10 Infamous Occultists With Terrifyingly Creepy Obsessions

9. Anton LaVey - Satan

Giger had a close friend named Anton LaVey, who practically wrote the book on the Prince of Darkness. That's no joke. Anton LaVey literally founded the Church of Satan in 1969 when he published the Satanic Bible, frightening the hell out of decent American folk to this day. In reality, the Church of Satan is not all that scary. LaVey himself seemed content using his religion as a publicity stunt, wearing an outfit reminiscent of a Halloween cliché made complete by a silly cap dubbed with little devil horns during each Black Mass. Notable church members included blonde bombshell Jayne Mansfield, who prayed to the Lord of Light for fame, and none other than Marilyn Manson, who was inducted into the church as a honorary high priest; another publicity stunt that elicited the response LaVey and Manson were looking for from middle schoolers and their parents everywhere. Even his namesake work, The Satanic Bible, is a little laughable. Much of the book's Occult philosophies were borrowed from other works despite LeVay claiming them to be the divine word of the evil one. Several members of the church also claim to be atheists, which, when you think about it, is about as oxymoronic as a nihilistic Christian. If the church ever had one legit member for sure, it was Anton's pal, Giger.