Another Glossary
INTRODUCTION
Ritual abuse is a serious and
growing problem in our community and in our nation. Ritual abuse is not a new
problem, but society is only just beginning to recognize the gravity and scope
of this problem. We are all in need of education on this issue. Parents need to
be educated about the hallmarks of this abuse occurring in preschools and day
care centers. Many professionals are seeing victims of ritual abuse and not yet
recognizing the patterns of this abuse. The concept of ritual abuse, that
groups of adults would terrorize and torture children in order to control them,
is frightening and controversial, raising for all of us problems of denial and
fear of the consequences of such information.
Despite detailed evidence of
ritual abuse coming from child victims and their families, from adult victims,
and from the professionals working with them, and despite the remarkable
consistency of these reports both nationally and internationally, society at
large resists believing that ritual abuse really occurs. There remains the
mistaken belief that satanic and other cult activity is isolated and rare.
The Commission for Women
recognized the need for education and the dissemination of information about
this issue. In February of 1988, the Task Force on Ritual Abuse was formed. The
Task Force is made up of professionals from the fields of medicine, mental
health, education, law enforcement, prosecution, and religion, serving together
with adult survivors and parents of child victims. All are volunteers and give
their time and energy to this work unstintingly.
This report is the result of
months of work and I wish to express my deep appreciation to the members of the
Task Force who participated in its writing.
My special thanks to Catherine
Gould Ph.D. and Lyn Laboriel M.D. for their outstanding contribution to this
project and to the work of this Task Force. My thanks also to David Sielaff for
his contribution to the design and typesetting of this report.
I also wish to thank the Board of
Supervisors of Los Angeles County for their support of our work.
MYRA B. RIDDELL, LCSW
Vice President, Commission for Women
Chair, Task Force on Ritual Abuse
victims. Victims are subjected to profound
terror as well as to mind control techniques so severe that most victims dissociate* their memories of the experience and lose
their sense of free will.
SOME REPORTED
EXAMPLES
1. Threats
of punishment, torture, mutilation, or death of the victim, the victim’s family
or pets. Threats are heightened by carrying out killings of animals or human
beings in the presence of the victim, sometimes with the victim’s forced participation.
Told that it would be futile to disclose because “no-one will believe you.”
2. Threats
against the victim’s property including threats that his/her house will be broken
into or burned down if s/he discloses the abuse.
3. Told
that family or other loving and protective figures are secretly cult members
who intend to harm the victim. Or made to believe that parents not only know,
but have chosen that their child be ritually abused. Told that s/he is no
longer loved by family or by God.
4. Told
that his/her family is not the “real” family, that the abusers are in fact the
child’s “real” family. Victim is told s/he will be kidnapped and forced to live
with the abusers, apart from his/her family. Or told that parents no longer
want the child and approve of the cult becoming the child’s “new family.”
5. Tied
up or confined to a cage, closet, basement, isolation house, or other confined
space. Told s/he being left there to die. Some are placed in coffins and told
to “practice being dead.” For some this includes mock burials in which the victim
is buried and told s/he is being left to die. Sometimes a cult member seems to
rescue the child from these terrifying situations and thus the distraught child
reaches out gratefully and bonds to the cult member.
6. Tied
up or confined in space with insects or animals that s/he is told will harm
him/her, or tricked into believing that frightening insects or animals are
present. Confined with or hung upside-down in a hole with a dead body or the
mutilated body parts of an animal or a human being.
7. Humiliated
or degraded through verbal abuse. Forced nudity in front of the group. Body of
the victim smeared or covered with urine or feces. Forced ingestion of urine,
feces, or semen.
8. Photographed
in sexually provocative poses. Photographed while being physically or sexually
assaulted, or while physically or sexually assaulting someone else. Forced
participation in the production of pornography* used
in the intimidation and humiliation of the victim as well as to financially
profit the abusers.
9. Made
to feel constantly watched and monitored by abusers or their spiritual counterparts
(e.g., evil spirits*). Made to believe that disclosure,
or failure to perpetrate evil when expected by the group to do so, will result
in punishment or even death.
10. Physically and
sexually abused by perpetrators disguised as heroes or authority figures like
Superman, Santa Claus, Rambo, clergy, judges, police. Undermines child’s trust
in authority and heroes. Inhibits disclosure.
11. Subjected to mind
control and mind altering drugs which alter the victim’s perception, interfere
with the victim’s resistance to the assault, and cloud the victim’s recall of
the details of the abuse. Sophisticated uses of hypnosis, indoctrination,
programming, and the use of triggering.
12. Subjected to
rituals like magical surgery*, birthing
rituals*, and marriage rituals* which emphasize the
victim’s belonging to, and subjugation to, the cult. Victims also are forced to
participate in ritual sacrifices* and human
sacrifices*. They are forced into the belief and worship system of the
group. Often, though not always, the belief and worship of the group is
satanic.
13. Sworn into secrecy
regarding cult activities, including the abusive activities, under penalty of
death. Subjected to mind control regarding how to harm him/herself or even to
commit suicide rather than remember or disclose cult activities. Vulnerable to
extreme self-destructive impulses if s/he even considers leaving the cult.
14. Compelled to
commit heinous acts, including the killing and mutilation of animals or human
beings, sometimes including the victim’s own children. Compelled to ingest
blood or body parts of animals or human beings in cannibalistic rituals.
Subsequently subjected by the group to profound condemnation and guilt for
perpetrating and surviving these crimes. Victims tricked into believing their
participation was voluntary. Threatened with exposure as a perpetrator*.
15. Compelled to act
on behalf of the group while outside the group by engaging in prostitution,
drug dealing, and other illegal activities. Compelled to extend the group’s
sphere of influence and control in social institutions (e.g., by participating
and working in schools, churches, law enforcement, courts, health and mental
health professions, etc.).
PHYSICAL
ABUSE
Ritual
abuse victims are physically abused often to the point of torture. Young victims
who are being ritually abused without the knowledge of both parents are usually
subjected only to physical abuse that is not easily detected.
LESS DETECTABLE
EXAMPLES
- Pins or “shots” inserted into sensitive areas of the
body, especially between digits, under fingernails, or in genital areas.
Electric shock to these body areas.
- Being hung by hands or upside down by feet for
extended periods of time. Sometimes hung from crosses in mock
crucifixions. Sexual abuse while in such positions.
- Submerging victim in water with perception of near
drowning.
- Withholding of food or water for several hours.
- Sleep deprivation and activities aimed at inducing
exhaustion.
MORE DETECTABLE
EXAMPLES
- Physical beatings.
- Use of cuts, tattoos, branding, burns, often to
sensitive body areas.
- Withholding food, water, or sleep for days or weeks.
- Removal of body parts, e.g., digits.
