9sense Episode 23 August, LXI A.S.

On this 23 August, LXI A.S. 9sense podcast episode, Adam will discuss Finding Information About Satanism, Americans Don’t Believe in Equality, and Event Horizon: Dark Descent. Join LIVE in YouTube chat and share your thoughts! 

Time Stamps:

• 0:00 Intro
• 14:28 1. The Devil’s Advocate – Finding Information About Satanism
• 30:37 2. Infernal Informant – Americans Don’t Believe in Equality
• 57:07 3. Creature Feature – Event Horizon: Dark Descent
• 1:08:24 Outro

About 9sense

9sense is a live weekly Satanic podcast hosted by Adam, a Satanist in the Church of Satan, exploring Satanism, current events, and modern culture through a sharp third-side perspective. Founded in 2011 (XLVI A.S.), the show breaks down Satanic philosophy in real-world practice, cultural trends, media, and controversial topics with intelligence, humor, and unapologetic honesty. Now in its 15th year, 9sense streams live every Sunday night, offering long-form discussion for viewers who want independent thought, critical analysis, and authentic Satanic commentary—without dogma, censorship, or compromise.

About the Church of Satan

The Church of Satan, founded in 1966 by Anton Szandor LaVey, is the first openly established Satanic religion in history. It is an atheistic, rational philosophy that uses Satan as a symbol of individualism, personal sovereignty, pride, and the unapologetic acceptance of humanity’s carnal nature. Rejecting superstition, external gods, and imposed guilt, the Church of Satan emphasizes self-responsibility, reason, and the pursuit of one’s own interests in the real world. Far from myths of evil or chaos, Satanism is about living authentically, embracing pleasure without shame, and standing against hypocrisy, herd mentality, and authoritarian belief systems.

Show Notes

Cold Open

Intro

Welcome to 9sense. 9sense is a Satanic perspective of our modern world. My name is Adam and it’s great to have you. It’s August 23th and I’ve got a hell-of-a show for you this week!

• Wedding/Kilt

Discussion

1. The Devil’s Advocate

• Letters From The Devil
• The Exploiter – January 31, 1971
  • I’ve about come to the end of my rope trying to find information about Satanism
    • I’m interested in what’s happening today, and historical facts
    • I’ve read the Satanic Bible
    • I am interested in the whole realm of Satanic activity
    • Other groups don’t have as much to offer as the Church of Satan does
    • I thought I would like to do my term paper on Satanism
    • Can you help me?
    • I could reimburse you
  • You’re in luck!
    • I would have recommended the following books a few years ago
      • The Morning of the Magicians by Louis Pauwels and Jacques Bergier
      • The Satanic Mass by H.F.T. Rhodes
      • The Black Arts by Richard Cavendish
    • They contain minimum nonsense and would undoubtedly be helpful
    • The best thing on the subject has just been released
      • The Second Coming: Satanism in America by Arthur Lyons
      • https://archive.org/details/secondcomingsata0000lyon/page/n247/mode/2up 
    • It traces the origins of Satanism that is concise and perceptive
    • The first half gives historical aspects of Satanism in early Europe
    • The Second half covers its journey to America, including recent tie-ins with the Manson Case.
    • I am not only recommending it as the Church of satan has been favorably treated within
    • Mr. Lyons has done a fine job covering the entire spectrum that is both entertaining and informative

