From the Innocent Souls: The Devil's Contortions (Demons and Exorcism)

From The Innocent Souls: The Devil's Contortions (Demons and Exorcism)

For reasons unknown, perfectly normal people sometimes suddenly exhibit a dramatic change of being. Their actions become violent and seemingly inhuman. They may expel foul substances, utter shocking profanities, make strange animal sounds, and distort their bodies in extraordinary ways. In some circles such actions are considered to be evidence of possession by the Devil, for which the only antidote is the ritual of exorcism.

In 1865 something ghastly entered the lives of two young boys in the small town of Illfurth, in Alsace, France. They were Joseph and Theobald Bruner, nearly 8 and 10 years old respectively, the sons of a farmer. According to records kept by Father Karl Brey, the parish priest, the first signs that something was seriously wrong with the children were their fascination with diabolic things and their aversion to anything of a religious nature:

While lying in their bed, the children used to turn to the wall, paint horrible Devil faces on it, and then speak to the faces and play with them. If, while one of the possessed was asleep, a rosary was placed on his bed, he would immediately hide under the covers and refuse to come out of hiding until the rosary was removed.

More extraordinary were the physical contortions the boys underwent.

They entangled their legs every two or three hours in an unnatural way. They knotted them so intricately that it was impossible to pull them apart. And yet, suddenly, they could untangle them with lightning speed. At times the boys stood simultaneously on their heads and legs, bent backwards, their bodies arched high. No amount of outside pressure could bring their bodies into a normal position—until the Devil saw fit to give these objects of his torture some temporary peace.

By these and other bizarre manifestations Father Brey was persuaded that the brothers were the victims of demonic possession.

At times, their bodies became bloated as if about to burst; when this happened, the boy would vomit, whereby yellow foam, feathers, and seaweed would come out of his mouth. Often, their clothes were covered with evil smelling feathers....

No matter how often their shirts and outer clothing were changed, new feathers and seaweed would appear. These feathers, which covered their bodies in some inexplicable way, filled the air with such a stench that they had to be burned. …

If further evidence that the boys were in the grip of a supernatural power had been needed, it was given in their frequent displays of clairvoyance.

"The Witches' Sabbath" (1828), Louis Boulanger

Theobald several times predicted the death of a person correctly. Two hours before the death of a Frau Muller, the boy knelt by his bed and acted as if he were ringing a mourning bell. Another time he did the same thing for a whole hour. When he was asked for whom he was ringing, the boy answered, “For Gregor Kunegel.” As it happened, Kunegel's daughter was visiting in the house. Shocked and angry, she told Theobald, “You liar, my father is not even ill. He is working on the new boys’ seminary building as a mason.” Theobald answered, “That may be, but he just had a fall. Go ahead and check on it!” The facts bore him out. The man had fallen from a scaffold, breaking his neck. This happened at the very moment that Theobald made the bell-ringing motions. No one in Illfurth had been aware of the accident.

When their parents and Father Karl Brey decided that exorcism was the only effective way of helping the boys, Theobald was sent to the St. Charles Orphanage at Schiltigheim near Strasbourg. The orphanage was run by nuns, and its superior was one Father Stumpf. For the first three days after his arrival, Theobald—or the diabolic entity was silent, but on the fourth day he said, “I have come, and I am in a rage.” One of the nuns asked, “And who are you?” A nonhuman voice answered: “I am the Lord of Darkness!” Later on Joseph was also sent to the orphanage.

Throughout the prolonged period of exorcism, performed by Father Stumpf, the demonic possession of the two brothers was manifested in many ways. Both boys, for instance, became infested with red head lice, which multiplied so quickly that three or four people with brushes and combs were not able to keep pace with them. Eventually, the priest poured holy water on the vermin, and they disappeared.

In all, the possession of Theobald and Joseph Bruner lasted four years before they were freed by the rites of exorcism. Theobald died two years later, on April 3, 1871, when he was 16. Joseph, in whom the symptoms had been less severe, died in 1882.

SOURCE: Demon Children, Martin Ebon, ed., pp.131-39

#possession #exorcism #ritual #enigmaticentities #demon #poltergeist

Mad Monday Discussions; Demonic Possession, Epilepsy, or Hysteria? Mystery behind the mystery

''Paranoia'' by Ankel Volkov (Buy this art from the link)

As far as many doctors and psychiatrists are concerned, the diagnosis of demonic possession is one that reeks of medieval superstition and ignorance, and the symptoms that lead to it are subject either to a wide range of medical and psychiatric interpretations or to being dismissed as misperceptions or hallucinations.

Other medical and psychological conditions likely to produce symptoms confused with those of possession are epilepsy, hysteria, and multiple personality. During a convulsive seizure, a person with epilepsy can experience extreme muscular rigidity and foam at the mouth and is sometimes subject to rapid back-and- forth head movements. The face may be distorted, and strange, guttural noises may be produced by a spasm of the throat muscles. During the period immediately before a seizure, the patient may experience auditory and visual hallucinations and various sensory distortions. Most seizures last no more than five minutes.

