Does anyone remember the "Satanic panic" of the 80s and early 90s?

[Guestx]

Random thread on a bizarre piece of American history incoming.

But for real, does anyone remember this? I was only a kid, but I do remember some of the concerns people had.

During this time, large segments of society were concerned about the influence of Satanism within America and at the heart of it all were allegations of Satanic Ritual Abuse (SRA):

Satanic ritual abuse was the subject of a moral panic that originated in the United States in the 1980s, spreading throughout the country and eventually to many parts of the world by the late 1990s. Allegations of SRA involved reports of physical and sexual abuse of people in the context of occult or Satanic rituals. In its most extreme form, SRA involves a worldwide organisation including the wealthy and powerful of the world elite in which children are abducted or bred for sacrifices, pornography and prostitution.

This concern really kicked off in 1980 with the publication of the book Michelle Remembers. This book, with the super-creepy fucking cover:

Michelle Remembers is a book published in 1980 co-written by Canadian psychiatrist Lawrence Pazder and his psychiatric patient (and eventual wife) Michelle Smith. A best-seller, Michelle Remembers was the first book written on the subject of Satanic ritual abuse and is an important part of the controversies beginning in the 1980s regarding satanic ritual abuse and "recovered" memory.

It brought the concept of recovering hidden memories via hypnosis into public view. The author claimed that the subject of the book was able to recall all sorts of Satanic rituals she was forced to take part in as a child.

The book documents Smith's memory of events recovered during therapy, documenting the many satanic rituals she believed that she was forced to attend (Pazder stated that Smith was abused by "the Church of Satan," which he states is a worldwide organization predating the Christian church). The first alleged ritual attended by Smith took place in 1954 when she was five years old, and the final one documented in the book was an 81-day ritual in 1955 that summoned the devil himself and involved the intervention of Jesus, the Virgin Mary and Michael the Archangel, who removed the scars received by Smith throughout the year of abuse and removed memories of the events "until the time was right." During the rites, Smith was allegedly tortured, locked in cages, sexually assaulted, forced to take part in various rituals, witnessed several murders and was rubbed with the blood and body parts of various murdered babies and adults.

The problem was that no actual evidence to support these claims was ever produced. Today the book is considered to be mostly discredited, but at the time it produced real concerns and even law enforcement began using it as a guide to the subject of Satanic Ritual Abuse.

In the 90s probably the most visible symbol of the Satanic Panic were the West Memphis 3. I'm sure we all have our own opinions on their guilt or innocence, but there's no doubt that public concern over Satanism in America put these three in the crosshairs.

Eventually, as little to no actual evidence of SRA came to light, public fears subsided. But it took a while. Though today I think we see shades of a revival in the form of the "Hollywood = Illuminati" allegations.

Personally, I wonder if there was ever anything to it. You know how often even public misconceptions have some grain of truth at the core.

Further Reading:

A Brief History of "Satanic Panic" in the 1980s

Satanic Ritual Abuse - Wikipedia

 

[liljoe]

Yup.
One day when I was in 4th grade I believe, there was a big scare in my small town. Supposedly some local satan worshippers were gonna kidnap a kid to sacrifice. My school is only two blocks from my house, but my mom made sure to walk me home that day. I remember squad cars in the area and plain clothes cops walking around trying not to get noticed.
Of course nothing happened.

My older brother told me later on that the "satan worshippers" were actually just the local metal heads who started a rumour for laughs. Lol.

Was all a big nothingburger in the end.

 

[The Big Sloppy]

i remember it from the 80's. not really anything specific, just the usual "heavy metal bands are all satanic." Even the movie "the Gate" tapped into this fear. two kids listen to a metal record backwards and unlock the gate to hell in their backyard.

 

[Guestx]

Yup.
One day when I was in 4th grade I believe, there was a big scare in my small town. Supposedly some local satan worshippers were gonna kidnap a kid to sacrifice. My school is only two blocks from my house, but my mom made sure to walk me home that day. I remember squad cars in the area and plain clothes cops walking around trying not to get noticed.
Of course nothing happened.

My older brother told me later on that the "satan worshippers" were actually just the local metal heads who started a rumour for laughs. Lol.

Was all a big nothingburger in the end.

I don't have any stories quite that specific, but I do remember the concerns over heavy metal (the supposedly subliminal messages contained therein) and I remember that my parents told me to stay away from Dungeons & Dragons.

