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Ritual abuse
Ritual abuse exists all over the world. There have been reports, journal articles[1][2][3], web pages[4][5][6][7][8][9] and criminal convictions of crimes against children and adults [10][11][12].
Definition
Ritual abuse has been defined as:
a brutal form of abuse of children, adolescents, and adults, consisting of physical, sexual, and psychological abuse, and involving the use of rituals. Ritual does not necessarily mean satanic. However, most survivors state that they were ritually abused as part of satanic worship for the purpose of indoctrinating them into satanic beliefs and practices. Ritual abuse rarely consists of a single episode. It usually involves repeated abuse over an extended period of time. The physical abuse is severe, sometimes including torture and killing. The sexual abuse is usually painful, sadistic, and humiliating, intended as means of gaining dominance over the victim. The psychological abuse is devastating and involves the use of ritual/indoctrination, which includes mind control techniques and mind altering drugs, and ritual/intimidation which conveys to the victim a profound terror of the cult members and of the evil spirits they believe cult members can command. Both during and after the abuse, most victims are in a state of terror, mind control, and dissociation in which disclosure is exceedingly difficult.[13]
and as
WHAT IS RITUAL ABUSE? (BROAD DEFINITION) Ritual abuse is the abuse of a child, weaker adult, or animal in a ritual setting or manner. In a broad sense, many of our overtly or covertly socially sanctioned actions can be seen as ritual abuse, such as military basic training, hazing, racism, spanking children, and partner-battering. Some abuse is private...some public. Public ritual abuse may be either open or secret. WHAT IS RITUAL ABUSE? (NARROW DEFINITION) The term ritual abuse is generally used to mean prolonged, extreme, sadistic abuse, especially of children, within a group setting. The group's ideology is used to justify the abuse, and abuse is used to teach the group's ideology. The activities are kept secret from society at large, as they violate norms and laws.[14]
Origins of the term
Pazder introduced the term "ritualized abuse" in 1980, describing the experiences of an adult survivor that was disclosing satanic abuse memories. He defined the phenomenon as "repeated physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual assaults combined with a systematic use of symbols, ceremonies, and machinations designed and orchestrated to attain malevolent effects." Later definitions came mostly from professionals addressing ritual abuse in child care settings. Finkelhor, Williams, Burns, and Kalinowski elaborated on Pazder's definition, defining ritual abuse as "abuse that occurs in a context linked to some symbols or group activity that have a religious, magical or supernatural connotation, and where the invocation of these symbols or activities are repeated over time and used to frighten and intimidate the children." Kelley referred to ritual abuse as the "repetitive and systematic sexual, physical, and psychological abuse of children by adults as part of cult or satanic worship"[15].
Evidence
There is a great deal of evidence supporting the existence of ritual abuse crimes as a worldwide phenomenon. Bottoms, Shaver and Goodman found in their 1993 study evaluating ritual abuse claims that in 2,292 alleged ritual abuse cases, 15% of the perpetrators in adult cases and 30% of the perpetrators in child cases confessed to the abuse. [16]. "In a survey of 2,709 members of the American Psychological Association, it was found that 30 percent of these professionals had seen cases of ritual or religion-related abuse (Bottoms, Shaver & Goodman, 1991). Of those psychologists who have seen cases of ritual abuse, 93 percent believed that the reported harm took place and 93 percent believed that the alleged ritualism occurred....The similar research of Nancy Perry (1992) which further supports (the previous findings)…Perry also conducted a national survey of therapists who work with clients with dissociative disorders and she found that 88 percent of the 1,185 respondents indicated â€belief in ritual abuse, involving mind control and programmingâ€[17].
Recently an online survey[18] of over one thousand people answered questions about ritual abuse and extreme abuse crimes. In a summary of the survey [19], it was found that ritual abuse/mind control is a global phenomenon. Fifty-five percent stated they were abuse in a Satanic cult. Seventy-seven percent of the adult survivors that responded "had been threatened with death if they ever talked about the abuse." Also, "257 respondents reported that secret mind control experiments were used on them as children." Eighty-two percent reported being sexually abused by multiple perpetrators.
