Lawrence Pazder - Michelle Remembers and Satanic Ritual Abuse

Michelle Remembers and Satanic Ritual Abuse

In 1973 Pazder first started treating a woman named Michelle Smith at his private psychiatric practice in Victoria. In 1976 when Pazder was treating Smith for depression (related to her having had a miscarriage), Smith confided she felt that she had something important to tell him, but could not remember what it was. Shortly thereafter, Pazder and Smith had a session where Smith screamed for 25 minutes non-stop and eventually started speaking in the voice of a five year old. Pazder eventually used hypnosis to help Smith recover memories of alleged satanic ritual abuse that allegedly occurred in 1954 and 1955 when Smith was five years old at the hands of her mother (Virginia Proby) and others, all of whom were members of a Satanic cult in Victoria. As Pazder believed he was on the verge of uncovering a vast satanic conspiracy, he eventually would spend many hours at a time treating Smith over a 14 month period. So convinced of the problem of satanic ritual abuse, Pazder and Smith travelled to the Vatican in 1978 to alert the Catholic church about the previously unknown dangers to children posed by Satanic cults worldwide. The chronicles of Pazder's therapy with Smith and the subsequent memories she recovered were detailed in the book that they co-authored Michelle Remembers. Michelle Remembers was the first published survivor account of alleged satanic ritual abuse and was a publishing success earning Pazder and Smith a $100,000 hard-cover advance and $242,000 for paperback rights.

After the publication of Michelle Remembers, Pazder was considered to be an expert in the area of satanic ritual abuse. With the sudden emergence of satanic ritual abuse cases in the 1980s (likely due to the publication of Michelle Remembers), Pazder's expertise was called upon. In 1984, Pazder acted as a consultant in the McMartin preschool trial. Pazder also appeared on the first major news report on Satanism (broadcast on May 16, 1985), by ABC’s 20/20. In the report titled "The Devil Worshippers", Pazder discussed the clues that he felt indicated satanic practices. Pazder also took part in first national seminar at which law enforcement were introduced to the satanic ritual abuse of children (in Fort Collins, Colorado, on September 9–12, 1986). Subsequently Pazder was part of the CCIN (Cult Crime Impact Network) and lectured to police agencies about satanic ritual abuse during the late 1980s along with other speakers such as Mike Warnke. By 1987 Pazder reported that he was spending a third of his time consulting on satanic ritual abuse cases. By September 1990, Pazder had been consulted “in more than 1,000 ‘ritual abuse’ cases”.

Pazder is credited with coining the term 'ritual abuse' to describe the type abuse that Smith alleged. At a professional conference in Richmond, Virginia in 1987, Pazder defined ritual abuse of children as "repeated physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual assaults combined with a systematic use of symbols and secret ceremonies designed to turn a child against itself, family, society and God." Pazder noted that "the sexual assault has ritualistic meaning and is not for sexual gratification." Pazder described the perceived satanic problem as "The pure group of ‘orthodox satanists’ is never seen or identified in public, yet it is this group of invisible satanists who plant the seeds and encourage all the more visible satanic groups."

Further investigations into the allegations made in Michelle Remembers found no evidence to support them. Pazder himself stated in a 1990 interview with The Mail on Sunday newspaper, that whether the events described in Michelle Remembers actually occurred was less important than Smith believing that they occurred.