mainstream SRA article

by **Dreams End** » Sun Jul 16, 2006 4:35 am

Really interesting...just from "about.com". <blockquote>Quote:<hr> What the Hell is Satanic Ritual Abuse? From Leonard Holmes, Ph.D., Your Guide to Mental Health Resources. FREE Newsletter. Sign Up Now! I don't know. That's the short answer. Some abuse survivors, often survivors with severe Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), have memories of being abused in Satanic ceremonies. These memories are usually "recovered memories" - memories that emerge later in life, although some abuse survivors report continuous memories of Satanic ritual abuse - memories which they have always had. What do these memories mean? Does having a memory mean that the events actually happened the way that we remember them? The answer to this question is certainly "no." Research has shown that memory is fallible. We do not record the events in our life on a recorder and play them back later. We have all experienced times when our memory of an event conflicted with someone else's. The brain sorts and filters a huge amount of incoming sensory material. It then decides which very small percentage should be stored for later retrieval, and only portions of this material are stored. Abuse survivors who have these ritual abuse memories often remember very similar things. They remember adult figures dressed in certain clothes performing ceremonies, for example. I will not go into further detail about the common threads in these memories. Most of us are familiar with some of that these survivors report to have happened to them. They are typically hideous and gruesome memories that involve some of the worst kinds of torture and abuse imaginable. Can these memories possibly be real? Again, I don't know. In the past therapists tended to divide themselves into camps on this issue. There was a camp of true believers who believed in the literal truth of these memories. There was another camp, represented most strongly by the False Memory Syndrome Foundation, which believed that all of these memories were false, and that they were probably implanted by therapists. I have worked with a very small number of patients who have had such memories. The first time I heard of these memories from a patient I had no idea what was happening. I did know that I had not "implanted" the memories. They were completely alien to my experience and to anything we had talked about in therapy. I saw the need to get some training in this area and I sought it out. The advice that I received at the time was that I should believe my patient and believe in the literal truth of her memories. (I have since come to believe that this is not the best approach - that it is best to acknowledge that we just don't know what these memories mean.) I was confronted with evidence that many other abuse survivors were telling similar stories, and I was told about "generational" Satanic cults which were networked and which coordinated the rituals around the world. I even heard whispers of an international organization called the Illuminati which coordinated these cults and which intended to take over the world in the year 1999 by taking advantage of these "programmed" Manchurian candidates which they created in these cults. Whew. Was any of this remotely possible? I began networking with other professionals to see what they thought. Several years later I was asked to be on a Task Force formed by the Virginia Crime Commission to study "ritual crime." Reports of these cults had reached law enforcement officials, and they were divided on whether these groups really existed. The Task Force did not reach any firm conclusions regarding this, but found no evidence of widespread ritual crimes. We heard from many therapists who treated patients with these memories, and we heard from law enforcement officials who had discovered evidence of Satanic cults which did practice. We also heard from FBI experts (Ken Lanning was one) who were very skeptical of the existence of these groups. Where were the bodies? Some of the therapists who spoke about their practices reported that a substantial percentage of their patients had such memories. Sponsored Links Accused Catholic PriestsList of Those Accused of Sex Abuse Also Secret Church Documentswww.BishopAccountability.org Counseling In Jesus' NameHealing from Clergy Abuse, SRA, MPD Church Renewal, Interim Consultingwww.shepherdscareministries.org Cult AbuseExperienced forensic psychologist, evaluation and testimony.www.drmwilliams.com How was this possible? Could this have more to do with the therapist than the patient? As I discussed these issues with colleagues in the mental health community I heard some very different opinions. Some therapists were certain that the FBI agents investigating cults were themselves cult members. I was warned that the Task Force itself had been infiltrated by the cult. Other therapists genuinely did not know what to think; while others were extremely skeptical. One very interesting group that helped the Task Force was the Wiccan community. The members that I had contact with tended to believe that Satanic cults were indeed active, and they provided information to the State Police and testified about what they knew. They took great pains to distinguish their own peaceful "white witchcraft" from the hideous practices attributed to Satanic cults. At this point there are several possible explanations for Satanic Ritual Abuse Memories. It is important not to see these as mutually exclusive explanations, because it may be that more than one of them are at least partially true. 1. Memories of Satanic ritual abuse may be at least partially true. We do know that destructive cults exist. Nazi Germany and the KKK have taught us that people can be extremely cruel to each other. The fact that some survivors have continuous memories of these rituals lends some credence to this possibility. Even if some memories are true, some details may be distorted, or some rituals may have been staged for effect. 