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The Shawn Ryan Show
#224 Dan Schneider - U.S. Army Attack Helicopter Pilot Turned Exorcist Assistant
04:10:56
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- [00:00]
Dr. Dan Schneider
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- [01:03]
Sean Ryan
Dr. Dan Schneider, welcome to the show.
- [01:09]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Thank you, Sean. Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure to be here. It's an honor to be here.
- [01:12]
Sean Ryan
It's my honor. I love these conversations, and I've been looking for somebody to talk to about spiritual warfare for a while because I don't understand it. And so I'm really happy you're here. You're an expert on it. And I can't wait, man. Just. I can't wait to get your life story and all the other rabbit holes we're gonna go down. So it truly is my honor. So thank you for being here.
- [01:34]
Dr. Dan Schneider
I appreciate it.
- [01:35]
Sean Ryan
But everybody starts off with an introduction. Dr. Dan Schneider, adjunct professor of theology at Franciscan University of Steubenville and member of the St. John Henry Newman Research center of Theology at the Maryvale Institute in Birmingham, England. Degree in business administration from Notre Dame, a master's degree in theology from Franciscan University of steubenville, and a PhD in biblical studies from the Maryvale Institute in Birmingham, England. Former amateur boxer, US army attack helicopter pilot, and Gulf War veteran. A Benedictine oblate who has been involved in teaching and evangelization in the Catholic church for nearly 20 years. Co host of the podcast War College with Jesse Romero. Worked for many years in the Catholic apostolate of deliverance and exorcism, and as a founding member of the Libra Cristo, a movement in conjunction with Father Chad Rippinger, an accomplished author in the field of spiritual warfare. Your book, the Liber Christo Method, a field manual for spiritual combat. Assisted in the official biography of Father Gabriel Amarth. Author of another book coming out Soon, Spiritual warfare, Q and A Priests in Laity coming out in August, provides practical guidelines for today's Catholics seeking to become better soldiers for Christ. And you've been a part of approximately 500 exorcisms?
- [03:15]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yeah, it's hard to keep track, but yeah, there's been several hundred I've been involved with for a while. Caseloads come and go, as you know. Sometimes you'll go months without anything, and then you might do three or four cases a week or a year. So, so yeah, yeah, man.
- [03:28]
Sean Ryan
What do, what is the. I mean, how do these pop up on your radar?
- [03:33]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Well, we work the way we work. We work in conjunction with a local bishop and a mandated exorcist. So this is somebody that the bishop has appointed. And so we're working kind of within the hierarchy of the Catholic Church, so. And then, you know, depending on your diocese, you know, you'll get sometimes three to five inquiries a week for cases, depending on where you're at, how big your diocese is. But some diocese are getting more. Father Ripper, I don't know, he's probably getting a thousand a week or something. Maybe not maybe a thousand a week for this inquiries. Yeah, I mean, it's something ridiculous, the number of emails they get a day, 150 emails a day or something of just coming in after.
- [04:17]
Sean Ryan
It's like 360,000.
- [04:21]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Maybe not that many. Maybe, maybe a year. Yeah, but it's more like a hundred. Well, what you figure, 35,100 a day or something? 150 a day. I mean, inquiries. People are asking and this, this is people all over the charts. I mean, they're not all afflicted. A lot of people are just, just need, they need mental health and spiritual health that they don't really need to see an exorcist, you know, but I.
- [04:41]
Sean Ryan
Mean, that's just, it's just interesting to me because.
- [04:46]
Dr. Dan Schneider
I mean, it would take.
- [04:48]
Sean Ryan
A lot for me to make a call and say, I'm pretty sure I have a possessed friend, family member, son, daughter, wife, you know, whatever. I mean, it's not out there for you, you know what I mean? Because you're in it. But I mean a lot of people that's out there to know that, that or to think that you have a possessed loved one.
- [05:15]
Dr. Dan Schneider
So when you're suffering. Yeah. I mean, you'll, you'll, you'll try to find, you know, in the land of the blind, the one eyed man is king. And so, and when somebody's suffering and they're suffering affliction then they're going to reach out to anyone that they think can help them, you know, and so the hard part is ferreting out legitimate cases. And you know, people just need, they just need to get back, go to confession, get their spiritual lives or physical life back in order. You know, so not everybody in the introduction to my book, Father Ripiker wrote some statistics the last year they kept statistics, it's probably been about eight years, but they had 600 cases that year of that that were accepted, that had potential for probably, you know, to move through the process. And so of that 600, only three were actual possession. So the number of actual possessions that are asking for help and I think there's a lot of uncontested possessions out there as well. I mean, look at Hollywood, look at Washington D.C. but everything. Yeah, so I mean these are contested possessions, if you will. But even then, out of 600, only three. So it's a fraction of a percent of actual possession. And so our system is designed to help people to achieve self liberation. And only an extreme, you don't send, you know, SEAL Team six or that you guys, you know, seals in every single time you, you're trying to work, work your way through diplomatically until you go to the extreme cases of, of, you know, for what, what you guys did. So same thing in, in spiritual combat. So if we can get people to self liberate, returning to the sacraments, et cetera, so we've got a process in place for that. And also they, they found a lot of, a lot of those, you know, we have to ferret out psychological. And a lot of people will just start praying over people and it's just psychological and you actually do more damage than good by praying over somebody who just needs to see mental, get their mental health in order, you know. So you start praying over somebody that's convinced they're possessed and they're not, the demon's going to stand right over the shoulder and say, see, even Jesus can't help you. So that's the danger of it. So there has to be a system of how to, you know, how to differentiate between the real cases of possession and the psychological affliction. Wow.
- [07:34]
Sean Ryan
I mean, when you talk about going back to the sacraments and trying to get people to heal themselves, I mean, this is, I grew up Catholic, then I kind of lost it in the SEAL teams. Didn't kind of lost it. I lost it until about two years ago when I had a profound experience. And, and so I started looking into, I just like to learn, you know, and, and, and so. So now I'm drawing back to the Catholic church. I go every once in a while, and we used to have a Bible study at the house. But one of the things that I bought, I just never really understood. And the Catholics, I think. I think are the only ones that do this is confession. And so I've asked a handful of priests, why do I need to go to confession? But it still doesn't register to me. Why do I need to confess my sins to a priest? Why can't I just confess them myself? I guess what I'm asking is why do I need a priest in the middle of me and Christ?
- [08:50]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yeah, he's not in the middle. I mean, in Catholic theology, the priest stands in Persona Christi, in the person of Christ. Whoever listens to you, listens to me. Jesus says, and who sins you, forgive or forgiven, who sends you hold bound or are bound? And in fact, in John's gospel, when he says, who sends you forgiven? Forgiven. Who sends you bound, bind, have already been bound, have already been forgiven. It uses a past perfect tense in the Greek. So the churches, particularly the hierarchy, the priests of the church, are the instruments of Christ on earth. And that bears out in our experience, working with cases of possession. Father Gabriel the More whose book that I did the developmental editing that was written in Italian and translated in English by an English speaker that was more Italian by this point than he was English. So I had helped clean it up and got to know the life of this. He's a famous exorcist. He was at a time in the 80s when it was not cool to believe in the devil. You know, kind of a progressive Liberalism had taken over academia, had taken over much in the church, not unlike, you know, some of the main street Protestant order denominations as well. The devil was just. It was just a spiritual embodiment of the evil that's in all of us. He's not personal, you know, and so. So I think we had at that time maybe 12 to 17 exorcists in the United States alone. You know, only in the United States. Italy had like 20, so there weren't many. And so Father Gabriel Amorth, he's got several books, or really good books. I mean, his books are. An Exorcist tells his story. So he's reportedly done a million exorcisms, and he would do six to eight a day for years. And here's what he said. He said that one good confession is worth a hundred exorcisms because confession takes the soul back Right. Because the demon, technically speaking, only possesses the body. He doesn't possess the soul. The soul. You know, as Christians, we always have the de profundus privilege. Psalm 130. Out of the depths I cry unto you, O Lord. We can always cry out. So we have a certain sovereignty. We are philosophically call it sui juris. We have our own authority over ourselves, and we have a sovereignty to choose or deny Christ, you know, and live by our own decisions. So the demon, ultimately, even in cases of possession, there's been some enmeshment with the demon in the person, but ultimately what he possesses is the body, technically. And so confession, he says, strips souls from the demon. Right. I mean, I'm sorry, possession. I mean, confession strips souls from the demon, and exorcism just takes their bodies back. I mean, you can be in a state of mortal sin and not be possessed and, and, or be liberated and continue state of mortal sin, or you can be in a state of grace and be possessed. Emily Rose is a case of that.
- [11:51]
Sean Ryan
I mean, but so through my studies and discussions and stuff, you know, outside of the Catholic Church, with, With. With Christianity, I mean, when Jesus died on the cross, wasn't that. That was for forgiveness for all of our sins? I mean, so kind of the way I. And I'm not saying, oh, just live life however the hell you want. I'm saying, you know, wasn't that the point of him dying on the cross was for. To forgive us for our sins?
- [12:26]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yes.
- [12:27]
Sean Ryan
And so if all of our sins have already been forgiven before we even commit them, then why do we need to go to confession?
- [12:35]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yeah. Because he instituted, particularly at the Last Supper, he instituted the priesthood. You know, when he said again in John, John OR Luke, chapter 10, when he says, whoever listens to you listens to me. Right. He's not talking to Susan from parish council and some. Karen. You know, Karen, the charismatic. He's talking to the apostles and he's talking to the 72. Who. If you look at the 72 in Luke chapter 10, for example, every single one of those 72 were bishops of an early church, first diocese, or you would say the early seas, Damascus, Cilicia, these other places in that part of the world, as Christianity spread and so we see a movement, the Catholic Church traces. Every bishop can trace his authority back to one of the apostles. And so it's that authority. I mean, we can get into the Greek if you want, what it means. I just presented an academic paper on this in London last year on what it means to be sent apostolos where we get the word apostles. I mean, I can just tell you in session, demon looks at me. I got a PhD, I read the scriptures in Greek, I muddle through Hebrew, my Latin is pretty good. And I'm a meat sack. I'm nothing, I'm a non threat. But he can tell you, I'll sit down and prepare the cases before the priest comes in. The exorcist comes in and pray. And the demon through the person will say, the bishop's not in town today, is he? Wow, you got a different exorcist today, don't you? You know, it's not what you know, it's how you know it. And so the demon, I can tell you the day that it purified this for me. I was assisting in a session. When I assist as a layman, the priest does the work. I'm there to protect the exorcist. I'm basically hendo for the exorcist. I'm just the job of the lay people are to pray and to protect the exorcist. So the exorcist is praying and the demon was being resistant. And the guy that I was training with, Kyle Clement, Father Ripecker's right hand man, says, hey, go grab that picture. Grab the picture of the bishop. Probably not somebody I would be politically aligned with. You know, he probably have somebody you'd have on your show. You know, I hold the picture up, the priest says, I command you to look at the prince of the apostles in this diocese. I command you to look at the face of an apostle. And the minute the, the demon sees the picture of the local bishop begins to manifest. Wow. Just seeing the picture. There's times we've had, they're walking through a convent where they're doing the exorcism. And the person, as they're walking back to the room, they would stop and kind of get a little edgy. And there's a chalkboard there, you know, and then they move the chalkboard and it's a picture of the bishop back there. So it's not the person, it's not a charismatic, it's the office. It's the office. And so when Christ sent the 12 in Luke chapter 9, for example, he says, and Jesus sent them with power and authority. Those are two different things. That's the difference between a developed Catholic theology and say, a modern theology or a Protestant theology. Power is not the same as authority. Power is the ability to affect change. Authority is the right to command. I have the power if I want, if you leave and you guys aren't here. I could switch stuff around. I can move it around, I could paint. I have that power. But I don't have the authority. This is your place. And authority comes from office. And when Christ sent the 12.
- [16:23]
Sean Ryan
So are you saying the office is the 12?
- [16:26]
Dr. Dan Schneider
An office. The office of head of household, the office of bishop, the office of priest. Authority goes with. It's bound with the office. And not necessarily just as Jesus died for all. But as St. Paul says, I make up what is he said in my body, I make up. Colossians 1:24. I rejoice in my suffering, for in my body I make up what is lacking in the suffering of Christ's body, which is the church. If Jesus did everything on the cross, what's lacking? What could be lacking except for our participation? But as Catholics, we believe in a unique priestly participation. We separate out the sacerdotal priesthood of the ordained versus the universal priesthood that we have as baptized. And the demon sees the difference. This isn't just theology for me. I've just seen it again and again in the field. I watch the lay people are pretty much non entities in the room. But he's looking and he sees the priest. And if you bring two priests, it's even worse.
- [17:27]
Sean Ryan
So let me ask this then. You know, things have happened in the Catholic Church. There's some evil. It just. It is what it is, you know, and so let's say that you have a priest that. I mean, I can't sugarcoat it. You know, talking about kids stuff, you know what I mean? Molestation, stuff like that. I mean, what happens if a priest that was involved in that shows up at an exorcism? Does the demon respect that priest or is that priest on their side? Or.
- [18:04]
Dr. Dan Schneider
I mean, he's on their side. He's compromised. He's Bergdahl.
- [18:06]
Sean Ryan
Do they know that? Oh, yeah, the demons know.
- [18:09]
Dr. Dan Schneider
There's only one time in session that I saw the demon not obey the command of the exorcist. Only once. And that same session is the only time that I ever hit. That I ever hit the radar screen. Only once. And he started calling out team members and calling out, mocking us and mocking the exorcist. And I found out a year later he was morally compromised.
- [18:30]
Sean Ryan
Wow.
- [18:31]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Wow. Because the demon knows that this is another true story. There was. Father Ripper was in session and there was another priest. And the demon starts calling, the priest sends out, he starts calling them out. And so they stop the session, go outside, hey, you want to go to confession. Yeah. The trainee goes to confession. They go back into the session, starts session and exorcist says, who is this guy? The demon looks at him, didn't know him. He knows us from our sins. That's how he knows us. That's how we break pattern. That's how we have a camo breaking pattern. It's the little shiny stuff. That's why we wear subdued ranks in the field as officers, you know, all of us wear subdued ranks. When you break the pattern, that's what sees us. What's the pattern break? Sin. Anything inconsistent with indelible mark of baptism. These are pattern breaks. So when a priest is compromised, you know Bergdahl, remember him? Yeah. The one that, that, that walked out. That's when a priest is morally compromised. They Bergdahl that guy. You know what they did to that guy? Wow. He came back with his head shaved, right? Yeah. You know what that means, right? So when a priest is compromised morally, well, watch nefarious. There's a scene with a priest there wearing a rainbow stole. And it's a pretty interesting scene. The way they portray the demon reacting to the priest instantly reacts in fear and defensiveness. But once he realizes who this guy is, he dismisses him. So it's the same thing. So if a priest is morally compromised, and I've seen it, I mean, I've had cases of priests possession. And so, yeah, he's going to constantly whittle away, man. But if you're gonna. But you think about it, and I'm not gonna just pump up the marines, but the marines are kind of special as you know, you work with Marines, you know, they're like the Rangers. You know, I was with the Rangers briefly, and they're unique guys, you know, but if you want to take down the marines, one of the greatest fighting forces, arguably, of course, you know, you guys and all that. But the cavalry, totally different. They're totally different.
- [20:37]
Sean Ryan
Marines would kick our ass. But they're way too many of them.
- [20:40]
Dr. Dan Schneider
There's too many of them.
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Sean Ryan
They love doing that.
- [20:41]
Dr. Dan Schneider
They love it. And you know, they love crayons. You know what I mean? They're, they're, they're just fantastic guys. You know, I just pick on the crayon. I don't want to get any marines mad at me. But if you want to take down the marines, you're not going to beat them one on one, you know? You know what I mean? What do you do? You go from the top, you get politically, mind you, you purge them of, of warriors of the officer ranks of warriors. Leadership. You purge the leadership. You put, you put politically minded men in charge of leadership or women. You put people that are favorable to the current narrative. You infiltrate from the top down, right? And then you just, little by little, you just know who wants to join that Marine Corps. Look what happened when Trump was, when, when he was elected, before he even was sworn in enlistment spiked that the 30 days after because. Because men like us that have a warrior soul, you know, they're not. They don't want to. I don't want to go there and share a bathroom with some tranny. And so that's how you take down one of the greatest fighting forces in the modern world, is infiltrate them from within. So why would that tactic not work with an institution like the Catholic Church?
- [21:42]
Sean Ryan
That's interesting. I just never thought of it like that.
- [21:45]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yeah. But.
- [21:46]
Sean Ryan
Well, thank you. We're going to dive a lot more into that. A couple more things.
- [21:50]
Dr. Dan Schneider
See, we jumped into it kind of quick, right?
- [21:52]
Sean Ryan
I told you, I'm excited. I want to, you know, and I'm going to watch that movie, but there's not a whole lot that terrifies me in this world, but spiritual warfare, demons, ghosts. I get this rule, if you can't kill it, then don't fuck with it. And I hate watching the Exorcist movies because it scares the shit out of me. But I'm gonna watch it tonight.
- [22:19]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Nefarious is good because it's not a slasher. Father Ripiger was once working with somebody in Hollywood and he asked them, why don't you really portray what it's really like in exorcism? And this producer replied to him, if we did, it would terrify people. It would be too scary. You know, they wouldn't want to watch it. But Nefarious is. You begin to see what the enemy, how he thinks. Because these guys, admittedly, and they told me, I presented with them at a conference and did a panel session with them. I met the actor. I think his name's Sean Patrick. I forget his name. He's a good guy. He's a jitsu guy. And they, they watched hours of Father Ripiker's videos to get to understand the diabolic psychology. You know, when you're dealing with your enemy as you did, you. You have to understand what the way they think, their patterns, how they operate. We're dealing with an apex predator, with somebody who doesn't sleep, with somebody who doesn't have a body. This isn't like the Predator. If it bleeds we can kill it. This doesn't bleed. But there are certain ways that you can beat them. You know, we fight an ancient enemy, and the ancient weapons are best, you know, and so, and so going to the ancient weapons, the only way you can beat him. But the problem is he takes guys like us. And I had to learn this lesson. We're so used to carrying world weapons, good weapons, but those don't work. You have to fight with spiritual battle and with spiritual weapons. And that's what we try to do is. And our apostles is try to teach people how to fight back with the spiritual weapons, you know.
- [23:46]
Sean Ryan
Do you know Father Dan Rehill by chance?
- [23:49]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yeah, I just had mass there today and got to. Got to spend a little time with him.
- [23:51]
Sean Ryan
Man, I love that guy. But I met him here, I don't know, maybe about a year ago and interviewed him. We've become friends since then. But, you know, I remember when he walked in here, he said, hey, you know, weird things happen when I talk about this on camera. And he's like, so don't be, don't be weirded out if the cameras go out or we have some technical difficulties or whatever. I just, like I said, it's just hard for me to wrap my head around it. And sure as shit, he. We got into the interview and as soon as he brought up Jesus, the AC started just whooshing.
- [24:31]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yeah. And.
- [24:31]
Sean Ryan
And I was like. My whole team was like, okay, wow.
- [24:36]
Dr. Dan Schneider
But, yeah, we've seen that. You know, sometimes we're doing spiritual warfare conferences and that the demons still love water, you know, just like the Gerris and demoniac going down from the human to the lower life form of the pig into the water. They love water because you can transmute through it very quickly, you know, and the way that they. They can operate. And so there's always a lot of times you go to a parish and they're not really ready and roofs leaking, toilets back up, you know, it's always, not always. Sometimes there are, but it's just learning again. The demons, the angels go where they're asked. The demons go where they're not resisted. And so learning the power of prayer, I think it was Blaise Pascal said that God instituted prayer to bestow on man the great dignity of being, causes that we pray to be. We're causal of God's action, you know, like St. Paul says, making up what is lacking in the suffering of Christ's body, the church. Now, if Christ said from the cross, it is finished. What could be lacking? Our participation in the bringing about of the gospel. And. And again in Catholic theology, will separate the priesthood from the laity. But we're all called to do that, each in our own way, according to our vocation, you know. Wow.
- [25:45]
Sean Ryan
Couple. Couple things here.
- [25:47]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Please.
- [25:47]
Sean Ryan
So. Couple gifts. One Vigilance League gummy bears. Legal in all 50 states.
- [25:56]
Dr. Dan Schneider
I'm not going to get. I'm not going to pee hot when I have some of these.
- [25:59]
Sean Ryan
Be good. You'll pass the next drug test, I promise.
- [26:02]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Thank you. And awesome. Thank you.
- [26:05]
Sean Ryan
And then I got a really good friend. His name's Don Rozzo. He's a Navy seal.
- [26:11]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Oh, man.
- [26:12]
Sean Ryan
You haven't met him. So he. He does these rosaries, and he's given them. He's given me quite a few of them. And so I. I, too, carry a rosary everywhere I go.
- [26:22]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Outstanding.
- [26:22]
Sean Ryan
And so.
- [26:24]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Well, thank him for me.
- [26:25]
Sean Ryan
I will.
- [26:25]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Thank you.
- [26:26]
Sean Ryan
I will.
- [26:26]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yeah. That's outstanding. You can't have enough. Yeah. It's like, how many?
- [26:31]
Sean Ryan
I have them everywhere.
- [26:31]
Dr. Dan Schneider
My. My wife would ask me, like, how many handguns do you need? Well, I mean, we need one in this room. We need one in this room a lot. No. I remember growing up as a kid, I would. You'd sit down in my grandpa's house, and he'd say, all right, you know, pick that up. Bring it over here. And then he'd yell at you if you didn't handle it safely. And I was just little, you know, and so it's like. Like rosaries. You got to have one in your reach at all times. So. Thank you. Yeah. You're welcome.
- [26:55]
Sean Ryan
And then one last thing before we get into it, I've got a Patreon account. It's a subscription account. We've built an amazing community there. They've been here with me since the beginning. And so one of the things that I offer the community is for them to ask each and every guest a question. And so this is from Ava Evans. Dr. Schneider, thank you so much for your service. Giving your background in acts of service, what advice do you have for those battling spiritual warfare? And how have you kept yourself grounded when enduring hardships and situations that may test your faith?
- [27:32]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yeah. What was the first question?
- [27:35]
Sean Ryan
The first question was, what advice do you have for those battling spiritual warfare?
- [27:40]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yeah, I think being prayerful, growing in virtue. You know, the big thing is growing in holiness and purity of thought, word and deed. What attracts a demon to us is pattern breaks. Anything inconsistent with the indelible mark of baptism, pattern breaks. But, you know, growing in holiness of Thought word indeed. That's the big one in terms of endurance. I had a Buddy who was retired, 06. I forget what team he was. What? Green Beret. He was a Green Beret. Whatever. I think he was what group he was. I think he was fifth group. But anyway, there was a Marine going through the Q course, and he kept asking him every week, how do I get through this phase? How do I get through this phase? And so my buddy kind of got tired of trying to give him the cheaters on how to get through. And he says, all right, if you want to get to the Q course, you got to do three things. Keep your head down, keep your mouth shut, and keep walking. And I think the spiritual life is that way. Keep your head down, keep your mouth shut, and keep walking. Just keep praying, keep working. Get your house in order, get your relationship with your husband. You know, husband and wife need to get the relationship. Get that under in the right order. Husband needs to be the door kicker, you know, head of the household. Getting that in order and then being prayerful and learning to endure when the suffering comes.
- [29:03]
Sean Ryan
So before we get into your life story, I was hoping that you could lead us in prayer.
- [29:08]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Okay. Name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen. St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle. Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray. And do thou, O Prince of the heavenly host, by the power of God, cast into hell Satan and all the evil spirits who proud about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen. Our lady of Victory, pray for us. Name the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
- [29:41]
Sean Ryan
I just want to add one thing real quick. You know, Adam Banks, who used to work here, is the one that put you on my radar. And his mother is going through some really tough times, and so is he right now. And so I just want to pray for him. And I just hope that this interview brings hope, enlightens, brings people to Christ, and that this interview just reaches far and wide and helps everybody who's willing to listen. Amen.
- [30:11]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Heal Adam's mom. She sounds like a good woman. Amen.
- [30:14]
Sean Ryan
But thank you for that.
- [30:16]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Thank you.
- [30:16]
Sean Ryan
So let's. Let's.
- [30:17]
Dr. Dan Schneider
I did it in the vernacular, I didn't do it in Latin, so I don't want to.
- [30:23]
Sean Ryan
But. So let's get into your life story. Where did you grow up?
