Terry Taylor's life after Thee Satanic Church

I've posted a few times before regarding local figure Terry Taylor, who was behind the local Satanic organization Thee Satanic Church during the 1970s (also known as The Orthodox Satanic Church, and Thee Orthodox Satanic Church of the Nethilim Rite).  Taylor also ran the esoteric bookstore House of the Occult.  After splitting with his partner in the church, Dr. Evelyn Paglini, Taylor seemed to have disappeared. 

I'd searched for information on Taylor regularly and never had any luck until finding his obituary this week.  It looks as though Taylor passed away in 2009.  He turned from Satanism in the late 1970s and moved on to hypnosis, spiritual psychology and past life regression.

Terry Taylor of Schaumburg A memorial service for Terry Taylor, 64, will be held at 11 a.m. Friday, at Willow Creek Community Church, 67 E. Algonquin Road, Barrington. Cremation was private for the family at the Countryside Crematory. Born Oct. 3, 1944, the son of Walter and Hazel (nee Dennis), he died Sunday, Aug. 30, 2009, in Schaumburg. Terry owned Spiritual Awakening Center, where he helped to change many lives. Survivors include his former wife, Janice; children, Suzie (Andrew) Hofer, Myles and Brittany; grandchildren, Jessie and Justin; sister, Pamela; and several nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his parents. - See more at: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/dailyherald/obituary.aspx?n=terry-taylor&pid=132908914#sthash.5V9TM3LL.dpuf

Terry Taylor of Schaumburg A memorial service for Terry Taylor, 64, will be held at 11 a.m. Friday, at Willow Creek Community Church, 67 E. Algonquin Road, Barrington. Cremation was private for the family at the Countryside Crematory. Born Oct. 3, 1944, the son of Walter and Hazel (nee Dennis), he died Sunday, Aug. 30, 2009, in Schaumburg. Terry owned Spiritual Awakening Center, where he helped to change many lives. Survivors include his former wife, Janice; children, Suzie (Andrew) Hofer, Myles and Brittany; grandchildren, Jessie and Justin; sister, Pamela; and several nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his parents. For information, 630-529-5751 or www.countrysidefuneralhomes.com. - See more at: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/dailyherald/obituary.aspx?n=terry-taylor&pid=132908914#sthash.5V9TM3LL.dpuf

Terry Taylor of Schaumburg A memorial service for Terry Taylor, 64, will be held at 11 a.m. Friday, at Willow Creek Community Church, 67 E. Algonquin Road, Barrington. Cremation was private for the family at the Countryside Crematory. Born Oct. 3, 1944, the son of Walter and Hazel (nee Dennis), he died Sunday, Aug. 30, 2009, in Schaumburg. Terry owned Spiritual Awakening Center, where he helped to change many lives. Survivors include his former wife, Janice; children, Suzie (Andrew) Hofer, Myles and Brittany; grandchildren, Jessie and Justin; sister, Pamela; and several nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his parents. For information, 630-529-5751 or www.countrysidefuneralhomes.com. - See more at: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/dailyherald/obituary.aspx?n=terry-taylor&pid=132908914#sthash.5V9TM3LL.dpuf

Terry Taylor's Obituary

Terry Taylor, 64, of Schaumburg died Sunday, August 30, 2009 in Schaumburg. Born October 3, 1944. He was the son of Walter and Hazel, nee Dennis. Terry owned Spiritual Awakening Center where he helped to change many lives.

Survivors include former wife Janice; children Suzie (Andrew) Hofer, Myles and Brittany; grandchildren Jessie and Justin; sister Pamela and several nieces and nephews.

He was preceded in death by his parents.

A memorial service will be Friday, September 18, 2009 at 11 a.m. at Willow Creek, 67 E Algonquin Rd, Barrington. Cremation was private for the family at the Countryside Crematory.

erry Taylor of Schaumburg A memorial service for Terry Taylor, 64, will be held at 11 a.m. Friday, at Willow Creek Community Church, 67 E. Algonquin Road, Barrington. Cremation was private for the family at the Countryside Crematory. Born Oct. 3, 1944, the son of Walter and Hazel (nee Dennis), he died Sunday, Aug. 30, 2009, in Schaumburg. Terry owned Spiritual Awakening Center, where he helped to change many lives. Survivors include his former wife, Janice; children, Suzie (Andrew) Hofer, Myles and Brittany; grandchildren, Jessie and Justin; sister, Pamela; and several nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his parents. - See more at: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/dailyherald/obituary.aspx?n=terry-taylor&pid=132908914#sthash.ZxptxWhD.dpuf

After learning this, it was much easier to learn of Taylor's activities over the years.  Some of his writing can be found online, including an essay on the Spirit of Ma'at website:  What is Ascension? The Pathway To Your Next Consciousness

Terry Taylor of Schaumburg A memorial service for Terry Taylor, 64, will be held at 11 a.m. Friday, at Willow Creek Community Church, 67 E. Algonquin Road, Barrington. Cremation was private for the family at the Countryside Crematory. Born Oct. 3, 1944, the son of Walter and Hazel (nee Dennis), he died Sunday, Aug. 30, 2009, in Schaumburg. Terry owned Spiritual Awakening Center, where he helped to change many lives. Survivors include his former wife, Janice; children, Suzie (Andrew) Hofer, Myles and Brittany; grandchildren, Jessie and Justin; sister, Pamela; and several nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his parents. For information, 630-529-5751 or www.countrysidefuneralhomes.com. - See more at: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/dailyherald/obituary.aspx?n=terry-taylor&pid=132908914#sthash.5V9TM3LL.dpuf

Terry Taylor of Schaumburg A memorial service for Terry Taylor, 64, will be held at 11 a.m. Friday, at Willow Creek Community Church, 67 E. Algonquin Road, Barrington. Cremation was private for the family at the Countryside Crematory. Born Oct. 3, 1944, the son of Walter and Hazel (nee Dennis), he died Sunday, Aug. 30, 2009, in Schaumburg. Terry owned Spiritual Awakening Center, where he helped to change many lives. Survivors include his former wife, Janice; children, Suzie (Andrew) Hofer, Myles and Brittany; grandchildren, Jessie and Justin; sister, Pamela; and several nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his parents. For information, 630-529-5751 or www.countrysidefuneralhomes.com. - See more at: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/dailyherald/obituary.aspx?n=terry-taylor&pid=132908914#sthash.5V9TM3LL.dpuf

Terry Taylor's biograpy read:
Terry has worked in the Spiritual Community for 35 years, owning two metaphysical Bookstores and the School of Advanced Esoteric Studies. Degreed in Clinical Psychology, he has operated within a private and group practice since 1975. His residencies consist of Madden Mental Health Center, Phobicare Group Practice, Garret's Wellness Center, Mel Doerr's Health and Holistic Center and now the Spiritual Awakening Center. Terry Taylor's practice is an integration of psychotherapy, clinical hypnosis and spiritual psychology leading towards your ascension into your next level of consciousness. He can be reached at: TerryTaylor@Ameritech.net, www.SpiritualAwakeningCenter.com.

While the Spiritual Awakening Center website is no longer active, it is archived on the archive.org site.  Many PDFs of his writing can be found in the archive of the Spiritual Awakening Center's "Archives" page: 

https://web.archive.org/web/20080702223438/http://www.spiritualawakeningcenter.com/archives.html

While Taylor publicly moved away from Satanism during his later years, that doesn't mean that he avoided controversy.  One exposé on CBS2, as archived on the website "Cult Education Institute" is particularly damning. 


Critics also worry that Taylor's technique could result in false memories being implanted in the minds of his clients -- like those who now believe they had relatives in a past life who sexually abused them.
"The danger is that they believe these things and they may carry some of these feelings into the current life," says Stephen Kahn.
Taylor says he's qualified to handle possible dangers telling potential clients, "You have to make sure you are with a hypnotist who knows how to work with that. Remember I am also a psychologist too."
But he's not. Taylor only has a Master's degree in psychology -- but no Doctorate degree and no state license. Both are required for Taylor to legally call himself a psychologist.
"I'm told you can't say that," Zekman says.
"No probably not," he replies.
In brochures, Taylor calls himself a transformational psychotherapist.
"Is that a name you made up?" asks Zekman.
"Yes, yes. That's the name I put out there to show what I'm doing," says Taylor.

Like many other Chicago occultists (such as L.W. de Laurence) Terry Taylor seems to have walked the line between being an influential leader and shameless huckster.  As always, I would love to have more information about Terry Taylor, to learn more of his work.

Satanism in the Suburbs: Exploring previous locations of Thee Satanic Church

Terry Taylor's Thee Satanic Church operated in and around Chicago in between 1971 and 1974, under a variety of incarnations including The Orthodox Satanic Church, and Thee Orthodox Satanic Church of the Nethilim Rite.  Previously I've posted an introduction with newspaper articles (including the involvement of Dr. Evelyn Paglini), and a magazine advertisement for the organization.  Thee Satanic Church was operated in conjunction with Taylor's bookstore, House of Occult (not to be confused with the Occult Bookstore, as many books and websites erroneously report).

I was curious as to the locations that these entities inhabited, and made a trek to the various houses and storefronts that used to house this local Satanic group.  One of the more interesting aspects was the incredibly quaint suburban surroundings where Taylor, Paglini & company continued to place their diabolical organizations.

This Edgewater building was listed as the home of Terry Taylor's bookstore, House of the Occult, in 1972.  Advertisements for the bookstore featured a design that included the logo of Taylor's

 This Oak Park residence was home to Thee Satanic Church, according to various advertisements and other sources around 1974.

This western Chicago ice cream shop sits on the 1974 location of Taylor's House of Occult bookshop.

This is the location in Melrose Park, listed in various sources as late as 1976 as being home to both Thee Satanic Church and the International Psychic Center (the organization which Paglini directed Thee Satanic Church into after the split with Taylor - some sources make this sound like an offshoot, some consider Thee Satanic Church to be a rival organization to Taylor's).

Dr. Evelyn Paglini, just a few years after her split from Taylor, on television advising regarding the "Curse of the Evil Devil Stone."


Dr. Evelyn Paglini has remained in the public eye, but I can find no trace of Taylor.  If anyone has any further information, it would be greatly appreciated!

Advertisement for Thee Satanic Chuch, 1974

I recently came across this 1974 advertisement for Thee Satanic Church.

Not to be confused with the Church of Satan, Thee Satanic Church (at various times / incarnations known as Thee Satanic Orthodox Church of Nethilim Rite, among other things) was run locally by Terry Taylor.

For more information, see the previous post about Terry Taylor and Satanism in Chicago.

Does anyone know if Terry Taylor is still around? 

Terry Taylor and Satanism in Chicago during the 1970s

In 1966, Anton LaVey founded the Church of Satan in San Francisco.  He would publish the Satanic Bible in 1969.  CoS "grottoes" would pop up across the country, though oddly enough it appears that there was not one in Chicago.  Instead Chicago had Terry Taylor.  To introduce Taylor, I'll quote from Arthur Lyon's sensationalistic-yet-level-headed 1988 book Satan Wants You.

"The Orthodox Satanic Church, in existence from 1971 to 1974 in Chicago, which at its height claimed more than five hundred members, taught a similar system of beliefs (to The Lady of Endor Coven, located in Ohio).  The group's anti-LaVey philosophy taught that God the Creator created Satan, who, in turn, became the teacher of all knowledge.  Through ritual, prayer, and songs, held every Saturday night at Chicago's Occult Book Shop (*), members were exhorted to absorb as much of Satan's wisdom as they could.

"In 1974, this group broke up after its leader, Terry Taylor, owner of the Occult Book Shop(*) was taken to court by his ex-wife to keep him from bringing his daughter to the cult's rituals.  Taylor, she claimed, not only drove the girl to the shop in a hearse but also slept in a coffin.  A splinter sect, Thee Satanic Church, was started by Dr. Evelyn Paglini, of the International Psychic Center, but it folded shortly thereafter."

Taylor's store was actually called House of the Occult, located near Belmont and Central Avenue.  He did not own the Occult Bookstore.

Despite only having been in existence for a few years, Taylor seems to have gotten quite a lot of press.  I've found very little regarding his beliefs, or anything incredibly specific regarding The Orthodox Satanic Church (which at one point was known as Thee Satanic Orthodox Church of Nethilim Rite).  Still, his name shows up in quite a few publications.

Below is the beginning of an interview with Brad Steiger:
"We've had our windows at the House of Occult smashed six times in the last six months," he said.  "Salt has been dumped in our gas tanks.  We've been threatened twice with a gun.  Someone set street gangs on us.  We wrote to the Justice Department in Washington, D.C., and now we have police protection."

Despite the fact that Taylor is regularly described as being a Theistic Satanist (and at least one local organization claims to be following in this lineage), Taylor has this to say:
"...(W)e just do not believe that there is a devil.  There is an active and a passive section in our minds, but neither is necessarily good or evil, plus or minus."

Chicago Tribune - March 8, 1974.

"They think I'm in league with the devil and have an 'in' with him," he said.  But Taylor neither believes in the devil - "a Christian invention" - nor performs exorcisms.

Chicago Tribune - March 26, 1974

http://newspaperarchive.com/singleviewer.aspx?pdfid=76797676

Anyone with more information about Taylor and associated organizations is encouraged to make contact.