1976 exorcism of the devil from a girl. Real cases of obsession
Anna Elisabeth Michel, better known as Anneliese, died at the hands of an exorcist on July 1, 1976. She was only 23 years old.
Anneliese was born into the family of Joseph and Anna Michel, deeply religious and very religious Catholics. Joseph's three sisters were nuns, and he himself was predicted to become a clergyman, but he chose to become a carpenter. Anna had an illegitimate daughter named Martha, who died of cancer as a child. Nevertheless, Anneliese’s mother was so ashamed of her illegitimate daughter that she even wore a black veil at her own wedding.
Little Anneliese was brought up in strictness, despite the fact that the girl was a weak and sickly child. However, Anneliese herself gladly accepted such an upbringing: while other teenagers rebelled, she regularly attended mass twice a week and regularly prayed for her lost peers. The girl's problems began only in 1968, when Anneliese was already 16 years old.
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One day, Anneliese bit her tongue because of a strange spasm that suddenly seized her body. A year later, such attacks became regular: the girl suddenly lost the ability to simply move, felt a heaviness in her chest, she began to have problems with speech and articulation - sometimes she could not even call someone close to her for help. The parents immediately sent their daughter to the hospital, where she was given an electroencephalogram. The examination did not reveal any changes in Annelise’s brain, but doctors nevertheless diagnosed temporal lobe epilepsy, and in February 1970 the girl was hospitalized in a clinic with a diagnosis of tuberculosis. There, in the hospital, a serious seizure occurred. Doctors tried to treat it with anticonvulsants, but for some reason they didn’t work. Anneliese herself claimed that she saw “the face of the devil” in front of her. Doctors prescribed the girl a drug used in the treatment of schizophrenia and other mental disorders. But it didn’t work either: the girl fell into depression, during prayers she began to hallucinate, and she also heard voices that promised her that she would “rot in hell.”
Annelise was transferred to a psychiatric ward, but the treatment did not help her. Then the girl decided that she was possessed by the devil. After leaving the hospital, the girl made a pilgrimage to San Giorgio Piacentino with family friend Thea Hein. Hein confirmed Anneliese’s fears about possession: Anneliese refused to touch the crucifix or drink water from the holy spring, and therefore Hein convinced the girl that there really was “a devil inside her.” Returning home, Anneliese told her family about this. Together they began to look for a priest who would perform the exorcism.
Several priests refused this to the Michel family, explaining that such a rite, firstly, requires the permission of the bishop, and secondly, complete confidence in the possession of the patient. Between attacks of mental illness, Anneliese led a completely normal life as an ordinary girl, adjusted for her increased religiosity. But her condition steadily worsened.
At some point, Anneliese's episodes of frustration became truly frightening: she tore her clothes, ate insects, urinated on the floor and licked urine, and once bit off the head of a bird. In a fit, the girl suddenly began to speak in different languages and call herself Lucifer, Cain, Judas, Nero, Adolf Hitler and other names. Periodically, the “demons” inside her began to swear among themselves - in different voices. Doctors prescribed Anneliese another drug, but it didn’t help either. The investigators of this case later concluded that the dosage was insufficient for such a serious disorder. The psychiatry of that time, in principle, could not cure Anneliese, but it could help her: the disorder could be controlled. But Anneliese refused treatment, and her family did not insist on it. Instead, they began looking for an exorcist.
A priest named Ernst Alt was the first to respond to Anneliese's request to free her from possession. He wrote to the girl that she did not look like someone with epilepsy and he would try to find a way to rid her of obsession. In September 1975, Bishop Joseph Stangl allowed Alt and another priest, Wilhelm Renz, to perform the ceremony. On September 24 this happened for the first time. After the first ceremony, Annelise stopped taking medications and visiting doctors. She completely trusted the exorcism.
Over 10 months, priests performed 67 rites of exorcism. Once or twice a week, Annelise had another ritual, some of which lasted up to 4 hours. 42 rituals were captured on camera, and then these recordings were used as evidence in court.
On the morning of July 1, 1976, Anneliese 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.”
At the time of her death, Anneliese weighed about 30 kilograms and was 166 centimeters tall. Her whole body was covered in bruises and unhealed wounds, ligaments were torn, and joints were disfigured from constant kneeling. Anneliese could no longer move independently, but nevertheless, even the night before her death, she was tied to the bed. This had to be done so that the girl would not hurt herself. An autopsy showed that Anneliese was terribly emaciated and sick with pneumonia, which, in all likelihood, killed her.
Formally, Anneliese did not die from an exorcism ritual. But it was the rituals that brought her to this state, coupled with the lack of drug therapy necessary for a mental disorder.
