Despite the fact that we have discovered almost all the secrets of the human body and even set our sights on space flights, world religions continue to affirm the existence of gods and spirits. In particular, demonic possession is still considered a very real danger that awaits every God-fearing person.
Even in Christian Bible cases of exorcism are mentioned more than 30 times, including several cases of Jesus Christ casting out demons from martyrs.
Here are some real stories that were confirmed not only by priests, but also by doctors,
Anna-Elisabeth Michel (Anneliese Michel)
The girl suffered from epileptic seizures and her condition worsened every day. IN psychiatric hospital Anneliese was secretly visited by two priests who decided to perform an exorcism. 70 rituals
consecutively exhausted the unfortunate woman to death. The priests and parents were charged with manslaughter, and the film “The 6 Demons of Emily Rose” was made based on Anneliese’s story.
Roland Doe/Robbie Mannheim
The story of this boy was so terrible that the Catholic Church classified his name: in the archives, Robbie Mannheim was known as Roland Doe.
He became possessed after a seance when he tried to contact his deceased aunt, who was herself a spiritualist. Soon after, unexplained phenomena and strange noises began to occur in their family home.
The family's Lutheran mentor determined that Roland was possessed and sent two priests, Father Raymond Bishop and Father William Bouder, to perform the exorcism at Georgetown University Hospital. The ritual was performed 30 times over several weeks. It is stated that at this time Roland was very aggressive, speaking Latin in a demonic voice, and the words "evil" and "hell" were sometimes manifested in his body. After these rituals, everything returned to normal, and Roland continued to live a normal life. Many argued over whether he was actually possessed, or whether it was all fiction, and the boy simply had mental problems. Since after these events no one calls him by his real name, the truth will never be known.
Anna Eklund
By the time she was only 14 years old, a girl named Anna Eklund from Erling, Iowa, began to show the first signs of demonic possession. The girl was raised by her parents as a devout Catholic, but this did not stop demons from entering her body. Anna could not stand religious artifacts, became very depraved and spoke out loud about things that were indecent to even think about at that time; she could not enter the church.
In 1912, Anna underwent an exorcism ritual, which ended quite successfully, but in 1928 she again had to turn to the church for help; the girl claimed that demons had again taken over her body. Anna was placed in a monastery, where she was constantly monitored by several nuns. Eklund's condition began to rapidly deteriorate. The following case is described: when the nuns blessed the food before entering her room, Anna felt it, hissed at the nuns and threw the plates of food on the floor. Conversely, she devoured unblessed food like a hungry wolf.
Witnesses claimed that the girl could speak several foreign languages, whom she did not know until the moment of possession, defied gravity, levitating around the room. She vomited on the priests who were trying to approach her, Anna’s eyes rolled out of their sockets, the sufferer’s body became so bloated and heavy that the metal bed sagged under the possessed woman.
The priests performed three full exorcisms on Anna Eklund, and twenty-three days after the first ritual began, she was finally declared freed from demons!
Arne Johnson
Known as the “Demon Killing Case,” Arne Johnson's case is the first trial in U.S. history in which the defense attempted to prove the defendant's innocence due to demonic possession...
In 1981, Arne Johnson murdered his employer, Alan Borough, in Connecticut. Johnson's lawyers argued that his crime was not caused by the defendant's malice, but by a demon that had possessed Arne's body since childhood. Well-known demonologists in certain circles, Ed and Lorraine Warren, even came to the court hearing for consultation (by the way, it was about them and the Perron family that the 2013 Hollywood horror film “The Conjuring” was filmed), who claimed that Johnson’s body was actually controlled by an evil spirit.
But the judge ultimately decided that demonic possession was not a justification for first-degree murder and sentenced Arne Johnson to 20 years in prison.
Julia
In 2008, Dr. Richard E. Gallagher, a renowned psychiatrist and clinical professor of psychiatry at New York Medical College, documented an interesting and unique case of a patient nicknamed "Julia" who he believed to be truly demonically possessed. This is a rare case when a scientist and psychiatrist admits the possibility of demonic possession, which is considered by ordinary doctors to be either fraud or a manifestation of mental disorder.
Dr. Gallagher personally observed how Julia levitated in the air, rising above her bed, speaking in many languages, some of which are ancient and have long been forgotten. She talked about the past and future of the psychiatrist's acquaintances, whom she simply could not know.
Here are some excerpts from the psychiatrist’s notes: “Periodically, in our presence, Julia falls into a kind of trance state, and this is accompanied by unusual phenomena. From her mouth pour out an obscene stream of curses and threats, ridicule and phrases like: “Leave her alone, you idiot!”, “She’s ours.” At the same time, the tone of the voice is noticeably different from Julia’s real voice.”
Clara Hermana Celje
In 1906, Clara Hermana Cele was a Christian student at St. Michael's Mission in KwaZulu Natal. South Africa. For unknown reasons, the demon possessed this young, sixteen-year-old student. Klara Cele began to understand and could speak fluently in several languages, she became clairvoyant and read the thoughts of people around her.
