The Pagan Invasion is an explosive new 13-part video series providing a thorough behind-the-scenes examination of today's New Age movement and neo-pagan revival. Each superbly produced volume features rare footage from around the world along with expert analysis by noted Christian leaders and authors. For more information contact your local Christian bookstore or call 1-800-828-2290. California residents call 1-800-633-0869. Hello, I'm Chuck Smith. And I'm Carol Matricciana. Welcome to this edition of The Pagan Invasion. Halloween is a festival that conjures up images of ghosts, skeletons, black cats, witches on broomsticks, and little-costumed children scurrying about the neighborhood. While there are some people who may be concerned about the origins of Halloween and its focus on blood, death, horror, and the occult, to millions of youngsters across the nation it has been adopted as a time to pursue scary fun. It is an opportunity to dress up in ghoulish or fanciful costumes to engage in the fantasy of being a witch or a vampire, ghost, or devil. Eager trick-or-treaters, solicit candy door-to-door, or bob for apples at Halloween parties. Others brave haunted houses and horror movie marathons, while the more daring visit cemeteries at midnight, play with Ouija boards, and hold seances in an effort to contact spirits of the dead. One of the biggest promoters of Halloween is the public school system. School-sponsored Halloween themed activities often include dances, costume contests, carnivals, and arts and crafts projects. Education officials admit that more effort is usually put into the celebration of Halloween than any other holiday, including Christmas and Easter. Is the stimulation of a child's sense of fun and fear all there is to Halloween, or is there more? For many entrepreneurs, Halloween is big business, a major promotional event used to bring in billions of dollars worth of revenue. In addition to the usual costumes of cartoon characters for children, a growing number of outlets are featuring more macabre and sinister creations for purchase. This one well-known department store chain will sell more than half a billion dollars worth of Halloween paraphernalia this year, and that doesn't include revenue from the sales of trick-or-treat candy. Costume shops such as this one are able to stay in business year-round as a result of the tremendous sales and rentals they receive during the Halloween rush. Farmers also view Halloween with an eye toward making big profits. Pumpkins are a traditional Halloween accessory used by households nationwide as jack-o'-lantern decorations. This one Southern California field of only 164 acres will yield nearly a quarter of a million dollars to its owner. Halloween is manipulated by the promoters of horror movies and videos as a major marketing opportunity. While horror films used to be synonymous with B-movies and considered the conventional low-budget industry standby, today they account for nearly 20% of all of the revenue received by feature film producers and distributors. The success of the technical revolution in special effects has attracted serious film directors to produce well-crafted elaborate horror productions. A recent visit to the Video Software Dealers Association exhibition in Las Vegas showed that the two biggest selling artistic genres were pornography and horror. Hollywood is continuing to capitalize on society's growing craving for the occult and demonic. The irony is that while these producers label such films as fun and make-believe, many of them hire practicing witches or Satanists as technical advisors who ensure the authentic reproductions and performances of rituals, sacrifices, spells, and curses. People like are so hyper during the day they need to come home and watch something that's like totally unreal so they can release themselves from all the pressures. It's just the type of thing that makes you laugh and forget about life. Over the last two decades most horror films have become far more graphic in their depictions of violence and cruelty. Movies affectionately known as splatter films routinely detailed torture and dismembering of bodies, drinking of blood, cannibalism, rape, and a host of other grotesque atrocities. Well we think it's pretty fun. A lot of people just like it because it's fun, it's wacko, it's not real, and so it's just the type of thing that people like to watch because you don't have to think reality when you watch it. When it comes to gore or splatter or any other particular genres, the justification lies in our Constitution. I don't feel anybody has the right to tell me what I can or cannot watch. Most of these films receive our ratings which mean that children under 17 cannot view the film or rent the video without the accompaniment of an adult. Yet this precaution is seldom enforced. For 15 is the average age of those who see these films. While many producers claim that these gruesome spectaculars are merely fun and not dangerous to the psyche of our youth, many of the scenarios from the horror films are duplicated in copycat crimes which make for sensational headlines. Glenn Hobbs was initiated into a satanic coven as a child by his grandfather and continued participating for many years. I recently asked Glenn about his involvement and the importance of Halloween to the occultist. Well my involvement in satanic worship was I was involved in it as a child. Of course I was a generational Satanist, what they call a generational Satanist, and what that means is that my family was involved in it and their