Sanctioned by the Catholic Church for centuries, exorcisms are supposed to expel evil spirits that have possessed a human — but some have ended in horrifying murders.
The ritual act of real exorcism is referenced in cultures worldwide, and it’s a practice shrouded in controversy. The purpose of an exorcism is to expel evil forces that have hijacked the body of a living person, and even the Vatican recognizes it as a valid practice.
In 2018, the Vatican taught a course on exorcism, training 250 priests on how to properly perform the ritual. The need for such a course stemmed from an uptick in reported demonic possessions.
Keystone Features/Getty ImagesA man is restrained while a priest performs an exorcism in June 1956.
According to Catholic law, only an ordained priest can perform a real exorcism, and they must be trained beforehand. However, there have been several reported cases where things went wrong during the ritual, and the person who claimed to be possessed either died or suffered severe mental and emotional injury.
While each of these real-life exorcisms is confirmed or corroborated, psychiatrists and even the Catholic Church itself have debated their necessity.
Indeed, most of the symptoms associated with these demonic possessions can be explained by modern psychology as signs of recognized mental illnesses like bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.
The Exorcism Of Anneliese Michel, The Real Emily Rose
Anneliese Michel being restrained by her mother during the exorcism.
The case of Anneliese Michel was so disturbing that it struck a chord with multiple generations and inspired the 2005 horror film The Exorcism of Emily Rose.
Born on Sept. 21, 1952, in Leiblfing, Germany, Michel was a devout Catholic who attended church twice a week. At the age of 16, she blacked out during school and began to behave out of character. Within a year of her blackout, she started wetting the bed and having seizure-like convulsions.
A neurologist examined her and concluded that she had temporal lobe epilepsy, which is known to cause spasms, memory loss, and hallucinations.
Following her diagnosis, Michel left home to attend the University of Würzburg in 1973, and it’s there that her symptoms dramatically worsened. She began claiming that she could see the devil’s face and hear voices mocking her “damned” spirit. She turned to the Catholic Church for help.
Most of the priests she spoke with urged her to see a doctor, explaining that a real-life exorcism required the authorization of a bishop. But soon, her condition deteriorated.
Keystone Archive/Getty ImagesErnst Alt and Arnold Renz with Anna and Josef Michel in court.
Only priest Ernst Alt was convinced that she was indeed under the influence of a demonic influence and received approval from a bishop to perform an exorcism. He and priest Arnold Renz spent 10 months with Michel and conducted 67 exorcisms during which Michel claimed to be possessed by Adolf Hitler, Nero, Lucifer, Cain, Judas, and a disgraced priest named Fleischmann.
In the end, Michel’s condition worsened to such a degree that she broke bones in her knees from repeatedly kneeling for prayer. She soon stopped eating food altogether and died of dehydration and malnutrition at the age of 23 on July 1, 1976.
The Real-Life Exorcism Of Roland Doe
Discovery/Getty ImagesThe Washington, D.C., house once home to Roland Doe.
William Friedkin set his horror masterpiece The Exorcist (1973) in suburban Washington, D.C., for a good reason. The classic film was based on a real-life exorcism of a 13-year-old boy that took place in Cottage City, Maryland, in 1949. Because no one knows the boy’s identity for sure, the case is often referred to as “The Exorcism of Roland Doe.”
The first signs of his possession appeared following the death of his Aunt Harriet. She had been a deeply committed spiritualist and taught the young boy how to use a Ouija board to communicate with spirits.
Shortly after his first experiments with the board, Roland reported hearing scratching noises within his bedroom walls and that his mattress would move erratically on its own.
Neither medical professionals nor the family minister was able to resolve the situation, so Roland’s parents sought help from Father E. Albert Hughes, who requested permission to conduct an exorcism. During the ritual, Roland tore a spring off of his mattress and used it to slash Hughes across the shoulders.
Discovery/Getty ImagesThe stairs inside the house once home to Roland Doe, as seen in 2015.
When his mother found the word “LOUIS” scratched onto Roland’s body days later, she became convinced they should head to St. Louis, where a relative was enrolled in college. As a result, she met Father Walter H. Halloran and Reverend William Bowdern, who conducted an exorcism in March 1949 and saw his bed shake with their own eyes.
For a month, the priests noted his outbursts only occurred at night. They said he growled like an animal, became enraged at the sight of religious iconography, and made items fly across the room. And when they discovered an “X” scratched onto his body, it led them to believe that he was possessed by 10 demons.
The nightly exorcisms only worsened. After Roland wet his bed and violently cursed at the priests on March 20, his parents took him to the hospital. A month later, Roland awoke in convulsions and screamed that the devil would always be inside him.
But one final exorcism seemed to expel the fallen angel for good. The ritual took seven minutes. Afterward, the attending priests observed Roland regain control of his faculties and state, “He’s gone.”