2. Infernal Informant

• Some Americans don’t believe all people are created equal. Their movement is going mainstream, this author says
  • https://www.cnn.com/2026/08/22/us/americans-created-equal-kim-phillips-fein
  • They hold this truth to be self-evident: Only a fool believes that all men are created equal.
  • Look around you, they say. Most Americans are takers, not makers. Rich people work harder. Poor people make bad choices. Some racial groups are born with more intelligence than others. That may sound harsh to some, but remember, they say, “empathy is a weakness.”
  • These observations come from some of the most prominent people in the country. They seemingly reject the foundational American belief — enshrined in the Declaration of Independence — that “all men are created equal.” Instead, these people belong to a “shadow tradition” of anti-egalitarians who have fought against America’s founding ideas — and their movement is going mainstream, one historian says in a new book.
  • These anti-egalitarians “fiercely, angrily, and passionately” preach variations of the same argument: that extreme inequality is not only inevitable in America but is also good for the country, says Kim Phillips-Fein. Her book, “Country of Lords: Neo-Aristocrats, Social Darwinists, Tech Utopians, and the Long Fight Against Equality in America,” traces this line of thinking back to some of the country’s Founding Fathers.
  • Phillips-Fein cites such prominent people as Elon Musk and venture capitalist Peter Thiel, as well as ideological predecessors like John Adams, steel tycoon Andrew Carnegie and carmaker Henry Ford.
  • “Openly anti-egalitarian ideas are flourishing — the claim that monarchy might be preferable to democracy; that autocratic societies in which power is tightly controlled from above are preferable to open ones; that rich people are smarter, more capable, and more talented than those without money; and that society should simply accept the concentration of intergenerational wealth,” Phillips-Fein writes in “Country of Lords.”
  • These ideas also are flourishing because of recent economic conditions in the US, says Phillips-Fein, a Pulitzer Prize finalist for a book she wrote about New York City’s fiscal crisis in the 1970s and the rise of austerity politics.
  • Income and wealth inequality in America are much higher than in almost every other developed nation. A small group of wealthy people wield disproportionate power over the country’s economic and political life.
  • As the nation celebrates its 250th anniversary, it’s easy to forget what drove many Americans of the Revolutionary era: a hatred of hierarchy and inequality. They envisioned a “country without lords, kings or a hereditary aristocracy,” Phillips-Fein writes.
  • Phillips-Fein recently talked to CNN about how those ideals have eroded in recent years and why some working- class and poor people embrace the belief that extreme inequality is good for America. She also discussed how the growing popularity of democratic socialist candidates in the US may represent a return to egalitarian ideas.
  • Her comments were edited for brevity and clarity.
  • What inspired you to write this book?
  • I was trying to answer the question of why conservatism is so deeply rooted in American history. Why is it that these ideas so often appeal? One way to think about this was to look at the long history of these ideas, and not just at a moment like the 2016 election, or of Ronald Reagan in the 1970s and 80s.
  • The book is trying to grapple with how extraordinarily unequal the American economy and society has become today. Why is that? And how is it that people accept this incredibly high level of economic inequality that … makes it increasingly hard for democracy to function?
  • When I started working on this book, I did not realize that it would come out in the summer in which we would see the world’s first trillionaire (Elon Musk, briefly). That is what the book is speaking to. How is it that this incredible concentration of wealth happened?
  • You say a “shadow tradition” has enabled this level of inequality. What is that tradition?
  • If you look back through the sweep of American history, there’s one overt tradition that celebrates the idea of equality and democracy. You hear people giving lip service to this and talking about the schoolbook version of what American history is about. But alongside it, and in dialogue with it, is a shadow that’s closely connected to another set of ideas, which says, actually people are not equal.
  • Those ideas say some people are superior to others, and the inequality that exists in the world around us reflects those innate differences, and inequality is a good thing, and a necessary thing, and the only real way to organize social life.
  • It’s striking how many times you hear people explicitly countering the language of the Declaration of Independence. (She cites Ford, the automobile tycoon, who wrote in his autobiography: “Most certainly all men are not equal, and any democratic conception which strives to make men equal is only an effort to block progress.”)
  • Is this shadow tradition moving into the mainstream?
  • Yes. You see it … in significant parts of the Republican party, in Silicon Valley and in the upper echelons of the tech world.
  • It’s never been something that’s only on the margins. Many of the people that I write about in the book were wealthy and prominent in their day. The book discusses Andrew Carnegie, one of the wealthiest people of the late 19th and early 20th century. He writes extensively in defense of inequality. There’s also William Graham Sumner, who taught at Yale. Even John Adams (America’s second president) was deeply uncomfortable with some of the more egalitarian claims of the Revolutionary era.
  • One of the dangers of a very unequal society is that it will provide fertile ground for ideological and philosophical defenses of that inequality. That is what we’re seeing today.
  • Can you give recent examples of this shadow tradition rhetoric?
  • The book ends with a discussion of Peter Thiel, who has spoken about his ambivalence toward democracy itself (Thiel once wrote that “I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible”). You certainly hear it in echoes of Elon Musk’s commentary (Musk said in a 2025 interview that “the fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy”).
  • Think about Vice President JD Vance, who said (in a 2025 speech) that America is not a creedal nation. (Vance also said that America is not just based on an idea but “a particular people” and “a particular set of beliefs.”)
  • You say there are leaders who argue inequality is not only natural, but essential for society to function. Can you point to an example?
  • Milton Friedman (the late Nobel Prize winning economist) talks specifically about Muhammad Ali and (legendary actress) Marlene Dietrich as examples. Both had something special that nobody else had, and they became fabulously wealthy. He said it’s fair and just that they did so. They’re winning in the marketplace. And besides that, everybody else benefits from being able to enjoy their special gifts. That’s one version of this argument.
  • Why do some working- class and poor people buy into this shadow tradition?
  • The people making many of these arguments have evident wealth and social privilege. It often seems if you’re not part of that inner group … (but) you put forward these ideas or embrace them, you might be able to win favor. You might be able to find your way into the inside group.
  • This constellation of ideas can be taken up by people outside of the very wealthy and adapted to give people a sense of privilege over those they think are more subordinate to them. They can partake in this worldview and get some kind of psychic satisfaction out of it.
  • In a world in which people actually experience that there are winners and losers, you have two choices. You can either say what we need really is a different way, a society that is less hierarchical. But if that seems impossible to attain, then maybe embracing that (non-egalitarian) vision – and trying to get to the top yourself – is better.
  • What does “all men are created equal” mean to you? You say in the book that it doesn’t mean everybody’s interchangeable.
  • What equality means is that all people have a deep innate intelligence, worth and moral sensibility. And that a just society is one … in which people’s equal potential for flourishing and happiness is able to find expression. It really is not a question of sameness. It is a recognition of difference, but one that recognizes the inherent worth of other people.
  • Recent elections have shown the growing popularity of democratic socialists. Could this trend reflect a yearning for a return to a more egalitarian America?
  • Yes, it deeply does. Much of the source of the appeal of democratic socialism comes from a revulsion at the extreme inequality that we see in the country today and a sense that there are different classes of citizenship, and that people don’t want that.
  • People talking about the appeal of democratic socialism talk about the language of affordability and the difficulties of working-class people. That is certainly a part of it. But it goes much further. There is also a sense of real revulsion and anger about the concentration of wealth at the top, and a sense of wanting to create a more egalitarian country … that speaks to a sense of fundamental human dignity.
  • How can this tradition of egalitarianism be revived in America?
  • I don’t think there’s just one answer, but I would point toward two things. I do think that real democratic — small D — political participation goes a long way towards starting to redress these extreme inequalities. Becoming more politically engaged oneself … along with other people, makes concrete the ideas about equality and democracy, and can give people a sense of hope for the future.
  • And studying history is tremendously helpful. It doesn’t solve anything in the short run, but becoming more deeply aware of the country’s past is a tremendous resource we have to create a more democratic and egalitarian future.

