And Out Come The Wolves.

I knew when I started this site that it was only a matter of time until I began taking fire from Mr. Riggs' supporters.

The following is from an e-mail I just received from "SRA survivor":

The bolded portions are my commentary on each point.

"I noticed in your reply that you completely avoided the clearly documented evidence presented on Dr. Ellen Lacter's, as well as made no references to the work of Russ Dizdar who is a Pastor."

Dr. Ellen Lacter is a practicing psychologist who operates a website that has assembled multiple links to articles on the subject of SRA. My cursory review of the information is that it appears to be heavily biased. I have also noticed that none of them appeared to be written in peer-reviewed journals. If I am incorrect in this point, I welcome correction. I'll be going through this information in detail in further points.

This isn't the first time I've heard of Russ Dizdar. His writings are bizarre on a level comparable with Scientology. He seems to amalgamate a multitude of conspiracy theories and unite them under the banner and unifying theme of an international, intergenerational SRA conspiracy. He is like most conspiracists in that his claims exhibit a profound ignorance of both history and political science. I'll be taking aim at his writings in detail later on as well, but here's one for free:

Russ Dizdar is about as qualified as David Icke as an "expert."

"It seems clear that you have an agenda against Doug Riggs and at this point are unwilling to really look at the evidence that your are seeking to debunk."

To avoid taking things out of context, I'm waiting until I've had a chance to go through each one of these in detail before posting a concise summary of the writings and their basis in reality. From what I have read, it requires an awful lot of confirmation bias and credulity to believe, and no convincing cases have been cited, only shams like the West Memphis Three and the McMillan Preschool cases. That may change as I delve further into them, but with each example I see the same thing happening: Law enforcement officials and court-appointed therapists entering into investigations with a pre-determined conclusion propped up by self-appointed "experts." I suppose it's worth pointing out that in each of these cases there hasn't been a single shred of physical evidence presented. To the ones that buy into this worldview, that makes law enforcement complicit in the "cover-up."

In my opinion belief in the SRA conspiracy is on the same level as belief in the moon hoax, a flat earth, magnet therapy, ghosts, UFOs, New World Order hokum, and 9/11 conspiracy theories. It should come as no surprise that many who believe in a massive SRA conspiracy also believe in some, if not all, of the above.

And you are correct. I do have an agenda against Doug Riggs. I'd like him to stop tearing families apart. That doesn't seem so unreasonable.

"Below is one of the most updated resources with professionals from several disciplines. I will be watching to see if you interact and respond to this level of documented evidence to the phenomenon you are seeking to refute."

This person is referring to a book written by James Randall Noblitt, who appears to be the most notable, and educated, person advancing the idea of Satanic Ritual Abuse. He is faculty at the California School of Professional Psychology, and by its website, his book appears to be a collection of articles written by various contributors.

I cannot comment in an informed manner on the book in detail because I have not read it, but I will say this much. This is a published book, for sale - not an article or report submitted for academic peer review to a mental health journal. We have only the author's word that all of the contributing stories were fact-checked, properly vetted, and scrutinized for accuracy. This is why peer-reviewed journals are vitally important, because they separate actual research from self-aggrandizing egoists.

However, Mr. Noblitt doesn't have the best track record with reference to factual accuracy in his books. In one of his prior offerings, "Cult & Ritual Abuse:
Its History, Anthropology, and Recent Discovery in Contemporary America" he cited several people and ideas that have been revealed to be complete frauds: Mike Warnke, Steven Knight, Dale Griffis, Jim Shaw, and the infamous Taxil Hoax to name a few.

With that kind of pedigree, I don't expect a truthful and accurate effort from Mr. Noblitt. I rather expect to find a tome penned by someone who bought a lot of information at face value and didn't bother to verify a word of it as long as it supported his conclusion. That isn't research, and any professor worth his salt should be ashamed to have his name attached to such garbage.

"I would encourage you to look at whether this "stop Doug Riggs" motivation stems from a root of bitterness. If it indeed does, The Lord will not honor your desire, whether you are right in your desire for vindication or not. You do not have the authority to "stop Doug Riggs" only God does. Therefore you need to seriously be before Him asking if this intention of yours glorifies Him for if it does not, you are fighting a losing battle."

Bitterness? Perhaps. If I am bitter, it's that this man has continued to destroy lives through his "pseudo-therapy" and megalomaniac control of his followers. He's one jug of Kool-Aid away from being Jim Jones. Add to that disturbing allegations of sexual impropriety with his "counselees" as well as allegedly having an appetite for the very things he condemns, and you have a picture of a man that for years has bought into a patently false worldview, and forces this same worldview and his own desires onto genuinely hurting people that come to him in good faith for assistance and end up being convinced their parents abused them as children when there isn't the slightest shred of evidence to suggest it.

