The Prodigal Witch Part VII: Bill Schnoebelen

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So far, most of the ex-witches and former Satanists in this series have either faded into obscurity or died. This is not the case with Bill Schnoebelen. He was one of the very first “Ex-Men” to dominate the Christian conspiracy lecture circuit, beginning in 1984, and he is still with us. He might be with us for a long time to come, too, because he has an uncanny knack for tapping into the conspiranoid zeitgeist, claiming to possess inside info on every new menace that looms up to imperil Western civilization (I call this Forest Gump Syndrome).

Schnoebelen claims to have been, at various times between 1968 and the present:

  • a Wiccan
  • a “high Druidic” priest
  • an Ordo Templi Orientis initiate (2nd degree)
  • a channeler
  • a Satanist
  • a member of the Illuminati
  • a Mormon
  • a Catholic priest
  • a 90th Degree Freemason
  • a 9th Degree Rosicrucian
  • a Knight Templar
  • a Gnostic bishop
  • a spiritualist priest
  • a vampire
  • a naturopathic physician
  • a member of Elizabeth Clare Prophet’s Church Universal and Triumphant
  • a fundamentalist Christian/ordained minister

Nowadays, he’s also a self-declared expert on natural healing and the “medical conspiracy”. I’m guessing he’s one of those people who takes forever deciding in a restaurant.

He worshipped everything but this.

There is evidence that Bill Schnoebelen actually did do many of the things he talks about. But like John Todd, he smeared Mormons, Freemasons, and many other groups as closet Satanists, and made some claims that are profoundly absurd.

The Road to Everything

Schnoebelen was born into a devoutly Roman Catholic family in 1949, the only child of a tire shop co-owner and a housewife. He was raised in Jessup, Iowa. (3)
Bill says he was a faithful Catholic throughout his young adulthood, and even aspired to the priesthood, but was always prone to the dark and mysterious forces of the world. Trick-or-treating at the age of 8 or 9, he saw leathery, bat-like creatures filling the night sky. At 12, near his family’s lake cottage in Rhinelander, Wisconsin, he saw a gigantic black figure rise up from the horizon to “bestride the heavens”. It walked over him and vanished beyond a hillock. He believes this was a Wendigo. He also had more typical childhood fascinations like UFOs and haunted houses, but someday he would consider these further manifestations of evil in his life. (2)

After high school, Bill still intended to become a priest. First, though, he enrolled at a small Catholic school called Loras College, in Dubuque, Iowa. It was here, in that crazy year of 1968, that a few New Agey professors and the counter-fundamentalist influence of Vatican II persuaded Bill that man can become Christ. Christ, his liberal teachers taught him, was basically a magician or ascended master who had studied the occult. So, Bill began studying the occult to become more Christ-like. This was his first step into a revolving door of religious traditions that would keep him walking in circles for over 15 years. (1)

Step 1: Witch

After some occult study, Bill decided to become a witch. He wrote to Alex Sanders, the self-proclaimed “King of the Witches”, who referred him to a Massachusetts-based coven. Bill ultimately reached the third degree of Alexandrian Wicca. Note, please, that his initiation didn’t involve roosters or blood like the bizarre rites supposedly experienced by Doreen Irvine and Mike Warnke. Note also that Schnoebolen has not mentioned any Satanic scripture, like most of the “former witches” we’ve seen so far.

Bill graduated from Loras College in May 1971 with a major in music and a minor in education. (He claims he received his Masters in Theological Studies degree from the St. Francis School of Pastoral Ministry in 1980 and his Master of Arts degree in counseling from Liberty University in 1990.)
He says he took a leave of absence of absence from seminary in the early ’70s. He taught music at a Catholic school for a couple of years, and met his future wife while volunteering as a counselor at a drug rehab clinic. Sharon Mullen, apparently one of the clinic’s patients, was a married mother of two. Like Bill, she was deeply into witchcraft and the occult. Around 1973 she left her husband and kids to be with him. (3)
That summer, the couple traveled to Hattieville, Arkansas, to study under the “Grand Master Druid of all North America”. Bill doesn’t name this fellow, but he was Barney “Eli” Taylor. (3) Taylor ran something called the Mental Science Institute and taught herbal magic in the druidic witchcraft tradition. He made Sharon and Bill a high priestess and high priest, which basically means he issued them a certificate similar to the ones dispensed to John Todd and Tom Sanguinet by Gavin Frost in the ’70s. It is incredibly unlikely that Bill and Sharon “learned all the mysteries of hermeticism and metal magic and natural medicine and more” in three months, as he claims. (1) Occult study is not a cram course.
They also saw hovering UFOs every single night, as they studied under the stars. Schnoebelen later contradicted this claim by saying he has seen UFOs about three times in his life. (2)

