1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:08,280 Magical spells, mysterious powers, strange rituals, stories about witches have been scaring 2 00:00:08,280 --> 00:00:10,520 people for a long, long time. 3 00:00:10,520 --> 00:00:16,640 Is there really anything to be afraid of? 4 00:00:16,640 --> 00:00:23,600 Get ready to discover the chilling history of witches, the myths, the legends, the terrifying 5 00:00:23,600 --> 00:00:33,600 truth, and meet the witches of today who keep the mysterious ancient traditions alive. 6 00:00:33,600 --> 00:00:35,880 Are you prepared to face your fears? 7 00:00:35,880 --> 00:00:39,720 Because truth or scare is going to face the truth about witches. 8 00:00:53,600 --> 00:01:18,400 Witches, wizards, warlocks. 9 00:01:18,400 --> 00:01:23,640 They've been known since the Stone Age for mysterious rituals, spells, and their belief 10 00:01:23,640 --> 00:01:26,160 they can bend the forces of nature. 11 00:01:26,160 --> 00:01:32,360 Today, witches are the subject of bestselling books, video games, movies, and of course 12 00:01:32,360 --> 00:01:33,360 TV shows. 13 00:01:33,360 --> 00:01:38,920 But stories have been told about them for centuries, and the true history of witches 14 00:01:38,920 --> 00:01:45,920 is the most shocking story of all. 15 00:01:45,920 --> 00:01:51,720 To try and get to the truth, we have to go back to the beginning, to a time before history 16 00:01:51,720 --> 00:01:56,320 itself where their mystical traditions were born. 17 00:01:56,320 --> 00:02:04,000 Egyptian priests, African shamans, and the secretive mysterious druids in the United 18 00:02:04,000 --> 00:02:10,200 Kingdom and Europe were just some of the many who claimed they could cast magic spells, 19 00:02:10,200 --> 00:02:15,240 predict the future, or even control the forces of nature. 20 00:02:15,240 --> 00:02:21,400 And they tried to use these powers to make people's hard lives just a little bit easier. 21 00:02:21,400 --> 00:02:22,960 Nothing scary about that. 22 00:02:22,960 --> 00:02:26,480 Could they actually do these things? 23 00:02:26,480 --> 00:02:28,360 No one knows for sure. 24 00:02:28,360 --> 00:02:33,600 But some claim their magic has done remarkable things. 25 00:02:33,600 --> 00:02:38,720 Like Stonehenge, a massive stone structure in England that some believe was built by 26 00:02:38,720 --> 00:02:41,120 the druids. 27 00:02:41,120 --> 00:02:46,840 According to legend, a wizard named Merlin, who some say was a druid himself, magically 28 00:02:46,840 --> 00:02:51,760 transported the stones here from hundreds of miles away. 29 00:02:51,760 --> 00:02:52,760 Hard to believe? 30 00:02:52,760 --> 00:02:58,720 Well, geologists have examined Stonehenge, and they confirmed that some of the huge 31 00:02:58,720 --> 00:03:03,800 stones did come from distant lands in Wales. 32 00:03:03,800 --> 00:03:10,320 In light of this fact, many today remain convinced that the stones were moved by Merlin's supernatural 33 00:03:10,320 --> 00:03:11,320 powers. 34 00:03:11,320 --> 00:03:18,920 But others say someone, or something else, must have moved them. 35 00:03:18,920 --> 00:03:23,920 Some theories state that humans had the capability of moving the stones by other methods, without 36 00:03:23,920 --> 00:03:26,480 magic. 37 00:03:26,480 --> 00:03:31,560 We may never know if it was magic that built Stonehenge, but we do know this. 38 00:03:31,560 --> 00:03:37,640 In the year 1000 AD, Christianity became popular in the British Isles, and things started to 39 00:03:37,640 --> 00:03:41,520 change for the people who practiced the mystical arts. 40 00:03:41,520 --> 00:03:48,560 They were looked at suspiciously, and labeled witches. 41 00:03:48,560 --> 00:03:53,760 By 1563, British law made being a witch illegal. 