In this chapter, we are referring to “Satanism” as any cult which involves the ritual abuse of people. There may be one major worldwide cult that does this, or there may be many separate cult sects with somewhat different beliefs. They may or may not use the word Satan to describe themselves. We don’t know the scope or hierarchical structure of these cults. But we have very much evidence that these cults do exist, and that they hurt people.

We are not talking about followers of Anton LeVay’s Satanic Bible. Mr. Levay’s tenets specifically prohibit harming children and nonconsensual activity. LaVey-ian Satanists are atheistic, hedonistic groups of swingers. There are rockers who use satanic imagery for effect, or for fantasy, but don’t advocate harming anyone. And there may be occult rituals in masonic temples that don’t hurt anyone. Any of these mentioned groups may also be infiltrated by some number of people who follow violent Satanism, as any group in society may be infiltrated by violent Satanists. That minority doesn’t necessarily implicate guilt of the entire group.

We need to start discussing how to expose secret cults which hurt and kill people. To do that, we need a word to describe them. Perhaps in the future we will invent a more specific word. For now we call it Satanism.

Thelema and the Writings of Aleister Crowley

People know that Aleister Crowley has had some influence on society, and that he was some kind of literary or pseudo-spiritual figure from the early 20th century. He is one of the many pop culture faces to appear on the cover of the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Most people dismiss Crowley as superstition that they don’t care about, like palm-reading or astrology.

Mr. Crowley’s teachings are nothing like palm-reading. They are the Bible of an evil cult religion, a hundred times worse than Scientology. Aleister Crowley became the leader of the Ordo Templi Orientis, which was something akin to a Freemasonry sect. He then supplanted the religious aspects of the organization with his own cult teachings. He called his cult Thelema, which we can consider a branch or sect of Satanism.

In this section I will be quoting from Magic in Theory and Practice. We can already learn from the title an insight into their practices. Is it theory, or is it practice? There is ambiguity there, and behind that ambiguity he can discuss vile acts, declaring it to be “theory.” His followers will know it is practice. Deception is a fundamental characteristic of Satanism, because it is the only way they can exist in a society that would lynch them if their evil were exposed.

The Wikipedia entry declares that the central tenet of Thelema is stated in Liber AL as “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.” Contrast this to Christianity and Judaism, which stand on the Ten Commandments as the basis of all law. One of those Ten Commandments is “Thou shalt not murder.” Thelema has stated the “whole of the Law,” and it didn’t include a prohibition of murder. Therefore Thelema allows murder.

On page 93, Crowley specifically advocates cannibalism and child sacrifice (p. 77 in pdf):

“It would be unwise to condemn as irrational the practice of those savages who tear the heart and liver from an adversary, and devour them while yet warm. …That any living being is a storehouse of energy varying in quantity according to the size and health of the animal, and in quality according to its mental and moral character. At the death of the animal this energy is liberated suddenly.

“The animal should therefore be killed within the Circle, … so that its energy cannot escape… For the highest spiritual working one must accordingly choose the greatest and purest force. A male child of perfect innocence and high intelligence is the most satisfactory and suitable victim.”

Among the Appendices, LIBER XV describes in some detail how to correctly perform the rituals of the O.T.O. Several of these require virgins. On page 264 we find “The Ceremony of the opening of the Veil,” a sex ceremony wherein a virgin is ritualistically deflowered. Children are a part of this ceremony, at the least as observers:

“He thrones the PRIESTESS upon the altar. The DEACON and the children follow… The children replace their weapons on their respective altars… the PREISTESS must have divested herself completely of her robe… The PRIEST parts the veil with his Lance…”

I’ve spared the disgusting parts. Keep in mind this is a secret society, and there may be even more reprehensible rituals that they didn’t openly publish. It’s also worth asking where they will get their supply of virgins.

From page 90 (pdf page 136):

“Only the Master of the Temple [Satan] can say whether any given act is a crime. ‘Slay that innocent child?’ (I hear the ignorant say) ‘What a horror!’ ‘Ah!’ replies the Knower, with foresight of history, ‘but that child will become Nero. Hasten to strangle him!’

