I started role playing 40 years ago. Innocently slaughtering goblins for years before I realized I was in the thrall of the devil. I would never have realized I was doing the devil's handiwork had I not attended a game at a public library in Tauranga (just down the road from Bethlehem College). There were protestors, actual adults, mostly middle aged women, and cardigan wearing men with scrupulously groomed beards, telling me I was dooming their children, who given the ages of those protesting must have been old enough to have voted, at least twice, to a fiery damnation. I didn’t know their children and I was pretty sure my 4th level dwarf fighter, drinking himself into oblivion in a corner of tavern while picking fights with passing elves wasn’t doing harm to anything (or anybody) other than his imaginary liver. So I walked past the local representatives of the religious extremities and proceeded to have a jolly good time. But that wasn’t the end of it. There were letters to the editor, complaints to the council, there were even threats of violence. Did any of this bring me closer to the devil? I can’t say. I dabbled briefly in a pentecostal church when I was younger (there was a girl…) and I might have glimpsed old toby there, but I can honestly say I never met him in a gaming session. I did however meet dozens of fascinating creative people who helped me build stories from the raw materials of imagination, every Friday at 6pm (bring your own snack of choice). I also met my best friend in that library. A friendship I’ve cherished for 35 years. So satanic panic be damned. I’m going to sit in a tavern in rusty armour, drink to Peter Ellis, and pick a fight with an elf.
Oct 13, 2022·edited Oct 13, 2022Liked by David Farrier
Whoa - that is intense! I can relate because the D&D moral panic thing also hit me twice too.
My first D&D experience was run by a Christian schoolmate for a year before he went and burnt all his D&D books when his church hooked in with the charismatic/evangelical wave that ran through NZ in the mid 1980s. I remember being bussed to one of those big rallies with Christian rock bands and the teenage induced hysteria and altar call at the end. You know the drill.
A year later after buying my own copy of AD&D, I got suckered along to a church in Titirangi which had gone all charismatic by a different school 'friend'. I got pounced upon by the creepily intense youth group leader and pressured to give my soul to Jesus. I just took the booklet to get him off my case and so I could get taken home by the friend's mother who had driven me there.
After escaping, he later turned up at my house uninvited the next weekend. I was home by myself and preparing for a AD&D session and he saw the books and flipped out. He was ranting that those gods were real and this was Satan tempting me in a battle for my soul and he wasn't going to let me do this.
I just kept silent - he was older and his anger was quite scary - and waited him out until he left. Thankfully, he must have decided my soul was 'lost' since he didn't hassle me again.
Burning books is a particular pastime for the parents of role players. Not mine, as long as I didn’t invite the devil back for tea I could read whatever I damn well chose. I think in hindsight they judged role playing by the role players, who were almost universally polite, bright, and respectful young people. As a rule, not a bad way of judging any activity I suspect. My parents approach wasn’t universal amongst those of my fellow gamers though. I suspect most just shook their heads and said something along the lines of ‘kids these days’ and went back to their crossword but there were a couple of exceptions. One of my friends, now a successful educator and academic, had his collection of role playing manuals burned… twice!!! The last time he was made to watch as his mother threw them one by one onto the pyre, presumably as she muttered incantations to Jesus. Who I suspect may have been too busy moving pedophile priests around the globe to give it much of a thought. Now, bear in mind that his mother had a PhD in christian counselling (admittedly I think it may have been purchased off the shelf from the acme university of christian qualifications but she still called herself doctor) and actively provided such services to the community. I never actually asked her what she thought about the optics of burning books and the rather direct comparison with the burning of impure non aryan literature by certain Germans. All in all, I was kind of afraid the next fire might have had a stake at the centre and me attached to it. Still, better late than never. The internet is a marvelous thing, maybe I can find her cellphone number…
Oh yeah, regarding the book burning. My DM actually burned the books himself since he was a youth group leader and drank the Kool-Aid. The other players wanted him to pass them on but he wanted to save our souls and expiate his guilt I guess.
My experience of role-playing fits with gamers being more psychologically healthy than the general public: less depression and anxiety, more connection, empathy and creativity, better complex problem-solving skills. Like psychotherapy, is also works quite well online and saw a surge in interest during the pandemic.
Thanks for sharing! Tauranga is a wild place. I had some off the chain encounters with evangelicals as a high school student there (even at a state school). I actually had a tutor who taught at Bethlehem College throw me out of his house in a wild rage then call my mother to tell her she’d raised a sinful child. Why? Because I had said ‘bullshit’ in response to an outlandish claim he’d made about America needing to bomb the Middle East. It’s a real melting pot alright.
This is such a wonderful response! Thank you for sharing! I'm about to start up a new campaign on Sunday, and it's been a few years since I've played. This made me smile!
I cried when the news came out last Friday. Finally. This case has distressed me since I was at intermediate school. Even to a 12 year old at Catholic School the whole thing seemed ludicrous.
I feel for the kids that were at the heart of this who were so failed by their parents and the other adults around them. What a burden to carry.
So glad you have shared this and connected all those dots. Its so important we understand the outcomes that come from allowing hysteria to over take logic.
Its sad to think how many men have been deterred from teaching and working with children in NZ over the last 30 years based on a fear of this craziness being able to happen.
On Tuesday I did a good long interview with NBC about Furry Panic in school, and called it another moral panic like the Satanic one. I love how you feature this as an exciting fake story vs boring truth.
The Furry Panic is naming supposed cat boxes put in school bathrooms for students who "identify as animals", which never happened. A Colorado Republican governor candidate repeated it and took it from a right-wing parents pressure group on Facebook. She is a member and the group is meant to grab power in schools, while fearmongering about LGBT people.
The boring truth is there ARE schools that have lockdown preparations for shooter incidents, including a bucket with kitty litter stashed in a closet in case they are locked down for a long time.
One of those schools is Columbine. Think of the implications of that. And right wingers say they are for freedom.
Yup - the whole anti-trans 'gender wars' is another moral panic with specious claims of 'protecting' children/women/LGB individuals from mutilation/erasure by evil surgeons/pedophiles/activists. And furries get swept along for the ride. Sociologically, conservatives end up equating social or sexual 'deviance' (and I mean that in the technical sense as a difference from an assumed norm i.e. basically being yourself) with moral and/or political deviance - just like the 1980s and the 1950s and the 1890s and the 1500s and....
So incredibly sad that Mr Ellis spent 7 years in prison. Whenever I read of stories like this I feel frustrated and angered by how much religion dictates so much destruction and ignorance on people's lives, in so many different ways! It's hard not to feel utter contempt for all the varying religions out there.
Can't help but think witches would have been far more likeable than a lot of the catholic priests I've read about, or the extreme evangelicals condemning anyone that does not conform to their absurd narrow mindedness.
Terribly sad for Mr Ellis, his family, and the children that had to grow up with the guilt and anger of knowing they had been used and manipulated to aid in the lies that targeted this man. And it infuriates me how often homosexuality gets thrown into the same group as devil worship by these fuckwits. What in the actual fuck...
