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PERSONS AGAINST RITUAL
ABUSE - TORTURE
and other forms of non-state actor torture |
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OUR
RESEARCH
"Kitchen Table" research
The words “kitchen table” in the
term kitchen table research is the most pure terminology we could
think of that would define our research project of gathering the collective
wisdom of others, in an effort to help us understand the lived reality
of persons who identified them-Selves as having suffered and survived
infant, toddler, child, youth, and “captive” adult experiences of
ritual abuse-torture or other acts of non-political torture, such
as spousal torture.
Since 1998 we have listened intently to people’s
stories, we have spoken to:
· Women who Self-identified as being
survivors of ritual abuse-torture family/groups (6),
· Men who identified their experiences
of political torture—a survivor of five Nazi concentration camps and
a Canadian prisoner-of-war survivor (2),
· A woman who described her four years
of spousal captivity, enslavement, torture, and sexualized exploitation
(1),
· A woman who spoke of experiencing
spousal violence and “in-house” terrorism (1),
· Persons who were partners of some
of the women identified above, persons who provided acts of social
support, who were witnesses to the difficulties encountered by victimized
persons, and we spoke with clergy in our efforts to understand how
they understood non-metaphysical evil (11),
· And we met Sara. A professional woman,
Sara approached us for help in 1993. She was seeking relationship
education and healing support, support which quickly evolved into
the experience of working with her to help her exit from a complex
state of shattering entrapment. Sara soon identified she had been
born into and still lived as a “captive” adult within an actively
practicing ritual abuse-torture family/group. Additionally, Sara identified
she was also entrapped within a second destructive group whose members
were professional women perpetrators.
Except for Sara, almost all healing listening
and healing talking—the story telling—was conducted at people’s kitchen
tables. Hours, days, and years were spent at these kitchen tables.
The shortest interview lasted several hours, some lasted half-a-day,
others required numerous days, and others were done over several weeks,
or several years. Guiding the kitchen table research interviews was
always the person’s abilities to cope with their telling, specifically
the duration of each specific interview and the time required to recoup
between interviews. Most interviews were done in the tellers’ home.
Understanding another’s reality is
complex when one has limited experiential markers on which to build.
Neither Linda nor I had experienced any form of political state-sanctioned
torture or non-political torture, such as ritual abuse-torture. The
only experiential markers on which Linda and I could draw were our
childhood histories of being born into families where spousal violence
was the norm. I had experienced sexualized violence as a five-year-old,
as well as extreme poverty, and watched as my mother struggled against
the forces of social, community, and Catholic Church oppression. All
of these oppressive forces failed to accept her right to flee from
her life as a wife of an extremely violent husband. The only other
experiential markers we knew about spousal torture and more specifically
about ritual abuse-torture was information gleaned from the literature,
which we devoured. This information included three pages from the
National Report of the Canadian Panel on Violence Against Women, entitled
Changing the Landscape: Ending Violence ~ Achieving Equality,
which was released in 1993 by the Canadian Minister of Supply and
Services. This report identified ritual abuse-[torture] as “a phenomenon
of violence … that urgently requires recognition in Canada.” (p. 45)
From our driving need to understand and give
meaning to the horrendous reality that we were bearing witness to
as Sara unfolded her horrific lived experiences of ritual abuse-torture,
grew the kitchen table research project. Conducting the interviews
meant we took nothing but our-Selves to the interviews. We sat, we
listened, as asked questions, we left without notes. As soon as we
left we found a quiet place to write down all that we understood.
Our understandings were later written up into interview “stories”
which we gave back to the person on our next interview for their review
and feedback. Had we understood, we wondered? Had we understood, we
asked? It is this collective wisdom and understanding that was shared
with us that continues to guide our work and which is evolving into
a book.
Our work progresses slowly because it is all
Self-funded. We share this information because we are repeatedly asked
… why are you doing this? If you are not making money, then why are
you doing this? Answering the why question is simple. It’s about doing
the right thing. It’s about standing up against persons who commit
atrocities and saying “No more!” It’s about trying to find a way to
help those who have been left behind. It’s about knowing that if “outsiders”—bystanders—do
not reach in to infants, toddlers, children, youth, and “captive”
adults trapped in such families/groups then we, in effect, pass the
legacy of ritual abuse-torture onto future generations. How can we
live with that reality? We too need to find peace—it lies in doing
the work!