The trial in this case began 2 years later, in 1978. Alt, Renz and Michele's parents were charged with criminal omission resulting in death by negligence. All the accused were found guilty. They were given a suspended sentence of six months' imprisonment with a probationary period of 3 years.
Alexandra Koshimbetova
This terrible story happened quite recently, in 2011. Residents of the Voronezh region, spouses Elena Antonova and Sergei Koshimbetov, killed their own 26-year-old daughter Alexandra while performing a ritual of “exorcism.”
Alexandra's mother Elena suffered from a mental disorder and was very religious. She repeatedly informed those around her that she was “sent to earth by God for a special mission.” At some point, it seemed to her that her daughter was possessed by the devil. At the same time, the woman believed that the devil came to her daughter in the form of a husband, and now Alexandra is in love with the “evil spirit.” Alexandra’s father Sergei immediately believed his wife.
From the testimony of Sergei Koshimbetov: “I put it down. They gave me a glass of water. She kicked it all out with her hands. Lena says: why can’t you cope with her? Just pour some water, she will calm down.” From the testimony of Elena Antonova: “I began to bite her stomach, then he told me: grab her navel. I grabbed my belly button and held it, I shouldn’t have let it go.”
Sergei and Elena forced their daughter to “drink” about five liters of water. The mother, who continued to torture her daughter all this time, tore out part of her daughter’s intestines with her bare hands. And even after this, the parents did not calm down: they continued to beat Alexandra and jump on her wounded body. As a result, the girl died from multiple rib fractures and massive internal bleeding.
The parents laid the body “freed from evil spirits” in their own bed. Moreover, in addition to them, Alexandra’s grandmother and their youngest thirteen-year-old daughter were in the apartment. The wife's grandmother and granddaughter were told that everything was fine and the girl would resurrect in three days. Only then did the grandmother decide to call the police. Before that, she said, she was afraid to intervene, because both her youngest granddaughter and herself could become victims of crazy spouses.
Elena Antonova came to court with a Bible and immediately began preaching. The woman declared that she was God's chosen one and tried to find evidence of this in the Bible. The woman denied her guilt and stated that she did absolutely the right thing. Her husband shared the same view. In their opinion, they did not kill their daughter, but simply freed her from obsession. The parents assured everyone that Alexandra would soon be resurrected.
The examination found both spouses insane. The diagnosis is a severe form of schizophrenia. Both were sentenced to compulsory treatment.
Marika Irina Kornich
In 2005, the abbot of a Romanian Orthodox monastery, 31-year-old priest Daniel Petru Corogeanu, killed his mentally ill parishioner. The priest did not admit his guilt at the trial and did not appear repentant.
23-year-old Marika Irina Kornich grew up in an orphanage and entered a monastery just three months before her death. The girl suffered from schizophrenia, and therefore the priest considered her possessed by the devil. To save the unfortunate “victim of evil spirits,” the priest decided to perform an exorcism. To do this, he chained her to a cross, gagged her so that she would not “call on the devil with her screams,” and locked her in the basement for three days without food, drink or light. At the end of the third day, some nun could not stand it and called the police. Doctors who arrived at the monastery, accompanied by police, found the girl already dead. The young novice died from dehydration and suffocation.
The church condemned the priest's actions and removed him from his post as rector. Father Daniel was arrested only a month after the girl’s death. When asked by investigators whether he suspected that the novice might not be possessed, but suffering from a mental disorder, the priest replied: “The devil cannot be driven out of a person with the help of pills.”
The priest and nuns who helped him perform the exorcism answered questions from investigators for 11 hours. The court found everyone guilty of murder with aggravating circumstances. Daniel Corogeanu was sentenced to 14 years in prison.
Janet Moses
22-year-old Janet from New Zealand died during a traditional Maori ritual performed by her family. Relatives, convinced that Janet was possessed by the devil, decided to hold the "ceremony" at her grandparents' house. In total, about 30 people took part in the ceremony. For several hours, the relatives brutally tortured the girl, in particular, they tried to suck out Janet's eyes, believing that this would save her from the curse. Another girl, 14-year-old relative Janet, was injured during the ritual. But, fortunately, she survived. And Janet died after they started pouring water down her throat in order to “drive out the devil.” The girl choked.
Nine members of the Moses family appeared in court. They all insisted that they did not want to kill the girl, but, on the contrary, tried to save her.
Unnamed victim
The last known victim of exorcists died about six months ago, in February 2017. Nicaraguan pastor Juan Gregorio Rocha Romero, along with three accomplices, burned a 25-year-old woman alive, declaring her possessed by the devil. When doctors and police arrived at the crime scene, the unfortunate woman was still alive. Doctors diagnosed burns to 80% of the body. Despite the efforts of doctors, the girl died.
