Ritual Abuse - From the Child Abuse Wiki
childadvocate
copied with permission
Ritual abuse exists all over the world. There have been reports,
journal articles[1][2][3], web pages[4][5][6][7][8][9] and criminal
convictions of crimes against children and adults [10][11][12].
Contents
* 1 Definition
* 2 Origins of the term
* 3 Evidence
* 4 References
* 5 Bibliography
* 6 External Links
Definition
Ritual abuse has been defined as:
a brutal form of abuse of children, adolescents, and adults,
consisting of physical, sexual, and psychological abuse, and involving
the use of rituals. Ritual does not necessarily mean satanic. However,
most survivors state that they were ritually abused as part of satanic
worship for the purpose of indoctrinating them into satanic beliefs
and practices. Ritual abuse rarely consists of a single episode. It
usually involves repeated abuse over an extended period of time. The
physical abuse is severe, sometimes including torture and killing. The
sexual abuse is usually painful, sadistic, and humiliating, intended
as means of gaining dominance over the victim. The psychological abuse
is devastating and involves the use of ritual/indoctrination, which
includes mind control techniques and mind altering drugs, and ritual/
intimidation which conveys to the victim a profound terror of the cult
members and of the evil spirits they believe cult members can command.
Both during and after the abuse, most victims are in a state of
terror, mind control, and dissociation in which disclosure is
exceedingly difficult.[13]
and as
WHAT IS RITUAL ABUSE? (BROAD DEFINITION) Ritual abuse is the abuse
of a child, weaker adult, or animal in a ritual setting or manner. In
a broad sense, many of our overtly or covertly socially sanctioned
actions can be seen as ritual abuse, such as military basic training,
hazing, racism, spanking children, and partner-battering. Some abuse
is private...some public. Public ritual abuse may be either open or
secret. WHAT IS RITUAL ABUSE? (NARROW DEFINITION) The term ritual
abuse is generally used to mean prolonged, extreme, sadistic abuse,
especially of children, within a group setting. The group's ideology
is used to justify the abuse, and abuse is used to teach the group's
ideology. The activities are kept secret from society at large, as
they violate norms and laws.[14]
Origins of the term
Pazder introduced the term "ritualized abuse" in 1980, describing the
experiences of an adult survivor that was disclosing satanic abuse
memories. He defined the phenomenon as "repeated physical, emotional,
mental, and spiritual assaults combined with a systematic use of
symbols, ceremonies, and machinations designed and orchestrated to
attain malevolent effects." Later definitions came mostly from
professionals addressing ritual abuse in child care settings.
Finkelhor, Williams, Burns, and Kalinowski elaborated on Pazder's
definition, defining ritual abuse as "abuse that occurs in a context
linked to some symbols or group activity that have a religious,
magical or supernatural connotation, and where the invocation of these
symbols or activities are repeated over time and used to frighten and
intimidate the children." Kelley referred to ritual abuse as the
"repetitive and systematic sexual, physical, and psychological abuse
of children by adults as part of cult or satanic worship"[15].
Evidence
There is a great deal of evidence supporting the existence of ritual
abuse crimes as a worldwide phenomenon. Bottoms, Shaver and Goodman
found in their 1993 study evaluating ritual abuse claims that in 2,292
alleged ritual abuse cases, 15% of the perpetrators in adult cases and
30% of the perpetrators in child cases confessed to the abuse[16]. "In
a survey of 2,709 members of the American Psychological Association,
it was found that 30 percent of these professionals had seen cases of
ritual or religion-related abuse (Bottoms, Shaver & Goodman, 1991). Of
those psychologists who have seen cases of ritual abuse, 93 percent
believed that the reported harm took place and 93 percent believed
that the alleged ritualism occurred....The similar research of Nancy
Perry (1992) which further supports (the previous findings)…Perry also
conducted a national survey of therapists who work with clients with
dissociative disorders and she found that 88 percent of the 1,185
respondents indicated ”belief in ritual abuse, involving mind control
and programming”[17].