SEXUAL ABUSE
The sexual abuse of ritual victims is unusually brutal,
sadistic, and humiliating. It is far more severe than that which is usually
inflicted by a pedophile* or in the context of intrafamilial sexual abuse* (incest). It seems
intended as a means of gaining total dominance over the victim, as well as
being an end in itself.
- Repeated sexual assaults by men, women, and other
children, often occurring in a group. May be associated with the marriage ritual*, repeated fondling, oral copulation,
rape and sodomy.
- Assaults include the use of instruments for
penetration of body orifices, including symbolic objects (e.g., crucifix
or wand) or weapons (e.g., knife or gun).
- Sexual assault coupled with physical violence.
Participation in rituals in which sexual assault is associated with death.
Forced sexual contact with dead or dying people.
- Forced to sexually perpetrate against children and
infants.
- Forced sexual contact with animals.
GLOSSARY
BIRTHING RITUAL
A
ritual described by victims of ritual abuse in which the victim is placed
within the carcass of a dead animal, or in some cases a dead human body, and
is, in the context of a ritual, “born” into membership in the group. This
ritual is intended to make the victim feel profoundly connected to the group.
CHILD SEXUAL OFFENDERS
Some
children who have been sexually molested have in turn molested other children.
Children who do act out sexually in this way are almost always children who
themselves have been sexually molested. Child victims of molestation often feel
overwhelmed by intense feelings of anger, fear, and their own lack of control.
Such feelings lead some molested children to perpetrate against others in an
effort to gain control over the painful feelings of being a victim. The
damaging impact on children who are molested by other children should not be
underestimated or thought of as only “innocent” childhood exploration.
Sexual
assaults which are perpetrated against children in the context of ritual abuse
are generally more sadistic, degrading, and physically painful than other forms
of sexual assault, and leave the child feeling extremely victimized. Because
the emotional damage is likely to be greater for the ritually abused child, and
because the ritual abuse involves compelling the child to sexually perpetrate
against others, the ritual abuse victim is more likely than other victims of
sexual assault to molest, especially if there has been no recognition of, and
treatment for, that child’s victimization.
CONSENT
Among
adults, someone is regarded as having been sexually victimized when sexual
behavior goes beyond that to which they have consented. Any sexual activity
involving children is by definition activity without their consent. Children
and adolescents are not fully aware of the implications or consequences of
sexual activities. They are under the legal and physical control of adults.
When a person perceived by the child victim as powerful or authoritative
presses for sexual activity, whether forcefully or seductively, meaningful
consent by the victim is not possible. The imposition of adult sexuality upon
the child often results in the loss of the child’s sense of safety and trust in
adults and in the distortion of that child’s development for years after the
abuse has occurred.
CULT —DESTRUCTIVE
“A
destructive cult may be defined as a closed system/group whose followers have
been recruited deceptively and retained through the use of manipulative
techniques of thought reform and mind control (undue influence). The system is
imposed without the informed consent of the individual and is designed to alter
one’s personality and behavior. The leadership is all-powerful, the ideology is
totalistic, and the will of the individual is subordinate to the will of the
group. The destructive cult sets itself above society by creating its own
values with little or no regard for society’s ethics or morals.
“...
(they) have engaged in some illegal and unethical practices
-child abuse, neglect and death; illegal and fraudulent immigration; drug
dealing; smuggling money, cars, guns, gems; fraud and deceit in recruiting,
business, financial records, and fund raising; theft; harassment of families
and former members with threats, lawsuits and foul play; stockpiling and
smuggling weapons and ammunition; beatings; sexual abuse and prostitution; kidnapping;
murder; attempted murder; and psychological and emotional damage.”
(quoted from CULT
AWARENESS NETWORK)
DEMONS AND EVIL SPIRITS [from Greek daimon
= a spirit]
Spiritual beings
who are evil and ruled by Satan. According to Christian tradition, they are
angels who shared in Satan’s rebellion and were expelled with him.
Ritually
abused children and adults are victimized at rituals which invoke such beings.
Victims report believing that perpetrators of ritual abuse possess control over
these spiritual entities. Some victims are made to believe that these spirits
have power to control the victim’s life. For some, the fear of harm from such
evil spirits or demons, or the fear of being controlled by them, is more
oppressive and debilitating than fear of the perpetrators themselves.
DISCLOSURE
The
Accommodation Syndrome described by Roland Summit outlines certain predictable
patterns of tentative disclosure in any child’s effort to disclose sexual
abuse. Briefly, the syndrome helps to explain the family dynamics and societal
pressures which lead a child either to be unable to disclose sexual abuse or,
having disclosed, to subsequently retract the disclosure. The child is often
put in the position of “mobilizing altruism and self-control to insure the
survival of the other” (Summit, 1983), being forced to choose between ongoing
abuse and the chaos that is sure to follow disclosure.
In
ritual abuse, additional forces can prevent or fragment a child’s disclosure.
Threats have been made of constant surveillance by the perpetrators and of harm
to the child and those s/he loves if s/he discloses the abuse. Painful physical
and sexual abuse make the child afraid to disclose what was done to him for fear
of further harm from the perpetrators. Memories of systematic humiliation and
degradation may cause the child to feel too ashamed of the activities in which
he was involved to be able to disclose them. Most children are deceived and
manipulated into believing that the actions they took in abusing others were a
result of their own free choice. These children feel guilty and ashamed and
fear rejection and retribution from family and society.
All of
this, combined with dissociative defense processes, often leads the child to
psychologically isolate the painful experiences and carry on in other parts of
his life without disclosure. Ironically, the closer a child feels to his
parents, the more difficult it may be for him to disclose. The child feels that
his silence is the key to the safety of his family. Finally, the disbelief on
the part of parents, therapists, society and/or the courts, which is even more
extreme in cases of ritual abuse than of sexual abuse, contribute to the child
keeping this information buried within himself.
Children
may not reveal their ritual abuse until adulthood. When they do attempt to
disclose, they experience the same extreme disbelief as disclosing children,
and are sometimes labeled as psychotic and hallucinatory. Many also suffer from
an extreme form of dissociative processing, multiple
personality disorder*.
DISSOCIATION
“A
disturbance or alteration in the normally integrative functions of identity,
memory, or consciousness. The disturbance or alteration may be sudden or
gradual, transient or chronic. If it occurs primarily in identity, the person’s
customary identity is temporarily forgotten, and a new identity may be assumed
or imposed (as in Multiple Personality Disorder) or the customary feeling of
one’s reality is lost and replaced by a feeling of unreality {as in
Depersonalization Disorder). If the disturbance occurs primarily in memory,
important personal events cannot be recalled (as in Psychogenic Amnesia or
Psychogenic Fugue).” [DSM III-R 1987]
The
horror and fear experienced by a child who is ritually abused is processed by
the child with varying degrees of dissociation as a defense mechanism against
the overwhelming pain. Most children who were ritually abused during their preschool
years will have completely dissociated the events within two years of the
cessation of the abuse, and will be unable to consciously recall and report
what occurred. A skilled child therapist can help the dissociated ritual abuse
victim to recall his/her abuse and to work through the severe trauma which, if
left untreated, is likely to cause serious emotional problems for the child
throughout his/her life.