The pastor was sentenced to 30 years in prison. Three of his accomplices, including one woman, were each sentenced to the same term.
The famous horror film The Exorcism of Emily Rose, filmed in 2005, was based on the true story of 23-year-old German woman Anneliese Michel. However, the girl’s life was much worse than the footage from the film.
Anneliese Michel was born in 1952 in Leiblfing, Bavaria, into a strict Catholic family. Her mother had another daughter, Martha, who died at the age of eight. Her parents rejected the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, and on the 13th of each month they celebrated the feast of Our Lady of Fatima.
Anneliese attended mass several times a week, said rosaries, and even tried to do more than she was supposed to. However, in 1968, when she was 16 years old, Anneliese became ill while studying. As her friends said, it seemed that the girl was in a trance for several minutes. That night she had an attack during which she woke up all wet with an unbearable feeling of heaviness in her chest. After a hard night, the girl was so exhausted that she couldn’t find the strength to go to school.
A year later, the attack happened again - Annelise woke up due to difficulty breathing and paralysis of her arms and whole body. The parents showed the girl to the doctor, but he did not find any abnormalities. A year later - in 1970 - Anneliese ended up in a hospital in Aschaffenburg due to pleurisy and tuberculosis found in her.
After some time, she had a third attack, after which, as Anneliese claimed, she began to see faces and hear some sounds. Then doctors diagnosed her with epilepsy. The girl was treated with antiepileptic drugs, but they did not give any result.
Despite her health problems, she was able to graduate from high school and go to college to become a teacher. In 1973, the girl began to suffer from hallucinations: it seemed to her that the devil was living inside her. Parents began to notice that their daughter was behaving strangely. For example, one day she licked urine from the floor, ate coal, and also cut up insects and ate them. Concerned parents turned to the priest for help, but they were explained that until all signs of possession were proven, the exorcism session could not be carried out.
It was only when Anneliese began to avoid religious objects such as crosses and holy water that the priests realized that she was exhibiting all the signs of demonic behavior. Having received enough evidence, the church ministers agreed to perform an exorcism session. Over the course of 10 months, the girl underwent six to seven hour-long exorcism sessions, during which the clergy counted about six “demons”: Lucifer, Cain, Judas Iscariot, Nero, Fleischmann and Hitler. And each one was worse than the previous one.
In between sessions, when Anneliese felt better, she stopped eating completely - her weight reached 31 kilograms. However, the priests noted that during the exorcism she was so strong that she had to be chained. In 1976, after another exorcism session, Anneliese died. An autopsy revealed that the girl's teeth were broken, her limbs were bruised and her eyes were black.
A cross was nailed to her grave in the hope that the girl’s soul would be freed from demons. And on April 21, 1978, the district court of Aschaffenburg, where Anneliese studied, put her parents and priests behind bars for performing rituals on a child that resulted in his death.
They say that a 23-year-old student from Klingenberg, Anneliese Michel, was possessed by six demons who did not want to let her go. Over nine months, Anneliese went through 67 expulsion rituals. When this did not help, the girl chose to starve herself to death. In 1976, she forced herself to give up food, thinking that hunger would help her get rid of the devil. When she died, she weighed only 31 kilograms. “Mom,” she said just before the end, “I’m afraid.”
Anneliese Michel(Anneliese Michel) was born in 1952 in the small Bavarian town of Leiblfing, received a traditional Catholic education, her life was no different from other children of the prosperous world... Until one day she was hospitalized with strange symptoms...
At the beginning of 1973, the parents decided to turn to the Catholic Church in order to heal the devilishness in the girl through prayer. The church noticed that the girl was using psychotropic drugs, which were prescribed to her by doctors, making expulsion difficult.
In 1974 there was a priest who undertook to exorcise the demon from Anneliese Michel, but higher religious authorities forbade doing this...
By this time, Annelise's illness began to worsen - she began to more actively insult her family members, fight, bite... She refused to eat food, citing the fact that Satan did not allow her to do this... She slept only on the floor, she spent almost all days in growling and screaming, and at the right opportunity she destroyed church symbols, tore icons and broke crosses... She climbed under the table and barked from there like a dog for two days, ate spiders, pieces of coal, bit off the head of a dead bird, licked her own urine from the floor, and through the neighbors heard her howl on the walls.
In 1975, the priest finally decided to carry out the process of exorcism according to the Romanesque rite.
During one of her prayers, Anneliese admitted that she was possessed by several demons: Lucifer, Judas Iscariote, Nero, Cain, Hitler, Fleischmann(Frankish monk who fell to Satan in the 16th century).