Recently an online survey[18] of over one thousand people answered
questions about ritual abuse and extreme abuse crimes. In a summary of
the survey [19], it was found that ritual abuse/mind control is a
global phenomenon. Fifty-five percent stated they were abuse in a
Satanic cult. Seventy-seven percent of the adult survivors that
responded "had been threatened with death if they ever talked about
the abuse." Also, "257 respondents reported that secret mind control
experiments were used on them as children." Eighty-two percent
reported being sexually abused by multiple perpetrators.
Anne Johnson Davis in her book Hell Minus One reported that her
parents confessed to her abuse in writing and verbally to clergymen,
and to the detectives from the Utah Attorney General’s Office. Her
suppressed memories started when she was in her mid-30s, which were
fully substantiated by her mother and stepfather[20][21].
Many scientific journals articles have discussed the reality of ritual
abuse and its effect on its victims. Some of these articles have
discussed the extreme nature of these crimes[22], proof of the reality
of the ritual abuse phenomenon and victims' symptoms[23], the
connection between ritual abuse, multiple personality disorder and
mind control[24] and the connections between ritual abuse reports and
the higher levels of symptoms of childhood sexual and physical abuse
[25]. Several additional studies and organizations have compiled
research on the reality of ritual abuse crimes[26][27][28].
Ritual abuse and mind control crimes have also been confirmed in other
books[29][30].
A study which identified 270 cases of sexual abuse in day care
settings found that allegations of ritual abuse occurred in thirteen
percent of the cases[31]. Additional evidence of ritual abuse in day
care and child abuse cases has been found in news reports, journal
articles and legal transcripts[32][33][34][35][36][37].
Ritual abuse occurrences have also been found in the Netherlands[38]
and England[39]. Reports of ritual abuse have also been found in
multiple personality disorder sufferers[15]. Kent believes that
intergenerational satanic accounts are possible and that rituals
related to them may come from a deviant interpretation of religious
texts[40][41]. Others have stated that the theories and research
around recovered memory "strongly confirm the reality of...cult abuse"
of SRA survivors[42].
References
1. Satanic Ritual Abuse evidence
http://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/studies/satanic-ritual-abuse-evidence-with-information-on-the-mcmartin-preschool-case/
2. 2008 Publications on Ritual Abuse and Mind Control
http://www.endritualabuse.org/citation%202.htm
3. Lacter, E (2008-02-11). “Brief Synopsis of the Literature on
the Existence of Ritualistic Abuse”. http://endritualabuse.org/Brief%20Synopsis.htm
4. http://ritualabuse.us
5. http://www.ritualabusetorture.org/
6. http://www.ra-info.org
7. http://www.survivorship.org
8. http://web.archive.org/web/20080116175648/http://theawarenesscenter.org/ritualabuse.html
9. http://www.endritualabuse.org/
10. Believe the children (1997). “Conviction List: Ritual Child
Abuse”. http://www.ra-info.org/resources/ra_cases.shtml
11. The Satanism and Ritual Abuse Archive http://www.endritualabuse.org/ritualabusearchive.htm
12. Noblitt, PhD, J. R. - An Empirical Look at the Ritual Abuse
Controversy (2007)
http://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/articles/an-empirical-look-at-the-ritual-abuse-controversy-randy-noblitt-phd/
13. Report of the Ritual Abuse Task Force - Los Angeles County
Commission for Women "Mind control is the cornerstone of ritual abuse,
the key element in the subjugation and silencing of its victims.