Anne Johnson Davis in her book Hell Minus One reported that her parents confessed to her abuse in writing and verbally to clergymen, and to the detectives from the Utah Attorney General’s Office. Her suppressed memories started when she was in her mid-30s, which were fully substantiated by her mother and stepfather[20][21].
Ritual abuse and mind control crimes have also been confirmed in other books[22][23].
A study which identified 270 cases of sexual abuse in day care settings found that allegations of ritual abuse occurred in thirteen percent of the cases[24]. Additional evidence of ritual abuse in day care and child abuse cases has been found in news reports, journal articles and legal transcripts[25][26][27][28][29][30].
Ritual abuse occurrences have also been found in the Netherlands[31]and England[32]. Reports of ritual abuse have also been found in multiple personality disorder sufferers[15]. Kent believes that intergenerational satanic accounts are possible and that rituals related to them may come from a deviant interpretation of religious texts[33][34].
References
- ↑ Satanic Ritual Abuse evidence
- ↑ 2008 Publications on Ritual Abuse and Mind Control
- ↑ Lacter, E (2008-02-11). “Brief Synopsis of the Literature on the Existence of Ritualistic Abuseâ€.
- ↑ http://ritualabuse.us
- ↑ http://www.ritualabusetorture.org/
- ↑ http://www.ra-info.org
- ↑ http://www.survivorship.org
- ↑ http://theawarenesscenter.org/ritualabuse.html
- ↑ http://www.endritualabuse.org/
- ↑ Believe the children (1997). “Conviction List: Ritual Child Abuseâ€.
- ↑ The Satanism and Ritual Abuse Archive
- ↑ Noblitt, PhD, J. R. - An Empirical Look at the Ritual Abuse Controversy (2007)
- ↑ Report of the Ritual Abuse Task Force - Los Angeles County Commission for Women
- ↑ Survivorship - Frequently Asked Questions
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 Van Benschoten, Susan C. (1990). Multiple Personality Disorder and Satanic Ritual Abuse: the Issue Of Credibility Dissociation Vol. III, No. 1 "A large number of adult MPD patients in psychotherapy are reporting memories of explicitly satanic ritual abuse beginning in childhood. The authors of two limited surveys, conducted with a select group of MPD therapists, suggest the percentage of reported satanic ritual abuse in the MPD population to be 20% (Braun & Gray, 1986) and 28% (Braun & Gray, 1987). A survey by Kaye and Klein (1987) reveals that 20 of the 42 MPD patients in treatment with seven Ohio therapists describe a history of satanic ritual abuse. Ilopponen (1987) states that 38 of the more than 70 MPD patients she has treated report memories of "satanic-type ritualized abuse " (p. 11). Two inpatient facilities specializing in the treatment of MPD report that approximately 50% of their patients disclose memories of satanic ritual abuse (Braun, 1989a; Ganaway, 1989). Similar accounts of satanic ritual abuse are being reported by personally unrelated MPD patients from across the United States (Braun, 1989b; Braun & Sachs, 1988; Kahaner, 1988; Sachs & Braun, 1987). In addition, according to Braun (1989b), the reports of patients in this country are similar to data collected from adult survivors in England, Holland, Germany, France, Canada, and Mexico...Brown (1986), noting many similar allegations in child and adult satanic ritual abuse accounts, suggests that reports are not only comparable across geographical and personal boundaries, but across generations as well."
- ↑ Data from Brown, Scheflin and Hammond (1998).â€Memory, Trauma Treatment, And the Law†(W. W. Norton) ISBN 0-393-70254-5 (p.62) Bottoms, B. Shaver, P. & Goodman, G. (1993) Profile of ritual abuse and religion related abuse allegations in the United States. Updated findings provided via personal communication from B. Bottoms. Cited in K.C. Faller (1994), Ritual Abuse; A Review of the research. The American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children Advisor , 7, 1, 19-27
- ↑ Noblitt, J.R.; Perskin, P. (2000). Cult and Ritual Abuse: Its History, Anthropology, and Recent Discovery in Contemporary America p. 269, Greenwood Publishing Group.