3. Creature Feature

• Event Horizon: Dark Descent
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Event_Horizon:_Dark_Descent
  • science fiction horror limited comic book series that was published from 2025 to 2026 by IDW Publishing.
  • 5 Issues
  • The series takes place before the events of the film Event Horizon and follows the crew of the titular ship.
  • Characters
    • John Kilpack: The captain of the Event Horizon.
    • Peter Adjei: A physician aboard the Event Horizon.
    • Nia Atwell: The communications officer aboard the Event Horizon.
    • Devlin Conners: The navigation officer aboard the Event Horizon.
    • Jennifer Kwon: A quantum physicist aboard the Event Horizon.
    • Yusef Quinn: The chief engineer aboard the Event Horizon.
    • Sara Tsang: A crew member of the Event Horizon.
    • William Weir: An astrophysics engineer who designed the Event Horizon and its gravity drive system.
    • Anderson: A member of Project New Horizon.
    • Paimon: The king of the Chaos Realm and the one behind the ship’s corruption, making him responsible for the 1997 film’s events.
    • Claire Weir: The late wife of William Weir.
  • A sequel comic, Event Horizon: Inferno, taking place 200 years after the events of the film Event Horizon, is set to begin releasing in April 2026.

Outro

That’s gonna do it for this episode of 9sense, I hope you enjoyed it. You can view every episode of my Satanic series on this YouTube channel. 

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If you would like to learn more about Satanism or the Church of Satan, visit churchofsatan.com, and until next week, Hail Satan!