Let us continue if you will
BEATING
THE DEVIL
After a 20-year process which
ended on 26 January, 1999, the Vatican has produced an updated rite of exorcism,
according to the International Association of Exorcists.
In a statement made by Cardinal Jorge Arturo Medina, prefect of the
Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments,
in announcing the revisions,
“
We know
there are Catholics who have not received good formation and doubt the existence
of the devil, but this is an article of faith and part of the doctrine of the
Catholic Church. Whoever says the devil does not exist is no longer a
believer.
“
The new text was described as an outgrowth of the old,
with more temperate language and giving the priest greater flexibility in the
choice of prayers to use.
Written in
1614, the previous ritual combined prayers and gestures in keeping with the
Middle Ages. Certain aspects of the ritual were more dramatic than liturgical,
said the association.
Although the
theology of the Church on exorcism remains unaltered, what is new is the
simplification of external aspects and the presentation of the texts, written in
light of Biblical texts. The premises have also been revised: Specific canonical
norms are established to respond to any eventual abuses.
Before using the Rite of Exorcisms, the priest must have
“moral certainty” that the person involved is truly possessed or obsessed and
not suffering from a psychological or physical illness.
The rite is performed in the name of Jesus and calls on
the power he gave to his disciples and their successors to cast out evil
spirits.
The Catechism of the
Catholic Church states,
“
Exorcism is
directed at the expulsion of demons or to the liberation from demonic possession
through the spiritual authority, which Jesus entrusted to his
Church.
“
In the ritual, the evil spirit is commanded in the name
of God and of the Church to depart. The ritual also includes a sprinkling with
holy water, the recitation of a litany of the saints, the Lord’s Prayer and a
creed, a Gospel reading and the Sign of the Cross.
A simple form of exorcism, not changed by the new ritual,
is part of the Catholic Church’s baptism rites; in it, the Church prays that the
one about to be baptized will be protected from evil and from Satan’s
temptation.
In a series of 1986
audience talks about angels and the devil, Pope John Paul II said Satan has been
defeated by Christ’s death and resurrection, but he continues to try to win over
people.
“It cannot be excluded that
in certain cases the Evil Spirit tries to exercise his influence not only on
material things, but also on the human body, for which one speaks of diabolical
possession:”
the Pope said during an
audience talk.
“It is not always
easy to discern that which happens preternaturally in these cases, nor does the
Church easily yield to or support the tendency to attribute many occurrences to
the intervention of the demon,”
he
said. At the same time, the Pope said,
“one cannot deny that in his desire to harm and to lead
toward evil, Satan can reach this extreme manifestation”
of his power.
Yet if we look at
how the early Church developed its own exorcism rituals embellished by certain
procedures such as prayers, recitations, signs of the cross and personal
preparation by fasting and of course the Association of Exorcists use of the
word “dramatic” when describing the process. It could quite possibly be said
that much of the intent of this elaboration was to impress; that is to say to
garner new recruits to the new religion (of Christianity) for many self-styled
clergy saw the new religion as a gateway to control of others – and to gain
power for themselves. It is not to say that thee were not those who were saintly
and wanted the best for humanity and did not believe in the teaching of Jesus
Christ.
SIGNS OF THE DEVIL
The views today of the two major Christian Churches still
differ, insofar as the Catholic stance is that the Devil and demons have a real
existence, especially in the possession of mankind. The opposing viewpoint holds
that the devil should not be named but that a belief in forces of evil should be
adhered to. The Exeter Commission which attempted to introduce a rational
approach to the subject is an example of this. The Report reiterates belief in
“non-human power of evil” and emphasised that “demonic interference” was
possible. For the Protestant Church, exorcism is the “binding of evil powers”
rather than as with the Roman Catholic Church the expelling of diabolic
influences, i.e. infestation by the Devil or his demons.
Catholic exorcists differentiate between “ordinary” demonic activity or influence (mundane everyday
temptations) and
diabolical demonic activity, which can take six different forms, ranging from
complete control by Satan or some demon(s) to voluntary
submission.
As I have said before
not all cases of possession are full cases
of possession. There are cases of demonic oppression, obsession and depression
and infestation which can all be very painful and very
distressing.
Possession, in
which Satan or some demon(s) takes full possession of a person’s body without
their knowledge or consent, so the victim is therefore morally
blameless.
Obsessionis when
the devil attacks the body of a human being from the outside, we call this
obsession.
Which includes sudden
attacks of irrationally obsessive thoughts, usually culminating in suicidal
ideation; this is a medical term for though
s about or an unusual
preoccupation with
suicide. The range of
suicidal ideation can vary greatly from fleeting to detailed planning,
role playing, and
unsuccessful attempts, which may be
deliberately constructed to fail or be discovered,
or may be fully intended to result in death
and can typically influences
dreams.
Oppression, in which there is no loss of consciousness or
involuntary action. A person is plagued by an unusual string of “bad luck” which
causes undue strain mentally, emotionally and physically.
External physical pain caused by Satan or some demon(s).
Infestation,
which affects houses, things, or animals. In that there are strange sounds or
occurrences and animals in the area of the occurrences begin to act out of the
ordinary. Items such as dolls might appear to move under their own volition.
Subjugation, in which a person voluntarily submits to Satan or some
demon(s).
If the above is read
carefully it may seem as if the same idea is repeated more than once in just a
slightly different way but that is because one runs into the other and there is
overlapping. The below more detailed text reiterates this more clearly.
The following is taken from Fr. Gabriele Amorth’s second book
“An Exorcist More
Stories.” Fr. Amorth’s book is
published by IGNATIUS released in 2002. Fr. Amorth is a member of the
Vatican II Sect.
4. External
Pain – deals strictly with physical
suffering. This includes the beatings, scourging, and injuries caused by
inexplicable pushing, falling objects, and so on, that we read about in the
lives of many saints, such as the Curé of Ars. Saint Paul of the Cross, and
Padre Pio. These occurrences are not as rare as we may think, and the demon’s
activity is usually confined to external activity; internal activity, if any, is
only temporary and limited to the duration of a particular
disturbance.
1. Diabolic Possession – is the gravest form of demonic activity, which allows
a continuing presence of a demon in a human body. The evil symptoms do not have
to be continuous but can alternate between periods of crisis and periods of
rest. Possession implies intervals of temporary suspension of mental,
intellectual, affective, and volitive faculties. Symptoms can include the
knowledge of languages unknown to the victim, superhuman strength, and the
ability to know the occult or someone else’s thoughts. Typically, there is an
aversion to anything sacred, often in conjunction with blasphemy. There are also
frauds who pose as demoniac; therefore, we need to be extremely
wary.
3. Diabolic Oppression – is a ransom discomfort. We must remember that symptoms
and gravity differ greatly case by case. This oppression can strike health, job,
affections, relationship with others, and so on. Its symptoms include
unexplainable rages and a tendency to complete isolation. Oppression can affect
both individual and groups (even very large groups).
2. Diabolic
Obsession – causes an almost split
personality. Our will remains free, but it is oppressed by obsessive thoughts.
The victim experiences thoughts that may be rationally absurd but of such a
nature that he is unable to free himself. The obsessed person lives in a
perpetual state of prostration, with persistent temptations to suicide. We must
be aware that the temptation to commit suicide is also present in diabolic
possession and diabolic oppression.
5. Diabolic
Infestation – In this case, the malefic
activity is directed toward places (houses, offices, stores, fields), objects
(cars, pillows, mattresses, dolls) and animals, therefore it only indirectly
affects man. Origen tells us that the early Christians resorted to exorcisms in
these situations.
6. Diabolic
Subjugation – The term indicates a
voluntary pact–implicit or explicit—with Satan, by which we submit to the
lordship of the demon. There are also involuntary times with the evil one; these
cases fall into the preceding categories, especially the most severe:
possession.
Vatican guidelines say
that some of the additional signs that a person may be possessed — when all
medical explanations have been ruled out — include:
1. speaking in unknown languages,
2. revealing things that are far away or hidden (or)
3. demonstrating a
physical strength not conforming to one’s age or health status (sometimes I
would think gender would also be taken into account here).
At the same time, it is cautioned that “these signs are
only an indication” and may not be the work of the devil.
Other manifestations, frequently of a moral and spiritual
order are often present and may include:
1. aversion to God,
2. to the name of Jesus, of Mary and of the saints,
3. to the
Scripture,
4. and to
sacramental rites and sacred images.
There are a number of writings about true possessions by
those such as Douglas Howell-Everson, Anthony Finlay,
Thomas .B. Allen;
T. K Oesterreich;
Dom Robert Petitpierre
; Adam Karl August
von Eschenmayer. These writers have noted a
number of things that many cases have in common as well as in some cases these
are noted from personal experience.
Noted and documented cases of possessionin
chronological order
:
Aix-en-Provence
possessions
Loudun possessions
Louviers
possessions
The Possession of Elizabeth Knapp
George
Lukins
Antoine Gay
Johann
Blumhardt
Clara Germana Cele
Exorcism of Roland Doe
(“Robbie Mannheim”)
Michael Taylor
(Ossett)
Anneliese Michel
POLTERGEIST PHENOMENA
It often seems as if one characteristic of the
presentation that possession exhibits, be it of persons or places (but more
frequently of places) that has not changed much over the years is poltergeist
phenomena. These phenomena can be or are ultimately vanquished, but they can be
a disturbing not to say frightening aspect of the exorcism scene. The difficulty
is that one is not by any means certain of their cause.
