» Continued from Part 1

=== Satanism
18. 'I was happy to kill him -- he was ugly'

=== Other News
19. Parents Accused of Torturing Children Face New Charges
20. Davis child had been beaten on day he died, prosecutors say
21. Wonder Valley boys' poor health detailed
22. Cult Alert (Infinity Forms of Yellow Remember)
23. Uri Geller sues Nintendo over cartoon monster
24. Atheism Society Forum Discusses Combating Falun Gong
25. Ethiopian government denounces Haile Selassie as despot and tyrant
26. Psychic, mate admit stealing woman's cash
27. Steve Allen, TV Innovator, Author, Composer, Dies at 78

=== Noted
28. A Voice From the Other Side
29. Psychic brings voices, ratings, to TV
30. Occupational occult
31. Exorcism Flourishing Once Again (Larson, Hanegraaff)
32. In a fix, French communists turn to Jesus -- sort of


=== Satanism

18. 'I was happy to kill him -- he was ugly'
The Ottawa Citizen (Canada), Nov. 1, 2000
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
A man who has called himself ''the devil'' told a Hull courtroom yesterday how he cut up the body of his former partner in crime and drank his blood.

Then Yan Osborne propped the head on a table and had a conversation with it.
(...)

Charged with first-degree murder and mutilating a corpse in the June 1999 death of Eric Thorne, 25, of Sept-Iles, Que., Mr. Osborne was the final witness in a dramatic trial filled with references to satanism, black masses, hallucinogenic drugs and an alleged contract killing ordered by a member of the Rock Machine biker gang.
(...)

However, Mr. Osborne said, he made a mistake by taking the drug PCP before killing Mr. Thorne.
(...)

''What I wanted to do with that moron was make a human sacrifice. But you can't do a sacrifice with a dead body,'' said Mr. Osborne, who also told the court he had participated in satanic rituals for some years.

''If I hadn't taken PCP it would probably have worked. I took too much.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Other News

19. Parents Accused of Torturing Children Face New Charges
Los Angeles Times, Oct. 31, 2000
http://www.latimes.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
After hearing the statement of a 17-year-old who says his parents burned his brother's body in a trash can, prosecutors filed another round of torture charges Monday against three adults accused of abusing and imprisoning two brothers in the San Bernardino County desert.

The case began after the two teenage boys told investigators earlier this month that they had been tortured for years in their home in Wonder Valley, a rural community near Twentynine Palms. Authorities say the boys were malnourished and underdeveloped, and bore the marks of whips and chains. Social workers say they were hidden from the outside world by a strictly religious father and mother and another woman living in the home.
(...)

On Monday the three adults were charged with torture in the alleged beating of the third boy. San Bernardino County Supervising Deputy Dist. Atty. Linda Root said those alleged beatings may have contributed to his death.
(...)

The prosecutor said she expects to show at trial that when Rainbow misbehaved, he was beaten severely by his father, John ''Rajohn Lord'' Davis, and Faye Potts, the other adult who shared the home with Davis and his wife, Carrie. Root would not elaborate, but said witness statements indicate Rainbow, the middle son, was kicked in the abdomen and beaten with ''an instrument.''
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


20. Davis child had been beaten on day he died, prosecutors say
The Press-Enterprise, Nov. 1, 2000
http://www.inlandempireonline.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Prosecutors in the Wonder Valley torture case say there is evidence a child who died about 10 years ago had been kicked and beaten on the last day he was alive.

John Davis, Carrie Davis and Faye Potts, all of Wonder Valley, were each charged Monday with an additional count of torture stemming from their alleged treatment of the Davises' deceased child, Rainbow.
(...)

John Davis said last week during a jail interview that he cremated Rainbow's remains after the child ate some drywall and died. Investigators have evidence that Rainbow was sickly before he died, and that the Davises and Potts participated in burning Rainbow's body, Root said.

Prosecutors had not determined whether the alleged kicking and beating of Rainbow contributed to his death, Root said. Depending on their findings, the Davises and Potts could be charged with homicide, Root said.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


21. Wonder Valley boys' poor health detailed
The Press-Enterprise, Nov. 1, 2000
http://www.inlandempireonline.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
When police asked John Davis about the size and weight of his sons in mid-October, Davis said they were about the same size he was at their age.

Authorities said Tuesday that his 17-year-old son weighed 73 pounds after he was taken from the Davis home last month.

Davis' 12-year-old son weighed 58 pounds, police and other officials said, citing an evaluation of the boys by Dr. Claire Sheridan of Loma Linda University Medical Center. The boys, Yahweh, 17, and Angel, 12, have been in the care of Child Protective Services since authorities removed them from their San Bernardino County home on Oct. 14.

