1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:03,000 When I was young, I had to kill a number of people. 2 00:00:03,000 --> 00:00:12,000 This time on Unexplained Mysteries, Bizarre Beliefs will go inside a real life vampire cult. 3 00:00:12,000 --> 00:00:17,000 I use blood to ensure my immortality in this world. 4 00:00:17,000 --> 00:00:24,000 With our case studies, we'll show you a world of people with strange and super-vintual beliefs. 5 00:00:24,000 --> 00:00:28,000 Curses can kill people. Curses can make people sick. 6 00:00:28,000 --> 00:00:33,000 Curses can ruin people's finances. Curses can certainly ruin people's love lives. 7 00:00:33,000 --> 00:00:37,000 And a famous director caught in a mysterious spell. 8 00:00:37,000 --> 00:00:42,000 You felt that the picture was cursed, and that he was suffering from that curse. 9 00:00:42,000 --> 00:00:48,000 The mark of the Buddha will take part in the ceremony of an unconventional religion. 10 00:00:48,000 --> 00:00:52,000 When the orisha takes over the body, then the orisha possesses us. 11 00:00:52,000 --> 00:00:57,000 You'll hear from the killer who claims to have the devil at his side. 12 00:00:57,000 --> 00:01:01,000 I didn't choose to kill my girlfriend. It was done by the influence of demons. 13 00:01:01,000 --> 00:01:04,000 I believe that Satan wanted her to die. 14 00:01:04,000 --> 00:01:07,000 And the expert that disputes it. 15 00:01:07,000 --> 00:01:09,000 And that is pure unadulterated. 16 00:01:09,000 --> 00:01:13,000 The disturbing accounts of bizarre rituals. 17 00:01:13,000 --> 00:01:18,000 I've heard of babies being killed or full-term babies that have been sacrificed. 18 00:01:18,000 --> 00:01:24,000 And I would just be brought into the basement where the table with the child or the animal would be put on to be hurt. 19 00:01:24,000 --> 00:01:28,000 We'll expose the secrets of mind-controlling cults. 20 00:01:28,000 --> 00:01:33,000 You don't have to argue people into mind control. 21 00:01:33,000 --> 00:01:37,000 And witness a shocking service with lethal consequences. 22 00:01:37,000 --> 00:01:40,000 Bottle says in the 16th chapter of St. Mark's, 23 00:01:40,000 --> 00:01:43,000 In my name they shall take up the surface. 24 00:01:43,000 --> 00:01:47,000 And if they drink any deadly things, it shall not hurt them. 25 00:01:47,000 --> 00:01:51,000 And the final examination in our unanswered court. 26 00:01:51,000 --> 00:01:56,000 Right here on Unexplained Mysteries. Bizarre Beliefs. 27 00:01:58,000 --> 00:02:01,000 You are about to witness stories of the occult. 28 00:02:01,000 --> 00:02:05,000 This is a world that most cannot relate to. 29 00:02:05,000 --> 00:02:10,000 A world of secret societies beyond our comprehension. 30 00:02:10,000 --> 00:02:14,000 A disturbing world that offends the beliefs of many. 31 00:02:14,000 --> 00:02:19,000 We enter this world through cautionary eyes and subjective interpretation. 32 00:02:20,000 --> 00:02:24,000 This is a glimpse at the truly unexplainable. 33 00:02:24,000 --> 00:02:30,000 Our examination begins with a look at the belief in those who are not living. 34 00:02:30,000 --> 00:02:36,000 The undead would be someone who is, is pronounced dead. 35 00:02:36,000 --> 00:02:45,000 And at certain times the dead corpse reanimates and goes out with a thirst for human blood. 36 00:02:45,000 --> 00:02:49,000 Vampires, mythical blood-sucking creatures of the night. 37 00:02:49,000 --> 00:02:53,000 The subjects of a countless number of films. 38 00:02:53,000 --> 00:02:59,000 These terrifying demons have become a fixture in popular culture around the world. 39 00:02:59,000 --> 00:03:04,000 The vampire represents the darker side of human instinct. 40 00:03:04,000 --> 00:03:10,000 The vampire represents the semi-animal-like quality that is part of our nature. 41 00:03:10,000 --> 00:03:14,000 But which in the cultural process of growth and development, 42 00:03:14,000 --> 00:03:16,000 we have had to forego. 43 00:03:16,000 --> 00:03:24,000 I don't ordinary people go see vampires because they identify with a certain collection of characteristics that they don't live out, 44 00:03:24,000 --> 00:03:28,000 but which are ignited in what we would call their unconscious. 45 00:03:28,000 --> 00:03:33,000 But for some, the fascination goes beyond simple curiosity. 46 00:03:33,000 --> 00:03:37,000 Do real-life vampires now walk among us? 47 00:03:44,000 --> 00:03:47,000 Chicago, Illinois. 48 00:03:47,000 --> 00:03:51,000 This man considers himself a vampire. 49 00:03:51,000 --> 00:03:56,000 He looks like one. He acts like one. He drinks like one. 50 00:03:56,000 --> 00:04:00,000 Most people consider me a vampire because I'm a blood drinker. 51 00:04:00,000 --> 00:04:05,000 I use blood to ensure my immortality in this world. 52 00:04:05,000 --> 00:04:08,000 Vlad is a very interesting vampire. 53 00:04:08,000 --> 00:04:15,000 He's not quite like any other vampire that has ever contacted me or that I've ever studied. 54 00:04:15,000 --> 00:04:24,000 Vlad believes that there is a special kind of reaction he gets from the small amounts of blood that he takes. 55 00:04:24,000 --> 00:04:30,000 Blood has a lot of powerful symbolism. It has since ancient times. 56 00:04:30,000 --> 00:04:36,000 It's the life force. And any time you consume the life force, then you enhance your own vitality. 