Victims of ritual abuse are subjected to a rigorously applied system
of mind control designed to rob them of their sense of free will and
to impose upon them the will of the cult and its leaders. Most often
these ritually abusive cults are motivated by a satanic belief system
[only on the surface.] The mind control is achieved through an
elaborate system of brainwashing, programming, indoctrination,
hypnosis, and the use of various mind-altering drugs. The purpose of
the mind control is to compel ritual abuse victims to keep the secret
of their abuse, to conform to the beliefs and behaviors of the cult,
and to become functioning members who serve the cult by carrying out
the directives of its leaders without being detected within society at
large." http://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/articles/report-of-the-ritual-abuse-task-force-los-angeles-county-commission-for-women/
http://www.geocities.com/kidhistory/ra.htm
14. Survivorship - Frequently Asked Questions http://www.survivorship.org/faq.html
15. a b Van Benschoten, Susan C. (1990). Multiple Personality
Disorder and Satanic Ritual Abuse: the Issue Of Credibility
Dissociation Vol. III, No. 1 "A large number of adult MPD patients in
psychotherapy are reporting memories of explicitly satanic ritual
abuse beginning in childhood. The authors of two limited surveys,
conducted with a select group of MPD therapists, suggest the
percentage of reported satanic ritual abuse in the MPD population to
be 20% (Braun & Gray, 1986) and 28% (Braun & Gray, 1987). A survey by
Kaye and Klein (1987) reveals that 20 of the 42 MPD patients in
treatment with seven Ohio therapists describe a history of satanic
ritual abuse. Ilopponen (1987) states that 38 of the more than 70 MPD
patients she has treated report memories of "satanic-type ritualized
abuse " (p. 11). Two inpatient facilities specializing in the
treatment of MPD report that approximately 50% of their patients
disclose memories of satanic ritual abuse (Braun, 1989a; Ganaway,
1989). Similar accounts of satanic ritual abuse are being reported by
personally unrelated MPD patients from across the United States
(Braun, 1989b; Braun & Sachs, 1988; Kahaner, 1988; Sachs & Braun,
1987). In addition, according to Braun (1989b), the reports of
patients in this country are similar to data collected from adult
survivors in England, Holland, Germany, France, Canada, and
Mexico...Brown (1986), noting many similar allegations in child and
adult satanic ritual abuse accounts, suggests that reports are not
only comparable across geographical and personal boundaries, but
across generations as well."
http://www.empty-memories.nl/dis_90/vanbenschoten_sra.pdf
16. Data from Brown, Scheflin and Hammond (1998).”Memory, Trauma
Treatment, And the Law” (W. W. Norton) ISBN 0-393-70254-5 (p.62)
Bottoms, B. Shaver, P. & Goodman, G. (1993) Profile of ritual abuse
and religion related abuse allegations in the United States. Updated
findings provided via personal communication from B. Bottoms. Cited in
K.C. Faller (1994), Ritual Abuse; A Review of the research. The
American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children Advisor , 7, 1,
19-27
17. Noblitt, J.R.; Perskin, P. (2000). Cult and Ritual Abuse: Its
History, Anthropology, and Recent Discovery in Contemporary America p.
269, Greenwood Publishing Group. http://books.google.com/books?id=zJkTTpfyJ-8C
18. Extreme Abuse Survey http://extreme-abuse-survey.net/
19. Understanding ritual trauma: A comparison of findings from
three online surveys
http://ritualabuse.us/mindcontrol/eas-studies/understanding-ritual-trauma-a-comparison-of-findings-from-three-online-surveys/
20. Johnson Davis, Anne Hell Minus One: My Story of Deliverance
From Satanic Ritual Abuse and My Journey to Freedom Transcript
Bulletin Publishing - ISBN 978-0-9788348-0-7 - 2008 http://www.hellminusone.com/
21. Hell Minus One - signed verified confessions of satanic ritual
abuse
http://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/survivor-stories/hell-minus-one-signed-verified-confessions-of-satanic-ritual-abuse/
‘
22. Cozolino, L.J. (1990). “Ritual child abuse, psychopathology, and
evil”. Journal of Psychology and Theology, 18(3):218-227 "Ritualistic
abuse is an extreme form of psychological, physical, and sexual
maltreatment of children in the context of "religious" ceremony. The
clinical presentation of the victims of such abuse is complex and
raises many issues related in the diagnosis and treatment of
psychopathology as well as the importance of spiritual counseling"
https://wisdom.biola.edu/jpt
23. Cozolino, L.J.; Shaffer, R.E (Fall 1992) "Adults who report
childhood ritualistic abuse." Special Issue: Satanic ritual abuse: The
current state of knowledge. Journal of Psychology and Theology 20(3)
"Skeptics question the legitimacy of these reports, but many factors
point to the reality of the phenomenon of ritualistic abuse. First of
all, the degree of consistency between reports of individuals from
