Michelle Remembers [Photocopy] [Paperback]

Michelle Smith (Author), Lawrence Pazder MD (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Pocket (July 15, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671694332
• ISBN-13: 978-0671694333
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (51 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,377,875 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

91 of 116 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars What a crock! ZERO STARS! Not even good FICTION!, September 10, 2001

By 

Shane Tierney "Shane Tierney NYC" (NYC, NY - USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Michelle Remembers (Paperback)

I bought this book because it seemed like the catalyst for the entire SRA phenomenon that began with it's publication. I could only read about 140 pages into it before becoming completely disgusted with it's portrayal of a woman's disturbed confabulations under hypnosis as truth. Other than the blatant instances of contradiction (such as Michelle having no religious upbringing, which factually isn't true, but yet she "knew" that a bible and crucifix were "good & powerful") there's HUGE flights of fancy (she actually SEES the devil himself). It's no small wonder that when she and the good doctor give no factual correberation to back up their tall tale, that it would be completely disproved 10 years after its publication as a FAKE. How is it you may ask that "thousands" of satanists go unnoticed in Canada, especially when they're all missing the middle fingers on their left hands? Good queston. Other great "facts" the book tells about satanists include this little snippet from page 127:

Michelle-"You mean they've been together for a while? But who could they be? It's hard to believe that people could carry on like that right here in Victoria."
DrPazder-"The only group I know of that fits your description is The Church of Satan."
Michelle-"My God, you mean, like Satanists?"
DrPazder-"Yes, exactly."
Michelle-"You know, I never quite believed they really existed."
DrPazder-"Well, they do. There's a lot in the psychiatric literature about them. Most people think they're strictly Dark Ages, but the fact is, The Church of Satan is a worldwide organization. It's actually older than the Christan Church. And one of the areas they're known to be active is the Pacific Northwest."

As anyone who takes 5 minutes to do a web search (or even consult common sense) knows, the "Church of Satan" was founded in or around 1969-1970 by Anton LaVey in San Francisco, they have a membership estimated at around 5,000 - 7,500. Predating them, and this is a stretch, would be the Hellfire Clubs of the 1700's, which were more of fraternal social clubs than anything devoted to "devil worship". As a matter of fact, only one modern day "Satanist" group even believes in the "Devil" as an entity, that being the Temple of Set, founded in 1985, or thereabout. Last time I checked, (and my Christian Brother teacher's from High School can correct me on this if I'm wrong) none of those, or any other "satanist" group predates the christian church. Dr.

Pazder IMPLANTED these suggestions in Michelle's mind during "therapy". He admits in the book the "remarkable similarity" of the rituals she describes and one's he witnessed in Africa earlier. The use of the word "God" by Michelle in the whole book, both as an adult, and speaking in her "child voice" is telling for someone who "was devoid of any religious upbringing." These are just SOME of the awful inconsistincies revealed in 140 pages of a 334 page book. I won't even go into the "devil drawings" or other nonsense presented as fact.

For those of you seeking a good horror story, look elsewhere. The writing is pedestrian and mundane, the style leaves MUCH to be desired, and the plot is predictable to say the least.
Bottom Line? - Horrible as fiction, dangerous religious propaganda as truth!

25 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A dangerous propaganda work, February 28, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Michelle Remembers (Paperback)

The author himself has denounced the work as untrue. It was this book which started the SRA panic of the eighties which destroyed the lives many innocent people. SRA is an urban legend now attributed to false memory syndrome, and to continue its propagation is folly. If as many people as these myths state have been victims of SRA were in existence, half of the US would have MPD. As it stands now, the psychiatric field is questioning the existence of MPD at all! Only the staunchest Fundamentalists still believe in it. How many more people must be persecuted because of ignorance and lies?

