Satanic Ritual Abuse (Trauma based mind control)

Dissociative_identity_disorder

he person's psychiatric history frequently contains multiple previous diagnoses of various disorders and treatment failures.[32] The most common presenting complaint of DID is depression (90%) that is often treatment-resistant, with headaches and non-epileptic seizures being common neurologic symptoms. Comorbid disorders include post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), substance use disorders, eating disorders, anxiety disorders, personality disorders, and autism spectrum disorder.[18][33] 30-70% of those diagnosed with DID have history of borderline personality disorder.[34] Presentations of dissociation in people with schizophrenia differ from those with DID as not being rooted in trauma, and this distinction can be effectively tested; the conditions share a high rate of auditory hallucinations in the form of voices.[35] Disturbed and altered sleep has also been suggested as having a role in dissociative disorders in general and specifically in DID.

wikipedia Satanic panic

The Satanic panic is a moral panic consisting of over 12,000 unsubstantiated cases of Satanic ritual abuse (SRA), sometimes known as ritual abuse, starting in North America in the 1980s, spreading throughout many parts of the world by the late 1990s, and persisting today. The panic originated in 1980 with the publication of Michelle Remembers, a book co-written by Canadian psychiatrist Lawrence Pazder and his patient (and future wife), Michelle Smith, which used the controversial and now discredited practice of recovered-memory therapy to make claims about Satanic ritual abuse involving Smith. The allegations, which arose afterward throughout much of the United States, involved reports of physical and sexual abuse of people in the context of occult or Satanic rituals.

The panic affected lawyers, therapists, and social workers who handled allegations of child sexual abuse. Allegations initially brought together widely dissimilar groups, including religious fundamentalists, police investigators, child advocates, therapists, and clients in psychotherapy. The term satanic abuse was more common early on; this later became satanic ritual abuse and further secularized into simply ritual abuse.[1] Over time, the accusations became more closely associated with dissociative identity disorder (then called multiple personality disorder)[2] and anti-government conspiracy theories,

Scholarly interest in the topic slowly built, eventually resulting in the conclusion that the phenomenon was a moral panic, which, as one researcher put it in 2017, "involved hundreds of accusations that devil-worshipping paedophiles were operating America's white middle-class suburban daycare centers."[6]

A 1994 article in the New York Times stated that: "Of the more than 12,000 documented accusations nationwide, investigating police were not able to substantiate any allegations of organized cult abuse".

Psychotherapists who were actively Christian advocated for the diagnosis of dissociative identity disorder (DID); soon after, accounts similar to Michelle Remembers began to appear, with some therapists believing the alter egos of some patients were the result of demonic possession.[22] Evangelical Protestantism} was instrumental in starting, spreading, and maintaining rumors through sermons about the dangers of SRA, lectures by purported experts, and prayer sessions, including showings of the 1987 Geraldo Rivera television special.[56] Secular proponents appeared,[57] and child protection workers became significantly involved. Law enforcement trainers, many themselves strongly religious,[citation needed] became strong promoters of the claims and self-described experts on the topic. Their involvement in child sexual abuse cases produced more allegations of SRA, adding credibility to the phenomenon.[21] As the explanations for SRA were distanced from evangelical Christianity and associated with "survivor" groups, the motivations ascribed to purported Satanists shifted from combating a religious nemesis, to mind control and abuse as an end to itself.[58] Clinicians, psychotherapists and social workers documented clients with alleged histories of SRA,[21][59][60] though the claims of therapists were unsubstantiated beyond the testimonies of their clients.[

International spread

In 1987, a list of "indicators" was published by Catherine Gould,[64] featuring a broad array of vague symptoms that were ultimately common, non-specific and subjective, purported to be capable of diagnosing SRA in most young children.[41] By the late 1980s, allegations began to appear throughout the world (including Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, the Netherlands, and Scandinavia), in part enabled by English as a common international language and in the United Kingdom, assisted by Gould's list of indicators.

Belief in SRA spread rapidly through the ranks of mental health professionals (despite an absence of evidence) through a variety of continuing education seminars, during which attendees were urged to believe in the reality of Satanic cults, their victims, and not to question the extreme and bizarre memories uncovered. Support for these claims was offered in the form of unconnected bits of information such as pictures drawn by patients, heavy metal album covers, historical folklore about devil worshippers, and pictures of mutilated animals. During the seminars, patients provided testimonials of their experiences and presenters stressed that recovering memories was important for healing:[65]

