The Holy Land. For thousands of years,
religious pilgrims of many faiths have come
to this sacred city to express their devotion to God. But just outside
the walls of Jerusalem lies the Valley of Hinnom, an ancient place
of unholy worship where evil deeds
were performed long ago in honor of God's enemy, Satan. In the book of Jeremiah,
God reports, through His prophet,
that people outside Jerusalem in a place called
the Valley of Hinnom, are sacrificing their sons,
and also their daughters. And God explicitly says,
"I never asked you to do this satanic ritual," and expresses that He's angry, that there's going to be
a terrible punishment for this. Historically speaking,
in the days of the Bible, not everybody was faithful
to the Lord. Satanism influenced
the Israelite community. And what they would do,
literally, was they'd create
a big pit of fire, and they actually
would sacrifice their firstborn male
through the fire. This was performed
in the Valley of Hinnom, which is actually the Hebrew
word today for "hell." I can't imagine
what would cause someone to want to sacrifice
their own child, to anything, for-for any reason. But this demonstrates how, in antiquity, people believed
that their crops wouldn't grow, that the rains wouldn't come
if they didn't offer sacrifices up to some satanic demons,
spirits, whatever. And now you have introduced
this new being that's responsible
for the bad things, and his name comes to be Satan. SHATNER:
What can explain
the shocking events that took place
in the Valley of Hinnom thousands of years ago? Was it simply the result
of human wickedness? Or is it possible that, as
the biblical accounts suggest, Satan and his demons were
and still are real entities that have the power
to influence people? MIKKI BROCK: Some people
think of Satan as Beelzebub or Lucifer
or the Prince of Darkness or "the evil one" or Old Nick. And some of these names
come from scripture. A lot of them
come from folklore. And if you think of Satan
as this ubiquitous figure who's constantly tormenting
and tempting people, then it makes sense
that the Devil can be known by all of these
different nicknames. Is there really
a character of the Satan? Well, the definition of that
is going to differ between the major
world religions. But fear of an eternal damnation
in the afterlife has always been sufficient
to keep people religious, and in line with the beliefs
of their religious clerics, who warn them
that failure to comply will lead to an eternity
of suffering and damnation. Or in other words, the stories
from which this developed were to teach moral lessons. LAYCOCK:
Throughout history,
many religions have interpreted the world
through the lens of having a figure of evil, Satan,
who is responsible for evil in the world. According
to Christian tradition, Satan was one
of the most powerful and beautiful of the angels. He rebelled against God, a third of the angels
sided with Satan, and there was a war in heaven. Satan lost
and was cast down into hell. Satan is the embodiment of evil, a fallen angel who tempts you
to not follow your best values. He is a god of sorts and he can
offer something like that to us, great knowledge,
control, mastery. The stuff of transcendence. Of course,
it will cost us everything. After all, this is not
a straight shooter. This is not somebody
who's going to tell the truth. His job is to tempt you. CHRIS BADER:
Satan is believed to have
tried to tempt Jesus when he was in the desert with
visions of earthly delights. So Satan is continually,
throughout the Bible, someone trying to draw people
from God to evil. But the idea of Satan
flows throughout history and across religions. There is Mara in Buddhism,
who is a demonic king, a entity representing evil,
and therefore, would tend to take on
very frightening forms which oftentimes are mixtures
of human and animal. There is Iblis, who is the
Islamic representation of Satan. So, we see this figure of Satan,
a singular entity that is in charge of evil
across religions and over time. BROCK:
In Western Europe,
we start to see depictions of the Devil around
the eighth and ninth century. And the Devil becomes
depicted all over churches, in various other sorts of art
and statue and so forth. He is always portrayed
as a monstrous beast, half human, half animal,
sometimes winged, sometimes horned,
sometimes red, sometimes black, occasionally surrounded
by his subordinate demons, and often emerging
from the flames of hell. SHATNER:
Thousands of Christians
are gathered in Saint Peter's Square to watch Pope Francis
perform Sunday mass. As he greets the crowd,
the pope lays his hands on the forehead of a man
who is thought to be possessed and recites a prayer. A video of the incident