57 00:04:38,000 --> 00:04:43,000 Bram Stoker brought vampires to life with his story of Count Dracula. 58 00:04:43,000 --> 00:04:50,000 His character was based on a 15th century warlord known as Vlad the Impaler. 59 00:04:50,000 --> 00:04:59,000 Vlad Tepeche was not a vampire. He was a real person, a 15th century Wallachian warlord who was a very cruel and despotic man. 60 00:04:59,000 --> 00:05:05,000 There's only one existing account of him drinking blood and it was the blood of one of his impaled victims. 61 00:05:05,000 --> 00:05:08,000 This does not make him a vampire. 62 00:05:08,000 --> 00:05:12,000 But does this evidence disprove the existence of vampires? 63 00:05:12,000 --> 00:05:25,000 I do believe in the possibility of real vampires. I would call a real vampire a non-physical being, perhaps the spirit of a dead or some other kind of being that would attack the living during the day or the evening. 64 00:05:25,000 --> 00:05:28,000 Almost what we would call a biting poltergeist. 65 00:05:28,000 --> 00:05:37,000 Around the world there are many cultures that believe that there are individuals who can fly out at night in some form. 66 00:05:37,000 --> 00:05:53,000 There is certainly a possibility that there are many other forms of energy, many other forms of power that we just don't understand, that may form the basis of the vampire legend and may actually form some kind of power for real vampires. 67 00:05:53,000 --> 00:06:04,000 Vlad believes he possesses this power and his fangs and coffin bed are proof of his commitment to this occult lifestyle. 68 00:06:04,000 --> 00:06:14,000 What I do and why I've done it is I really don't care if any of you believe it or not. That's your problem. 69 00:06:15,000 --> 00:06:28,000 Katrina is a believer in the undead. She thinks she is a real life vampire with a thirst. 70 00:06:28,000 --> 00:06:39,000 I'd say the best thing about being a vampire is the taste of the blood and being with someone who trusts you and will let you drink their blood. 71 00:06:39,000 --> 00:06:44,000 But is Katrina's lifestyle a danger to herself or to others? 72 00:06:44,000 --> 00:06:57,000 If a person wants to dress in black and sleep during the daytime and be awake at night and walk through the graveyards and listen to gothic music and that person is not hurting anyone, 73 00:06:57,000 --> 00:07:07,000 including the fact that that person might want to drink someone's blood and someone is willing to give it to them, I don't see where that's harming anyone. 74 00:07:07,000 --> 00:07:14,000 To the outsider, Katrina's habits may seem unusual, but for her, it's completely natural. 75 00:07:14,000 --> 00:07:22,000 I would never do anything to a child or to an animal. This is something that I've only done with a consenting adult. 76 00:07:22,000 --> 00:07:30,000 You know, they have to be willing to do this and anyone that I've ever done anything like this with actually has enjoyed it. 77 00:07:30,000 --> 00:07:38,000 Calling themselves vampires has added a dimension to their life that must ordinarily be missing. 78 00:07:38,000 --> 00:07:42,000 Vampires are sensual creatures, not sexual. 79 00:07:42,000 --> 00:07:47,000 It's this sensual nature that drives Katrina's thirst for human blood. 80 00:07:47,000 --> 00:07:57,000 Some vampires attempt to take blood here from the carotid artery. However, that's rather clumsy and it's also quite dangerous. 81 00:07:57,000 --> 00:08:05,000 So this is not really used as often as using, taking it from the arm. 82 00:08:05,000 --> 00:08:15,000 I can use an instrument like this, which is a medical scalpel. It's very sharp. It can be sterilized with alcohol, so there won't be any infection. 83 00:08:15,000 --> 00:08:23,000 And it's harmless. Blood is an acquired taste. The best place is somewhere on the arms of the hands, 84 00:08:23,000 --> 00:08:30,000 and that way they can also see what's going on, which makes it more probably more comfortable and more fascinating. 85 00:08:30,000 --> 00:08:35,000 And I'll just, you know, continue drinking until the wound stops bleeding. 86 00:08:35,000 --> 00:08:45,000 Sometimes this leads to a relationship where they say, well, that was kind of interesting. I enjoyed it. Would you like to do it again sometime? 87 00:08:45,000 --> 00:08:55,000 To her, Katrina's beliefs are real. She lives her life as a vampire, and she has no intention of changing her habits. 88 00:08:55,000 --> 00:09:02,000 My blood drinking is something that I believe I'll do in my life. I have, when I was a child, I still do. 89 00:09:02,000 --> 00:09:11,000 Vlad and Katrina may not creep into rooms at night to suck their victim's blood, but are there others that will? 90 00:09:11,000 --> 00:09:15,000 Do real life vampires actually exist? 91 00:09:15,000 --> 00:09:24,000 To dream about vampires, to be attracted to vampires, for the culture to thrill to the idea of vampires is simply nature. 92 00:09:24,000 --> 00:09:31,000 Coming up on Unexplained Mysteries, a Hollywood legend is the victim of a curse. 93 00:09:31,000 --> 00:09:39,000 There was no more money to spend on voodoo serenity, and the witch doctor assured me that this was deeply offensive. 94 00:09:39,000 --> 00:09:48,000 Orson had a strong belief in superstition, in witchcraft, in black magic, a look at mystical religious ceremonies. 