Federal prosecutors in Pennsylvania yesterday accused two Amish men of buying cocaine from a gang called the Pagan Motorcycle Club and distributing the drug to other young members of the religious group at parties known as "hoedowns."

"We've seen plenty of underage drinking cases but a drug case is unheard of" among the Amish, said John Pyfer, who is representing Abner Stoltzfus, 24. The other defendant is Abner King Stoltzfus, 23, who is no relation.

The case in Lancaster County underscores the vulnerability of the Amish, who have seen suburban development and tourism encroach on their once secluded lives. The suburbanites and the gawkers have made it difficult for the Amish to close their eyes to what they consider the corrupting influences of modernity. Members of the sect do not have electricity or plumbing in their homes, and still make their way around the county in horse-drawn buggies. The two men accused belong to the most conservative Amish sect, the Old Order Amish.

Most work as farmers or craftsmen, and do not stray far from their homes. Abner Stoltzfus worked as a roofer, Pyfer said, and met Pagan members on his work trips outside Lancaster.

The two men were indicted yesterday on charges of participating in a conspiracy to distribute more than $ 1 million worth of cocaine and methamphetamine. Federal prosecutors placed most of the blame on eight members of the motorcycle gang, who were described as reckless and violent. Emory Edward Reed, president of the Pagans' Chester County chapter, broke one of the defendant's legs with an ax handle when he refused an order, and knocked out the other defendant's teeth when he failed to pay on time.

While members of the biker gang were known as habitual lawbreakers, no one from the Amish had ever been involved in such serious criminal activity, attorneys said. The two Amish men allegedly bought the drugs from gang members between 1992 and 1997 and distributed them at parties of youth groups known as the Antiques, the Crickets and the Pilgrims. A juvenile identified only as CS also participated in the conspiracy, according to prosecutors, but was not charged in the indictment.

Pyfer said "it was pretty clear" his client had been addicted to cocaine, although he no longer is. No date has been set for the arraignment, but Pyfer said his client would plead not guilty.

During the five years the two men were allegedly distributing cocaine, they were participating in an Amish rite of passage translated loosely in English as "sowing your wild oats," said Pyfer. Amish men between the ages of 16 and 24 take a long break from the rigid rules of the community to decide if they want to opt out. During the break, the men drink and drive "bright, gaudy cars," said Pyfer, while "their parents are looking the other way." Taking drugs is not an accepted part of that rite, however.

DELAIN, France, Oct 21, 1998 (AFP) - An exorcist has been called in to rid the village church of devils which sent candlesticks flying, forcing ecclesiastical authorities to close the building down until further notice.

The exorcist, Father Max de Wasseige, who was called in by the archbishop of Besancon to drive out the devils, said "I saw candlesticks flying about with my own eyes."

The trouble began last Thursday in this church in eastern France when volunteers moved the altar by a few centimetres to make more space for a visiting symphony orchestra.

Witnesses said afterwards that a candle went flying, splitting in two, and that statuettes and vases were broken inexplicably. Also the altar was moved by 10 centimetres (four inches), apparently unaided.

Delain mayor Thierry Marceaux said "There was no collective hallucination, or 50 people will have to be sent to the lunatic asylum."

He said the orchestra gave its concert as normal on Sunday, but that the devils resumed their work on Monday even though the altar had been put back in its place. A broken, still-warm, candle was found on the floor at a place where there is no candlestick.

... a recent finding by the Barna Research Group, market researchers in Oxnard, Calif., ... reported last week that nearly two-thirds of Americans do not believe in the Devil as a living entity.

In a nationwide telephone survey of 1,007 randomly selected people earlier this year, Barna's pollsters asked whether they agreed that Satan is "not a living being, but is a symbol of evil." Sixty-two percent agreed with the statement, while 30 percent disagreed; the remaining 8 percent had no opinion. ...

Belief in a literal Satan can certainly find a basis in Scripture, ... In the Bible, the Devil appears, most famously, as Job's tormentor and Jesus' tempter. ("Get thee hence, Satan," Jesus declares in Matthew 4:10, rebuking the Devil for having offered Him "all the kingdoms of the world.") ...

Yet there are many for whom the Devil remains a reality, the ultimate and undiminished embodiment of evil.

Among those belonging to this group is most of the membership of more than 15 million in the Southern Baptist Convention, said William Merrell, that evangelical denomination's vice president for convention relations.

"I think the vast majority of Southern Baptists would believe that Satan is a real personage, not someone to be taken lightly," he said. "He is the implacable enemy of all God's people." ...

The Problem of Evil

If God exists, then there is an omnipotent, omnibenevolent, omniscient creator of the universe.

