This section of my website will surely be the one closest to my heart, as it’s my ‘baby’, my book ‘Smokescreen: in the grip of a sociopath’. For me, it’s not just a manuscript: it’s my personal story, which I’ve decided to put down on paper.
This book clearly explains all the positions I’ve taken and the commitments I’ve made over the last three years, particularly regarding to manipulation techniques and human trafficking.
As I explain in my biography, I have chosen to write this latest book on my own, in order to have greater autonomy and freedom of speech about the disturbing events that I have experienced. I’ve already had experience of the traditional publishing world, following the publication of my first novel, and I’d like to thank Anyta for putting me in touch with Maître Jacques Verrecchia, who helped me to free myself from an abusive contract. The latter has prevented me from expressing myself freely over the last seven years.
In these writings, I recount, in the form of a novel, the meeting, the experiences and the exchanges I had with my American ex-partner, who grew up in a wealthy and renowned family on the West Coast of the United States.
This story started as a fairy tale before tumbling into what today seems like horror.
The story ark tracks the very events I lived. In the first two parts, the plot is set up and the reader is taken aback by certain passages, in order to be immersed into the real experience of being with Jason. Each word is important in the first two parts. They help to illustrate the rest of the book. The third part brings with it an accelerated pace, and the reader is fully embarked in the story, a quest for the truth, and especially Jason’s intentions including how far he was willing to go. The reader is drawn into a whirlwind of suspense in combination with increasingly strong and dark emotions.
In the final part, I recount how I was able to recover from this painful and mind-blowing experience.
The book is due to be published on the 4th of July 2023. I sincerely hope that it will help to raise some people’s awareness of today’s world, which is far crueler than most people can imagine. I also wanted to highlight all the revelations Jason made to me about the CIA and the Hollywood world, for which he and his family worked. To give you an idea of what it contains, I’m sharing the two prefaces written by journalist Richard Boutry and artist-author Fanny Allemand, as well as the introduction and twelve extracts. I would like to thank all the people who helped me with this project. They would take too long to list, but I know they will recognise themselves.
I’d also like to mention that Fanny Allemand designed the cover of my book. I had already written this article about her. In this section, I’ve included several paintings she made that inspired her after reading my novel (which she listens to, as she has a degenerative eye disease). However, I’m not yet revealing the final cover of the book, which is not included in these various sketches.
Before I send off the rest of the book, I’d also like to make it clear, as I did in this manuscript, that I have no regrets whatsoever about what happened to me. It is certainly one of the most striking and painful events of my life, but it is also what led me to defend the most beautiful cause in the world: that of children.
Preface and author’s note :
Claire tells us with great courage and truth of her unconditional ‘love’ for a man who was an absolute predator.
Throughout her autobiography, she demonstrates the perverse mechanisms that led to her total psychological destruction.
How could she have allowed herself to be abused in this way for so long, when she seemed so sharp, lucid and intelligent?
But Claire never saw it coming. She fell prey to total control, mental manipulation and psychological torture.
A book that can be devoured in a few hours.
You can’t put down such a well-written, fluid and sadly authentic story, with which many people can identify!
Richard Boutry
“If shadows did not exist, it would be impossible for us to contemplate the light”.
These are the words that resonate in my mind after discovering Claire Gabriel’s story.
“Smokescreen: in the grip of a sociopath” is a book that plunges us into the meanders of a mind almost under hypnosis, that of Claire, blinded by a toxic love that could have cost her her life.
I admire this woman and am particularly fond of her. She is a beacon of light in this world, because she chose to confront her greatest fears in order to become a reference in the field of prevention for all those who are victims of a hold.
Page after page, with the finesse of a pen that grabs you by the gut, the anguish builds to a crescendo and paralyses us, like an impasse in which there is no perceptible way out. It took considerable strength for her to face the truth… her truth, which unfortunately resonates in the hearts of many victims today. For me, Claire is an example of resilience and fighting spirit.
We were introduced by Anyta, a mutual friend. I don’t know Claire personally, but we spent many long hours on the phone. There’s a great deal of complicity in our exchanges and, above all, similarities in our respective personal histories, which mean that we understand each other when it comes to outlining many of the issues that are scorned by the suffocating silences that still prevail in our society today. Claire has a strength that I couldn’t pretend to have for a moment. She breaks silences every day, and she does it with the sole aim of protecting others. In her book, Claire lays herself bare and confides in us, in the greatest intimacy, what has happened to her and, through her words, honours what she has lost, part of her life, a child…
Love is the only possible resilience.
Fanny Allemand
I decided to write this autobiographical book as an outlet. I hope it will help anyone who has ever found themselves in the grip of a toxic person. This personal story proves that when we really want to, we can rise up from all kinds of situations, even the most dramatic, and turn them into a strength for causes that we feel are just and essential.
Claire Gabriel
Introduction :
“The manipulator uses sarcasm and put-downs to increase fear and self-doubt in the victim.
Manipulators use this tactic to make others feel unworthy and therefore defer to them.
