Anti-Christ Encounter?















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The Anti-Christ seemed to have been called upon us. On Sunday night, March 25, the web site counter incremented up to the count of 66,666,666 and froze.

The previous Friday night, Art had invited many Anti-Christs to call into the program. Little did we know it would affect our web site operations. This counter stuck for over 24 hours, before Keith could repair the damage. Here are the emails we received during that time.

Keith: I just logged onto Art's website and my encounter # is 66,666,666. What does this mean for my future? Please advise if I need to contact an exorcist.
I was the 66,666,666 th "ecounter" to the Website Sun. Nite/Mon. Morning at 12:41 AM PST. Am I screwed??
Art notice your encounters...you have been invaded by the AntiChrist...beware :)
I am not a computer nerd, BUT I logged on today and I was encounter # 66,666,666. I fainted when I saw that, being the religious person I am, and syncronisity like you were talking about on friday, But I am not the antichrist, I pray.
I am not a superstitious person, but I have to admit that I was taken aback a bit when this morning around 3:55am I brought up your web page and the number was 66,666,666. The number just kind of stuck out at me.
I find it extremely interesting that the counter on your web site seems to be stuck on 66,666,666...to tell you the truth, it's creeping me out a bit...
It was with a considerable amount of soul-searching astonishment that I abruptly discovered that I was (apparently) the 66,666,666th visitor to your site this morning!

Now, Art, that was cruel! I'm not a "religiously superstitious" person, nor am I exactly a believer in this "mark of the beast" hoopla... but I have to admit that I was momentarily shocked... (EGADS!)... and I took a very deep breath when my visit to your site turned out to disclose these numbers. (hehehe)

Just yesterday I finished reviewing (yet another) well-intended article about the catholic concept of the "beast", and in light of your recent programs concerning similar topics... yowsers... seeing THOSE numbers right in front of me (on YOUR website, no less) was NOT something I'd expected would ever apply to me!

I thought you might like to know that I got a chuckle out of this. (Gee -- do I win an "Art Bell" cap to cover the secret, diabolically hidden, marks on my scalp?) LOL!

Is there something wrong with your page counter? Myself and two friends all visited your site from different computers and all three of us received your 'Encounter' number as 66, 666, 666
The above was copied directly from the default page. I am very honored. No i am not the antichrist.
Oh my god Art. I have been waiting for a sign for years... a direction to follow. Now, after getting off work on a totally uneventful day, wanting to listen to last night's show, I got my answer.I am the Antichrist! It cannot be mere coincidence that I am visitor number 66,666,666! Love the show, keep up the great work.
It turns out that I might be the Anti-Christ. When I accessed your web page the visitor counter registered nothing but sixes. If it turns out that this is true, it is news to me and I won't be too happy about it. I don't think that I'm really ready at this point in my life to take on any more new responsibilities.
Hi Art, Just checked your website this morning. Felt pretty good until I saw the number of hits that came up with my contact. It was 66,666,666. Not so sure how good I feel now!
Monday is hell for me.... some Mondays are worst than others, it seems...
Your Web Site "Encounters" counter is reading 66,666,666. Have you been hacked ?
I know this may seem childish, but I couldn't help but notice the number of encounters according to your front page. 66,666,666.
This morning I checked your website, as I do each and every morning, and the number of encounters said 66,666,666. I hope that this doesn't mean I have to stay inside all day or that the sky will fall on me, or I will get "mad cow disease" or something like that!
I have been a long time listener and have never had any real reason to contact you in the past but the events of this morning have forced me to act as I never have imagined. I work third shift in a hospital setting and have found your program to be a blessing to the long tedious hours of the night.

Anyhow, This morning after I awoke from my midmorning slumber I cooked oatmeal, as I had a thousand times before, and begun to feast as I logged on to your web sight, to check the nights guests info. To my shock and dismay I found that I was the 66,666,666 guest to have logged on to your web sight.