The thing I find most terrifying about all this is that someone can watch something like Hocus Fucking Pocus 2 and find it powerful enough to inspire their easily influenced mind to do anything other than switch it off.
I know quite a few witches, as we have crossover interests, and they are honestly some of the kindest, most fun people I know. I'm very pro-witch, even if I have no idea what they're talking about half the time!
Another dimension to this case that has always bothered the hell out of me is WHY and HOW people could believe this without a shred of physical evidence. And yet even today sexual assaults have the lowest conviction rate by a substantial margin. We knew kids around that time who were actually abused. Just the ‘boring’ abuse that does routinely happen. Their abuser’s actions were excused and the community rallied around him. Silencing and gaslighting the young victims. Many years later, he was convicted on historic crimes. The adults in disbelieving those young victims had enabled him to continue.
Oct 13, 2022·edited Oct 13, 2022Liked by David Farrier
Yes, it's a phenomenon called 'Spectral Evidence' which was first discussed in relation to the Witch Trials and the 'evidence' deployed against Peter Ellis (and others) is of the same ilk . https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spectral_evidence
Essentially, when humans pretend they are more chaste, noble and selfless than is humanly possible and deny their desire, envy, and competitiveness, it goes collectively underground. In times of societal stress or change, that disowned 'badness' gets projected out in a socially contagious mass phenomenon and a monstrous entity or group that contains all of that is assumed to be out there, lurking. And they look like normal people.
To seek out and defeat it to protect children and the vulnerable, the 'good' end up embodying and acting out the very evil they fear - arbitrary prosecution, torture, etc. are all justified as necessary means to a divine end.
And children and the vulnerable or marginalised are harmed in the process. By being coerced to repeatedly elaborate stories, it gets to the point that the trauma is now subjectively real to them. Only they were not traumatised by the assumed perpetrators but by the psychotherapists, social workers and investigators instead.
Particularly, his point that satanic ritual narratives have historically functioned as the only permissible form of erotica/voyeuristic sexual fantasy for repressed fundamentalists, evangelicals and celibate monastics who could not own their desire for lots of pleasure-focussed sex, including sex with the 'wrong' gender without literally 'demonising' it.
All through out the ages, they would obsessively describe in great detail all the 'terrible' things that the devil would spell-bind them into doing or make them submit to as a test of their incredible faith and share the stories as a 'warning' to good Christians.
And always, it's the LGBTQ community and female witches who end up as a convenient protective receptacle for all the desire for that excessive taboo sex that 'straight' 'godly' people would never want of course. Perish the thought and pass around the woodcuts and paintings of perversion.
And Satanism is back, see my latest link from the Christian Post
When I saw it, I thought oh no here we go again. As someone who was false accused of being demon possessed, I fear for the latest victims of this moral panic.
I’ll admit -- I like spooky things. I’ve found life to be more fun when you engage with the weird, silly side. I (try to) to ghosts with Ouija Boards, I have tarot cards, I collect pretty rocks that someone told me could increase my confidence, and I’m an ambassador for an organization called Liminal Earth that’s curating map of submitted weird experiences.
The unexplained is fun. And as an ex-Catholic getting over a lot of religious trauma, I’ve found it easier to replace my once very rigid belief system with one that’s basically got no rules. Is bigfoot out there? I dunno! Can we call him? Let’s try it, I guess! There’s no harm in that.
There is, however, a lot of harm embedded within our culture (America’s, anyway). To me, it feels like it’s always stemmed from religion and spread outwards from there? I once went on a date with a guy who’d very nearly been an ordained priest, who told me that he once assisted on an exorcism of a wall that they’d determined was possessed because ... it was crying, apparently? When I asked why a demon would possess a wall in the first place, he said ‘because it would make a good story’. Because he’d told me the story, so maybe I’d believe, and tell others, who’d tell others, who’d be more susceptible to possession because they believed. The supernatural reality TV shows Discovery pushes always, always blame things on demons -- and people watch those, and believe them. It stops people from seeking the therapy the need, the medication and care they need because they feel like they have Demons, not medical problems. The damage caused at the end of the day is incalculable.
You’d have hoped that that shit, at the end of the day, would have been left in the 90s. But it feels like it’s just been on a boiler plate for decades, waiting to bubble over again. And it feels like it’s definitely going to. Maybe it won’t look exactly the same, but the rise in fascism, the pushback against trans individuals, the anti-vax fear mongering -- we’re primed and ready to burn anyone we feel is an ‘other’ at the stake again. At least that’s what it feels like to me.
this is so fascinating! have you listened to the podcast “You’re Wrong About?” one of their early episodes is on the satanic panic, and one of the co-hosts is an expert on the topic. there are also lots of other episodes that cover things you’ve mentioned before (Dyaltov Pass for example). its so fun to find connections like these!
I came to the comments to see if anyone had mentioned "You're Wrong About" :) - such a great podcast and the Satanic Panic is a fascinating/horrifying episode 💔
Tragic story, I sold a lot of copies of A City Possessed over the years.
One of the most interesting things about the ruling for me is how usually him dying would be the end of it, but the court recognised tikanga and restoring mana - it’s going to set a huge precedent in the future I think - and it’s an incredible moment for Māoridom - he was pakeha but Māori customs were still considered in his case. Incredible.
If anyone wants another great piece of writing about Satanic panic I highly recommend Damien Echols’ book. He was one of the west Memphis three, and if you’re not familiar you’re in for one hell of a ride.
Damien follows me on Twitter and we've exchanged some DMs. That meant... a lot. Followed that case closely and was lucky enough to see him and Peter Jackson at a Q&A in Auckland when Jackson did West of Memphis.
Also - bang on about the incredible moment for Māoridom. Good point.
A City Possessed is a fantastic book. Which particular Echol's book were you referring to, Mothy? I'd be keen to seek it out given your recommendation.
Interestingly, the fan-beloved character of Eddie Munson in Stranger Things Season 4 is inspired by Damien Echols' life story.
The one I’ve read is called Life After Death. It was written while he was on death row and explores a lot of the public sentiment about satanic panic and the case. It’s been a long time since I’ve read it but it hit me so hard at the time! I hope you enjoy, Paul!
Moral panics claim so many innocent victims. I grew up in Christchurch and was always sceptical of the whole Satanic Abuse panic. The claims against Peter Ellis were always so far fetched that it should never have gone to court. But moral panics are never about rational evaluation of the evidence. Peter, working in early childhood education, was an easy and obvious target for this conspiracy theory gone wild. Tragically he never lived to see his name cleared. While justice has finally been done, it is justice delayed.
Reading this, I am also reminded of my own story of being a victim of moral panic in the doomsday cult I grew up in. About a year after my twin brother's death whom I had attempted unsuccessfully to resuscitate, I developed non-epileptic seizures which worsened over time. While no physical reason could be found I believe that it was what is called a Conversion Disorder or Functional Neurological Disorder. These disorders tend to be triggered by trauma or extreme stress and can manifest with paralysis or non epileptic seizure.