In addition to being malnourished, the boys suffered from a condition caused by stress and profound abuse called ''psychological dwarfism,'' Sheridan's report said.

Psychological dwarfism is similar to another condition known as ''failure to thrive,'' in that a child's growth is stunted and is usually accompanied by other developmental delays. Psychological dwarfism is caused by severe childhood neglect.

John and Carrie Davis and another woman, Faye Potts, are charged with torturing the two boys and a third boy who died in 1991. Defense attorneys entered not-guilty pleas for all three defendants in a court hearing Tuesday in Joshua Tree.
(...)

When police asked John Davis whether he ever punished his children, he told them he spanked with a ''rod of correction.''

When they showed John Davis scars on the body of his 17-year-old son, Davis responded, ''Ya don't see anything fresh.'' He then quickly stated that the children must have done it to themselves, police said.

Authorities said a search of the Davises' home on Raymond Drive turned up locks under a mattress in the boys' bedroom, chains, rope, wire and a length of fabric.

They also confiscated a hinged martial arts weapon known as nunchukas; firearms, including a rifle and two handguns; a can containing marijuana and drug paraphernalia; and a bag containing pornographic magazines and videotapes.
(...)

Both boys apparently never received medical or dental care, investigators said. Yahweh suffered from chronic bronchitis, and both boys' teeth were in poor condition, Sheridan's report said. Yahweh's back teeth were worn down by grinding, a symptom of great stress, investigators said.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


22. Cult Alert
The Mercury (Australia), Nov. 2, 2000
http://themercury.com.au/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
A health cult purporting to work miracles and offer cures for serious ailments has come under fire from a Hobart alderman.

The organisation, called Infinity Forms of Yellow Remember, has a growing band of followers in Tasmania.

It was started by a former Tasmanian, Gerald H Attrill, who now goes by the name Jessa O'My Heart, but has spread through both Australia and America.

Hobart City Council alderman Ron Christie said the cult, based on the principles of alchemy - the medieval belief in turning metal into gold and the search for the elixir of life - was duping people of money.

Ald Christie said: ''I am very concerned about the consequences this cult is having on families here.''
(...)

Ms Junior, a nurse at St Helens Hospital, and now using an Infinity name, denied the organisation was a cult.

''It's not a cult ... that's the ridiculous thing,'' she said.

''There is no membership. It's a heart matter.

''It's a feeling thing that can't be analysed by the head.''

Ald Christie said it was unknown how many active members were in the state but he said he had recently been contacted by three concerned relatives.

''It's going to grow and no one else wants to do anything about it. It is very difficult to find out about the extent this cult has grown in Hobart because of the secrecy that surrounds it,'' he said.
(...)

Another Hobart man whose partner has been involved with Infinity for about 12 months said he had been devastated by her involvement.

He refused to be named because he believed his partner would end the relationship if she knew he had spoken to the media about the group's activities.

Although still together, the man said his partner had spent at least $7000 on Infinity products and he had now taken steps to protect his own finances.

''It's typical cult story,'' he said. ''They promise everything and deliver nothing. They are brainwashed. They are 100% for the cult and become fanatical.''

Infinity products can be ordered through its Website and offers for $40 ''empowered'' water, said to have special healing qualities, and magic wands, about 10cm long, selling for $200 a pair.

A laboratory test on a sample of ''Pink Beloved'' water obtained from an Infinity shop last year was revealed to simply contain water similar to the purity of spring water.

Last year the Queensland Government asked the Office of Fair Trading to investigate the product claims but the Brisbane shop closed down before an investigation could be done.

A Brisbane cult expert Jan Groenveld has worked with the families of members involved with Infinity.

She described it as a cult which used subtle mind control to manipulate people for financial gain.
(...)

Mrs Groenveld, who has counselled victims and families of cults for more than 20 years, said isolating people from their family and urging them to ''stay away from unbelief'' was a common tactic.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


23. Uri Geller sues Nintendo over cartoon monster
Reuters, Nov. 1, 2000
http://news.excite.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
LOS ANGELES(Reuters) - Psychic spoon-bender Uri Geller sued Nintendo for hundreds of millions of dollars Wednesday, claiming that the Japanese game-maker turned him into an ''evil, occult Pokemon character'' by naming a monster in the blockbuster cartoon series after him.

And both he and his lawyer suggested that there were elements of anti-Semitism in the character's depiction.

Geller, a former Israeli paratrooper famous for using mysterious mental powers to bend spoons, said that Nintendo Co. Ltd. ''debased'' his name with the Pokemon character, a monster named ''Yun Geller'' who carries a spoon and uses psychic mind-waves to give his victims bad headaches.
(...)