95 00:09:48,000 --> 00:09:55,000 It's as if we were sleeping. We don't recognize what is going on, because he takes over our body. 96 00:09:55,000 --> 00:09:59,000 He alleged demonic force behind a murder. 97 00:09:59,000 --> 00:10:03,000 I did not kill my girlfriend. My master Satan did. 98 00:10:03,000 --> 00:10:07,000 And the horrific stories of ritual abuse. 99 00:10:07,000 --> 00:10:13,000 I remember one time being put on this table that they were using, and they would hurt me with a metal crucifix. 100 00:10:13,000 --> 00:10:18,000 We'll examine the power of cults to control people's minds. 101 00:10:18,000 --> 00:10:25,000 We're all susceptible to getting recruited into a cult, to being exposed to a mind control program. 102 00:10:25,000 --> 00:10:28,000 You'll enter the house of deadly worship. 103 00:10:28,000 --> 00:10:34,000 Before I got involved with the Herald of the Service, there's no sin that I didn't participate in. 104 00:10:35,000 --> 00:10:41,000 It will give you the big picture in our unexplored, unexplained mysteries. 105 00:10:47,000 --> 00:10:51,000 Unexplained mysteries, bizarre beliefs. 106 00:10:54,000 --> 00:10:59,000 Can forces beyond our control dictate the outcome of our lives? 107 00:10:59,000 --> 00:11:04,000 For those who believe, curses do have the power to be destructive. 108 00:11:04,000 --> 00:11:13,000 Curses are made every day, every moment of every day, by people towards other people, and they have effects. 109 00:11:13,000 --> 00:11:22,000 Curses can kill people. Curses can make people sick. Curses can ruin people's finances. Curses can certainly ruin people's love lives. 110 00:11:23,000 --> 00:11:40,000 Orson Welles, influential director of the film classic Citizen Kane, a larger than life character with one of Hollywood's most recognizable voices. 111 00:11:40,000 --> 00:11:47,000 But he was also a student of the occult, and a believer in the power of the curse. 112 00:11:47,000 --> 00:11:55,000 I know that Orson always felt that he had been cursed with the whole Brazil enterprise. 113 00:11:55,000 --> 00:12:08,000 Bogdanovic worked with Orson on his autobiography. In the book, Welles discussed his frightening experience in Brazil while attempting to shoot his film. It's all true. 114 00:12:08,000 --> 00:12:18,000 Orson had a strong belief in superstition, in witchcraft, in black magic and white magic, and I think he took it quite literally. 115 00:12:18,000 --> 00:12:26,000 I think he felt that the picture was cursed, and that he was suffering from that curse. I think it pursued him to the end of his days. 116 00:12:26,000 --> 00:12:34,000 This is a voodoo witch doctor. I ran into him in Brazil in Rio de Janeiro. We were down there making a documentary film. 117 00:12:34,000 --> 00:12:40,000 And so I arranged with a good deal of difficulty to film a voodoo ceremony. 118 00:12:40,000 --> 00:12:49,000 But shortly after filming began, production was halted. In Welles' mind, this was the beginning of the end. 119 00:12:49,000 --> 00:12:55,000 Everything that Orson Welles did before 1942 worked like a charm. 120 00:12:55,000 --> 00:13:07,000 And it was my unhappy lot to have to tell him that the filming was off because I had just received word from Hollywood that the president of the film studio had been removed. 121 00:13:07,000 --> 00:13:13,000 It was his downfall. Once he left Hollywood and went to Brazil. 122 00:13:13,000 --> 00:13:22,000 There was no more money to spend on voodoo ceremonies, and the witch doctor assured me that this was deeply offensive. 123 00:13:22,000 --> 00:13:29,000 He never got another job in pictures anywhere remotely like the kind of opportunity he'd had. 124 00:13:29,000 --> 00:13:43,000 On my desk, in a script of the film, was a long steel needle that had been driven entirely through the script. 125 00:13:43,000 --> 00:13:51,000 And to the needle was attached a length of red wool. This was the mark of the voodoo. 126 00:13:51,000 --> 00:13:58,000 For Welles, this was a sign that his film had been touched by some sort of evil. 127 00:13:58,000 --> 00:14:02,000 And this would prevent the film from finishing. 128 00:14:02,000 --> 00:14:14,000 Brazil has a lot of power, spiritual power. A lot of spiritual power. You feel it when you arrive there. 129 00:14:14,000 --> 00:14:23,000 The film was locked in a vault for 40 years. It seemed the curse really was unleashing its power. 130 00:14:23,000 --> 00:14:30,000 Producer Bill Crone discovered the film and became determined to complete it. 131 00:14:30,000 --> 00:14:40,000 Not wanting to take any chances, Crone contacted spiritual priestess Lena de Souza to rid the film of its hex. 132 00:14:40,000 --> 00:14:49,000 I wanted Lena to remove the curse from the film so that we could go ahead, raise the money, make a deal with Paramount, and get the thing finished. 133 00:14:49,000 --> 00:14:56,000 Could one woman free the evil from a film Welles so desperately wanted to complete? 134 00:14:56,000 --> 00:15:05,000 When I saw Lena for the first time, we sat down and she threw a bunch of seashells on the table and looked into them to see what had been done. 135 00:15:05,000 --> 00:15:14,000 She said, whoever did this did a good job. But I think we can turn it around. 136 00:15:14,000 --> 00:15:21,000 Then when I threw the shells, I read what the shell did and then I gave him the answer. 