Cultish: Santería: Exposing Demons In Disguise, Pt. 1

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Cultish: Santería - Exposing Demons In Disguise, Pt. 2

00:03

Alright, welcome back to cultish ladies and gentlemen my name is Jeremiah Roberts I am one of the co -hosts here my trusted co -host and super sleuth

00:11

Andrew is off today at today's recording he is Taking care of his wife

00:17

Casey and his brand new family and well new new member of the family I should say they just have a new beat healthy baby boy

00:24

So he will be back on the podcast surely whenever this gets dropped off, so I am running solo again today

00:30

I am joined here by my man John clash. How you doing, man? I'm great man. Happy to be here.

00:36

Yeah, absolutely So just before we jump in tell everyone about Who you are what you're all about you've got a

00:41

YouTube channel Don't where can people find you at if you just google John clash j -o -n clash no

00:48

H only an H at the end You'll be able to find me Just go on YouTube type

00:53

John clash Twitter Jay clash Instagram Jay clash Yeah, so you've got a pod so the

01:00

YouTube channel that you have it kind of really deals with just really YouTube content Around just kind of like apologetics discernment that sort of stuff.

01:07

Yeah, okay, I'm good I I touch on many different topics yeah on it when

01:13

I first started I was doing like movie reviews and and stuff I just really Had no direction, so I kind of just now pray and just say

01:21

God What what you want me to do today, and it's not like I hear no audible voice You know I make a video about this, but I feel like to do something.

01:29

Yeah, yeah, I can always tell You know I joke with my wife I'm like you know I can tell when it was the

01:34

Holy Spirit and when it was me when it was the Holy Spirit the Video does good. Yeah, when it was me right right not so much.

01:40

Yeah, well. I'm curiously here cuz um my ash I got hooked up with you But yeah, so you've got interesting kind of background story something.

01:51

That's like really unique So when I think of Santeria a lot of times people think of that sublime song

01:57

So and I actually I think I made a post about it I had a couple I think it an Instagram story and people literally were replying to me like the lyrics like I don't practice

02:06

Santeria It's a classic yeah, so like a lot of times people kind of have this idea of like what it is

02:13

But yeah, let's just jump into it. So you're you're 38 now yep And when how old were you like when all of a sudden this started getting like falling into this or yeah

02:24

What's the starting point for all this so I was you have a timeline? I was trying to figure out exactly when because this was like a blur in my life

02:30

You know it's a very interesting period of my life And I was like measuring it by how old my dog is now right?

02:36

Because I was I was dating someone at the time who was in a human years of dog years dog years

02:42

I was dating someone at the time who was an atheist who did not want me to go to the next Santeria meeting, okay?

02:48

Right and so I was trying to figure out when was that But I I can tell you it was like a five to seven year period

02:55

I was definitely younger I had more of my hair, but I probably still shaved it

03:00

Yeah, and I kind of just got into it by getting invited by a friend And then it was just full blown

03:07

Before we kind of jump into like your story linearly Why don't we just define it because like I said people hear that I think just because the people responded with like the lyrics from The sublime song and of course

03:19

I mean given the generation that we're at we like probably know sublime We're like college high school, whatever yeah, but um like how would you define it because what

03:27

I think is that it's it's a cultic Mm -hmm, and I think a cultic is always syncretistic and always blends into cultures

03:33

So you have India that has its unique aspect of the occultism you have places like New Orleans or Virginia where it's a lot more in the backwoods or West Virginia, but this is specifically like based.

03:47

It's like this is like Occultism blended in with the culture of Mexico is that how you describe it.

03:53

I wouldn't say Mexico I would say it's Spanish culture in general general Latino culture in general, okay? So there's a lot of different offshoots of it right so one thing that You'll notice probably in the comment section after this is after we go through my experience.

04:08

You'll have somebody people say oh no That's not Santeria. That's something else. Oh, that's that's not this That's something else, and it's because there's so many offshoots of it because it started in Cuba But you know then it went to Dominican Republic Puerto Rico.

04:21

It's in Brazil. It's it's literally everywhere and everywhere It's practiced a little bit differently, so when we discuss how it went

04:28

You know for me It's it's not going to be the same as somebody who may practice it in Puerto Rico or somebody who even even just in Different parts of the

04:36

Dominican Republic they practice it different in different different towns Right so given that it originated in Cuba though is there any aspect of it where of the occult words blended into specifically

04:46

Cuban culture? Or and what does that look like so like candles and stuff like that? Oh, yeah, but you'll find that everywhere, okay?

04:53

You'll find the candles and you'll find so let's just backtrack real quick. What it is is

04:58

It's an African spirituality that is Has blended with Roman Catholicism right so it started off With the

05:08

Yoruba tribes, which is now like Nigeria right and each town kind of had their own deity right?

05:14

But when they were all brought over In the slave trade they were all kind of combined right and brought to one place

05:22

So they were not allowed to practice their spirituality Because you know at that time.