Throughout 1975, Anneliese Michel underwent a course of prayers of cleansing from the devil once or twice a week, sometimes her condition worsened - at which point it took the efforts of at least three men to contain her aggression against her relatives, but in general she was able to continue a normal life.
Sometimes she hurt herself, her limbs were cramped, which contributed to partial paralysis of her legs... The last crisis came on June 30, 1976... Anneliese was sick with pneumonia, at some point she began to have convulsions, her face became long, but she did not lose consciousness until the end sighing, she understood what was happening to her. She died suffering unbearable pain...
During her treatment, her mother and relatives were able to record more than 40 tapes of exorcism...
After Anneliese's death, the prosecutor began an investigation and brought charges against the two priests who performed the ceremony, based on the diagnosis of doctors who claimed that Anneliese was suffering from psychotic and epilepsy... The girl's parents and two priests received 6 months in prison.
Upon further listening and expert evaluation of the tapes by other priests practicing exorcism, it was found that the tape recorded debates and disputes between two devils who tormented Anneliese Michel and quarreled over who should leave the girl’s body first... This story formed the basis of the plot of the film “The Exorcism of Emily Rose”...
The film, directed by Scott Derrickson, was released in the fall of 2005 and became his most notable film. The literary source of the film, in turn, was the documentary book by anthropologist Felicitas Goodman, “The Exorcism of Anneliese Michael.”
Anneliese's mother still lives in that same house. She never fully recovered from those terrible events. Her husband died and her three other daughters left. Anna Michel, now over 80 years old, bears the burden of memories alone. From her 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 peace with the Lord."
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.
“Annelisa’s soul, cleansed of satanic power,” said the pastor to the grief-stricken parents of the deceased, “has ascended to the throne of the Most High...”
Some people believe that she was actually possessed by the devil.
In 1969 The doctor diagnosed seventeen-year-old German Anneliese Michel with epilepsy, although the 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 destroy sacred relics, turn her 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 brought up 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, on the 13th of each month they held the feast of the Virgin Mary of Fatima, and neighbor Barbara Weigand, who walked five hours to the Capuchin church to receive a wafer, was considered 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: Annelise bit her tongue due to a spasm. A year later, incomprehensible nocturnal 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.
Summer 1973 Anneliese's parents turned to several priests, but they were told that until all signs of possession were proven, an exorcism could not be carried out. 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 and doing up to 400 squats a day (or 600 bows on her knees, which, in the end, 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 repeated calls from demons to commit 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.
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 Alta 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 About 70 rites were performed over Anneliese, one or two weekly. 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.
June 30, 1976 Annelise, feverish from pneumonia, went to bed and said: “Mom, stay, I’m afraid.” These were her 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, for the first time in 385 years, presented to journalists at the Vatican a new version of the Roman Ritual, which had been in the works for more than 10 years; the Vatican now requires priests to have a medical education to perform the ritual.
“I would never perform 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 are cases when the devil possesses a person, but in Germany no one commits exile anymore.”
The story of Anneliese Michel is more 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 exorcise the devil. She died to save our lost souls, to cleanse them from sin. Anneliese was a kind, loving and obedient girl. But when the devil possessed her, it was something supernatural that defied explanation.
...And the Fog replaced the Sun. And as night follows day, so he took the place allotted to him.
And he brought demons that became the second curse of the human race. And Silence reigned.
Redgrain Lebowski
Where is the line between madness and obsession? Let's start right away with the difficult questions. And from the interpretation of details. Because without understanding the flights, specifics and features, we simply will not be able to work and perceive everything that will be happening today in the “Labyrinths” further in the text. After all, for some of you, obsession, I am sure, is associated with some strange religious games and concepts and is absolutely not viable as a definition. We are accustomed to the fact that obsession is one of the tasty and interesting elements of some horror films that have nothing to do with everyday life. And people who are accustomed to using the concepts of “schizophrenia” and “madness” throw into one basket everything that goes beyond their understanding of normality. There is still no generally accepted and well-established definition of obsession in the modern world, which is why many consider this phenomenon to be another manifestation of the concept of schizophrenia, which has been hackneyed to the point of losing the last drop of blood. But where is this slippery line, this line? If we look more clearly and engage not so much in literalism as in analyzing the meanings, we will come to the fact that madness is a kind of process that is uncontrollable even by man himself and has no logic. And what is madness for one is the norm of life for another. Asceticism is madness for a successful businessman. Loneliness is madness for a housewife-mother who is fixated on life and work, busy feeding three children and a husband, in whom she sees the meaning of life. But notice how wonderfully these concepts change their shape, color and shade if you take the opposite side of the question. For a hermit monk, madness is in