Michelle Remembers

Michelle Remembers chronicles Pazder's therapy during the late 1970s with his long-time patient Smith. In 1973, Pazder first started treating Smith at his private psychiatric practice in Victoria, British Columbia. In 1976, when Pazder was treating Smith for depression (related to her having had a miscarriage), Smith confided she felt that she had something important to tell him, but could not remember what it was. After Smith had seemingly recovered her memories, she and Pazder consulted with various church authorities, eventually traveling to the Vatican. ==Publication history==

Michelle Remembers was first publicized with articles in People magazine and the National Enquirer. In 1989, almost 10 years after the publication of Michelle Remembers, Oprah Winfrey featured Smith as a guest on her show alongside Laurel Rose Willson, author of the equally fictitious Satanic ritual abuse survival memoir ''Satan's Underground'', which was published using the pseudonym Lauren Stratford. Both women's experiences were presented by Winfrey as incontrovertible fact, and not once did she question the authenticity of any claim in either book. ==Investigation and debunking==

Pazder was a credentialed psychiatrist and fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, and the book states that its source materials (therapy tapes) were scrutinized. However, the accuracy of the allegations in Michelle Remembers was questioned soon after the book was published. After the book's publication, Pazder withdrew his assertion that it was the Church of Satan that had abused Smith when Anton LaVey (who founded the church years after the alleged events of Michelle Remembers) threatened to sue for libel.Smith's father, Jack Proby, who denied the allegations against Smith's mother, Virginia (who died in 1964), and claimed he could refute all the allegations in the book. Grescoe also noted that the book failed to make any mention of Smith's two sisters, Charyl (younger) and Tertia (older), or that Pazder and Smith (both Catholics) had divorced their spouses and married each other. The book also fails to mention any police investigations or any attempt Pazder made to involve the police in verifying any of the book's accusations. explored what Cuhulain considered the unlikeliness of Smith's allegations. Among other things, Cuhulain noted that it seemed unlikely that a sophisticated cult that had secretly existed for generations could be outwitted by a five-year-old; that the cult could hold rituals in the Ross Bay Cemetery unnoticed given that Smith claimed she was screaming and given that the Ross Bay Cemetery is surrounded on three sides by residential neighborhoods; that an 81-day non-stop ceremony involving hundreds of participants and a massive round room could have gone on in Victoria unnoticed; and that none of Smith's tormentors (other than her mother) have ever been identified, especially given that some of them had cut off one of their middle fingers at the Black Mass. He also notes that during the alleged 81-day ritual, Michelle was confirmed to be attending school, with no remarkable absences and no apparent signs that she was being abused. Like other authors, Nichol Spanos has stated that in addition to the lack of corroboration of Smith's alleged memories, "skepticism appears warranted by the fact that some of these 'memories' involve Michelle's encounters with supernatural beings". Spanos also mentions that Smith's father and unmentioned two siblings deny the allegations made by Smith, as well as Pazder's time in West Africa during a time when there was widespread concern about secret, blood-drinking, cannibalistic cults. Despite the lack of evidence and criticism concerning the allegations made in Michelle Remembers, there are still people who believe that Smith's claims of abuse are true, and are evidence of a worldwide intergenerational satanic conspiracy to abuse and sacrifice human beings. against members of the Church of Satan, other occultists, and others who seemed to have no association with the occult. Witchcraft in City The appendix to Michelle Remembers contains the reprint of the article Witchcraft in City' Claim" by Paul Jeune, as the article was referenced by Smith in the book concerning the alleged black magic practiced in Victoria. An evangelist named Len Olsen claimed on television evangelist David Mainse's talk show 100 Huntley Street that he and his wife were nearly sacrificed in a satanic ritual by Mark Fedoruk, also known as Lion Serpent Sun. Sun sued for defamation, and in court it was ascertained that Olsen had been delusional, apparently due to drug use and guilt; Sun was awarded $10,000 and an appeal was denied. The lawsuit and result were not reported in the book, only the original false allegations by Olsen. ==Legacy==

The Grescoe article did not garner much attention and the allegations in Michelle Remembers were still considered by many during the early 1980s to be true. As a result, Pazder was considered to be an expert in the topic of Satanic ritual abuse. With the sudden emergence of Satanic ritual abuse cases during the 1980s (likely due in part to the publication of Michelle Remembers), Pazder's expertise was requested. In 1984, Pazder acted as a consultant in the McMartin preschool trial which featured allegations of Satanic ritual abuse. Pazder appeared on the May 16, 1985 broadcast of the popular television series 20/20, in a segment that further accelerated the spread of the panic. As part of the Cult Crime Impact Network, Pazder conducted Satanic ritual abuse seminars for police agencies during the 1980s. By 1987, Pazder reported that he was spending a third of his time consulting on Satanic ritual abuse cases. Legal prosecutors used the book as a guide when preparing cases against alleged Satanists. Prior to the start of the Kern County child abuse cases, several local social workers attended a training seminar that listed Satanic ritual abuse as a major element of child sexual abuse and used Michelle Remembers as training material. A 2023 Skeptical Inquirer article covering Michelle Remembers states that it has had long lasting negative repercussions, including the Hampstead Hoax, Pizzagate, and the widespread belief in QAnon. It concludes that this demonstrates "the persistence of conspiracy theories over time and reminds us that no matter how much critical thinking and careful investigation might cast reasonable doubt on the belief that Satanists are dangerous child abusers, people who truly believe will continue try to warn and influence new believers." Documentary The 2023 documentary Satan Wants You from directors Sean Horlor and Steve J. Adams investigates the story behind the book and other Canadian origins of North America's moral panic over alleged satanic cults and ritual abuse in the 1980s. ==See also==