''Nintendo turned me into an evil, occult Pokemon character, ''Geller said in a statement. ''Nintendo stole my identity by using my name and my signature image of a bent spoon.''

Geller's lawyer, Marshall Grossman, said he would seek ''hundreds of millions'' of dollars in damages and to force Nintendo to pull the character from its products.

Geller said he filed the lawsuit to protect his name ''but also to tell the world before the start of the holiday season that I have nothing whatsoever to do with these violent characters that have a negative impact on children.''

Geller, who was born in Israel and now lives in England, said he was particularly offended that the Pokemon monster is depicted with lightning bolts on his chest, which he said are reminiscent of a similar symbol used by the Nazi SS.

The monster also bears a star on his forehead, which Grossman said appeared to be a Star of David.

Grossman said the character, which is found on a Pokemon trading card and appears sporadically in cartoons, has a Japanese name which translates in English as ''Yun Geller'' and is usually seen carrying a spoon.
(...)

In December 1999, Nintendo stopped production of a Pokemon card after consumers complained that an ancient Japanese symbol on it too closely resembled a swastika.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


24. Atheism Society Forum Discusses Combating Falun Gong
BBC Monitoring/Inside China Today, Nov. 2, 2000
http://www.insidechina.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
BEIJING, Nov 2, 2000 -- (BBC Monitoring) Text of report in English by official Chinese news agency Xinhua (New China News Agency)

Over 70 scientists and atheists gathered here today to attend the opening of the First Congress of the China Atheism Society since 1996 and its annual academic conference.
(...)

According to Ren, over the past four years, the society has rebuilt its organization and fought against various kinds of pseudo sciences and neo-theistic bodies, especially the cult of Falun Gong.

During the period, the society has launched its academic magazine, ''Science and Atheism'' and published ''The Textbook on Atheism''. It has also been engaged in creating greater awareness about atheism among the public.

Ren hailed last year's government decision to cancel the Falun Gong cult as ''a great turn for the struggle between atheists and neo-theists in China for the past two decades''.

Sciences are the most truthful, loyal and reliable friend of humans, he stressed.

He went on to note that the current atheistic activities are not targeted at legal religious people as pseudo-scientific and neo-theistic activities are also detrimental to normal religious activities.

Ren urged legal religious people and atheists to unite in respecting and safeguarding the basic rights of civilians granted by the Constitution and laws.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


25. Ethiopian government denounces Haile Selassie as despot and tyrant
Associated Press, Oct. 31, 2000
http://beta.yellowbrix.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) -- Ethiopia's government broke its silence on Tuesday over the controversial reign of the country's last emperor, denouncing Haile Selassie as a despot and a tyrant who oppressed and exploited the masses.
(...)

To his supporters, Haile Selassie's rule was a time of peace and stability, a period when modern education was introduced and Ethiopia, the oldest independent state in Africa, became the headquarters of the Organization of African Unity.

But his detractors say he failed to introduce much needed reforms, and this failure to dismantle the feudal system led to his downfall.

Rastafarianism's many sects still worship Haile Selassie -- even though he paid little heed to his adulation by faraway Caribbean people whose actual ancestry tended to be West African and not Ethiopian. Believers consider Haile Selassie a god and the smoking of marijuana a sacred rite.
(...)

The emperor's remains will be reburied Sunday during a memorial service conducted by the Haile Selassie I Foundation and members of his family, including his only surviving child, Princess Tenagne, who has been living in the United States.
(...)

The emperor's remains have been kept in a secret vault at Bahta Ethiopian Orthodox church in the capital since they were exhumed in 1991 from a small grave in a garden adjacent to Mengistu's office.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


26. Psychic, mate admit stealing woman's cash
Houston Chronicle, Nov. 1, 2000
http://www.chron.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
A fortuneteller and her husband admitted Tuesday to stealing money and credit cards from a woman who prosecutors said was threatened with a pistol-shaped cigarette lighter and a hex.

Shirley Costello, 33, and Steven Costello, 35, each received one year probation with special conditions, including forbidding the wife to practice her craft.

Originally, the Costellos each had been charged with one count of felony aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon. They pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of class A misdemeanor theft because the alleged gun turned out to be a cigarette lighter.

The incident occurred Aug. 8 when a 22-year-old woman responded to Shirley Costello's ad claiming she could reunite lost loves for a donation.
(...)

When the woman arrived at the Costello home in the 8200 block of Bellaire, Tirey said, Shirley Costello used a sleight-of-hand trick to convince the woman she was in dire straits.
(...)