EXTRAFAMILIAL SEXUAL ABUSE OF CHILDREN
Any
sexual contact or explicit sexual behavior imposed on a child by someone outside
the child’s family. The perpetrator is likely to be known to the child and
his/her family. Frequently the victim’s parent or guardian, knowingly or
unknowingly, will have permitted the perpetrator to have access to the child.
Research
and clinical experience suggest that children who have been neglected, abused
at home, or who are economically needy, may be particularly susceptible to the
seductive pedophile willing to pay for sexual favors with gifts and attention.
Ritual
abuse of children does not depend on the particular vulnerabilities of the
child. All children who are trapped in a ritually abusive setting are
vulnerable and in most cases all are abused.
(Cf. CONSENT;
PEDOPHILE; PERPETRATOR; VICTIM OF RITUAL ABUSE)
lNTRAFAMILIAL SEXUAL ABUSE OF CHILDREN
(INCEST)
Intrafamilial
sexual abuse encompasses any form of sexual activity between a child and
another family member. The other family member could be a parent or stepparent,
sibling, or other member of the extended family. Incestuous assault refers to
any manual, oral, or genital sexual contact or other explicit sexual behavior
that a family member imposes on a child or adolescent.
(cf. CONSENT;
PEDOPHILE; PERPETRATOR; VICTIM)
MAGIC SURGERY
Child
victims of ritual abuse describe being drugged or hypnotized and, on awakening,
being told they have had “magic surgery.” The blood that has been smeared on
their bodies constitutes compelling evidence that such surgery has taken place.
In some cases children are told that a bomb has been placed inside them, a bomb
that will explode if the child ever discloses the abuse, killing not only the
child but the trusted person to whom he discloses.
Most
typically, child victims of magic surgery are told that they have had a
monster, a demon, or “the devil’s heart” placed inside them, and that it will
attack them if they disclose. They are also told that the monster, demon, or
devil is now in charge of their thoughts and behavior and will cause the child
to “be bad.” Child victims are made to believe that this entity will cause them
pain if they fail to comply with its wishes. Ritually abused children often
report somatic complaints such as abdominal pain in connection with this
phenomenon.
MARRIAGE RITUAL
A
ritual described by victims of ritual abuse in which a “mock marriage” takes
place between a child and a member of the abusive group, between two children,
or between the child and Satan. Victims of this ritual are made to feel
profoundly connected to the group itself or to the powers of evil.
MULTIPLE PERSONALITY DISORDER
“1. The
existence within the person of two or more distinct personalities or personality
states (each with its own relatively enduring pattern of perceiving, relating to,
and thinking about the environment and self).
2. At
least two of these personalities or personality states recurrently take full
control of the person’s behavior.” [DSM III-R 1987]
Kluft,
in describing the kinds of events that trigger the creation of new
personalities in children, delineates the following criteria: (1) the child
fears for his own life; (2) the child fears that an important attachment figure
will die; (3) the child’s physical intactness and/or clarity of consciousness
is breached or impaired; (4) the child is isolated with these fears; and (5)
the child is systematically misinformed or “brainwashed” about his or her
situation. These criteria are certainly met in the events encountered by the
ritually abused child. Many patients with multiple personality disorder have
memories of severe ritual abuse in the context of a group that used satanic
symbols and rituals. Some young children known to have been ritually abused
show signs of multiple personality disorder.
It is
important to remember that multiple personality disorder is not a thought disorder,
and that although different personalities may be in touch with different pieces
of memory and reality, they are not delusional. The memories that they express,
however painful and frightening, should not be dismissed as hallucinatory
fantasies.
OCCULTISM [from Latin occultus -covered over,
concealed]
Belief
in the existence of mysterious, secret, or supernatural sources of power that
can be known and/or communicated with by human beings. “Occult” is a general
designation for various systems of belief, practices, and rituals based on knowledge
of the world of spirits and/or unknown forces of the universe.
PEDOPHILE [from Greek pedo = child + phile
= loving]
An adult
who has sexual relations with a child and receives primary sexual gratification
through sexual contact with children. (Most research has focused on males,
although recognition of the participation of women in the sexual abuse of children
is growing.) Generally, men who molest children have been thought to fit into
one of two categories—“fixated” abusers whose sexual desires have always been
primarily for children, and “regressed” abusers who have had sexual
relationships with adults, but who begin to sexually abuse children, usually as
a result of traumatic or stressful circumstances. Fathers who have incestuous
relations with their children have often been thought of as being in this
second category. There is also evidence of a third category, that of
“crossover” abusers, that is men who may be fathers, and have sexual
relationships with adults, but whose primary sexual attraction is to children.
Many in this group are in fact pedophiles who have abused children inside and
outside their own homes.
Pedophiles were
themselves often victims of sexual abuse as children. They have very poor
self-esteem and fear the risk of rejection from an adult partner. They often do
not think of themselves as harming children. They view their sexual activities
as acts of love. It is important to them to believe that the child enjoys the
sexual contact as much as they do. They view the process of having sexual
activity with a child as one of seduction and education rather than of force
and power.
(cf. PERPETRATOR OF
RITUAL ABUSE)
PENTAGRAM
A five
pointed star. In satanism, used pointing downward, and sometimes enclosed
within a circle.
Perpetrators
of ritual abuse usually function in a group setting. Most victims report being
abused by several perpetrators, often in conjunction with other victims. Women
are reported to be perpetrators of ritual abuse as often as are men.
Little
is know with certainty about the perpetrators of ritual abuse, but it is
important to note that they do not fit commonly held concepts of the
motivation and psychological profile of the pedophile (cf. PEDOPHILE). Ritual
abusers are generally far more sadistic and cruel in their sexual abuse than
are pedophiles. Victims report painful and frightening sexual acts, and humiliating
practices involving, for example, the use of urine and feces. The perpetrators
seem motivated by a desire to see the victims lose a sense of their own free
will, identify with evil, and submit to the will of the group. Because of the apparent
determination on the part of many ritual abusers to victimize and indoctrinate
as many young children as possible, they frequently function together in groups
in the operation of preschools, day-care services, and baby-sitting services,
providing themselves access to children outside of their own families.
There
is evidence that many of these perpetrators have been raised in groups with
strong systems of belief or worship (usually satanic in content) and highly
systematic practices of abuse that are passed on within families from one
generation to the next. Thus, many of the perpetrators of this abuse are in
fact both victims and perpetrators within a family system of abuse. Those who
have been victimized by ritual abuse in a family setting experience varying degrees
of dissociation, including, in some cases, multiple personality disorder. This
may explain how it is possible for some perpetrators to function undetected in
child care settings, to seem quite believable when they deny children’s
complaints of abuse to experienced law enforcement investigators, and even to
do quite well on polygraph examinations.