multiplying clues in this world, accumulating for the sake of accumulating. For a single person who does not want to be dependent on anyone or anything, feeding his other half and organizing his/her actions according to his/her own ideas, image and likeness of a certain “ideal spouse” may be madness. When it comes to schizophrenia, many highbrow psychologists will explain to you that a schizophrenic still has a certain logic, that in his incomprehensible actions he is still inclined to be guided by certain circumstances that are associated with certain “insanities.” Schizophrenia, as a rule, is characterized by self-confidence and a lack of a critical look at one’s own actions. A true schizophrenic will never tell you that he is wrong in his own actions. He is deeply convinced of them and often becomes an indoor messiah, a psychic or a magician who has so cunningly fooled himself that he can drag you and me into the abyss of his own inadequacy, because the confidence in his own ritual behavior is so strong that it begins to spread to those around him. And any person who is too confident in his line of behavior has a chance to fall into the abyss of such gloomy states, proving with foam at the mouth that his experiments with magical rituals, or uncontrollable urination in his own pants are a sign of God. And that this system is ideal, that only it, adjusted for any social process known to him, is correct and works correctly everywhere. But what we call demonic possession is a completely different kind of property. And if a schizophrenic drowns himself in his own delusions, then obsession is a process that is controlled from the outside. And it is so clear and distinct that a seemingly calm person lying in bed, tied hand and foot, or just a family man sitting calmly in the kitchen and drinking tea simply does not have to prove anything - his behavior, which is dictated from the outside and is not subject to his personal logic, and certain instigations from a certain sponsor become obvious. The schizophrenic is so deceived that he believes in his own self-deception. He is infallible. The possessed person often wants to get rid of his certainties dictated to him by the beings in whose reality he believes. So where is that fine line? We'll figure out. Anneliese Michel in "Labyrinths".
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And today, from the very beginning, we already have shelves with these drugs: the antiepileptic phenytoin, the neuroleptic Aolept, which in Russia is more often replaced by peretsiosin or neuleptil, and also carbamazepine, of course. And it's not like it's a necessary weekend package. It’s just that when you start treating a patient situationally, it becomes difficult to stop. But often, as you understand, doctors are forced to do just that. Because it is not the Gods who burn the pots. And if a broken bone, for example, is obvious, then a fracture of consciousness is a more subtle thing. And getting into someone else's head to poke around in it is quite a risky act. Before we go into our today's story, I would also like to make it clear to everyone that no one has the right to call someone a madman, crazy, or, based on personal always biased views, of accusing someone of being “out of their mind.” Because if you cannot accept the logic of someone else’s motivation, then you most likely have problems with the roof. Because there are no such opinions or states that cannot be understood. There are “female hysterics” characteristic of any gender, which are associated with the fact that the Joker once again stretched out in front of you with a smile. And he gave someone completely different guidelines, effectively breaking the crystal ball of desires and hopes right in front of your nose. And if a wise person finds himself in such a situation, he will try all the possibilities of dialogue without resorting to psychological violence or other unconstructive regression. Because a person’s maturity is primarily manifested through his ability to accept facts, and not to achieve Pyrrhic victories. But we're getting a little off topic. And they switched to objectively sick people...
Our story today is the story of a modest Catholic family who originally lived in the Bavarian village of Leibling. Anna-Elizabeth's parents will be very pious people with simple, down-to-earth human professions. Despite a certain level of religiosity, their first child will be born two years before their official marriage. Martha will be four years older than Anneliese, and the very fact of such a rather imprudent process as out-of-wedlock conception will somewhat embarrass Anneliese upon reaching a certain age. She would often pray for her parents and older sister even after Martha was succumbed to kidney cancer at the age of eight. So Martha Michel will forever remain young, and Anneliese will acquire the status of the eldest daughter of Anna Fürg and Josef Michel. Even before Annelise enters school, three more girls will be born into the Michel family: Gertrude, Barbara and Rosvita. Throughout her childhood, our today's heroine was a fairly diligent girl and a more than diligent parishioner, which will later be reflected in many critical conclusions regarding her diagnosis. Anneliese attends masses and says prayers using the rosary. Often her world is shaped by beautiful, but rather strange gestures of goodwill. For example, in order to atone for the sins of the lost Catholic souls of drug addicts and former priests who have veered down a slippery path, several times she consciously falls asleep right on the floor. And many may say that the madness is already manifesting itself in this. After all Is it possible to catch someone if you burst into a MASSOLIT meeting with a candle in your hands and wearing only your underwear? ? And we can really agree that the pattern of behavior is somewhat similar. But which child did not invent worlds for himself in which he could change something through his actions? And Anneliese, still a relatively small girl, and also quite religious, undoubtedly wants to help someone. She believes. And this faith supports her. However, from the age of 13, she increasingly began to be tormented by some strange suspicions and fears. And there are no reasons for them, everything goes as it goes, there are no domestic scandals, everything is harmonious. In a quiet family, Michele simply doesn't have as much to worry about as she seems. But either voices or some vague premonitions haunt me...