2. Memories of Satanic ritual abuse may be at least partially unconsciously created "screen memories." A screen memory is a memory that we create - as a screen - to protect us from the horror of a real memory. This theory suggests that patients may be protecting themselves from horrors that take place inside their family. It may be easier to believe that a cult tortured and abused you than to believe that your own parents did these things. 3. Memories of Satanic ritual abuse may be at least partially "screen memories" intentionally created by others. Some therapists and attorneys point to mind-control projects performed by the CIA and other groups in the 1950s and 60s. MK-ULTRA and Bluebird were two of the best known projects. Documents obtained by Alan Shefflin and others under the freedom-of-information act confirm that the U.S. government put some effort into creating "Manchurian candidates" who would perform dangerous missions for the U.S. government after they had been programmed through hypnosis and mind control. It is hypothesized that stories of Satanic rituals were implanted as screen memories in case these subjects began to remember being programmed. The idea behind this theory is that the ritual abuse memories are so far-fetched that nobody would believe them. They may have been created using staged rituals, Hollywood makeup, and props in order to plant a memory that would "emerge" later. 4. Memories of Satanic ritual abuse may represent children's fantasies. While these memories usually emerge in adulthood, they almost always involve events remembered from childhood or adolescence. A child's point-of-view is very different than an adult's. The world is full of magic and monsters. The literature includes examples of memories which could not possibly be true. I have read accounts of a woman who remembered herself being decapitated during a ritual. She recounted the memory complete with an intense emotional reaction, and her head was still firmly attached. Why such gruesome fantasies? Might it be that some abuse did occur and that the mind began adding other stuff? 5. Therapists who ask too many leading questions may indeed contribute to these memories in some patients. This does not account for the whole phenomenon, however None of these explanations are completely satisfying to me. As a clinical psychologist I have worked with a fairly large number of abuse survivors. As I began to get a local reputation for working with this population I began to get referrals of patients that other therapists felt uncomfortable continuing to work with. Partly through this mechanism I have worked intensely with four patients who had ritual abuse memories. Some of this work was successful, some was not, and some is ongoing. I still don't pretend to understand what is happening here, but I have some ideas. I believe that some of these memories - in some of these patients - are relatively accurate memories of severe abuse in a group setting. I'm pretty sure that the details are not all accurate, and the childlike point-of-view has undoubtedly distorted things further. Sponsored Links Counseling In Jesus' NameHealing from Clergy Abuse, SRA, MPD Church Renewal, Interim Consultingwww.shepherdscareministries.org Therapist DirectoryFree Listing & Web Page Now! Register for OklahomaTherapists.orgwww.TherapistSites.com Exhausted All The Time ?It's Not Your Fault. You Just Need To Boost Your HGH Levels. It's Easywww.HGH-Facts.com I do not believe that there is a world-wide conspiracy that links Satanic groups together, although I suppose that this is possible. It doesn't really matter whether you agree with me or not. The most therapeutic way for mental health professionals to approach the memories of these patients is with careful, caring neutrality. Work with them toward healing. Consider taping sessions - with the client's written permission - in order to document that you are not in the business of implanting memories. Encourage patients to find corroboration for their memories if possible, but avoid the temptation to become a detective. Seek supervision, education, and/or consultation; and be sure that you are taking care of yourself too.<hr></blockquote> Sorry for bad formatting...etc...something weird happening with my mouse or with this browser. All the above except the first sentence quoted from: <a href="http://mentalhealth.about.com/cs/abuse/a/satan_3.htm">mentalhealth.about.com/cs...atan_3.htm</a> Need to go to bed before computer or I crash. Edited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=dreamsend@rigorousintuition>Dreams End</A> at: 7/16/06 2:37 am