- [30:26]
Dr. Dan Schneider
I grew up in the south end of Columbus, Ohio. Kind of a blue collar area, third generation, you know, we've been in. That was the black sheep that, that left and never came back. And, and you know, kind of a blue collar working area, tough neighborhood. Right and wrong was very clear, you know, Southern, you know, my mom, my dad's from there. My mom is from southern Ohio, like J.D. vance. Hillbilly country, Southern Ohio. You know, good people, salt of the earth people. And my dad, my dad was a union electrician. All my uncles, cousins, my grandpa, they're all electricians or linemen, you know, and my brother and my sister and I were the first to go to college. He sacrificed to put us through Catholic school and pushed us. And so I had a really kind of a classic childhood, you know, old neighborhood, you know, but also it was not, it was a tough neighborhood, you know, didn't take any nonsense from anybody. It wasn't suburban America. We were about a mile from downtown Columbus. And you didn't go this far in this area. You didn't go this far. They didn't come into our neighborhood, we didn't go into theirs. You had a lot of mutual respect. But you know, you learn to get a little street smart and you learn to, you know, a bad guy's a bad guy and a good guy's a good guy. And you don't judge people by the outside, you judge them by the kind of character they have. And. But it was a really blessed looking back now, it was a great childhood.
- [31:55]
Sean Ryan
I would do anything to protect my family. But there's always that one worry in the back of my head. If I have to use my firearm in self defense, who's got my back? The truth is the justice system isn't always just. I've uncovered story after story of corruption, good Americans who did the right thing, defended their families and yet still had their lives turned upside down. And that's why I joined uscca, the US Concealed Carry Association. They've helped thousands of responsible gun owners with legal preparedness, training and support before and after a self defense incident. If you've watched my channel long enough. You know, I've always said preparedness is more than just training and gear. It's a mindset. And because crime is on the rise in America, which we can all see, you'll need more than just a gun to protect yourself. You'll need a plan. Go to uscca.comsrs right now to learn more, that's uscca.comsrs and see how a membership can give you and your family that peace of mind you've been looking for before, during and after a self defense situation. Once again, that's uscca.com SRS do it. Ask 10 people to define the word capitalism. This subject comes up all the time, but do you know what it means? Find out with Understanding Capitalism, a free online course from Hillsdale College. They offer more than 40 free online courses. You can learn about the United States Constitution or even the history of the ancient Christian church. Hillsdale recently launched a new course, Understanding Capitalism Capitalism, that I've been watching. In seven lectures, you'll learn about the role of profit and loss, how human nature plays a role in our economic system, why capitalism depends on private property rights, the rule of law, and above all, freedom. I believe all Americans should learn more about economics. Understanding these concepts can make you more informed and even help you grow your own business. Go right now to Hillsdale Edu SRS to enroll in this course, Understanding Capitalism. There's no cost and it's easy to get started. That's Hillsdale Edu SRS to enroll for free. Hillsdale Edu SRS did you grow up Catholic?
- [34:33]
Dr. Dan Schneider
I did.
- [34:34]
Sean Ryan
Did it sink in at a young age?
- [34:36]
Dr. Dan Schneider
No, no, no. I, I mean, you know, I, I hear these guys and, and you know, they have these wild stories and they. 20 years, they leave the church or whatever. I never miss mass. I think I miss once in Iraq, I even serve Mass.
- [34:50]
Sean Ryan
You've never missed, you've missed one in Iraq?
- [34:53]
Dr. Dan Schneider
One in Iraq. And one time, I think as a kid I was staying with a friend and we were traveling or something. His parents didn't take us when I was young. So I've never missed mass.
- [35:01]
Sean Ryan
So it does, it did sink in.
- [35:02]
Dr. Dan Schneider
And, and from that level, it sunk in. I mean, it, it, you know, conversions. Not Everybody has these St. Paul conversions. Some of us, God hits us, you know, most of us, you know, what's.
- [35:13]
Sean Ryan
A St. Paul conversion?
- [35:14]
Dr. Dan Schneider
You know, St. Paul is struck blind, knocked off his horse, you know, when, And Paul on his road to Damascus, he tells of his story when he was on actually the Apostles. He's writing to Damascus, he's persecuting Christians. He gets knocked off the church, off his horse. And Jesus, and he gets struck blind. And Jesus says to him, paul, Paul, why are you persecuting me? Which is interesting, by the way, because he's not persecuting Christ, he's persecuting the church, you know, and the body. The church is the body of Christ. So he's struck blind and has this instant, you know, infusion of the revelation and becomes an apostle, called to be an apostle, as he says elsewhere. And so instant conversion and straight into it. But, you know, those are rare. Most of us. You know, I was just reading. I was thinking about you, too. I was kind of praying for you and praying for this week, and. And I was reading Psalm 23. The Lord is my shepherd, you know, I shall not want.
- [36:15]
Sean Ryan
I shall not what?
- [36:16]
Dr. Dan Schneider
The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. You know, want. Want.
- [36:19]
Sean Ryan
Like design.
- [36:20]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Lack. I shall not lack, you know. Okay, let me see. I hate to misquote it, so let me make sure I get it right, if you don't mind.
- [36:29]
Sean Ryan
Absolutely.
- [36:30]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yeah. You. You. You probably heard this before. And if you don't know where to start in the Scriptures, to start at the Psalms or the proverbs. When I first started having deepening conversion, there's 31 proverbs. Just read one a day. One for each day of the month. Yeah, just pick up the proverbs. It's just old wisdom, you know, It's. It's just kind of keeps you grounded, you know. When I started, you know, learning to overcome passions and emotion, you know, just dealing with life, just sitting down every morning and reading Psalm of the day. So Today's what, the 7th or the 8th? Read the 8th. I mean, sorry, the proverb of the day. But the Psalms are another good one. The Lord is my shepherd. There is nothing I lack. In green pastures he lets me. You let me graze. To safe waters you lead me. You set a table before me while my enemies watch. And then verse 6, Psalm 23. Only goodness and love will. Sometimes it says, follow me. Or this one says, pursue me all the days of my life. And sometimes we look at that and we'll go like. So somehow God was over here, kind of like a shadow, you know? But the word. The Greek word here means to. You've ever chased an enemy down in combat and you're on a. You're. I mean, you're on a dead run to catch this guy. That's the word. It's a combative term. It's a military term. He hotly pursues me. We are on hot pursuit all the days of my life. And it's not just goodness and love. That sounds really sugary and nice. It's mercy. The Greek word is mercy. The Hebrew word is hesed, which means God's covenant faithfulness, regardless of how unfaithful we've been back in the CIA days, back in the Calvary days. No matter how unfaithful we've been to the vows that we made through our baptism and through our faith journey, his covenant fidelity in the form of mercy doesn't just follow us quietly like a shadow, you know, it pursues us hotly like a warrior. You know, when God. When God parted the sea and destroyed the army of the Egyptians, Moses had him freaking out. And what did he. He just cries out and writes this poem. God is a warrior, you know, warrior is his name. I mean, that's the warrior, the hound of heaven that's pursuing you and pursuing me, you know. And so sometimes that hound of heaven overcomes you immediately and it just. Their lives change. But for the rest of us, little slower guys like you and me, it's just little process. You look back and. Because if you hit us all at once, boom. I know how to hide. I know how to sneak into the wood line. You won't see me again. I'll fly nap of the earth and I'll be gone. I'll fire a couple of flechette rounds. I'm going to boogie out of here, put on the MVGs, and you won't see me for a long time. So he has to. He has to hound us and slowly overcome us, you know, some of us. So, yeah, so my conversion was. Was over time. So it sunk into the extent of. Yeah, we never, never miss mass, ever, you know, pray the rosary, don't miss mass. But it wasn't until later life experiences that I, that I start to really. Did it wake up, you know, become personal and it became something, something real, you know, we can get into that later.
- [39:39]
Sean Ryan
But why do we pray the rosary?
- [39:42]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yeah, that's a good question. I can just tell you. Let me give you.
- [39:45]
Sean Ryan
Other than just pray, it's.
- [39:48]
Dr. Dan Schneider
It's meditating. There's. There's multiple effects, but it's meditating on the, on the life of Christ. Purifying the mind, focusing the mind. It's like saying, why does a fight. I was a fighter. Why does a fighter run three miles? Why didn't just spar? I just heard it was heavyweight fighter that never, never ran. Was it? I forget who it was. I was just talking to somebody about this fighter. He never ran. He just sparred for like eight hours a day. That's rare. Most guys have to run because it gives you endurance. It helps gives you the gas in the gas tank. And so the rosary, it's a way to force the Mind and the body to engage. And when the mind, the body is distracted through the words, the prayers, the mind just starts to free, to begin to meditate on the mysteries. So today's, each day has its own mystery. Today's Tuesday, the sorrowful mystery. So you're, you're going into the mysteries of Christ's suffering, you know, the first agony, the first sorrowful mysteries, the agony in the garden. So you start to put your mind upon the agony in the garden, placing yourself, picturing yourself there, you know, meditating on the scene. So you're praying the words, right, of the, of the Hail mary during the 10 to 10 Hail Marys, but your mind is meditating on, on those mysteries. But I can tell you again our experience, my experience in, in spiritual combat. This is, this is, I used to think the rosary was just something that little Latina ladies, Italian ladies, this was not for men, you know, and this is, this is a weapon. Padre Pio. Saint Padre Pio, when he would refer to his rosary, he was a stigmatist, which means he got the marks of Christ on his body. Saint of the church, he says, give me my weapon. He's talking about his rosary in session when you know, the priest has to kind of oftentimes in the bad cases, we'll have to have a psychologist there or someone, the therapist, a counselor there to make sure the priest isn't pushing the human threshold either, how much they can endure. And so when, when it's time to shut down the session, the priest stops, he looks at the team, the team has to stop praying the rosary because the rosary, it's like I'm going to date myself. But it's like the M60, you know, it's a saw, it's a semi automatic weapon that's just putting rounds down range, you know. You know, like at Ranger. I know you guys did live fires back in the day, you know, you had the mud, the mud pit, you had to go under the barbed wire and they would shoot live rounds over top of you. And that's what the rosary is in combat. Yeah. And so I can't explain, I can give you the, the reasons, but in spiritual combat this is a weapon, but interiorly it helps you purify your memories. You know, all these guys in this room and I'm going to find something really cool to add here, something helicopter related. But we all have our memories and all those memories, some of those need to be purified. And so meditation helps to purify our memories by putting our minds onto the words and deeds of Christ. And it helps to sanctify our vision. We start to see the world, to see our own history, our own mistakes through the love, the mercy, the power of Christ.
- [43:01]
Sean Ryan
Who was Padre Pio?
- [43:02]
Dr. Dan Schneider
He was an Italian saint. I think he died in the 60s. He was a Franciscan friar, a stigmatist, meaning so very few. But some of the saints will get the marks of Christ on their. Like St. Paul might have been. St. Paul says, I don't know if it's in Galatians. He says, I bear the marks of Christ on my body. He may have been astigmatist. Sometimes they'll get crown. Like St. Rita got one in here on her head, one of the crown of thorns. Padre Pio had the crown that had the thorns in his. I mean, wounds in his hands, nail holes. And I can just tell you anecdotally, you know, sometimes in session, the priest will ask me, okay, all right, you're the Cav guy. Recon by. He doesn't know. Recon by fire, you know, recon by fire, right. That's one of our tactics. It's one of the stupider things that cavalry shouts to do. You go until they shoot at you. You see the muzzle blast, so you know where to shoot back, you know. So on several occasions, the priest will say, hey, go ahead and. Go ahead and light it up. And so I'll get images. And some, you know, demons have personalities, you know. And so this one in particular, I will show the video of Padre Pio saying Mass or holding up his hands with a stigmata wrapped in a bloody cloth giving the blessing.
- [44:21]
Sean Ryan
Did it bleed from his hands?
- [44:23]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Oh, yeah, it bled non stop. Somebody asked him, did Father, does it hurt? He says, it doesn't tickle. It's a bleeding wound, you know. So this is. This is. This is the Colossians 1:24 at its deepest, you know, I rejoice in my suffering.
- [44:36]
Sean Ryan
So what does that mean when somebody has that?
- [44:41]
Dr. Dan Schneider
It's a mystical union with Christ. It's a deep mystical union that you're sharing in his suffering in a deep, mystical way. This is the deep waters of Christianity is sharing in the suffering of Christ. Anyone who has suffered understands this to some extent, you know.
- [45:02]
Sean Ryan
Even, like, deeper than that. What does it mean to share the suffering of Christ?
- [45:07]
Dr. Dan Schneider
In this case, it's bodily, you know, it's sharing in his wounds. It's a mystical gift given and it hurts to those. It's very rare. But it shows someone who has progressed so deeply in holiness. I mean, they would. He told stories. I Mean, this is a guy that lived in our lifetime, if not our parents, for sure. And they would hear his friars report that he physically battled the devil. They would hear lashes taking place and the room getting wrecked. And so there are some saints that go deep. You and I, we're just Hammond Eggers, we're just grinding it out. But the truly holy, and I know some particularly consecrated women. Holy, holy women.
- [45:55]
Sean Ryan
You've seen it?
- [45:56]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Oh, yeah. Well, I've never seen the stigmata, no. But I've seen holy holiness and purity like you. Like you can't imagine. That's what battles. Because the coin of the realm and spiritual. In spiritual warfare, the coin of the realm is blood and purity, sexual purity in particular. These are the. These are some of the weapons that we battle with. Sexual purity, sexual purity.
- [46:14]
Sean Ryan
What is that?
- [46:16]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Well, consecrated virginity is one. And I've been in session and the demon is there and he's bound and he sees the priest. The priest is. He's got the belt, you know, in Spanish, the cinteron, you know what I mean? He's the guy that's going to bring the pain. But I've been in session where there's been religious sisters or, you know, consecrated sisters. He doesn't register us, he doesn't see the lay people. We're just there. We're just muddled in the background. Unless you've got some. Once in a while he'll call one out, but for the most part. But I've been in session where there's been a consecrated virgin in the session. And the demon, the demon looks at her and with this look in his eye, like, what are you going to do with that? You know. You know that scene? What was it that. When there's a torch. Was it an old 70s movie? What was the name of that movie? And there's a torture scene with a dentist. And he kept asking him, is it safe? DENNIS HOFFMAN MOVIE I forget the name of it. Is it safe? Is it safe? The demon's looking at him. He's like strapped to a table and he knows that there's something powerful there and it's the consecrated virginity. But there's something iconic, there's something mystical about it. But when the demon has sensitivities to various saints of the church, again, it's hard people to understand unless you see it. But God always sends help from the mystical body. And so when the demon shows a reactivity, sensitivity to. To a mystic, I mean, to a stigmatist, it's largely because these are people that defeated Satan in The flesh. I mean, they mortified their flesh so much so that they become like Christ. And. And it's usually a call if Faji Pio shows up, and he shows up often. It's a call for the individual. You want to beat this demon, you need to pick up your cross. He needed to use the cross as a weapon. That's the way that the early church fathers saw the cross, you know, in the first century, first two centuries, it wasn't this sugary Jesus, skinny Jean Jesus, whose hair smells like Christian Dior and he's got a kind of a cool beard. Christ is a warrior, you know, Hippolytus of Rome 1. I did my doctoral thesis partly on this guy, but he was born in 150, 170. He was a disciple of a disciple of John the Apostle himself. Said, the cross is a war memorial. Tropion. It says the word trophy. You see some trophies in here. Trophy. The Greek word tropao means to turn. So a trophy is where we get the word trophy. In the ancient battlefield, you know, I was a conventional fighter. You were spooked, right? So your view of the battlefield is different than mine. But in, you know, in a tank battle or heavy infantry, in ancient battle where you have, you know, line of men in front of the line of just layers and layers. At one point, one side turns. One guy says, I'm done. I'm not dying for this cause. And he'll turn tropao. And at that, once that guy turns, then the next guy turns. The next guy turns, the ranks break. And this is when the cavalry came in. Guess what? We have longer sabers than the infantry because they could slash down from higher above with longer sabers. And that's when the slaughter began. But that point on the battlefield was sacred to the ancient warriors, the ancient mindset, to the Romans, to the Greeks. That point of tropao, that turning, they would put a cross, ironically, they would take a T, the Greek T, the Tao, and they would drape over it the cuirass, which was the body armor. They would put a helmet. They would take the weapons that the enemy had, and they would put it in that spot. And that's how it became sacred. It became a war. What, we hear the word war memorial in English. Hippolytus of Rome says that the cross of Christ is a war. It's a tropion. It's a war memorial. This is where Christ cut off the head of the demon Goliath. So. And you can look, I can give you multiple second century, third century, Fourth century. This is the way the early church saw it. They saw the cross as the vexilla. This is, you know, you guys have the cool trident and you have, you know, your own guidon. I have the cavalry with the horse and the lion first calf, our guidon, right. Tertullian second, also second century. The cross is the Christians, the vexilla. It became the place. This is when St. Ambrose's late three hundreds describes Helena, Constantine's mother, who found relic of the true cross, saying that this is where Christ put the demon under the yoke. And it sounds like funky. It's like, oh, what is that? But if you want to understand history, to be put under the yoke. When an enemy was captured, once the battle was over, once the slaughter ended, then they took the captives and they would sell them into slavery. They would strip them of all their weapons and armor down to their underwear. They would set up a makeshift like, like post. They would take two of the pillars along the long. The Romans used these long, like 11 foot long, really range weapons. They were primitive artillery. You had. You had primitive artillery with the range weapons, the spears, and also slingshots. And so they would. They would take three of the pila and they would make it. They would put it about four. They would make a U shape into the ground. And then the conquering general, they would put him in a makeshift throne and all his regalia, and he would sit there surrounded with his primary officers and the enemy would line up bound in chains and they would, they would mitere sub yugum is the Latin. They submitted them, they sent them beneath the yoke and they would bow in homage. This was the greatest disgrace to an ancient warrior, especially to the ancient Romans. This is the imagery that the ancient church used on the victory of Christ on the cross, you know, that he put the devil under the yoke, you know, and so, and so I don't know how we got on this topic, but God is a warrior. And you see this in combat. I see this in spiritual combat again and again and again. The victory is his. It's not ours. You know, it's not my gift. It's not charism. It goes by authority and it goes through the power of Jesus Christ and his church. Why did you.
- [52:34]
Sean Ryan
When did you join the military?
- [52:37]
Dr. Dan Schneider
So I came from a military family. My dad was an Air Force nco. You know, he told me two things. You got, you know, he sacrificed so we could go to Catholic school. I never went to public school, Catholic school my whole life. And he was, he was An Air Force nco. My brother went to the Naval Academy. I have a nephew just, just getting out of the Navy. He was in a sub. His personality is the Navy subtype. Kind of stereotypical Navy sub guy, like, good, see you in six months. Yeah, so. So we're military family. And, and so for blue collar guys, it was a good way to pay for college. You know, I was a, a good student and, and so my brother went to the academy. I looked at West Point, but I turned down West Point to go. Took the ROTC scholarship at Notre Dame and providentially just kind of worked out. Actually, my congressman gave me a appointment to the Naval Academy. And I'm just not a Navy guy. I actually was honest. I was on. I was on. I used to get. I used to get seasick. I would get sick on a swing, you know, I had motion sick and really bad. You never believe it that I was a helicopter pilot. I always get motion sick. So I put down, I got seasick once, and I think that's what, that's what got me, thank goodness, not sent to the Naval Academy. And he gave me the appointment. My congressman pointed me to Naval Academy. I got wait listed. And then I got into West Point. And then the weekend before Beast Barracks, I get a call from West Point saying, hey, we got you an internal command, you know, commandant's appointment. You got to be here Monday. And I said, well, I need to talk to my dad. He said, no, you gotta, you gotta let us know right now. And I said, well, if you gotta know right now, the answer is no, you know, and so I already had a scholarship for Notre Dame. I had a full ride. So for a Catholic kid from a blue collar neighborhood, it was, it was West Point or Notre Dame. There's not much better than that, you know, unless you're playing football at Ohio State or something, you know. But yeah, I can't sing or dance, so. Military was.
- [54:31]
Sean Ryan
So. So you went through school, joined the army, became a helicopter pilot, deployed to the Gulf War.
- [54:41]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Right.
- [54:42]
Sean Ryan
What was your experience like in the Gulf War?
- [54:44]
Dr. Dan Schneider
You know, it was. Well, at first I went through rotc and I wanted. I mean, I, I wanted to. I wanted Ranger all the way. That was my, my life's goal. And the one thing that I wanted, I. I could accomplish pretty much anything I wanted to, you know, But I. I mean, I maxed the national Latin exam, you know, aced the test almost. I think I missed two questions. I mean, I was a good student, so I wanted Ranger. And then I went through the Cadets go through what's called advanced camp. It's kind of like basic training, but it's a little. It's a little nuanced from basic training. And while I was there and started humping, I was like, this kind of sucks. You know, I kind of. This is. My feet hurt, you know, And I got. I got really little girl feet. I got the worst feet. You know, I just started to do jiu jitsu, and it's really toughening my feet up a little bit because, man, I was like, man, this. This is not. I'm still going to do it, you know, I want to be hua. I want to be infantry. I want to be Ranger. And then we had a. We had a. At, you know, this display of cobra. A scout comes over and. And. And then a cobra comes right behind it. And. And then he moved his head and the. In the. The. The 20 millimeter Gatling gun. He moves his head and he starts going like this with it. You had me at 20 millimeter Gatling gun. And so I got back, told the commander, hey, sir, I'm sorry. I don't want to go infantry. I want to go aviation because I finished top of my class. And he says, dang it, we told you you needed a flight physical. Should have told us. They had to send me back, get a flight physical, make sure my eyes were good. I had like 2015 in this eye and 2010 in that eye. At the time, you know, I could see. I could see a lot farther than most people. Now I have. Now I'm like Clark Kent, you know, when he doesn't have. When he puts his glass on, whatever. But, but, but. So. So I put in for aviation and got it. And Right out of. I mean, I graduated right when I should have gone to Ranger. I had a chance to go my junior year, but they talked me out of it in college because I was afraid if I got hurt, then it would mess up my. It would delay my. My commissioning. I was a beast at the time. You know, I had a 42 resting heart rate of 42. I was fighting every weekend. I was traveling. I was fighting in the ring, fighting in bars, fighting anybody that wanted.
- [57:02]
Sean Ryan
I was fighting in bars.
- [57:04]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Oh, anything. I have more fights out of bars than in the. I mean, in bars. In the ring. Yeah, Yeah. I mean, I was just. And I was in shape. I was incredible shape. And I cracked. Before I left college, I had cracked my nose, every knuckle in my hands. I mean, I just, you know, but I got little girl hands, you know, I don't have hands. I don't have your big fat hands. You know, the guys that have sausage fingers? Those are. Those guys are the knockout guys. So. So. But I was in great shape, but I had to delay it.
- [57:30]
Sean Ryan
Let's hear. Let's hear your best bar fight story.
- [57:33]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Oh, she put me on the spot. I hate telling so many, huh? Can we pass on that and come back later? Or you want me to do. I need you want to put me on the spot?
- [57:52]
Sean Ryan
Let's do it. Let's do it.
