ISSTD 2 - The Search for Satan (1995)
ISSTD 2 - The Search for Satan (1995)
The video Frontline - The Search for Satan (1995) which was included at the end of the last post ISSTD 1 - Introduction to ISSTD [fb3IS1] may have been triggering for survivors as it denied much ritual abuse. In this post are included some screenshots and brief summary of some aspects for those who do not want to watch, as well as a transcript, see Appendix 1. Also included are two articles of criticisms of the documentary by Lynn Crook, MEd, Editor, Treating Abuse Today.
As I said in the last post The video was probably made as part of the satanic panic psyop, the propaganda to make people think that organised satanic ritual abuse does not happen, so survivors beware triggers. However it is useful to show the method of treatment of patients at that time.
2024 Feb 6 Odysee Frontline - The Search for Satan (1995) [Od1]
Shownotes
Frontline untangles the mysterious web of satanic ritual abuse, psychiatric treatment, and insurance claims that escalated into millions of dollars. Were these professed victims of secret satanic cults really helped by the psychiatric care they received?
Summary
The video followed the stories of two patients Mary Shanley and Pat Burgus.
Pat Burgus
Mary Shanley
Therapists
Various therapists featured Judith Peterson (top left), Bennet Braun, Corydon Hammond, Roberta Sachs and Gloria Steinem (bottom right)
Rush North Shore Medical Centre, Rush Presbyterian St Lukes Medical Center, Old Orchard Porfessional Center and Spring Shadows Glen, an intensive in-patient
treatment center in Houston, Texas bottom right
Even given that the documentary was somewhat of a hitpiece against ritual abuse, it does reveal some worrying aspects of the Rockefeller, Big Pharma, allopathic model of medicine and system of treatment.
Treatment often consisted of many medications.
Medications given to Mary Shanley including high dose heart medicine.
The use of 9 point restraints was described by a nurse, with patients being kept in restraint for 8 or even hours at a time until they divulged information.
9 Point Restraint Bed
These were used in treatment, but if they were mind controlled then this sort of restraint would surely be very triggering, as it it likely similar to some condions of programming.
There was also restraint by multiple people which looked quite rough and perhaps similar reservation might be applicable.
Restraining by therapists and others
Other Points of Note
Treatment was very expensive, even back in the 1990’s it was $1200 a day for long periods of time adding up to millions. Insurance companies thought there was targeting of richer benefits plans and patients were not getting better.
Some who disagreed with the diagnoses at Judith Peterson’s Spring Shadows Glen were targeted from insurance individuals to nurses who were threatened with demotion or being moved and said to be in the dark ages.
Mary was immediately cut off from friends, her children taken away, she was suspected of abuse to her son and said it felt to her like an investigation rather than treatment of her. At the Old Orchard Centre the children received stickers as rewards for tales of ritual abuse, an obvious incentive for them to make stories up.
Pat Burgus in 1986 had been depressed for 3 years, said she was told by Braun to pretend to change alters for interviews and part of her treatment was drugs and hypnotism. Children were taken and kept for 3 years away from parents being treated. The way the children are treated which may or may not be legitimate if the individuals are cult are extreme but the treatment has worrying echoes of how children are treated in family Courts by faceless organisations.
This is what I said in the introductory article…
It is impossible to tell how correct the diagnoses were from this programme. The video does illustrate valid arguments against the treatment models at that time. It is difficult to argue with the fact that the Rockefeller medical system with its reliance on Big Pharma and pharmacological methods, and based in an extreme money making culture does not act in the best interest of the patient, even if their diagnoses of MPD / DID were correct. The use of so many drugs and the restraint techniques appears unreasonable.
On the other hand, witnesses who only saw one alter, may be caught in the big dilemma of DID, which is that it is difficult for many to believe and witness that a person in one alter is capable of changing to a totally different alter. A person may not change into ritual alters unless the correct triggers are given.
It is difficult to ascertain whether ISSTD therapists are genuine, whether they are cabal, whether they themselves are mind controlled or just patsies. Were the therapists genuinely diagnosing mind control programming, imagining the mind control by mistake or deliberately fabricating a diagnosis of mind control?
Similarly with the patients - are the patients non mind control programmed and outraged at their treatment? Are they mind controlled but have parts that later retaliate against the ISSTD therapists or are they programmed to act against the therapists?
This is all part and parcel of the evils of mind control that makes truth exceedingly hard to ascertain.
Bearing in mind all this confusion it is easy to see how ISSTD can be legitimately attacked from several angles. For instance, a refusal to admit how widespread organised ritual abuse is, the type of model used for the etiology / cause of DID, the reliance on pharmacology and other Rockefeller medical treatment, the connections of ISSTD therapists and management to the cabal itself and attacks for remedy via the law for maltreatment of patients.
The influence that ISSTD exerts globally appears to be far greater than it should, especially for such a compromised organisation. Should it be so powerful?
FoxBlog3 Discussion
Whilst the exact truths of what happened in these cases may be hard to ascertain. There are valid criticisms of the program from Lynn Crook below, but what is certain is that there are also valid criticisms of the ISSTD and the allopathic, Big Pharma, non patient centric model in which the ISSTD operates. There also appears an incentive to keep patients in expensive treatment when insurance is paying vast sums and the treatment of children appears less than ideal
What people want is good therapy which is based round their needs. Question marks remain over DID diagnosis, the diagnostic and causative models, treatment, the allopathic medical system, the funding and insurance system as well as the ISSTD and the motives of the therapists themselves. Do they have the interests of survivors at the core of what they do?
Previous Posts in the ISSTD Series
ISSTD 1 - Introduction to ISSTD [fb3IS1]
These are two articles of criticisms of the documentary by Lynn Crook, Editor of Treating Abuse Today. One from 3 years later and then 14 years after the documentary.
Smoke and Mirrors: Three Years Later by Lynn Crook, MEd, Editor, Treating Abuse Today [orginal formatting kept for reasons of time]
NOTE: "Smoke and Mirrors" was originally published in the
November/December, 1995 - January/February, 1996; Vol 5 No 6 - Vol 6 No
1 issue of Treating Abuse Today. This version has been (1) condensed to
facilitate electronic transmission, and (2) revised to reflect
subsequent events.
INTRODUCTION
PBS Frontline's "The Search for Satan," aired in October 1995. According
to the film's account, "Mary S.," entered treatment in 1988, with
Bennett Braun, MD, and Roberta Sachs, PhD, at the Dissociative Disorders
Unit of Rush Presbyterian- St. Luke's Medical Center in Chicago. Mary
eventually transferred to Spring Shadows Glen, an intensive in-patient
treatment center in Houston, Texas, where she began treatment with
Judith Peterson, PhD. When Mary's insurance company threatened to
transfer her to a nursing home, Mary left Spring Shadows Glen and began
out-patient treatment with another therapist. This therapist told her to
"Just say no" to DID, which she did; whereupon all her dissociative
symptoms dissipated.
The film treats in less detail the story of Pat Burgus, the first
patient to enter treatment with Dr. Bennett Braun when the Dissociative
Disorders Unit first opened at Rush Presbyterian. Burgus underwent a
lengthy in-patient treatment, along with her two sons who were also
diagnosed with a dissociative disorder. During her treatment, Burgus
claims, she often "performed" DID stunts for various staff, visiting
psychologists and the media.
With such a plot, Producer Ofra Bikel would indict an entire profession.
Let's see how she does it.
