Svali: An Underacknowledged Influence on Alter Programming Conspiracy Theories
I realized that for all I’ve written about Svali, I’ve never done a proper 101 post on her. I constantly see alter programming believers who warn people to stay away from her because she’s been exposed as a fraud and she’s pushing racist stuff, but what these people don’t realize is that she’s one of the sources of the parts of the conspiracy theory they believe in. She’s been an influence on people like Dr. Alison Miller (who explicitly quotes and recommends her in Healing the Unimaginable: Treating Ritual Abuse & Mind Control), Dr. Ellen Lacter (who literally recommends her on her website), and Unwelcome Ozian (who copied a lot of her material).
Basically, Svali is a woman who helped bring the Satanic Panic into the 21st century. She first became active on the Internet in 2000, presenting herself as an Illuminati survivor and former programmer who was here to help educate people on the topic of ritual abuse. She posted numerous articles on Suite 101 from March of 2000 to October of 2002. (Here are two archived versions of Svali’s Suite 101 publications – here and here. The first link is older and doesn’t have some of her later content; the newer one was made at a point where some of her older material was removed.)
This is a long post, so I'm putting the rest below the cut.
In a Suite 101 article titled Are the Illuminati taking over the world, published November 25, 2000, she wrote:
If a person states that the Illuminati are planning to rule the world, many in the media immediately label the person as a "conspiracy theorist" with the wild-eyed look of Mel Gibson in the movie of that name. Or accuse them of "fanatical fundamentalist Christianity" as if that were an epithet (oh, that we lived in a world where that was considered highest praise instead of a term of shame).
Nice lady, huh? /sarcasm
In 2000, she also published a book titled Breaking the Chain: Breaking free of cult programming. (If you’re curious to read it, it’s archived here.) In her own words, “This book is directed towards therapists working with DID clients, and is not intended to take the place of the therapeutic process.”
Her work was also hosted at CenterExNews, a far right conspiracy theory site. (The oldest archived version of the page hosting her work is here.) When readers contacted the site with questions, chief editor HJ Springer got in contact with her for an interview where she shared even more conspiracy theories. This interview, for those who are curious, has been preserved over here.
In 2006, she gave an interview with Greg Szymanski, then seemingly disappeared from the Internet. This naturally made people wonder if the Illuminati had got her. But since the Illuminati is fake, Svali was just fine. In 2016, she published a book titled Svali speaks – breaking free of cult programming. In 2017, she started a blog titled Svali Speaks Again. (As of March of 2026, her last post was made June 18, 2025.) Her books are also available on Amazon.
Svali was heavily influenced by Fritz Springmeier and Cisco Wheeler. She claimed that members of the Illuminati belonged to thirteen bloodlines, an idea pushed by Fritz Springmeier and elaborated on in his book Bloodlines of the Illuminati. She claimed that the Illuminati gave people color, gem, and jewel programming – ideas which entered into alter programming mythology through Springmeier and Wheeler. Like Springmeier and Wheeler, she claimed that modern media such as Disney movies, The Wizard of Oz, and Star Wars were used in programming. Like Springmeier and Wheeler, she talks about “twinning,” a process where two children will be forced to bond and at times hurt each other. She talks about many of the same kinds of internal structures Springmeier and Wheeler claim exist, such as pyramids, carousels, grids, and spider webs. She talks about demons being placed into systems as guards, which Springmeier and Wheeler also talk about.
Breaking the Chain essentially condensed much of the rambling, repetitive contents of Springmeier and Wheeler’s work into something that could be read in an afternoon. While we’re here, let’s compare Breaking the Chain with Springmeier and Wheeler’s 1996 book, The Illuminati Formula Used To Create A Total Undetectable Mind Controlled Slave:
Svali, 2000:
One form of programming that is quite common in the Illuminati is color programming. Why is it done? The answer is that trainers are human, and also quite lazy. Color programming is a simple way to organize systems, and allows the trainer to call up alters easily within a system. With the thousands of fragments that many multiples in the cult have, colors is a way of organizing them into an easily accessible group.
Springmeier and Wheeler, 1996:
Color programming is reported to have been developed at UCLA. Whatever the case, Systems all over the United States have color programming. The hierarchy of colors in a System is often as follows (from top power down): Platinum, Gold, Silver, Purple, Black, Red, Green, Brown, White, Orange, Yellow, Pink. Clear is also used as a color for secret areas of the system.
Svali, 2000:
Emerald will often come later (ages 12 to 15). This is considered very precious, and is linked to family loyalty, witchcraft, and spiritual achievement. Emeralds will often have a black cat, or "familiar" linked to them.