If there is omnipotent, omnibenevolent, omniscient creator of the actual universe, then the actual universe is be the best possible universe.

If the actual universe is the best possible universe, then the actual universe contains no evil.

The actual universe does contain evil.

Therefore, God does not exist.

The Malleus is a very interesting book. ... The description of phenomena is sufficiently detailed to enable us to identify the mental disturbances that accompanied some cases. The aetiology is pluralistic, there is not just the official explanation, there are other explanations as well, pluralistic explanations included. ... alternatives are discussed and so one can judge the arguments that lead to their elimination. This feature makes the Malleus superior to almost every physics, biology, chemistry textbook of today. Even the theology is pluralistic, heretical views are not passed over in silence, nor are they ridiculed; they are described, examined, and removed by argument. The authors know the subject, they know their opponents, they give a correct account of the positions of their opponents, they argue against these positions and they use the best knowledge available at the time in their arguments.

If someone is diagnosed as having MPD based on other personalities, a demonic presentation should be presumed to simply be another personality, unless clearly demonstrated otherwise.

An MPD personality will have an identifiable time of formation and functional role within the personality system consistent with the trauma as it was occurring. MPD specific therapy will result in psychologically consistent change in that personality, with improvement over time in the presence of a healthy therapeutic alliance.

As the personality is worked with, emotions such as rage will be clearly "human" in origin, and if the personality is more developed there will be the clear existence of state-dependent learning. Knowledge possessed will be appropriate to the role and function of the personality.

Unusual phenomena will be those seen and reported in at least some other patients clearly diagnosed with MPD, and will follow the general patterns for those phenomena.

Unusual phenomena consistent with true possession would be clearly outside the "natural order" and/or would be situations not reasonably accounted for by science.

There are strange phenomena that are frequently seen and observed in MPD patients. They are accepted as MPD dynamics, and are often present with some personalities and absent with others. In different patients, they may or may not be linked with a subjective sense of "being evil" and are clearly linked both to trauma and attempts at adapting to that trauma. These phenomena would include at least the following:

It should be noted that many unusual phenomena that are considered in popular culture to be "psychic" or otherwise unexplainable are often based on the skills and illusions of magicians, the use of various forms of trance states, suggestibility, intentional fraud, etc.

The phenomenon of mass, frenzied dancing affected large populations in various parts of Europe from the thirteenth century and lasted, on and off, for three centuries. The exact aetiology of the Dancing Plague (or Dancing Mania) is still unclear. Retrospective historical review of this public health problem reveals claims for causative factors including demonic possession, epilepsy, the bite of a tarantula, ergot poisoning and social adversity. It seems unlikely that Dancing Mania resulted from a single cause but rather resulted from multiple factors combining with a predisposing cultural background and triggered by adverse social circumstances. Dancing Mania remains one of the unresolved mysteries of public health.

Kemp-S; Williams-K Demonic possession and mental disorder in medieval and early modern Europe. Psychological Medicine 1987 Feb; 17(1): 21-9

ABSTRACT: Western European belief in demonic possession as a cause of mental disorder has been traced through the medieval and early modern periods. Generally it appears that the range of disorders attributed to demonic possession has gradually narrowed. In any period, however, there seem to have been marked individual and cultural differences in outlook; some of these differences are still evident today in the survival of belief in demonic possession in pentecostal sects.

Spanos-NP Ergotism and the Salem witch panic: a critical analysis and an alternative conceptualization. J-Hist-Behav-Sci. 1983 Oct; 19(4): 358-69

Eadie-MJ The understanding of epilepsy across three millennia. Clin-Exp-Neurol. 1994; 31: 1-12

ABSTRACT: The phenomena of epilepsy have been known for at least 3000 years, the earliest recorded account being in an Akkadian text called the Sakikku (written around 1067-1046 BC). Over nearly all the subsequent centuries the popular belief has been that epilepsy is a disorder of supernatural origin, and to some extent such ideas have carried over into medical thought. In Western civilisation, the long dominant belief was that epilepsy was due to possession by a devil or a demon, an interpretation given authoritative support by the miracle story of the cure of the epileptic child which is recorded in all three synoptic Gospels. However, there have been many other interpretations e.g. epilepsy as a consequence of wrong doing or of lunar or magical influences. Such ideas began to die out only in the past 200 years. From Hippocrates (c. 400 BC) onwards, there has been a continuing line of thought that considered epilepsy a medical condition due to natural causes. The hypotheses concerning its pathogenesis have ranged from excess phlegm in the brain, through boiling up of the vital spirits in the brain (Paracelsus), explosion of the animal spirits in the centre of the brain (Willis), heightened reflex activity at a spinal (Marshall Hall) or medullary level (Brown Sequard), to Hughlings Jackson's notion of an occasional, an excessive, and a disorderly discharge' in part of the cerebral cortex. Among thinking men, epileptology in the past century has proved largely to be a matter of exploring the ramifications of Jackson's concepts.