family before them. Now my earliest rememberings of Halloween and some of the things that were involved was it was a very dark time for me as a child. It was something that I didn't enjoy. Glenn could you tell us about your involvement in any rituals at Halloween as a child? There was another little girl that was involved in the the occult with me and her name was Becky. Now Becky was a different type of child. She was blessed to be a sacrifice. I was being blessed to be a high priest where she was being blessed and born into the the coven there to be a sacrifice. Now we were in a ritual where we were married together. It was a marriage to the Beast and me and the little girl were married together and there was a lot of sexual abuse that took place and a lot of blood that was spilt over us joining us together. When do Halloween rituals actually begin and what is the ultimate purpose of Halloween? Well the ritual that I remember the most clearly began about the end of September. Me and the little girl, the one I mentioned named Becky, the the abuse was very concentrated at that time. We were taken into several rooms where our clothing was removed. We spent the next couple of weeks in a kind of a shack where a lot of rituals went on where a lot of animals were were killed. They summoned Lucifer and his spirit to come and possess me and so that I would be blessed to take over the position of the high priest at a certain point in time. Now Halloween night they had again put me and the little girl in the in the back of this van and we again drove off which seemed like for a long time we were drugged once again and we finally came to this stop. They took the little girl out and they left me in the van. I could hear a lot of commotion that was going on outside. People that were were screaming and and yelling and and this low murmuring and moaning noise that was going on like some kind of a low chanting noise that was going on. So I knew in my mind there was some type of a ritual going on because I'd heard that many times before. You know it was real common to see people fall on the ground and convulsion and go into convulsions during rituals and stuff with the demonic presence that were around and finally a woman came to the back of the van and she said it's time to go and she brought me out of the van and I could see that there was just a lot of people around. Some were dressed in dark brownish kind of robes with hoods over them. They took me up and they led me up to this stone altar and I remember I saw the little girl and she was on the altar. Now at first you know I just wondered what was going on because you never knew. I mean they used the altar for a lot of different things. They could have just been sacrificing an animal over, could have been a sexual abuse from the high priest on to her. You know it was a hard thing to to know for sure. Well they finally they ushered me up to the altar and I could see that they had bound her feet. They had they had her feet spread apart, her legs, and they had bound them to the ends of the altar and they had taken her arms which were laying out this way and roped them to the altar which had little kind of like hooks which they could bind the ropes around and she was really white. Just I remember seeing her and she was just real pale and real white and I noticed that they had slit the bottoms of her feet and her wrists and they were taking the blood that was running out of those areas and putting them into chalices and passing those cups around to different people who were partaking of her blood. Then the high priest he took the athame or the ritual knife and he picked it up and he put my hand on it and then he forced it into her chest. So when I think back on Halloween you know over that period of time that happened you know that was the climax event Halloween night where they they killed that innocent little girl and this is something that's happening every Halloween. That's not just an isolated event. I mean there are children all over the world who are losing their lives during Halloween night and yet we as a society we go out and celebrate it and we go door to door and we ask for candy and it's a it's a big celebration to us and I think it's quite ironic how one group of people are thinking it's fun and another group of people are taking human life and yet they don't you know there seems to be this wall and nobody wants to face the facts of what's really going on. Today reports from all over the world show a growing concern over the mushrooming attraction towards the occult. heinous crimes connected with the occult according to police are reaching epidemic proportions. Halloween is the time when community service organizations warn that children and animals are most likely to be abducted. To truly understand the significance of Halloween and its role in this mayhem we must go back to its historic roots. What you are looking at are actual rituals and spells being performed by practicing witches and druids throughout America and Europe. These are not actors or reenactments they are real. Most of Halloween's customs are the remainders of pagan superstition relating to Samhain the druidic New Year. The druids were the influential priests magicians and sorcerers of the nature religions that prevailed in early northern Europe. These native beliefs permeated Celtic culture for about 2,000 years up until the introduction of Christianity. Today a revival of the practices of Druidism along with various forms of witchcraft and nature worship are sweeping across Europe