WEBVTT - What Is Satanism?

0:00:02.040 --> 0:00:10.360
<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain stuff. From how stuff works a brain stuff,

0:00:10.360 --> 0:00:14.440
<v Speaker 1>this is Christian Sager. The very word Satanism conjures up

0:00:14.480 --> 0:00:19.520
<v Speaker 1>titillating images of orgies, cults, and violence, and popular culture

0:00:19.560 --> 0:00:23.599
<v Speaker 1>from Rosemary's Baby to some metal bands have convoluted the

0:00:23.640 --> 0:00:27.720
<v Speaker 1>truth about it even further. Satanism in the real world

0:00:27.920 --> 0:00:30.760
<v Speaker 1>is not about the Christian version of satan though. In

0:00:30.840 --> 0:00:34.480
<v Speaker 1>fact you might be surprised that it's associated with ideas

0:00:34.600 --> 0:00:38.760
<v Speaker 1>a lot of us value in the modern day, individualism

0:00:38.760 --> 0:00:42.960
<v Speaker 1>and nonconformity. While in the past the label of Satanist

0:00:43.440 --> 0:00:48.280
<v Speaker 1>was used to demonize opponents, since the nineteen sixties, Satanism

0:00:48.320 --> 0:00:51.879
<v Speaker 1>has been adopted by a few small movements, none of

0:00:51.920 --> 0:00:57.160
<v Speaker 1>which are actually devil worshippers as Bjorn Durandall. James R.

0:00:57.280 --> 0:01:01.600
<v Speaker 1>Lewis and Jasper A. Peterson are experts on this subject,

0:01:01.880 --> 0:01:06.360
<v Speaker 1>and they argue that Satanism was actually invented. It's simply

0:01:06.440 --> 0:01:10.959
<v Speaker 1>a philosophical position statement that borrows from other traditions. It's

0:01:11.000 --> 0:01:16.120
<v Speaker 1>also considered a contemporary religious movement. But why would you

0:01:16.160 --> 0:01:19.200
<v Speaker 1>call yourself a Satanist? Well, let's review the history of

0:01:19.200 --> 0:01:22.120
<v Speaker 1>the term so we can better understand why someone might

0:01:22.120 --> 0:01:26.720
<v Speaker 1>appropriate it to shock people into thinking differently. We'll start

0:01:26.840 --> 0:01:31.800
<v Speaker 1>with accusations of Satanism. Throughout history. Individuals have been charged

0:01:31.840 --> 0:01:35.560
<v Speaker 1>with worshiping Satan for centuries, usually when they were deemed

0:01:35.560 --> 0:01:40.200
<v Speaker 1>heretical or undesirable by officials within the Christian Church. Even

0:01:40.240 --> 0:01:44.080
<v Speaker 1>the famous Knights Templar of the Catholic Church were expelled

0:01:44.120 --> 0:01:48.040
<v Speaker 1>as Satanists in the thirteenth century. But in the nineteen

0:01:48.080 --> 0:01:51.960
<v Speaker 1>eighties and nineteen nineties we experienced a resurgence of quote

0:01:51.960 --> 0:01:57.240
<v Speaker 1>Satanic panic linked to reports of animal sacrifice and ritualistic killing.

0:01:57.680 --> 0:02:01.520
<v Speaker 1>It was claimed that these Satanists were sacrificing humans and

0:02:01.600 --> 0:02:06.120
<v Speaker 1>forcing their victims to consume urine feces and blood. The

0:02:06.200 --> 0:02:10.240
<v Speaker 1>media sensationalized this panic, reaching its height when Heraldo Rivera

0:02:10.280 --> 0:02:14.840
<v Speaker 1>claimed he exposed it as a secret religion in Night

0:02:14.840 --> 0:02:19.799
<v Speaker 1>on a television special called Devil Worship, exposing Satan's underground.

0:02:20.320 --> 0:02:25.040
<v Speaker 1>This special blamed heavy metal, sex, drugs, and angry teenagers

0:02:25.120 --> 0:02:30.320
<v Speaker 1>for supposed Satanism and hysteria involving accusations of abuse at

0:02:30.400 --> 0:02:35.640
<v Speaker 1>daycares and nurseries became rampant. One of the most publicized

0:02:35.680 --> 0:02:39.440
<v Speaker 1>incidents in the early nineteen nineties involved the murder conviction

0:02:39.840 --> 0:02:43.960
<v Speaker 1>of three teenagers known as the West Memphis Three. Though

0:02:44.000 --> 0:02:47.480
<v Speaker 1>found guilty, they were released in twenty eleven with the

0:02:47.520 --> 0:02:50.880
<v Speaker 1>revelation of DNA evidence from the scene of the crime.

