DOES RITUAL ABUSE EXIST?

Definition of Ritual Abuse

• Ritual Abuse (RA) is "psychological, sexual, and/or physical assaults committed according to a prescribed ritual, by one or more people whose primary motive is either to fulfill a need to abuse others, or to program the victim so that they can be better controlled in the future."
• Satanic Ritual Abuse (SRA) is "psychological, sexual, and/or physical assault committed by one or more people according to a prescribed ritual, the primary aim of which is to fulfill the need to worship the Christian devil, Satan."
• Christian Ritual Abuse (CRA) is "psychological, sexual, and/or physical assault committed by one or more Christians according to a prescribed ritual, the primary aim of which is to fulfill a requirement of their Christian faith, or to purge the victim."

Classification of Ritual Abuse Cases

1. abuse by secret, multi-generational Satanic cults
2. abuse by religious Satanists (members of the Church of Satan, etc)
3. abuse and murder by psychotic or psychopathic individuals
4. abuse by child molesters pretending to be Satanists
5. abuse by Christian groups
6. abuse in day care centers, Sunday schools and baby-sitting services.

• 1. Abuse by Secret, Multi-generational Satanic Cults

  Ken Lanning is head of the Behavioral Science Unit of the FBI which investigates ritual abuse cases. He issued a report (1) in 1992 which concluded that "..in none of the cases of which I am aware has any evidence of a well-organized satanic cult been found". A group of US government study involving over 10 thousand therapists, DA offices, police forces, etc reached the same conclusion. (2) Additional studies were conducted by the governments of the State of Virginia (3,4), England (5) and the Netherlands(6) between 1991 and 1994. They all agree that there is no organized, secret, abusive Satanic cult.

  These conclusions are in opposition to many people's belief systems. In some states of the US, over 90% of the adults believe that underground Satanic groups are actively abusing and killing children. Tens of thousands of people who have had Recovered Memory Therapy (RMT) have recollected memories of SRA. (Others involved in the same therapy have recovered memories of abuse on board UFO's, and in former lifetimes). There is a growing belief that such memories are not related to real events, but are accidental and unintended byproducts of the suggestive therapeutic methods.

  We are actively seeking hard evidence of secret Satanic cults. In particular we are trying to find a person with "always present" SRA memories who has never been exposed to RMT or self-hypnosis. So far, the search has been unsuccessful.

  As a working hypotheses, we have concluded that multi-generational, secret, abusive, organized Satanic cults do not exist.
  

• 2. Abuse by Religious Satanists

  The Church of Satan, Temple of Set and other Satanic religious groups are active and probably include many thousands of members in North America. This number is speculative, because the largest group does not reveal its membership statistics, and the remaining groups are relatively small. There has been one allegation of abuse against a member of the Temple of Set by an ex-girlfriend, (7) but no charges resulted.

  One case of intra-familial incest involving an underage teen-age male may have occurred. It was reported in the large Federal government study referred to above (2). The teen-ager's parents were Satanists and publicly acknowledged their religion. They apparently invited him to some of their sexual rituals as victim, observer and perpetrator. None of the horrendous details that the public associates with SRA (ritual killing, torture and mutilation, blood drinking, etc) occurred. It involved only sexual activity. If the allegations are true, then the parents would have committed incest with an under-aged person - a criminal act of child abuse. Since it happened during a Satanic ritual, it would be regarded by many as Satanic Ritual Abuse.

  To our knowledge, no criminal charges have been laid or convictions obtained against any religious Satanist. Again, as a working hypothesis, we conclude that religious Satanists are not abusing or sacrificing people.
  