But you are correct. I don't have the authority to "Stop Doug Riggs." I don't have the ability to make him do anything. Doug Riggs will be stopped when people see him for what he is rather than what he claims, or the authorities in his area determine that he is acting as an unlicensed mental health professional, and censure him appropriately.

By the way - the toll-free hotline to report a person to the New York Mental Health Association for practicing without a license is 1-800-442-8106.

"P.S
In regard to your question, 2012 is simply the year I was to graduate at the time I created the email account. Nothing more, nothing less."

On a hunch, I asked this person if they also believed in the various theories surrounding the "2012 apocalypse" since the digits were a part of their e-mail address. Question asked, answer received.

-StopDougRiggs

"The SRA Phenomenon - Or Not" Part 1

Hello, and welcome to Stop Doug Riggs.

This website is intended to call attention to the destructive and abusive therapy of this supposed "man of God." In time, as more information about the history of his "ministry" is compiled through research and anecdotes, I will post it here. What is known is that Doug Riggs, along with his wife Lori, have traveled across the United States with a small group of utterly devoted followers. He practices "deprogramming" and exorcisms through intense multiple hour counseling sessions, and it has been speculated that these have often been abusive in nature.

As for myself, I was involved in his church in Tulsa, Oklahoma during the 1990's. I was only a pre-teen at the time, but I still remember the screaming, the exorcisms, the hand-drawn diagrams showing how each one of the congregational families were linked to shadowy organizations that wanted to subject us to unspeakable horrors. I remember hours and hours of a charismatic, intelligent, physically imposing man filling my head with fear of the most absolute kind. Through his lessons, my world grew darker. My family isolated themselves from their relatives. This is par for the course for someone in Morningstar Testimonial Church, and is practically lifted out of any cult leader's handbook. Convince your flock that their own families and existing support systems are part of "THEM," and your control of them is that much stronger.

Why even do something like this? Why call out a person from behind the anonymity of the Internet? It's because the Internet is a double-edged sword, and impossible to silence. As much as it has been used to spread misinformation and bizarre destructive beliefs and foster the communities that espouse them, it has also exposed many charlatans and provided a networking opportunity for their victims to find solace in their shared experience.

We don't know a great deal about his background prior to beginning his demon-blasting, and in all reality, it isn't particularly relevant.

(What is known is that he is not a licensed mental health professional. Keep that in mind.)

Let's begin taking at Mr. Riggs' bread and butter as a "pastor" and self-styled "therapist" - and if you are a prior victim of his ministry, you know this term very intimately.

Satanic Ritual Abuse.

Let those words hang in the air for a moment.

Sounds powerful, frightening. Conjures up images of shadowy figures in the dark unleashing untold horrors upon innocent men, women, and children. Human sacrifices, mutilated children, ingesting the severed limbs of children, bizarre sexual rituals, programming with thousands of separate personalities designed to carry out an agenda paving the way for Satan's destruction of the Church.

When taken to that extreme, most objective observers would start to raise an eyebrow and note its resemblance to any number of bad horror films.

According to some, this horror is not only plausible, but is currently being inflicted on untold masses of people. To what end is not always specified. The ultimate agenda of the programming and abuse tends to change depending on what SRA proponent you ask.

If the proponents of this phenomena are to be believed, there is an unseen and bloodthirsty cabal of ancient European bloodlines with their fingers in every corner and facet of society, playing the innocent like meat puppets in an opera only they understand.

This should alarm and shock us all, right? To the point of action, even.

Not so fast.

To trace the roots of this phenomena, we look not to ancient European bloodlines, or Anton Szandor Lavey. We will not trust in the cartoon ravings of Jack Chick, the nearly self-parodying earnestness of Bob Larson, and will absolutely not take one Pastor Doug Riggs at his word.

When the history of claims of this type of abuse are traced through the objective lens of verifiable factual information, they converge on one man in the early 1970's - the late Canadian psychiatrist Lawrence Pazder, and his therapy sessions with a patient by the name of Michelle Smith.

What happened in the aftermath of of those counseling sessions is an astounding lesson in the infectiousness of fear, the effects of confirmation bias, the complete breakdown of critical thinking, and twisting a person's earnest search for faith and acceptance into an abuse far more heinous than what it purports to treat.

In postings to come, we will take a closer look at Pazder's saga - as it cuts to the very heart of what Riggs preaches and instills in his flock. In the meantime, make sure to check out a few of those links above.

-StopDougRiggs