0:02:51.720 --> 0:02:55.000
<v Speaker 1>You might be wondering right now about captured murderers like

0:02:55.080 --> 0:02:59.200
<v Speaker 1>say Charles Manson, Richard Ramirez, or David Berkowitz, who were

0:02:59.240 --> 0:03:02.560
<v Speaker 1>all connected to devil worship. This may be true, but

0:03:02.680 --> 0:03:06.240
<v Speaker 1>other than a few individuals over the centuries, there's no

0:03:06.360 --> 0:03:11.440
<v Speaker 1>evidence of significant organized efforts to establish a Satanic church

0:03:11.760 --> 0:03:15.920
<v Speaker 1>until the late twenty century. Even then, the Pure Research

0:03:15.960 --> 0:03:20.080
<v Speaker 1>Center estimates that Satanism is so tiny even together with

0:03:20.200 --> 0:03:26.400
<v Speaker 1>followers of non traditional religions like Native American spirituality or scientology,

0:03:26.480 --> 0:03:29.920
<v Speaker 1>it accounts for only one point five percent of the

0:03:29.960 --> 0:03:35.040
<v Speaker 1>population now. Modern Satanism began with the founding of the

0:03:35.120 --> 0:03:38.680
<v Speaker 1>Church of Satan by Anton LaVey in nineteen sixties six,

0:03:38.720 --> 0:03:42.040
<v Speaker 1>and this eventually led to three different groups. The focus

0:03:42.040 --> 0:03:46.760
<v Speaker 1>of this movement was basically self improvement. Leaves himself once

0:03:46.880 --> 0:03:50.880
<v Speaker 1>characterized it as iron rand with trappings, so there's a

0:03:50.960 --> 0:03:54.640
<v Speaker 1>little bit of libertarianism in there too. Leaves saw Christian

0:03:54.720 --> 0:03:58.840
<v Speaker 1>churches as hypocritical, so he formed his own. In his teachings,

0:03:59.120 --> 0:04:01.720
<v Speaker 1>LaVey argue is that life was a struggle for the

0:04:01.760 --> 0:04:06.080
<v Speaker 1>individual that wanted to develop their potential. Their rituals are

0:04:06.120 --> 0:04:11.080
<v Speaker 1>aimed at helping followers shed their character flaws. Typically, people

0:04:11.200 --> 0:04:14.440
<v Speaker 1>joined Lavay because they felt his movement had similar beliefs

0:04:14.440 --> 0:04:17.920
<v Speaker 1>and ideas to their own, but they see Satan as

0:04:17.960 --> 0:04:21.720
<v Speaker 1>a symbol that represents free will. They don't actually believe

0:04:21.760 --> 0:04:25.680
<v Speaker 1>in a red skinned, horned force of evil. Now. Anton

0:04:25.760 --> 0:04:28.799
<v Speaker 1>LaVey led the movement for a little over thirty years,

0:04:28.800 --> 0:04:33.159
<v Speaker 1>but he died in The church still exists today and

0:04:33.240 --> 0:04:37.200
<v Speaker 1>it just celebrated its forty anniversary in two thousand and six.

0:04:38.279 --> 0:04:40.560
<v Speaker 1>This leads us to the second group. One of Leaves

0:04:40.640 --> 0:04:43.320
<v Speaker 1>Pre split from the Church of Satan in nineteen seventy

0:04:43.320 --> 0:04:46.480
<v Speaker 1>five and started his own group called the Temple of Set,

0:04:46.760 --> 0:04:50.800
<v Speaker 1>which is named for the Egyptian deity. They accused Leave

0:04:51.080 --> 0:04:54.080
<v Speaker 1>of going astray from his own teachings, and the Temple

0:04:54.120 --> 0:04:57.920
<v Speaker 1>of Set says its mission is to help individuals realize

0:04:57.960 --> 0:05:02.200
<v Speaker 1>their purpose through self awareness. And there's lots of other

0:05:02.320 --> 0:05:07.599
<v Speaker 1>small offshoot groups, but the last major Satanist institution is

0:05:07.640 --> 0:05:11.279
<v Speaker 1>called the Temple of Satan. This group was formed in

0:05:12.279 --> 0:05:15.440
<v Speaker 1>and they don't worship Satan either. Mainly, it's just an

0:05:15.480 --> 0:05:20.360
<v Speaker 1>activist group that exists to challenge inappropriate incursions of mainstream

0:05:20.480 --> 0:05:25.000
<v Speaker 1>churches in everyday public life. Its rituals are media stunt

0:05:25.040 --> 0:05:29.560
<v Speaker 1>events designed to mock this and make people think critically

0:05:29.600 --> 0:05:33.080
<v Speaker 1>about religion. For example, they sought to build a monument

0:05:33.120 --> 0:05:37.159
<v Speaker 1>to Satan at the Oklahoma state capital after the state

0:05:37.200 --> 0:05:40.840
<v Speaker 1>accepted a Christian monument there. The Temple of Satan saw

0:05:40.920 --> 0:05:43.920
<v Speaker 1>this as a breach of the barrier between church and state.

0:05:44.360 --> 0:05:47.840
<v Speaker 1>They've also had events celebrating pop culture that supports their mission,

0:05:47.960 --> 0:05:50.839
<v Speaker 1>like the recent movie The Witch. When it came out,

0:05:51.080 --> 0:05:55.320
<v Speaker 1>they took over a deconsecrated church in Hollywood to give

0:05:55.320 --> 0:05:58.839
<v Speaker 1>it their seal of approval. Now we know that Satanism

0:05:58.920 --> 0:06:04.080
<v Speaker 1>is really just several small countercultural movements for people who

0:06:04.240 --> 0:06:08.880
<v Speaker 1>value individualism, and it's not, and never really has been,

0:06:09.440 --> 0:06:17.000
<v Speaker 1>organized devil worship that results in merger. Check out the

0:06:17.040 --> 0:06:19.359
<v Speaker 1>Brainstuff channel on YouTube, and for more on this and

0:06:19.440 --> 0:06:36.200
<v Speaker 1>thousands of other topics, visit how stuff works dot com.