- [57:54]
Dr. Dan Schneider
I was a catcher in baseball, so the bench clearings are sometimes better than bar fights. So I was a catcher. And. And when I was a kid. I'll tell you one story. When I was a kid, my kids still pick on me for this story. Like, dad, is it too soon to talk about your bike? And I'm like, yeah, it's a little too soon. So I was. I think I was in like fifth grade. My dad got me this bike. And it was a cool bike. It was a Huffy. I mean, and the commercial, like lightning came out the back, you know. I mean, I love this bike. It was Christmas in Ohio. And so I can't ride this bike for till spring. It's. I mean, it was one of those winters and you got a foot of snow every day and it's just, you can't go down. And I didn't want to get it muddy, so I finally get it out and. And he. So I'm riding out, I'm driving it around, and these three guys, and they're big guys, they're like teenagers. And I'm like 11, you know, I'm a kid and I think I was like fifth, fourth grade, and they come over like, hey, man, it's a nice bike. And one of them hits me, knocks me off, give me a couple kicks. They take my bike and take off, right? And I take that bike back and they give me this piece of crap. They leave this piece of crap bike, you know. And I go back and, you know, my dad. My dad was. He was the Gran Torino, you know. And so. And instead of doing what we would do, go buy him a new bike. He says, why didn't you fight back those three of them? And they were teenagers, you know. He said, son, you gotta learn how to fight back in this life. And you're going to get taken advantage of. You learn how to fight, you got to stand up and fight. I don't want you ever walk out here, at least let them know they're in a Fight. I don't care if you take a butt kick and you fight. So that was kind of the day I said, well, I'm gonna learn how to fight someday. So that was the day I decided I was going to be a fighter. So after that, you know, I took my dad at his word. All right, and he's right. And fast forward. I'll get to the fights in a second. But about. I think I was about your age. I was maybe 40, 45. My kids were getting a little older, a little mouthier, you know, a little harder. And I, you know, a military guy, you know, you can't shake it. My dad was getting a little older, and he was the original grand trader. After he died, died in 2016, I can't tell how many people come up to me and said, man, I loved your dad. You always knew where you stood with him. And he was the original man. In Torino, I had, I mean, a dozen guys told me the exact same thing. So I called my dad one day and I said, hey, dad. Yeah? I just want to thank you. He said, for what? You're grumpy, you know, always in a bad mood, but a great guy, but just always slightly edgy. Just want to thank you for being a hard ass. He thought I was messing with him. He goes, what? What are you talking about? I said, well, I'm raising kids. I got boys now. I know you raised me. If you ever thought you were too tough on me, you weren't. And if my kids love me half as much as I love you, I'll die happy, man. He started crying. I was like, yes, I got him. I wasn't trying to, you know, but I think he probably struggled with that, you know, but that's the neighborhood we grew up in. If you took any crap from anybody, you were just going to get. You were just going to take a beat down. We would walk to school one way in uniform, looking dorky. And then we had the public, the classic neighborhood. We'd walk this way to St. Leo's grade school, which is now a community. That's Latin Mass. Institute of Christ taking over. I went back to mass there. Last time I was home visiting my mom. And I never cried, man. I was bawling. I was like, man, this is awesome, you know? So we'd walk school this way, and then these rough public school kids would come this way. And you had to make a decision. Every single day. You're going to move out of the way. You're going to make him move every single day, you know, And I just reached step one. I'm not going to move anymore. You're going to move from me. I'll be polite, I'll be respectful, but you're going to move from me. So, anyway, so a couple years later, I'm going into high school and my dad sacrificed to go to this Catholic high school. It's all male, college prep, you know, and playing. And so, well, the next season, we're playing baseball. Let me back up. So we're playing baseball. And my baseball coach, tough guy. Two guys, Elf line brothers or something. Kenny's son plays in the NFL. Dad's a. That. His dad's a bricklayer. Mom's a piano. They own a piano moving company. Some Allstate, All American line. All American linemen. Ohio State, now in the NFL. Matthew Offline. His dad and his uncle were my coaches. First day of practice, fifth grade. My brother's in the eighth grade. And. And they said, we need a catcher. The catcher's hurt. Who wants to be a catcher? I'll be a catcher because I want. You get a gear up, you know. No, no, no, I need somebody else. Nobody wants to be a catcher because you're always getting hit with the ball. You get beat up. So I'll be the catcher. He said, no, no, no, find somebody else. Nobody wanted to do it. He said, all right, come here, Snyder, you be the catcher. I mean, this stuff didn't fit. You know, he sits me down for after the first. You know, he sits me down and he says, now listen, they're going to try to hurt you. Everybody leaves home plate dirty. If they don't slide, they're going to try to hurt you. So here's what you do. You take a baseball in your right hand when you're coming into home, you make a fist, and you put that into that glove, and you put your feet under you. And if they don't slide, you make them slide. And you put that right there and you. And you tag them. It's a clean, it's legal. But if not, they're going to hurt you. First inning comes, the guy takes a bat, he swings. Foul ball. I pick it up, I hand it to him. I go back to the bench. After that, the dugout chews me out. What the hell are you doing? What? I'm just being nice. Says, you're not a nice guy. You're not being nice. You gotta stand up and down 100 times, 500 times a day. He's gotta do it four times a day. He can pick up his own Bat, if you wanna help him, kick it at him, kick it out of your way, you know, so you're tough, tough guys. So we're playing incoming freshman baseball, and so a guy comes in home plate, and he's gonna take me out. Now, this is St. Charles Preparatory versus Columbus desales St. Francis de Sales. This is the Catholic League summer league, you know. So this guy comes around third base, and I'm a south ender, you know, and so he's coming hard and he's going to take me out. And he. He starts lowering his shoulder to take me out. But I'd already learned, so I. I made him slide. I made him get dirty. So the rest of the game, he's telling me, hey, man, I'm going to do this to you. After the. I'm gonna, you know, every. The rest of the game, I was like, okay, so after the game, the coaches are over there. He. He comes over, he does the classic, you know, monologuing. And so you're in the south end, you throw the first punch, and it was actually a good punch. I dropped a guy and. And then he was out for a little bit. And by the time he gets up, everybody came over. My dad's like, son, what have you done? You know, he goes to the principal, hey, what do we do? What are you doing? This situation, the principal's like, this guy's a Vietnam veteran. He says, I don't know. We've never been in a situation before, you know, so. So it worked out. They just kind of kept an eye on me. Let me. They let me stay, you know, I ended up finishing top of my class, I think, academically, but. But yeah, I've learned, though, avoiding bars and that sort of thing. Even. Even then I was smart enough to. Because you never know you're going to get hit from behind. I tried to avoid. And we've had plenty of skirmishes, too, but.
- [65:27]
Sean Ryan
But anyway, right on back to flying helicopters. Okay, so you did your first solo flight 10 day in 10 days.
- [65:35]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yeah, I just found out they don't do anymore. Yeah. So you start on a Monday, and then the following Friday you do solo flight. Instructor gets out back then we use Huey's as our. As our. And all of our instructors were civilians, but they were all Vietnam pilots. And so I get there, and again, I was always. I get. I get on swing in the playground and get air sick, you know, see motion sick. So I get in a helicopter and, man, I'm. I'm sick every day. So after about three days, the. The IPs like, hey, man, you gotta. You gotta see the flight surgeon. So flight surgeon says, I can give you three pills, but if you can't overcome it in three days, you're gonna get. You're gonna get booted and you're gonna go wherever the army wants you, which means Signal Corps, you know, I could be a personnel clerk. You know, stuff you don't want to do. I don't want to be a ramp, you know. And so. So I took the pill the first day, and I didn't get air shake, but, man, I was woozy, you know, I was just kind of. My, you know, helicopter probably is. I mean, it's all touch. I mean, you're just. You're just slightly moving your fingers. You're squeezing. You're working the pedals. You're just squeezing your toes. You're not. It's not a heavy. It's not rough like you see on the movies, you know? No, no, no. It's just. It's very. It's very soft, touching. And so I took a half a pill the next day, and it still kind of jacked me up. I'm three days away from my solo flight, and you got to pass yourself. You got to do three passes around the airfield, and every couple years somebody crashes, and that's just the way it is, you know. And so on the third day, I said, I'm not doing this, and I'm not leaving without my wings. So I threw it in the trash, got up there, and I said, lord, if this is what you want from me, I'm not messing with. I'm not participating in this anymore. And so I just got up there, didn't get sick, and I don't think I've been airsick since. Wow. It's just. Yeah. So we solo. We so had our solar flight that day. I didn't know what. I could hardly hover because my first two weeks, I was sick the whole time. I mean, my, My. My. My stick buddy was kind of like, hey, man, help me. He said, help me out. It was. It was a disaster. But. But I. But I got through it, you know, Got my solar wings and they don't do that anymore. And I just heard. I. A good buddy of mine, his son, he wanted to join the military. And I was like, all right, let me walk you through, because this is like walking on used car lot if you're not careful, you know. So he went into the 82nd, and when he graduated, I was able as a legacy. I was, you know, since I Went to airborne school. I was able to pin his wings on. Oh, that's cool. Yeah. But they did tell us if you give him blood wings, we're going to escort you off post. And you know, blood wings are right? Oh, yeah, like really? I mean, it's a little teeny pin I had, you know. Have you heard Charlie Mike? Charlie Mike was Lieutenant Colonel Leonard B. Scott. He wrote a book called Charlie Mike Ranger in Vietnam, about his story in Vietnam. He was our airfield commander. Fantastic. Just amazing guy. And so I got blood wings from Charlie Mike. And did you go. You guys go through Benning, don't you? Do you go to airborne school at Benning or do you have your own?
- [68:35]
Sean Ryan
Yeah, we go through Benning now. They have their own.
- [68:37]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yeah, so remember in gawa, the tower? Yeah. So I'm over there, I'm like, hey, man, what was it like jumping ungawa? He's like, mean, that thing. I'm like, yeah, that thing. Like, nah, we don't jump that anymore. What? Somebody got hurt, so they don't jump it, you know. So, yeah, the army. The army's changed a little bit, you know.
- [68:56]
Sean Ryan
Yep, yep. Yeah, I got some blood wings too. Yeah, it's a rite of passage.
- [69:02]
Dr. Dan Schneider
It is.
- [69:03]
Sean Ryan
You know, it's like robbing the next generation of that. Yeah, it's the way I feel.
- [69:07]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yeah. And, and, yeah, yeah. No, man, you don't want to be.
- [69:11]
Sean Ryan
You didn't want to be the guy that didn't get him. Yeah, you know that, that's. Usually, that's a sign that. Yeah, I shouldn't be there.
- [69:18]
Dr. Dan Schneider
You shouldn't be there. Yeah, yeah. Blood wings are. Yeah, I'm sure, I'm sure when you got your. Was it the trident, they call it? Yeah, I'm sure you got that then too. That's a cool tradition you guys got, by the way.
- [69:26]
Sean Ryan
Yeah, it's. Wouldn't trade it for anything.
- [69:29]
Dr. Dan Schneider
No way.
- [69:29]
Sean Ryan
But, but so then you go. Do you do the Gulf War?
- [69:33]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yeah, so I went, I went right from flight school. I got a Ranger slot right out of flight school. But the problem was I was in peak shape a couple years. I mean, peak, peak shape. And then I'm sitting on my butt for a year straight, you know, I'm sitting in the classroom for six months and then I'm. Then I'm sitting in a cockpit, you know. And so the only training I'm getting is at night, you know, all day long you got. It's academically rigorous. And then nine, ten o' clock at night, I'm loading Up a rucksack with free weights and I'm running through neighborhoods with freeways trying to get into shape and I, and I'm, I'm humping through some neighbor and I fall into a ditch somewhere, bash my knee. I get two 45 pound weights come up, slam my head. I get knocked out somewhere in front of somebody's house. Who knows how long I wake up, just get up, keep rucking, you know, but when I got to Ranger, my, my feet were soft. My, I just didn't have, you know, from sitting for a year, so, so kind of re. Injured that knee and, and then, so I'm just kind of, I get about halfway through and it just, you know, I was. Otherwise my peers were good. My, you know, but, but since I kind of got tangled up there with that injury and they're like, hey man, look, you're an aviator, you don't need to be here, your unit needs you back. And, and so, and so I was, I was devastated. I spent a couple weeks at the gulag waiting for processing out and I never tabbed and, and, but it worked out. It's funny, you know, God writes straights with straight with crooked lines, as they say, you know. And you know, it worked out that had I tabbed, I probably wouldn't have had the experience that I had in Iraq. And, and ultimately my experience there was spiritual and I found, found my faith there, the initial movements of it. And so, yeah, so looking back now, it'd be nice to have the Ranger tab on the wall. But, but more importantly, I'd rather, I'd rather. Instead of Ranger, I'd rather have it say Jesus, you know, got my Jesus tab. So, so, so I went straight from there over to my unit with the 7 1st 1st of the 7th Cav. We were Division Cav for the, for the 1st Cavalry Army Division. So we were, we were air and we had three ground or scout troops with the Bradleys and then two air troops and I was in one of, one of the air troops.
- [71:48]
Sean Ryan
What was your experience like there?
- [71:52]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Conventional. Typical conventional. You know, we were cab though, you know, you know, half assed and full blast is the cab motto, you know, so, so it was, it was typical CAB experience, but days and hours of boredom on end punctuated with moments of intense, you know, excitement and adrenaline dumps, you know, and everything in between. But so, so, so we were up on the border. The, the, you know, the. From the beginning, we were one of the first units over there. We're up on the border in Iraq and the Kind of tri border area. And you know, we were flying, you know, cavalry, have recon, screen and attack. And so we were largely doing reconnaissance and screen lines, you know, so for the main body, doing a lot of recon. So we captured a lot of guys, caught a lot of back. You know, they would, they would, they would slip out the conscripts. You know, we caught guys in the front that were forced. They would just grab guys off the street. They, you know, the. Was the second largest standing army in the world or something. They were taking guys off the streets and, and throwing them, you know, into foxholes and stuff. And we were bombing them so bad at B52s and stuff. So. So they were coming over at night in droves. They were sending teams out to kill them, kill their own because they didn't. They'd rather kill them than let them dessert. So we caught a bunch. We had fences, you know, set up with all the, the guys that we captured. So we were flying a lot of screen lines and a lot of, you know, we ended up over by the. What's it called? You know, I flew over the oil where they lit up all the trenches with oil. Like that's going to. Thinking back, it was so primitive. You know, they're stringing up concertina wire and burning. They were still digging ditches and triangles, you know, and filling with oil and burning them. Like that's going to stop us. You know, we just. And they had trench warfare and we just bulldozed over them, you know, bulldoze them alive. Wow. Engineers did. Yeah. And so, and so then we get into Iraq and, and I mean it was over pretty quickly. But I remember they told us, you know, we were again, we were right on the, right on the border. And during the artillery barrage, there was the largest military, I mean, artillery barrage in military history. And I Forget how many MLR1MLRs remember that the multiple launch Rocket System. One of those will clear a football field and put a bomblet every 12 inches. And they think they had 100 of them go off. And so we're watching it. It was like 2 or 3 in the morning. We all got up to watch. It was like fourth of July, you know. And so it was just, I mean, I mean it was, it was unbelievable, the destruction. And after a while we were like, damn, you know, even now I was sitting watching the fireworks the other day and everybody's, you know, smoking and joking, having a good time and I just could still picture that, you know, that artillery barrage, it just kind of stuck with me. And so that was kind of. And then we went in and did the invasion and had some experiences there and.
- [75:00]
Sean Ryan
What kind of experiences?
- [75:04]
Dr. Dan Schneider
I'll give you. Spiritual or you want the. Both. Well, before we would go and look, if I'm a pilot, when I feed on the ground, I'm nervous. To me it's big sky, little bullet, you put me in the air and I'm happy I can get out of the way. So I would always find a reason. So I went to the chapel. Hey, those poor guys up in the Bradleys, they need Catholic mass. Let's go. Let's say mass for them. Let's get permission from the colonel and I'll fly you up there. So I would fly. I was in a Huey at the time. I'd fly him up and they would pull back. The Catholic soldiers would fly back or the troopers would drive back and he would have mass for all them. And he was a good guy. And right before I went over, it's funny, talk about confession. There was a Catholic chaplain that lived in the same apartment complex. And I was just kind of there temporarily as I was getting ready to deploy. And he was gay. And he kind of told me he was gay. I was like, thanks, Father, for telling me that. You know what I mean? I was like, I hope that was cathartic for you, but it was really weird for me. Okay. And then he's like, can you go to confession? I'm like, I'm not going to confession. Not to you, I'm sorry. And so I didn't go. And I was like, I don't need to go to confession. I mean, that was my mindset. I'm like, yeah, I'm not going to go. So we're flying in and I was flying this chaplain, the Catholic chaplain, brigade chaplain, every Sunday. And they told us right before the artillery, they said, look, everybody here make peace with the Lord because you know, we expect. They expected like 75% casualties. What they told us, you know, they didn't know they were supposed to use chemical welfare against us, all this other stuff. So. And I remember flying, flying back, flying missions, going back to the rear, picking up stuff, maintenance stuff, whatever. And I saw when they brought in just conics and Connex filled with body bags, you know, because they were ready. Because they didn't know, they didn't know that, that the second world largest army was just going to collapse. We just pounded them. B52 strikes. And the artillery, there was just very little left by the time we got there was, you know, we Ran up against the. One of their. They had two divisions that had T72s, but the rest were T62s. They were trash. And they, you know, we were just killing them, you know. And so we were. We would. By the time we, we got in, I mean there was. It was just destruction. It was just everywhere, you know, destroyed aircraft, blown up tanks. There was a. We had playing cards, you know, with all. As you guys probably did too, but playing cards with anti aircraft and different tanks so we could identify them. You know, you're playing cards and you're looking at. This was a zoo. What's called. We call it the Zeus. I think it was the Zeus. It was an anti aircraft four barrel. He would crank himself around, you know, and either an Apache or an A10 hit it. It might have been a main tank round, but all was left. The barrels were just crumpled like a pretzel and all thing left on this guy was his right arm which is hanging there, this charred arm. And that was kind of our. I had to see it every day because that was kind of my path. We didn't have gps, you know, we didn't have anything. We just had to fly kind of by dead reckoning and just kind of winging a prayer. And so that was one of our spots. When you see we get the old lefty over there, you're going to. You're going to turn 030 and get back to where we were. And so we're flying in that first day and Hussein had. Saddam Hussein had lit up all the oil fires, if you remember. And it was. I was in a Huey and, and I had, you know, two door gunners and a co pilot. And the soot was so bad and it was raining and the oral fires were just burning. We're just not too far away. You can kind of see them in the distance and they're just. And about every 10 minutes we'd have to. And we, and then, and then we were lost. We were separated from our units. We had one, we had two other Hueys with us. We were crossing over. We had an Apache and two Hueys. And then right when we cross the border, the Apache says, hey, I got a. Something light and I got to go back. And we're like you. So we start just cussing this guy out like, dude, suck it up man. We're flying into Iraq, you know. So we got three slicks and pouring down rain about every 15 minutes we got to stop. The crew chief's got to get out, put water on the windshield because the windshield was just black with oil soot. It's getting dark, we're running out of gas. And. And so I'm like, all right, guys, look, we're in the middle of Iraq. We're lost. And I'm. I'm the lead aircraft. Chalk, you know, chalk one of three, three aircraft. I'm like, all right, guys, here's what we're going to have to do. We're going to land. We got five minutes of daylight left and about six minutes of gas, and we're going to land and we're going to set up a perimeter and we're going to pull the 60s out. We're going to set up a perimeter. We're going to have 100 security, and we're just going to hunker down for the night. We don't know what fact. So I'm just, you know, you talk about. You talk about suddenly finding prayer. You know, there's no atheists and foxholes. So. So as we're just flying, just praying quietly, listening to the. The wine, the drone, and all of a sudden as we pull up, we see. We see some. It was too, too late to pull. We can't maneuver up because we had about A. About 30ft visibility, which means you can see about 30ft in front of you and you're. So we're going about 10ft off the deck, probably 70, 80 knots, which is as slow as you can really go. And just, you're gonna. I mean, you're gonna run into a jeep if you hit a vehicle. So we see a vehicle, we're so low, we have to stop and land. And we didn't know if it was enemy or not, you know, so we had, we had to stop and get out and fight if we're gonna fight. So we land, we look up and we see that upside down, V. You know, and like, thank goodness. Crank it down. It's pouring down rain. Shut the aircrafts down, button them up. Everybody just disperses into the first tent they find. And I'm just like, you know, that was a close one. I roll in there, the first tent, half thinking, man, I hope this is a pub. I'm just fantasizing, man, I hope this is a pub, you know. And I walk in and there's the brigade chaplain looks at me and I look at him and he goes, hey, what's up, lt? And I said, hey, sir, how's it going? He goes, you want to go to confession? Yeah, I'll go to confession. So I knelt down there and went to confession. And that was kind of the beginning. Wow. Yeah. And then later we. They put us out at one of those places that was cleared by the MLRs. I mean, it was. It was eerie. It was one place. It was like I was. I was flying. And my co pilot, I hear him say, he said, hey, lt, what's going on? I look around, I'm like, what? Nothing. He goes, you're hovering. And I realized I was about 100ft and I was just hovering. And it was like I was hovering on top of this, the world's giant golf ball. I mean, it was just a bomblet of an MLRS every 12 or 18 inches of just pure destruction. And so we set up camp at an old air base that we had bombed. And there was. We would land and the dogs would come over. You know, whenever I read the Psalms and the dogs and the dogs, you know, and the psalms talk about the dogs of war, they lick up the foes. You know, the punishment of Jezebel. If you read that story. We read that in session. It's powerful. It brings back a lot of memories. Her body is thrown from the second floor and dogs lick up her. You know, if you read the story of El Jezebel, the evil wicked queen. Anyway, so we set up. We set up a combat outpost up there. Got a perimeter set up, and we're just waiting. We're about a mile or so, I think, from the. From the highway of death. And there are dogs everywhere, man. And these things are like half jackals. They're not like. They're not like Rover back home, you know. And there were some guys that take the puppies. I remember one guy, he's dead now, he was killed, and he went back as an Apache guy in 2016 and crest in Iraq. And he was. I'll never forget, he was holding this puppy, man, like, just holding on to home, you know. And the other guys are getting on him like, hey, man, you guys, those things are wild. Don't do that. They're eating the dead bodies out there. I gotta shut up. They're not out. And we would land, we would crank up every morning and go fly. And there was one dog, there were three of them that would hang around our aircraft because, you know, crew chiefs and the guys always throwing stuff. And one of them, he would be there sleeping. And it wasn't until we got the full crank that he'd get up and we finally realized that he was deaf. He was shell shocked from all the. From all the. The artillery. So this dog, you know, once he Heard, felt the rotor rush. It would wake him up. So I went for a walk one day and I just, just not, you know, wanting for a walk. I just cleared my head a little bit and just praying the rosary. And then I walk over and I see these dogs over there and then I. And they start growling as I got closer. You know, it's like, pull my weapon out and looking at them, and sure enough, they're digging up dead Iraqis. We found out later that they had bulldozed the engineers, had dug big pits and just bulldozed a lot of dead bodies from highway death to clear it out.
- [84:20]
Sean Ryan
Geez.
- [84:20]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yeah. So brings new perspective on the dogs of war. Yeah. Yeah. How did you leave military Iraq? Oh, I was the assistant S4, which you didn't have all those crappy side duties that officers had to have. So I was the officer in charge of laundry morale, you know, Anson Pulver. So I was so busy trying to reconcile the books so, you know, zeroing out stuff so the commanders didn't have to account for everything. We burnt so much stuff, you wouldn't believe the size of stuff. Camo netting, ir, camo net, everything. We'd burn it all. And so I was nonstop busy trying to reconcile the book so the colonel wouldn't take any hits for missing stuff. You know, I mean, that's just the way it was. You had to reconcile everything. So I kept busy. I didn't have time to sit around and think about it to get on an airplane, come back and then our aircraft. So we, we fly back on a, you know, on a. Obviously not flying helicopter back. So we're flying back commercial some way, and we get back and our, our aircraft dropped off over in somewhere near Houston at a port there. So we, we drive over from Fort Hood to go pick them up and then pick up the aircraft and, and I jump a ride with a, a scout pilot. I'm in a scout, no doors. And you know, the weather in Texas, the weather rolls in in Texas and a tornado hits in the middle out of nowhere and we're getting rain on the side and we're, and, and we're flying through, down like downtown Beaumont, Texas. We have to land in a shopping mall because, because we're getting blasted and, and just covered up in weather. And so anyway, so I thought to myself, man, I survived all that and I'm going to die in front of lubies, you know, in Beaumont, Texas in a, in a weather storm. Had another guy punch in not long after that when a really good pilot storm came in at Fort Hood and punched in and invert and ifr, they call it inadvertent instrument flight rules. Punches into the clouds, calls tower, climbs up, does everything right. Hands the controls over to brand new pilot. And the guy got disoriented, came to a hover at about 1500ft, and it just fell out of the sky. And he was killed. Both of them were killed. So the weather can be bad. It's not your friend, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Another guy crashed with the. With the task force. He had a test ride. He was like, these are. These are all great. These guys are way better pilots than I ever was. And he. He crashed with Chinook with a checkride with the task force. 160. So. But yeah, so I came back, got out of the military not long after that. Why did you get out at the time you needed? You know, I was an officer, commission officer, and the warrant officers did most of the flying. And so the army was transitioning from Hueys to. To Blackhawks and Cobras to Apaches. And they told me I couldn't get a transition because I was commissioned. And that would have. That would have meant 13 months on a company in Korea and then Pentagon. Korea, Pentagon. I would have been a staffer the rest of my life.
- [87:44]
Sean Ryan
Gotcha.
- [87:45]
Dr. Dan Schneider
And I couldn't get into task force now. I had enough hours. Now they've lowered it like 500. I had enough hours to go to task force, but I couldn't. At that time, it was like 1500. And there's no pathway to get the hours. There's no pathway to the Apache. And so I decided, got the T shirt, been there, done that. Time to move on. Right on. Yeah, right on.
- [88:03]
Sean Ryan
Well, let's take a quick break.
- [88:04]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Okay.
- [88:05]
Sean Ryan
And then we'll pick up where we left off.
- [88:07]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Got it.