A deacon in the cult and his wife, however, concluded that I was demon possessed and informed the local minister of their conclusion. The said minister then applied an exorcism on me to get rid of the supposed demon that had taken me over. Then after discussion with the regional director who looked after all the congregations of the cult in NZ and the pacific Islands it was decided to use my story to warn everyone of the dangers of the demonic realm and the occult, even though had never done anything related to the occult, not even D&D. But why let the facts get in the way of a good moral panic. So my experience was told and distorted around the country. But the local minister, one Colin Sutcliffe was particularly vicious in his telling, in what I have come to see was a masterclass in psychological destruction.
It was an experience that left psychologically damaged for years. With the help of a good therapist I have come to see this experience for what it was. I was a pawn to be used by those in power to increase their power and influence. From all the moral panics I've read about, big and small, this seems to be a similar dynamic. The victims are the weak, the disempowered, those who are non conformists. It may be women, ethnic minorities, the LBGTQI+ rainbow community, the poor etc. They all at some stage have been targets of moral panics in order to reinforce the power of the elite over those whom they consider to be the other.
Fuck, Grahame. That is a lot. So appreciative of you sharing it. The mind boggles. This is entirely optional, but I would like to know more - as this could be a really compelling piece. Email me if this is of any interest. These sorts of real life examples show how baked in this stuff was. Also totally understand if you want to leave it parked here. You've already gone above and beyond.
I am so sorry to hear what you went through with your brother. I hear you loud and clear about the physical/neuro response your body subjected you to. This has happened to me multiple times over the years. It feels like your mind is incapable of coping with the magnitude of the grief and pain and so it resorts to a physical response. Your experience is validating for me, as these incidents are terrifying but I've had no success yet in getting a professional to hear me. So I sincerely thank you for sharing.
The way you describe this experience of your brain doing things you don't understand, and instead of helping, you only had your "community" traumatize you further, I can only imagine how devastated and defeated you must have felt. I'm glad you seem to have found some resolution.
If you're a reader (and you're here on webworm so the chances are good!), you might find trauma researcher and specialist Bessel van der Kolk's book 'The Body Keeps the Score: Mind, Brain and Body in the Transformation of Trauma' gives you some further validation and insight/understanding that might assist you in accessing any care you might desire.
I am well aware of this excellent book. I now work in mental health and have recommended the book to many of my clients who have their own trauma history. It was hearing their stories of abuse, subjugation and control I saw a common thread with my own story that that was different but similar in so many respects.
My therapist recommended this book to me a couple months ago, and I read up on van der Kolk and was very intrigued! But I promptly forgot about it, so thank you for the reminder!!
Thank you for your validating and encouraging words. The last time this happened to me, it VERY clearly directly followed a major loss. My symptoms were frightening and probably life-threatening, but my psychiatrist and I weren't on the same page regarding the cause. It's so critical for patients to educate themselves so they can be their own best advocates.
It is a long journey of recovery. Many mental health professionals lack the knowledge and training and unfortunately can be dismissive of the lived of survivors. Kia Kaha.
Thanks for sharing this Grahame. I'm so sorry you went through something so distressing and painful. I can see how the overwhelming trauma, grief and possibly survivor guilt from your twin's death could easily be physically and neurologically expressed the way you describe.
The exorcism and weaponisation of your story 'for Jesus' at the hands of an authority figure is a re-traumatisation and an enormous betrayal and spiritually abusive.
I have personal experience of gay clients who had ministers and pastors attempt to 'cure' their sexuality via group exorcism of supposed demons who suffered similarly traumatic emotional wounding that took a lot to heal from.
And yes, all moral panics have a psychotic fear of 'difference' at their core.
The pray away the gay has caused so much damage. In Australia where I now live laws are being enacted to stop this practice. While I have not seen anyone in my practice, I've read a number of research reports as well as the story of Alan Chambers and Exodus Ministries which closed after 37 years with Chambers at the end stating his belief that same sex attraction could not be changed.
The conversion practices prohibition bill finally passed here in NZ last year too. My psychotherapy masters dissertation was about the history of societal and psychoanalytic homophobia. One of the allies of Exodus was a group called NARTH co-founded by one of ‘fathers’ of reparative aka conversion therapy, psychoanalyst Charles Socarides, who features heavily. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Association_for_Research_%26_Therapy_of_Homosexuality
A friend of mine was convicted of paedophilia in Canada in the mid 90s. The children (now adults) were all subjected to "recovered memory therapy" and he was accused and sent to trial. If you had ever met him once, you would know that the charges were nonsense. However, his lawyer told him to plead guilty. "They are going to convict you, anyway. If you plead not guilty, you may get 25 years; plead guilty and it will 'only' be three.". And that's what he got. He died a year ago. I think he was the most truly civilised man I have ever known.
After he had done his time and supposedly paid his dues, he could no longer travel. Countries refused to let him enter because he was a "paedophile". All these bloody Christians who constantly forget "and the greatest of these is Charity".
I am so, so sorry. That bs "recovered memory therapy" has a lot to answer for. Without that, no Michelle Remembers, no satanic panic. Sure, something else might have kicked it off - but that was 99% of the instigator for the takeover of news and pop culture.
Barbara Snow was another prolific “recovered memory” therapist who seemed to have many clients who had suffered SRA or been the subjects of convert military testing. She was put on probation in 2008 by the professional licensing board for her practices. But I think Jennings Brown was in contact with her for his The Gateway podcast and seemed like she was still practicing but in a less overt way.
This 'confess anyway or it will be even worse' dilemma as a mechanism to extract false confessions is exactly how the Spanish Inquisition worked too. No surprises there.
“The best stories always win. Doesn’t matter if they’re true or not.”
It’s hard for me to wrap my mind around how a person can ruin someone’s life over rumors they heard that have no truth to them. How someone’s life and reputation can be totally destroyed over things people said that aren’t even true. I’ll take the boring truth any day over wild lies that ruin lives.
It seems the meaning of the word truth is changing and people don't have the skills to apply logic and identify credible from batshit sources. Maybe they never did actually. "Truth" seems to be more commonly associated with personal truth/experience/feelings (isn't that an opinion?) rather than something backed up with proven facts.
I grew up in a very conservative religious community so I can be sympathetic to opinions that seem crazy because at one point I also had opinions that were crazy because that was all I was taught growing up.
I guess I naively hope that humans would have compassion/common sense in situations like this and they wouldn’t throw out false claims against a person and send them to prison and ruin their reputation.
I also wish facts would come out in court and hold up against the wild opinions of people that don’t know better.
You see this with misinformation on social media Al the time. The stories that are designed to make people feel something, anger, fear, smugness get spread and believed even when there is no evidence and if you stopped to think about the story for a second you would start seeing the holes and I think people get so caught up in the feeling they just don’t think. Especially when the story confirms a bias a person already holds. It’s frustrating human brains work like that. The boring truth is indeed better and I’ve been trying to tell anyone who will listen, that they hear or read something that makes them feel those emotions strongly they need to fact check it.