The nuns watching Clara more than once claimed that she levitated, rising from the bed into the air to a height of several meters, and made monstrous animal sounds that the human voice is simply not capable of reproducing. Eventually two priests were called to perform the exorcism. Celje attempted to strangle one of them with his own stole, and more than 170 people witnessed the levitation of the possessed student as the priests read Holy Bible. The ritual was carried out for two days, after which evil spirits left Clara's exhausted body.
Anneliese Michel (September 21, 1952 - July 1, 1976). She is known for the fact that the films “The Exorcism of Emily Rose” and “Requiem” were based on her life. She suffered from nervous diseases from the age of 16 until her death in 1976, the cause of which (at least indirectly) is considered to be an exorcism ritual. Her parents and two priests who performed the ritual were later charged with manslaughter. The expulsion was carried out by Pastor Arnold Renz under the ideological leadership of Bishop Joseph Stangl. The ritual ended with the girl's death. “Annelise’s soul, cleansed of satanic power,” the pastor told the grief-stricken parents of the deceased, “has ascended to the throne of the Most High...” Some people believe that she was indeed possessed by the devil.
In 1969, a seventeen-year-old German woman, Anneliese Michel, was diagnosed with epilepsy by a doctor, although an electroencephalogram showed nothing. It was only after Anneliese's death in 1976 that a number of oddities came to light, and then thanks to an equally strange trial. Despite the fact that the autopsy also showed no signs of epilepsy in the brain and death from dehydration and exhaustion, the culprits continued to be two priests and Anneliese's parents, who were not allowed to be exhumed. What made Anneliese crash? sacred relics, turn your head left and right with the speed of changing frames and eat spiders, flies and coal?
Anneliese Michel was born on September 21, 1952 in the Bavarian Leiblfing, but was raised in Klingenberg am Main of the same land, which was then also part of the Federal Republic of Germany. The girl's name was a combination of two names - Anna and Elizabeth (Lisa). Conservative parents Anna Fürg and Joseph Michel were a colorful exception in Germany, but commonplace in the Catholic bastion of Bavaria. They rejected the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, held the feast of Our Lady of Fatima on the 13th of every month, and neighbor Barbara Weigand, who walked five hours to the Capuchin church to receive a wafer, was a model in the Michel family. Anneliese attended mass several times a week, said rosaries, and even tried to do more than was prescribed, such as sleeping on the floor in the middle of winter. In 1968, a generally harmless incident occurred: Anneliese bit her tongue due to a spasm. A year later, strange night attacks began, during which the girl’s body lost flexibility, a feeling of heaviness appeared on her chest, and due to dysarthria - loss of the ability to speak - she was unable to call either her parents or any of her three sisters. After the first attack, Annelise felt so exhausted that she could not find the strength to go to school. However, this did not happen again for some time and Anneliese even played tennis sometimes.
In 1969, the girl woke up at night due to difficulty breathing and paralysis of her arms and whole body. The family doctor advised me to see a psychiatrist. On August 27, 1969, Anneliese's electroencephalogram did not reveal any changes in the brain. On the night of June 3 of the same year, another attack began. A new EEG again did not reveal anything suspicious, but Dr. Wolfgang von Haller recommended drug treatment. The decision was not canceled even when the third and fourth EEGs, taken on August 11, 1970 and June 4, 1973, showed the same result. In Mittelberg, Anneliese began to see demonic faces during the rosary. In the spring, Annelise began to hear some knocking. Vogt, having examined the girl and not finding anything, sent the girl to an otologist, but he also did not reveal anything, and the girl’s sisters began to hear the knocking that was heard above or below the witness.
In the summer of 1973, Anneliese's parents contacted several priests, but they were told that until all signs of possession were proven, an exorcism could not be performed. The following year, Pastor Ernst Alt, after observing Anneliese for some time, requested permission from Bishop Joseph Stangl of Würzburg to perform an exorcism, but was refused. At this time, Anneliese's behavior changed: she refused to eat, began to break crucifixes and images of Christ in the house, tear off her clothes, scream for hours, bite family members, injure herself and do up to 400 squats a day (or 600 bows on her knees) , which ultimately led to injury to the knee ligaments). And one day Annelise climbed under the table in the kitchen and barked like a dog for two days. Thea, who arrived, called on the demons to leave the girl three times in the name of the Trinity, and only then did she come out from under the table as if nothing had happened. However, this turned out to be temporary and
Anneliese was later found above the Main, ready to throw herself into the water due to the demons' repeated calls for suicide. Every day Anneliese Michel suffered more and more from her illness. She insulted her relatives, fought, bit, growled and wheezed, slept only on the floor, did not eat regular food (according to her, Satan forbade her to do this), but ate spiders and flies, destroyed icons and crosses that were in her room.
On September 16, 1975, Stangl, in consultation with the Jesuit Adolf Rodewick, based on the 1st paragraph of the 1151st chapter of the Code of Canon Law, appointed Alt and the Salvatorian Arnold Renz to perform the exorcism. Its basis then was the so-called Roman Ritual (“Rituale Romanum”), developed back in 1614 and expanded in 1954.