- ↑ Extreme Abuse Survey
- ↑ Understanding ritual trauma: A comparison of findings from three online surveys
- ↑ Johnson Davis, Anne Hell Minus One: My Story of Deliverance From Satanic Ritual Abuse and My Journey to Freedom Transcript Bulletin Publishing - ISBN 978-0-9788348-0-7 - 2008
- ↑ Hell Minus One - signed verified confessions of satanic ritual abuse
- ↑ Secret Weapons - Two Sisters’ Terrifying True Story of Sex, Spies and Sabotage by Cheryl and Lynn Hersha with Dale Griffis, Ph D. and Ted Schwartz. New Horizon Press, P O Box 669 Far Hills, NJ 07931 - ISBN0-88282-196-2 "“By the time Cheryl Hersha came to the facility, knowledge of multiple personality was so complete that doctors understood how the mind separated into distinct ego states,each unaware of the other. First, the person traumatized had to be both extremely intelligent and under the age of seven, two conditions not yet understood though remaining consistent as factors. The trauma was almost always of a sexual nature…†p. 52 “The government researchers,aware of the information in the professional journals, decided to reverse the process (of healing from hysteric dissociation). They decided to use selective trauma on healthy children to create personalities capable of committing acts desired for national security and defense.†p. 53 - 54
- ↑ Rutz, Carol (2001). A Nation Betrayed. Grass Lake, MI: Fidelity Publishing. ISBN 0-9710102-0-X.
- ↑ Sexual Abuse in Day Care: A National Study - Executive Summary - March 1988 - Finklehor, Williams, Burns, Kalinowski http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storage_01/0000019b/80/1c/82/61.pdf "“The study identified 270 “cases†of sexual abuse in day care meaning 270 facilities where substantiated abuse had occurred involving a total of 1639 victimized children….This yielded an estimate of 500 to 550 reported and substantiated cases and 2500 victims for the three-year period. Although this is a large number, it must be put in the context of 229,000 day care facilities nationwide service seven million children…allegations of ritual abuse (â€the invocation of religious, magical or supernatural symbols of activitiesâ€) occurred in 13% of the cases.â€
- ↑ Day Care and Child Abuse Cases Information on the McMartin Preschool Case, Michelle Remembers, the Fells Acres - Amirault Case, the Wenatchee, Washington Case, the Dale Akiki Case, the Glendale Montessori - Toward case, the Little Rascals Day Care Center case, Fran’s Day Care case, the Baran case and the Halsey case
- ↑ McMartin Preschool Case - What Really Happened and the Coverup
- ↑ Archaeological Investigations of the McMartin Preschool Site
- ↑ deMause, Lloyd, Why Cults Terrorize and Kill Children The Journal of Psychohistory 21 (4) 1994 [4]"
- ↑ Summit, R.C. (1994). The Dark Tunnels of McMartin Journal of Psychohistory 21 (4): 397-416.
- ↑ Tamarkin, C. (1994a). Investigative Issues in Ritual Abuse Cases, Part I. Treating Abuse Today, 4 (4): 14-23. Tamarkin, C. (1994b). Investigative Issues in Ritual Abuse Cases, Part II. Treating Abuse Today, 4 (5): 5-9.
- ↑ Jonker, F.; Jonker-bakker, P. (1991). “Experiences with ritualist child sexual abuse: a case study from the Netherlandsâ€. Child Abuse and Neglect 15: 191-196. doi:10.1016/0145-2134(91)90064-K. PMID 2043971 "The case of apparent ritual sexual abuse of children in a community in the Netherlands is described in terms of the children's stories, behaviors, and physical symptoms and the community's reaction to reactions of police and other professionals."