Springmeier and Wheeler, 1996:
RED. These altars see themselves as witches. They were born out of witchcraft ritual, believe they have great spiritual power, and tend to deny that they have been abused. GREEN or EMERALD GREEN. These cat altars recognize they have been abused.
Svali, 2000:
Nowadays, movies and videos are frequently used in programming. Favorite scripts include: Walt Disney movies (Disney was an Illuminist), especially Fantasia, Sleeping Beauty, The Little Mermaid, Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast. The Wizard of Oz, both books and movie, has been used. Any movie that incorporates Illuministic themes can be used. E.T. and Star Wars have been used in more recent years. … Military programming may be linked to Star Wars. Total recall programming may be linked to Data in Star Trek. Computer programming may be linked to Hal in 2001 A Space Odyssey; internal labyrinth programming may be linked to the movie "Labyrinth". The possibilities are quite varied and will depend on both the child and the trainer as to which direction script programming will go.
Springmeier and Wheeler, 1996:
Alice In Wonderland, the Wizard of Oz and the Tall Book of Make Believe played a fundamental role as "software" in a System. The Wizard of Oz stories are often used to show how & what structures to put in the small victim’s internal world. The stories even teach HOW to create an internal world and its parts. In 1986, a movie called "Labyrinth" was produced by Cherry McFadden. The movie was Monty Python’s "Terry Jones" scripted. The movie is a portrayal of what the internal world inside a Monarch mind-controlled slave looks like. The Monarch slave has an internal world built inside their mind in which the hundreds and thousands of alters must live in. The alters are given a psychotic world of fiction in which they must live in as reality. In the beginning, the programmer must bring order out of the chaos he has created. He must use some type of structure to place worlds. In recent years, these have been solar systems, galaxies, and planets, because they have gone to Star Trek, Star Wars, Alien types of programming. Each planet may have a type of alter--a family, if you will, of alters who are similar. They will not be able to travel to other solar systems, or stars, or galaxies without transportation. Spaceships, and teleporters have now replaced the elevator that the older systems used to go up and down the worlds.
Svali, 2000:
Another set up will involve twinning, which deserves special mention here. The Illuminati will often create twin bonds in their children. The ideal is to have a set of real twins, but of course this is not always possible. So, the child is allowed to play with, and become close to, another child in the cult from earliest childhood. … But at some point, they will be forced to hurt each other. If one "twin" is considered expendable, the ultimate set up will be one in which one twin is forced to die while the other watches. One twin may gather secrets from the other twin, be forced to disclose them to a trainer or cult leader, then may be forced to kill the other. One twin may be forced to hit, or hurt the other.
Springmeier and Wheeler, 1996: Two Sisters-of-Light (the level before Mothers-of-Darkness) will be placed before a many-faced mirror with intense lights and programmed to see each other as inseparable. They become twins, and are programmed to die if the other one dies. They are taught to be one in body, mind, and soul. They are bonded in many ways, including torturing each other, and sexual bonding.
Svali, 2000:
Jewel programming will often have demons loyal to the generational family spirits layered in. These are called the “family jewels”. The demons “guard them” and help protect the programming surrounding them.
Springmeier and Wheeler, 1996:
Part of the programming includes the layering in of demonic forces, and the participation in blood rituals in order to draw in the most powerful of demons.
Hopefully, this is enough to demonstrate where Svali is getting her ideas from them. You’ll find even more undeniable parallels if you compare the rest of their works with each other. Springmeier and Wheeler’s books can easily be found online. You can find a bunch of their books archived here. (But before you do that, you should read Check your conspiracy theory. Does it sound anything like this?, Check your conspiracy theory part two: double, double, boil and trouble, and Check Your Conspiracy Theory Part Three: Babylonian Mysteries?? In My Religion???, because these will help you be aware of the exact conspiracy theory tropes Springmeier and Wheeler are recycling so you can avoid internalizing them.)
Here are some other notable claims Svali made in Breaking the Chain (many of which overlap with Springmeier and Wheeler):
The Illuminati is a secret cult that traces its roots back to ancient mystery religions, including Babylonian mystery religion. (There was no Babylonian mystery religion. A 19th century conspiracy theorist named Alexander Hislop made this up.)
The Knights Templar were satanists who practiced all kinds of horrible things. (There is no evidence that the Knights Templar did any of the stuff they were accused of. King Philip IV, who stood to gain their money if they were found guilty, had them tortured into confession.)
The original Illuminists were bankers. (International banking cults! The antisemitic trope that gets a new facelift every 5-10 years and just refuses to die!)
Some cult members are trained to have photographic recall. (This is not actually possible; there is no such thing as photographic memory. Conspiracy theorists just claimed that DID could give you photographic memory to make people less likely to question their claims.)