different parts of the country is very high. The fact that children as
young as 2 and 3 report ritualistic abuse experiences that mirror
those reported by adult victims is especially striking in light of the
fact that young children do not have access to the kind of printed
information that might conceivably allow an older person to fabricate
such experiences (Gould, 1987). Second, experiences of ritualistic
abuse reported by victims of all ages are virtually identical to
written historical accounts of Satan worship and the like (Hill &
Goodwin, 1989; Russell, 1972), findings that substantiate our present-
day understanding of Satanism and ritualistic abuse as
intragenerational phenomenon. Third, the symptoms from which
individuals reporting histories of ritualistic abuse tend to suffer
are consistent with our current understanding of post-traumatic stress
disorder and the dissociative disorders. The progression in which
ritualistic abuse survivors respond to psychotherapy places these
victims squarely within the category of individual who have suffered
real-not imagined-trauma." https://wisdom.biola.edu/jpt
24. Gould, C., & Cozolino, L. (1992) “Ritual abuse, multiplicity,
and mind-control.” Special Issue: Satanic ritual abuse: The current
state of knowledge. Journal of Psychology and Theology 20(3):194-6 "As
a result of the psychologically intolerable nature of their early
childhood experiences, victims of ritual abuse frequently develop
multiple personality disorder (MPD)....Ritual abuse is conducted on
behalf of a cult whose purpose is to establish mind control over the
victims. Thus, these perpetrators have a conscious motive for the
abuse beyond compulsively repeating their own childhood abuse in an
effort to gain mastery over the original trauma. Most victims state
that they were ritually abused as part of satanic worship, for the
purpose of indoctrinating them into satanic beliefs (Los Angeles
County Commission for Women, 1989). Mind control is originally
established when the victim is a child under 6 years old."
https://wisdom.biola.edu/jpt
25. Lawrence, K.J.; Cozolino, L.; Foy, D.W. (1995). Psychological
sequelae in adult females reporting childhood ritualistic abuse. Child
Abuse & Neglect 19 (8): 975-984. doi:10.1016/0145-2134(95)00059-H.
"Women reporting ritualistic features scored significantly higher on
measures of childhood sexual and physical abuse. Neither PTSD
diagnostic status nor severity for PTSD nor dissociative experiences
were significantly different between the groups."
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6V7N-3YB56DX-1X&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=b9a75a7e349d4efe5a11ed205f736cf5
26. Gould, C. (1995). Denying ritual abuse of children. Journal of
Psychohistory, 22(3), 329-339. "The evidence is rapidly accumulating
that the problem of ritual abuse is considerable in scope and
extremely grave in its consequences Among 2,709 members of the
American Psychological Association who responded to a poll, 2,292
cases of ritual abuse were reported (Bottoms, Shaver, & Goodman,
1993). In 1992 alone, Childhelp USA logged 1,741 calls pertaining to
ritual abuse, Monarch Resources of Los Angeles logged approximately
5,000, Real Active Survivors tallied nearly 3,600, Justus Unlimited of
Colorado received almost 7,000, and Looking Up of Maine handled around
6,000. Even allowing for some of these calls to have been made by
people who assist survivors but arc not themselves survivors, and for
some survivors to have called more that one helpline or made multiple
calls to the same helpline, these numbers suggest that at a minimum
there must be tens of thousands of survivors of ritual abuse in the
United States. Evidence also continues to accumulate that the ritual
abuse of children constitutes a child abuse problem of significant
scope. In 1988, Finkelhor, Williams and Burns published the results of
a nationwide study of substantiated reports of sexual abuse in day
care involving 1,639 young child victims. Thirteen percent of these
cases were found to involve ritual abuse. Other studies of ritually
abused children have been relatively small. Kelly (1988; 1989; 1992a;
1992b; 1993) reported on 35 day care victims of ritual abuse, Waterman
et al. (1993) reported on 82 children complaining of ritual abuse in
preschool, Faller (1988; 1990) studied 18 children who had disclosed
ritual abuse in their preschool, and Bybee and Mowbray (1993) from the
Michigan State Department of Mental Health identified 62 children
alleging ritual abuse in their preschool and 53 children who reported
seeing others be ritually abused. Snow and Sorenson (1990) studied 39
children reporting ritual abuse in five neighborhoods in Utah, and
Jonker and Jonker-Bakker (1991) reported on a total group of 98
children, at least 48 of whom were believed to be victims of ritual
abuse. The latter case is the only one cited here which was conducted
outside of the United States."
