“I Got Demons Running All Up In Me”-Beetlejuice.

When it comes to my job I guess you could say I’m an anomoly, I actually like it. I work in a resendential treatment facility for children that suffer from various forms of mental Illness and I have seen it all. Everything from boys who display conduct disorders to extreme cases of schizophrenia. I like my job because I feel that in some small way I am making a difference in their young lives and working along with a great staff who truly care and want to giveour boys the treatment they need and teach them how to live a normal life and grow into contributing members of society. Although mental illness seems to be on the rise in the US there are a plethora of agencies that can help but three hundred years ago these poor souls who suffer from mental illness would have had much worse they would have been denounced and rejected by their respected communities or subjected to archaic rituals to banish them of what they believed to be demons inhabiting their bodies. And sadly still if these folks did not get any better they were hanged or burned at the stake. The demon must be dealt with and if that means needlessly killing the host body, then so be it.

Since the release of the blockbuster hit movie, “The Exorcist” in the 1970s. Movie theaters were packed with millions who despite the terror involved with the movie, desired to see a little twelve year old girl possessed by a slew of demons go hand to hand with two catholic priests killing one and driving another mad. Thanks to this movie, interest has arisen in our country and across the globe of the idea that an evil morally bankrupt being could take control of a human body and bend the will of that human to do it’s bidding. Those who study such cases of possession are called demonologist and they feel that they are on the cutting edge of paranormal research and firmly believe that every report of a haunting or poltergeist case can be attributed to the presence of a demon and basically scare the hell out of all involved. When you study the case reports of these demon hunting researchers you can’t help but get the feeling that they really don’t know what they talking about and even they do not know the history of demonic possession and exorcism.

Unlike what pop culture tells us demonic possession is not a concept dreamed up by the christian church. The oldest known references to evil spirits attacking the human body and taking control of a human will comes from the five thousand year old cunieform tablets of the Sumerians. The ancient Sumerians believed that a person who was inflicted with everything from the common cold to blindness was under attack by an evil spirit called a Gidim, or sickness spirit. Just like our contemporary concept of exorcism the ancient Sumerians employeed a priest or sorceror called an Ashipu, to do battle with the spirit. The Ashipu, would use whatever magically abilities were at his disposal to deal with the offending spirit. If the spirit was driven out of the afflicted person, great that person was allowed back into the community as a whole and well person but if the spirit was driven out and that persons illness persisted they were banished into the deserts to live with the other demons that threatened humanity.

Our modern concept of demonic possession and exocism, of course, comes from the many passages of the New Testemant and detail how Jesus of Nazareth, would meet a sick or crazy person that allegedly was possessed by an evil spirit. All the Son of God had to do was raise a finger and command the spirit to be gone and according to the scriptures the once afflicted person was made well and allowed to rejoin whatever community they once were part of. Sounds nice right? Just raise a finger and the demon is chased away never to return again unfortunately though as time progressed and christianity became the dominant religion on the planet the concept of demon banishment would take on a whole new meaning if the demon could not be banished then the afflicted host must die.

In 1486, the first codefied rules for exorcism was written down by two German priests who believed that we lived in a demon haunted world and would do everything they could to save the world from the prince of darkness and his wicked hordes. The Malleus Maleficarum or “Hammer of the witches” was set to paper by two german inquisitors, Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger. In the book the two priests laid out the rules not just about witches and how to deal with them but how to identify folks who were possessed by demons and how to deal. Unlike their lord and Master Jesus, Kramer and Sprenger believed that if a person could not be made well by an exorcism than they would force the demon out through torture that oftentimes led to death for the afflicted.

During the days of the inquisition if a person was suspected of having fits where they foamed at the mouth or yelled out blasphemies or swear words they were immediately dealt with in the most harshest of ways. These were dark days, many centuries before anyone knew that a person who suffered from seizures may have suffered from epilepsy and a person who yelled out curse words suffered from Tourette’s syndrome. If an inquisitor was summoned more than likely that person would be put to death. After all, nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition, their chief weapon is fear and surprise. Thank you Monty Python.