• 3. Abuse and murder by psychotic or psychopathic individuals

  There have been a number of mentally ill people, typically teenage males, who have engaged in mass murder or mutilation and killing of an individual. Some are psychopaths, who have no concept of guilt and no inhibitions about committing murder; others are psychotics who have lost grips with reality. These crimes have normally been committed by a single individual; some are by a group in which at least the leader is mentally ill. Some examples are:
  • 14 year old Sandy Charles of Saskatoon, SK, Canada stabbed and smothered a 7 year old boy in La Ronge SK on 1995-JUL-8. He and an 8 year old accomplice carved 10 to 15 strips of flesh and fat fro (Others involved in the same therapy have recovered memories of abuse on board UFO's, and in former lifetimes). There is a growing belief that such memories are not related to real events, but are accidental and unintended byproducts of the suggestive thm the body. He took the body parts home, cooked them, and ate them. Charles was suffering from bizarre delusions and becoming schizophrenic when he watched the movie Warlock and its sequel at least 10 times. These are horror movies which describe Gothic Satanist rituals and concepts, including the belief that if a person drinks the liquefied fat of an unbaptised child, they would gain special powers - in this case, the power to fly. He told the police "There's a spirit in my room that gave mse death was necessary to fulfill his deluded plan".

    There was no organized Satanic group involved in this murder. Charles was driven by his own delusions and mental illness, rather than by any religious belief in Satanism. The source of the child's particular delusions were based on the "Gothic Satanism" hoax promoted by the movies. That hoax is in turn based on late Middle Age and Renaissance beliefs which are unrelated to Satanism and Witchcraft as they were practiced, then or now.

  • Richard Ramirez has been called (8) "the chief example of a serial killer with Satanic overtones". He was named The Night Stalker from his habit of randomly entering homes at night and murdering and/or raping people who lived there. He created Satanic graffiti in the homes which he entered, made some of his female victims swear allegiance to Satan and showed an inverted pentagram on the palm of his hand during the trial. He apparently was not involved in any Satanic group. His crimes seem to have been influenced by a heavy metal rock song "Highway to Hell".
  • David Berkowitz is a serial killer who is called The Son of Sam. A book (9) claimed that he was a member of The Process Church and that Berkowitz was a look-out who did not take part in all of the killings. The Church was incorrectly described as being Satanic; they were in fact a Christian sect. The police investigation revealed that he was in fact a lone murderer. Berkowitz has since claimed to have been a Satanist, and to have converted to Evangelical Christianity in prison. He claimed that the "Sam" in "Son of Sam" came from the name of the Celtic God of the Dead, Samhain (which he pronounced "Sam-hane"). His story is suspect, because his pronunciation of the name of the holiday is incorrect, the Celts never had a God of the Dead, there is no God called "Samhain" and because Satanists do not worship or recognize Celtic Gods. In reality, Samhain means "end of summer", was a Celtic seasonal day of celebration, and remains a Wiccan Sabbat.
  These murders appear to be linked primarily to the mental illness of the perpetrators. That is, the mental illness comes first; it then leads to an interest in Satanism. Sometimes the Satanism is claimed only after the criminal is caught; he uses it to support his "the Devil made me do it" defense. The murders were caused by the illness, not the Satanism.

  There is abundant evidence that a small number of individuals suffering from a psychosis or who are psychopaths follow Satanism and kill others. One or two cases a year surface in North America, so the problem is thankfully uncommon.
  

• 4. Abuse by Child Molesters Pretending to be Satanists

  Three instances of ritual Satanic child molestation have been documented in England. (5) The perpetrators were not in fact actual Satanists; they know little about Satanism. They just pretended to be in order to better control and terrorize their victims into submission. We have heard rumours of similar occurrences in the US, but have been unable to confirm them.

  We suspect that this technique for controlling children is used by a small percentage of child molesters in North America and Europe.
  