http://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/articles/denying-ritual-abuse-of-children-catherine-gould/
http://www.geocities.com/kidhistory/denyra.htm
27. Paley, K. (June 1992). Dream wars: a case study of a woman with
multiple personality disorder(PDF). Dissociation 5 (2): 111-116.
"Apologists believe that reports of satanic cult abuse either must or
could be true. There is some evidence to support the apologists. In
1986, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts in Commonwealth v.
Drew (397 Mass. 65) upheld the conviction of Carl H. Drew for the
murder of Karen Marsden. There was evidence that Drew conducted
satanic ritual meetings and that he had killed Marsden "because she
wanted to leave the cult " (Commonworth v. Drew, 1986, p. 66). Marsden
had gone to the police and reported a human sacrifice. Scott
Waterhouse was convicted of the murder of a twelve year-old girl, and
the conviction was upheld in the State of Maine v. Scott Waterhouse
(513 A. 2d 862, Me. 1986). It was ruled that the trial court's
introduction of the defendant's satanic beliefs was relevant in
establishing motive and intent. In a study of hundreds of day care
centers, Finkelhor and Williams found that "... [c] lear-cut
corroboration of ritualistic practices was available in a few cases,
such as Country Walk [in Miami], where ritual objects were found by
police and where the female perpetrators did admit to some of the
sadistic practices alleged in the children's stories" (1988, pp.
59-60). Greaves (1992) describes a video made by the Chicago Police
Department of two sites allegedly used for satanic ceremonies. He was
struck by the similarity of the material to descriptions he had heard
from many of his clients.
28. Report of Utah State Task Force on Ritual Abuse Utah Governor’s
Commission for Women and Families (1992)
https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/dspace/bitstream/1794/1646/1/Diss_5_2_9_OCR.pdf
29. Secret Weapons - Two Sisters’ Terrifying True Story of Sex,
Spies and Sabotage by Cheryl and Lynn Hersha with Dale Griffis, Ph D.
and Ted Schwartz. New Horizon Press, P O Box 669 Far Hills, NJ 07931 -
ISBN0-88282-196-2 "“By the time Cheryl Hersha came to the facility,
knowledge of multiple personality was so complete that doctors
understood how the mind separated into distinct ego states,each
unaware of the other. First, the person traumatized had to be both
extremely intelligent and under the age of seven, two conditions not
yet understood though remaining consistent as factors. The trauma was
almost always of a sexual nature…” p. 52 “The government
researchers,aware of the information in the professional journals,
decided to reverse the process (of healing from hysteric
dissociation). They decided to use selective trauma on healthy
children to create personalities capable of committing acts desired
for national security and defense.” p. 53 - 54
30. Rutz, Carol (2001). A Nation Betrayed. Grass Lake, MI:
Fidelity Publishing. ISBN 0-9710102-0-X. http://my.dmci.net/~casey/
31. Sexual Abuse in Day Care: A National Study - Executive Summary -
March 1988 - Finklehor, Williams, Burns, Kalinowski
http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storage_01/0000019b/80/1c/82/61.pdf
"“The study identified 270 “cases” of sexual abuse in day care meaning
270 facilities where substantiated abuse had occurred involving a
total of 1639 victimized children….This yielded an estimate of 500 to
550 reported and substantiated cases and 2500 victims for the three-
year period. Although this is a large number, it must be put in the
context of 229,000 day care facilities nationwide service seven
million children…allegations of ritual abuse (”the invocation of
religious, magical or supernatural symbols of activities”) occurred in
13% of the cases.”