Some of the ways the Illuminati make money include porn, prostitution, and drug running. (Typical conservative moral panic stuff found in other literature that fed into and promoted the Satanic Panic.)
The Illuminati has breeders, people who are chosen at childhood to bear children for the cult. Where other people (such as Lauren Stratford) claimed cult breeders were forced to bear children for ritual sacrifice, Svali claims that the children are usually just given to someone else to raise and the mothers are told they were sacrificed to stop them from looking for their children.
The Illuminati sends people to journalism school so they can write media pushing whatever viewpoint the Illuminati wants people to believe (like for example, that SRA isn’t real). One of those “the conspiracy controls the media!” conspiracy theories the far right loves so much.
The Illuminati plans to take over the world via causing financial collapse and enacting a military takeover. All of the Illuminati’s members (which comprised 1% of the population when Svali left the cult) are highly trained in combat, weapons use, crowd control, and psychological and behavioral techniques. Their banking leaders will step forward and offer to fix the economy with a one-world currency system, ushering in the One World Order. (This is basically your typical USAmerican Christofascist “how the Antichrist will come into power” myth.)
Illuminati training actually begins before birth. Headphones might be placed on the mother’s abdomen and loud, discordant music will be played. Or she might be made to drink substances that make the amniotic fluid bitter. Or her abdomen might be hit or given electroshock, especially when near-term.
Babies are physically and psychologically tortured from birth to induce dissociation and fragmentation.
Children are given military programming from the age of three. According to Svali, “The youth are taught to leave behind the weak, or slow members. Unfit members are shot or killed, and the youth leader learns to do these tasks.” Meanwhile in the real world, military training instills the opposite of this – soldiers are taught to care for each other like family no matter what. This isn’t because military leaders just aren’t edgy enough to admit that trauma-based mind control is where it’s at, but because for good or ill, it works.
In modern times, movies (especially Walt Disney movies) are used as programming scripts. (I want to emphasize here that this is one of the things she got from Fritz Springmeier and Cisco Wheeler! Don’t believe me? See what they claimed about scripts back in 1997 for yourself!)
Programmers can supposedly create “blank slate” alters. If you understand how DID actually works, you will understand why this is impossible.
All members of the Illuminati are given suicidal programming, which is built on the basis of programming them to think that they would rather die than leave their family. No tell programming is reinforced by suicide programming.
If someone escapes the cult, family members still in it will try and reach out to the survivor saying things like “don’t you love us anymore?” and insisting that their family loves them and would never be part of a cult. So basically, acting exactly like confused and hurt family members would act after being wrongly accused of being in a cult that sacrifices babies for funsies is proof that they are in a cult.
The Illuminati teaches children that if they tell anyone, no one will believe them.
“Siblings are often cross trained to access each other with special codes. Remember when.... may initiate this. I love you, or, your family loves you, can also be used. Phrases will be individual, depending on the person's family members and background.” So basically, if a sibling says anything to you to try and make you come back to your senses, it’s proof they’re secretly Illuminati.
She claims that “birthday, holiday or we miss you cards, or letters, may be sent with trigger codes embedded in them” and that “bouquets with a certain number of flowers, or color may be sent. Daisies may fire off daisy programming internally.” This is the kind of thing I like to call a “witch tit,” after the sundry body marks and dermatological oddities that allegedly proved a woman was in league with the devil. A witch tit is not evidence of a conspiracy, but rather a normal, unremarkable thing that conspiracy theorists spin as evidence of a conspiracy.
Svali says, “If all else fails, hostility will start. "You don't love us" will be heard, even when the survivor has stated repeatedly that they care. Boundaries drawn with cult members will be misinterpreted as lack of concern, or withdrawal. Accusations, guilt, and anger as well as manipulation will be used as hooks to make the survivor feel guilty for withdrawing from the cult.” These are all actually incredibly normal responses from normal people who feel hurt and confused when someone cuts them off for seemingly no good reason, even if they may not necessarily be appropriate or healthy. In other words, more witch tits.
“Survivors of Illuminati programming will always have some type of hierarchy inside. This is because the cult itself is very hierarchical, and puts this hierarchy inside the person.” A failure to consider whether there’s any other reason someone’s alters might be in a hierarchy – like maybe it’s just a common way alters form or a common adaptation to being a plural system, or maybe it has something to do with living in a hierarchical society.
The Illuminati was behind human experimentation in Nazi Germany.
The Illuminati has very special undetectable drugs, apparently. According to Svali: “Drugs are looked for which will shorten the time interval needed to induce trance state, which are quickly metabolized, and leave no detectable residues the next day.”
The Illuminati uses a book called The Book of Illumination. This is yet another piece of literature that should have surfaced somewhere by now if these conspiracy theories were true.
