Rick Burgess, BlazeTV host of the biblical spiritual warfare podcast “Strange Encounters,” recently received a deeply disturbing email from one of his listeners.

In the message, the man, now grown, reflects on a bone-chilling experience he had as an adolescent at a church youth camp. On the first night in his cabin, two fellow campers convinced him to play the “Bloody Mary” game — a children’s urban legend ritual where you stand in a darkened bathroom, face a mirror, and chant “bloody Mary” three times to supposedly summon a vengeful ghostly woman.

What he saw in the mirror haunts him to this day.

“After the second statement of bloody Mary, I chickened out. I stepped away from the mirror,” the email reads.

But one of the other campers, known as “Tim,” then attempted to grab him to force him to stay. As he reached out, Tim caught a glimpse of another mirror outside the bathroom where the trio were playing the game.

“He screamed in terror as we all dropped to the floor. Tim described a dark shadow in the shape of a person walking. The mirror was situated in a way that the reflection of anyone in the room would have been from the waist up. But Tim’s description was that of a full head-to-foot body walking and actually growing larger as if it were coming from a distance inside the mirror toward our room,” the writer continues, adding that he’s “never seen anyone as genuinely terrified as Tim.”

Right after this climactic moment, a youth pastor, making his evening rounds, knocked on the door to check on the campers. The boys told him about their horrifying experience, and he warned them: “Urban legends like these are not something to play around with. … These are often used by demons … as invitations to come in.”

“The youth pastor is correct,” says Rick.

“Playing around with some of this stuff may seem so innocent, just like this 6-7 thing,” but urban legends and viral internet memes are often darker than people realize, he warns.

He compares brushing off seeming trivialities like Bloody Mary games and the 6-7 slang phrase to parents shrugging their shoulders as their kid plays along the side of a busy road or messes around with knives or matches.

“These kinds of things we would never do, but sometimes when it comes to entertainment and the culture, it’s like we won’t take the same attitude,” he says.

“If we truly believe what the Bible says and that the spiritual realm is real and that we have a devil and we have Satan, the fallen angel Lucifer that is extremely powerful … and then the demons, which also operate with him … then why do we pretend that that is not dangerous?” he asks.

To hear more of Rick’s spiritual analysis and learn more about the dark trends our youth are entangled in, watch the full episode above.

Want more from Rick Burgess?

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​Strange encounters, Blazetv, Blaze media, Rick burgess, Rick burgess strange encounters, Spiritual warfare, Bloody mary, 6 7, 6 7 trend 

The latest joint U.S.-Israeli military strikes on Iran have been met in America with bipartisan praise and condemnation.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), one of America’s most vociferous advocates for regime change in Iran, rushed to celebrate the “historic operation,” noting that he is “in awe of President Trump’s determination to be a man of peace but at the end of the day, evil’s worst nightmare.”

‘This is not “America First.”‘

Graham wrote in one of several emotion-laden commentaries, “My mind is racing with the thought that the murderous ayatollah’s regime in Iran will soon be no more. The biggest change in the Middle East in a thousand years is upon us.”

Graham was hardly alone in his celebration of the regime-change strikes on the Shiite nation.

Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton (R) provided a laundry list of reasons why this is a “vital mission of vengeance, and justice, and safety,” noting, “Iran has waged war against the U.S. for 47 years: the hostage crisis, the Beirut Marine barracks, Khobar Towers, roadside bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan that killed or maimed thousands of American soldiers, the attempted assassination of President Trump.”

RELATED: World leaders respond to regime-change strikes on Iran: ‘Peacekeeper is at it again’

Photo by Mahsa/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images

“The butcher’s bill has finally come due for the ayatollahs,” added Cotton, who signaled appreciation in a separate post for Trump’s speech.

Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee with Cotton, thanked Trump for his “strong leadership,” and characterized Operation Epic Fury as both a demonstration of “peace through strength” and “AMERICA FIRST.”

Democrat Sen. John Fetterman (Pa.) joined Graham and the other Republicans in lavishing praise on President Donald Trump for attacking Iran, stating, “President Trump has been willing to do what’s right and necessary to produce real peace in the region.”

“God bless the United States, our great military, and Israel,” continued the Democrat.

Several of Fetterman’s Democrat colleagues condemned the attacks and the president’s perceived circumvention of Congress, which retains the authority to declare war.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) claimed that “single-handedly starting another war with Iran is dangerous and illegal” and expressed doubt about whether “America first” meant another foreign entanglement.

Democrat Sen. Mark Warner (Va.) raised concerns about the constitutionality of the strikes, noting, “The Constitution is clear: the decision to take this nation to war rests with Congress, and launching large-scale military operations — particularly in the absence of an imminent threat to the United States — raises serious legal and constitutional concerns.”

Warner demanded that the administration “come forward with a clear legal justification, a defined end state, and a plan that avoids dragging the United States into yet another costly and unnecessary war.”

While Congress was not formally briefed on the strikes, according to House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with and briefed the Gang of Eight, which includes the Democrat and Republican leaders from both the Senate and the House.

A spokesperson for Johnson confirmed to NOTUS that Johnson was notified. Sources also told NOTUS that Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) were notified along with Sen. Warner, Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), and Republican Rep. Rick Crawford (Ark.).

RELATED: Iran sparks regional war after retaliating against US military assets over ‘massive’ US-Israel strike

Photo by Stringer/Getty Images

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) — who recently filed a Senate resolution with Republican Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.) that would block a war against Iran unless approved by Congress — was less restrained than Warner in his criticism of the president.

Kaine accused Trump of waging an “illegal war,” called the strikes a “colossal mistake,” and implored his colleagues to “go on the record about this dangerous, unnecessary, and idiotic action” and vote on his war powers resolution.

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), a critic of the president who has similarly attempted to prevent Trump from going to war with Iran without congressional approval, referred to the attacks as “acts of war unauthorized by Congress.”

In a subsequent post on social media, Massie stated, “I am opposed to this War. This is not ‘America First.'”

“When Congress reconvenes, I will work with @RepRoKhanna to force a Congressional vote on war with Iran,” continued Massie. “The Constitution requires a vote, and your Representative needs to be on record as opposing or supporting this war.”

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