In a recent article entitled, "The Teaching of Battering", intimate violence was looked at and examined under the hypothesis intimate violence was a re-enactment of a myth and had the earmarks of ritualistic behavior. For those of you who have not read it yet, I direct your attention to that article under my column, "The Sacred Mountain".

As there always is in a free society, there are those who are threatened by people who are willing to put forth new ideas and new ways of examining issues. Those who feel most threatened, will see attacks upon them or their traditions which are not really there. One of people responding to the article mentioned above, accused me of poor research(actually 2 people did)and one requested I examine the literature. I did and here are my results. This is the literature where I obtained my information, and where I suggest those who made the accusations of poor research read and broaden their knowledge of their own tradition(s). This is not an attack upon any spiritual tradition, rather it is a response to questions raised about the validity of the information presented.

"The Malleus Maleficarum" By Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger. This is the handbook of the inquisistion which was used extensively in the "Witch Trials" of Europe and later similar material used by the inquisistion's in Salem, MA.

The Writings of St. Augustine and other early church fathers, as well as preserved sermons etc... from the clergy. Specific references to Husbands beating their wives out of charity or compassion.

The writings of Sir Francis Bacon, who makes references to using the methods of the inquisistion to extract/torture the secrets out of the world around us.

The Works of noted Psychologist, Albert Bandura. Particularly relevant is his studies on violence and how children are taught violence is ok. Specific reference made to his process of learning which is as follows;
1) Attention: The subject must attend to the modeling behavior, not simply be exposed to it. 2) Retention: Subject must be able to retain all aspects of modeled behavior unless person is imitating behavior as it is taking place. 3) Motor Reproduction: Subject must be able to perform the behavior, retaining is not enough. 4) Incentive and Motivation: Behavior will not be performed without sufficient amount of incentive or motivation. Tied into these concepts is the concept of Disinihibition: The weakening of the inhibition through exposure to a model. All 4 elements with Disinhibition are the elements which are ALL present in Intimate Violence. In essence, we learn these behaviors from someone. Nobody just wakes up and decides to start being violent, they are taught this and one of the sources of teaching comes from traditions of our past(Political, religious, philosophical, media etc..., all of which are steeped in ritual).

University of California Riverside, November 14, 1997 "Domestic Violence Awareness for Service Professionals. Law 869A. Presented by the Department of Law and Public Policy.

Riverside County Department of Mental Health: Workshop: Spousal/Partner Abuse: Identification, Assessment, and Intervention. Presenter, Michael Dyer, MS., MFT-Director of The Family Stress Program in San Bernardino, CA.

Both workshops noted above distinctly presented current evidence Intimate Violence is learned and ritualistic in nature.

For references pertaining to specific spiritual traditions encouraging violent behavior I direct examination of the periods of history most commonly called "The Crusades" which set a precedent for not only how women very recently were dealt with, but how cultures were treated as well, including the spiritual roots of the Christian tradition(i.e. Jewish faith).

I also suggest watching a 3 part series which was presented by PBS: Entitled "The Burning Times" All three videos are available to the public.

Taking all these literary sources together, it looks as if my article stands on very firm ground, and these aren't even half of the sources I used. I always welcome comments from my readers, and I expect that any attacks upon my writings will be as equally researched and the utmost care taken to provide me with the appropriate material in an appropriate manner.