went viral, and left many viewers
to conclude that they had just
witnessed the pope performing an exorcism. GALLAGHER:
Pope Francis believes in evil spirits,
he believes in Satan, he believes in the possibility
of possession and the need for exorcists. He's quite traditional
in that respect. Exorcisms appear in the oldest
writings that we have. From the ancient Near East,
from India, from China. So exorcism is literally
as old as recorded history. There's many different forms
of exorcism all over the world and in different religions, and most have
various types of objects that are used to drive
away unwanted spirits. Holy relics, crosses,
uh, holy water, and even exorcism itself
are what the Catholic Church called sacramentals. So, the church's view is that
these are symbolic expressions of the authority of the Church. And so, even though they are,
in a sense, symbolic, at the same time,
they have real power... ...and can help a priest
to display the authority of the Church
and drive away demons. SHATNER:
If Satan and his army of demons are really waging a war
against humanity, then exorcists
are on the front lines. It's important to realize
that an exorcism is not magic. W-We don't do magic. It's a prayer, essentially. It's the Church's prayer
to God and Jesus to cast out the demons. And so we invoke that authority as his disciples
to cast out the demons. And then we use
the Church's prayer called the Rite of Exorcism. We use holy objects
like Rosary beads, holy water, crucifixes,
any holy object, uh, Satan can't stand it. When the person is manifesting
a demonic presence, The first thing
that happens is... you've got this
incredibly evil look. As a matter of fact, they'll
look at me and they'll say, "You stupid priest." If you've ever really looked
into the eyes of evil, you won't forget it. And then different things
happen which are physically not explainable. A 110-pound young woman throwing three big guys
around the room. So we've had some
of those sorts of things. A couple teams in the country
have had people levitate. We-we haven't. Uh, so there are--
things do happen like that. SHATNER:
Levitation? It's one thing
to believe that Satan can take control
of a person's mind or even attack their body. But floating in midair? Is such an extraordinary
phenomenon even possible? About 35, you know,
salt of the earth people have told me they have
witnessed, during a possession, a levitation. It's widely believed
in these circles one of the paranormal things
that demons can exhibit is getting their possessed
victim to levitate. A lot of people challenge
what I say, and they say, "Well, okay,
you believe in levitation, which is against
the laws of science." Of course it's against
the laws of normal science. I understand that, you know. I'm not saying
I don't believe in gravity. What I'm saying is
there are spiritual forces, including dark forces, that can violate
the-the normal laws of nature. SHATNER:
To some, the stories
about the power of exorcism may seem far-fetched. But on the other hand,
this practice of banishing evil has offered spiritual relief to people
from all walks of life. In most of the cases
that we have, the people are very
psychologically balanced. We have professional people.
We have lawyers. We have military people. We usually heal on both tracks
at the same time. We heal on the spiritual level. We also heal
the psychological level. Many times,
we find that the demonic feeds off the internal wounds,
the angers, the unforgiveness, the hurts. So when you start healing
some of those inner wounds, they have less to feed off
and grab onto. SHATNER:
It rises from the earth
like a giant fist, stretching out
to strike the sky. A colossal, 900-foot shaft
of rugged rock, one whose very name
conjures notions of both awe and dread. Devils Tower. Devils Tower is remarkable
because you can drive across the sedimentary plains,
see nothing but flat ground for miles and miles, and then this tall,
dark tower emerges as you drive towards it. There is nothing like it
in the surrounding area. The rock has a grayish,
even a greenish-gray color. And so, as you approach
Devils Tower, it's a distinct, stark contrast
to the sort of tans and browns of the surrounding
sedimentary rocks. SHATNER:
Located in northeastern Wyoming, Devils Tower was declared
America's very first national monument in 1906
by President Theodore Roosevelt, who sought to protect it as an
object of scientific interest. Since then, many have asked: what could have caused
this massive tower to form? There are many theories
about it, but there's no agreement
on what it was that produced
this miracle of nature. It's made of volcanic-type