In 1986, the largest symposium on child abuse in history was held in Australia, with addresses by vocal SRA advocates Kee MacFarlane, Roland Summit, Astrid Heppenstall Heger, and David Finkelhor.[66]
In 1987, writings on the phenomenon appeared in the United Kingdom along with incidents featuring broadly similar accusations such as the Cleveland child abuse scandal; allegations of SRA in Nottingham resulted in the "British McMartin", advised in part by the British journalist Tim Tate's work on the subject.[41] Along with the list of indicators, American conference speakers, pamphlets, source materials, consultants, vocabulary regarding SRA and allegedly funding were imported, which promoted the identification and counseling of British SRA allegations.[41][57] The Nottingham investigation resulted in criminal charges of severe child abuse that ultimately had nothing to do with Satanic rituals, and was criticized for focusing on the irrelevant and non-existent Satanic aspects of the allegations at the expense of the severe conventional abuse endured by the children.[67]
In 1989, San Francisco Police detective Sandi Gallant gave an interview with a newspaper in the United Kingdom.[68] At the same time, several other therapists toured the country giving talks on SRA, and shortly thereafter SRA cases occurred in Orkney, Rochdale, London, and Nottingham.[69]
In 1992, charges were laid in the Martensville satanic sex scandal; charges were overturned in 1995 on the grounds of improper interviewing of the children.[70][71]
A wave of SRA accusations appeared in New Zealand in 1991, and in Norway in 1992.[72]
In the mid-nineties in Egypt, tabloids such as Rose Al Youssef started publishing articles about an alleged subculture of Satan worshipping and rituals spreading among the teens and youth of the middle and upper-middle class and associating it with heavy metal music, bands, symbolism, and graffiti. The original article published on 11 November 1996 was written by Abdallah Kamal, but soon other writers and journalists, including Adel Hammuda and others. The public intrigue eventually led to the security apparatus raiding the homes of some young people in the music scene and their friends, confiscating posts and tapes and CDs, forcing short hairstyles on them and subjecting them to religious reformation sessions, before releasing them,[73][74] but the scare continued to be stirred from time to time until the mid-2000s, and became books and talk shows.
In 1998, Jean LaFontaine produced a book indicating allegations of SRA in the United Kingdom were sparked by investigations supervised by social workers who had taken SRA seminars in the United States.
In 2021 and 2022, two consecutive reports by Swiss Television journalists Ilona Stämpfli and Robin Rehmann [de] presented evidence that conspiracy theories closely related to the Satanic panic were still held by various groups and individuals in Switzerland, among them teachers, psychotherapists, high-ranking police officers, and a senior physician of Clienia, the largest private psychiatric clinic group in Switzerland.[75][76] As a reaction to the first documentary, two of the interviewed teachers as well as the senior physician were let go by their employers.[77][78]

In 1996 astrophysicist and astrobiologist Carl Sagan devoted an entire chapter of his final book, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark to a critique of claims of recovered memories of alien abductions and satanic ritual abuse, citing material from the newsletter of the False Memory Syndrome Foundation.[83] By 2003, allegations of ritual abuse were met with great skepticism, and belief in SRA was no longer considered mainstream in professional circles;

Some groups still believe there is credence to allegations of SRA and continue to discuss the topic.[91][92] Publications by Cathy O'Brien claiming SRA was the result of government programs (specifically the Central Intelligence Agency's Project MKULTRA) to produce Manchurian candidate-style mind control in young children were picked up by conspiracy theorists, linking belief in SRA with claims of government conspiracies.[93][94] In the 2007 book Mistakes Were Made (but Not by Me), authors Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson cite an ongoing belief in the SRA phenomenon, despite a complete lack of evidence, as demonstration of confirmation bias in believers; it further points out that a lack of evidence is actually considered by believers in SRA as additional evidence, demonstrating "how clever and evil the cult leaders were: They were eating those babies, bones and all."[95] A Salt Lake City therapist, Barbara Snow, was put on probation in 2008 for planting false memories of satanic abuse in patients.[96] One notable client of hers was Teal Swan.[97] The International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation (ISSTD), a professional nonprofit organization, is known for its advocacy of contemporary narratives surrounding alleged satanic conspiracies. Historically, the organization has convened annual conference presentations dedicated to the exploration and discussion of these topics.

Polarization

The evidence for SRA was primarily in the form of testimonies from children who made allegations of SRA, and adults who claim to remember abuse during childhood, that may have been forgotten and recovered during therapy

Despite this lack of objective evidence, and aided by the competing definitions of what SRA actually was, proponents claimed SRA was a real phenomenon throughout the peak and during the decline of the moral panic.[124][125] Despite allegations appearing in the United States, Netherlands, Sweden, New Zealand and Australia, no material evidence has been found to corroborate allegations of organized cult-based abuse that practices human sacrifice and cannibalism.[126][127] Though trauma specialists frequently claimed the allegations made by children and adults were the same, in reality the statements made by adults were more elaborate, severe, and featured more bizarre abuse. In 95 percent of the adults' cases, the memories of the abuse were recovered during psychotherapy.[128]

Satanic panic

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Ritual abuse" redirects here. For abuse administered under the guise of religion, see Religious abuse.

For other uses, see Satanic panic (disambiguation).

Nearly every aspect of the ritual abuse is controversial, including its definition, the source of the allegations and proof thereof, testimonies of alleged victims, and court cases involving the allegations and criminal investigations. The panic affected lawyers, therapists, and social workers who handled allegations of child sexual abuse. Allegations initially brought together widely dissimilar groups, including religious fundamentalists, police investigators, child advocates, therapists, and clients in psychotherapy. The term satanic abuse was more common early on; this later became satanic ritual abuse and further secularized into simply ritual abuse.[1] Over time, the accusations became more closely associated with dissociative identity disorder (then called multiple personality disorder)[2] and anti-government conspiracy theories, such as QAnon.[3][4]

Initial interest arose via the publicity campaign for Pazder's 1980 book Michelle Remembers, and it was sustained and popularized throughout the decade by coverage of the McMartin preschool trial. Testimonials, symptom lists, rumors, and techniques to investigate or uncover memories of SRA were disseminated through professional, popular, and religious conferences as well as through talk shows, sustaining and further spreading the moral panic throughout the United States and beyond. In some cases, allegations resulted in criminal trials with varying results; after seven years in court, the McMartin trial resulted in no convictions for any of the accused, while other cases resulted in lengthy sentences, some of which were later reversed.[5] Scholarly interest in the topic slowly built, eventually resulting in the conclusion that the phenomenon was a moral panic, which, as one researcher put it in 2017, "involved hundreds of accusations that devil-worshipping paedophiles were operating America's white middle-class suburban daycare centers."[6]

