A cult is a group of people who share an obsessive devotion to a person oridea. The cults described in this book use violent tactics to recruit,indoctrinate, and keep members. Ritual abuse is defined as the emotionally,physically, and sexually abusive acts performed by violent cults. Mostviolent cults do not openly express their beliefs and practices, and theytend to live separately in noncommunal environments to avoid detection.Some victims of ritual abuse are children abused outside the home bynonfamily members, in public settings such as day care. Other victims arechildren and teenagers who are forced by their parents to witness andparticipate in violent rituals. Adult ritual abuse victims often includethese grown children who were forced from childhood to be a member of thegroup. Other adult and teenage victims are people who unknowingly joinedsocial groups or organizations that slowly manipulated and blackmailed theminto becoming permanent members of the group. All cases of ritual abuse, nomatter what the age of the victim, involve intense physical and emotionaltrauma.Violent cults may sacrifice humans and animals as part of religious rituals.They use torture to silence victims and other unwilling participants. Ritualabuse victims say they are degraded and humiliated and are often forced totorture, kill, and sexually violate other helpless victims. The purpose ofthe ritual abuse is usually indoctrination. The cults intend to destroy thesevictims' free will by undermining their sense of safety in the world and byforcing them to hurt others.In the last ten years, a number of people have been convicted on sexual abusecharges in cases where the abused children had reported elements of ritualchild abuse. These children described being raped by groups of adults whowore costumes or masks and said they were forced to witness religious-typerituals in which animals and humans were tortured or killed. In one case, thedefense introduced in court photographs of the children being abused by thedefendants[1] In another case, the police found tunnels etched with crossesand pentacles along with stone altars and candles in a cemetery where abusehad been reported. The defendants in this case pleaded guilty to charges ofincest, cruelty, and indecent assault[2] Ritual abuse allegations have beenmade in England, the United States, and Canada.[3]Many myths abound concerning the parents and children who report ritualabuse. Some people suggest that the tales of ritual abuse are "masshysteria." They say the parents of these children who report ritual abuse areoften overly zealous Christians on a "witch-hunt" to persecute satanists.These skeptics say the parents are fearful of satanism, and they use theirknowledge of the Black Mass (a historically well-known, sexualized ritual inwhich animals and humans are sacrificed) to brainwash their children intosaying they were abused by satanists.[4] In 1992 I conducted a study toseparate fact from fiction in regard to the disclosures of children whoreport ritual abuse.[5] The study was conducted through Believe the Children,a national organization that provides support and educational sources forritual abuse survivors and their families.

Did you know one in three woman wind up in a mentally or physically abusive relationship?But the funny part is, it doesn't start off that way. It starts of wonderful, as close to everything you imagined something solid should be. Then little by little, the relationship changes, and you wonder if you're going crazy. You literally start to question your own sanity. One minute, the person you're in love with is kind and caring, and the next they're flipping out. The first few times you write it off, assuming they're having a bad day, but then it becomes a regular pattern of behavior. The person on the receiving end isn't oblivious to it but starts blaming themselves.Did you know mental abuse can make a victim feel depression, anxiety, helplessness, nonexistent self-worth, and despair? But that doesn't matter because your feelings don't count, and you don't realize they never will. Sometimes the abuser makes you think they count. Then you're back to thinking that you're the one who belongs in an institution, not them. But on the norm, your needs or feelings, if you actually have the fucking courage to express them-and most women don't-are ignored, ridiculed, minimized, and dismissed. You're told you're too demanding, or there's something wrong with you. Basically, you're denied the right to feel... anything.Sometimes you distance yourself from friends or loved ones. Sometimes you're not even allowed to have friends. Thought you've given this person your heart and soul, their behavior becomes so erratic, it's as if you feel like you're walking on landmines. But you continue to love them because they weren't like this when you're met, so it only seems obvious it's your fault. Then-there's the hysterical part and just how twisted this whole thing becomes-you start making excuses for their inexcusable behaviors in an effort to convince yourself it's normal. In an actual, damn convince yourself you're the one who;s made them become the monster they've turned into. A couple of ladies from an organization fighting against domestic abuse told me I allowed this to happen because 'I'm a product of my environment'. I mean really, how cliched is that? Did I ever tell you about my parents? Did I ever tell you how after my father left us, my mother continued pursuing assholes?Well, she did. She went through them like the world was going to end the next day. I get that being a single parent was hard for her. I do. But she definitely had a thing for picking up the local drunk at the nearest bar in order to help pay the next month's rent. They'd help for a while before they bounced out like my father did, but that never came without a price. She let them smack her around a bit if dinner wasn't cooked by the time they walked in the door, or if the house wasn't cleaned by the time they kicked off their filthy boots. They all looked different, but they came from a mold. Each and every single one of them was cut from the same piece of abusive wax,So, those women told me witnessing my mother's weakness drove my own, and her watching my grandfather beat my grandmother was what drove hers. They told me I was raised thinking it was okay for a man to do that to a woman. I was raised thinking self-worth was gained by catering to a man's needs at whatever cost. Ever if it meant degrading myself time and time again. But the apple can fall far from the tree. Fifty percent of children who grow up seeing that will never walk in their parents' footsteps, whether it's a boy watching his father beat his mother a young girl watching her mother get hit. But this apple landed on the tree's stump. This apple took the same path as her mother.