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Satanic Ritual Abuse (SRA)

Satanic ritual abuse is a.k.a. SRA, Cult Related Abuse, Ritual Abuse, Ritualized Abuse, Sadistic Ritual Abuse, Organized Sadistic Abuse, etc.

Overview:

Satanic Ritual Abuse (SRA) can be defined as psychological, sexual, spiritual, and/or physical assault forced on an unwilling human victim, and committed by one or more Satanists according to a prescribed ritual. The primary aim of the rituals is to fulfill their need to worship the Christian devil, Satan.

A "Satanic Panic" swept the U.S. and Canada, starting about 1980 and continuing until the late 1990s. It included beliefs that underground and sometimes inter-generational Satanic cults were murdering as many as 60,000 people per year, and exposing many tens of thousands of others -- mainly children -- to horrendous levels of abuse. The panic almost completely died after 15 years because of lack of hard evidence that it ever existed as a significant problem.

The panic was facilitated by a lack of knowledge of how human memory works. Over time, researchers greatly increased their knowledge in this area. Studies revealed the dangers of improper interviewing of children that caused therapists to accidentally implant false memories of abuse in children's minds -- real-feeling memories of events that never happened.

Today, most investigators have concluded that Satanic Ritual Abuse was a hoax that was inadvertently perpetrated by sincere therapists, newspaper reporters, clergy, etc. It adversely affected hundreds of thousands of victims and members of the victims' families. However, there are still many people who believe that SRA was real; some believe it is still going on. Books are still being written as if SRA was real.

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Webmaster's comment:

I posted the following message on the book review of "Katie," "Satanic Ritual Abuse Exposed" on Amazon.com:

"Satanic Ritual Abuse was a hoax triggered by a 1980 fictional novel presented as non-fiction called "Michelle Remembers." It generated a Satanic Panic in the U.S. and Canada which lasted until the mid 1990's and convicted about 150 innocent adults with evidence based in false memories implanted in children's minds -- memories of events that never happened. By about 1995, police finally established that there was no hard evidence that any of it had happened, and the hoax collapsed. However, there are probably many tens of thousands of adults with implanted memories who are still suffering today."

Topics covered in this section:

	SRA overview:
	History of SRA (Part 1): Quotations; Background; Start of the SRA movement
	History of SRA (Part 2): The start, spread, decline, & current status of SRA
	Glossary of SRA terms
	History of SRA and other Urban Folk Tales
	How widespread is SRA? 1. Common beliefs.  Does it exist?  Indicator 1 2. Indicators 2 to 5 3. Indicators 6 to 11 4. Indicators 12 to 19 5. Indicators 20 to 22; Conclusions; Future of SRA, Resources
	Other SRA topics: Lists of Satanic "holidays" "SRA" perpetrated by psychopaths
	Beliefs of SRA survivors
	Mind control and programming by Satanic cults
	Contributions by Geraldo Rivera to SRA
	Recent developments mentioned in the media Rebirth of SRA beliefs in England
	A special request to SRA survivors
	Books and other resources that: Promote belief in SRA Are skeptical of SRA

Related information on this web site:

	Menus: Ritual abuse, mainly of children Recovered memory therapy Multiple Personality Disorder/Dissociative Identity Disorder
	Essay: Psychological and other hoaxes

• 1. A book exposing SRA as a hoax:

Richard Beck, "We Believe the Children: A Moral Panic in the 1980s," PublicAffairs (2015). Available for $11.72 in Kindle format, or $20.68 in Hardcover. Read reviews or order this book safely from Amazon.com online book store.

Excerpt from Amazon.com's review:

"... none of it happened. It was an epic decade-long outbreak of collective hysteria – on a par with the Salem witch trials or the red scares of the 1950s.

Using extensive archival research conducted in Los Angeles, Miami, New York, and elsewhere, and drawing on dozens of interviews conducted with the hysteria’s major figures, Richard Beck shows how a group of legislators, doctors, lawyers, and parents, all working with the best of intentions, set the stage for a judicial disaster. A number of opportunistic journalists helped to carry the story from state to state, and the silence of their colleagues, who should have known better, allowed it to keep spreading long after it became clear that the story was simply unsupported by evidence."

• 2. A book claiming that SRA is or was real:

"Katie," "Satanic Ritual Abuse Exposed: Recovery of a Christian Survivor," Revelation Gateway Publications, LLC (2014). Available in Kindle format for $5.88 or in Paperback for $14.99. . Read reviews or order this book safely from Amazon.com online book store

Amazon.com supplies a free app for PC and Mac computers, tablets, smart phones, etc. They also sell dedicated Kindle readers.

References used:

The following information sources were used to prepare and update the above essay. The hyperlinks are not necessarily still active today.

1. J.G. Kennedy, delivered on 1962-JUN-11 at a Commencement Address at Yale University. Quoted by Biesterveld, Wisconsin Law Review, 2002.
2. Mentioned in: Wendy Kaminer, "Sleeping with Extra-Terrestrials: the Rise of Irrationalism and Perils of Piety," Vintage, (2000). Read reviews or order this book safely from Amazon.com online book store
3. The definition of the word "pedophile" is in a state of flux. Throughout this web site, we try use the term "pedophile" in its historical sense to refer to any adult who is sexually attracted to pre-pubertal children. We use the term "abusive pedophile" to refer to those adults who form a very small minority of pedophiles -- those who act out their sexual attraction by sexually molesting children.
4. Kerr Cuhulain, "Police who believe," at: http://www.witchvox.com/. This is a series of essays about police officers who believe in the widespread nature of ritual abuse. Cuhulain is a Wiccan police officer with the Vancouver Police Department, Youth Services Unit. His mundane name is Detective Constable Charles A Ennis.
5. Professor Richard Green, letter to the editor, Independent newspaper (UK), 2000-FEB -12.
6. The ninth in the list of "The Eleven Satanic Rules of the Earth." by Anton LaVey, 1967. See: http://churchofsatan.com/

Copyright © 1995 to 2016 by Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
Latest update: 2016-JUN-02
Author: B.A. Robinson

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