- [88:11]
Sean Ryan
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- [92:07]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yeah, so, you know, I had that experience in Iraq. Went to confession actually right before. I didn't, didn't tell the story, but I remember after they told us 75% of you are going to be dead or evac'd out of Here the next 48 hours, what they told us. And so make peace with God. So I went for, you know, we were a little, try to stay out of mortar range and artillery range, particularly for the aircraft. So we were a little further back, kind of middle of nowhere. And so I was just going for a walk and I was like, all right, Lord, I'm just walking to the flight line, a little past the flight line in the middle of nowhere. I mean you could see the aircraft, but I was just walking around. All right, Lord, I don't know what to do. You know, I'm gonna make peace with you. That's what they said to do. I'm a good soldier, you know, and everything, you know, you've been to desert many times. It's just brown, brown, brown. And I see something shiny in the distance and I walk over and I pick it up and it was a finger rosary. Ever seen those little round finger rosaries? And so I said, well, I guess that means I'm going to pray the rosary. So I started just praying the rosary. Guys would come over, hey man, I was Catholic, can you show me how to forget how to pray the rosary? So I'm over there, I don't hardly remember how to better. I'm showing these guys how to pray the rosary, praying the rosary and all that. And I get back, I get back from. And I'm still in my unit and, and of course like every young guy, I had a, had to have a sports car and Harley Davidson, you know, so I had a, I had a, the coolest two door Mustang in one of those GTs with the tires about that big fat, you know, and had. And I had the front end of my bike, I had it in the back seat of my car and I was taking, I was just picking it up from a Harley dealer and my platoon sergeant was in the car with me and I'm riding down the road and when I was praying the rosary, I said, all right, Lord, when I get back, I'm not going to live like a scumbag. I'm going to be a good guy and I'm going to follow you and I give my life to you. And so I get back and I really kind of forgot about that. And so I'm Driving, picking up my bike, the front end of my bike and it's in the back, jammed and just jammed in my truck. I just jammed it in the back seat of this sports cars, Ford Mustang Tune Sergeants on my right. And we're just cruising, trying to get back, get back to post and, and I, and I. And there's a semi truck over here. It's raining and I try, I start passing this guy to the right. But I had these big old fat tires. You remember that old Mustang, those old Mustangs. And, and as soon as it, and soon as the. I get next to this guy, I start to hydroplane. I get a gust of air and I start to hydroplane off and I start sliding off the road like this. This is how, you know, I was a pilot because we always do that. So I start sliding off the plane. I mean, I start hydroplaning, sliding this way. So I'm going sideways. My first thought was, man, I'm gonna wreck my dang cool car. You know, I'm sliding sideways towards the guardrail. But soon as I hit the gravel on the side of the road, the nose came to the front at the exact moment the guardrail was coming up. That little, those guardrails that come and there's two wheels hit that guardrail perfectly and I was airborne. Spin upside down and slammed and slid. It seemed like a football field just sliding. It was an awful sound. And my first thought was, I mean, I used to watch the Dukes of Hazzard. This thing's going to blow at any minute because, you know, a team, it even blew up before it hit the ground in the 18, you know, so, so I look over to my platoon sergeant, he's got blood coming down his head. I thought he was dead. I reach over to undo my seatbelt so I can get him out. And right when I go, I'm upside down now and the roof is completely smashed to the dash and I'm upside down and it's dead silent. It was so silent. And I had such a lack of pain and zero adrenaline. I mean, it was just, you know, sometimes you get into the zone, especially I just come back from Iraq. It took a lot to kind of get me rattled, you know, because, because little things like getting cut off in traffic or they don't have what I want at the grocery store is annoying. But big things, it doesn't really phase you, you know, so I'm, I'm, I'm so pain free. And it was so quiet. And I looked at my platoon sergeant who was Completely out. I thought, I'm dead. I'm dead. I mean, it was deathly quiet. And then I. Then I. Then I hear. Then I start hearing tinkling of the rain on the underside of the car. And I was like, tink, tink, tink, tink. So I reached down, undo my seatbelt, but. Which I'm up like this, and right next to my head was a little Gideon's Bible that they had given us. You know, the chaplains give out my dog tags. I had a little cross and a scapular like the one I gave you. And I had that, but after a while, it just became a tangled mess. And so I just would carry that in my bottom pocket of my flight suit. Figure if I crashed and burned, then they would find it anyway. So that was sitting right next to my head. I had lost this. So I had this little Gideon's Bible, my dog tags, my cross, little gold cross that my girlfriend, who's now my wife, gave me. And then my. My. My scapular. And at that moment, I looked. That was the first time I heard the voice of God. He said, I remember what you said. And he brought me back to that moment. Remember our little deal we made? And I grabbed it, put it in my pocket, pull my platoon sergeant out. And the army was changing very quickly, and I knew it was just time to get out.
- [97:57]
Sean Ryan
What do you mean you heard the voice of God?
- [97:59]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Well, I've heard a few times, not often. And you can't trust it because you know, the demon is as good as Jeff Dunham in faking God's voice. He's a good ventriloquist. You got to be careful. But I was just. Had this deep conviction, and God said, I remember I took you at your word. You know, it's hard to explain, but it's, you know, gut feeling.
- [98:27]
Sean Ryan
It's a gut feeling that pops into your head.
- [98:29]
Dr. Dan Schneider
It's a thought, but all time stops around it, you know, so it's like, yes, you have to be careful because the demon can. Can mimic that.
- [98:38]
Sean Ryan
But so how do you know it was him then?
- [98:44]
Dr. Dan Schneider
The flush of memories, personal thoughts, personal prayers that I knew, the peace that comes with it.
- [98:51]
Sean Ryan
Do you feel that you can differentiate between when a demon is telling you something and when God is telling you something?
- [98:57]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yeah, I caught a demon doing that to me. And when you catch them faking God's voice, it's pretty scary. So you learn to not trust any of them for me. But normally the tree is known by its fruit, so when you're discerning the will of God, there's peace now that I'm married. It's affirmation through your spouse. As you know, if you have one of them at home of the female species, they view the world totally differently and they see stuff from oblique angles that we don't even think about. So discerning through your spouse, who you're married with, that's a good way to discern the. The will of God. But it's the peace, you know, when it's a demon giving you a fake consolation, it's like one of the prophets, I think it's. Ezekiel, said that God took the scroll and he put it into my mouth, and it was as sweet as honey. And when it hit my stomach, it soured my stomach and made me sick or maybe nauseous. So when the demon fakes and projects a voice, a locution or whatever, it might taste sweet at first, but then something's going to sit kind of contrary. You know, you start to learn to discern that at the beginning of conversion. Oftentimes God is just. It's awesome. It's butterfly kisses. And, you know, he's like letting you know. But then after a while, he pulls back and says, now you got to learn to listen to my voice. And so learning to discern that voice, but for that one, it was almost like, boom. Now, how do you know when you've been punched in the nose? Because you got blood and. Yeah. And. And suddenly you've quickened your thinking very quickly. So. So, yeah, so. So I realized that the military, you know, there was no. No chance for me to get into task wars. I had no chance, very low chance to get the Apache. I was going to be a bureaucrat. Just my life. My. Our squadron commander, battalion commander was furious when I put my paperwork in because I was a good officer. You know, I was. I was. I was. I finally told him, I said, sir, I'm a warrior. That's why I came to military. And I can't. I can't be a bureaucrat, you know, so that experience reminded me that I was starting to drift back into that other lifestyle. You know, just not horrible, you know, still went to mass and all that, but I just wasn't. I had forgotten about God again, you know, so that's when I decided to put my paperwork in. What I realized was we had a. I gave a how to give a PT test to my. My commander, who was. He was a captain. Okay. I was a first lieutenant. And. And he. He gets on the scale. Well, first of all, I'm given the PT test and I, and you know, when you, once you get your combat. I mean, I couldn't wait to put that in the army. You get to combat patch on your right arm. I couldn't wait, man. That meant I was going to walk sideways the rest of my life, you know. And, and I remember after I got back, they had to make us. We had a, we had. The commanding general had to mandate you have to put it on your shoulder. Because by the time you get it, you're like, ah, it doesn't mean I don't want it. I don't, you know, I don't need it anymore. It's not what I thought it was. My, my, my, my, my squad, my troop commander at the time didn't go. And he says, you know, that patch doesn't mean anything when it comes to getting promoted. I was like, oh, okay. And he just starts laying into me. I'm like, okay, sir, whatever, you know. So he does a PT test and I gave him PT test and he gets on the scale and the scale starts popping. He slides it to the left and he says, you know, 175. I said, all right, okay. So then the next day I had to give a PT test to a pilot, you know, and a good pilot, but not a very fit pilot. And he, and the commander tells me, hey, man, if this guy doesn't pass us, you're going to kick him out of the army, you know, you got to be honest, and kick him out. I was like, okay. So we get there and I'm like, listen, I forget his name. I was like, look, dude, you got two kids at home. You're a good pilot. I don't care if you've got a puke, I don't care if you have to crawl. You cross this. Don't put me in the position that I have to, I have to bounce you from the Army. Six weeks before him getting out, you know, sure enough, he busted. He misses it by like a minute. And the last half a mile I was running alongside him, just chewing him out, you know. But I passed him. And he's probably a CW04 this day and probably very thankful for that. But he was a good man, a good pilot. So. But I realized that, like I said, the Cav half assed in full blast. I had a Vietnam veteran just getting out, or maybe he was already out, but he was an old or old like this guy had been. He was command. He was a master sergeant, command sergeant major, very old, not deploying and he said, the Cav will take care of you. They're not worth a crap in peacetime, but they'll take care of you in combat. And I found that to be true. So get back to peacetime. And it just. It was a. It was kind of a government job in conventional warfare. I was like, I'm gonna get out. So that's when I got out of the military and started doing other things.
- [104:19]
Sean Ryan
When did you start getting into theology and biblical stuff?
- [104:24]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yeah. So again, it's like the hound of heaven will pursue you. But I got into business, started working for myself and. And kind of forgot about God again, you know. So I get it, man. I get it when guys don't, you know, I. I just kind of drifted and I had God perfectly over here, but I was pursuing my own. My own career, my own goals. And then things were kind of going sideways and. And it was just. Life was getting tough and I just realized it's. I gotta. I gotta do something, you know, she'll get off the pot type of thing, you know. So I remember this has probably been maybe five years. I don't know, I'm trying to think. Ten years since deployment. And I pulled over on the side of the field, Chili field, and I was. And I started yelling out of God like, hey, what the heck? You know, I gave my life to you and now things are getting worse and yada, yada, yada. So I just started, you know, I talked to God like I talk to you, you know, I mean, and sometimes when you yell at God, he yells back. And again, only a handful of times that I know the voice of God. And, and he says, and I just hear this words, choose today. You know, from Jeremiah, I mean, Joshua stands at the promised land. Choose today. You know whom you're going to serve, right? As he stand to the promised land. You're going to serve the false gods that your father served? Are you going to serve the true and living God? As for me and my household, we're going to serve the Lord what Joshua says. So I hear that from scripture. Choose today.
- [106:01]
Sean Ryan
What do you mean? Serve the false gods that your father served?
- [106:04]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Well, and at the end of the book of Joshua, he's standing at the promised land. And so they were being punished as they went into the promised land. They were falling into false. A couple times they fell into idol worship. And so to punish them, that generation weren't allowed to see the promised land that they were delivered out of Egypt for.
- [106:21]
Sean Ryan
What do you mean, idol worship? Is that things watches Cars, motorcycles?
- [106:26]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Well, today. But no, this was worshiping demons. Psalm 96. 5. The gods of the Gentiles are demons, it says. And so the Israelites continually over time fell into idol worship, false gods, BAAL worship, and other, other demon gods of, of the pagan nations because they brought him power. They didn't trust God, so they would get instant power. If you're not listening, I'm going to go to this guy.
- [106:51]
Sean Ryan
Who are those gods?
- [106:52]
Dr. Dan Schneider
They're still around.
- [106:53]
Sean Ryan
Do they have names?
- [106:54]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yeah.
- [106:55]
Sean Ryan
What are they?
- [106:56]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Baal, Beelzebul, Moloch.
- [107:00]
Sean Ryan
Who are they?
- [107:01]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Just go through them. Ashtar, Ishtar, Ashtara.
- [107:05]
Sean Ryan
I mean I hear a lot about this stuff. I hear a lot about Ball and Moloch.
- [107:10]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yeah, well, BAAL means Lord. Moloch is one of the various nations in ancient Israel had their own deities. And so they would, you know, they had the sun God, they had the son of the main God, they had other figures that seemed somewhat similar to Christianity in some way. Moloch was one. Human sacrifice, you know, and, and the gods, Israelites would continually go back to the same two or three for success in war, for prosperity and, and, and, and you know, crops and, you know, financial prosperity. And then, and there was always gods that would do, you know, sexual, private sexual things. Sexual. Part of their worship was, was depraved sexuality. Human sacrifice in extreme cases for special needs. These things have been around forever. I mean, read the story of the apparition of Our lady of Guadalupe in Mexico, 15, 1500s. They were, the missionaries that were down there recounted that they were, I don't know, I mean they were hundreds a day. They were sacrificing to this ancient demon there, cutting their hearts out while they're alive. Human sacrifice. And so these things have been around for a long, long time.
- [108:41]
Sean Ryan
Can we go through them one by one? I mean, who is baal?
- [108:45]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Well, each one has their own. BAAL means lord or master.
- [108:50]
Sean Ryan
So does that mean that's all of them?
- [108:53]
Dr. Dan Schneider
No, it's kind of BAAL or BAAL is kind of one that was very common and among the east and Egypt. What's interesting is if you look at the book of Hosea, do I have permission to.
- [109:12]
Sean Ryan
Absolutely, yeah, yeah.
- [109:15]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Hosea. Hosea's when God revealed himself in. When, when God revealed himself to the Israelites, first he reveals himself as a warrior, the warrior God. 285 times in the Old Testament you have the name of God as the Lord God Almighty. Sometimes you hear Dominus Deus, Sabaoth, the God of hosts. This is the God that intervenes for his people against cosmic forces. This is the God that the early church fathers understood Christ to be, the warrior God. And then in Sinai, he reveals himself. I'm a jealous God, right? I'm a jealous God punishing the children, punishing the sins of the father to the third and fourth generation of the children, because I'm a jealous God. And so that word jealous, the Greek was zelos. It means zeal, but it means the passionate zeal of a lover commanding the fidelity of his bride. And so to those who hate me, and then he lists off, what does it mean to hate God? To follow false gods. To follow false gods. So God reveals himself as the divine beloved, the beloved lover of Israel. He reveals himself. In fact, in the Jewish rabbis in the ancient world, they saw Sinai when God revealed himself and gave the Ten Commandments as a betrothal ceremony, that the command to wash yourselves was like a nuptial bath in preparation for God to wed himself with his people. And then they commit over and over again. They keep falling into idol worship. And we're no different. Let's not judge these ancients, because we're no different. I mean, look at. Look at Marina Abramovich. Look at P. Diddy. Look at the Olympic ceremony.
- [111:10]
Sean Ryan
Who's Marina? Who'd you say?
- [111:12]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Marina Abramovich. Is that the artist?
- [111:14]
Sean Ryan
Yeah, he's an artist.
- [111:15]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Correct. Artist.
- [111:16]
Sean Ryan
Yeah. I mean, I've seen. Yeah, we'll throw some of her work up.
- [111:20]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yeah.
- [111:21]
Sean Ryan
It's demonic.
- [111:22]
Dr. Dan Schneider
It's demonic. Yeah. Look at the Borberites. Epiphanius of Salamis, in the six or seven hundreds, writes about a group of infiltrators in the church called the Borbarites, the dirt eaters. Anyway, they were doing satanic rituals in the name of Christianity, and it's not a whole lot, unlike Abramovich's work.
- [111:44]
Sean Ryan
So where did.
- [111:45]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Where did ball.
- [111:46]
Sean Ryan
I mean, where did it come from?
- [111:47]
Dr. Dan Schneider
So ball comes. It means lord or master, but it also means husband. So bring me back to Hosea. Sorry, we're getting tangential. Hosea is told by God to I want you to marry an unfaithful woman, a prostitute, so that when everybody looks at you and says, that poor dude, they can see this prophet living what God is experiencing. Kind of a metaphor for what God. This is what it looks like. You have a faithful man married to an unfaithful harlot and raising harlot children. That's this generation of Israelites, because they were already. They were already now in exile and God says, I will allure her. I will lead her into the desert and speak to her heart. From there, I gave her the vineyards, et cetera. On that day, from the day when she came up from the land of Egypt. Right. So just as in Egypt, she was my spouse, I betrothed to her. So now is. So now you're falling into it again. But I'm going to call you back as your divine bridegroom. Oh, on that day, says the Lord, this is Hosea, chapter two. She shall call me my husband and never again my baal. So BAAL means husband or lord or master. So in Spanish, you can introduce. I want to reintroduce this in English, but I don't think it's going to catch. A woman will introduce her husband in Spanish. This is Esto es mi senor. This is my senor. So senor is husband or lord, right? I tried to get my wife to do that. She's like, I don't think so. I tried to tell her, you don't have to call me Dr. Daniel. You call me Dan, by the way. I said, hey, I like that. When I finished my doctorate, I was in England, and they said, congratulations, Dominus doctor. Right? Which is an ancient title, Lord Doctor. I told my wife, hey, maybe we should start that as a new tradition in this house. She's like, I don't think so. Are you going to cut the grass or what? You know, so she. So she shall call me my husband and ever again my baal. I will remove from her mouth the names of the Baals so they never be invoked. I will make a covenant for them on that day with the beast, et cetera, I will espouse you to me forever. I will espouse you in right and justice. And so. And so when we see this imagery of espousal. This is why in almost every case of possession, there's some sexual element. Almost every case. Sexual deviancy. And in some form. Some sexual deviancy and some form. Often some form of idol worship of some kind. Remember Psalm 96. 5. The gods of the Gentiles are demons. And so when you're offering worship to them, whether it's, you know, these different ones, but by all means, Lord or husband. And what we have is.
- [114:28]
Sean Ryan
This doesn't make sense to me.
- [114:30]
Dr. Dan Schneider
What.
- [114:30]
Sean Ryan
So why are the. I mean, the Gentiles are the ones that believe in Jesus Christ, correct? Everybody that's not a Jew or an Israelite. Am I correct?
- [114:42]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Well, this is pre Christ. This is 6, 700 years before Christ, okay? And so that was what was shocking about Christianity. And St. Paul particularly went his mission was to the Gentiles, to us, you and me, because we're Gentiles. You know, this is why when Jesus says that very unkind thing to the Canaanite Gentile woman, when she says, my daughter is possessed by a demon, he says, it's not right to give to the children. Belongs. Give to the dogs. That belongs to the children. Because the Gentiles were considered dogs. Well, the same dogs that I saw wandering around in Iraq. What are dogs? Scavengers. They copulate indiscriminately. Right. You know, when they talk, when in Leviticus, in the holiness code, when you go into the land that I'm giving, you do not do what they do, the Gentiles do. You should not have relationship with your mother, with your sister, with you. List off all this incestual things. Because in their ritualistic practice, this is, this is part of what they did. And only dogs in creation, at least in the imagery of the biblical writers, dogs copulate in such a way. And so Jesus is saying, she's a Gentile dog, right? Very unpastoral. Right. In Gentile territory. And the woman says, even the dogs eat the scraps off the table from their master, their Lord, their husband, their senor, you see? And so the church, that's what blew the minds of the. They couldn't believe, the Jews couldn't believe, okay, maybe he's the Messiah, but there's no way the Gentiles. And so if you look at the writings of the first few centuries, it's how the Gentiles are now being included into the covenant family of God. That was mind boggling. Even the debate with Paul and Peter over circumcision in the early in the Scriptures we read is that debating over Judaic laws, should they carry over, etc. Because it was mind boggling to the Jew that these dogs, these filthy dogs that are ritually unclean could also have salvation in Christ. But all that imagery is when. What's amazing for me as a scripture scholar is to see the Scriptures come to life. It's not just theory or it's not just, okay, read these things so you can go to heaven. I mean, when you're dealing with BAAL and the one who battled him. The story of Elijah. You're familiar with the story of Elijah, Elijah the prophet battles. I talk about Our lady of Mount Carmel. In the Carmelites, they trace themselves back to Elijah the prophet. Elijah the prophet. The Israelites had Completely abandoned, mostly abandoned. The living God, Elijah the prophet says, okay, let's test, let's see whose God is real. If, if the Lord is God, then he'll manifest himself. If BAAL is God, then let him manifest himself. So let's have a competition and we'll see who lights a fire. This is first Kings. Well, let's build an altar and call down fire from heaven. And if your God calls down fire from heaven, then he's God and we'll worship him. So they started calling out to God, to the true baal and they started cutting themselves. You hear about this phenomenon of young people cutting themselves. It's very common. We see it in most of our, We've seen a lot of cases of cutting. I can give you a side excursus on that. They start cutting themselves and bleeding and calling out. And Elijah, this dude is bad, he starts mocking him like, hey, maybe he's on a trip, maybe he's tired, wake him up, bring him down. Nothing it says, and nobody was listening and nobody was there. So Elijah says, okay, my turn. Put wood on the altar, pour it with water, put a trench around it, pour more water on it. And he says, lord, may God, may they know that you are the true God. And he called fire down and fire consumed it, right? And then he says, they took the handful of the guild of prophets with him. They said, grab the prophets of BAAL and they took him down to the river Kaiden, I think it says, and they slit their throats. Very non pastoral. But when you read that in a session and just have the priest or the deacon that's there reading that story and BAAL is present possessing this person, they go ballistic because you're reminding them of when they were defeated in the flesh. And they will always be defeated. Despite this small victory. They might be temporarily having over this person Christ and his church is going to have sovereign reign over them. Yeah, very powerful.
- [119:43]
Sean Ryan
So BAAL is. I'm still trying to wrap my head around it. So BAAL means Lord. So does that mean it could be anything that you worship other than God and Christ?
- [119:59]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yes and no. So each culture would have their own kind of version of it. But just as there's different titles manifest different things, the jealous God, the warrior God, you know, the different titles for Christ, all those reflect something about who he is. Son of David, Son of Man, those are all Prince of Peace. Different titles about Christ, give us some aspect of who he is. And so you have different, you have different titles of the devil that go back to that as well.
- [120:35]
Sean Ryan
When was BAAL introduced to humanity?
- [120:42]
Dr. Dan Schneider
I'd have to think about that, I imagine, I don't know, probably somewhere on the Egyptians or probably one of the.
- [120:50]
Sean Ryan
First people still worship him yet to this day.
- [120:55]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yeah.
- [120:56]
Sean Ryan
What about Moloch? Who is Moloch?
- [120:59]
Dr. Dan Schneider
He was one that, I think that was more Syrian, but it's one of the ancient tribes around there that they did human sacrifice to.
- [121:10]
Sean Ryan
And where did he come in?
- [121:12]
Dr. Dan Schneider
They each had their own form, so Assyrians would have one form of it. You know, others would have. But basically if baal, Moloch and Ashtara, which is a female deity that they kind of worshiped as well, that did a lot of sexual rituals with those would be some of the main ones, kind of groupings underneath them. But, but again, it's as complicated as.
- [121:33]
Sean Ryan
What was her name?
- [121:34]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Ashtara or Ishtar? There's.
- [121:37]
Sean Ryan
Is there one? Esther? Esther.
- [121:41]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Esther was a, is a book of the Bible and she was a Jewish woman that became queen. But no, that's not a demon. Esther.
- [121:51]
Sean Ryan
How do these live on?
- [121:53]
Dr. Dan Schneider
They're immortal. I mean, they're, they live, they're, they're, they're, they were created. They're disembodied creatures who have an immortal. They live for eternity.
- [122:08]
Sean Ryan
I mean, you just. What am I trying to say? I mean there's just, there's not a lot of discussion about Ball Moloch, the other one that you mentioned. And so I mean, where are people finding them?
- [122:25]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Them?
- [122:28]
Sean Ryan
How do they inject themselves into people's. I mean, I know a little bit.
- [122:32]
Dr. Dan Schneider
About it, but there's, there's, there's threads in, in Tik Tok and other places for witchcraft to learn spells and stuff and. Yeah, sorry to interrupt, but will you.
- [122:43]
Sean Ryan
No, I'm, I'm, I'm listening.
- [122:44]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yeah, so they're there. The old saying is if you look for the devil, he'll find you. You know, so, so they're out there and, and they. Again, just like we have, you know, I'm high liturgy trad Catholic, so given the choice, I'm going to Latin mass, High Mass, Gregorian chant, the whole thing. And then you've got. On the other spectrum. I'm spiritual, but I'm not religious. You know, you know those Christians, like, I think you need spiritual, but I just don't want all these rules of religion and everything in between. Right, so you got us, me over here, you've got your kind of spiritual people that maybe go for a walk on Sunday and you have a little picnic with their Family. And then you've got, you know, everything spectrum in between. Well, the occult world works the same. You've got everything from, I'm spiritual, but not religious, meaning I'm not ritualistic. So I do a little wicca, I do a little, you know, minor things over here, all the way up to your full liturgical Satanic rituals and everything in between. I mean, the lavey and Satanism was copied after the Catholic Church. They have sacraments, they have the sacrament of Confirmation. They call their priest priests, etc.
- [124:04]
Sean Ryan
Really?
- [124:05]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yeah, you gotta Google Anthony Lavey's death. It's pretty interesting.
- [124:11]
Sean Ryan
What is it?
