Fire and Wateris a true account of discovery, validation, and healing from sexual and ritual abuse. Anna Thomas writes her therapeutic memoir with deep insight from a Christian perspective about the emotional, physical, spiritual, and psychological aspects of coping with multiple personality and the reality of ritual abuse. This book reads like a mystery novel with clues coming along a little at a time in an effort to solve the whole puzzle.
What will you gain from reading this book?
An understanding of the depth of despair, terror, rage, and self-hatred that comes from a childhood of ritual abuse.
Realization of the need to face painful feelings in order to discover one's truth and one's past.
To know what it is like to live with Dissociative Identity Disorder, both before and after one acknowledges one's other personalities.
Recognition of the importance of being believed by one's therapist.
A deep respect for ritual abuse survivors, for the horrors that they endured as children and that they must again face to heal.
An appreciation for what a powerful soothing effect a compassionate partner can have, and the toll that this level of abuse takes on loved ones.
An awareness of the enormous gift that a prior abuser bestows by validating a victim's abuse.
A grasp of the value of artistic expression in self-discovery.
A reverence for the central place of spiritual faith for healing from a childhood of ritual abuse.
~ Ellen Lacter, Ph.D., California licensed psychologist specializing
in the treatment of dissociative disorders and ritual abuse trauma,
and activist on behalf of victims (www.endritualabuse.org)
ABOUT THE TITLE: The title is inspired from a Bible verse (Isaiah 43:2) that came to Anna Thomas in a dream that she believes was sent from God as a message of assurance and signifies the intensity of the struggles encountered. Fire: She came through a spiritual darkness with her faith unscathed. Water: She did not drown in the heart-wrenching feelings and emotions.
REVIEWS: Inspiring and packed with information, this is a book for the victims of childhood ritual sexual abuse, their caregivers, family, and counselors. Thomas writes with clarity and conviction as she offers a positive note of encouragement and hope to her readers.
Reviewed by Richard R. Blake
An Amazing Story of Unbelievable Torment of Sexual and Ritual Abuse
InFire and Water Anna F. Thomas writes of her journey through Multiple Personality Disorder. Anna tells of the anguish, horror, anger, and self hatred she experienced as a victim of childhood ritual abuse. Thomas relates how she came to realize her need to face painful feelings in order to discover the truth of her past.
Thomas writes her story from a religious perspective and relates how a conversion experience in her childhood enabled her to maintain faith for healing from the trauma of her abuse.
After nearly twenty years of quietly battling despair, an overpowering oppression, and loneliness alone, Anna could no longer curb her emotions. A job related incident forced her to seek counseling. Suicidal thoughts, hospitalization, psychotherapy, pastoral counseling, and a supportive husband helped Anna through long years of terror as she faced the reality of Dissociative Identity Disorder and multiple personalities.
Much of Anna’s writing is drawn from entries in her journals throughout the period of time she was diagnosed and her years of treatment. I appreciated Anna’s openness and honesty in expressing her frustration as well as the highs and lows of her experience. It is her hope that this book will be of help to others who have experienced or are experiencing the various stages of realization, recognition, and recovery of their disorder.
Review of Fire and Water by Wanda Karriker, Ph.D.
Satanic Ritual Abuse: One Woman's Truth
"Things are done to people that no one would ever believe. Heads are cut off.
I'm trying to forget. I have told you things that I didn't think I ever would
and that I probably shouldn't have."
In Fire and Water, Anna Thomas (not a pseudonym) courageously shares (from her perspective as a Christian) her successful efforts to confront and overcome a childhood punctuated with trans-generational satanic rituals involving physical/sexual/emotional/spiritual/psychological torture and associated mind control. For those who buy into the myths that belief in the reality of ritual abuse is a “moral panic” or that accounts of ritual abuse and mind control (RA/MC) are based on so-called false memories implanted by therapists--and if you have an open mind--I suggest you read this well-written true-life mystery. For those who have survived RA/MC and others who know that it exists, Anna's story offers validation that such crimes occur in the lives of children who may not remember them until they become adults.
Anna remembered...and found her own validation both internally (through the voices, writings, drawings, and flash-dreams of her alter personalities) and externally from her mother (see quote above) who also said,
"This generational line ends with you.
It is finally over."
~ Wanda Karriker, Ph.D. Author: Morning, Come Quickly,a novel about the aftereffects of extreme abuse and the resiliency of the human spirit.
Co-author: International Extreme Abuse Surveys-http://extreme-abuse-survey.net
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: (See her photo by clicking on Images under book cover above.) Anna F. Thomas is a retired LPN. Her articles have appeared in specialized magazines dealing with sexual and ritual abuse such as Survivorship, Many Voices, The Healing Woman and an article in the Christian Psychology publication The Journal of Christian Healing.
Fire and Water: A Safe Journey Through Multiple Personality Disorder
by Anna F. Thomas Category: Memoir/Abuse
Publication Date: April , 2009
—National Child Abuse Prevention Month
— National Sexual Assault Awareness
and Prevention Month
Soft cover, 164 pages, $14.95
ISBN: 978-1-934759-18-9
World Rights Available
