Difference between pages "False Memory Syndrome" and "Ritual Abuse"

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The term '''False Memory Syndrome''' was created in 1992 by the False Memory Syndrome Foundation (FMSF)<ref name=Dallam>Dallam, S. (2002). [http://www.leadershipcouncil.org/1/res/dallam/6.html "Crisis or Creation: A systematic examination of false memory claims".] Journal of Child Sexual Abuse 9 (3/4): 9–36. doi:10.1300/J070v09n03_02. PMID 17521989. "A review of the relevant literature demonstrates that the existence of such a syndrome lacks general acceptance in the mental health field, and that the construct is based on a series of faulty assumptions, many of which have been scientifically disproven. There is a similar lack of empirical validation for claims of a "false memory" epidemic. It is concluded that in the absence of any substantive scientific support, "False Memory Syndrome" is best characterized as a pseudoscientific syndrome that was developed to defend against claims of child abuse."</ref>. It has been called "a pseudoscientific syndrome that was developed to defend against claims of child abuse."<ref name=Dallam/> The FMSF was created by parents who claimed to be falsely accused of child sexual abuse.<ref name=Dallam/> The False Memory Syndrome was described as "a widespread social phenomenon where misguided therapists cause patients to invent memories of sexual abuse."<ref name=Dallam/> Research has shown that most delayed memories of childhood abuse are true<ref name=Whitfield>Whitfield M.D., Charles L. (1995). [https://books.google.com/books/about/Memory_and_Abuse.html?id=xPYfMQAACAAJ Memory and Abuse - Remembering and Healing the Effects of Trauma] Deerfield Beach, FL: Health Communications, Inc. ISBN 1-55874-320-0.</ref>. In general, it has been shown that false allegations of childhood sexual abuse are rare, with some studies showing rates as low as one percent<ref name=Leadership>[http://www.leadershipcouncil.org/1/res/csa-acc.html Leadership Council - How often do children’s reports of abuse turn out to be false?] "Jones and McGraw examined 576 consecutive referrals of child sexual abuse to the Denver Department of Social Services, and categorized the reports as either reliable or fictitious. In only 1% of the total cases were children judged to have advanced a fictitious allegation. Jones, D. P. H., and J. M. McGraw: Reliable and Fictitious Accounts of Sexual Abuse to Children.Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 2, 27-45, 1987.</ref><ref>[http://ritualabuse.us/research/false-allegations-of-child-sexual-abuse-by-children-are-rare/ False allegations of child sexual abuse by children are rare]</ref> and some studies showing slightly higher rates<ref name=Leadership/>. It has been found that children tend to understate rather than overstate the extent of any abuse experienced<ref name=Leadership/>. It has been stated that misinformation on the topic of child sexual abuse is widespread and that the media have contributed to this problem by reporting favorably on unproven and controversial claims like the False Memory Syndrome<ref>Whitfield, Charles L.; Joyanna L. Silberg, Paul Jay Fink (2001). Misinformation Concerning Child Sexual Abuse and Adult Survivors. Haworth Press. ISBN 0789019019.</ref>.
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'''Ritual abuse''' exists all over the world. There have been reports, journal articles<ref name=SRA-art>[http://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/studies/satanic-ritual-abuse-evidence-with-information-on-the-mcmartin-preschool-case/ Satanic Ritual Abuse evidence]</ref><ref>[http://endritualabuse.org/evidence/publications-on-ritual-abuse-and-mind-control-in-2008/ 2008 Publications on Ritual Abuse and Mind Control]</ref><ref>[http://endritualabuse.org/evidence/brief-synopsis-of-the-literature-on-the-existence-of-ritualistic-abuse/ Lacter, E (2008-02-11). “Brief Synopsis of the Literature on the Existence of Ritualistic Abuse”.]</ref>, web pages<ref>https://ritualabuse.us</ref><ref>http://nonstatetorture.org/</ref><ref>http://www.ra-info.org</ref><ref>https://www.survivorship.org</ref><ref>http://www.endritualabuse.org/</ref> and criminal convictions of crimes against children and adults  <ref>[http://www.ra-info.org/resources/ra_cases.shtml Believe the children (1997). “Conviction List: Ritual Child Abuse”.]</ref><ref>[http://endritualabuse.org/evidence/satanism-and-ritual-abuse-archive/ The Satanism and Ritual Abuse Archive]</ref><ref>[https://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/articles/an-empirical-look-at-the-ritual-abuse-controversy-randy-noblitt-phd/ Noblitt, PhD, J. R. - An Empirical Look at the Ritual Abuse Controversy (2007)]</ref>.
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==Research on False Memory==
 
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There is a great deal of evidence showing the existence of the phenomenon of recovered memory and the fairly high corroboration rates of these memories<ref>[http://childabusewiki.org/index.php?title=Recovered_Memories Recovered Memories - Child Abuse Wiki]</ref>. The base rates for memory commission errors have been shown to be quite low, at least in professional trauma treatment. The base rates in adult misinformation studies run between zero and 5 percent for adults and between 3 - 5 percent for children<ref>Brown, Scheflin and Hammond (1998).”Memory, Trauma Treatment, And the Law” (W. W. Norton) ISBN 0-393-70254-5</ref>. It has been shown that people who recover memories are a lot less suggestible than clinicians have been led to believe by false memory advocates<ref>Leavitt, F. (March 1997) [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9134257 False attribution of suggestibility to explain recovered memory of childhood sexual abuse following extended amnesia] Child Abuse & Neglect - 21, 3, P. 265-272</ref>. It has been stated that false memories are rare<ref>Hall, J., Kondora, L. (2005) [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0002764205277012 “True” and “False” Child Sexual Abuse Memories and Casey’s Phenomenological View of Remembering] American Behavioral Scientist, 48, 10 p. 1339-1359  DOI: 10.1177/0002764205277012 "The notion of false accusation is often raised in cases where physical evidence is not available and a period of time has passed or when there has been a delay in recall of the events by a survivor of child sexual abuse. This is not to imply that false memories are not possible. This article outlines how rare they must be, however, based on historical factors and a phenomenological analysis of memory itself....Most scientists investigating traumatic memory doubt that memories of abuse could be planted."</ref> One research study showed the unlikelihood of being able to plant a false memory of a traumatic event<ref>Pezdek, Hodge, D. (1999) July-August [http://www.jstor.org/pss/1132249 Planting false childhood memories: The role of event plausibility] Child Development 70(4) p.887-895 "One false event described the child lost in a mall while shopping (the plausible false event); the other false event described the child receiving a rectal enema (the implausible false event). The majority of the 39 children (54%) did not remember either false event. However, whereas 14 children recalled the plausible but not the implausible false event, only one child recalled the implausible but not the plausible false event; this difference was statistically significant."</ref>. Some have stated that the False Memory Syndrome is not a scientific syndrome<ref>Friesen, J. (1995) "The Truth About False Memory Syndrome, Huntington House Publisher ISBN: 1-56384-111-8 "The number of studies which have subjected false memory syndrome to scientific inquiry is zero. There is nothing scientific about it. There is nothing which defines it. There is no list of symptoms which describes it, nor is there anything which helps us distinguish it from other syndromes."</ref>.  
 
  
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Brown, Sheflin and Hammond stated "''The hypothesis that false memories can easily be implanted in psychotherapy (Lindsay & Read, 1994; Loftus 1993; Loftus & Ketcham, 1994; Ofshe and Watters, 1993, 1994; Yapko, 1994a) seriously overstates the available data. Since no studies have been conducted on suggested effects in psychotherapy per se, the idea of iatrogenic suggestion of false memories remains an untested hypothesis''.<ref>Brown, Scheflin and Hammond (1998).”Memory, Trauma Treatment, And the Law” (W. W. Norton) ISBN 0-393-70254-5</ref>  
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==Definition==
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Ritual abuse has been defined as:
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<blockquote>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.<ref name=LA>[http://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/articles/report-of-the-ritual-abuse-task-force-los-angeles-county-commission-for-women/ Report of the Ritual Abuse Task Force - Los Angeles County Commission for Women] "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 [only on the surface.] 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."[http://web.archive.org/web/20071122165718/http://www.geocities.com/kidhistory/ra.htm]</ref></blockquote>
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and as
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<blockquote>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.<ref>[https://survivorship.org/frequently-ask-questions/  Survivorship - Frequently Asked Questions]</ref></blockquote>
  
