On October 31, 1992, three people were drawn together to call forth a Spirit out of legend. I was one of those people. For me it began two weeks earlier, when I received an interstate phone call from a young girl living in a rural township, which by itself was nothing extraordinary. What was extraordinary though, was her claim that she had received a strange psychic message telling her she must come to my home and work a ritual to Astaroth. The dark lord of many legions, Astaroth's power is eternal and goes beyond life into the darkest unknown. In his true form, Astaroth appears like a dark heartbeat, i.e. darkness with the sound of a heart beating.

It seemed too fantastic to believe. I had never been particularly convinced by demonstrations of supposed psychic messages from Spirit Guides, and the like. Years of attending various psychic development classes and conversations with alleged clairvoyants had left me more than a little sceptical about such things. But, however unbelievable it was, I felt compelled to find out what really lay behind this odd phone call from a girl I had never met. A girl whose name was Julie. She seemed to be an emotionally fragile girl, but down-to-earth. I came to suspect that she had had an unpleasant sexual experience at some time in her young life, but I never pursued this line of inquiry.

A few nights after our initial contact, Julie called me again to discuss the ritual. She was joking and in good spirits. We discussed the actual mechanics of the ritual and the layout of the room in which the ritual would take place. About halfway through the conversation Julie heard the first noise, a strange scraping sound in the next room. She stopped talking and listened. It came again, a prolonged sound like fingernails being dragged across the wall. She began to experience the main reaction to the presence of something unseen, fear. There was a dull thud. A vase had been knocked to the floor by an invisible hand. The sound of a beating heart filled the room, so dreadful and hideous it chilled her very soul.

"He's here!" She screamed down the phone. "Astaroth is here!"

She dissolved into total hysteria, crying uncontrollably. The bright, cheerful girl of a moment ago was now an emotional wreck. This was not just some act being staged for my benefit. I tried to calm her. I assured her that there was nothing to fear, and not to be afraid. Julie had apparently had a psychic encounter with the supernatural energy at work in our lives. I had two interesting physical reactions to this event. First of all, although I am used to the presence of spirit forces, I was genuinely afraid. My first thought was to hang up and forget the whole thing. But I managed to overcome this. Second, while I was listening to Julie's description of what was happening to her, I felt a strange sensation like pins-and-needles moving up my body. Later I realized I couldn't be sure if the experience had been real, or auto-suggestive. Despite of this, it was decided to hold the ritual on Halloween.