Astral planes and all that stuff

As someone who has had the privilege of meeting several survivors and has been honoured by their trust I get angry at the attitude of and comments made by some “professionals”. It is difficult enough for survivors to find the strength and courage to break silence and talk about such “stuff “without the cacophony which then awaits them. One of the most effective tools any abuser has in his arsenal is to constantly reinforce that if the person attempts to speak no one will ever believe them. Unfortunately that is so often proved to be true. If you managed to screw up enough courage to mention the unmentionable and take the gigantic step of trusting another person with some of your inner most secrets, (move over Neil Armstrong this is a gargantuan leap for humankind), and you were greeted with patronising scepticism at best and out and out disbelief at worst, would you ever talk about it again? I think not.
If I were to talk about kneeling in front of an altar (as opposed to an alter) and praying to a ceramic figure of an angelic looking woman with a child in her arms no-one with any knowledge of Christian doctrine and practices would comment. If I said that I believed in the power of prayer to change the world again no one would comment. If I said that I told all my problems to god and he answered my prayers and made me feel better would I be diagnosed with one of the many descriptive labels the medical profession is so good at creating? Would I be labelled as MPD, DID or just plain good old-fashioned nuts? I know that Joan of Arc’s revelations that god spoke to her weren’t exactly met with rapturous enthusiasm by all, but I doubt that anyone making the same claim today would be given such a warm reception. Anyone stating that they could see angels in the corner of the room, or even that their guardian angel is always looking out for them, and therefore following them around and watching everything they do or say, is not likely, merely on the basis of such a statement, to be prescribed some drug with a long complicated name which I am not going to attempt to spell. Nor is it likely that they would be referred as in need of psychiatric help. They would most probably be regarded as somewhat naïve and as holding onto childish beliefs.

Compare then the survivor who is adamant that he ‘who cannot be named’ is all-powerful and is actually standing in the corner of the room listening to every word he or she says. (Information point - running around the room stamping on the carpet and punching thin air at this juncture is not really conducive to encouraging the survivor to trust you). What about the survivor, and horror of horrors even some support workers, who talk about ‘stuff’ happening through the night ‘on other levels’. What ever could they mean by this? After all this spinning planet we inhabit consists of the physical and nothing else doesn’t it?

What do you say to someone who is absolutely convinced that ‘something’ is happening every night when she goes to sleep?

‘They’ can abuse her then and she has the bruises and marks in the morning to prove it. How would she be treated if she repeatedly made such statements publicly? Contrast her treatment with that of the person who insists that little green men from somewhere come and visit in the night and invite him into their spherical flying object to partake in some research of the medical variety. Again I would suggest that such a person would be regarded as slightly eccentric, mildly annoying and probably someone to avoid getting stuck in a corner with at parties, but doubt that they would be referred for psychiatric assessment. (I said referred I didn’t say that the actual assessment would take place anytime in the near future).

Why is it then that at the merest hint of the words “ritual abuse” being uttered all logic and common sense heads for the hills? When will the practitioners sit down and hold an informed debate leaving all prejudices at the door? Who starts these myths that survivors are dangerous people not to be trusted and who will go back and report to ‘them’ everything you do or say? If anyone knows who ‘them’ are can you let us know as we will inform ‘them ‘ directly exactly what we are doing thereby saving time and effort all round. Answers on a postcard to ………..

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