One of the most recent thoughts behind this phenomena
might be psychokinetic energy which might emanate from a person (the suffer) but
it may be demonic in origin. Psychokinesis
(from the Greek ψυχή, “psyche”, meaning mind, soul, spirit, heart, or breath; and κίνησις, “kinesis”, meaning
motion, movement;
literally “mind-movement”)also referred to as
telekinesis
(Greek τῆλε + κίνησις, literally
“distant-movement”) used in respect to strictly describing mental movement or motion
of solid matter, is a term coined by publisher
Henry Holt.It
refers to the direct influence of mind on a
physical system
that cannot be entirely accounted for by the mediation of any known
physical energy.
Examples of psychokinesis could include distorting or moving an object, and
influencing the output of a
random number generator.
Those who
have been in the presence of the phenomenon have stated that it is by far
mystifying. Poltergeist activity is accepted by some as proof of diabolical
presence. It can be one of the “signs” of possession.
Disturbances of some nature are often a feature of
exorcistic situations. These disturbances do differ in their virulence and
variety from the physical violent movement of objects to the comparatively
gentle motion imparted to books or pictures. Either way they are unsettling.
There appears from observation to be two main kinds of “movement”: that thought
to be created by poltergeist activity and that caused by departed
spirits.
Knockings and rappings
seemingly on walls are a common feature of poltergeist activity, usually
interpreted as attempts to communicate with the living – but who really knows?
These may be and are generally thought to be caused (if not by psychokinetic
energy) by departed spirits as although bewildering they are not violent. In the
same category are the inexplicable resitings of small
objects
: parcels, plates and so
forth. Often these weird motions take place in open view of victim and
bystanders; sometimes the movements have ostensibly happened when nobody was
present.
It does appear that
“disturbances” shall we call them, happen at or in places where disharmony or
worse has occurred in the past – or even at the moment. Houses can be vulnerable
to these tensions when domestic or social upheaval is or was present; so too can
churches, disused or not and other erstwhile revered places. It does appear as
if sin lay behind many instances of disturbed behaviour. As the “Report” on
exorcism says, “Human sin opens the door for other [diabolic] forces to enter
in”. Devotion to occult practices has also been frequently mentioned to lead to
situations where matters have got out of control. In such cases the occult has
become a substitute religion, but the human mind or emotion has not the capacity
to deal with it. Sites of pagan worship in ancient times, or other religious
places that have been desecrated are not infrequently plagued by psychic or
spiritual disturbance.
“Exorcism alone cannot control poltergeist activity
generated by human beings” – a concise
summary of the situation an exorcist often finds himself in. However, as
Petitpierre states in EXORCISING DEVILS, because of its bizarre nature,
poltergeist activity often needs the ministrations of the Church’s deliverance
and healing activity (See his chapter ten, “Poltergeist Phenomena”). A direct
quote from this chapter of Petitpierre, is illuminating:
“Poltergeist
phenomena …are not due to external influence from the unseeen world. They are
the manifestations of paranormal powers NOT possessed by the majority of human
beings but are, nevertheless, fairly common.
“ (p.
107).
Included in the list of other
signs or symptoms for declaring demonic possession are: the practice of lewd and
obscene acts, or even sexual thoughts; horrible smells of bodily odours or of
sulphur, associated with hell; distended stomachs; rapid weight loss where death
seems inevitable; changes in the voice to a deep, rasping, menacing, guttural
croak. Occasionally there may be signs of automatic writing or
levitation.
self-mutilation; superhuman abilities such as psychic abilities, abnormal
strength, or an ability to perform acts out of the realm of human possibility
such as levitation; cessation of normal bodily functions for periods of time,
including breathing and heart beat; and a pronounced revulsion to symbols,
places, people, objects, and ceremonies having any religious context. Other
phenomena associated with the presence of a demon include an acrid stench;
marked decrease in the temperature of the room which a possessed individual
occupies; writing appearing out of nowhere; sounds and voices arising from
nowhere; and objects moving on
The
“signs” said to be exhibited by such persons have been described for hundreds of
years, and codified by the Catholic Church as infallible guides to cases of true
possession. All exorcists have them in the forefront of their minds. They are
important and by no means fanciful even though most of them (as signs)
originated in antiquity.
their own
and destruction of objects in the room, without anyone having laid a hand upon
them.
According to ancient authority,
as stated many times above, an evil spirit was in possession if it departed at
the sign of the cross or was confronted by anything holy; execrated the Church;
affected the mind of the victim to such an extent that he displayed exaggerated
emotion, especially that of pride or vanity(this is means beyond what would be
considered normal or outside of reason); avoided the subject of the devil or
possession when a priest was trying to help him; appeared with a loathsome
expression or departed accompanied by noise or smell; left the victim desolate
and dejected.
The most noticeable in
full demonic possessions is often erased memories or personalities,
convulsions,
“fits” and fainting as if
one were dying. Access to hidden knowledge is termed as gnosis; which is
the commonGreek noun
forknowledge (in
thenominative caseγνῶσις f.). In the context of the
English languagegnosisgenerally
refers to the word’s meaning within the spheres of
Christian mysticism, Mystery religionsandGnosticismwhere
it signifies a “spiritual knowledge” or
religion of knowledge, in the sense ofmystical enlightenmentor “insight”, this is knowledge that was also said to be
possessed by the ancient Gnostics obtained through mysticism. Yet those who are
possessed seem to be able to, quite willingly in fact, demonstrate knowledge of
others. Knowledge about persons or events that would be impossible for them to
have knowledge of.
Then there is the
knowledge of foreign languages which is
mentioned quite often when dealing with the possessed,
xenoglossia/ xenoglossy,thisis the acknowledged
paranormal
phenomenon in which a person is
able to speak or write a language he or she could not have acquired by natural
means. What this means is that, a person who speaks
German fluently, but who is not a native German
speaker(not native to Germany or of German decent), has never studied German,
never been to a German-speaking country, and never associated with German
speakers or had any other source of exposure to the German language, would be
said to exhibit xenoglossy
.
Also noted is
drastic changes in
vocal
intonation, this is the variation of
tone used when speaking. In most cases of possession it has been recorded that
the possessed person’s voice tone drops dramatically, also speaking in two voice
tones at once.
Facial
structure has also been seen to change,
the sudden appearance of
injuries
(scratches, bite marks)
or lesions; especially if these cannot be self inflicted, and
superhuman
strength.
Such people for example cannot retain food; they vomit
constantly; they experience internal pains; the body becomes visibly weaker and
their limbs seem constricted; they experience the greatest difficulty in
communicating by speech; they have an unnatural skin colour; they experience
extreme fears and terrors; they are not responsive to medications. With this as
a basis, various other “signs”, also stated in the list above, were added right
up to modern times: indifference to spiritual influence; anti-Christian ideas;
continuous lying; depression; a feeling that they are possessed. The victim:
will burst into sudden fits of fury and defiance; will curse aloud and seems
always to be motivated by spite and enmity; will lash out at bystanders
including the exorcising minister; will exhibit sexual behaviour or longings for
intoxicants or drugs; will try to (and often does) mutilate his own body; will
find it impossible to say the word “Jesus” but may frequently call upon Satan.
He will be unable to pray and on the contrary is blasphemous; he will switch the
tenor of talk which apparently troubles him. He feels unable to repent or show
remorse; he appears uncomfortable in the presence of Christian objects or
people; unable to enter a church without a show of irreverence; he is unable to
maintain any form of concentration; if conscious of his inner distortion he will
be utterly bewildered as to why he is exhibiting such behaviour.
One of the most obvious signs of
serious malaise is of course the appearance of the afflicted, an evil or
frightening expression being adopted, which has also been noted and observed by
Anthony Finlay. Facial distortions are par for the course. The change in voice,
intonation, itself is frequently unnatural, generally gruff and harsh. This
applies to female victims as well, when the phenomenon is more mystifying than
ever. It is possible in some cases, for the exorcist, to speak in a foreign
dialect, as
xenoglossia
often occurs in the form of Latin and apparently to be
understood by the sufferer and REPLIED TO in that tongue in which he/she (the
exorcist) has never been schooled. At the point of exorcism, the person often
experiences (it seems) visions or impressions of some threatening figure or
figures. All of this may be accompanied by poltergeist activity of the type
adumbrated above.
An exorcist is
always conscious of the fact that if the ceremony “fails” the victim may be left
worse off than before. This beneficial caution has haunted the practitioners
down the years; but is unfortunately as true now as it ever was. The afflicted
person may be left with an overwhelming sense of disappointment, distress even
which may be injurious to whatever faith (in religion, God, Jesus) he has.
Therefore is the discharge of the ritual doubly hazardous.
Anthony states that the schizophrenic patient, those who
are not possessed but suffer mentally, is particularly hard to deal with,
notwithstanding the fact that there are symptoms (signs) which are intended to
guide the exorcist. Howell-Everson in his HANDBOOK FOR CHRISTIAN EXORCISTS gives
a succinct list (p.53) Not all of which are necessarily true or hold for all
experiences:
· The
“patient” exists in a different world from ours and tends to have little
consciousness of his own condition.
·
He is subject to strange mood swings, often
very inappropriate to the circumstance.
·
His behaviour is in all respects very
puzzling.
