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From the High Desert book cover

From the High Desert

A Cultural History of Art Bell

Thumbnail for May 15, 2001: Exorcism - Bob Larson

May 15, 2001: Exorcism - Bob Larson

May 15, 2001
2h 47m
0:00 / 0:00
Art Bell welcomes Reverend Bob Larson, an expert on cults, the occult, and the supernatural who has lectured in more than 80 countries. Larson presents audio clips from seven actual exorcisms performed in public conferences across America, each featuring disturbing voices and encounters with what he identifies as demonic entities.

The discussion covers the nature of possession, how individuals become susceptible through generational curses, sexual abuse, substance use, and occult involvement. Larson describes cases ranging from a young church usher to a former member of the pop group Color Me Badd, all of whom exhibited inhuman voices and supernatural strength during confrontations. He explains the concept of legal authority by which demons claim the right to inhabit a person and the process of breaking ancestral curses.

Art and Larson also explore the rise of extreme violence in American culture, shadow people sightings, the relationship between out-of-body experiences and possession, and why the United States faces a unique epidemic of what Larson calls perverted and violent demons compared to other nations.

Key Moments

  1. Eyeball-to-eyeball with possession: Larson describes getting an inch from a possessed person's face, looking 'into the abyss of hell' as foreign voices speak through them, and explains co-consciousness where victims watch their own bodies act out an exorcism like a movie they cannot stop.

  2. OBEs as an open door: Art notes every out-of-body expert he's hosted insists OBEs are safe; Larson counters that he has encountered many possession cases that began during OBEs, because the will's moral defenses go 'in neutral' once consciousness leaves the body.

  3. Shadow people connected to demons: Art recounts the famous shadow-people calls and the thousands of corroborating emails; Larson responds that in many of his cases the shadow figures hovering in corners are manifestations of a demonic presence, openly tying two of Coast to Coast's signature mysteries together.

  4. Sexual abuse as the primary doorway: Asked what makes a person susceptible, Larson says the largest pathway to possession in American culture is sexual violation - incest, molestation, abuse - because it destroys what he calls a person's 'spiritual immunology.'

  5. Father Martin and the 'perfectly possessed': Larson echoes the late Malachi Martin's claim that powerful, successful, politically connected people walk among us 'perfectly possessed' - having quietly made a deal and now operating without moral compass; Art agrees and points to Timothy McVeigh, then awaiting execution, as the obvious example.