In April 1949, a young man from Washington state who lived near Seattle underwent exorcism. This story is still quite vague and only a few facts have leaked onto the World Wide Web, directly stated by one of the Jesuits who directly conducted an exorcism session using the “Roman Ritual”. Despite the church's many biased and outright strange statements, this book, written in 1614, deals with the subject of exorcism with surgical precision and the utmost precautions and identifies three immediate "reasons to suspect possession": supernatural phenomena associated with the supposedly possessed person, the appearance of it has phenomenal power, free communication in previously unknown languages. These three points are the distinguishing features of obsession from schizophrenia, for example. And they certainly cannot be explained by psychiatry as related to clouding of reason. Another issue concerns the fact that virtually none of them has so far been officially recognized either by the courts and professionals, or by the church. After all, by blessing its best priests for the rite of exorcism, the church actually transfers them into the hands of the “Roman Ritual,” which, although it is a clear set of laws, also warns against carrying out the ritual for no reason, and also strongly recommends a careful differentiation between insanity and obsession. In addition, the “Ritual” does not even provide a specific structure for expelling a demon or demon. It represents only the “backbone” of the ritual, most of the litanies of which can be replaced with the favorite and most effective, in the opinion of the exorcist, passages of the “Bible”. The undeniable elements of the ritual include only the presentation of a cross to the possessed, manipulation of the crucifix and holy water, as well as the final question to the demon about the nature of his essence and the gates through which he entered his victim.
The exorcism session of 1949 ended with a confident victory for the priest. The demon was exorcised, and the young man whose story was the basis of the film "The Exorcist" is now under the Catholic Church's witness protection program. Our heroine today was much less fortunate.
Skeptics are accustomed to associating the events that happened to Anneliese with her fairly religious family and schizophrenia with an admixture of epilepsy, which, against the backdrop of a vibrant religious imagination, resulted in the events that we will see below. In addition, many claimed that the first signs of the girl’s illness coincided with the release of the film “The Exorcist,” the story of which we have just heard. And now we will not discuss whether the girl could have seen this film, or whether the accident, as always, turned out to be not accidental. But the fact remains a fact, and now the completely obedient and flexible Annelise, who studied music and dreamed of becoming a school teacher, at the speed of a rushing locomotive suddenly encounters something completely inexplicable, which will forever cross out and disfigure her life and her dreams. And to be honest and objective, it would be wrong to associate Anneliese’s first attack with the “impression of the release of the film,” which she may not have even watched for certain religious reasons, because even five years before the release of the above-mentioned picture, the girl was going through quite a lot a frightening story with a spasm of the tongue muscle, as a result of which for the first time he will lose control of himself and, by pure chance, bite his tongue. A year later, the girl experienced her first nocturnal attack of severe suffocation, during which all her muscles were so tense that it was impossible not only to move, but also to call someone for help. Previously, when people still believed in evil spirits living directly in human homes, the function of strangling a person in a dream was attributed to various mythological creatures. In the East these were genies, in Slavic mythology a whole series of lower household spirits, including the brownie, Kikimora, as well as the heavy and clumsy demon Woolly, who specialized in such pranks. The emotional stress was so strong that a seventeen-year-old girl, who had not previously been observed shirking classes, was unable to go to school the next morning, but recovered and, after a certain time, came to her senses, was again able to return to an active lifestyle and for some time even actively participated in the game of tennis.
However, enlightenment does not come for long. Paralysis and difficulty breathing at night continue to frighten Annelise and the Michel family turns to their attending physician, who, having not found any serious abnormalities in the patient’s well-being, only throws up his hands and suggests that the girl see a psychiatrist. The psychiatrist will also not notice any pathologies or anomalies, having rechecked his guesses with the help of an EEG, which did not reveal any changes in the brain. However, as you understand, pathology does not appear immediately. The process of qualitative change takes time. It also requires a specific reason, which will begin to spin the wheel of such changes. And often official modern medicine (especially in the context of psychiatry) still focuses on attempts at symptomatic treatment, only connecting the symptoms with the possible causes of certain conditions. And we should not forget that, of course, determining the causes of the disease is of great importance. Often so huge that with a detailed analysis of such causes, treatment can come down to blocking several unnecessary memories or “pain points” in the past. Only idiots can say that a person feels bad because he is weak and cannot cope on his own. When you convict a person of weakness and give him a rope so that he can get out of the gorge himself, he, misunderstood and tired of his own ghosts, is more likely to tighten this rope around his neck. Only a crazy amateur would put pressure on a patient without proper preparation, pursuing the idea of a shock fracture that will fix everything. And don’t forget that if you are a doctor, you must treat. And if you “treat” someone, you automatically have to take on the burden of being a doctor. And with proper systematization, as well as the presence of a certain “map of the causes of certain conditions,” psychiatry could turn into just a process of pressing certain buttons and not at all on devices related to electroconvulsive therapy. But either the level of psychiatry is not the same, or we simply do not need such approaches.