- [124:11]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Apparently, he. He. He started screaming out. He had a vision of hell and started screaming out, no, no, I served you. I followed you. What are you doing? No, that's what apparently is out there on the Internet. I've read good sources that he didn't die well, if you know what I mean. But these ancient guys are out there. I mean, if you look at Exodus, I mean, yeah, Exodus chapter one, it says, and they. And the Israelites were forced into slavery and they built for Ramses and Pitham. They built pyramids or they built buildings for Pharaoh. Right. Well, those two cities in particular. So here's the Jewish people coming out and they're going into slavery. And those two in particular. The deity that was worshiped in Egypt that the pharaoh represented and also was in those particular two cities is the deity named Atun. Remember, gods of the gentiles are demons. Psalm 96, 5 at u n atun. This was the great bisexual God. The great bisexual, also known as the great masturbator is what his name was. Now, this is not just me finding kooky sources. This is academic sources looking up with this stuff. I mean, I'm using, you know, I'm doing academic research. I'm not just pulling stuff off the end of Wikipedia. Okay, so. So these are the deities that are there. But think about it. God created Adam and Eve in our image. It says in Genesis chapter one, in our image, let us create man, male and female, let us create them. So something about the binary of the male and female reflects the inner life of God. We see hints of the Trinity already when God speaks in our image and not let us create man in our image. And something in the male and female reflects that. And then now we get into Egypt and the slavery of Egypt. You have the great bisexual God who begets. I won't even discuss how he does it, how he begets children and spits them out of his mouth. And he can change genders and can allow others to change their genders. This goes back to ancient Egypt. Describe it. Describe.
- [126:36]
Sean Ryan
Sounds graphic.
- [126:37]
Dr. Dan Schneider
It is graphic.
- [126:38]
Sean Ryan
What is it?
- [126:40]
Dr. Dan Schneider
He ingests his own semen and produces children out of his mouth. As opposed to God creating and begetting Adam and Eve. You know this in their mythology. This is how this. This deity that is both male and female.
- [126:58]
Sean Ryan
What is a deity? Is that a demon?
- [127:00]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Psalm 96. 5. The gods of the Gentiles are demons. So it's a demon. Yeah. So you fast forward, not to jump too much in time and space, but the Olympic ceremony, right. Everybody was outraged because it was a mockery of the Last Supper. I don't think so. I'm not sure. I mean, it was a mock. Anytime they can mock Christians, they can. But this is a Dionysian ritual that was a representation of Dionysus. Are you familiar with. That's another ancient. I'm not familiar. Yeah, so I was reading the Roman historian, Livy. Okay, you had Roman historians, you have Liddy, Livy, Herodotus and a few others. Okay. Josephus was a Jewish Roman. But around. I think it was around 100, around the same time that the Book of Maccabees was written in the Catholic Bible. The Book of Maccabees is around that time, 200, 150. They were actually in the Book of Maccabees a couple of things it says. It says, and the Israelites, Judas and Judas Maccabees, and the Israelites waged war joyfully for the Lord. And so giving us a little precursor into waging war. But what were they waging war against? The Gentiles were forcing that. Them. If you did not submit to the Dionysian rituals, you lost all property rights. I mean, it was. They were forcing them to convert to this ritual. And this ritual was nasty, you know. So what this was. This came from Greece. And picture in your mind what was going on at that Last Supper ritual. I mean, that Last Supper. I mean, this, that Olympic Olympics. The Olympics, yeah. So you have a guy there. You have trannies, right? You have. You have the guy there laying on the table, right? You have boys with children. You have transvestites, you know, and so they go into. So anyway, Livy describes this, and you can look this up in his writings. He's describing to the roman Senate in 150, I think, 100 to 158 BC. We do not want to let this into our pantheon. We don't want to offend this God. We don't know who he is. But let's, let us twist this a little bit and let's just make him the God of wine. And so it kind of comes into Roman culture a little differently as Bacchus. But Dionysus, the ritual, the original, the origins of Dionysus was Greek women would go into the forest, they were called minads, we get the word maniac, right. And they would be, it would be drug infused, drug fueled alcohol and drugs, particularly women would go. And just the idea was to break societal norms because women in Greek culture were much more. You see this, see this today you go look at the way women are treated in the Middle east compared to say Rome today. You know, so you see, you see, you see how this, this is kind of an ancient, the way women were treated back in ancient, even ancient Greece, pre Christian Greece. So they were, they were, this was an, they would go out and express themselves and they would have orgies and they would go, their hair would be crazy and they would scream and yell out and they would have orgies and these other things in honor of this Dionysian, this God Dionysus, who was also known to change, able to change his genders. So some of the men said this sounds like fun, naked women out in the woods, getting high, drinking, whatever. So they, they started instituting, letting men into these rituals. But if you want to be a part of this woman ritual, you have to do certain things like a woman, you know, and, and it was obey or buffet. And Livy, the Roman historian Livy describes it that they would part of the drums that they would beat would hide the screams of those who refused to comply to these sexual rituals, sodomistic rituals that they would take them into caves and sacrifice him, human sacrifice. And so Dionysus is an ancient pre Christian. I mean this ritual was pre Christian. And so in the Olympics, I think what they were saying is, I know this is at once was a Christian country, but we were here first and we're claiming it back. We're taking, you know, we're taking the space back. Think about Rome. If you've ever been to Rome, it's amazing, you should get there.
- [131:42]
Sean Ryan
I've been there.
- [131:43]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Maybe someday you go there and interview the Pope and the Pantheon, the Greek Pantheon, what's called the Pantheon, it's the Pantheos, all the gods. It's now the Church of St. Mary and all the martyrs. And so this is a beautiful church. There's a big opening in the middle and they drop rose petals down on Pentecost every Sunday. It's it's an ancient church. So they converted this church that this. And it's very Roman to do this. You take, you take a pagan place and you baptize it and you make it Christian, you know. And so they take this place, this celebration to all the pagan gods. And we now call it St. Mary. And all the martyrs, so all the martyrs. And it's filled with relics of early church Roman martyrs. I had mass there in one of the small chapels in the basement there with I mean second century martyrs, like 100, 120 Felicity Perpetua, 150 AD martyrs that were killed. And, and so going back in the Catholic tradition, we understand that the angels who fell their thrones were vacated. Right, the fallen angels. And God replaces them with us, which is one of the reasons they hate us so much. So now what became the church or the temple to all the gods now becomes the temple to the St. Mary and the martyrs. And so. Which is, which is why it's, it's. They have such burning hatred for us. And so space is sacred both to us and to them. And so I think what's happening is across the world they're saying, hey, we were here first, guys, we're just taken back. You guys, you guys displaced us when Christianity was here and you guys kicked us out. We're just going to reclaim. We were here first. I think that's. That whole opening ceremony was, was part of that. Wow. It's. It's when you start to see what's happening. That's why, that's why in the book I say is. And this comes from Kyle, Father's right hand man. My. He was my sensei, he was my master, my master sergeant. And teach me a lot of this stuff. We fight an ancient enemy. Ancient weapons are best. These guys, man, they've been around a long, long time. They've been trapping. One time Father Richard. Why do you keep doing the same things over and over to trap humans? He said because they work. So. But I was just in doing some training of priests and teams in Germany and in Berlin there's a church. There was St Peter's Church in Berlin that was torn down. And in its place is now an interfaith worship space for all religions. Hindus, Muslims, you know, and it's just this. As the church gets weakened, the enemy's pushing back. I mean that might sound insane.
- [134:47]
Sean Ryan
No, it doesn't. I mean, I'm paying attention.
- [134:50]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yeah.
- [134:51]
Sean Ryan
And I mean I've talked about this before, but when I see things like the Olympics or I'll list off a number of things here in a minute, but when I see things like that, it actually strengthens my faith in Christ because that's the other side, which is obviously alive and well right now, you know, And I look at that, like, look at this. Like, this is. It is what it is. And if that's real.
- [135:27]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yeah.
- [135:28]
Sean Ryan
Then so is the good side. And so, you know, ever since I've come to Christ, I've been. I've been paying attention to these things. And while they enrage me and they piss me off and I get. I get really upset, ruins my day, my week, whatever, you know, at the same time, it's strengthening my faith because if there's a dark side, then there's a good side. And, you know, but just in the couple of years that I've kind of come back to, you know, we've seen. We've seen the Olympics. We saw Easter, what I think a year and a half ago, where the letterhead from the White House was Transgender Day, happened to fall on Easter, but they put little Easter bunnies in the letterhead. Do you know what I'm talking about? You saw Notre Dame catch fire in France. I mean, there's just the Epstein stuff, the P. Diddy stuff, the artist. What's her name?
- [136:30]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Bromovich.
- [136:31]
Sean Ryan
Yeah, Bromovic. I mean, it's all around us, and I'm paying attention. I just keep seeing it over and over and over and over again. And you see the decline in people going to church, and it makes it real. And then on top of that, it really sparks my interest in spiritual warfare, because now I know it's real. Whereas before I was like, you know, I don't know about all this stuff, but now I'm tuned in and I'm paying attention.
- [137:07]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yeah. The Enemy uses a. They have a sacred calendar, too. They're more ritualistic and precise in their ritual than we are. We get sloppy. They do everything. Sinestro, to the left. Certain colors, you know what colors? Black and red, specifically. There are certain days. Moon, stars, equinox. These things all have cosmic significance. Think about the day that. The terror attack in Israel, when they. They. When they. When they. They went in on. On. What do they called. Ultralights, Right? Remember that when they. Was it last year, two years ago, they ultralighted in and slaughtered a bunch of. Of people at a music festival. Did anybody catch the date? That was the. That was the. The feast of Our lady of the Rosary, celebrating the Christians defeat at Lepanto. When they defeated the Muslims at Lepanto kept your Christians. Remember that? The Battle of Lepanto. They all numbered three to one, and the Christians defeated them. And the Pope declared to the whole world to start praying the rosary. That's where we get the title, lady of the Rosary. Our lady of Victory celebrated in October. And so that was coincidence. I don't know. We say in our business, there's no coincidences.
- [138:28]
Sean Ryan
I believe that, too.
- [138:30]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yeah. So one of the things is.
- [138:32]
Sean Ryan
Do you feel like it's picking up?
- [138:34]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yeah, I think it's just. What's interesting is they're becoming more bold. You know, they're just becoming more. They feel more emboldened. They have more political cover, so to speak. And so, yeah, they're just getting more bold about it, and they're getting more open about it. And, you know, the good thing is, one of the things that we say is evil militates to absurdity. And so, like, when we're dealing with cases, a person will go along, but the demon in his bloodlust will drive them to most absurd things, like the seal. That poor guy that transgendered for a while. Heartbreaking.
- [139:06]
Sean Ryan
Who is this?
- [139:07]
Dr. Dan Schneider
The guy that. There was a seal that you had on here that. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [139:10]
Sean Ryan
Chris Beck.
- [139:11]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yeah, yeah. He transgendered for a while. Right. But the demon militates to absurdity. And at some point, he looked at himself in the mirror and said, I'll do this, but I won't do that. This is absurd. I have to stop. And so even though the demon pushes to these absurdities, extreme things in that and his bloodlust to just destroy us, people wake up and go, what was I thinking? I mean, they had.
- [139:39]
Sean Ryan
For him to do that. He had all these external voices that were pushing him to do that.
- [139:45]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yeah, yeah. And internal voices.
- [139:48]
Sean Ryan
And internal voices. But, I mean, you know, if you go back to that interview that he never wanted to be a woman, he was extremely abusive upbringing, sexual trauma, physical abuse, verbal abuse. And so, you know, when Chris, when he was in therapy after he left the SEAL teams and was riding with the Hells Angels, doing cocaine and beating the shit out of people, all this stuff, you know, and he started wanting to get better. He went to therapy, and he had brought that up, that when I was a child, I would put on my sister's clothes, not because I wanted to be a woman, but because I didn't want to be me, because I was the only one in the family that got the shit kicked out of me constantly and was sexually abused. And so it was. For him to do that was not he didn't want to be a woman. He just didn't want to be him. He wanted to. You know, and he had brought that up in therapy. And then the therapist planted the seed in his head, you know, and then all these other external forces with the love bombing of the trans community. And there was a lot that went into that, you know, and that was. That was outside of his own mind.
- [141:02]
Dr. Dan Schneider
But at some point he said, he rec. It was so ridiculous. He recognized, I can't do this anymore.
- [141:09]
Sean Ryan
Well, he came to Christ.
- [141:11]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yeah, but I think culturally, what happens in individuals like him, and we see it in many other cases, culturally, the demons that were playing his hand. And when you got Tucker Carlson talking about getting attacked by demons, when you've got mainstream media figures like you and others that are. Because evil's becoming so apparent, you can't watch the Olympics and go, that's weird. The P. Diddy, that. That's. That's all part of it. I mean, how. How. So that was ritualistic. You had to. You had to give your man card in to get into. It's accepted into that, into that circle.
- [141:49]
Sean Ryan
I don't know a whole lot about the Diddy stuff. I've been waiting for the kind of verdict to come out. And then, you know, then it came out and he got like, what, Soliciting a prostitute?
- [142:00]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yeah.
- [142:01]
Sean Ryan
Some minor charge, but. And we can dive into that in just a second. But.
- [142:06]
Dr. Dan Schneider
And Epstein killed himself, too. You hear that? Yeah, sorry.
- [142:12]
Sean Ryan
Yeah.
- [142:12]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Too soon. I mean, what.
- [142:15]
Sean Ryan
I think he was allowed to kill himself. I think he was.
- [142:18]
Dr. Dan Schneider
I think this was Frankie Five Angels. Yeah. Remember Frankie Five Angels from the Godfather? Yeah. Yeah. Take care of yourself, and we'll take care of your family. Otherwise. Yeah.
- [142:30]
Sean Ryan
So, I mean.
- [142:33]
Dr. Dan Schneider
You have to break.
- [142:34]
Sean Ryan
It down in layman's terms when we. What is going on? Why is it amplified at this specific moment in time? How high does. I mean, I don't even know where to start. But that's why you're here. I want to learn about this. And so what is happening? Because what it seems like to me is all of the elites, the political parties, nations. I mean, all of the. The people that have major influence in the world. Actors, actresses, I mean, all the political types, world leaders. I mean, it seems like it's coming down from the very top of worldly people. How high does it go?
- [143:26]
Dr. Dan Schneider
I suspect it goes pretty high. I mean, I'm still, you know, boots on the ground type and so. But when you see things like the Bohemian Grove and you see things Bromovich and her connection with the Clintons, you know, there's, there's more to it than meets the eye. I'm not, I'm not going full, you know, conspiracy theory on everything, but I think we have to be aware that, you know, there are certain families that have been practicing this for centuries. There's a lot of people that just dabble and, you know, they're jumping into this because it's popular or chic and, you know, whatever, or you can get power from it. But then there's others that have been doing it for a long time. And this is, these are, you know, we've been. This is why we need Christian men and women to live their faith. We need exorcists. How do you.
- [144:18]
Sean Ryan
I mean, how does it get introduced? I mean, first, how is it spread through so many elites? I mean, where is it introduced? Do you hit a. Do you hit a certain level and then the people on that level financially or just a certain level of fame? I mean, is it introduced by colleagues or.
- [144:42]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Well, Beyonce, she admits that she said she. Something takes over her when she performs. You know, others, others have made, you know, they've made packs. You know, there's, there's, there's always going to be those individuals that are willing to do that. You know, why would they do it, though? Power.
- [145:08]
Sean Ryan
Why do they think they're going to get power? I mean, if they don't think that they get power from God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, why do they think they're going to get power from Satan or BAAL or Moloch?
- [145:21]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Because they will.
- [145:22]
Sean Ryan
What kind of power?
- [145:24]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Wealth, prestige, political power. I mean, he is the prince of this world. So, you know, there are those that will are willing to, you know, what he's looking for is, in the language that he often uses is you have what it takes. I mean, so you have what it takes to sell your soul in exchange for something earthly.
- [145:43]
Sean Ryan
I'm trying, I'm trying what I'm trying to, like, where's the presentation? Like, if you do this, then you're going to get this power. Or, like, where is the sign or the voice, you know, like, like you had talked about in the car wreck, you know. Yeah, that's just. To me, that's. That, that's not a coincidence. The Bible and the gold crucifix or cross.
- [146:04]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yeah.
- [146:04]
Sean Ryan
Was in plain sight of. I mean, this sounds like it's the first thing you saw.
- [146:08]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yeah.
- [146:09]
Sean Ryan
You know what I mean? When you came to and kind of woke up and so how's this demonic influence Introduced in people's lives. And how do they know that they're going to get power from certain sacrifices or acts or whatever it may be.
- [146:26]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yeah.
- [146:28]
Sean Ryan
Is it the voice of Satan?
- [146:29]
Dr. Dan Schneider
No, I think there's an underworld of practitioners out there that are doing it. I mean that's just, that's the reality.
- [146:37]
Sean Ryan
And so they come to him. They come to him and they find them. Is it like a, is it like a missionary operation but on the other side?
- [146:50]
Dr. Dan Schneider
I think so. I mean I had a priest, I had a priest just email me and said hey, I got this lady, she was urinating outside of our church and we ran her off, you know. And so we've had that at one of the churches that I go to and this, this church that he's, that this priest is. They do, I think they do 10,000 confessions a year. I mean this is a powerhouse church. And so the, the Satanists will have initiation rituals that you have to do certain things. Go urinate in front of a church, desecrated, you know, church as part of your initiation before you're allowed in, you know, so, so they have their own rituals, they have their own, their own way in, how they recruit. I don't know.
- [147:39]
Sean Ryan
Have you seen it?
- [147:41]
Dr. Dan Schneider
What's that?
- [147:42]
Sean Ryan
Have you seen anybody that's been approached or do you know anybody that's been approached?
- [147:47]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yeah, we had a lady not long ago went to a priest, brought him a consecrated host and said this was stolen from a church. They use it. My boyfriend, I'm living with this guy and they use it in their ritual and desecrated. And I felt really bad. I was Catholic and I wanted to give it back to you. If he finds out that I stole it, he'll kill me. So yeah, they're out there, you know.
- [148:16]
Sean Ryan
Let'S go and do the artists. What's going on with her?
- [148:20]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yeah, you know, it's, this is all symbolic rituals. You know, I try not to do too much reading and writing about those people. I try to focus on souls, you know, but, but yeah, so she, she, I mean part, remember part of the email leak, the so called Russian email leak was Podesta's brother was on that list, you know, of are you coming to the show? You know and it's written off as art, but it's not a Satanic. Very satanic.
- [148:54]
Sean Ryan
What is the point of the art? Because most people, I shouldn't say, I could go to an everyday American and spout her name off. Probably the majority of people I know the, I didn't know who the hell she was. Until my editor Darren, started putting the stuff in front of me, and I was like, what is this shit?
- [149:17]
Dr. Dan Schneider
But.
- [149:17]
Sean Ryan
And then he goes on about who's buying her paintings and.
- [149:21]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yeah. Yeah, it's. It's. Well, it's liturgical. It's ritualistic and liturgical. You wonder why I like to go to Latin Mass. It's the. It's a. Everything that is done is a mockery. Everything that they do is a mockery of the Catholic faith at one level. I mean, she did this.
- [149:42]
Sean Ryan
She did that painting for Prince Charles, Right?
- [149:44]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yeah.
- [149:45]
Sean Ryan
And it was. It was. It was. It was the devil. Correct.
- [149:49]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yeah. And then they'll have, you know, cakes, the shape of bodies are so called. You know, and they would. But what is it? This is my body. They heard the words we hear at the consecration at Mass. This is my body. So it's a mom.
- [150:02]
Sean Ryan
You say that again. Cakes.
- [150:04]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yeah.
- [150:04]
Sean Ryan
In the shapes of bodies.
- [150:05]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yeah. So it's. You know. And then they would eat that and she would lay out and they would. You know, they have all this other stuff. I'd rather not go into the details. Why not talk about Christ?
- [150:16]
Sean Ryan
Well, I think this stuff's important.
- [150:17]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yeah. People need to know that. It's. That it's as real as. As all the images in here. It's as real. We just can't see it. That's the problem. You can't see it.
- [150:29]
Sean Ryan
Let's. Let's. Can we go into it? Are you willing to go into it?
- [150:34]
Dr. Dan Schneider
To the extent that I have knowledge of it. You know, I mean, I'm. I'm a cab scout, and God's army is all, you know, and. And. But there's. There's some dark forces out there that we have just to be aware of it.
- [150:48]
Sean Ryan
What about the Diddy stuff?
- [150:49]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yeah, I mean, that's another one. I mean, ritualistic, sexual, bisexual, you know, not. Not unlike the Dionysian rituals. If you want in.
- [151:04]
Sean Ryan
That'S what you got to do.
- [151:05]
Dr. Dan Schneider
That's what you got to do. You know, one of the actors. One of the actors that played who was Iron Man's assistant.
- [151:15]
Sean Ryan
Oh, man.
- [151:16]
Dr. Dan Schneider
You know what I'm talking about. No. Anyways, on that movie, the very first actor that played iron. Played his. His assistant guy ended up. I don't know. I'm not a. I don't watch a bunch of movies, but he. He was recently came out and said he was invited one of those and said, you got to turn on your man card. That's the rule. If you want to. If you want to join that, if you want to join the rest of it, you know.
- [151:38]
Sean Ryan
So what's the point? Is it to take their dignity?
- [151:40]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Well, power, control. Yeah.
- [151:45]
Sean Ryan
Is it a blackmail thing?
- [151:47]
Dr. Dan Schneider
I think so. Some of that too. Yeah. Just like there's always a blackmail thing, I think. But. But again, thirst for power, you have what it takes. I mean, there's just.
- [151:58]
Sean Ryan
I mean, it just seems like it's running rampant and it's, it's, it's. It's being amplified right now. I mean, even all these TikTok accounts. There's that satanic cult that's having teenage girls cut themselves, kill themselves, swallow razor blades.
- [152:18]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yeah.
- [152:18]
Sean Ryan
Put things in themselves. I mean, it's, it's. And they fall into that trap. But then, you know, once they have one image, then it. Then it keeps going farther and they keep having them do more and more and more until they.
- [152:29]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yeah. Like the Nexium, you've seen about that stuff that got that guy and Rainier was his name, that Nexium called. Same stuff. It's just repurposed differently and fashioned, you know, differently.
- [152:41]
Sean Ryan
Why do you think that the spiritual war is being amplified right now? Why do you think that? What do you call it, the side of Satan? The darks? What do you call it?
- [152:54]
Dr. Dan Schneider
I think it's just the spiritual combat just becoming more open, like any combat. Sometimes it's more open and sometimes it's more covert. Sometimes you're, you know, sometimes it's you guys, and sometimes it's the tanks. And so sometimes it's more covert and sometimes it's more overt. So I think we're just living in a time where it's just out in the open and I guess it ever feels free enough to talk about it and be open about it and, and, and try to convince us that things are that bad. But I think it should drive us to pray. You know, it's. I was reading st. Cyprian and 300 AD under a time of intense persecution, he said prayer, fasting, fasting, vigils and prayer in common. These are our armaments. These are the spiritual weapons and defenses that we have against Evil. You know, 300 at the time of living, the church was under intense persecution. Prayers in common, vigils and fasting. And most Christians don't know how to fast. You know, we don't know what fasting is. We don't do it. But I've been in session and the demon says, nobody's fasting in here. Everybody's like, he's right. This is how we that's how we do battle against them, is we battle back with our bodies. Fasting, prayer vigils, spending time in prayer, not just checking the block, you know. So, yeah, it's a battle, but we have to learn how to fight with the ancient weapons.
- [154:45]
Sean Ryan
Do you feel the end is near?
- [154:47]
Dr. Dan Schneider
No, no, no. I don't think we're going to get out that easy. Yeah. Now there was a vision. Pope Leo xiii. I think it's interesting that the new Pope is Leo the 14th, but Leo XIII had a vision of hell and Satan being granted a hundred years to, to attack the Church. And so that, and that was in, I think, 1913. So we're at the end of that. You know, he was given granted 100 years to go after the Church, apparently, if you believe this, Pope Leo XIII. And that's where we get the St. Michael Prayer and part of the prayer that's embedded into the rite of exorcism that was written after that. And this is why Catholics up until the modern time would say the St. Michael prayer at the end of Mass. At the end of Latin Mass, we always say the St. Michael prayer. So I think we're just kind of living perhaps at the end of that time of the, of, of, of purification and testing of the Church. But, but I don't know if it's. I'm not a doom, I'm not a doomsday guy. You know, I think for me, I'm gonna get up tomorrow, do everything I do every morning, get my Bible out, read, do my prayers, take care of.
- [155:58]
Sean Ryan
I'm a doomsday guy.
- [155:59]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yeah, yeah. Stop reading the news, you'll feel better.
- [156:02]
Sean Ryan
Yeah, well, it's hard when it's in your face.
