research: possession
For our OTS, we did some research on stories recent and old demonic possessions.
The Case of Latoya Ammon’s Children
As recently as January of 2014, Latoya Ammons, a mother of three children from Indiana, reported a possession to Police Captain Charles Austin. According to her, dark entities caused her three children – then aged 7, 9, and 12 – to be observed with bulging eyes, evil smiles, and strangely deep voices. Close to 800 pages of official records document the case. At first, Captain Austin was skeptical about the strange story told by Ammons, but home visits and interviews he and his team conducted have convinced him that something supernatural took place in the home. It began in November of 2011 when Ammons reported that in the middle of winter, a swarm of flies gathered by their porch window. That was followed by strange sounds and shadowy figures leaving wet bootprints on their floors. The incidents escalated when in March of 2012, Ammons allegedly saw her 12-year-old daughter levitating over her bed, the girl only descending after being prayed over by family members and friends but being unable to remember floating. Later, a headboard smacked into her head, causing a wound requiring stitches, and Ammon’s 7-year-old son flew out of a bathroom as if thrown. Ammon’s 9-year-old son, meanwhile, was seen by a nurse walking backwards up a wall onto to the ceiling. As unbelievable as all this may seem, Captain Austin and his team became convinced that something paranormal was happening. Eventually, the children were taken away from Latoya because of suspected abuse, but a photo of the Ammons’ home that an officer took with his iPhone seemed to lend credibility to the troubled mother’s story. A white human-like silhouette is clearly visible in one of the windows. |
The Successful “Exorcism” of Roland Doe / Robbie Mannheim
It's often mentioned that the real-life possession on whom the 1974 film The Exorcist is based actually happened to a male, rather than a female. Well, the pseudonyms "Roland Doe" and "Robbie Mannheim" refer to that boy, who experienced possession-like symptoms at Cottage City, Maryland in the late 1940s. Robbie's' Aunt Harriet, who was the boy's main playmate, introduced him to the Ouija board, and upon her death, the strange occurrences began. These included the sound of squeaking and marching feet filling the family home, and furniture being moved around without anyone touching them. In fact, a vase was reported to have levitated, a vessel of holy water was said to have smashed itself on the ground, and a picture of Jesus supposedly shook as though something was thumping on it from behind. Doctors, both psychiatric and medical, could not explain the events. Eventually, an exorcism was attempted by Rev. Edward Hughes, a Catholic priest, but a wound requiring stitches was inflicted upon the pastor, stopping the rite. A later exorcism was attempted by three Jesuits, one of them reporting that the words "hell" and "evil" appeared as wounds on the boy's body. All in all, the exorcism ritual was attempted thirty times before achieving its goal, Robbie going on to live a normal life afterwards. |
‘Julia’
New York Medical College associate professor Dr. Richard E. Gallagher reported that a client of his named 'Julia' was taken over by an unknown force. According to Dr. Gallagher's report released in March of 2012, the Caucasian woman from the United States approached her local Church, who then called Gallagher for him to provide his psychiatric diagnosis. He made several observations about Julia that he found to be inexplicable. For example, she would enter trances and utter hateful phrases in voices entirely different from her own, but would afterwards claim no recollection of the events. Also, while Gallagher would consult with colleagues on the case, these same sinister-sounding voices would interrupt their phone conversations. Even more strangely, Julia began to display psychic abilities, including knowing personal details about members of the team. One incident hadJulia inexplicably possessing knowledge of a violent cat fight in one of the psychiatric team members' homes. She commented a few hours after the incident, "So those cats really went berserk last night, didn't they?" When the exorcism ritual was finally performed to relieve Julia, the room grew unbearably hot, and she began to speak recognizable Spanish and Latin although she apparently knew only English. Julia also screamed in pain when sprinkled with holy water, but remarkably would have no reaction when ordinary water was secretly used on her. It was also recorded that at one time, she levitated six inches in the air for approximately thirty minutes. As of last reporting, Julia has not been successfully cleansed of the strange force. |
The Exorcism of Anneliese Michel
The famous 2005 horror film The Exorcism of Emily Rose is based loosely on a real-life alleged demonic possession. The actual "Emily Rose" is Anneliese Michel, a German Catholic, who at sixteen years old, was diagnosed to be suffering from temporal lobe epilepsy. She took medication for her diagnosed condition, but did not show substantial improvement. In fact, Anneliese soon began complaining about seeing the faces of devils. Three years later, she went on to describe hearing voices saying that she would "rot in hell". That was followed by several episodes of Anneliese injuring herself, eating insects, and drinking her own urine - behavior that convinced Catholic Bishop Josef Stangl to allow the ritual of exorcism to be performed, although in total secrecy. Anneliese died in her home due to dehydration and malnutrition on July 1, 1976. The priests who conducted the attempted exorcism, Fr. Arnold Renz and Fr. Ernst Alt, were tried and found guilty of manslaughter. |
(EW)