Educated women having careers was a big impetus of the Satanic Panic, they were supposed to be home taking care of their kids, not at a job they were proud of and worked hard to get (along with the implication that a man probably lost this job to this unqualified woman). Latchkey kids were big in the news back then, the kids who went home to empty houses and had to look after themselves until their parents got home. Those kids were supposedly ripe for the picking, not to mention the kids who were in daycare centers who were too young to know what was being "done" to them. All that panic and all that pain and there has never been a single proven case of children being hurt during a Satanic ritual. Meanwhile, actual Satanists are here making good trouble and protesting for reproductive rights and the removal of any mention of God from out government. The irony is so thick I want to put it on my hot chocolate.
The insanity of the “Holy” Spanish Inquisition & growing up surrounded by relics of torture & witch persecutions (most Austrian castles had torture chambers, most villages had some witches’ gallows in the woods somewhere) is what made me turn on my Catholic upbringing at age 10.
It was so OBVIOUSLY unjust and outrageous and concocted by the men in the Church as a tool for control & their own perversions (e.g. did you know the jailers of a virgin witch could rape her before she was burnt to “cleanse” her?)... With the “Hexenhammer” (Malleus Maleficarum) being one of the most misogynistic - and influential - texts ever written, I found it so hard to understand that so few other people around me shared my outrage. Austria remained over 90% Catholic until some massive child abuse scandals in 90s finally took the gloss off...
So I turned into a Punk rebelling this oppressive BS that surrounded me & to this day my mother incredulously asks me if I’m a Satanist every time she sees me in a skull shirt 🤦♀️ This indoctrination by the Church - despite all the evidence of past & current horrors & injustice that maimed, tortured & killed so many good lives - still goes extremely deep.
I feel so much for Peter Ellis & anyone who ever got their lives destroyed by a genuine “witch hunt”. Which is why I’m so distraught that Trumpists are turning the phrase into meaning the opposite - and one of the greatest predators & perpetrators into a Saint who is “saving the children from pedophile blood-drinking libs”. This opposite-world is an utter disgrace to the millions of souls that were harmed & forgotten by this outrageous tool of misogyny & hatred.
Yeah, I read about the witch trials when I was 8 and it did a real number on me. I was so distressed about how they were all innocent and how could people do this to other people?
No adults could answer that for me at the time so the question stayed with me. David Frankfurter's 'Evil Incarnate' was the book to finally answer it which I read as part of my research into societal and psychoanalytic homophobia.
One of the underappreciated factors is that homophobia is always part of these moral panics, sometimes in the foreground but always lurking in the background and snaring LGBTQ individuals. Many gay men were burnt at the stake alongside the purported witches - it's the origin of the gay slur 'faggot' i.e. that you're a bundle of wood waiting to be burnt. Similarly, many LGBTQ individuals were sent to the gas chambers alongside the Jews targeted by the Holocaust.
Many people who were accused of witchcraft were arguably neurodivergent too. Pretty much all panics run on a psychotic level of fear about 'difference'.
Yup, it's the same old tale of history - in this case horrendous injustice towards minorities - repeating itself. I am just beyond distressed that despite all our technological progress and giving the world access to the combined knowledge of humanity in a handheld computer, we still just keep perpetrating the same horrors on each other over and over... If there is a God, it is definitely Cthulhu.
And we have the moral panic over trans kids. Also the Christian Post who have resurrected the Satanism panic are also in a moral panic over trans kids (I've shared the link).
Eurgh! I always knew of Peter Ellis' name and that he was probably innocent but I didn't realise the REDICULOUS crimes he was supposed to have perpetrated. I could rant on for days about this but all I'm going to say is the whole satanic panic movement, like QAnon, is just another human example of SOME people WORRYING ABOUT THE WRONG THING! We have ACTUAL ISSUES that NEED YOUR ATTENTION and you're trying to SAVE CHILDREN FROM SOMETHING THAT DOESN'T EVEN EXIST.
Some ideas: climate change and it's coming challenges (that will effect EVERYONE on earth because it's the ENVIRONMENT we LIVE IN) Domestic violence and its insidious erosion of our community, crumbling infrastructure (the poop has gotta go somewhere, into the sea ain't great) our increasingly ageing population and the challenges that will come from that. There, that's 4 things that actually exist right now.
Eurrrgghhh!? Gets me angry.
I'm actually a kiwi living in Oz, back in NZ for a 2 week holiday (fly back this Saturday) and I've been chatting to friends about the state of things, as you do. I feel like most humans right now are just trying to do the best they can living their life, raising their families, working to pay their bills. Then you get these idiots screaming into the void, who we hear because they SCREAM LOUD, and then everyone starts thinking that maybe everything is f**ked... It's much easier to be apathetic if everything is f**ked? Anyway, from what I can see there are coming challenges, but nothing insurmountable if we work together as humans... Rather than listening to keyboard warriors! Gah! Face-palm.
I don't know how we teach people to be more intrigued with the mundane, and not search for entertainment in the news, or other peoples lives. Clearly, sensationalism, when paired with "othering", is incredibly common and disastrously dangerous.
Side note: I was horrified listening to the episode of Armchair Expert with Saul Kassin on False Confessions. There's clearly a massive element of that here in Ellis' case.
I started role playing 40 years ago. Innocently slaughtering goblins for years before I realized I was in the thrall of the devil. I would never have realized I was doing the devil's handiwork had I not attended a game at a public library in Tauranga (just down the road from Bethlehem College). There were protestors, actual adults, mostly middle aged women, and cardigan wearing men with scrupulously groomed beards, telling me I was dooming their children, who given the ages of those protesting must have been old enough to have voted, at least twice, to a fiery damnation. I didn’t know their children and I was pretty sure my 4th level dwarf fighter, drinking himself into oblivion in a corner of tavern while picking fights with passing elves wasn’t doing harm to anything (or anybody) other than his imaginary liver. So I walked past the local representatives of the religious extremities and proceeded to have a jolly good time. But that wasn’t the end of it. There were letters to the editor, complaints to the council, there were even threats of violence. Did any of this bring me closer to the devil? I can’t say. I dabbled briefly in a pentecostal church when I was younger (there was a girl…) and I might have glimpsed old toby there, but I can honestly say I never met him in a gaming session. I did however meet dozens of fascinating creative people who helped me build stories from the raw materials of imagination, every Friday at 6pm (bring your own snack of choice). I also met my best friend in that library. A friendship I’ve cherished for 35 years. So satanic panic be damned. I’m going to sit in a tavern in rusty armour, drink to Peter Ellis, and pick a fight with an elf.
Whoa - that is intense! I can relate because the D&D moral panic thing also hit me twice too.