· His thinking
is in all respects very puzzling.
·
His attempts at converse are jumbled and
mostly incoherent; it appears as if he does not comprehend even the simplest of
matters.
· He
hallucinates and has delusions.
DIFFERENTIATION
Differentiating between the above symptoms and those
shown by the “possessed” is not easy. There are differences in the
manifestation; however, as I hope may be deduced when you compare the lists. In
a case of possession, it is as Oesterreich puts it in his book, POSSESSION, as
if another soul “
had entered into
the body and subsisted there, in place of or side by side with the normal
subject
“. This generally produces
the illusion of a double personality manifested most visibly in appearance; tone
of voice and of course in speech. There are many descriptions of possessed
people transformed out of all recognition. Some of the most vivid tell of the
victims in the celebrated Loudon epidemic.
“Asmodeus [a demon]
shook the girl backwards and forwards a number of times…her face became
completely unrecognizable, her glance furious, her tongue prodigiously large,
long, and hanging down out of her mouth, livid and dry…the demons came come into
her face making it very hideous…” (Eschenmayer, KONFLIKT. (p. 18)
With regard to voice, though not
always, that the voice, as Oesterreich observes, did not speak according to the
spirit of the normal personality but that of the new one.
Eschenmayer in his study of possession, KONFLIKT, in
describing one of his patients, writes of “insults” being spoken, “abuse” being
hurled, “threats” and “outbursts” – from a person who from all accounts was
polite and moderate. Sudden and rapid movement was almost always a sign of deep
malaise. This could have been feigned but as Oesterreich points out so
appropriately, “
contortions…in the
most impossible directions – the body bent back like a bow…they [the movements]
are not due to simulation or voluntary action as the contortions cannot be
executed voluntarily
“. (p. 23)
However, it is important to state
that the Catholic Church holds that sickness does not exclude demonic action, as
Jean Vichon in his perceptive article “Aspects of Possession” points out (in the
SATAN compendium, p. 205) This of course adds to the difficulties! An aspect of
possession mentioned by Vichon as well as by others, is that of a feeling of
cold which is typical of the ritual involving both person and place. Whether it
really is so or whether it is the oppressive atmosphere of fear and danger, we
cannot be truly sure. The of there is the greatly and often described aspect of
levitation . Much has been written on this subject from the angle of the mystery
of the giant constructions of the ancient world, to present day “levitations”
occurring in seances and the like. It is possible to imagine this phenomenon in
highly charged situations such as in exorcistic rituals, especially when the
officiant is familiar with the theory as he must be, from his
reading and exchange of conversation with others. What I am trying to say is
that imagination, as we all know, can play tricks. But ARE they tricks?
These guides to detection of possession were originally
written when the witchcraft mania ravaged Europe, that is to say about the
fifteenth century so it is not surprising that sufferers were alluded to as
“bewitched”.
OBSESSION AND THE
SUFFERING OF THE VICTIM
Vichon
has a paragraph of importance
“We can
distinguish two fundamental obsessions of the possessed. There is the obsession
of moral solitude to which is joined the obsession of inferiority, frequent with
[the unmarried] with widows, with people who live on the fringe of life, having
neither family or home; with certain religious ill-adapted to the religious
life, who have entered not by vocation but as a result of some disappointment.
Obsessions of solitude and inferiority prepare the ground for possession.
Obsessions of guilt often determine it…
“
(p. 208)
The story of Pere Surin, one of the
protagonists in the Loudon episode, is an example of the obsession of guilt.
From his own writings it is clear that Surin’s guilt feelings (misplaced) led
him to think he was damned which itself led on to attempts at self-punishment,
and attempted suicide. Periods of frenzy alternated with periods of calm. Surin
came to the Ursuline convent of Loudon to exorcise the demons, the Prioress, a
Sister (or Soeur) Jeanne des Ange, who was guilt obsessed, considering herself
to be possessed by devils.
Pere
Surin’s
“impulsions arose from obsessions of contrariety which
forced him into actions entirely against his will…” as Vichon so accurately
states in his article. In his summing-up of the Surin and des Ange cases, he
writes of the two as representing types of possession “which …are found to have
the same orgin in guilt-obsessions, split personality, spirit of contrariety and
[emotional] ambivalence
“. (p.210)
Demons which haunt Man and always
have, represent a dangerous form of evil; they appear to be comfortable with the
estate of Man and as such will be formidable opponents for the foreseeable
future of humanity.
Possession as
not only been limited to a single person as has been referred to a number of
instances at various point above.
Mass Possession
In 1632, documented in 1634, one of the most infamous
cases of mass possession was recorded, and became known as the
‘Loudun Possessions’.
Sister Jeanne des Agnes and
sixteen nuns, of the Ursuline Convent in Loudun Francewho, were visited and
possessed by demons.
Urbain Grandier who had
been appointed parish priest of St-Pierre-du-Marche in Loudun, France, in 1617
was accused of making a pact with the devil which caused the possession of the
sisters at the nunnery to take place. Two stories exist about what happened.
Either the Bishop of Poitiers approached Father Mignon, confessor to the
Ursuline nuns, and a plan was made to persuade a few of the sisters to feign
possession and denounce Grandier, or Father Mignon was approached by the Mother
Superior Jeanne des Anges (Joan of the Angels) for help.
According to the first story, Father Mignon readily
persuaded the Mother Superior, Jeanne des Anges, and another nun to comply. They
would claim that Father Grandier had bewitched them, falling into fits and
convulsions, often holding their breath and speaking in
tongues.
The second story claims that
Jeanne had illicit dreams about Father Grandier, who appeared to her as a
radiant angel. As an angel, he enticed her to sexual acts, causing her to rave
loudly at night and as a result she sought help as even after repenting the
experience continued. Either way the possession was used as an excuse to not
only remove Father Grandier but arrest, tri, convict him of witchcraft and burn
him to death.
A number of public
exorcisms were held (as was not unusual at the time) of which some 7000 people
witnessed the acts. Even after Father Grandier’s death the possessions did not
cease. Several of the nuns, including Jeanne des Anges, suffered violent
convulsions during the procedure, shrieking and making sexual motions toward the
priests. Following the lead of Jeanne des Anges, many of the nuns reported
illicit dreams. The accusers would suddenly bark, scream, blaspheme, and contort
their bodies. During the exorcisms, Jeanne swore that she and the other nuns
were possessed by two demons named
Asmodeus and
Zabulon. These demons were sent to the nuns when Father Grandier tossed a
bouquet of roses over the convent walls.
Those performing the exorcisms where Capuchin Father
Tranquille, Franciscan
Father Lactance, and Jesuit Father
Jean-Joseph Suri.
When the demons were exorcised, they took possession of the exorciser, Father
Jean-Joseph Surin, who inflicted harm on himself and attempted suicide. Later
Surin claimed to have no memory of the event. In all, Jeanne and the other nuns
claimed to be possessed by a multitude of demons:
Asmodeus,
Zabulon, Isacaaron, Astaroth, Gresil,
Amand, Leviatom, Behemot, Beherie, Easas, Celsus, Acaos, Cedon, Alex,
Naphthalim, Cham, Ureil and Achas.
In
1634, Des Niau wrote the following description in his The History of the Devils of
Loudun:
[The nuns] struck their chests and backs with their
heads, as if they had their necks broken, and with inconceivable rapidity; They
twisted their arms at the joints of the shoulder, the elbow, or the wrist, two
or three times around. Lying on their stomachs, they joined the palms of their
hands to the soles of their feet; their faces became so frightful one could not
bear to look at them; their eyes remained open without winking. Their tongues
issued suddenly from their mouths, horribly swollen, black, hard, and covered
with pimples, and yet while in this state they spoke distinctly. They threw
themselves back till their heads touched their feet, and walked in this position
with wonderful rapidity, and for a long time. They uttered cries so horrible and
so loud that nothing like it was ever heard before. They made use of expressions
so indecent as to shame the most debauched of men, while their acts, both in
exposing themselves and inviting lewd behavior from those present would have
astonished the inmates of the lowest brothels in the
country.
Aix-en-Provence;
earlier in 1611 among the Ursulinenuns of Aix-en-Provence
(South of France), there were alleged cases of demonic possession occurring.
Here also Father Louis Gaufridi was accused and convicted of causing the
possession by a pact with the devil, and he was executed by being burned at the
stake
. Signs of a demon invasion were believed to appear at
Aix-en-Provence during the year 1609 through the victim Madeleine de Demandolx
de la Palud. Madeleine, a 17-year-old Ursuline nun with a history of emotional
instability, was returned often to the care of her parents to recover from
attacks of depression. Father Louis Gaufridi was a friend of Madeleine’s family
and it is believed that he and Madeleine became lovers.
This rumor
reached the ears of Sister Catherine de Gaumer, head of the Ursulineconvent
at
Marseilles. She passed the rumor on to
Madeleine’s mother, and words were conveyed to Father Gaufridi that his
attentions should cease immediately.
It was then that Madeleine was
admitted to the Ursuline convent at Marseilles, under the direct supervision of
Mother de Gaumer. To de Gaumer, Madeleine revealed the full story of her
relations with Father Gaufridi. In order to prevent further damage and to halt
any association with Father Gaufridi, Madeleine was transferred to the distant
convent at Aix. Two years later, at the age of 19, Madeleine fell victim to what
those around her considered to be unmistakable
demonic possession; her
body was contorted, and in a fit of rage she destroyed
a
crucifix.
