Michelle Remembers: The True Story of a Year-Long Contest Between Innocence and Evil

Msgr. Remi De Roo (September 28, 1977):The Church is well aware of the existence of mysterious and evil forces in the world. Each person who has had an experience of evil imagines Satan in a slightly different way, but nobody know precisely what this force of evil looks like.I do not question that for Michelle this experience was real. In time we will know how much of it can be validated. It will require prolonged and careful study. In such mysterious matters, hasty conclusions could prove unwise.It may well be that for people today, to hear this message coming from a five year old child is of particular significance.Lawrence Padzer, MD, FRCP(C):To be human beings during their struggles and discoveries is an experience that gives much to the psychotherapist. Both Michelle's struggles and her discoveries were of a magnitude far greater than that of most patients, and so were the rewards for me. It was my privilege to witness as she risked the abyss, venturing far beyond her normal memory pool, her imaginings, fantasies, and dreams, to somewhere at the very core of her being... Most have touched it only for fleeting moments; Michelle visited it hundreds of hours. There, acting with the courage that Rollo May say allows us to move in spite of despair, she grappled with the polarities of life and death, love and hate, light and dark, good and evil.She unearthed and relived fourteen months of her past in astonishing detail. Her deeply buried memories, virtually untouched for twenty two years, surfaced with a purity that is a phenomenon in itself. What she brought forth provides an understanding of how a child survives, one that seems more profound than modern psychology's emphasis on the effects of victimization. Her achievement - the psychological tenacity of a five year old child in the face of sheer madness - will confront and inform many generations. Published in 1980, co-written by Canadian psychiatrist Lawrence Pazder and his psychiatric patient (and eventual wife) Michelle Smith. This best-seller was the first book written on the subject of Satanic ritual abuse and is an important part of the controversies beginning in the 1980s regarding satanic ritual abuse and repressed memory. A chilling description of how one child can overcome the most horrific events at such a young age and create a world to which she can escape without losing her mind (and soul). Her parents using her as a sacrifice to the Devil to entice his demonic appearance in their twisted enticement of worship!