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Elizabeth Loftus, a proponent of the theory of false memory, has been critiqued in several studies and papers<ref>Crook, L. (1999) [http://users.owt.com/crook/memory/ "Lost in a Shopping Mall"—a Breach of Professional Ethics] Ethics & Behavior, (9, 1) P. 39-50 "An analysis of the mall study shows that beyond the external misrepresentations, internal scientific methodological errors cast doubt on the validity of the claims that have been attributed to the mall study within scholarly and legal arenas. The minimal involvement or, in some cases, negative impact of collegial consultation, academic supervision, and peer review throughout the evolution of the mall study are reviewed."</ref><ref>Hopper, J. [http://www.jimhopper.com/memory/#el Elizabeth Loftus] "Loftus is aware that those who study traumatic memory have for several years, based on a great deal of research and clinical experience, used the construct of dissociation to account for the majority of recovered memories. However, she continues to focus on and attack "repression" and "repressed memories," which has the effect of confusing and misleading many people."</ref><ref>Pope, K. (1996) [http://www.kspope.com/memory/memory.php Memory, Abuse, and Science: Questioning Claims About the False Memory Syndrome Epidemic] American Psychologist 51: 957. doi:10.1037/0003-066X.51.9.957
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==Origins of the term==
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"Does the trauma specified in the lost-in-the-mall experiment seem comparable to the trauma forming the basis of false memory syndrome? Loftus (1993) described the implanted traumatic event in the shopping-mall experiment as follows: "Chris was convinced by his older brother Jim, that he had been lost in a shopping mall when he was five years old" (p. 532). Does this seem, for example, a reasonable analogy for a five-year-old girl being repeatedly raped by her father?....Is it possible that the findings are an artifact of this particular design, for example, that the older family member claims to have been present when the event occurred and to have witnessed it, a claim the therapist can never make? To date, replications and extensions of this study have tended to use a similar methodology; that is, either the older family member makes the suggestions in his or her role as the experimenter's confederate, or the experimenter presents the suggestion as being the report of an older family member, thus creating a surrogate confederate."</ref><ref>Hoult, J. (2005)[http://www.rememberingdangerously.com/  "Remembering Dangerously" & Hoult v. Hoult: The Myth of Repressed Memory that Elizabeth Loftus]</ref>.
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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"<ref name=VB>Van Benschoten, Susan C. (1990). [http://www.empty-memories.nl/dis_90/vanbenschoten_sra.pdf Multiple Personality Disorder and Satanic Ritual Abuse: the Issue Of Credibility] https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/xmlui/handle/1794/1492 ''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."</ref>.
  
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==Critiques of the False Memory Syndrome Foundation and its theories==
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==Evidence==
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Members of the False Memory Syndrome Foundation have been critiqued for misrepresenting data and for their possible reasons for having created the idea of the syndrome.  
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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<ref>Data from Brown, Scheflin and Hammond (1998). ''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</ref>. "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 ”belief in ritual abuse, involving mind control and programming.”<ref name=CultRA>Noblitt, J.R.; Perskin, P. (2000). [http://books.google.com/books?id=zJkTTpfyJ-8C C''ult and Ritual Abuse: Its History, Anthropology, and Recent Discovery in Contemporary America''] p. 269, Greenwood Publishing Group.</ref>
  
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In reply to a TV documentary about FMS, William Freyd, (Pamela Freyd's (one of the founders of the FMSF) step brother and sister-in-law) wrote "The False Memory Syndrome Foundation is a fraud designed to deny a reality that Peter and Pam have spent most of their lives trying to escape. There is no such thing as a False Memory Syndrome."<ref name=Whitfield/> "In addition, Peter Freyd's own mother (who is also Pamela's step-mother) and his only sibling, a brother, were also estranged from Pamela and Peter. It should be noted that these family members support Jennifer's side of the story."<ref name=Dallam/>
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Recently an online survey<ref name=EAS>[http://extreme-abuse-survey.net/ Extreme Abuse Survey]</ref> of over one thousand people answered questions about ritual abuse and extreme abuse crimes. In a summary of the survey <ref name=summaryEAS>[http://ritualabuse.us/mindcontrol/eas-studies/understanding-ritual-trauma-a-comparison-of-findings-from-three-online-surveys/ Understanding ritual trauma: A comparison of findings from three online surveys]</ref>, 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.
  
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A co-founder of the False Memory Syndrome Foundation, Ralph Underwager, has also had several critiques written about him<ref>[http://ritualabuse.us/research/memory-fms/ralph-underwager/ Information on Ralph Underwager]</ref>. In an interview in Amsterdam in June 1991 by “Paidika,” Editor-in-Chief, Joseph Geraci, Underwager replied to the question ''"Is choosing paedophilia for you a responsible choice for the individuals?"'' with ''"Certainly it is responsible. What I have been struck by as I have come to know more about and understand people who choose paedophilia is that they let themselves be too much defined by other people. That is usually an essentially negative definition. Paedophiles spend a lot of time and energy defending their choice. I don’t think that a paedophile needs to do that. Paedophiles can boldly and courageously affirm what they choose. They can say that what they want is to find the best way to love. I am also a theologian and as a theologian, I believe it is God’s will that there be closeness and intimacy, unity of the flesh, between people. A paedophile can say: “This closeness is possible for me within the choices that I’ve made."''<ref>[http://www.nostatusquo.com/ACLU/NudistHallofShame/Underwager2.html PAIDIKA INTERVIEW:HOLLIDA WAKEFIELD AND RALPH UNDERWAGER Part I]</ref>  
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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<ref name=HMO>Johnson Davis, Anne  [http://hellminusone.com ''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</ref><ref>[http://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/survivor-stories/hell-minus-one-signed-verified-confessions-of-satanic-ritual-abuse/ ''Hell Minus One - signed verified confessions of satanic ritual abuse'']</ref>.
  