PORNOGRAPHY
Ritually
abused children report being photographed nude in sexually provocative poses as
well as during sexual and physical assault. Some of these photographs are circulated
or sold for profit. The child victims also talk about the photographs being
shown to them as part of an effort to make them feel humiliated, ashamed, and
fearful of discovery by their parents. Children are often told that they will
be arrested because of what the photographs show.
POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER
A dissociative
disorder triggered by the experience of profoundly traumatic events. The
dissociation may be characterized by intrusion (intrusive thoughts, nightmares,
hypervigilance), and by denial (inattention, amnesia, and constriction of
thought process) [Horowitz, M. J. Stress Response Syndromes, 1976].
Post-traumatic
stress disorder in adults was first studied in returning war veterans who
experienced amnesia and flashbacks of overwhelmingly traumatic events from
their wartime experience. Studies have since been done of children exposed to
violence or extreme fear who manifest post-traumatic stress disorder as a
result. Sexual abuse has been shown to cause post-traumatic stress disorder
among its victims. If left untreated, this condition often persists long after
the abuse occurred.
Ritual
abuse victims typically suffer from severe post-traumatic stress disorder. They
often experience nightmares or intrusive thoughts containing elements of ritual
violence, yet due to amnesia for the actual abuse, have no idea why they are
troubled by such dreams and thoughts.
SACRIFICE< [from Latin sacrum (holy) + facere
(to make)]
A religious
rite in which an object is offered to a god in order to establish, restore, or
maintain a right relationship of man to the sacred order. Blood sacrifices
(killing with bloodshed) are based on the concept that the sacred life force of
both man and animal resides in blood. Blood is particularly important in
rituals involving fertility, purification and atonement. Sacrifices in
different cults are often required according to certain calendars of special
days as well as for unique purposes on a given occasion. Burning is believed to
be another way that a sacrifice can be made directly available to a god. A
third way in which a sacrifice is conveyed to a god is burial in the earth. In
some belief systems sacrifice is also a means of obtaining supernatural powers
or favors from the god.
HUMAN SACRIFICE
The
offering of the life of a human being to a god. The occurrence of human
sacrifice usually can be related to the belief that blood is the sacred life
force in man. The killing of a human, or of an animal in its place, represents
an attempt to affect communion with a god and participate in its life force.
Sacrifices have been made in connection with fertility rites, although specific
other uses for obtaining powers and favors are also common. Cannibalism is
practiced as part of human sacrifice because of a belief that by ingesting
human blood and flesh the individual is empowered and transformed by the life
force contained therein.
Adults
and children who have been ritually abused report being forced to participate
in the killing of babies, children, and adults in ritual settings with the
understanding that the purpose is to obtain certain magical powers. Ritual
abuse survivors explain that the drinking of blood and the practice of
cannibalism are ways to invest the worshipper/perpetrator with the spiritual
powers of the victim.
The
practice of human sacrifice as it has been reported by victims of ritual abuse
always raises extreme problems of credibility. Where have the victims come
from? Where are the remains of these victims? Survivors have explained that victims
come from within the cult membership (including babies “bred” for sacrifice),
from the ranks of homeless people, and even represent some unknown portion of
the large numbers of missing adults and children. Explanations for the absence
of found remains include cannibalism, cult access to mortuaries and crematoria,
frozen storage of body parts, and the retention by cult members of bones and
body parts for further magical practices.
SATAN [from Hebrew = the adversary/accuser; NB equivalent
in Gk diabolos = accuser/slanderer; hence “devil”]
A
spiritual being, opposed to God, supremely evil. According to Christian
tradition an angelic being, once called Lucifer (Isaiah 14:12), created by Gad
for good purposes, but who led a rebellion against God and was cast out of
heaven. Satan is believed to be the Serpent in the Garden of Eden who tempted
Eve to disobey God by saying, “You shall be like God” (Genesis 3:5). Satan is
also called the Father of lies, and Lord of the Flies (Ba’alzebub). He
is the ruler over demons and evil spirits who works to interfere with the
relationship of God and man by provoking man to evil.
SATANISM
Worship
of Satan. Satanists seek to obtain power to manipulate the world around them
for their own gain by calling upon the powers of Satan in certain prescribed
rituals. They oppose the traditional values of Judeo-Christian tradition and
adhere instead to a system of personal power and control over the world around
them. [“Anyone who claims to be interested in magic or the occult for reasons
other than gaining personal power is the worst kind of hypocrite.” -Anton LaVey
in the Satanic Bible.]
Many
young children who are victims of ritual abuse describe rituals that appear to
use the accouterments of satanic ritual, e.g., black and red robes, hoods,
altars, pentagrams, daggers, candles, sacrifice, etc. Many adult survivors
describe being ritually abused on an ongoing basis from early childhood,
through adolescence and into adulthood. They state that their abuse was part of
a system of satanic worship and describe satanic invocations and rituals.
[There
appears to be a wide spectrum of practices, from the more organized satanic
churches to the self-styled practitioners of satanism. It should be noted that
spokespersons for two of the more publicly well-known satanic organizations,
the Church of Satan and the Temple of Set, have issued statements that their
organizations are not in any way associated with the abuse, sexual or
otherwise, of children or adults, or the sacrifices of animals or human
beings.]
SATANIC ALPHABET
Letters
of the alphabet written backwards, upside down, or sideways. A magical practice
stemming from a system which values reversing anything which is the norm. Some children
who attended ritually abusive pre-schools report having been taught to copy the
satanic alphabet. Other occult alphabets may consist of magical symbols and
runes.
SATANIC
CALENDAR
There
exist many versions of so-called satanic calendars, each of which includes a variety
of holidays on which certain rituals must be performed. There are apparently
many individual differences among groups that would call themselves satanists
regarding which holidays are celebrated. Some groups simply do rituals whenever
they please.
The
birthday of the individual, Halloween (October 31), and, in some cases, Beltane
(April 30) appear to be the holidays celebrated by most satanic groups. Many
individuals who have been ritually abused and have participated in rituals on
satanic holidays experience particular difficulty at these times of the year.
(Common Halloween celebrations, for example, regarded by most people as
innocent make believe and child’s play, are extremely traumatic for ritual
victims who think of them as satanic holidays, and as the occasion of ritual
celebrations often including human sacrifice.) On these holidays and on
anniversary dates victims may become emotionally overwhelmed, terrified that
cult members will come to kidnap or kill them. Some are overcome by horrifying
flashbacks of the abuse. Some feel compelled to commit suicide or self-injury.
Others feel a deep compulsion to return to the cult.