This kitchen table research project has been
our way of “doing” the research. It is our way of gathering understanding
and knowledge about the co-culture of ritual abuse-torturers. We recognize
there are many ways to gain knowledge, and listening to a person’s
lived stories is one way. It has been our way.
We appreciated the following articles about
the value of story telling:
1. Chelf, J. , Deshler, A. , Hillman,
S. , & Durazo-Arvizu, R. (2000). Storytelling: A strategy for
living and coping with cancer. Cancer Nursing, 23, 1-5.
2. Engel, S. (1995). The stories children tell: Making sense of
the narratives of childhood. New York: W. H. Freeman.
3. Gordon, M. (2001, January 1). History taking in patients who are
“survivors”. http://www.baycrest.org/journal/ht.html.
4. McCurdy, D. (1990, Spring).
Respecting autonomy by respecting persons:
Taking the patient’s story seriously. Humane Medicine, 6(2),
107-112.
5. Shatan, C. (1997). Living in a
split time zone: Trauma and therapy of Vietnam combat survivors. Mind
& Human Interaction, 8(4), 204-22.
6. Weinberg, C. (1997). Torture: Victims, perpetrators, sequelae,
and treatment. Mind & Human Interaction, 8(4),
232-244.
Jeanne Sarson, RN,
BScN, MEd & Linda MacDonald, RN, BN, MEd
Copyright 2002, November
8
The outcome of our kitchen table
research: “Collective wisdom”
When persons, each unknown to the other, spoke
to us of their ritual abuse-torture (RAT) ordeals, their “stories”
began to reveal repetitive violent relationship themes. As we listened
to their courage to speak, their courage to give Voice to their ordeals,
eventually we were able to weave their ordeals into a way of knowing
that is representative of a “collective wisdom”—theirs and ours.
The insights discussed in the following papers
are direct outcomes of our kitchen table research project: All our papers are in pdf format
and you will need Adobe
Acrobat Reader to read the papers. To download Adobe just click
on the Adobe hyperlink and follow the directions.
Acts Of Torture (17 pages)
Pleasure and Pain (6
pages)
Seeing inside the ritual
abuse-torture co-culture (15 pages)
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PARTICIPATOY
RESEARCH
Participatory research
can be described as questioning, learning, and action-taking by groups
of persons who have concerns about their
community. The intended outcomes of participatory
research projects are to gain practical knowledge that can be applied
to the everyday relationship issues in a manner that is empowering
to the specific community. Community, then, refers to a specific group
of people, the difficulties they are confronted with, and the actions
they take to improve their community. To read about participatory
projects click below.
S.M.A.R.T. Conference 2003
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PREVALENCE:
RESEARCH AND SURVEYS
Preamble: In this section of our web
site our objective is to collect and outline research and survey information,
to begin to weave the collective social and global reality about the
prevalence of ritual abuse-torture—of ritual abuse or satanic ritual
abuse (SRA), other terms frequently used interchangeably in the literature. We welcome input from others who may be able
to refer us to research and survey materials that we are unaware of.
A
CANADIAN PERSPECTIVE
The Canadian Panel
on Violence Against Women
The
process: In August 1991 the Minister
Responsible for the Status of Women announced the appointed members
of The Canadian Panel on Violence Against
Women. The Panel travelled to all parts of Canada,
consulted with 4,000 people, in 139 communities, of which eighty-four
per cent were women, 16 per cent were men.
Status and non-status Aboriginal women, Inuit, and Métis women
were also included.
Individuals
and organizations submitted nearly 700 personal testimonies, discussion
papers, research, and reports to the Panel.
The Panel partially funded a Toronto-based study, The Women’s
Safety Project, which involved 420 in-depth interviews about violence
against women, with women between the ages of 18 to 64.
Additionally, The Panel distributed a survey through members
of Parliament, for their constituents that provided another means
for Canadians to share their experiences of violence with The Panel
and offer opinions about solutions.
The
Panel’s process was to have an interactive dialogue with Canadians
about violence against women. Few of The Panel’s sessions were formal, no
court reporters were present, and The Panel functioned at arm’s length
from the federal government having its own Secretariat.
The
Panel’s Final Report, Changing the Landscape: Ending violence ~
Achieving equality, released in 1993, emphasized that violence
must be understood as a continuum that ranges from verbal abuse, to
torture, to murder. The realities
of physical, sexualized, emotional and psychological, financial, and
spiritual victimization were documented.
As were, ritual abuse, stalking/criminal harassment, pornography,
misuse of reproductive technologies, and abuse of trust, which The
Panel identified as under-acknowledged forms of violence.