by **blanc** » Sun Jul 16, 2006 4:52 am

good balanced article. "where are the bodies?" Where they have not been looked for.

by **NewKid** » Sun Jul 16, 2006 5:46 am

<blockquote>Quote:<hr>This theory suggests that patients may be protecting themselves from horrors that take place inside their family. It may be easier to believe that a cult tortured and abused you than to believe that your own parents did these things.<hr></blockquote> <blockquote>Quote:<hr>Memories of Satanic ritual abuse may represent children's fantasies. While these memories usually emerge in adulthood, they almost always involve events remembered from childhood or adolescence. A child's point-of-view is very different than an adult's. The world is full of magic and monsters.<hr></blockquote> And everyone's all having the same internal defense mechanism of believeing they were victimized in these extremely strange ways? <blockquote>Quote:<hr>Some therapists were certain that the FBI agents investigating cults were themselves cult members. <hr></blockquote> Hmm.

by **Joe Hillshoist** » Sun Jul 16, 2006 7:22 am

<blockquote>Quote:<hr>This theory suggests that patients may be protecting themselves from horrors that take place inside their family. It may be easier to believe that a cult tortured and abused you than to believe that your own parents did these things.<hr></blockquote> There are a lot of people that were abused by family members and don't need to build a SRA fantasy to face it.

by **blanc** » Sun Jul 16, 2006 10:22 am

lots of survivors (virtually all I have come across) know exactly who abused them. but the author of this article seems to me to have performed a balancing act so as to appear reasonable to all pov.

by sw » Sun Jul 16, 2006 3:19 pm

by **NewKid** » Sun Jul 16, 2006 7:07 pm

<blockquote>Quote:<hr>lots of survivors (virtually all I have come across) know exactly who abused them. but the author of this article seems to me to have performed a balancing act so as to appear reasonable to all pov. <hr></blockquote> That's what it seemed like to me. It didn't look like the author really believed what he was saying there.

by **Dreams End** » Sun Jul 16, 2006 7:28 pm

I found it interesting that he even said as much as he did. The standard line, written, no doubt, by some lawyers somewhere, is "we don't deal with memories....". I had this said to me by one of Colin Ross's former hospitals (I think they were bought out.) When I pressed to say what it means not to "deal with memories" since...you know...past abuse is the cause of DID, he just kept repeating it. "Not appropriate." Now, if by that they mean they don't go around trying to confirm them...I can accept that. That's not a therapist's job. This article is exactly the tone my wife's therapist took. She's had four RA cases she found very "convinving." Meaning, she doesn't look for that or "specialize" in it and did nothing to verify the stories but they sure sounded true to her. She said she'd prefer to think that these folks are tapping into some deep dark archetypes rather than literally having experienced this, but that was only half serious...more wishful thinking really as whatever she heard (naturally she doesn't share details about other clients with me) was pretty horrific. For awhile, therapists took this seriously and then it kinda went underground. FMSF is definitely at fault but I think some religious therapists with some agendas didn't help much, nor did "rescuers" such as Phillips and Springmeier. I wonder what the most recent survey of therapists and RA accounts is. I see them from time to time...how many of you have had a client who has had such memories, etc.

by **NewKid** » Sun Jul 16, 2006 8:05 pm

I don't really know shit about SRA, but what's always struck me as weird is how strong the protests are by FMSF people are with the whole "satanic panic" stuff. I would never have believed any of these stories on their own and I sure wouldn't have suspected or been thinking about secret rituals going on somewhere. But then I see people trying really really hard to convince me that it's implanted by therapists or just a defense mechanism, and I have to think that's a little strange. Why would therapists all start doing things that wittingly or unwittingly implant these bizarre memories in people? It's a witchhunt, it's a witchhunt. Okay, but why? Why do local cops and prosecutors want to go out on a limb for a witchhunt that could only cause them trouble and maybe get them sued? Why do therapists want to go anywhere near this if it's such obvious nonsense? And now that you've got me thinking about it, why does the Catholic church seem to attract all those pedophiles? It all has the feel of a criminal defendant who bursts out "but I didn't rape that baby" and the cops are like, "okay, we didn't say you did, and had no reason to suspect that. But that's kind of a weird denial for you to make there, buddy." Edited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=newkid@rigorousintuition>NewKid</A> at: 7/16/06 6:06 pm

by **4911** » Sun Jul 16, 2006 8:23 pm

HEAD ON - apply directly to the forehead <img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/smile.gif ALT=":)"> HEAD ON - apply directly to the forehead <img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/smile.gif ALT=":)"> HEAD ON - apply directly to the forehead <img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/smile.gif ALT=":)">

by **biaothanatoi** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 12:43 am