42 00:03:53,760 --> 00:03:58,600 A few years later, King James made new laws that said witches were under the control of 43 00:03:58,600 --> 00:04:01,280 demonic forces. 44 00:04:01,280 --> 00:04:06,480 Now if you are accused of being a witch, it was serious business. 45 00:04:06,480 --> 00:04:12,080 You might be found guilty in a trial, or even tortured until you confessed. 46 00:04:12,080 --> 00:04:16,000 Either way, your fate was usually the same. 47 00:04:16,000 --> 00:04:18,000 It was madness. 48 00:04:18,000 --> 00:04:20,440 But thankfully, it didn't last long. 49 00:04:20,440 --> 00:04:25,520 In less than a hundred years, England had stopped executing people for being witches. 50 00:04:25,520 --> 00:04:29,800 But people's fear of witches didn't disappear completely. 51 00:04:29,800 --> 00:04:44,360 In fact, it traveled across the Atlantic Ocean, bringing hysteria to the New World. 52 00:04:44,360 --> 00:04:51,520 Alone in an attic, late at night, did a group of girls actually come under attack by witches? 53 00:04:51,520 --> 00:04:55,800 Salem, Massachusetts is plunged into madness. 54 00:04:56,800 --> 00:05:00,800 Next on Truth or Scare. 55 00:05:11,800 --> 00:05:16,800 What if you could be tricked into becoming a witch? 56 00:05:16,800 --> 00:05:20,800 When the Puritans came to the New World from England, they brought along their belief that 57 00:05:20,800 --> 00:05:23,800 the devil had power over everyone. 58 00:05:23,800 --> 00:05:33,800 And in 1692, many say that belief drove the town of Salem, Massachusetts to the edge of insanity. 59 00:05:36,800 --> 00:05:42,800 The Puritans had come to New England in the late 1600s to live a simple and religious life. 60 00:05:42,800 --> 00:05:46,800 Many of them settled in Salem, Massachusetts. 61 00:05:46,800 --> 00:05:52,800 But towards the end of the century, some Puritans in Salem didn't like what they saw happening. 62 00:05:52,800 --> 00:05:54,800 The town was growing and changing. 63 00:05:54,800 --> 00:05:59,800 The port was filled with ships, and new businesses were booming. 64 00:05:59,800 --> 00:06:04,800 Many felt this prosperity would harm the pure, simple life they had come for. 65 00:06:04,800 --> 00:06:11,800 And historians say this made them fear that the town might be under the influence of the devil. 66 00:06:11,800 --> 00:06:15,800 The belief was that he could trick you into signing his book. 67 00:06:15,800 --> 00:06:19,800 After that, you'd be given dangerous magical powers. 68 00:06:19,800 --> 00:06:24,800 Powers you could use to hurt other people, even kill them. 69 00:06:24,800 --> 00:06:27,800 You would be a witch. 70 00:06:27,800 --> 00:06:30,800 Was the devil at work in Salem? 71 00:06:30,800 --> 00:06:33,800 Samuel Parris thought so, and said so. 72 00:06:33,800 --> 00:06:40,800 He was the top minister in town, and many say his sermons made a lot of people suspicious of their neighbors. 73 00:06:40,800 --> 00:06:43,800 The situation was getting tense. 74 00:06:43,800 --> 00:06:46,800 And then it exploded. 75 00:06:46,800 --> 00:06:55,800 On a cold winter's night in 1692, in the minister's own home, the hysteria began. 76 00:06:55,800 --> 00:07:03,800 Reverend Parris' nine-year-old daughter, Betty, and her friends were having their fortunes told by Titchiba, the minister's slave. 77 00:07:03,800 --> 00:07:08,800 The only problem was, fortune-telling was forbidden. 78 00:07:08,800 --> 00:07:14,800 But Betty and her friends didn't care. They were spellbound. 79 00:07:15,800 --> 00:07:19,800 But then suddenly, one of the girls saw something. 80 00:07:19,800 --> 00:07:24,800 Floating in the air was the terrifying vision of a white coffin. 81 00:07:24,800 --> 00:07:29,800 But the terror was only beginning. 