Concern Over Satanism

Thanks for your April 23 Column One article on the current satanism mania. The idea that there could be a vast, secret satanic cult network existing in this country since the early 1950s is preposterous. When I researched local neo-pagan groups for my master’s degree in anthropology in 1980, I got a much different perspective on secret cults than the self-styled experts and victims who ride the “Killer Cult” bandwagon.

In order for their hypothetical satanic network to exist the following conditions would have to have been met sometime before or shortly after World War II: There would have to have been a charismatic founder. He/she would have to have produced a book and a set of rituals. There would have to have been a dispensation and a lineage from that founder. Where is the book? Where are the rituals? Who was the founder?

There are two important points that were not brought up: First, the psychiatric profession is partly responsible for the “I remember” syndrome as a result of its therapeutic dictum that the actual truth is not as important as what the patient believes. And, second, there is a problem with satanic vandalism among teen-age punk-rockers and the blame can be traced directly to the music recording industry. If the Satan-bashing fundamentalists wanted a real target, why not go where the genuine evidence is?

CARROLL RUNYON, Pasadena