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In a transcription of the TV show Witness for Mr. Bubbles from “Australia 60 Minutes,” Channel Nine Network (Aired on August 5, 1990 in Australia), researcher Anna Salter stated that Underwager "isn’t accurate. That what he says in court does not necessarily fairly represent the literature." That he frequently distorts facts and he sometimes he quotes specific studies, and he’s frequently wrong about what the studies say."<ref>[http://www.nostatusquo.com/ACLU/NudistHallofShame/MrBubbles.html Witness for Mr. Bubbles] Transcribed from "Australia 60 Minutes," Channel Nine Network  (Aired on August 5, 1990 in Australia) Produced by Anthony Mcclellan; Reported by Mike Munro</ref>  
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Many scientific journals articles have discussed the reality of ritual abuse and its effect on its victims. Some of these articles have discussed the extreme nature of these crimes<ref>Cozolino, L.J. (1990). “Ritual child abuse, psychopathology, and evil”. [http://journals.biola.edu/jpt/volumes/18/issues/3/articles/218 ''Journal of Psychology and Theology''], 18(3):218-227 "Ritualistic abuse is an extreme form of psychological, physical, and sexual maltreatment of children in the context of "religious" ceremony. The clinical presentation of the victims of such abuse is complex and raises many issues related in the diagnosis and treatment of psychopathology as well as the importance of spiritual counseling"</ref>, proof of the reality of the ritual abuse phenomenon and victims' symptoms<ref>Cozolino, L.J.; Shaffer, R.E (Fall 1992) "Adults who report childhood ritualistic abuse." Special Issue: Satanic ritual abuse: The current state of knowledge. [http://journals.biola.edu/jpt/volumes/20/issues/3/articles/188 ''Journal of Psychology and Theology''] 20(3) "Skeptics question the legitimacy of these reports, but many factors point to the reality of the phenomenon of ritualistic abuse. First of all, the degree of consistency between reports of individuals from different parts of the country is very high. The fact that children as young as 2 and 3 report ritualistic abuse experiences that mirror those reported by adult victims is especially striking in light of the fact that young children do not have access to the kind of printed information that might conceivably allow an older person to fabricate such experiences (Gould, 1987). Second, experiences of ritualistic abuse reported by victims of all ages are virtually identical to written historical accounts of Satan worship and the like (Hill & Goodwin, 1989; Russell, 1972), findings that substantiate our present-day understanding of Satanism and ritualistic abuse as intragenerational phenomenon. Third, the symptoms from which individuals reporting histories of ritualistic abuse tend to suffer are consistent with our current understanding of post-traumatic stress disorder and the dissociative disorders. The progression in which ritualistic abuse survivors respond to psychotherapy places these victims squarely within the category of individual who have suffered real-not imagined-trauma."</ref>, the connection between ritual abuse, multiple personality disorder and mind control<ref>Gould, C., & Cozolino, L. (1992) “Ritual abuse, multiplicity, and mind-control.” Special Issue: Satanic ritual abuse: The current state of knowledge. [http://journals.biola.edu/jpt/volumes/20/issues/3/articles/194 ''Journal of Psychology and Theology''] 20(3):194-6 "As a result of the psychologically intolerable nature of their early childhood experiences, victims of ritual abuse frequently develop multiple personality disorder (MPD)....Ritual abuse is conducted on behalf of a cult whose purpose is to establish mind control over the victims. Thus, these perpetrators have a conscious motive for the abuse beyond compulsively repeating their own childhood abuse in an effort to gain mastery over the original trauma. Most victims state that they were ritually abused as part of satanic worship, for the purpose of indoctrinating them into satanic beliefs (Los Angeles County Commission for Women, 1989). Mind control is originally established when the victim is a child under 6 years old."</ref> and the connections between ritual abuse reports and the higher levels of symptoms of childhood sexual and physical abuse<ref>Lawrence, K.J.; Cozolino, L.; Foy, D.W. (1995). [http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6V7N-3YB56DX-1X&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=b9a75a7e349d4efe5a11ed205f736cf5 Psychological sequelae in adult females reporting childhood ritualistic abuse.] ''Child Abuse & Neglect'' 19 (8): 975-984. doi:10.1016/0145-2134(95)00059-H. "Women reporting ritualistic features scored significantly higher on measures of childhood sexual and physical abuse. Neither PTSD diagnostic status nor severity for PTSD nor dissociative experiences were significantly different between the groups."</ref>. Several additional studies and organizations have compiled research on the reality of ritual abuse crimes<ref>Gould, C. (1995). [http://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/articles/denying-ritual-abuse-of-children-catherine-gould/ Denying ritual abuse of children.] ''Journal of Psychohistory'', 22(3), 329-339. "The evidence is rapidly accumulating that the problem of ritual abuse is considerable in scope and extremely grave in its consequences Among 2,709 members of the American Psychological Association who responded to a poll, 2,292 cases of ritual abuse were reported (Bottoms, Shaver, & Goodman, 1993). In 1992 alone, Childhelp USA logged 1,741 calls pertaining to ritual abuse, Monarch Resources of Los Angeles logged approximately 5,000, Real Active Survivors tallied nearly 3,600, Justus Unlimited of Colorado received almost 7,000, and Looking Up of Maine handled around 6,000. Even allowing for some of these calls to have been made by people who assist survivors but arc not themselves survivors, and for some survivors to have called more that one helpline or made multiple calls to the same helpline, these numbers suggest that at a minimum there must be tens of thousands of survivors of ritual abuse in the United States. Evidence also continues to accumulate that the ritual abuse of children constitutes a child abuse problem of significant scope. In 1988, Finkelhor, Williams and Burns published the results of a nationwide study of substantiated reports of sexual abuse in day care involving 1,639 young child victims. Thirteen percent of these cases were found to involve ritual abuse. Other studies of ritually abused children have been relatively small. Kelly (1988; 1989; 1992a; 1992b; 1993) reported on 35 day care victims of ritual abuse, Waterman et al. (1993) reported on 82 children complaining of ritual abuse in preschool, Faller (1988; 1990) studied 18 children who had disclosed ritual abuse in their preschool, and Bybee and Mowbray (1993) from the Michigan State Department of Mental Health identified 62 children alleging ritual abuse in their preschool and 53 children who reported seeing others be ritually abused. Snow and Sorenson (1990) studied 39 children reporting ritual abuse in five neighborhoods in Utah, and Jonker and Jonker-Bakker (1991) reported on a total group of 98 children, at least 48 of whom were believed to be victims of ritual abuse. The latter case is the only one cited here which was conducted outside of the United States."[http://web.archive.org/web/20060824054351/http://www.geocities.com/kidhistory/denyra.htm]</ref><ref>Paley, K. (June 1992). [https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/xmlui/handle/1794/1646 Dream wars: a case study of a woman with multiple personality disorder] ''Dissociation'' 5 (2): 111-116. "Apologists believe that reports of satanic cult abuse either must or could be true. There is some evidence to support the apologists. In 1986, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts in Commonwealth v. Drew (397 Mass. 65) upheld the conviction of Carl H. Drew for the murder of Karen Marsden. There was evidence that Drew conducted satanic ritual meetings and that he had killed Marsden "because she wanted to leave the cult " (Commonworth v. Drew, 1986, p. 66). Marsden had gone to the police and reported a human sacrifice. Scott Waterhouse was convicted of the murder of a twelve year-old girl, and the conviction was upheld in the State of Maine v. Scott Waterhouse (513 A. 2d 862, Me. 1986). It was ruled that the trial court's introduction of the defendant's satanic beliefs was relevant in establishing motive and intent. In a study of hundreds of day care centers, Finkelhor and Williams found that "... [c]lear-cut corroboration of ritualistic practices was available in a few cases, such as Country Walk [in Miami], where ritual objects were found by police and where the female perpetrators did admit to some of the sadistic practices alleged in the children's stories" (1988, pp. 59-60). Greaves (1992) describes a video made by the Chicago Police Department of two sites allegedly used for satanic ceremonies. He was struck by the similarity of the material to descriptions he had heard from many of his clients.</ref><ref>[http://www.saferchildren.net/print/utahrataskforce.pdf Report of Utah State Task Force on Ritual Abuse] Utah Governor’s Commission for Women and Families (1992)</ref>.
  
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It was stated in a court document that the two books that he and his wife Hollida Wakefield, wrote "Accusations of Child Sexual Abuse" (1988), and The Real World of Child Interrogations (1990) were not "well received in the medical and scientific press." It was also stated that "when they cannot use a quotation out of context from an article, they make unsupported statements, some of which are palpably untrue and others simply unprovable.” David L. Chadwick, Book Review, in 261 JAMA 3035 (May 26, 1989)." In the same document it was stated that "Both Salter and Toth came to believe that Underwager is a hired gun who makes a living by deceiving judges about the state of medical knowledge and thus assisting child molesters to evade punishment."<ref>[http://vlex.com/vid/36092881 Ralph Underwager and Hollida Wakefield, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. Anna Salter, Et Al., Defendants-Appellees.] 22 F.3d 730 (7th Cir. 1994)  Federal Circuits, 7th Cir. (April 25, 1994) Docket number: 93-2422</ref>
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Ritual abuse and mind control crimes have also been confirmed in other books<ref>''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</ref><ref>Rutz, Carol (2001). [http://my.dmci.net/~casey/'' A Nation Betrayed''. Grass Lake, MI: Fidelity Publishing.] ISBN 0-9710102-0-X.</ref><ref> Byington, Judy  MSW, LCSW, ret. (2012) [http://22faces.com/ ''Twenty-Two Faces - Inside the Extraordinary Life of Jenny Hill and Her Twenty-Two Multiple Personalities'']  Tate Publishing May, 2012 ISBN-13: 978-1620240328 "Twenty-Two Faces documents how the only known survivor-intended-victim of a modern-day human sacrifice ceremony six year-old Jenny Hill, overcomes multiplicity resulting from brainwashing, her perpetrators having subjected the child to insidious mind-control techniques culled from Nazi Germany."</ref><ref>Allred, Cathy 7/28/12 [http://m.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/saratoga-springs/surviving-satan-worship-author-helps-victims-heal/article_9db6b4b9-bfa3-5aa7-a778-1c0e528364d9.html Surviving Satan worship: Author helps victims heal] Daily Herald "Ritual abuse was taken seriously and investigated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to which Jenny belongs,"...."Hundreds of survivors have been found," Ross said...'Twenty-Two Faces' encourages the reader to focus on the pain, conflict and healing in Jenny's life in order to better understand the anguish of people who suffer these same types of devastating ordeals. Her biography gives realistic hope to those thousands so plagued and fragmented by this same gruesome, profound emotional shock." While others are healing, Byington claims others remain at the mercy of the dark priests of hell. Satan worshippers live in Happy Valley and elsewhere in Utah, according to the author. They have secret combinations. They live in duplicity. They torture and sacrifice the innocent. They give birth in secret so the babies they sacrifice have no birth certificate record. They take the time to learn speaking Latin backwards from what is called the Black Bible."</ref>
  