My first D&D experience was run by a Christian schoolmate for a year before he went and burnt all his D&D books when his church hooked in with the charismatic/evangelical wave that ran through NZ in the mid 1980s. I remember being bussed to one of those big rallies with Christian rock bands and the teenage induced hysteria and altar call at the end. You know the drill.
A year later after buying my own copy of AD&D, I got suckered along to a church in Titirangi which had gone all charismatic by a different school 'friend'. I got pounced upon by the creepily intense youth group leader and pressured to give my soul to Jesus. I just took the booklet to get him off my case and so I could get taken home by the friend's mother who had driven me there.
After escaping, he later turned up at my house uninvited the next weekend. I was home by myself and preparing for a AD&D session and he saw the books and flipped out. He was ranting that those gods were real and this was Satan tempting me in a battle for my soul and he wasn't going to let me do this.
I just kept silent - he was older and his anger was quite scary - and waited him out until he left. Thankfully, he must have decided my soul was 'lost' since he didn't hassle me again.
Burning books is a particular pastime for the parents of role players. Not mine, as long as I didn’t invite the devil back for tea I could read whatever I damn well chose. I think in hindsight they judged role playing by the role players, who were almost universally polite, bright, and respectful young people. As a rule, not a bad way of judging any activity I suspect. My parents approach wasn’t universal amongst those of my fellow gamers though. I suspect most just shook their heads and said something along the lines of ‘kids these days’ and went back to their crossword but there were a couple of exceptions. One of my friends, now a successful educator and academic, had his collection of role playing manuals burned… twice!!! The last time he was made to watch as his mother threw them one by one onto the pyre, presumably as she muttered incantations to Jesus. Who I suspect may have been too busy moving pedophile priests around the globe to give it much of a thought. Now, bear in mind that his mother had a PhD in christian counselling (admittedly I think it may have been purchased off the shelf from the acme university of christian qualifications but she still called herself doctor) and actively provided such services to the community. I never actually asked her what she thought about the optics of burning books and the rather direct comparison with the burning of impure non aryan literature by certain Germans. All in all, I was kind of afraid the next fire might have had a stake at the centre and me attached to it. Still, better late than never. The internet is a marvelous thing, maybe I can find her cellphone number…
Oh yeah, regarding the book burning. My DM actually burned the books himself since he was a youth group leader and drank the Kool-Aid. The other players wanted him to pass them on but he wanted to save our souls and expiate his guilt I guess.
My experience of role-playing fits with gamers being more psychologically healthy than the general public: less depression and anxiety, more connection, empathy and creativity, better complex problem-solving skills. Like psychotherapy, is also works quite well online and saw a surge in interest during the pandemic.
In fact, this recent 2022 research paper “Role-play Games (RPGs) for Mental Health (Why Not?)” backs this up and explores how role playing is a benefit to mental health: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11469-022-00832-y
Amen. A-fucking-men.
Thanks for sharing! Tauranga is a wild place. I had some off the chain encounters with evangelicals as a high school student there (even at a state school). I actually had a tutor who taught at Bethlehem College throw me out of his house in a wild rage then call my mother to tell her she’d raised a sinful child. Why? Because I had said ‘bullshit’ in response to an outlandish claim he’d made about America needing to bomb the Middle East. It’s a real melting pot alright.
In hindsight Bethlehem College was SO unhinged.
Epic comment, thanks for sharing 🙏🏻
This is such a wonderful response! Thank you for sharing! I'm about to start up a new campaign on Sunday, and it's been a few years since I've played. This made me smile!
I cried when the news came out last Friday. Finally. This case has distressed me since I was at intermediate school. Even to a 12 year old at Catholic School the whole thing seemed ludicrous.
I feel for the kids that were at the heart of this who were so failed by their parents and the other adults around them. What a burden to carry.
So glad you have shared this and connected all those dots. Its so important we understand the outcomes that come from allowing hysteria to over take logic.
Its sad to think how many men have been deterred from teaching and working with children in NZ over the last 30 years based on a fear of this craziness being able to happen.
Poor dude, but so happy for the outcome.
I cried as well. This thing lodged in my brain.
The remarkable thing? I've heard from a few Webworm readers who told me they are cancelling / putting me in spam bin.
So this stuff still has a hold on people - these bung ideas - so we gotta keep talking about it.
PS: if you have the emotional stability for it, this stuff from Mel Reid, who was there at the time, has been amazing to revisit: https://www.newsroom.co.nz/podcast-card/peter-ellis-faith-finally-repaid
So disappointing :( but, like you say, only makes keeping visibility all the more important ❤
Mel is fantastic, holy moly. Thank you!
On Tuesday I did a good long interview with NBC about Furry Panic in school, and called it another moral panic like the Satanic one. I love how you feature this as an exciting fake story vs boring truth.
The Furry Panic is naming supposed cat boxes put in school bathrooms for students who "identify as animals", which never happened. A Colorado Republican governor candidate repeated it and took it from a right-wing parents pressure group on Facebook. She is a member and the group is meant to grab power in schools, while fearmongering about LGBT people.
The boring truth is there ARE schools that have lockdown preparations for shooter incidents, including a bucket with kitty litter stashed in a closet in case they are locked down for a long time.
One of those schools is Columbine. Think of the implications of that. And right wingers say they are for freedom.
I must watch this - link me to it if it's online?
Yup - the whole anti-trans 'gender wars' is another moral panic with specious claims of 'protecting' children/women/LGB individuals from mutilation/erasure by evil surgeons/pedophiles/activists. And furries get swept along for the ride. Sociologically, conservatives end up equating social or sexual 'deviance' (and I mean that in the technical sense as a difference from an assumed norm i.e. basically being yourself) with moral and/or political deviance - just like the 1980s and the 1950s and the 1890s and the 1500s and....
PS I continue to be such a fan of your work!
So incredibly sad that Mr Ellis spent 7 years in prison. Whenever I read of stories like this I feel frustrated and angered by how much religion dictates so much destruction and ignorance on people's lives, in so many different ways! It's hard not to feel utter contempt for all the varying religions out there.
Can't help but think witches would have been far more likeable than a lot of the catholic priests I've read about, or the extreme evangelicals condemning anyone that does not conform to their absurd narrow mindedness.
Terribly sad for Mr Ellis, his family, and the children that had to grow up with the guilt and anger of knowing they had been used and manipulated to aid in the lies that targeted this man. And it infuriates me how often homosexuality gets thrown into the same group as devil worship by these fuckwits. What in the actual fuck...
The thing I find most terrifying about all this is that someone can watch something like Hocus Fucking Pocus 2 and find it powerful enough to inspire their easily influenced mind to do anything other than switch it off.
I know quite a few witches, as we have crossover interests, and they are honestly some of the kindest, most fun people I know. I'm very pro-witch, even if I have no idea what they're talking about half the time!
Another dimension to this case that has always bothered the hell out of me is WHY and HOW people could believe this without a shred of physical evidence. And yet even today sexual assaults have the lowest conviction rate by a substantial margin. We knew kids around that time who were actually abused. Just the ‘boring’ abuse that does routinely happen. Their abuser’s actions were excused and the community rallied around him. Silencing and gaslighting the young victims. Many years later, he was convicted on historic crimes. The adults in disbelieving those young victims had enabled him to continue.