This incident alone has been enough for me to reevaluate my life time spent help others... Is this just a coincident? or am I a contender for one of the antichrist positions that your show has spoke of most recently?

Please advise!

I went to your web site today and I was visitor 66,666,666. Guess I was too late to call in on the Anti Christ line. this happened at about 0654 on 26 mar 01. And at the same time in the morning my well casing for my water pump decided to break and flood my yard........damm weird........
Art, This will never happen again . Am I going to hell for this???
Hey man! I went to your site when I woke up today (as usual) and look at the number of hits! I was a little freaked out by it........ I have a friend who already thinks you're the Anti-Christ so I won't be showing this to him *laugh*.....
I just became the 66,666,666 visitor to your site , should I worry ? No , nothing fell from the sky on me, the ground didn't quake or open up beneath my feet, my computer is still on line and I don't think I've won anything. No, I just checked the mail box and I didn't see the prize van out front, oh , wait a minute , I see , I've still got 600,000,000 to go. Oh well, I guess I jumped the gun.
When I logged on to the site this afternoon, imagine my surprise when I noticed the Encounter # 66,666,666 !!!

Coming on the heals of the Anti-Christ call-in show, maybe this means I really am the Anti-Christ, or at least your site thinks I am???

I printed out the website page showing my encounter number and will fax it to Art, but I thought I would send this to you because you should be able to verify in your contact logs that it was indeed me.

I was connected through my terminal at White Sands Missile Range, NM at approx. 1325ish hours MST on 26 March 2001. This way you could help Art to celebrate this "milestone?"

