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If some of the recovered memories of familial childhood abuse sound fanciful, the recollections of satanic-ritual abuse are downright bizarre. These tales have proliferated since the publication in 1980 of Michelle Remembers, a book about a belatedly aware satanic-ritual victim. They describe a massive secret conspiracy to abuse children sexually in order to brainwash them into worshipping Satan. Victims recall being raped by their parents and then by members of a cult who drink blood and sacrifice fetuses. More often than not the abusers are pillars of their communities -- the mayor, police chief or school superintendent -- who come out at night and join their parents in terrifying ceremonies.
But could such satanic rituals be that commonplace, let alone exist at all? In 1990, a group of researchers at the State University of New York at Buffalo conducted a nationwide sample of clinical psychologists, asking them if they had encountered claims of ritual abuse. Some 800 of the psychologists, about a third of the sample, had treated at least one case.
Yet, law-enforcement authorities report that not one shred of reliable evidence has turned up to support these claims -- no documented marks of torture, no bones of sacrificed adults, infants or fetuses and no reputable eyewitnesses. Lorraine Stanek, a Connecticut rehabilitation counselor for trauma survivors, also stresses the lack of evidence. "If you look at the alleged number of deaths that would be accounted for," she says, "there should be bodies in all our backyards." Still, incest-survivor groups are inundated with these claims. Monarch Resources, a California referral service for survivors, is said to receive more than 5,000 calls annually from people who believe they have been victims of satanic abuse. Alleged ritual abuse is also involved in about 16% of the calls to Philadelphia's False Memory Syndrome Foundation.
Braun demonstrated his belief in satanic rituals during a 1991 trial, when ) he testified in behalf of two daughters seeking damages from their 76-year-old mother. Recovering childhood memories, they had accused her of abusing them in bloody and murderous ceremonies. Both claimed that they had developed MPD as a result. After Braun told of treating similar cases, the jury found in favor of the two daughters.
Now, however, the tables have turned. Braun and the Chicago medical center are being sued for negligence by a female patient who in two years of in- patient treatment for supposed MPD "recovered" memories of involvement in satanic rituals with her father, mother and relatives. The rituals supposedly included torture, murder and cannibalism of large groups of people -- as many as 50 on an average weekend. In addition, before growing doubts led the woman to terminate Braun's treatment in 1992, she had been made to believe she had 300 "alters" or personas, possibly setting a new MPD record. According to her lawyer, she is not currently undergoing any treatment and is doing well.