Anneliese indicated that she was commanded by six demons who called themselves Lucifer, Cain, Judas Iscariot, Nero, Fleischmann (a 16th century monk who fell under the rule of Satan) and Hitler, all of whom spoke German with an Austrian intonation. Valentin Fleishman was a Franconian priest in 1552-1575, later he was demoted, accused of cohabitation with a woman and addiction to wine. Fleishman also committed murder in his parish house. From September 24, 1975 to June 30, 1976, approximately 70 rites were performed over Anneliese, one or two each week. The first ceremony took place at 16:00 and lasted 5 hours. When the priests touched Anneliese, she shouted: “Take your paw away, it burns like fire!” The attacks were so severe that Annelise was either held by three people or tied up with a chain.
On June 30, 1976, Annelise, feverish from pneumonia, went to bed and said: “Mom, stay, I’m afraid.” These were hers last words. On July 1, 1976, at the age of 23, Anna was pronounced dead at about 8 a.m. Her parents buried her behind the cemetery - usually illegitimate children and suicides were buried there. An autopsy revealed that the cause of death was dehydration and malnutrition, from which the girl suffered during months-long cycles of exorcism.
It turned out that at the time of her death, Anneliese weighed only 31 kg. On April 21, 1978, the district court of Aschaffenburg, where Anneliese studied at the gymnasium, put the girl’s parents and both priests in the dock. It is not clear why the parents were not allowed to exhume, and Renz later said that he was not even allowed into the morgue. It is also interesting that the head of the German episcopal conference, which stated that Anneliese was not possessed, Cardinal Joseph Höffner, admitted on April 28, 1978 that he believes in the existence of demons.
Anneliese's grave in Klingenberg is visited by groups of Catholics. Some of them believe that after many years of struggle, Anneliese's soul defeated the demons. In 1999, Cardinal Medina Estevez presented to journalists at the Vatican for the first time in 385 years new version The Roman Ritual, which has been in the works for more than 10 years, is now required by the Vatican to have a medical background to perform the ritual.
“I would never have performed this ritual,” admits Father Dieter Feineis, priest of the Church of St. Pancras in Klingenberg. “But both Anna Michel and her husband were absolutely sure that they were doing the right thing. The Church says in this regard that there is cases where the devil possesses a person, but in Germany no one performs exorcism anymore."
The story of Anneliese Michel is often called "the world's first documented case of exorcism." In fact, the girl’s “strange behavior” is explained quite simply: against the background of general religious insanity, epilepsy and schizophrenia, Annelise’s visions and hallucinations took on the images of demons, the devil, etc.
Anneliese's mother still lives in that same house. She never fully recovered from those terrible events. Her husband died in 1999 and her three other daughters moved away. Anna Michel, now in her 80s, bears the burden of memories alone. She has developed cataracts, which make her eyes appear frozen under a film. From the bedroom window you can see the cemetery where Anneliese is buried. On the grave there is a wooden cross with the name of the deceased and the inscription “Rest in the Lord.”
"Of course, I miss Anneliese. She was my daughter. I see her grave and often visit to lay flowers," says Anna Michel.
A deeply religious woman, she insists that the exorcism was justified.
“I know we did the right thing because I saw the sign of Christ on her hands,” she says. “She had stigmata. There was a signal from the Lord that we must go to exorcism. She died to save our lost souls, to cleanse them of sin. Annelise was a kind, loving and obedient girl. But when the devil possessed her, it was something supernatural that could not be explained.
Exorcism is a rite of expulsion from a person evil spirits, shrouded in mystery. The practice, widely used in the Middle Ages, is called “otchitka” in Orthodoxy. The problem of obsession has not been fully studied. For most people, having seen enough Hollywood films, the controversial ritual becomes ordinary entertainment.
This real story, which took place more than 40 years ago, is the basis of several mystical thrillers. What really happened to the girl who went through numerous rituals to exorcise demons and starved herself to death?
Mental disorder?
Anna Elisabeth Michel, better known as Anneliese, was born in a Bavarian village in 1952 in big family conservative Catholics. A girl raised in strict faith, with early childhood attended all services and sang in the church choir. She was different religious fanaticism and even slept on the cold floor during winter fasting.
Since the age of 16, the girl has suffered from nervous diseases. Anneliese Michel has her first seizure, accompanied by convulsions. According to doctors, her epilepsy was aggravated by a mental disorder. A teenager, due to severe spasm, sometimes even complete paralysis of the body, and due to speech impairments, the girl cannot call anyone for help. At the same time, strange things happen: she stops drinking holy water, turns away from the crucifix, and quarrels with her family. Soon attacks torment her both day and night. At this time, she cannot talk, feels empty and tired, and her body loses its former flexibility. A girl who misses school is tormented by a constant feeling of heaviness in her chest. She begins to feel depressed and has suicidal thoughts.
New attacks
In 1969, Annelise suffered an attack of suffocation, which was accompanied by complete paralysis of the body. Frightened parents turn to the family doctor, and the specialist, who does not find any health problems, sends her to a psychiatrist. She spends about a year in the clinic, but after each course of treatment the patient’s condition only worsens. During attacks, the girl tears her clothes, eats insects, swears at others and calls the saints names.
Anneliese Michel undergoes an encephalogram of the brain, but professionals do not notice any visible changes. The exact diagnosis of the patient has not been established. Psychiatry was not able to cure the patient, but tried to somehow control the progressive disease.
