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Turning the Unspeakable Into A Movement to Help Others
Mirror-touch synesthete and child trafficking survivor Kelly Dore
Posted February 19, 2018
In her recent testimony before the Colorado State Senate Health and Human Services Committee regarding a bill she helped draft, child trafficking survivor Kelly Dore dredged the horror up yet again. On February 15 she explained the following for those lawmakers considering her proposed Senate Bill 18-084, which would enhance protections for minors who are victims of this most evil of crimes:
"I do not like to assume anything in life, but I am going to assume that no one in this committee is a child survivor of human trafficking and adverse childhood sexual trauma. I am going to assume that as kindergartners, you did not have to sneak to the restroom in order to try to stop the bleeding from the immense and repeated genital trauma and have to hide it from your teachers and classmates because you feared for your life. Nor I assume would story time be one of your most excruciating memories because you were forced to sit cross legged with your classmates. You would shift because the pain was so intense, only to be yelled at by the teacher because you were fidgety...
"I am going to assume that at 11 you would be forced to hide packets of drugs inside your body so your trafficker did not get caught- all the while being told that the police would throw you in jail for the rest of your life if you got caught. I am going to assume that once you had the courage to tell someone, you could not imagine the trauma you would face while trying to seek justice. The countless hours of being questioned, retelling what happened, showing your body to strangers to examine you inside and out, being put on the stand and accused of having perverse sexual fantasies by the attorneys of your trafficker, being called mentally unstable by the people who are supposed to help you, so they can file their reports. I am going to assume that you have no idea what I am describing and how that can happen to a child because it should never happen. Yet, it does, every day to a child in Colorado."
Those who wish to hear her entire testimony can find it at the following link: http://coloradoga.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=46&clip_id=12016
Today, heroine and survivor Kelly Dore is using her mirror-touch synesthesia -- her profound empathy -- to rebuild her shattered life and make sure this doesn't happen to any more children. My own mirror-touch neurons cry out for everyone beyond her state of Colorado to take notice and do everything they can to support such people going forward.
Why did you get involved in this most important of human rights issues?
KD: I was sexually trafficked from the ages of 1 to 14 by my biological father. When I was 16 years old, I faced my trafficker in court. The city and county of Denver brought 27 counts against him, and he pled guilty to 19. In doing so, he avoided having to register as a sex offender, he avoided having to pay over half a million dollars in restitutive care and child support and also only served 10 months for the 14 years of my life he caused me to suffer. He was able to hire one of the best defense attorneys in the state, while claiming to be indigent and unable to pay restitution. The laws weren't strict, nor did they define Human Trafficking, it really has been in the last 7-10 years that we have begun to address it. I was able to persevere and became the first woman in his immediate family to graduate high school and graduate college. I went on to become the first female elected Commissioner in my County and also went on to becoming a White House Advisor for Human Trafficking for the current and past administrations, but not before great personal and emotional cost to my soul.
I recognized that if I wanted to heal, I needed to step up and be a voice for other survivors, I did not recognize that I was a victim of Human Trafficking until about 7 years ago, even though I was working with other organizations around the world to help women and children, I began to focus on the United States and realized that there were many forms of human trafficking from commercial to familial to labor and sex. I realized that one of the first places we needed to educate and begin to address was our legislative system to bring awareness to this issue and also create laws to protect victims of all ages, genders, race, creed and religion. By strengthening laws and requiring pimps/traffickers to pay stronger restitution fees that will go to the victims, it will create trust in the system by many survivors, who do not feel the justice system is on their side, and will help them to move forward and heal.
Do you feel your mirror-touch synesthesia compels you to help?
KD: I believe this absolutely compels me to help. I feel everything, I take it in and I've had to learn to protect myself through using Reiki, meditation and simply not owning what their experiences are. Part of me understands that my soul contracted this life and that I am strong enough to endure my past so I can help souls heal and move forward to recognize that we are not defined by our past, but by the choices we make in our futures, out of exploitation. I am also a counselor and spent a few years in my private practice where I used many forms of synesthesia to help people to heal, move forward or simply understand their existence in the life they have.
What other forms of synesthesia do you have? When did you discover them?
KD: My first memories of synesthesia were after a near death experience at 2 years old, it was brief and was when I went under water in a pool, I could feel myself exiting my body, but see everything that was happening around me. I have had four in my life and each time, the information and experiences are stronger and make sense to me. I like to refer to it as a download, like I touch something or hear something, I get a strong ringing in my ear and its like I step out of my body for a bit to experience and have the information placed in my head. It is like watching an interactive movie, where I can see, hear, feel, smell and taste all that I am experiencing. I believe that most children who have experienced some form of adverse childhood or sexual trauma can have this experience. This trauma is outlined in the ACES study and can change our DNA and the responses we have to certain situations.
When the thalamus is pitted with stress that occurs over and over again, it can cause many forms of synesthesia in children, which grows stronger as they get older. It is also a reason the United States needs to look at preventative programs for survivors and we need to look at the long term health care affects of children with adverse trauma and educate medical professionals, therapists and community members to address it.
Top synesthesia expert, neuroscientist Dr. V.S. Ramachandran, calls mirror-touch neurons "Gandhi" neurons. Can you comment on that as a human rights activist?
KD: I believe it is innate in us and we cannot help but be compelled to get involved, sometimes at great personal cost or judgment from people who do not understand what we do. I spent a great deal of my 20's and 30's trying to hide who I was and trying to brush off the things I saw or felt. The worst feeling in the world is to see something you know might happen and not be able to stop it. As I said above, I believe that we are contracted to the lives we have and it is a progression of our souls to move forward and learn the lessons given to us. This means advocating for those without voices, for the most vulnerable in our society and to speak our truths when confronted. I found that I am less conflicted at almost 40 years old not compromising with who I am or what I see or feel. This doesn't mean I take on every cause or the world, it means I show others how to be better human beings by my actions and the life I live. It is not perfect and we are all fallible human beings, but I am more honest about who I am and where I am supposed to go. Gandhi lived and died by that and I believe it is something you cannot fight, it is ingrained in the fabric of our biological make-up.
What can we do to prevent more people from falling prey to this? How can we otherwise help existing victims and survivors?
KD: There are more forms of slavery in the world today than at any other point in history, I do not believe that in my lifetime, we will stop the occurrence of it, but I believe that laws and awareness are a start. Honestly, in my experience, it is a conscious choice that we must make and it is also a cultural change within the way we view our belief systems. Human trafficking occurs in religions, in business practices, in societal practices and wherever other humans have the ability to have power or control over another life. It is about everyone respecting the dignity of life and that every person has a value and infinite right to live freely. We, in the United States are a throw away culture and we place values on people we deem not worthy of living, we do this through our political views, our religious views, and our human rights views. When we move away from seeing every life equal and valuable, we continue to spur the instances of humans violating the rights of other human beings.
Can you provide links to your sites and and any other helpful resources?
KD: I am the Director of the National Human Trafficking Survivor Coalition- www.NHTSC.org
I am also an Ambassador to Shared Hope International and Legislative Advocate- www.SharedHope.org
I use a lot of information from their page and Polaris- www.Polarisproject.org and
www.wearethorn.org, The Thorn Impact Report.
Victims may also reach out to The Federal Bureau of Investigation - www.fbi.gov and www.dhs.gov- the Department of Homeland Security.