Bill and Sharon returned to the Midwest to “spread the gospel of witchcraft” (something witches generally don’t do). They had a handfasting ceremony in Zion, Illinois, supposedly attended by 200 witches. (1)
They settled in Milwaukee to teach witchcraft and establish covens. Bill claims they drew in hundreds of eager followers, but one of those followers, Frater Barrabbas Tiresius, begs to differ. He claims the Schnoebelens founded just two covens in Milwaukee, containing 30-40 members. By this time, Bill had legally changed his named to Christopher Pendragon Syn, and Sharon called herself Alexandra. They both appeared to possess a great deal of occult knowledge, and at first the covens operated smoothly. According to Frater Barrabbas, things turned sour when Bill and Sharon formed complex romantic entanglements with their followers and began playing them against each other. He attributes the mental collapse of one of Bill’s lovers to these cruel mind games. (3)

Step 2: Warlock, Mason, and Illuminati Member

As a result of his occult studies, Bill was a spiritualist priest and a trance channeler. He often consulted numerous spirit guides, the highest of which Frater Barabbas identifies as Ambrosius and Parlemanon. (3) Bill read Anton LeVey’s Satanic Bible at the suggestion of one of these spirit guides, and promptly joined the Church of Satan. He reached the second degree, “Warlock”, before realizing that LeVey’s brand of Satanism was harmless “kid stuff”. He aspired to what he calls “hardcore Satanism”, and to enter that realm he had to become a Freemason. (1) (The supposed connection between Satanism and Freemasonry was also trumpeted by John Todd in the mid-’80s.)
Frater Barrabbas says it was his father who sponsored Bill into Freemasonry. After Bill reached the third degree, his interest waned and he stopped participating on a regular basis.

Bill then branched out into esoteric Freemasonry. He claims he reached the thirty-second degree of Scottish Rite Freemasonry, as well, and in his lectures displayed the certificate issued to him. He says he also became a Rosicrucian (9th Degree) and a Knight Templar. (1)
Schnoebelen offers up a wealth of misinformation about Freemasonry and the Knights Templar. For instance, in his Prophecy Club lecture (c. 1996), he declared that Freemasonry is “basically Babylonian witchcraft” and is anti-Christian. He said Jacques de Molay was a pedophile (de Molay confessed under torture to homosexual acts; it’s not known if he was really gay or not, much less a pedophile). He also talked about Jesuit mind control, claiming that Ignatius Loyola’s Spiritual Exercises are “profoundly occult” in nature, and formed the basis of Illuminati mind control techniques. This is absurd. Loyola recommended meditation and daily prayer to achieve deeper devotion to God and indifference to the material world. If that’s occultism, then virtually all priestly and monastic disciplines are occult.

Here’s where Bill’s story goes seriously off the rails. So far, none of his claims are particularly outlandish. But after he had covered “all the branches of Masonry there are to do”, he signed his soul over to Satan in a Black Book (in blood, of course). The contract entitled him to seven years of anything he wanted, at the end of which he would be killed and taken to Hell. This wasn’t such a bad thing, he explains, because hardcore Satanists view Hell as a sort of eternal party. (1)
This nonsense comes straight out of medieval folklore and has no basis in actuality, of course. You cannot sign a pact with Satan any more than you can sign a pact with God, or an angel, or the evil monkey who lives in your closet. Ask yourself, why did Schnoebolen admittedly work at a series of menial jobs throughout these years, if Satan had granted him anything he desired?

The silliness hits a new high with Bill’s claim that he was recruited into the Illuminati when fellow Freemasons noticed he had an occult background. This is contradicted by Frater Barrabbas, who says the Masons were unaware of Bill’s occult interests. (3)
Bill implies that his entry into the Illuminati wasn’t assured, that he slipped in via some arcane loophole. Spirit guides provided him with the appropriate “secret passwords”.
He describes three steps that each Illuminati Mason must go through, in addition to learning the arts of tantric sex and opening the third eye with hallucinogens. The first step is illumination. Bill described this as being “deluged in the blinding white light of Lucifer. It felt like my brain was being parboiled in pure light.” Step two is communion with the dead, something he had already mastered as a trance medium. Bill claims he had long chats with Jesus, Buddha, Zoraster, Hitler, Aleister Crowley, and others.
Step three is sex with a fallen angel, an “appalling and bizarre” process. Bill was formally married to his angel, a ceremony we’ll see again in the case of Dr. Rebecca Brown and the “former Satanist” known as Elaine. Apparently this is not considered bigamy, as Bill was already married to Sharon when he became an Illuminati member.
To accept this nonsense, one must accept that Richard Nixon and other high-level politicians did these things, too, because Bill informs us that many of the world’s elite were fellow Illuminists.