137 00:15:21,000 --> 00:15:27,000 And the guide says it could be removed. It was not easy to do it, but it could be done. 138 00:15:27,000 --> 00:15:37,000 Crone released his version of It's All True 11 years later. Over half a century had passed since Welles had gone to Brazil. 139 00:15:37,000 --> 00:15:43,000 The film had finally been completed. The curse was put to rest. 140 00:15:43,000 --> 00:15:49,000 I don't have any theories about curses. I don't know where they come from and I don't know where they go. 141 00:15:49,000 --> 00:16:03,000 But I think I was involved with one for 11 years and I'm glad that I went to someone who knew more than I do about curses because I think if I hadn't, It's All True would never have been finished. 142 00:16:03,000 --> 00:16:17,000 Was this Orson Welles film really the object of an unseen spell? He passed away believing that it was. For people like him, the power of the curse is genuine. 143 00:16:17,000 --> 00:16:28,000 Certainly if you believe you're cursed, you're cursed. If you believe you're cursed, you've already set yourself up to have a bad result. 144 00:16:28,000 --> 00:16:33,000 Coming up on Unexplained Mysteries, a cult religion. 145 00:16:33,000 --> 00:16:37,000 There was a rear end of a dead rat, blood and guts and everything. 146 00:16:37,000 --> 00:16:42,000 And if they picked the food and ate it, well, they'd better get swill and they'd die. 147 00:16:42,000 --> 00:16:45,000 An alleged conjuring of the devil. 148 00:16:45,000 --> 00:16:50,000 I started uttering an incantation to lose a few trophacale. I felt inventory. 149 00:16:50,000 --> 00:16:54,000 The mystery behind unnerving rituals. 150 00:16:54,000 --> 00:16:58,000 I've heard of babies being killed or full term babies that have been sacrificed. 151 00:16:58,000 --> 00:17:02,000 The poisonous practices of super tameris. 152 00:17:02,000 --> 00:17:11,000 This here feels 100 times better than anything you can even imagine you fail. 153 00:17:12,000 --> 00:17:19,000 And a definitive review in our Unex report. All are Unexplained Mysteries. 154 00:17:24,000 --> 00:17:30,000 On Explained Mysteries, the summer believes. 155 00:17:30,000 --> 00:17:34,000 There are hundreds of religions all over the world. 156 00:17:34,000 --> 00:17:41,000 For most, going to a house of worship and praying is a normal part of life. 157 00:17:41,000 --> 00:17:48,000 But some have abandoned common practices and entered into the bizarre. 158 00:17:49,000 --> 00:18:02,000 In Brazil, the ancient religion of condom-blay focuses on the land, animal sacrifice and conjuring higher spirits. 159 00:18:02,000 --> 00:18:09,000 These spirits, known as Orishas, rule over their followers and the earth. 160 00:18:09,000 --> 00:18:14,000 Respect for the earth is respect for the Orishas. 161 00:18:14,000 --> 00:18:20,000 It's an open thing. It's a beautiful thing. It's about nature. 162 00:18:20,000 --> 00:18:30,000 One of the fundamental reasons for the existence of condom-blay as a religion is to give people a way of making sense out of their life and to connect to the divine. 163 00:18:30,000 --> 00:18:37,000 It is in this passion for nature that Sabrina Glenhill found something to believe in. 164 00:18:37,000 --> 00:18:47,000 I became interested in condom-blay because I think I've always been interested in finding a religion that really had something to do with me. 165 00:18:47,000 --> 00:18:57,000 Many people are beginning to see ancient religions as something very fresh and new and relevant to them. 166 00:18:57,000 --> 00:19:05,000 Speaking in their native tongue, Sabrina received guidance from the high priestess for her problems. 167 00:19:05,000 --> 00:19:11,000 It's been a long time since I've gone to a temple and I feel that I have left many things undone. 168 00:19:11,000 --> 00:19:15,000 I must do them and I would like you to see what I have to do to please my Orishas. 169 00:19:15,000 --> 00:19:23,000 Maylusha is able to speak with the gods of condom-blay to give Sabrina the answers she's looking for. 170 00:19:25,000 --> 00:19:33,000 Open the road. Ocean, as you should know, is the mother Orisha. Mother already says it all. 171 00:19:33,000 --> 00:19:41,000 Mother is a word that needs no definition, but mother is the one that punishes children, that gives children discipline. 172 00:19:41,000 --> 00:19:47,000 Mother is the one who says how we should live. If not, we wouldn't all have a mother to guide us. 173 00:19:47,000 --> 00:19:54,000 But in condom-blay, communication through a high priestess is not enough. 174 00:19:54,000 --> 00:20:05,000 Sabrina must speak to a spirit directly. This will take place at a ceremony where she will conjure her Orisha. 175 00:20:05,000 --> 00:20:10,000 The ultimate expression of divinity in man's connection to the divine is in spirit possession, 176 00:20:10,000 --> 00:20:18,000 where in a ceremony, in a ritual, a divine being, a god, a saint, an ancestor, 177 00:20:18,000 --> 00:20:22,000 literally comes and possesses the body of the worshipper. 178 00:20:22,000 --> 00:20:31,000 It's an experience like levitation. Understand, when the Orisha takes over the body, then the Orisha possesses us. 179 00:20:31,000 --> 00:20:38,000 It says if we were sleeping, we don't recognize what is going on, because he takes over our body. 180 00:20:38,000 --> 00:20:44,000 Sabrina attends the ritual, seeking a meaning to the damaging issues in her life. 181 00:20:44,000 --> 00:20:52,000 I already had a feeling, sort of a premonition, that my Orisha would manifest itself. 