"A house has five windows: through four the day is clear and still. The fifth faces a black sky, thunder and storm. I am standing by the fifth window." -Transtromer, 1983

"If you meet a man from Auschwitz you don't ask what he has dreamed -- you just listen to what he is telling." -Anders Svensson, August 1993

The beginning of the book "treating survivors of satanist abuse" is a quoting of several individuals regarding pure evil. The book is a compilation of accounts, testimony and advice by a variety of clinical professionals regarding their experiences with and findings on ritual and satanist and sadistic abuse. They almost always started from a position of ignorance regarding pure evil and satanist thinking and were shocked and confused by these patient's testimonies and strange mental problems caused by the abuse.

One Consultant Clinical Psychologist and Psychotherapist, Phil Mollon, wrote chapter 15 of the aforementioned book. The chapter was called, "The impact of evil." It goes heavily into detail about the philosophy and psychology of the evil behind ritual abuse and even attempts to explain the horrifying depth of what such evil entails.

I will quote several times from this chapter for illustration:

The Trauma of Hearing of Ritual Abuse:

"For many people the existence of intelligent evil is difficult to accept and processes of denial may be extensive. There is widespread reluctance to acknowledge that a person can idealize and become dedicated to evil such as satanist ritual abuse." "Reactions to earlier clinical presentations have convinced me that hearing of ritual abuse is in itself a significant trauma which evokes emergency defensive measures. These measures consist of vigorous efforts to deny, misperceive or in other ways avoid the impact of the account, e.g. in becoming preoccupied with whether or not what is presented is consistent with established psychoanalytic theory. In verbal presentations people may fall asleep, look ill and appear unable to speak for some time afterwards.

The Dynamics of Pure Evil

"...Of particular relevance I think is Chasseguet-Smirgel's discussion of perversion in "Creativity and Perversion" (1985). Here she suggests that perversion is actually equivalent to devil worship in that both these attempt to reverse laws, limits and restrictions. She refers to perversion as: 'a universal human temptation going beyond the limits of sexual deviation...the pervert attempts to take the Father/Creator's plan in order to make a new universe from chaos....a universe where anything becomes possible.' (p.13)."

"What I find personally most helpful is to have a concept of 'the satanic.' By this I mean an aspect of the psyche -- in Jungian terms an archetypal energy -- characterized by its extreme destructiveness, an envious hatred of life and love, a gross narcissism that opposes concern for others, a hatred of vulnerability and weakness, extreme pride and arrogance, and above all a devotion to lies and confusion as opposed to truth. Satanic literature, such as La Vey's (1969) "Satanic Bible", expresses a complete reversal of all the normal human values and ideals, and specifically those of Christianity -- and thus displays the essence of the satanic as an attack on humanity, as well as upon God."

I would write more, but for copyright's sake I should refrain and instead would simply recommend you purchase the book.

My thoughts on the matter.

I contend that pure, conscious evil arises from the exercise of free will for that purpose. The goal behind "pure evil," aka "satanic evil," is to undo everything done in the intelligent creation of order out of chaos. I don't believe that it's some benevolent desire to create a new universe of possibilities, in fact, creation has nothing to do with the way in which evil operates. From what I can tell, evil is simply the perversion of things already in existence for the purpose of mockery and as an expression of hatred for that which is created by God. In effect, it is an attempt to rewrite the laws of reality in the worst possible way. Sometimes I wonder how these people orientate themselves morally and what their goal is. I believe they idealize Evil as a fundamental moral and seek out the worst possible kind they can---orientating themselves by doing the opposite of what the Christian teachings declare in every way they can.

One thing I think our friend Phil Mollon missed in his characterization of the satanic, is their absolute and utter hatred and fear of the Ideal of Innocence. This explains their hatred and fear of children, as they are the ultimate Innocent beings we have experience with. Not only are they weak and vulnerable, which already makes them a target, but their innocence infuriates and maddens those dedicated to its destruction and/or complete perversion. There is a reason the Satanic literature refers to Satan as the "Light-bearer." He is trying to replace the Ideal of Innocence with himself, and it is little wonder then that he hates it with such abandon.