"for a Witch, which is not a Witch"

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
August 9, 2023

While some people are screaming about witch hunts today because people have been accused by Grand Juries with evidence against them, they fail to understand that witch trials are being repeated, but not against those charged with crimes. Our laws require evidence because of the Salem Witch Trials. Another thing going on is some people claim their "religious" views should rule over all others. Again, all we have to do is look at the trials to see history has repeated itself but, yet again, they do not understand what really happened.

When Puritans tortured Quakers
Seacoastonline
J. Dennis Robinson
Feb. 20, 2020

Puritans saw themselves as the definers and protectors of “God’s law.” Quakers believed each individual had the right and ability to access the spirit of God.

We need to remember that while tens of thousands of Puritans had migrated to America for religious freedom they were not interested in religious freedom for anyone but themselves.

Quakers arriving in “The Lord’s Kingdom” (New England) in the mid-1600s could have an ear cut off just for showing up. A second ear would be cut off if they returned. A third offense meant having a hole drilled through the tongue with a hot iron. In Massachusetts, Quakers were persecuted, fined, tortured, driven out, and even hanged. learn more here

We have laws to protect the rights of all people to believe and worship, or not, as they see fit and not what others demand from them. No one is supposed to have the right to claim their faith is what all others must abide by. What we see today is not about religion. It is about control.

Apparently, some learned nothing because they want to repeat all of it. Religious freedom means only their faith matters. Accusations no longer need proof or evidence and truth. No matter what they have been shown, can be called a lie and they expect everyone else to believe them, instead of the truth. It is almost as if they have been possessed like Thomas Maule.

THOMAS MAULE, THE QUAKER WHO CRITICIZED THE SALEM WITCH TRIALS – AND GOT AWAY WITH IT

New England Historical Society

He did get fined, whipped and imprisoned

Thomas Maule, an outspoken Quaker, went to prison five times for criticizing Puritans in Salem, Mass. The Puritans also whipped him three times and fined him three times.

He believed in witches, but he also believed God would punish the Salem witch trial prosecutors for miscarrying justice.

He went to court on charges of slander and blasphemy. Historians view his trial as an important development in the freedom of religion guaranteed by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Maule and his wife Naomi believed in witches. When the Salem witch trials began they testified against Bridget Bishop, the first victim to be hanged. But Maule grew disillusioned with the prosecutors’ murderous frenzy. Twenty people were executed within four months, and 100 more awaited trial when Gov. William Phips returned to his senses and halted the trials

In 1695, several years after the release of the last accused witch, Thomas Maule published a pamphlet. He called it Truth Held Forth and Maintained. In cool and cutting sarcasm, he wrote that God would condemn the witch trial judges. He famously stated, “[F]or it were better that one hundred Witches should live than that one person be put to death for a Witch, which is not a Witch.” learn more here

How did they get away with it? At the time they were suffering from sickness, death, and being attacked by Naumkeag who already lived there. They focused on that while ignoring that it was their land long before the Puritans arrived. Ignoring how the Naumkeags taught them how to survive, they blamed them for the outcome.

"Still, the Naumkeag were not an aggressive people. They did not seek war with Conant’s crew over the misunderstanding, which, tragically and in retrospect, may have sealed their ultimate fate of being forcibly removed from their ancestral lands by colonists. 20th-century historian Sidney Perley describes the tribe as “affable and courteous and well-disposed, ready to devote the best of what they had to the general good.” This temperament was tested, but still remained, in the face of the loss of their homes and the devastation they faced from European diseases that decimated their numbers in the early 1600s. Despite the deaths of their own people, the Naumkeag treated the English with kindness, sharing with them the secrets of a good harvest in the local climate. Perley writes that the Naumkeag instructed the English in “the planting of corn, teaching them to select the finest seed, to observe the best season, to plant in the hills at a distance from each other and cultivate it through the season.” And all of this, again, while dealing with the illnesses foisted upon them unwittingly by the colonists they reached out to aid." (The Witch House)

At first, the Puritans thought all their suffering was about evil people attacking them. They didn't see that evil was attacking them and taking over their own minds. Deaths were blamed on sorcery and witchcraft sent by Satan. Crops failing were blamed on the same cause. After they tortured and killed the innocent people they accused, they turned around and blamed God by saying it was all about God punishing them for what they did. Head smack moment!