182 00:20:52,000 --> 00:20:59,000 And I know very well that if my Orisha were to appear, it would be us very nicely to go away. 183 00:20:59,000 --> 00:21:08,000 As the ceremony begins, condom-blay priestesses seem to be taken over by something not of this world. 184 00:21:08,000 --> 00:21:15,000 They become possessed. It's not long before Sabrina becomes part of the ritual. 185 00:21:15,000 --> 00:21:24,000 Her body appears to be consumed by her Orisha. In this state, she searches for solutions. 186 00:21:24,000 --> 00:21:30,000 After this exhausting experience, Sabrina claims she sees more clearly. 187 00:21:30,000 --> 00:21:35,000 The spirit possession has given her life a new direction. 188 00:21:35,000 --> 00:21:40,000 Someone told me that I had to take care of my mother, meaning my Orisha. 189 00:21:40,000 --> 00:21:50,000 And I realized that was a message perhaps that I had gone there to receive, that I had been neglecting my Orisha, and that I needed to start taking care of her again. 190 00:21:50,000 --> 00:21:57,000 The occult practice of spirit possession is an essential part of condom-blay. 191 00:21:57,000 --> 00:22:03,000 Could this mysterious ritual actually be guiding followers to a better life? 192 00:22:03,000 --> 00:22:07,000 For believers like Sabrina, it does just that. 193 00:22:13,000 --> 00:22:20,000 Cat Island, the Bahamas. Here, there is a set of beliefs that rule over the islands. 194 00:22:20,000 --> 00:22:27,000 It's a religion known as Obea, and it's based on witch-like magic and curses. 195 00:22:27,000 --> 00:22:37,000 Frances Armbrister has lived here for 20 years, and during that time, her house has caught fire twice. 196 00:22:37,000 --> 00:22:44,000 Locals refused to enter her store, convinced that an Obea curse has been placed. 197 00:22:44,000 --> 00:22:49,000 When I was standing in front of the store, the air was just thick. I knew something was wrong. 198 00:22:49,000 --> 00:22:56,000 And I said, what's the matter with you people? And finally Agnes piped up and said, somebody put an Obea in your store. 199 00:22:56,000 --> 00:23:09,000 I went in the store and I looked in the drawer, and there was a Bahamian bill and a US dollar bill, and a rear end of a dead rat, with blood and guts and everything. 200 00:23:09,000 --> 00:23:17,000 Searching for an answer, Frances turned to Mildred, an employee of hers, and a follower of Obea. 201 00:23:17,000 --> 00:23:25,000 And I went to Mildred, and I remember there was my cook, and supposedly one of the biggest witches on the island, but she never would admit it. 202 00:23:25,000 --> 00:23:31,000 And she said, you take this object out of the drawer, and you make a cross all the way across the drawer. 203 00:23:31,000 --> 00:23:39,000 And the thick layer of salt, and then pour kerosene or gasoline over it, and then take it down to the beach, put it in the water, and set it on fire. 204 00:23:39,000 --> 00:23:46,000 And if it floats away and the smoke goes out to sea, you're safe, if it comes back onto the Bay, you're in trouble. 205 00:23:46,000 --> 00:23:56,000 Mildred passed away shortly after this incident, but it was in death that her Obea powers seemed to be revealed. 206 00:23:56,000 --> 00:24:05,000 At Mildred Diana this night, he was in the kitchen, cooking eye on my daughter, bed, sitting side by side. 207 00:24:05,000 --> 00:24:17,000 There was a pot on the stove, and she had a big heavy lid on it, and all of a sudden it lifted itself off the stove and came flying across the room straight at her head. 208 00:24:17,000 --> 00:24:25,000 And my daughter only had to dodge her head and mark the sign of the closing of her feet, and the plaka fall on the ground to her feet. 209 00:24:25,000 --> 00:24:32,000 Now I am her best friend, and we run out of the kitchen because we know that it was merely. 210 00:24:32,000 --> 00:24:40,000 The practice of Obea was brought over from Africa and spread across the Caribbean. 211 00:24:40,000 --> 00:24:47,000 Wherever they came, they brought their own religious ideas, like the old African religion of Udu. 212 00:24:47,000 --> 00:24:54,000 They also found different circumstances, and so they adapted their African religious ideas to those different circumstances. 213 00:24:54,000 --> 00:25:05,000 Believers in Obea make unusual concoctions. One of them involves putting everything from dirt to urine in a bottle and hanging it from a tree. 214 00:25:05,000 --> 00:25:10,000 This is said to protect residents' property from thieves. 215 00:25:10,000 --> 00:25:20,000 They see a bottle in the tree, they know you have something in that bottle, and if they pick the food and eat it while that bottle there, the belly gets swell and they'll die. 216 00:25:20,000 --> 00:25:31,000 The Obea religion seems to have an ominous power over its followers, and those who are loyal believe this power can protect them. 217 00:25:31,000 --> 00:25:42,000 African religions don't worship the dark forces, but they do know that the dark forces exist, and they recognize that there are people within the religious culture that know how to use these dark forces. 