She is again placed in the hospital, where the girl sees the faces of demons for the first time, which she informs the doctors about, who prescribe her medications for schizophrenia. Soon the hallucinations begin to be accompanied by strange knocking sounds, and the patient believes that she is actually possessed by demons. Therapy continues for about 4 years, but her condition does not improve, and her mind is completely dominated by demons. Demons convince the Catholic woman that she is doomed, and doctors cannot help. The girl, in despair, begs the doctors to save her, but medications don't help.
Mysterious rituals
It is curious that in 1973 one of the most terrible films in the entire history of cinema, “The Exorcist,” was released. Main character, a priest, fights the demons that have settled in the body of a 12-year-old girl. Anneliese's parents come to the conclusion that their daughter, possessed by demons, also needs help. They turn to catholic church, but constantly receive refusals to perform the exorcism ritual.
And only in September 1975, two priests - Ernst Alt and Arnold Renz - went to the patient. They perform more than 65 exorcisms on Anneliese Michel. About 40 were videotaped and later viewed in the courtroom.
Mysterious rituals last about five hours. Three people tightly hold a raging girl, screaming that her body is blazing with fire from the touches of the priests. “I am commanded by the six inhabitants of hell,” assures the patient, making faces, who growls and howls in different voices in several languages. The church ministers conducting the rituals agree that 6 entities live in the girl’s body - Hitler, Lucifer, Nero, Cain, Judas and the unknown German monk who became a murderer, Fleischmann.
Sometimes her attacks suddenly subside, and at this time the unfortunate woman remains completely sane. She does not complain of illness and even attends not only school, but also church. In addition, the future student is taking exams at the Würzburg Academy.
Deterioration and death
Soon her condition worsens again: exhausted Anna Elisabeth Michel hears voices, insults her family and doctors, fights, barks, growls, bites. She tears icons, breaks crosses and insults God. The patient stops taking all medications and voluntarily refuses food and water, declaring that the Devil himself is telling her to do this. On June 30, 1976, tired from attacks and thinning up to 30 kg, the patient in desperation asks her mother to stay with her for the night.
And early the next morning, the parents find their daughter dead. The priests believed that the soul of the Catholic woman, cleansed of demonic power, ascended to the throne of Christ.
Why did poor Anneliese die?
An autopsy revealed that Anneliese Michel's cause of death was both dehydration and malnutrition. The patient's death was not directly caused by the exorcism ritual.
Most likely, the girl realized that her fate was sealed and stopped fighting for life. She believed that her suffering was atonement for the sins of other people. Anneliese’s body had many terrible wounds, as well as bruises and scratches. The girl inflicted all the injuries on herself. The priests even tied the possessed woman to the bed so that she could not hurt herself. The unfortunate woman died suffering terrible pain.
Another version has also been put forward. According to her, the girl, at the mercy of the priests, was killed by strong drugs that she took on the advice of psychiatrists. However, some experts expressed the opinion that the treatment was ill-conceived and the doses of drugs were insignificant to cure a serious mental disorder.
In addition, Anneliese Michel, whose story shook the public, was sick with pneumonia, which most likely killed her.
Trial
Two years later, in 1978, a trial begins against the priests who were involved in exorcizing demons from the girl, and her parents. At the meetings, the head of the episcopal conference claims that the deceased did not suffer from possession, and the defenders of the accused make a loud statement. In their opinion, exorcism is the same right of citizens as the right to religious beliefs.
The judge states that Anneliese Michel could have been saved 10 days before her death, and the defendants are convicted. They are found guilty of manslaughter and each receive a 6-month suspended sentence with a 3-year sentence. probationary period. However, many aspects of the complex case still remain a mystery.
Classified videos
After the trial, the Roman Catholic Church confiscated videos of the priests' rites and said they would remain confidential for some time. As experts say, watching the video is very difficult. Obscene curses, animal growls, dialogues of demons talking about the horrors of hell leave a depressing impression. During the sessions, the aggressive Anneliese Michel rushed around the room, injuring herself, and even had to be chained.
The Church is ashamed of this story. German priests even asked to reconsider the ritual of exorcism. In 1999, the Vatican published a new version of the mysterious ritual. Now church ministers must have medical education so that they can cast out demons.
The last refuge of the unfortunate
The girl, whose name is associated with obsession, found her last refuge in the cemetery in Klingenberg. On the cross there is an inscription: “Rest in the Lord.” Pilgrims visit her grave, confident that the unfortunate woman, suffering from terrible attacks, nevertheless defeated the Devil.
Near the cemetery, the unfortunate woman’s father erected a tiny chapel in memory of Anneliese Michel, where everyone comes to pray.
Death in the name of saving other people's souls
The girl's parents never regretted what they did. Deeply religious people assured that it was the only way expel the demons from her body. At the trial, they also spoke about Anneliese Michel, on whose hands stigmata appeared - bleeding wounds corresponding to the wounds of Jesus. It was like a signal from God, a sign that the girl was dying in the name of saving other people’s souls.
“However, when the Devil entered the daughter’s body, something supernatural began,” said the girl’s mother.