THE ALLEGED FBI REPORT
Bikel displays what is claimed to be a direct quotation from a FBI
report on the prevalence of ritual abuse. What follows is Bikel's
version, with the original text restored in brackets:
There is little or no evidence for [the portion of their] allegations
that deal [s] with large scale baby breeding, human sacrifice, and
organized satanic conspiracies." [Now] it is up to mental health
professionals, not law enforcement, to explain why victims are alleging
things that don't seem to have happened. (Lanning, 1992, p. 40)"
Bikel asserts that the FBI reached this conclusion "after seven years
investigating claims of ritual abuse." However, according to a
spokesperson for the National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime,
the FBI has never conducted a formal investigation of satanic ritual
abuse claims (Cynthia J. Lent, personal communication, January 18,
1995).
Interestingly, Lanning does acknowledge that crimes with ritualistic
elements do occur. He simply thinks it unlikely that they occur as a
part of a national or world-wide conspiracy (p. 19).
MARY'S LIFE BEFORE THERAPY
Bikel presents Mary as a relatively stable and happy wife, mother, and
teacher "having a normal life and doing normal things" until she sought
treatment. Mary's friend, Merideth Shriner, is interviewed and describes
her as "a model wife and mother, her husband's lover and best friend, a
woman filled with patience, the perfect feminine presence in a typical
loving family."
Those of you who have a videotape of this film are invited to try this
simple exercise. When Bikel shows those quick shots of documents and
then focuses in on one statement, press the pause button, then rewind
the tape and read the documents in their entirety. You'll see that Mary
S. is actually Mary Shanley-and you'll find evidence to suggest that
Mary's pre-therapy history was very troubled.
In fact, Mary endured severe emotional abuse from her mother. She
suffered from a learning disability that contributed to poor
self-esteem. Mary fell victim to a brutal date rape which resulted in a
pregnancy; her family subsequently abandoned her, forcing her to give up
her son for adoption. She eventually married a man who suffered from
alcoholism. After giving birth to another son, she had a hysterectomy
that brought on seizures and blackouts. Later she was attacked
(apparently slapped by an angry parent) in her position as a teacher.
Although Bikel implies that Mary lost her job because of "bad" therapy,
Mary's school district placed her on full disability and then Mary
sought therapy for depression, weight loss, panic attacks, restlessness
and an inability to concentrate.
CAVALCADE PRODUCTIONS
While Bikel provides few details regarding Pat Burgus's life
pre-therapy, she fails to point out that Burgus granted Cavalcade
Productions a taped interview describing cult recruiting practices after
she left Rush Presbyterian (Bruce McCulley, personal communication,
January 5, 1996). Burgus voluntarily participated in the interview,
apparently because she wanted to educate the public on cult practices.
Three Cavalcade videos were excerpted without permission: "CHILDREN AT
RISK," "MASTERING TRAUMATIC MEMORIES I," and "RITUAL CHILD ABUSE: A
Professional Overview." While FRONTLINE did provide onscreen credit,
viewers may have inferred that Cavalcade Productions had cooperated in
the production of this film.
ALLEGATIONS OF CHILD ABUSE AGAINST MARY
Bikel states (through her narrator), "Dr. Peterson filed a child abuse
report against Mary with the Department of Child and Family Services in
Illinois," thus implying that Mary lost custody of her son after
Peterson "falsely" accused her of child abuse while still under her care
at Spring Shadows Glen.
In a brief telephone conversation with Treating Abuse Today, Mary stated
that it was her understanding that Peterson had first reported her for
child abuse. She denied any knowledge that others had filed a complaint
with the Illinois Department of Child Protection. Mary further stated
that the Illinois authorities dropped the investigation into the
allegations for "lack of evidence."
Bikel (through her narrator) states that Mary remains "listed with the
State of Illinois as a child abuser." However, a spokesperson for the
Illinois Department of Education indicated that the department showed no
restrictions at all regarding Mary's teaching certificate."
A high-level spokesperson for the Illinois Department of Child
Protection confirmed that Bikel's presentation contained "inaccuracies,"
though considerations of confidentiality prevented him from addressing
any specifics of the case.
SPRING SHADOWS GLEN
Bikel states (through her narrator) that state authorities in Texas shut
down this facility. However, a spokesperson for Spring Shadows Glen
Hospital confirmed that no agency (governmental or otherwise) had shut
down the Dissociative Disorders Unit, or had recommended that the
administration shut it down. Apparently, the hospital administration
decided to reorganize the Dissociative Disorders Unit as a clinical
track under the General Adult Psychiatric Unit, because the patient
census no longer warranted the operating costs of a separate unit. A
spokesperson for the Texas Department of Health also confirmed that the
state had never shut down any unit of Spring Shadows Glen Hospital.
Sally McDonald, a former nurse at Spring Shadows Glen, offers damning
accounts in "The Search for Satan" of Peterson's treatment of clients.
However, Bikel fails to mention that:
1. McDonald never worked on the Dissociative Disorders Unit where
Peterson treated clients.
2. McDonald attended only one of Peterson's therapy sessions at the
direction of the hospital administrator (McDonald, 1994).
3. McDonald rifled through Peterson's confidential prescription records
at Spring Shadows Glen. Shortly thereafter the rumor spread among
hospital staff that Peterson abused drugs. McDonald used the purloined
records as part of a statement to the Texas State Board of Examiners of
Psychologists (letter dated July 13, 1993). Based on her reading of a
pharmacy record, McDonald reported that Peterson "required medication
for anxiety, sleep, pain, and depression." Eventually, the hospital
administrator and a court judge reviewed Peterson's records in camera,
and found that the charge of drug abuse had no basis in fact.
4. A year later, McDonald was demoted for professional failures.
Since the publication of "Smoke and Mirrors" in early 1996, Mary Shanley
settled her suit against Dr. Judith Peterson and subsequently filed a
civil suit against Dr. Bennett Braun. Pat Burgus settled her civil suit
against Braun. Illinois' state licensing board has decided to review
Braun's license. Peterson, et al were charged with mail and insurance
fraud in a criminal case that went to trial on September 8, 1998.
"The Search for Satan" received glowing reviews from the media prior to
its broadcast on October 24, 1995. Given my experience investigating
Bikel's "Divided Memories" (See: "The Making of a Morass: "Divided
Memories" and Media Manipulation," Treating Abuse Today, Vol 5 No 3, pp.
33-39) I decided to take some time to investigate "The Search for Satan"
prior to publishing my review of this film. As I continued this
investigation and found no corroboration for the claims presented in
"The Search for Satan," I reported to the editor of Treating Abuse Today
that I thought "The Search for Satan" was just "smoke and mirrors."
Hence the title. I sent a draft of my review of "The Search for Satan"
to FRONTLINE for comment and they did not reply.
After this review was published, I received a copy of FRONTLINE's
guidelines for their producers. Given my investigation of "The Search
for Satan" I gave these guidelines a working title: "We at FRONTLINE
can't tell you producers what to say; we'll give you these guidelines
and won't check to ensure you follow them; we assume that what you say
will be controversial so we'll expect that viewers will complain; and
we'll defend whatever you choose to report."
In response to my review of "The Search for Satan," Treating Abuse Today
received a 3-page letter from Producer Ofra Bikel which claimed among
other things, that I would like to see her "burned at the stake."
This claim, I decided, presented a fascinating metaphor. If each
misrepresentation in "The Search for Satan" were to be written on a
separate sheet of 8.5x11 paper, then crumpled and tossed into a metal
garbage can, how long would that fire burn-perhaps ten minutes?
Yet, three years later, this film continues to be cited as an indictment
against an entire profession.
One question remains unanswered: How did it come to be that Pat Burgus
and Mary Shanley, two apparently normal women (yet diagnosed with DID)
become institutionalized and subsequently develop memories of incidents
related to ritual abuse which resulted in their filing civil suits
against their therapists and settling (at least in Burgus's case) for
millions of dollars?
Our legal system is only beginning to answer this question. Remove all
the "families destroyed" and "repressed memory therapy" rhetoric and
what do we have? Part of the answer might be: Follow the money.
“The Search for Satan”: Fourteen Years Later By Lynn Crook, M.Ed.