 

[Guestx]

two kids listen to a metal record backwards and unlock the gate to hell in their backyard.

Bummer.

 

[Guestx]

Video from the io9 article I linked to. A random dude in an Oprah episode says he was a member of a Satanic cult that murdered a guy in a ritual.

 

[The Big Sloppy]

Bummer.

i can't tell you how many times this happened to me while listening to Lizzy Borden and WASP back in 1985.

 

[mushishi]

But what about those Hollywood kid abuse stories? Bro?

 

[no fat chicks]

was literally a mass hysteria

 

[ookii]

It mostly got started because they were convinced that Richard Ramirez started killing people because he listened to AC/DC records played backwards

 

[MadSquabbles500]

I thought Goths were a trend in the mid 90s though.

 

[BEER]

Satanic Panic is being kept around by conspiracy theorists.

Nothing pulls me out of the immersion of a solid conspiracy theory quite as quickly as mentions of Satanism.

You could have some really compelling evidence, but it's almost always followed by "blah blah Satanic ritual abuse blah blah".

 

[Guestx]

Satanic Panic is being kept around by conspiracy theorists.

Nothing pulls me out of the immersion of a solid conspiracy theory quite as quickly as mentions of Satanism.

You could have some really compelling evidence, but it's almost always followed by "blah blah Satanic ritual abuse blah blah".

You have to think that SOMEONE out there has performed a Satanic ritual. Whether or not Satan actually exists doesn't matter; it's only important that the people performing these rituals think that he does.

Even if the number of actual harmful Satanic rituals are just a minuscule fraction of those reported in the 80s, you have to think that someone, somewhere was actually doing the shit.

 

[BEER]

You have to think that SOMEONE out there has performed a Satanic ritual. Whether or not Satan actually exists doesn't matter; it's only important that the people performing these rituals think that he does.

Even if the number of actual harmful Satanic rituals are just a minuscule fraction of those reported in the 80s, you have to think that someone, somewhere was actually doing the shit.

Oh, I'm 100% certain that it happens.

I'm also 100% certain that it's not happening in all of these maybe-true-but-probably-only-kinda-true conspiracy theories.

It's the same as the Illuminati bullshit. If it was happening, it wouldn't be as easy to find circumstantial evidence everywhere. The people who propagate this bullshit think they're Sherlock Fucking Holmes for seeing triangles in music videos.

 

[tru3f4n]

It was going on big time in Texas but we're already batshit crazy for that down there a couple just got released after spending 21 year in prison over the bs. It's a fucking joke how easily some corrupt fucks can twist kids into saying shit agianst innocent people and ruin their lives with no evidence other then what the corrupt fucks provide.

 

[Guestx]

Oh, I'm 100% certain that it happens.

I'm also 100% certain that it's not happening in all of these maybe-true-but-probably-only-kinda-true conspiracy theories.

It's the same as the Illuminati bullshit. If it was happening, it wouldn't be as easy to find circumstantial evidence everywhere. The people who propagate this bullshit think they're Sherlock Fucking Holmes for seeing triangles in music videos.

I agree, though it does seem odd that some of the same strange symbology appears over and over again in various forms of media.

 

[tru3f4n]

You have to think that SOMEONE out there has performed a Satanic ritual. Whether or not Satan actually exists doesn't matter; it's only important that the people performing these rituals think that he does.

Even if the number of actual harmful Satanic rituals are just a minuscule fraction of those reported in the 80s, you have to think that someone, somewhere was actually doing the shit.

It's called Norwegian Black Metal

 

[Plissken]

I'd say the occult panic started in the 60's (from what i can tell), was at its' height in the 70's and 80's, died off after '92/'93 or so. I remember it well.

There was supposedly a satanic cult that would sometimes meet in the woods/swamp area near my house that I grew up in, turns out the area has a cemetery that has colonists' and Indian graves, and a famous ghost hunter grew up about a few hundred feet from there and his house was supposedly haunted; so in hindsight it's just as interesting as when I was a kid.
Also rumors that satanists met in a cave behind a nearby amusement park.

 

[Guestx]

It's called Norwegian Black Metal

Yeah, I've actually heard that some of those guys are really, truly into the occult and Satanism.

For them, playing in a heavy metal band with pentagrams and shit isn't just a form of rebellion like it was for most of the bands in the 80s.

 

[DaleBoca]

There was a UM about this group. One of their members was mysteriously found dead by the beach.