cover image Lessons in Evil, Lessons from the Light: A True Story of Satanic Abuse and Spiritual Healing

Lessons in Evil, Lessons from the Light: A True Story of Satanic Abuse and Spiritual Healing

Gail Carr Feldman. Crown Publishers, $22 (306pp) ISBN 978-0-517-58877-2

The clinical process by which a therapist, whose clients were primarily sexual abuse survivors, entered into a clinical relationship with a victim of satanic abuse unfolds in chilling detail in this account of the healing process. The victim, Barbara, a young professional African American with suicidal tendencies, began a series of hypnosis treatments under the guidance of Feldman, a New Mexico psychologist. Shocking revelations--scenes of sexual abasement, incest, infanticide--surfaced, all part of the young girl's training to become a satanic ``princess'' in a family blood cult evoked through hypnotic childhood regression. As Barbara's cruel saga develops, it impinges on the therapist's personal and professional life as well, propelling Feldman on an interdisciplinary quest through religion, anthropology and criminal law for corroboration, and mitigation of her doubts about the existence of satanism. A harrowing tale of evil, and the story of a breakthrough accomplished with nontraditional counseling, this book allows the general reader to glimpse evil. (July)