218 00:25:43,000 --> 00:25:51,000 Coming up on Unexplained Mysteries, we'll enter the underworld and examine the belief in the devil. 219 00:25:51,000 --> 00:25:57,000 I believe that Satan wanted her to die. It's not the fault of Satan, it's the fault of the human heart. 220 00:25:57,000 --> 00:26:02,000 You'll hear firsthand accounts from people exposed to ritual abuse. 221 00:26:02,000 --> 00:26:08,000 Patients are talking about murder, or they're talking about the sacrifice or their own raves. 222 00:26:08,000 --> 00:26:10,000 I had to kill a number of people when I was young. 223 00:26:10,000 --> 00:26:16,000 And find out how members of this church receive strength from a higher power. 224 00:26:16,000 --> 00:26:22,000 In my name, they shall make up surface, and if they drink any dead, if I'm hit, shall not hurt them. 225 00:26:22,000 --> 00:26:30,000 We'll go back around the world of bizarre beliefs in our Unexplained Report on Unexplained Mysteries. 226 00:26:34,000 --> 00:26:38,000 Unexplained Mysteries, Bizarre Beliefs. 227 00:26:41,000 --> 00:26:48,000 Satanic worship, ritual abuse, and mind-controlling cults, the epitome of evil. 228 00:26:48,000 --> 00:26:54,000 Those who have experienced this evil have terrifying stories to tell. 229 00:26:54,000 --> 00:27:05,000 Jim Jones, David Koresh, Marshall Applewhite, charismatic leaders who convinced hundreds of people to believe in their ideals. 230 00:27:05,000 --> 00:27:10,000 They took over these people's minds and controlled their every action. 231 00:27:10,000 --> 00:27:18,000 We're all susceptible to getting recruited into a cult of being exposed to a mind-control program. 232 00:27:18,000 --> 00:27:26,000 You don't have to argue people into mind-control. Quite the opposite, you sweet-talk them. 233 00:27:27,000 --> 00:27:36,000 And you deceptively sweet-talk them in to coming along with you to join your group. 234 00:27:36,000 --> 00:27:44,000 Once a part of these cults, members take part in terrible deeds, sometimes ending in death. 235 00:27:44,000 --> 00:27:55,000 I testified in one trial where a cult leader had carried out her orders at, quote, making the child submit, 236 00:27:55,000 --> 00:28:02,000 making the child surrender, and they had beaten the child for two and a half hours, and the child died. 237 00:28:02,000 --> 00:28:12,000 And the parents who did it were, when I interviewed them, remorseful and knew that for all time they had to live with that. 238 00:28:12,000 --> 00:28:22,000 That they had so trusted this woman and so believed she was a direct pipeline to God that they had killed their own child. 239 00:28:22,000 --> 00:28:27,000 More people are coming forward with horrific tales of ritual abuse. 240 00:28:27,000 --> 00:28:36,000 They speak of being surrounded by cloaked figures and being forced to participate in unimaginable acts. 241 00:28:36,000 --> 00:28:40,000 Is it real or simply imagination? 242 00:28:40,000 --> 00:28:50,000 When we're talking about issues of ritual abuse where patients are talking about murder or they're talking about sacrifice or their own rapes and things of this sort, 243 00:28:50,000 --> 00:28:56,000 it really takes its toll because of the sense of the unbelievable ability of how they survived it. 244 00:28:56,000 --> 00:29:05,000 I've heard of babies being killed, people delivering babies prematurely or full-term babies that have been sacrificed. 245 00:29:05,000 --> 00:29:10,000 Again, no one wants to hear that. It's too horrific for the population. 246 00:29:14,000 --> 00:29:19,000 Barbara Jackson is a survivor of ritual abuse. 247 00:29:19,000 --> 00:29:24,000 She did not recall memories of her torture until later in life. 248 00:29:24,000 --> 00:29:33,000 People would start arriving and they would have roads and it would just be brought into the basement and the basement is divided into two halves. 249 00:29:33,000 --> 00:29:41,000 One half is open. That's often where the table that the child or the animal would be put on to be hurt. 250 00:29:41,000 --> 00:29:47,000 I remember one time being put on this table that they were using and they would hurt me with a metal crucifix. 251 00:29:47,000 --> 00:29:53,000 Connie Valentine claims ritual abuse pushed her into a personal hell. 252 00:29:53,000 --> 00:29:59,000 Yes, I had to kill a number of people when I was young. I had to put knives in their stomach. 253 00:29:59,000 --> 00:30:07,000 Many times they would put their hand around my hand and they would put the knife in and let me know that this was my fault. 254 00:30:07,000 --> 00:30:15,000 But is it possible to have false memories? Could survivors be creating these stories in their minds? 255 00:30:15,000 --> 00:30:28,000 To have recovered repressed memories, to have flashbacks, to events that they never knew about before and had no memories of before, that I say yes. 256 00:30:28,000 --> 00:30:36,000 Indubitably, is a false memory and that those events never occurred. 257 00:30:36,000 --> 00:30:44,000 But for those who believe they've experienced ritual abuse, the memories are vivid and painful. 258 00:30:44,000 --> 00:30:48,000 For these people, treatment is the only answer. 259 00:30:48,000 --> 00:30:54,000 I think we're training more and more therapists to know how to treat these people. 