Ritual abuse exists all over the world. There have been reports, journal articles, web pages and criminal convictions of crimes against children and adults.

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. (from the Report of the Ritual Abuse Task Force – Los Angeles County Commission for Women) and as the abuse of a child, weaker adult, or animal in a ritual setting or manner….the term ritual abuse is generally used to mean prolonged, extreme, sadistic abuse, especially of children, within a group setting. (from Survivorship – Frequently Asked Questions)

Lawrence Pazder introduced the term ritualized abuse in 1980. He described the experiences of an adult survivor who 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.

There is a lot 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.  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.”

In 2007, the Extreme Abuse Survey, an online survey of over one thousand people answered questions about ritual abuse and extreme abuse crimes. In a summary of the survey [19], 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.

Many scientific journals articles have discussed the reality of ritual abuse and its effect on its victims. Ritual abuse and mind control crimes have also been confirmed in several books.

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.

Further Reading

• Noblitt, J.R.; Perskin, P. (2000). Cult and Ritual Abuse: Its History, Anthropology, and Recent Discovery in Contemporary America Greenwood Publishing Group.
• Noblitt, R.; Perskin, P. (2008). Ritual abuse in the 21st century Bandon, OR: Reed Publishers.
• Sachs, A. & Galton, G. (Eds) (2008). Forensic Aspects of Dissociative Identity Disorder London: Karnac.
• Sinason, V (1994). Treating Survivors of Satanist Abuse. New York: Routledge.

About the Author:

Bess Cannon works diligently to expose child abuse crimes and educate the general public about these crimes. Bess has been working many years on the Internet and in the media to expose these crimes.

Email BessCannon@ProgressiveNation.us