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Forensic Considerations in Ritual Trauma Cases (Part 2) - Page 12

© Sylvia Gillotte, attorney

2) Children frequently report having been taken by train, boat, submarine or airplane to a specific location to participate in ritual activity. Often they are blindfolded and only told the name of the location after they have arrived.

In reality, such transportation may have only been simulated, and a false location given. Or the child may, in fact, have been in a plane that simply flew in a circle for 20 minutes or so, with the ultimate destination falsified. In either case, facts are distorted to discredit later disclosures.

3) The use of cartoon characters and hero figures in costume is frequently reported, and is especially effective with very young victims. Children who disclose abuse in these settings are assumed to be dealing with nightmares at a fantasy level.

4) Intergenerational cults have additional protective techniques. For example, some of the perpetrators attending a given ritual may, in fact, be prominent members of their community. To deliberately confuse child victims, cult members may introduce other adults who are falsely identified as other well-known public figures.

If and when a subsequent disclosure occurs, the innocent “perpetrators" who are named come forward with concrete alibis and are unwittingly used by the cult to discredit any investigation.

While children who are used by organized cults are victimized with regularity throughout the year, it is important to be aware that certain calendar dates have special ritual significance to perpetrators whose activities are also based on satanic and/or pagan belief systems. Such holidays may be fixed (i.e., celebrated on the same day every year) such as All Hallows Eve/Halloween; or vary slightly based upon astrological considerations (e.g., Easter, which even for Christians falls on the first Sunday after the full moon following the Spring Equinox.) Full moons, eclipses, solstices, and equinoxes are frequently celebrated dates among cults, as are individual birthdays – especially for months and/or calendar years which are a multiple of the number “6”. In addition to these readily identifiable dates, most individual cults will also celebrate on dates which have unique significance to them..

Although the subject is too complex to be adequately covered in this material, it is ultimately important for professionals to understand that, just as repeated dissociation through severe trauma can ultimately lead to full-blown DID, so too does initial psychological “conditioning” of victims naturally move toward more systematic “programming;” and ultimately, total mind control. Once the psyche of an adult or child victim is dissociated and fragmented to the degree necessary to create DID, cult perpetrators use sophisticated mind control techniques to create various alters within the consciousness of the victim. Through the use of a repeated “conditioned stimulus-response sequence,” a victim will develop separate and distinct alters or personalities that can be called into action by a pre-programmed “triggers.” These “triggers” can be internal (e.g., a ritual holiday) or external (e.g., a phone call or hand signal).

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