Demons can “almost instantaneously” heal injuries sustained during torture and programming sessions. (Claims that Satan and his demons have the power to work powerful miracles for their own ends goes back to the witch hunts!)
Some Illuminati groups program children to hate Christianity. (It can’t just be that you or one of your alters is honestly burned on Christianity as a consequence of religious abuse, no. Illuminati cultists must have done this to you!)
The Illuminati creates core splits by severely torturing a child around the age of eighteen months to three years. This is one of the big pseudoscientific things these people claim – there is no such thing as a “core self” in DID. There are alters who front more than others, but there is no core. This thread over from DiscussDID talks about this a bit. If you’d like a visual, this infographic is good.
“The techniques that create core splits are also dangerous, since they can also cause autism if the child cannot endure the programming. When I was in the cult, I fought to stop core splitting because occasionally children were lost or the foundational personality was too weakened.” Svali literally claims she personally saw children become autistic from failed alter programming. Meanwhile in the real world, one thing we know is that autism is not traumagenic.
Here are some notable things from her Suite 101 posts, that weren’t also mentioned in Breaking the Chain.
Svali says that ritual abuse goes back “thousands of years.” The only example she gives are cases of human sacrifice. The thing is, the existence of human sacrifice does not even remotely suggest that alter programming exists. However, this is a very common non-sequitur that proponents of this conspiracy theory like to use. (And furthermore, “abuse” isn’t the even right word for human sacrifice. The right words are “execution” and/or “murder.”
She claims that “the member's peers including family, closest friends, and spouse are ALL members of the group in generational cults." Functionally, this means that if you can’t convince everyone you know that they’re also part of the Illuminati, then you have to cut them off for your own safety. And let’s be real, few people are going react well when someone suddenly starts telling them they’re part of an evil conspiracy. Reminder that cults – actual cults, not fake Illuminati alter programming cults – often tell people that if they can’t convert their friends and family, then they need to cut them off.
She claims many human sacrifices were faked. One way they were supposedly faked? A corpse was obtained and filled with warm blood. Setting aside the fact that you can’t exactly just go downtown to your local corpse store and pick up a fresh corpse whenever you want, warm blood wouldn’t stay warm in a cold body for very long!
Psychological tortures allegedly include “mock burials, being placed in cages, abandonment, being hung over a bridge, with the child later being "rescued" and told that if they ever tell, they will be returned to the punishment.” Worth noting here, mock burials and cages were elements found in Michelle Remembers, which played a massive role in sparking fears of widespread ritual abuse and has been thoroughly debunked.
Spiritual programming can begin prenatally when an unborn child is dedicated to a deity. No, that’s not a misphrasing, Svali really does claim that unborn babies (or at least, some unborn babies) have enough cognition to be programmed.
Metal implants in the body can call up demon forces if someone misbehaves. Yes, supposedly electronic devices can somehow summon demons. (Implants are a very common trope in modern conspiracy theories, and many Christian conspiracy theorists believe demons can be attached to just about anything.)
She features an article written by an alleged SRA survivor (Kim Campbell) who at one point writes: “Their [the Satanists’] thoughts and writings have shaped Western civilization from the Greek philosophers through Augustine, Aquinas, the christian mystics of the thirteenth century, and much of the charismatic movement of today. Descartes, Spinoza, Kant, the philosophers of the Enlightenment. and many others arose from satanic culture. Polynesian religion, animism, spiritism, American Indian religion, Mayan and Incan culture, ancient Egyptian culture, and Greek religion all grew out of satanism.” This is the level of raging bigotry and anti-intellectualism that Svali promotes and endorses.
Campbell also “remembered” that his real father was Edouard Phillipe de Rothschild. Why him? Because the Rothschilds have been the target of antisemitic conspiracy theories since the 19th century. (Fritz Springmeier includes the Rothschild family in his 13 Illuminati bloodlines.)
She claims people are tortured on holidays (both normal holidays and secret cult holidays), and links to this alleged occult calendar. There’s no evidence that most of these dates have any particular significance to any occultists anywhere, and the Feast of the Beast specifically comes from Michelle Remembers.
With all that, I’d like to end this by saying that we don’t find the truth by taking a bunch of claims and picking out the parts that feel truthy or politically useful. Just because something emotionally resonates with us or aligns with our beliefs doesn’t make it true. We find the truth by seeking evidence – not the ordinary things conspiracy theorists try to present as evidence, not the anecdotal claims, but real evidence. We look for clear, unambiguous physical evidence. (I have listed some potential examples of physical evidence over here.)
If you would like to learn more about how we know Project Monarch/alter programming are pseudoscientific conspiracy theories, click here. If you'd like to learn more about the tropes, history, and behaviors of conspiracy theories in general, click here.