82 00:07:29,800 --> 00:07:35,800 Betty began to have convulsions, flailing, shaking, thrashing, and screaming, 83 00:07:35,800 --> 00:07:40,800 like she was being attacked by some terrifying invisible creature. 84 00:07:40,800 --> 00:07:44,800 Then, the same thing started with Abigail, her eleven-year-old cousin. 85 00:07:44,800 --> 00:07:49,800 Uncontrollable, horrifying fits, totally out of nowhere. 86 00:07:49,800 --> 00:07:56,800 Reverend Parris sent for the village doctor, but he couldn't find anything wrong with the girls. 87 00:07:56,800 --> 00:08:01,800 For a puritan in 1692 that left only one explanation. 88 00:08:01,800 --> 00:08:05,800 The evil hand is upon them, he said. 89 00:08:05,800 --> 00:08:09,800 He meant, of course, the evil hand of a witch. 90 00:08:12,800 --> 00:08:16,800 Over the next few days, none of the girls got better. 91 00:08:16,800 --> 00:08:20,800 And then, other girls in the village suddenly became afflicted too. 92 00:08:20,800 --> 00:08:24,800 Reverend Parris brought in other ministers to help him, 93 00:08:24,800 --> 00:08:28,800 and demanded that the girls tell them who had cast this evil spell. 94 00:08:28,800 --> 00:08:34,800 Tired and desperate, the girls broke down and named three names. 95 00:08:39,800 --> 00:08:42,800 One was Reverend Parris' fortune-telling slave. 96 00:08:47,800 --> 00:08:49,800 One was a beggar. 97 00:08:50,800 --> 00:08:52,800 And are there others? 98 00:08:54,800 --> 00:08:56,800 Sarah Uspin. 99 00:08:56,800 --> 00:09:03,800 And the other was a sick old woman who had shocked the town when she married one of her servants. 100 00:09:06,800 --> 00:09:11,800 On February 29th, the three women were officially arrested for being witches, 101 00:09:11,800 --> 00:09:15,800 and brought to the town meeting house to face the charges. 102 00:09:15,800 --> 00:09:19,800 Reverend Parris' slave, Titchiba, was brought before the magistrate, 103 00:09:19,800 --> 00:09:25,800 and for the first time ever in Salem, someone confessed to being a witch. 104 00:09:31,800 --> 00:09:35,800 Not only did Titchiba claim that she served the devil, 105 00:09:35,800 --> 00:09:41,800 she confirmed the girls' stories that Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne were also witches. 106 00:09:42,800 --> 00:09:48,800 And she gave wild descriptions of how they all rode on broomsticks to their meetings with the devil, 107 00:09:48,800 --> 00:09:51,800 in Reverend Parris' pasture. 108 00:09:51,800 --> 00:09:57,800 But the biggest bombshell was her claim that there were other witches at these meetings. 109 00:09:57,800 --> 00:10:00,800 Witches that she couldn't recognize. 110 00:10:01,800 --> 00:10:03,800 Who were those other witches? 111 00:10:03,800 --> 00:10:07,800 Suddenly, it seemed like anyone might be accused. 112 00:10:07,800 --> 00:10:13,800 And starting on March 1st, 1692, that's exactly what started to happen. 113 00:10:13,800 --> 00:10:16,800 The witch hunt had begun. 114 00:10:19,800 --> 00:10:25,800 It's neighbor against neighbor as the witch trials begin, and death comes to Salem. 115 00:10:29,800 --> 00:10:32,800 Next on Truth or Scare. 116 00:10:38,800 --> 00:10:42,800 The Witch Hunt 117 00:10:44,800 --> 00:10:49,800 Imagine if you could lose your life, just because someone said you were a witch. 118 00:10:49,800 --> 00:10:57,800 Well, in 1692 in Salem, the claims of the girls in the attic shocked the entire town. 119 00:10:57,800 --> 00:11:01,800 Now the question was, were they telling the truth? 120 00:11:02,800 --> 00:11:07,800 Historians say it didn't really matter. 121 00:11:07,800 --> 00:11:15,800 None of the accused witches were given lawyers, and all of them were pretty much seen as guilty, until proven innocent. 