Is the global power structure fueled by child-abuse? Trance Formation is one woman's story of what happens when we create societies that believe in 'authority'.

Cathy O'Brien's book tells the story of her traumatic conditioning and rape at the hands of powerful people, including George H.W. Bush and Hillary Clinton.

Cathy O'Brien speaking out about her abuse experiences

The book seemed implausible to many when first published in 1995. But in the light of the recent Harvey Weinstein revelations; Bill Cosby's horrifying spree of sexual abuse; and the news that at least one British Prime Minister was a child-rapist and murderer, it seems worth revisiting O'Brien's claims as fact.

As a woman, her voice was already marginalized. Given the extremity of her experiences, and those of her daughter, it is amazing that O'Brien ever came to a point where she could write this book.

Where's the evidence?

Some might say O'Brien's remarkable claims require remarkable evidence, but the reader must consider whether the state of our planet is remarkable evidence enough: O'Brien's experiences are given credence not only by emerging evidence surrounding the complexity of the defense systems that surrounded (and still surround) people like Weinstein, but also by the general malaise that entraps Earth in a collective slow-suicide, both ecological and economic.

If you are looking for a cause, this could be it: The powerful are raping and abusing children on an industrial scale. Most everything else in our culture is a distraction from this trauma.

Hang on, you're probably thinking: This is madness. A half-cooked conspiracy theory! I trust my leaders.

Well, the acclaimed media-theorist Marshall McLuhan has something to say to this response:

Only the small secrets need to be protected. The big ones are kept secret by public incredulity.
—Marshall McLuhan

Disbelief in O'Brien's book is no longer enough. The sociopolitical landscape is changing fast, and our reaction to her writing, and the abuse-claims of all women, should be: "Tell us more; help us to understand." Instead of the centuries old cultural insistence that women (and all victims of abuse) keep quiet.

We say to survivors too often: "Keep quiet to protect our power structures: we need them! Keep quiet to protect my world-view: I don't want to hear anything that contradicts my reality!"

Abuse is fractal

Reading O'Brien's book I was struck by a strange similarity: Although she was describing the internal, hidden, function of the US Government, she could have been describing the internal, hidden function of my school. The similarities were uncanny: people in high positions (teachers) passing trauma-conditioned children between themselves for the purpose of twisted sexual gratification. Compounded by the inability of anyone outside to see or question this behavior — often because they were engaged in doing it (or denying it) at a lower level of the fractal.

Just as everyone outside my school seemed to think the teachers were just wonderful, and the school prestigious, behind the scenes the teachers were abusing and raping the children. The same was true in my family structure.

And so, we see, the horrible fractal of society. The US government, in many ways, is us. If we cannot face abuse in the home and speak out; what hope is there to expose it in government?

I expect O'Brien's book will win a Pulitzer Prize.

In about 400 years from now.

For now it sits mostly unread on the shelves of a few independent bookstores.

Thank you for reading.