the totally insane true story behind the 1970s film and book Sybil

Sunny, that is super fucked up. But it's way worse to be Sybil's mom than it is to be Sybil. Sybil's mom supposedly took many public dumps, had lesbian orgies in the woods with underage girls, and administered punitive enemas to Sybil while she was suspended from the kitchen's light fixture. (It is highly unlikely and completely unconfirmed by multiple firsthand witness interviews with people who knew her personally and intimately). So no harm done in the long run amirite?

EIII please do

who did that art, anyway?

I haven't taught a single Sybil in 15 years--I don't think I've even known one in my entire life. Like Adolf, it's a name that seems to have fallen out of favor.

Tears For Fears, named their album, 'Songs From the Big Chair', after a phrase used in the 1976 movie. In fact the track 'Big Chair' was inspired by 'Sybil' and the fact she felt safe in the big chair in her therapist's office.

is there a good precis on any of this stuff available anywhere (relevant wiki entry?), so far this thread is p much elliptically the same as the catholic church thread

Her real name is Shirley Mason
This is her
http://i.cdn.turner.com/trutv/trutv.com/graphics/photos/criminal_mind/psychology/multiples/3-3-Sybil-Shirley-K-Mason.jpg

Dr Cornelia Wilbur is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornelia_B._Wilbur

I haven't taught a single Sybil in 15 years--I don't think I've even known one in my entire life. Like Adolf, it's a name that seems to have fallen out of favor.

― clemenza, Monday, July 30, 2012 10:25 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I really like it! I think someone should bring it back.

Flora Schreiber's NYT obit http://www.nytimes.com/1988/11/04/obituaries/flora-schreiber-70-the-writer-of-sybil-and-of-shoemaker.html

One perspective on Satanic Ritual Abuse http://www.religioustolerance.org/sra.htm/

ty LL
i figure this is maybe also useful http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satanic_ritual_abuse
if not wrt this then just to keep as a pinned tab on the next library computer you use

while she was suspended from the kitchen's light fixture.

I feel like light fixtures cannot actually withstand this? I guess it depends.

xp - yes, indeed. i can't wait for my friends and family to see my amazon wish list when they buy me birthday presents this year.

here is the most well known of shirley mason's paintings

http://www.hiddenpaintings.com/uploads/Entrapment_s.jpg

laurel, she was a slight child

I don't think there's a single sum-up but there are a lot of individual books & documentaries that I basically can't resist every time I see one

That's why I wanted to read Debbie Nathan's book. I think it is that book.

Satan's Silence

I mean who can resist SATAN'S SILENCE?!

i read "sybil exposed" too and it is nuts

http://www.youtube.com/embed/6pdRbfVLO6g

Worst Mother in Film: Now with Laugh Track!

1973 Nervous Breakdown is a far better book but this goes deep into the culture-wide dread that fueled the satanic ritual abuse epidemic

http://ebooks-imgs.connect.com/product/400/000/000/000/000/087/529/400000000000000087529_s4.png

Jenkins also wrote a book about cults - Mystics & Messiahs - but it's not that great. he's kind of neo-conservative and middlebrow, a bad combo

I used to listen to this dude's comedy albums when I was a Christian, he is a pathetically tragic figure in the whole Satanic Panic era, being mostly a fraud who was exposed by a Christian magazine, Cornerstone.

man, "Unsolved Mysteries" and "20/20" were obsessed with satanic panic

Warnke's exposure in Cornerstone is one of the all-time great moments in evangelical culture, so amazing

Although I am now more than two decades removed from it, I remain fascinated by the ephemera of evangelical culture. Warnke, Bob Larson, Carman, Mylon LeFevre, DeGarmo & Key, Kerry Livgren's A/D . . . endlessly amazing stuff.

Oof that's a good story. I love fallen frauds, esp if they had followers.

I just want to clarify that there were clearly other factors influencing the Satanic panic/MPD mania of the 80s/90s, BUT a major foundation of the argument supporting it came from the research and promotion of Dr Cornelia Wilbur, who started the "repressed sexual childhood memories" aspect that formed the foundation of SRA evidence.

aero we should start a thread on ILM on CCM music of the 80s/90s. Wonder how many people would participate?

I'd be in.

(I remember Warnke clearly. btw...saw him live at least twice. Had already secularized myself by the time Cornerstone blew the lid off his "ministry," though.)

I was not a Christian, so I don't know anything about that music at all. Kinda freaks me out tbh.

I would like a signet paperback covers thread.

My parents used to get all these Christian music mailorder catalogs and I would read them cover-to-cover the same way I would w/ Columbia House & BMG and the one thing that always astounded me was that Petra had a seemingly endless discography and yet I have never, ever heard their name mentioned anywhere other than those catalogs.

Are there any threads about 60s-70s hippie Jesus folk-rock?

My 7th gr math teacher had a daughter who loved Petra! That is the only way I ever heard the name.

WmC, I think so -- it's a hot commodity among collectors iirc?

Private labels, small pressings, etc

as is generally known I am the biggest Amy Grant fan on ilx

Contemporary Christian Music: 70s, 80s, 90s and beyond

wow, this is something http://www.jesus-is-savior.com/False%20Religions/Wicca%20&%20Witchcraft/anton_lavey.htm

Kinda want to see Amy Grant get in a boxing ring against somebody and see if the the combo of aero's 2 biggest fandoms makes him essplode.

As long as she doesn't fight that dude from Bulgaria in the Olympics bout from Saturday. That guy was fierce.

