SATANIC RITUAL ABUSE (SRA)

Also called Cult Related Abuse, Ritual Abuse, Ritualized Abuse, Sadistic Ritual Abuse, etc

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Glossary of SRA Terms:

SRA Acronym for Satanic Ritual Abuse or Sadistic Ritual Abuse.

Satanic Ritual Abuse: 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.

Sadistic Ritual Abuse: Psychological, sexual, and/or physical assault committed by one or more people according to a prescribed ritual, whose primary motive is to either fulfill a need to abuse others, or to program the victim so that they can be precisely controlled in the future.

False memories: recollections (often recovered during therapy which involves guided imagery, age regression and/or hypnotism) which are:

They are indistinguishable from real memories.

Programming: (when related to SRA) a brain-washing technique whose existence is in question. Its use would be intended to perpetuate a group into the future or to create group members with no self-will, who will behave like robots when triggered. It would be accomplished by very severe abuse starting in early childhood and continuing over a period of years.

Recovered memories: New memories (typically uncovered during therapy by women in their late 20's to late 40's). Most are of sexual molestation during childhood. These memories are believed by some to be actively suppressed by the child shortly after the event. Recovery is often a long-term and difficult process. Others believe that these memories are not of real events but are based upon memory fragments from horror movies, books, TV programs etc. They evolve into memories by either self-therapy or counselling with a therapist involving such suggestive techniques as hypnotism, guided imagery, dream analysis, imagining abuse, etc. In about 20% of cases, recovered memories involve SRA.

Survivor: (when related to SRA) an adult who has memories of childhood ritual abuse. The recollections may have been continuous since the abuse occurred, or they may be recovered memories.

Triggers: A sound, word, phrase, image or symbol which activates past programming in order to cause a SRA survivor to perform a specific act.

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Start of the SRA movement, early 1980's :

Satanic Ritual Abuse is a religious tolerance concern because promoters of SRA often teach that many benign, gentle religious groups are abusing, mutilating, programming, and killing children and adults.

SRA burst onto the North American scene in 1980 with the first "SRA survivor" book Michelle Remembers. It described horrendous sexual and physical abuse allegedly suffered by the co-author, Michelle Smith. She described perpetrators as Satanists who felt that the pain inflicted upon their victims increased their black magical powers. The group also allegedly engaged in human sacrifice and cannibalism.

There were no documented cases of SRA survivors prior to 1980. However, many such cases followed the publication of Michelle Remembers. Court cases revealed abuse which were precisely like (or almost identical to) Michelle's. Investigations by the Wiccan Information Network revealed that the book is a hoax. This was confirmed by a separate investigation conducted by the authors of the book Satan's Silence. The rituals described by the co-author Dr. Lawrence Pazder were taken from his studies of African native religions. He was quoted as saying that he has never claimed that the events in the book really happened.

A number of other survivor books were later published by Evangelical or Fundamentalist (conservative) Christian authors. The most influential were Satan's Underground and He Came to Set the Captives Free. These have since been analyzed by Evangelical groups and also found to be frauds.

A industry developed to promote SRA awareness. Many Evangelical or Fundamentalist Christians joined the seminar/lecture/book circuit to promote the "Satanic Panic". The most influential among these is Mike Warnke, who was also exposed as a fraud by his fellow Evangelicals. These authors and speakers often define the term Satanism to include many benign religious faiths, such as Goddess Worship, New Age Spirituality, Santeria, Wicca (Witchcraft) , etc. Each seminar leader can spread religious suspicion, misinformation and intolerance in each city that he/she visits. It can last for years.

Joining the SRA industry during the early 1980's were many police officers, who were concerned that Satanists were literally getting away with murder. It soon became obvious that no hard evidence had ever been found which pointed to a Satanic conspiracy. Also, if survivors' testimony was true, then certain hard evidence would have been visible. The most famous example are the non-existent tunnels (7) under the McMartin Preschool centre in California. There is plenty of soft evidence in the memories of hundreds of child survivors and tens of thousands of adult survivors. Many experts believe that these are false memories ; children's memories having been created by improper interview methods, and adult's memories generated by a variety of suggestive therapeutic techniques. Everyone is in agreement that the survivors very rarely lie; they are telling the truth as they remember it to be. However, there is a growing belief that those memories are not of real events. Most police officers are now highly skeptical about the existence of SRA.

TV shows including Geraldo, 20-20, Sally etc gave an immense boost to the SRA industry. Many fraudulent authors and seminar leaders were guests on these programs. The books, seminars and TV programs combined to develop a low level of public hysteria which continues to this day. A simple rumour of SRA often triggers a full-fledged "Satanic Panic". 62 such panics were documented by one author in North America from 1982 to 1992.

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Recent SRA developments:

Governments became alarmed at the level of public fear about SRA. During 1991, the State of Virginia investigated SRA and found none. During 1994, the Federal Governments of Great Britain and of the Netherlands conducted extensive inquiries and also found none. Most recently, a US government study obtained input from over 10,000 therapists, social workers, police offices, DA offices and social service agencies. They uncovered one likely case of SRA.

It has been 15 years since the panic began. Many lurid headlines have been published; many disturbing books have been written; many seminars have been held. But no hard evidence has been discovered that shows that a Satanic conspiracy exists. In the meantime, researchers into the processes of human memory have determined how false memories can be created during therapy when it employs unreliable methods for memory recovery, including hypnosis.

A scan of the Medline and PsycINfo data bases for articles (both credulous and skeptical) on SRA yielded the following total number of articles by year:

It would appear that at least professional interest in SRA peaked about 1992 and that interest has since dropped of considerably.