Shaming tactics can be very subtle, such as a fierce look or glance, unpleasant tone of voice, rhetorical comments, and subtle sarcasm. Manipulators can make one feel ashamed for even daring to challenge them. It is an effective way to foster a sense of inadequacy in the victim”.
Dr. George Simon
This quote sums up the entire concept of this book.
I want to make something clear: this book is not a compilation of thoughts about antisocial personality disorder, because in this case we could be talking about sadism and perversity. The thing is, one always thinks that this kind of story only happens to other people… they’re wrong.
When I told my story to the people around me, some of them surprised me with a reaction I found meaningless: “Your story is just like a movie, and you’re like a science-fiction character! That could never have happened to ME. “
Yet… sociopaths, these sadistic and cruel creatures, devoid of empathy, of remorse and moral compass, still make up 4% of the general population. They walk among us every day, and they’re found in every kind of jobs and fields. They’re usually attracted to positive, spontaneous and generous people. They subconsciously envy them, being jealous of the qualities these people have, qualities they themselves lack. Like vampires, they spend their time elaborating strategies to feed off other people’s emotions.
They are natural born actors who use their memory to emulate observed emotions in order to feign feelings or excitement. They perfectly know how to blend in using this mask of simulated emotions, and that’s why, in the end, anyone can become their prey.
But what makes those beings so diabolical is their perfect mastery of the gaslighting techniques they use in order to ruin their victims. This way of having someone doubt their own memories and sanity is the most fearful form of psychological abuse.
The worst mistake one can make is to spend weeks trying to understand them, before reaching the conclusion that it’s a waste of time and energy. If there’s one lesson that needs to be learned, it’s that one should NEVER try to know how this kind of individuals can exist. One should just run away from them as fast as possible.
And when you get so brainwashed you’re starting to lose all connection with the real world, unable to separate truth from lies, totally losing your own sense of self, there are simply two possibilities left:
-denial, then downfall, then ending up on Prozac.
-denial, then downfall, then doing everything you can to get back up including making bad choices along the way.
However, as a friend often tells me: “In life there are no bad choices, only attempts so you can live new experiences.”
This is why I chose option number two…
12 extracts from the book:
“You’ll have to accept to follow me without question, even when we’ll have to move for whatever reason. You’ll have to post as little as possible on social media, and never post a single picture of me. You’ll also have to accept some my choices, some of which will bring great risk.”
“What do you mean by great risk?”
“You know I’m not attracted to a conventional life, sometimes I have to do strange things. I’m never satisfied, once the goldmines are done I’ll want more and more. These strange things will never harm you. I prefer to warn you that sometimes they may cause you to miss important plans. I don’t do crime and I don’t break laws. I just am very creative and I break rules.”
“A few minutes later I was about to close the washing machine when I spotted a beautiful cashmere sweater from a famous French brand. Jason had mainly handed me trousers, tee-shirts and a few sweaters. I had not paid attention but I couldn’t put cashmere in the washing machine since it would destroy it. When I grabbed it to wash it by hand, a detail caught my attention: there was a gaping hole under one of the arms.
“Jason, can you come here for a few seconds?” I called him from the bathroom.
“Something wrong?”
“What happened to your sweater?” I asked, pointing at the hole.
“Oh that’s nothing.” he said, taking it. He went to the kitchen, me following him. Then he opened the trashcan and threw the sweater away.
“But… what are you doing?” I asked, astounded.
“Isn’t that where ripped clothes belong?” he answered without a care.
“Come on Jason, it’s just a hole! I can mend it or ask my mother to do it, since she’s better than me in this department.”
“You won’t do such a thing.” he sounded final, and kissed me on the forehead. “I’ll buy another one, it’s no big deal.”
The next day I spotted the same kind of damage on his socks, his underwear and another sweater when I wanted to hang them to dry. All these clothes were from designer brands, but that didn’t stop Jason from throwing them away while they were still wet, asserting that he’d just buy some new ones. “So you’re the kind of guy who’d rather throw some good clothes into the dumpster instead of mending them? Why don’t you directly throw your clothes away instead of washing them while you’re at it? Way more practical!” I joked. “Well, why don’t I? Good idea!!” he answered with a big smile.
That silly comment made me laugh, but I still wondered how he’d ended up with so many torn clothes.”
“You can’t imagine what she went through. My best friend was in her class. I’m not just talking about the gum that was put in her hair as a teenager out of jealousy, but everything she had to put up with before that. This girl was absolutely kind. She was abused, raped, mistreated and it was her own family who sent her to this hell, so that she could be trained to become a whore! A whore of the system that exploited her, so that she could pervert the younger generations, under the guise of liberating women and sexuality, when she was basically modest and innocent.”
He seemed so angry when I told him that she was a shallow woman who promoted nothing but idiocy, narcissism, materialism and interstellar emptiness: “You don’t know what she’s been through, so stop judging her! You have no idea what those scoundrels put US through, it’s beyond anything you can imagine!”
US… No indeed, I didn’t even understand why he included himself in that sentence but didn’t try to understand at the time.”