To be honest - the link between "recovered memories" and RA disclosures isn't supported by research, and when I read it in an article, it screams "backlash" to me. Sinason and Hale's notes on their initial 51 RA patients found that "recovered memories" (traumatic amnesia) was not a significant factor in their accounts. (Obviously traumatic amnesia occurs for many RA survivors, but for many others, they have consistent recall, or they are not permitted to "forget" because the perps won't back off.) There are a set of precepts that define FMS rhetoric, and the "most allegations of RA are related to recovered memories" is one of them. The truth is that most allegations of RA that the media covers are related to recovered memories, because that is the discussion that the media wants to have. That doesn't speak to the reality of RA allegations. In the past, the media has presented only certain kinds of RA cases - using the "recovered" angle to take a stab at whomever they like - the list of targets is pretty broad, from therapists to feminists to Christian fundamentalists to "whining" child abuse survivors. They are not interested in talking about the awful cases that are successfully prosecuted, or ones in which govt departments find that the abuse has most likely taken place, but the police or DPP don't feel they can push through a criminal prosecution. Going back over the media coverage in Australia, an FMS-zealot journo spun one RA case from Western Australia out into a dozen or so feature articles and a book on why RA/"recovered memories" are crap. Despite the ambiguities of the case (corroborating disclosures from two sisters, a deadlocked jury) the journo was incredibly vitriolic. I didn't sleep on the days I was reviewing his writing, it was so upsetting to read. The weird thing was that, only two years prior to that case, a Western Australian court had accepted the existence of ritually abusive groups, and had jailed a perpetrator/victim for ritually abusing up to 40 kids. Why didn't their suffering make it into these feature articles? Why wasn't that successful case worthy of substantive media coverage? The debunking articles came to tens of thousands of words three years - the successful case was deemed worthy of two articles in 1991. A few years after that particular journo ceased his hatchet job, the same paper that he worked for wrote a 600 word article on six mothers whose children had disclosed ritual abuse. The children had drawn such detailed pictures of the ritual settings where they were abused that the police were able to connect them to existing sites of Satanic worship on the coast of NSW. The journos also stated "The Sun-Herald has seen evidence of these rituals" (whatever that means). One article. Six women come forward in distress to say that their children had been ritualistically abused, the police have the evidence, the journos have the evidence - one f*ing article. Speaks volumes.

by **Joe Hillshoist** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 1:14 am

I have noticed the trend you are talking about. Its a control attempt, by attempting to define RA as something that only comes from regressed memories. That it is a non existant thing apart from that. There is also a tendency to explain away "flaps" or periods of mass Hysteria and hypnosis. This seems more like a symtom of excessive rationality than a deliberate ploy tho, unlike the linking of all RA with hypnotically recovered memories.

by **biaothanatoi** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 2:02 am

<blockquote>Quote:<hr>This seems more like a symtom of excessive rationality than a deliberate ploy tho, unlike the linking of all RA with hypnotically recovered memories.<hr></blockquote> If people do any research into RA beyond the media-defined boundaries, you come across all sorts of informants: Prostitutes who agreed to take part in an orgy or porn film, only to be assaulted in an RA context. Satanists/occultists who got pulled into RA as adults and have to struggle to get out after undergoing hypnotic programming and witnessing the RA. Social workers reporting contact with sex workers with unwanted pregnancies had been approached and offered money to bring the child to full term and handing the child over. And, maybe most importantly, disclosures of RA from children who have already been removed from their parents custody following neglect and violence. At that point, you've got all sorts of people that get pulled into the RA case - police, foster parents, grandparents, carers, the lot. Personally, I think the "RA/recovered memory" track was just one aspect of the culture ware between the reactionary forces of the right and the left - the right used RA to hammer alternative spiritualities if they believed the RA, or to insult feminism etc if they didn't - "look at the effect on the accused parents! feminists have gone too far!" etc. At least some on the right were prepared to listen to RA survivors, tho. The left was too busy insisting it was all a "Christian conspiracy theory" and that they aleady knew what REAL abuse was, and it certainly didn't have occult trappings and high numbers of female perpetrators. Anyway, at least it seems like things are turning around. There's less mutual masturbation between the media and the FMS crowd - the sting has gone out of the "recovered memory" angle - particularly since nobody was able to come up with the science to prove it - and the backlash lawsuits were pretty flimsy. In the Mr Bubbles case, Deren (accused perp) was stripped of his defamation payout after it emerged on appeal that a new alleged victim had come forward, as an adult, and she wanted to testify that he'd abused her at a different kindergarten in the early 70s. I don't think Deren has tried his luck again.

