Filename: TRUTH-HS.TXT Alliance for Magical and Earth Religions presents... THE TRUTH ABOUT HUMAN SACRIFICE From Los Angeles, California, to Matamoros, Mexico, to Long Island, New York come a growing number of terrifying reports of the ultimate horror: occult human sacrifices. Experts who have been interviewed in the newspapers and on the certain talk shows warn of a rising death toll due to Satanism and the occult. One self-proclaimed expert goes as far as to allege that Satanists kill as many as 60,000 people each year in the United States alone. Others tell of children and teenagers who have been compelled or persuaded to kill for Satan's sake. But there is more to these stories than these self-proclaimed "experts" are telling you. We at the Alliance for Magical and Earth Religions thought that you really might want the rest of the facts. vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv Not a single one of the self-styled "experts" on "occult-related crime" actually knows anything about the magical and Earth-centered religions that they so blithely lump together as "the occult." For example, Randall Emon, Larry Jones, and Jack Roper, all self-proclaimed "experts" on the occult, warn against reading anything actually written by an occultist. Well, if they're not reading the primary source material, where do these "experts" get their vast store of knowledge? From each other. A casual search through their literature shows that they quote each other all the time, instead of consulting any legitimate sources. vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv If you look into most of the alleged "occult human sacrifices," you'll see that the claims just don't hold water. For example, Satanism had nothing to do with the widely-publicized murder of Gary Lauwers by Ricky Kasso on Long Island. Gary Lauwers was no "innocent sacrifice." According to ample testimony, Kasso was a drug dealer who executed Lauwers for stealing ten bags of PCP, or "angel dust," from Kasso and then bragging about it to their mutual friends. The unpleasant events in Matamoros, Mexico have been warped to "prove" that Satanists and occultists commit murder in their rituals. But if you read the actual articles on the story, you'll discover that at least nine of the thirteen dead were members of rival drug gangs who were killed in turf wars. Further, the group was practicing a twisted form of Palo Mayumbe, which is a hybrid of Catholicism and African folk religion quite common among Hispanics. There was no resemblance to the magical, Earth-centered, or Satanic religious groups that the "experts" are trying to blame. In the case of the much-celebrated trial of Sean Sellers, the youngest man on Oklahoma's death row, it was his defense attorney who tried to convince the jury that somewhere in Tulsa there was a shadowy Satanic High Priest who had ordered Sean to kill three people. This attempt to transfer the blame away from Sellers was rejected by the jury. Presumably, this was because no evidence exists that there were any organized Satanists in Tulsa, let alone a High Priest to have given these orders, and also because Sellers' choice of victims made his selfish motives quite obvious: he killed a store clerk who refused to sell him alcohol and the parents who were trying to separate him from his girlfriend. vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv Those who label such crimes "occult-related" are defending the unlikely claim that sick, twisted people like Richard "The Night Stalker" Ramirez and David "Son of Sam" Berkowitz would never kill if they never discovered "the occult." Psychopaths don't kill because of the occult; they use the occult as an excuse to kill. The "occult-crime experts" blame all magical and Earth-centered religions for every crime committed by anyone who imitates them. This is absurd. Were the grisly sexual murders and cannibalism of retarded women by self-styled "Bishop" Gary Heidnick "Christ-related?" And shall we blame the Bible for the murder of his followers by ordained Christian minister Jim Jones? vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv Some of the claims of some of the "occult investigators" would be funny if there weren't people who believed them. For example, many "occult investigators" repeat Dr. Al Carlisle's claim that each year two to three times more Americans are sacrificed to Satan than were killed in the entire Viet Nam war. When Dr. Carlisle was asked where he got his numbers, he admitted that he made them up, and that he knows of no actual human sacrifices. For religious reasons, the "occult-crime experts" are trying to focus police attention on less than sixty of the one million violent crimes committed in the last ten years. Law enforcement agencies should track down murderers and the courts should deal with them harshly--regardless of their religion. vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv The Truth About AMER The Alliance for Magical and Earth Religions (AMER) is a St. Louis-based organization made up of representatives of several distinct Magical and/or Earth-centered religious traditions. Its members have only one thing in common: all of them feel that they have been unfairly blamed by some in the media and in law enforcement for the problems of today's society.