“He then burst out laughing, although his emotion seemed full of bitterness, given the sadness I saw in his eyes: “The masses are so hypnotised that they see nothing of the signs and symbols that have been right in front of their eyes for a long time.
I suppose you’re familiar with this famous satirical cartoon series, broadcast in 1989 by the network that blackmailed my grandfather into selling them his production company on the cheap. This family of yellow men supposedly predicts the future. The creator, who was inspired by his own family, is also nothing more than a 33rd degree freemason who reveals everything, and he’s certainly not a medium. He knows exactly where he needs to take the masses.
I only listened to him with one ear, because some of what he was saying seemed so far-fetched.
Just two years later, I once again couldn’t help but make the connection with the speech that British comedian Ricky Gervais gave at the Golden Globes, in front of a whole assembly of Hollywood stars. It was as if Jason’s words were still echoing in my mind.”
“Just drop it, I’m not leaving everything behind to live in Africa, not even this summer! Living in a golden cage because the cost of living is low, even though most people there live in appalling conditions? Yeah, count me out of that one.” I told him for the nth time.
He suddenly burst out laughing, before saying with a serious expression: “You criticise Africa for not being safe enough for you as a privileged little Westerner, but let me tell you something: your country is probably one of the worst in the world, riddled with evil to an extent you have no idea. It’s run by bandits, the worst criminals there are: the so-called white-collar criminals, who have blood flowing freely on their hands, unlike many countries, particularly in Africa. Believe me, I know what I’m talking about, unfortunately. These psychopaths will always maintain divisions, wars and social inequalities to preserve their power, their hold and their conditions. Claire, never forget, the bigger the lie, the easier it is to spin. Their lies are huge, but if the people believe them, that means they consent to their actions.”
“A few days later I was watching TV when I heard scratching at the door. I opened the door with a reproach:
“Come on, can’t you knock or ring the bell like a regular person?”
“We’re not regular people and you know it!” he joked. “We’re both equally crazy and that’s why we’re so compatible and meant to be together! And say what you will, but how was I to know Navid wasn’t at your place?”
“Navid!? That guy you used to work for when I met you?” I replied. I was totally taken aback by that question which came out of nowhere.”
“My mother dropped me in front of my building. I was so excited to see him again. But as I pressed the elevator button, I knew… I already knew he would be gone. I opened the door in a hurry. The entrance to my apartment was in total darkness. I couldn’t believe my eyes. In a complete state of shock, I dropped my suitcase and travel bag, both of which crashed on the floor with a thud that echoed in the whole apartment.
“Oh shit… no… it can’t be… that bastard, he wouldn’t!!” I shouted aloud.
I didn’t know it yet, but I was about to live the longest and most horrible nightmare of my life. And it would begin with a never-ending interrogation night at the police station.”
“Alright now, tell me the exact contents of that yellow file you said you found.” The police officer seemed calmer now.
I looked at my mother, who was staring at the floor. At that moment, I think she was so ashamed of me that she would have loved for a trapdoor to open underneath her feet. However she brutally raised her head and gave me an order: “Stop protecting him right now. It’s over. Tell them everything you know!!”
I sighed and I started a story that would last several hours: “You can start by crossing out the name you wrote down. It’s not his real name, he uses many names.”
“But it would take a little more time for me to discover the whole truth about Jason, which was worse than my worst fears. I didn’t know it yet but I’d met the Devil himself under a human guise. And I’d been his lover for a year.”
“I could be called careless and totally childish, but I clearly wasn’t a sore loser. My whole body was sore, especially my back which was extremely sore. I went to the bedroom to rest a few hours in my bed. Once comfy under my duvet, I considered those last wild weeks of almost constant partying. I was growing tired and bored. I knew coming back to Earth was going to be difficult, and I knew that unhealthy lifestyle was clearly a case of self-destruction.
I felt like I was walking through an endless dark tunnel with no light on the horizon.”
“That night my friend pushed my back against a wall, crying, and yelled at me: “Come on, wake the fuck up, this is not you!! It’s like you’re dead inside! I can see how unwell you are and I feel like there’s nothing I can do!”
“I bent over to grab a pair of scissors on the floor and spotted an envelope from afar, between the bar and the wall. It had just my first and last name written on it. I opened it and discovered two pictures which left me speechless. I looked at them for only a few seconds before dropping them on the kitchen floor and running out.
I rushed to the janitor’s lodge with the envelope in my hand, though my usual janitor had been as on sick leave for a while, I found myself facing a young man who barely spoke French.
“Please, I really need to know whether you saw someone slide this into my mailbox? And if you have, could you describe them to me?” I begged in a panic.
After a complicated exchange, I understood he wasn’t in that part of the building when that envelope had been put in my mailbox.
As I left the room, he asked me “Are you sure you’re fine, Miss? You don’t look good. What’s in this envelope?”
I gave him a sad smile and answered the only thing I could think of: “Never mind, forget I said anything. You wouldn’t believe me anyway!”