“There is a third, above these, who understands that Nero was as necessary as Julius Cesar.”

Crowley declares that it’s not wrong to kill innocent children. In fact, perceiving horror at the strangling of babies is a sign of ignorance.

The historic figure, Emperor Nero allowed much of his city to burn and many people died. A popular theory is that Nero himself gave the order to destroy Rome. So if a follower of Thelema were put in the position of a ruler, he may consider it ‘necessary’ to destroy his own nation, and would not feel any horror at that thought. If he did experience horror at the thought of genocide against his own people, that would also be ignorance.

These are the published teachings of a man who was known to have a significant following. What happened to these sociopaths? Did their children follow in the footsteps of their parents?

When we look at serial killer sociopaths, we often think they have some kind of brain defect. But through child abuse, people can also be turned into sociopaths. It is often said many people who were abused as children will grow up and repeat the cycle on their own children. People brought up in cults do not find it easy to leave them. The grandchildren of the followers of Crowley may still be practicing Thelema.

Relationship of Satanism to Historical Idol Worship

Religions are successful because they cater to fundamental human nature. The way our brains interpret and understand society is, to some degree, hardwired. Thus similar patterns are found across many religions, and across many myths, across cultures and throughout social history.

Human sacrifice is one of those patterns. In ancient history, we are hard-pressed to find any area of the world where it didn’t occur. The Aztecs performed one every twenty days. Cannibalism was also widespread. The word comes from Caribbean tribes, and was openly practiced in certain Pacific Islands and African jungles until quite recently. There must be some desire for these behaviors deep in the human psyche. The laws of Satanism remove all social constraints and laws, and allow indulging any desires. In that context, it’s inevitable that some people will begin to manifest their desires to murder and cannibalize.

Sociopaths are motivated primarily by a desire to control and gain power over other people. Rape and murder are, for some, ultimate expressions of power. Cannibalism is another expression of power, and also of absorbing power. Crowley explains that eating fresh organs is associated with gaining the life essence of the dead. Drinking blood, and sacrificing humans, is associated in the minds of Satanists with gaining for themselves magical and demonic powers. Magic might not be casting spells, but rather gaining luck, or invincibility, i.e. gaining the favor of the gods.

Another practice that we sometimes think of as a kind of “brain defect” is pedophilia. Yet there have been cultures in history where pedophilia and pederasty were widely accepted and widely practiced. Was there some chemical in the water that turned people into pedophiles? The human brain may be much more amenable to pedophilia than we like to think. Because the practice is socially forbidden, our brain builds internal walls that prevent these desires from being expressed. In peer groups that allow or encourage this behavior, a much larger percentage of the population would probably manifest these desires.

It may be that sects of evil cults have persisted in Western society through the ages. Or perhaps sociopathic cults in modern times have resurrected ancient practices. In Polanski’s The Ninth Circle, we learn that Satanists are obsessed with ancient occult teachings, which may hold the key to ultimate power. Modern satanic cults may not have an unbroken lineage with ancient practices, but they may attempt to recreate those practices, and to worship gods by the same names.

Comparison of Satanism and Scientology

We characterize Satanism from relatively sparse information, making it difficult to form a mental picture. I think the most similar religion to Satanism is Scientology. By looking at how Scientology manifests, which is more publicly known, we can begin to imagine how Satanism might operate.

We know they are similar from empirical observation. Both have hold arcane knowledge as the ultimate goal to becoming gods, they indoctrinate fanatics who are incredibly secretive and deceptive, they utilize hypnotic techniques, and they both manage to persist despite being ostracized generally. The similarities are not coincidental.

