Hello Josha, without going into specific details on RA, can you help us understand this better? Are there groups of people gathering *where?* church basements / warehouses / ? And doing these horrific things, and then stopping for groceries on the way home? Doing laundry? Going to work the next morning? Living “ordinary” lives while being fully involved in this horror? Sorry if the questions are weird but it is difficult for me to wrap my mind around this.
Hi. Yes. Groups of people gather to do these horrific things and then return to their “ordinary” lives. Many of the people who do these things would be considered upstanding citizens by those around them, so much so that reports of these people being involved in abuse of any kind would be shocking. While there are those involved who don’t carry much power or status, members of some of the more secretive groups would include people who also hold power-positions within the community.
Ritual abuse takes place at ritual sites. This kind of abuse usually involves some kind spiritual beliefs related to the abuse, these beliefs can be but aren’t necessarily related to the occult. Ritual sites would be an isolated location like the woods, a field, barn, abandoned location. They can also take place in someone’s basement or church.
People can go on to do their “ordinary” lives due to their ability to compartmentalize these behaviors, similar to how other abusers abuse and then go buy groceries or to their jobs. Duality, balancing the double-lives, is often a value within the belief systems held by groups who engage in this kind of abuse. The demand to return to ordinary life is in part why the abusers cause and rely on dissociation in the children involved, so the children can maintain their school and other “normal” activities, without being able to fully understand the abuse they experience.