Lanning Report (1992) — FBI Behavioral Science Unit on Allegations of 'Ritual' Child Abuse
nodeIntelligence & Surveillance · Occult & Esoteric
The FBI man who went looking for satanic cults started out believing in them — and after eighteen years had found none.
Who they are
Kenneth Lanning of the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit, who spent his career on crimes against children.
What they do
His 1992 guide for investigators on allegations of 'ritual' child abuse.
How it works
He is explicit about where he started: 'I tended to believe them.' And about his own position: 'I have devoted more than seven years part-time, and eleven years full-time, of my professional life to researching, training, and consulting in the area of the sexual victimization of children... I have no reason to deny their existence or nature.' His finding: 'in none of the cases of which I am aware has any evidence of a well-organized satanic cult been found.' He sets out seven other explanations — confused memory, childhood fear, a pushy interviewer, a story retold until it changed — before he ever reaches the question of lying.
Why it matters
His most important line cuts against easy dismissal: 'A horror-filled yet inaccurate account of victimization is not only not a counterindication of abuse, but is in fact a corroborative indicator of extreme physical, psychological, and/or sexual abuse.' The story can be wrong and something real can still have happened.
The engine's record — word for word
[Report #191] Kenneth V. Lanning, FBI Behavioral Science Unit, National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime. Where he started, verbatim: 'In 1983 and 1984, when I first began to hear stories of what sounded like satanic or occult activity in connection with allegations of sexual victimization of children... I tended to believe them. I had been dealing with bizarre, deviant behavior for many years and had long since realized that almost anything is possible.' His standing: 'I have devoted more than seven years part-time, and eleven years full-time, of my professional life to researching, training, and consulting in the area of the sexual victimization of children... I have no reason to deny their existence or nature.' His finding: 'in none of the cases of which I am aware has any evidence of a well-organized satanic cult been found.' On scale: 'We now have hundreds of victims alleging that thousands of offenders are abusing and even murdering tens of thousands of people as part of organized satanic cults, and there is little or no corroborative evidence.' A magnitude test he applies: 'Those who accept these stories of mass human sacrifice would have us believe that the satanists and other occult practitioners are murdering more than twice as many people every year in this country as all the other murderers combined.' The report sets out seven 'Alternative Explanations' — pathological distortion, traumatic memory, normal childhood fears and fantasy, misperception/confusion/trickery, overzealous intervenors, urban legends, combination — in a section preceding its separate section on whether victims lie. And, verbatim: 'A horror-filled yet inaccurate account of victimization is not only not a counterindication of abuse, but is in fact a corroborative indicator of extreme physical, psychological, and/or sexual abuse.' [Report #193] Held side by side with goodman_ritual_abuse_study_1994, the NCCAN-funded national survey published two years later, which reached a parallel result on the organised-cult component while finding religion-related abuse frequently corroborated. The two are independent documents by different authors; Goodman cites Lanning.
Follow the trail
held_side_by_side_with
The Weinstein Deposition (Orlikow, 1988) — A Subject's Own Wordseighteen years, no organised cult found; a subject's account of documented harm he could not date
held_side_by_side_with
The Surviving MKULTRA Archive (1977) — Finance Folders, No Operational Recordsan investigation that searched and found nothing; an archive that cannot be searched for what it no longer holds
contests
Control Science Pipeline: Chemical to Algorithmicorganised-cult component not corroborated in any case known to the FBI's own investigator
held_side_by_side_with
Project Monarch — the Claim, the Record, and the Condition of the Recordeighteen years of FBI investigation found no organised cult, with no archive destroyed and no custodian controlling the evidence
parallel-null
Utah Attorney General, Ritual Crime in the State of Utah (1995) — the Investigation Hammond Citedstate and federal investigations reaching the same result independently
held_side_by_side_with
The Greenbaum Speech (D. Corydon Hammond, 25 June 1992) — Where the Term Enters Circulationa clinician reporting convergent patient accounts; an investigator finding no organised cult in any case known to him
held_side_by_side_with
The False Memory Syndrome Foundation (1992-2019)an advocacy body founded by the accused; an FBI investigator's null reached independently
cites
Goodman, Qin, Bottoms & Shaver (1994) — What the Study Actually Didindependent study, two years later, citing Lanning
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