05:27

It's like you're Catholic or not like mass mass baptisms like you're in so they disguised it as Catholicism so in the

05:37

African spirituality remember how I was saying that each town will have like its own deity Yeah, so they associated one of those deities with a

05:45

Catholic Saint right and So instead of worshipping the deity itself they worshipped that Saint But we're essentially worshipping the deity that was behind that Saint now when it spread beyond Cuba and spread out to all different parts of Latin America It it took on different forms right so for example the kind that I was in I was unaware of the

06:10

African side of This I thought it was all Catholicism and and In this like weird offshoot of Roman Catholicism because at the time

06:20

I was a agnostic right borderline atheist So I just didn't know any better. So you'll see if you go in somebody's house or even place of business or or anything that they may be

06:31

Latino is You'll see maybe an altar with a candle of maybe baby Jesus or st

06:37

Michael or st. John or all of these different Saints you might see a cup with candy in it a cup of water

06:44

The candles you even might even see some food there as well and all of this is essentially offerings to these

06:52

Saints Saints, right and So that's kind of what it what it looks like if you've never seen it before or just heard it on a sublime song yeah, so then when you say it was like synergistic and blending in so when

07:04

I think of like Somebody like taking the mass or like having a or you know You believe like in the

07:10

Pope have sort of this like intercessory or you think about all the thing is it happens like What what are the rituals look like besides from the candles is it?

07:19

Yeah, and I know it's tapped in you're trying to access like Saints or ancestors or like what does it look like ritualistically?

07:26

Well, I can just I can tell you my form it. Yeah Cuz yeah,

07:32

I had some pretty bugged out experiences and they call them beam bus beam base, right

07:37

Just like a drum ceremony, right, right, but there was no drums when I went they were just playing it on the yeah on the

07:45

Radio, but so I got invited by a friend They said oh you got to come come to this this lady

07:50

They'll tell you tell you your future and at the time I was just looking for somebody to tell me that I was gonna be A famous rapper.

07:56

That's all that I cared about. So I was like, all right, cool I'll go to it and I trusted him. We ran around the streets together, you know did a whole bunch of stupid stuff

08:03

So I'm like, all right, let's let's check this out Yeah, so I go there and it's it's basically a party it's you know

08:09

They're playing music that I never heard before but it was like the Santeria music, right? But people are drinking beer smoking cigars like it was a whole

08:18

Experience and but there was an altar there. There was like this whole setup, right? So I would say if anybody's listening just picture any like quote -unquote altar that you would see in a movie or something like that That's probably you probably have a good idea of what it looks like or maybe a voodoo altar

08:34

You've seen in a movie. They look very similar, right? So It's I would say like an hour or two goes by and it's just us hanging out drinking beer smoking cigars and and talking to people and then all of a sudden

08:48

The atmosphere kind of like shifted a little bit and I could tell it was about to like whatever's going down is going down Right.

08:55

Yeah, right and This lady who I knew she started Changing as a not like physically changing but her mannerisms and the way that she spoke and Every time that she changed into something else they would hand her a different sash

09:12

It was like a so I was like a radical Personality change like happening real -time like sometimes you see something like two years later and you're like what happened to you instant but this is like yeah right there instant

09:22

Wow, and so she would she would change personalities and Sometimes she would talk to people that are in the room.

09:29

Sometimes she would it right, but she would just continue changing personalities So then she started like going around the room and each personality.

09:37

Here's here's some things would One of them would like cigars, right? So smoke the literally smoke a whole cigar and like a you ever seen cartoons when you know

09:47

They smoke in like one smoke. They'll smoke it right or She'll like rum this other thing that she's possessed by will like rum

09:54

So she'll start drinking a whole bunch of rum or like beer or so Yeah, it was each personality had a whole entire different Mannerisms and and things that they liked and and it was pretty bugged out.

10:05

But here I am agnostic like, all right This is crazy, whatever so anyway She starts going around the room and talking to people and I'm like, oh this must be where they're gonna tell us our future

10:16

So I'm super excited. Yeah, she gets to me and she's speaking to me in Spanish. I have one of my friends translating and She starts telling me things that I never told anybody like things that happened in my childhood

10:27

That I never told anybody so I'm like, oh this is this is bugged out

10:32

And then she's asking me questions or talking to me my friends translating I'm responding in English and I would respond in English she would respond in Spanish answering my questions or responding to me without the translation and yeah, so I'm like and I know this lady doesn't speak

10:49

English because I know her so I'm like man. This is this is some pretty bugged out stuff right here but I'm kind of hooked now because she told me this stuff that she didn't that I never told anybody and She's you know responding to me in Spanish when

11:05

I'm asking her questions in English, and she don't speak English So now I'm kind of like intrigued.

11:11

Yeah, and what's going on here? So then she goes on to tell me not only about Myself and she even told me about family members who died that people in the room didn't know about, you know so she's telling me this stuff and I'm like, wow, this is this is some legit stuff and Then she tells me hey

11:30

We know that you want to you know, be a famous rapper We know you want to do this do that you want money you want this you want that So she way she told you that you want to be a rapper and you didn't volunteer any of this information

11:42

No, I mean she knew me though So that's okay. That's something that she could have known right, but she didn't know any of the other stuff

11:48

I didn't tell anybody at that point in my life. So when she was relaying this to me, I'm like I Know she doesn't know this.

11:55

I know that nobody in the room knows this So that was kind of what what got me but the rapper thing definitely she could have known right but um, so anyway

12:04

She's like, yeah, we'll give that all to you All you have to do is this and it was like where these beads

12:10

You know make an altar light these candles do all this stuff and me I'm like Alright, let's see what happens because I don't care at the at the at that point.