Step 3: Priest

Wait, it gets stupider. To “level up” to the hardcore Satanic high priesthood, Bill had to recruit seven people to sell their souls, and become a Catholic priest. He says medieval literature supports his contention that all Satanic high priests are also Catholic priests. (1) However, it isn’t required that you become an orthodox Catholic priest; it’s good enough just to be “ordained”, as both Schnoebolen and Mike Warnke were, as a “bishop” of the Old Catholic Church. This wasn’t difficult. Bill found a “bishop” who was willing to ordain him in exchange for being made a witch priest. Frater Barrabbas identifies this man as Edward M. Stehlik. (3)

Bill then became involved with the Patriarch of the Gnostic Catholic Church in Chicago, and was also made a bishop in that church. Oddly, he refers to this church as the Order of Memphis and Mizraim. They are not the same thing. The Gnostic Catholic Church is a branch of the Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO), and is not officially affiliated with esoteric Freemasonry.

At any rate, Bill claims to have reached the ninetieth of ninety-seven degrees in the Order of Memphis and Mizraim (never mind that it only has ninety degrees). He was also initiated into the OTO at some point. Now the story reaches its zenith of ridiculousness.

Step 4: Vampire

His mastery of Freemasonry in all its forms allowed Bill to “cross the abyss”, an occult term referring to a state of enlightenment. Under the system of hardcore Satanism he had chosen, he now had to decide between two paths: Lycanthropy or vampirism. He selected vampirism, because the werewolves he knew had undergone some unpleasant experiences.

As it turned out, vampirism wasn’t so jolly, either. In the church of a Chicago vampire cult, Bill was made to drink the blood of what he believes to be a fallen angel, and underwent a physical transformation: His blood type changed, he could consume only blood and Catholic hosts, his skin blistered in the sun, and he couldn’t be near garlic. He carefully notes that he could not turn into a bat. Whew. For a minute there, I thought his imagination was getting the better of him. I mean, fallen angels and garlic are one thing, but bats? Let’s not be silly.

A small harem of witches provided Bill with blood, but as time went on he required more and more of it. As a Milkwaukee Sentinal deliveryman, he would see a hooker and “it would be all that I could do not to leap on that woman and rip her throat out and just drink every drop of blood out of her body.” Only his love for his wife prevented him from doing it. (1)

This is quite easily one of the most bizarre and least plausible claims ever made by an ex-witch in North America. It is also profoundly disturbing. I think it goes without saying that Bill Schnoebolen was not physically transformed into a vampire, so why on earth would he tell us about his homicidal fantasies? “Former Satanists” like to exaggerate their evil nature to make their Christian conversion stories as dramatic as possible (Mike Warnke essentially admitted as such on The Jim Bakker Show), but wanting to rip out the throats of prostitutes is beyond the pale. Even inventing such fantasies is indicative of mental imbalance, in my opinion.

Schnoebelen also claims to have been a cocaine addict during this period, though he was a peer counselor for addicts before and after his years as a Satanist. How and when he kicked the habit is unknown.

Step 5: Christian

As we have seen, all the testimonies of former witches and ex-Satanists feature dramatic conversion stories. This is the ultimate purpose of the testimonies; to show that anyone, even the most debauched devil-worshiper, can be saved by Christ.

There are problems with Schnoebelen’s conversion story. He claims that in 1984, one of his “tithe checks” to the Church of Satan bounced and was returned to him with a note scrawled on it by a Christian bank teller: “I’ll be praying for you in the name of Jesus.”

This makes no sense in the context of his hardcore Satanism/Illuminati stories. Bill clearly stated that the Church of Satan was “entry level” Satanism, and that he had surpassed it by becoming a real, hardcore Satanist. So why was he still a member of the CoS nearly a decade later? To make a bad analogy, that would be like paying your Brownie dues long after you’ve become a Girl Scout.

The prayers of the unknown Christian bank teller triggered a chain of events that ultimately led to Bill’s salvation. First, he lost all his magical and vampiric powers. This was a major setback, as he was “probably one of the most powerful warlocks on the west coast of Lake Michigan.” This was when he decided he needed to become a Mormon. (1)

Yeah, you read that correctly. He had to become a Mormon. This is because the LDS church was founded “by witches, for witches”, as a sort of deep cover. Schnoebelen later wrote a book about it: Mormonism’s Temple of Doom. (1)
There is a minute grain of truth in this assertion. Certain practices of Joseph Smith, including the use of scrying stones, are indicative of folk magic. But to call Smith a full-fledged witch would be absurd in the extreme; he was a Christian, not an adherent of any earth religion or occult belief system. The modern-day beliefs and practices of Mormons in no way resemble witchcraft.
The allegation that Mormons secretly practice witchcraft or worship Satan is not unique to Schnoebolen’s testimony, unfortunately. For instance, prominent conspiracy theorist A. True Ott, a former member of the LDS Church, claims that Mormons ritually sacrifice humans in their Salt Lake City temple. It is a smear intended to utterly discredit Mormonism, a sect that has been despised and feared by mainstream Protestants since its inception.

