I'm often asked to comment on the rise of witchcraft and Satanism in America. It's a hard issue to quantify. Statistics are often inflated by either side, to either suggest everyone wants to be a witch, or that we should fear the expansion of such diabolical beliefs. Let's take a stab at it. Religion expert J. Gordon Melton of the Institute for the Study of American Religion estimated a max of about 40,000 back in 1980. The late Margot Adler, NPR-Radio personality and active witch, said in 1986 that there were in excess of 50,000. By the year 2,000 Barnes and Noble estimated that, based on their online bookstore interest, there was a potential audience of 10 million. The Graduate Center of the City University of new York said in 2001 there were 134,000 Wiccans, 140,000 Pagans, and 33,000 Druids. By 2008 the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life estimated that more than a million Americans were "New Age," a number I personally think is very under reported.

What drives these number upward?  

• The quest for the supernatural isn't met in most churches and witchcraft offers immediacy of paranormal connection to the unseen world.
• The mistaken belief that witches are loving, earth people who were hideously persecuted in 17th century Salem. (FACT CHECK - Out of 120 accused witches, only 20 were convicted and none of those were actually burned at the stake. That's a myth.)
• The Harry Potter effect has had enormous influence on making witchcraft seems less threatening and more user friendly.

There are other factors too numerous to list here. There's no immediate danger that Wicca will be dominant in the U. S. but this occult creep of data is not encouraging. I do know this. The nearly five million people who've viewed our YouTube exorcisms will take pause about joining a coven after they've seen what can happen. And I also know that if more of our friends supported us more generously, we'd be able to warn a lot more and drive down the numbers of people turning to witchcraft!