12:20

I'm right I'm looking at this one. I like alright, this is this is legit the other eye. I'm like, we'll see what happens, you know

12:27

So anyway, I I went home and I just made the the altar I lit all the candles I did everything and I still at that point had no idea what was going on I didn't know that these were quote -unquote the

12:38

Saints. I didn't know any of that. Yeah, I was just going with the flow of everything so that was my first experience and it was it was a little wild too because sometimes she would like drink the beer

12:48

And then like fling the the the beer around the room like it was a pretty interesting experience

12:54

But it was it was fun to me. I thought I had a lot of fun at the time So I'm like,

12:59

I think this is pretty cool and then if if it works if they do get me the stuff that they're saying that I can have

13:07

By lighting these altars and stuff like that. I'll do it because I didn't you know, I wasn't a Christian Yeah at the time

13:13

I had no spiritual discernment. I was just going with the flow and I wanted the things in life I wanted them.

13:19

Yeah, that's always interesting So, I mean, it's always it always seems to be like the same story where it's like the allure, you know

13:26

It's like the sex there's all there's all sort of like a sexiness to Like the occult in the sense where it's like ooh

13:32

It's almost like a peep show of like it's like a peep show of the secret unknown hidden forbidden stuff, you know

13:39

And so and all of a sudden you're like, oh I want some more of that How can I get that and so there's that appeal like do you remember that show?

13:45

Crossing over where it was like a whole audience of people and the guy was sort of tell people so the guy that would go around he is a weirdo

13:53

David I'm getting the name David. Yeah Jonathan Edwards, yeah Some of that had different Jonathan Edwards for sure.

14:00

Yeah. Yeah Not that one. All right, right, but you know and some of its stuff might might be a whole charade and stuff

14:07

But also there's a percentage where it's like, okay, you're actually Tapping into stuff. Yeah, there's no way you can know that in and of in and of yourself

14:16

Yeah, so like what happened? So did you just start you got your own candles and you kind of?

14:21

Like you started just kind of doing it yourself. Yeah, so I started lighting the candles and now I'm asking questions

14:27

I'm like, alright, so what what is this? And this is when they start explaining to me that you know, these are the

14:32

Saints so anytime that she gets possessed, right? So in in it, they call mounting, right?

14:38

so the the person who's being mounted by a saint is called a caballo, right, which is like the

14:44

Spanish word for a horse and So you're being mounted by a saint and then that Saint takes you for a ride, right?

14:52

Right. So they said that, you know, anytime that she was mounted it was a nut It was a saint and this was a

14:59

Catholic Saint that was, you know had your best interests, you know Why wouldn't they they're the they're the

15:04

Saints so they have their best interest in they have your best interest in mind They want to guide you in the right direction.

15:11

They want to help you out in life so doing all this stuff is your way of kind of thanking them or your way of It's really worshiping them but at the time

15:21

I don't I don't even really understand what worship is I'm just lighting the candles for hey if this works,

15:26

I'm gonna do it But now I'm asking questions of what is it? What am I actually doing? And so they're explaining to me that these are

15:33

Saints Yeah And that you know You have st. John st. Michael's all of these different Saints and each

15:38

Personality that she had was her being mounted by a different Saint So now I'm I'm kind of quote -unquote understanding it

15:45

But at the same time I'm still coming at it from a pretty agnostic place Because I heard of these

15:52

Saints because when I was younger my dad sent me to church to my grandmother He's still an atheist today.

15:57

So pray pray for my dad, please But so I didn't really know much but the names, you know st.

16:05

John it like there's a st. John Church, you know, there's so these names were ringing bells.

16:12

So I'm kind of like, all right, maybe it's maybe it's legit you know, maybe this is some some offshoot of Catholicism that I've just never heard of before that Latinos practice and Since I was

16:22

I'm the white dude being brought into this like this was not my culture And so anyone listening to this?

16:28

I also want you guys to understand that I'm you know, this is This is a big part of many

16:33

Latin cultures. And also when we get into the African spirituality side of it Yeah, you know, it's it many people hold on to it as part of their identity

16:42

So we're not discussing this in a way of like attacking someone's identity, right? We're truth seekers, you know coming from the premise that Jesus is who he says he is

16:50

Yeah, and so we're dissecting the spiritual experience Which is challenging just because the occult is always syncretistic within the culture that it's adapting to So then when you're actually saying this is a cultic it might come to certain people like you're actually attacking their culture

17:04

Yeah, and that's not when it's not the case. I can see where that misunderstanding could come from in your video right at the beginning

17:10

Maybe you can elaborate You'll know where I'm going with this that you do sort of have to be careful about talking about this like even on a

17:18

Christian podcast because There's almost like there's almost even with all you've talked about so far. There's almost this like a lure

17:25

Let me look into it. Let me look into it in a way talk about like expand Why'd you say that in the video and they'll help for this as we it's just a rabble that it's like any rabbit hole you know

17:35

There's when I whenever I tell my testimony I kind of shy away from this part of it because it's so intriguing, right?

17:41

and when you start really looking into it, it becomes very interesting and It's it's almost like the demons will start like seeking you out

17:49

Yeah If you kind of start looking at this and then you'll run across people who will tell you that you can pair this with any

17:56

Religion, you know if you're a baby Christian, right and you don't know any better You have no spiritual discernment and somebody is telling you.