Tirey said the victim was confused by the psychic's pronouncements and sat stunned as Costello rummaged through the victim's purse and found $300. At that point, Costello called in her husband, a used-car salesman, who was holding the lighter.

Shirley Costello demanded the woman accompany her to two department stores where the woman was forced to buy gift certificates totaling $800. Afterward, she threatened to put a curse or evil spell on the woman if she told anyone, Tirey said.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


27. Steve Allen, TV Innovator, Author, Composer, Dies at 78
Los Angeles Times, Nov. 1, 2000
http://www.latimes.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Steve Allen, the zany comedian and witty social commentator whose career zipped at warp speed from one occupation to the next--from hosting the original ''Tonight'' show to lecturing about morality to composing thousands of songs--has died in Encino at age 78.
(...)

On Monday he worked on promotional plans for the December release of his 53rd book, ''Steve Allen's Private Joke File,'' and completed the manuscript for a planned book, ''Vulgarians at the Gate,'' about violence and vulgarity in the media.

On Tuesday, hours after his death, The Times printed one of Allen's occasional full-page advertisements lambasting television sponsors for ''the filth, sex and violence you send into our homes.''
(...)

An irascible activist, Allen spoke out loudly against capital punishment and nuclear proliferation. He bemoaned the lapse of what today are called ''family values.''
(...)

In recent years, Allen turned his biting wit to two long-standing concerns, the increasing violence and vulgarity in the media and the dumbing down of America. As early as 1980, Allen complained that TV comedies were ''far too dirty for my taste.''
(...)

Yet another of Allen's preoccupations was religion. He wrote the book ''Beloved Son: A Story of the Jesus Cults'' after his son Brian joined the Love Family commune. And though he pilloried most religious beliefs as stupid, he raised money for the Unitarian Church, the Salvation Army and other religious groups. He saw no contradiction in helping churches even as he belittled their beliefs.

''If someone were to invent a religion tomorrow in which, if you want to contact God, all you have to do is buy a pumpkin, everyone at first would scoff at the stupid person who believes that somehow pumpkins are physically part of God,'' he told The Times in 1992. ''But now, Chapter 2: These people open kitchens, buy clothing and build shelters for the homeless. I think their views about pumpkins are dumb, but they are helping starving, miserable people and I admire them, and I will help them.''

As part of that, he and Meadows not only contributed generously to the Los Angeles Mission, but also showed up on Thanksgiving and Christmas to help dish up dinners for the homeless.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Noted

28. A Voice From the Other Side
New York Times, Oct. 29, 2000
http://www.nytimes.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
(...) Ms. Morrison is one of a growing number of earnest searchers, thrill-seekers and just plain trend-followers who have lately consulted mediums - self-styled emissaries from the spirit world who attempt to place the living in contact with the dead. In recent years the number of such believers has swollen, spilling from the Birkenstock-and-crystal set into the culture at large. A Gallup poll found that 20 percent of respondents in 1996 believed the dead could contact the living. Another 22 percent allowed that it might be possible - a willingness to suspend disbelief that has lent one of the oldest of the psychic arts a new luster.
(...)

Ms. Spellman attributed the heightened interest in mediums - or spiritists, as they like to call themselves - to a spillover from the growing interest in alternative medicine and Eastern spirituality. ''We live in a world where many people have an acupuncturist, understand that there is energy and practice the martial arts,'' she said. ''People are so much more open-minded about the unseen.''

''They're talking to angels,'' she added. ''At that rate, why not talk to the dead?''

Or why not communicate with your pets, a skeptic would ask. The possibility of contacting the spirit realm is, to the rigorously rational, and to most organized religions, no more credible than the Grand Guignol theatrics - rattling skeletons, witches on broomsticks - that are the stuff of America's own day of the dead, Halloween.

Still, there is a serious rising interest in the subject of mediums. ''There is something in our culture today that is more accepting of things you can't quite get your mind around,'' said Bonnie Hammer, the executive vice president of the Sci-Fi Channel on the USA cable network, which last summer introduced ''Crossing Over With John Edward,'' a talk show whose host attempts to relay messages from departed souls to audience members. It has gained a cult following.

Spiritualist stars like Mr. Edward, Sylvia Browne and Rosemary Altea are among those who have evangelized the fashion crowd, and drawn devotees as well from film and publishing.
(...)