(Please note: This article is strictly the opinion of the author and not necessarily the opinion of SMART newsletter or the webmaster.)
AUTHOR NOTE: In my initial review of PBS Frontline’s “The Search for Satan” for Treating Abuse Today I reported some of the problems I had discovered in this documentary: (1) In several clips, producer Bikel flashed a quick shot of a document and narrowed the camera focus to one statement. Using the pause button, I was able to read the rest of the document. There I learned that Mary Shanley was not, as the producers claimed, “having a normal life and doing normal things” before her hospitalization in Houston. (2) The film contained a surprising number of recreated scenes which were not labeled as such. (3) A supposedly direct quote from FBI agent Ken Lanning had been edited. (4) A call to the State of Illinois revealed that Shanley had not been “listed with the State of Illinois as a child abuser,” nor had her teaching certificate been listed as “restrictive.” (5) I did some research and found the producers failed to mention that Shanley had been hospitalized at four different hospitals and received a diagnosis of “mixed personalities.”
I titled my review “Smoke and Mirrors,” and it appeared in the Jan/Feb 1996 issue of Treating Abuse Today.
Two years later, the women featured in the film, Shanley and Pat Burgus, had both settled their lawsuits against their therapists. Shanley’s case settled with a gag order in place. Malpractice carrier AIG and two others had settled Burgus’s case for $10.6 million .The medical license of Burgus’s psychiatrist was suspended for two years. Five of Shanley’s mental health care providers were indicted on federal fraud and conspiracy charges.
I flew down to Houston in September of 1998 to cover the trial in federal court, and was in the courtroom when Shanley was on the witness stand. During cross-examination, defense attorney Rusty Hardin discredited virtually all of the claims Shanley had made in “Search.” Shanley acknowledged she recalled memories of cult abuse long before she met the defendants, and could not name any false memories that Peterson had supposedly implanted. The government rested its case after five months. All charges against the five defendants were then dismissed.
My follow-up review “The Search for Satan: Three Years Later” was published in the September/October 1998 issue of Treating Abuse Today.
In 2001, I reviewed the lengthy deposition of Pat Burgus, the second woman featured in “The Search for Satan.” I found that on January 17, 1997, Burgus had acknowledged that her psychiatrist had not implanted any false memories. Instead, he had only passed on to her what other patients at the hospital had reported about her (Deposition, pp. 912-913). Based upon Burgus’s deposition, her mental health had improved significantly during her hospitalization.
The following article has been slightly revised from the version that appeared in Treating Abuse Today in 1998.
“The Search for Satan”: Three Years Later
“Two troubled women. Both sought help from some of the top doctors in the country. The diagnosis? Satanic ritual abuse!..After millions of dollars in treatment, the women now say, ‘The doctors were wrong!’”
So begins Frontline’s 1995 film, “The Search for Satan.” The media hailed the film as an “indictment against therapists” and the film was re-broadcast by public television stations around the world.
The “two troubled women” were Mary Shanley and Pat Burgus. “Some of the top doctors” were Bennett Braun, Roberta Sachs in Chicago and Judith Peterson in Houston. “The diagnosis” was not “satanic ritual abuse,” but multiple personality disorder.
“The Search for Satan” on Frontline
“The Search for Satan” was produced and written by Ofra Bikel and Rachel Dreitzen for PBS Frontline. “Search” aired on October 24, 1995. At its website, Frontline describes its commitment to viewers.
From its inception, FRONTLINE has never shied away from tough, controversial issues or stories others avoided because they seemed too gray and complex for the black and white spectrum of conventional broadcast journalism. For there is an aesthetic goal as well: the fusion of credible, thoughtful reportage with compelling narrative, the story well told. In the end, that is the core of Frontline’s commitment to its viewers.
The following excerpts compare the Frontline producers’ “credible, thoughtful reportage” in 1995 to what their interviewees said under oath during US v. Peterson et al. in 1998.
MEREDITH SHRINER – MARY SHANLEY’S BEST FRIEND
Search – Shriner said the Shanleys were the typical loving family. Mary was a model wife and mother, her husband’s lover and best friend, a woman filled with patience, the perfect feminine presence in a typical, loving family. She had a wonderful relationship with her son, Ryan. Mary was a great mom, she had tons of patience.
vs.
Testimony: Shriner testified that Mary experienced panic attacks. Mary was increasingly disturbed by her angry outbursts against Ryan and Joe, and the Shanleys were experiencing marital problems.
MARY SHANLEY – FORMER HOSPITAL PATIENT AND GOVERNMENT’S STAR WITNESS
Search – “I was in very poor health [when I left SSG].”
vs.
Trial: Shanley, a slender woman, testified during direct examination that she had gained 25 pounds since her Spring Shadows Glen (SSG) release. During cross, Shanley appeared confused when shown hospital records indicating that she weighed 108 pounds when she entered SSG, her weight dropped to 105 pounds during her stay, and she weighed 108 when she left SSG. Shanley testified during direct that she was prevented from seeing a dentist despite her complaints of pain from an abscessed tooth. However, hospital records showed that she refused dental care for 2 months prior to November 3rd because she felt that dental care prior to that date would be “triggering.” She was prescribed antibiotics to contain the dental infection. She complained of back pain due to abreactive sessions and was prescribed additional voluntary restraints to support her back.
Search – NARRATOR: In 1988, Mary fell into a deep depression… MARY: Because I was suffering from seizures and blackouts, the counselor thought I might be suffering from a dissociative disorder. So I went for an evaluation at the best hospital in Chicago [Rush Presbyterian-St. Lukes’ Medical Center].
vs.
Trial – Two years prior to entering the dissociative disorders unit at Rush, Shanley was evaluated and hospitalized for memory blackouts and self-harming episodes at the following facilities: Alexian Brothers in May 1989, Forrest Hospital in January 1990, Old Orchard in March 1990 and Rush Memorial in 1990. She was hospitalized at SSG in Houston in May 1991, and discharged in June 1993. Under cross, it was shown that insurance claims reviewers determined that Shanley was “chronically suicidal,” hence, “untreatable,” and advised that she should be placed in a nursing home. Shanley refused this option, and SSG staff assisted her in finding housing and employment.
SALLY MCDONALD: UNIT NURSING SUPERVISOR AT SPRING SHADOWS GLEN
Search – ‘‘These kids [Pat Burgus two sons] came into the hospital as really stable, well-functioning kids.”
vs
Trial: Contrary to hospital records indicating the boys were very troubled, McDonald testified that the boys were stable because, in her judgment, they appeared stable. She further testified that she decided that a patient whose hospital records stated that she had been sexually abused could not have been sexually abused if a gynecological report showed that the patient’s hymen was intact
“Search – “It became very clear to the nurses that if we objected that there would be a reprisal, and that reprisal would be a transfer off the unit, a demotion and in some cases an actual termination’
vs.
Trial: Under cross, McDonald could name no instances in which nurses were transferred, demoted or terminated. McDonald was eventually demoted for below-standard nursing practices.
Frontline’s “Guidelines on Journalistic Standards and Practices”
Frontline’s Guideline #7 states that “where it may be appropriate to re-enact or stage an event, it must be labeled clearly and unmistakably as such.”
Readers may recall a powerful scene from “The Search for Satan” which showed Shanley seated in a large, crowded church sanctuary as the pastor supposedly told his congregation: “In April of 1989, satanism came out of the closet for all of us to see it in all of its ugliness. The satan worshippers that pose the greatest threat to our society are the secret splinter groups, scores of clandestine groups are meeting right here in our neighborhood and the amount of activity is on the rapid increase…”
Under cross-examination, Shanley testified that she had never attended this church. The scene was not labeled as a re-enactment.
The Guidelines say that producers “will exercise extreme care in checking the accuracy and credibility of all information they receive, especially as it may relate to accusations of wrongdoing.”