18:03

Yeah, this is you can pair this right along with Christianity It adds to your faith, you know Going down that rabbit hole could be kind of dangerous probably not for people who are listening to your podcast because their discernment is

18:13

You know on point but many people Get caught up in it there

18:19

I know many Christians people who profess faith in Christ who still practice

18:24

Santeria There's Catholics who practice Santeria and so that's why I always you know I don't really like to go down the rabbit hole because then you also have ministries that'll be built around You know

18:34

There's people out there who build ministries around Teaching you spiritual warfare of how to now combat these

18:39

Santeria demons and it's just it turns into a spiritual mess So that's kind of why I and it's so intriguing.

18:47

It's like watching a Netflix There's like a spiritual warfare on military industrial complex of like people literally like trying to take okay acknowledging this stuff

18:54

It's bad But then they're actually like charging an arm and a leg to learn how to fight it when it's like you actually have What you need?

19:01

Yeah within the Holy Spirit greater. See that's any of the heat that's in the world Like you have the Holy Spirit new you don't need to pay so many 1995 to learn these like five spiritual secrets about that, but that's huge because I think just as we jump back in is that Like I said, there's just with all the topics that we cover.

19:19

There's almost like this allure where it's like oh Well, this is I want you to really talk about this and people want to be able to see this podcast ooh

19:26

Santeria like what is that and Almost not almost forgetting the fact you were a

19:31

Christian podcast and was no all the treasured wisdom and knowledge are hidden in the person of Jesus Christ Versus we know what you and Anford and so many others have done.

19:41

So, um, yeah jump back into that So yeah, like so you're there at that time and you're seeking this out.

19:46

You're starting to toy around with the Saints Yep, and all that where do I go from there now? I'm doing now I'm into it right and I think that I'm cool because now here

19:55

I am the the white dude I mean, I I'm like pretty much my only white friend period But said well now

20:02

I got you so that's great but not just you know, I grew up in Yonkers So there's a you know, it's a very mixed community, but I had a lot of Dominican friends

20:10

And so that's how I got introduced to it was from my Dominican friends So now I'm like, I'm learning about so much and just thinking that I'm learning about their culture and now

20:20

I'm being I'm looking at it as I'm being let into their culture as well. So there was an allure in that manner as well

20:27

So anyway, I'm really into it and it's a lot of fun Fleshly, you know, it's yeah, it's a lot of fun in that aspect and I so I'm always looking forward to the next

20:39

Ceremony. I'm always looking forward to the next time. They're gonna have a seance or you know That's what I was calling it in my mind a seance, you know

20:45

But they called it the Saints are coming and there was no planning you get a phone call. Hey, they're coming tonight

20:50

You you got to show up. Yeah, so anyway, I'm doing it for a while and I'm starting to see more and more bugged out stuff

20:59

So one of the things that happened was this was in a really small small ceremony this lady smashed a

21:09

Glass over her head and then started eating the glass Right, like just right.

21:15

I'm talking about yeah, I'm here She's there right where you're at and we're sitting on the floor. Yeah crunch crunch literally biting it like it's a like it's a

21:22

Tostito right and just swallowing it and nothing's happening to her and I'm just like In my mind,

21:30

I'm like, what is this? Right? You know, what is this? but I'm also justifying it saying oh this must be how powerful this stuff is that she can eat this and Not be hurt by it.

21:41

So you know, I have that experience then I have I kind of got lazy in doing my candles and stuff like that and yeah

21:53

They called me and they said, oh before I get into that. So each

21:59

Each person each member of this you kind of have a saint that's assigned to you, right?

22:06

So let's say Jeremiah is now part of this now all of a sudden st John is your saint and this is the saint that watches over you and everything, right?

22:14

Yeah so we were finding out who what was our saint and they

22:19

They asked the lady. Hey, you know, who's his who's his saint? And she said all of them and That means all of the

22:27

Saints were essentially my guardian quote -unquote angels, right and at the time

22:33

I'm thinking wow, that's awesome I'm like the outsider here. And now I have all the Saints assigned to me.

22:38

Maybe you get to most people Yeah, but I had all of them and in our offshoot, I believe it was called 21 divisions

22:46

There was 21 Saints. So I had all 21 assigned to me So this this would be extra in comparison to like what people usually people

22:53

Have like one or two in this case and this wasn't just you just your branch. This is like 21

22:58

Yeah, so I had 21 assigned to me and at the time I'm thinking it's legit now looking back at it

23:04

I'm like, yeah, that's probably not a good sign But anyway, so I started becoming lazy with the with the stuff.

23:12

I wasn't lighting my candles life was going good for me as well So things were happening. I was making money.

23:17

I was uh, you know, my music was taken off Underground music awards and so I'm like, oh, it's pretty cool things are happening

23:24

But I got lazy because I was like, maybe it's just me, you know, maybe I'm just working really hard and doing well

23:30

So I got a phone call and they're like John. What are you doing? Nothing. Why what's up?

23:36

They're like the Saints are mad at you And I'm like, what what do you mean? They're mad at me. They're like, they know that you uh, you're not taking care of your altar

23:44

You're not doing the things for them that they asked you to do Now where's your where's your altar in my house in your room?

23:50

Yeah, you walk in it's there. Well, I had a kitchen slash. Yeah So there was a shoe.

23:56

Were you not attending to them? Yeah, I wasn't I was just coasting, you know And no one's monitoring you there is there's not a

24:04

What do you it's not like a special. There's not like a webcam. Yeah, there's no 24 hours those friends are not like coming to my house all the time and seeing so it just I was like wow

24:14

And how did this person get the knowledge? I have no idea. So they you know,

24:19

I got that phone call and said, uh, hey, they're mad at you They know you're not taking care of the stuff. You're not doing what I'm assuming that Since she's directly connected with the other person that that person somehow one of the spirits told her or whatever.

