My husband and I are both survivors of ritual abuse in different contexts: my husband in a pedophile ring in South Africa;I in the claws of my father and uncle, nazi ideology followers and sadistic pediphiles.
Wishing to understand what had happened to us without falling into the sensational and unrational, Idid a lot of research,completed studies in victimology and I have been helped by specialised psychiatrists . Sharing with others who have been through these horrors and mind control is invaluable and I would be very grateful to share with others.

This said, I am appaled at how it is easy for perpetrators to infiltrate these boards.I have noticed that some people have several avatars which they use to impersonate a person who does not exist in real life in order to con and abuse people.
Can't figure out?You won't like it but that mature guy everybody finds so funny is also that thirty year old man you would shiver at knowing how many young girls he has abused in his past.Now, he is adament on another DS group that he is " overcoming the desire to sexually abuse children" yet, he loves chatting girls on DS, his perversity luring them into confidence so that they confide in him (he sometimes even says he is studying ob gyn!)If they then go too far in intimate details, he will then turn the blame on them, telling them their conversation is not appropriate.Smart,no?Does it remind you of our abusers' manipulation.
It makes me both sad and angry that this kind of people can even become administrators for groups that are considered safe.
They are not;The smaller the group, the easier for them to be unnoticed;This is why I strongly believe it is safer to discuss abuse on "big" boards where, hopefully, members can monitor and realise when something's wrong.

some men will pretend to be other things to lure in people. i've had one guy on here pretend to be a survivor. when we chat it turns sexual, and then he reassures me he is gay so i let my guard down more. he sends me links to pictures that he supposedly took just for me, after only chatting with me once.
you're right moonface, we have to be very careful online. and the bigger the group, the safer.

I think those that get in a ritual group should check the leaders aims for starting one in the first place and who is guiding what. We do have to be especially careful not to just jump in and share our deepest secrets and information with anyone, not even those that pose as people willing to help, so I agree with snuffle on the pretender aspect and having a larger safer network to fall back on.

we are new here. how do I know who to trust, we have deep trust issues

DailyStrength is a public online site. There are trolls here. I have heard from a young friend who has been victimized by them. Moonface gave an accurate description of what is not safe here. Please consider this dedegg when you chat with strangers on here. Be careful about anyone who asks you for an outside email address to talk further. Once you have experience with making friends here who have been safe, after many interactions and a good amount of time has past. Then you can offer emails or phone numbers. I will not give out that private infor for months to come. But I have friends on facebook who were members here before me. I already knew I could trust them. Please be careful and slow. Best wishes. I hope you make many good, worthy friends here. I have.

To dedegg: You are alive and in the right place! What I suggest to new bees is to post on the forum as if it was your journal, so we can all get a feel for you. We all love to read from new-comers, and sometimes reading from their journal is too personal. So keep posting what ever you like, we are not a judgmental group. Remember, just because you don't get a lot of responses doesn't mean we are rejecting you. It just takes some time for some of us to respond--but most of us read the board.

Remember to title it "vent" or "trigger warning," if needs be.

The truth of what a person is like frequently can be seen when enough of their interactions on board conversations take place. I remind my inner people that everyone here is in the middle of dealing with stuff. We may not be talking to the personality we expect at a given time, and should be both compassionate and careful with all interactions. I do not give out my e-mail generally, and never my phone number.

As to the ritual abuse discussion, I think a thread dealing with that issue could be managed here safely. Anyone looking at the subject line would know it is a possible trigger, and could easily stay away from it while those who would benefit can access it.

Hope you find the support you are looking for. One of our system may have been subject to RA, but she is closed about it. There was some stuff she was into as a teen and she doesn't see it as abuse as much as having made bad personal decisions. Got some way to go with her.

******trigger
I was harmed by uninformed people when I disclosed SRA to my Rape Support group and surprising enough in a RA support group on Facebook. A Christian friend commented on my thread and told me that only Jesus can cast the devils (alters) out of me. She is actually a good person and a friend who doesn't know about DID or SRA. When I replied that my alters can not be 'cast out' because they are me. She replied 'but your alters worship Satan right?' Another member posted a video of a woman doing Linda Blair imitation and asked "This is DID right?" I went ballistic on that one because seeing this video of a woman acting like she had a devil in her triggered a memory of the SRA. In my memory people were celebrating this behavior. The trigger and new memory were very hard. All because I posted I was ritually abused. But to validate this group there were then 90 comments all in support of me. Still the experience made me want to find a less public place to share the memories. I posted how one of my alters got him name from SRA here on this board and no one attacked me because you all have DID too. But I would still like to have a private group. I don't think the link to a group is viable anymore because there would be no founder or admin remaining. I do think privacy and a moderator is necessary. Not sure what I'll do yet. But thank you for your concern for safety and privacy that was exactly what I was looking for too.

I started the Ritual Abuse Group. Interesting that this would come up now, just as I was coming back after an almost 2 year absence.
The group just didn't have any interest to keep going. I believe there is a need to share this stuff or I wouldn't have started the group. I also know for me, there is a tremendous amount of fear and shame involved. It's very difficult stuff to talk about, and I just figured a group was too ballsy a move on my part. Not sure I would do it now!! I know way more now than I knew then.

Part of healing is being able to talk about what happened, and make some sense out of it, to feel more in control now that you are out of it. This group is a fine place to talk about it, as long as there is a trigger warning. We are all here for different traumas, but they all have soo much in common.

Chorus! how amazing that you come back just as I am posting this thread. Karl Jung might have called it synchronicity. In any case I'm glad your back. (I like your guitar too!)

This thread was posted on the DS members board today. I thought it was pretty relevant to discussion here. It's about scammers on DS.

http://www.dailystrength.org/c/Members_Community/forum/15306275-different-kind-scammer

I am also a victim of ritual abuse and would like to find someone to talk to who understands what I'm going through. If anyone wants to talk feel free to message me.

I would love to see that group further developed. I just registered and the Ritual Abuse Group was not listed as an option to join but this group does exist. I have a great deal to share as a former therapist and Clinical Social Worker, who later became a victim. I was targeted to discredit me. I was involved in trying to see a psychopath brought to justice and at the time, this individual knew that I would be credible to the police... so he tried to make me appear as someone who is not credible.

Things got even worse with people contacting my family. My wife was dying at the time or so I feared and this added to the harm I experienced. I became very vulnerable. I didn't want my wife to be dragged into the mess or to let anyone know anything about her. I had to protect her.

This is how I went from therapist to victim. I have had years to learn how to be a good therapist again but the public information about me makes that close to impossible.
I appreciate any feedback.