Common convent practice at the time prescribed an
exorcism. Not only were the first attempts futile, but further attempts brought
damning accusations that Father Gaufridi was a devil worshipperthat had
copulated with her since she was 17. Three more nuns were soon found to be
possessed by demons, and by the end of the year that number had risen to eight.
Sister Louise Capeau was considered to be the most extremely afflicted; her
ravings and bodily contortions were more hideous than Madeleine’s.
With
the situation at the Ursuline convent getting out of control, Father Romillon
enlisted the aid of the GrandInquisitor
Sebastien Michaelis. A Flemish exorcist,
Father Domptius, was called upon to continue attempts at removing the demons
from the possessed nuns.
After Vérin, a demon possessing Madeleine,
accused Father Gaufridi of causing the possession, reporting to the amazed
exorcist Father Domptius that 666 demons were in possession of Madeleine’s body,
Gaufridi was summoned from his parish to exorcise Sister Louise Capeau. For his
efforts, the priest was denounced as asorcerer and cannibal. To the dangerous
accusation, Gaufridi replied, “If I were a witch, I would certainly give my soul
to a thousand devils.” Taken by the inquisitors as a confession of guilt,
Gaufridi was taken immediately to prison.
During this time, the possessed
Sister Louise Capeau insisted loudly that Gaufridi had committed every
imaginable form of
sexual perversion, alarming authorities into
searching the priest’s rooms for magical books or objects. They found nothing
incriminating, and were told by his parish that he was a well regarded
man.
After being released to his parish, Father Gaufridi demanded his
name be cleared and that his accusers be punished. The Grand Inquisitor remained
determined that he would bring Gaufridi to trial. In 1611 Gaufridi was brought
before a court in Aix.
Twice, Madeleine attemptedsuicideafter the courts
found the
Devil’s Markon her body.
After a series
of physical and mentaltorture inflicted during his time in prison Father
Gaufridi entered the courtroom. His body had been shaved in a search for the
Devil’s Mark, three of which were found and used as evidence against him.
A
pact with the Devil
was also produced
in court, allegedly signed in Gaufridi’s own blood. A confession was produced,
which Gaufridi had signed in prison, extracted under torture. Included in the
confession was an admission of celebrating a
Black Mass in order to gain power over women.
Although
he strongly recanted the confession extracted from him by
torture. In the eyes of the court and 17th century Christians, the protest was
useless. April 30, 1611,
with head and feet bare, a rope around his neck,
Gaufridi officially asked pardon of God and was handed over to torturers. Still
alive after the torture of
strappado and squassation, Gaufridi was
escorted by archers while dragged through the streets of Aix for five hours
before arriving at the place of execution. The priest was granted the mercy
ofstrangulationbefore his body was burned to ashes.
Sister Madeleine
Demandolx de la Palud renounced God and the saints before the church, going so
far as to renounce allprayers ever said on her behalf and immediately following
Gaufridi’s execution was suddenly free of all possession. Her fellow demoniac,
Sister Louise Capeau, was possessed until she died. Both of the sisters were
banished from the convent, but Madeleine remained under the watch of the
Inquisition. She was charged with witchcraft in 1642 and again in 1652. During
her second trial, Madeleine was again found to have the Devil’s mark and was
sentenced to imprisonment. At an advanced age, she was released to the custody
of a relative and died in 1670 at the age of 77.
The Aix case was the
first in which the testimony of an allegedly possessed person was taken into
account. Prior to the 17th century, a demonically possessed (demoniac) person
was considered unreliable when they laid accusations because most clerics
believed that any words spoken by the demoniac were from the mouth of
“
the father of lies” (
John 8:44). By its very nature, the utterances
of a demoniac was not considered able to stand up as evidence. In fact this case
seem to echo the case of
Father Grandier 20
years later, and did set the precedent.
A case similar case
occurred at another nunnery in 1625, in
Louviers Normandy, France
Cases of
Single person Possession
Dittus
Gottliebin,1842/43, a resident in the small village of Mottlingen, Germany –
located in an isolated section of the Black Forest – 28-year-old Gottliebin
Dittus was born to deeply religious and superstitious parents and raised in
strict adherence to the Lutheran faith. Though her mother and father both died
when she was a child, Gottliebin continued to live with her three older siblings
and practice at the local church run by Reverend Johann Christoph Blumhardt – a
pastor whose belief in the power of the devil was strong.
Neighbors of the Dittus family began reporting eerie
noises emanating from within the home during the night, which prompted a local
doctor and several other villagers to stay there over the course of an evening.
All came away from the experience claiming that the home was “haunted” after
reportedly witnessing strange phenomena there. Around the same time Gottliebin
began reporting visions of a woman holding a baby in her arms, and later fell
into an inexplicable coma for an entire day, prompting Reverend Blumhardt to
visit the home. After observing the now-conscious young woman he suggested she
be taken to stay at the nearby home of a cousin, as it appeared the bizarre
happenings were affecting her worse than the other siblings. As soon as she
left, the “hauntings” at the Dittus home allegedly ceased, but Gottliebin
continued to be plagued by strange phenomena. It was then determined that she
was possessed by a demon.
Blumhardt
began visiting Gottliebin on a regular basis, with Gottliebin claiming that
shortly after her birth, evil spirits had tried to steal her away before her
mother invoked the name of Jesus. In addition, she claimed that her aunt was a
witch who had tried to indoctrinate her when she was a child. Blumhardt also
witnessed in Gottliebin what he claimed were clear symptoms of possession:
speaking in different voices; suffering from violent convulsions; hurling
blasphemies; and violently attacking her siblings, among other things. At one
point she began speaking in the voice of the dead woman she’d earlier claimed to
have visions of, telling the pastor that during her lifetime she had murdered
two children and was now in the grip of the devil himself.
Blumhardt soon began the process of carrying out the
exorcism, praying over the young woman and fasting in an attempt to cast the
evil spirit out. Soon Gottliebin was claiming possession by several demons, and
the number continued to grow through the following weeks and months – first
three, then seven, then fourteen, and soon enough numbering into the hundreds
and later thousands. The once-pious woman became increasingly violent and
blasphemous, and she began vomiting up objects such as sand, glass, and nails
and losing large amounts of blood. Several of the spirits who had allegedly
taken control of her body spoke through the young woman, some of whom reported
that they were in fact victims of the possessing demons. In a moment of lucidity
Gottliebin reported that she’d recently had a vision in which her soul flew
around the earth and witnessed these demons causing a catastrophic earthquake
someplace far away. Only a few days later, news of a terrible earthquake in the
West Indies reached the village of Mottlingen, seemingly validating the young
woman’s possession. Through it all the entire village paid close attention to
developments in the case and became deeply invested in the young woman’s
deliverance.
The exorcism continued
for nearly two years, at which point the hold of the demons over Gottliebin
finally seemed to be loosening. On Christmas 1843, the possessing spirits – as
if sensing their imminent eradication – made one last attempt at maintaining
their control in the earthly sphere when they allegedly made a spiritual attack
on Gottliebin’s brother and sister. While the brother recovered quickly, the
sister Katharina soon began exhibiting many of the same symptoms as Gottliebin,
and Blumhardt proceeded to turn his attentions on her, as this occurrence seemed
to lessen Gottliebin’s own torment. Three days of exorcisms later, Katharina let
out one final, terrible scream before proclaiming, “Jesus is victor!” and coming
to rest. It was then that both Katharina and Gottliebin were announced to be
cleared of demonic influence. Following the ordeal, Blumhardt become something
of a celebrity in Mottlingen and nearby communities, with hundreds of
parishioners from all around flocking to him in the hopes of being cured of
their myriad afflictions. In fact, Gottliebin herself soon moved into the
Reverend’s home to assist him in “curing” others
long-term.
Clara
Germana Cele was a Christian woman, who
in 1906, was said to be possessed by a demon when she was a sixteen year old
school girl at St. Michael’s Mission in Natal, South Africa. The girl was an
orphan of black origin and was baptised as an infant. At the age of sixteen it
is said that the girl made a pact with Satan and this is said to have been the
cause of her demonic possession. This information was stated to have later been
revealed by Clara to her confessor, Father Hörner Erasmus.In an account written
by a nun, Clara was said to be able to speak languages of which she had no
previous knowledge. This fact was also witnessed by others, who recorded that
she:
“
understood
Polish, German, French and all other languages.“
A nun
reported that Clara demonstrated clairvoyance by revealing the most intimate
secrets and transgressions of people with whom she had no initial
contact.Moreover, Clara could not bear the presence of blessed objects and
seemed imbued with extraordinary strength and ferocity, often hurling nuns about
the convent rooms and beating them. The nun reported that the girl’s cries had a
savage bestiality that astonished those around her.In regards to her voice, an
attending nun went so far as to write:
“
No animal
had ever made such sounds. Neither the lions of East Africa nor the angry bulls.
At times, it sounded like a veritable herd of wild beasts orchestrated by Satan
had formed a hellish choir
.”
Clara,
according to some, was said to have levitated five feet (1.5 m) in the air,
sometimes vertically and sometimes horizontally; when sprinkled with holy water,
the girl is purported to have come out of this state of her satanic possession.