and North America. Druid orders are full of people from all walks of life from soap opera stars to doctors and lawyers dentists and toilet cleaners anybody can be a druid. I'm standing on Primrose Hill which is one of the sacred sites in London and it was here that the druid order was inaugurated in its its last most recent cycle in 1717 when a number of druids from Wales and Scotland and Ireland and Brittany and England came together and it is here that that some of the ceremonies are held. Samhain was seen as a time when the dividing line between the dead and the living was at its thinnest consequently contact with spirit beings was thought to be easiest. Samhain was also one of the major fire festivals of the Celts. At this time the druidic priesthood led the people in diabolical worship ceremonies in which they would sacrifice animals and humans in ritual killings. Human sacrifice has absolutely no place in the modern tradition just because we see a pagan revival doesn't mean that we wish to go back to a barbarism of any sort so it's a it's a bit of a red herring it's not something we like to talk about. The name for druids is believed to come from the Greek word drus meaning oak. Druids usually select groves of oaks for their ceremonies and use the leaves in their sacred rites. The work of the druids consists in reuniting us with the world of nature externally and internally with that that stream of ancient wisdom and knowledge. Sharing the druidic tradition of nature worship is witchcraft. The title witch is from the Saxon word wicker meaning the one who practices sorcery. The Oxford dictionary states that a wiccan is one who is twisted bent or warped. Despite attempts from modern wiccans to sanitize the original intention of witchcraft its practice cannot be divorced from demonology. O guardians of the watch tower of the east, I Ishtar high priestess and witch do summon and stir thee. I command thy presence at this our meeting to guard over our circle and to witness our rites. So moat it be. So moat it be. My mother was a witch and my grandmother was a witch and I have been a witch for as long as I can remember. Since I have been practicing the craft there has been a great revival. I believe there's about a million people in England alone that practice witchcraft. The pagans are all over the place with their covens. If they're not calling themselves witches alone they are paganistic in their ways. There are probably now as many people practicing witchcraft in Britain as there are committed Christians. I regard myself as a natural witch. I regarded myself as a witch since early childhood. I was brought up in a very isolated part of the country on the Welsh border which has a long tradition of magic and Welsh sorcerers. It's almost as if there's a kind of grassroots feeling back towards paganism. We live in a kind of post-Christian era almost and that people are moving towards a kind of neo-paganism I suppose. We learn as practicing witches to tap into forces of nature and to actually if you like send out a spell or an incantation or an invocation in a very powerful way. It's in many ways to bring you back to nature to bring oneself back to nature and to learn how we fit in with the natural scheme of the universe and the natural scheme of the earth and understanding what we need to do to heal the planet. Because worship of nature is so central to their theology large numbers of practicing druids and witches are dedicated to today's ecology movement. We have a number of initiatives which include planting groves of sacred trees and a campaign for individual ecological responsibility which is concerned with showing how each of us can become ecologically responsible. I think the time is coming now where we have to take the responsibility by the throat and actually get out there and say there are answers here. I'm not prepared as a pagan as a priest and as a practicing witch to sit back and see my planet my mother raped any longer. Oh answer unto me. Halloween is often confused as a Christian holiday because of its association with Christian All Saints Day or the eve of St. Hallow's All Souls Day. In fact the original Christian dedication used to be celebrated in May and was intended to honor those Christians who died for their faith. But by the 9th century the influential Roman Catholic Church changed the holiday to November and the Protestant Church soon followed. Today a thin Christian veil attempts to disguise an ancient pagan festival of the dead which has become not only a secular observance but notorious as the most favored holy day of witches sorcerers and devil worshipers. I can't really say when I became interested in Wicca because it's always been part of me, part of my roots. I love Halloween. I think I'm a very autumn person. We dress up the house with cobwebs and so on and we cast a circle and we have a smoky cauldron and we all scry which means do clairvoyance into the smoke which comes out of the cauldron and we open the gates of the underworld and if any spirits want to come forward and speak we listen to them. My first initiation when I became first degree was on Halloween and I felt very much in tune with the God. The ancient Druids worshipped Baal one of the most powerful of all the demon kings. In the list of Enochian demons Baal is said to be a king which is of the power of the East. Eastern religions emphasize that spiritual power comes from meditation. The common denominator between Druids witches and Satanists is the practice of meditation for the purpose of making contact