Films about Anneliese Michel
12 years ago, a film dedicated to the possessed woman was released. German director Hans-Christian Schmid presented his vision of those events. "Requiem" is not an ordinary horror film, but an attempt to examine the girl's illness from a scientific point of view. A girl who grew up in a devout family goes to university. She finds herself in a cheerful student environment, in which she does not feel like a black sheep. main character having fun at parties, chatting with friends, but suddenly the student begins to have epilepsy attacks. After another seizure, the mother turns to the priest, who conducts a mysterious ritual to exorcise demons. In the final credits, the viewer learns that after numerous rituals the girl died.
In 2005, the dark thriller “The Exorcism of Emily Rose,” based on real events, was released on wide screens. The plot is based on a mysterious story about how a devout parishioner begins to experience terrible visions. A girl who can no longer distinguish between nightmares and reality first turns to doctors, and then she asks a priest to perform a forbidden ritual. The film directed by S. Derrickson is more of a court drama than an ordinary horror story for viewers. Father Moore is put on trial because his ward, from whom he tried to exorcise demons, dies, and a young lawyer comes to his defense. They are trying to prove the existence otherworldly forces who interfere in the fate of people. In 2006, the work received the Saturn Award for best horror film.
It is up to everyone to believe or not to believe that a person can be possessed by demons. Those who actually performed exorcism rituals are sure of one thing - in most cases these are mentally ill people. However, terrible things are really happening in the world that make your blood run cold. And no one can explain the reason for the frightening phenomena that remain a mystery to most.
Caused by her prolonged refusal to consume food and water.
| Anneliese Michel | |
|---|---|
| Anneliese Michel | |
| Birth name | Anna-Elizabeth Michel |
| Date of Birth | September 21(1952-09-21 ) |
| Place of Birth | Leibling, Bavaria, West Germany |
| Date of death | July 1(1976-07-01 ) (23 years old) |
| A place of death | Klingenberg am Main, Bavaria, West Germany |
| A country | |
| Occupation | student |
| Father | Joseph Michel |
| Mother | Anna Mikhel |
| Media files on Wikimedia Commons | |
The trial that followed caused a wide resonance in society. As I wrote Die Tageszeitung 25 years later, this trial has become one of the most controversial in the history of Germany. Two priests and Anneliese's parents were charged with criminal omission leading to. According to the prosecution, they took advantage of the girl’s trust and encouraged her to refuse treatment, which led to her death. In turn, the defense referred to the German Constitution, which guarantees citizens freedom of religion. As a result, all defendants were found guilty and sentenced to 3 years of suspended imprisonment.
Michelle's story has been the basis for many works of art, including the horror film The Exorcism of Emily Rose.
Childhood
Anneliese was brought up strictly and was devoted to the Catholic faith. Her parents were reportedly deeply religious, rejecting the reforms of the Second Vatican Council and sympathizing with extremist, even sectarian Catholic groups. Michelle attended mass twice a week, sang in the church choir and, as she noted, The Washington Post, “while other children her age were rebelling against authority and experimenting with sex, she, trying to atone for the sins of drug addicts and wayward priests, slept on the bare floor in the middle of winter.”
Anneliese's childhood was happy, although she grew up as a weak and sickly child. Anneliese loved playing at her father's sawmill, took piano and accordion lessons, was a good student, and dreamed of becoming an elementary school teacher. In addition to Martha, she had three more sisters: Gertrude (born 1954), Barbara (born 1956) and Rosvita (born 1957). In 1959, Anneliese entered the primary school in Klingenberg, then in the sixth grade she transferred to the Karl Theodor Dahlberg Gymnasium in Aschaffenburg.
Disease and treatment attempts
In 1968, due to a spasm, Michel bit her tongue. A year later, strange night attacks appeared: Annelise, due to dysarthria, could not move, felt heaviness in her chest, sometimes lost the ability to speak and could not call anyone from her loved ones. In 1969, the girl woke up with difficulty breathing and complete paralysis of her body. Family doctor Gerhard Vogt advised the parents to go to the hospital. An electroencephalogram was performed, which did not show any changes in Michele's brain. However, she was diagnosed with temporal lobe epilepsy. The girl was hospitalized in early February 1970 with a diagnosis of tuberculosis.
In June 1970, Michel suffered a third seizure in the hospital where she was at that time. She was prescribed anticonvulsants, including phenytoin, which did not produce the desired result. Then she began to claim that sometimes “the face of the Devil” appears before her. That same month, she was prescribed Aolept, which is similar in composition to aminazine and is used in the treatment of schizophrenia and other mental disorders. Despite this, she continued to be depressed. In 1973, she began hallucinating while praying, hearing voices telling her that she was cursed and would “rot in hell.”
Michelle's treatment in a psychiatric hospital did not help, and she increasingly doubted the effectiveness of medicine. Being a devout Catholic, she assumed that she was the victim of possession. She later made a pilgrimage to San Giorgio Piacentino with family friend Thea Hein. There, Hein came to the conclusion that Michel was possessed because she could not touch the crucifix and refused to drink water from the holy spring of Lourdes. Together with her family, Michel turned to several priests with a request to exorcise demons. They all refused and recommended continuing treatment. As Michel was informed, exorcism requires the permission of the bishop and absolute confidence in the possession of the patient.
