Claudia Caneva, an Italian professor at the Roma Tre University, gave a presentation recently on “Music and Satanism” in the course “Exorcism and Deliverance Prayer” that was held in the Italian capital and sponsored by the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum and the Italian Socioreligious Research and Information Group.

Speaking with ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, Caneva warned about the influence that rock music and other subgenres such as heavy metal, death metal, or death rock have on the behavior of youth, mere “victims” of a cultural industry produced by the “adult world.”

Caneva, who is also a professor at the Institute of Sciences of the Pontifical Lateran University and the Salesian University of Rome, has been studying for years how artistic products influence the behavior of young people.

An author of books on the incitement of the contemporary imagination or on the relationship between music and philosophy, Caneva asserted that this type of music is harmful and can even “physiologically alter adolescents.”

“Demonic influence through music, a choice vehicle of dissemination, is a phenomenon to which we must be very attentive,” she warned.

The professor also stated that heavy metal, “which has a very piercing sound that envelops young people,” has become an object of study and is a topic “that is currently of interest to experts and researchers.”

In this regard, she recalled the case of the Italian Davide Canotti, a former follower of Marco Dimitri’s Satanic sect known as “Satan’s Children,” which was founded in 1982 in Bologna, Italy.

Canotti, Caneva noted, was interrogated by the police after he had desecrated several ossuaries in cemeteries in Italy and stolen bones of buried children.

“In his response to the authorities, he said that he had never taken drugs and that his only drug was music,” the expert pointed out. The man claimed that he listened to black metal groups in whose songs they even invited people to “destroy the tombstones and break the crosses.”

Young People, the Main Victims

According to Caneva, this is just one example of how Satanism is present in this type of music, which from the beginning stirs up a certain type of behavior and “induces certain emotions” in a person.

She also pointed out that music albums include subliminal invocations to Satan, although she clarified that “if you listen to it, it’s not an inevitable result that the devil is inside you.”

However, the professor noted that many exorcisms that are carried out are due to the victims listening to these types of songs.

“I believe that young people are victims of this situation, and I always ask myself: Who produces these things? Who controls them? Why are certain things allowed?” she lamented.

Along these lines, Caneva made reference to the phenomenon called “mirror neurons,” a relevant discovery of neuroscience used in the educational field that explains how neurons have a behavior similar to that of a mirror.

This dynamic shows “that the action we observe in another individual is reflected in our brain, making neurons play a decisive role in our behaviors.”

Consequently, she warned that “music is not just music, music is a show, it’s a performance,” and young people are “victims of those who produce it.”

The Fundamental Role of Parents

Caneva stressed to ACI Prensa the importance that parents play in this area and in their role in forming their children. “Parents are educators and must be attentive, initiate a conversation with young people, fostering maturity.”

“Young people are very sensitive to neuroendocrine dynamics, and especially in adolescence, where they experience a hormonal explosion, loaded with aggressiveness and emotional affectivity,” she said.

She also reiterated that prohibiting this type of music “is of no use,” but rather it’s a process requiring a serious effort and working on awareness to make young people see that this type of music “can have very negative consequences.”

Caneva also cited the musical subgenre of Trap and other sectors of the industry such as video games or television series, which lead to “negative emotions, aggressiveness, and restlessness.”

The purpose? Hopeless and manipulable youth

Regarding the purpose pursued by a large part of the current industry, the Italian expert said that they seek “a lack of hope that destroys young people, to make them insecure and to be able to manipulate them.”

“In television series they propose ‘antiheroes’ as role models. Young people are the future and Satanism is not only found in music, those who engender war or who exploit the poor at work are also Satanic,” she emphasized.

Finally, Caneva noted that if you look at the album covers or posters of this type of musical group, Satanism “is easily identifiable.”

“But remember that Lucifer was the most beautiful of the angels on the throne of ice, and ice means indifference, something that this industry also aims to do, to make young people become cold and indifferent people,” she concluded.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.