- [156:05]
Dr. Dan Schneider
You have to, everywhere, it's, it's your business, you have to stay on top of it. But, but you have to just make sure it doesn't consume you and spend. I remember Zig Ziglar. Remember Zig Ziglar, the motivational speaker? He said, I read the newspaper every day and the Bible every day so I can see what both sides are up to. So I think it's good that reading a little bit of scriptures every day, spending time in prayer, meditating on scripture, praying your rosary. I gave you about as manly of a rosary as you're going to get. Ranger Bead Rosary. Praying the rosary every day. And so that when you do start reading about all the dark stuff in the news, you can understand, okay, I've read the Bible start to finish, and in the end I see we win. You Know, like, football season's coming up, you know, of course I went to Notre Dame. I'm a Notre Dame fan. I remember last year. I forget what game it was. I was out somewhere and I recorded it. But I had heard that we won. And it was. It was like, man, it was a close game, and it sure didn't look like we were going to win. But I was just kicking back, eating some popcorn and kind of enjoying the game because I knew the Irish are going to win today. I already know the answer. So when I didn't know the. If I didn't know they win, I'm, you know, it's your team, man. You're going to get excited and you're going to hope they win. But that's how we need to be as Christians. We know Christ is. Christ wins in the end. We know that. We just need to just grind it out, you know? Like, I remember I told you the story of a. The Marine was going to. My. My SF buddy had a buddy, retired colonel, and he's asking, how do I get through Q course? How do I get through this? How do I get through this phase? And finally my buddy told him, here's how you get to Q course. Keep your head down, keep your mouth shut, keep walking. So. So that's, that's. That's the role. That's our job as, you know, as men and women Christians, we just keep our head down, mouth shut, just keep walking.
- [157:58]
Sean Ryan
I got another question.
- [157:59]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yes, sir?
- [158:00]
Sean Ryan
You said keep your mouth shut.
- [158:02]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yeah.
- [158:02]
Sean Ryan
Why would you keep your mouth shut? Wouldn't.
- [158:04]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Aren't.
- [158:05]
Sean Ryan
Aren't we, as Christians or Catholics supposed to call out evil when we say it?
- [158:11]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yeah. Yeah. Well, he was talking about. About, you know, when you're going through Q course or you're going through your guys's.
- [158:19]
Sean Ryan
I understand what he's talking about.
- [158:21]
Dr. Dan Schneider
You're not going to. You keep your mouth shut because the more you complain, the worse it's going to get. Just don't cause any trouble. I'm not saying you don't do that. No. We have to speak out. You know, I think there's a famous story about St. Francis de Sales or St. Francis of Assisi, and I hear this quoted a lot. Preach the gospel at all times, but when necessary, use words. And I think we're at the time where it's necessary to use words, you know, so what you're doing and what others are doing. What I'm trying to do is to arm people, to help people, to learn how to fight back against all the Darkness that's affecting the rebellion that's hitting families, you know, good families, Christian families. And so, so, yeah, I don't. I'm not saying you keep your mouth shut. I think I'm not saying that at all. But I mean, just. What I mean is just, you just grind it out. You have to just grind it out. And if God calls you and gives you a position like, you have to shine a light of truth and do it and, and if not, be faithful wherever God calls you to be faithful and just work it right there. You know, not everybody, you know, think about it. There's two saints in the Catholic Church who are patronage of foreign missions. One of them is St. Francis Xavier. They said he baptized. I forget, I mean, something like he would baptize thousands a day. He went to foreign missions in China and other places. He went all over the world. And the other one is Saint Therese, another Carmelite from the Carmelite Scapular, Saint Therese of Lisieux. She was about 15 years old when she went into the monastery as a nun. She died when she was around 21 or 22. She developed a theology or spirituality called the Little Way. And she was of offering every small little thing up for, for souls, for priests, for missionaries. And she became a saint and a doctor of the church, co patron or patroness with St. Francis Xavier of foreign missions. So there's people out there that go to work doing missionary work, and you're doing missionary work on a different level, but they're doing missionary work. And then there's those that are doing it behind the scenes, quietly praying, offering up small things. It's Martha and Mary. You know Martha, you know, you know the story of Martha and Mary. Mary sits at the feet of Jesus. And Martha, her sister sits, says, hey, I'm doing all the cooking, I'm doing all the work, all the serving. Make my sister come help me. And Jesus says, you're worrying about too many things. Your sister's chosen the better part. And so there's those that live the contemplative life, that live a quiet life of prayer. Not everybody can be Sean Ryan, but you can do just as much, if not more, just through prayer and small little things, small little sacrifices. That's what St. Therese kind of taught us as well. So whatever God calls you to do, just kind of work in that realm, whatever he calls you to do, you fight at that level. Level.
- [161:12]
Sean Ryan
So another question, I mean, you say whenever, whatever God calls you to do. But at the same time, if we rewind, you know, our conversation about an hour. We're talking about, you know, how discernment and the demons will put things into your head. And so how do you decipher? Yeah, how do you discern what that call is?
- [161:33]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yeah, every, you know, prayer. I mean you can hardly know what God is saying if you don't spend time in prayer. So spending time in prayer, quiet and I mean not just vocal prayer. You know that prayer book I gave you? Wear that out. But also quiet prayer, meditating on scriptures, spending time in the Bible and meditation, starting to learn to discern the voice of God. You know, after my initial conversion, you know, I had one other experience and it just, from that point on it was like God was hanging with me every day. Butterfly kisses, you know, I mean, it was, I was like, wow, if this is Christianity, I'm in. You know what I mean? You know? I love you. No, I love you more. No, I love you more. You know, in the early conversion it's like, no, you're the best. No, you're the best. You know, and just like when you're first married, you're like, you're all in touching and you got to hold hands and everywhere together we have to touch and, and, and, and then that goes away. God says you have to start to learn to hear my voice and start to really search me out. And so he pulls back. It doesn't mean he's any further away, just we're not as sense as sensorily awareness of it, you know, like you're four, four, four. I've heard you talk about that. He'll pull that back, you know, and now it's just like he's just, just doing something because that's what it's going to take to keep you connected and keep you awake and eventually maybe just pull that away.
- [163:04]
Sean Ryan
Do you think a demon would use 444 against me?
- [163:07]
Dr. Dan Schneider
He could. And that's why you got to be careful. You know, if you put too much emphasis on I have to hear this, you know, and we've all done it. God, if you want me to do this, make my phone ring in the next three minutes. Make the car, next car that drives by, if it's blue, then I know you want me to do this. And sometimes, you know, he doesn't work that way. He doesn't negotiate with terrorists, so to speak, you know, so yeah, he can use it against you if he knows that you're too. The demon can use it against you if you're not careful. So you have to learn to discern and okay, it's kind of open but cautious. And look at the fruit. If it's going to drive you. You know, the things that, you know, the fruit of prayer, this would be St. John of the Cross, who's a doctor of the Catholic Church, and the fruit of. Even of spiritual darkness. But of the fruit of prayer, am I increasing in virtue? Am I increasing in my ability to carry the cross? Am I increasing in my awareness of how offensive sin is? Am I growing in my vocation? Am I becoming a better father, husband, wife, mother? You know, this is the kind of fruit of prayer. And if, you know, these things are kind of the fruit of your prayer. And if God gives you some of the good stuff and affirmation, rejoice. And if he pulls it away.
- [164:45]
Sean Ryan
Okay, so I understand that, but then there's.
- [164:48]
Dr. Dan Schneider
And just. I just want.
- [164:49]
Sean Ryan
For. For the record, I don't. I don't worship the number 444.
- [164:52]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Oh, no, no, no, no.
- [164:53]
Sean Ryan
I don't ask. I can't say that I don't ask for signs, but I'm. I'm just trying to pay attention.
- [165:00]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Exactly.
- [165:01]
Sean Ryan
And so. And so when you're talking about, you know, does this help me carry the cross? More like. I just want to give you an example. Example. This has nothing to do with 444, but I've talked about this several times. I did this interview earlier this year with this Colleen Georgescu, who was running for president of Romania, and then he got painted into being Russian asset, and he was winning the election, and then they just kicked him off and was being harassed. I think he may have been arrested, a little rusty on. Anyways, maybe it was Russian asset, maybe he wasn't. I don't think he was.
- [165:39]
Dr. Dan Schneider
But.
- [165:40]
Sean Ryan
But on the way to that interview, I was like, man, like, I. I hope I'm doing the right thing. And I had written this tweet out real quick that said, the truth is like a lion. Set it free and it'll defend itself. That came from Adam, by the way, but he's the one that told me that it stuck with me ever since tweeted that out. I'm having, like, this internal, you know, debacle, like, am I doing the right thing? Like, I feel like I'm doing the right thing, but I don't know. I don't know. But all I know is I feel like I'm supposed to give this man a voice because no media would touch him. Nobody would. Nobody was talking about it. Turn the corner, and this woman walks around the corner. I mean, this is like minutes after I did this, after I tweeted that out, and this woman comes around the corner with this huge sequence, sparkly lion head on her shirt and that, like, you know, I don't know how interviewing Colleen Georgescu helps me carry the cross. I just see a man who got shafted in an election and they went after him. And I said, well, if nobody else is going to give this guy a voice, then I'm going to give this guy a voice. I don't know if I'm doing the right thing. I feel like I'm doing the right thing. Boom. That's the sign that I needed to let me know I'm doing the right thing. Does that make any sense?
- [167:06]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yeah. Yeah.
- [167:07]
Sean Ryan
So I don't think there's anything in Scripture, and I don't know.
- [167:11]
Dr. Dan Schneider
I've not.
- [167:13]
Sean Ryan
I've picked through the Bible. I've read a lot of the Gospels. A lot of it doesn't make sense to me. You know, I try to learn from discussion and things like I'm doing right now rather than the Bible, because it just paints more questions. I'm just being honest.
- [167:29]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yeah, yeah.
- [167:30]
Sean Ryan
It's confusing to me. I don't understand a lot of what I read. And so this is how I learned by talking to people like you or Father Dan Rehill or Lee Strobel or John Burke, and. And I learn a lot that way. But all you guys say the same thing. Does it help? Does it. I don't see how that strengthens me as a Christian or. I just feel like I'm doing the right thing and then I get a sign like the lion's head.
- [168:05]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yeah. Yeah. So how do I. I think it's just.
- [168:09]
Sean Ryan
Maybe that wasn't. Maybe that was just a coincidence. I don't believe in coincidence.
- [168:13]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yeah, no, it just. It's. Again, it's like, how many times have you kicked a door in and you get to the door and it's like, I'm going to wait. Let's try a different entryway. So, you know, you have to kind of trust your instincts as well. Not. Don't demand a sign. You know, like in the scriptures, God tells Israelites, you people, unless you have. Jesus says, unless you have signs and wonders, you won't believe. And that's, you know, when the signs and wonders become an obstacle to your belief, then you gotta be careful. But, I mean, to me, it sounds like God's messing with you a little bit, letting you have a little. He's having a little fun with you. Yeah.
- [168:53]
Sean Ryan
I Mean, it's not like I'm waiting for the green light like we're getting ready to go on a raid or jump out of a Hilo or airplane or whatever. It's just when I'm having those. When I'm confused, am I doing the right thing? You know, And I'm not. I mean, sometimes I might ask for a sign. I mean.
- [169:12]
Dr. Dan Schneider
I mean.
- [169:14]
Sean Ryan
People do that shit all the time. It's like, oh, are we supposed to have this house? Give us a sign? I think that stuff's. Because that's just a. That's just a. It's a. It's just a. It's a fucking thing. It's not.
- [169:28]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yeah.
- [169:29]
Sean Ryan
It's like, I really don't think God gives a shit if I live in that house or the other house or that house. I don't think he really cares. So I'm not really.
- [169:37]
Dr. Dan Schneider
I'm looking.
- [169:37]
Sean Ryan
I'm not looking for a sign. If I. If I. To buy a home or a car or get a big deal or anything like that. I never. I never do that.
- [169:48]
Dr. Dan Schneider
But.
- [169:49]
Sean Ryan
But I do it when I'm having. When I'm having troubles like. Which I know where my values are, but I don't know if this. Am I making any sense?
- [169:59]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yeah, yeah. No, for sure. And I think. I think open but cautious, knowing that the. The demon can walk you down into a kill zone too. But at the same time, there's something pure about a childlike faith and trust in God, you know, and those things come and go. I would be lying to you, say, if I didn't have those things happen in my life as well. But. But as long as it's not. I won't. I don't believe. Unless it's. You made the decision to do it and then you got an affirmation versus. I'm gonna. I'm waiting for God to tell me he's not gonna work that way. He's gonna let you do it. But. But, you know, those little things. He's gonna send your way on occasion just to go. Yeah. You know. You know, I was traveling not long ago, and, you know, traveling is no fun. And you're tired. I was sitting in. In the regular seat, and I'm trying. I must be traveling more than usual because I've been getting some upgrades, which is kind of a nice thing, you know. And so the flight attendant comes back. Excuse me, you. You have an upgrade. Would you like to go to first class? I was like, well, if you have to, you know. So I walk over There, like I said, a picture of George Jefferson, you know, he used to walk George Jefferson. I said, this is me walking up the first class, you know. And so was that, was that the Lord saying, hey man, spread out a little bit, I appreciate the work you're doing. Or was it just American Airlines saying, hey man, you've done a lot of miles this year and here's a free upgrade. Or was it both? I don't know, but I accepted it, Lord. Hey, either way, thank you Lord, you know, and if you're sitting in the back and the guy next to you is snoring and smelly and bumping a man spreading next to you, Lord, thank you anyway, you know, but yeah, sometimes, you know, especially when you're in critical times, you know, when you're at these critical moments like you are, he's going to shower you with some of this stuff, he's going to give you the Reese's Pieces to kind of walk you in, you know, which is very beautiful. So just be open and cautious and, and kind of run it by again, run it by your wife because they've got, they've got senses that they see, they see the world in a different way, you know.
- [172:13]
Sean Ryan
Let's take a quick break. When we get back, we'll get into some exorcisms.
- [172:16]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Okay?
- [172:16]
Sean Ryan
Perfect.
- [172:17]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Perfect.
- [172:20]
Sean Ryan
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Dr. Dan Schneider
Foreign.
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Sean Ryan
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- [175:15]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yeah, so I was, I was just, just started. Just got accepted for my doctoral work. So after my conversion years ago, I just had a thirst for, just a thirst for God. And so I started, I got a master's degree after my conversion experiences. I couldn't read enough of scripture, so I just fell in love with scripture. So I just started reading the Bible reading and I realized I got to get more of foundation. So I got a master's degree in theology. And then I was just reading about the Bible. I'm going to read the Bible. So then I ran into this priest who just died this year. He's a good man and he was going blind. So I went to his, I went to his apartment every Friday and he said mass and he said, I'll teach you Greek. So. And so if you want to learn Greek, I'll teach you how to learn Greek. I'll teach you Greek, you know, and so he, we start working on it and I was really struggling. And, you know, I went to Catholic school my whole life, went to Notre Dame, had a master's degree in theology and I was really struggling with learning Greek. And he goes, well, because you want to learn, you want to read the Bible, you got to learn Greek. And so I'm doing it part time and Trying to teach myself when I'm not there. And he's tutoring me, and he says, hey, man, I realized it's my fault that you're struggling. And I said, I was like, oh, man, what a nice guy, you know, What a bro. He's taking a hit for me. I'm just struggling. He goes, yeah, it's my fault. I've grossly overestimated your academic background and intellectual capacity. I was like, I love you, man. And so he said, we're going to throw this crap out. We're trying this modern book. He said, we're going to learn it my way. We started learning ancient, you know, ancient Greek, and then we moved into Old Testament. And then by the time we got to the New Testament, it's almost like, compared to, say, Aristotle, the New Testament is like, see Dick run. You know, see Jane run. So. So I spent several years learning Greek, and then a couple years just. I still just read, read every day just to keep it fresh. Read scriptures, just read the Bible in Greek just to keep it. And it's amazing, again, like, the nuances. God pursues us, but it's. It's not just following like a shadow. I mean, he's in hot pursuit of us. You know, the words that are used when. When St. Luke says the. You know, that we are. We are the ministers of God, right? In the opening of St. Luke's Gospel, the word he uses under oarsmen, you know, like a gallow slave. This is what the ministers of God are. I mean, there's just so much richness in the words of scripture in the Greek. And so I spent some years really trying to master that. And then I just had this, you know, sometimes, like we were talking about the 444. God sometimes nags us until we at least, hey, all right, I'll do it. And sometimes, like, with. He'll teach us through repetition. You know, you'll read a scripture versus what's good about doing reading the scriptures every day, even if it's just reading the proverbs, one proverb a day for the day. You start thinking with scriptural language. And then you read the scripture, and then you look at the billboard and there's a billboard with that exact scripture. And then somebody walks by and it's on their T shirt, you know, and so God just kind of encourages us through repetition. And, you know, again, you just have to be cautious because the enemy knows if we need that and God pulls it back. The enemy can kind of step in and try to mimic God, but God is really oftentimes does what he's doing. You know, you talked about too like Tim Tebow. I mean, how do you deny that? I mean, it's, you know, I don't.
- [179:02]
Sean Ryan
Know how you deny that.
- [179:03]
Dr. Dan Schneider
He's just, he's just encouraging him to, to keep doing what he's doing, you know, and so, so, so anyway, it's, it's so. I just love scripture. So I was just. But, but same time, sometimes God just, just pounds you, you know, can you.
- [179:17]
Sean Ryan
Run through the 4, 4, 4 thing like we just did downstairs? I didn't know any of that stuff.
- [179:22]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Oh, okay. Yeah, I was thinking about that because I was. I was listening to, I think the strobl least shovel, and you were talking about the 444. So numbers have, especially to the Jews, numbers have sacred, their sacred meaning. And the biblical numbers have significance. And Jesus does this. He says, do you remember when they were. Sometime, I think it was in Mark's gospel, he says, they were arguing and Jesus corrected them and they thought he was mad because they didn't bring bread. Okay? And Jesus says, guys, when we were with the 4000, how many loaves were left over? You know, they said 7. When we were with the 5,000, how many were left over? 12. Do you still not get it? You know, and they're like, no, you know, but when Jesus multiplied the loaves for the 4000s, he's in Gentile territory. The number four represents the four four corners. Four directional corners, right? The four corners of the earth. The fourfold gospel in gentile territory with seven loaves left over, right? And so the seven represents the covenant. The number seven in Hebrew means to covenant oneself. God rested on the seventh day. He rested and covenanted himself with humanity. And so now in gentile territory, the four. The gospel is going to be brought to the four corners of the earth, to the Gentile territory, right through the seven of the new covenant, the seven sacraments of the church, etc. So you can see the symbolic of the numbers. And then the five. Five always represents the law, the Torah, the first five books of the Old Testament. How many were Left over? The 12. There were 12 baskets left over. 12, 12. The 12 tribes of Israel, the 12 patriarchs, and now the 12 apostles. Just in Revelation, you see, you know, the 12, 12 and 12 as well. These numbers have symbolic meaning in the opening of Matthew's Gospel. They list off from the beginning Jesus's genealogy. And then there was 13 generations. Let me see. I don't want to misquote Scripture. So at the end, in Jesus's genealogy, in Matthew. Let me pull it up. Thus, the total number of generations from Abraham to David is 14 generations. David, David to Bethel, Babylonian exile, 14 generations, Babylonian exile to the Messiah, 14 generations. So you have the number David. Each letter in Hebrew has its own numeric equivalent. So there's no vowels in Hebrew. So you have D, v, d, the five. D is five, v is four, and d is five, the number 14. So you have 14 generations. 14 generations. 14 generations or six sevens. And now Matthew is Jewish. A Jewish listener would go, dude, spot on. You know, I get it. Now we're starting the seventh seven, the perfect, the new covenant, the seventh seven. David, the Messiah from the, you know, the new David, the new Messiah coming from, you know, is now enacting the new covenant for humanity. And so 4. 4 represents the four corners of the earth, the four Gospels. Four times three is 12. Three, of course, represents the Trinity, wholeness, perfection, and then 12, the 12 tribes, and now the 12 apostles. So I try not to analyze this stuff, but sometimes there's no coincidences. So, like I said, I think if it's true, you keep getting this 444, the Lord is saying, you're going to somehow help me in some way, even in the secular world, to bring the fourfold gospel to the four corners of the earth so people will believe in the three persons of one God and the twelve tribes of the twelve apostles and to bring them into the church somehow. I don't know. That's just a little midrash on that, but very interesting. Those numbers mean they. They have symbolic. There's symbolic meaning, you know, there's, you know, and. And, yeah.
- [183:51]
Sean Ryan
Anyway, so how did you get into exorcisms? Were you asked? Did you insert yourself?
- [183:56]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yeah, any. Anybody? We have one disqualifier, you know, and that is if you volunteer for this, you're automatically disqualified. You know, people have come to us, hey, can I get involved? There's. There's. There's a kind of a famous guy been reaching out recently to, hey, can. Can I get on your team? And, like, if you're asking, you're disqualified 100%. You got to be. You got to be an idiot, you know, to do this. So there's something again that you're called. It's something that you're called to look at, you know, either, in my experience, you've either prayed to God, teach me the truth, use me, make me holy. And going into spiritual combat this close with the enemy, you're going to Learn the truth. You're going to grow in holiness or you're going to get taken to the woodshed until you do. And Lord's going to use you in some way to help to bring souls out from the grip of darkness. So. So I had learned Greek and I had this nagging, hey, just get your PhD. I was like, here's a PhD man. It's not practical. And so I said, well, I'll just apply. And I was in. At that time, I was going through some kind of a rough patch and some spiritual darkness, and I just wasn't. I was still praying every day, but I just, I said, all right, fine, I don't even think this is you, but I'm going to fill it out and send it off. So I. I found this program in England and I was able to do it part time and they accepted me. Okay? So I just got accepted. And then we had an exorcist friend of mine who was asked by our bishop to be diocesan mandated exorcist, which is a special. To be an exorcist, technically you have to have a mandate. And that's a Latin word from a Latin word. It means a commissioning. And it also ties into the being sent, a biblical term. And to be sent as an apostolos means you carry as a commission the authority of the one who sent you. It isn't like the Domino's Pizza guy that comes to collect the bill when you're sent. This goes back to a Hebrew concept called the Celia is the Hebrew word, but the Greek is apostolos. To be sent is to be. The decisions you make are binding to the one who sent you and to the one to whom you sent. This is why the demon recognizes, especially when it's an ordinance, when it's a mandated exorcist. The demon is bound there and must oblige in some way. You know, he must obey the commands of the exorcist. And so anyway, my good friend was asked to be an exorcist. And he's like, hey, man, you are ex military. Would you, would you come? I'm like, yeah, Father, but I'm getting to start my doctoral work and I'm going to be pretty busy, but I'll come. So this guy, Kyle Clement, his father Ripker's right hand man, he shows up time he was rocking the ZZ Top beard, you know, and he stands up kind of casual clothes. And I was like. And he said, this is Kyle, he's from Texas. And I, I was like, texas what the heck is this guy going to know? You know, Texas with the beard. And he starts laying out theology like I've never seen. And, you know, I had just finished my master's degree and studying the progression to spiritual perfection. The nine. There's nine grades, roughly, of prayer, beginning with vocal prayer, all the way to a mystical union prayer like we talked about. Padre Pio. And there's gradations. There's three main ways, and inside of those, there's gradations of prayer that you progress along. And he's laying out the nine steps to progression to possession and what it looks like. And I realized that it was a complete diabolical inversion of what God's plan for us. St. Paul says, I am possessed by Christ. He wants to be fully possessed. He wants us to be totally alive in Christ, him completely possessing us. And the demon is trying to work to the opposite. So the lights just start going on in my head. And then the priest says, okay, anybody that wants to leave, but we're going to bring somebody in, we're going to pray for them and do a minor exorcism, and if you want to leave, you can leave. You know, we're going to take a little break. And then everybody bails. So it's just me and a couple of crazy guys, you know, and my, like, you know, my friends, like. And he was. I mean, he. He wasn't an athlete, and, you know, he was a good guy, smart guy, well educated, but he never played sports or anything, and he'd never been punched in the face. And, you know, so he's like, hey, are you gonna go? I'm like, nah, nah, Father, I'm gonna stick around, you know, for sure. If you're, you know, I'm from Ohio, man. If you're in a fight, I guess I'm in it, too, you know, that's just the way I am. So he starts praying. And it was like, you know, the first time for me, you know, for you, it's probably strapping up or, you know, the air starts to rarefy, and your senses just start focusing. To me, it's that. That first initial. Once. Once I start hearing the rotors, you go into a different place, you know, and the air just started to rarefy. And I was expecting Hollywood. I was expecting something far different. And what I saw was. It was liturgical, it was beautiful, it was powerful. It was the weight of the Church, the authority of the Church, weighing down against the kingdom of darkness. And so that was the first time that I saw anything special and then it's like, oh, that's not so bad. And then, oh, okay. Well, we have this other case. And so we started, you know, started doing cases. At the time, we were doing two or three sessions a week different, you know, minor and minor exorcism, which is deliverance, and then solemn session, which is a little more rare. So we start and the case starts. You know, once you. Once you. Once the demon knows you're set up in a diocese, he will flood you, flood you with cases, psychological cases, crazy people, people that don't need help. You know, if he can heal, you know, you're human. How many rounds can you. Did you carry at one time when you went in?
- [190:10]
Sean Ryan
It's always different, but six mags.
- [190:13]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yeah. So there's a limit how much you can carry. So at some point, it's not like Hollywood. You're not John Wick, you know, you run out of ammo. And. And so he'll try to get you to just deplete all your assets, all your ammo, if you can. So you. So you have to have a pro. You know, we developed a process with Father Ripker for that, but. But we started getting tons of cases. Tons of cases.