with the spirits of the dead or disembodied souls. You do a lot of meditation with the the arts and you get onto this higher plane it becomes less physical and more mental. It takes years of painstaking study, meditational work, finding a higher mind, being able to actually tap into the forces of nature and use those. I have on occasion touched upon I suppose you could call them spirit guides. People describe them in different way. I am aware of a hierarchy of spiritual advisors who live on another plane of consciousness that you can approach that will acknowledge you and advise you and assist you. We have what we call contacts. There are other names for them. They are beings, that's the easy thing to call them, which can be can be people who have lived on the earth or they can be God forms. They become almost as real as the people standing next to you and whoever else you call doesn't actually materialize. You can't see them in in the physical sense but mentally you know that they are there. You can see them in your mind's eye. They represent really forces in the universe. Forces that are like gravity or or wind but there are forces that have to do with our internal makeup and make our minds work in the way that they work. Margaret Adler, practicing witch and author of Drawing Down the Moon, warns that the trance state with its roots in ancient shamanism and paganism is not to be entered into lightly or when alone. For the spirit to be contacted actually enters the witch's body using it to deliver a verbal message. There is a possibility if you don't cast a circle and the forces that come into the room could take over in a form of possession. We had one example here where one young woman, a nurse, was possessed by, I don't know what it was, but a horrible voice came through her and she passed out. While occult procedures in their rituals may vary in intensity, the fact is that witches as well as Satanists commemorate Halloween night with the same fervent dedication to invoke spirits for personal power. Queen of Heaven, Queen of Hell, Horned Hunter of the Night, lend your power unto our spell and work our will by magic right. Glenn, you've now been a Christian for some time. What is your reaction when you see Halloween celebrated by people? Whenever Halloween time starts coming around, about the 1st of October, you go into the stores, you see the costumes, you see the the mother with her little girl putting the witch's hat on her and the little boy getting excited about getting the devil mask and you see the candy, you see the Halloween pumpkins, you see people decorating their houses with skeletons and all these symbols of death. You know, it only serves to bring back horrifying memories to me. Memories of death, memories of children being so abused, so ripped of everything, their character, all in the name of Satan. If a person could really stop, the next time they go into that store and realize that there are children who are going to lose their life because people are taking this a step further. There are people out there who don't just celebrate Halloween with trick-or-treat candy. This is a religious holiday to them. This is something that is holy and sacred and they are taking innocent human life. I can't say go ahead and have Halloween fun. It doesn't matter if you're participating in Halloween, even if you're not a Satanist, you know, if it's just for fun. No, because these Satanists are using this as a smoke screen. Glen, you said that Halloween is a religion of Satan. What do you think when you see churches and Christians celebrating Halloween? It makes me sick that the Church of Jesus Christ would take on this horrible, demonic thing that is happening in our world. Christians should be the ones who are standing up against this. Christians should be the one who are saying these terrible things are happening and we want to stand against this. Churches should not be having these Halloween parties at all. They should be coming together as brothers and sisters in Christ, binding together and coming against these dark forces, praying for these children that God will spare their lives, that somehow God will intervene and save these children. Whether the public chooses to believe in the frightening growth of Satanism or not, the fact is that a highly organized network of Satanists are operating in America and Europe today. They seem to be respectable members of society and are integrated into all professions and walks of life. We go now to a special report from noted author Hal Lindsay, who is on location at a site known to be used for satanic rituals. We came out to a place in the hills east of Los Angeles to a location that has been identified in the past with ritual worship and we believe Satanism. Frequently this site has been discovered with candles that had been used in ritual and you can look at some of the artifacts we found here today. Upside down crosses that were put around, bones that are scattered around here and various satanic symbols but also something disturbing in the light of what we'll be talking about in the future and that is the diaper of a very very small baby. You know I believe that this country is experiencing a pagan invasion including a new upsurge of practice of witchcraft, the New Age, and as we will talk about today, outright Satanism. Around the middle of the 1960s there was a dramatic upsurge in satanic worship beginning with Anton Lavey and his writing of the Satanic Bible and the founding of the Church of Satan in San Francisco in 1966. I watched as this