During her final day on the witness stand, Shanley testified that she now views her hospital treatment as “worse than it was” and that, at some future time, and she might “testify differently” regarding her hospitalization experiences.
In response, the defense stood to object, “But Ms. Shanley, these defendants are facing prison terms.”
For reasons that remain unexplained, PBS pulled “The Search for Satan” from its mail order list.
The ISSD Responds to “The Search for Satan”
The International Society for the Study of Dissociation (ISSD) issued a statement in December 1995 in response to the film’s characterization of the diagnosis and treatment of MPD (now referred to as Dissociative Identity Disorder [DID]).
“The majority of people who suffer from Dissociative Identity Disorder are not diagnosed impulsively or capriciously, as was implied by this Frontline segment . . . Research has documented that, on average, people with Dissociative Identity Disorder have spent seven years in the mental health system before the diagnosis is recognized and maximally effective treatment can be provided . . . Although some persons with Dissociative Identity Disorder allege that they experienced ritual abuse during childhood, most do not make allegations of this kind, as was implied by this segment of Frontline . . . The ISSD strongly discourages therapists and members of the media from sensationalizing the diagnosis of Dissociative Identity Disorder and from publicly appearing with, portraying, or otherwise exploiting individuals who suffer from this painful disorder. We urge the media to educate the public by presenting scientific information on this and all mental illnesses in a balanced and responsible manner.”
Co-producer Ofra Bikel Responds
Producer Bikel posted her response on the WITCHHNT listserve on January 3, 1996.
“I have made a point not to get involved in the arcane arguments among the various therapists, or schools of therapy, regarding my programs “Divided Memories” and “The Search for Satan.” But now that the ISSD official ‘response’ to my last program has appeared on the Internet, looking as if it sprang right out of Alice in Wonderland, I would like to say a few words about it . . . The program “In Search of Satan” [sic] was about two specific cases: two women, their children, and their therapists. The three therapists [Braun, Sachs, Peterson] were named repeatedly, as were their hospitals. . . . If I understand what I read correctly, it is supposedly a response to what the program ‘misleadingly implied’. But the program did not imply anything other than what it reported, and any answer to it must deal with the facts it exposed, before launching into their perceived implications . . . But a lofty declaration of principles and aspirations, cloaked as a damning response to myself and Frontline, while avoiding every single fact the program brought up, seems to me self-serving and cowardly.”
CONCLUSION
Dramatics accounts of satanic ritual abuse and years of “bad therapy” have caught the attention of the media. However, presenting uncorroborated claims as fact and failing to check an interviewee’s credibility cannot be excused on any grounds.
REFERENCES
Crook, L. (1996). Smoke and mirrors. Treating Abuse Today, 5(6) & (6)1, 87-93.
Guidelines on journalistic standards and practices. (1996, February). Frontline. Boston: WGBH.
Smith, M. (1998, October 9). Former patient can’t attribute false memories to therapy. Houston Chronicle. Online at: http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive.mpl?id=1998_3088693
Links
[fb3IS1] 2021 Feb 10 thefoxblog3 ISSTD 1 - Introduction to ISSTD https://foxyfox.substack.com/p/isstd-1-introduction-to-isstd #isstd #mindcontrol #programming #cabal #therapists #foxblog
[Od1] 2024 Feb 6 Odysee Frontline - The Search for Satan (1995) https://odysee.com/@FoxesAmazingChannel:8/Frontline--The-Search-for-Satan-(1995)-Ln7FSzfU5nE:7 #ritualabuse #drbraun #satan #DID #mindcontrol
[117] The Search for Satan”: Fourteen Years Later
By Lynn Crook, M.Ed. https://web.archive.org/save/https://ritualabuse.us/research/memory-fms/the-search-for-satan-fourteen-years-later/
[118] Frontline's Ritual Abuse Documentary - Smoke and Mirrors: Three Years Later
by Lynn Crook, MEd, Editor, Treating Abuse Today https://web.archive.org/web/20240212185215/https://groups.google.com/g/alt.true-crime/c/jvF-tE6Nl-s
Transcript
two troubled women both sought help from
0:06 some of the top doctors in the country the diagnosis satanic ritual abuse
0:13 it was like going deeper and deeper into an abyss after millions of dollars in
0:19 treatment the women now say the doctors were wrong it stopped because i stopped following
0:25 dr braun’s orders tonight on frontline the search for satan
0:31 [Music] funding for frontline is provided by the corporation for public broadcasting
0:40 and by annual financial support from viewers like you
0:46 this is front line
0:59 don’t tell me i’m stupid i’m not doing very scary getting better you’re sick
1:08 mary’s getting better
1:24 mary s spent three years in psychiatric wards diagnosed as a victim of satanic ritual
1:30 abuse you and bobby ruined it
1:36 i was told that i was raised in a satanic cult and when you’re raised in a satanic cult
1:42 you abuse people even the people that you love everybody around you is in the cult you
1:49 don’t know what it is to be a person but you don’t even know that i’m smart
1:55 enough to love your daughter and get her out of the call it was like going
2:00 deeper and deeper and deeper into an abyss there was no end there was like
2:14 i really believed that i would either end up in a psych unit for the rest of my life or
2:21 that when my insurance ran out that i would live underneath the bridge as bank woman
2:31 mary’s journey paid for by her insurance company took her into one of the most controversial areas in modern psychiatry
2:40 it began six years ago when mary lived with her husband joe and her eight-year-old son ryan in the suburbs
2:45 of chicago he worked in telecommunications she was
2:50 a schoolteacher they were the typical
2:56 loving family meredith shriner and her husband were close friends with joe and
3:02 mary they were very good friends as well as lovers and um they were very close they had a good
3:09 relationship she also had a wonderful relationship with her child
3:15 mary was a great mom with ryan just a great mom had tons of patience
3:22 in 1988 mary fell into a deep depression i started having panic attacks
3:30 not being able to eat losing a lot of weight um not being able to sit still not being
3:35 able to concentrate so i went and i went to um
3:40 a psychiatrist to get medication she
3:47 uh found a counselor that was recommended by a friend and and went to her and within a few months
3:54 um she kept getting worse anxiety attacks were very bad
3:59 because i had seizures and blackouts my therapist felt that i might be
4:04 suffering from dissociative disorders and so i went for an evaluation
4:11 at the best hospital in chicago with the leading experts in the field
4:16 the hospital was rush presbyterian saint luke’s in chicago a renowned teaching hospital
4:23 with a unit specializing in treating the dissociative disorder known as multiple personality disorder
4:30 there mary met with dr roberta sax within the first five minutes
4:37 i was in her office she diagnosed me as poly fragmented multiple
4:44 multiplicity was something that we knew nothing about and so she described multiplicity as
4:51 taking a vase and dropping it on a cement floor and that’s what had happened to my
4:57 personality i had shattered into that many pieces and that her job as a therapist was to
5:06 glue those pieces back together into a hole
5:11 mary was 38 by then her life had not been easy
5:16 growing up she had a learning disability when she was 19 she was brutally date
5:22 raped became pregnant and gave the child up for adoption
5:28 after her marriage and the birth of her son she underwent a hysterectomy and developed seizures
5:35 her husband was a recovering alcoholic finally shortly before the onset of her
5:41 depression she was attacked in a hallway at the school where she taught
5:47 still mary says her therapist who had attended the seminar on satanic cult abuse
5:53 thought that that might be another explanation for her depression mary wondered she went to church
6:01 it is my opinion that history will mark april of 1989 as the month when americans were forced
6:07 to pull their heads out of the sand there’s a very large church in our area
6:13 and during the time that mary was trying to find herself through counseling and find out why she was
6:20 having anxiety attacks um they were having a series on
6:26 cults in this church they a series meaning eight nine weeks of
6:32 sermons on that in april of 1989 satanism came out of the closet for
6:38 everyone to see it in all of its ugliness the satan worshipers that pose the greatest threat
6:44 to our society are the secret splinter groups scores of clandestine groups are meeting
6:49 right here in our neighborhood and the amount of activity is on the rapid increase
6:54 several churches in our immediate area have been broken into recently and even though it was bizarre it seemed to
7:00 be an answer for her as to why she was anxious and why she was scared and why she was nervous
7:15 it was not a new idea ten years before the best seller michelle remembers told