The curiosity has been fanned by a spate of books, television shows and films about mediums bearing tidings from the Other Side. Uncanny messages and occult encounters are the subjects of ''Affinity,'' Sarah Waters's recent, well-reviewed novel about a sexually charged relationship between a Victorian woman and a psychic. They form the backbone of inspirational books, including ''Life on the Other Side'' by Sylvia Browne and ''One Last Time'' by Mr. Edward, each of which is on a New York Times best-seller list. And they create a subtext for films, including ''The Exorcist,'' recently rereleased, in which a precocious little girl tries to break through to the spirit world via a Ouija board.

Spiritism has also spawned Web sites like Afterlifecodes.com, on which people can leave encrypted messages for loved ones to decode after they die; a proliferation of Learning Annex seminars; and countless private consultations costing anywhere from $2-per-telephone minute to $300 for a face-to-face meeting with a hot psychic like Mr. Edward, whose show, originally broadcast on Sunday nights, is now on five nights a week.

Self-appointed mediums like Mr. Edward have been alternately revered and reviled in history. Mediums gained a foothold in America in the mid-1800's, when the movement known as the Great Religious Awakening gave rise to psychic stars like the Fox sisters of Rochester, N.Y. Mary Todd Lincoln invited mediums to the White House.

Today, a renewed preoccupation with the spirit world has been variously ascribed to millennial angst, intimations of mortality among baby boomers and disenchantment with organized religion. ''People turn to mediums to find out more about those mysteries that the church tends not to reinforce,'' said Dr. Andrés I. Péérez y Mena, the author of ''Speaking with the Dead'' (AMS Press, 1991), a study of spiritualism among Puerto Ricans in the United States, and an associate professor of anthropology at Long Island University.

But often the bereaved approach psychics when they have exhausted other avenues of healing.
(...)

Ms. Seymour, who was ''read'' on television by Mr. Edward earlier this month to promote her television movie ''Yesterday's Children,'' said: ''My skepticism regarding mediums is rampant. I'm an actress, so it's easy enough for anyone to press a key on the Internet and get an enormous amount of background on me.''

She has frequented mediums but was less than impressed when Mr. Edward insisted that her mother, a woman in robust health, was gravely ill, but she was reluctant to dismiss him outright. ''He might have done better outside the studio,'' she said. ''With all those other people in the room, I don't think he had a really good shot at it.''

Mr. Edward, 31, a part-time ballroom-dancing teacher with a fresh- scrubbed face and an earnest manner, acknowledged that his readings were not 100 percent accurate, or, at any rate, didn't necessarily provide the information his sitters were seeking. ''People might be coming because they want to talk to their son,'' he said. ''They do not want or expect to get a visit from grandma.''

But guests on ''Crossing Over,'' who sit in a semicircular studio as sterile as an airport waiting room, might indeed hear from Grandma. Or as in the case of Pat Carrozza, a nutritionist from a suburb of Denver, from an entire gallery of the departed. ''They're saying `Florida,' '' Mr. Edward told Ms. Carrozza during a recent taping of the show. Acting stunned, his sitter nodded. ''Yes, my father died in Florida,'' she said. ''I see July,'' Mr. Edward said. ''Right, he passed in July,'' she said. ''Now there is something about Lulu - they're showing me Lulu,'' Mr. Edward said. Ms. Carrozza's eyes welled up in a display of feeling that even the most practiced shill would have had trouble faking. ''Lulu, that was my great-aunt,'' Ms. Carrozza affirmed.

Judith Nadell, the Boston psychic, maintains that she can actually see a spectral presence standing behind her sitters. In contrast, Mr. Edward said he gets his messages on an internal video screen. ''I see images in my mind's eye,'' he said. ''They're usually pop culture references, like McDonald's, which might refer to a hamburger or to someone named Ronald.'' Typically, such communiques come in the form of names or initials meaningful to the sitter, or of objects, like Ms. Morrison's screwdriver, or even a snatch of a popular song. ''I'll say whatever is in my head,'' Mr. Edward said. ''It's up to you to interpret it.''

Michael Shermer, the publisher of Skeptic.com on the Web, dismissed the claims of mediums as ''twaddle,'' comparing their techniques to a sort of fishing expedition. ''The technique is called cold reading,'' he said. ''You're throwing questions at the subject, rapid-fire, and the subject is doing the reading, confirming that the psychic has scored. People remember the hits and forget the misses. That's the deeper principle.''

''Mentalism is actually a show,'' he added, ''a psychodrama that requires of its audience a willing suspension of disbelief.''

Until recently, such scathing appraisals have kept many mediums, and their clients, under cover. ''Fifteen years ago, if you were a psychic, you didn't tell people,'' Mr. Edward said, adding that lately the climate had changed. ''When I started, there were no Barnes & Nobles, where you could go to the New Age section. And the occult room at the public library was no place to be seen. Going there was like sneaking in to the adult section at the video store.''

