Recovering Insomniac #conspiracy pods-online.org.uk

Many people have heard that 'satanic ritual abuse’ is a 'myth’ or a 'hoax’. This suggestion was promoted by many in the media during the 1990s (Noblitt & Perskin, 1995), and combined two common errors: firstly, that ritual abuse is only reported within a satanic group, and secondly that ritual abuse simply does not happen. Two influential reports are often called upon to support this view: a Department of Health report, The Extent and Nature of Organised and Ritual Abuse, and the FBI-funded Investigator’s Guide to Allegations of 'Ritual’ Child Abuse, commonly known as the Lanning Report. The former was written twenty years ago by an anthropologist, Professor Jean La Fontaine, and the latter stated that no substantive evidence existed for ritual abuse (Lanning, 1991). However, neither author interviewed survivors—the actual witnesses—and neither acknowledged that a number of the case reports in their studies did in fact result in convictions for ritual abuse (La Fontaine, 1995; Gould, 1995).

Further media reports that ritual abuse is a 'myth’ have been promoted by the British satirical magazine Private Eye. Their most recent comments on the subject (editions 1302, 1325 and 1334) have not been attributed in the publication to a particular author, although comments on various websites suggest they are the work of Rosie Waterhouse, journalist and lecturer. Waterhouse has written at least fourteen articles on the same topic for the magazine and claims to have been researching the 'myth’ of Satanic Ritual Abuse for over twenty years (City University, 2014). In reality, therefore, the 'evidence’ for RA/SRA being a 'myth’ is restricted to a couple of reports over two decades old and a satirical political magazine. The theme of denial however continues today despite the growing number of convictions for ritual abuse in Britain, and many more worldwide, including convictions for satanic ritual abuse which involves both forensic physical evidence and the witness testimony of survivors (Oksana, 1994; SMART, 2014; Morris, 2014).

Evidence of ritual abuse that does not involve religious or spiritual beliefs is even more extensively documented. In the United States soon after World War II, the CIA funded military- based ritual abuse programmes known collectively as Project MK-Ultra. Psychiatrists induced amnesia, dissociative identities and new memories (Epstein et al, 2011), while also experimenting with LSD, sensory deprivation, electro-convulsive treatment, brain electrode implants and hypnosis (Ross, 2000). A United States Senate hearing in 1977 entitled Project MK-Ultra: the CIA’s Program of Research into Behavioral Modification investigated these abuses, which were carried out in several countries, and both the US and Canadian governments paid compensation to some survivors of the 'brainwashing’ experiments.

A Scottish psychiatrist, Dr Donald E. Cameron (1901-1967), was extensively documented as carrying out these abuses whilst working with psychiatric patients in Canada (Ross, 2000). Dr Colin Ross, a psychiatrist and researcher in the field of dissociative disorders, published extensive Freedom of Information requests and cited earlier academic research in his book Bluebird: Deliberate Creation of Multiple Personality by Psychiatrists (Ross, 2000). He found that many members of the largely discredited False Memory Syndrome Foundation in America were colleagues of or co-authors with scientists responsible for ritual abuse within MK-Ultra programmes.

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Taken in isolation, abuses carried out as part of a ritual can easily go unrecognised. Ritual abuse is highly organised and planned and is often carried out by groups rather than individuals. Many survivors have reported experiencing many of the following elements:

Forced perpetration
Being forced or coerced into harming or killing an animal or another person, such as by torture (Oksana, 1994; Miller, 2014).

Psychological abuse
Harm or threats of harm to loved ones, pets, or other victims, often used to keep silence or to force perpetration (Miller, 2014).

Double-binds
Being given a 'choice’ between two horrific acts, such as being raped or choosing someone else to be raped (Oksana, 1994).

Lies, tricks and technology
These can be used to install false beliefs, such as that the person is always being watched and listened to (microphones), being forced to watch films and told the film is reality, or being convinced that they are 'crazy’, for example by alien abduction role-playing combined with hallucinogens, faking a person’s death and then having that person present and healthy the next day (Oksana, 1994; Lacter, 2011).

Forced to take drugs
Sedatives, hallucinogens, stimulants and memory-loss drugs are often used to lower resistance or to make tricks more effective (Oksana, 1994).

Non-human dissociative parts/alters
Stage magic, robes and props including costumes, candles and lighting effects, when combined with lies and drugs especially, can create parts who believe that they are demons or spiritual beings who cannot be harmed. Forcing a child to behave like an animal can create parts who believe that they are animals (Miller, 2014).

Torture, especially kinds which do not mark the body
This includes deprivation of food, water or sleep; suffocation; sensory deprivation (as used at Guantanamo Bay); water torture/drowning and electro-shock. A person refusing to comply will be tortured until another dissociative part appears who is willing to perform an abhorrent act (Oksana, 1994; Lacter, 2011).

Use of restraints and confinement
These are used to terrify and to invoke a feeling of helplessness (Oksana, 1994; Lacter, 2011).

Forced participation in child pornography, prostitution and sex trafficking
This may include being forced to perform sexual acts or physical abuse on other children, and drug money being used to fund the group.

Using snakes, spiders, maggots, rats and other animals
To induce fear and disgust (Lacter, 2011).

Forced ingestion of offensive bodily fluids and matter
This includes blood, urine, faeces, flesh and vomit (Oksana, 1994; Lacter, 2011).

Forced pregnancy and killing of newborn babies
The baby may be used for ritual purposes such as sacrifice. The pregnancies are often hidden, to prevent police investigation of the disappearance or death of the baby, and delivery may be induced early to coincide with ritual dates (Miller, 2014; Matthew, 2001).

Creation of a large number of dissociative parts
This may involve the creation of dozens or even hundreds of parts. Many will be 'fragments’ rather than complete alters. For instance, one memory of abuse may be split between several parts, each holding a different aspect of the memory (sound, pain, visuals, feelings) (Miller, 2014).

Mind control
Also known as 'programming’. Some parts are deliberately created and indoctrinated into the group’s belief system, so that they can be given a role by the perpetrators, for example self-harming to punish another part for talking about the abuse; returning to the perpetrator(s) on particular dates; reporting back about anything disclosed to other people; preventing the person’s mind from taking in any information which can act against the programming (Miller, 2014; Lacter, 2011).

Internal punishments
Some dissociative parts can be given the 'role’ of punishing others for talking about abuse or revealing secrets. These can take many forms including self-harm, suicide attempts, hallucinations of graphic violence, or sudden amnesia for previous therapeutic work (Miller, 2014).

Sudden, impulsive desires to self-harm or attempt suicide
A indication of this is when these are very specific and don’t appear to relate to emotions. Some survivors describe self-harm in specific patterns (Miller, 2014).

Sadistic and horrific abuse
This includes sexual torture, forced sex with animals, gang rape of children, desecration of the dead and training in S&M roles (Oksana, 1994; Miller, 2014; Miller, 2012).

Chronic pain
This is especially pain which does not appear to have a physical or organic cause, so may instead be 'body memories’, that is to say flashbacks of pain from unprocessed trauma (Miller, 2014; Oksana, 1994).

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