by **blanc** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 4:52 am

Unfortunately, now that FMS is in its death throws, the new way of calling the victim a fantasist or liar, or the victim's protective carer, is Munchausen's or Munchausen's by Proxy. Many 'errors' of justice are being quietly done in the family courts, where they are hidden from public scrutiny, under this label. sometimes, to rub salt in the wounds, the judge has a 'finding of fact' in which it is declared that the alleged abuse did not take place, despite the victim saying it did. The complexity and flexibility of the debunking programme is ABSOLUTELY the best proof we have that ra is closely tied in to powerful factions within governments . As for the bodies - they do not usually look for them. no body, no crime. Those killed are usually, but not always, the marginalised. The extent to which NON INVESTIGATION of serious crime goes on, would shock most people, kept passive by government promises to take strong action on mobile phone thefts or the hoodie problem, or clamp down on drunk driving. M by P is a recognised condition, so it has the edge over FMS. The best way to contract this unpleasant condition is to be the mother of a child who suffers ritual abuse from someone else and believe your child. No need to bother a psychiatrist with it, the police can diagnose it over the phone.

by **biaothanatoi** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 5:46 am

Hi Blanc, <blockquote>Quote:<hr>Unfortunately, now that FMS is in its death throws, the new way of calling the victim a fantasist or liar, or the victim's protective carer, is Munchausen's or Munchausen's by Proxy.<hr></blockquote> I am pretty sure I was "diagnosed" with Munchausen's By Proxy after our fourth (or so) emergency room attendance. Some of the admissions were for psychosomatic pain and some were after abductions where she had observable injuries. I know I probably shouldn't have taken her in for psychosomatic pain , but she was in agony, and it was hard to tell whether it was physical or solely psychological/flashback stuff. One psych was convinced I was raping her and then bringing her in for medical attention. Another thought we were in on it together and doing it for attention. There was an admission where we waited nine hours for medical attendance, and then it was just a nurse telling us to leave. We never came back. <blockquote>Quote:<hr>M by P is a recognised condition, so it has the edge over FMS.<hr></blockquote> Although ... it has had it's controversies, hasn't it? Hasn't the court evidence of the guy who coined it been challenged in a number of cases in which mothers in Britain were convicted of killing their own children? The diagnosis seems based on a few case studies and anecdotes rather then science. It sits along "Borderline Personality Disorder" for me in being a transference of the clinicians frustration working with difficult clients, rather then being an explanatory framework per se. Just a dumping ground for people they'd rather forget about. I will never ever forget what it was like to be accused of my friend's rape - by a psych who couldn't bear to look at me, wouldn't talk to me. It didn't matter that I told her we weren't in a relationship, that I'm a gay man, that I was her carer. That my friend could barely speak and nominated me as her next of kin. As far as the psych was concerned, it was all a lie - and she could justify it with the Munchausen's diagnosis. Trying to get help - she was comatose, she had injuries on her body - and being accused of her rape - if anything has ever galvanized me, radicalised me - it was that moment. All this crap about there being "no physical evidence" - and here was a body with rope burns, indents from leather manacles, electrical burns, torture burns lying in front of us - and an entire medical team couldn't bear the site of either of us. If they really believed the diagnosis, they wouldn't have let me leave with her. But they just let us walk outside and call a taxi. I'm giving a half hour talk on RA in a month at an NGO function - part of what I'm going to say will be about healthcare settings as a site of stigma, discrimination and secondary traumatisation for survivors of RA. There will be a lot of counsellors and psychs in attendance - hopefully it will hit home.

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