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Those that have examined or written about the False Memory Syndrome theories or foundation or its members have been subjected to harassment. This includes Anna Salter's analysis of her harassment by Ralph Underwager<ref name=Salter>Salter, A. (June 1998) [http://ritualabuse.us/research/memory-fms/confessions-of-a-whistle-blower-lessons-learned/ Confessions of a Whistle-Blower: Lessons Learned]  Ethics & Behavior 8(2) p.115 - 124  DOI: 10.1207/s15327019eb0802_2  Abstract - In 1988 I began a report on the accuracy of expert testimony in child sexual abuse cases utilizing Ralph Underwager and Hollida Wakefield as a case study (Wakefield & Underwager, 1988). In response, Underwager and Wakefield began a campaign of harassment and intimidation, which included multiple lawsuits; an ethics charge; phony (and secretly taped) phone calls; and ad hominem attacks, including one that I was laundering federal grant monies. The harassment and intimidation failed as the author refused demands to retract. In addition, the lawsuits and ethics charges were dismissed. Lessons learned from the experience are discussed.</ref>, David Calof, the former editor of ''Treating Abuse Today'' <ref>Calof, D.L. (1998). [http://ritualabuse.us/research/memory-fms/notes-from-a-practice-under-siege/ Notes from a practice under siege: Harassment, defamation, and intimidation in the name of science] Ethics and Behavior, 8(2) p. 161-187. "For over three years, however, a group of proponents of the false memory syndrome (FMS) hypothesis, including members, officials, and supporters of the False Memory Syndrome Foundation, Inc., have waged a multi-modal campaign of harassment and defamation directed against me, my clinical clients, my staff, my family, and others connected to me. I have neither treated these harassers or their families, nor had any professional or personal dealings with any of them; I am not related in any way to the disclosures of memories of sexual abuse in these families. Nonetheless, this group disrupts my professional and personal life and threatens to drive me out of business. In this article, I describe practicing psychotherapy under a state of siege and places the campaign against me in the context of a much broader effort in the FMS movement to denigrate, defame, and harass clinicians, lecturers, writers, and researchers identified with the abuse and trauma treatment communities.</ref> and Jennifer Hoult <ref>Hoult, J. (June 1998) [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233102426_Silencing_the_Victim_The_Politics_of_Discrediting_Child_Abuse_Survivors The Politics of Discrediting Child Abuse Survivors] Ethics & Behavior, 8(2), p. 125 - 140 "As a victim of child abuse who proved my claims in a landmark civil suit, there have been many attempts to silence and discredit me. This article provides an overview of my court case and its effects....I believe that published documents demonstrate how some members and supporters of false memory groups publish false statements that defame and intimidate victims of proven violence and their supporters. Such altered accounts are used to discredit others in court and in the press."</ref>.  
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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<ref>[http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/ED292552.pdf Sexual Abuse in Day Care: A National Study - Executive Summary - March 1988]  Finklehor, Williams, Burns, Kalinowski  "“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 (”the invocation of religious, magical or supernatural symbols of activities”) occurred in 13% of the cases.”</ref>. Additional evidence of ritual abuse in day care and child abuse cases has been found in news reports, journal articles and legal transcripts<ref>[http://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/articles/day-care-and-child-abuse-cases/ 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</ref><ref>[http://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/articles/mcmartin-preschool-case-what-really-happened-and-the-coverup/ McMartin Preschool Case - What Really Happened and the Coverup]</ref><ref>deMause, Lloyd, [http://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/articles/why-cults-terrorize-and-kill-children-lloyd-demause-the-journal-of-psychohistory/ Why Cults Terrorize and Kill Children] ''The Journal of Psychohistory'' 21 (4) 1994 "Cult abuse is increasing, only that-as with the increase in all child abuse reports-we have become more open to hearing them. But it seemed unlikely that the surge of cult memories could all be made up by patients or implanted by therapists. Therapists are a timid group at best, and the notion that they suddenly begin implanting false memories in tens of thousands of their clients for no apparent reason strained credulity. Certainly no one has presented a shred of evidence for massive "false memory" implantations." [http://web.archive.org/web/20080110112733/http://www.geocities.com/kidhistory/whycult.htm]</ref><ref>Summit, R.C. (1994). [http://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/articles/the-dark-tunnels-of-mcmartin-dr-roland-c-summit-journal-of-psychohistory/ The Dark Tunnels of McMartin]'' Journal of Psychohistory'' 21 (4): 397-416."The opportunity came in April, 1990 with permission from the new owner of the preschool to search for the tunnels before he demolished the building and redeveloped the property. These soiled but solid citizens managed to find what the district attorney had disclaimed: solid, scientific evidence that someone had not only dug tunnels under the preschool, but also had taken the trouble to try to undo them. The results of this definitive excavation are described in meticulous detail in the 185 page Report of the Archaeological Excavation of the McMartin Preschool Site by E. Gary Stickel, Ph.D., the UCLA archaeologist commissioned to do the study....Dr. Stickel's report (p.95) concludes: There is no other scenario that fits all of the facts except that the feature was indeed a tunnel. The date of the construction and use of the tunnel was not absolutely established, but an assessment of seven factors of data all indicate that it was probably constructed, used and completely filled back in after 1966 (the construction date of the preschool). This age assessment has also been corroborated by the consulting Geologist for the project, Dr. Don Michael." [http://web.archive.org/web/20060426210043/http://www.geocities.com/kidhistory/mcmartin.htm] </ref><ref>Tamarkin, C. (1994a). [http://abusearticles.wordpress.com/2007/12/02/investigative-issues-in-ritual-abuse-cases-part-1-and-2-1994/ 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.]</ref>.
  
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Accusations have also been made about the accuracy of the False Memory Syndromes' proponents data and research. Salter has critiqued some of those that defend those accused of child sexual abuse. ''“The people who support and defend those accused of child sexual abuse indiscriminately, those who join organizations dedicated to defending people who are accused of child sexual abuse with no screening whatsoever to keep out those who are guilty as charged, are…not necessarily people engaged in an objective search for the truth. Some of them can and do use deceit, trickery, misstated research, harassment, intimidation, and charges of laundering federal money to silence their opponents.”''<ref name=Salter/>. Whitfield stated ''"Since at least 95 percent of child molesters initially deny their abusive behaviors, how can untrained lay people like Pamela Freyd and her staff “document” a real or “unreal” case of “FMS,” as appears to be the case with most of their communications, which usually occur over the telephone or by letter (p. 76)."''<ref name=Whitfield/>. Jennifer Freyd stated “''Despite this documentation for both traumatic amnesia and essentially accurate delayed recall, memory science is often presented as if it supports the view that traumatic amnesia is very unlikely or perhaps impossible and that a great many, perhaps a majority, maybe even all, recovered memories of abuse are false…Yet no research supports such an implication…and a great deal of research supports the premise that forgetting sexual abuse is fairly common and that recovered memories are sometimes essentially true.”'' (p. 107)
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Ritual abuse occurrences have also been found in the Netherlands <ref>Jonker, F.; Jonker-bakker, P. (1991). “Experiences with ritualistic child sexual abuse: a case study from the Netherlands”. ''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."</ref>and the United Kingdom<ref>Sinason, V (1994).'' Treating Survivors of Satanist Abuse''. New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-10543-9. [http://valeriesinason.co.uk/allpublications.html Major publications by Valerie Sinason]</ref><ref>[http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/dec/14/cornish-white-witches-guilty-ritual-abuse Cornish 'white witches' guilty of ritual sex abuse on girls] Police say children as young as three may have been involved in coven's ceremonies Steven Morris 12/14/12 "Two members of a Cornish white witch coven have been convicted of carrying out ritualistic sex abuse on young girls. Peter Petrauske, 72, who claimed to be a high priest, and Jack Kemp, 69, donned robes and carried pagan artefacts when they attended ceremonies during which children were forced to strip and then abused. Police believe children as young as three may have been involved."</ref> <ref>[http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/pair-jailed-over-witches-coven-ritualistic-sex-abuse-8417739.html Pair jailed over witches' coven 'ritualistic' sex abuse] Ryan Hooper  12/14/12 "Two men accused of being part of a paedophile ring involving murdered “witch” Peter Solheim have been given lengthy jail sentences for their part in “ritualistic, sickening” sex abuse of young girls. Jack Kemp and Peter Petrauske spent years tormenting their female victims, one said to be as young as three. Both men had denied any involvement in the abuse, claiming they were victims of a witch hunt or conspiracy. But a jury at Truro Crown Court dismissed their protestations, convicting the pair of a string of offences dating back to the 1970s, as well as finding Kemp guilty of several more recent sexual assaults unconnected to Petrauske.  Jailing Kemp for 14 years and Petrauske for 18, Judge Graham Cottle told them: "The offences range from the extremely serious to the truly horrifying. "You are two of the surviving members of a paedophile ring, together with others whose names have repeated frequently in this trial who were members of a ring that operated in Falmouth (Cornwall) in the 1970s and 1980s...."It (the trial) has featured ritualistic, sickening abuse of young, young children."</ref> <ref>[http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/nov/28/witches-sex-abuse-allegations-children-court  'White witch coven' took part ritualistic sex abuse of young girls, court told] Two men deny string of attacks in Cornwall on children as young as three from late 1970s to 2009  Steven Morris and agency 11/28/12 "Members of a "white witch coven" in Cornwall donned ceremonial robes and used daggers in ritualistic sex abuse of young girls, a court has heard. Peter Petrauske, 72, who allegedly told police he was high priest of the coven, and Jack Kemp, 69, were said to have been involved in criminal "pagan ceremonies" over a 30-year period."</ref><ref>[http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/mar/09/paedophile-satanic-cult-batley-kidwelly Paedophile cult leader convicted for 'satanic' rape campaign] Colin Batley was self-styled high priest of group that handed children around for sex in Kidwelly, West Wales 3/9/11 "A man has been found guilty of leading a "satanic" sex cult from his home in a small Welsh town. Colin Batley, 48, of Kidwelly, west Wales, presided over a group that preyed on young children and held occult rites. He was found guilty at Swansea crown court of rape and carrying out perverted sexual acts on children and adults. Batley was the self-styled high priest of the group, which operated from a series of homes in a cul-de-sac in the seaside town."</ref>. A ritual abuse case in the United States in 2006 had a confession and convictions. The case included up to 25 children.<ref>[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/1491327/Satanist-paedophile-ring-ritually-raped-up-to-25-children.html Satanist paedophile ring 'ritually raped up to 25 children'] Tom Leonard in Ponchatoula 6/3/05 "In a case that has horrified Americans way beyond the Bible Belt, Louis Lamonica Jnr and eight members the Hosanna Church are accused of being members of a Satanic paedophile ring who ritually raped up to 25 children, as well as performing animal sacrifices. Police say some of those charged - who include Lamonica's wife and a deputy sheriff - have already admitted devil worship inside the now defunct church on the outskirts of Ponchatoula, the parish's main town. The discovery of badly rubbed-out pentagrams on the floor and eight boxes of hooded black costumes - allegedly used both in the abuse and in "morality tales" performed to prepare the young victims - bear out some of the claims....Lamonica himself astonished police by walking into a neighbouring sheriff's office a few weeks ago and confessing out of the blue that over five years he and other church members had sexually abused boys and girls aged between one and 16 and taught them to have sex with each other, as well as with a dog. Lamonica, 45, said he had drunk cat's blood and poured it over the bodies of his young victims, some of whom were the abusers' children. Local police say his claims have been confirmed by some of the victims, of whom half a dozen have so far been interviewed, and by some of the fellow abusers, whose names Lamonica freely gave to police."</ref>
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<ref>Freyd, J. (June 1998) [http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a784402310~db Science in the Memory Debate] Ethics & Behavior, 8(2), p. 101 - 113</ref>  
 