de-Villiers-JC A few thoughts on the history of epilepsy. S-Afr-Med-J. 1993 Mar; 83(3): 212-5

ABSTRACT: The history of epilepsy is a saga of the struggle by which scientific understanding of an unusual disease was gained by a long and circuitous route. In the beginning this affliction was attributed to demon possession and defied understanding for centuries when it was still regarded as a sacred disease and surrounded by superstition and mysticism; therapy of necessity had to follow similar lines of reasoning. The gradual realisation that cerebral dysfunction was the cause of this disease was highly significant although still followed by misunderstanding and misinterpretation--those two essential steps to progress. Clear, inspired reasoning and lucid clinical descriptions of epilepsy by John Hughlings Jackson and William Gowers set the scene for what was to follow. Experimental neurophysiology, cortical simulation, cortical localisation, new technologies of electro-encephalography, modes of visualisation of structures histologically and radiologically led to our present-day concepts of this complex disorder. We have been brought to new thresholds of understanding through the co-operative exertions of many workers from all parts of the world and this saga tells of some of the highest scientific accomplishments in medicine.

Sjoberg-RL False allegations of satanic abuse: case studies from the witch panic in Rattvik 1670-71. Eur-Child-Adolesc-Psychiatry. 1997 Dec; 6(4): 219-26

ABSTRACT: The creation of false memories, psychiatric symptoms and false allegations of satanic child abuse during an outbreak of witch hysteria in Sweden in the seventeenth century are described and related to contemporary issues in child testimonies. Case studies of 28 children and 14 adults are presented. The mechanisms underlying the spread of these allegations, as well as the reactions and influence of the adult world on the children's testimonies, are discussed.

Ferracuti-S; Sacco-R; Lazzari-R Dissociative trance disorder: clinical and Rorschach findings in ten persons reporting demon possession and treated by exorcism. J-Pers-Assess. 1996 Jun; 66(3): 525-39

ABSTRACT: Although dissociative trance disorders, especially possession disorder, are probably more common than is usually though, precise clinical data are lacking. Ten persons undergoing exorcisms for devil trance possession state were studied with the Dissociative Disorders Diagnostic Schedule and the Rorschach test. These persons had many traits in common with dissociative identity disorder patients. They were overwhelmed by paranormal experiences. Despite claiming possession by a demon, most of them managed to maintain normal social functioning. Rorschach findings showed that these persons had a complex personality organization: Some of them displayed a tendency to oversimplify stimulus perception whereas others seemed more committed to psychological complexity. Most had severe impairment of reality testing, and 6 of the participants had an extratensive coping stile. In this group of persons reporting demon possession, dissociative trance disorder seems to be a distinct clinical manifestation of a dissociative continuum, sharing some features with dissociative identity disorder.

Goodman-GS; Quas-JA; Bottoms-BL; Qin-J; Shaver-PR; Orcutt-H; Shapiro-C, Children's religious knowledge: implications for understanding satanic ritual abuse allegations Child-Abuse-Negl. 1997 Nov; 21(11): 1111-30 [Comment in: Child Abuse Negl 1997 Nov;21(11):1109-10]

ABSTRACT: OBJECTIVES: The goals of the present study were to examine the extent of children's religious, especially satanic, knowledge and to understand the influence of children's age, religious training, family, and media exposure on that knowledge. METHODS: Using a structured interview, 48 3- to 16-year-old children were questioned about their knowledge of: (a) religion and religious worship; (b) religion-related symbols and pictures; and (c) movies, music, and television shows with religious and horror themes. RESULTS: Although few children evinced direct knowledge of ritual abuse, many revealed general knowledge of satanism and satanic worship. With age, children's religious knowledge increased and became more sophisticated. Increased exposure to nonsatanic horror media was associated with more nonreligious knowledge that could be considered precursory to satanic knowledge, and increased exposure to satanic media was associated with more knowledge related to satanism. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that children do not generally possess sufficient knowledge of satanic ritual abuse to make up false allegations on their own. However, many children have knowledge of satanism as well as nonreligious knowledge of violence, death, and illegal activities. It is possible that such knowledge could prompt an investigation of satanic ritual abuse or possibly serve as a starting point from which an allegation is erected.