accelerated not just in the west coast but around the country. When Charles Manson and his gang in 1969 committed the horrible brutal crime at Sharon Tate's home, this was done in connection with all of the paraphernalia of Satan worship. This started a whole avalanche of satanic crimes. We've seen serial murders. We have watched as one after another has been brought to light. Many murders where satanic symbols have been discovered. The pentagram 666 and all sorts of things of this nature were done but more distressing. We have found all over the country reports that there are animals that have been mutilated in a very skillful and specific style that shows that they were ritually offered as sacrifices. There are now confirmed cases where there have been girls that have been used as breeders and their infant children have been sacrificed to Satan. Halloween seems to be the high holy day for the Satanist and the occultist. Halloween is the time when all across the country in secret little places in the dark there will be little babies sacrificed to Satan. You don't believe it? I know it's hard to believe myself but there has been such an acceleration of worship of Satan that we believe that these sorts of things are happening and we have evidence that they are. Satanism exists in this country as it exists elsewhere. It is appallingly evil. It is about murder. It is about child abuse. It's about sexual abuse. It is no joke and must be taken seriously and must be dealt with. If they can ritually abuse children, if they can in any way sexually abuse children, anything to destroy a child's innocence or their trust or their wonder at the world, they will do it. The most tragic stories that I've ever heard are where a child has told people what's been happening and the adults have said don't be stupid that doesn't happen in this country. You're making up stories. You're lying. The problem we're coming across is that the higher officials in these public organizations do not want to acknowledge that this is occurring. We need to lift that veil of misunderstanding and saying hey this is a crime to be dealt with. It's the crime of the 90s. It's not going away. Satanists want to recruit. We know that it's been going on for many years. This is not new but their arrogance and their outwardness about the way they recruit is becoming unbelievable. Sometimes they'll simply suck them in through the local high schools, sex and drug parties. We have an epidemic of young people participating in some strata of Satanism. Now that doesn't mean that they're all out sacrificing human beings but they may very well be doing the rituals that involve mutilation of animals. One fire department individual told me all of the woods around our area have these types of rituals going on. It is believed that if you if you kill an animal that that exerts a tremendous amount of energy that the people there can sort of vampirize on and so animals would be slain and this is especially true on the high holidays like Beltane and Samhain, Halloween and May Eve. There's something about sacrifice. If you do it once you want to do it all the time. Once you once you've actually passed the barrier of sacrificing an animal you get the sort of bloodlust where you have you really want to do it and I really wanted to do it. This lady in a black robe came forward with this little baby and at first I didn't realize it was a real baby and she just laid it on the altar. It was breathing but it wasn't crying and then the high priest just took the athami or the ceremonial dagger and just cut the baby's throat and caught the blood in a chalice. At that point I was staggering, reeling. I thought I was just going to throw up. I just couldn't believe it but by then I was so scared that I just stood there and then when I was led forward I thought this is it. It's your turn. They're gonna kill you and I was lifted up onto the altar. Now I at that time was still in white. It was part of a sacrifice known as a sacrifice of the white virgin and the same blood that had come from the baby was daubed all over my body. Then the high priest raped me and I think at that moment I was just the fact I was still alive went through my mind. I thought you're still alive. I then had to sign in blood a parchment stating that I would never ever reveal what had happened in a covenant. If I did I would die. Are human beings being sacrificed? Yes, they are. There's a lot of things that I would look for to make a determination on a ritualistic crime. It could be marks that are found at the scene. It may be things like a pentagram. It may be an upside-down cross. It could be again the number 666. It could be a loss of blood in the body. Certain parts removed in a certain manner. They're victims. Some are targeted for specific reasons. One, because they wouldn't join. Two, because they did join and they want to drop out. Some of their victims are themselves. They voluntarily do. In many satanic groups a mother will be asked to sacrifice her own child of Satan and she may even in fact be ritually impregnated to do that. She may even specifically have been impregnated and then when the child is born they never register the child as being born and they kill it in a very horrible way and sometimes the mother herself is actually asked to do it. Some of you may not even believe what you've just seen. You may believe that this is just something that's aberrational and that it just doesn't reach the mainstream of America. But just think about some of the headlines we've had recently. The case in