Researchers have pointed out that part of what came out of the witch trials was PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.) The villagers would have still been worried it could happen again and they could become the accused instead of the accuser. Those held in jail and tortured while waiting for their trial would have been dealing with it the torture invading their lives. The families of the accused would have been dealing with all of it. All that along with the illnesses, deaths, crop failures, and worried about more attacks even though they either caused or allowed all of it by their own actions. They needed someone to blame instead of facing the fact while they may not have caused it to happen, they caused it to continue.

I no longer wonder why so many people I helped over the years became offended when I asked them about being religious or not. The vast majority said they were not but they were spiritual. Most of them said they believed in God and Jesus but would never again set foot in a church. I also know a lot of "religious" people that put spirituality above the dictates of their chosen affiliation, and praying wherever they were directly to God.

The sad thing for me was when they blamed God for causing what they survived to happen. Those thoughts were caused by what they heard from "religious" people with absolutely as much understanding of the faith they claim to have as the Puritans.

How long all this goes on now is up to us and what we are willing to ignore.

Kathie Costos author of the Ministers Of The Mystery series. The Scribe Of Salem The Visionary Of Salem and the 13th Minister Of Salem.

Wondering if it came from God, or Satan?

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
July 29, 2023

If you have #PTSD or PTSI or PTS, whatever acronym you're comfortable with, you may have heard someone you know tell you that God only gives us what we can handle. If you have, for right now, go back to a time when people not only heard stupid things people said to explain suffering and terrible things happening, and then accused people of witchcraft.

While we do not know what all the people of Salem (or around the world) thought about the events behind the trials, we know what people say today. Most of it is based on their individual beliefs. These are not the ones they express openly but their private beliefs.

Human nature would have them looking at those suffering at the hands of the accused witches and wondering if they could be the next. Others would be looking at the accused witches and wonder if some vindictive person would point their finger at them or not. The 20 people put to death may have thought their execution put an end to their suffering but those languishing in jail would have wondered if there was any hope left for them before it was their turn to have a rope put around their neck, or being crushed to death. Some did not survive to see the day of their trial and died in jail. Some were tortured to the point where they would have confessed to being Satan himself if it would stop the torture. Not a far stretch to see how they could have wondered where God was and why He allowed it to happen to innocent people.

They were religious people, attending church and hearing the pastors preach their sermons.

One such pastor was John Hale that would later come to his senses, but it took his wife being accused before it happened.

Reverend Hale testified in 1692 about his parishioner Sarah Bishop, who lived with her husband Edward on the border of Beverly and Salem Village. Hale had interceded in a disagreement between Sarah and her neighbor, Christian Trask a few years before. Trask, a mentally ill woman, complained about the noise and activities in the Bishops’ unlicensed tavern, which apparently went long into the night. Hale tried to keep the peace between the two. A few years later, Trask was found dead, her throat cut, small scissors lying nearby. Was this suicide or murder? Hale observed the body and felt some kind of witchcraft was afoot. Nevertheless, Sarah Bishop was not accused of witchcraft at this time, although both she and her husband were accused of witchcraft on April 21, 1692. (In a transcription, Hale referred to Sarah as “Goody Bishop, wife of Edward Bishop” which led to many years of confusion. There was another Goody Bishop, married to another Edward Bishop living in Salem Town – and that was Bridget, first to be executed for witchcraft in 1692. The descriptions of the two women became combined in the history books until the error was discovered in recent years.)

In November of 1692, very late in the hysteria, Wenham’s Mary Herrick spoke to Wenham Reverend Joseph Gerrish and Reverend Hale, accusing Hale’s wife Sarah of spectral torment. Although Sarah Hale was never officially accused of witchcraft, historians believe this event certainly helped to change Reverend Hale’s support of the trials. (Salem Witch Museum)

And yet another pastor was not only accused of witchcraft but almost ten years after he left Salem, he was brought back from Maine and hung.

In July of 1692, Reverend Hale spoke to confessed witch Ann Foster in Salem jail, where she told him about a witches’ picnic and about her fear of Reverend George Burroughs and Martha Carrier, the king and queen of hell, whose specters had threatened to kill her. (Salem Witch Museum)

There was an apology from those leaders after the trials ended. They called it a Day of Atonement

Five years after the Salem witchcraft trials, the Massachusetts legislature passed a resolution that a day of general fasting be held on January 15, 1697. The resolution was adopted so God's people could offer up prayers for God to help them in their errors and keep them from repeating such sins which could only bring God's judgment on the land.

That means first they blamed Satan for the suffering. Then they blamed God for judging them and making them suffer for what they did. So which was it?

