Two weeks after leaving Amara in a safe place to receive long term trauma treatment, I received a call from the founder and owner of the facility. She stated that Amara had received a phone call from one of the traffickers. Of course, the phone call and message were not forwarded to Amara. Part of the agreement to be there plus the judge’s order, only a short, predetermined list of people could contact her. This was not just for Amara’s safety but for the welfare of the staff as well as the other clients.
This message was a brazen demonstration of domination that signified that the traffickers were not going to just let go of their hold on Amara. Soon after the call, a letter was sent to Amara from one of the other victims. After reading its rather innocuous contents, I was left with a feeling of intimidation – this was a veiled threat not a friendly note.
In fact, throughout Amara’s incarceration and even when she was home, she received letters from her “friends” that always contained veiled threats.
As an example, one of the letters stated: “My brother just got out of jail and died within a week from a bad car accident. You be careful and watch who you talk to, I don’t want to see you end up like him.”
I immediately flew to the treatment facility with my team of personal protection officers. We scoured the town to find out if the traffickers had sent someone there. We knew from past experience that all it would take was eye contact and Amara would be out the door compelled by her brainwashing to leave the center.
The facility seemed impenetrable to all of us with no real access to the outside roads or sidewalks. To this day, I am not sure how they did it, but knew in my heart that somehow the traffickers had made contact with Amara.
The neurology of trauma and mind control is a fascinating subject to me. Our brains are always scanning to locate danger. When a person has been traumatized as long as Amara has, the mind is hyper vigilant.
Our unconscious will override our conscience and we will behave in a way that defies logic unless you account for the unconscious mind fighting logic in its attempt to survive. In my speeches, I often tell a short story of how this works and how we evolved to survive to make it as a species to this modern day.
I tell the audiences, imagine there is a bear over there. If I take the time to notice the bear, compute that’s a bear and then summon up all the adrenaline and oxygen I need to run, I will be bear food. What really happens, the unconscious senses danger, my body instantly summons up one of three responses fight, flight, or freeze. My mind and body work instantly to provide bursts of adrenalin to make my next steps possible. Then after I am away from the danger, my logic says, what happened, oh it was a bear.
A person who has been in long term trauma is in a constant state of reaction. Their survival button is stuck in the on position. Their survival mind will default to fight, flight or freeze depending on how it learned to survive in the trafficking experiences. It will switch between these methods rapidly depending on how it perceives the danger. The bad guys know this and program the victim to respond in ways that help the traffickers achieve control.
I visited Amara and immediately saw that her demeanor had changed. It was an entire shift in her personality. She was now talking robotically and was asking over and over when she could leave.
Damn! Somehow, she either saw someone or by some means just knew they were nearby. I knew our time was short.
Simultaneously, the Texas probation department contacted the facility to let them know that Amara could no longer stay there. They were trying to override the judge’s orders to be at the center. The Texas probation officer had some kind of hold on Amara that she was using to pull her back to Texas.
I immediately called Amara’s attorney, who refused to respond, stating that his court appointed duty ended when the court hearing was over. Amara was abandoned and I was so frustrated.
Amara was in mid treatment with her emotional armor being repaired and about to be pulled right back into the fire. This interlude of Amara’s life could prove to be exceedingly difficult as she was not healed, and she was not hardened.
It could prove to be worse than ever. Both the traffickers and the state of Texas were now working against us. This was a bureaucratic mountain the size of Mount Everest and just as dangerous a climb. I had to keep Amara safe was foremost in my thoughts as I planned my next move!
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