Remembering Satan

In the small and quite town of Olympia, Washington, troubled erupted when memories of sexual abuse and satanic obsession reconstructed themselves in the minds of both the victims and the assailant. On Monday, November 28, 1993, one of the assailants, Paul Ingram, who is also the father of the victims was called in for questioning. It is during the many interrogation sessions that started on Monday, where memories were reconstructed, but the way in which they happened could lead one to believe that the realms of reality and imagination were beginning to run together. When officer Vukich interrogated Paul Ingram, he asked questions that didn't allow Ingram to remember what happened based on his own memory. Instead he asked questions that had very specific details, he almost painted a picture in his mind. Through out the question Ingram didn't remember sexually assaulting his daughters, but Vukich insisted that if he confessed he would remember. Vukich did this same type of question with the next two assailants, Rish and Rabie. They also didn't remember assaulting anyone, but like Ingram, said that if the girls said they did assault them, then they probably did. When Vukich told them what he BELIEVED they did, they thought long and hard about it and pictured what Vukich said, and responded saying that yes, they do remember now. The problem with this was that none of the assailants stories matched up, even though they were confessing. It began to seem like they were reconstructed a memory based on actually moments in their lives but heavily influenced by what Vukich SAID happened rather than what they REMEMBERED. This phenomena of sexually assaulting women and children for rituals became known as Satanic Ritual Abuse.

As I read this articled from The New Yorker, I knew that what these men and even the victims said couldn't all be truth. The assault had taken place over 10 years ago and too much "memories" began to come back to the victim and the assailants due to outside influences. After news of this case emerged, they found many people who had also experienced this same thing; being sexually abused for rituals and not remembering until they read or heard about this case. Psychologist found a connection between people with dissociative disorder and the people who were victims and assailants of S.R.A. They found that people with dissociative disorder were easier to put into a trance and when placed in this trance they were more likely to mix the realms of reality with fiction. In the victims minds, everything that they remember is true, despite the fact that many of these "memories" are filled with imagined scenes.

I believe it hard to trust any case where S.R.A is present without sufficient truth. There seems like there needs to be very sufficient evidence. If both parties of S.R.A are prone to fabricating the truth unintentionally.

It's funny that the police officer chose to interrogate the suspects in the way in which he did because even people who do not have dissociative disorder can easily reconstruct a memory that they do not really remember and be convinced that it happened. In every day life, we lose things and when we ty to think back on where the last place we saw the item was, we tend to remember where we USUALLY place it, even though that might not be where you placed it. Or if someone says they remember seeing it on the counter, you too begin to believe you saw it there last.

Link: Remembering Satan