7:21 the story of a young woman who had traced the source of her unhappiness to repressed memories of being
7:26 satanically abused by her family soon newspapers and magazines were full
7:33 of stories of abuse at the hands of satanic cults stories involving cannibalism human
7:39 sacrifice blood rituals the abuse was so terrible some therapists said
7:46 that it caused children to develop multiple personalities as a defense against the pain
7:52 [Music] then television joined in magazine 2020
7:59 the geraldo rivera special by 1988 when geraldo rivera’s highly rated
8:05 special on satanism was broadcast satanic ritual abuse was considered he
8:10 who firmly believed that many of their patients were survivors of satanic cults here in chicago a group of well-known
8:17 therapists from all over the country had the courage to share horror stories we’re talking about people in some cases
8:23 who are coming to us as patients who were raised in satanic cults from the time they were born
8:29 i have letters in my file from over 40 states in the united states in several problems the provinces of
8:36 canada and one from england with very similar data if just a tiny bit of
8:43 it is true uh it’s appalling and uh there’s a need for somebody to do
8:50 something part of the the the power of the cult both with the individual and with the others around it is its
8:55 ability to induce fear dr bennett braun became a leading spokesman on the connection between
9:00 mpd and ritual abuse it needs to be looked at
9:06 it was to dr braun and his colleague roberta sax of chicago that mary had turned for diagnosis and
9:13 treatment mary’s reasons for admission according to her hospital records read
9:18 patient is a victim of satanic ritualistic abuse diagnosis of mpd
9:26 mary’s vague fears of having been abused in a cult now received the stamp of professional
9:32 certainty she was surprised to discover she said that her doctor seemed to know more
9:38 about her family’s history than she did roberta sax came in and told me that
9:44 victims throughout the country had identified me as the fifth generation cult
9:51 um that we were high up in the cult that we’re cult royalty um our my um family
9:59 my parents my sisters and i once hospitalized mary began regular
10:06 therapy sessions with dr braun and roberta or bobby sax
10:11 most of the sessions were about memory in many of the sessions with my husband
10:18 joe he he would come to the sessions and the two of us would sit down and they would
10:23 ask questions about you know who we knew from church um
10:29 who was in the the people in the school district what i knew about their personal life um
10:37 who we socialized with trying to get more and more information
10:43 about the cult and but this is an is this a treatment or
10:50 was this an investigation it felt like an investigation and in fact oftentimes i would say to
10:58 to bobby all you want is information from me and she’d say no you know we’re concerned at getting that
11:04 for you to get better but if i didn’t have any information
11:10 they didn’t have any time for me especially dr braun dr braun prescribed the medication he
11:18 put mary on a variety of medications among them halcyon chronopin
11:24 xanax prozac and on experimentally high doses of the heart medication
11:29 indoral heavily medicated mary says she lived in
11:35 fear they told me that i had already been programmed that if i divulged the
11:42 secrets from the cult that i would self-destruct
11:47 and that my programming had just been turned on at age 39. how did they know that because they
11:54 were the experts [Music] they they were experts they said we’ve
12:00 been studying this this for 15 years we’ve done research you know we’ve we’ve uh this phenomena
12:08 is happening all over the world we’re the we’re the experts we’ve written books
12:14 we’ve we give lectures people come to our hospital other
12:20 doctors come to our hospital and are trained by us because we we are
12:26 the experts in fact mary’s doctors were considered
12:33 leading experts in their field mental status in november of 1994 dr
12:38 braun was honored at the annual conference of the international society for the study of multiple personality
12:44 and dissociation we owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to dr brown
12:49 most of the big names in the field were there gloria steinem was keynote speaker and
12:55 guest of honor the burden for keeping all of this afloat was dr brown’s absolutely far beyond the
13:02 contribution of anybody else in the field of the society
13:08 i want to assure everybody that russia intends to continue its commitment to ongoing professional education
13:14 in the field of dissociation we are currently it was because of her doctor’s reputations mary says
13:20 that she persevered in her treatment despite her fears and her growing misgivings
13:26 i had doubts all along the way my journal is just full of statements
13:32 you know i i kid this can’t be true this is a nightmare i’ve made this up
13:38 i mean my whole life my whole world have been turned upside down at that point
13:44 here you know i go from being this teacher and having a normal life and doing normal things
13:50 to a court called royalty in an educational video dr sachs
13:57 explained very few patients who have been richly abused
14:02 come in and say i’ve been richly abused you know and i’ve been through this
14:08 torture and that torture and i’ve been pregnant this many times and aborted this many times and forced to
14:16 participate in cannibalism and on and on and on on the contrary these
14:22 people do everything they can to deny the
14:28 existence of that we’re trying to help dr sachs explained in her records what was wrong with mary
14:35 mary had an estimated 15 developed child altars some with twins and a system with seven
14:42 cult altars but was unaware of their existence
14:47 mary was encouraged to cut off contact with most family members and friends outside the hospital meredith had not
14:54 seen her friend in months she was lost to us totally
14:59 we had no idea where she was she contacted mary’s husband joe
15:05 i asked if we could visit her and he said no um and i said well how about if i can
15:11 call her send her a card whatever he said no you may have no contact with her at all none of her friends could have
15:18 contact we couldn’t talk to her she couldn’t talk to us this was the doctor’s orders
15:24 and um and that’s the way it was going to be
15:30 mary was cut off i had no way to test my reality
15:35 there were a lot of nurses and things that i went to and i said you know is this reality and and they
15:42 all reinforced yes it was you know that that i was really in the best of care
15:48 and that you know this was such a new field and we were always being told we were the pioneers we were on the
15:54 cutting edge of this this um field and that what they were
15:59 doing with us would be would shape the treatment of
16:05 mpds in future generations multiple personality disorder we’ve all seen it
16:10 dramatized on television even though it was controversial dr braun’s work was considered to be on the
16:16 cutting edge of treatment for mpd there’s just one facility devoted solely to its treatment
16:22 and as channel 5’s rick salinger reports it’s here in chicago rick ron and carol it’s located in that
16:28 canyon of condominiums along sheridan road north of hollywood dr bennett brown founded the
16:34 dissociative disorders unit one year ago as part of rush presbyterian st luke’s medical center
16:39 meet pat i’m 32 i’m married i have two children by outward
16:45 appearances she is normal but inside are dozens of different people
16:50 where would pat be without this unit i wouldn’t be alive uh chances are my children and husband
16:57 wouldn’t be alive either pat burgess was one of the first patients on the unit in 1986 she arrived after having been in
17:06 a depression for three years following the difficult birth of her second son
17:12 when a social worker diagnosed her with mpd she sought help at rush these were
17:18 the experts [Music]
17:24 they were in a very well respected teaching institution
17:30 i turned to that teaching institution for state-of-the-art medical care
17:37 cutting-edge medical care i didn’t turn to them for fringe therapy some goofy controversial
17:45 crap what do you hear her saying that the hurting is over dr braun
17:53 often treated me like his star patient i would have to teach other residents
18:00 and doctors and and media people about multiple personality disorder who’s
18:06 there sarah how old are you sarah 4’5
18:14 was supposed to switch personalities for the camera who’s this karen karen
18:22 you don’t seem too happy i’m not dr braun and i kind of rehearsed that a few times to make sure that it looked believable for
18:30 for the interviewer i was supposed to talk about how if it wasn’t for dr braun i wouldn’t be
18:36 alive where would pat be without this unit i wouldn’t be alive
18:41 patty says that dr braun both pushed her to remember things that didn’t occur and then believed her stories
18:49 after a year in the hospital patty traced the satanic history of her family back to the 17th century satanic cult
18:57 practices have been passed down through the paternal side of the family dr braun asked me to write up something
19:03 to do a presentation at his conference it was supposed to be one of my altar personalities
