THE ARCANE ARCHIVE
	a cache of usenet and other text files pertaining to occult, mystical, and spiritual subjects.

To: alt.satanism,alt.magick.tyagi,talk.religion.misc,alt.christnet,alt.religion.christian,soc.religion.christian
From: tyagi@houseofkaos.abyss.com (nocTifer)
Subject: 'Satanic' Ritual Abuse/'Occult' Crime (OCRT excerpts + FBI/Govt Stats)
Date: 17 Nov 1996 01:05:58 -0800

49961117 AA1  Hail Satan!

in combing the World-Wide Web for information surrounding 'satan' and
'abuse', I have come across a wonderful supply in the Ontario Centre
for Religious Tolerance (OCRT), which puts forward what I claim to be
fair and extensive information about religions and child/sex abuse.

reviews/critiques/corrections welcome.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

here's a batch of information excerpted from the OCRT website:

		http://web.canlink.com/ocrt/ocrt_hp.htm

an amazing webwork of files and html documents which do religious folks
a service while disemboweling the 'Satanic Ritual Abuse' and 'Recovered
Memory Syndrome' scams rather directly.  also excellent support by 
government reports and well-researched religious files.  here's what 
they had to say about 'Satanic Ritual Abuse' and 'Occult Crime', along 
with some of my remarks.

OCRT on SRA
-----------

       The Church of Satan, Temple of Set and other Satanic religious groups
       are active and probably include many thousands of members in North
       America. This number is speculative, because the largest group
       does not reveal its membership statistics, and the remaining
       groups are relatively small. There has been one allegation of
       abuse against a member of the Temple of Set by an ex-girlfriend,
       but no charges resulted.

       One case of intra-familial incest involving an underage teen-age
       male may have occurred. It was reported in the large Federal
       government study referred to above. The teen-ager's parents
       were Satanists and publicly acknowledged their religion. They
       apparently invited him to some of their sexual rituals as victim,
       observer and perpetrator. None of the horrendous details that the
       public associates with SRA (ritual killing, torture and
       mutilation, blood drinking, etc) occurred. It involved only sexual
       activity. If the allegations are true, then the parents would have
       committed incest with an under-aged person - a criminal act of
       child abuse. Since it happened during a Satanic ritual, it would
       be regarded by many as Satanic Ritual Abuse.

       To our knowledge, no criminal charges have been laid or
       convictions obtained against any religious Satanist. Again, as a
       working hypothesis, we conclude that religious Satanists are not
       abusing or sacrificing people.
    
nocT note: that is, these were the ONLY INSTANCES where the social culture 
called 'Satanism' and ritual abuse intersected.  in all other cases there 
was either not enough evidence to warrant further investigation or the
individuals could not be shown to be connected to any strand of Satanism.

other OCRT excerpts
-------------------
   The US government tried to obtain reliable information by funding a
   massive study of childhood ritual abuse. They obtained data from over
   10,000 psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, as well as from
   police offices, district attorneys' offices and social service
   departments. They found
     * An alarming incidence of child ritual and non-ritual abuse during
       exorcisms, by withholding medical attention and beating children
     * One case of incest within a family during Satanic rituals;
     * No unequivocal evidence of:
          + bizarre and horrible satanic ritual abuse scenarios or of
          + large scale, organized Satanic cults.

nocT note: that is, the US Govt found more ritual abuse from EXORCISMS 
and other CHRISTIAN 'family values' than within the purported 
'Satanist' world (usually inclusive of Neopagans, btw).

continuing OCRT excerpts
------------------------
   There is no hard evidence of this form of ritual abuse by organized
   Satanic, Pagan, or other non-Christian groups. Typical types of hard
   evidence would have been human blood at a ritual site, dead bodies,
   underground tunnels where children said they were taken (as in the
   famous McMartin Day Preschool centre in California), etc.

---------------------------
    Why do people believe that Satanic/Sadistic Ritual Abuse is common?