All these symptoms may also be present in a person diagnosed by the church as suffering from possession. But there are distinguishing characteristics. The first of these is that a demonic attack can continue for many hours. Extreme liveliness, rather than rigidity, is characteristic and muscular reflexes tend to be strong.

According to the Roman Ritual, other signs of possession include “the ability to speak with some familiarity in a strange tongue or to understand it when spoken by another; the faculty of divulging future and hidden events; and the display of powers which are beyond the subject's age and natural condition.”

Hysteria also produces many of the symptoms of possession. The following description of a female hysteric was recorded at the turn of the century by Prof. Paul Richter, a doctor at La Salpetriere, a famous hospital in Paris for mental disturbances:

Suddenly, we heard loud cries and shouting. Her body, which went through a series of elaborate motions, was either in the throes of wild gyrations or catatonically motionless. Her legs became entangled, then disentangled, her arms twisted and disjointed, her wrists bent. Some of her fingers were stretched out straight, while others were twisted. The body was either bent in a semicircle or loose-limbed. Her

head was at times thrown to the right or left or, when thrown backward with vehemence, seemed to emerge from a bloated neck. The face alternately mirrored horror, anger, and sometimes fury; it was bloated and showed shades of violet in its coloration....

One of the most striking details in this description is that of the body “bent in a semicircle.” This is also known as the hysterical arch and is frequently seen in cases of possession. All the other symptoms described above have been observed by exorcists. In addition, the appearance of livid marks on the skin — sometimes resembling bites, letters, or graphic symbols — are also known to be produced by hysterics. Given this partial duplication of symptoms, how does the church distinguish between hysteria and possession? The determining factor is the context in which the symptoms occur. If they arise in relationship with a hatred of religious objects, and if they are accompanied by paranormal phenomena (the ability to detect religious objects that have been hidden, to understand languages never learned, to levitate, and so on), the church is likely to consider them manifestations of the Devil.

As mysterious as hysteria, and as likely to be confused with possession, is the multiple personality, in which the patient may at different times manifest one, two, three, or even more different personalities — each with its own goals, likes, dislikes, speech patterns, and memories. Each personality may be indifferent or opposed to the others, or ignorant of them. If one or more should have a diabolic cast, the church has no means of determining whether to treat the case as possession other than the criteria it applies to distinguish hysteria from possession.

Those criteria are the hatred of religious objects and the paranormal phenomena referred to earlier, and they are precisely the phenomena that many doctors and psychiatrists are likely to reject as misperceptions or hallucinations on the part of witnesses. Those less skeptical, on the other hand, are likely to view such things as para psychological but not as the work of demons. Again, the church’s test is likely to be whether or not the paranormal manifestations occur in the context of a general hatred of religion.

#possession #exorcism #poltergeist #epilepsy #hysteria #parapsychology #phenomena #paranormal #paranormalphenomena

Daily Strange's Spooky Sunday: The Demon's Daughter

Daily Strange's Spooky Sunday: The Demon's Daughter

The victim of one of the most detailed instances of demonic possession in 20th-century America was a mid western woman whose real name was never made public. As a child she had been notably pious, but when she was 14, blasphemous inner voices interfered with her religious practice, frightened her, and caused her much shame. In the years that followed she was examined by several doctors. Finding no physical illness or abnormality, they unanimously concluded that her personality was neither nervous nor hysterical — she was “normal in the fullest sense.”

Despite this diagnosis, Mary (a pseudonym) began to manifest the recognized signs of demonic possession. She would become furiously enraged and would foam at the mouth when a priest blessed her, and could infallibly tell when an object had been secretly blessed or sprinkled with holy water. She also understood languages she had never been taught.

In 1928, when she was 40 years old, Mary agreed to undergo exorcism. Her exorcist was to be Father Theophilus Riesinger, a 60-year-old Capuchin monk in the community of St. Anthony, at Marathon, Wisconsin, a man with considerable experience in the application of the ancient rite. For the place of exorcism, Father Theophilus chose a Franciscan convent in Earling, Iowa, where the pastor, Father Joseph Steiger, was an old friend of his.

On her first night in the convent, Mary became furious when she realized that holy water had been sprinkled on her food. She purred like a cat and refused to eat until unblessed food was put before her.

The next morning Father Theophilus and Father Steiger began the exorcism, for which a large room had been made ready. A number of nuns who were physically strong stood by to help, and Mary was laid on a mattress on an iron bed. The exorcism had scarcely begun when she became unconscious, with her eyes closed so tightly that they could not be forced open. They remained in this state throughout the service. A shrill cry filled the room, loud but seemingly far-off at the same time. And then a din of howling, like wild animals, came from Mary’s lips. “Silence, Satan!” Father Theophilus shouted, but the unearthly tortured clamor continued unabated.

