Understanding Ritual Abuse - Your Strength to Heal

Understanding Ritual Abuse and Mind Control

The first step in understanding ritual abuse is to learn what separates ritual abuse from other types of abuse.

Ritual abuse is commonly repetitive abuse, which can be multi-generational and associated with ritual beliefs and practices (Lynette Danylchuk, Ph.D.).

Ritual abuse is a brutal form of abuse of children, adolescents, and adults, consisting of physical, sexual, psychological and spiritual abuse, and the use of rituals. The physical abuse is severe, sometimes including torture. The sexual abuse is often painful, sadistic, and humiliating, intended as a means of gaining control over the victim. The psychological abuse is devastating and involves the use of rites, which may include mind-control techniques, mind-altering drugs, and intimidation which conveys to the victim a profound terror of the abusers. The spiritual abuse can destroy the concept of a loving God, produce estrangement from or an aversion to God, and induce feelings of worthlessness and hatred of oneself and others in power. During and after the abuse, most victims live in a constant state of terror, mental confusion, and dissociation.

Understanding Ritual Abuse

Helpful Articles – Understanding Ritual Abuse

Kinds of Torture Endured in Ritual Abuse and Trauma-Based Mind Control

The following excerpt is from Kinds of Torture Endured in Ritual Abuse and Trauma-Based Mind Control by Ellen P. Lacter, Ph.D.

“Knowledge of the methods of torture used within ritual abuse and trauma-based mind control provides a basis for recognition of related trauma disorders. Individuals subjected to these forms of torture may experience intense fear, phobic reactions, or physiological symptoms in response to associated stimuli. In some cases, the individual, or particular dissociated identities, experience a preoccupation with, or attraction to, related stimuli.Victims may be able to describe the torture they have endured, or they may fear doing so. In many cases of ritual abuse and mind control trauma, the abuse remains dissociated when the individual first seeks treatment. Typically, the initial presenting problems are symptoms of anxiety, depression, or trauma derived from childhood sexual abuse, usually by a family member, who is eventually understood as a participant in the abuser group… ” Continue reading

Mind Control: Simple to Complex

The following excerpt is from Mind Control: Simple to Complex by Ellen P. Lacter, Ph.D.

“Organizations with a wide range of political and criminal agendas have historically relied on coercive interrogation and brainwashing of various types to force submission and information from enemies and victims, and to indoctrinate and increase cooperation in members and captors. In modern times, these techniques are used by political/military/espionage organizations, race/ethnic hate-groups, criminal groups (e.g., child pornographers and sex rings, and international traffickers of women, children, guns, and drugs) and exploitative and destructive cults with spiritual or other agendas. Methods of “thought reform” used by such groups include intimidation, social isolation, religious indoctrination, threats against victims or their loved ones, torture, torture of co-captives, and brainwashing through social influence or deprivation of basic needs, such as sleep or food…” Continue reading

Seeing and Breaking the Chains

The following is an introduction to Seeing and Breaking the Chains By Arauna Morgan

I am a survivor/soon to be therapist (as of 29 Jul 2014) of Ritual Abuse/Mind Control (RA/MC). My article, “Seeing and Breaking the Chains,” is for RA/MC, and their therapists in grounding techniques, memory retrieval, symptoms of current abuse, safety, my message of hope in recovering from and breaking free from abuse, torture and mind control. These techniques are useful for escaping from any current abuse and recovering traumatic memories from any abuse. Contrary to popular thought, very traumatic abuse, especially abuse that occurs at a young age and occurs over a long period of time, is often dissociated (the person forgets about it completely). Later, when in a safer environment, those memories may start to resurface. With a loving, caring attitude of curiosity, these memories can be processed to lose the emotional impact that the person experienced while the abuse was happening. If the abuse is current, it is vital for the survivor to remember enough to be able to get and stay safe. It can be done. I did it; in this article I relate techniques that I used to recover and break free. You can too!

A Spiritual Director’s View

The following excerpt is from A Spiritual Director’s View by Rev. Bernard J. Bush

“All of us put screens inside our minds that defend us from the extremes of human cruelty. Sometimes we deny that anything happens outside that screen and that those who report such activity are falsifying. At other times we admit theoretically that such evil exists but claim that we have never encountered it or that it is going on somewhere else. The deliberate killing of millions of Jewish people by the Nazis and the genocide in Cambodia or Rwanda are examples of such atrocities. The existence of a vast network of child pornography and child abuse is likewise very hard to believe.” Continue reading

Similarities in Responses to Extreme and Unremitting Stress

The following excerpt is from Similarities in Responses to Extreme and Unremitting Stress by Steve Frankel

Steve Frankel practices both law and clinical/forensic psychology in the SF Bay area. He has been treating adults who have been abused as children since 1980 and has been a consultant to three southern CA hospital programs for adult survivors. He has also taught psychology at USC and law at Loyola (L.A.) and Golden State law schools. He has also been past president of ISSTD (2002). His website is www.sfrankelgroup.com

“During World War II, eastern European ghettos served to contain and oppress ghetto residents. The organizational structures and processes that emerged within the ghetto are directly analogous to those in patients with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID, formerly MPD). This article explores the analogues between ghetto organization and the internal worlds of DID patients. Complex DID patients, like ghetto residents subjected to extreme and unremitting stress, develop homeostatic systems characterized by competing forces that serve agendas of help-seeking, communication to outsiders about atrocities and utilitarian efforts to prevent destabilization. The ghetto analogue to DID is offered as a descriptive teaching device for both clinicians and patients.” Read full PDF

Additional Resources for Understanding Ritual Abuse: