AUDIENCE: [CHANTING]
ANNOUNCER: Let's give a very warm welcome--
Teenage Exorcist.
CHARLET DOBUC: The Teenage Exorcists is not the latest
occult TV show, but a trio of real-life All-American
home-schooled virgins from Phoenix, Arizona.
18-year-old Brynne and her two friends the Sherkenback
sisters spend their spare time touring the world
confronting the devil.
Bob Larson, the man behind them, is Brynne's father, a
highly controversial exorcist whose hopes of becoming a
celebrity televangelist were dashed after this video went
viral, causing huge public outcry.
Like the many questionable preachers who've come before
him, he's been repeatedly accused by the media of
getting rich by preying on the weak.
-The ministry's treated you well, financially.
BOB LARSON: [LAUGHING]
CHARLET DOBUC: Undeterred, he still maintains that half the
world is demonically possessed, having groomed the
girls into a team of Hollywood-ready demon slayers,
he's relaunching his crusade with his latest enterprise.
ANDERSON COOPER: You three seem like, coached, and you
don't seem like you're talking like real people.
CHARLET DOBUC: The exorcists claim that the biggest causes
of demonic possession are drug addiction and sexual abuse.
So Bob was bringing the girls on their first overseas tour
to perform exorcisms in troubled mining towns of the
Ukraine, where the numbers of drug addicts and abused women
are among the highest in the world.
Widespread poverty, a poor health care system, and common
belief in the supernatural means that many people are
more prone to seek cures from God rather than medicine, and
Bob already has a following there.
So I came along to see what happens when a media sensation
meets some people who really need help, and learn what it
takes to become an exorcist.
The first stop on the tour was the New Generation Church in a
mining town called Pershotravensk.
There's a lot of people here that want to be saved, and
there's a lot of people here ready to have
their demons cast out.
So it's going to be fertile ground for Reverend Bob and
his real-life "Buffy the Vampire Slayers."
BOB LARSON: Many of you in this room--
TRANSLATOR: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
BOB LARSON: --have suffered sexual abuse--
TRANSLATOR: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
BOB LARSON: --physical abuse--
TRANSLATOR: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
BOB LARSON: --emotional abuse--
TRANSLATOR: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
BOB LARSON: --by a parent, a lover.
TRANSLATOR: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE].
BOB LARSON: And it's eating you up inside.
TRANSLATOR: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
BOB LARSON: If I've been describing you--
TRANSLATOR: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
BOB LARSON: --have the courage right now--
TRANSLATOR: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE].
BOB LARSON: --to say God, I will forgive.
TRANSLATOR: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
BOB LARSON: I'll get up out of my seat right now.
TRANSLATOR: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
BOB LARSON: And I will stand down here for prayer.
TRANSLATOR: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
BOB LARSON: For the healing of Christ.
TRANSLATOR: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
BOB LARSON: I want to talk to little Marsha.
TRANSLATOR: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
BOB LARSON: I want to talk to the little
girl who daddy beat.
TRANSLATOR: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
BOB LARSON: I want big Marsha to get out of the way.
I want the little girl.
TRANSLATOR: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
BOB LARSON: I want you to say, my daddy beat me.
TRANSLATOR: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
-[SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
BOB LARSON: You get up and face me!
TRANSLATOR: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
BOB LARSON: You get up and face me!
TRANSLATOR: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
BOB LARSON: Get up and face me!
TRANSLATOR: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
CHARLET DOBUC: As I witnessed my first deliverance session,
I realized Bob was clearly running the show.
The teenage exorcists were only brought in at the very
end to help cast the demons out.
I must say, I found his technique a bit off-key.
BRYNNE LARSON: What is your name?
BOB LARSON: [INAUDIBLE].
I will not let her go.
No, I will not let her go.
BRYNNE LARSON: Yes, you will.
BOB LARSON: [INAUDIBLE].
BRYNNE LARSON: Say we go.
Say we go.
-[GROWLING]
BRYNNE LARSON: They-- they want this.
And it's so amazing.
We're getting spoiled here, because they want it here.
And in American, sometimes the attitude is, well, we deserve
this, so hand it over.
TESS SHERKENBACK: Well, if you think about
it, we're in Ukraine.
I mean, they've only had freedom of religion for a
little over 20 years.
So they're so new, and it's just--
they're so hungry for religion.
They're so hungry for their freedom.
They really drink it up and they love it.
CHARLET DOBUC: The girls were full of the joys of
confronting Satan.
I left them to get on with it, and with the devil's cries
still ringing in ears, I went upstairs to the office of the
man responsible for bringing the circus to town.
Hello.
Pastor Andrey, thank you--
Andrey Tishchenko is the head of the New Generation Church,
which has a stronghold in the region.
ANDREY TISHCHENKO:
This town is unique by the fact that only coal miners live here
so there had been a lot of drug-addicted people.
It's important to understand that we use exorcism
specifically to release people from their addictions.
There is a common belief that the drug addiction is purely physical,
but the reality is that medical centres
can't help people with addiction.
And now we've built a network of 60 rehabilitation centres
all over Ukraine.
Where we place addicts and where specially trained ministers
pray for them.