According to a
LutheranPastoral Handbook, one possessing these symptoms is an indication that an
individual is truly possessed, rather than suffering from a mental illness.
Consequently, two Roman Catholic priests, Rev. Mansueti (Director of the St.
Michael’s Mission) and Rev. Erasmus (her confessor), were appointed to perform
an exorcism on Clara Germana Cele; this deliverance lasted for two days. During
the exorcism, Clara’s first action was to knock the Holy Bible from the priest’s
hands and grab his stole in an attempt to choke him with it. At the end of the
exorcism, it was said that the demon was forced out and she was healed.
According to the Christian argument, while most psychologists would like to
dismiss this case as that of mental illness, they cannot fully explain why she
never had a relapse, as it is well known that most mental disorders such as
schizophrenia and other dissociative
disorders require a life time of not only
Michael Taylor,
from the British town of Ossett, suffered an alleged demonic possession.
Christine Taylor, the wife of Michael Taylor, expressed to the Christian
Fellowship Group, of which Michael was a part, that his relationship with the
lay leader of the group, Marie Robinson, was more carnal than it at first
seemed. Michael Taylor admitted that he felt evil within him and eventually
attacked Robinson verbally, who screamed back at him. During the next meeting,
Michael Taylor received an absolution, but nevertheless, his behaviour continued
to become more erratic. As a result, the local vicar called in other ministers
experienced in deliverance in preparation to cast out the demons residing within
the man. The exorcism, which occurred on 5–6 October 1974 at St. Thames Church
in Barnsley, was headed by Father Peter Vincent (I wonder how many this name
would have had double checking), an Anglican priest of St. Thomas’s in Gawber
and was aided by a Methodist clergyman, Rev. Raymond Smith. In an all-night
ceremony, the group invoked and cast out at least forty demons, including those
of incest, bestiality, blasphemy, and lewdness. At the end, exhauseted, they
allowed Taylor to go home, although they felt that at least three
demons–insanity, murder, and violence–were still left in
him.
— Dr. Bill Ellis,
The Pennsylvania State University
The exorcism rite, which lasted until 6 A.M. exhausted
the priests, who allowed the man to return home. Nevertheless, they cautioned
that although they had cast out forty spirits from Michael Taylor, a few
remained, including the demon of murder. While at home Michael Taylor brutally
murdered his wife, Christine, and strangled their poodle. He was found by a
policeman, naked in the street, covered with blood. At his trial in March, he
was acquitted on the grounds of insanity. This case became highly
popularised as the “Ossett murder case of
1974.
Most Famous
Possessions
Then of course there
are the two most famous cases of possessions in the world although most don’t
realise it. They are also the most well documented, as the
church has become more careful about keeping record of such things.
Much of what is noted in these
occurrences is very unsettling.
The Exorcist
Robbie Mannheim (also known as
Roland Doe; born 1 June
1935) is the
pseudonym given by
historian
Thomas B. Allen to an
anonymous young person most notably known for being
possessed and later
exorcised during his childhood in the late 1940s.
The events which were reported in the media of the time and the subsequent
claims surrounding those events went on to inspire the 1971 novel
The
Exorcistby
William Peter Blattyand the 1973 film of the
same name, as well as Thomas B. Allen’s own 1993 book
Possessedand the
following 2000 TV film by the same name.
For
the purpose of this piece we will refer to the person in question as Robbie, his
parents as Karl and Phyllis Mannheim and we will refer to his grandmother as
Grandmother Wagner.
I would like to
share some of Blatty’s comments at this point, It would be helpful if we looked
at it in his account of taking his novel to film (ScreenPress Books, 1998, p 47)
“Is Satan a single personal intelligence? Or a horde of
evil entities? We have no reliable data that link him [as Satan] to possession.
Even in terms of my novel, I never knew the demon’s identity. I doubt he [was]
Satan and a spirit of the dead. Perhaps he is/was the spirit of the south-west
wind, Pazuzu…I know only that he is real and powerful and evil and one of many –
and aligned with whatever is opposed to love.
”
Thomas
Allen’s 1993 book POSSESSED gives what purports to be “the true story” of this
most famous exorcism, (allegedly) based on a discovered diary belonging to one
of the priests involved.
Allen tells
of the preliminary attempts to communicate on a “normal” level with the
disturbed person [here known as Robbie]. The initial attempt to get the sufferer
to examine his conscience and to make an act of contrition is par for the
course. This seemed to be successful. Both priests (the protagonists in the
drama) were carrying copies of the ROMAN. Bowdern (the name given here), the
(chief) exorcist, decided to stick to the letter of the Manual, appropriate in
his judgement to the circumstances. Bowdern began his readings in Latin from the
gospels, psalms and other prayers. Calls on Christ to aid were (and are)
followed by summoning the help of the angels and saints. Calls for deliverance
by the exorcist by the power of the Lord are refrained by the others present:
“
O Lord deliver us“.
Around the time of the events that took
place there were several newspaper articles printed attributed to anonymous
reports which were later sourced back to be that of the family’s clergyman,
Reverend Luther Miles Schulze. As well as another article written on the subject
in the January 1975 edition of
Fate magazinetitled
“The Truth
Behind The Exorcist,”
.This article alleges to reveal previously
unknown details from a diary kept by one of the priests involved in the
exorcism.
I mention the diary now as we will
deal with some extracts later on.
Two other main sources were
obtained roughly 50 years after the events by the investigation of Thomas B.
Allen and form the basis for his book on the subject,
Possessed. One is
the testimony ofRev. Walter H. Halloran, at the time one of the last surviving
eyewitnesses of the events. According to Rev. Walter H. Halloran, streaks and
arrows and words such as “hell” appeared on the boy’s skin.
The other is
a diary which was kept at the time of the events by aRev. Raymond J. Bishop,
another clergyman which became involved in the events after March 9, 1949,
several months after it is claimed the initial symptoms occurred. The same diary
used by the 1975
Fatearticle.
Another author, Mark Opsasnick, has
also claimed to have independently investigated these events and spoken to
people involved in the case, including several people close to Mannheim and his
family, other priests in their parish, a source at the hospital mentioned in the
claims and even Allen and Halloran.
Father William. S. Bowdern never
publicaly admitted to performing the exorcism in 1949 up until his death in
1983, he also refused to co-operate Blatty but apparently did discuss it with
other Jesuit priests.
Father Walter H.
Halloranwas the last surviving Jesuit involved in a 1949 exorcism, who died at
age 83 1 March 2005. He only recorded the events that took place in a diary but
never offered his opinion as to whether the boy was possessed or not as he
stated that he was not studied the phenomenon there for he did not feel
qualified to make an observation. Blatty is said to have obtained a copy of the
dairy and this was the basis of his book.
The true identity of
Mannheim has never been revealed however it is reported that he has no memory of
being possessed. Most of the information regarding him and the events
surrounding his possession and exorcism comes fromsecondaryandtertiary sources.
His home became the scene of many alarming events. Whenever he was home,
unexplained noises would reverberate from the attic, furniture would move of its
own accord; objects flew, and witnesses reported the sound of marching feet.
Fourty-eight (
48) witnesses later came forward to later
substantiate this case and the strange, unbelievable incidents that occurred and
surrounded the boy. He was examined by many, both medical and psychiatric
doctors. They could offer no valid explanation for these disturbing
events.
Mannheim was an only child born into a German Lutheran Christian
family and that during the 1940s they lived in the American city of Mt. Rainier,
Maryland.
Since Robbie was an only
child, he depended upon adults in his household for playmates, namely his Aunt
Harriet, who treated Robbie more like a special friend than a nephew. She adored
her nephew and he her. Robbie loved to play board games and
Harriet
responded to Robbie’s interest by introducing him to one – the Ouija board. The
boy did express interest in the Quija board and as Aunt Harriet was a
Spiritualist, she saw it as a way to make contact between this world and the
next. For a Spiritualist like her, attempts to deal with the dead were neither
pagan nor dangerous. The planchette, she explained to Robbie, would sometimes
move in response to answers given by the spirits of the dead. That they
communicated by entering the consciousness of people at the board. The spirits,
Aunt Harriet said, produced impulses that traveled through the medium to the
planchette, which moved obediently to spell out words or point to “Yes” or “No.”
She had an exotic quality, especially with her talk about Spiritualism. Between
visits, Robbie sometimes played at the Ouija board himself.
Nonetheless,
Robbie was your average boy – he played, read comic books, and listened to
the
radio.
January 15, Saturday, 1949, Karl and Phyllis Mannheim
went out for the evening, leaving Robbie and Grandmother Wagner alone in the
house; shortly afterwards
Grandmother Wagner heard a dripping sound.She
and Robbie checked every faucet in the neat house, yet they could not find the
source of the dripping. Finally they decided that the dripping must be coming
from Grandmother Wagner’s bedroom under the sloping ceiling of the second floor.
They entered the room while the
dripping sound ensued and
saw a
painting of Christ, that was on the wall in the room begin to shake, as if
some-body were bumping the wall behind it
.