Yes, it's a phenomenon called 'Spectral Evidence' which was first discussed in relation to the Witch Trials and the 'evidence' deployed against Peter Ellis (and others) is of the same ilk . https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spectral_evidence
David Frankfurters book 'Evil Incarnate' explores the how and why. https://www.amazon.com/Evil-Incarnate-Demonic-Conspiracy-Satanic/dp/0691136297
Essentially, when humans pretend they are more chaste, noble and selfless than is humanly possible and deny their desire, envy, and competitiveness, it goes collectively underground. In times of societal stress or change, that disowned 'badness' gets projected out in a socially contagious mass phenomenon and a monstrous entity or group that contains all of that is assumed to be out there, lurking. And they look like normal people.
To seek out and defeat it to protect children and the vulnerable, the 'good' end up embodying and acting out the very evil they fear - arbitrary prosecution, torture, etc. are all justified as necessary means to a divine end.
And children and the vulnerable or marginalised are harmed in the process. By being coerced to repeatedly elaborate stories, it gets to the point that the trauma is now subjectively real to them. Only they were not traumatised by the assumed perpetrators but by the psychotherapists, social workers and investigators instead.
Thanks for all this - referencing it in a future Webworm!
You're welcome. I'm really summarising/simplifying Frankfurter's richly detailed thesis down there.
Particularly, his point that satanic ritual narratives have historically functioned as the only permissible form of erotica/voyeuristic sexual fantasy for repressed fundamentalists, evangelicals and celibate monastics who could not own their desire for lots of pleasure-focussed sex, including sex with the 'wrong' gender without literally 'demonising' it.
All through out the ages, they would obsessively describe in great detail all the 'terrible' things that the devil would spell-bind them into doing or make them submit to as a test of their incredible faith and share the stories as a 'warning' to good Christians.
And always, it's the LGBTQ community and female witches who end up as a convenient protective receptacle for all the desire for that excessive taboo sex that 'straight' 'godly' people would never want of course. Perish the thought and pass around the woodcuts and paintings of perversion.
I guess you could say that “Hell hath no fury like a fundies’ porn”
And Satanism is back, see my latest link from the Christian Post
When I saw it, I thought oh no here we go again. As someone who was false accused of being demon possessed, I fear for the latest victims of this moral panic.
That's fascinating
I’ll admit -- I like spooky things. I’ve found life to be more fun when you engage with the weird, silly side. I (try to) to ghosts with Ouija Boards, I have tarot cards, I collect pretty rocks that someone told me could increase my confidence, and I’m an ambassador for an organization called Liminal Earth that’s curating map of submitted weird experiences.
The unexplained is fun. And as an ex-Catholic getting over a lot of religious trauma, I’ve found it easier to replace my once very rigid belief system with one that’s basically got no rules. Is bigfoot out there? I dunno! Can we call him? Let’s try it, I guess! There’s no harm in that.
There is, however, a lot of harm embedded within our culture (America’s, anyway). To me, it feels like it’s always stemmed from religion and spread outwards from there? I once went on a date with a guy who’d very nearly been an ordained priest, who told me that he once assisted on an exorcism of a wall that they’d determined was possessed because ... it was crying, apparently? When I asked why a demon would possess a wall in the first place, he said ‘because it would make a good story’. Because he’d told me the story, so maybe I’d believe, and tell others, who’d tell others, who’d be more susceptible to possession because they believed. The supernatural reality TV shows Discovery pushes always, always blame things on demons -- and people watch those, and believe them. It stops people from seeking the therapy the need, the medication and care they need because they feel like they have Demons, not medical problems. The damage caused at the end of the day is incalculable.
You’d have hoped that that shit, at the end of the day, would have been left in the 90s. But it feels like it’s just been on a boiler plate for decades, waiting to bubble over again. And it feels like it’s definitely going to. Maybe it won’t look exactly the same, but the rise in fascism, the pushback against trans individuals, the anti-vax fear mongering -- we’re primed and ready to burn anyone we feel is an ‘other’ at the stake again. At least that’s what it feels like to me.
You are diving into stuff with an open mind - and that's the difference. No-one is telling you what to believe. And that's fucking marvellous.
For a weeping wall, a plumber, roofer or painter would likely be more effective than an exorcist...
My ceiling is leaking, and I hadn’t thought to exorcise it! Thanks for the idea.
EXORCISING A WALL omg I'm obsessed already. Reminds me of the classic "Death Bed: The Bed That Eats People" https://youtu.be/3jYyYl3RdjI
this is so fascinating! have you listened to the podcast “You’re Wrong About?” one of their early episodes is on the satanic panic, and one of the co-hosts is an expert on the topic. there are also lots of other episodes that cover things you’ve mentioned before (Dyaltov Pass for example). its so fun to find connections like these!
I love that podcast but have not listened to that one. Thanks!
*cues it up*
Love “You’re Wrong About”!
Love this podcast too! You’re Wrong About and American Hysteria both cover a few moral panics!
I came to the comments to see if anyone had mentioned "You're Wrong About" :) - such a great podcast and the Satanic Panic is a fascinating/horrifying episode 💔
Tragic story, I sold a lot of copies of A City Possessed over the years.
One of the most interesting things about the ruling for me is how usually him dying would be the end of it, but the court recognised tikanga and restoring mana - it’s going to set a huge precedent in the future I think - and it’s an incredible moment for Māoridom - he was pakeha but Māori customs were still considered in his case. Incredible.
If anyone wants another great piece of writing about Satanic panic I highly recommend Damien Echols’ book. He was one of the west Memphis three, and if you’re not familiar you’re in for one hell of a ride.
Damien follows me on Twitter and we've exchanged some DMs. That meant... a lot. Followed that case closely and was lucky enough to see him and Peter Jackson at a Q&A in Auckland when Jackson did West of Memphis.
Also - bang on about the incredible moment for Māoridom. Good point.
A City Possessed is a fantastic book. Which particular Echol's book were you referring to, Mothy? I'd be keen to seek it out given your recommendation.
Interestingly, the fan-beloved character of Eddie Munson in Stranger Things Season 4 is inspired by Damien Echols' life story.
The one I’ve read is called Life After Death. It was written while he was on death row and explores a lot of the public sentiment about satanic panic and the case. It’s been a long time since I’ve read it but it hit me so hard at the time! I hope you enjoy, Paul!
Thanks! I've purchased the book. I see he's written a few now which all look rather fascinating.
Moral panics claim so many innocent victims. I grew up in Christchurch and was always sceptical of the whole Satanic Abuse panic. The claims against Peter Ellis were always so far fetched that it should never have gone to court. But moral panics are never about rational evaluation of the evidence. Peter, working in early childhood education, was an easy and obvious target for this conspiracy theory gone wild. Tragically he never lived to see his name cleared. While justice has finally been done, it is justice delayed.