Schnoebelen also claims he belonged to Elizabeth Clare Prophet’s Church Universal and Triumphant (CUT), a cult-like New Age sect. CUT is currently based in Montana, but in the ’70s it operated out of California. So it’s not impossible Schnoebelen had some dealings with Prophet’s followers. (2)

Like all the other people in this series, Bill portrays witchcraft and Satanism (falsely) as the exact same thing. He also claims that one of the Twelve Apostles of the LDS Church, Elder James E. Faust, personally told him that Lucifer is the god of Mormonism.

In a Prophecy Club lecture given around 1996, Schnoeblen openly encouraged Christians to fear, reject, and disdain Mormons and Freemasons. At the same time, he displayed a disdain for homosexuals, and a total lack of knowledge about the nature of sexual orientation. “If you’ve got one Mason in your congregation…you’re gonna end up with a kind of bad apple spoiling the whole barrel routine…You never have one of these dudes in a church, ’cause they start recruiting. Masons are like homosexuals, they can’t reproduce themselves naturally – yeah, amen! – they can only recruit.” (1)

Though Mormonism was just another one of Bill’s spiritual dead ends, it led him to true salvation by spurring him to read the Bible for the very first time (rather strange for a former seminarian!). He realized that St. Paul could never have been a Mormon – he doesn’t explain why he reached this conclusion – and finally gave his life to Christ on June 22, 1984. (1)

As a Christian, Bill penned many books and tracts about the alleged evils of witchcraft, the occult, UFOs, Satanism, Mormonism, and Dungeons & Dragons. He claimed the creators of D&D consulted his Satanic coven in the late ’70s because they wanted to make their game “authentic” (Dungeons and Dragons was created in the early ’70s, and it’s about as authentically Satanic as Taco Bell food is authentically Tex-Mex). His article “Straight Talk on Dungeons and Dragons” is still available on Jack Chick’s website, along with the nonsense of John Todd. Chick is a strong supporter of Schnoebelen, and offers his book Lucifer Dethroned for sale.
Though he knows perfectly well that witches are not Satanists and Mormons are not witches, Schnoebelen continues to spread this misinformation via lectures, DVDs, and his With One Accord ministry.

In 2006, Stephanie Relfe’s 9-hour interview of Schnoebelen was packaged as a DVD documentary, Interview with an Ex-Vampire. I’ve mentioned Mrs. Relfe on this blog before; she and her husband, Michael, used kinesiology to unlock Michael’s buried memories of being a U.S. government slave on Mars. Both Relfes, back on Earth, experienced extensive contact with aliens (Michael was also repeatedly abducted by military personnel). Their first child was teleported out of Stephanie’s womb by Reptilians.

The Relfes saw Schnoebelen on TV in 1998 and were “greatly impressed” by his knowledge of Freemasonry and other “secret societies”. They believed he was doing more than anyone on earth to expose the evil machinations of these organizations, so they subscribed to his ministry newsletter. In 2003, when Schnoebelen revealed that his wife was seriously ill, the Relfes recommended kinesiology. Bill and Sharon traveled to Florida to meet with Stephanie that April. In the course of the kinesiology work, Schnoebelen casually mentioned that he had once been a vampire, something he had kept to himself until the publication of Lucifer Dethroned in 1993. Stephanie was intrigued. She promptly recorded a four-hour interview with Bill. In 2005 she recorded a second interview, and combined the two to create Interview with an Ex-Vampire. The film had a slick-looking booth at Cannes in 2006. It received good reviews from Sherry Shriner, WingTV, Rumor Mill News, and several other conspiracy-themed websites.

In Interview with an Ex-Vampire, it’s obvious that Mrs. Relfe accepts Schnoebelen’s stories at face value, even the most absurd and fantastical ones. She listens patiently as Bill describes how a fellow Satanist summoned a mighty demon in his garage. Bill was a scribe at this ceremony, so he witnessed everything. The man successfully summoned a slithery, tentacled monster that filled the room, but made the mistake of stepping outside his magic circle to answer the phone. As it turned out, the ringing was a demonic illusion and the man was whisked away to another dimension by the demon. Because the story wouldn’t be believed, Bill said, he and the man’s wife never bothered to alert the authorities to his disappearance. He doesn’t provide names, a date, or a location.

