-Caveat Lector- an excerpt from: Other Altars - Roots and Realities of Cultic and Satanic Ritual Abuse and Multiple Personality Disorder Craig Lockwood©1993 CompCare Publishers 3850 Annapolis Lane, Suite 100 Minneapolis, MN 55441 612.559.4800/800.328.3330 ISBN 0-89638-363-6 255+pps — out-of-print/one edition. ----- A very interesting and excellent book. Om K --[10]-- Chapter 10 Written In Blood "One of the greatest battles fought in the 20th century has been that between the forces of rationalism and those of unreason. -James Webb, 1973 Humanity's spiritual history is written in blood. Religious blood sacrifice has been humankind's constant companion on our murderous march through time. Humans have been killing other humans, in the name of one god or another, just as they have for one tribal, ethnic, or political system or another, since the Ice Age. Once the premise that humans as a species aren't very humane—spiritually or otherwise—has been accepted, it's not a big leap to conclude that we never have been. We are not humane toward ourselves, and certainly not toward anything else in the world. But this unsettling message often provokes what passes for postmodern moral outrage—directed at the messenger who brings it. What we do as a species should be no surprise by now, but postmodern philosophical and political ideologies treat tens of thousands of years of normal human behavior as if they were abnormal. At the same time, the validity of historical accounts and reports verifying disturbing acts are deconstructed to dismiss their value as historical fact. While it can be demonstrated that cruelty is the frequent norm—the question that begs an answer goes unanswered: Why do some people abhor spiritual practices that kill animals and humans? The follow-up question poses an even greater puzzle: Why do those who do evil and harm seem to have so much more impact than those who do good? Questionable Practices Questioning the value of some cultures' spiritual practices in today's politically, ethnically, and religiously polarized multicultural climate is unpopular. Add to this the issue of ritual abuse and the discussion can become terminal in certain societies. Anthropologist Hanny Lightfoot-Klein's Prisoners of Ritual: An Odyssey into Female Genital Circumcision in Africa details the practice of clitordectomy, prevalent among many African tribes and nations. In a puberty ritual, the female child's clitoris is sliced off with a knife. The vulva's sides are then stitched together leaving only a small opening. Ritual mutilations such as this are conducted in almost every case without any anesthetic. According to a 1990 United Nations survey, this ritual practice was inflicted on over twenty million African women, who were thereafter deprived of sexual pleasure for life. Male circumcision is practiced in many societies and in many religions as a rite of passage. Still, while somewhat painful, male circumcision has none of the negative effects of the far more severe clitordectomy. Male infants in Western societies were, in the past, circumcised for hygienic purposes. Often this was done shortly after birth and without anesthetic. During the 1970s, medical critics of male infant circumcision began suggesting that it was both painful and traumatic for the infant, and that hygienic effects were negligible. Studies supported their claims. Since the practice was based on hygiene and not religion, reason eventually prevailed over medical custom. Hospitals in the United States no longer automatically circumcise male infants. Health Department statistics suggest that circumcisions are much less frequent today than twenty years ago. Violence, Politics, and Spirituality Religious fundamentalists of almost any persuasion tend to view secular violence as punishment from whatever supreme being or beings they worship-the result of nonconformance to sacred religious rules. Liberals and postmodernists, conversely, see violence as a failure of capitalistic society-the result of nonconformance with their socially idealized political theories. Faulty governmental economic and social policies are to blame for poverty, which in turn breeds crime. Religion in the postmodern view, especially Judeo-Christian forms, which stress a codified ethic of behavior, has no place in the educational or political process. Standards imposed by a middle class, white-male European-dominated educational and political process are perceived as oppressive by certain minorities and offensive to those who don't subscribe to Judeo-Christian values. Conservatives, meanwhile, envision a complex pattern of moral and ethical decay, a loss of values caused by liberal and postmodern ideologies that negate the individuals' social responsibility. Removing the constraints imposed by Judeo-Christian mores from the educational process amplifies the process of societal breakdown and the Balkanization of the political process. Ethicist and commentator Dennis Prager, who classifies himself as an "ethical monotheist," says that today's social sciences reflect the liberal postmodernists' obsession with violence and aggression. In his view, they reverse the importance of contributory causes. "Crime causes and intensifies poverty," says Prager, who goes on to relate how experienced grant writers verify that securing funding to research "causes of violence" is far easier than obtaining funding to study "causes of nonviolence." Criminal Spirituality and Cultural Denial Overlooked by postmodern sociologists like Richardson, Best, and Bromley, authors of The Satanism Scare, who doubt the existence of organized ritual abuse cults, are two important factors: 1) violent individuals are not necessarily disinclined to spirituality; and 2) violent individuals are more likely attracted to violent forms of spirituality and groups in which violent and