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A disturbing fabrication that has lead to untold harm and suffering, March 10, 2010

By 

Rev. Richard Goth (Sydney, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Michelle Remembers (Hardcover)

You would have little reason to purchase or read this book, unless you were researching the origins of the "satanic panic" which convulsed the world in the 1980's and 1990's, as I was doing.The following information from Wikipedia is far more detailed and eloquent than I could provide.
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The Mail on Sunday newspaper conducted a two week investigation into the claims made in Michelle Remembers and found that other than Pazder and Smith, the people they interviewed described the events in Michelle Remembers as "the hysterical ravings of an uncontrolled imagination". In an interview with Jack Proby, Proby cited (as an example) "three specific points where ... Michelle lied" in Michelle Remembers. Proby indicated that although he decided not to sue, he did file a Notice of Intent to sue against the book's publisher should they go beyond the literary contract thereby preventing the book from being made into a movie. The Mail on Sunday also interviewed the Smith's childhood family doctor: "I believe it was ... an over-active imagination."; former neighbors of the Probys: "I dismissed the book as crazy. The mother was a nice, gracious lady. A little girl could not have been tortured without someone hearing."; a former childhood friend of Smith: "Virginia was like a second mother to me. I certainly never had a bad feeling about her."; and her ex-husband: "Not once during their marriage or the birth of their daughter did Michelle ever mention her experience".

The Mail on Sunday reported that the local Catholic Church and Bishop Remi De Roo were also attempting to distance themselves from the claims in Michelle Remembers: "He [De Roo] wants to distance himself from these people. More than ten years ago he asked the couple to provide him with details, but they never supplied all the information he required." The Mail on Sunday also reported the Royal Canadian Mounted Police stated that there had never been a single prosecution in Victoria for satanic practices. During the interview, Pazder was questioned about the truth of the claims in the book:

" [The Mail on Sunday] asked Pazder: "Does it matter if it was true, or is the fact that Michelle believed it happened to her the most important thing?"
He replied: "Yes, that's right. It is a real experience. If you talk to Michelle today, she will say, 'That's what I remember.' We still leave the question open. For her it was very real. Every case I hear I have skepticism. You have to complete a long course of therapy before you can come to conclusions. We are all eager to prove or disprove what happened, but in the end it doesn't matter."
"

A 1995 book found further inconsistencies in Smith's allegations; the authors found no newspaper record of the car crash that the book describes in the time frame described despite the fact that the local newspaper reported on all vehicle accidents at the time. Former neighbours, teachers and friends were interviewed and yearbooks from Smith's elementary school were reviewed and found no indication of Smith being absent from school or missing for lengthy periods time, including the alleged 81-day non-stop ceremony. Ultimately the book's authors were unable to find anyone who knew Smith in the 1950s who could corroborate any of the details in her allegations.

A 2002 article by Kerr Cuhulain not only explored the inconsistencies in Smith's allegations, but also the unlikely nature of her 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. Like other authors Cuhulain also noted that many of Smith's recovered memories appear to have reflected elements in popular culture at the time (e.g.: the movie The Exorcist) and Pazder's own religious beliefs and experiences from when he was living and working in Africa in the early 1960s. Finally Cuhulain hypothesizes that Smith's motivation for making the allegations may have come from her desire to spend time with Pazder; though both were initially married to other people, they divorced their spouses and re-married each other after the publication of the book.

James R. Lewis, in The Oxford Handbook of New Religious Movements, wrote that Michelle Remembers "must be treated with great skepticism, not least because literally all the charges involved seem drawn from accounts of West African secret societies from the 1950s, imported to Canada." Nichol Spanos has pointed out in addition to the lack of corroboration of Smith's 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 contradict the allegations made by Smith, as well as Pazder's time in West Africa during a time when there was widespread concern over secret, blood-drinking, cannibalistic cults.

Despite the lack of evidence and inconsistencies surrounding the allegations made in Michelle Remembers, there are still people who believe that Smith's claims of abuse are the literal truth and that there is a vast, yet secretive worldwide conspiracy of intergenerational satanic worshipers abusing and murdering children and adults.

The book's contents have been unsubstantiated by any evidence beyond Smith's testimony. Despite this, the book inspired copy-cat accusations throughout the world, against in many cases members of the Church of Satan, non-satanic occultists, and others with no connection to the occult.