Neither Father Steiger nor the nuns could long endure the howling or the sight of the woman’s body and face, hideously twisted and distorted by the onslaught. From time to time they had to leave the room, but Father Theophilus, accustomed to the screaming of devils at the pain of exorcism, remained constant and attentive throughout.

Day after day the exorcism continued, and with it the howling, the twisted limbs, and excrement and vomit in vast quantities. Although the victim had taken only a spoonful of milk or water during the entire day to sustain her, she sometimes disgorged bowlfuls of what seemed to be shredded tobacco leaves or other unsavory materials.

At last Father Theophilus learned the names of the devils infesting his patient. One, calling himself Beelzebub, told him that Mary had been possessed since she was14andthatshehadbeencursedbyherownfather, who had joined the company of possessing demons after his own death and damnation. This demon — Mary’s father, Jacob — spoke with Father Theophilus, revealing that he had frequently tried to force his daughter into an incestuous relationship but that she had always resisted him and that he had uttered a curse that she be entered by devils to destroy her chastity. A female demon, who gave her name as Mina, in life Jacob's mistress, joined the colloquy. She was damned, she said, because she had murdered four of her own children. A fourth demon, Judas, confessed that he had intended to drive Mary to suicide.

Whatever was expressing itself in these voice sat times demonstrated an uncanny knowledge of things that could not have been known to Mary. On one occasion, as a test, a piece of paper with a Latin inscription was placed on Mary’s head. The nuns, thinking the words were a prayer, were surprised to see that the demons tolerated its presence. In fact, the words had no religious content at all; but when a second piece of paper, which had been secretly blessed, was placed on the woman’s head, it was immediately torn to pieces.

As the painful weeks of exorcism continued, relations between the two priests deteriorated and Father Steiger began to wish he had never allowed the exorcism to take place in his parish. But Father Theophilus viewed this development as the work of the Devil, who seemed to regard Father Steiger with special malice.

“Just wait,” a demonic voice said to Father Steiger one day,“until the end of the week! When Friday comes, then ...”

On his way back from visiting a sick parishioner on Friday, Father Steiger, remembering the demon’s threat, drove with special care. Suddenly, just as he was about to cross a bridge over a deep ravine, a black cloud seemed to descend on his car. He could see nothing, but he felt the car smash violently into the railing of the bridge and then teeter on the edge. A farmer plowing a nearby field heard the crash and came running. Slowly, the pastor crawled out of the debris. He had no serious injuries despite the fact that even the cars steering wheel had been crushed.

When he reached the convent, a chorus of malicious laughter greeted him in the exorcism room.

“Today,” the demon screeched, “he pulled in his proud neck and was outpointed! I certainly showed him up today. What about your new auto, that dandy car that was smashed to smithereens? It served you right!” Was it true, the nuns and Father Theophilus asked? “Yes, what he says is true. My auto is a complete wreck. But he was not able to harm me personally.”

“Our aim was to get you,” the demon said, “but somehow our plans were thwarted. It was your powerful patron saint (Saint Joseph) who prevented us from harming you.”

(During these and all other conversations, the lips of the possessed woman did not move at all she - was unconscious, and her lips almost never parted. The voices seemed to come from within her.)

For two weeks the solemn exorcism was repeated without any sign of success. Father Theophilus decided to continue the exorcisms throughout the night, giving Satan (and himself) no respite. For three days and nights he prayed, but the demons held their ground; by the 23rd day Father Theophilus was near collapse. But now a change began to occur in the demons’ behavior. They were less aggressive and more apt to moan about the tortures the exorcism inflicted on them. Then, after Father Theophilus had demanded in the name of the Trinity that the demons depart, they agreed.

On December 23 at about 9 p.m., the possessed woman broke free from the grip of her attendants and stood before them. “Pull her down! Pull her down!” Father Steiger cried, while Father Theophilus blessed her and declaimed, “Depart ye fiends of hell! Begone, Satan! The Lion of Juda reigns!”

Then the stiffness left Mary's body, and she fell onto the bed. A sound arose, so piercing that the room vibrated, and then a babble of voices, repeating the names “Beelzebub, Judas, Jacob, Mina,” again and again, more and more faintly until, with the final words “Hell—hell—hell!” they disappeared.

Then, Mary sat up, opened her eyes and quietly smiled. “My Jesus, Mercy!” she said. “Praised be Jesus Christ!”

SOURCES:

I - Exorcism: Fact Not Fiction, Martin Ebon, ed., pp.212-45

II - Rev. John J. Nicola, Diabolical Possession and Exorcism, pp.126-31)

#possession#demon #demonicpossession #poltergeist #exorcism