Today we do a deep dive on the history of witchcraft. What is witchcraft? How does it differ from organized religion? Why did burning witches ever become a thing, and do witch hunts still occur in the modern world? Why do so many of us have such a strong and irrational fear of people we just don't understand?

355 - Witchcraft!

Each week, Dan Cummins enthusiastically deep dives into everything from cults to killers to conspiracies, absurdly and sarcastically sharing the best of what he uncovers with you. Join the Cult of the Curious!

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The Osage Reign of Terror - dramatized recently in the 2023 award winning Martin Scorsese film, Killers of the Flower Moon based on the 2017 book of the same name - has been described as an epidemic of murders and mysterious deaths among the people of the Osage Nation. This is a wild story of a preposterous amount of corruption, conspiracy, and cold-blooded killing.

399 - Osage Murders: The True Story Behind Killers of the Flower Moon

On Saturday night, April 11th, 1981, a young mother, her teenage son, and her son's teenage friend, were all violently murdered in the small, picturesque community of Keddie, California. One of her daughters was also kidnapped, and also murdered. No one was ever charged. Did local authorities help coverup the most gruesome killings in the history of Plumas County?

Short Suck #8 - Horror in the Woods: The Keddie Cabin Murders

Did you know that in 1902, August Engelhardt travelled from Germany to a small island in the South Pacific and tried to build a community based mostly in worship of the sun, being naked all the time, and literally only eating coconuts? He tried for seventeen years. Oh yeah. This is a weird one.

398 - August Engelhardt and the Coconut Cult

Jim Bakker, and his wife, Tammy Faye, revolutionized tele-evangelism in the 1970s and 1980s. Their PTL Club, was, at it's height, pulling in millions a WEEK in donations to support their cause. But their cause was a lie. Jim was not who he claimed to be, and financial and sexual improprieties would send him to prison... before he got out and started running his scam all over again.

397 - Jim Bakker: The Rise and Fall (and Rise Again) of an American Grifter

Do you have a plan in mind for what you would do in a doomsday event like nuclear war, alien invasion, a deadly plague, Terminator Skynet style "robots have turned against humanity" scenario, etc.?  Some people do. Some very rich people. And it's insane what they're building in case everything goes off the rails.

355 - Witchcraft!

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