Exorcisms

Ever since 1973 North America, and most of the western world became a little obsessed with The Exorcist, a film depicting a young girl who’s body and mind are taken over by a demon. It’s a simple, yet terrifying premise, and the film left people reeling in fear and disgust – Hell, even today with all the horror options we have, still holds up and is recognized as not only one of the best horror films of all time, but one of the best movies ever made. A true masterclass in film making.

Nevertheless, I’m not here to talk about the movie itself (that’s why we have the rest of the lovely Morbidly Beautiful website), but rather the real life events that inspire such films. Of course the film was based off a novel released in 1971, and that story was based off a 1949 event in which a young man was believed to have been possessed, and ultimately exorcised with success.

The of course we have one of the more famous rites in recent history in that of Anneliese Michell, who again, had a movie made about her. Things didn’t quite go as well as they did in the 1949 case, however multiple exorcisms did occur, and there is even recorded audio available for your listening… uh, pleasure?

Of course those are just two of the potential thousands of possessions that occur yearly, in fact some reports have it as a near epidemic, with the archdiocese of Indianapolis receiving 1700 requests for an exorcist by October 2018. Other reports have the Catholic church recruiting and training new exorcists as well, with between 70-100 active – up from just 15 in 2011. Now, these numbers are unverified, even by the research I’ve found. Most seem to just be word-of-mouth from people within certain churches. Nevertheless, if those numbers are correct, that is just plain staggering.

Furthermore, it’s not just Catholicism that believes in possession, or exorcism as well. Many religions around the world have a similar belief system in place, dating back hundreds and thousands of years – some of which I’ve covered in the past. It wasn’t uncommon for people to believe illness, bad luck, and any number of ailments were caused by a demon or an evil entity either possessing an individual, or cursing the land and peoples.

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