Today, thanks to a firmer understanding of how the body and mind work, the Catholic Church is a little more sceptical about cases of demonic possession and are not as willing to jump the gun so to speak, before they declare a case to be legitimate demonic possession. If a case of suspected possession comes across the desk of the church they suggest that the family members of the allegedly possessed seek medical care or psychological counseling. The church has laid down certain criteria that must be met before they will officially sanction an exorcism. The criteria for a real demonic possession are 1)The person must have the ability to curse and blaspheme God in a language that was previously unknown to the person. 2) The afflicted must possess the ability to read minds and predict future events. 3) The afflicted must display super human strength or the ability to move objects with their mind. 4) The ability to spit up strange objects that the person could not possibly have swallowed. 5) A deep fear or hatred of holy relics. and 6) possess an inability to say Christ. If these criteria are not met then the person is definately suffering from some form of mental illness and not a spiritual condition.

Although there have been many cases of alleged demonic possession over the last sixty years two cases stand out one shows good judgement on the part of the church and the other displays just how badly the ball was dropped. In 1947, in a working class suburb of Washington D.C. the case of Robert Mannheim would display the right thinking of the catholic Church. Robert, a precocious thirteen year old boy began to have strange phemoneon that surrounded him and caused great heartbreak for the family. The church documented poltergeist type phenomenon in the house such as heavy furniture moving of its own accord. The bed that Robert slept in would jump up many inches of the floor oftentimes levitating for a few minutes. Robert displayed great feats of strength and Robert spoke in an ancient dialect of latin, a language he was not familiar with. At first the family believed their child was suffering from some form of mental illness and the church suggested that he be examined by a physician. When none of that panned out the family took their boy to St. Louis Missouri and the exorcism was performed at an Alexian Brothers hospital. According to the record the Demons were expelled from Robert’s body and he went on to live a very happy and normal demon free life. I love a nice ending don’t you? However our next case study does not end so nicely.

In Germany in 1976, Annelise Michel a gangly and akward teenage girl would be the example of just how bad the catholic church would fail. In the summer young Annelise learned that she had been excepted into a good college and was excited to tell her parents that it was time for their little girl to move on. While at school, Anneliese reported to a school official that she had been hearing voices calling her a dirty slut and had witnessed terrifying visions of demons attacking her body. Many witnesses, including a young man who had taken a liking to Anneliese witnessed the girl go into fits of rage and catonic states where her body would contort into positions that should be impossible for a human being to attain. Fearing for her life, Anneliese’s parents were contacted and she was taken home.

After arriving home Anneliese displayed the Bizarre behavior that she displyed at school and added a few more such as an intense hatred for the crucifix which hung in every room of the devoutly catholic household. Although Anneliese had suffered from some form of mental illness her whole life her parents felt that this hatred brought a whole dimension to the situation and they firmly believed their fresh faced little girl was under attack by the evil one. Her parents did the only thing thing they knew they turned to the church for help.

Two priests responded and investigated the alleged demonic possession. Although Anneliese did not display the more supernatural aspects of demonic possession the priests believed that the young girl was under spiritual attack and needed an exorcism to relieve her of her condition. The Bishop of Wurzburg gave the official thumbs up and the priests began the ritual to drive the demons from Annelieses’ body. After many days of performing the ritual in her parent’s barn the emaciated body of Anneliese Michel lay dead the victim of a botched exorcism.

The two priests and Anneliese’s parents were charged with her death and put on trial for the murder of their little girl. At the trial the coroner said the cause of death was dehydration and malnutrition, Anneliese had stopped eating and drinking a few days before the exorcism began. For whatever reason when the judge was told that the death occurred as a result of Anneliese being afflicted with demons. The judge dropped the charges of first degree murder and went with a lesser charge of manslaughter, the two priests and Anneliese’s parents were given a six month suspended sentence and three years probation. It came out that when Anneliese went off to college she ran out of her psyche meds and her mental illness progressed as a result. The Strange case of Anneliese Michel would be a lesson to the church that not all seemingly supernatural occurrences are not supernatural in nature.

We live in an enlightened time where evil spirits have been cast out by the cold hard facts of science. We are told that the only demons that exist are the demons of the mind and they can be dealt with by years of psycho-therapy and a regimine of psychiatric drugs. However like all cases of the paranormal every once and awhile a case will pop up that defies all logical and rational explanations. However in investigating such cases we should keep a level of open minded skepticism that is of course until the subject is levitating three feet off the bed, speaking in ancient Aramaic or spitting out copious amounts of Pea soup.

Rick E. Hale
t_seeker@hotmail.com