Was it all sent by Satan or God? That is a question human nature always asks after surviving something horrible. As someone being misled or the family of the accused, or the survivors, everyone searches for a reason as to why it happened. We are no different from them. When we survive we search for some sort of reason for it happening. Did evil target us? Did God allow it to happen? Did He save us? Or worse, was it God targeting us as judgment?

The answer we receive from most religious leaders is pure speculation. All too often they jump to a conclusion that makes sense to them. Sadly, all too often, they say something like, "God only gives us what we can handle," because they don't have a clue as to why it happened.

If you don't believe in God and assume there are good, as well as bad people in the world, you can tell people that you don't wonder why it happened and everyone will accept that as an answer. If you are in a position of being a religious leader, then saying you simply don't know, won't ease their minds.

The truth is, while everything happens for a reason, it is no cosmic power behind it. It is what people decided to do for whatever they believe. If it was a natural disaster, it happened because you lived where you ended up living and nothing more. If it was something someone did to you, then it was what they decided to do. Remember that each of us is capable of doing good things for someone, or doing terrible things to someone. Those causing your trauma decided to do it to you and most of the time, while you became their target, most of the time, it had nothing do to with you. It wasn't personal. You were just there and if you weren't, then it would have been someone else. 

That's how I had to see what happened to me far too many times. Even when my 1st husband tried to kill me and then stalked me for almost two years, I knew it didn't matter how good I was to him. I ended up understanding that it would have happened to anyone he had a relationship with because he had no clue what love was. Eventually, it allowed me to be able to love someone else afterward and we've been together for over 40 years.

I came to an understanding that God didn't do it to me but helped me heal. He did what He could because He did not mess with my free will or anyone else's. The same way it was during the witch trials. People had the free will to stand up and fight for the truth or stand silently allowing it to happen while the people doing the evil acts against innocent people blamed God. Since they heard about God's judgment and wrath from the pulpit, it would have been easy for them to accept. It allowed them to swallow any decency left within them while greeting the people responsible instead of wishing they were the ones on trial for what they did in the name of God.

The lesson did not come from sitting on a bench in a building called Holy. It didn't come from a person standing in front of everyone representing God. It came from my spirit reaching out to God and He being the one I trust, turn to, and seek guidance from wherever I was. After all that is how we should pray. "God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” Don't let anyone tell you that being a "religious person" is the only way to be right with God when scripture proves them wrong. 

Yet all too often, religious people disregard spiritual people seeking a personal connection with God. If the people of Salem didn't worship God and follow the rules of the church, they became a target. All the requirements Jesus spoke about were forgotten because they were willing to lie, mistreat the poor, and stand in judgment of others with nothing more than the lies from the lips of the accusers.

Good people eventually did stop the trials but had to live with the guilt they allowed it to go on as long as they did. Their victims turned into survivors. We can only guess what they did for the rest of their lives.

If you want to heal, stop listening to what other people say. Stop allowing them to stand in judgment over something they do not understand. Reach out to God for help to heal and watch for people able to help you do it. Most of them were helped by someone else. Then you can turn around and help someone in return for their kindness to you.

A decade after Sandy Hook, grief remains but hope grows

Raised with trauma, Sandy Hook survivors send hope to Uvalde “I think what happened changed my entire life.”

Associated Press
By DAVE COLLINS and PAT EATON-ROBB
September 7, 2022

NEWTOWN, Conn. (AP) — The survivors who were able to walk out of Sandy Hook Elementary School nearly a decade ago want to share a message of hope with the children of Uvalde, Texas: You will learn how to live with your trauma, pain and grief. And it will get better.

They know what’s ahead. There’s shock, followed by numbness. There are struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder. Anxiety. Survivor’s guilt. Anger that these shootings continue to happen in America. Reliving their trauma every time there’s another mass shooting.

They know it will be hard to say they are from Uvalde. That well-meaning adults will sometimes make the wrong decisions to protect you. That grief can be unpredictable, and different for everyone.

Children who survived the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting have grown up reliving their trauma with each new mass shooting in the U.S. Emotions well up especially when the shooting involves another elementary school like in Uvalde, Texas. (Sept. 7) (AP Video: Joseph B. Frederick, Julia Nikhinson)

read more here

But it wasn't just what happened at Sandy Hook that day. It was what came afterward that added to the agony.