- [190:36]
Sean Ryan
What are the nine? You said there's nine stages to possession.
- [190:40]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Well, there's three primary. So you have ordinary and extraordinary diabolic activity. The ordinary activity is temptation. The stuff that we deal with all the time. Until probably 30 minutes after I'm dead, I'm still gonna. I'm still gonna be tempted by, you know, that cherry pie or whatever, you know, so kind of temptation. What's that? What kind of temptation? Diabolic temptation. I was joking about cherry pie. I like cherry pie, but you know what I mean. So temptation is the ordinary. And it, you know, part of being, being in the spiritual life, part of being a Christian is dealing with temptation. A temptation to anything, name it. Anger, lust, infidelity, impurity, theft, whatever. The demon is going to constantly whittle away. That's the ordinary. The analogy that I use is, you remember in Vietnam, they would set. I don't know if you guys still did, but they would set up the wire, they would string claymore minds around, you know, and so the wire represents kind of the interiority of self and the temptation. The demon's still outside the wire. And then you've got increasing levels of extraordinary diabolic activity. And it's oppression, obsession, and then possession. And each one of those has marked signs, three marked signs of movement towards a full blown possession. But the ordinary is temptation. And the extraordinary is oppression, obsession, possession. And it begins. Oppression level is normally along in temporal goods, relationships, finances, you know, vehicles and, you know, temporal things. And then as it grows down the spectrum, it becomes more interior and the. And the demon becomes more present to the person as, as he, as he takes more ground, they surrender more ground. It's very much like trench warfare in many ways. As the demon takes more ground, he becomes more interior and more present to them. They become, you know, just like, you know, the church lady. You know, you have a conversion experience and suddenly you're helping out the church. You're telling everybody about it. Like man, God did all these great things for me. And you're broadcasting and telling everybody. And the opposite, you're doing the opposite. You know, you're putting up, you know, if you're Catholic anyway, you're putting up pictures of Our lady of Guadalupe and a crucifix over here and, and you know, you've got. Had St. Benedict over here, whatever there. They're starting to take down any religious objects. They're putting up more secular stuff. They're starting to broadcast, they're doubting God. So you start to see this inversion and then spiritual obsession. The demon starts moving in. He's starting setting up. He's starting to control things a lot more increasingly. And possession again, as I mentioned earlier, it's very rare, but you know, it's done when. If he doesn't have to, he's not going to for the most part. And so, yeah, so obsession is more common than possession. And the danger of not ferreting out the psychological. People got to understand is that a psychological obsession, psychological obsession can open you to a spiritual oppression or even spiritual obsession just to a psychological obsession. Because the demon feeds off that. He takes advantage of that psychological obsession, whether it's addiction or pornography or. I'm not saying if you're addicted to pornography, you're possessed. But any psychological obsession can open, expose, you're just vulnerable. You got a whole flank that's wide open and nobody's covering it. How do they get in? You know, a couple things. One is wounds, trauma. Another is, you know, the demon.
- [194:43]
Sean Ryan
Physical trauma.
- [194:45]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Psychological trauma.
- [194:46]
Sean Ryan
Psychological trauma.
- [194:46]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Psychological trauma. Yeah, psychological trauma. They feed off those wounds, their vulnerabilities. And of course the demon enters through sin and as I put it in the book, the human interest of sin. But he holds in heresies, believe it or not, even in false beliefs he can hold on those heresies. We always see that, but it's usually some psychological trauma and. Or sin deep Especially grave sin. Even. Especially the really wicked sins. In our experience, we've seen that as diabolic accompaniment.
- [195:23]
Sean Ryan
What is that?
- [195:25]
Dr. Dan Schneider
There's a demon press.
- [195:26]
Sean Ryan
What's an extreme sin?
- [195:27]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Incest, sexual trauma, sexual abuse, rape. That sort of thing.
- [195:36]
Sean Ryan
What is the. I mean, what is the demon's goal?
- [195:41]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Take you to hell?
- [195:45]
Sean Ryan
Well, there's lots of sinners. Why do they pick these specific people? I mean, what. What are some of the people that we were talking about? Abramovich. I mean, is she possessed or.
- [196:00]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Well, I mean, I think if you're working specifically in that field, you're probably uncontestedly possessed. Yeah, but they're working on all of us. You know, Father Morth, I think I mentioned earlier, the demon told him, if you can. If you could see our numbers, we would darken the sun. You know, My name is Legion, for we are many. So. So they're. They're. They're constantly whittling away. Whittling away. Working at it through perception. That's why I think you ought to watch Nefarious, because you start to see diabolic psychology. The way he's. The way he whittles away what he's looking for, the vulnerabilities he's looking at. But he has no rights. That's what he's going to say. I have a right to you. No, you don't. If you're baptized by right, your soul belongs to Jesus Christ. That's it. But he takes permissions. You know, if you give him permissions to behaviors, he'll take that, and that will be his entry point. That makes sense. Kind of. Yeah.
- [197:05]
Sean Ryan
By giving him permissions, you mean by.
- [197:10]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Your actions.
- [197:13]
Sean Ryan
Acting on temptation.
- [197:14]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yeah. Sinful behavior. Yeah.
- [197:18]
Sean Ryan
What are some of the things that you've seen during exorcisms? You saw levitation, correct?
- [197:26]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yeah. When the first one of the first cases we had was. Was. Well, yeah, levitation. All but tips of the toes and the thing. Tip. I mean, physically impossible, you know, to. To elevate. As if there was a rope pulling everything off the ground except for tips of the fingers and tips of the toes.
- [197:48]
Sean Ryan
You've seen that?
- [197:49]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yeah.
- [197:50]
Sean Ryan
How did that feel?
- [197:54]
Dr. Dan Schneider
You know, you're just so focused on mission. You're not thinking about it. You're just praying. You're doing your job, you know? But I've seen a. The priest starts praying, and the lady sitting in a folding chair in the room, about this size, one bound, slides all the way from this wall to that wall. Wow. Yeah. And I was just like, you know, just like You. You got. You're cool. You know what I mean? You're a seal. I was a helicopter pilot. You know, you flew with a lot of guys, and no matter what happens, they're always cool. So on the outside, I'm always like, you know, just doing none of Shakeless. On the inside, I was like, dude, you got to do that again. That was. Wow. Yeah, but I mean, I joke. I joke, but, yeah, it's some of the stuff. It's just fan. It's just. Wow.
- [198:41]
Sean Ryan
What are they saying when you're performing the exorcism?
- [198:44]
Dr. Dan Schneider
The. The. The. Yeah.
- [198:45]
Sean Ryan
Sometimes possessed first.
- [198:47]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yeah. When we talk about what the demon saying or manifestation, what happens is the demon appropriates the senses of the person, and so they take. Again, the demon, properly speaking, possesses the body, and they appropriate their senses. Sight, hearing, you know, they're very. They traffic into senses. They're sense. Some are sensitive to different things. You know, I can't tell you how many times you can't hear, but I've got Gregorian chant going right now. I can't tell you how many times. I would do an intake and they'd say, can you turn that music off? I'm like, what music? You know, it's coming out of your pants, your jacket. I'm like, and I'll crank it up. You mean this? And I'll crank it up real loud. No, I'm not going to turn that off because it. And it sees it. Well, it's aggravating something inside of you. Okay. I'm not turning it off. You know, I've seen it one time. For example, music. Gregorian chant, which is the chant of monks, okay? Catholic monks, Benedictine monks, praying, ancient prayers. You know, Gregorian chant goes back to the 500s. You know, Gregory the Great is when it kind of started. So maybe. Maybe 600. And so the priest says, okay, let's basically get the party started, you know? So I had. I have the Te Deum, which is an ancient Gregorian chant. Te reim laudambas, we praise you, God. And it's the chant of the choirs of angels chanting before the throne of God. Okay? And so I just hold it up. And as soon as the demon was kind of stoic, and as soon as he hears the Gregorian chant immediately starts manifesting. And then the priest jumps in and does the exorcism. And then the next week, I thought, I want to be smart, because I'm a smart guy, you know? So I played something else. The DSE Ray that's on. They played on Good Friday, the day of Wrath. So I want to play that one as being a smart guy. So I just held that up and the demon just went like this and looked at me and just looked at Father and nothing happened. So I was like, man, wonder what happened. So I look on the itunes. The first one was chanted by the Gregorian, I mean, the Benedictine monks of Santo Domingo de los Silos in Spain. And then the second one was the Westminster Choir of Lay People. So the demon knew it's not just the words or the sound, it's where it's coming from. The heart of the church, the monastic heart of the Church of chant. The demon could tell the difference. Wow. Pretty incredible. You know, so that. So the tracking, traffic in the senses, you know, what do you do when.
- [201:39]
Sean Ryan
You have a possessed person levitating?
- [201:42]
Dr. Dan Schneider
The priest stops it.
- [201:44]
Sean Ryan
Stops what? Yeah, the exorcism.
- [201:46]
Dr. Dan Schneider
No, he just. Hey, stop that. Yeah.
- [201:50]
Sean Ryan
How long does it take?
- [201:53]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Usually an hour and a half. Sometimes I've been in there three hours, you know, but different other times. I've. I've seen other guys. Like, I read it somewhere in the Catholic News about a couple years ago, a lady manifested at mass and three priests grabbed her, took her to a chapel and prayed over her for nine hours straight or something. But that doesn't help. It's just going to light stuff up. You're just going to use a lot. You're going to. You're going to blow through a lot of brass. But yeah, they're not. Usually, generally speaking, they're not going to be ready for that, you know, so, you know, hour, hour and a half until they're done.
- [202:25]
Sean Ryan
Can you describe the worst one you've ever seen in detail?
- [202:36]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yes and no. I mean, levitation, the manifestations are terrible. The most glorious things are the conversions and the holiness that they grow in. But, but levitation, somebody, the body turns into a spider and tries to climb up a wall backwards.
- [202:57]
Sean Ryan
You've seen that.
- [202:58]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yeah, yeah. But those are fairly rare. You know, they happen. And, and, but, but the more. Really, the most beautiful thing is to see the, the. The. The power of the priesthood, the power of the church, the power of Christ, the power of Sacrament of confession. You know, this, this is. That's. That's the most amazing thing to see. You know, what is it like, what's.
- [203:34]
Sean Ryan
That leaves. Where does it go?
- [203:38]
Dr. Dan Schneider
There's different understandings of what happens, but normally when the priest commands, he sends them back to hell and they receive further punishment for that. That's why they. One of the reasons they resist so whole. So so fiercely, you know, but. Yeah, but what's interesting is through these tremendous crazy manifestations, what's even more beautiful is to see how usually by the end, these people are the holiest people in the room because they've suffered so much. And they'll suffer a terrible session and get up and say, okay, when we doing it again, you know. And so the power of them growing, you know, the sacraments growing in holiness, and it's incredible to see. Yeah, the power of the mystical body, it's hard to understand. And unless you've really seen it, if you grew up Catholic, you kind of understand it. Litany of saints and these other things. But seeing, you know, what really opened my eyes at the beginning was when part of the rite of exorcism is a litany of saints. And most priests use the Latin, you know, the three sacred languages, Hebrew, Latin and Greek. And those were partly because what Christ. When. In John's Gospel, when Jesus was crucified, they put Jesus Christ, King of the Jews, and they put it in Pilate, put it in those three languages, in the Latin language is the language of the Roman Catholic Church. And so that's the official language. So the old ritual in Latin is more powerful. It's more efficacious. Even the Latin language, it's more pleasing to God because it's the. It's the liturgical language of the Church. So I was the first since I knew some Latin. I was the scribe, and I was just marking down. I didn't know what I was looking for. I was just watching my very first. And I'm going through and I'm just writing down which saints lighted up. And, you know, each. Each one of those kind of gives you an indication of where he's holding. You know, where he's holding. Because it. Because God sends help from the mystical body, an emesis, if you will. It's kind of an interesting phenomenon how he sends in just like, you know, you're 444 and you start to see things and God's sending you help some way. Just kind of track, make sure you're tracking. He also. He'll send certain saints over to kind of cycle in and to do battle with you and kind of help you.
- [206:14]
Sean Ryan
What do their eyes look like?
- [206:18]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Usually? Dark, rolled back like a dog's eyes rolled back. All the way up sometimes all the way up. Everyone's different, though. Oftentimes they'll block the hearing, you know, so you can't say, well, they won't, you know, but not just. Not just like this, but. But not physically. But shut it down. Shut it down.
- [206:40]
Sean Ryan
Shut the sense down.
- [206:41]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yeah. And the priest just says, like Jesus to the deaf person. Ephatha from scripture. Be opened. And it opens. I command you to open her ears. I command you to be quiet.
- [206:52]
Sean Ryan
Does the demon always reveal who its name?
- [206:56]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yes. In the rite of exorcism it says the priest can ask. He asks, what is your day of departure? What is your name? And so the demon will give the name, but he may not. It might be something. It might be a hand symbol. It might be a name that you, you know, 3,000 year old Ugaritic name that. But he gave you the name. He, he did what? He asked him. So don't ask me again. It's not my problem that you don't speak ancient Ugaritic languages. So sorry, but I gave you the name. So.
- [207:35]
Sean Ryan
Do you see the same demon over and over?
- [207:38]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Kinda. After a while you start to see kind of the same for sure. The same patterns.
- [207:42]
Sean Ryan
Yeah, I mean the name.
- [207:45]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yes and no. Yeah, yeah.
- [207:50]
Sean Ryan
Are there any names that carry more weight than others?
- [207:57]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Well, yeah, just like in the military, you've got gradations of, you know, is.
- [208:03]
Sean Ryan
There ever a time where it says its name and you guys look at each other like oh.
- [208:09]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yeah, yeah. Well, you know, you're looking stoic and cool, but you're like, yeah, but at the same time you see, what would one.
- [208:22]
Sean Ryan
What would it. What is the name? Well, Ball.
- [208:24]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Beelzebub.
- [208:25]
Sean Ryan
So they reveal themselves as Ball or. Yeah, Moloch or something like that.
- [208:31]
Dr. Dan Schneider
They will sometimes, but you know, like sometimes there'll be a resistance, you know, at first, but the priest just pounds and pounds and pounds.
- [208:42]
Sean Ryan
What other kind of questions do you ask them?
- [208:48]
Dr. Dan Schneider
What is your entry point? What is your date of departure?
- [208:52]
Sean Ryan
What do you mean by entry point?
- [208:54]
Dr. Dan Schneider
How'd you get here?
- [208:55]
Sean Ryan
What do they say?
- [208:59]
Dr. Dan Schneider
I don't. Different things. She's a. Whatever. They'll, they'll say, they'll answer it some way. But, but usually again you, you know, the, the. The veracity quotient isn't super high. They're bound. When a priest is asking these questions, particularly in mandated extras, because he has the full authority of the bishop. That's why it's the danger to, to claim to be an exorcist. And you're not an exorcist because you have to have. It's, you know, it's not just a piece of paper. It's. Your bishop has given you the mandated authority, his authority. And so the exorcist I mean, it's incredible, but, yeah, they'll flock to his parish. You can have an exorcist and he can be in the remotest country parish. And possessed people just start showing up over there for some reason. I don't know why, I don't know why. I just wanted to come see you.
- [209:47]
Sean Ryan
What about date of departure? What does that mean? The date that they're going to leave the body.
- [209:50]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yeah, and that's in the right of. Right direction. You can command that. It doesn't give you the year, just gives you the date. I'm going to leave on the assumption of Mary, August 15th. What year? I don't have to tell you that the demons are legalistic. They're lawyers from hell. Yeah. We had this priest once, friend of mine, actually. And you talk about the. I mean, why do I need a priest again? What? I've seen the priestess doing this. Just the anointed hands. It says here in, let me see, Exodus 20:8, and he's. When Aaron, God says, with these, you shall clothe your brother Aaron. Talking to Moses and his sons, ordain them and consecrate them as my priest. And the Greek and Latin says, one says, fill your hand. Fill their hands. And one says, anoint their hands. So a priest's hands are anointed. When a priest is ordained, his hands are anointed. And so that is a powerful gesture. Like we had the one, the spider case. The priest did this and it just stopped it. It was just like spraying bullets. So they recognize this is a gesture of authority, the hand, if you look up right hand or hand, as biblical symbolism, that represents authority. So the priest hands are anointed. They have a unique authority. That's why when the priests impose hands, when the anointing of the sick or the priest lays hands in blessing, that's a sacred gesture. The demon recognizes those hands as anointed. I've seen it. I've seen it. Just the imposition of the hands by the priest. So this one guy, the priest in his diocese, got taken out, removed and got screwed up, got taken out of the priesthood. So the bishop says, they're on retreat. And he says, hey, Father, so. And so would you consider being the mandated exorcist? And here's this guy that was the rock star of the diocese, just got taken out, obliterated, you know, and no longer a priest. And he's like, I don't know. Your Excellency, let me. Let me pray about it. They're on retreat in a desert Retreat house. They're walking. He's going for a walk. He's in the middle of the desert, some sage bushes, but there's no trees, there's no buildings. He's just walking and he's. And he's praying about this. You talk about the realism of the scriptures, you know, I mean, I'm writing a book on the chapter on the Garrison demoniac. And the first time in 30 years I got javelina wild pigs showing up on the farm. You know, like, really. I start praying primitive prayers. They go away. So this guy's out there, he's thinking about it, he's praying about it. He's by himself, and he's a half a mile from any structure or anything. He's just walking. There's a mother priest walker here, walking. And he said. And he. And he. And he tells me. He says, yeah, I was just walking and I look up and I hear something. I see the bushes moving. And he said, all of a sudden, this wild boar, javelina, they're big, you know, 120, 150, 180 pound. They're big. They can get pretty big. He said, it just comes, right. I see the. You know, here comes Pumbaa. You know what I mean? But an angry Pumbaa. And he turns and he starts dead running at this priest at a dead run, you know, about 30 yards away. He's looking, looks around. There's no trees, nowhere to run. Now he's at 20 yards. Now he's around 15 yards away. And the hairs. You can see the hair sticking up on his back. He puts his feet under him. He puts his hands out. He says, I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to stop. He screams it. I mean, he's got the adrenaline dump, you know what I mean? I command you in the name of Jesus to stop things. About five yards away. Slides to a stop right at his feet, huffing, huffing, you know. And he says, I am a priest of the living God. I command you to stop. As soon as he said that, I'm a priest of the living God. Meanwhile, another priest was running over to try to help. He said, I'm a priest of the living God. It is not I who command you. It is Jesus Christ who commands you. And as soon as he said that, this wild boar, standing on all fours, bent his front knees and bowed, kneeling in front of this guy, this priest, another priest, comes over, freaking out. Take his picture. I don't have the picture. I wish I did to put it up. It would be an amazing Picture. I don't want to ask him for it, but amazing picture. So now he said, I command you to leave. Thing pops up, hair goes back down on his back and kind of trots off like Pumbaa and. Wow. Yeah. So the cosmic realm, they see it differently. You know, just like when you had. I didn't have the cool stuff. The red. The red color is on your night goggles. You know, we had the green NVGs, PVS6s. So the one was heat and one of them's light. Right. You guys had the heat. Either way, the demon looks and he sees the heat signature put out. And he recognizes the priesthood. It's powerful. So when the priest says, I forgive you. Do you think there's a gate?
- [215:22]
Sean Ryan
Do you think there are gateways into the spiritual realm?
- [215:25]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Like.
- [215:25]
Sean Ryan
Like psychedelics?
- [215:31]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yeah, I think. I think it can be.
- [215:32]
Sean Ryan
I've heard of people using psychedelics during exorcisms. Yeah, I've done psychedelics, yeah.
- [215:40]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yeah. It's somewhat popular in the veteran community for TBI and ptsd. So, you know, in scriptures, it uses. When it uses the word just as a cautionary note, you have to just be careful because you're opening up, you're going into that realm, you know, into a different plane of existence. Super sensual or subconscious or super conscious place. So you have to be very careful because that's an angelic realm. A couple places in scripture, twice in Revelation 1, in Galatians, it talks about denouncing sorcery. And the word used for sorcery, the Greek word is pharmakeia. We get the word pharmaceuticals, so. And so induced induced highs. Chemically induced highs can be. And if used particularly ritualistically, it can be dangerous. You just be careful with it. Yeah, you gotta be careful with it.
- [216:42]
Sean Ryan
Do you think it is. So it's a. It's a potentially a gateway into an angelic realm.
- [216:48]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yeah.
- [216:49]
Sean Ryan
What is an angelic realm?
- [216:51]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Well, it's into a bit of a preternatural realm. You know, it's super central, sensual. It's. You're. You're. You're not fully engaged willfully. You're not. You're. So your. Your faculties aren't fully engaged. And you're not. You're not. And your body isn't fully engaged. So even when you're getting. Going into surgery, you know, we recommend what we have called the anointing of the sick. And getting the anointing of the sick before getting to surgery for the same kind of reason, you're entering into that realm. You Know, that's a spiritual realm on a spiritual plane, if you will. So you have to just be very careful of that. I know it's done some good for people, but, you know, it's. I'm not convinced it doesn't cause more problems than it closes, opens more doors than it opens. And again, I'm coming from a very narrow, radical perspective on it. And so I get asked this quite a bit from Catholic psychologists. What do they think? What do I think about it? Because I know it works.
- [218:00]
Sean Ryan
I hear a lot about legalities in spiritual warfare and I don't understand them. I don't understand why God would allow a demon to possess somebody. But then, then there's this whole legal aspect that I keep hearing about that I have.
- [218:20]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yeah.
- [218:21]
Sean Ryan
No understanding of at all.
- [218:23]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Well, two things. One is the short answer on why does God allow the demon to afflict us? Saint Bonaventure, who's the doctor of the church, one of our big saints, says that God allows it for four reasons. One of them is to punish sin. And so sometimes when God allows possession, he honors our free will. So to punish sin, to rebuke the sinner, to educate us. Because if guys didn't shoot back at you, you wouldn't have been as good of a seal. It's one thing to go out there and shoot blanks and, and play laser tag, but once it goes live, you realize, whoa, yeah, first time I hit boots on the ground and I realized, wait a minute, those guys have anti aircraft weapons and those guys, yeah, they shoot back. So God sometimes allows the demon to afflict us, to educate us, and then finally Bonaventure says to glorify him. So when we're afflicted and we conquer the devil, whatever temptation it is, whatever it is, God is glorified. And what does glorify mean? To glorify the Greek doxa. It means to manifest or exhibit the divine attributes, the beauty of God, the faithfulness of God, the power of God, the divinity, the authority of God. So God allows it for that. And oftentimes it's for the punishment of sin. God allows us to live under the consequences of our own behavior, you, we, our own free choices. That's the thing is that if you found out, you know, you got a beautiful wife and you found out that she was actually being chemically altered to love you, she was given a, you know, magic potion to love you, you'd be like, wait a minute, I want you to love me for me. I don't want you to love me because I'm forcing you. Or some chemically forcing you, you know, so, so, so God wants us to freely love him. Yeah. So that's so. And so he allows the demon we live in the consequences, just like Israel. Oh, you want to worship the false gods? Fine. Then they'll let you be enslaved to them. I'll let you live under their enslavement. They can be your Sancho. Right. So on the legalist side, In Revelation, chapter 12, it says that, that Satan stands before the throne of God day and night, accusing the brethren. So one of his titles is the accuser. It's a legal term, you know, like a prosecuting attorney. The diabolos. Diabolos, to cast between, to slander, to accuse. That's what the very name means. And so he's very strictly bound by the natural law that he was created under. The demon is the angels are. I mean, to understand there's guys out there calling themselves demonologists and you know, in our tradition, the Catholic tradition, Bonaventure, Saint Thomas Aquinas, Dionysus the Areopagite, there's a rich tradition of angelology, our understanding of angels. And so St. Thomas Aquinas, one of the great doctors of our church, says that each angel is his own species. So I always want to ask these guys that, say I'm a demonologist. I'll say, well, can you pick a species that you're an expert in? Because there's. How many billions of humans have there been? Or millions or billions? You know, if we know that there's a guardian angel for every human, how many billions of angels? And if a third of them fell, how many species are there? So they're each created with their own natural law, if you will. We have a natural law, right? They have their own natural that they're created under, and they're bound by that, strictly bound. But at the same time, the demons on a very. Here's what St. John Vianney, another saint of the church, says. The demon is like a dog on an eight foot chain. Remember Foghorn Leghorn? You know, and you know, you kind of, you're not going to get bit unless you walk inside that eight foot. Once in a while God will kick us in just to make us battle a little bit, to grow in virtue, to grow in holiness. And sometimes, you know, and how do we do that? He exposes a vice that we're working on and then we have to do the opposite. We do counter battery with the opposite virtue, winning and losing. You know, virtue and vice, they're Just repeated habits. And so the demon, it says in Revelation 12, is the accuser of the brethren, accusing day and night. What's he accusing us of? God? He went to the strip club. He did this, he did that. He's on my team. He abandoned his post, and now he's been wearing my jersey. He's been taking my phone calls. So he's accusing us of all these things that we've willfully surrendered ourselves and sin to him. So. And so God allows him to afflict us. But he has no rights. He can only say he'll claim to have. I have a right to this soul. No, you don't. This soul belongs by right to God if it's baptized. That's the power of baptism. The soul belongs to Jesus Christ. The power of baptism. So what attracts him to us is anything that militates against the. That is against the indelible mark of baptism. You know, you and I were talking about the Lord here and there. Down there, we got some good Christian men down there. And we decide, man, what sounds good tonight. Buffalo wings sound good. Well, let's go down to Hooters. They got the best wings in town. He's going to catch that pattern break. He's going to see that, and that's what's going to draw him to us. And he's going to say, they gave me permission. They came into my territory. So that's part of it.