122 00:11:15,800 --> 00:11:20,800 Their moles, warts, even their zits were seen as marks of evil. 123 00:11:20,800 --> 00:11:27,800 And even if their skin was clear, they still couldn't escape what the court said was the most incriminating evidence of all. 124 00:11:28,800 --> 00:11:32,800 It was called spectral evidence. 125 00:11:32,800 --> 00:11:38,800 The things that the girls said they saw were taken as cold, hard, back. 126 00:11:40,800 --> 00:11:45,800 Ann Putnam, who had been in the attic that night, testified against Sarah Good. 127 00:11:45,800 --> 00:11:50,800 I saw the operation of Sarah Good. She'd had tortured me most grievously. 128 00:11:50,800 --> 00:11:55,800 She'd had pinched me and pricked me and urged me vehemently to write in her book. 129 00:11:55,800 --> 00:11:59,800 Once the trial started, the accusations didn't stop. 130 00:11:59,800 --> 00:12:06,800 Even some adults were starting to point the finger, and it seemed like everyone was a suspect. 131 00:12:06,800 --> 00:12:11,800 Even Rebecca Nurse, she was a grandmother and a respected member of the church. 132 00:12:12,800 --> 00:12:20,800 But when Ann Putnam accused her of being a witch, this frail 71-year-old woman was dragged to court to face the charges. 133 00:12:20,800 --> 00:12:25,800 Ann Putnam, have you seen this woman hurt you? 134 00:12:25,800 --> 00:12:28,800 Yes, she beat me this morning. 135 00:12:31,800 --> 00:12:37,800 Rebecca Nurse, do you not see these afflicted persons, and hear them accuse you? 136 00:12:38,800 --> 00:12:44,800 The good Lord knows I have not hurt them. I am an innocent person. 137 00:12:45,800 --> 00:12:48,800 She was then found guilty. 138 00:12:50,800 --> 00:12:54,800 Many say that the people of Salem had completely lost their grip on reality. 139 00:12:54,800 --> 00:12:57,800 Even family ties meant nothing. 140 00:12:57,800 --> 00:13:03,800 Sarah Good's five-year-old daughter testified that her mother had actually recruited her to be a witch. 141 00:13:04,800 --> 00:13:12,800 Then, a local farmer was arrested, put on trial and convicted, all based on his granddaughter's testimony. 142 00:13:14,800 --> 00:13:24,800 Over the summer of 1692, a total of 19 people were convicted and hanged for being witches, including a minister. 143 00:13:25,800 --> 00:13:34,800 As the convictions piled up, historians say that some of the accused were so desperate to escape hanging, they confessed. 144 00:13:34,800 --> 00:13:41,800 Confessing bought them some time. Time, they hoped, would give Salem a chance to come to its senses. 145 00:13:41,800 --> 00:13:45,800 And by the end of 1692, it did. 146 00:13:45,800 --> 00:13:53,800 Ministers all over Massachusetts began to question the evidence that had been presented, especially the spectral evidence. 147 00:13:53,800 --> 00:13:59,800 All those spirits that only the girls could see. One of the judges even quit. 148 00:13:59,800 --> 00:14:07,800 Finally, when the governor's wife was accused, it was clear that the nightmare of the witch hunt needed to end. 149 00:14:07,800 --> 00:14:15,800 Increase matter, one of the most powerful ministers in Massachusetts, delivered a famous sermon in which he said, 150 00:14:15,800 --> 00:14:22,800 It were better that ten suspected witches should go free than that one innocent person die. 151 00:14:22,800 --> 00:14:29,800 I'd rather judge a witch to be an honest woman than judge an honest woman to be a witch. 152 00:14:29,800 --> 00:14:35,800 On October 29th, 1692, the witch hunt was officially over. 153 00:14:35,800 --> 00:14:41,800 All the accused witches were let out of jail and the convicted witches were pardoned. 154 00:14:41,800 --> 00:14:47,800 In eight short months, two hundred people had been accused and put in jail. 155 00:14:47,800 --> 00:14:52,800 Twenty had been executed and five had died in prison. 