32. Day Care and Child Abuse Cases Information on the McMartin
Preschool Case, Michelle Remembers, the Fells Acres - Amirault Case,
the Wenatchee, Washington Case, the Dale Akiki Case, the Glendale
Montessori - Toward case, the Little Rascals Day Care Center case,
Fran’s Day Care case, the Baran case and the Halsey case
http://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/articles/day-care-and-child-abuse-cases/
33. McMartin Preschool Case - What Really Happened and the Coverup
http://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/articles/mcmartin-preschool-case-what-really-happened-and-the-coverup/
34. Archaeological Investigations of the McMartin Preschool Site
35. deMause, Lloyd, Why Cults Terrorize and Kill Children The
Journal of Psychohistory 21 (4) 1994 [4]"
"Cult abuse is increasing, only that-as with the increase in all child
abuse reports-we have become more open to hearing them. But it seemed
unlikely that the surge of cult memories could all be made up by
patients or implanted by therapists. Therapists are a timid group at
best, and the notion that they suddenly begin implanting false
memories in tens of thousands of their clients for no apparent reason
strained credulity. Certainly no one has presented a shred of evidence
for massive "false memory" implantations."
http://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/articles/why-cults-terrorize-and-kill-children-lloyd-demause-the-journal-of-psychohistory/
http://www.geocities.com/kidhistory/whycult.htm
36. Summit, R.C. (1994). The Dark Tunnels of McMartin Journal of
Psychohistory 21 (4): 397-416. “The opportunity came in April, 1990
with permission from the new owner of the preschool to search for the
tunnels before he demolished the building and redeveloped the
property. These soiled but solid citizens managed to find what the
district attorney had disclaimed: solid, scientific evidence that
someone had not only dug tunnels under the preschool, but also had
taken the trouble to try to undo them. The results of this definitive
excavation are described in meticulous detail in the 185 page Report
of the Archaeological Excavation of the McMartin Preschool Site by E.
Gary Stickel, Ph.D., the UCLA archaeologist commissioned to do the
study....Dr. Stickel's report (p.95) concludes: There is no other
scenario that fits all of the facts except that the feature was indeed
a tunnel. The date of the construction and use of the tunnel was not
absolutely established, but an assessment of seven factors of data all
indicate that it was probably constructed, used and completely filled
back in after 1966 (the construction date of the preschool). This age
assessment has also been corroborated by the consulting Geologist for
the project, Dr. Don Michael.”
http://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/articles/the-dark-tunnels-of-mcmartin-dr-roland-c-summit-journal-of-psychohistory/
http://www.geocities.com/kidhistory/mcmartin.htm
37. Tamarkin, C. (1994a). Investigative Issues in Ritual Abuse
Cases, Part I. Treating Abuse Today, 4 (4): 14-23. Tamarkin, C.
(1994b). Investigative Issues in Ritual Abuse Cases, Part II. Treating
Abuse Today, 4 (5): 5-9.
http://abusearticles.wordpress.com/2007/12/02/investigative-issues-in-ritual-abuse-cases-part-1-and-2-1994/
38. Jonker, F.; Jonker-bakker, P. (1991). “Experiences with
ritualist child sexual abuse: a case study from the Netherlands”.
Child Abuse and Neglect 15: 191-196. doi:10.1016/0145-2134(91)90064-K.
PMID 2043971 "The case of apparent ritual sexual abuse of children in
a community in the Netherlands is described in terms of the children's
stories, behaviors, and physical symptoms and the community's reaction
to reactions of police and other professionals."
http://eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/custom/portlets/recordDetails/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=EJ429991&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=EJ429991
39. Sinason, V (1994). Treating Survivors of Satanist Abuse. New
York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-10543-9. Major publications by Valerie
Sinason http://www.valeriesinason.com/PublicationsVSinason.htm
40. Kent, Stephen. (1993). “Deviant Scripturalism and Ritual
Satanic Abuse Part One: Possible Judeo-Christian Influences”. Religion
23(23):229-241.