TRANCE STATE
A
dissociative state one enters when hypnotized in which memory and perception
are altered. The dissociative effects of the trance state can also be induced
by other conditions such as physical or mental exhaustion, terror, repetitive
chanting, rituals, or drugs. Not all individuals are equally susceptible to
trance or to dissociation. Research has shown that those people who show a high
degree of susceptibility to hypnosis are likely to possess some apparently
biological predisposition to it. They are also more likely to have been victims
of abuse as children.
Some states of
trance seem to be self-induced and function as a defense against experiencing
the overwhelmingly painful stimuli of an abusive environment. For some individuals,
the use of self induced trance and dissociative states in the face of severe
abuse can be associated with the development of multiple personality disorder.
Trances
also can be induced by another person who functions as a hypnotist. The
hypnotist can give post-hypnotic suggestions to the individual in trance to
carry out certain carefully defined actions or to experience certain emotions
or physical sensations after the trance state is over. These actions or
emotions are usually triggered by certain discrete cues that have been
suggested to the subject while s/he was in trance. The mind control from which
many ritual abuse victims suffer is in part a result of having been put into
trance states repeatedly and given a complicated series of post-hypnotic
suggestions (see RITUAL ABUSE AND THE USE OF MIND CONTROL).
However,
hypnosis and trance states also have an important role to play in treating
ritual abuse victims. In trance employed in a therapeutic environment, victims
are often able to retrieve memories which have been dissociated from their conscious
awareness. This process constitutes a very significant aspect of the ritual
abuse victim’s recovery.
VICTIMS OF RITUAL ABUSE—YOUNG CHILDREN
Young
children who are victims of ritual abuse usually fall into one of two
categories: those whose families are perpetrators, and those who are abused
without the parents’ knowledge. Ritual abuse within families (intrafamilial)
can be particularly destructive because of the continual physical presence of
the perpetrators and the lack of any safe environment for the child. Intrafamilial
abuse usually includes the extended family and is multigenerational. In cases
of intrafamilial ritual abuse, the abuse and indoctrination are incessant.
Children are generally raised to perform a given role within the group and are
continuously being trained to fulfill that role. The child feels him or herself
to be identified as a member of the abusive group because of the biological
relationship with the offending paints and because of the group’s
indoctrination about the inevitability of the child’s continued participation.
Dissociation is the result of such abuse and in some cases will manifest in the
emergence of multiple personality disorder. Therapy for victims’ intrafamilial
ritual abuse usually is not sought until adulthood, if ever.
Children
who are abused outside their home (extrafamilial) generally have a better
prognosis because of the presence in their lives of loving adults who protect
them from known sources of harm. Unfortunately, the parents of many young
victims are unable to believe that their children have been ritually abused,
and refuse to acknowledge that they have a problem or to seek help. Their
children often have been made to believe that their parents were willing
co-conspirators with the abusers, leaving the children very confused, with
feelings of dread and distrust toward their own parents. The extreme severity
of the abuse, and the systematic attempts to indoctrinate the child into the
cult’s belief system, make the recovery process quite difficult and protracted
even with the help of skilled therapists. Children who are not treated are
likely to face very poor outcomes.
WITCHCRAFT
Witchcraft
is an ancient and widespread practice, the tribal religion of Pre-Christian
Europe. In contemporary practice, much of witchcraft focuses on self-knowledge
and healing, revering the laws of nature and working with nature. Many modern
witches, predominantly women, conceptualize witchcraft within the context of
feminist theory and consciousness, re-empowering the symbols of the feminine.
Because
of its general antithesis to Christianity, and because many members of destructive
cults identify themselves as witches, witchcraft and satanism are often
believed to be analogous. While abuse has been described as having occurred in
connection with witchcraft, witchcraft per se does not connote abuse.
GROUPS IDENTIFIED WITH
SATANISM
Church
of the Final Judgment—also known as The Process
Church
of Satan (founded by Anton La Vey)
Ordo
Templis Orientalis (once headed by Aleister Crowley)
Temple
of Set (led by Lt. Col. Michael Aquino, U.S. Army)
Worldwide
Church of Satanic Liberation (led by Paul Valentine—recruits teens)
RITUAL
ABUSE AND THE USE OF MIND CONTROL
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.
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.
The
information available about how ritually abusive cults indoctrinate young children
comes primarily from child and adult survivors who have been able to remember
how the cult achieved mind control over them and others in the cult. Therapists
who have worked extensively with ritual abuse victims have gleaned a
significant, although still incomplete, degree of understanding of the process
by which the mind control is achieved. A key element of the victim’s recovery
from ritual abuse consists of understanding, unraveling, and undoing the mind
control which usually persists for a long time, even in victims who no longer
participate in the cult. Undoing these controls is critical, for victims may
remain unable to disclose their abuse, or vulnerable to cult manipulation if
the systematic programming is not dismantled. As more ritual abuse victims are
helped to free themselves from cult mind control, the body of information about
this important aspect of ritual abuse continues to grow.
Satanic
cults focus their initial efforts to achieve mind control mast frequently and
strenuously with children under the age of six. Like developmental
psychologists, satanists understand that people are most susceptible to having
their character, beliefs, and behavior molded during this early period of
development. This review of the mind control techniques utilized by satanic
cults will focus primarily on the techniques used on very young children, both
those in ritually abusive families, and those in extrafamilial settings, such
as day-care and preschools. Children who are abused in intrafamilial settings
are subjected to ongoing mind control that is often sustained in extreme forms
throughout their childhood and adolescence.
There
is a growing body of research into the indoctrination techniques which are used
by a wide range of destructive cults. It is helpful to consider how satanic
cults make use of these and other techniques to control their victims.
In Cults, Quacks and Non-Professional Psychotherapists,
West and Singer have described elements of cult indoctrination as follows:
1. Isolation of the recruit and manipulation of his environment.
2. Control
over channels of communication and information.
3. Debilitation
through inadequate diet and fatigue.
4. Degradation
or diminution of the self.
5. Induction
of uncertainty, fear, and confusion, with joy and certainty through surrender
to the group as a goal.
6. Alternation
of harshness and leniency in a context of discipline.
7. Peer
pressure generating guilt and requiring open confessions.
8. Insistence
by seemingly all-powerful hosts that the recruit’s survival—physical or
spiritual—depends on identifying with the group.
9. Assignment
of monotonous or repetitive tasks such as chanting or copying written
materials.
10. Acts of symbolic
betrayal or renunciation of self, family, and previously held values, designed
to increase the psychological distance between the recruit and his previous way
of life.
Satanic cults use many of
the same techniques, but apply them in unique ways to indoctrinate and control
very young children. To begin with, they impose a variety of PHYSICAL,
EMOTIONAL, and COGNITIVE CONDITIONS which are conducive to indoctrination.