- [224:09]
Sean Ryan
So do they play by God's rules or 100%.
- [224:13]
Dr. Dan Schneider
And if they're afflicting us, everything the demon does, everything he's done is 100% under God's. Under. Under God's will. God is forcing it. You know, this isn't like. Remember the Van Halen video, Hot for teacher. I'm sorry. I'm aging myself and I'm telling you about my rock and roll days. But, yeah, so in this video, the teacher. Huffer, teacher. Anyway, it's like a school classroom, and there's no teacher in the class. There's no teacher there, or the substitute teacher. And the kids are just going wild, you know, because the main teacher's not there. And it's just mayhem. And that's what the demon wants us to believe, is that, hey, man, we're running the show. But they're not. Everything the demon does, God is. God is allowing it, even of a manifestation. If God allows a manifestation, it's for Sal, always, for a salvific reason. Always. Like this case, the lady caught up like a spider on the. You know, started crawling up a Wall. That priest was a brand new priest, just been ordained like a month prior. And this was a case of possession in our diocese. And she was going to. Going to mass and just, Just saw this priest and just manifested. The demon just manifested. But. But why? It wasn't. It wasn't, you know, there was a salvific reason. So the priest asked me. So I talked him. I talked him into how to shut down. Just like you, you know, you're in a firefighter. There's a time to fight and there's a time not to fight. You know what I mean? There's a time to shut it down, you know? What did Chesty Powder say? We don't retreat. We just attack from a different direction, you know, so. So you have to shut down a manifestation. So I walked him through how to shut it down. And afterwards we're just kind of debriefing. He's like, man, why did that happen? I said, well, there's a salvific reason. I don't know, probably to either try to scare you or maybe to show you you're a brand new priest. You know, maybe God is. God is allowing it to show you. When you do this, it's. It's like a slap. It's like. It's like you punch the demon in the face. He wants you to see your dignity, your. Your innate dignity, your ontological dignity at the level of being who you are, conformed to Christ. I don't know. But he. But if he. If there's a manifestation, it's for a reason. Salvific reason. God is 100% in control every single time. That's the lie that the demon wants us to think that he's over here and it's equal and opposite force. No. No way.
- [226:33]
Sean Ryan
What are some of the other legalities?
- [226:36]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Well, it's funny, when I was writing the book, Father asked me, hey, we got to put. We started. Here's the thing. We started with. We have a four phase protocol. Father Ripker does. And so the first phase is a prayer discipline. We need to talk about that too. But the second phase is, is a deep dive. Really. It's a deep dive. How to uncover where you've given permission into the. To the demon to do a good, deep, deep confession. Because one good confession is worth a hundred extras and says Father, and more. And we started with there was a little how to make a good confession that's in a lot of the back of the churches by the Fathers of Mercy. So we had a case where the. A Young woman. Well, she was 26 and at age 16, she was date raped. And so 20, 10 years later, she had a. She had a. By that time, completely, you know, hated God, suicidal ideation, same sex ideation, thoughts of self harm. And her parents were like, can we help her? I'm like, yeah, let's. We're working on this protocol. So we're going to work. I'm going to work it through a good confession. And there was a priest, and she didn't even live in our city. I was just. We're just going to help out these friends, you know, with the authority of our, of our exorcist. And so I said, there's a priest over here in your diocese. But that I know is I didn't tell her this, but I'm like, yeah, this guy does exorcism. So I didn't tell her. I just said, hey, when you get ready, I'll send you over this guy. So she, we start meeting. And I'm just going through the ten Commandments and then how to make a good confession. We start meeting. Meanwhile, her parents, her mom, her dad. Her dad is starting to engage in the faith. I mean, her siblings and their spouses, grandparents, everybody's praying our prayer regimen. And what we find too is that the demon responds to the imposition of order as much as to the prayers themselves, just imposing order. Part of the order is the dads engaging himself and being the spiritual leader. So he starts. Everybody starts praying. They're doing this prayer discipline. It's very rigorous. And then about six weeks in, she had a spiritual obsession. Obsession. I mean, she was on the path to possession. I mean, she was miserable because of this traumatic event at age 16. So about six weeks, in eight weeks, we're meeting once a week on Zoom. And I said, I think you're ready. Go to confession and we'll talk about maybe prayer later on the backside. I knew this guy, man. This guy's a. He's a hammer. He'll take care of it, this priest. So she knocks on the door because we had shared cases back and forth in this other city. And yes, I'm here to see Father so and so. And the receptionist says, oh, he's on a sabbatical. He'll be gone for six months. Crap. And she said, well, Father so and so's here and he's visiting. You can see him. And she goes, well, okay. So she goes to confession after 10 years, deep traumatic event. After six or eight weeks with the family praying, set prayers, fasting media Fast and just goes to confession to just some guy. Father Miscellaneous, you know, Father so And so at St. Miscellaneous Church. And she's delivered through a good confession and a good preparation of an obsession level demon like that. And that was part of God's way of just kind of affirming that we're on the right path. And so. And so Father Ripiger and Kyle, I said, hey, we got to put a book together. Can you help us? And so I had finished my doctorate by then. I'm like, yeah, me. Put something together. And I was like, praying about this. I was like, man, let me think about this. So I was going through. Clean the garage out. It was that time of the year, you know, And I found my old army box and my old flight log. And. And then there was my. My Ranger handbook, you know. And so I lift it up, not for the weak or faint of heart. Like, I was having these memories, I remember back in my Ranger days. And like. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I opened it up, and there's Roger's rules, right? Rangers still memorize these. I had to memorize them. You know, the first. You know. You know, you're familiar with Rogers rules for Rangers? Yeah, yeah. So there's. There's rules, Rogers standing orders and Rogers rules. And like, one rule is don't forget nothing. You know, And I put that in the book, and the editor sends it back. You sure it's don't forget anything? I'm like, no, it's don't forget nothing. You know, wait till they. Wait till you can see them and then fire on them and then finish him with your hatchet, you know, Little rules of guerrilla warfare. So I'm just reading my old handbook, and I was like, man, spiritual warfare is guerrilla warfare. It's not conventional warfare. You know, I think. I think in my cavalry perspective that, you know, just like we smashed the Iraqis in the face with tanks, and there's no way they can compete. No way. You know, we. I had a guy. I had guys that were. That were hitting T62s and T72s that could. Even our optics, they were hitting them before they could even see our tanks. I mean, the. Our optics were. Our ballistics had a better depth reach than their optics. I mean, so what did they do? They regroup. They take the uniforms off, they blend into the crowd. They start. They start doing what they did when you had to go in. So the enemy's kind of doing that in the modern world. And so that's when I started realizing, you know, I Think spiritual warfare is guerrilla warfare. And then so I'm looking at Roger's rules for rangers and what's his first rule? Every ranger is bound by the rules and articles of war. So even guerrilla warfares, there's certain rules and rules of engagement that have to be, that have to be followed. And so in our experience, the demon's going to yield or not yield for three things, you know. Are you familiar with Father Mike Schmidt?
- [232:36]
Sean Ryan
Yes.
- [232:36]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yeah, Yeah. I don't know. A Catholic woman. From my mom to my daughter and everybody in between, they love Father Mike Schmidt for some reason. Right? Maybe because he's good looking. Right. So whenever I'm at conferences, I'll say, hey, what's that guy, that one priest that does the Bible in a year. And all the women go, Father Mike Smith. My mom talks about Father Mike Smith, you know, so. So the demon's going to yield or not yield for three things. And it's not because Father Mike Schmidt is good looking, has nothing to do with that. Had nothing to do with PhD or my Greek or lack of Greek or whatever. He's going to yield. He's going to ask three questions. Does this person have the requisite authority over the person, the place of the object? He doesn't have that authority. He doesn't have to yield. And authority isn't based on charism. You and I walk down, down the street in uniform. Let's say we flash back, we're walking down in uniform. What was Your final rank?
- [233:33]
Sean Ryan
E5.
- [233:34]
Dr. Dan Schneider
You were an E5. How many deployments?
- [233:36]
Sean Ryan
Two deployments.
- [233:37]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Two deployments. E5. Spooky special ops stuff. One deployment. E3. Captain. Right. You got a lot more combat experience than I do. We walk down the street, where do you walk? To my left and to my rear. That doesn't mean I'm a better soldier than you. Doesn't mean I have more merit than you. Just means I have the rank in you. So we walk down, we walk down, post or base, whatever you call it. And we got two groups coming each other, we're sizing up the guy to the outside. The guy to the outside knows who has the solution. Because there's an authority structure there in place not based on merit. It's based upon a ranking system. So do you have the requisite authority of the person to place the object as a husband and father, you have authority over your wife and over her body. She has authority over your body. By merit of the marital debt, the two become one flesh. So the demon has no right to your body. He has no right to her body. And you also have a dual authority as head of household over your wife as spiritual head. And then your authority and hers shares in your authority over the children. The demon has no right to your children or your temporal. So he's going to ask, does this guy have the requisite authority of the person in place of the object? That's the first rule. The second is, what is the merit of the petitioner? Is this person in a state of grace if you're not in a state of grace? And by state of grace, as a Catholic, we mean you've gone to confession, you're going to mass, and you have no grave sin, no grave sin on your souls that you know of. If you're not in a state of grace, you could have authority and you still get taken to the woodshed because you're now not under the protection of the state of grace. That's your armor, your shield, your virtue. And state of grace is your protection in combat. And then the third thing he's going to ask is, specifically what is he asking? Specificity in prayer is important. So being specific in the prayer, but those are the three things that the demon yields or not yields on. And it sounds legalistic, but it all is working under the rules of engagement that God. That God has established. Wow.
- [235:56]
Sean Ryan
What should I be asking you that I haven't asked yet?
- [235:59]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yeah, I don't know what's for lunch? I'm beginning.
- [236:04]
Sean Ryan
Who is Father Rippon here?
- [236:06]
Dr. Dan Schneider
He is a priest. He was with the Fraternity of St. Peter. He's one of the most learned men I know. He's got six advanced and ecclesial degrees. Extremely brilliant man. But he also grew up on a ranch, very down to earth outdoorsman, just a regular guy like us. And he had a call several years ago to start a religious order of priests that all they do is exorcisms. What happened was his Specialty is in St. Thomas Aquinas and what he called Thomistic psychology. But basically how we understand the human person, the psychological, how we are as humans vis a vis our relationship with God. And so the local exorcist kept asking him questions, specific questions, philosophical questions. And he finally said, well, why do you keep asking these questions? He said, well, quite frankly, the way you explain St. Thomas is how the demon sees us. And so he started doing more. He was assisting, and then he started doing more exorcisms and then eventually received this call to start this group. And that's what he's doing. He lives in Denver and they have a Group of three or four guys. One of them is a veterans. Good, dude. That's all they do is exorcism. And these guys. The Society of Our Most Sorrowful Mother is the name of the organization or their order. And generally speaking, they get the worst of the worst. If an exorcist can't. If it just goes sideways and they can't do it locally, you can only get over there if a bishop recommends you, and they'll transfer that authority over to their bishop and father that he works under. So that's what he does. He's probably the most learned, experienced exorcist in the world.
- [237:58]
Sean Ryan
Is it true that the Catholic Church was trying to do away with exorcisms?
- [238:03]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yeah, kind of. Yeah. And what they were trying to do, actually, it is true. And it still is true. It's still true in some places. I was in Germany. You know, Germany's a disaster. I don't know if you know that or not.
- [238:16]
Sean Ryan
Oh, yeah, I know pretty much all of Europe is all of Europe.
- [238:19]
Dr. Dan Schneider
But Germany is the tip of the spear of disaster. So I was meeting with a. An auxiliary bishop there, and we've got teams over there working and training those guys and a couple of priests and I. So I met with one, one bishop, and actually, it was interesting. They're like, only three of you guys can come. Like, what do you mean? They said, no, we're going to this guy's private residence. Okay? And they said, only three people are watching. If there's more than three, they're going to start asking questions. I mean, it's unbelievable how communism, that. Communism that came from the east, it's unbelievable. You know, in old Eastern Europe, the first thing they did when the Soviets came in was track down and hunt down and kill the priests. You know, to this day, that part of Germany has 3, 2 to 3%, 3% max, are Christian in that part of Germany.
- [239:16]
Sean Ryan
I didn't know that.
- [239:17]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yeah, I didn't either. It's amazing. I mean, they just destroyed the church over there. So this bishop says, we walk into the room and I don't speak German. He doesn't speak English. We're like two fighters sizing each other up, you know? And so I got a translator. And so at the time, no, Benedict was retired. He had stepped down, but he was still alive. And so I started talking about Benedict and Benedict his theology, and Ratzinger was his name, Cardinal Ratzinger. And as soon as I mentioned Ratzinger that I liked him, he smiled and he warmed up and he Realized, okay, I'm talking to a friendly here. So we sit down and he asked me, what should I do? I said, well, what I would do is get all your priests together. How do I stop the evil in my diocese? And I said, well, I. I would get all your priests together. I would do an exorcism of your. You as the bishop, exercise your diocese and all the priests at the same time, pray it with you, and then consecrate your diocese to the Virgin Mary because she provides all air protection. Like, no, like you can't believe. You can't believe we can get into that next. And he started laughing. And I said, what do you mean? What's funny? He said, yeah, you're right. That would work. He said, but exorcisms are illegal in Germany. They're illegal. Illegal, Yep. They're forbidden by the church, and. And they're not allowed to be performed. Why? It's a complicated thing. Who. I mean, it's like saying it's illegal to have. You know, seal teams are illegal. And if you can have seal teams, but they're not allowed to carry arms, you know, you got to carry nerf guns. I mean, you know, they're taking out one of the greatest weapons in combat. So part of it's spiritual. Part of it was of a botched Exorcism from the 70s, exorcism of Emily Rose, that. That went sideways and got involved in the courts, and the church got sued because of what happened. And so part of it is recent history, and part of it is just the uber rationalist, rationalist mentality of the Germans. You know, that we don't need that. But in the. The biography of Father Gabriel Amorth, he was. He was a. I mean, pioneer in exorcism in the. In the 80s, and nobody was doing it. I mean, we may had 12 or 15 or 17 or something in this country at that time. They just didn't believe in the devil. He was talking to a cardinal, trying to convince him why we need more exorcists. And the cardinal said, exorcist, exorcism. You believe in the devil? Show me a book that will show to me the proof of the devil. And Father Mor says, this is talking to a cardinal in Rome. He said, I have a good one that I think will really show you about the reality of the devil. You learn everything you need to know about the devil. He goes, yeah, what is it called? He said, it's called the gospels, the Bible. You're going to learn everything you need to know. About the Devil, I mean, but there was a time in the church that it was very common. I mean, if you were in academia. We don't believe in the devil anymore. That's just an old superstitious medieval piety stuff. We don't believe that anymore. It's just evil in our hearts that don't allow us to share more and to become better citizens, know, globally sensitive people. The devil is not a person per se. It's just the evil in our own hearts that rise up and keep us from being more, more loving and sharing to each other. That was kind of the mentality in many, in many circles. It wasn't just Catholicism. It was some of the mainstream Protestant as well. I'm sure. You know, you'll have others say the same thing. And so Father Morth kind of brought it in, you know, and brought it, brought, made it, made it popular. And so, and so then it started spreading the International association of Exorcists and they started training and working the Pope Leo Institute here in the US I worked over there, used to teach over there for a while and now I'm working, you know, just with Father Rapaker. But yeah, there was a lot of people didn't believe, but the first time you see it, you know, you can't unsee it. Yeah, I think one question that I think a lot of people ask is what attracts the demon to us, you know, besides sin? Trauma, Unresolved trauma. You know, when I say unresolved, I mean, you know, you know, you've seen guys that experienced trauma and they're some of the strongest Christians that you know. And other guys, they just go off the res and what is it? I don't know. I mean, so the Christian one, interior, you can interior take that trauma and link it with Christ's suffering. They can link that trauma and let it be purified with, with faith. And then if you don't, it just becomes self destructive, you know. But so that's one. But I was just, actually I was just reading this a couple weeks ago. We talk about, we call psychological compatibility with the demon, which is very interesting phenomenon that, that we see in the field. It's like, like anyone cops, the show cops and cops, they'll have a, a call to a house of abuse, domestic abuse. And they show up, Cops show up and the guy's jackets, all his shirts all ripped and he's got his white beater on, he's got scratches. She's got a black eye and her hair's all jacked up and the room is trashed. Cops are coming to take the guy away. And she says, oh, no, don't take him. I love him. It was my fault. He's my baby daddy. Don't take him away from me, you know, because there's this psychological compatibility between the abuser and the abused. There's some strange psychological connection taking place. Unholy. So we. What's happening in that realm is happening in the diabolic realm, you know. And so we. We create. We have our psychological vulnerabilities that the demon enmeshes with us psychologically. So I was just reading St. Augustine, who was writing in, I think 450 A.D. you know, St. Augustine. And he was. He was addressing this and he said, there's three things basically that creates this enmeshment psychologically that attracts the demon. And he customizes our temptations. Yours is different than mine. Your experiences are different than mine, you know. You know, I watched the fourth of July like I said, and I saw. I saw MLR. I just had slight memories of MRLRs flying, you know, shooting other people, watching, having a good time. So my memories are different. So he customizes our temptations according to our own experiences. But three things, he says. One is what is an unholy curiosity that can do it. That's why I don't like talking about the devil, because you can get. You can create an unholy curiosity. If you go looking for the devil, you'll find them, you know, some of these people doing these satanic things, you know, Let him do the thing. Just keep praying. So unholy curiosity about spiritual things or other things. The second is a heightened psychological obsession or high emotionality is another one that inconstant emotions is something that attracts. And then finally he says, is that deadly sin? Or how does he call it? He calls it like an habituated sin that we get. No, it's a deadly enslavement, he calls it. He's talking about enslavement to vice and to. To. To sin. We went on a deer hunt. I heard you had. You killed your first deer. Yeah, I killed my first deer this year.
- [247:00]
Sean Ryan
You did too?
- [247:01]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yeah, first time. Isn't that an amazing experience?
- [247:04]
Sean Ryan
It's awesome.
- [247:05]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yeah. I was the guy I put in every year. I never drew. If I drew, I wouldn't see anything. If I saw something. He was so far away. I'm a crappy shot. So I finally got one. It was fantastic. And the far. Now we. Some of the places we've hunted are big ranches and. And the. The ranchers Let us go out there and ranch, you know, and hunt. And. And sometimes they'll ask you to. And the ranch will do it themselves. They'll coyote. They'll hunt coyotes. Are you familiar with that? The coyotes are. They're. They're top predators. They. They decimate the big game. They'll. They'll wait till the. Till the. The calf is the way. Till the cow was giving birth. And at the. At that moment of birth, and they're most vulnerable, they'll come in and they'll swarm and attack. And I mean, they're just vicious little, you know, predators. And so hunters will go out with the. Their, you know, you can get it. You can download an app on your phone, a predator app, it's called. And it projects the sound of a dying rabbit or a wounded chicken or a wounded puppy. And the demon will come rushing. I mean, the demon, the. The coyote. The coyote come running in. I mean, I've had guys with it. They'll come run in, and you got. I mean, usually they'll take an ar, but they'll have to carry a sidearm because sometimes they come in so fast they're bloodthirst because they're attracted by the wounded prey, you know, and in many ways, that's the way the demon is. You know, when we're projecting that woundedness, that psychological trauma, they're like, ooh, I'm your huckleberry. I'll fill that gap for you. You know, they sense that vulnerability. So that's why prayer works on that emotional, constant surrender to the Lord, small sacrifices, growing in virtue. All these things do battle and militate. You know, like I said, the. The most amazing thing is seeing how the demon responds to the imposition of order as much as to the prayers. So it isn't just, I need this superpower prayer, spiritual warfare. It's just imposing order in your life, having discipline, praying every day, closing back. Sometimes on the media, social media, I know you have to do it for your work, but pulling back sometimes, you know, and fasting, even from that, small acts of fasting, this is imposing set times of prayer, very powerful to set the stage.
- [249:26]
Sean Ryan
What else can we do to prevent possession? Things like that.
- [249:35]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yeah.
- [249:36]
Sean Ryan
What advice do you have for individuals, families?
- [249:39]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yeah, I think what comes to mind is Mother Teresa said, said, you want to save the world? Go home and love your family, you know, And I think that's just beautiful, you know, brevity. Brevity of the saints, they say. I think one being aware that the battle is taking place, but not, you Know, and again. And it says in Maccabees, and Judas and his brothers waged war. Joy. Waged the Lord's war joyfully. So being joyful, knowing that the Lord's going to work this out, but recognizing that we're in a combat, we're in spiritual combat, but learning the rules of engagement, learning how to fight the fight, growing in holiness, growing in virtue. You know, this is how we fight him off. This is our shield. And for me, as a Catholic, I can just tell you my experience with my devotion. I mean, I went to Notre Dame. Obviously, she was hovering around me most of my life and finding the rosary in the middle of the desert. We were the furthest unit forward. How could there have been something even further than us? A metal finger, rosary in the middle of the desert as I prayed. What do I do? She's always been close to me. I'm very devoted to Our Lady. And again goes back to something we believe. Blessed Virgin Mary, the prophecy of Genesis 3:15, her preservation, her preservation from any stain of original sin. The Immaculate Conception preserves her, the uniqueness of her role as the Mother of God. She provides protection for us in a way. You know, I've heard the demon say in session, the Father will be doing a litany or calling on her help. And the demon will say, oh, her. Every time you call her, she comes. She wraps her mantle around you. And knowing that you know that she is 12 star general, if you will, because of her uniqueness and the Catholic Church tradition, her uniqueness. And I can tell you, when she shows up, it's game over, game over in combat. Unbelievable. Like nobody else, like you can't imagine. And so the uniqueness of her role as preserved from the stain of original sin, it makes sense if St. Paul says. Well, the Hebrew says, if you want to believe, Paul wrote it, which I kind of do. But Jesus is like us and always accepts sin. And he had to inherit a sinless nature. So he that will conquer sin wouldn't be under sin. He had to inherit a perfect sinless nature. And how did he inherit his sinless nature? From the Virgin Mary, who was preserved from the stain of original sin to pass on a sinless human nature to him, you see? So she was preserved to pass on a sinless nature to him. And so she is, has zero stain of sin. And therefore completely outside the stretches of the demon. And so she has a power like you cannot understand. And so I always say, having devotion to the Blessed Mother, I know it's hard for some people to hear, for Me, this is. It's just as part of who I am. So I'm not gonna. You know, this is just my faith. But it's like our tanks, you know, you remember our tanks had reactive armor. Are you familiar with that? Yeah. So it's like the armor that it doesn't stop you from getting hit. It just explodes out, so it keeps the rounds from penetrating. So that special devotion to her and just what I've seen in session, see how powerful she works to help as mother of her children, I think it's just been profound for me and it's been for my own spiritual life. Like reactive armor, protective armor that keeps me. It doesn't mean I don't get hit. It just means you bang your head around a little bit and go, crap, that hurt. But did you die? You know? Yeah.
- [253:26]
Sean Ryan
Well, Dr. Snyder, I think that is a perfect way to end it. And so. One more thing. You want to end up with a prayer?
- [253:35]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Yeah. Let's pray. All right. In the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen. Amen. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen. Name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen. Thank you, Sean.
- [254:02]
Sean Ryan
Thank you. Seriously, appreciate it. It was an honor. And I. I learned more than I bargained for, so I really appreciate it. And I hope to see you again.
- [254:11]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Hope see you again. It's part sports. We have football on the brain, part pop culture. Dennis Leary, True or false.
- [254:31]
Sean Ryan
You refuse to wear a glove with.
- [254:34]
Dr. Dan Schneider
With Mickey Mantle's signature on it. The movie, the sandlot, the Red Sox blood, the Bruins blood. They run deep. Add in the best celebrity interview.
- [254:41]
Sean Ryan
Robert De Niro here on the Rich Eisen Show. How are you, sir?
- [254:44]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Just got over a 24 hour virus. The antidote is to appear on the Rich Eisen Show. There you go. I would have done it earlier. And you've got the Rich Eisen show podcast.
- [254:52]
Sean Ryan
There is a medicinal quality to appearing on this program.
- [254:55]
Dr. Dan Schneider
Follow and listen on your favorite platform.