During the period between attacks, Michel showed no signs of mental illness and led a normal life. In 1973 she graduated from the University of Würzburg. She was later described by classmates as “closed and extremely religious.” In November 1975, she successfully passed the exams to obtain Missio canonica- special permission to perform educational functions on behalf of the church.
Michelle's condition worsened. She tore clothes on her body, ate spiders and coal, bit off the head of a dead bird, and licked her own urine from the floor. During her seizures she spoke in different languages and called herself Lucifer, Cain, Judas, Nero, Adolf Hitler and other names. According to reports from Michele's entourage, sometimes the demons even argued with each other, and it seemed that she spoke in two different voices. In November 1973, she was prescribed carbamazepine. There are opinions that the treatment was not sufficiently thought out and consistent, in particular, the doses were too small to cure such a serious disorder.
Michel's exact diagnosis was never established. B. Dunning cites in her article the opinion that she could suffer from dissociative identity disorder, aggravated by schizophrenia, and the seizures were caused by chronic stress. Although psychiatry of that time was not able to cure the patient, it did control the disease to some extent. Michel died after refusing treatment. Catholic priest and explorer paranormal phenomena John Duffy published a book about Michel in 2011. He wrote that based on the available evidence, it is safe to say that Anneliese was not possessed. Jesuit priest and psychiatrist Ulrich Niemann said the following about the incident: “As a doctor, I say that there is no such thing as “possession.” In my opinion, these patients are mentally ill. I pray for them, but that alone won't help. You have to work with them as a psychiatrist. But at the same time, when the patient comes from of Eastern Europe and believes that he is possessed by the devil, it would be a mistake to ignore his belief system." There was also speculation that, perhaps because of the film “The Exorcist”, which was released in 1973 (at the time when Michelle’s condition began to rapidly deteriorate), she could become aware of the symptoms of possession and subconsciously “tune” herself for their manifestation.
On the morning of July 1, 1976, Michel was found dead in bed. When Alt was informed about this, he told her parents: “Annelise’s soul, cleansed of satanic power, rushed to the throne of the Most High.”
An autopsy showed that Michel's death was not directly caused by an exorcism. At some point, she decided that her death was inevitable, and voluntarily refused food and drink. Michel believed that her death would be atonement for the sins of the younger generation and clergy who deviated from the canons. She hoped that people, having learned about her fate, would believe in God. At the time of her death, Michele weighed only 68 or 70 pounds (about 30 kg) with a height of 166 cm, suffered from pneumonia, her knee joints were torn from constant kneeling, and her whole body was bruised and open wounds. In recent months, Michel could not even move without assistance. She had to be tied to the bed to prevent her from hurting herself.
According to Judge Eimar Bolender, who presided over Michel's case, her death could have been prevented by treatment even 10 days before the incident.
Court
The circumstances of Michele's death were so unusual that it took investigators two years of investigation before the case went to trial. As prosecutor Karl Stenger later admitted, when he was informed about the exorcism case, he initially took it for a prank on the part of his colleagues. The trial began on March 30, 1978, and received widespread press coverage. Alt, Renz and Michele's parents were charged with criminal omission resulting in death by negligence. Acted as the parents' lawyer Eric Schmidt-Leichner, the priests were defended by lawyers hired by the church. Representatives of the prosecution demanded a fine or other appropriate punishment only for the priests, while the parents, in their opinion, should only have been found guilty. This was explained by the fact that the Michels were already punished by the loss of their daughter, and before the exorcism they tried for several years to help Anneliese with traditional treatment.
Doctors who testified at the trial said that Michel was not possessed, but suffered from psychiatric problems, aggravated by epilepsy and religious hysteria. The defense referred to the German Constitution, which guarantees citizens freedom of religion. Renz said he was sure the girl was possessed. According to Alt, he had no idea that Michel was in such a serious condition, and otherwise he would have immediately sought help. According to some reports, Alt turned to Dr. Richard Roth, who told Michel: “There is no cure for the devil, Anneliese.”
All the accused were found guilty, and the sentence imposed was even more severe than what the prosecution demanded. They were given a suspended sentence of six months' imprisonment with a probationary period of 3 years.
Memory and meaning
Michel's death caused a wide resonance in Germany and raised questions about the limits of religious freedom. Many Germans were dismayed that such an incident could happen in modern times. European country. Journalist Franz Barthel, who covered the incident in the press, said in a newspaper interview three decades later The Washington Post that he is still amazed by the death of Michel and the superstition of her environment. The Washington Post in an article from 2005, she noted that exorcism is now more widespread than is commonly believed. Thus, according to Professor Clemens Richter, there are up to 70 practicing exorcists in France. A Polish congress in 2005 reportedly attracted 350 exorcists. Germany is an exception in this regard: only two or three exorcists operate here, and they are forced to carry out their actions in secret, albeit with the consent of the bishops. As the famous skeptic Brian Dunning writes in his article, many similar cases of death after the expulsion of demons are currently known.