Mr. Edward is a participant in an ongoing study of mediums conducted at the University of Arizona by Dr. Gary Schwartz, a Harvard-educated professor of psychology, medicine and neurology who taught at Yale. Dr. Schwartz, who is researching whether human ''energy'' lives on after death, called Mr. Edward ''one of the Michael Jordans of the mediumship world.'' Like the legendary athlete, Mr. Edward ''is accurate about 45 percent of the time,'' said Dr. Schwartz, who said he has tested Mr. Edward in double-blind experiments. To have credibility, a medium doesn't need a perfect score. ''You can miss more than 50 percent of your shots,'' Dr. Schwartz said. ''But from time to time, you have to dazzle, make what we call the impossible shot.''
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


29. Psychic brings voices, ratings, to TV
CNN, Oct. 31, 2000
http://www.cnn.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
NEW YORK (CNN) -- Long before a little boy uttered ''I see dead people'' in the 1999 hit ''The Sixth Sense,'' someone else had already made that claim -- and people believed him.

John Edwards says he's been in touch with the great beyond for years. His own ''sixth sense'' has made him one of the most sought-after psychic mediums in the United States.

The author of the best-seller ''One Last Time,'' Edwards is so popular that the wait for a private reading with the 30-year-old seer can be as long as one year.

But those who don't want to wait so long now only have to switch on their TVs. In his new series, ''Crossing Over with John Edwards,'' the psychic invites live audiences to communicate with friends and family who have passed on -- through him, and while the nation watches.

This other-worldly concept has proven lucrative in this world, too. In just three months on the air, ''Crossing Over with John Edwards'' has become one of the Sci-Fi Channel's most successful original programs.

Bill Tush recently had a spirited talk with TV's hottest psychic friend.

CNN: OK, back to the beginning, you were 15 years old --

John Edwards: I was 15 years old. I went to a psychic named Lydia Clarr. She was doing readings at my grandmother's house, and I went to debunk her, to say that she wouldn't be able to read me. It was like a big joke in my family; they were like, ''Go up there, you'll see. She's going to knock your socks off.'' And I went up there -- and she did. She was amazing.

CNN: How did you begin hearing voices?

Edwards: I started learning as much as I could about parapsychology and metaphysics. I learned about the different types of tools, astrology, numerology, cards -- all that kind of stuff. And meditation is key. And I learned how to just quiet your mind and listen to energy. To a lot of people this kind of stuff is so mystical and esoteric, but it's really not: It's all about energy. ... Raising your awareness level does it.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


30. Occupational occult
CNN, Oct .31, 2000
http://www.cnn.com/l
[Story no longer online? Read this]
(CNN) -- ''It's so simple. All I do is take a breath. Think of that person's name you gave me, their relationship to you and their location. And the next feeling I get is that a voice is talking to me. And it's such a blessing.

''I do see visions, but that's not my strongest point. When I was 5 or 6, I always said, 'I want to talk to God.' I never said, 'I want to see him.' So when things started coming to me, they came to me as voices. It's the voice of God talking.''

As Jill Cook Richards sees it, this is a process of psychic triangulation. Name, relationship, location.

''I'll have enough from those three points to hear an expression of the person's soul. I don't read minds. I try to read what's in their hearts.''

No time frame. ''In the spiritual universe, on the ether, there is no time.''
(...)

She's 28 years into a career as a self-described psychic -- a career that depends on what she calls her ''gift.''

Science on 'psi-ence'
''From the perspective of accepted mainstream science today, there's really no hard data to support that someone like this has a legitimate ability.''

Louis Manza is a tenured faculty member with Lebanon Valley College in Annville, Pennsylvania. His Ph.D. from City University of New York (CUNY) and his master's degree from CUNY's Brooklyn College are in experimental psychology.

Manza doesn't know Richards or her work. He studies the research on such alleged phenomena as her ''gift'' and teaches a course called ''Paranormal Phenomena -- A Critical Examination.''

''Some of these people are blatant hoaxes and frauds and they know they are. They're really good at doing it and they have a skill.''

Manza doesn't say Richards is a fraud. He does describe the sort of intellectual skill that many scientists believe may be interpreted -- or in some cases promoted -- as something based in the supernatural.

''They have a skill for reading people. They're mentalists. If you go see Kreskin, you'll find he makes no bones about what he does. He's a mentalist. He knows how to read people. He can see things, predict things, but he does it by gauging their reactions. I wouldn't call this a psychic skill. This is a practiced ability.