19:09 giving a history about the cult the satanic activity has been genealogically traced to a
19:16 southern slavic region of europe during the middle evil ages when her
19:22 forbearers were the supreme monarchs of the blood royal i believed that i was a satanic high
19:28 priestess that i was controlling a satanic cult in a nine state region
19:34 revealed with the history of multi i took satanic worship torturous human
19:41 sacrifice cannibalism all reality and fantasy just
19:47 blended together i was drugged i was hypnotized and i was mentally ill
19:55 she also knew nothing but i was told that you know until i hit bottom until i
20:02 dug all of this stuff out i would never get better and i would never have a chance for any kind of a future for my children
20:11 mary says she too was told she had to persevere in her treatment for the sake of her son i was told that
20:18 i was the only one in five generations who was given the insight
20:26 to break this cycle and if i wanted my son to live and not become
20:34 you know occult cultists or to to die then i was responsible for his
20:41 life a turning point in mary’s treatment came when dr sachs asked her to attend a
20:47 consultation with one of the most important experts in cult programming techniques
20:52 dr corey hammond professor of medicine at the university of utah
20:58 dr hammond lectured often on the origins and practices of the cult very very systematic brainwashing that
21:05 comes out of experimentation from nazi doctors and experimentation in the intelligence
21:11 community with mind control research and involves medical technology and is very very sophisticated
21:19 in one of his lectures not available to the public hammond described his theories about the
21:24 origins of satanic cult programming starting with a jewish collaborator in
21:30 the nazi death camps his name was greenbaum alias dr
21:35 greene some of the people then during the mind control research were satanists the nazi doctors and they
21:43 have used all the technology and in fact the kid who came over whose name was green bomb
21:49 changed his name and americanized it to green and got an md in the state of new york
21:55 and became known as dr green and he’s at the center of this process and is still around
22:01 he’s around mid 60s and still alive according to dr hammond dr green developed a secret code based
22:08 on the greek alphabet which the cult used to program its members
22:13 examples alpha represented general programming beta was sexual programming delta
22:20 was the program for killing gamma was the one that therapists should look
22:26 out for it was a deception program teaching misinformation and trickery dr hammond evaluated mary
22:35 is there any part of mary who knows anything about alpha beta
22:43 delta or theta he hypnotized me and put me in trance and then he asked me
22:50 about the greek alphabet and asked me to name any of the greek letters the alphabet that i knew
22:56 and i named a few and then he asked me for the gamma erasure code
23:03 and i didn’t know what he was talking about mary remembers being told that her gamma program
23:09 was still active that meant she was still loyal to the cult and possibly a danger to the staff and
23:16 other patients but i believe that quite a few of them that we’re treating are still involved in cults
23:22 and that we should not be treating them if they are and that’s a cruel terrible thing to say
23:28 and that is a danger to them and a danger to us mary says that she was told that besides being a cult
23:33 plant and a spy she was now strongly suspected of having ritually abused and
23:39 programmed her son he had to be evaluated she had to be
23:44 deprogrammed dr sax recommended that the work be done in houston by her colleague dr judith peterson
23:52 hi judy hi uh it’s good to see you today the two therapists referred patients to
23:58 each other and had collaborated on several training programs what you’re about to see is a role play
24:05 of an ab reaction peterson a licensed psychologist and phd
24:10 was clinical director of a special unit at spring shadows glenn a private psychiatric hospital in
24:16 houston texas a small building surrounded by trees the hospital was nicknamed
24:22 club med by its patients mary would stay there for two years
24:28 some of her therapy sessions were taped in this session dr peterson is to mary’s
24:34 right
24:41 by the time i got down to houston they didn’t care what had happened to me i was identified
24:48 as a perpetrator and treated as a perpetrator
24:53 she knows
25:00 they told me that there was someone some cult altar deep within my system
25:07 that knew the plan about killing my husband and my son
25:14 and then all i needed to do was to let that alter surface
25:20 [Applause]
25:26 it’s not by then mary says she believed it all
25:32 and tried hard to provide some useful information
25:40 they would say you know let the let them come up bring them up let the the real
25:48 occult loyal alters come up and give this plan you heard that what else what else what
25:54 else is
26:06 i was told that i would be go i would go to prison because they knew that i had had killed people and that i had abused
26:14 these children and i was part of this this international network
26:21 i hate you
26:28 mary’s friends had no idea what had happened to her
26:36 i i was very concerned at that time that maybe she was dead [Music]
26:42 i knew she’d call we were close friends i knew i knew she would call some way somehow
26:47 she would call if she could and by that point i was really beginning to doubt what was
26:54 going on with her and with joe and um i was just very scared
27:01 stop hurting people stop abusing people that’s what it means
27:07 don’t worry about feeling guilty just stop being a perpetrator mary’s husband joe who was working with
27:13 her doctors had been persuaded that his wife was indeed in a cult that was intent on
27:18 killing him and that mary’s alter personalities had abused their son
27:23 he’s been so screwed up by the cult that he has to have professional help to know
27:28 what it is to be a little boy the program after program
27:35 that’s got him so confused and he doesn’t know what it means to be a normal boy he’s working hard to find out what it is
27:44 ryan was admitted to the same hospital as his mother where he was being evaluated for
27:50 multiple personality disorder and cult abuse although he stayed on the
27:55 unit right next door to her mother and son were kept apart
28:00 sally macdonald was a nurse on the children’s ward i knew ryan has a patient on the
28:07 children’s unit and he came in as a very normal little boy who was full of joy full of
28:16 activity very normal talented little kid
28:26 ryan was one of several children at spring shadows were diagnosed with multiple personality
28:31 disorder as a result of ritual abuse these children came into the hospital as
28:36 really stable well-functioning kids most of them were admitted with
28:43 absolutely no idea of why they were there an example of
28:48 that is a 13 year old who was admitted on her 13th birthday and she was told that
28:56 that was the date that she would be initiated into a satanic cult
29:01 and that they by admitting her to the hospital they were protecting her
29:06 this nurse asked not to be identified what i saw our children being admitted with very normal behaviors being
29:13 allegedly involved in a cult not knowing anything about the cult and then slowly over time
29:20 being told about that they had parts and they had to look within themselves to find these
29:26 parts of them and there was a lot of pressure on them they went into therapy sessions to
29:32 identify these parts of them which eventually became alters which eventually had names and
29:40 became part of the multiple personality was she supposedly a member of a cult
29:49 she reported that dr peterson supervised the treatment of nearly all the mpd patients in the hospital
29:57 eventually most of her treatment techniques would be questioned among them her alleged practice of restraining
30:03 patients at nine points on their body for hours and sometimes days restraints
30:09 are a very serious form of treatment to protect a patient and yet
30:15 these patients were often kept in restraints for long periods of time sometimes to satisfy
30:22 information gathering of dr peterson she sought to bring out different altars
30:30 while this patient was tied down and and unless these patients produce these alters those patients stayed in
30:37 restraints for eight sixteen hours at a time
30:45 the nursing staff was torn and dismayed we were truly in the middle of an
30:51 ethical dilemma there was a lot of hostility from the psychologist and the
30:57 psychiatrist there was also a lot of discussion about the nurses
31:03 that they the reason there was such a conflict was because the nurses just couldn’t quote understand what was going on so the
31:10 belief was if they just educated us more we would understand everything
31:16 dr peterson wrote in a letter to the administrator of the hospital no education can occur with nurses who
31:23 still live in the dark ages it became very clear to the nurses that
31:30 if we objected there would be a reprisal and that reprisal would be a transfer
31:37 off the unit a demotion in some cases in actual termination