24:34

And And so anyway, I'm like, all right What do I got to do then to make them not mad at me because you know

24:39

I don't want to lose all the good stuff that's going on in my life. Yeah, let's just jump right into it And so I had to do my own

24:45

Little seance thing my own party. So I did my own party and at it they were like if you do not

24:51

And what's interesting is this is one person saying we right if you do not Continue to to do what we asked you to do.

24:59

We're gonna take everything from you Everything we've given you will be gone and I'm like What was they threatening me?

25:09

No, it's a remind me. Let me backtrack a little bit. How did you receive this? Communication.

25:14

Oh, so I did the the party that did the seance thing and at that the woman who gets mounted, you know possessed

25:20

Okay, she said this to me So she was possessed by one of the Saints quote -unquote and we're gonna get into one person like saying like saying plural

25:28

We yes, one person is saying we right kind of like venom in In Marvel, you know life imitates art, right?

25:36

Yeah, right so anyway Well, she's like, yeah, we'll take everything from you and I'm like, oh that's that's crazy so I had to do like a cleansing and all of this weird stuff and Then I go on a date right and we'll get into the the ceremony and the cleansing in a bit

25:53

But I I had a I go on a date with a woman and she's um, she's a

25:59

Latina woman Yeah, and I'm wearing my beads and she goes. Oh, what are those beads that you're wearing?

26:05

And here I am. I'm like This girl doesn't know and I'm about to school her on her own culture.

26:13

Yeah, it's gonna be a good night for me Yeah, like this is how I'm thinking Yeah time like it could cover your whole personality of what you're trying to achieve being a rapper is always about like, yeah

26:21

Hey, it's all about me and all about that. So there's probably like you're it's like a lot of ego All I cared about was myself, you know, so Now I start breaking it down for I'm telling her.

26:32

Yeah, these are the Saints of Santeria I'm surprised you don't know this ba -ba -ba and she's just listening to me and that should have been my first My first sign that this was

26:42

Yeah, yeah, yeah, she's like hmm. Oh, okay. And then after I'm done telling her she's like, yeah,

26:47

John those aren't Saints those are demons and I was like, mmm, this chick's bugging and And she's like, yeah read this this and this in the

26:56

Bible It'll explain it to you and I can't tell you where she told me to read

27:01

I don't know because in my mind I was just like this chick is crazy because I still don't even really believe in in all This stuff so I suffered from sleep paralysis a lot growing up but I always chalked it up to a

27:11

Like trauma from when I was a kid because you know, you look into it and you have the secular sources that say though Yes, you processing trauma or it's just you're stuck between sleep and being awake

27:21

So I wasn't really equating my sleep paralysis with demonic Forces, but when she planted that seed

27:29

I didn't get a lot of sleep paralysis While I was involved in century, but I got it a lot when

27:35

I went to leave it, right, right. So Anyway, she plants that seed with me and I just continue going going on with it and doing on Doing the the stuff anyway, because I at that time

27:49

I don't really believe in demons and angels and and God and all this stuff. So here

27:55

I am right It's like I'm living two lives. I'm this like agnostic borderline atheist person

28:01

Sort of hostile towards Christianity and then underneath I'm practicing Centuria is like a good luck charm.

28:09

Yeah, so all of these like alarms that people try to ring for me like they didn't ring because I Just didn't really care.

28:16

You know, it wasn't until I became a Christian that I started not feeling the same about You know lighting my altars and and all of this stuff, you know

28:28

Holy Spirit was convicting me, but I also didn't understand what the Holy Spirit conviction like felt like.

28:34

Yeah, because I got I have a long story of how I became a

28:39

Christian But essentially I was very hostile towards it and I got invited to church a few times to Hillsong, New York City They told me it was gonna be like a rock concert.

28:47

So I went yeah, and it was a lot of fun But I didn't really learn anything there, you know, the gospel wasn't it was

28:53

Carl Carl Lentz was there so yeah, it was a motivational speech and I was into that stuff. So I enjoyed myself

29:00

I kept going then I went to um They had college classes that Nathan finocchio was teaching and it wasn't until then that I really understood what

29:07

Christians actually believed Yeah, so I I thank God for those, uh, you know for Nathan and those um, those courses that he was teaching over there

29:16

But then I got invited to another church in Connecticut from one of my friends and I'm just enjoying the experience of church

29:22

So I go and at the end of that I was down at the front, you know taking a little pamphlet I apparently gave my life to Christ at at that point and then

29:29

I went home and I was like I did not just Become a Christian, you know, I had an emotional experience

29:34

I went down to the front but it was at that point that I was like, I'm gonna figure this stuff out Mm -hmm. So I went down every rabbit hole you could think of in Researching the origins of different religions and stuff in this whole process

29:47

You're still starting to do the seeking and searching and this the the date with this girl that you thought you're gonna You know get the one up on her.