Ron Hubbard used Crowley-style Satanism, combined with psychology, as foundations for Scientology. Jon Atack states “The origins of Scientology are in Aleister Crowley’s Magick”, who Hubbard claims was his “very good friend.” Actually they weren’t good friends – Crowley saw that Hubbard’s participation in the rituals was a “confidence trick,” and warned against him. It was too late; Hubbard had participated in occult rituals and learned the cult’s secrets.

Hubbard’s writings consist of confusing, bizarre, endlessly complicated cosmology and techno-babble, while Crowley has his infinite demonic pantheon and tortuous spirituo-babble. Forcing oneself to attempt to make sense of the nonsensical language, and to think in terms of made up words and concepts, is a form of brainwashing. It conditions a person to stop using logic, and to surrender his preconceived concepts and knowledge. It teaches him to speak in a limited language that only allows limited personal expression. The use of trance induction and hypnotic techniques also contributes to the brainwashing and the complete re-orientation of a person’s life around the religion.

In the 1970’s, it was discovered that Scientologists had secretly infiltrated the federal government, particularly the IRS which was attempting to tax it as a for-profit organization: “This was nothing new. The GO had been placing ‘plants’ in organizations perceived to be hostile for some years.” Satanists might be expected to infiltrate law enforcement, courts, and the press, all of which would be naturally hostile to their criminal behavior.

Scientologists are known to work hard to recruit powerful and influential people, especially in the entertainment industry, and this is believed to be a satanic practice as well. Just as scientology has lower orders of new recruits who take orders from a rigid hierarchy, new people recruited into Satanism are probably not full members. The leaderships of the cults use the lower orders as puppets.

Some scientologists openly proclaim and evangelize for their faith, while others go undercover. Satanism seems almost entirely undercover. A few people do wear satanic symbols, but they don’t openly admit what the symbols mean.

Another difference is that scientology, like Christianity, is an evangelical religion that openly invites people to join. In terms of recruiting, Satanism may be more like Judaism. To extend Satanism to all people would be to destroy its value. They will certainly recruit, but only when the recruited person has enough personal influence and assets to bring to the elite club. Every new member brings more risk of exposure, so the new member must be worth that risk.

Scientology harasses, threatens, and uses lawfare against their enemies, who they dehumanize as “squirrels” and “suppressive persons.” (These are the terms from Atack’s accounts. They may use new words currently.) Anyone who speaks against the cult, particularly apostates who know their secrets, is a mortal enemy. Scientologists typically avoid murder. It seems they push the boundaries of the law but don’t break it, probably because the church has significant assets which they could lose under RICO prosecution. There is little doubt the cultists are fanatical enough to murder for the cause if they felt it necessary.

Satanism may not hate their accusers like scientologists, but any criminal mafia seeks to murder those who can witness against them. Because they are already guilty of the highest crimes, they would not hesitate to murder.

In the early stages, Scientology spread very rapidly all over the world. In less than thirty years, it gained significant followings in almost every wealthy western democracy. The leadership directs expansion to wealthy countries, because it seeks financial gains. We can also expect Satanism to expand first into wealthy countries. If scientology is any indication, dedicated cults don’t find it difficult to expand quickly.

Imagine a person who I would describe as a typical, if fervent, Scientologist: fanatical, relentlessly pursuing the church’s goals, distrusting of or even hostile towards non-members, indoctrinating their children, disowning non-compliant family, and being deceptive and aggressive towards their enemies. And they could be your next door neighbor, looking normal except perhaps for the unblinking, wide-eyed stare that some Scientologists acquire. Now imagine he also happens to be a serial killer, who enjoys raping children and eating human flesh in his spare time. That would be a Satanist. The church of Satan constitutes an army of people like that.

Both Scientology and Satanism are so bizarre that you wouldn’t believe in them, if you didn’t know it for a fact. The news media doesn’t talk about Satanism, so many people don’t know the facts, and they don’t believe in it.

Evidence of Ritual Crimes

The most widespread evidence comes from psychologists who help people recover from the trauma of ritual child abuse. They can speak about it without exposing the victims, who are afraid to speak publicly. A 2007 study of 2,709 American psychologists showed that 30% of those surveyed report having seen at least one reported case of ritual abuse.