materials, but there's no other
volcanic activity around it. So what caused this thing? We don't know the answer
to that question. It's a really interesting
conundrum. SHATNER:
Is Devils Tower really
a miracle of nature? Something that simply
cannot be explained by natural and scientific laws? Sorry, but that explanation
is simply not good enough. As much as we like to walk
around with the confidence that we know this planet and we understand
the planet we live on, there seems to be nothing
but mystery on this planet. We don't understand
how to predict earthquakes. (rumbling) We don't understand
how lightning travels. There's so many questions
that we have about what produces
the forces of nature. SHATNER:
Some have suggested that the key
to understanding Devils Tower is to think of it the way
many Native Americans do: not as a natural formation, but as an unnatural one. The native peoples of the area
have worshiped this tower as an altar of sorts, and many feel like they can
climb to the top of this place and get divine inspiration, uh,
become empowered. And the question is, is there
some truth to this native legend that this place is a
sacred place on the planet and it is a sort of altar that
allows humans to communicate to the spirits
or to the universe or to the gods
that they believe in? To view Devils Tower,
if you want to call it that-- Mathó ThÃpila
is what we call it-- it's a sacred place, and when you see it
from a certain distance, even then, you start to feel
the wonder of it, the sacredness of it, and as you
get closer and closer, the positive sacred energy
starts to build, and you feel it
even more when you get to the base of the tower. I think, in the case
of Devils Tower, it is so unusual,
it is so anomalous, that it is easy to ascribe
a mystical or spiritual attribute to it. It's not surprising
that Hollywood directors would choose this as the place that aliens would land
from outer space. In the mid-1970s,
one of the most important events in the history of, uh,
Devils Tower took place, and that was the filming
of the movie <i> Close Encounters
of the Third Kind.</i> In that movie
by Steven Spielberg, the tower is a spot that
many people are drawn to, and they don't know why
they're drawn to it. They're drawn to it
from all over the country. It turns out,
as the movie goes on, that they're drawn here
because they've been abducted some time during their life
by aliens. A UFO lands on top of the tower, and Richard Dreyfuss
and several other people climb into the UFO
and fly off into space. The number of visitors
that came to the tower doubled the year after
that movie came out, and it stayed at that level
every year ever since. I don't know if it's
a landing site for UFOs, as Spielberg had in his movie, or what it might be. I mean, the more we look at it,
the more baffled we are. We are going to find things
as we continue to observe and search and study
the Earth that we had no idea how they got there, what type of
physical process created them, and we're gonna learn
new things all the time. SHATNER:
Is it Devils Tower
that is unnatural, or is it our own limited
understanding of nature that produces the confusion? Perhaps Devils Tower exists
to keep mankind humble, as a reminder that we still have
a lot to learn. In southern New Jersey,
a vast sea of trees stretches as far
as the eye can see. Below the dense canopy of these
woods lies a primeval world filled with ominous
sights and sounds that are shrouded
by dark undergrowth. This foreboding wilderness
is known as the Pine Barrens. The Pine Barrens is basically
a million acres of woodland in the southern tip
of New Jersey. You can essentially get lost
in the Pine Barrens and never be seen again because they are just so vast. At nighttime, you can hear
animals crunching all around. But the problem is you can't
see where these things are. It's a terrifying place. And it's very, very scary, especially if you're
lost there by yourself. (owl hoots) SHATNER:
The Pine Barrens is home
to over 500 animal species. But according to locals,
there is one creature said to dwell here that has yet
to be officially identified. It's a grotesque,
winged monster that is known as the Jersey Devil. The New Jersey Devil
legend is ingrained into the state
of New Jersey so much. It's something that every kid
hears when they're growing up. The Jersey Devil's
gonna come and get you. One of the most famous aspects
of the Jersey Devil is its horrific screech or roar. (creature screeches) If you hear something like that
in the Pine Barrens, you run. (creature screeches) CHAD LEWIS:
The Jersey Devil looks like
it should have come out of Dr. Frankenstein's lab. It's a hodgepodge