41. Kent, Stephen. (1993). “Deviant Scripturalism and Ritual
Satanic Abuse. II: Possible Masonic, Mormon, Magick, and Pagan
influences”. Religion 23(4):355-367
42. McCulley, D. “Satanic ritual abuse: A question of
memory.”Journal of Psychology and Theology Fall 1994 22(3) p.167-172
"leading memory researchers such as Dr. Bessel van der Kolk of Harvard
Medical School maintain that traumatic memories, which typically are
engraved in the sensorimotor processes, are not subject to the same
kinds of contamination that can affect normal memory. Traumatic
amnesia, described in the DSM-III-R as psychogenic amnesia, is a
phenomenon which has been known to mental health professionals for
more than 100 years. The clinically observed characteristics of
traumatic memory formation and retrieval match precisely the patterns
of memory recovery exhibited by SRA survivors, and strongly confirm
the reality of their cult abuse....If satanic ritual abuse is a
question of memory, the data redound to the credibility of those
thousands of individuals who identify themselves as SRA survivors. All
the scientific studies of memory under trauma indicate that the
bimodal response described by van der Kolk (1994), whether
hyperpotentiated or dissociative, heightens the reliability of recall.
The phenomenon of recovered memory is not a new therapeutic fad
created by irresponsible clinical experimentation, but a well
established aspect of trauma. The connection between trauma and memory
disturbance is made clear by the definition of psychogenic amnesia in
the DSM-III-R (1987)...Further, there often is corroboration for these
retrieved memories. Judith Herman and Emily Schatzow (1992) found that
in a sample of 53 women who disclosed memories of abuse for which they
had been amnesic, 74% of the subjects were able to find independent
confirmation from family members, pornographic photos, or diaries.
Ivor Browne (1990a) found the "internal consistency of the traumatic
account" persuasive, and also discovered that in the sizeable minority
of cases where there was an available witness that "in every instance,
the traumatic events . turn out to be true" (p. 30). There is no
longer room for denial and disbelief - for evading the grim reality of
SRA - by recourse to memory research which simply does not apply.
Solid scientific inquiry does not allow us that luxury; neither should
Christian conscience." https://wisdom.biola.edu/jpt
Bibliography
* Brown, Scheflin and Hammond (1998).”Memory, Trauma Treatment,
And the Law” (W. W. Norton) ISBN 0-393-70254-5
* Cook, C. (1991). Understanding ritual abuse: A study of thirty-
three ritual abuse survivors. Treating Abuse Today, 1(4), 14-19.
* Gould, Catherine. (1992) “Ritual abuse, multiplicity, and mind-
control.” Special Issue: Satanic ritual abuse: The current state of
knowledge. Journal of Psychology and Theology 20(3):194-6
* Hersha, C.; Hersha, L.; Griffis, D.; Schwarz, T (2001). Secret
Weapons. Far Hills, NJ: New Horizon Press. ISBN 0-88282-196-2.
* Hill, J. “Believing Rachel” The Journal of Psychohistory 24 (2)
Fall 1996
"Rachel's story is one of suffering, courage and hope. As a young
child she was the victim of unspeakable crimes, but because she
received therapy and the support of a loving family, she has emerged
intact." http://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/articles/believing-rachel-jeanne-hill-the-journal-of-psychohistory/
* Johnston, Jerry (1989). The Edge of Evil - The Rise of Satanism
in North America. Dallas: Word Publishing. ISBN 0-8499-0668-7.
* Jonker, F and Jonker-Bakker, I. (1997). “Effects of Ritual
Abuse: The results of three surveys in the Netherlands.” Child Abuse &
Neglect 21(6):541-556
* Kent, Stephen. (1994). “Diabolic Debates: A Reply to David
Frankfurter and J. S. La Fontaine,” Religion 24: 135-188.
* Kent, Stephen. (1993). “Deviant Scripturalism and Ritual Satanic
Abuse Part One: Possible Judeo-Christian Influences”. Religion 23(23):
229-241.
* Kent, Stephen. (1993). “Deviant Scripturalism and Ritual Satanic
Abuse. II: Possible Masonic, Mormon, Magick, and Pagan influences”.