• 5. Abuse by Christian Groups

  All of the non-Satanic, religiously based forms of ritual abuse that we have been able to find were grounded in the Christian religion. Other faith groups may engage in similar forms of abuse; but were not reported.
  • During 1995, a young Oriental woman in California was accidentally killed during a Christian exorcism which involved extensive physical abuse. A small group of Christians were trying to drive a demon from her body. Her corpse was left for a few days before the police were called, in the hopes that she would return to life.
  • During 1995, an infant in Ontario Canada was tortured and accidentally killed during a Christian exorcism by her grandmother. The infant had cried a lot and was believed to have been possessed by a demon. The murderer was convicted and received a 18 month jail sentence.
  • Based on the above Christian Ritual Abuse cases which have resulted in deaths, we would guess that many non-fatal exorcisms involving physical abuse occur in North America; perhaps in the order of thousands annually.
  • In 1994, a three month old boy was ritually murdered in Quebec, Canada by members of the International Chivalric Order Solar Tradition, a doomsday cult. They follow a syncretistic religion, combining Roman Catholicism, New-Age philosophy, homeopathic medicine and high finance. This religious group believed that the murder was required because the infant was the Anti-Christ mentioned in the Book of Revelations of the Christian Scriptures. They drove a wooden stake through his heart. The group went on to engage in mass murders and suicides among their membership in Quebec and France.
  • Cases are described frequently in the media in which parents withheld medical attention from their children in favor of ritually praying over them. Such actions are considered by some to be a form of ritual abuse. All cases that we have found involve Christian parents, but there may be others that we are unaware of. The true incidence of this practice is unknown, because only cases in which the child dies of a treatable condition usually come to the attention of the media.

  Christian Ritual Abuse is a serious problem in North America. It is based upon two potentially dangerous religious beliefs:

  • that mental illness or strange forms of behavior are caused by demon infestation, which can be cured by exorcising the demon
  • that children need not be given medical attention because God will cure them
  Mental health professionals abandoned the demonic infestation theory of mental illness some centuries ago. There are some child illnesses which are invariable fatal, yet are often curable with proper medical attention. But as long as these hazardous religious beliefs exist, children will be abused and allowed to die.
  

• 6. Abuse in Day Care Centers, Sunday Schools and Baby-sitting Services.

  In many, perhaps most, court cases involving physical or sexual abuse of children, there is a significant likelihood that the accused is guilty. Only a very small percentage of child abuse cases involve ritual abuse; they seem to be a very different phenomenon. In the ritual abuse cases that we have studied, there seems to be essentially no likelihood that any of the accused adults were guilty. In fact, it would appear that no criminal acts may have actually happened.

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  Typical Day Care Ritual Abuse Scenario

  The following sequence of events is typical for a large scale, multi-victim multi-offender (MVMO) ritual abuse case. Of course, each case does not go through all of the steps:
  1. a parent will suspect that her child has been sexually abused and complains to the police or child protective service. The parent will often be found to be suffering from psychiatric problems
  2. a local group dedicated to fighting child abuse or the local police force becomes interested in the case; suspicions are raised that more than one employee of the day care and more than one child may be involved
  3. a meeting is held for parents of children in the day care; a check list of symptoms of child abuse is circulated; a local panic builds up
  4. parents repeatedly talk to their children in an effort to have them disclose memories of abuse. They are untrained in child interview techniques; as a result, their children sometimes invent stories to satisfy the endless and manipulative questioning.
  5. hysteria builds in the community; rumours spread
  6. cross-germination of ideas occurs among the parents. One child will disclose an abusive event; within a week most of the parents learn of it and are grilling their children to see if the same abuse happened to them
  7. large numbers of children in the day care are interviewed repeatedly. Often the interviewers are themselves survivors of childhood abuse. The social workers or child psychologists use direct questions, engage in manipulation, rewards and threats, and play "lets pretend" games
  8. in an effort to give the parents and interviewers the kinds of answers that they want, children start to make up stories based upon their fears, concerns, nightmares, etc.
  9. the police ignore the crazy, bizarre and physically impossible stories. Stories of events that could have happened are assumed to be true. The accused are charged with the latter crimes only.
  10. a number of workers at the day care are arrested. Charges total many dozens, sometimes over 100 incidents of child abuse involving dozens of children
  11. the accused are given polygraph (lie detector) tests and personality profile evaluations. They are shown to be probably innocent.
  12. in spite of every effort, no physical evidence is found to support the children's stories
  13. evidence which would have to be present if the children's stories are true is missing
  14. some defendants, particularly if poor or developmentally handicapped are manipulated into giving "alford pleas" i.e. they maintain their innocence but acknowledge that if they were tried, then the jury would probably convict them. These are simplisticly described in the media as guilty pleas.
  15. the DA's office is placed under tremendous pressure by the public to solve the case and lock up the perpetrators
  16. children are carefully coached in what to say on the stand. By now, the children have converted their fantasies and made up stories into actual memories
  17. at the trial, a medical expert will testify that:
      • anal "wink" and "dilation" test results show that the child has been sodomized
      • small irregularities in the shape of a hymen shows that vaginal penetration has happened
      • positive lab analysis show a sexually transmitted disease.
  18. the jury wants to believe the children. The medical evidence tilts the balance and they vote to convict
  19. the defendants are found guilty and receive immense jail sentences, sometimes hundreds of years each

