THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SATANIC CULT INVOLVEMENT: AN ...

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part ofthe self is located in another, with real consequences for the other. Given the preexisting
tendency to splitting defences and omnipotent fantasy in these subjects, it is
understandable that they would believe themselves capable of supernatural feats.
Acquisition of these "powers" made subjects' feel that they were invulnerable and
omnipotent. Another gratifying consequence of subjects' magical beliefs was the
perception that others could sense their supernatural power, and respond to them with fear
and respect.
Much satanic ritual activity centres upon using malevolent magic to harm others, thereby
encouraging subjects' long-standing omnipotent, sadistic fantasies of harming those family
members experienced as cruel and rejecting. In this way, persecutory bad internal objects,
projected into others, are killed and tortured in fantasy. This provides sadistic
gratification, while reinforcing subjects' omnipotently destructive self representations.
Satanic rituals, the cult code of secrecy, dogmatic polarisation of reversed positive and
negative values, and the denigration of non-Satanists, creates a strong sense of group
identity, while simultaneously alienating members from broader society. Although cult
members spend much of their time attending coven meetings and engaging in satanic
activities, they also perform normal social roles, and are never entirely removed from
society.
Much cult emphasis is placed on the hedonistic gratification of instinctual desire, and
alcohol and drug use, as well as sexual orgies, frequently form part of cult meetings. This
ideology obviously constitutes a reversal ofsociety's moral code, and, by encouraging the
gratification of instinctual impulses, the cult rids members of moral conflict and guilt
normally associated with instinctual indulgence. Ritual sexual activity in Satanism means
more than mere instinctual gratification, it creates interpersonal ties based on the
introjective and projective fantasies that psychic aspects of oneself and others are literally
transferred and located in the other during sexual intercourse.
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