Alex Jones trial: Sandy Hook parents have PTSD, live in terror, psychiatrist testifies

Austin American Statesman
Chuck Lindell
August 1, 2022

Criticized by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and confronted by some of his followers, the parents of 6-year-old Sandy Hook victim Jesse Lewis have developed post-traumatic stress disorder and live in constant anxiety and terror, a psychiatrist testified Monday.

Forensic psychiatrist Roy Lubit, a specialist in emotional trauma, said the parents' troubles were not caused by their son's violent death in the 2012 school shooting but by Jones' repeated portrayals of the attack as staged or faked on his InfoWars program.

"It's more than just interfering with healing, it has pushed them back ... into some of their earlier pain," Lubit said in a downtown Austin courtroom.

Later this week, a jury will be asked to determine how much Jones should pay to Jesse's parents, Scarlett Lewis and Neil Heslin, for defamation and emotional distress after repeatedly portraying the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, which killed 20 students and six educators, as a hoax meant to justify a government crackdown on gun rights,

Heslin has had bullets fired at his home and car, and people who deny that the Sandy Hook attack took place have made threatening phone calls and sent harassing emails to both parents, Lubit testified.
read more here

But they will not let that defeat the hope that they will heal enough to make a difference in this world to others. That as they still grieve, they do something to make sure others do not grieve alone.

A decade after Sandy Hook, grief remains but hope grows

Associated Press
By DAVE COLLINS
December 13, 2022

NEWTOWN, Conn. (AP) — They would have been 16 or 17 this year. High school juniors.

The children killed at the Sandy Hook Elementary School on Dec. 14, 2012 should have spent this year thinking about college, taking their SATs and getting their driver’s licenses. Maybe attending their first prom.

Instead, the families of the 20 students and six educators slain in the mass shooting will mark a decade without them Wednesday.

December is a difficult month for many in Newtown, the Connecticut suburb where holiday season joy is tempered by heartbreak around the anniversary of the nation’s worst grade school shooting.

For former Sandy Hook students who survived the massacre, guilt and anxiety can intensify. For the parents, it can mean renewed grief, even as they continue to fight on their lost children’s behalf.

In February, Sandy Hook families reached a $73 million settlement with the gunmaker Remington, which made the shooter’s rifle. Juries in Connecticut and Texas ordered the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones to pay $1.4 billion for promoting lies that the massacre was a hoax.
read more here

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.

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!

Veterans with PTSD on trial

Wounded Times

Kathie Costos

January 12, 2022

My head is exploding right now. Can any reporter explain to me why they manage to always report on a veteran with PTSD committing crimes, use it in the headline, yet do not notice they do not report on everyone else committing crimes when they have PTSD too?

Apparently veterans with PTSD are on trial but reporters fail to see we all are!

This is the headline the headline that caused a massive headache!

"Veteran with PTSD pleads guilty to killing 2 men in SC in 2017, lawyers say" and is on Stars and Stripes.

Family members for King and McNair spoke on Friday before Melton's sentencing "about the tragedy and loss of their sons," Campbell said.
Mental illness and drugs

Melton served in the military and was stationed in Iraq in 2004, developing Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) as a result of that experience, said his defense lawyer, Justin Kata of the Giese Law Firm in Columbia.

Kata said Melton was later diagnosed by a psychiatrist.

At the time of the killings, "he had PTSD symptoms and he was self-medicating," Kata said.

According to the National Center for PTSD, there are 15 million Americans joining the PTSD club every year but reporters will only cover veterans committing sucide and crimes.

Facts about How Common PTSD Is

The following statistics are based on the U.S. population: About 6 out of every 100 people (or 6% of the population) will have PTSD at some point in their lives. About 15 million adults have PTSD during a given year. This is only a small portion of those who have gone through a trauma. About 8 of every 100 women (or 8%) develop PTSD sometime in their lives compared with about 4 of every 100 men (or 4%). Learn more about women, trauma and PTSD

Let's look at the results of this. 

Veterans have a hard time finding jobs because employers remember reading about a veteran like this one. Because reporters do not cover all the other survivors with PTSD, they have no idea that PTSD does not make people dangerous or even get them to contemplate the simple fact that they have probably already hired a lot of good employees with PTSD unknowingly.

Veterans getting all the attention is a billion dollar industry because people care about veterans. While that is a good thing, we should consider why there are no massive fundraisers for everyone else with PTSD not getting the help we all need.

People in law enforcement, fire departments, emergency responders, medical, you name the occupation, are ignored. No one seems to care.