156 00:14:52,800 --> 00:14:57,800 They would be the last people in America ever to be put to death for being witches. 157 00:14:57,800 --> 00:15:03,800 In the end, a lot of the accusers blamed their actions on the devil. 158 00:15:03,800 --> 00:15:07,800 They claimed they had been tricked into believing their neighbors were witches. 159 00:15:08,800 --> 00:15:11,800 We are apt to use all that good. 160 00:15:11,800 --> 00:15:20,800 But many historians today believe that this dark chapter in American history was really the result of the Puritans' extreme views. 161 00:15:20,800 --> 00:15:25,800 Views that helped create the kind of fear that can easily become hysteria. 162 00:15:25,800 --> 00:15:28,800 Other people see a kind of evil plot. 163 00:15:28,800 --> 00:15:36,800 They point the finger at the Puritans who used what happened on that cold February night to eliminate their enemies. 164 00:15:37,800 --> 00:15:41,800 Could that explain the bizarre accusation of Rebecca Nurse? 165 00:15:41,800 --> 00:15:46,800 She had once refused to sell some land to Anne Putnam's powerful father. 166 00:15:46,800 --> 00:15:51,800 Had he now used his own daughter for revenge, the mystery remains. 167 00:15:56,800 --> 00:15:58,800 The greatest mystery of all. 168 00:15:58,800 --> 00:16:02,800 What did happen in the attic on that cold February night? 169 00:16:06,800 --> 00:16:09,800 Next on Truth or Scare. 170 00:16:21,800 --> 00:16:28,800 History has shown that no one in Salem was accused of being a witch, was a witch. 171 00:16:28,800 --> 00:16:35,800 But there are still some unanswered questions, like what really happened to the girls in that attic in 1692. 172 00:16:37,800 --> 00:16:47,800 No one questions that on that night, Betty Parris and her friends suddenly went into convulsions and had hallucinations they were being attacked. 173 00:16:47,800 --> 00:16:55,800 But now that we know it wasn't their witch neighbors causing it, is it possible that the whole thing was an act? 174 00:16:55,800 --> 00:17:02,800 Richard Trask is a descendant of one of the accused witches and an expert on the Salem witch trials. 175 00:17:02,800 --> 00:17:08,800 He believes that even though what was happening to the girls wasn't the devil, it was real. 176 00:17:08,800 --> 00:17:17,800 This wasn't kids pretending, this wasn't just a poor acting on the part of the kids, this was something that was physically happening to them. 177 00:17:17,800 --> 00:17:23,800 It had been reported that some of the girls actually had strange sores appear in their bodies. 178 00:17:23,800 --> 00:17:28,800 One theory says that the answer might be found in something they ate. 179 00:17:28,800 --> 00:17:32,800 Could a simple slice of bread have caused these girls to see evil? 180 00:17:32,800 --> 00:17:33,800 Maybe. 181 00:17:33,800 --> 00:17:38,800 Back then, rye bread sometimes had a nasty fungus called ergut. 182 00:17:38,800 --> 00:17:49,800 It's not a problem today, but according to historian Mary Matossian, in 1692, people who ate bad rye bread had bad things happen. 183 00:17:49,800 --> 00:17:59,800 They have uncontrollable spasms in their muscles and uncontrollable writhing the whole body. 184 00:17:59,800 --> 00:18:08,800 After that, hallucinations and the sensation that they are being bitten or poked by some sharp invisible force. 185 00:18:08,800 --> 00:18:15,800 And they frequently attribute these hallucinations to supernatural forces, usually evil. 186 00:18:15,800 --> 00:18:21,800 And if the Puritans believed one thing, it was that witches were evil. 187 00:18:21,800 --> 00:18:26,800 And the rest, as they say, is Salem's tragic history. 188 00:18:26,800 --> 00:18:31,800 But it's a history that the town has learned from. 189 00:18:31,800 --> 00:18:35,800 Welcome back to modern day Salem. 