   Most people believe that there are very evil people following a very
   evil religion, who kill babies, drink their blood, eat their flesh,
   and who engage in degenerate sexual practices. This belief system has
   existed for decades without any hard evidence. Many reasons have been
   cited for this belief:
     * There are many people who believe themselves to be ritual abuse
       survivors who deliver seminars and write books which promote the
       concept.
     * Some Evangelical Christians and feminist therapists deliver
       lectures, conduct seminars and write books promoting it.
     * The belief system was started by the Roman Empire in the second
       century when they were persecuting Christians. It was reused by
       the Christian Church against the Witches (Wiccans). It was used by
       the Nazis against the Jews. It is being used today against some
       therapy, religious or spiritual individuals and groups. Whenever
       the rumour was active in the past, most ordinary citizens believed
       it to be true. They do so today also.
     * Now that Communism is no longer a menace, we need an internal
       "evil empire" to demonize.

nocT note: that is, it is a MODERN DAY WITCH HUNT, this time fought by 
legally-supported Satanists and the bewildered Christian establishment 
which is being disillusioned by a nonpartisan judicial system that, 
even when predominantly Christian, such as in the Utah study, fails to 
find the evidence popularly expected.  

concluding with OCRT info on 'the Occult' and 'Occult Crime'
------------------------------------------------------------
   "The Occult" is simply a list of mostly unrelated practices and
   activities. It does not exist as an organization. Occult Crime does
   not exist, any more than Christian or Jewish Crime exists. The exact
   makeup of the Occult depends upon your own religious beliefs. There is
   no general consensus....

nocT note: that is, there is NO justification for the use of the phrase 
'occult crime' and there is no justification for the use of the phrase 
'satanic crime' or indeed 'satanic ritual abuse' by the findings of the 
US Federal Government and the studies conducted by several state 
agencies (CA/UT at least) and the British Government.


finishing off with K. LANNING, 
for the FBI (in his report's Conclusion):
-----------------------------------------
   There are many children in the United States who, starting early in 
   their lives, are severely psychologically, physically, and sexually 
   traumatized by angry, sadistic parents or other adults. Such abuse, 
   however, is not perpetrated only or primarily by satanists. The 
   statistical odds are that such abusers are members of mainstream 
   religions. If 99.9% of satanists and 0.1% of Christians abuse 
   children as part of their spiritual belief system, that still means 
   that the vast majority of children so abused were abused by Christians.

nocT note: as the OCRT mentions as regards this figure, given that the
resultant numbers are accurately reflected by today's census figures
(99.9% of Satanists likely amounts to some thousands; .1% of Christians
likely amounts to perhaps 100,000), Lanning could even have used .01% and
have been entirely accurate.  in fact I would suggest that the evidence
actually points the OPPOSITE DIRECTION (i.e. that there is reason to 
suspect more ritual abuse associated with Christianity than it 
statistically warrants as compared to other, minority religions).

====================================  end quotes

given this information (I am compiling all WWW sites I can find which
have rational information on the subject, along with Satanism and other
Dark Links at: http://www.hollyfeld.org/~tyagi/Nagasiva/fear.html and
will likely be done within a week or two, planning to notify y'all), 
I would love to hear just one or two citations which would *begin* to
justify perpetuating the phrases 'occult crime' or 'satanic ritual abuse'
in any reputable publication or information site.  thanks. :>

---------------------------

circulation authorization

please send this report to whoever might be interested.  I hope to 
catalyze a mass-deflation of this witchhunt.  please give my sources
full credit and publicize my editorship of it all you like, especially 
the url OCRT!  I would note that the Lanning report may be found at:

		http://web.canlink.com/ocrt/ra_rep03.htm

please quote me and this report wherever you want to do so.
I'm a public monk working for the betterment of relationship
between all nature-religions and their neighbors as well as
simultaneously between human beings and their neighbor-species,
whom we are decimating at horrendous rates.  I hope that once
the witchhunt terminates we can see that we are destroying wild
nature (Satan) and will join forces to begin serious ecological work.

-----

important: there ARE Xtians who debunk SRA!  here's a URL:

		http://parc.power.net/users/aia/AiA_intro.html

stop the lambasting, inspire religious tolerance! ;>

-----

while I don't want my email address to be seen as some sort of information
resource point, I will respond to email if someone can't get the 
information from the URLs I'm handing out.

eventually you can check out (which I'm currently crafting):

		http://www.hollyfeld.org/~tyagi/Nagasiva/fear.html

to find a detailed research page helpful to those who want more
information on Satanism, ritual abuse and crimes associated with
religions.  I may prepend that report for good measure if there is
a positive response such as you appear to be presaging. ;>

blessed beast!

nocTifer
tyagi@houseofkaos.abyss.com
-- 
see http://www.hollyfeld.org/~tyagi/nagasiva.html  and  call: 408/2-666-SLUG!!!
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