Florida Teacher tells kids to self-mutilate to "Expel Demons" (video)

A St. Petersburg, Florida teacher has been arrested in a case involving former students and a ritual involving cutting their bodies to release "evil spirits," according to police.

Danielle Harkins, 35, allegedly told teenagers they had evil spirits in their bodies, and she wanted to get them out.

Harkins was able persuade two former students to follow through with a ritual ceremony.

Harkins was charged with aggravated battery and child abuse and was being held at the Pinellas County Jail on $55,000 bail.

Harkins met and tutored the students while serving as a literacy mentor at the Lealman and Asian Learning Center in St. Petersburg.

Investigators said Harkins was at The Pier on Saturday with seven former students when she told a 16- and 17-year-old to take part in a ritual based on her religious beliefs.

French Home to 20,000 Doomsday Cultists Awaiting Aliens (video)

An estimated 20,000 New Age believers who say the "upside down" mountain is home to aliens who will rescue them from an impending apocalypse have saturated a small French commune near the foot of the picturesque Pic de Bugarach.

The Independent reports the growing flock, who locals refer to as "esoterics," believe the world will come to an end on December 21^st, 2012. They also reportedly believe that the unique mountain is in fact home to a race of alien beings that will emerge to rescue the gathered humans and transport them to a new civilization.

Pic de Bugarach has long been famous because rock samples taken from its peak are actually older than points measured at lower elevation. Scientists say that is because when the 1,230 meter mountain erupted its peak flipped upside down before crashing back down upon the mountain's base. The mountain is said to have played a role in inspiring everything from Jules Verne's "Journey to the Center of the Earth," to Steven Spielberg's "Close Encounters of the Third Kind."