History

Origins

Among the explanations of why the panic occurred when it did, or "took the shape that it did", include

Three films that opened and ran near the beginning of the panic pertained to Satanism, namely Rosemary’s Baby (1968), The Exorcist (1973), and The Omen (1976).[8] According to scholar Joseph Laycock, patients hypnotized by therapists to recover memories of SRA, often "seemed to be recalling scenes from these films".[8]
The reaction against the surge of new religious movements (NRMs) in the 1960s due to both the immigration reform allowing missionaries for Asian religions, as well as new religions, (including the Church of Satan), arising from the counterculture of the baby boomer generation. Sometimes called the "cult wars" or "cult scare".[8][9]
The Tate–LaBianca murders committed by cult members in the Manson Family which consisted of "mostly lonely teenagers from broken homes".[8]
Mike Warnke's bestselling 1972 memoir The Satan Seller, in which he claimed to have led a group of 1,500 Satanists that engaged in rape and human sacrifice before he converted to evangelical Christianity. The book was praised by Moody Monthly and The Christian Century. Two decades later the book was debunked by an evangelical magazine, Cornerstone.[8]

Early history

Blood libel accusations against Jews are considered historical precursors of the modern moral panic.[10]

Allegations of horrific acts by outside groups, including cannibalism, child murder, torture, and incestuous orgies can place minorities in the role of the "Other", as well create a scapegoat for complex problems in times of social disruption.[11][10] The SRA panic repeated many of the features of historical moral panics and conspiracy theories,[11] such as the blood libel against Jews by Apion in the 30s CE,[10] the wild rumors that led to the persecutions of early Christians in the Roman Empire, later allegations of Jewish rituals involving the cannibalism of Christian babies and desecration of the Eucharist, and the witch hunts of the 16th and 17th centuries.[12][13] Torture and imprisonment were used by authority figures in order to coerce confessions from alleged Satanists, confessions that were later used to justify their executions.[10] Records of these older allegations were linked by contemporary proponents in an effort to demonstrate that contemporary Satanic cults were part of an ancient conspiracy of evil,[14] though ultimately no evidence of devil-worshiping cults existed in Europe at any time in its history.[15]

In Early Modern Europe people accused of being witches were stated to be working for Satan and burned at the stake

A more immediate precedent to the context of Satanic ritual abuse in the United States was McCarthyism in the 1950s.[13][16][17] The underpinnings for the contemporary moral panic were found in a rise of five factors in the years leading up to the 1980s: the establishment of fundamentalist Christianity and the founding and political activism of the religious organization which was named the Moral Majority; the rise of the anti-cult movement which accused abusive cults of kidnapping and brainwashing children and teens; the appearance of the Church of Satan and other explicitly Satanist groups which added a kernel of truth to the existence of Satanic cults; the development of the social work or child protection field, and its struggle to have child sexual abuse recognized as a social problem and a serious crime; and the popularization of post-traumatic stress disorder, repressed memory, and the corresponding survivor movement.[18]

Michelle Remembers and the McMartin preschool trial

Main articles: Michelle Remembers and McMartin preschool trial

Michelle Remembers, written by Canadians Michelle Smith and her husband, psychiatrist Lawrence Pazder, was published in 1980.[19] Now discredited, the book was written in the form of an autobiography, presenting the first modern claim that child abuse was linked to Satanic rituals.[20] According to the "memoir", at the age of five Michelle was tortured by her mother for days in "elaborate satanic rituals". As the torture reached a climax, a portal to hell opened and Satan himself appeared, only to be driven away by the Virgin Mary and Archangel Michael. Explanations for a lack of any evidence of abuse on Michelle's body were that it had been miraculously removed by St. Mary. Not explained was testimony from Michelle's father and two sisters, contradicting the memoir, as well as a 1955/56 St. Margaret's School yearbook. The yearbook includes a photo taken in November 1955 showing Michelle attending school and appearing healthy, when according to Pazder's book Michelle spent that month imprisoned in a basement.[8]

Pazder was also responsible for coining the term ritual abuse.[21] Michelle Remembers provided a model for numerous allegations of SRA that ensued later in the same decade.[20][22] On the basis of the book's success, Pazder developed a high media profile, gave lectures and training on SRA to law enforcement, and by September 1990 had acted as a consultant on more than 1,000 SRA cases, including the McMartin preschool trial. Prosecutors used Michelle Remembers as a guide when preparing cases against alleged Satanists.[23] Michelle Remembers, along with other accounts portrayed as survivor stories, are suspected to have influenced later allegations of SRA,[20][24] and the book has been suggested as a causal factor in the later epidemic of SRA allegations.[25][26][27]

The early 1980s, during the implementation of mandatory reporting laws, saw a large increase in child protection investigations in America, Britain, and other developed countries, along with a heightened public awareness of child abuse. The investigation of incest allegations in California was also changed, with cases led by social workers who used leading and coercive interviewing techniques that had been avoided by police investigators. Such changes in the prosecution of cases of alleged incest resulted in an increase in confessions by fathers in exchange for plea bargains.[28] Shortly thereafter, some children in child protection cases began making allegations of horrific physical and sexual abuse by caregivers within organized rituals, claiming sexual abuse in Satanic rituals and the use of Satanic symbols. These cases garnered the label satanic ritual abuse both in the media and among professionals.[29][30] Childhood memories of similar abuse began to appear in the psychotherapy sessions of adults.[31][32]