260 00:30:54,000 --> 00:31:01,000 And I think more and more people really are willing to take that challenge to go back in time and feel the pain. 261 00:31:06,000 --> 00:31:10,000 I did not kill my girlfriend. My master Satan did. 262 00:31:10,000 --> 00:31:19,000 David Demian Trevillo says he worships the devil. His beliefs led him to a jail cell. 263 00:31:19,000 --> 00:31:28,000 I didn't choose to kill my girlfriend. It was done by the influences of Demian. I believe that Satan wanted her to die. 264 00:31:28,000 --> 00:31:38,000 One day, while Trevillo's girlfriend, Angela, was out, he was at home, channeling his so-called master, Satan. 265 00:31:38,000 --> 00:31:48,000 I started uttering an incantation to Lucifer's future of a kill. I felt him enter me. I went into the spirit world and brought it back out with me. 266 00:31:48,000 --> 00:31:56,000 I started speaking in tongues I didn't understand. When my girlfriend came back, she got cold chills as soon as she walked in the door. 267 00:31:56,000 --> 00:32:06,000 David claims that Satan took over his body. Then, listening to his master, he stabbed Angela 39 times. 268 00:32:06,000 --> 00:32:10,000 Trevillo blames the devil for this heinous crime. 269 00:32:10,000 --> 00:32:31,000 I would never deny that Satan exists. What I would deny most vehemently is that he has any power whatsoever to control or to direct or to possess human beings. 270 00:32:31,000 --> 00:32:38,000 Don't blame me. The devil made me do it. And that is pure, plain, unadulterated... 271 00:32:39,000 --> 00:32:51,000 Satanic worship and the belief in the devil are very real. The experts don't believe Trevillo's story. For them, there's a much simpler answer. 272 00:32:51,000 --> 00:32:57,000 It's not the fault of illness. It's not the fault of Satan. It's the fault of the human heart. 273 00:32:57,000 --> 00:33:07,000 We have to, as a society, remain aware that the cult phenomenon is still with us and is ever present and is a danger always. 274 00:33:08,000 --> 00:33:17,000 Next on Unexplained Mysteries, the summer of leaves. The poisonous ceremony at a Georgia church. 275 00:33:17,000 --> 00:33:25,000 Lord, I said, Lord, don't let nobody get snake bit hurt. Don't let nobody get snake bit and die. We got some strict nine years. One duff of it. 276 00:33:25,000 --> 00:33:30,000 And the loyal followers who claim to have gotten closer to God. 277 00:33:30,000 --> 00:33:34,000 Hey, I found heckles. Love, peace. 278 00:33:34,000 --> 00:33:38,000 This was a hide if you could not just subscribe it. 279 00:33:38,000 --> 00:33:47,000 And we'll travel through the world of bizarre beliefs one last time in our Unexplained reports, coming up on Unexplained Mysteries. 280 00:33:48,000 --> 00:33:55,000 Unexplained Mysteries, bizarre beliefs. 281 00:33:55,000 --> 00:34:07,000 For most people, church is a place of peace and comfort. Worship is conducted through prayer and faith is proven through beliefs. 282 00:34:08,000 --> 00:34:15,000 But at a small chapel in Kingston, Georgia, religious ideals are put to a test. 283 00:34:15,000 --> 00:34:21,000 Here, commitment to a higher power comes at a dangerous price. 284 00:34:27,000 --> 00:34:36,000 All during the week, I pray. When I pray, I ask the Lord, I say, Lord, don't let nobody get snake bit hurt. Don't let nobody get snake bit and die. 285 00:34:38,000 --> 00:34:43,000 The Bible says in the sixth pincet chapter of St. Mark's, in my name they shall take up the surface. 286 00:34:43,000 --> 00:34:47,000 And if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them. 287 00:34:47,000 --> 00:34:57,000 For members of this bizarre congregation, handling venomous snakes and drinking strict nine is the ultimate sign of dedication. 288 00:34:57,000 --> 00:35:02,000 We got some strict nine here and one duff of it for kids. 289 00:35:02,000 --> 00:35:06,000 All you have to do is take one swallow, so all you have to take. 290 00:35:06,000 --> 00:35:13,000 Preparation for the sermon involves choosing serpents, not passages from the Bible. 291 00:35:13,000 --> 00:35:20,000 We've got about four copperheads here in this aquarium here. 292 00:35:20,000 --> 00:35:25,000 And there's two copperheads and a rattlesnake there. 293 00:35:25,000 --> 00:35:35,000 And down here we've got a, this is a cottonmouth, it's kind of a cottonmouth watermouse. 294 00:35:35,000 --> 00:35:46,000 This is what I transfer to in the church, the church and these wooden crates. 295 00:35:46,000 --> 00:35:52,000 I'm not no supernatural person, but I'm serving a supernatural God. 296 00:35:52,000 --> 00:35:55,000 I'm as straight of snakes as anybody else. 297 00:35:55,000 --> 00:36:01,000 Over the years, there have been 75 deaths in snake handling churches. 298 00:36:01,000 --> 00:36:07,000 The possibility of death, however, can't keep believers away. 299 00:36:07,000 --> 00:36:11,000 Hey, I found happiness in this. Love, peace. 300 00:36:11,000 --> 00:36:15,000 It's jolly unspeakable and full of glory. I don't care if you've been high on marijuana. 301 00:36:15,000 --> 00:36:18,000 I don't care if you've been drunk on alcohol. 302 00:36:18,000 --> 00:36:27,000 This year feels 100 times, 100,000, thousands of times better than anything that you can even imagine that you feel. 303 00:36:27,000 --> 00:36:35,000 While holding the snakes in their hands, the handlers go through a process they call anointing. 304 00:36:35,000 --> 00:36:41,000 They go to another place and receive powers no human could possess. 