Michel is revered by a small group of Catholics as an unofficial saint, and her grave is a place of pilgrimage. After the trial, Michel's parents asked the authorities to give permission to exhume their daughter. The official reason given was that she was buried in a hurry in a cheap coffin. As it later turned out, a Carmelite nun from southern Bavaria told the Michels that she had a vision about the incorruption of Anneliese’s remains. According to official reports, this information has not been confirmed. Alt subsequently stated that they were not allowed to attend the exhumation in person. After this, Michele's remains were reburied in an oak coffin with pewter trim. Also next to the cemetery, Anneliese's father erected a small chapel in memory of his daughter; The girl's parents went there to pray throughout their lives. Josef Michel died in 1999. Michelle's mother said in an interview in 2005 that she does not regret the exorcism and to this day believes that her daughter was possessed and died, atonement for the sins of others. In Klingenberg they try not to talk about Michel, considering her death a black and shameful page in the history of the city.
After Michel's death, a group of German theologians formed a commission to change the rite of exorcism, and in 1984 they approached the Vatican with appropriate proposals. It was proposed to remove those passages where the exorcist addresses the devil directly. As follows from the arguments of the commission members, this form of treatment can further convince a mentally ill person of his own obsession. It took 15 years to make a decision. The updated description of the ritual featured significant changes, but the most radical of the proposed changes were not accepted.
Three films were made based on Michele's story: The Exorcism of Emily Rose, The Exorcist's Diary and Requiem. The role of Michele stars Jennifer Carpenter, Nicole Muller and Sandra Muller, respectively.
Brian Dunning sharply criticized such pictures:
Filmmakers exploited these victims not only to create The Exorcist, but also many other copycat films based on the stories. specific persons, including Anneliese. Every time Linda Blair's head twitched or she spit green vomit, we laughed and had a good time in the theater. “...” These victims are often seriously ill people - they may have medical or psychiatric problems that need treatment - they do not deserve to be tortured, nor to be negligently killed, nor to have their ordeal glorified as some kind of pop culture horror story .
In 2013, the house where the rituals were held burned down. This revived interest in Michel's case and contributed to new speculation regarding its paranormal nature.
Notes
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- Find a Grave - 1995. - ed. size: 165000000
The story of Anneliese Michel, who died as a result of an exorcism, is one of the most famous and mysterious among the cases of so-called “possession by the devil.” After the release of The Six Demons of Emily Rose, based on real events, interest in this mystical plot from 40 years ago has increased again.
Despite the fact that skeptics do not believe in such nonsense (they say that this exorcism of yours can be explained scientifically), there are still a lot of people who are haunted by what happened. There are too many unexplained inconsistencies. So who is this Anneliese Michel? Why do many still discuss what happened to her, and some even consider her a saint?
The story of Anneliese Michel
Anna Elisabeth Michel, better known as Anneliese, was born in a Bavarian village in 1952. Her name is a combination of two names, Anna and Elizabeth. Anneliese's parents, Anna Fürg and Joseph Michel, were practicing Catholics, very conservative, if not orthodox. They rejected the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, celebrated the feast of Our Lady of Fatima on the 13th of every month, and neighbor Barbara Weigand, who walked five hours to the Capuchin church to receive the wafer, was considered a model in the Michel family.
Anneliese regularly attended mass several times a week, said rosaries, and even tried to do more than was prescribed, such as sleeping on the floor in the middle of winter. In 1968, the first attack occurred: Anneliese bit her tongue due to a spasm. A year later, night seizures began, during which the girl’s body lost flexibility, a feeling of heaviness appeared in her chest, loss of the ability to speak - the girl could not call her parents or any of her three sisters. After the first attack, Anneliese felt so exhausted and empty that she could not find the strength to go to school. The attacks were followed by periods of calm and Anneliese even sometimes managed to play tennis.
In 1969, the girl woke up at night due to difficulty breathing and numbness in her body. Family doctor Gerhard Vogt advised me to see a psychiatrist. On August 27, 1969, Anneliese's electroencephalogram did not reveal any changes in the brain. However, later the girl was struck down by pleurisy and tuberculosis. At the beginning of February 1970, she was admitted to a hospital in Aschaffenburg. On the 28th Anneliese was transferred to Mittelberg. On the night of June 3 of the same year, another attack began. A new EEG again did not reveal anything suspicious, but Dr. Wolfgang von Haller recommended drug treatment. The decision was not reversed even when the same result was shown by the third and fourth EEGs taken on August 11, 1970 and June 4, 1973. In Mittelberg, Anneliese began to see demonic faces during the rosary. In the spring, Anneliese began to hear a knocking sound. Vogt, having examined the girl and found nothing, sent the girl to an otologist, but he also found nothing, and the girl’s sisters also began to hear the knock.
According to Anneliese herself, it began to seem to her that she was possessed from the age of 13. The first person to realize that something was wrong with Anneliese was Thea Hein, who accompanied her during a pilgrimage to San Damiano, Italy. She noticed that Anneliese walked away from the image of Christ and refused to drink water from the sacred Lourdes spring.