PHYSICAL CONDITIONS
1. HUNGER AND THIRST
Ritually
abused children are often deprived of food and water for extended periods of
time, and are told they will be left to die of hunger and thirst. Their
deprivation and fear of dying make them willing to comply with virtually any
behavior or belief necessary to be given food or water again. The cult member
who finally does feed the child is perceived as an ally and benefactor. The
child feels deeply grateful and is thus susceptible to bonding with that cult
member, thereby increasing the child’s vulnerability to identifying with the
cult and its beliefs and practices.
2. PAIN
Ritually abused
children are physically tormented and sexually abused in very painful ways. The
pain can cause them to dissociate* and, like
prisoners of war subjected to torture, they become willing to do whatever is
demanded of them in order to make the pain stop. For a young child who is
ritually abused in an out-of-home care setting, even a brief encounter with
intense pain profoundly impacts that child’s susceptibility to cult mind
control. For those children raised in cults, the use of pain and the threat of
pain continues for as long as they are submitted to the cult, causing an
ongoing and deepening degree of subservience to the cult.
3. DRUGS
Both child and adult victims of ritual abuse have described
being abused with mind-altering drugs. Some drugs are injected or administered
in suppositories. Others are hidden in food or drink, or simply swallowed under
duress.
The drug effects include hypnotic and paralytic effects,
causing victims to experience mental and emotional states ranging from
confusion and drowsiness, to passivity and helplessness. Memory distortions
occur as well. Victims tend to recall very real and painful experiences only
with difficulty as though they were unreal or even just dreams. Additionally,
in such drug-induced states, young children are even more pliable than they
would otherwise be, and more open to the belief system into which the cult is
attempting to indoctrinate them. Cult leaders capitalize on drug-induced
reality distortions to create the illusion that they have absolute power to
which the child must submit.
4. EXHAUSTION
Ritually abused children are often deprived of rest and
sleep. In the extrafamilial settings in which ritual abuse occurs, children are
frequently deprived of needed nap and rest periods. In ritually abusive family
settings, children may be deprived of sleep for extended periods of time. The
influence of repeated drugging further deepens their sense of exhaustion.
People in a state of exhaustion are more open to mind control because fatigue
saps their normal coping capacities. This effect is especially pronounced in
young children.
5. ISOLATION
Ritually abused children are put into closets, holes, cages,
coffins, and other confined, usually dark, spaces. The children are often
isolated there and told they will be left to die. The sensory deprivation that
may result can cause some degree of disorientation. The isolation causes the
child to feel desperate and overwhelmed with fear and dread. An abusive adult
who subsequently releases the child from confinement is perceived by the child
as a rescuer, often causing the young child to bond to that cult member. The
child’s bonding with one or more cult members increases the degree of the
child’s identification with the values and beliefs of the cult. In other words,
both the isolation and the rescue make the child more susceptible to
indoctrination into the destructive beliefs and practices of the cult.
6. SEXUAL ABUSE
Ritually abused children are subjected to brutal sexual
abuse which involves severe pain and may involve sexual arousal with which the
children are neither physically nor emotionally prepared to cope. Sometimes the
sexual abuse is performed with symbolic instruments (e.g., penetration with a
crucifix or wand) which reinforces the satanic belief system of the cult. The
pain, especially if in combination with arousal, is extremely disorienting and
overwhelming, again making the child willing to comply with the demands of the
cult members in order to make the feelings stop. The sexual arousal can
contribute to the formation of distorted bonds with the abusers, leading to
identification with the abusive cult.
7. BRIGHT LIGHTS
Adult and child victims of ritual abuse describe having
harsh, intensely bright lights shined in their eyes immediately before and
during indoctrination. The lights appear to disorient them and to induce a
state of trance* which lowers the victim’s resistance and
heightens the susceptibility to indoctrination.
EMOTIONAL
CONDITIONS
1. TERROR
Ritually abused children have been terrorized and are
profoundly afraid of their abusers. They have endured physical torture and
painful sexual assaults. They have witnessed the terror, torture, and murder of
other children and adults in group settings, experiences which greatly
intensify the child’s own overwhelming fears. Their terror is heightened by
what they perceive as the omnipotence and omniscience of their abusers,
including what they believe are their abusers’ abilities to control them
through the use of demons and evil spirits*.
Ritually abused children have also been threatened
repeatedly with death to themselves and their families should they disclose.
This state of terror causes the child to be willing to do or believe anything
to appease the abusers, thereby reducing the degree of threat the child feels
from them.
2.
GUILT AND SHAME
Ritually abused children have been forced to engage in
humiliating and degrading activities such as handling, smearing, and ingesting
urine, feces, blood, and human flesh. They have been photographed
pornographically and, sometimes, been made to view these pictures. They have
been forced to participate in the abuse, torture, and killing of animals, and
the murder of children and adults.
They are then made to feel responsible for their actions as
though these actions were freely chosen by them. They are threatened with
exposure as perpetrators, and fear being rejected completely by their families
or even being arrested and jailed. Their feelings of guilt and shame contribute
to a perception that through their actions, they have already shown their
loyalty to the cult and its beliefs. They are made to feel that the abusive
group itself is their only refuge of acceptance. By turning to the abusive
group for a sense of acceptance and protection, these children are open to even
further indoctrination.
3.
EMOTIONAL ISOLATION AND DESPAIR
Children who are ritually abused are made to feel cut off
and rejected by their families and the rest of the world. They are often told
that their “real parents” have died or Dave abandoned them, and that the people
with whom they live are pretenders. Sometimes they are told that the cult
members are their “real parents” who will someday “rescue” them from their
homes. These ritually abused children often come to feel emotionally estranged
from their families. The deep loneliness which results opens them to bonding
with abusive cult members, identifying with them, and thus becoming open to
indoctrination into the cult’s system of beliefs and practices.
In addition, children who are ritually abused are profoundly
sad. They experience tragedy and horror, as well as isolation, at an intensity
which would induce an overwhelming sadness in a mature adult. They may come to
feel utterly hopeless, and in their despair they are likely to feel that cult
abuse and cult membership are all that they deserve and all that they can
imagine for their future. The cult convinces them that there is no place to
turn for help, and thus no way out of the cult.
4.
RAGE
Ritual abuse provokes children to feel enormous rage,
because the violation which they experience is so great. This rage within the
child contributes to the cult’s efforts to indoctrinate that child into a
belief system in which violence and rage are valued and encouraged. A child who
has been repeatedly violated by the cult over time, and not permitted to
express any emotion about his/her abuse, may be eager to vent his/her rage by
striking out and victimizing others. The assaultive behavior which ensues is
encouraged and rewarded by adult cult members, and is used to make the child
feel s/he already is just like the abusive adults who have provoked the rage.
COGNITIVE CONDITIONS
1.
