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Michelle Remembers - Verification of the accuracy of the book “Michelle Remembers”
Michelle Remembers
Verification of the accuracy of the book “Michelle Remembers” by Michelle Smith and Lawrence Pazder, MD from the book “A NOTE FROM THE PUBLISHER” pages xi – xiii”
“Dr. Pazder’s credentials are impressive. He obtained his M.D. from
the University of Alberta in 1961; his diploma in tropical medicine from
the University Liverpool in 1962; and in 1968, his specialist
certificate in psychiatry and his diploma in psychological medicine from
McGill University. In 1971, he was made a fellow of Canada’s Royal
College of Physicians and Surgeons. He is a member of three Canadian
professional associations and of the American Psychiatric Association as
well. He practiced medicine in West Africa and has participated in
medical task forces and health organizations. He has been chairman of
the Mental Health Committee of the Health Planning Council for British
Columbia. A member of the staff of two hospitals in Victoria, British
Columbia -the Royal Jubilee and the Victoria General-he is in private
practice with a group of five psychiatrists. His professional papers
include a study of the long-term effects of stress upon
concentration-camp victims.
Two experienced interviewers journeyed to Victoria and talked to Dr.
Pazder’s colleagues, to the priests and the bishop who became involved
in the case, to doctors who treated Michelle Smith when she was a child,
to relatives and friends. From local newspaper, clergy, and police
sources they learned that reports of Satanism in Victoria are not
infrequent and that Satanism has apparently existed there for many
years. Satanism in Western Canada flourished in many areas with
activities far more ominous than some of the innocuous groups now found
in parts of the United States who claim some connection with Satanism.
The source material was scrutinized. The many thousands of pages of
transcript of the tape recordings that Dr. Pazder and Michelle Smith
made of their psychiatric sessions were read and digested; they became
the basis of this book. The tapes themselves were listened to in good
measure, and the videotapes made of some of his sessions were viewed.
Both the audio and video are powerfully convincing. It is nearly
unthinkable that the protracted agony they record could have been
fabricated.”
Thomas B. Congdon, Jr New York April 22, 1980
I can add more about “Michelle Remembers.” Larry Pazder practised in
the same city as me, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. I knew him
slightly and once shared a case of a teenage boy with DID caused by
abuse by a babysitter. It was in Victoria that I encountered my first
four survivors of organized abuse, and they were all members of the same
coven of a Satanic cult, the Serpents. They shared past and (then,
early 90s) current memories of abuse by that cult. Some of their parents
were leaders in the cult. They remembered rituals at the same locations
that Michelle reported (in particular, Ross Bay cemetery.) Although I
disagree with Dr. Pazder in interpreting such things as the appearance
of Satan literally (such groups use elaborate staged deceptions), I have
no question that he and Michelle were talking about very real events.
At the time, there was no knowledge of such organized abuse and no
understanding of how to treat survivors. Dissociative disorders were not
understood, so when Michelle “became” a 5 year old child, Dr. Pazder
probably didn’t understand that it was an inside part or that there
might have been more such parts. He also made the assumption that the
events she remembered had happened only for the year when she was five,
but they were probably ongoing for years, since a parent took her to
those events. I have no knowledge of whether the cult left Michelle
alone after she was treated by and then married Dr. Pazder, but judging
by the group’s behavior when I was treating survivors (see Chapter 1 of
my book Healing the Unimaginable), I would guess that the perpetrator group would work hard on making sure she remembered nothing more.
Alison Miller
—————————–
Alison Miller PHD
Retired Psychologist
Private Practice
(was in) Victoria, B.C.
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