29:54

She she rocked my she rocked you but we're but in this whole process We're still toying around Santeria as you're yes

30:00

So that date happened before I even got invited to church Okay, like so that date that seed of demons was like planted in me before I even started doing this so yeah,

30:10

I I eventually looked into the origins of Santeria and I got to make sure

30:16

I say it right before my wife yells me Santeria, right? But and then

30:22

I that's when I discovered the African spirituality side of it So when I looked into the origins of it, and I saw that this was just You know being disguised as Catholic Saints But these were actually

30:35

African gods that they were worshiping called Orishas. I was like, wait a minute I'm believing that these are

30:43

Saints and They're not even really Saints. They're just named differently, but these are actually

30:49

African spirits that I'm worshiping Yeah, so this is them to just to clarify then this is a matter of like historical fact that yes, these are

30:56

Deities that were worshipped in Africa received, you know as gods that were worship and where they consider like ancestors as well

31:04

There is ancestral worship and some ancestors can become deified like there's a few okay,

31:11

I would mess up their name So I'm not even gonna try to say it, but it's mostly like there's a you know, a spirit of the rivers

31:17

There's a spirit of the ocean. There's a funny one of my friends wouldn't even pee in the ocean Yeah, because he thought that it would upset the spirit of the ocean.

31:25

Yeah, they have a Their creator God, which is I believe allude to Mari, right and that's like that's their

31:32

God right and then all of these Orishas are kind of like angels quote -unquote or that's not what they would call them

31:40

But that's what I could kind of equate it to if you're just looking at something from like a mytho historical, right?

31:46

There are deities that would receive worship essentially like idolatry. Yes, but and it's at the whole time

31:51

It's like you this was actually repackaged as like people immigrated from Africa over to Cuba They repackaged this as being as good as a branch of the

32:01

Catholicism Yeah, they knew what they were doing right, but you didn't I had no idea Wow It wasn't it like nobody in My I guess you could call it group or sect or whatever.

32:13

Nobody told me that this was connected to African spirituality I only found this out after I've researched the origins and that really started me questioning things

32:23

But I was kind of just going along with it because I was like, you know I don't want to lose all the stuff that I got going on and How much of Mormonism have you studied

32:33

I'm not much, you know the story of the book of Abraham No, that all just there reminds me just a little bit of it

32:39

So basically if you go in the book of Abraham There's this document in the Pearl of Great Price where Joseph Smith found this papyrus, which was supposed to be

32:47

It was a just an Egyptian manuscript. I'll just get a super clip Yeah, super cliff notes version and so he believed that he had the power the gift and power to translate this document

32:58

He said this was the lost book of Abraham And so the official Mormon Church still holds it to this day

33:03

But when you actually dig into the stories of the book of Abraham, it's actually not that at all It's a funerary text that's connected to a

33:10

Cyrus and it's actually not what it seems he took chunks of it and like re

33:16

Wrote what the Egyptians hieroglyphics were and he told it's one of the most grossest mistranslations and so I've seen it where people were

33:24

Mormons will actually See the reality of what it actually is versus what they were taught And it's like you see their whole world like falling apart that just popped in my head reminded me

33:34

It just a little bit of that. Yeah, I mean is that kind of like whoa, what is this? So since since I I didn't hold to it so spiritually and it wasn't really part of my identity

33:43

Yeah, when I learned the origins of it, I was kind of just upset It was more like a means to an end, yeah, it was a means to an end and But I was upset because I went through some stuff

33:55

So this, you know, we'll get into the cleansing that happened, right? So in this cleansing they wanted my sperm right and So yeah, so they they took my sperm and I still don't even know what well that I gave it to them

34:12

You know, but the cleanser who are the people that claim this was the same lady who wanted your sperm the person who gets possessed right and You know the the person who was always translating for me.

34:27

Yeah, I kind of did it and so since I was Like just not aware of things and I just you know

34:33

They they always gave me lotions and potions and like different things to wear So it wasn't just like, you know, I I was into the hole.

34:40

Hey, this is for that. This is for that Yeah, this like perfume perfume. I was supposed to put right here.

34:46

It's supposed to attract people to you, you know If you put this out, it's for that So in what they told me was the sperm was for you know life for you know, greater life

34:57

Right, and I got a question. Yeah, I mean we're both adults here and I get there might be some

35:03

You know parents with like kids less in the back just be just be wary of that Yeah, but you know, but it is but it just is interesting because Every faith every religion when you think about this no neutrality

35:15

Which I would attest when it talks about presents your body in Romans it talks about presents your bodies as a living sacrifice literally every form of counterfeit spirituality

35:25

Says the same thing to offer your bodies as living sacrifice, but then sex is always an act of worship

35:31

No matter what and in this case, it's wanting to have offer your body as a living sacrifice, but now

35:39

Offering, you know your sperm to be part of this ritual to get things straight. Yeah with these

35:44

Saints. Yep It's like this is it's a weird on twisted

35:49

Distorted version like every cult and every part counter form a counterfeit spirituality

35:54

They always distort they always require sacrifice of your body But they also take some form of like weird twisted to sort of sexuality and blend that in synchrotistically as well

36:06

Yeah, I and it's you know when I talk about it now, I'm like John How are you so stupid to just say?

36:13

All right. Yeah, take it, you know Yeah, like how this wasn't a doctor's visit, you know, this was some weird cultish stuff and I Just went along with it.

