During the mid-eighties Don Rimer managed to establish himself as an internationally known authority on ‘Ritual Crime and the Occult.’

Unfortunately, his work contributed to the ‘Satanic Panic’ hysteria of that time.

Of course it isn’t all that unusual for a pastor to claim healing powers. Witness the blow-dried televangelists of America and elsewhere, who often advertise their dramatic healing powers in infomercials.

But in western Kenya the belief in the supernatural is far deeper, and the line between Christianity and the occult is thin at best.

So far, 130 healers, including Fadkin, have passed the service’s voluntary testing program, which promoters in the government say can determine whether someone has the inherent ability to cure. The program is limited to Moscow, but a Russian lawmaker is pushing to extend it nationwide and make it mandatory.

Skeptics scoff at the notion that such testing is meaningful and criticize the government for lending credibility to people who claim paranormal powers.

Harshbarger’s tale begins at home in Indiana, where a lack of religious guidance combined with his parents’ divorce led him to become a bitter, disaffected teen with an appetite for the sensational, including tales of supernatural phenomena.

While in college, he befriended a co-worker at his day job who was already a Satanist. The two made plans to form their own cult and set about recruiting members.

The advert on DD-India channel in Hindi said that Pandit Bharatraj Shastri was an expert in “palmistry, birth kundali (horoscopes), vastu expert, marriage issues, troubles in business, dissatisfaction at work, warding off affects of black magic, family problems”.

EU Commission research indicates that 52 percent of Europeans believe astrology has a scientific basis compared to a more skeptical United States and Britain, at about 31 percent each.

More than half of Britons believe in psychic powers such as mind-reading and premonitions, a survey suggests.

HEET, Iraq - The wrinkled old man sprays perfume around the sparse, dingy room, then holds out his hands and feet and instructs one of his visitors to tie him up, knot the cloth three times and blow on it.

The Christian Science Monitor, Aug. 6, 2003

AP, May 13, 2003

The Philadelphia Inquirer, Apr. 5, 2003

Witch doctors prosper despite Islamic orthodoxy and modern education

Conference seeks to counter culture's calm on the occult

Post-Tribune, Oct. 21, 2002

More and more Indonesians and their leaders are guided by the spirit world in the current economic crisis, a practice that predates Islam