LACK OF INFORMATION
Young children who are being ritually abused lack sufficient
information and experience to know that much of what their abusers tell them is
untrue. They lack the cognitive development to perceive the contradictions in
some of the lies they are told. They are likely to accept the misinformation
offered by the cult members as part of the mind control process.
2. CONFUSION
Ritually abused children are confused by the infliction of
pain, the exhume sexual arousal caused by sexual abuse, the incessant
directives to do things they know are wrong, the extensive lying and deception
by cult members, and the perceived loss of control over their own behavior and
the behavior of those around them. Children in such situations long for
explanations from adults to reduce their confusion about what is happening to
them. The result again is an increased vulnerability to indoctrination as they
open themselves to any explanations offered by the adults in the cult.
THE ROLE OF TRANCE*
STATES
These
conditions—physical, emotional, and cognitive—exacerbate the impact of the
child’s ritual abuse, especially in combination with the used trance states. It
is important to look at the role of trance states in achieving mind control
over the ritually abused child. When children are in a state of trance, they
are more open to indoctrination and other techniques for attaining control over
their minds and behavior. For example, a child who hears an adult state
repeatedly, “Satan has the power,” is much more likely to incorporate that as a
deeply held belief if the child is in a state of trance, than if the child is
in a normal waking state.
There are many
means by which trance states can be achieved with children during the course of
ritual abuse. The rituals themselves contain many trance inducing elements,
among them, chanting, isolation, sensory deprivation, pain, and other forms of
extreme physical discomfort. Trance states are also induced in ritual abuse
victims by using hypnosis and hypnotic drugs.
Traumatic
experiences which occur while the victim is in a trance state can be used to
indoctrinate victims. These experiences have a profound and long-lasting impact
on the beliefs, feelings, and even the behavior of victims, despite the fact
that these experiences cannot always be remembered consciously. Only later in
life, usually with the help of a highly skilled therapist, are some ritual
abuse victims able to painstakingly reconstruct what happened to them while
they were in various states of trance or dissociation.
The
fact that certain events are not easily remembered does not mean that they do
not have a significant impact on the life of the individual. Until the memories
are surfaced and worked through in a safe environment, the survivor of such
abuse is still controlled to some extent by these past experiences. Typically,
the survivor will react most strongly to past indoctrination when triggered by
an event which is a reminder of it. For example, if the survivor was abused in
childhood by a cult that conducted abusive rituals on every full moon, s/he may
feel compelled as an adult to seek out a cult and participate in rituals
whenever the moon is full. Or s/he may be triggered to perform a physically or
sexually assaultive act on the full moon without seeking out a cult.
Alternatively s/he may act out in some other compulsive way to cope with the
anxiety associated with the dissociated memory of this traumatic event.
Survivors
experience triggering of certain beliefs into which they were indoctrinated, or
certain behaviors that they are programmed to enact. They are usually unaware
of what it is that is triggering them. With help, a victim can bring the triggering
events to conscious awareness, and then can gradually become empowered to free
him/herself from these compulsions.
Behaviors
can be triggered spontaneously by cues that by chance happen to remind the individual
of past indoctrination or programming. Cues may be implanted by the cult during
indoctrination which can also be employed deliberately by cult members to
elicit particular behaviors from a victim. For example, a survivor who was
ritually abused and indoctrinated in early childhood can often be called back
into the cult years after the indoctrination occurred when approached by a cult
member who knows what trigger words or signs to use to access that individual’s
programming and gain the desired response.
The
abusive system of mind control described has distinct EMOTIONAL CONSEQUENCES,
as well as a major impact upon the COGNITIVE and RELIGIOUS BELIEFS
under which the victims function.
EMOTIONAL
CONSEQUENCES of ritual abuse and mind control for both adult and child
survivors include the following.
1. TERROR
Ritually
abused children are overwhelmed with profound fear. They are hypervigilant,
feeling that they are constantly being watched. They are anxious and agitated,
sometimes mistakenly perceived as “hyperactive.”
2.
GUILT AND FEAR OF DISCOVERY
Ritually abused
children experience profound fear both of punishment and loss of love from
family and friends. They have been made to feel that their participation in
heinous acts was freely chosen and that they are responsible for their actions.
They are especially fearful of being found responsible by their families or by
the authorities (e.g., police) and of being punished for their participation in
the violence, sexual contacts, pornography, and murders.
3.
LONELINESS
Children abused
ritually outside of their families feel painfully cut off from their families
and deeply lonely. They feel that the acts they have committed, and the vows
they have been forced to make to the cult and to Satan, separate them from their
families irrevocably. This kind of emotional estrangement from their parents is
often accompanied by profound despair.
4.
IDENTIFICATION WITH THE GROUP AND A SENSE OF PERSONAL BADNESS
Ritually abused children tend to feel identified with the
evil performed by the cult. This feeling of being “one of the bad people” often
leads to compulsions to behave in physically and sexually assaultive ways.
5.
RAGE OVER VICTIMIZATION
Enraged child
victims are encouraged to act out their anger by assaulting others and are then
told that this is evidence that they are truly becoming members of the abusive
group. Thus, even their own rage is turned against ritually abused children,
thereby heightening their sense of hopelessness and entrapment.
6. LOSS
OF SENSE OF SELF
Ritual abuse
victims feel a loss of boundaries between the self and the group. Often, they
come to be so identified with the group that they feel like an extension of it.
This loss of the sense of self contributes to feelings of personal badness and
of rage.
7.
ABSENCE OF FREE WILL
As a result of
techniques like magic surgery*, the perception that
controlling evil spirits* are present, that cult members
know everything that the child thinks or does, and the use of impossible double
binds (e.g., stab or be stabbed), the victim comes to feel that there is no
choice but to comply, and yet is still burdened by guilt and shame.
COGNITIVE
BELIEFS imparted by ritual abuse and mind control, seen in both adult and
child survivors, include the following.
1.
THERE IS NO ESCAPE
“The cult members are everywhere. The spirits, monsters,
demons, devils, etc. that the cult controls, surround me, too. They know if I
violate any of the rules of the cult, and they will punish me. I can never
leave.”
2.
THE CULT COMPLETELY CONTROLS ME
“I am controlled by the cult and by the demon*
which the cult has placed in me to both control and monitor my behavior. I have
no freedom and must follow the orders of the cult leaders in all things. I must
be ready to assault others and neither trust nor make any close associations
with anyone outside the cult.”
3.
I AM INCAPABLE OF PROTECTING MYSELF
“I am inadequate.
I have no control and no power. I am paralyzed.”
4.
THE CULT IS MY ONLY TRUE FAMILY
(In extrafamilial cases)—”My family is dangerous to me and
only the cult members accept me. I will eventually live with them forever
because they are my true family.”
5.
MEMORIES ARE DANGEROUS
“I must hurt myself if I begin to remember. I must cut
myself, beat myself, or kill myself if I remember what happened. Terrible
things will happen to me and my family if I remember.”