''Some people have extraordinary memory capabilities, this has been documented. A good mentalist knows what to look for -- and how to play the percentages.''

To illustrate his point, Manza talks about a self-styled psychic who gave a reading to a couple on a television show. The woman wore a necklace with the letter ''K.'' Neither she nor her husband had a name starting with ''K.'' The psychic said he was getting an impression that someone who had died, a boy, might be named Kevin. The woman and her husband were floored at what appeared to be a psychic insight into the loss of their son. But a skeptic later interviewed on the same show pointed out, Manza says, ''that there are two common boys' names that start with K -- one is Ken and one is Kevin. He picked the right one in this case. If he'd picked Ken, he'd then have said, 'Oh, right, I meant Kevin''' -- and the act would still have been impressive.

''The people having the reading done,'' Manza says, ''are wanting to see something, wanting to learn something from the psychic. They're already believing. They don't need convincing. So if the psychic says something general, they'll read into it.
(...)

What motivates Manza in his study of alleged paranormal phenomena? Interestingly, it's not unlike what Jill Cook Richards says motivates her -- a desire to help people.

''I think you can 'fit in' what someone like this says to you,'' as in fitting it into your life. ''These are really good interpretations,'' he says, ''but people can be exploited. There's a danger in that.

''Other than psychological damage -- that runs from fairly innocuous to fairly severe -- people might also spend lots of money on these things, money they could be spending on other things. You have potential medical problems, people going to alternative medicine or not taking their medicine or going to faith healers.

''The danger is the public doesn't understand the science behind this. That's one of the reasons I decided to teach this class. I was so frustrated with the way people are.
(...)

Science, Manza says, looks for a 95-percent accuracy rate. ''Five percent of the time, something's not going to work in any experiment. So established science says to paranormal people, 'This is the standard. Get it right 95 percent of the time.'''

And Manza points to one famous challenge to those ''paranormal people'' to pick up some serious money while proving the validity of their talents.

James Randi is a magician and paranormal investigator who was among the 1986 recipients of a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation's Fellows Program grant ''for extraordinary originality and dedication.'' He's listed in the MacArthur's records, charmingly enough, as a ''conjuror, writer and lecturer.''

Randi, once profiled in an installment of PBS' ''Nova,'' has established through his own foundation a $1 million challenge to psychics.

''I, James Randi, through the James Randi Educational Foundation, will pay the sum of US$1,000,000 (One Million Dollars) to any person or persons who can demonstrate any psychic, supernatural or paranormal ability of any kind under satisfactory observing conditions,'' reads the application for the challenge. It then goes on to specify that travel and other expenses must be borne by the applicant; that data gathered from the testing involved will be the foundation's to use as it likes; and that a claimant must agree before formal testing to precisely what will be considered proof of demonstrated ability.

Manza says many people who say they're psychic quickly dodge dares to go for the $1million. They complain, he says, that the Randi criteria are too stringent or that the foundation owns the data. ''I tell them, 'If you have these skills, go to Randi and take his money.'''
(...)

Manza says he's collecting original research on the role the media may play in people's belief level in supposedly paranormal activity. ''They read it on the Net or in the newspaper or see it on TV and that sticks with them.''

And he's watching his students to see if those registering for his course each semester are coming in with a greater or lesser predisposition to be skeptics or believers.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


31. Exorcism Flourishing Once Again
Los Angeles Times, Oct. 31, 2000
http://www.latimes.com/
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RALEIGH, N.C.--Days before Halloween, the demons already were loose in this southern town of tall pines and steepled churches.

Bob Larson, an evangelical minister who has honed the art of exorcism into astonishing public performance, was facing down the demon of witchcraft in Karen Ward, a 42-year-old medical administrator. Or so the guttural voice that emanated from the woman identified itself.

Before a standing-room-only crowd in a Hilton hotel here, the voice growled that it had gained a foothold in Ward by cursing her bloodline 10 generations ago, had pushed her into evil sex and intended to keep her in its grasp.

Oh, yeah? Larson snarled, brandishing a Bible in one hand and a microphone in the other. ''Witchcraft, face me!'' he bellowed. ''We break every curse! I now call down to you the wrath of God. Go now to the pit!''

''To the pit!'' the crowd chanted.

At once, Ward's contorted face relaxed. She hugged Larson as she called out thanks to Jesus for her deliverance. The crowd went wild. Later, she said the healing was genuine and all her demons were ''completely gone.''

The ancient ritual of exorcism, which fell out of favor in the Age of Reason, is once again flourishing in the Age of the Internet.
(...)

Whatever the cause, hundreds of exorcism ministries now exist--some with names like Demon Stompers that offer personal deliverance testimonies and toll-free lines for convenient counseling.