CHARLET DOBUC: One of these rehab centers is next door to
the church, so I paid them a visit.
The recovering addicts who live here attend the church
daily as part of the rehab program, when they're told
unless they can get their demons out, they will never be
free of their addictions.
So who do you live with?
How many people?
Sixteen people and all of them are from different towns.
Listen, can you switch it off Edik?
Voices sampled during an exorcism session!
These are demons.
God loves these kinds of people too!
Holy spirit.
Go, go, Maloy.
Ukrainian nigger.
I tried drugs for the first time when I was 9 years old.
By the time I was 13 I was fully hooked on drugs.
You know, the rehabilitation centre
Yes, I was living a criminal life, I didn't have
any other source of income and didn't work.
is exactly the place where you should deal with your demons.
Because people come here with problems to solve.
When people are placed here, they gain freedom from drugs.
I'm trying to see those things that the exorcists are talking about.
I'm trying to find them in me...
At the moment, I don't see anything, but I am trying, I'm digging myself.
I see how it happens with other people and what it looks like.
CHARLET DOBUC: What do you think of these girls-- the
Teenage Exorcists?
My first association was the Spice Girls band,
or Buffy sisters.
CHARLET DOBUC: The exorcism sessions were clearly a last
resort for these impoverished addicts with few prospects and
nowhere left to turn.
But even these men, who've clearly seen it all--
and like us, were aware of the girls' resemblance to TV
characters--
believed they had healing powers, which shows just how
deep rooted spiritual belief is here.
The exorcists were already on route to the next deliverance
session, nearby at another New Generation Church in another
backwater mining town called Novomoskovsk, where the
session was already in full swing.
BOB LARSON: [INAUDIBLE].
-[INAUDIBLE].
BOB LARSON: [INAUDIBLE].
Where's the oil?
Quickly.
[INAUDIBLE].
After I've dealt with a couple of individuals, I'm going to
have the Teenage Exorcists start to deal with them.
TRANSLATOR: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
BOB LARSON: Don't get in front of the cameras, girls.
Keep your--
keep your back.
Turn.
OLGA LAKUT: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
TRANSLATOR: My uncle, my brother of my
mother, he raped me.
He molested me.
BOB LARSON: You need to help me, Olga.
TRANSLATOR: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
BOB LARSON: I'm going to tell you what to do.
TRANSLATOR: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
BOB LARSON: We're going to get these demons out of you.
TRANSLATOR: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
BOB LARSON: Are you ready?
TRANSLATOR: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
BOB LARSON: Are you ready to fight the devil?
TRANSLATOR: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
OLGA LAKUT: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
TRANSLATOR: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
BOB LARSON: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
OLGA LAKUT: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
BOB LARSON: I take the sword of God's spirit.
TRANSLATOR: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
BOB LARSON: I'm going pierce you with it.
TRANSLATOR: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
BOB LARSON: You will [INAUDIBLE].
TRANSLATOR: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
BOB LARSON: Who are you?
TRANSLATOR: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
BOB LARSON: Who are you?!
TRANSLATOR: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
OLGA LAKUT: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
TRANSLATOR: Go away.
BOB LARSON: Go away?
Olga, let this demon come up.
TRANSLATOR: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
BOB LARSON: I anger.
TRANSLATOR: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
BOB LARSON: Say I anger.
TRANSLATOR: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
OLGA LAKUT: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
BOB LARSON: Anger.
TRANSLATOR: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
BOB LARSON: [INAUDIBLE].
Go, go.
TRANSLATOR: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
BOB LARSON: It's OK.
BRYNNE LARSON: Good job.
Yeah, good job.
CHARLET DOBUC: From where I was sitting, I couldn't help
but feel that the exorcists had a quota of miracles to
fill, and that the woman might have felt compelled to perform
under pressure.
To be honest I didn't know exactly that he was an exorcist.
OLGA LAKUT
So I went there to find a cure for my varicose veins.
First of all.
Things that happened to me in childhood kept bothering me.
It affected the relationship with my husband
There was a feeling of uncleanness and shame.
I tried to save my marriage by myself.
Nothing worked.
When Bob Larson told me
to repeat after him the words of disownment, as far as I understood,
something started to happen to me completely unexpectedly
and when I looked into his eyes, at that moment
I realised that it was no longer me,
but something else looking at him through my eyes and I felt uneasy.
I even felt it on my face, as if it was disfigured.
CHARLET DOBUC: After everything was finished and
Bob Larson declared that your demon had been cast out, how
did you feel?
Did you feel different?
I felt relieved.
Joy.
As if this burden that I'd been dragging all this time,
for 22 years since it happened.
It just went away in an instant.
I felt light.
CHARLET DOBUC: Speaking to Olga made me realize just how
much she needed to go through a cathartic process like this.
And it clearly seemed to have some positive effect, at least
in the short term.
But I couldn't help but feel that the exorcists were taking
advantage of people who were already desperate for
spiritual intervention in their lives.
If you think God can cure your varicose veins, then you
probably won't need much convincing you're possessed.
I may not have faith, but I've always been a great believer
in the power of placebo.
Excorcists, where are you?