190 00:18:35,800 --> 00:18:42,800 But today, in the town where fear of witches destroyed so many lives, everything is different. 191 00:18:42,800 --> 00:18:51,800 Salem has embraced its past, and over a million visitors a year come here to experience its history for themselves. 192 00:18:51,800 --> 00:18:55,800 And maybe even get to meet a real witch. 193 00:18:55,800 --> 00:19:03,800 That's right, because even though all those people in 1692 were falsely accused of being witches, 194 00:19:03,800 --> 00:19:11,800 a growing community of people that openly call themselves witches feel right at home here in Salem. 195 00:19:11,800 --> 00:19:16,800 People like Laurie Cabot. And Laurie Cabot's not just any witch. 196 00:19:16,800 --> 00:19:19,800 I'm the official witch of Salem, Massachusetts. 197 00:19:19,800 --> 00:19:25,800 And what does it mean to be a witch? According to Laurie, it's not spooky at all. 198 00:19:25,800 --> 00:19:31,800 Just like the Druids, their ceremonies have nothing to do with evil or the devil, and never have. 199 00:19:31,800 --> 00:19:38,800 We follow two major rules. Do what that will and harm no one. 200 00:19:38,800 --> 00:19:42,800 Witches, like Laurie, also believe in the law of three. 201 00:19:42,800 --> 00:19:52,800 It says that anything they do that sends out energy, like spells, are wishing for things, will come back to them three times more intensely. 202 00:19:52,800 --> 00:19:57,800 The more generous you are, the more generous the world will be with you. 203 00:19:57,800 --> 00:20:04,800 Put those two rules together, and it's pretty obvious that most modern day witches want to do good. 204 00:20:04,800 --> 00:20:07,800 Just like the ancient Druids and those that came before them. 205 00:20:07,800 --> 00:20:11,800 May all blessings be yours, so mo to be. 206 00:20:11,800 --> 00:20:17,800 Modern witches perform rituals that they believe can solve problems and help to change things about their lives. 207 00:20:17,800 --> 00:20:21,800 It's a lot like saying a prayer. 208 00:20:21,800 --> 00:20:24,800 By earth, fire. 209 00:20:24,800 --> 00:20:30,800 Laurie starts by casting a circle. This is a way of focusing her energy on the spell. 210 00:20:31,800 --> 00:20:37,800 Modern witches like Laurie say they conduct their ceremonies outdoors to be closer to the earth, 211 00:20:37,800 --> 00:20:43,800 and many of them believe there is an energy that flows through every living thing in the universe. 212 00:20:43,800 --> 00:20:50,800 These mystical ceremonies celebrate and respect nature, just like they did in the times of the Druids. 213 00:20:50,800 --> 00:20:56,800 And they link the witches of today with those who first practiced the mystical arts. 214 00:21:00,800 --> 00:21:04,800 It looks like the history of witches has come full circle, 215 00:21:04,800 --> 00:21:11,800 because both ancient and modern witches claim to harness nature through spells and rituals to improve their lives. 216 00:21:11,800 --> 00:21:15,800 But is their magic real? That's up to you to decide. 217 00:21:15,800 --> 00:21:23,800 But real or not, witches will always have the power to cast spells over our imaginations. 218 00:21:30,800 --> 00:21:35,800 The magic of witches is a magic that can be used to make a magic spell. 219 00:21:35,800 --> 00:21:40,800 The magic of witches is a magic that can be used to make a spell. 220 00:21:40,800 --> 00:21:45,800 The magic of witches is a magic that can be used to make a spell. 221 00:21:45,800 --> 00:21:50,800 The magic of witches is a magic that can be used to make a spell. 222 00:21:50,800 --> 00:21:55,800 The magic of witches is a magic that can be used to make a spell. 223 00:21:55,800 --> 00:22:00,800 The magic of witches is a magic that can be used to make a spell.