my ex-husband drove. 

Like Chris never read anything about someone like himself, I never read anything about anyone like me. I survived over 10 events beginning at the age of 5. I saw two therapists and neither of them diagnosed PTSD. I dismissed what I was going through because it didn't happen all the time and did not rob me of a good, happy life.

Chris wanted to become a reporter. I always wanted to be a writer. When Chris started to heal he began to write a book to help others heal too. He wanted them to be able to read about people just like them so they would know they were not alone and their lives could be better. I wanted the same thing and tried through three other books, over 700 videos and countless articles on this site, as well as others. I wanted to tell the truth as much as I wanted to offer hope.

Chris spent 7 years regretting he survived because he thought everyone he knew walked away from him and God sent the suffering to him. On September 13, 2019, seven years after a bomb blast changed his life and caused the nightmarish series of events, he decided his suffering should end. So did God, but God disagreed on how that should happen.

In 13 days, he was led out of the darkness he had been living with, to enlighten the world of what was possible when miracles walk in the door, when he least expected them. Within 6 months, he wrote a book about miracles workers in a secret society of Chaplains and a miracle worker named Mandy living in a cabin in Gabriel New Hampshire. As for me, I wrote 3 books in 6 months because I prayed for a new way to say what I've been saying for 40 years. No one should choose to stay in darkness when the road has been cleared to make it into the light of God's love, even without a church.

Most of the people I helped all these years, believe in God and Jesus, but no longer felt they belonged in a church where they would be accepted. These books are for people like me. It is important that they see what is in the Bible and the beauty of it without feeling as if someone wants to beat them over the head with the Bible they refuse to read, instead of emulating what Jesus said His followers should actually be.

The books are on Amazon, Kindle and Paperback

New Books To Help Churchless Children Of God Heal PTSD

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
November 17, 2021 

By the summer, it was getting more and more difficult to find anything new to say about #PTSD. After all, next year will be 40 years after I started. I was feeling pretty hopeless about helping anyone new, especially when the increase of people suffering showed no signs of going down. I mean, there is only so much a person can do. I needed a miracle to be able to say what needed to be said in a new way. 

The books I wrote are for other "churchless" children of God, like me. I don't go to church anymore, so I couldn't go into any kind of building, other than my own home. Considering that Jesus didn't have a church, early Christian prayed outside or in their own homes, I knew God could hear me no matter where I was, with them as examples. I prayed for a way to do it and put it into God's hands.

What came next was the story of The Lost Son based on the Parable.

The Parable of the Lost Son

11 Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.
13 “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. 14 After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16 He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.
17 “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ 20 So he got up and went to his father.
“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.
21 “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
22 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. 24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.
25 “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 27 ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’
28 “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. 29 But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’
31 “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32 But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”

When we survive the events that cause Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, no matter what caused it, we often turn away from God. When you live your life trying to do the right thing, for the right reason, and end up subjected to what happened, it is human nature to wonder why it happened to you. I know I did, each and every time. There were ten of them for me. The thing that made surviving them different for me, was while I lost faith in myself, I didn't lose it when it came to God.

That faith helped heal me but it did not mean I was totally resilient. I had a rare form of it that was linked to my ex-husband. I suffered for decades until I found out he passed away and couldn't hurt me anymore. The only thing I had to fear was the dark side trying to pull me back in and stop me from walking in the light of God's love.

As I said, I prayed for a new way to say something that wasn't new. I thought I'd be writing one book but God had other plans for me too and gave me two books to write at the same time. 

Having faith in God and Jesus, does not mean we have to be perfect. The Lost Son and Alive Again are written in the language we all use as adults. In other words, there is swearing going on. They involved adult situations, including drinking alcohol and using drugs to stop feeling anything. The list of causes covers most of them. By the end of both books, God's love won!

The Lost Son begins on September 13, 2019 and ends in 2020. Alive Again begins on September 13, 2021. The events are in Salem, MA and fictional town of Gabriel, New Hampshire. The number 13 plays an important part of both books but you'll have to read them to discover why that is. 

Iraq veteran proves he violated probation on Facebook

Judge: Marine violated terms of release
Salem News
BY JULIE MANGANIS
STAFF WRITER
May 7, 2013

DANVERS — A Salem District Court judge has found “clear and convincing” evidence that Marine recruiter Matthew Fairbanks repeatedly violated the terms of his release in a pending assault and battery and weapons case, including failing to surrender an AK-47 to police.

Because of that, Judge Robert Brennan concluded that Fairbanks “poses a substantial risk of danger to the community” and ordered that he now be held without bail until trial.

Fairbanks, 23, an Iraq War veteran whose family has said may be suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, was living in the Endicott Greens apartment complex on Route 1 in January when police were called because of a disturbance in his apartment.

Fairbanks allegedly ripped a toilet out of a wall during the altercation with his 52-year-old father, and then used it to assault the older man, according to police. Officers subsequently found guns and other weapons in the apartment and in Fairbanks’ car.

Then, last month, police and probation officers learned that Fairbanks had posted a photo of himself on Facebook laughing and holding an AK-47 with a caption that said, “So then the judge says to me, he says, you will surrender all your firearms.”
read more here

Homeless man restores place to pray in Salem MA

Grotto's glory emerges: Homeless man helps restore long-neglected Virgin Mary statue

By Chris Cassidy
Staff writer


SALEM — The last Mass at St. Mary's Italian Church was celebrated five years ago. The basement is now a thrift store. The rectory has been turned into apartments for the homeless.

Sandwiched in between the two is a grotto with a statue of the Virgin Mary tucked behind a small patch of grass — one of the few remaining symbols of this former parish once made up of working-class Italian immigrants.

"The grotto was reflective of the traditions that that little Italian community had," said Joe Piemonte, a longtime parishioner whose great uncle, Tony Della Monica, designed the grotto years ago. "With the church being (closed), we weren't sure whether the grotto would even remain."

A few months ago, Paul Sumares was walking down Margin Street and noticed overgrown vines shielding the grotto from sight. A 2-foot pile of dirt had filled in the tiny pond. The pipes for what was once a calming waterfall had broken.

So Sumares and Jean Dion went to work, clearing brush, pulling back vines and restoring the old waterfall.

"At first, we just wanted to clean it up," Sumares said.

Sumares never attended a single Mass at St. Mary's and until January had only visited Salem a few times. He lives and receives services at the Salem Mission, the homeless shelter that bought the property after the church closed.
go here for more
http://www.salemnews.com/punews/local_story_204000307.html

Mother in cancer case lost custody of older child

Mother in cancer case lost custody of older child

By Chris Cassidy and Julie Manganis
Staff writers


SALEM — The Salem mother charged with failing to give her 8-year-old son his cancer medications has a history of involvement with the Department of Social Services and police and lost custody of an older child, officials confirmed yesterday.

Kristen Anne LaBrie, 36, is also the mother of a 16-year-old child, her lawyer, Kevin James, said during her arraignment Monday on a child endangerment charge.

The older child was removed from LaBrie's custody at the request of DSS several years ago and now lives with a relative, a DSS spokeswoman confirmed yesterday. Allison Goodwin said she could not go into details of the earlier case and could not comment on why the older child was removed.

LaBrie has pleaded not guilty in the current case and is free on personal recognizance. Her lawyer has said she denies the charges.

LaBrie is accused of failing to give her son Jeremy Fraser his chemotherapy at home and canceling appointments for hospital treatments for his non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Prosecutors allege that as a result Jeremy's condition has declined and is now terminal.

Police and prosecutors have not offered a motive and say they've never seen a case like this one.

click post title for more
speechless.