36:24

I was like, yeah. All right, cool And I still have absolutely no idea Like what was done with that and I'm pretty sure if you know some spiritual warfare coach selling courses for 1999

36:37

I'm pretty sure that if they heard this they would reach out to me with something that I have to do in order to Break a generational curse or something from it, but you know

36:45

Jesus is enough for right for all of that stuff So anyway, like that says like that's how weird it got, you know, like and I was like Surface level right in comparison to others

36:57

So if it got this weird for me, like they do animal sacrifices and everything. Yeah that as well

37:03

I never saw one animal get sacrificed. I knew that it went on Yeah, but like so I'm at like a surface level and it's this weird for me

37:11

Well didn't well didn't also Joey Diaz. I mean most people know who he is. He's a comedian He's always on the

37:16

Joe Rogan experiences like it's experience always spouting out terms that don't include the word Yeah, yeah, but like he's even talked about to like you you got to be really really careful with this stuff and he's somebody who's not

37:31

He's like you gotta be really 100 % to and it what's interesting is if you if you do dig into this and you start looking into people who people who are

37:40

Proponents of it who are like all in on center. Yeah, they'll tell you to be careful

37:45

Yeah, be careful doing this. Don't just do it to do it. So You know, that should be a red flag period nobody says hey be careful when you put your faith in Christ, you know it's

37:56

It's a complete opposite of what's told so it I just think about as as weird as it was for me and as like Dark as it got for me.

38:05

I was still on a surface level. I could imagine it's like it's like Joining the

38:11

Masons and like you just stay at the first level, you know, yeah The initiations probably weird but when you're doing this was that other people like joining you

38:20

Did you kind of have like a group session and kind of go and do it off on your own? It was it so it would be group and then it would be like me and you know

38:28

The few had people and then it's group So whenever you had like a big party the more the merrier, right?

38:33

So you bring everybody in and also you were you were encouraged to invite people Yeah, well, and sometimes hit this just pop back up in my memory

38:40

Sometimes the party would be set up and the Saints wouldn't come Because of somebody that was there said, oh, yeah, they're not comfortable with coming and like looking back on it

38:50

I'm like, yeah That person was probably a real born -again Christian and they didn't want to show up well now what happened when people start like kind of looking around the room sort of like vetting people like no it just it was like I think you know, this is me trying to spiritualize it, right?

39:07

Because if you could look at it through one of two lenses one as like, yeah this lady probably just doesn't want to do it because this person's here, you know as a personal thing or The these demons because that's what they are.

39:19

They're demons that are that are mounting these these Santeros and Santeras that it's demons that are mounting them that that lady.

39:29

I went on a date with was correct These are demons, right? So I've if there is a true born -again believer in the room

39:37

Why would the demons want to show up? because you know Their their spiritual senses with the the

39:44

Holy Spirit would be like hey, you know, this ain't good, you know so I think that that would kind of kind of stop them from Performing the ceremony is if there was a born -again

39:54

Christian in the room and the only time they would come is when you know Maybe me or this take place and this is in Puerto Rico.

40:01

No, this was in this was in Yonkers This was in New York. Okay. Yeah, I've only been in Puerto Rico for two years

40:06

Okay, yeah would know as far as location goes and this would take place in someone's house condo

40:12

It's really gonna pretty much went down a Catholic Church. No, no, you do it wherever so what's interesting is this

40:19

It's funny. You said that this in Puerto Rico. I should have clarified that earlier. This is rampant

40:25

In the United States. Yeah, it's rampant like everywhere, right? It's just not a lot of people know about it.

40:31

But most Latinos know about Santeria. They have an uncle they have a

40:37

Aunt or that like reads coffee cups and you know, they know somebody who's who's a part of it.

40:42

So They have botanicas on like every corner in New York City Botanica is a place where you go to buy like the statues and the candles and the the incense and the the potions

40:54

So it's prevalent everywhere and there's a lot of practicing Catholics and and Christians who participate in this stuff because it's embedded in their culture.

41:04

Yeah. Well also Mia Do you know much about I've only I've only like skimmed it's a very very surface level

41:10

But with it amongst people who are in the cartel There's a lot of people who end up like practicing the occult is like is there any?

41:17

aspect or aesthetic where like the Santeria the practicing of Santeria is connected to different cartels because you look at all the

41:23

Craziness going on there and a lot of it's like man There's got to be just demonic without getting totally

41:30

Over the top what sometimes when you look at some of the behavior and stuff that's going on with how people are just killing each

41:35

Other off being so brutal. It's like that's got to be demonic forces behind that Interesting.

41:40

So what I used to be involved in gangs when I was younger and You know, there's there's one thing that I always found interesting is that you know

41:49

Somebody had killed or something bad happens or if you know You're gonna do something crazy or you know

41:54

Whenever you find yourself in a very intense situation people got spiritual real quick. Yeah, right and you'll find especially in Santeria a lot of Latin gang members they were in the beads for the the protection because that's what that is protection

42:08

You know, there's kind of like a superstition that comes along with it you know, you're living this really dangerous life and so you kind of you're looking for some sort of protection and Santeria can kind of quote -unquote offer that right right and what's also interesting that that Should have been a red flag for me when

42:24

I was involved was they never told me to stop, you know Hanging out with gangsters. They never told me to stop doing drugs that I was doing

42:30

They never told me to stop drinking alcohol stop doing steroids They never told me to stop doing any of the sleeping around with multiple women

42:37

They never told me to stop doing any of that stuff if this was truly from God Yeah, they would tell me to stop like it's all those things are clear clearly sin

42:47

You know doing all that stuff clearly sin. How come these Saints never told me to stop sinning?