- ↑ Sinason, V (1994). Treating Survivors of Satanist Abuse. New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-10543-9. Major publications by Valerie Sinason
- ↑ Kent, Stephen. (1993). “Deviant Scripturalism and Ritual Satanic Abuse Part One: Possible Judeo-Christian Influencesâ€. Religion 23(23):229-241.
- ↑ Kent, Stephen. (1993). “Deviant Scripturalism and Ritual Satanic Abuse. II: Possible Masonic, Mormon, Magick, and Pagan influencesâ€. Religion 23(4):355-367
Bibliography
- Brown, Scheflin and Hammond (1998).â€Memory, Trauma Treatment, And the Law†(W. W. Norton) ISBN 0-393-70254-5
- Cook, C. (1991). Understanding ritual abuse: A study of thirty-three ritual abuse survivors. Treating Abuse Today, 1(4), 14-19.
- Gould, Catherine. (1992) “Ritual abuse, multiplicity, and mind-control.†Special Issue: Satanic ritual abuse: The current state of knowledge. Journal of Psychology and Theology 20(3):194-6
- Hersha, C.; Hersha, L.; Griffis, D.; Schwarz, T (2001). Secret Weapons. Far Hills, NJ: New Horizon Press. ISBN 0-88282-196-2.
- Johnston, Jerry (1989). The Edge of Evil - The Rise of Satanism in North America. Dallas: Word Publishing. ISBN 0-8499-0668-7.
- Jonker, F and Jonker-Bakker, I. (1997). “Effects of Ritual Abuse: The results of three surveys in the Netherlands.†Child Abuse & Neglect 21(6):541-556
- Kent, Stephen. (1994). “Diabolic Debates: A Reply to David Frankfurter and J. S. La Fontaine,†Religion 24: 135-188.
- Kent, Stephen. (1993). “Deviant Scripturalism and Ritual Satanic Abuse Part One: Possible Judeo-Christian Influencesâ€. Religion 23(23):229-241.
- Kent, Stephen. (1993). “Deviant Scripturalism and Ritual Satanic Abuse. II: Possible Masonic, Mormon, Magick, and Pagan influencesâ€. Religion 23(4):355-367
- Leavitt, Frank. Measuring the impact of media exposure and hospital treatment on patients alleging satanic ritual abuse. Treating Abuse Today 8(4) 1998 pp. 7-13 "This study provides evidence that clients who report SRA exhibit a set of associations to SRA-related words that cannot be explained by exposure to the popular media or from inpatient treatment."
- Neswald, D., Gould, C., & Graham-Costain, V. (1991). Common programs observed in survivors of Satanic ritual abuse. The California Therapist, 3 (5), 47 50.
- Noblitt, J.R.; Perskin, P. (2000). Cult and Ritual Abuse: Its History, Anthropology, and Recent Discovery in Contemporary America p. 269, Greenwood Publishing Group.
- Noblitt, R.; Perskin, P. (2008). Ritual abuse in the 21st century p. 552, Bandon, OR: Reed Publishers.
- Sachs, A. & Galton, G. (Eds) (2008). Forensic Aspects of Dissociative Identity Disorder London: Karnac. Chapters include discussions on ritual abuse, dissociative identity disorder, mind control, extreme abuse, survivor accounts and criminal convictions [1]
- Scott, S. (2001). The politics and experience of ritual abuse: beyond disbelief. Open University Press. ISBN 0335204198.
- Smith, Margaret. (1993). Ritual Abuse: What it Is, why it Happens, and how to Help by Margaret - HarperCollins
- Waterman, Jill; Kelly, Robert J.;Oliveri, M. K.;and McCord, Jane (1993). Behind the Playground Walls - Sexual Abuse in Preschools. New York, London: The Guilford Press, 284-8. ISBN 0-89862-523-8.
- Young, Walter C., Sachs, Roberta G., Braun, Bennett G., and Watkins, R. T. (1993) “Patients reporting ritual abuse in childhood: A clinical syndrome. Report of 37 cases.†Child Abuse and Neglect 15(3):181-9