It just so happens that I was the 66,666,666 vistor to your website, and I can positively tell you I am not the Anit-Christ. In fact, I am currently a Bible College student in Springfield, Missouri.
I logged on to your site this evening(Monday, March 26, 1:30 pm CST) and it appears that I have the distinction of having encounter number 66,666,666 on your website. I may not be Satan or the antichrist, but I am as superstitious as the next guy. I am hoping that this is not some sort of calling, but I have also been noticing some other things happening in my life.
At precisely 13:30 central time today I was visitor number 66,666,666 to your web site - I half-expected confetti or balloons or something, but alas, nothing. Maybe, just maybe, you could find it in your heart to give me a one-year subscription to your newsletter or at least some sort of fanfare on your show tonight?
Hi Art.....when I signed onto your site today at about 11am I saw the counter was at 66,666,666. I thought it was strange and wondered if that changes with every person that signs on. As I clicked on "what's new" as I do every day, my ENTIRE system shut down. When I started everything back up my printer produced about 10 pages of nothing but "nn.6apps" over and over again. Finally I shut it off. Do you have any idea what happened here? Am I the only one that this has happened to?
Your web page counter is at 66,666,666! What does this MEAN Art??? Is the apocalypse upon us? Or is it just that your web site is so darn popular?
I just wanted you to know i was the 66,666,666 visiter to your site and this was after going to the death clock site. Am I doomed?
Today I visited your web page as the 66,666,666 encounter. In tradition with the show's genre, I was surprised there are no bells and whistles going-off or little pitch forks flying across my computer screen saying a just won a free trip to hell !!
I couldnt let this one just go passed by me.... That is, being encounters 66,666,666 to your devilish web site!! Oh yes indeed Art, we have at least one regular, in Limoland Mississauga, who believes hes Lucifer himself... Yep, I have my monthly encounter with this loaded one, and I make sure he doesnt hear your broadcast (on 640 AM, TO) if it happens to be on... Sorry, Art, but I just wont make room to throw in a plug, even a literal one... Oh no, not at that Satan... lest he cons me in believing that hes shut up by any of my actions ... and, You wouldnt want him on anyways, lest he gets the devil out of thousands of us regular listeners.... ah ah!
I was debating sending this message, but the counter on your front page read 66,666,666 when I pulled it up. It led me to wonder if there had been a glitch in the counter, for surely there are those fans of your show who would eagerly reload and reload and reload ad infinitum hoping to have just such a sextacular numeral flash before their eyes. And yet it was me. Does this mean that I am the AntiChrist? Goodness, I hope not. If I e-mail you again 600 million hits later, we'll both start worrying.
I was just checking the web and I have your site set up as the default site that comes up when I start Explorer. It seemed rather strange when I saw the number of encounters was exactly 66,666,666. This must be some sort of sign. I guess that I better start going back to church........ or perhaps YOU had better do some serious repenting! ha ha... "Pass me the Good book brother, and dunk me in that pond......" as someone once said.......
Please fix Art's home page counter, I can't deal with all those six's.
I tried to send this note but like the events of the past 3 days "nothing is normal". My computer did not work for 3 days and crashed so many times I lost count. I just barely got back on the web to find I am the 66,666,666th encounter on your web site. Now I know I am being mocked!
Art, just browsed to see "what's on tonight" in your realm of reality and found that the number 66,666,666 encounters appeared. Did I hit the jackpot by coming one "6" short of a tripple whammy, therefore being "saved from the EVIL ONE (smile).
Hey Art Bell at approximately 5:00pm, after I returned home from a short day at work and ate dinner by myself, I opened up your website to my surprise. What was on your home page mad me feel exhilarated and joyous and at the same time very, very afraid. It wasn't the graphics picture of an alien on your home page, nor was it your new web layout (which I think is easier to navigate) but what was displayed in small red numbers in the top left corner. Under encounters it read 66,666,666. Should I feel lucky to have such on odd number or should I dread this? As it is classically an undesirable number. Now I pulled up several windows in precaution that one of them may accidentally close. I have it displayed and am going to keep an eye on the computer to make sure it doesn't get erased until you know.
I am writing you to let you know about the one in a million chance that happened to me tonight on your web site. I log on once a night to check out the new stuff and when I did tonight I was encounter 66,666,666 on your visitor counter, I hope this dosen't mean I'm the AntiChrist.
I logged on to your website tonight (3/26/2001) and not only did I see your posting of Time Traveler and Antichirst calls, but I also saw that I was the 66,666,666th visitor to you website!!! I felt lucky at first and then thought... maybe I wasn't so lucky. After examining my scalp for three sixes and finding none, I felt a little bit better! If there is any change in my scalp, I'll let you know!
As you can see on your subject line I am your 66,666,666th person to log on to your site. As an avid fan of your show as well as a study in bible prophecy, am I that biblically famed person known as the Antichrist only two and 2/3 more evil??? I outdo him by 5 sixes. Do I implant. Do I get to implant the dreaded rice sized microchip "the mark" three different times on every living person. Does my deep, treble laugh get to be 2 1/2 times deeper. Imagine the powers I could harness with all that evil coursing through my 14 inch fangs. HAHAHA Art Bell you are but an outdated can of tuna fish in my presence. My final word to you Art Bell is HAAAHAAAAHAAAAA!!!!
I'm not superstitious Art, but dang, I hope other people got that one too. BTW, I'm not the anti-christ. Well, I certainly hope not. If nominated, I will not run, if elected, I will not serve.
Hi Art:I logged on to your website at 8:42pm tonight and was visitor number 66,666,666.If 666 is the antichrist what does this make me?I had no idea I was such a badass s.o.b.
I really haven't looked at your website that many times for this letter to be so relevant, so it's not as though I am clicking on your website consistantly to have this crazy thing having happened to me, but tonight, I was visitor number 66,666,666 on your website I couldn't believe it.

I do look at your website about 1-4 times a week though, and think it's one of the most fun websites there are.

It's also fun to check at the beginning of the week, to see who is going to be on the show for the week. I especially like this feature of your website.