Later, by the time
Robbie’s parents arrived home, the dripping activity had ceased, and new noises
in the form of raps and scratches were heard
, as if claws were scraping
across wood. Karl smiled and said a mouse or rat had decided to come in from the
winter. For the next several nights, 10, beginning from, 15 January, 1949, the
scratching sound continued, beginning at around seven o’clock in the evening and
fading around mid-night. Outwardly, everyone agreed with Karl: a rat or mouse
was making the noise. Still, there was some form of desperation when Karl began
his search as he tore up floorboards and ripped down wall panels in search of
the rodent. There were 3 days of silence
, which must have been a relief
to the family but then Robbie reported the sound of “squeaking shoes” on his
bed. This continued for 6 consecutive nights. (In one account Robbie was 13 when
these occurrences began, in others 14)
On 26 January, 1949, eleven days
after the beginning of the scratching sounds, Robbie’s aunt died in
St. Louis, at the age of 54 from multiple
sclerosis. This devastated Robbie; the boy consequently tried to contact his
deceased aunt via the Ouija board, as he had been taught
(It is this
attempt that is said to have led to his
demonic
possession.
)
According to the
Anglican Communion, the Church of England
holds the view that possession does not happen of its own accord. One cannot
catch demons like one catches the common cold. A person has to be in vulnerable
position or put himself at risk in order to become possessed. The greatest risk
comes from inviting a spirit into one’s body. And in view of the fact that
Robbie lost someone to whom he was deeply connected would have, in my opinion,
left him open to outside influences through his emotional turmoil.
A view
of Robbie Mannheim’s dabbling with Ouija presented by Arlindo de Oliveira, a
formerwitch doctor, states that
“occultspiritsdesire to possess human
bodies because that gives them a physical apparatus with which to act and speak
in a physical world
.”
According to those involved in the case
and also reported by the media, around the time of Aunt Harriet’s death, the
scratching noise in Grandmother Wagner’s room ceased; yet, new kinds
of
poltergeist activity commenced.
These strange happenings included the sound of squeaky shoes and marching feet,
amongst other strange noises, furniture moved on its own accord, and ordinary
objects, including a vase flew or levitated. But these events where not
confirmed to Robbie’s home.
It seems from reports that Mrs. Mannheim
alternated between thoughts that it might be Aunt Harriet seeking to communicate
to something more malevolence. At some point during these happening she enquired
that if it was Aunt Harriet that it should knock 3 times. In answer waves of air
struck Grandmother Wagner, Mrs. Mannheim and Robbie followed by 3 knocks on the
floor. She again asked that if it was the aunt that the spirit should knock 4
times, this second request was followed by 4 knows and scratching on Robbie’s
mattress.
(it was reported in
The Evening Star, a Washington D.C. newspaper
that numerous doctors had examined the boy due to events)
The frightened
family eventually turned to their Lutheran
clergyman,
Rev.
Luther Miles Schulze
, for aid, who arranged for the boy to spend
the night of February 17 in his home in order to observe him. The boy slept
nearby to the minister in a twin bed and the minister reported that in the dark
he heard vibrating sounds from the bed and scratching sounds on the wall. During
the rest of the night he witnessed some strange events—a heavy armchair in which
the boy sat seemingly tilted on its own and tipped over and a pallet of blankets
on which the sleeping boy lay inexplicably moved around the room.
In
light of his observations, Rev. Luther Miles Schulze concluded that there
was
evilat work in young
Robbie.
It is said that he advised the Mannheim’s that their best
solution would be to seek the help of a Catholic Priest. They were referred to
Father Edward Albert Hughes
who served as an
assistant pastor from June 16, 1948 to June 18, 1960 at St. James Church in Mt.
Rainier, Maryland. It is stated that, he at first suggested to Robbie’s parents
to use blessed candles; holy water near Robbie and special prayers until he
could be examined. It is said that a bottle of holy water sailed clear across
the room.
After examining the boy at St. James Church, he arranged
for a room
Georgetown University
Hospital
, a
Jesuitinstitution where he proceeded to
conduct an
exorcism after received reluctant
approval from the Archbishop
. Robbie’s hands had to be retrained
and tied to the hospital bed’s mattress springs, as he was enormously strong and
violent, therefore considered extremely dangerous. Father Hughes began the
prayers of exorcism, with in the first five minutes of the ritual Robbie became
violent, breaking a steel spring from the bed he swung wildly
severely cutting Father Hughes’ arm from his shoulder to
his wrist with the spring causing terrible damage, resulting in over 100
stitches. The exorcism was ended.Hughes stated years later, that the temperature
of the room decreased when the boy entered it and that the he growled at him
while speaking Latin. Robbie was discharged to be with his family and he
returned home.
Once Robbie returned home things became worse very
quickly. Chairs moved, in one instance, while the family members were still
talking about a flipping chair, one of them pointed to a small table. A vase was
slowly rising from the it.
Nor as stated before were these
alarming phenomena confined to the Mannheim’s home. The desks at Robbie’s school
were movable seat-desk units, with a single arm acting as a writing surface.
Several times in January and February Robbie’s desk lurched into the aisle and
began skittering about, banging other desks and causing a schoolroom
uproar.
As time went by, it became evident
that strange occurrences and sounds followed the Robbie
everywhere.
“An orange and a pear
flew across the entire room where he was standing.”
“The kitchen table was upset without any movement on the
boy’s part.”
“Milk and food were
thrown off the table and stove.”
“The
breadboard was thrown onto the floor.”
“Outside the kitchen a coat on its hanger flew across the
room.”
“A Bible was thrown directly
at the foot of the boy but did not injure him in any way.”
“His desk at school moved about on the floor similar to
the plate on an Ouija board.” This latter evidence of telekinesis forced the boy
to quit school because of embarrassment.
“On one occasion the coverlet of the bed was pulled out
from under the mattress and the edges stood up above the surface of the bed in a
curled form as though held up with starch. When bystanders touched the
bedspread, the sides fell back to normal position.” It was also stated that “At
first everybody, including the boy, took it as a kind of joke, but it became
more than a joke.”
Soon thereafter,
one evening screaming was heard from the bathroom his parents rushed in, to find
written in deep red welts on the boy’s ribs across his chest the word
“
LOUIS”, his mother questioned him, asking if this meant St
Louis. The reply, in welts, “
YES”, appeared
across his stomach. The Mannheim’s had a large number of family in St. Louis, it
had also been the home of Robbie’s favourite Aunt Harriet before her death.
The Mannheim’s desperately moved to
St. Louis and lived with relatives. One of Robbie’s cousins, as student at the
University of St. Louis, who had witnessed many hor
rible things happen to Robbie spoke to one of their
professors,
Rev. Raymond J. Bishop,
SJ, who in turn contacted, Rev. William S. Bowdern
, SJan
associate of College Church; both these Jesuit institutions . Father Bowdern
was well known for being level headed, well grounded and an unsensational
person.
The priests visited Robbie at his relatives home on a few
occasions, they witnessed; his revulsion for sacred objects, the vicious
vibration of his bed, as well as things flying across the room; a bottle of Holy
water was flung from beside Robbie to crash on the floor. The boy also spoke in
a deep guttural voice – these where just some of the things that both Bishop and
Bowdern observed. Robbie also and an uncanny ability of spitting great
distances; directly hitting a priest in the eye. After a number of contacts with
the boy it was decided that the priests would speak to the Archbishop about a
possible exorcism.
The Diary of events which was recorded according to
Fate Magazine as well as other sources is as follows:
15 January 1949. A dripping noise was heard in his
grandmother’s bedroom by the boy and his grandmother. A picture of Christ on the
wall shook and scratching noises were heard under the floor boards. From that
night on scratching was heard every night from 7 p.m. until midnight. This
continued for ten consecutive days. After three days of silence, the boy heard
nighttime “squeaking shoes” on his bed that continued for six consecutive
nights.
(Note that the article and
presumably the diary makes no mention as to which family members actually
witnessed or were present when these events transpired.)
26 January 1949—“Aunt Harriet,” (referred to as Tillie in the article) who had a deep interest in spiritualism and had
introduced Robbie to the Ouija Board, died of multiple sclerosis at the age of
54. Mrs. Mannheim suspected there may have been some connection between her
death and the seemingly strange events that continued to take place. At one
point during the manifestations Mrs. Mannheim asked, “If you are Harriet, knock
three times.” Waves of air began striking the grandmother, Mrs. Mannheim, and
Robbie and three knocks were heard on the floor. Mrs. Mannheim again queried,
“If you are Harriet, tell me positively by knocking four times.” Four knocks
were heard, followed by claw scratchings on Robbie’s mattress.
(At various points throughout this
ordeal Mrs. Doe would attempt to verbally communicate with Aunt Harriet,
apparently alternating her beliefs that the problems with her son were either
the work of the devil or their departed relative.)
17 February
1949. Rev.
Schulze had Robbie stay at parsonage.
Robbie arrived at 9:20pm and stayed till 9:20am. The Rev witnessed sctraching
noises, bed vibrating, a chair in which Robbie sat tripping over and movement of
a pallet of blankets on which Robbie sat.
26 February
1949. At night scratches or marking appeared on the boy’s body for 4 consecutive
nights. After the forth night words began to appear and seemed scratched on by
claws.
(Diary indicated that his
mother was present at this time)
the
article mentions that Father Albert Hughes of St. James Catholic Church in Mount
Rainier was consulted. Hughes suggested the family use blessed candles, holy
water, and special prayers.
(The
source of this information is not given)
After this the chronology
becomes confusing. Between the writer of diary, who was supplied with
information by Mrs. Mannheim and the details provided by the unnamed sources, a
number of details are alleged. Mrs. Mannheim claims that she was using the
blessed candles when a comb flew across the room and extinguished them. A coat
and its hanger flew across the room, a Bible landed at Robbie’s feet, and a
rocker in which Robbie sat spun around..
