The Lure of the Occult

An article in U.S.News & World Report observes that "children and teenagers today have access and exposure to a bewildering—often disturbing—array of imagery and information that would have been unimaginable even 20 years ago." Curiosity drives many youths to read books and magazines, watch videos, or surf Web sites on the Internet that feature occult material.

According to BBC News Online, popular TV programs that feature witchcraft and vampirism "encourage an interest in witchcraft among children, it is claimed." Some heavy-metal music likewise features violent or demonic themes. Columnist Tom Harpur wrote in the Toronto newspaper The Sunday Star: "I must issue the strongest possible warning about what is happening [in music]. . . . I have never seen anything so depraved. The songs are obsessed with madness, possession, demons, blood, curses, violence of every kind, including rape, self-mutilation, murder, and suicide. Death and destruction, prophecies of doom, the denial of all that is good and the embracing of all that is hideous and evil—these are the themes."

Does listening to such music really contribute to destructive behavior? It evidently did so in at least one case—that of a 14-year-old youth in the United States who stabbed his mother to death and then killed himself. The walls of his room were covered with posters of heavy-metal rock musicians. His father pleaded afterward: "Tell parents to watch what music their children listen to." He said that the week before his son killed his mother, he kept singing a rock song "about blood and killing your mother."

Then there are role-playing games, some of which allow participants to take on the role of sorcerers and other occult figures. Many of these games feature demonistic violence.
Nevertheless, the research organization Mediascope reports: "Studies show that the preference for heavy metal music may be a significant indicator for alienation, substance abuse, psychiatric disorders, suicide risks . . . or risk-taking behaviors during adolescence, but music is not the cause of these behaviors. It is hypothesized that teenagers already struggling with those issues may be attracted to heavy metal music, because the lyrics express their own troubled feelings."