I was guilty of this too. I spent decades focused on veterans when few others were. I thought that since there were so many other people, they'd have enough help but I did not know no one in the media was putting it all together. It never even dawned on me that after surviving over 10 events, I had a rare form of it. It also didn't dawn on two therapists I saw over the years.

Do we take care of veterans properly? NO!

Do we take care of anyone in need to mental health care properly? NO!

Until we get reporters to cover all of us so that we know how many of us there are after surviving, we will not be able to focus on what is helpful to others, that can help us too. We will not be able to inspire hope to others suffering from something only we can understand. While we may not be able to fully understand the causes if we did not experience it, we can understand what it is doing to them, and they can understand what it has done to us.

Kathie Costos on Amazon

#BreakTheSilence and #TakeBackYourLife from #PTSD

"When you look at the hard numbers a research project on 20 veterans is not even yawn worthy."

MDMA did not work before but let's do it anyway?

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
January 20, 2020

My emails have been piling up the last couple of days with this type of news.

Pioneering research in its third phase of trials with the FDA evaluates the safety and effectiveness of using MDMA—called molly or ecstasy—to treat post-traumatic stress disorders.

IT IS NOT NEW NEWS and there is a reason for that. It was done, redone and doggonit done again!

The first post on Wounded Times goes back to 2007 Tom Shoder of the Washington Post wanted to hear from readers about MDMA. He followed that up a few days later with Ecstasy Trials: Was it a fluke or the future?

In 2008, there was a "new look" at it, even though the subject of the article, MAPS President Rick Doblin had been aware of it since 1982.

On the post another report that went back to 2005 from The Guardian, also took a look at it. (That link is still active as of today.)

There were more from then to 2013 when I wrote that Euphoria over PTSD drugs needs to over and pointed out past studies along with this sentiment "When you look at the hard numbers a research project on 20 veterans is not even yawn worthy."

Well, full circle up to 2018 with another slam at this sham, there was another trial and this time they had a whopping 26 combat veterans! WOW, we were supposed to be impressed?

Reporters need to use all the extra time on their hands to actually start to do some basic research and folks passing this crapload forward need to go play a game of candy crush so they stop wasting everyone else's time!

UPDATE

FDA Expands Access to Ecstasy Drug for PTSD Therapy

PTSD on Trial: Third wife of Iraq veteran sought justice

Life was like a 'horror film': Wife's tale of abuse puts tormented war veteran behind bars

Buffalo News
By Thomas J. Prohaska
March 24, 2019

Defense attorney Randy S. Margulis said Cody Tomaselli, a Texas native, joined the Army a few months after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. He spent 3½ years in Iraq and Germany and received the Army's Expert Combat Infantryman Badge. Margulis said his client suffers from severe PTSD, apparently stemming from his Army service, including infantry combat in the Iraq War's vicious Battle of Fallujah in 2004.

Cody Tomaselli joined the Army at 17, spent nearly four years in Iraq and Germany and had “dozens of kills” that left him with severe post-traumatic stress disorder.

But his claims that PTSD led him to three days of violence and threats against his wife last year did little to sway a judge to lessen his punishment. Tomaselli, 33, was sentenced last week to seven years in state prison for attempted kidnapping during a three-day ordeal that ended in the parking lot of a Niagara Falls elementary school.

Tomaselli is "dangerous and unstable," his wife, Nichole, said last week in Niagara County Integrated Domestic Violence Court.

"I'm asking for justice not only for myself but for the other women he was in relationships with," Nichole Tomaselli told State Supreme Court Justice John F. O'Donnell.

She is the third woman whose marriage to Iraq War veteran Cody Tomaselli allegedly ended in violence, but she's the first to see him convicted.

"It's my opinion that everyone who goes to war comes back with some form of PTSD," O'Donnell said. But he added that "millions of veterans" don't commit the crimes that Tomaselli did.

read more here

He is 100% disabled and was going to the VA. So how is it that he did not get enough help to keep three of his wives safe from his rage?

If you are not wondering how they go from putting their own lives on the line to save others...into abusing people they love, then you are missing the point. PTSD is on trial and so are we!

Texas executed Vietnam veteran with PTSD?

Texas death row inmate's son arrested for outburst during father's execution

The Chronicle
By Keri Blakinger
February 28, 2019

Billie Wayne Coble's son pounded on the execution chamber windows, cursing and shouting "no" as he watched his father die.

It was just after 6:20 p.m., and the 70-year-old triple killer was about to become the oldest Texan executed in the modern era of capital punishment.