The diary is quoted as saying
that at one point Mrs. Mannheim took a bottle of holy water and sprinkled it
throughout the house. When she placed the bottle on a shelf it flew across the
room on its own but did not break. One night she held a lighted candle alongside
Robbie and the whole bed, Mrs. Mannheim, and Robbie all began moving back and
forth in unison. Attempts were made to baptize Robbie Mannheim (this might be
the first attempt at exorcism as this is also used to expel evil spirits) it is
said he responded with rage—and a three-and-a-half day stay at Georgetown
University Hospital is mentioned. The events continued when the boy was taken to
Normandy, Missouri, during the first week of March 1949. Various relatives in
Missouri were said to have witnessed the skin brandings
.
9 March
1949. Father Raymond J. Bishop, S.J., of St. Louis University was called in
(for the first time) and witnessed the scratching of the boy’s body and
the motion of the mattress.
11 March 1949. Father Bowdern arrived on the
scene. After Robbie retired at 11 p.m., Father Bowdern read the Novena prayer of
St. Francis Xavier, blessed the boy with a relic
(a piece of bone from
the forearm of St. Francis Xavier), and fixed a relic-encrusted crucifix under
the boy’s pillow. The relatives left and Father Bowdern and Father Bishop
departed. Soon afterward, a loud noise was heard in Robbie’s room, five
relatives rushed to the scene. They reportedly found that a large book case had
moved about, a bench had been turned over, and the crucifix had been moved to
the edge of the bed. The shaking of Robbie’s mattress came to a halt only after
the relatives yelled, “Aunt Harriet, stop!”
16 March 1949. Archbishop
Joseph E. Ritter gave Father Bowdern permission to begin the formal rite of
exorcism. That night, accompanied by Father Bishop and a Jesuit scholastic
(later revealed to be Walter Halloran), Father Bowdern began reciting
the ritual prayers of exorcism.
(End of diary information)
The
archbishop approved the exorcism of Robbie Mannehim reluctantly with three
stipulations:
1.
Rev. William S.
Bowdern, would be in charge of performing the exorcism upon Robbie
Mannheim himself
2. Rev. Bowdern was to keep a detailed diary of all
actions concerning the exorcism.
3. Rev. Bowdern was not to disclose
his position and the location of the ritual; in essence he was not to tell
anyone about the ritual period. Which meant that even though Bowdern could be
(would be) up until late working with Robbie he would still have to be up early
to able to attend to his normal pastoral duties the next day.
Father
Bowdern arranged for Robbie to be admitted to a hospital run by the Alexian
Religious order. Before the exorcism ritual began,
Father. Walter Halloran was called to the
psychiatric wing of the hospital, where he was asked to assist Father Bowdern.
There where 9 Jesuit priests involved in the exorcism including Rev.
William Van Roo. During the exorcism, Robbie spat in the eyes of the priests,
despite the fact that his eyes were closed. Father Halloran stated that during
this scene of
spiritual warfare,
Robbie’s hospital bed shook disturbingly, a vessel of
holy water
went soaring through the air,
and words such as “
evil” and
“
hell“, along with other various
marks (they were scratched or cut into his flesh), appeared on the teenager’s
body. Moreover, Robbie broke Father Halloran’s nose during the process. Robbie
Mannheim, while being exorcised, also often shouted in an abnormal tone of
voice, which was unlike his normal tone of voice. In total, the
exorcism ritualto cast out demons from the boy’s
body were performed thirty times over a period of two
months.
(continuation of diary information)
Throughout March and
into April, Robbie was moved back and forth between the home of his aunt in a
nearby rectory, and Alexian Brothers Hospital. The rite was an ongoing process.
Instructions in the ritual command the exorcist to “pronounce the exorcism in a
commanding and authoritative voice.” The Roman Ritual of Christian Exorcism
reads:
“I cast thee out, thou unclean spirit, along with the least
encroachment of the wicked enemy and every phantom and diabolical legion. In the
name of our Lord Jesus Christ, depart and vanish from this creature of
God….”
Markings appeared on Robbie’s body as these proceedings continued
and so did the outbursts: outbursts featuring excessive cursing, vomiting,
urinating and the use of Latin phrases. At one point during a round of prayers
after Robbie had been instructed into the Catholic faith and had received his
first holy communion, a six-inch (15.2 cm) portrait of the devil with its hands
held above its head, webs stretching from its hands, and horns protruding from
its head appeared in deep red on the boy’s calf (we assume that this was
scratched into him. It is not stated who actually witnessed this.) Later, Robbie
was transported back to Maryland for a short-lived visit and on one of the train
rides he became maniacal, striking Father Bowdern in the testicles and yelling,
“That’s a nutcracker for you, isn’t it?”
18 April 1949. As the nighttime
ritual continued, Father Bowdern forced Roland to wear a chain of medals and
hold a crucifix in his hands. Roland’s demeanor changed and he calmly asked
questions about the meanings of certain Latin prayers. Bowdern continued the
ritual, demanding to know who the demon was and when he would depart. Roland
responded with a tantrum and screamed that he was one of the fallen angels.
Bowdern kept reciting until 11:00 p.m. when Roland interrupted. In a new
masculine voice Roland said
,
“Satan! Satan! I am St.
Michael! I command you, Satan, and the other evil spirits to leave this body, in
the name of Dominus, immediately! Now! Now! Now!”
Robbie had one
last spasm before falling quiet. “He is gone,” Robbie pronounced, later telling
Bowdern he had had a vision of St. Michael holding a flaming sword. Twelve days
later he left St. Louie and returned to Maryland.
(end of diary
information)
It was later discoved that the source of the additional
information came from
Rev. Luther Miles Schulze, the families Lutheran
Clergyman.
Father Halloran, who assisted, remembered time periods
of exorcism that lasted as short as a few hours or has long as most of the day.
Halloran’s recollections of events confirms much of the dairy details, in that
he recalls that the bed began to shake violently as holy water was sprinkled on
the youth and that at one point a bottle of holy water went sailing in mid-air
just missing his head. He also confirmed that he ad a vivid memory of the world
“
evil” appearing on the boy’s body during one prayer session,
saying that it was a definite word, not some phenomenon open for personal
interpretation. The clerics, asked the demons when they would depart, who
responded to Father. Bowdern and Father. Halloran that they would depart when
Robbie uttered the proper words.
Eventually, Robbie Mannheim said
“Christus, Domini” or “Christ, Lord.” When these words were spoken, there was a
sound as a “thunderclap” or “shotgun” throughout the floors of the hospital.
After this pandemonium, Robbie Mannheim declared “It’s over. It’s over.” The
room in which the deliverance was performed was then sealed off in order that
none would be able to re-enter that area.
There are confirming reports by
those in the hospital of just such a loud noise as high as the fifth floor by
those who had no knowledge of the event taking place. Robbie Mannheim returned
home to Maryland with his family. No further disturbances occurred and today he
is a family man himself.
Not all cases of exorcism have a happy
or succssessful ending.
In Memory of Emily
Rose
Anneliese Michel was born in
Germany on September 21, 1952. She grew up in a devoutly, somewhat extreme,
Catholic family. She was one of four daughters to Josef and Anna. She was deeply
by safesaver”
href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anneliese_Michel”>religious
and went for mass twice a
week. Pictures of her taken in her childhood show a vibrant, pretty girl on her
way to becoming a gorgeous woman. By the time she was 23-years-old, she was
emaciated, heavily bruised, scarred and deranged. She was supposedly taken over
by demons and fought for nearly eight years before finally losing her battle
with evil. Later, her death was labelled negligent homicide, but was there
anything anyone could have done for Anneliese Michel?
Four years before Anneliese was born, her mother, Anna
Michel gave birth to an illegitimate daughter. This was a source of shame for
the Catholic family. As a result, she was forced to wear a black veil on her
wedding day. After she married and gave birth to Anneliese, she apparently
harbored feelings of guilt about her first daughter. When Anneliese was a child,
her mother encouraged her to atone for the sins of illegitimacy through fervent
devotion. Unfortunately, Anneliese’s older sister sister Martha died at the age
of eight during an operation to remove a kidney tumor. Anneliese already felt
the need to attone for the sins of her mother and others and this likely only
increased desire to do penance for her mother. As she grew older, Anneliese
continued to suffer for the sins of others. When she was a teenager, Anneliese
slept on a bare stone floor to atone for the sins of wayward priests and drug
addicts, who could be observed sleeping on the hard ground at the local train
station. In college at West Germany’s University of Würzburg, she hung pictures
of saints on her dorm room walls, kept a holy-water font near the door, and
regularly prayed the Rosary.
When
Michel was sixteen, she had her first epileptic attack and was diagnosed with
temporal lobe epilepsy. She was soon in depression and was treated at a
psychiatric hospital. Anneliese Michel took medicine for her condition and
continued her life to the best of her ability. In 1973 she graduated high school
and went on to university, joining the
University of Würzburg, where she began studying to become a teacher. Her
classmates later described her as withdrawn and very religious. Apparently, the
medication prescribed for her seemed not to be of much help. Her problems
worsened and she became suicidal .