In 1983, charges were laid in the McMartin preschool trial, a major case in California, which received attention throughout the United States and contained allegations of satanic ritual abuse. The case caused tremendous polarization in how to interpret the available evidence.[33][34] Shortly afterward, more than 100 preschools across the country became the object of similar sensationalist allegations, which were eagerly and uncritically reported by the press.[35] Throughout the McMartin trial, media coverage of the defendants (Peggy McMartin and Ray Buckey) was unrelentingly negative, focusing only on statements by the prosecution.[36] Michelle Smith and other alleged survivors met with parents involved in the trial, and it is believed that they influenced testimony against the accused.[37][38][39]

Kee MacFarlane, a social worker employed by the Children's Institute International, developed a new way to interrogate children with anatomically correct dolls and used them in an effort to assist disclosures of abuse with the McMartin children. After asking the children to point to the places on the dolls where they had allegedly been touched and asking leading questions, MacFarlane diagnosed sexual abuse in virtually all the McMartin children.[40] She coerced disclosures by using lengthy interviews that rewarded discussions of abuse and punished denials. The trial testimony that resulted from such methods was often contradictory and vague on all details except for the assertion that the abuse had occurred.[36] Although the initial charges in the McMartin case featured allegations of Satanic abuse and a vast conspiracy, these features were dropped relatively early in the trial, and prosecution continued only for non-ritual allegations of child abuse against only two defendants.[41] After three years of testimony, McMartin and Buckey were acquitted on 52 of 65 counts, and the jury was deadlocked on the remaining 13 charges against Buckey, with 11 of 13 jurors choosing not guilty. Buckey was re-charged and two years later released without conviction.[36]

Conspiracy theories

In 1984, MacFarlane warned a congressional committee that children were being forced to engage in scatological behavior and watch bizarre rituals in which animals were being slaughtered.[42] Shortly after, the United States Congress doubled its budget for child-protection programs. Psychiatrist Roland Summit delivered conferences in the wake of the McMartin trial and depicted the phenomenon as a conspiracy that involved anyone skeptical of the phenomenon.[43] By 1986, social worker Carol Darling argued to a grand jury that the conspiracy reached the government.[43] Her husband Brad Darling gave conference presentations about a Satanic conspiracy of great antiquity which he now believed was permeating American communities.[25]

In 1985, Patricia Pulling joined forces with psychiatrist Thomas Radecki, director of the National Coalition on Television Violence, to create B.A.D.D. (Bothered About Dungeons and Dragons).[44] Pulling and B.A.D.D. saw role-playing games generally and Dungeons & Dragons specifically as Satanic cult recruitment tools, inducing youth to suicide, murder, and Satanic ritual abuse.[45] Other alleged recruitment tools included heavy metal music, educators, child care centers, and television.[45] This information was shared at policing and public awareness seminars on crime and the occult, sometimes by active police officers.[45] None of these allegations held up in analysis or in court. In fact, analysis of youth suicide over the period in question found that players of role-playing games actually had a much lower rate of suicide than the average.[45]

Among the conspiracy theories alleged by the panic were that thousands of people a year were being killed by a network of Satanists, what one psychiatrist writing in a psychiatric journal called “a hidden holocaust”.[46][8]

Explanations for how Satanists covered up this slaughter included their infiltrating media and law enforcement, as well as morticians and crematorium operators to make sure no bodies were ever found.[44] Other versions claimed that there were no missing persons because Satanists used certain women as breeders, providing Satanists with thousands of babies for human sacrifices.[8]

By the late 1980s, therapists or patients who believed someone had suffered from SRA could suggest solutions that included Christian psychotherapy, exorcism, and support groups whose members self-identified as "anti-Satanic warriors".[47] Federal funding was increased for research on child abuse, with large portions of the funding allocated for research on child sexual abuse. Funding was also provided for conferences supporting the idea of SRA, adding a veneer of respectability to the idea as well as offering an opportunity for prosecutors to exchange advice on how to best secure convictions—with tactics including destruction of notes, refusing to tape interviews with children, and destroying or refusing to share evidence with the defense.[48] Had proof been found, SRA would have represented the first occasion where an organized and secret criminal activity had been discovered by mental health professionals.[49] In 1987, Geraldo Rivera produced a national television special on the alleged secret cults, claiming "Estimates are that there are over one million Satanists in [the United States and they are] linked in a highly organized, secretive network."[50][51] Tapings of this and similar talk show episodes were subsequently used by religious fundamentalists, psychotherapists, social workers and police to promote the idea that a conspiracy of Satanic cults existed and these cults were committing serious crimes.[52]

In the 1990s, psychologist D. Corydon Hammond publicized a detailed theory of ritual abuse drawn from hypnotherapy sessions with his patients, alleging they were victims of a worldwide conspiracy of organized, secretive clandestine cells who used torture, mind control and ritual abuse to create alternate personalities that could be "activated" with code words; the victims were allegedly trained as assassins, prostitutes, drug traffickers, and child sex workers (to create child pornography). Hammond claimed his patients had revealed the conspiracy was masterminded by a Jewish doctor in Nazi Germany, but who now worked for the Central Intelligence Agency with a goal of worldwide domination by a Satanic cult. The cult was allegedly composed of respectable, powerful members of society who used the funds generated to further their agenda. Missing memories among the victims and absence of evidence was cited as evidence of the power and effectiveness of this cult in furthering its agenda. Hammond's claims gained considerable attention, due in part to his prominence in the field of hypnosis and psychotherapy.[53]