Reading this, I am also reminded of my own story of being a victim of moral panic in the doomsday cult I grew up in. About a year after my twin brother's death whom I had attempted unsuccessfully to resuscitate, I developed non-epileptic seizures which worsened over time. While no physical reason could be found I believe that it was what is called a Conversion Disorder or Functional Neurological Disorder. These disorders tend to be triggered by trauma or extreme stress and can manifest with paralysis or non epileptic seizure.
A deacon in the cult and his wife, however, concluded that I was demon possessed and informed the local minister of their conclusion. The said minister then applied an exorcism on me to get rid of the supposed demon that had taken me over. Then after discussion with the regional director who looked after all the congregations of the cult in NZ and the pacific Islands it was decided to use my story to warn everyone of the dangers of the demonic realm and the occult, even though had never done anything related to the occult, not even D&D. But why let the facts get in the way of a good moral panic. So my experience was told and distorted around the country. But the local minister, one Colin Sutcliffe was particularly vicious in his telling, in what I have come to see was a masterclass in psychological destruction.
It was an experience that left psychologically damaged for years. With the help of a good therapist I have come to see this experience for what it was. I was a pawn to be used by those in power to increase their power and influence. From all the moral panics I've read about, big and small, this seems to be a similar dynamic. The victims are the weak, the disempowered, those who are non conformists. It may be women, ethnic minorities, the LBGTQI+ rainbow community, the poor etc. They all at some stage have been targets of moral panics in order to reinforce the power of the elite over those whom they consider to be the other.
Fuck, Grahame. That is a lot. So appreciative of you sharing it. The mind boggles. This is entirely optional, but I would like to know more - as this could be a really compelling piece. Email me if this is of any interest. These sorts of real life examples show how baked in this stuff was. Also totally understand if you want to leave it parked here. You've already gone above and beyond.
davidfarrier@protonmail.com
More than willing to share more. It is my way of reclaiming my story and taking back my power.
I am so sorry to hear what you went through with your brother. I hear you loud and clear about the physical/neuro response your body subjected you to. This has happened to me multiple times over the years. It feels like your mind is incapable of coping with the magnitude of the grief and pain and so it resorts to a physical response. Your experience is validating for me, as these incidents are terrifying but I've had no success yet in getting a professional to hear me. So I sincerely thank you for sharing.
The way you describe this experience of your brain doing things you don't understand, and instead of helping, you only had your "community" traumatize you further, I can only imagine how devastated and defeated you must have felt. I'm glad you seem to have found some resolution.
Michelle, speaking as a psychotherapist, you are far from alone in your experience of overwhelming grief and trauma that leads to the development of complex PTSD. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complex_post-traumatic_stress_disorder
If you're a reader (and you're here on webworm so the chances are good!), you might find trauma researcher and specialist Bessel van der Kolk's book 'The Body Keeps the Score: Mind, Brain and Body in the Transformation of Trauma' gives you some further validation and insight/understanding that might assist you in accessing any care you might desire.
https://www.amazon.com/Body-Keeps-Score-Transformation-Trauma-ebook/dp/B00IICN1F8/
I am well aware of this excellent book. I now work in mental health and have recommended the book to many of my clients who have their own trauma history. It was hearing their stories of abuse, subjugation and control I saw a common thread with my own story that that was different but similar in so many respects.
My therapist recommended this book to me a couple months ago, and I read up on van der Kolk and was very intrigued! But I promptly forgot about it, so thank you for the reminder!!
Thank you for your validating and encouraging words. The last time this happened to me, it VERY clearly directly followed a major loss. My symptoms were frightening and probably life-threatening, but my psychiatrist and I weren't on the same page regarding the cause. It's so critical for patients to educate themselves so they can be their own best advocates.
It is a long journey of recovery. Many mental health professionals lack the knowledge and training and unfortunately can be dismissive of the lived of survivors. Kia Kaha.
Thanks for sharing this Grahame. I'm so sorry you went through something so distressing and painful. I can see how the overwhelming trauma, grief and possibly survivor guilt from your twin's death could easily be physically and neurologically expressed the way you describe.
The exorcism and weaponisation of your story 'for Jesus' at the hands of an authority figure is a re-traumatisation and an enormous betrayal and spiritually abusive.
I have personal experience of gay clients who had ministers and pastors attempt to 'cure' their sexuality via group exorcism of supposed demons who suffered similarly traumatic emotional wounding that took a lot to heal from.
And yes, all moral panics have a psychotic fear of 'difference' at their core.
The pray away the gay has caused so much damage. In Australia where I now live laws are being enacted to stop this practice. While I have not seen anyone in my practice, I've read a number of research reports as well as the story of Alan Chambers and Exodus Ministries which closed after 37 years with Chambers at the end stating his belief that same sex attraction could not be changed.
The conversion practices prohibition bill finally passed here in NZ last year too. My psychotherapy masters dissertation was about the history of societal and psychoanalytic homophobia. One of the allies of Exodus was a group called NARTH co-founded by one of ‘fathers’ of reparative aka conversion therapy, psychoanalyst Charles Socarides, who features heavily. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Association_for_Research_%26_Therapy_of_Homosexuality
I am sorry this happened to you, thank you for sharing a painful life story so eloquently
Kids don't know the difference between fantasy and reality, also we should not let them play D&D in case they get turned into Warlocks
I just hope they don't get turned into Evangelicals
A friend of mine was convicted of paedophilia in Canada in the mid 90s. The children (now adults) were all subjected to "recovered memory therapy" and he was accused and sent to trial. If you had ever met him once, you would know that the charges were nonsense. However, his lawyer told him to plead guilty. "They are going to convict you, anyway. If you plead not guilty, you may get 25 years; plead guilty and it will 'only' be three.". And that's what he got. He died a year ago. I think he was the most truly civilised man I have ever known.
After he had done his time and supposedly paid his dues, he could no longer travel. Countries refused to let him enter because he was a "paedophile". All these bloody Christians who constantly forget "and the greatest of these is Charity".
I am so, so sorry. That bs "recovered memory therapy" has a lot to answer for. Without that, no Michelle Remembers, no satanic panic. Sure, something else might have kicked it off - but that was 99% of the instigator for the takeover of news and pop culture.
Barbara Snow was another prolific “recovered memory” therapist who seemed to have many clients who had suffered SRA or been the subjects of convert military testing. She was put on probation in 2008 by the professional licensing board for her practices. But I think Jennings Brown was in contact with her for his The Gateway podcast and seemed like she was still practicing but in a less overt way.
This 'confess anyway or it will be even worse' dilemma as a mechanism to extract false confessions is exactly how the Spanish Inquisition worked too. No surprises there.
It's also how American police extract such an alarming number of false confessions.
https://youtu.be/LnF1OtP2Svk :)
😭😭This makes my heart ache
“The best stories always win. Doesn’t matter if they’re true or not.”