42:53

Yeah, they only told me that they would give me more of what I want So it's kind of like, you know, you give that the whole saying it gives a certain person inch they go a mile

43:00

Yeah, that's really what it was like for you in this whole process. Yep, even at the very very beginning level

43:05

Yep, so let's jump into when I when I got out of it. Yeah So I had a conversation with we were at Del Frisco's I remember it clear as day in Manhattan now,

43:16

I'm a Christian, right? So I came to Christ from just digging into the historical facts, right?

43:22

That's that's my case for Christ sort of stuff Yeah, yeah, like just really digging into it and you know, but I only intellectualized it

43:28

I only put my faith in Christ is like yeah, I think That's the only way to heaven is to put your faith in Christ.

43:33

I've fully believed it and I put my trust in Christ But I just kept living my life as I was living it, right?

43:40

But eventually living my life as I was living it, you know, I started feeling convicted doing Some of the things that that I was doing right, but I remember having a conversation with one of my spiritual mentors

43:52

David Peach, right this dude Was the first person that told me how to read the

43:57

Bible like really read it, you know and so I I've respected him in business as well because he's like millionaire, right and Die his dad was pastor.

44:09

His dad's dad was a pastor like lineage of pastors So he knew his stuff and he was not with the prosperity gospel not with any of the

44:17

New Age, you know bleeding into Christianity he was by the book Yeah and he just was he was talking about the end times right and just uh, you know the return of Christ and well

44:28

Listen, I don't know what it was in that conversation But I was like I'm going home and I'm destroying this altar the second and by then, you know

44:34

The candles were like, you know down and I wasn't really paying attention to it anymore But I've just felt so convicted.

44:40

I went home and I destroyed that altar. I threw everything out. I buried some of the stuff And at this time,

44:48

I don't know any real theology or anything So I'm like I rebuke you in the name of Jesus and not understanding.

44:54

Yeah, that's useless You know, but it is interesting like literally this is something that Like even people who are very like pro new ways talk about Christianity is sort of this

45:05

Way just to control people's minds and that sort of thing but it's like when people actually come to Christ like the one they did the immediate thing that they do like of their own free

45:15

Will like instinctively is like destroy those objects. It's not like some giant conspiracy to like Destroy their object.

45:23

I mean and it's like that you do that voluntarily. I just I knew it I was like I'm going home and I'm I was like,

45:29

I'm convinced These are demons that are you know, I'm allowing these demons to have access to my life for for what my own personal gain, you know for for worldly things and So I went down.

45:43

I broke broke down the altar got rid of it and It was true what they said that they would take everything from me

45:49

Yeah, my business started going backwards the relationship that I was in I mean I was living in sin in that relationship, but you know that That went really bad really fast like my life kind of just started spiraling out of control, but I made a decision

46:04

I was like, I'm never submitting to yeah to to anyone else's if we almost like your life was like a carrot

46:11

Your life was like the carrot that they're dangling in front of you. And now that you had now that you had Rejected now, they're trying to yank it away.

46:18

You're hanging on to the carrot. Yeah. Yeah I was just like, you know what? I don't care how bad it gets I really

46:23

I do believe Jesus is who he says he is and I do believe these are demons and I'm not gonna you know

46:28

Drink from the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons at the same time Like I'm just not gonna do this, right?

46:34

So It got pretty intense and then my sleep paralysis

46:40

Increased like crazy. Yeah. Oh my god. Yeah. Well, let's let's do this Let's I want to jump into that more because I mean you're only given the very cliff notes.

46:47

There's a lot more to No, we're good. No, we're good. So we've gone for about an hour

46:52

So what we're gonna go ahead and do is we're gonna go ahead and take a pause We're gonna jump into part two and also we kind of order food because otherwise we're gonna go lightheaded and stuff like that But um, yeah, let's just jump into it more real quick before you wrap up.

47:05

Where can people find you out? You're on YouTube. You have a what's your what's home base for you? Just YouTube I would say is that that's what

47:12

I'm most focused on. So just John clash. No H in the John. Yeah, J O N Yep, J O N class.

47:17

Oh, I found you. Yeah. Yeah, super easy. You type in J O H N I think like some other stuff shows up Yeah, so clash of clans like the video games like all of that stuff starts popping up It's hilarious if you put join clash clash like all these different video games

47:31

So you have to put J O N clash and then you'll be able to I have all my other links and stuff like that Also on we just started a podcast on the why

47:40

Jesus Network, right? So you just at Why Jesus Network? At the why

47:46

Jesus Network on YouTube, yep, cool and shout out to all of those people man I got a nice group over there of believers

47:52

Christian YouTube creators that are just killing it I know it's cool that we know like a lot of the same people do like Melissa Doherty or good friends with her and Good friends with her.

48:00

I just connected with her. She's just been an absolute blessing her ministry's been a blessing and she's awesome. Yeah okay, well very cool,

48:08

I will appreciate hanging out with us today and You know, I'm sure you're enjoying you're enjoy some American food versus the

48:14

Puerto Rican My wife makes fun of me All right well

48:19

If you guys enjoyed the first part of this episode definitely let us know what you thought Leave a certain view on iTunes whether it's one star five star

48:26

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48:32

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48:40

There's a donation tab You can donate one time become a monthly partner with us all that being said We'll talk to you next time on cultists where we enter into the crazy and wild world of Santeria.