If you feel like you don't fit into the world you inherited it is because you were born to help create a new one.
~ Ross Caligiuri
To completely understand me you must first accept that I am not you.
~ Ross Caligiuri
My dream is to create something so beautiful that it encourages people to present the best version of themselves to me everywhere I go.
~ Ross Caligiuri
Eternity will not cause our memories to fade, it will force our hearts to accept the past.
~ Ross Caligiuri
To struggle against the weight of sleep as reality eclipses the moon of your dreams is the purest sign of true love.
~ Ross Caligiuri
Cherish your existence, for memories become legacies and life can change in an instant.
~ Ross Caligiuri
Try to think of it as though we are rewriting history––the first time this experience occurred you and I never kissed in this Dream Machine room. But now when we leave here, and open our eyes again near the wall around the center of Constance, that kiss will be included in our memories of the day we first met. We could spend a lifetime recreating this moment here, meanwhile, not a single second of our lives would slip by back in our reality. Time seems to move differently inside of our memories.
~ Ross Caligiuri
As her feet beat the concrete ground beneath them, her chest began to ache. It had been a long time since she had run at a full sprint. She was, quite literally, running for her life, and leaving everything she had known before behind. Regardless of her past experiences, here she was, blindly following a girl, who was virtually a stranger, because she had promised to lead Eleanor to safety.
~ Ross Caligiuri
Eleanor had heard talk of the rebellion that existed inside the city of Constance before. Most of the information she gathered was considered an old fairy tale by the general public. There were a few stories here and there about people angered by their present living conditions, who had demanded that the center of Constance be held responsible for it. However, information was never passed between the five different sectors. Over the years the tales of the rebellion had become children’s bedtime stories, and people did not take them seriously.
~ Ross Caligiuri
Here we go,” Phoenix said, turning back to Nora. “Try not to let this room scare you.
~ Ross Caligiuri
Every decision you make in life will stem from one of two options: love or fear. Choose love.
~ Ross Caligiuri
Some readers may find it a curious or even unscientific endeavour to craft a criminological model of organised abuse based on the testimony of survivors. One of the standard objections to qualitative research is that participants may lie or fantasise in interview, it has been suggested that adults who report severe child sexual abuse are particularly prone to such confabulation. Whilst all forms of research, whether qualitative or quantitative, may be impacted upon by memory error or false reporting. there is no evidence that qualitative research is particularly vulnerable to this, nor is there any evidence that a fantasy— or lie—prone individual would be particularly likely to volunteer for research into child sexual abuse. Research has consistently found that child abuse histories, including severe and sadistic abuse, are accurate and can be corroborated (Ross 2009, Otnow et al. 1997, Chu et al. 1999). Survivors of child abuse may struggle with amnesia and other forms of memory disturbance but the notion that they are particularly prone to suggestion and confabulation has yet to find a scientific basis. It is interesting to note that questions about the veracity of eyewitness evidence appear to be asked far more frequently in relation to sexual abuse and rape than in relation to other crimes. The research on which this book is based has been conducted with an ethical commitment to taking the lives and voices of survivors of organised abuse seriously.
~ Michael Salter