Mistakes Often Made during MVMO Cases

A report issued by a California Grand Jury (10) finds that:

"Criminal trial juries find it hard to believe that children can tell such incredible stories if nothing has happened to them. They find themselves faced with either believing the children are lying or the perpetrator is guilty. In some cases they have chosen to believe the children. Another option is to choose to believe that the child's narrative memory has been contaminated by the therapy."

For years, medical "experts" have used the results of anal winking and dilation tests as proof of sexual abuse. These opinions have been totally discredited in recent years by studies which show that almost 2/3 of nonabused children will show anal winking, and that half show anal dilation. (11). Unfortunately, these data were only published in 1989; too late for many of the MVMO trials. Hymen irregularities can be present since birth or be caused by accidents or sexual penetration. They are present in both abused and unabused girls. Tests for sexually transmitted diseases often show false positive results. One commonly used test detected germs that are frequently found in children's throats and identified them as gonorrhea.

Another contributor to incorrect verdicts are the belief systems of the investigators in the District Attorney office. They are often faced with a wide variety of disclosures from the children: some physically impossible; others proven false by physical evidence; some conceivable; and some completely bizarre. They recognize that many of allegations are clearly false, but seem to suspend all judgment and skepticism towards the allegations that could have happened. They seem unable to learn from previous MVMO hoaxes in other communities.

A final factor is the "believe the children" mindset of much of the public. A generation ago, incest and sexual abuse of children were believed to be extremely rare. One source estimated one in every 250,000 children. Many feminists and women's organizations have since promoted the concept that such abuse is extremely widespread. A common estimate is that one out of every four children is sexually abused before the age of 18. Some sources say one in three. These numbers are based upon studies of adults and include all forms of sexual abuse, from an obscene phone call or a date making a pass to actual child rape. In promoting their beliefs, many feminists urged that people always believe children whenever they disclose abuse. They regard any skepticism of child disclosures as an accusation that the child is intentionally lying. A third possibility exists: that the interview process itself can cause a child to make up stories to satisfy the interviewer, and that these stories gradually become implanted in memory.

It is only in recent years that studies have shown how easy it is for an interviewer to coax disclosures from children of events that never happened.

The Effects of Ritual Abuse Cases on Society

• overeager and poorly trained investigators have implanted memories of the most horrendous and bizarre abuse that never happened into the minds of children. This is a form of institutional abuse. The children's own parents have contributed to this. Belief that they have been abused will cause problems for the children throughout their life. The kids in the earliest day care abuse hoaxes (e.g. McMartin) are now in their late teens and many firmly believe that they have been victims.
• here are a few instances of real sexual abuse at the heart of some of these MVMO ritual abuse cases. (e.g. the Country Walk case). Unfortunately, after extensive interrogation of the children, it is often impossible to separate reality from fantasy. As a result, there is a distinct possibility that some perpetrators will go free and may abuse again.
• the fear level of the general public has increased needlessly. Society is perceived as being much more violent than it really is.
• many teachers and caregivers throughout North America are afraid to touch children in any way; many have decided to never hug another youngster. This may be the most serious result of these MVMO hoaxes.
• innocent day care providers and Sunday school teachers have had their reputations and finances ruined. Some have served long jail sentences; some are still rotting in jail.
• insurance rates for day care centers have skyrocketed; this adversely affects every parent or family who uses day care
• since some civil cases have been pursued using provisions in home insurance policies, insurance rates have also increased

