Fear Factor Journal

Fear Factor Journal

H. P. Lovecraft once said "The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear." Everybody has or has dealt with some sort of fear in their life. For some, fear only manifests itself in some form of mild discomfort, but for others it can be so great that it creates an emotional vice-grip and holds it victim captive. I have my share of fears in life. One of these fears, which I have had since childhood, is my fear of supernatural and evil spirits. I am Christian and I believe in God, therefore I must also believe that there is a devil. As a Christian I am also aware of the contest between good and evil, so I am no doubt afraid of Satan and the infections of evil that he has brought to this earth. In the Bible it says that God allows Satan and his fallen angels a limited amount of power on earth. When I was younger I began hearing stories of people practicing witchcraft and worshipping Satan in a nearby town called Cassadaga, Florida. I was frightened at the thought of people that would deny God and follow Satan. This fear is commonly known by many as satanophobia. To confront this fear I must be prepared to possibly be in the presence of people that worship the dark prince and possibly demons or spirits.

One September day I decided to go out to Cassadaga and confront my fears of the stories that I had heard. I told myself that there should be no place where I may go that God will not be with me to protect me. With that in mind, I found the directions to this town of only 55 residences. I began driving and soon enough saw a sign that said "Cassadaga 1 mile". Once I entered the city limits I realized that my surroundings looked like the setting of a modern day horror film. There were tall trees that were dead with no leaves, rundown houses, broken fences, dirt roads, and rotted wooden signs. The main road was paved and as I drove through the town I saw signs everywhere out front of houses that read "Spiritual Readings, Psychic Readings." This didn't really bother me, because I kept thinking of funny old people like Miss Cleo from paid programming on T.V. I decided to drive down some of the narrow dirt roads. The first person I saw was an older man walking a dog. He smiled and waved and for some reason I felt more comfortable being there. I thought to myself seriously for the first time and thought that maybe that those stories were just rumors. I made my way back to the main road where there was a hotel and gift shop/information center. I parked my car and decided to go into the gift shop/information center. On the way in I passed a lady reading