  
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Proponents of false memory theories have also been accused of manipulating the media<ref>Stanton, M. (July/August 1997) [http://web.archive.org/web/20071216011151/http://backissues.cjrarchives.org/year/97/4/memory.asp U-Turn on Memory Lane] Columbia Journalism Review “Rarely has such a strange and little-understood organization had such a profound effect on media coverage of such a controversial matter. The foundation is an aggressive, well-financed p.r. machine adept at manipulating the press, harassing its critics, and mobilizing a diverse army of psychiatrists, outspoken academics, expert defense witnesses, litigious lawyers, Freud bashers, critics of psychotherapy, and devastated parents. With a budget of $750,000 a year from members and outside supporters, the foundation’s reach far exceeds its actual membership of about 3,000.” “As controversial memory cases arose around the country, FMSF boosters contacted journalists to pitch the false-memory argument, more and more reporters picked up on the issue, and the foundation became an overnight media darling. The story line that had dominated the press since the 1980s — an underreported toll of sexual abuse, including sympathetic stories of adult survivors resurrecting long-lost memories of it — was quickly turned around. The focus shifted to new tearful victims — respectable, elderly parents who could no longer see their children and grandchildren because of bad therapists who implanted memories."</ref><ref>Packard, N. (April, 2004) [http://www.newschool.edu/nssr/historymatters/papers/NoelPackard.pdf Battle Tactics of the False Memory Syndrome Foundation] New School for Social Research, N.Y. History Matters Conference  "Kondora’s and Beckett’s studies indicate that the Foundation has been successful in many of its efforts to manage public perception of child abuse victims, therapists and the people accused of child abuse. Kondora and Beckett show that not only has public perception of victimized children become skeptical, but in fact, the press often goes beyond the Victorian custom of neutrality on all fronts of the issue, to out-right sympathy for accused molesters."</ref>.
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Kent believes that intergenerational satanic accounts are possible and that rituals related to them may come from a deviant interpretation of religious texts<ref>Kent, Stephen. (1993). “Deviant Scripturalism and Ritual Satanic Abuse Part One: Possible Judeo-Christian Influences”. ''Religion'' 23(23):229-241.</ref><ref> Kent, Stephen. (1993). “Deviant Scripturalism and Ritual Satanic Abuse. II: Possible Masonic, Mormon, Magick, and Pagan influences”. ''Religion'' 23(4):355-367</ref>.
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The theory of false memory has been used as a defense in court to try and negate "abusive, criminal behavior" and ''this defense is fraught with disinformation, smoke screens, and other untruths that are a distortion of what the available science of the psychology of trauma and memory shows.''<ref>Whitfield, C. L. (2001). [http://web.archive.org/web/20070914163211/http://childabuse.georgiacenter.uga.edu/both/whitfield/whitfield1.phtml The "false memory" defense: Using disinformation and junk science in and out of court.] In Whitfield, C. L., Silberg, J. Fink, P. J. Eds. (2001). Misinformation Concerning Child Sexual Abuse and Adult Survivors New York: Hawthorn Press, Inc. (pp. 53 - 78) also in Haworth Press, Special Issue on Disinformation, Journal of Child Sexual Abuse 9(3 & 4) "Attorneys for accused, convicted or found-responsible child molesters tend to use a superficially sophisticated argument, which can be described as the "false memory defense." This defense is fraught with disinformation, smoke screens, and other untruths that are a distortion of what the available science of the psychology of trauma and memory shows. In this article, this seemingly sophisticated, but actually mostly contrived and often erroneous defense, is described and it is compared in a brief review to what the science says about the effect of trauma on memory."
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Others have stated that the theories and research around recovered memory "strongly confirm the reality of...cult abuse" of SRA survivors<ref>McCulley, D. [http://journals.biola.edu/jpt/volumes/22/issues/3/articles/167 Satanic ritual abuse: A question of memory.] ''Journal of Psychology and Theology'' Fall 1994 22(3) p.167-172 "leading memory researchers such as Dr. Bessel van der Kolk of Harvard Medical School maintain that traumatic memories, which typically are engraved in the sensorimotor processes, are not subject to the same kinds of contamination that can affect normal memory. Traumatic amnesia, described in the DSM-III-R as psychogenic amnesia, is a phenomenon which has been known to mental health professionals for more than 100 years. The clinically observed characteristics of traumatic memory formation and retrieval match precisely the patterns of memory recovery exhibited by SRA survivors, and strongly confirm the reality of their cult abuse....If satanic ritual abuse is a question of memory, the data redound to the credibility of those thousands of individuals who identify themselves as SRA survivors. All the scientific studies of memory under trauma indicate that the bimodal response described by van der Kolk (1994), whether hyperpotentiated or dissociative, heightens the reliability of recall. The phenomenon of recovered memory is not a new therapeutic fad created by irresponsible clinical experimentation, but a well established aspect of trauma. The connection between trauma and memory disturbance is made clear by the definition of psychogenic amnesia in the DSM-III-R (1987)...Further, there often is corroboration for these retrieved memories. Judith Herman and Emily Schatzow (1992) found that in a sample of 53 women who disclosed memories of abuse for which they had been amnesic, 74% of the subjects were able to find independent confirmation from family members, pornographic photos, or diaries. Ivor Browne (1990a) found the "internal consistency of the traumatic account" persuasive, and also discovered that in the sizeable minority of cases where there was an available witness that "in every instance, the traumatic events . turn out to be true" (p. 30). There is no longer room for denial and disbelief - for evading the grim reality of SRA - by recourse to memory research which simply does not apply. Solid scientific inquiry does not allow us that luxury; neither should Christian conscience."</ref>.
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"Abstract: This article describes a seemingly sophisticated, but mostly contrived and often erroneous "false memory" defense, and compares it in a brief review to what the science says about the effect of trauma on memory. Child sexual abuse is widespread and dissociative/traumatic amnesia for it is common. Accused, convicted and self-confessed child molesters and their advocates have crafted a strategy that tries to negate their abusive, criminal behavior, which we can call a "false memory" defense. Each of 22 of the more commonly used components of this defense is described and discussed with respect to what the science says about them. Armed with this knowledge, survivors, their clinicians, and their attorneys will be better able to refute this defense of disinformation."</ref>.
 
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==Related Page==
 
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[[Recovered Memories]]
 
  
 
==References==
 
==References==
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==Bibliography==
 