The
prevalence: “The Panel … [heard] from many
women from all regions of Canada who named themselves
as survivors of ritual abuse. …
There are no statistics on ritual abuse in Canada.”
(p. 45).
Major themes of ritual abuse victimization identified
by the Panel’s Report are:
1.
Ritual abuse cults/groups were both intergenerational
and extra-familial
2.
Child victims are forced into a group bonding process
often with the co-operation of their family and forced to take vows
and oaths of secrecy
3.
Programming triggers are indoctrinated into survivors
when they are children,
4.
Victims are subjected to mind-control programming
using hypnosis, mind-altering drugging, and the implantation of trigger
messages to prevent them from disclosing their ritual abuse ordeals
5.
Torture—long-term and repeated—pain, deprivation, death threats, harassment,
and intimidation is used on young victims
6.
Victims are forced to violate others
7.
Survivors spoke of the profits ritual abuse torturers
earned from filming or videotaping the violence, from the forced prostitution
of victims, and from drug trafficking
8.
Active cult members continue to threaten and harm
adult survivors in a multitude of ways in order to force them to remain
silent, most are threatened with death should they disclose their
ritual abuse, and many have seen those who threaten them murder others
thus their fears are justified
9.
Perpetrators engage in organized efforts to discount
the survivors disclosure of their ritual abuse-torture ordeals
10.
All survivors told of extreme difficulties in finding any useful therapeutic
help
11.
Ignorance of medical staff often put some survivors at risk of Self
injury
12.
Helpers of survivors are also targets of organized efforts by perpetrators
needing to discount and discredit the helper’s work with survivors
of ritual abuse. Helpers must
also deal with discreditation, denial, and disbelief from peers and
the medical community, and may helpers reluctantly stop working with
survivors because of these acts of harassment and oppression, and/or
because of burnout and/or impossible practice conditions, and
13.
There is no specific recognition of ritual abuse crimes in Canada’s
Criminal Code.
CLICK
HERE FOR EXCERPT FROM FINAL REPORT OF CANADIAN PANEL
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A
Prevalence Survey by Lynne Moss-Sharman on Ritual Abuse in ThunderBay,
Ontario, Canada (1993, April 20)
CLICK
HERE
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Report
of a 1997 study on “Ritual Abuse” in Germany done by Ulla Fröhling,
a journalist and author, and Michaela Huber, a therapist and author.
CLICK HERE
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FROM THE UNITED STATES
A sociological study by Margaret
Smith
In 1993, Margaret Smith wrote a book entitled, Ritual abuse what
it is why it happens how to help. Much of the information in her book was based
on a sociological study using a questionnaire.
The process and prevalence: Fifty-two people, 50 women and 2 men, responded
to announcements carried by five organizations and newsletters asking
for survivors of ritual abuse to volunteer to complete a questionnaire
on ritual abuse. Respondents,
with an average age of 36, came from forty-five different US states,
2% were from Canada and 2% from Japan. Respondents also stated they
had been victimized in Scotland,
England, Germany, Mexico, South America, and Canada.
Major themes of ritual abuse victimization identified
by respondents to Smith’s questionnaire were:
1.
1. Perpetrators were intergenerational and extra-familiar,
had interconnections with other groups, and came from all social classes,
all occupations—professional and non-professional; 67% of respondents
reported victimization by more than one cult/group
2.
2. Many respondents, abused by their families, stated
their parents practiced mainstream religion
3.
3. Over one half of respondents experienced satanic-based
group activities
4.
4. Victimizing tactics involved mind-control, triggering,
hypnosis, and drugging
5.
5.
Torture of all forms was experienced by 94%, 75% were forced to torture others
6.
6. Respondents, as children, were forced into prostitution,
pornography, and rented out to other groups/cults
7.
7. As children, respondents reported ordeals involving
cruelty to animals: pet and
animal killings and sacrifices for example; as well, they reported
ritualistic ordeals, human sacrifices, and/or cannibalism, and bestiality
8.
8. 65% stated their ritual abuse started before age
three, and
9.
9. Victimization ended for the greatest number of respondents
when they were between the ages of 11-15 (29%); some were older, for
example 36-40 (4%), and two respondents (4%)
stated the ritual abuse was ongoing.
Smith states, “many survivors have grown weary of being re-victimized
by mental health professionals and withdraw from therapy altogether”
(p. 21). Smith provides Self-help
solutions.
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