Religious roots and secularization

Satanic ritual abuse brought together several groups normally unlikely to associate, including psychotherapists, self-help groups, religious fundamentalists and law enforcement.[54] Initial accusations were made in the context of the rising political power of the conservative Christian right within the United States,[21] and religious fundamentalists enthusiastically promoted rumors of SRA.[41][55] Psychotherapists who were actively Christian advocated for the diagnosis of dissociative identity disorder (DID); soon after, accounts similar to Michelle Remembers began to appear, with some therapists believing the alter egos of some patients were the result of demonic possession.[22] Evangelical Protestantism} was instrumental in starting, spreading, and maintaining rumors through sermons about the dangers of SRA, lectures by purported experts, and prayer sessions, including showings of the 1987 Geraldo Rivera television special.[56] Secular proponents appeared,[57] and child protection workers became significantly involved. Law enforcement trainers, many themselves strongly religious,[citation needed] became strong promoters of the claims and self-described experts on the topic. Their involvement in child sexual abuse cases produced more allegations of SRA, adding credibility to the phenomenon.[21] As the explanations for SRA were distanced from evangelical Christianity and associated with "survivor" groups, the motivations ascribed to purported Satanists shifted from combating a religious nemesis, to mind control and abuse as an end to itself.[58] Clinicians, psychotherapists and social workers documented clients with alleged histories of SRA,[21][59][60] though the claims of therapists were unsubstantiated beyond the testimonies of their clients.[61][62][63]

International spread

In 1986, the largest symposium on child abuse in history was held in Australia, with addresses by vocal SRA advocates Kee MacFarlane, Roland Summit, Astrid Heppenstall Heger, and David Finkelhor.[66]
In 1987, writings on the phenomenon appeared in the United Kingdom along with incidents featuring broadly similar accusations such as the Cleveland child abuse scandal; allegations of SRA in Nottingham resulted in the "British McMartin", advised in part by the British journalist Tim Tate's work on the subject.[41] Along with the list of indicators, American conference speakers, pamphlets, source materials, consultants, vocabulary regarding SRA and allegedly funding were imported, which promoted the identification and counseling of British SRA allegations.[41][57] The Nottingham investigation resulted in criminal charges of severe child abuse that ultimately had nothing to do with Satanic rituals, and was criticized for focusing on the irrelevant and non-existent Satanic aspects of the allegations at the expense of the severe conventional abuse endured by the children.[67]
In 1989, San Francisco Police detective Sandi Gallant gave an interview with a newspaper in the United Kingdom.[68] At the same time, several other therapists toured the country giving talks on SRA, and shortly thereafter SRA cases occurred in Orkney, Rochdale, London, and Nottingham.[69]
In 1992, charges were laid in the Martensville satanic sex scandal; charges were overturned in 1995 on the grounds of improper interviewing of the children.[70][71]
A wave of SRA accusations appeared in New Zealand in 1991, and in Norway in 1992.[72]
In the mid-nineties in Egypt, tabloids such as Rose Al Youssef started publishing articles about an alleged subculture of Satan worshipping and rituals spreading among the teens and youth of the middle and upper-middle class and associating it with heavy metal music, bands, symbolism, and graffiti. The original article published on 11 November 1996 was written by Abdallah Kamal, but soon other writers and journalists, including Adel Hammuda and others. The public intrigue eventually led to the security apparatus raiding the homes of some young people in the music scene and their friends, confiscating posts and tapes and CDs, forcing short hairstyles on them and subjecting them to religious reformation sessions, before releasing them,[73][74] but the scare continued to be stirred from time to time until the mid-2000s, and became books and talk shows.
In 1998, Jean LaFontaine produced a book indicating allegations of SRA in the United Kingdom were sparked by investigations supervised by social workers who had taken SRA seminars in the United States.
In 2021 and 2022, two consecutive reports by Swiss Television journalists Ilona Stämpfli and Robin Rehmann [de] presented evidence that conspiracy theories closely related to the Satanic panic were still held by various groups and individuals in Switzerland, among them teachers, psychotherapists, high-ranking police officers, and a senior physician of Clienia, the largest private psychiatric clinic group in Switzerland.[75][76] As a reaction to the first documentary, two of the interviewed teachers as well as the senior physician were let go by their employers.[77][78]

Skepticism, rejection, and contemporary persistence

Media coverage of SRA began to turn negative by 1987, and the "panic" ended between 1992 and 1995.[79][80] The release of the HBO made-for-TV movie Indictment: The McMartin Trial in 1995 re-cast Ray Buckey as a victim of overzealous prosecution rather than an abusive predator, and marked a watershed change in public perceptions of satanic ritual abuse accusations.[81] In 1995, Geraldo Rivera issued an apology for his 1987 television special which had focused on the alleged cults.[82][51] In 1996 astrophysicist and astrobiologist Carl Sagan devoted an entire chapter of his final book, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark to a critique of claims of recovered memories of alien abductions and satanic ritual abuse, citing material from the newsletter of the False Memory Syndrome Foundation.[83] By 2003, allegations of ritual abuse were met with great skepticism, and belief in SRA was no longer considered mainstream in professional circles;[84][85] although the sexual abuse of children was and is a real and serious problem, allegations of SRA were essentially false. Reasons for the collapse of the phenomenon include the failure of criminal prosecutions against alleged abusers, a growing number of scholars, officials and reporters questioning the reality of the accusations, and a variety of successful lawsuits against mental health professionals.[21]