That already demonstrates nearly 1,000 victims. We would expect the occurrences to be in geographical clusters, so those 30% of psychologists may have treated many victims each. Many more victims don’t go to psychologists, and of course victims of child sacrifice and murder will not be counted. The survey also found that child victims tend to go to authorities but not to psychologists. And this survey did not include all the psychologists in the country. I would say the victims must number in tens of thousands at least. Of the adult victims, 33% reported cannibalism and 28% reported baby breeding for human sacrifice.

That paper also looked at cases of British child sexual abuse, and found that 13% of those cases were ritualized crime. Besides rituals, Satanists victimize people in other contexts as well, so the total harm to society is much greater than indicated by the surveys that only count rituals.

Among psychologists who specialize in multiple personality disorder, 88% believe that ritual abuse also includes mind control, or mind programming. When a child is abused, his consciousness dissociates, making him extremely vulnerable to “mind control” through hypnotic suggestion. Normal hypnotic trances leave the conscious mind subdued but still able to resist suggestion if desired. Dissociation does not allow the conscious mind to interfere in the process of hypnotic programming. The child will also repress the memory of the events, and be unable to report his abuse.

Here’s a list of convictions from the 80’s and 90’s.

Jimmy Savile is a well-known British actor on children’s programs, sort of like Mr. Rogers, who was found to have abused at least 950 children. At least two victims claim that the abuse occurred during satanic rituals. (If you search for “Savile Satanism,” you will find many articles “debunking” this claim without referring to these accusers.)

Geraldo’s famous 1988 Satan’s Underground (1h52m). Geraldo did both a great and terrible thing here. He gave a national voice to a town where many parents suffered having their children taken away, to psychologists who have had to help many patients recovering from Satanic abuse, to ex-“breeders” who were forced to have children for sacrifice, and to children who testify they were being instructed to murder other children. Then he polluted that message with Ozzy Osbourne, the daughter of LaVey, an incident where three metal fans went nuts, a weird sketchy guy in a stairwell, and more garbage. Many viewers will see this mix of alarming and useless information and dismiss the whole show.

Geraldo’s special was one of the highest-rated segments in history for its morning time slot, and yet he could find no advertisers, and he never followed up on it. Why did advertisers boycott it? Why not follow up? Perhaps the point of the special was to stop anyone else from looking into it. TV stations learned the lesson that they will not be able to get advertisers if they produce shows on Satanism. I, however, am grateful that Geraldo put these witness testimonies into the public domain, something no other journalist has done.

In 2017, Dutch banker Ronald Bernard revealed that he had been asked to engage in ritual child murder. When he refused, he was forced out of the industry and physically tortured. He also explains how the higher he rose in banking, the more he was involved with unethical and illegal activities such as currency manipulation and money laundering. This is not only evidence that Satanism exists, but also that it may be prevalent among elite bankers. He claims there are around eight thousand bankers at the highest level who, for the most part, control the entire industry, and that entrance into that club requires killing children. One man’s witness is not conclusive evidence against thousands, but it is cause for concern.

Popular Culture

Convicted rapist Roman Polanski’s Johnny Depp vehicle The Ninth Circle is the Pilgrim’s Progress of how to be a successful sociopathic Satanist, complete with a reference to international trafficking of child prostitutes.

Another Depp feature, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, introduces the public to the cannibalistic practice of processing the human adrenal gland into a recreational drug called adrenochrome. (The reference is in the first seconds of the video.)

Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut not only gives us a peak of the elite orgies, but makes us feel the fear of death at the hands of a large and powerful secret mafia. Of course, it includes a reference to child prostitution. Kubrick died five days after screening the final cut.

Here’s Lady Gaga celebrating cannibalism with satanic artist Marina Abramovic. This is fake cannibalism, which they deem “art.”

And, finally, let’s use Miss Abramovic to once again make the connection between Satanism and pedophilia.