It’s hard for me to wrap my mind around how a person can ruin someone’s life over rumors they heard that have no truth to them. How someone’s life and reputation can be totally destroyed over things people said that aren’t even true. I’ll take the boring truth any day over wild lies that ruin lives.
It seems the meaning of the word truth is changing and people don't have the skills to apply logic and identify credible from batshit sources. Maybe they never did actually. "Truth" seems to be more commonly associated with personal truth/experience/feelings (isn't that an opinion?) rather than something backed up with proven facts.
I grew up in a very conservative religious community so I can be sympathetic to opinions that seem crazy because at one point I also had opinions that were crazy because that was all I was taught growing up.
I guess I naively hope that humans would have compassion/common sense in situations like this and they wouldn’t throw out false claims against a person and send them to prison and ruin their reputation.
I also wish facts would come out in court and hold up against the wild opinions of people that don’t know better.
Sometimes the world is really disappointing.
You see this with misinformation on social media Al the time. The stories that are designed to make people feel something, anger, fear, smugness get spread and believed even when there is no evidence and if you stopped to think about the story for a second you would start seeing the holes and I think people get so caught up in the feeling they just don’t think. Especially when the story confirms a bias a person already holds. It’s frustrating human brains work like that. The boring truth is indeed better and I’ve been trying to tell anyone who will listen, that they hear or read something that makes them feel those emotions strongly they need to fact check it.
Educated women having careers was a big impetus of the Satanic Panic, they were supposed to be home taking care of their kids, not at a job they were proud of and worked hard to get (along with the implication that a man probably lost this job to this unqualified woman). Latchkey kids were big in the news back then, the kids who went home to empty houses and had to look after themselves until their parents got home. Those kids were supposedly ripe for the picking, not to mention the kids who were in daycare centers who were too young to know what was being "done" to them. All that panic and all that pain and there has never been a single proven case of children being hurt during a Satanic ritual. Meanwhile, actual Satanists are here making good trouble and protesting for reproductive rights and the removal of any mention of God from out government. The irony is so thick I want to put it on my hot chocolate.
I hadn't latched onto this angle. Appreciated.
The insanity of the “Holy” Spanish Inquisition & growing up surrounded by relics of torture & witch persecutions (most Austrian castles had torture chambers, most villages had some witches’ gallows in the woods somewhere) is what made me turn on my Catholic upbringing at age 10.
It was so OBVIOUSLY unjust and outrageous and concocted by the men in the Church as a tool for control & their own perversions (e.g. did you know the jailers of a virgin witch could rape her before she was burnt to “cleanse” her?)... With the “Hexenhammer” (Malleus Maleficarum) being one of the most misogynistic - and influential - texts ever written, I found it so hard to understand that so few other people around me shared my outrage. Austria remained over 90% Catholic until some massive child abuse scandals in 90s finally took the gloss off...
So I turned into a Punk rebelling this oppressive BS that surrounded me & to this day my mother incredulously asks me if I’m a Satanist every time she sees me in a skull shirt 🤦♀️ This indoctrination by the Church - despite all the evidence of past & current horrors & injustice that maimed, tortured & killed so many good lives - still goes extremely deep.
I feel so much for Peter Ellis & anyone who ever got their lives destroyed by a genuine “witch hunt”. Which is why I’m so distraught that Trumpists are turning the phrase into meaning the opposite - and one of the greatest predators & perpetrators into a Saint who is “saving the children from pedophile blood-drinking libs”. This opposite-world is an utter disgrace to the millions of souls that were harmed & forgotten by this outrageous tool of misogyny & hatred.
If there was a Satan, he’d be laughing.
Yeah, I read about the witch trials when I was 8 and it did a real number on me. I was so distressed about how they were all innocent and how could people do this to other people?
No adults could answer that for me at the time so the question stayed with me. David Frankfurter's 'Evil Incarnate' was the book to finally answer it which I read as part of my research into societal and psychoanalytic homophobia.
One of the underappreciated factors is that homophobia is always part of these moral panics, sometimes in the foreground but always lurking in the background and snaring LGBTQ individuals. Many gay men were burnt at the stake alongside the purported witches - it's the origin of the gay slur 'faggot' i.e. that you're a bundle of wood waiting to be burnt. Similarly, many LGBTQ individuals were sent to the gas chambers alongside the Jews targeted by the Holocaust.
Many people who were accused of witchcraft were arguably neurodivergent too. Pretty much all panics run on a psychotic level of fear about 'difference'.
Yup, it's the same old tale of history - in this case horrendous injustice towards minorities - repeating itself. I am just beyond distressed that despite all our technological progress and giving the world access to the combined knowledge of humanity in a handheld computer, we still just keep perpetrating the same horrors on each other over and over... If there is a God, it is definitely Cthulhu.
And we have the moral panic over trans kids. Also the Christian Post who have resurrected the Satanism panic are also in a moral panic over trans kids (I've shared the link).
Eurgh! I always knew of Peter Ellis' name and that he was probably innocent but I didn't realise the REDICULOUS crimes he was supposed to have perpetrated. I could rant on for days about this but all I'm going to say is the whole satanic panic movement, like QAnon, is just another human example of SOME people WORRYING ABOUT THE WRONG THING! We have ACTUAL ISSUES that NEED YOUR ATTENTION and you're trying to SAVE CHILDREN FROM SOMETHING THAT DOESN'T EVEN EXIST.
Some ideas: climate change and it's coming challenges (that will effect EVERYONE on earth because it's the ENVIRONMENT we LIVE IN) Domestic violence and its insidious erosion of our community, crumbling infrastructure (the poop has gotta go somewhere, into the sea ain't great) our increasingly ageing population and the challenges that will come from that. There, that's 4 things that actually exist right now.
Eurrrgghhh!? Gets me angry.
I'm actually a kiwi living in Oz, back in NZ for a 2 week holiday (fly back this Saturday) and I've been chatting to friends about the state of things, as you do. I feel like most humans right now are just trying to do the best they can living their life, raising their families, working to pay their bills. Then you get these idiots screaming into the void, who we hear because they SCREAM LOUD, and then everyone starts thinking that maybe everything is f**ked... It's much easier to be apathetic if everything is f**ked? Anyway, from what I can see there are coming challenges, but nothing insurmountable if we work together as humans... Rather than listening to keyboard warriors! Gah! Face-palm.
You got it.
Worrying about the wrong thing.
Just made up stuff by some humans (usually - always - by men).
Climate change. Why worry about that when kids stuck in underground tunnels?
It's horrific and I want to throw my head into a brick wall sometimes.
I don't know how we teach people to be more intrigued with the mundane, and not search for entertainment in the news, or other peoples lives. Clearly, sensationalism, when paired with "othering", is incredibly common and disastrously dangerous.
Side note: I was horrified listening to the episode of Armchair Expert with Saul Kassin on False Confessions. There's clearly a massive element of that here in Ellis' case.
Thanks for this piece, David.
I haven't caught that episode - added to my list.