==Bibliography==
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* Brown, Scheflin and Hammond (1998).”Memory, Trauma Treatment, And the Law” (W. W. Norton) ISBN 0-393-70254-5  
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* Byington, Judy  MSW, LCSW, ret. (2012) [http://22faces.com/ ''Twenty-Two Faces - Inside the Extraordinary Life of Jenny Hill and Her Twenty-Two Multiple Personalities''] Tate Publishing May, 2012 ISBN-13: 978-1620240328
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* Freyd, Jennifer J. (1996). Betrayal Trauma - The Logic of Forgetting Childhood Abuse. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-06805-x.  
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* Brown, Scheflin and Hammond (1998). ''Memory, Trauma Treatment, And the Law'' (W. W. Norton) ISBN 0-393-70254-5  
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* Knopp, Fay Honey (1996). A Primer on the Complexities of Traumatic Memory of Childhood Sexual Abuse - A Psychobiological Approach. Brandon, VT: Safer Society Press. ISBN 1-884444-20-2.  
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* Cook, C. (1991). Understanding ritual abuse: A study of thirty-three ritual abuse survivors. ''Treating Abuse Today'', 1(4), 14-19.
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* Whitfield M.D., Charles L. (1995). Memory and Abuse - Remembering and Healing the Effects of Trauma. Deerfield Beach, FL: Health Communications, Inc. ISBN 1-55874-320-0.
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* Cozolino, L.J. (1989). “The ritual abuse of children: Implications for clinical practice and research.” Journal of Sex Research 26(1), 131-138.
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* Whitfield, Charles L.; Joyanna L. Silberg, Paul Jay Fink (2001). Misinformation Concerning Child Sexual Abuse and Adult Survivors. Haworth Press. ISBN 0789019019.
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* Craighead, W. E.; Corsini, R.J.; Nemeroff, C. B. (2002) ''The Corsini Encyclopedia of Psychology and Behavioral Science'' Published by John Wiley and Sons ISBN 0471270830 - [http://books.google.com/books?id=JQMRmyOfpJ8C&pg=PA1435&vq=sadistic+ritual+abuse&output=html&source=gbs_search_r&cad=1  Sadistic Ritual Abuse (p. 1435 - 1438)]
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* Epstein, O., Schwartz, J., Schwartz, R. (2011) [http://www.karnacbooks.com/Product.asp?PID=29482 Ritual Abuse and Mind Control: The Manipulation of Attachment Needs]  Karnac Books. London ISBN 1-85575-839-3 [http://books.google.com/books?id=xU6GZ28gGy4C&dq=Ritual+Abuse+and+Mind+Control:+The+Manipulation+of+Attachment+Needs&source=gbs_navlinks_s Google Books Version]
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* Gould, C. (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
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* Hersha, C.; Hersha, L.; Griffis, D.; Schwarz, T (2001).'' Secret Weapons.'' Far Hills, NJ: New Horizon Press. ISBN 0-88282-196-2.
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* Hill, J. [http://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/articles/believing-rachel-jeanne-hill-the-journal-of-psychohistory/ Believing Rachel] ''The Journal of Psychohistory'' 24 (2) Fall 1996 "Rachel's story is one of suffering, courage and hope. As a young child she was the victim of unspeakable crimes, but because she received therapy and the support of a loving family, she has emerged intact."
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* Johnston, Jerry (1989). ''The Edge of Evil - The Rise of Satanism in North America.'' Dallas: Word Publishing. ISBN 0-8499-0668-7.
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* 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
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* Kent, S. (1994). “Diabolic Debates: A Reply to David Frankfurter and J. S. La Fontaine,” ''Religion'' 24: 135-188.
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* Kent, S. (1993). “Deviant Scripturalism and Ritual Satanic Abuse Part One: Possible Judeo-Christian Influences”. ''Religion'' 23(23):229-241.
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* Kent, S. (1993). “Deviant Scripturalism and Ritual Satanic Abuse. II: Possible Masonic, Mormon, Magick, and Pagan influences”.'' Religion'' 23(4):355-367
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* Leavitt, F. [http://web.archive.org/web/20000306224228/http://idealist.com/tat/leavitt.shtml 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."
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* Miller, Alison (2011) [http://karnac.styluspub.com/Books/BookDetail.aspx?productID=286428 ''Healing the Unimaginable: Treating Ritual Abuse and Mind Control''] ISBN 978 1 85575 882 7 October 2011 Publisher: Karnac Books
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* Neswald, D., Gould, C., & Graham-Costain, V. (1991). [http://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/articles/common-programs-observed-in-survivors-of-satanic-ritualistic-abuse/  Common programs observed in survivors of Satanic ritual abuse.] ''The California Therapist'', 3 (5), 47 50. "Increasingly, cases of Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD) and Satanic Ritualistic Abuse (SRA) are being reported in the psychotherapeutic community. Though controversy concerning authenticity remains, such cases are slowly gaining in acceptability as a genuine social and psychopathological phenomenon. Concurrently, the etiological underpinnings and treatment demands of these special patients are being unraveled and understood as never before. As a result, it is becoming increasingly clear that perhaps the most demanding treatment aspects of such cases concern the problems posed by what is known as "cult programming." [http://web.archive.org/web/20041207092311/http://www.geocities.com/kidhistory/sracp.htm]
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* Noblitt, J.R.; Perskin, P. (2000). [http://books.google.com/books?id=zJkTTpfyJ-8C ''Cult and Ritual Abuse: Its History, Anthropology, and Recent Discovery in Contemporary America''] p. 269, Greenwood Publishing Group.
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* Noblitt, R.; Perskin, P. (2008). [http://www.rdrpublishers.com/catalog/item/6339393/5820690.htm ''Ritual abuse in the 21st century''] p. 552, Bandon, OR: Reed Publishers.
 +
* Pike, P.L.; Mohline, R.J.(Eds.). [http://journals.biola.edu/jpt/volumes/23/issues/1/articles/45 Ritual abuse and recovery: Survivors' personal accounts.] ''Journal of Psychology and Theology'' Spring 1995 23 (1) p.45-55
 +
* Sachs, A. & Galton, G. (Eds) (2008). [http://www.karnacbooks.com/product.php?PID=25876 ''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 [http://books.google.com/books?id=upHtL9lual0C&dq=Forensic+aspects+of+dissociative+identity+disorder+|&printsec=frontcover&source=bl&ots=caNy__6-zt&sig=VwIOryBkcSN0nh24CJR3aJkS_gs&hl=en&ei=702fSbmpOo_ftgfe5eSVDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=2&ct=result#PPA142,M1]
 +
* Scott, S. (2001). [http://www.amazon.com/Politics-Experience-Ritual-Abuse/dp/0335204198 ''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'' - HarperCollins
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* 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 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
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==Related Pages==
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*[[Breaking the Circle of Satanic Ritual Abuse]]
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*[[Cult and Ritual Abuse]]
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*[[Extreme Abuse Surveys]]
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*[[Hell Minus One]]
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*[[Ritual Abuse in the Twenty-First Century]]
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*[[Ritual Abuse Torture]]
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*[[Satanic Ritual Abuse Evidence and Journal Articles]]
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*[[Treating Survivors of Satanist Abuse]]
  
 
==External Links==
 
==External Links==
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* [http://www.kspope.com/memory/memory.php Memory, Abuse, and Science: Questioning Claims about the False Memory Syndrome Epidemic]
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*[http://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/articles/an-empirical-look-at-the-ritual-abuse-controversy-randy-noblitt-phd/   An Empirical Look at the Ritual Abuse Controversy]
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* [http://web.archive.org/web/20030608221633/http://www.feminista.com/v1n9/false-memory.html False Memory Syndrome A False Construct] Feminista! v2, n10 
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*[http://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/studies/satanic-ritual-abuse-evidence-with-information-on-the-mcmartin-preschool-case/  Ritual Abuse articles]
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* [http://ritualabuse.us/research/memory-fms/false-memory-syndrome-proponents-tactics/ False memory syndrome proponents tactics] "False memory syndrome proponents have done the following to try and ensure that only their point of view is in the public view."
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*[http://ra-info.org/for-researchers/bibliographies/conviction-list-ritual-child-abuse/cases-that-have-resulted-in-convictions/ Ritual Abuse Cases]
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*[http://extreme-abuse-survey.net/  Extreme Abuse Survey]
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*http://nonstatetorture.org/
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*http://www.ra-info.org
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*http://www.survivorship.org
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*[http://web.archive.org/web/20071210161357/http://home.mchsi.com/~ftio/ra-stats.htm Ritual Abuse Statistics & Research]

Revision as of 12:26, 18 October 2020

Ritual abuse exists all over the world. There have been reports, journal articles[1][2][3], web pages[4][5][6][7][8] and criminal convictions of crimes against children and adults [9][10][11].

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.[12]

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.[13]

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"[14].

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[15]. "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 ”belief in ritual abuse, involving mind control and programming.”[16]

Recently an online survey[17] of over one thousand people answered questions about ritual abuse and extreme abuse crimes. In a summary of the survey [18], 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[19][20].

Many scientific journals articles have discussed the reality of ritual abuse and its effect on its victims. Some of these articles have discussed the extreme nature of these crimes[21], proof of the reality of the ritual abuse phenomenon and victims' symptoms[22], the connection between ritual abuse, multiple personality disorder and mind control[23] and the connections between ritual abuse reports and the higher levels of symptoms of childhood sexual and physical abuse[24]. Several additional studies and organizations have compiled research on the reality of ritual abuse crimes[25][26][27].

Ritual abuse and mind control crimes have also been confirmed in other books[28][29][30][31]

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[32]. Additional evidence of ritual abuse in day care and child abuse cases has been found in news reports, journal articles and legal transcripts[33][34][35][36][37].

Ritual abuse occurrences have also been found in the Netherlands [38]and the United Kingdom[39][40] [41] [42][43]. A ritual abuse case in the United States in 2006 had a confession and convictions. The case included up to 25 children.[44]

Kent believes that intergenerational satanic accounts are possible and that rituals related to them may come from a deviant interpretation of religious texts[45][46]. Others have stated that the theories and research around recovered memory "strongly confirm the reality of...cult abuse" of SRA survivors[47].

