Foundation for Research and Exploration of Mind Motivation

Hugh Harmon, Ph.D. Founder      Pamela Chilton, C.Ht. Director

The Treasure Chest

Dear Dr. Laura,   

 I enjoy listening to your program when I get a chance.  You have good practical wisdom and common sense.  Yet, every time you call recovered memories of sexual abuse “Bull Shit”, I shudder.  My grandfather sexually abused me as a child.  I remembered this subconsciously but did not recall it consciously.  Yes, the memories surfaced during the course of therapy AND they surfaced during hypnosis.  I was “lucky”.  My grandfather admitted the abuse. 

I am now myself a therapist.  I work a great deal with childhood sexual abuse/molest, including working with “recovered memories”.  Sometimes, such memories are not of physical events, but of mental events – including dreams and past lives.  Whether past life memories are real or representational of unresolved issues, the emotions and negative thoughts connected with them are responsive to therapy.  Another example:  One client who showed all of the “signs” of sexual molest discovered – through hypnosis – that her father watched porn flicks while she was napping in her crib in the same room.  She had “internalized” what she was subconsciously hearing and seeing while she slept. 

I have had many “lucky” clients whose abusers verify their “recovered memories”.  Others are met with denial.  My advice to clients is:  “Unless you have other collaborating evidence this abuse occurred, it will be counterproductive to your healing to discuss it with those who would deny it or not understand it.  Your healing is an “inside job”.  If the abuser is still present in the client’s life and there are c hildren to protect I suggest the client quietly inform the parents of those children that he/she was victimized as a child by a pedophile and while he/she is getting healing, it is not a subject for discussion except to discuss with them how they can help their children protect themselves from being victimized. 

It is not rare for those being sexually abused OR for those doing the abuse to enter into an altered state of consciousness during the abuse.  When this happens the person  (abused and/or abuser) will consciously “forget” what happened after moving back into a “normal” state of consciousness, rather like forgetting a bad dream upon awakening. 

Your radio show reaches millions.  I pray you get many responses from many who have had recovered memories verified so that you will pause to reflect that perhaps it is not, after all, “bull shit”.