Along with the heightened public interest in exorcisms has come a passionate debate on the nature of evil and the proper role of the ritual among Christians.

''It's a sensational, fast-food solution to long-term problems that absolves you of any responsibility for your vices,'' says Hank Hanegraaff of the Christian Research Institute in Santa Margarita. ''I call it Flip Wilson theology: 'The devil made me do it.' ''

Counters Larson, whose Colorado-based ministry offers exorcisms by radio and conferences nearly every week: ''Critics can take all the cheap shots they want, but we are genuinely trying to do something about the suffering of people.''

Exorcisms are nearly as old as human civilization, practiced from antiquity by Babylonian priests, tribal healers and Jesus, himself. But, according to historians, exorcisms declined in Western churches about 200 years ago only to begin resurfacing in the 1970s.

Recent growth seems brisk: An international exorcism association established by the Vatican's chief exorcist attracted just six practitioners to its first conference in 1993, but drew more than 200 exorcists and their lay assistants this summer.
(...)

But the number of Catholic exorcists pales next to those in the world of charismatic and evangelical Protestantism. Among theologically conservative evangelicals alone--those who don't believe in speaking in tongues and other Pentecostal gifts--Cuneo says exorcism ministries have skyrocketed from a handful in the early 1980s to more than 600 today.

The Fordham scholar has personally witnessed more than 50 exorcisms--most of them performed out of genuine spiritual compassion with no demand for fees, he says.

But people have been beaten and even killed in exorcisms, including a Korean woman in Los Angeles who died after a six-hour ritual in 1996.

And experts say the psychological dangers of what some see as playing with people's minds and telling them they are possessed can be great.
(...)

A large body of clinical literature and anthropological studies has shown that in times of social upheaval, people act out their fears through trance states and other possession-like behavior, Woods says.

Hanegraaff adds a theological twist, arguing fiercely that Christians cannot be possessed by demons at all because they are filled with the superior power of the Holy Spirit. The fact that so many Christians believe otherwise demonstrates an appalling degree of Bible illiteracy, he says.

By contrast, Landry at Harvest Rock says demons may enter anyone who sins.

And Larson not only believes Christians can be possessed, but he also has developed an elaborate system explaining how.

Videos, books and tapes detail his theories on the four laws of spiritual warfare, six strongholds of Satan and four ways that Satan can acquire the legal right to possess a person--through a generational curse, for instance, or ''soul ties'' forged through sex with a demon-possessed partner. Sales of the products supplement the fee--$39 to $49--that he charges for exorcism workshops following his free, public conferences.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]

* No one knows what possesses Bob Larson to call himself ''The world's foremost Christian authority on cults and the occults.'' He is not, though, and his ''services'' are not recommended by serious Christian apologists and true cult experts.

More about Bob Larson

Bob Larson Fan Club
2nd Annual BLFC Fundraising Drive
(...)

Last year, we raised money for one of our favorite charities, Dallas-based Trinity Foundation.
(...)

This year's ''designated charity'' is the Denver Rescue Mission.
(...)

Here's how the drive works: For every hit the BLFC page gets starting at the beginning of Bob Larson's Halloween show (2:00 P.M. MST) and continuing on to 1:59 P.M., MST on the 20th of November, 2000, up to a maximum of 10,000 hits, I pledge to donate one penny to the Mission.

=== The Communists Around The Corner

32. In a fix, French communists turn to Jesus -- sort of
Star-Telegram/Religion News Service, Oct. 31, 2000
[URL removed because it currently refers to inappropriate content]/
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[...More offbeat stories...] PARIS -- What do you do when your finances are shaky, your popularity is sliding and your boss faces charges of influence peddling?

If you're the French Communist Party, you turn to Jesus.

In a move that may send Karl Marx spinning in his grave, the embattled party launched an extravagant art show last week featuring French paintings and sculptures with Jesus as the theme.

Billed as a bow to the millennium, ''Jesus and Humanity'' has drawn both skepticism and praise among France's Roman Catholic clergy, and a few snickers among jaded Parisians.

As for the Communist Party, Marx's condemnation of religion as the ''opiate of the masses'' must be balanced with sympathetic statements aired later by the movement's ideological founder. A legacy of state-sponsored atheism in Cuba, China and the former Soviet Union is taken with a Gallic shrug.

''The point is, we are in France -- not anywhere else,'' said Jean Marc Bouchez, part of the party's art show team. ''You can be a Communist and still believe in God. This is quite possible, you know. The main thing is we can agree about the forces that limit the possibilities of human development.''
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