References

  1. ↑ Satanic Ritual Abuse evidence
  2. ↑ 2008 Publications on Ritual Abuse and Mind Control
  3. ↑ Lacter, E (2008-02-11). “Brief Synopsis of the Literature on the Existence of Ritualistic Abuse”.
  4. ↑ https://ritualabuse.us
  5. ↑ http://nonstatetorture.org/
  6. ↑ http://www.ra-info.org
  7. ↑ https://www.survivorship.org
  8. ↑ http://www.endritualabuse.org/
  9. ↑ Believe the children (1997). “Conviction List: Ritual Child Abuse”.
  10. ↑ The Satanism and Ritual Abuse Archive
  11. ↑ Noblitt, PhD, J. R. - An Empirical Look at the Ritual Abuse Controversy (2007)
  12. ↑ Report of the Ritual Abuse Task Force - Los Angeles County Commission for Women "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 [only on the surface.] 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."[1]
  13. ↑ Survivorship - Frequently Asked Questions
  14. ↑ Van Benschoten, Susan C. (1990). Multiple Personality Disorder and Satanic Ritual Abuse: the Issue Of Credibility https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/xmlui/handle/1794/1492 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."
  15. ↑ Data from Brown, Scheflin and Hammond (1998). 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
  16. ↑ Noblitt, J.R.; Perskin, P. (2000). Cult and Ritual Abuse: Its History, Anthropology, and Recent Discovery in Contemporary America p. 269, Greenwood Publishing Group.
  17. ↑ Extreme Abuse Survey
  18. ↑ Understanding ritual trauma: A comparison of findings from three online surveys
  19. ↑ 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
  20. ↑ Hell Minus One - signed verified confessions of satanic ritual abuse
  21. ↑ Cozolino, L.J. (1990). “Ritual child abuse, psychopathology, and evil”. Journal of Psychology and Theology, 18(3):218-227 "Ritualistic abuse is an extreme form of psychological, physical, and sexual maltreatment of children in the context of "religious" ceremony. The clinical presentation of the victims of such abuse is complex and raises many issues related in the diagnosis and treatment of psychopathology as well as the importance of spiritual counseling"
  22. ↑ Cozolino, L.J.; Shaffer, R.E (Fall 1992) "Adults who report childhood ritualistic abuse." Special Issue: Satanic ritual abuse: The current state of knowledge. Journal of Psychology and Theology 20(3) "Skeptics question the legitimacy of these reports, but many factors point to the reality of the phenomenon of ritualistic abuse. First of all, the degree of consistency between reports of individuals from different parts of the country is very high. The fact that children as young as 2 and 3 report ritualistic abuse experiences that mirror those reported by adult victims is especially striking in light of the fact that young children do not have access to the kind of printed information that might conceivably allow an older person to fabricate such experiences (Gould, 1987). Second, experiences of ritualistic abuse reported by victims of all ages are virtually identical to written historical accounts of Satan worship and the like (Hill & Goodwin, 1989; Russell, 1972), findings that substantiate our present-day understanding of Satanism and ritualistic abuse as intragenerational phenomenon. Third, the symptoms from which individuals reporting histories of ritualistic abuse tend to suffer are consistent with our current understanding of post-traumatic stress disorder and the dissociative disorders. The progression in which ritualistic abuse survivors respond to psychotherapy places these victims squarely within the category of individual who have suffered real-not imagined-trauma."
  23. ↑ Gould, C., & Cozolino, L. (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 "As a result of the psychologically intolerable nature of their early childhood experiences, victims of ritual abuse frequently develop multiple personality disorder (MPD)....Ritual abuse is conducted on behalf of a cult whose purpose is to establish mind control over the victims. Thus, these perpetrators have a conscious motive for the abuse beyond compulsively repeating their own childhood abuse in an effort to gain mastery over the original trauma. Most victims state that they were ritually abused as part of satanic worship, for the purpose of indoctrinating them into satanic beliefs (Los Angeles County Commission for Women, 1989). Mind control is originally established when the victim is a child under 6 years old."
  24. ↑ Lawrence, K.J.; Cozolino, L.; Foy, D.W. (1995). Psychological sequelae in adult females reporting childhood ritualistic abuse. Child Abuse & Neglect 19 (8): 975-984. doi:10.1016/0145-2134(95)00059-H. "Women reporting ritualistic features scored significantly higher on measures of childhood sexual and physical abuse. Neither PTSD diagnostic status nor severity for PTSD nor dissociative experiences were significantly different between the groups."
  25. ↑ Gould, C. (1995). Denying ritual abuse of children. Journal of Psychohistory, 22(3), 329-339. "The evidence is rapidly accumulating that the problem of ritual abuse is considerable in scope and extremely grave in its consequences Among 2,709 members of the American Psychological Association who responded to a poll, 2,292 cases of ritual abuse were reported (Bottoms, Shaver, & Goodman, 1993). In 1992 alone, Childhelp USA logged 1,741 calls pertaining to ritual abuse, Monarch Resources of Los Angeles logged approximately 5,000, Real Active Survivors tallied nearly 3,600, Justus Unlimited of Colorado received almost 7,000, and Looking Up of Maine handled around 6,000. Even allowing for some of these calls to have been made by people who assist survivors but arc not themselves survivors, and for some survivors to have called more that one helpline or made multiple calls to the same helpline, these numbers suggest that at a minimum there must be tens of thousands of survivors of ritual abuse in the United States. Evidence also continues to accumulate that the ritual abuse of children constitutes a child abuse problem of significant scope. In 1988, Finkelhor, Williams and Burns published the results of a nationwide study of substantiated reports of sexual abuse in day care involving 1,639 young child victims. Thirteen percent of these cases were found to involve ritual abuse. Other studies of ritually abused children have been relatively small. Kelly (1988; 1989; 1992a; 1992b; 1993) reported on 35 day care victims of ritual abuse, Waterman et al. (1993) reported on 82 children complaining of ritual abuse in preschool, Faller (1988; 1990) studied 18 children who had disclosed ritual abuse in their preschool, and Bybee and Mowbray (1993) from the Michigan State Department of Mental Health identified 62 children alleging ritual abuse in their preschool and 53 children who reported seeing others be ritually abused. Snow and Sorenson (1990) studied 39 children reporting ritual abuse in five neighborhoods in Utah, and Jonker and Jonker-Bakker (1991) reported on a total group of 98 children, at least 48 of whom were believed to be victims of ritual abuse. The latter case is the only one cited here which was conducted outside of the United States."[2]
  26. ↑ Paley, K. (June 1992). Dream wars: a case study of a woman with multiple personality disorder Dissociation 5 (2): 111-116. "Apologists believe that reports of satanic cult abuse either must or could be true. There is some evidence to support the apologists. In 1986, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts in Commonwealth v. Drew (397 Mass. 65) upheld the conviction of Carl H. Drew for the murder of Karen Marsden. There was evidence that Drew conducted satanic ritual meetings and that he had killed Marsden "because she wanted to leave the cult " (Commonworth v. Drew, 1986, p. 66). Marsden had gone to the police and reported a human sacrifice. Scott Waterhouse was convicted of the murder of a twelve year-old girl, and the conviction was upheld in the State of Maine v. Scott Waterhouse (513 A. 2d 862, Me. 1986). It was ruled that the trial court's introduction of the defendant's satanic beliefs was relevant in establishing motive and intent. In a study of hundreds of day care centers, Finkelhor and Williams found that "... [c]lear-cut corroboration of ritualistic practices was available in a few cases, such as Country Walk [in Miami], where ritual objects were found by police and where the female perpetrators did admit to some of the sadistic practices alleged in the children's stories" (1988, pp. 59-60). Greaves (1992) describes a video made by the Chicago Police Department of two sites allegedly used for satanic ceremonies. He was struck by the similarity of the material to descriptions he had heard from many of his clients.
  27. ↑ Report of Utah State Task Force on Ritual Abuse Utah Governor’s Commission for Women and Families (1992)
  28. ↑ 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
  29. ↑ Rutz, Carol (2001). A Nation Betrayed. Grass Lake, MI: Fidelity Publishing. ISBN 0-9710102-0-X.
  30. ↑ Byington, Judy MSW, LCSW, ret. (2012) Twenty-Two Faces - Inside the Extraordinary Life of Jenny Hill and Her Twenty-Two Multiple Personalities Tate Publishing May, 2012 ISBN-13: 978-1620240328 "Twenty-Two Faces documents how the only known survivor-intended-victim of a modern-day human sacrifice ceremony six year-old Jenny Hill, overcomes multiplicity resulting from brainwashing, her perpetrators having subjected the child to insidious mind-control techniques culled from Nazi Germany."
  31. ↑ Allred, Cathy 7/28/12 Surviving Satan worship: Author helps victims heal Daily Herald "Ritual abuse was taken seriously and investigated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to which Jenny belongs,"...."Hundreds of survivors have been found," Ross said...'Twenty-Two Faces' encourages the reader to focus on the pain, conflict and healing in Jenny's life in order to better understand the anguish of people who suffer these same types of devastating ordeals. Her biography gives realistic hope to those thousands so plagued and fragmented by this same gruesome, profound emotional shock." While others are healing, Byington claims others remain at the mercy of the dark priests of hell. Satan worshippers live in Happy Valley and elsewhere in Utah, according to the author. They have secret combinations. They live in duplicity. They torture and sacrifice the innocent. They give birth in secret so the babies they sacrifice have no birth certificate record. They take the time to learn speaking Latin backwards from what is called the Black Bible."