of animal parts. It has a horse's head
with horns growing out of it, a long dragon or kangaroo body, ending in thin, long
bird legs and hooves, a forked tail on its back. It has giant leather
bat-like wings on its back. If you were to describe
something out of a nightmare, the Jersey Devil
would be that description. SHATNER:
Could a winged abomination really lurk somewhere
in the Pine Barrens? Perhaps clues can be found
by examining the origin story of this fearsome monster
that has been spoken of in local lore
for more than 250 years. (creature screeches) SHATNER:
As the story goes, in 1735, inside a small house
in Leeds Point, New Jersey, a woman gave birth
to her unlucky 13th child. And when it was born,
it became a monster. According to tradition,
the Jersey Devil is actually the 13th child of a woman known
as Mother Leeds. And she is on record
as having 12 children. So, the story that we get
is that, when Mother Leeds was giving birth
to this purported 13th child, she apparently, legend says, cried out,
"The devil can take this one." And she initially gave birth to a healthy, happy baby boy, who almost immediately
transformed into this demon-like creature. (creature screeches) Some stories say
that Mother Leeds was killed after the baby was born,
by the baby. Other stories just say
he flew up the chimney and into the Pine Barrens. SHATNER:
Skeptics are quick to dismiss
the story of a devil born of human flesh,
but after this alleged event, entirely new tales
of the monster started to surface
in South Jersey. ...in the early 1800s, a military officer
of great distinction was said to have had
a firsthand encounter with the Jersey Devil. The Jersey Devil has had
run-ins with many famous people over the years, such as
Commodore Stephen Decatur. He was a famous naval war hero, and he came across
the Jersey Devil flying overhead. He fired a cannon
at the Jersey Devil. And, according to
some eyewitnesses, he shot a hole
through one of its wings, but it just flew away
like nothing had happened. McNEILL:
Naval Commodore Stephen Decatur
spoke openly about this. So, when a prominent person
comes forward to say, "Oh, no, absolutely, I saw this,
you know, strange horse-faced, winged, dragon-like creature,
and I shot a cannonball at it," that impresses itself upon us
in a way that kind of says, "Wait a minute, okay." The pattern of belief here
is so consistent. SHATNER:
By the turn of the 20th century,
belief in the existence of the Jersey Devil had
long been part of local culture. But then, during the week
of January 16, 1909, an unprecedented avalanche
of Jersey Devil sightings surfaced in the
numerous communities bordering the Pine Barrens. And for the first time,
this demonic creature terrified not just the residents
of New Jersey but also newspaper readers
across the United States. 1909 is really a key year for the Jersey Devil story because what we see happen is really what amounts to just an absolute panic. There starts to be report after report after report of people encountering
the Jersey Devil, shooting at it... ...seeing its hoofprints
on top of their chicken coops and their farm buildings. People are sheltering in place because of the Jersey Devil. One of the more dramatic
sightings involved a trolley car
in Haddon Heights, New Jersey that was allegedly dive-bombed
by the creature. When accounts of these
Jersey Devil sightings and attacks surfaced
in local newspapers, it actually caused
mass hysteria. Local businesses and schools
were shut down. The Philadelphia Zoo
offered a reward of $10,000 for the creature's capture, and vigilance committees
and posses were formed to hunt the creature. HEIMBUCH:
I do think because of the
sheer amounts of accounts that happened in 1909, of course some of them are
not gonna be true. Absolutely. But the fact that so many
of them happened, I really believe
that there were some actual Jersey Devil encounters
during this time. SHATNER:
The panic of 1909 immortalized the Jersey Devil in both national
and local history. But curiously,
Native American lore suggests that the origins of this
Pine Barrens monster may actually go back much
further into the distant past. In this part of the world,
before the arrival of colonists, the tribes that lived here
were the Lenape, and they referred to this part
of the world-- the Pine Barrens of what is now New Jersey--
as "the place of the dragon." So, the presence of a creature in this place of the dragon has been recorded
long into the past. We really do see two different
cultural understandings of this place coming together in the idea that
there's a creature here that maybe looks
a little bit like a dragon.