Had no idea Sybil had been debunked!

My step-mother had all these books. She was an Irish Catholic who had lost a son to crib death. I remember Helter Skelter, The Eyes of Laura Mars, these book covers with slack-jawed children being threatened by some sinister being above the book title. So many Stephen King books…

She made a mean cheese dip, I do give her that.

I am seriously looking forward to seeing people's "Sybil's been debunked!" reactions!!

There's even a major point that I will not mention because you will just have to read the book.

Unless someone injects me with powerful substances and elicits the information from me, that is.

All that's missing from that Anton LaVey thing is a connection to Jack the Ripper and the Knights Templar. They've got everything else.

what was nuts to me was how long and completely symbiotic the relationship was between the doctor and "sybil." like this was something that went on for decades, and they were totally dependent on each other. also some pretty serious self-deception going on on both sides - they both had to be aware that there was fakery going on, but i don't think either thought they were doing something wrong or cynical or self-serving.

right -- like with all the hospitals they worked at together, and how she got sybil all these jobs as an art therapist, and encouraged her to go to school to be a psychiatrist?!

they went on vacations together

huh, not a big podcast fan but maybe I'll check this out

Hugely recommend

It’s more audio documentary than broadly “podcast”
That’s the means of distribution, but like many podcasts it’s actually a long form audio documentary.

A well researched, wide ranging, informative, and entertaining one (if you enjoy documentary film etc)

so not just a couple wags chuckling at each others jokes?

Not remotely

I listened to a slick one about cults and they did that thing where they just spoke really, really fast and it was annoying

This is not that

One of the most interesting parts for me was the interview with the woman who refused to be an expert witness — the link she drew between a growing awareness of how widespread CSA actually is, now that people were taking about domestic abuse honestly for the first time, and the horror of that —-> it must be Satan. Fascinating.

I was in BFE East Texas when all this was going on and I was drawing pentagrams on everything. In 5th grade I had to sit down with a school counselor who asked me a lot of questions about my interest in Bon Jovi and horror movies and she told me it was very abnormal.

now that people were taking about domestic abuse honestly for the first time, and the horror of that —-> it must be Satan. Fascinating.

yeah this is something that stood out to me too, one of the first things about the satanic panic that actually made some sense to me. Like, with all these stories of sexual abuse and incest being public for the first time it didn't seem like that much of a leap to assume people were also doing satanic rituals.

Yeah and not just that but it was easier/less vexing to blame Satan than admit that dad/grandpa/other trusted relative is capable of CSA.

thanks for bringing this up again. i don't think it's something that's... well, it's something i'd like to listen to but i don't think i could handle it emotionally right now, with america being what it is. because i think people still aren't aware of... well. OK. I think there's a lot of DARVO going on. I mean I grew up Catholic. Which colors my opinion strongly on the idea of "Satanic Ritual Abuse". Because I think CSA is _often_ closely correlated with religious institutions, and Satanism just, uh, isn't very prevalent in America, even today, in any organized form. And, I mean, you might notice that I'm _NOT_ saying things directly, because a lot of people, people I like and respect and rely on as _allies_, get very very upset and very very offended when I say things directly. I believe that the evidence points to certain problems and that openly talking about those problems is outside the Overton Window right now. It frustrates me a lot.

the other thing is that i'm not anti-religious, i have a very fraught and complicated relationship with religion. i don't think religion is the problem. i think _patriarchy_ is the problem. and i also don't think we can really address patriarchy without addressing the strongest patriarchal institutions in place.

Not quite sure what you're talking about specifically, but not-talking about things is how we got to the satanic panic!

The podcast isn't particularly triggering imo -- it's not splashy or sensational, unlike the panic itself.

Not quite sure what you're talking about specifically, but not-talking about things is how we got to the satanic panic!

― Piggy Lepton (La Lechera)

yeah it's hard, because truth be told one of the things i took from the satanic panic is recognizing the signs of moral panic. and it's something i have to deal with today, that panic, that desperation, that desire to make increasingly extreme accusations so that for god's sake _somebody_ will do _something_. and the more people actually listen, the more i'm capable of being reasonable and measured.

if you look at, today, the places outside the family where csa is being done, the people who are doing CSA, it's often people like christian youth counselors. that a lot of people are using "religious freedom" as a shield for CSA. running a support group, i do talk to a fair number of young adults, and religion, christianity especially, is _very_ often used as a shield for CSA. other forms of religious abuse are more common, and i think they also need to be addressed, and CSA is definitely _one_ of the facets of religious abuse.

i'm _not_ anti-christian, but i do believe that a lot of people in systemic positions of authority in large christian organizations in america are responsible for and are perpetuating _very serious problems_. and this causes me a great deal of emotional distress.

The podcast does an excellent job of tying the satanic panic to gay/trans/migrant panics; the social compulsion to blame the Other for the bad things being perpetuated by our own communities.

i'm glad to hear that

i don't want to make this shit about me because it's _not_ about me. at the same time my youngest sib texts me and says "hey we're planning a family vacation on the georgia coast next month, wanna come", and i _do_, cuz i love my family, but i gotta ask "so, uh, is it legal for me to pee in georgia?" and they text back "as long as it's not in a school, yeah"

and i have to admit that makes me a LITTLE BIT MIFFED. not because of my sibling. because apparently that is a law that exists. i don't expect it'll affect me, because i'm white and because i pass pretty well, but it apparently _is_ a law that exists.

oh i meant "next year" not "next month" lol