Many advocates of SRA have realized that there simply are not enough Satanists in North America to account for all of the abuse that they believe is happening. They are now blaming ritual abuse on secret cults, criminal gangs, self-help groups, mutual support groups, Christian, Jewish and Pagan religious groups, secret Government agencies, the CIA, etc. The fear and harm generated by promoters towards innocent, helping groups cannot be calculated. Meanwhile, some governments are involved in the promotion of public hysteria and intolerance. The Ontario Government, for example, funded \ many SRA seminars during 1995.

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BOOKS, ARTICLES, TV PROGRAMS:

  1. Robert Hicks, In Pursuit of Satan, Prometheus Books, Buffalo, 1991 (studies misguided police investigations; exposes what he calls cult cops - police officers with religious agendas)
  2. Debbie Nathan & Michael Snedeker, Satan's Silence, Basic Books, (1995). ISBN 0-465-07180-5. Subtitled: "Ritual Abuse and the Making of a Modern American Witch Hunt".
  3. James Richardson et al, The Satanism Scare, Aldine de Gruyter, New York, 1991 (18 chapters written by various social service specialists)
  4. Jeffrey Victor, Satanic Panic, Open Court, Chicago, 1993 (examination of the satanic cult hysteria; how rumours become publicly accepted fact; documents dozens of Satanic panics)
  5. E. Goldstein & Kevin Farmer, Confabulations, Upton Books, Boca Raton FL, (1995) (Describes destruction of families as a result of therapists creating false memories of childhood sexual abuse)
  6. Lawrence Wright, Remembering Satan, Knopf, New York, 1994 (Story of one family's disintegration due to false recovered memories)
  7. M. Hertenstein & J. Trott, Selling Satan, Cornerstone Press, Chicago, 1993 (Expose of the fraudulent claims of Mike Warnke, the seminar leader most responsible for spreading the Satanic Panic throughout North America)
  8. Mark Pendergrast, Victims of Memory, Second Edition, Upper Access, Hinesburg VT, (1996). Order at: 1-800-356-9315. (Discusses the unreliability of recovered memories and deals with some ritual abuse cases)
  9. Hollida Wakefield & Ralph Underwager, Return of the Furies, Open Court Publishers, 1994. (Discusses recovered memories, and Satanic ritual abuse)
  10. John Earl, article in Issues in Child Abuse Accusations, issue published 1995-AUG, Institute for Psychological Therapies, 13200 Cannon City Blvd., Northfield, MN 55057, $15 USF; $20 USF (foreign)
  11. Colin Ross, Satanic Ritual Abuse: Principles of Treatment, University of Toronto Press; Toronto, Buffalo, London (1995) ISBN 0-8020-7357-3. It asserts that perhaps only 10% of the recovered memories of Multiple Personality Disorder (Dissociative Identity Disorder) have any basis in reality, and that the latter are distorted recollections of Christian rituals, KKK activities, or rituals by isolated Satanic groups.
  12. Wiccan Information Network, WIN INTELLIGENCE REPORT, SAMHAIN 1993 Wiccan Information Network, PO Box 2422, Main Post Office, Vancouver BC, V6B 3W7 Canada
  13. Television program "The Search for Satan" was broadcast by PBS's Frontline program on 1995-OCT-24. It dealt with the extensive use of drugs, physical restraints and suggestive therapy techniques to convince patients that they were involved in multi-generational Satanic groups. Video copies at US$ 78.45 and transcripts at US$12.00 are available from Journal Graphics, 1-800-825-5746, Extension 322 (Rebecca Larson).
  14. A.U. Bottoms et al, "An Analysis of Ritualistic and Religion-Related Child-Abuse Allegations", Law and Human Behavior. V. 20, # 1, 1996-Feb., pp. 1-34. Authors conducted a stratified random sample survey of clinical members of the American Psychological Association. They found that only a minority of those who responded had encountered ritual abuse in their clients. Evidence (particularly in cases of child ritual abuse reported by adults) is questionable.
  15. various authors, "Journal of Psychohistory", vol. 24, #4, (1994-Spring). Has one skeptical article followed by a series of articles by believers in SRA

INTERNET RESOURCES:

There are many self-help, Christian and other groups who believe in the widespread nature of Satanic Ritual Abuse. You can consult: http://www.xroads.com/rahome/ for information from one group which supports people with memories of abuse.

Another page promotes the idea that Satanic Ritual Abuse exists, but is not as common. See http://www.iccom.com/usrwww/jlquan/consolid.htm

A second Christian resource is skeptical of SRA. This home page contains an excellent review of the history of SRA beliefs and lists many indicators of its non-existence. See: http://parc.power.net/users/aia See it information

A Pagan resource which lists bibliographies on both sides of the issues, texts of various lectures from within the SRA industry etc is at: http://www.tardis.ed.ac.uk/~feorag/sram/sraindex.html.

See: http://www.utu.fi/~jounsmed/asc/hyp/memories.html for an excellent comparison of past life identities, abduction and abuse on board UFO's and Satanic Ritual Abuse. Extensive bibliography included.

A list of WWW sites dealing with Satanic Ritual Abuse and Childhood Sexual Abuse can be found at: http://user.aol.com/doughskept/witchhunt_links.html

The Alliance for Magical and Earth Religions (AMER) has site that contains the FBI report on the (non)existence of evil Satanic cults by Ken Lanning: http://inner-sanctum.com/magus/AMER/abuse.html

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