The aging Vietnam veteran who murdered his in-laws in an apparent rash of vengeance offered a only a short final statement before he was pronounced dead, according to the Texas Department of Criminal

It was a dramatic and unexpected end to a decades-long saga.

Back in the summer of 1989, Coble was distraught over the disintegration of his third marriage when he kidnapped his estranged wife and killed her parents and brother before attempting to kill himself.

But the Waco man, now 70, had no priors and, as he racked up years of good behavior in prison, his attorneys argued that a pair of experts for the state got it wrong at trial when they offered testimony claiming he'd be a future danger even behind bars.

"That Coble will be executed on such discredited testimony is unconscionable," Brian Stull, an ACLU attorney who previously handled the case, wrote two days before the execution. "The example of his case already shows all who are willing to look why the death penalty is never justice, and why it should be abolished once and for all."

Raised in an orphanage, Coble went on to serve in Vietnam as a machine gunner involved in combat. Afterward, his sister said he came back "different," according to court records, and he was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress and bipolar disorder.
read more here

Suicide Prevention Texts for Soldiers...working or not?

Mixed Results With Suicide Prevention Texts for Soldiers

Primary endpoints missed, but intervention showed benefit in secondary outcomes
MedPage Today
by Elizabeth Hlavinka, Staff Writer
February 13, 2019

The intervention was based on a caring letters study in the 1970s co-designed by Jerome Motto, who hypothesized that increasing connection would decrease the rates of suicide in a civilian population, and that this could be accomplished by sending a series of letters expressing care and concern, Kerbrat told MedPage Today.

Supportive text messages did not decrease suicidal ideation or "risk incidents" among military personnel at risk for suicide in a randomized trial, but there appeared to be significant benefit for some important secondary outcomes including suicide attempts.

No significant reductions were observed in terms of suicide risk incidents -- inpatient admission or evacuation associated with suicidality -- or current suicide ideation at 12 months among military personnel who were assigned to the text-based intervention compared with standard care alone, reported Amanda Kerbrat, MSW, of the University of Washington, and colleagues.

Stein noted this intervention's failure to meet its primary endpoints could be due to military personnel being "embedded in a rich social milieu that, if nothing else, is hardly isolating," and that, in fact, the social disconnectedness theory behind Caring Contact might not apply to this population.
read more here

"Social isolating" is not their biggest problem. Hiding what is going on with them is! Not knowing what PTSD is feeds the stigma and prevents them from opening their mouths or tapping their fingers on a keypad.

And yes, you read the year right...but the DoD does not tell you that part.

Want to save them? Then explain to the what PTSD is, what it does, and HOW TO DEFEAT IT!
Tell them they can #TakeBackYourLife before they think of taking their lives. Yep, they do not know that one either!

PTSD On Trial, Disabled Combat Veteran

Knox combat vet avoids jail time after PTSD-related shooting

Knoxville News Sentinel
Hayes Hickman
Feb. 8, 2019

"In my mind, I was trying to get rid of those rounds before one ended up in my head," Jones said. "But I never wanted to hurt anyone."

A disabled Army combat veteran will serve no jail time on charges stemming from a PTSD-related shooting incident at his North Knox County home as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors.

Casey Jones, 31, pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor counts of reckless endangerment in Knox County Felony Court on Thursday, assuring Judge Tony Stansberry he is seeking treatment for his struggles with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Jones initially was charged with four felony counts of reckless endangerment with a deadly weapon after firing two handguns into the bedroom ceiling and walls of his home Nov. 7.

One of those bullets went through a window and lodged behind the shutter of his neighbors' home across the street. No one was hurt.

The Purple Heart recipient previously told the News Sentinel he emptied the clips of both weapons in a desperate attempt to save himself during a suicidal episode.
read more here

PTSD on Trial: Louisiana Walmart

Attorney: Veteran who threatened to ‘shoot up’ a Walmart suffers from PTSD

Houma Today Louisiana
Dan Copp
January 19, 2019

An attorney representing man who was accused of threatening to “shoot up” a Thibodaux store last month said his client suffers from PTSD and is a decorated Army war veteran.

Louis Albarado, 68, Thibodaux, was charged with terrorizing following an incident at the Walmart at 410 North Canal Blvd., the Thibodaux Police Department said.

Shortly after 2:09 p.m. Dec. 23, the suspect entered the store and became irate after someone took his grocery cart while he wasn’t looking, police said.