Some feminist critics of the SRA diagnoses maintained that, in the course of attempting to purge society of evil, the panic of the 1980s and 1990s obscured actual child-abuse issues, a concern echoed by author Gary Clapton.[80] In England, the SRA panic diverted resources and attention away from proven abuse cases; this resulted in a "hierarchy" of abuse in which SRA was the most serious form, physical and sexual abuse being minimized and/or marginalized, and "mere" physical abuse no longer worthy of intervention.[86] As criticism of SRA investigations increased, the focus by social workers on SRA resulted in a large loss of credibility to the profession.[87] SRA, with its sensational narrative of many victims abused by many victimizers, ended up robbing the far-more-common and proven issue of incest against children of much of its societal significance.[88] The National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect devised the term religious abuse to describe exorcism, poisoning, and drowning of children in non-satanic religious settings in order to avoid confusion with SRA.[89][90]

Cult-based abuse

Allegation of cult-based abuse is the most extreme scenario of SRA.[110] During the initial period of interest starting in the early 1980s the term was used to describe a network of Satan-worshipping, secretive intergenerational cults that were supposedly part of a highly organized conspiracy engaged in criminal behaviors such as forced prostitution, drug distribution and pornography. These cults were also thought to sexually abuse and torture children in order to coerce them into a lifetime of Devil worship.[111] Other allegations included bizarre sexual acts such as necrophilia, forced ingestion of semen, blood and feces, cannibalism, orgies, liturgical parody such as pseudosacramental use of feces and urine; infanticide, sacrificial abortions to eat fetuses and human sacrifice; satanic police officers who covered up evidence of SRA crimes and desecration of Christian graves.[110][112] No evidence of any of these claims has ever been found;[61][111][113] the proof presented by those who alleged the reality of cult-based abuse primarily consisted of the memories of adults recalling childhood abuse,[24][110] the testimony of young children[24][110][114] and extremely controversial confessions.[110] The idea of a murderous Satanic conspiracy created a controversy dividing the professional child abuse community at the time, though no evidence has been found to support allegations of a large number of children being killed or abused in Satanic rituals.[115][116] From a law enforcement perspective, an intergenerational conspiracy dedicated to ritual sacrifice whose members remain completely silent, make no mistakes and leave no physical evidence is unlikely; cases of what the media incorrectly perceived as actual cult sacrifices (such as the 1989 case of Adolfo Constanzo) have supported this idea.[61]

Polarization

There was never any consensus on what actually constituted Satanic ritual abuse.[118] This lack of a single definition, as well as confusion between the meanings of the term ritual (religious versus psychological) allowed a wide range of allegations and evidence to be claimed as a demonstration of the reality of SRA allegations, irrespective of which "definition" the evidence supported.[38] Acrimonious disagreements between groups who supported SRA allegations as authentic and those criticizing them as unsubstantiated resulted in an extremely polarized discussion with little middle ground.[119][110] The lack of credible evidence for the more extreme interpretations often being seen as evidence of an effective conspiracy rather than an indication that the allegations are unfounded. The religious beliefs or atheism of the disputants have also resulted in different interpretations of evidence, and as well as accusations of those who reject the claims being "anti-child".[110][120] Both believers and skeptics have developed networks to disseminate information on their respective positions.[121] One of the central themes of the discussion among English child abuse professionals was the assertion that people should simply "believe the children", and that the testimony of children was sufficient proof, which ignored the fact that in many cases the testimony of children was interpreted by professionals rather than the children explicitly disclosing allegations of abuse. In some cases this was simultaneously presented with the idea that it did not matter if SRA actually existed, that the empirical truth of SRA was irrelevant, that the testimony of children was more important than that of doctors, social workers and the criminal justice system.[120]

Evidence

The National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect conducted a study led by University of California psychologist Gail Goodman, which found that among 12,000 accusations of ritual or religious-linked abuse, there was no evidence for "a well-organized intergenerational satanic cult, who sexually molested and tortured children," although there was "convincing evidence of lone perpetrators or couples who say they are involved with Satan or use the claim to intimidate victims."[7] One such case Goodman studied involved "grandparents [who] had black robes, candles, and Christ on an inverted crucifix—and the children had chlamydia, a sexually transmitted disease, in their throats," according to the report by a district attorney.[7]

With both children and adults, no corroborating evidence has been found for anything except pseudosatanism in which the satanic and ritual aspects were secondary to and used as a cover for sexual abuse.[122] Despite this lack of objective evidence, and aided by the competing definitions of what SRA actually was, proponents claimed SRA was a real phenomenon throughout the peak and during the decline of the moral panic.[124][125] Despite allegations appearing in the United States, Netherlands, Sweden, New Zealand and Australia, no material evidence has been found to corroborate allegations of organized cult-based abuse that practices human sacrifice and cannibalism.[126][127] Though trauma specialists frequently claimed the allegations made by children and adults were the same, in reality the statements made by adults were more elaborate, severe, and featured more bizarre abuse. In 95 percent of the adults' cases, the memories of the abuse were recovered during psychotherapy.[128]

For several years, a conviction list assembled by the Believe the Children advocacy group was circulated as proof of the truth of satanic ritual abuse allegations, though the organization itself no longer exists and the list itself is "egregiously out of date".[129]

Investigations

Two investigations were carried out to assess the evidence for SRA. In the United Kingdom, a government report produced no evidence of SRA, but several examples of false satanists faking rituals to frighten their victims. In the United States, evidence was reported but was based on a flawed method with an overly liberal definition of a substantiated case.