Four years of treatment yielded nothing, and in the summer of 1973, Anneliese’s parents turned to several priests, but they were explained that until all signs of possession were proven, an exorcism could not be performed. The following year, Pastor Ernst Alt, after observing Anneliese for some time, requested permission from Bishop Joseph Stangl of Würzburg to perform an exorcism, but was refused. At this time, Anneliese's behavior changed: she refused to eat, began breaking crucifixes and images of Christ in the house, tearing off her clothes, screaming for hours, biting family members, injuring herself, eating spiders, flies and coal. One day Anneliese climbed under the table in the kitchen and barked like a dog for two days. Thea, who arrived, called on the demons to leave the girl three times in the name of the Trinity, and only then Anneliese came out from under the table as if nothing had happened.
It was impossible to stop her: at such moments it was as if some kind of powerful force, not subject to outside control. Moreover, if you do not take into account the attacks, Anneliese was no different from the others: in 1973 she successfully graduated from the university, and fellow students later described her as “ordinary, but extremely pious.”
The next stage of the disease was seizures, during which Michel began to speak in different languages and even in different voices, and also called herself Adolf Hitler, Cain, Judas and Lucifer. She screamed, insulted family members, and attacked them.
Once she killed a bird by biting off its head, and another time she sat under the table for two days and barked, imitating a dog.
With all this, it is impossible not to ask a lot of questions. Where were Anneliese's parents all this time? Where were they looking? Why was the girl at home all this time and not in a psychiatric clinic? After all, she could cause harm not only to her family, but, first of all, to herself.
One gets the impression that devout Catholics were waiting for some kind of miracle. For him, the family again turned to the priests. True, after two years of daughter’s requests, in 1975. At that time, the girl had been ill for about 6 years and had long begged her elders to again ask the church to perform an exorcism ceremony, but for some reason they hesitated.
As a result, the girl herself wrote a letter to a priest named Ernst Alt. He was the first to agree to consider Anneliese’s case. According to him, she did not at all look like an epileptic, but was truly possessed. In September 1975, Bishop Joseph Stangl gave permission to Alt and another priest, Arnold Renz, to perform an exorcism. True, he ordered to keep everything secret. But the secret, as we know, always becomes clear...
From September 1975 to July 1976, 1-2 times a week they tried to exorcise the devil from Anneliese. Moreover, the attacks were so strong that the girl had to be held by three men, and sometimes even chained.
At the very beginning of “therapy,” she decided to stop taking medications, while her parents strongly supported their daughter’s decision, because it turned out that the pills didn’t help, so why take them? Michelle felt a little better, and she was even able to successfully pass the exam in order to be allowed to teach children the law of God.
However, in May 1976, Anneliese suddenly became worse: she was delirious almost all the time due to fatigue as a result of constant rituals: by that time more than 60 of them had been performed, each lasting about 4 hours. All this time she had to kneel to beg for salvation from God. 42 rituals were recorded on camera.
A few weeks before her death, the girl refused food and water: in this way she supposedly atoned for the sins of other people. The last rite of exorcism of Anneliese Michel was performed on June 30. Due to exhaustion, the girl fell ill with pneumonia.
Exhausted, with high temperature, she was unable to perform the actions that the priests required of her: in the video, which was later broadcast in court, her parents are seen helping her daughter kneel, holding her by the arms. The next day, July 1, 1976, Anneliese Michel died in her sleep.
The autopsy report stated that the girl died as a result of exhaustion (she weighed only 30 kg at the time of death) and dehydration. By the way, Annelise’s knee ligaments were torn as a result of approximately 600 kneelings...
The death of Anneliese caused a wide resonance in Germany: people did not understand how modern world things like this can happen. After an investigation, the prosecutor general said that the girl's death could have been prevented even 10 days before the tragedy if her parents had forced her to take her medication again.
Charges were brought against Ernst Alt, Arnold Renz, and both parents under the article “manslaughter”, because during the last 10 months of the girl’s life not a single doctor observed her. The defense broadcast recordings of the rituals to prove that Anneliese was indeed possessed, and also insisted that the German Constitution guarantees freedom of religion, which means that no one prohibited exorcism.
The trump cards of the prosecution were the testimony of doctors who had previously treated the girl, who said that she was not possessed, but suffered from psychiatric problems, aggravated by epilepsy and religious hysteria. The defendants were ultimately found guilty of manslaughter by negligence and were sentenced to 6 months in prison, suspended for 3 years.
More than forty years have passed since then, but the story of Anneliese Michel still haunts mysticism lovers. Hollywood, of course, did not stand aside: in 2005, the horror film “The Exorcism of Emily Rose” was based on the story.
A year later, the film “Requiem” was released in Germany, which is also based on the story of the expulsion of demons from Anneliese Michel. The girl’s mother was against making films, and in one interview she even stated that she did not regret what happened.
Anna Michel sincerely believed that numerous exorcism rituals were necessary, and Anneliese died atonement for the sins of others. By the way, even among a small group of Catholics the girl is revered as an unofficial saint, and her grave is a place of pilgrimage.
The many questions that this mysterious story raises make it impossible to definitively answer what actually caused Michele’s death. So which side to take: doctors, priests or lovers of paranormal phenomena is everyone’s personal choice.
Exorcism of Anneliese Michel: complete recording of demon sounds
VIDEO: MYSTERY REVEALED! "The Demons Inside Anneliese Michel"
The story of the possessed girl formed the basis of many works of art, including the famous horror film The Exorcism of Emily Rose.