Albarado then accused several customers of taking the cart and made threats about “shooting up the store,” police said.

The post-traumatic stress disorder his attorney says he is suffering from is a mental health condition that’s triggered by a terrifying event — either experiencing it or witnessing it, according to the mayoclinic.org website.

After management escorted Albarado out of the store, police were called to the scene and arrested him.

During questioning Albarado admitted he had planned to retrieve a gun from his vehicle and shoot the person who took his cart, police said. A search of the suspect’s vehicle led police to a loaded .44 magnum handgun.

Albarado’s attorney, Eric Santana, said there is a lot more to the story.

Santana said his client’s experiences in Vietnam have left him suffering from multiple mental health and physical issues and the VA hospital classifies him as “100 percent disabled.” Albarado is a decorated war veteran whose life has been thrust into chaos since his arrest, Santana said.

According to military records submitted by Santana, Albarado received a National Defense Service medal, a Vietnam Service medal, two Bronze Stars and other medals and commendations in the 1970s.
read more here

After veteran was shot by police, family takes police to court

Family of veteran shot and killed by Eugene Police seeks to take civil case to jury trial

KVAL 13 News
by Alex Hasenstab and KVAL.com Staff December 3, 2018

EUGENE, Ore. - Eugene Police responded to the home of Brian Babb on March 30, 2015, after his counselor called dispatchers and said she was afraid the veteran - suffering from PTSD - was going to harm himself with a firearm.

Forty minutes after police arrived, an officer said Babb pointed a rifle at him.

Eugene Police responded to the home of Brian Babb on March 30, 2015, after his counselor called dispatchers and said she was afraid the veteran - suffering from PTSD - was going to harm himself with a firearm. An officer shot and killed Babb less than an hour later. (SBG/File)

EUGENE, Ore. - Eugene Police responded to the home of Brian Babb on March 30, 2015, after his counselor called dispatchers and said she was afraid the veteran - suffering from PTSD - was going to harm himself with a firearm.

Forty minutes after police arrived, an officer said Babb pointed a rifle at him.

After demanding Babb drop his weapon, the officer fired a fatal shot.

The district attorney determined officers were justified in using deadly force.

Babb's family had a different reaction.

"We knew right away that something was seriously amiss," said Stephanie Babb, Brian's sister.

The family filed a civil suit, seeking monetary damages against the officers involved and the city.
read more here

Man convicted of selling fentanyl to veteran with PTSD

Kalamazoo man convicted of selling fentanyl to veteran with PTSD, causing his death

FOX 17 News
BY BOB BRENZING
NOVEMBER 29, 2018

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – A Kalamazoo man has been convicted in federal court for distributing the drug fentanyl to a veteran with PTSD, causing his death.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office announce that Deondray Abrams, 26, was convicted by a jury Wednesday evening after a two-day trial in the death of Brandon Demko. Abrams is scheduled to be sentenced on April 8 and faces life imprisonment due to prior convictions.

The U.S. Attorney says that Abrams sold fentanyl as heroin to Demko on March 21, 2017. Demko used the drug thinking it was heroin and lost consciousness. Responding officers from Kalamazoo DPS and Life EMS were not able to revive Demko and he died.

Demko was a Marine Corps veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan and suffered from severe post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
go here for more

Slogan of 22 Other Than Honorable Way for Veterans Day

Real Numbers Should Matter More Than Slogan Of 22

Combat PTSD Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
November 5, 2018

With Veterans Day coming it is more troubling too many in this country have not had the opportunity to become aware of the other numbers that should matter more than a slogan, when the topic is veterans killing themselves.

For far too many veterans, their days are ended with a bullet, or a rope, drugs, car wrecks, a knife or facing off with police officers.

If you still have the number 22 stuck in your head, after you read this, maybe it will disgust you as much as it has sickened me all these years.

Here are just the facts. We need to begin with the group of veterans who pushed for all the research and funding on what war does to those we send.

Vietnam veterans were the first generation to make the battle to heal PTSD public. They were determined to #BreakTheSilence. 

Most servicemembers receive fully honorable discharges. However, 1.5 million have received less than fully honorable discharges since 1950.

That was from The Comptroller General report to Congress in 1980. That also means that they would not have been counted in any of the suicide reports being released since this decade.

One such veteran was John Shepherd Jr. and this report came out in 2012 on the Hartford Courant.