Classical wisdom in the Greek sense is not about giving answers, but about asking questions. And many of us forget about this. But today you and I must ask questions, this is more necessary than ever in order to understand what really happened to our heroine. And not only the answer depends on the correct question asked and formulated. Much more depends on him... And here, for example, is a strange, but either understated or truly inexplicable fact - until the age of 73, until the very moment of exacerbation of the condition, Anneliese was regularly given an EEG. Why did they stop making them after '73? And even if we take into account the fact that the priests really did not recommend that the girl take certain medications, then why was the EEG forgotten? Was it deliberately forgotten by doctors, so that it would not suddenly be discovered that the brain was fine? Was it deliberately forgotten by the clergy so that it would not be discovered that the brain was not in order? Or was it carelessly forgotten by parents who finally believed in only one method of treatment? The last of these EEGs, by the way, will be taken in June 1973, although already in the spring the girl begins to hear strange knocking sounds. An examination by an otologist did not reveal any pathologies, like all previous studies. Phenytoin could be safely thrown into the trash bin - it did not bring any results, although it was prescribed back in the 70th year. Moreover, again, it was prescribed symptomatically. And no matter how cool the methods are, no matter how extensive treatment experience medicine has, basing the diagnosis only on symptoms, without other “pathological” (how pathological they can be in this case) changes and approving treatment based only on the statistical overall picture is quite risky . By this point, doctors could no longer determine which specific medicine would have the best effect on the patient. Aolept, which is similar to aminosine and is used to treat mental disorders, did not help. Anneliese began to hear voices that prophesied that she would “rot in Hell”; in fear, she increasingly said that from time to time she saw “the face of the Devil.” And yet it is quite difficult to interpret such statements coming from the lips of a religious person. He can characterize everything incomprehensible and frightening as the Devil. But in the intervals between night stupors, hallucinations and attacks, she tearfully asked to be spared from this, sought help, and really wanted to overcome these strange obsessive states. After another visit to church in the company of a friend, Annelise realizes that she cannot touch the cross, that she can no longer drink holy water. Four years of treatment in the hospital led to absolutely no results. The girl’s health only worsened. In addition to sensations, visions began to appear, self-destruction of consciousness and denial of one’s own way of life began.
It is at this moment that the girl’s parents try to turn to Catholic priests. However, they warn that it is impossible to perform an exorcism until the fact of possession has been proven. And proving such a fact in our pragmatic times is more than difficult... In the intervals between insanity, Anneliese’s consciousness not only becomes clearer - in the 73rd she will graduate from the University of Würzburg, in the 75th she will successfully pass the exams to obtain a special permit for educational functions on behalf of the church. In fact, the girl will achieve what she always wanted - she will be ready to teach... But by this moment, the priest Ernst Alt has been watching her for a year. He will be the first to really suspect possession in the girl, after which he will write a letter to the Bishop of Würzburg asking for permission to carry out the ceremony. The letter will contain a small note from Annelise: “I am nobody, everything is in vain, what should I do, I must get better, pray for me.” The bishop will refuse to perform the ritual.
The Church calls to hate not sinners, but sin. However, in cases of certain danger to his reputation, he gives up. Doctors usually assure us that they can cure a wide range of diseases. But in especially serious cases, they cleverly dodge, transferring patients from department to department and ultimately finding those responsible for their insolvency. And the main tragedy is that the official church, which documented the prohibition of contact between exorcists and Anneliese, was afraid to ruin its reputation, which could suffer due to the very fact of conducting such rituals. And the main tragedy is that even European doctors did not find the strength to admit their absolute inability to help the girl and did not conduct a number of studies in time that could reveal pathologies, if any. Or, according to research results, admit your powerlessness. And at the center of this fear is a sick and absolutely unhappy girl, who was carried out of the chalk circle based on the laws of social hands-on and mutual responsibility.