Metamoros where a group in Mexico were practicing human sacrifice, where they kidnapped and actually sacrificed several innocent young people. And think about the Night Stalker case here in Los Angeles with Ramirez brazenly flashing the satanic symbol and saying hail Satan and holding up his palm with a pentagram in it. And yet Ramirez was convicted of some of the most brutal crimes that we've ever seen in this civilized society. One case where he caused the woman to say hail Satan while he was raping and sodomizing her alongside of her husband whom he had already murdered. These are things that were done as a result I believe of getting involved in Satanism. The real Satanists, the hardcore Satanists are involved in criminal activity and for that reason they are going to try and look as normal as possible. The better to be able to deceive you. There are doctors, there are lawyers, there are teachers, there are oftentimes people who are in positions of great influence over small children. In a recent letter to syndicated advice columnists and Landers, a concerned parent wrote of a fourth grade teacher who had asked her students to write a short essay on what they would most like to do to celebrate Halloween. 80% of her nine-year-olds expressed the wish to kill somebody. It is easy to see how Halloween's ambience can promote an unhealthy desire for violence. All of today's seemingly innocent Halloween customs and symbols have their origins in the ancient Celtic day of the dead. For example, the practice of trick-or-treat is from Celtic tradition where people gave food in return for blessings from spirits of the dead. Failure to supply treats would result in demonic retaliation. Jack-o'-lanterns grew out of the Celtic tradition of carving the faces of demonic spirits on turnips and later on pumpkins. The World Book Encyclopedia says the apparently harmless lighted pumpkin face of the Jack-o'-lantern is actually an ancient symbol of a damned soul. Candlelit pumpkins or skulls at a home signified that the occupants were sympathetic to Satan and would therefore receive mercy by spirits and trick-or-treaters on their Halloween rounds. Perhaps the most sickening of all druidic New Year practices were the human sacrifices which occurred at midnight. Adults and children alike would be thrown into huge fires while the celebrants danced around them in demonic fits of abandon. By morning's light only ashes and bones would remain. These were called bonfires which is where we get the tradition of bonfires today. The druids believed that black cats were reincarnations of the evil dead and were possessed with supernatural power and knowledge. Bobbing for apples was part of the druidic New Year sexual divination ceremony of fertility. The broomstick and witch's hats were originally considered phallic symbols. When used in the rituals of witchcraft these objects supposedly transform the sexual energy released during orgasm into psychic energy. By understanding the pagan origins of Halloween we can no longer claim ignorance. As parents we are called to a sense of responsibility and must decide whether to allow our children to participate in occultic celebrations which glorify the powers of darkness. Deuteronomy chapter 18 spells out God's position concerning man's participation in divination, sorcery, or communicating with the dead. Verse 12 states that whoever does these things is detestable to the Lord. By participating in the customs of Halloween, whether in fun or ignorance, we are continuing in practices which have been consecrated to Satan. People who love the Lord should stand for separation from these things and not compromise. Christians can gather together at Halloween and use the night to educate themselves to the dangers of paganism and to take the opportunity to pray and wage spiritual warfare against the powers of darkness in their community. It can be combined with a time of worship, praise, and thanksgiving to our Heavenly Father for victory over Satan, death, and hell. Many of the people appearing on this program got involved in the occult because of a desire for divine-like power. The source of occult power is Satan. It is deceptive, exploitive, and will eventually fail to deliver on its promises. And there is always a hidden and heavy price to pay. The power God offers mankind, on the other hand, stems from a personal caring for that which he created. If you don't know God but would like to experience his life-changing power, then recognize that Jesus Christ wants to be the Lord and Savior of your life. If you accept the fact that his death and resurrection is payment in full for all of your sins, you will have everlasting life. Within all of us, there is a God-shaped vacuum. Throughout the ages, man has attempted to fill that void with the things of the world, but it is only through a relationship with our Creator that we can be truly satisfied. His Holy Scriptures reveal the way in which we can be reconciled to God, and that is through the provisions of his Son, Jesus Christ. I'm Chuck Smith, and I'm Carol Matriciana. Join us again for another edition of The Pagan Invasion. The Pagan Invasion is an explosive new 13-part video series providing a thorough behind-the-scenes examination of today's New Age movement and neo-pagan revival. Each superbly produced volume features rare footage from around the world along with expert analysis by noted Christian leaders and authors. For more information, contact your local Christian bookstore or call 1-800-828-2290. California residents call 1-800-633-0869.