The Satanic Panic - Historical, Mythological & Social Origins - How it Nearly Destroyed MY Life

The best analysis of the event. I was a police officer at the time and the seminars and training all of us got was crazy. Everything we investigated, be it vandalism, trespassing, break-ins to abandoned buildings or anything else had to be examined through the Panic filter. Trouble making teenagers suddenly become unknown satanists. Graffiti taggers found they could whip up an entire neighborhood by painting a pentacle and random spray paint squiggles. Never, not once, was any proof found of bona fide satanists or satanic cults. I am so sorry you had to experience the hatred of the fomenter of the lie. And that is precisely what it was. You are courageous for sharing your experience. Thank you for sharing.

Man I remember people in my church growing up looking at me with disdain and demanding my mother take away my D&D books back then. Good thing she didn’t- thanks ma.

I grew up in a 'christian' cult. At about 9 I remember a beautiful girl that I had a crush on, Sarah and used to spend a lot of time playing with her brother Steven. She was always head-strong, determined, confident and attractive to me. One day while roaming the grounds of the compound I heard a lot of loud voices coming from their home. I asked Steven about it and he explained that the 'elders' of the church were 'casting out rock and roll demons' which had infested Sarah. Apparently, she had overheard some rock music while visiting a friend and became infected. So it was up to these 'elders' to perform an exorcism. I heard all these men yelling and I heard the voice of a young girl screaming. I was told it was the demons fighting against the power of god coming from these men. When I saw Sarah again, she was never quite the same. Despondent, distant, non-reactive, an empty shell of her former self. She had no emotion, didn't respond like the other childen, she was obviously damaged to her core from the experience. I rejected christianity at that point and have never looked back.

I was a kid in the '80s. My parents blamed my brother's schizophrenia on D&D, because of the Satanic Panic. So my mom took away all of our D&D stuff and our comic books. I never even got to learn how to play D&D. People on the streat would yell at my other brother for the "devil music" he listened to while in his car. It was just the local pop radio station....that shit was crazy.

As a teenager during the Panic, my friends and I were hounded from location to location because we played D&D. I remember thinking, "Are we the only ones who realize this is all imaginary?" Never had much use for the declarations of authority after that.

Thank you for pointing out that working class communities were specifically targeted during this wickedness. Entire streets of working class people in the north of England and in remote parts of Scotland were deliberately picked on by social workers precisely because they did not have the means to fight back against the revolting false accusations.

In the 90's, my ex husband and his wife would not let my daughters read R.L. Stine Goosebumps, because it was satanic. I was outraged and bought my girls several such books.

I grew up in an evangelical Christian family. I wasn't allowed to listen to rock music, play dnd, watch scary movies, or anything else fun. He-man, ninja turtles, and other magic or alternative spirituality related toys were off-limits. When I grew up and moved out, I did all the things. I made up for lost time. Even though I was sort of a "model kid" (not a brag, trust me), I was already fringe. First and foremost, I had a mind of my own. I was asking lots of questions from an early age. I was attracted to Wicca, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Shinto, and other paths very early. I was aware of Buddhism at 15, thanks to a fascination with ninja and martial arts. I discovered Wicca when I was 16, and have been fascinated with the idea of magic ever since. I learned about ancient runes BECAUSE of the Satanic Panic, and that discovery fed an already strong love of languages and linguistics. All of these experiences kinda make me laugh. There's a kind of irony in it. Now I guess I'm a black sheep in my family, but I'm okay with that. Religion isn't really my cup of tea now, but that subject and the subject of magic still fascinate me to this day. I like your channel and videos, Dr. Sledge. Keep up the good work. 👍

I was one of the kids who had a daycare get an SRA accusation on them (1988). Sadly, I was actually being abused by a family member and losing my - I assume relatively safe - daycare left me in the care of a very abusive, very violent man. Unfortunately, I was also one of those kids whose abuser was able to prime to believe that I had suffered SRA from my daycare. Luckily my mother realized something (obviously not satanic) was off and she fled with me. Thanks for speaking on the topic.

This week my dad was institutionalized after a months long decline into paranoid delusions. At the core of his delusions it's the basic tropes of the Saranic Panic and anti semitism. The perpetrators of the Saranic Panic are some of the worst criminals that will never face any consequences for their crimes. The damage they have done is incalculable. The future will be trying. We must all do our best to keep each other and our communities safe.

i remember seeing a police officer, a detective, on tv during the satanic panic who said something like "satanic criminals aren't like other criminals in that they don't leave clues." that's not a direct quote, but i swear it's very, very close to what the officer actually said. even as a kid i remember how crazy a thing to say that was. it was a really weird time to grow up especially for a d&d playing nerd, as i'm sure you know personally. i'm glad you made it through such a trying experience.

We just experienced a Satanic Panic episode in Tuscumbia Alabama. A local mystical shoppe planned a Yule Festival in the downtown area. A whole gaggle of baptist pastors and their congregations spread lies about the festival being a "worshipping of Satan" event and even showed up to the city council meeting protest. It was both hilarious and sad. They managed to spread the word about the festival and many of us were only made aware of it's occurrence because of the press these zealots brought to it. It was a huge success.

My dad lived through the Satanic panic, all of his minis, fantasy books, D&D books and Metal music. All burned in the backyard. It's crazy how usually rational people like my grandparents got sucked into this, it really played to their fears.

During the Satanic Panic, I was 13 and living with my sister in Louisiana. She and her husband attended a southern Baptist televised mega church and of course pressured me into attending. I was at the time what I considered a "sane Christian" and from my own experience somehow understood that what I was being told about D&D, Music, Vast Satanic Conspiracy, Backwards Masking, etc. was garbage. Still, I realized my only way to survive was to stay quiet, and pretend to believe everything they did. Meanwhile at school I was involved in a small Dungeons and Dragons game group during lunch periods and had a great time. Sometimes when you're young and have no power, nodding and smiling is the only way to survive with your mind intact. To this day, I barely ever talk to my sister or other family for that matter. I just can't let myself fall to that kind of blind stupidity. Thanks for posting this! It should be illuminating to those swayed by the BS of the past.Unfortunately many people think BS only happens in the past.

I was born in 81 and raised in a pentacostal family. The satanic panic was definitely a part of my childhood, along with rapture fever. Thank you for explaining it.

The satanic panic caused me grief as a child. My dad would flip out when I would play with toy snakes, toy reptiles and reading books on evolution. Something with my liking of metal and being a nerd. He would tell me I’m an atheist and I’m going to hell. I’m not an atheist and never have been. I believe in both God and evolution.

It’s kinda funny…where I live, the satanic panic kinda forced our local Jewish community to have an unspoken bond with our local groups of Norse pagans and santeria people just by virtue of being “othered”. So thanks for the unity, Christians.

My parents basically tried to beat Christianity into me. My family, unfortunately, are the small minded people that see Satan or some other such evil in everything they don't agree with. It's sad and it shows that so many people never grow up, just old. Mentally they stay indoctrinated children from cradle to grave. It's one of the reasons I'm such an introvert and a hermit now.

It was repeatedly said to me that I was “demon oppressed” as a teenager. It really messed with my head. Turns out it was bipolar II, but that diagnosis was after years of being gaslit (particularly by my own self) into thinking I was just terrible person. I don’t look at my teenage years and very early adulthood very fondly…

Thank you so much for covering this topic so thoroughly. As a child victim of one of the evangelical Christian doomsday cults (yes it made the FBI list, and HBO even did an expose), this really needs to be talked about more. Watching our parents and friends fall back into Q-anon has been devastating for a lot of us. It's tragic.