And the worst days for the Michel family are already coming. Anneliese completely loses control of herself during attacks. She breaks crosses and crucifixes, tears off her clothes, screams and howls for hours in her room for no apparent reason. Her parents and sisters cannot do anything about this, but they are incredibly afraid not only of leaving her alone, but also of being alone with her. And the insane loneliness, being alone with your demons puts a lot of pressure on the girl’s psyche. Later, Ernst Alt and his Salvatorian assistant Arnold Renz will find out experimentally that in the girl’s head there is not one, but six demons, including Lucifer, Judas Iscariot, Cain and three beings who have already taken possession of the minds of the greats of this world, and therefore called them names - Nero, Hitler and priest-murderer Valentin Fleishman. By this time, having seen the deplorable situation happening to the girl, Alt again consults with the Bishop of Wurzburg, Joseph Stangl. The same one turns to the Jesuit Adolf Rodevik and, after consultation with him, allows Renz and Alt to conduct an exorcism ceremony, the first session of which the priests will schedule for September 24, 1975. The girl's condition was already critical. Self-control and consciousness completely left her at certain moments. She licked her own urine from the floor, mutilated herself, showed a special gastronomic interest in insects and coal for lighting stoves, and tried to commit suicide at the behest of demons. Then they will barely have time to drag her off the bridge over Main. A remarkable case of home reprimand to the priests was told by Annelise’s relatives: according to them, when she hid under the table and barked like a dog for several days, she was helped by a friend who came to their home and read a prayer several times calling on the demons to leave the girl’s body in the name of the Holy Trinity. However, in such cases, be it hysteria or actual obsession, only priests do not always help. It takes strength, confidence and a hymnal at hand. Just don’t be afraid of broken traffic jams, changes in the voice of an exhausted person and curses that fly at you.
Subsequently, during the exorcism session, even three adult men could not hold the young girl, so they increasingly began to tie her up with a strong metal chain. She cursed everyone present, spoke several foreign languages, including Latin, and screamed in alien voices. And even if you understand the possibility of changing the speech of even a hopelessly ill person, you need to pay attention to the fact that in order to use the second pair of vocal cords, you need to relax the muscles as much as possible. But look... How can a person relax, writhing in front of the priests as if he were chained and so strong that those around him simply do not have enough strength to restrain him? On May 30, the ceremony was attended by Doctor of Medicine Richard Roth, who later responded to Father Alt’s request for possible medical support for Anneliese: "There are no injections against the Devil."
And our story today is not even about who is right and who is wrong. These are minor thoughts. It’s just that if you are a doctor and a similar patient is brought to you, you suddenly realize that the working day ends at five o’clock in the evening. And then - at least burn with a blue flame. And it’s easier to throw it onto someone else’s shoulders. If you are a church minister and are faced with something that could undermine your reputation, you simply try to hush it up. Because your day is also regulated. The only thing that is not regulated is the day of that girl who is now feeling ill right here in front of you. And this, apparently, is only her problem. On July 1, 1976, the problem was resolved. Before going to bed, Annelise called her mother over and asked her to stay with her for a while. She said she was very scared and wanted someone to keep her company. At 8 o'clock in the morning the girl died. Long legal battles, evidence and facts, fiction, barrels rolling from the medical to the Catholic camp and back again rattled throughout Germany for a long time. As a result of the resonance, the “Roman Ritual” was adjusted. The priests were found guilty of the girl’s death, although there was also an option with the harmful effects of carbamazepine, which Annelise had been using over the past few years. The cause of death was given as exhaustion. The girl had been refusing food for a long time - first for the reasons that allegedly the demons did not allow her to eat normal human food, and then - to maintain a certain purity during exorcism rites. According to many eyewitnesses, she came to this opinion on her own.
Two years after Anneliese’s death, one nun had a dream in which she was told that the girl had defeated the demons and her body, now in the grave, was incorruptible. Suddenly everyone was interested in the issue - even the skeptics. Anneliese's parents gave permission for the exhumation, covering their request with the desire to rebury their daughter. The victim's friend Thea Hein will remember this day like this: “Many people gathered - men, women. They all wanted to see the corpse, but they were all forbidden to go there. Then they announced an order prohibiting anyone from approaching the body. We talked and decided that they would probably let the priest in, but for some reason he was also forbidden to enter. No one was allowed in, even our priest was refused." The police did not allow anyone to see the body and said that it had rotted and there was nothing left to see there. However, is it reasonable to believe the visions of a nun?
One of the most famous exorcists today, Gabriel Amorth, who over his ninety years has performed about ten thousand exorcism rituals, will later say regarding the situation in Germany: “Even in those days there was a shortage of exorcisms in Germany, and the bishops and priests are responsible for this, because they never believed in anything like that. But anyone who does not believe in the devil and possession does not believe in the Word of God.”However, now each of you is free to draw your own conclusions about what to believe and what not to believe. The only thing that is wrong is that behind faith and the pursuit of mystical stories, people often lose the thread of human life. An important, priceless human life, the final responsibility for saving which no one ever took.