John Shepherd Jr. enlisted in the Army and earned a Bronze Star for valor fighting with the Ninth Infantry Division in the Mekong Delta in 1969. But after his platoon leader was killed while trying to help him out of a canal, Mr. Shepherd appeared to come undone, eventually refusing to go out on patrol. 

He was court-martialed and given an other-than-honorable discharge, making him ineligible for most veterans' benefits. He believes his behavior was the result of post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. His immediate problem: PTSD wasn't recognized as a medical condition until 1980.

Why is that important? Because the Department of Veterans Affairs stated clearly, the majority of veterans committing suicide are over the age of 50.

None of those veterans would have been included within the "known" number of veterans committing suicide.

More were added to the omission of numbers that should have mattered. GAO again, released another report May 16, 2017.

GAO's analysis of Department of Defense (DOD) data show that 62 percent, or 57,141 of the 91,764 servicemembers separated for misconduct from fiscal years 2011 through 2015 had been diagnosed within the 2 years prior to separation with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), traumatic brain injury (TBI), or certain other conditions that could be associated with misconduct. 

Specifically, 16 percent had been diagnosed with PTSD or TBI, while the other conditions, such as adjustment and alcohol-related disorders, were more common. 

Of the 57,141 servicemembers, 23 percent, or 13,283, received an “other than honorable” characterization of service, making them potentially ineligible for health benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). 

GAO found that the military services' policies to address the impact of PTSD and TBI on separations for misconduct are not always consistent with DOD policy. For example, contrary to DOD policy, Navy policy does not require a medical examination—or screening—for certain servicemembers being separated in lieu of trial by court-martial to assess whether a PTSD or TBI diagnosis is a mitigating factor in the misconduct charged. 

This type of separation occurs when a servicemember facing a trial by court-martial requests, and is approved, to be discharged administratively. In addition, GAO found that two of the four military services have TBI training polices that are inconsistent with DOD policy. GAO also found that the Army and Marine Corps may not have adhered to their own screening, training, and counseling policies related to PTSD and TBI. 

For example, GAO found that 18 of the 48 nongeneralizable sample separation packets reviewed for Marine Corps servicemembers administratively separated for misconduct lacked documentation showing that the servicemember had been screened for PTSD and TBI. 

During interviews with Army officers, GAO found that some officers may not have received training to identify mild TBI symptoms, despite Army policy that all servicemembers should be trained. Further, GAO found instances in which both Army and Marine Corps may not have adhered to their counseling policies, which require that servicemembers, specifically prior to requesting separation in lieu of trial by court-martial, be counseled about their potential ineligibility for VA benefits and services. 

For 11 of the 48 separation packets included in GAO's analysis of Army servicemembers who requested separation in lieu of trial by court-martial, there was no documented evidence—or the evidence was unclear—as to whether the servicemembers received counseling.

KPPC in 2016 reported the number of "bad paper discharges" since 1990, was 615,000.

None of them would have been counted in the suicide data.

Getting back to the data itself, this chart shows the "known" suicides in the first VA Suicide report released in 2012.

This is from the latest report from the VA on known suicides.

As you can see, the percentages went up and the number of living veterans dropped by over 4 million. Again, as with all the reports, the majority of veterans committing suicide were over the age of 50, as well as the majority of the less than honorable discharges, were also of those older generations.

If you are among the veterans who were kicked out instead of treated, the VA is trying to find you~

VA Struggles To Reach Other-Than-Honorable-Discharge Vets In Need Of Help

Advocates Fault VA for Inadequate OutreachThe VA last year estimated there are more than 500,000 OTH vets. 

Nationally, 115 veterans have used the program, a figure that's disappointing to veterans advocates. They say it represents just a small fraction of the veterans who now qualify for mental health care. 

"It's not possible that that's the number of people who need help," said Kristofer Goldsmith, an Iraq vet who works with the Vietnam Veterans of America. "It's a failure to contact them, to fully inform them and to break the stigma." 

Vietnam Veterans of America lobbied the VA to help veterans with other-than-honorable discharges. 

"It's a program that most people who are eligible for don't know about, and the reason for that is that VA refused to do any outreach," said Vietnam Veterans of America executive director Rick Weidman.Weidman said there was an internal debate over whether the VA could pay to reach out to veterans who normally don't qualify for VA care.

After racking my brain for one more piece of all of this, is a report from Jacksonville Times Union going back to 2014. The report said that there were only 250,000 Vietnam veterans with "less than honorable discharges" and that "80,000" of them may be due to PTSD.