United Kingdom

A British study published in 1996 found 62 cases of alleged ritual abuse reported to researchers by police, social and welfare agencies from the period of 1988 to 1991, representing a tiny proportion of extremely high-profile cases compared to the total number investigated by the agencies.[130] Anthropologist Jean La Fontaine spent several years researching ritual abuse cases in Britain at the behest of the government, finding that all of the cases of alleged satanic ritual abuse that could be substantiated were cases where the perpetrators' goal was sexual gratification rather than religious worship.[131] Producing several reports and the 1998 book Speak of the Devil, after reviewing cases reported to police and children's protective services throughout the country, LaFontaine concluded that the only rituals she uncovered were those invented by child abusers to frighten their victims or justify the sexual abuse. In addition, the sexual abuse occurred outside of the rituals, indicating the goal of the abuser was sexual gratification rather than ritualistic or religious. In cases involving satanic abuse, the satanic allegations by younger children were influenced by adults, and the concerns over the satanic aspects were found to be compelling due to cultural attraction of the concept but distracting from the actual harm caused to the abuse victims.[38][132]

In more recent years, discredited allegations of SRA have been levelled against Jimmy Savile during the posthumous investigation into his sexual abuse of children,[133] as well as against former Prime Minister Ted Heath (who was previously falsely accused of SRA during his lifetime).[134]

United States

Further information: Day-care sex-abuse hysteria

David Finkelhor completed an investigation of child sexual abuse in daycares in the United States and published a report in 1988. The report found 270 cases of sexual abuse, of which 36 were classified as substantiated cases of ritual abuse.[103] Mary de Young has pointed out that the report's definition of "substantiated" was overly liberal as it required only that one agency had decided that abuse had occurred, even if no action was taken, no arrests made, no operating licenses suspended. In addition, multiple agencies may have been involved in each case (including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, local police, social services agencies and childhood protective services in many cases), with wide differences in suspicion and confirmation, often in disagreement with each other. Finkelhor, upon receiving a "confirmation", would collect information from whoever was willing or interested to provide it and did not independently investigate the cases, resulting in frequent errors in his conclusions. No data is provided beyond case studies and brief summaries.[135] Three other cases considered corroborating by the public[34]—the McMartin preschool trial, the Country Walk case and the murders in Matamoros, by Adolfo Constanzo—ultimately failed to support the existence of SRA. The primary witness in the Country Walk case repeatedly made, then withdrew accusations against her husband amid unusual and coercive inquiries by her lawyer and a psychologist.[5] The Matamoros murders produced the bodies of 12 adults who were ritually sacrificed by a drug gang inspired by the film The Believers, but did not involve children or sexual abuse. The McMartin case resulted in no convictions and was ultimately based on accusations by children with no proof beyond their coerced testimonies.[84] A 1990/1991 survey of clinicians, which reviewed 386 allegations of ritual and 191 allegations of religious abuse, described 10% and under 3% of those allegations, respectively, as unfounded following social service investigation.[136]

The Netherlands

Dutch investigative journalists from Argos (NPO Radio 1) collected the experiences and stories of over two hundred victims of organized sexual abuse. A hundred and forty victims told Argos about ritual abuse A warehouse in the Bollenstreek was marked as a location for 'storage' and the production of child pornography. During the investigation the Argos journalists received an anonymous email stating the journalists had to 'beaware' because "they know about your investigation", remarking "they're going to get rid of evidence – just like they did with Dutroux". The same day as the journalists received the e-mail, the warehouse in the Bollenstreek burnt down. According to Argos, the damage had been classified so severe by the fire department, that a cause of fire could not be determined.[137]

As a response to parliamentary questions following the Argos investigation, Dutch Minister of Justice and Security Ferdinand Grapperhaus said on August 27, 2020, that there would be 'no independent investigation into Ritual Abuse' of children in The Netherlands.[138] The Green Left, the Socialist Party and the Labour Party criticized Grapperhaus for his decision.[139] On October 13, 2020, the Dutch House of Representatives approved a motion in which the PvdA, GL and the SP requested that an independent investigation be conducted into the nature and extent of "organized sadistic abuse of children", bypassing Grapperhaus' original refusal to investigate.[140]

Therapists claimed that the pain which their patients felt, the internal consistency of their stories and the similarities of the allegations which were made by different patients all proved the existence of SRA, but despite this, the disclosures of patients never resulted in any corroboration;[143] The allegations which were obtained from the alleged victims by mental health practitioners all lacked verifiable evidence, they were entirely anecdotal and they all involved incidents which occurred years or decades earlier.[

Belgium

Main article: Marc Dutroux

During the investigation of the Belgian serial killer Marc Dutroux, a number of women approached police claiming to be adult survivors of a network of sexual offenders.[5] One witness described satanic ceremonies with a goal of disorienting new victims, causing them to doubt the reality of their memories and prevent disclosure.[6][unreliable source?]