Step 6: Naturopathic physician

“Naturopathy” is an extremely loose term that encompasses a broad range of alternative medicine, holistic health practices, and quackery. There are a few institutions that offer real degrees in naturopathy, but as Schnoebelen has not revealed where or when he received his, we have no idea if it’s valid or not.
As the alternative health biz is hot these days, Schnoebelen gave another Prophecy Club lecture on the “medical conspiracy”, explaining how the evil pharmaceutical companies are suppressing miraculous natural cures and whatnot. (4)

In the ’90s, Schnoebelen said he was working as a counselor specializing in addictions treatment. This is a bit alarming, as he doesn’t have any formal education or training in this field. Even more alarming is the fact that he believes there are about two million victims of Satanic ritual abuse (SRA) in the U.S., and treats some of those victims. In the ’80s and ’90s, even many fully-qualified professionals who treated SRA patients used highly questionable methods of treatment such as recovered memory therapy. I don’t even want to imagine the psychological damage an amateur therapist like Schnoebelen could do. But then, I don’t have to imagine it.
Schnoebelen says Dissociative Identity Disorder is caused by “scientifically inserted demons”. This medieval notion – that mental illness can be attributed to demonic possession – has no place in modern therapy. Even if deliverance has some limited efficacy in alleviating a patient’s symptoms, it doesn’t address the underlying cause(s) of the condition.
Schnoebelen is also of the misguided opinion that once a person becomes a Christian, he/she is fully healed of all psychological trauma resulting from childhood abuse and has no further need of therapy. Therefore, his goal as a counselor is probably just to convince emotionally vulnerable people that they must accept Christ as their personal saviour. Using “therapy” as a cover for proselytization is unethical in the extreme.

Schnoebelen’s take on history is equally mangled. He believes Josef Mengele was brought to the U.S. under Project Paperclip (he wasn’t; he fled to South America with a Vatican-issued passport). He says Mengele had experimented with mind control and cloning in Germany (he had nothing to do with either).
He says we’ve been successfully cloning animals since the 1940s. Dolly the sheep was just a cover.
As evidence that a UFO crashed near Roswell, New Mexico, in the year of Aleister Crowley’s death, Schnoebelen produced an artist’s rendering of a “long-range photo” showing two military policemen walking a tiny alien on a leash. Since the object that crashed in the desert was not extraterrestrial, this drawing-of-an-alleged-photo is obviously a crude hoax. No sane, rational person would accept it as evidence of anything.
Schnoebelen also gives credence to Eisenhower’s supposed meeting with aliens, Betty Hill’s “map” of Zeta Reticuli, and Reptilian sightings in malls beneath Salt Lake City. He speculates that aliens are really fallen angels, paving the way for the Antichrist. He wonders if SRA victims and alien abductees have implants that are really “tiny remote-controlled neutron bombs”. (1)

His Biblical exegesis isn’t much better. Schnoebelen believes that in I Corinthians 11:2-16, Paul seems to be warning women to be under the headship of men so they won’t be screwed by fallen angels. He suspects Adam and Eve may not have had blood until they ate the forbidden fruit, and that fallen angels must drink human blood to become sexually functional. (1)

When it comes to witchcraft, however, Schnoebelen shows himself more knowledgeable than his peers. He acknowledges that witches are just ordinary people, capable of love. He admits that Wicca is probably not ancient; Gerald Gardner’s New Forest coven was, in all likelihood, fictional. He knows that the Druids had no written language, and that our knowledge of their practices and beliefs is limited. This is quite a contrast to John Todd, Irene Park, and Tom Sanguinet, who attributed all sorts of evil deeds to the Druids. (2)

Some (Very Obvious) Problems with Schnoebolen’s Testimony

Why was he studying for a Masters degree in theology at a pastoral school and practicing Satanism at the same time, four years before he was saved?

Mormons are not witches. Mormons do not worship Lucifer. Witches do not worship Lucifer. If Mormons are secretly worshiping the Devil, why would Elder Faust confide this to two relatively new converts?

Freemasons are not Satanists, and Satanic high priests are not required to become Freemasons. Though rumours and hoaxes have attributed all manner of evil doings to Freemasonry, it is generally a benign fraternal organization.

Satanists are not required to become Catholic priests. Catholics are not permitted to be Freemasons. It is far more likely that Schnoebelen, like Mike Warnke, was drawn to the Old Catholic Church for reasons of his own, such as receiving the grand title of “bishop” without having to earn it.

Schnoebelen likened the Illuminati to Communist cells, compartmentalized in such a way that each member knows only one or two others. How, then, can the members engage in tantric sex with each other? How do they oversee and instruct one another? Who performed the ceremony in which he married his fallen angel? How can you even be sure the Illuminati truly exists, if you only know two of its supposed members?

