What is
Satanic Ritual Abuse?
​
A teenage girl, who was impregnated during a satanic ritual, is forcibly delivered of her nearly term baby and then made to ritually kill the child and eat its heart as cult members watch. Another girl, a small child, is sewn inside the cavity of a disemboweled animal and “rebirthed” by her cultic captors in a grotesque ceremony. A preschool class is systematically abused — sexually, emotionally, and physically — by members of a nationwide, nearly invincible network of satanic pedophiles and pornographers. A young girl is thrown into an electrified cage with wolves and ritually tortured to deliberately produce a “wolf personality,” part of her Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID).
These are but a few of the thousands of horrifying stories circulating throughout the United States and abroad. Some believers in satanic ritual abuse (SRA) say that more than 100,000 “adult survivors” have undergone therapy and “remembered” these horrible abuses. Others more than double this number. These terrifying accounts are linked to the current public concern about child abductions by strangers, which believers claim number in the thousands annually.
SRA REPORTS
Typical SRA stories display certain essential elements that remain uniform whether the story is revealed to a therapist, a social worker, or a parent, and whether the victim is an adult or a child.
The Victims. The adult victim is commonly a woman between the ages of twenty-five and forty-five who has a history of nonspecific psychological problems (which may include suicide attempts). She is herself either intensely religious (usually evangelical or charismatic Protestant) or comes from an intensely religious and/or Masonic (and their offshoots) background. The typical adult victim is intelligent, creative, and well learned if not well educated in a formal sense. The victim first seeks counseling help for a problem seemingly unrelated to occultic abuse. From conversations with dozens of adult survivors, we feel comfortable in affirming that the vast majority of them sincerely believe their stories.
Child victims are not so easily characterized, though most are highly motivated to disclose to adults, intelligent and loyal to the supportive parent. Perhaps this lack of a consistent profile is because children’s disclosures of SRA almost always follow questioning by worried parents or mental health workers. (It is noteworthy that the supportive parent often has characteristics in common with the typical adult victim.)
The Victimizers. The adult survivor’s immediate family members are usually identified as the perpetrators — even if the victim may see them as former victims turned satanic victimizers due to their own trauma. When the immediate family is not involved — as in many of the children’s accounts — caregivers in regular custody of the victim are seen as the perpetrators (e.g., preschool teachers, day-care workers). Importantly, the psychological profile of the SRA perpetrator actually contradicts the most common features of known physical and sexual abusers, psychotics, sociopaths, pornographers, and serial killers. They tend to be well respected members of society.
Types of Abuse. SRA includes emotional abuse (terrifying threats, deliberate heightening of fear, etc.), sexual abuse (incest, mutilation of genitals, etc.), other physical abuse (beating, cutting, etc.), and spiritual abuse (taunts that God has rejected them, He won’t forgive them, Jesus is defeated, etc.).
The ritual elements of the abuse are always satanic or occultic. Features of satanic ceremony — such as the black mass, human sacrifice, drinking of blood, and satanic symbols — are common.
SRA Disclosure. Usually adult SRA stories are disclosed during counseling or some other therapeutic setting. The adult victim generally begins therapy for a seemingly unrelated problem such as a sleep or eating disorder, depression, or marital difficulties. During the course of treatment, either the therapist or the client raises the possibility of repressed memories of SRA.
At first the client may deny a past history of SRA, or may not remember anything, or may have fragments of almost meaningless images that might somehow relate to SRA. However, after long-term, intensive treatment by a therapist committed to believing the client no matter what he or she discloses, the adult survivor gradually pieces together a complex personal SRA history. Ordinarily the therapist decides that the repression was facilitated by the dissociative state known as multiple personality disorder (MPD) or Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID). After further long-term, intensive therapy and support group involvement, including “reliving” each of the traumatic “memories”, the client may become emotionally well.
With a child who discloses an SRA story, most frequently the child identifies the perpetrator as a day-care worker or other regular, nonfamily care giver. When family members are accused, they are most likely the parents of the spouse other than the one reporting the abuse, or a parent or stepparent who is estranged from the family.
Accusations against public officials, entertainment personalities, neighbors, or other, more distant adults usually come only after the case has been revealed and the child has been questioned about “the others” involved in the abuse. The common presumption is that they are terrified to tell their memories of SRA.
Adults who suspect that they or their children may be SRA victims are urged by believers to seek help and affirmation from therapists, friends, support groups, and family members who will believe them unconditionally.
