Ritual Abuse in the Twenty-First Century, an invaluable resource book written by 26 experts from around the world, is now available as an eBook on Amazon's Kindle page. The soft-cover version for this huge book sold for $39.95 when it came out but now is available on Amazon in print for $114 through $475.97 from third-party sellers. Yikes! Talk about exploitative pricing!! But as an eBook, it is affordable at $9.99. It is time this book become available to every university professor and student in the helping professions. It is time for awareness and action.
You might ask, why would we put a 552-page book up as a Kindle eBook? It has a very niche audience, has tables, statistics, graphs, and references. Here is why. IT IS AN EXTREMELY IMPORTANT BOOK! Every library, every therapist, every clergy person, everyone who knows anyone who has been a victim of ritual abuse or was one should read this book. Twenty-six experts, mostly professionals, one or two actual victims, shared their knowledge. Yes, it reads like a text book. It is heavy reading. It is a book for people who are brave enough to know ritual abuse exists and how to help people (or themselves). It is a book that makes it very clear this is a universal phenomenon... the authors are from the U.S., U.K., Germany, South Africa, Canada, Greece, Australia, and Israel.
When one of our authors told me her whole story, details she left out of her book, I spent days vacillating between crying and wanting to throw up. It was unbelievable (but Ellen Lacter, one of the contributors, counseled me through my process). How could anyone have even survived such an ordeal? I was a therapist for ten years but did not even know what ritual abuse was. It was way beyond anything I ever heard from any of my clients who had been abused. Why didn't I learn about this in graduate school????
What makes abuse "ritual abuse?" From http://ra-info.org/faqs/: Ritual abuse is an extreme, sadistic form of abuse of children and non-consenting adults. It is methodical, systematic sexual, physical, emotional and spiritual abuse, which often includes mind control, torture, and highly illegal and immoral activities such as murder, child pornography and prostitution. The abuse is justified by a religious or political ideology. ... Physical, emotional, sexual, and spiritual abuse can all occur. Physical abuse can occur as beatings, electroshock, torture, confinement, or forced ingestion of drugs, blood, and feces. Emotional abuse involves trickery, deceit, and blaming the victim. Sadistic sex with children and non-consenting adults, forced sex with animals, and forced perpetration of sexual abuse are forms that sexual abuse can take. Spiritual abuse can manifest as reversal of good and evil, a destruction-based morality, and the denial of freedom of thought.
Borrowing from Ellen Lacter's website: To be indifferent — for whatever reason — is to deny not only the validity of existence, but also its beauty. Betray, and you are a man; torture your neighbor, you’re still a man. Evil is human, weakness is human; indifference is not.
Elie Wiesel, The Town Beyond the Wall
Please share this blog post freely and get the word out. Break out of ignorance, denial, and indifference and CARE.
Thank you.
I’m pleased to see this important textbook, that I contributed to, is now available in an affordable e-book format! Now it can spread understanding of these atrocious crimes, what they are and their horrendous impact, to every corner of the earth! Plus, this book explores and shares about aspects of the healing required for those who suffer these kinds of traumas.
It is a book primarily aimed at professionals who work victims of extreme trauma, torture, and abuse. As such, it is an invaluable addition to the libraries of helping organizations, agencies, and universities, as well as students of all human service related courses.
I’m very proud to have contributed to the wealth of knowledge gathered together in this one book!