Religion 23(4):355-367
* Leavitt, Frank. Measuring the impact of media exposure and
hospital treatment on patients alleging satanic ritual abuse. Treating
Abuse Today 8(4) 1998 pp. 7-13 "This study provides evidence that
clients who report SRA exhibit a set of associations to SRA-related
words that cannot be explained by exposure to the popular media or
from inpatient treatment." http://web.archive.org/web/20000306224228/http://idealist.com/tat/leavitt.shtml
* Neswald, D., Gould, C., & Graham-Costain, V. (1991). Common
programs observed in survivors of Satanic ritual abuse. The California
Therapist, 3 (5), 47 50. "Increasingly, cases of Multiple Personality
Disorder (MPD) and Satanic Ritualistic Abuse (SRA) are being reported
in the psychotherapeutic community. Though controversy concerning
authenticity remains, such cases are slowly gaining in acceptability
as a genuine social and psychopathological phenomenon. Concurrently,
the etiological underpinnings and treatment demands of these special
patients are being unraveled and understood as never before. As a
result, it is becoming increasingly clear that perhaps the most
demanding treatment aspects of such cases concern the problems posed
by what is known as "cult programming."
http://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/articles/common-programs-observed-in-survivors-of-satanic-ritualistic-abuse/
http://www.geocities.com/kidhistory/sracp.htm
* Noblitt, J.R.; Perskin, P. (2000). Cult and Ritual Abuse: Its
History, Anthropology, and Recent Discovery in Contemporary America p.
269, Greenwood Publishing Group. http://books.google.com/books?id=zJkTTpfyJ-8C
* Noblitt, R.; Perskin, P. (2008). Ritual abuse in the 21st
century p. 552, Bandon, OR: Reed Publishers.
http://www.rdrpublishers.com/catalog/item/6339393/5820690.htm
* Pike, P.L.; Mohline, R.J.(Eds.). Ritual abuse and recovery:
Survivors' personal accounts. Journal of Psychology and Theology
Spring 1995 23 (1) p.45-55 https://wisdom.biola.edu/jpt
* Sachs, A. & Galton, G. (Eds) (2008). Forensic Aspects of
Dissociative Identity Disorder London: Karnac. Chapters include
discussions on ritual abuse, dissociative identity disorder, mind
control, extreme abuse, survivor accounts and criminal convictions
http://www.karnacbooks.com/product.php?PID=25876
http://books.google.com/books?id=upHtL9lual0C&dq=Forensic+aspects+of+dissociative+identity+disorder+|&printsec=frontcover&source=bl&ots=caNy__6-zt&sig=VwIOryBkcSN0nh24CJR3aJkS_gs&hl=en&ei=702fSbmpOo_ftgfe5eSVDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=2&ct=result#PPA142,M1
* Scott, S. (2001). The politics and experience of ritual abuse:
beyond disbelief. Open University Press. ISBN 0335204198.
http://www.amazon.com/Politics-Experience-Ritual-Abuse/dp/0335204198
* Smith, Margaret. (1993). Ritual Abuse: What it Is, why it
Happens, and how to Help by Margaret - HarperCollins
* Waterman, Jill; Kelly, Robert J.;Oliveri, M. K.;and McCord, Jane
(1993). Behind the Playground Walls - Sexual Abuse in Preschools. New
York, London: The Guilford Press, 284-8. ISBN 0-89862-523-8.
* Young, Walter C., Sachs, Roberta G., Braun, Bennett G., and
Watkins, R. T. (1993) “Patients reporting ritual abuse in childhood: A
clinical syndrome. Report of 37 cases.” Child Abuse and Neglect 15(3):
181-9
External Links
* An Empirical Look at the Ritual Abuse Controversy
http://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/articles/an-empirical-look-at-the-ritual-abuse-controversy-randy-noblitt-phd/
* Ritual Abuse articles
http://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/studies/satanic-ritual-abuse-evidence-with-information-on-the-mcmartin-preschool-case/
* Ritual Abuse Cases http://www.ra-info.org/resources/ra_cases.shtml
* Extreme Abuse Survey http://extreme-abuse-survey.net/
* http://www.ritualabusetorture.org/
* http://www.ra-info.org
* http://www.survivorship.org
* http://web.archive.org/web/20080116175648/http://theawarenesscenter.org/ritualabuse.html
* Ritual Abuse Statistics & Research
http://web.archive.org/web/20071210161357/http://home.mchsi.com/~ftio/ra-stats.htm