sexually aggressive spiritual practices are the dominant form of worship. Since criminals form nonspiritual crime networks and groups that tend to be dominated by powerful, charismatic leaders, and since criminals are generally secretive about their behavior, they could also form spiritual groups. Examples are the Marielito prison gangs in Cuba, and Umbanda groups in Brazil. Spiritual Subculture If survivors' disclosures about violently abusive cults are valid, they reflect the existence of a quasi-spiritual subculture that has the practical worship of evil as its religious objective. Though it isn't clear why, nor do any comprehensive studies document the phenomenon, most anecdotal survivors' claims concern cults that worship Satan. How much of this is religiously based spiritual practice, or a mask for other criminal activities, is unclear. Although Satan seems to be the most popular deity, he is not the only one cults use for spiritual focus. Documentary film-maker Dale McCulley reports speaking with survivors of a Gnostic/pedophitic entertainment-industry-based cult that had several celebrities as members, a matrilineal goddess-based cult, and a Jewish cult. "Many of the practices they were describing," McCulley says, "sounded to me like SRA (satanic ritual abuse), but they didn't call themselves Satanists or claim to worship Satan." Non-satanic cults based on Celtic/Druidic concepts, Nazi volkisch traditions, Norse occult traditions, and Jewish mystery traditions, pedophilic fantasy cults, Mediterranean mystery-revival sexual cults, and groups of almost any and every spiritual proclivity have been reported from Maine to Florida and throughout the Midwest and in California. Add to these therapists' reports of southern and Texas-based Christian cults similar to David Koresh's Branch Davidians, as well as Ku Klux Klan-style and white-supremacist groups that practice pedophilic abuse but characterize themselves as Christian. Mormon Miscreants Even the Mormons were hearing charges that Satanists were operating covertly within their church. Supporting this, genealogy researcher Linda Walker has uncovered and documented consanguineous relationships between incestuous pioneer Mormon families who practiced polygamy. While researching the unusually high incidences of genetic diseases in descendants of early Mormon settlers, Walker stumbled across two startling facts. Early Mormon patriarchs preached that marriage to their own nieces was doctrinally acceptable; and marriages and deaths seemed to occur in a higher- than-random ratio on three suspected occult holidays. October 31, February 2, and April 13. "It could be coincidental that deaths fall on these dates," says Walker. "However, when they occur in a higher-than-random incidence, it seems to support survivors' statements that their families are practicing some form of ritual abuse." Walker thinks that, along with congenital diseases, multiple personality disorder is also found in greater frequency among polygamous Mormon families. This may point to either a high incidence of incest, or to ritual abuse, or both. Independent of Walker, but validating her assertions, are the opinions of several Salt Lake City therapists who point to Utah Child Protective Services reports putting the incidence of incest well above national levels. Presiding Mormon Bishop Glen L. Pace, alerted to some of these concerns, began an investigation in 1988. Pace had sent a memo on ritual child abuse to the church's general authority. It was taken seriously—and leaked. Jerald and Sandra Tanner, of Lighthouse Ministries in Salt Lake City—two Christians who research some of Mormonism's more contentious aspects—showed a copy of the memo purportedly written by Pace to Walker. She was immediately able to confirm the truth of this startling document. Walker then worked with the Tanners to break the story in the mainstream media. Accounts were published in the Salt Lake Tribune on October 25, 1991, confirming that Pace had indeed sent the memo to the church's general authority. The story was picked up by the Associated Press and the Chicago Tribune, on November 3, 1991. In the memo, Pace stated that he had personally interviewed sixty survivors in four Western states. The survivors independently described a well-organized satanic network active in and around Salt Lake City. Meeting houses, and even Mormon temples, had been used for blood rituals. In a 1990 interview with Beyond Survival magazine, Walker stated that she "could document that forms of ritual abuse, mind control, and even the practice of eugenics (human breeding) had been going on for decades." An on-site investigation confirmed that Walker had copious documentation with names, dates, and genealogical relationships. Some of her research has now been published in Jerald and Sandra Tanner's booklet Satanic Ritual Abuse and Mormonism. Walker's research appears to bolster the belief that cults, satanic or otherwise, frequently combine the social/technological mechanisms of mind control ascribed to political extremists, including the Ku Klux Klan and offshoot radical elements of the John Birch Society. Cult members seem to be able to anchor themselves in two wortds—the rational and profane, and the irrational and religious. How this is accomplished, and by what means cults learn their techniques of trauma-programming is a dominating mystery. Nothing in these kinds of post-spiritual New World orders, it seems, will be left to chance. Violence will suppress truth, since truth is relative to whoever has the political power to make it so. pps. 113-120 --[cont]-- Aloha, He'Ping, Om, Shalom, Salaam. Em Hotep, Peace Be, Omnia Bona Bonis, All My Relations. Adieu, Adios, Aloha. Amen. Roads End Kris DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. 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