At first, when I saw I was visitor 66,666,666, I just copied the html code of the page, and planned to send it to you, or Keith Rowland, but figured anyone could probably do this, and then just change the code, so that it would say 66,666,666, so I then fired up one of my little screenshot machines, and took this jpg picture I am sending you to prove what I am saying. I made a gif pic of it too, just as a backup. I called them both 66,666,666.

Is this weird but fun or what??? If I am lying about this. Keith Rowland can find out if I am, but I swear I'm not, unless you have the 666 thing locked in for laughs? That's the only way I can figure it happened to me.

I am a pastor of a Protestant church. A few days ago, I logged onto your website to review recent programming. I had a good chuckle when I noticed the website "hit" counter said I was visitor number 66,666,666. In my line of work, that could be scary!

April Fools

Well friends, the Anti-Christ didn't envade our servers, it was a preplanned stop in the counter. The question always was, when it would happen and who got the first one. We'll never know for sure, but many people thought they were the one! While I did have to travel to LA to repair one of the servers, it was not related to the rigged counter. Here are some messages we received when the joke was figured out.

Nice touche with the counter, at first i thougt it my bad luck then i saw it stayed at the same rate when i reloaded (yes i flushed the cache) ..hehe...
I was going to write you when I thought I was the one who landed at you site for the 66,666,666th time. I dont even look at the counter much, but this time it cought my eye. It kind of took me back a step. Not that I thought the devil himself was going to come out of the computer and get me or something. But you never know. I figured out your little trick once I went to another computer to write you about being the one. (blush)
Okay, you got me! Hook, line and sinker! I just went back to the opening screen, hit refresh, and... Well, you know the rest! Good one... Nice joke. Now I feel like kind of a moron, but hey...it was a helluva trick! (Literally, I suppose...) Am I the only sucker who bought into it enough to send a screenshot, or is your e-mail overflowing with .jpgs from people like me who bought it? I am DEFINITELY avoiding your site on April 1... You'll have me convinced the Martians are landing.
What are you trying to pull here? Your web counter isn't stuck at all! Anybody who even has an entry level exposure to html coding can see that in the source code, it is coded in manually to read 66,666,666 and isn't a functioning counter at all! Now I would like an explanation for this, and would like you to clear this up with your other listeners. We have a degree of respect for you, but when things like this go on, it is a disgrace to you, your show and your name! There are alot of us who listen to your show in this building alone, at last count it was hitting 431 people. Understand that we are not a group of lifeless freaks, but highly educated programmers & support people. My point here is that we are not illiterate morons, and do not appreciate the fact that you choose to take us for fools. It was suggested that we also send this to premiere radio & some of your sponsors to make a point here... that being, if you will B.S. us as your listeners on something so simple, why should we take any stock in the ways you choose to endorse your sponsors and/or their products... therefore, why buy from them?

If you had no knowledge whatsoever of this intentional "counter error", then we suggest you review the current choice of your "web master". In any event, we would all like an explanation for this, as well as an explanation aired to your other listeners. We would also like to be advised of action taken to resolve this situation.

Your web site isn't possessed. It looks like you got hacked. Your website contains the following text in the index.html file:

Encounters
66,666,666

That means that the number was TYPED in, it's not coming from a counter. Someone modified your index.html file. Sorry to burst any bubbles, but if any other techies find this, you might find yourself embarrassed if you express that it's possession.

Since last night when Keith evidently fixed your site visitor counter, I have been unable to play any of the files on the "Sound Clip" page. Windows Media Player seems to recognize the links and attempts to play them, but then fails and displays an error msg that reads either "Could not play any media in the playlist" or "The system cannot find the file specified".

If nothing else works, perhaps he could remove the Antichrist group of sound clips. Leaving that up may be the equivalent of playing with the forces of evil. The Time Line group, it seems to me, is different. It is possible that there may be a purely NATURAL way of manipulating time; attempting to deal with the Antichrist, on the other hand, is definitely flirting with the SUPERNATURAL in a way that God may not have intended.