Schnoebelen identifies Aleister Crowley as the key figure in his occult life, but gets many of the details about Crowley’s life and work seriously wrong. He claims Crowley was “probably the most highly honored Mason in the world”. In the recent Crowley autobiography Perdurabo, however, author Richard Kaczynski states that Crowley was not recognized as a Mason at all. Nor was Crowley a raper of children who “boasted of slaughtering 150 boys in a single year.” Crowley did write of child sacrifice in his book Magick in Theory and Practice, but made it clear that not everything in the book should be taken literally. There is no evidence that he ever physically harmed a child. On the contrary, most children enjoyed his company.
Schnoebelen also blames Crowley for Hitler, the Tunguska explosion, and “Transyuggothian magick“. Like John Todd, he suggests that H.P. Lovecraft had access to secret knowledge about demonic/alien entities. He says the Simon Necronomicon contains about half of the “real” Necronomicon, which is utter b.s. He points out that in both “The Shadow Over Innsmouth” and “The Dunwich Horror”, human women breed with nonhuman creatures. “I believe these stories are absolutely true…” (1)

Schnoebelen claims the Royal Secret of Scottish Rite Freemasonry is the sodomy of young boys, which occultists believe allows them to access a realm of “trans-Plutonian space” and gives them an illusion of immortality. He says even “good” Masons can be drawn into pedophilia and homosexuality. (1)
Again, he’s betraying a total ignorance of sexual orientation and attributing atrocious crimes to an organization that is, for the most part, benevolent. Predatory pedophiles are not over-represented in Freemasonry, and no occult tradition requires one to rape children.

Schnoebelen makes similar allegations against Michael Aquino, founder of the Temple of Set. He says Aquino was charged of child abuse three times, but the charges didn’t stick “probably because of government involvement.” (1)
First off, it was the government (the military) who investigated Aquino in the first place. Secondly, he was never charged with any crime. The investigations dead-ended, not because of government intervention but because the allegations were made by hysterical parents who feared that Colonel Aquino, an out-of-the-closet Satanist, was the child-raping, virgin-slaying devil of modern legend. It is very interesting that Aquino was never accused of a single crime until he outed himself as a Satanist.

In addition to his ridiculous stories about Catholic mind control and the Illuminati, Schnoebelen pulled out some of the same discredited conspiracy myths used by John Todd, such as the factoid that Freemason Albert Pike was a Satanist (a feature of the Taxil hoax). Also in common with Todd, he criticized Star Wars, soap operas, and romance novels. He told his Prophecy Club audience that because the U.S. government treats its citizens like “idiot children”, they turn to drugs and booze and fantasy (Star Trek, Star Wars, soaps, etc.). “As a result of this, most people end up on the dole, or in mental hospitals.” (1)
Excuse me? Most Americans are welfare recipients, and Star Trek is responsible for this? Since when?

If Schnoebelen legally wed a fallen angel, then I suggest he produce a marriage or divorce certificate to verify his story. Or at least pull out some wedding photos.

The stupidest and least tenable of all his claims, of course, is the assertion that he was a “real” vampire. Though Bill would have us believe that lycanthropy and vampirism are real supernatural phenomena with physiological manifestations, there is zero evidence to support that. No one needs to subsist on human blood. Blood type cannot change under any circumstances. If you are born AB positive, you will die AB positive. Faux vampirism and delusional lycanthropy certainly exist, but real vampires and werewolves do not. Duh.

Sources:

1. Schnoebelen’s Prophecy Club talk “Exposing the Illuminati from Within” (c. 1996)
2. “Interview with an Ex-Vampire” (Schnoebelen’s 2006 interview with Stephanie Relfe)
3. Frater Barrabbas Tiresius’ 4-part blog series on Schnoebelen @ Talking About Ritual Magick
4. Schnoebelen’s Prophecy Club talk “The Medical Conspiracy” (date unknown)

52 thoughts on “The Prodigal Witch Part VII: Bill Schnoebelen

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  1. One of the common threads that runs through all of these stories seems to be that deep dark secrets are revealed to the protagonist at their entry to the 'satanic' group. Thus Audrey Harper has a baby sacrificed on the night when she joins the coven – having been picked up off the streets by people she'd never met before. Why is this? I suspect it's because of a failure of imagination. Even in Dennis Wheatley's 1930s novel, 'The Devil Rides Out', the character who has been sucked into Satanism begins with very simplistic and 'safe' things, such as repeating the Lord's Prayer backwards (he's Jewish, so thinks nothing of it). But the main evil characters in 'The Devil Rides Out' is revealed to be an ordained Catholic priest, and there is dialogue to the effect that the most powerful Satanists are all former Catholic priests. That's probably where the chap got the idea. Popular fiction. Probably mediated through Hammer Horror films. As for Mormonism and Freemasonry, it does seem that Joseph Smith was a Mason. But then the Masons are not Satanists, just a secret society with some odd rituals. Men fear what they do not understand, and fear leads to all sorts of evil done in the name of keeping others safe.

  2. There are a few institutions that offer real degrees in naturopathy, but as Schnoebelen has not revealed where or when he received his, we have no idea if it's valid or not.Gosh, I hope no one finds out that my Star Fleet registry is a fake, instead of coming from a group that produces *real* ones…Seriously though, not at all surprised this wacko got into that too. Though, it pisses me off that no one has the guts to declare such nonsense invalid, for colleges and the like, which toss it in with other, legit, medical studies. In any case, this seems to be par for the course for some people. While they place their own spin on everything, once they are willing to accept more than one nutcase idea, they start thinking *all* nutcase ideas are real.