31:42 and that created a very chilling effect people were afraid to
31:47 object and yet they knew these nurses knew they had to object because
31:52 they feared violating their nurse practice act i didn’t feel that i
31:59 could really live with myself and the kinds of things that i was seeing happen to these children i felt
32:05 like these children were being robbed of their childhood dr peterson filed a child abuse report
32:12 against mary with the department of child and family services in illinois citing that mary had reported
32:18 electroshocking her son and abusing him in different places around the country
32:24 as for ryan dr peterson wrote ryan is felt to be a youngster who is highly
32:30 programmed as a structured poly fragmented mpd who has programs for
32:35 suicide homicide and return to the cult
32:40 ryan was 10 years old at the time i didn’t see him the last few days
32:46 before he left but i recently found out that after he left
32:51 he had gone on to a facility for multiple personalities
32:57 and that was very disheartening to me to hear that story i was very shocked that i thought he had
33:05 left the hospital because he was one of the lucky ones that had escaped
33:11 the facility dr peterson referred ryan to was back in chicago next door to the rush hospital complex
33:18 where his mother had first been hospitalized ryan was not the only child to be treated for multiple personality
33:25 disorder and cult-related abuse patty burgess’s two sons mikey and john
33:30 had spent almost three years under dr braun’s care at rush the children were put in the hospital
33:36 because i was told that multiple personality disorder had a genetic predisposition to it and
33:43 that the children would definitely develop multiple personality disorder and by having them in a teaching hospital
33:49 they could watch this develop and catch it and treat the children right away for it
33:55 john was hospitalized first at the age of five and was quickly diagnosed with multiple
34:01 personality disorder now you’re all in this little bible
34:08 wasn’t that funny bob maureen gannon was the state required
34:14 teacher on the children’s ward she spent several hours with john every day
34:20 he said john was mpd right they said john was in a multiple personality that
34:25 he had a multiple personality disorder did you see that no i did not see that
34:31 but i felt that that was a lack of my own training i wasn’t trained as a psychology psychiatrist and when they
34:37 would talk about the various personalities and the subtle differences of them i did not see those
34:47 i couldn’t have told you the difference i could not have pointed out and said this was this personality and this was
34:53 that personality at any time he seemed the same basically to you seem like a kid
35:00 patty’s younger son mikey was hospitalized seven months after his brother
35:06 dr braun became very concerned about the first halloween coming up 1986
35:13 and he’s he told us that unless mikey was in the hospital
35:18 he was in mortal danger mikey was then admitted to the hospital on an emergency
35:24 basis he was four years old patty and her children who were housed
35:30 in different parts of the hospital got together in therapy sessions patti remembers them
35:36 as the sticker sessions i was supposed to do everything that i could do to encourage and support the children in
35:43 the telling of these yucky secrets and the more yucky secrets they were able
35:48 to tell the more stickers they got for that day so the kids were real motivated to do this as well
35:55 excerpts from the child psychiatrists notes john talked about being threatened that
36:01 someone in his family would be killed if he didn’t obey orders two stickers and another
36:09 john related an incident where a black woman was seized by the cult and choked to death afterwards victim was barbecued three
36:17 stickers in this california trial where dr braun testified as an expert witness
36:24 he used an example from one of john’s sticker sessions to stress the validity of satanic abuse
36:29 of children i had one child who was just five years old talk to me about what is life to stick a
36:36 knife in somebody’s abdomen and pull it down and how the intestines pop out i mean they just blow out
36:43 and what it smells like the discussion that day was surrounding um john cutting open
36:50 this man’s stomach and dr braun was pumping john for some
36:56 details about how did this happen what was it like and john said how he took this knife and
37:04 he stuck it in this man and how he cut it and cut the man and how his
37:11 his stomach popped open and how it smelled terrible in the description of that having done
37:17 surgery myself i know what it’s like to open in the belly and if the anesthesia isn’t done right and the muscle relaxant isn’t done right
37:23 that’s exactly what happens the bowels come right out through the wound and this here’s a five-year-old that can describe to me something i know
37:29 something about and have it perfectly as far as i can the kids went back to the unit they got
37:35 their stickers that day and john got extra stickers because he did such a good good story here and i told dr bronn i
37:42 said wait a minute wait a minute you know hearing him i know that’s not real
37:48 because i know that’s a scene from a star a star wars movie
37:56 where luke skywalker cuts open this beast he was riding and all the guts spill out and it smells
38:03 really terrible [Music] i thought they smelled bad on the
38:10 outside and when i heard john talet i knew he was telling me the story from the movie
38:17 dr brian wouldn’t believe it what does a five-year-old learn about this not many five-year-olds go in operating
38:23 rooms of all the members of the burgess family only the boy’s father michael was not
38:30 thought to have been involved in the cult what did you make of it all well
38:37 as far as i can you know determine from uh from you know what patty had said and what the doctors
38:43 had said the boys were supposed to be being trained by patty to participate in
38:48 cult activities and then at some future they’d take over uh i guess a leadership role in this
38:54 cult and when did they first get into the cult
39:00 that you know shortly after birth i uh you know they were supposedly been trained as even a small
39:07 infants to to uh to do these kinds of satanic rituals to
39:12 do the murders uh you know to to kill other children and they were supposed to have been trained to do all that
39:19 but how could that have happened if you didn’t know about it i i i that’s what had me confused and
39:26 and uh you know as things started uh you know getting into a regular routine
39:32 of all you know every every week every day there was a new memory coming up you know after my initial you know shock
39:38 and [ __ ] and really fear because i was afraid for for my family’s life
39:45 it it became more and more difficult to believe all the stuff that happened did you ever
39:51 ask dr braun where the bodies were why there was no evidence why well of course
39:56 those were the the questions why aren’t you doing something about this how come the police aren’t being involved in this
40:02 and the answer of course was that that they were gathering evidence to be able to crack into this
40:08 very secretive and dangerous cult and that people had you know gone into
40:13 it under cover and had been killed or had been um actually drawn into the cult themself
40:20 and that that they were gathering evidence so that they could do something about it and the reason why it was never
40:26 uncovered was because these people ate the evidence so that there wasn’t any evidence and that there
40:32 were doctors involved with this so that there were cover-ups as far as um you know medical findings and things
40:40 so there were always answers for every question that everybody had you know that seemed reasonable
40:50 the burger’s children were hospitalized for almost three years
40:55 our five-year-old john who went in was there for 39 months
41:01 and mikey was brought into the hospital at four years old and he was kept on a children’s psychiatric unit
41:07 for 32 months from the time i entered the hospital until we got the children out of the
41:14 hospital by court order it was 1200 days and how much money
41:20 we each had one million dollar insurance policy that was almost completely topped out
41:28 so we’re looking at three million dollars this is a partial list of the burgess
41:34 family’s hospital bills their bill for medication alone was in
41:39 the tens of thousands of dollars hospital room and board was well over a million dollars
41:46 mary’s hospital bills also amounted to millions of dollars the rough estimate of just adding up
41:53 what hospital bills we do have and therapy bills that we do have it’s um over two and a half
41:59 million did you paid my insurance company paid out that amount of money
42:07 the cost of mary’s care at spring shadow’s glenn averaged twelve hundred dollars a day
42:12 according to the staff this was not unusual the unit was very profitable because
42:19 it was billed at an intensive care rate rather than the normal rate on another unit
42:26 and these patients stayed for long periods of time
42:32 dr jack leggett is a clinical psychologist who used to review mental health claims for insurance companies
