Ian Punnett (Twitter) welcomed writer Carl Abrahamsson for a discussion on his new book which explores the life, philosophy, and lasting occult influence of Anton LaVey, the founder of the Church of Satan. LaVey was raised in a secular Jewish environment by parents of Eastern European descent, Abrahamsson reported, adding LaVey was a music lover and talented musician with a flair for showmanship. LaVey was intelligent, nurtured solace, knew he had to pursue his own path, and related strongly to the anti-heroes of film noir movies, he continued. "I think LaVey identified with being an outsider... he was secular Jewish in a basically WASP-y environment and he was kind of an odd character," Abrahamsson said.
He suggested LaVey wanted to create controversy and get attention by using the symbol of Satan to represent his philosophy. "He knew exactly what buttons to push," Abrahamsson explained, noting Satan represented personal agency and opposition to the hypocritical and preposterous notions of LaVey's day. "No one in the Church of Satan really believes in that kind of anthropomorphical devil... that's a Christian fantasy," Abrahamsson admitted. He explained how Satan can be view as a symbolic part of our immune system, pointing out what is ill or infected so that it can be fixed.
According to Abrahamsson, LaVey was a materialist but recognized the need in the human psyche for mystique, ritual, and psychodrama. The Satanic Bible and the Church of Satan became outlets for LaVey's distilled version of libertarian philosophy and Freudian psychology. He spoke about greater magic that had to do with the manipulation of one's own psychology and connecting with deep layers of the psyche to create change in one's mind, Abrahamsson revealed. The Church of Satan was essentially a magical group working on these experimental behaviors together, he noted. Abrahamsson also recommended his documentary, Anton LaVey – Into the Devil's Den, available for streaming on Vimeo.
UFO Investigations & Roswell
In the first hour, UFO investigator Kevin Randle detailed his approach to UFO investigations, as well as commented on the Roswell crash. Randle admitted he avoids participating in programs with people who lack credibility, and looks for something where they are attempting to find evidence to support their case without too much speculation. He spoke about the importance of tracing sources to their primary. "The information is available and it's easier to get to in today's environment, so there is really no excuse for not chasing the information to its ultimate source," Randle said.
He spoke about his shortcomings as a fledgling UFO investigator 30 years ago and how he believed unreliable people who supposedly had information about what happened in Roswell. "I didn't believe at the time that people... would inject themselves into these events, telling their first-hand accounts and making them up," he recalled. According to Randle, at this point we can no longer trust information from third- and fourth-hand witnesses regarding Roswell. "It's been passed down so long by so many people, and a lot of it's contaminated by so much that has been put out over the television and all the other books and magazine articles," he revealed.