  3. Aha! Perhaps Dennis Wheatley struck again. He seems to be the primary source of info on Satanism for some people. I really must get my hands on some of his novels. I'm not comfortable with the notion of accredited schools issuing degrees in naturopathy, but thankfully there aren't many of them in Canada (two or three, I think).

  4. It doesn't surprise me at all that these folk are basically drawing on popular culture. It's a lot easier than actually doing proper research. As well as more fun. But you should not pretend that you are telling the truth when you are not. Shades of 'Maria Monk', methinks.

  5. Another thing that damns Bill Schnoebelen's story is that he obviously gets his knowledge of vampires from 20th century fiction. Prior to the silent film Nosferatu (1922), sunlight did not burn vampires. Also, garlic was not supposed to have any special properties to repulse vampires other than having a strong odor – vampires were said to have a very keen sense of smell.

  6. I'm enjoying this series a lot. You should look up a woman called Moira Noonan. I saw her literature on the subway and she makes similar claims, but her stories focus more on New Age practices than satanic cults. Also, she is Catholic and gives talks in Catholic churches and schools, whereas these others seem to be all evangelical Christians

  7. The only Masonic Rite that has over 90 Degrees is the Ancient and Primitive Rite of Memphis-Misraïm. It is solely on the internet, and it isn't recognized as a Masonic body by other Masons.

  8. Minor Note, Elizabeth Claire Prophet's Church Universal and Triumphant was based outside Livingston, Montana, not Texas. They settled there in the 1980s. Ms. Prophet developed a case of Alzheimer's in the late 90s and when she got to the point where she was no longer capable of running things the cult diminished greatly in size and split into two small groups. Prophet dies a couple of years ago. There are still members left but not many. The fallout shelter that were built around '83 to prepare for the nuclear war that Prophet predicted are still there but never to be used and infested with rats. Makes one wonder how a structure could keep nuclear radiation out but could not keep the rats out.

  9. The wiccans or rosicrucians are still alive and well in the New Forest. Lots of sexually abused children bear testimony to that.To me they are complete nutters and belong into a prison!

    1. Wiccans and Rosicrucians are not the same thing, and there is no evidence of sexual abuse of children being a requirement of their belief system. An individual Wiccan or Rosicrucian may also be a child abuser, but that’s their crime as an individual, not something Wicca or Rosicrucianism teaches followers to do.

  10. The Wiccans are well and there is nothing wrong with them. They pray to the devil, as others pray to God – nothing wrong with that.Children grow up with a widened perspective, being initiated into sexuality in harmony with nature. Growing thus up they become responsible and able members of our society.The talk of child abuse in the New Forest is bonkers. I think its people overreacting a bit.oldnick (one of the dirty guys in Minstead)

    1. Wiccans don’t pray to the devil. “The devil” is not even part of their belief system – they reject the idea. Nor is sex with children a requirement of Wicca – sex magick is practised between consenting adults only.

  11. I have the feeling you're very confused, Old Nick. "Wiccans or Rosicrucians"? Do you honestly believe they're one and the same? They are not. If you know of any child abuse occurring in the New Forest or anywhere else, please report it to the authorities immediately.

  12. Membership is exclusively by pervert video. You hand in a video with abuse of kids on it and you are in it. Unfortunately, once you are in there is no way out! The videos used to be in a special chamber in the Mellersh cave. Only members of the inner circle, i.e. direkt members of the M family in Minstead, have keys and passwords for that room (all M family members have a key close at hand, the high king used to hide his in the nearby forest). This way they can hold everybody in the group ransom. Once you are in, you have to obey the "high-king" in whatever he demands. Usually its about money – he demands a lot of money. He blackmails people into doing even worse things than the video – so that he can blackmail further.See the following extract of an article of Nick Davies:Just like any cult, he said, they imposed their ideology with such force that their members more or less lost the ability to think independently. The Satanic groups, he said, were also quite happy to use bluntly criminal tactics. They would interfere with car brakes or use violence to keep their members in line. They also liked to use blackmail, he said. For example, they would secretly take pictures of initiation rites, in which nudity or drugs or sex were a feature, and then use them to extract large sums of cash from those who fell under their spell. He recalled one particular case of a young professional man who had become embroiled, who had said nothing to anyone until his wife realised that they were almost bankrupt. He had counselled the man and tried to help him escape and found that he had given thousands of pounds tothis coven. That particular man, he said, belonged to a rather nasty group. He didn’t know too much about them, he said. Just that they were based around Lewes.(From Nick Davies, "Satanists in Sussex", The Guardian March 1997)