42:38 around the country beginning in the late 1980s he noticed a startling pattern in the claims
42:44 involving mpd patients most of them had generous insurance policies
42:51 the focus was generally on patients with very rich benefits plans and i would find in some cases that
42:58 large numbers of people from single employers with those types
43:05 of plans would suddenly be presenting with this diagnosis an incidence
43:10 of multiple personality way beyond anything
43:15 reasonable that could be expected for a given population of individuals so
43:21 there was a targeting of the richer benefits plants
43:26 dr leggett discovered that questioning the bills of mpd patients could have unpleasant consequences i
43:35 was met with the most hostile responses that i came across in all the years i’d done
43:41 any kind of case management or clinical supervision beginning with discounting the
43:47 credibility of myself and the board certified experienced psychiatrists
43:52 and psychologists that i used extending on to
43:58 rather strange suggestions at times that i might be in somehow related to
44:05 these satanic cults or the organizations i worked for hospital staff also felt threatened that
44:12 if you resisted the psychologist and the psychiatrist
44:18 you might be labeled as one of the cult and that happened to some people
44:23 that they were considered cult members and so you never quite knew when you
44:29 might get labeled for that too it’s kind of like a witch hunt
44:34 according to dr leggett a lot of money was being spent while the patients were not getting any
44:40 better there’s sort of a cliche you have to get worse before you get better
44:46 the problem was people got worse without getting better
44:52 [Applause] mary was getting much worse
45:01 it was a snake pit it was like hell
45:10 i’m sure that i would die there sooner or later and probably sooner
45:23 somehow i had just gotten lost and no one out there will even know that
45:30 i’m i’m gone mary had been in houston for two years
45:37 when her insurance company began to push for a change in status she was to be moved permanently to a
45:42 nursing home somehow she says she gathered enough strength to resist
45:49 i wasn’t going um i refused to go i decided that i had nothing to lose
45:57 i had lost everything i everything i decided i just wanted to to leave and
46:04 take my chances according to mary the hospital agreed to
46:09 release her on the condition that she get herself a sophisticated security system to protect her from the cult and that
46:15 she find a therapist on the outside the doctor that i was released to
46:22 i continued to go to therapy with him and it wasn’t very long before
46:29 he he he said on my second visit he said do you like being multiple and i said no i hate
46:34 it it’s awful you know i’m really working to integrate all these parts and he says
46:40 you don’t have to be multiple anymore you can just stop just stop stop working
46:48 stop thinking about it we’re we’ll we’ll just work on getting you
46:53 physically healthy because i was in awful awful physical health
47:00 um and getting you off this medication because i had to go through all the
47:06 withdrawal and he said that’s enough we don’t need to work on your personalities
47:12 you don’t have to be multiple anymore when i stopped working on it
47:17 they it just it dissipated the memory started to stop
47:22 i found out that i could go outside my apartment and no one i never got shot at i could go to the
47:28 grocery store i never got poisoned i could make telephone calls i wasn’t
47:35 being taped nothing was happening it stopped because i stopped following dr
47:43 braun’s orders i stopped taking the medication and i stopped he stopped being involved in the
47:48 hypnosis and when my head started to clear after
47:56 detoxing off of all of that medicine and my critical thinking skills started
48:02 to return the switching stopped all these goofy things that were going on weren’t
48:10 happening anymore and i was able to finally take a look at
48:15 this and say you know wait a minute where are all these bodies
48:21 where are all these people that are supposed to be involved in this cult it took months and a court order to get
48:28 the hospital to release paddy’s two sons who the child psychiatrist claimed needed long-term
48:35 institutionalization today john is 15 and mikey 13.
48:42 their young boys are starting to go through puberty you know how’s this going to affect them
48:49 john now was just uh mainstreaming into uh into a regular uh junior high school mikey still goes to a
48:55 special school it’s just had a a very large impact it’s
49:01 like there’s been a hole in in in their in their life you know in
49:06 a normal period of growing up it’s like large chunk is just taken and is missing
49:13 [Applause] mary was not as lucky as the burgess family who ended up together
49:21 when she got out of the hospital in texas and returned home to chicago she found her husband and son who had
49:27 been in treatment with dr sax still believed that she was a member of a cult and intent on killing them she was still
49:35 listed with the state of illinois as a child abuser her husband had filed for divorce
49:41 there’s a emptiness there’s a void that i’ll never be able to fill
49:47 and until they stop until they stop the therapy with dr sachs
49:54 they will they won’t be able to get get out of this mindset
50:00 in april of 1995 mary met with ryan and joe at a court-appointed psychiatrist
50:06 office she had not seen her son in four years he was reluctant to talk to her
50:12 and did not want to see her again in the end the psychiatrist dr alan
50:18 rabbits produced a report for the court it reads i am of the firm opinion that mary’s
50:24 initial difficulties were not a manifestation of multiple personality disorders secondary to ritualistic abuse
50:32 nevertheless joe and ryan continue to believe the cult abuse explanation
50:38 both of them have placed their trust in mental health professionals who genuinely believe that mary was both
50:44 a victim and a perpetrator of this abuse continued treatment with the current
50:50 mental health treatment team even if issues of abuse are not addressed covertly perpetuates the
50:56 belief system that has destroyed this family
51:01 are they evil i don’t know how anyone could
51:10 know what is known now and have see what it has done to families this my family was not the first family
51:17 this had been going on for 15 years and i i now know of stories
51:23 almost exactly like my story that were 10 years before this under the same people
51:28 under the same doctors in the same hospitals so they knew what was going on and they
51:34 still continued to do it um were they evil i think that’s pretty evil
51:44 the dissociative disorders unit at spring shadows glenn hospital was shut down by the state in 1992
51:51 well sometimes i think judith peterson still sees patients in private practice she is being sued by 10 former patients
51:58 including mary s frontline asked dr peterson for an interview
52:04 but in an exchange of letters with her lawyer could not agree to the conditions she requested the history of these
52:10 meetings dr bennett braun and dr roberta sax declined to be interviewed for this program
52:16 they are still heading their dissociative disorders unit at rush hospital in chicago which remains one of the leading centers
52:22 for the treatment of multiple personality disorders they have been sued by several of their
52:27 former patients the burgers family and mary s among them being that we owe a tremendous
52:33 debt of gratitude to dr brown [Applause]
52:40 after seven years investigating claims of ritual abuse the fbi concluded there is little or no
52:47 evidence for allegations that deal with large-scale baby breeding human sacrifice and organized satanic
52:54 conspiracies it is up to mental health professionals not law enforcement
53:00 to explain why victims are alleging things that don’t seem to have happened
53:08 dear frontline last night i saw your show you can interact with frontline by
53:14 sending your comments by fax to 617-254-0243
53:20 via the internet at frontline wgbh.org and by letter to dear frontline 125
53:28 western avenue boston massachusetts 02134
53:35 and next time why is corporate america spending billions of dollars in
53:40 cyberspace welcome want to find out everything they can about you
53:45 somewhere in your computer you’ll know the movies i’ve seen you might be listened to you’ll know the clothes i’ve watched they’re gonna know what you like you
53:51 will know more about me than even the government big brother watching over then maybe even my wife
53:57 and it’s a little scary watch high stakes in cyberspace next time on front line
54:03 [Music] it was a snake pit it was like hell
54:17 i’m sure that i would die there sooner or later and probably sooner
54:29 [Music]
55:23 [Applause] funding for frontline is provided by the corporation for public broadcasting
55:31 and by annual financial support from viewers like you [Music]
55:36 frontline is produced for the documentary consortium by wgbh boston which is solely responsible for
55:42 its content
55:49 for video cassette information about this program please call this toll-free number 1-800-328-pbs
56:00 one
56:06 this is pbs
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