In
June 1970, Michel suffered a third seizure at the psychiatric hospital where she
had been staying. She was prescribed anti-convulsion drugs for the first time,
including Dylantin, which did not bring about immediate alleviation. She began
talking about seeing “devil faces” at various times of the day. That same month,
she was prescribed another drug, Aolept, which is similar to
chlorpromazine
and is used in the treatment of various
psychoses
including schizophrenia and
disturbed behaviour.In depression by 1973, she began hallucinating while
praying, and complained about hearing voices telling her that she was “damned”
and would “rot in hell”, these voices also apparently have her commandments to
follow. Michel’s treatment in a psychiatric hospital did not improve her health
and her depression worsened. Long term treatment too, did not help and she grew
increasingly frustrated with the medical intervention.
Finally, Anneliese began showing an aversion to
religious iconography. An older woman, a friend of the Michel
family, noticed this while on a pilgrimage with Anneliese. Michel went to
San Damiano with
the family friend who regularly organised such pilgrimages to “holy places”—not
officially recognised by the church. She said that Anneliese smelled “hellishly
bad” and she was unable to walk past
a particular image
of Jesus, and also refused to drink the water of a holy spring. She took
Anneliese to see some priests. Many of them said Anneliese needed a doctor. But
an exorcist from a nearby town examined Anneliese and concluded that she was
demonically possessed.
Both she and
her family became convinced that she was possessed by demons and consulted
several priests, asking for an exorcism. The priests declined, recommended the
continuation of medical treatment, and informed the family that exorcisms
required the bishop’s permission. In the Catholic church, official approval for
an exorcism is given when the person strictly meets the set criteria, then they
are considered to be suffering from possession (
infestatio) and under
demonic control. Intense dislike for religious objects and supernatural powers
are some of the first indications. Michel worsened physically and displayed
aggression, self-injury, drank her own urine and ate insects. In November 1973,
Michel started her treatment with
Tegretol, an
anti-seizure drug and mood stabilizer.
In September
1975, Bishop Josef Stangl
granted the priest Arnold Renz and Father Ernst Alt permission to exorcise
according to the
Rituale Romanum of 1614, which at the time, was still a valid 17th century
Cannon Law but ordered total secrecy.Father Arnold Renz had been a former
missionary in China, and Pastor Ernst Alt was a pastor in a nearby community.
The priest Ernst Alt, whom they met,
on seeing her declared that she didn’t “look like an epileptic” and that he
didn’t see her having seizures. Alt believed she was suffering from demonic
possession and urged the local bishop to allow an exorcism. In a letter to him
in 1975, Michel wrote, “
I am
nothing, everything about me is vanity, what should I do, I have to improve, you
pray for me
” and also once told him,
“I want to suffer for other people…but this
is so cruel
“. Renz along with Alt
performed the first session on 24 September of that same
year.
It is interesting to note that
although in 1975, Anneliese Michel and her parents stopped seeking medical
advice and gave over Anneliese’s fate to the Roman exorcism ritual she had been
prescribed
anti-psychotic drugs during the religious rites, and continued taking these
frequently through out right up until shortly before her
death.
Anneliese Michel was
convinced, believed and said herself that she had been possessed by several
demons, including Lucifer, Judas Iscariot, Nero, Cain, Hitler, and Fleischmann,
a disgraced Frankish Priest from the 16th century. She also mentioned a few
other damned souls who had manifested themselves through.Over the next ten
months, Father Arnold Renz and Pastor Ernst Alt performed 67 exorcism sessions,
one or two each week, lasting up to four hours, in
1975–1976.
Michel began talking
increasingly about “dying to atone for the wayward youth of the day and the
apostate priests
of the modern church”. Over time the ligaments in her knees ruptured due to the
600 genuflections that the seriously ill Anneliese obsessively performed during
each exorcism session. The act of genuflection of an act of reverence either
sinking down on one or both knees. Anneliese continually fell onto one or both
knees, called a “double genuflection, instead of the gently lowerng
herself.
There where a number of
highly disturbing actions carried out by Anneliese during her supposed
possession. She licked her own urine off the floor. Ate flies, spiders, and
coal. She bit off the head of a dead bird. In one instance, she crawled under a
table and barked like a dog for two days straight. She could often be heard
screaming through the walls for hours. Tearing off her clothes and urinating on
the floor became a regular occurrence. and she refused to eat towards the end.
According to
The Washington
Post, as she grew more convinced that she
was possessed, Anneliese began to see the faces of demons on the people and
things around her.
The additional
strange symptoms she displayed was the temporary adoption of bizarre, rigid body
postures (dystonia); the use of the first-person plural pronoun ‘we’ to describe
one’s self; the markedly dilated pupils that could not be explained by any
external stimuli; full or partial amnesia; the emergence of distinct
personalities among the demons and spirits; the pervasive psychoemotional
numbness (desensitization); Michel’s feeling as though her body was acting
outside her volition (depersonalization); fear or rejection of sexuality;
unaccountable fits and seizures; temporary paralysis; emission of overpowering
noxious odors; uncanny screams; and the loss of self-control and invasion of the
mind and body by demons and spirits.
It is also claimed that she spoke in a large number of
other languages, many of which is said she could not have been able to speak.
There are a total of 43 typed recordings which hold record of this, along with
the guttural sound of Anneliese’s voice that were recoded during the 67 rites of
exorcism.
As mentioned above during
the actual ritual of exorcism she continued to take anti-psychotic drugs
prescribed for her and it is notable the persistence of these symptoms despite
medical treatment.
Michel began
talking increasingly about “dying to atone for the wayward youth of the day and
the apostate priests of the modern church”, and she refused to eat towards the
end. She forced herself to fast because she believed that it would rid her of
Satan’s influence. On June 30, 1976, during her last rite of exorcism before her
death, too weak and emaciated to perform the genuflections on her own,
Anneliese’s parents stood and helped carry her through the motions. At this time
she weighed approximately 30kg (68lbs). Her convulsions returned with a greater
ferocity. No doctors were called, this was around Easter time. One of
Anneliese’s sisters explained to the court during the 1978 trial that Anneliese
did not want to go to a mental hospital where she would be drugged and forced to
eat.
On July 1, 1976 Anneliese Michel
died in her sleep. She had predicted that she would be liberated from the demons
on this day. At midnight, Anneliese ceased her raging. Exhausted but peaceful,
she finally went to sleep. According to the autopsy, Anneliese Michel succumbed
to the effects of severe dehydration and malnourishment. At the time of her
death, she was also suffering from Pneumonia and a high fever. During the trial,
specialists claimed that if she had to have been force feed even a week before
her death, then she would still be alive.
It is said weak and on the verge of death, she spoke her
last known words on the day before she died. She told her exorcists “Beg for
Absolution”. To her mother Anna, she said, “Mother, I’m
afraid.”
After she had dies the
undertakers where called out and authorise where alerted due to the emaciated
state of Anneliese’s body. In 1976, the state charged Michel’s parents and
priests Ernst Alt and Arnold Renz with
negligent homicide
.The trial started on 30 March 1978 in the district court
and drew intense interest.
Before
the court, the doctors testified that Michel was not possessed, stating that
this was a psychological effect because of her strict religious upbringing and
her epilepsy, but the doctor Richard Roth, who was asked for medical help by
Alt, allegedly told her during the exorcism, that “there is no injection against
the devil, Anneliese”. The priests were defended by lawyers retained by the
Church, and
Erich Schmidt-Leichner, who defended the parents, claimed that the exorcism was
legal and that the
German constitution protected citizens in the unrestricted exercise of their
religious beliefs. The defence played tapes recorded at the exorcism sessions
over the eleven months which lead to her death as well as photos taken during
this time period, featuring what was claimed to be “demons arguing”, to assert
their claim that Michel was possessed. Both priests insisted on that and claimed
there were six demons including
Adolf Hitler,
Judas Iscariot
and Nero; they
further said that she was finally freed because of the exorcism just before her
death. During the case Michel’s body was also
exhumed. The
state maintained that no involved parties be jailed, instead the recommended
sentence for the priests was a fine, and the prosecution said that the parents
be excluded from punishment as they had “suffered enough”,which is a criterion
in German penal law, cf. § 60
StGB. The bishop
said that he was not aware of her alarming health condition when he approved of
the exorcism and did not testify. The accused were found guilty of
manslaughter
resulting from negligence and were sentenced to six months in jail (which was
later suspended) and three years of probation. It was a far lighter sentence
than anticipated. The case has been labelled as a misidentification of mental
illness, negligence, abuse, and religious
hysteria.
In 2005 Anna
Michel said,”I know that we did the right thing because I saw the sign of Christ
in her hands. She was bearing stigmata and that was a sign from God that we
should exorcise the demons. She died to save other lost souls, to atone for
their sins.”
It has been stated that
in a lucid moment Anneliese claimed to have seen a vision of the Virgin Mary.
The message the Virgin had brought to Anneliese was that she could go to heaven
straight away, or continue suffering so that others may know, through the
demons, that God exists. Anneliese decided to go on
suffering.
The number of officially
sanctioned exorcisms has decreased in Germany due to this case, in spite of
Pope Benedict XVI
support for wider use of it compared to Pope John Paul II, who previously made the rules more strict involving
only rare cases in 1999.
The question
will always remain were those who were with Anneliese really fighting Satan? Yet
it is clear that all the treatment medically given to Anneliese, neither stopped
or lessened her affliction. (
continue part 3)