  13. Members of that "coven":Mike Hols… (not full name). Supposed to be "fox" or "lap-dog", depending on wether he is around or not. He is Irish, travels around the world as an English Teacher. Hardcore paedophile and murderer, utilized by the M family for "dirty" and risky jobs.Peter used to live in Manchester. English paedophile (exclusively prefers sex "with" children, has no other form of intercourse). He was married to Mexican Marta (a PhD student in the English department of Manchester University, 2000-2001). Lets hope she is okay.Brian Well.. (not full name), obese loser living around Vancouver, Canada, that likes to take it out on children – just like the others. Expelled from the group, because there was just nothing to be gotten from him anymore.Tom (not full name), old English schoolboy studying for a PhD in Biology at Manchester University 2000-2001. Failing his PhD he got an MPhil I think. Stereotypical pedophile, as crocodile Juz put it himself: ugly and full of shame.Simon Warburt…, called "Herman", used to be a frustrated librarian in London, another failure taking his failings out on vulnerable kids, including his own. Married to librarian Louise. I think he is a gardener now.D Icke – has insider knowledge and distributed the reptilian theory around the world. Well, the M family likes to think they are extraterrestrians – it makes them so special !!!There are inofficial members of that M family. There is John M, a person from the M family in Minstead hiding with forged identity. There is "Chil", also a member of this phantastic M family.

  14. This is all very…interesting…but again, people, if you know of child abuse occurring in your country REPORT IT TO THE PROPER AUTHORITIES IMMEDIATELY. Don't just leave random information about it on a foreign blog for gossip's sake. I can't stress this enough.

  15. Hi i had my doubts about Schnobelen but when i read how you really went about to prove how false he is Wow he must have really got under your skin!!!!I like the guy. I enjoy his teachings.Somethings i question but my bias is the Bible for everything in life. Yes homosexuals cannot reproduce did Schnobelen lie about that?I have homosexual friends but truth is truth.

    1. Of course homosexuals can reproduce – not by having homosexual intercourse, but unless they’re infertile for the same reasons heterosexuals may be infertile, they have viable eggs and sperm and can have children either by heterosexual intercourse (although this isn’t what they prefer) or by artificial insemination or IVF. This doesn’t mean that any resulting babies will necessarily be homosexual, but then, heterosexual parents can have homosexual children, so there is no reason to expect that.

  16. Bill can be summed up as a "liar for Christ" If I was to tell people the nonsense he claims he was I would be a laughing stock.Yet he's the darling of fundamentalists every were who soak up his flim flam like blotting paper

  17. Well, first of all Mormons are god seekers and god makers . They are an occult organisation bar none. This is who you get with Mitt Romney . A secret society of witches who's creed is to behead all none believers just as the Muslims believe and do .

    1. You’re incorrect about both the Mormons and the Muslims. If their creed were to behead all non believers, wouldn’t there be a lot more beheadings going on every day?

  18. WHAT ALL BILL SAID WAS ABSOLUTELY TRUE. ONLY A PERSON WHO DOEST'NT KNOW THE POWER OF WITCHCRAFT OR A PERSON WHO WANT TO TRAP INNOCENT PEOPLE WILL DENY THIS. What all he said is prevalent in Asia since centuries.

  19. Crowley wrote about child sacrifice in his book, ‘majick, in theory and practice’, but said not all things he wrote should be taken literally… Poor crowley, how could we have misjudged him!! Also, in new testament, Jesus said ‘people in heaven do not get married, but are like Angels of God’. Meaning: Angels don’t, or can’t have sex!! But fallen angels can stimulate a person sexually, and even ‘pretend’ to be having sexual intercourse, but have no capacity to make a woman pregnant. If God would’ve alowed demons to impregnate women, i think he would’ve also given this privelidge to His own Angels…!! I don’t think so.

    1. Crowley was kind of a pain in the ass as a writer, because he would write things he intended to be taken literally and things he meant as metaphors or even jokes in the same tone and style, and then get angry with people who took it all literally because he thought the metaphors were OBVIOUSLY metaphors and the jokes were OBVIOUSLY absurd. It just wasn’t obvious to, well, anyone but him.

  20. This dude is probably also a 10th degree black belt in judo, karate, Kung fu, aikido, ninjutsu, tae kwon do, and jujitsu. He sounds to me like he dropped too many hits of acid while watching reruns of the munsters and the Adams family. He’s also probably a secret assassin for the FBI, CIA, NSA, having been trained by the green berets, navy seals, force recon marines, delta force and air force para jumper commandos. What bothers me is that people are so starved for entertainment that they lap up this drivel like the sheep they are.

  21. You left out the parts where he claims to have advised TSR, Inc. on the Satanic rituals in D&D (there are none, and everyone at TSR who bothered to reply stated unequivocally that he NEVER worked for TSR in any capacity), or that he’s been a drug dealer and a UFO abductee–or so HE claims, anyway.

  22. Schnoebelen also claimed to have participated in a debate with Michael Aquino… I cant find any information on it

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