Factors to Keep in Mind When a MVMO Hoax Strikes

• how can children be frequently taken from a day care center, abused and then returned later in the day? Parents arrive at day care centers at random times due to shift work, dental and medical appointments, etc; one would think that they would notice if their child were missing
• how can large numbers of children at a day care be repeatedly exposed to the most horrendous of sexual, ritual and physical abuse for many months and never tell their parents or show major signs of upset?
• experts believe that when children are threatened by an abuser who is outside their family, they will frequently disclose the molestation immediately. The possibility that dozens of children at a day care would all keep quiet when threatened is near zero.
• if posing the children for pornographic pictures is such a common feature of the children's disclosures, why has no "kiddy-porn" ever been found which includes the children from a day care center under investigation?
• children sometimes disclose memories of events that are physically impossible (e.g. being flown in a rocket ship into outer space, or having an axe handle inserted in his penis). Doesn't this cast doubt on other disclosures by the same child of abuse that is physically possible?
• if young children are raped or sodomized, then certain physical evidence must be present. If it is absent, then the children's memories must be suspect
• why are adult survivors of incest or child sexual abuse allowed to interview children in suspected MVMO cases? This happened in the Michaels and Martensville cases; it may have happened in others. Professional literature generally recommends that adult survivors not be permitted to take on this role, or to do so only if they have settled all issues arising from their abuse.
• why doesn't every state and province have a law which requires child abuse interviewers to record every interview on audio or (preferably) video tape. Then at least, an assessment can be made later whether suggestive and manipulative means were used to implant memories of events that never happened into the children's mind.
• often poor, uneducated and/or developmentally handicapped people are targeted by the police. Not being able to afford a lawyer, many will plead "no contest" and be found guilty. Meanwhile, upper and middle class defendants can afford to hire lawyers, fight the charges and often are found not guilty. Is it not reasonable that the former group would also be found not guilty if they had access to adequate resources?

Descriptions of MVMO Ritual Abuse Cases

Ritual Abuse References

1. The Alliance for Magical and Earth Religions (AMER) has an on-line copy of the FBI report on the (non)existence of evil Satanic cults by Ken Lanning, titled "Investigator's Guide to Allegations of 'Ritual' Child Abuse". See it at: http://inner-sanctum.com/magus/AMER/abuse.html
2. Clearing House on Child Abuse & Neglect Information, Characteristics & Sources of Allegations of Ritual Child Abuse, Suite 350, 3998 Fair Ridge Dr., Fairfax VA, 22033, $20 US. Issued 1994-Fall. Free summary available by calling (703) 385-7565.
3. "Final Report of the Task Force Studying Ritual Crime", Richmond, VA; (1991); This documents the conclusions of the Crime Commission Task Force Studying Ritual Criminal Activity.
4. "State Task force Finds No Major Cult Activity", Richmond New Leader, 1991-AUG-15
5. Prof. J.S. Lafontaine, [Great Britain] Department of Health, "Extent & Nature of Organized Ritual Abuse" ISBN 011 11 321797 8; 1994-May. Available from Unipub, 4611-F Assembly Drive, Lanham MD 20706, for USF$ 11.49
6. "Report of the Ritual Abuse Work Group" Minister of Justice, PO Box 20301, 2500EH, The Hague, Netherlands, 1994-APR. (They found that ritual abuse exists only in the mind; it has no basis in fact.)
7. Linda Blood, "The New Satanists", Warner Books, New York, NY, (1994)
8. C.A. Ross, "Satanic Ritual Abuse, University of Toronto Press, Toronto ON, (1995), P. 62
9. T. Maury, "The Ultimate Evil, Bantam Press, New York NY, (1987)
10. 1991-92 San Diego County Grand Jury, Report #8 "CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE, ASSAULT, AND MOLEST ISSUES" (San Diego County, CA). See: http://www.vix.com/pub/men/falsereport/satanic/sandiego.html
11. J. McCann, L. Voris, M. Simon, R Wells, "Perianal Findings in Prepubertal Children Selected for Nonabuse: a Descriptive Study.", Child Abuse & Negelect, 13(2), P. 179-193 (1989). 267 children, aged 2 months to 11 years were examined. Anal irregularities of types used to "prove" sexual abuse were found in large percentages of children who had never been abused.

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