6.
DISCLOSURES ARE DANGEROUS
“The cult will know if I tell anyone. If I do tell, I or my
family will be hurt by them, or I will be compelled to hurt myself.”
RELIGIOUS
BELIEFS imparted by ritual abuse and mind control, seen in both adult and
child survivors, include the following.
1.
SATAN IS STRONGER THAN GOD
“Satan has all the power. He is stronger than God. God has
not been able to do anything to protect me from what has happened.”
2.
GOD DOES NOT LOVE ME
“I am despised and rejected by God. I am guilty of crimes
that God could never forgive. I am evil and beyond hope for redemption or
restoration.”
3.
GOD WANTS TO PUNISH ME
“I am profoundly afraid of God who must want to destroy me.”
4.
MY LIFE IS CONTROLLED BY SATAN
“I belong to Satan irrevocably. His power lives inside me
and has taken over my life. I am possessed by an evil spirit or demon that
controls my life.”
5.
MY LIFE IS DEDICATED TO SATAN
“I have taken vows to serve Satan throughout my life. I will
serve him by willingly committing acts of evil and destruction. In turn, he
will protect me from harm and allow me to gratify all of my desires.”
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
Andres, Rachel and Lane, James R. Cults
and Consequences. Commission on Cults and Missionaries, Jewish Federation
of Greater Los Angeles, 1988.
Source
on cults in general and uses of mind control.
Crewdson, John. By Silence
Betrayed: Sexual Abuse of Children in America. Boston: Little, Brown &
Co., 1988.
Journalist’s
excellent overview of child sexual abuse. Two chapters on ritual abuse cases.
Finklehor, David. Nursery Crimes.
Newbury Park, California: Sage Press, 1988.
Conservative
study by noted sociologist and expert in child sexual abuse of the incidence of
sexual abuse and ritual abuse in day-care and preschool settings.
Gould, Catherine. Signs and
Symptoms of Ritualistic Child Abuse. 1988.
Listing
of signs and symptoms by noted clinical psychologist, with extensive experience
with ritually abused children.
Hassan, Steven. Combatting Cult
Mind Control. Park Street Press, 1988.
Written
by former “Moonie” who is now a licensed counselor.
Hollingsworth, Jan. Unspeakable
Acts. N.Y.: Cogdon and Weed, 1986.
Journalist’s
account of ritual abuse case involving neighborhood baby-sitter and 60+
children in Dade County, Florida.
Kahaner, Larry. Cults That Kill.
N.Y.: Warner Books, 1988.
Series
of interviews focusing on cults, especially satanic.
Kluft, Richard P. Childhood Antecedents of Multiple
Personality. American Psychiatric Press, 1985.
Marron, Kevin. Ritual Abuse. MacMillan,
Canada, 1988.
Excellent
report of ritual abuse trial in Hamilton, Ontario.
Michaelson, Johanna. Like Lambs
To the Slaughter. Eugene, Oregon: Harvest House, 1989.
Well documented
review of deceptive occult indoctrination practices targeting children through
media and schools. Many references to ritual abuse. Christian viewpoint.
Pazder, Lawrence and Smith,
Michelle. Michelle Remembers. N.Y.: Congdon and Lattes, 1980.
Psychiatrist’s
account of the adult memories of a survivor of one year of severe ritual abuse
at age five.
Spencer, Judith. Suffer the Child.
Pocket Books, 1989.
Case
study of a woman given to a satanic cult by her mother at age of two and how
ritual trauma resulted for her in multiple personality disorder.
Stratford, Lauren. Satan’s
Underground. Eugene, Oregon: Harvest House, 1988.
Autobiographical
account of a survivor of ritual abuse and child pornography. Christian
viewpoint.
Summit, Roland. “The Child Sexual
Abuse Accommodation Syndrome.” Child Abuse and Neglect. Vol. 7:177 -93
(1983).
Scholarly
description of patterns of disclosure in sexually abused children.
____________. “Too Terrible to Hear.
Barriers to Perception of Child Sexual Abuse.” Testimony before the Attorney
General’s Commission on Pornography, November 20, 1985.
Essay
on elements of denial of child sexual abuse. Several case examples.
Terry, Maury. The Ultimate Evil:
An Investigation into America’s Most Dangerous Satanic Cult. Garden City,
N.Y.: Doubleday, 1987.
Journalist’s
well-documented investigative account of the “Son of Sam” killings in New York.
Alleges killings done by satanic cult with national network. Book has prompted
re-opening of case by District Attorney.
West, Louis, J. and Singer, Margaret
Thaler. “Cults, Quacks, and Non-professional Psychotherapies” in Comprehensive
Textbook of Psychiatry, Vol. III, 3rd ed. Baltimore, Maryland: Williams and
Wilkins, 1980, pp. 3245 -58.
Discusses
the issues raised by the new religious movements considered psychologically
damaging to their adherents.
RESOURCES
1. For crisis
counseling, and information about therapists in your area:
Childhelp, USA
National Child Abuse Hotline
1 – 800 – 4 A Child
2. For parent
and victim support, resource materials and information, speakers, and newsletter:
Believe the Children
P.O. Box 1358
Manhattan Beach, California 90266
(213) 379-3514
Believe the Children
P.O. Box 26 - 8462
Chicago, Illinois 60626
(312) 973-5275
Believe the Children
P.O. Box 6593
Lincoln, Nebraska 68506
3. For parent
support, resource materials, information and speakers:
Families of Crimes of Silence
(FOCOS)
P.O. Box 2338
Canoga Park, California 91306
(805) 298-8768
(213) 372-6231
4. For
non-sectarian resource materials, information, and speakers on destructive
cults in general:
Commission on Cults and
Missionaries
Jewish Community Relations
Committee
Jewish Federation Council of
Greater Los Angeles
6505 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles, California 90048
(213) 852-1234, Ext. 2813
5. For
non-sectarian parent and victim support for those injured by the activities of
destructive cult groups:
Cult Clinic
Jewish Family Service
6505 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles, California 90048
(213) 852-1234, Ext. 2650
6. For written
materials on ritual abuse:
Marshall Resource Center
Children’s Institute International
711 South New Hampshire
Los Angeles, California 90005
(213) 385-5100
7. For in-service
training of professionals and the general public regarding child abuse as well
as custody and protection issues. General training in ritual abuse:
Adam Walsh Resource Center
782 Westminster Blvd.
Westminster, California 92683
(714) 898-4802
8. For
additional copies of this report, referrals, training for professionals, or
speakers on ritual abuse:
Los Angeles
County Commission for Women
383 Hall of
Administration
500 W. Temple
St.
Los Angeles,
California 90012
(213) 974-1455
Notes
LOS ANGELES COUNTY COMMISSION FOR WOMEN
383 Hall of Administration/500 W. Temple/Los Angeles, CA
90012/974-1455
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