With Halloween upon us, the Christian Ministries have covered the campus with pamphlets, hyping their “Unveiling the Darkness” event, which goes into the evils of Paganism, Wicca and Satanism.

On Wednesday night, the Carl Sandburg Auditorium hosted about 300 people who waited for speaker John Miller, a former occultist, to speak while Christian music played loudly.

“I’m only here ’cause I have to do this for a communication project,” said Marty Stojanovich, a freshman marketing major, as he and Rob Thomasson, an undeclared business major, slouched in their seats.

They attended the event because they never thought NIU would allow a lecture on devil worship, they said.

“Yeah, it’s cool,” Thomasson said. “I couldn’t picture them doing something like this. I’m getting my Halloween scare tonight.”

Dan Suvanaumpai, a junior English major, has attended the event since his freshman year.

“I don’t know, I’m just wondering what this guy has to say,” Suvanaumpai said. “I keep my mind open to all things.”

Katie Szumski, a sophomore sociology major, was there along with many others for a communication project.

“Religion and cult stuff really don’t interest me, but hopefully I’ll learn something new,” Szumski said.

Audience members watched the video, “Devil Worship: Rise of Satanism,” which depicted scenes of Wiccans and Satanists performing their religious activities and former cultists relating their experiences. Most of the audience responded with giggles and smirks to the 20-minute video.

After the video ended, Miller, sporting a large beard, walked on the stage wearing a Hawaiian shirt and sandals.

“I see people snickering. They think it’s funny,” Miller said. He started telling a story about how some students in white face paint and black clothes tried to scare him last year.

“I thought it was cute,” said Miller, drawing laughs from the crowd.

After talking for 25 minutes about his experiences as a Satanist and his research on other religions, Miller opened up with a Q&A session, handling some tough questions about religion and being honest when he didn’t know.

In the end, his central message was simple.

“Life is good, death is bad,” Miller said.