  32. ↑ Sexual Abuse in Day Care: A National Study - Executive Summary - March 1988 Finklehor, Williams, Burns, Kalinowski "“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 (”the invocation of religious, magical or supernatural symbols of activities”) occurred in 13% of the cases.”
  33. ↑ 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
  34. ↑ McMartin Preschool Case - What Really Happened and the Coverup
  35. ↑ deMause, Lloyd, Why Cults Terrorize and Kill Children The Journal of Psychohistory 21 (4) 1994 "Cult abuse is increasing, only that-as with the increase in all child abuse reports-we have become more open to hearing them. But it seemed unlikely that the surge of cult memories could all be made up by patients or implanted by therapists. Therapists are a timid group at best, and the notion that they suddenly begin implanting false memories in tens of thousands of their clients for no apparent reason strained credulity. Certainly no one has presented a shred of evidence for massive "false memory" implantations." [3]
  36. ↑ Summit, R.C. (1994). The Dark Tunnels of McMartin Journal of Psychohistory 21 (4): 397-416."The opportunity came in April, 1990 with permission from the new owner of the preschool to search for the tunnels before he demolished the building and redeveloped the property. These soiled but solid citizens managed to find what the district attorney had disclaimed: solid, scientific evidence that someone had not only dug tunnels under the preschool, but also had taken the trouble to try to undo them. The results of this definitive excavation are described in meticulous detail in the 185 page Report of the Archaeological Excavation of the McMartin Preschool Site by E. Gary Stickel, Ph.D., the UCLA archaeologist commissioned to do the study....Dr. Stickel's report (p.95) concludes: There is no other scenario that fits all of the facts except that the feature was indeed a tunnel. The date of the construction and use of the tunnel was not absolutely established, but an assessment of seven factors of data all indicate that it was probably constructed, used and completely filled back in after 1966 (the construction date of the preschool). This age assessment has also been corroborated by the consulting Geologist for the project, Dr. Don Michael." [4]
  37. ↑ 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.
  38. ↑ Jonker, F.; Jonker-bakker, P. (1991). “Experiences with ritualistic child sexual abuse: a case study from the Netherlands”. 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."
  39. ↑ Sinason, V (1994). Treating Survivors of Satanist Abuse. New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-10543-9. Major publications by Valerie Sinason
  40. ↑ Cornish 'white witches' guilty of ritual sex abuse on girls Police say children as young as three may have been involved in coven's ceremonies Steven Morris 12/14/12 "Two members of a Cornish white witch coven have been convicted of carrying out ritualistic sex abuse on young girls. Peter Petrauske, 72, who claimed to be a high priest, and Jack Kemp, 69, donned robes and carried pagan artefacts when they attended ceremonies during which children were forced to strip and then abused. Police believe children as young as three may have been involved."
  41. ↑ Pair jailed over witches' coven 'ritualistic' sex abuse Ryan Hooper 12/14/12 "Two men accused of being part of a paedophile ring involving murdered “witch” Peter Solheim have been given lengthy jail sentences for their part in “ritualistic, sickening” sex abuse of young girls. Jack Kemp and Peter Petrauske spent years tormenting their female victims, one said to be as young as three. Both men had denied any involvement in the abuse, claiming they were victims of a witch hunt or conspiracy. But a jury at Truro Crown Court dismissed their protestations, convicting the pair of a string of offences dating back to the 1970s, as well as finding Kemp guilty of several more recent sexual assaults unconnected to Petrauske. Jailing Kemp for 14 years and Petrauske for 18, Judge Graham Cottle told them: "The offences range from the extremely serious to the truly horrifying. "You are two of the surviving members of a paedophile ring, together with others whose names have repeated frequently in this trial who were members of a ring that operated in Falmouth (Cornwall) in the 1970s and 1980s...."It (the trial) has featured ritualistic, sickening abuse of young, young children."
  42. ↑ 'White witch coven' took part ritualistic sex abuse of young girls, court told Two men deny string of attacks in Cornwall on children as young as three from late 1970s to 2009 Steven Morris and agency 11/28/12 "Members of a "white witch coven" in Cornwall donned ceremonial robes and used daggers in ritualistic sex abuse of young girls, a court has heard. Peter Petrauske, 72, who allegedly told police he was high priest of the coven, and Jack Kemp, 69, were said to have been involved in criminal "pagan ceremonies" over a 30-year period."
  43. ↑ Paedophile cult leader convicted for 'satanic' rape campaign Colin Batley was self-styled high priest of group that handed children around for sex in Kidwelly, West Wales 3/9/11 "A man has been found guilty of leading a "satanic" sex cult from his home in a small Welsh town. Colin Batley, 48, of Kidwelly, west Wales, presided over a group that preyed on young children and held occult rites. He was found guilty at Swansea crown court of rape and carrying out perverted sexual acts on children and adults. Batley was the self-styled high priest of the group, which operated from a series of homes in a cul-de-sac in the seaside town."
  44. ↑ Satanist paedophile ring 'ritually raped up to 25 children' Tom Leonard in Ponchatoula 6/3/05 "In a case that has horrified Americans way beyond the Bible Belt, Louis Lamonica Jnr and eight members the Hosanna Church are accused of being members of a Satanic paedophile ring who ritually raped up to 25 children, as well as performing animal sacrifices. Police say some of those charged - who include Lamonica's wife and a deputy sheriff - have already admitted devil worship inside the now defunct church on the outskirts of Ponchatoula, the parish's main town. The discovery of badly rubbed-out pentagrams on the floor and eight boxes of hooded black costumes - allegedly used both in the abuse and in "morality tales" performed to prepare the young victims - bear out some of the claims....Lamonica himself astonished police by walking into a neighbouring sheriff's office a few weeks ago and confessing out of the blue that over five years he and other church members had sexually abused boys and girls aged between one and 16 and taught them to have sex with each other, as well as with a dog. Lamonica, 45, said he had drunk cat's blood and poured it over the bodies of his young victims, some of whom were the abusers' children. Local police say his claims have been confirmed by some of the victims, of whom half a dozen have so far been interviewed, and by some of the fellow abusers, whose names Lamonica freely gave to police."
  45. ↑ Kent, Stephen. (1993). “Deviant Scripturalism and Ritual Satanic Abuse Part One: Possible Judeo-Christian Influences”. Religion 23(23):229-241.
  46. ↑ Kent, Stephen. (1993). “Deviant Scripturalism and Ritual Satanic Abuse. II: Possible Masonic, Mormon, Magick, and Pagan influences”. Religion 23(4):355-367
  47. ↑ McCulley, D. Satanic ritual abuse: A question of memory. Journal of Psychology and Theology Fall 1994 22(3) p.167-172 "leading memory researchers such as Dr. Bessel van der Kolk of Harvard Medical School maintain that traumatic memories, which typically are engraved in the sensorimotor processes, are not subject to the same kinds of contamination that can affect normal memory. Traumatic amnesia, described in the DSM-III-R as psychogenic amnesia, is a phenomenon which has been known to mental health professionals for more than 100 years. The clinically observed characteristics of traumatic memory formation and retrieval match precisely the patterns of memory recovery exhibited by SRA survivors, and strongly confirm the reality of their cult abuse....If satanic ritual abuse is a question of memory, the data redound to the credibility of those thousands of individuals who identify themselves as SRA survivors. All the scientific studies of memory under trauma indicate that the bimodal response described by van der Kolk (1994), whether hyperpotentiated or dissociative, heightens the reliability of recall. The phenomenon of recovered memory is not a new therapeutic fad created by irresponsible clinical experimentation, but a well established aspect of trauma. The connection between trauma and memory disturbance is made clear by the definition of psychogenic amnesia in the DSM-III-R (1987)...Further, there often is corroboration for these retrieved memories. Judith Herman and Emily Schatzow (1992) found that in a sample of 53 women who disclosed memories of abuse for which they had been amnesic, 74% of the subjects were able to find independent confirmation from family members, pornographic photos, or diaries. Ivor Browne (1990a) found the "internal consistency of the traumatic account" persuasive, and also discovered that in the sizeable minority of cases where there was an available witness that "in every instance, the traumatic events . turn out to be true" (p. 30). There is no longer room for denial and disbelief - for evading the grim reality of SRA - by recourse to memory research which simply does not apply. Solid scientific inquiry does not allow us that luxury; neither should Christian conscience."

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