305 00:36:41,000 --> 00:36:45,000 For these people, it's a life-altering event. 306 00:36:45,000 --> 00:36:54,000 My life, before I got involved with handling the surface, there's no sin that I didn't participate in. 307 00:36:54,000 --> 00:37:01,000 The very first time when I handled the surface, I just walked up on the podium and took one of the rattlesnakes out of one of the brothers' hands. 308 00:37:01,000 --> 00:37:07,000 As I picked that snake up, this was a hide that you could not just couldn't describe it. 309 00:37:07,000 --> 00:37:09,000 I still have that hide. 310 00:37:09,000 --> 00:37:15,000 While experiencing the hide, Junior McCormick is bitten by a copperhead. 311 00:37:15,000 --> 00:37:22,000 His hand swells from the venom, but his spirit is not broken. 312 00:37:22,000 --> 00:37:28,000 He won't accept any medicine and will not have a doctor look at it. 313 00:37:28,000 --> 00:37:36,000 He that believeth in his bow tie shall be saved. They shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover. 314 00:37:36,000 --> 00:37:40,000 It's not long before Junior rejoins the ritual. 315 00:37:40,000 --> 00:37:44,000 The poison doesn't appear to hurt him. 316 00:37:44,000 --> 00:37:50,000 In his mind, the Lord has put him to the test and he's passed. 317 00:37:50,000 --> 00:37:58,000 It thaws a little bit, but I'm much sick. I'm ready to go home, drive home, and they won't hurt me. 318 00:37:58,000 --> 00:38:00,000 I'm gonna be alright. 319 00:38:01,000 --> 00:38:07,000 Next on Unexplained Mysteries, the Unex Report. 320 00:38:07,000 --> 00:38:11,000 What leads a person to an occult lifestyle? 321 00:38:11,000 --> 00:38:15,000 Where does ordinary stop and the bizarre begin? 322 00:38:15,000 --> 00:38:21,000 Can unseen forces affect our lives and push us to the edge of death? 323 00:38:21,000 --> 00:38:29,000 And how do people let others take control of their minds and command them into the unspeakable? 324 00:38:30,000 --> 00:38:34,000 Get the definitive answers in our Unex Report. 325 00:38:34,000 --> 00:38:38,000 Next on Unexplained Mysteries. 326 00:38:45,000 --> 00:38:48,000 And now for the Unex Report. 327 00:38:50,000 --> 00:38:53,000 The belief in the occult is widespread. 328 00:38:54,000 --> 00:39:01,000 All over the world, there are those who choose to live their lives against what is considered normal. 329 00:39:03,000 --> 00:39:08,000 I use blood to ensure my immortality in this world. 330 00:39:08,000 --> 00:39:12,000 My blood drinking is something that I believe I'll do in my life. 331 00:39:12,000 --> 00:39:18,000 I have, when I was a child, I still do. And as far as I know, I always will. 332 00:39:19,000 --> 00:39:27,000 And throughout the world, there are believers of invisible forces that affect our future. 333 00:39:27,000 --> 00:39:34,000 Curses can kill people. Curses can make people sick. Curses can ruin people's finances. 334 00:39:34,000 --> 00:39:45,000 On my desk, in a script of the film, there's a long steel needle. This was the mark of the hoodoo. 335 00:39:45,000 --> 00:39:50,000 I don't have any theories about curses, but I think I was involved with one for 11 years. 336 00:39:50,000 --> 00:39:56,000 There was a pot on the stove and it lifted itself off the stove and came flying across a room straight at her head. 337 00:39:56,000 --> 00:40:01,000 And then there are those who let their beliefs take over. 338 00:40:01,000 --> 00:40:06,000 I didn't choose to kill my girlfriend. It was done by the influence of the demon. 339 00:40:06,000 --> 00:40:10,000 I believe that Satan wanted her to die. 340 00:40:10,000 --> 00:40:15,000 We got some straight man here and one gop of a kid. 341 00:40:15,000 --> 00:40:19,000 All you have is one swallow, so all you have is a knife. 342 00:40:19,000 --> 00:40:23,000 But there are many who dismiss these unnatural beliefs. 343 00:40:23,000 --> 00:40:27,000 They've chosen reality over the occult. 344 00:40:27,000 --> 00:40:33,000 To have recovered, repressed memories. To have flashbacks. 345 00:40:33,000 --> 00:40:38,000 To events that they never knew about before and had no memories of before. 346 00:40:38,000 --> 00:40:45,000 That, I say, yes, is a false memory and that those events never occurred. 347 00:40:45,000 --> 00:40:50,000 It's not the fault of illness. It's not the fault of Satan. It's the fault of the human heart. 348 00:40:50,000 --> 00:40:54,000 Occult lifestyles and practices exist. 349 00:40:54,000 --> 00:41:02,000 While the reasons for their existence are still unclear, the search for answers continues. 350 00:41:02,000 --> 00:41:09,000 So for now, these bizarre beliefs remain an unexplained mystery. 351 00:41:09,000 --> 00:41:20,000 We have to, as a society, remain aware that the cult phenomenon is still with us and is ever present and is a danger always. 352 00:41:32,000 --> 00:41:37,000 The cult is a very dangerous place. 353 00:41:37,000 --> 00:41:42,000 It's a place where you can't escape. 354 00:41:42,000 --> 00:41:47,000 It's a place where you can't escape. 355 00:41:47,000 --> 00:41:52,000 It's a place where you can't escape. 356 00:41:52,000 --> 00:41:57,000 It's a place where you can't escape. 357 00:41:57,000 --> 00:42:02,000 It's a place where you can't escape. 358 00:42:02,000 --> 00:42:07,000 It's a place where you can't escape.