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Speaker 1: Welcome to brain stuff. From how stuff works a brain stuff,

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Speaker 1: this is Christian Sager. The very word Satanism conjures up

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Speaker 1: titillating images of orgies, cults, and violence, and popular culture

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Speaker 1: from Rosemary's Baby to some metal bands have convoluted the

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Speaker 1: truth about it even further. Satanism in the real world

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Speaker 1: is not about the Christian version of satan though. In

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Speaker 1: fact you might be surprised that it's associated with ideas

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Speaker 1: a lot of us value in the modern day, individualism

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Speaker 1: and nonconformity. While in the past the label of Satanist

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Speaker 1: was used to demonize opponents, since the nineteen sixties, Satanism

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Speaker 1: has been adopted by a few small movements, none of

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Speaker 1: which are actually devil worshippers as Bjorn Durandall. James R.

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Speaker 1: Lewis and Jasper A. Peterson are experts on this subject,

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Speaker 1: and they argue that Satanism was actually invented. It's simply

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Speaker 1: a philosophical position statement that borrows from other traditions. It's

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Speaker 1: also considered a contemporary religious movement. But why would you

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Speaker 1: call yourself a Satanist? Well, let's review the history of

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Speaker 1: the term so we can better understand why someone might

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Speaker 1: appropriate it to shock people into thinking differently. We'll start

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Speaker 1: with accusations of Satanism. Throughout history. Individuals have been charged

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Speaker 1: with worshiping Satan for centuries, usually when they were deemed

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Speaker 1: heretical or undesirable by officials within the Christian Church. Even

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Speaker 1: the famous Knights Templar of the Catholic Church were expelled

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Speaker 1: as Satanists in the thirteenth century. But in the nineteen

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Speaker 1: eighties and nineteen nineties we experienced a resurgence of quote

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Speaker 1: Satanic panic linked to reports of animal sacrifice and ritualistic killing.

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Speaker 1: It was claimed that these Satanists were sacrificing humans and

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Speaker 1: forcing their victims to consume urine feces and blood. The

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Speaker 1: media sensationalized this panic, reaching its height when Heraldo Rivera

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Speaker 1: claimed he exposed it as a secret religion in Night

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Speaker 1: on a television special called Devil Worship, exposing Satan's underground.

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Speaker 1: This special blamed heavy metal, sex, drugs, and angry teenagers

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Speaker 1: for supposed Satanism and hysteria involving accusations of abuse at

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Speaker 1: daycares and nurseries became rampant. One of the most publicized

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Speaker 1: incidents in the early nineteen nineties involved the murder conviction

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Speaker 1: of three teenagers known as the West Memphis Three. Though

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Speaker 1: found guilty, they were released in twenty eleven with the

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Speaker 1: revelation of DNA evidence from the scene of the crime.

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Speaker 1: You might be wondering right now about captured murderers like

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Speaker 1: say Charles Manson, Richard Ramirez, or David Berkowitz, who were

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Speaker 1: all connected to devil worship. This may be true, but

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Speaker 1: other than a few individuals over the centuries, there's no

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Speaker 1: evidence of significant organized efforts to establish a Satanic church

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Speaker 1: until the late twenty century. Even then, the Pure Research

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Speaker 1: Center estimates that Satanism is so tiny even together with

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Speaker 1: followers of non traditional religions like Native American spirituality or scientology,

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Speaker 1: it accounts for only one point five percent of the

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Speaker 1: population now. Modern Satanism began with the founding of the

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Speaker 1: Church of Satan by Anton LaVey in nineteen sixties six,

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Speaker 1: and this eventually led to three different groups. The focus

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Speaker 1: of this movement was basically self improvement. Leaves himself once

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Speaker 1: characterized it as iron rand with trappings, so there's a

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Speaker 1: little bit of libertarianism in there too. Leaves saw Christian

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Speaker 1: churches as hypocritical, so he formed his own. In his teachings,

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Speaker 1: LaVey argue is that life was a struggle for the

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Speaker 1: individual that wanted to develop their potential. Their rituals are

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Speaker 1: aimed at helping followers shed their character flaws. Typically, people

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Speaker 1: joined Lavay because they felt his movement had similar beliefs

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Speaker 1: and ideas to their own, but they see Satan as

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Speaker 1: a symbol that represents free will. They don't actually believe

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Speaker 1: in a red skinned, horned force of evil. Now. Anton

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Speaker 1: LaVey led the movement for a little over thirty years,

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Speaker 1: but he died in The church still exists today and

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Speaker 1: it just celebrated its forty anniversary in two thousand and six.

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Speaker 1: This leads us to the second group. One of Leaves

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Speaker 1: Pre split from the Church of Satan in nineteen seventy

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Speaker 1: five and started his own group called the Temple of Set,

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Speaker 1: which is named for the Egyptian deity. They accused Leave

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Speaker 1: of going astray from his own teachings, and the Temple

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Speaker 1: of Set says its mission is to help individuals realize

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Speaker 1: their purpose through self awareness. And there's lots of other

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Speaker 1: small offshoot groups, but the last major Satanist institution is

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Speaker 1: called the Temple of Satan. This group was formed in

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Speaker 1: and they don't worship Satan either. Mainly, it's just an

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Speaker 1: activist group that exists to challenge inappropriate incursions of mainstream

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Speaker 1: churches in everyday public life. Its rituals are media stunt

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Speaker 1: events designed to mock this and make people think critically

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Speaker 1: about religion. For example, they sought to build a monument

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Speaker 1: to Satan at the Oklahoma state capital after the state

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Speaker 1: accepted a Christian monument there. The Temple of Satan saw

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Speaker 1: this as a breach of the barrier between church and state.

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Speaker 1: They've also had events celebrating pop culture that supports their mission,

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Speaker 1: like the recent movie The Witch. When it came out,

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Speaker 1: they took over a deconsecrated church in Hollywood to give

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Speaker 1: it their seal of approval. Now we know that Satanism

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Speaker 1: is really just several small countercultural movements for people who

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Speaker 1: value individualism, and it's not, and never really has been,

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Speaker 1: organized devil worship that results in merger. Check out the

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Speaker 1: Brainstuff channel on YouTube, and for more on this and

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Speaker 1: thousands of other topics, visit how stuff works dot com.