Links

What the Hell is Satanic Ritual Abuse? ARTICLE 2006

http://mentalhealth.about.com/cs/abuse/a/satan.htm

Was any of this remotely possible? I began networking with other professionals to see what they thought

WIKIPEDIA http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satanic_ritual_abuseSatanic

ritual abuse (SRA) refers to reports of physical and sexual abuse of individuals, generally children or adults reporting on memories of childhood abuse, in the context of Satanic rituals. Allegations of SRA first appeared in the early 1980s, arising mainly in the United States and United Kingdom and to a lesser extent other parts of the world. The definitions and extent of SRA are controversial as the reports of it are based mostly on testimonials and recovered memories. SRA allegations appearing in the media, the courts and in therapy have been described as a moral panic. SRA impacted how legal, therapeutic and social work professions dealt with allegations of abuse. Allegations of and treatment for SRA has been linked to dissociative identity disorder.

SRA has been linked to dissociative identity disorder (DID, also referred to as multiple personality disorder), with approximately 20% of DID patients also alleging cult abuse. Many DID patients report memories that they allege are forms of ritual abuse though most are undocumented A survey investigating 12,000 cases of alleged SRA found that most were diagnosed with DID as well as posttraumatic stress disorder

2008 Randy Noblitt I try to avoid making judgments about other people's memories and beliefs. I have worked with people who have described what I call ritual abuse. My definition of ritual abuse is similar to what many people also call "trauma based mind control." People who have this problem can often be helped by therapists and my experience has been as a therapist.

Best Wishes,

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4361208473124782099

Dr. Randy Noblitt, Ph.D. Clinical Psychologist, discusses his book and work with ritual abuse victims; more TI discussions

An Empirical Look at the Ritual Abuse Controversy - Randy Noblitt, PhD

http://ritualabusearticles.wordpress.com/2008/10/02/an-empirical-look-at-the-ritual-abuse-controversy-randy-noblitt-phd/ “. "These studies show that the overwhelming majority of surveyed professionals believe ritual abuse allegations./ If these ritual abuse allegations are essentially false, then these therapists are at best misguided.” /Some have argued that false ritual abuse “memories” are implanted or created by inept or unethical therapists.

The most recent effort to quantify and qualify the experience of ritual and other extreme abuse has been recently completed via the Internet. This undertaking was a cooperative effort between social scientists in the United States and Germany, Becker, Overkamp, Rutz, and Karriker, Their preliminary findings were recently described at the SMART conference in August, 2007 and will be further discussed in a chapter of the forthcoming book, Ritual Abuse in the Twenty-first Century: Psychological, Forensic, Social and Political Considerations, edited by Noblitt and Noblitt. Research on allegations of ritual abuse is important and needed because many questions are as yet unresolved among mental health, legal, and law enforcement professionals.

RESULTS EXTREME ABUSE SURVEY EAS rapports 2007

http://ritualabuse.us/mindcontrol/eas-studies/torture-based-mind-control-as-a-global-phenomenon/

Microwave abuse12% 04%

Non-lethal weapons abuse 56% 24%

Electronic harassment 50% 12%

Sleep deprivation 79% 36%

Auto-immune disorders 48%

Sleep problems 93% 75%

Migraine headaches 66% 38%

Fibromyalgia 31% 18%

Posttraumatic stress disorder 93% 70%

Unusual fears 90% 67%

Thyroid problems 31% 20%

Cancer 08% 04%

Seizures with organic basis 27% 16%

http://www.survivorship.org/faq.html#dis

WHAT ARE SOME PROGRAMMING TECHNIQUES?

Any technique which induces a deep trance can be used. In practical terms, this usually means torture, extreme pain, sexual arousal, drugs, and/or electroshock. Also deprivation of sleep, food, and water, extremes of temperatures, loud noise, or strobing lights. Techniques of interrogation of prisoners of war are used: both torture techniques and psychological ones, including induction of helplessness and hopelessness, trickery and deceit, sudden role reversals (the good cop/bad cop technique). None of the methods are humane.

http://extreme-abuse-survey.net/survey.php?en=c (artikles)

http://ritualabuse.us/ ritual abuse website of therapists

http://ritualabuse.us/mindcontrol/ recent survey shows alarming symtoms not only related to memories

R Noblit : “I mostly work with people who say that they were ritually abused and they are also dissociated. Some of them say that they think they are currently harassed by radio or similar technology, but some of them say there programmed to have this belief by their abuser group, whom they say used radio and radio-like devices during their abuse and programming. “

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comparison !

OUR SURVEYS RAPPORT 2008 FROM REMOTELY HARASSED INDIVIDUALS

(one from China one from Belgium)

Manipulation of Memory (forgetting/remembering/screen memories) 70.73%

survey result from china from over 200 targets

Manipulation of Memory (forgetting/remembering/):69.74%

Manipulation of Memory (screen memories, false memories): 43.42%

+ FROM BELGIUM SURVEY over 100 targets

http://sites.google.com/site/remotemanipulationtechnology/surveyresultsupdates

THE EXTREME ABUSE SURVEY GROUP CONSIDERS THE REMOTE TECHNOLOGY AS AN ILLUSION AND THE MEMORIES AS REAL

THE REMOTELY TARGETED INDIVIDUALS CONSIDER THE REMOTE TECHNOLOGY AS REAL AND THE MEMORIES AN ILLUSION

BUT FINALLY THIS IS TWICE THE SAME (Am i right?)

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