Growing up in a family with five pastors made Brian Easton wonder about the dark side of religion and research the hidden world of the occult.

My father, brother, grandfather, and two uncles are all pastors, he said. I always heard about the devil and the bad side of religion. I guess I wanted to learn more about what they were talking about.

Brian Easton, an SIUC anthropology graduate, is currently conducting informal interviews with practicing members of occult sciences, such as mystics, spiritualists, and Wiccans, a religion based on the cycles of nature, for independent occult research.

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Easton said in the last eight years, he has intensified his own research and wants to begin speaking with practitioners of the occult.

I’ve reached the point when I’ve learned everything I can from books, he said. The occult is a multi-faceted gem, as intricate a thing as anything in math. I’m going to be 50 before I become an expert.

Easton said the basic definition for occult is something hidden or mysterious. He said the occult usually pertains to a secret part of a practice dealing with the supernatural.

The occult commonly deals with magical systems and can be religious, he said.

Easton said the Wiccan, or white witchcraft religion, is one example of the occult. He said Wiccan is a religion that deal with positive witchcraft.

They believe any evil they do will come back to them three times.

Easton said Shamanists are another example of an occult religion. He said a Shaman is a combination of a priest, a magician, and a doctor in a tribal community. He said they are spiritual leaders who conduct the functions of spirits.

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If your having bad luck and you think it’s because of an ancestor’s revenge, you’d go to a Shaman to speak to your dead relation.

Easton said he is not only interested in understanding the personal motivation of occult practitioners, but their views on other occults.

I want to hear from the horse’s mouth, so to speak, about what they have to say about themselves and other branches, he said. I want to do a cross range study.

After he conducts the interviews, Easton said he hopes to gain a well-rounded view on occults.

I want to be able to give the Satanists point of view on their occult, but I also want to be able to give the demonologists view on the Satanists, he said. It’s not about forming my own opinion.

In his early anthropology studies, Easton began to study World religions, but his interest in the occult soon took precedence, he said.

Every religion has a mystical branch.

Easton said he is not bothered by the media portrayal of occults as evil because it is Hollywood’s sensationalism. He said it upsets him when misinformed people preach against the occult.

Easton said he recently wrote a letter to the Southern Illinoisian explaining the history of Halloween. He said he is now getting a lot of flack from people saying he is a religious bigot.

People are complaining that I am denouncing Christianity, he said. They aren’t even addressing the matter I wrote about, which was historical fact.

Easton said he has held informative seminars about the occult at various churches. He said the seminars are to give legitimate facts on the present states of the occult.

Christianity has a lot of fears rooted in the unknown, he said. They think of the occult as an evil mass and they lump everything they don’t understand into it.

The misconceptions about Satanism is an example of how people are misinformed about the occult, he said.

Easton said before 1966, Satanists performed rites and sacrifices because they believed in Satan as their ruler and lived their lives for him. He said these people were basically sociopaths, people who might go to extremes to prevent interaction with society.

Easton said today, the modern belief of Satanists is not in the devil as a person, but the principal of the rebel against the status quo. He said they do not perform sacrifices because their religion is completely symbolic.

Participating in an occult religion is not the way to learn about its ideals, Easton said.

I want to learn about the occult from an objective point of view, he said. I believe in the supernatural like ghosts and magic, but I also believe in the supercilious ideas of mankind to sway people into believing the unbelievable.

Easton said he can be reached at 684-2482 for any interested in conducting an interview.