Anneliese Michele and The Shocking Truth from
The Exorcism of Emily Rose
The Exorcism of Emily Rose
The woman who inspired the horror film became infamous for her tragic fight with demons and her terrifying death. Though many may not know it, the horrifying events of the 2005 film The Exorcism of Emily Rose were not entirely fictional but rather were based on the actual experiences of a German girl named Anneliese Michel. Anneliese Michel grew up devoutly Catholic in Bavaria, West Germany in the 1960s, where she attended Mass twice a week. When Anneliese was sixteen, she suddenly blacked out at school and began walking around dazed. Though Anneliese didn't remember the event, her friends and family said she was in a trance-like state. A year later, Annelies experienced a similar occurrence, where she woke up in a trance and wet her bed. Her body also went through a series of convulsions, causing her body to shake uncontrollably.
After the second time, Annelies visited a neurologist who diagnosed her with temporal lobe epilepsy, a disorder that causes seizures, loss of memory, and experiencing visual and auditory hallucinations. Temporal lobe epilepsy can also cause Geschwind syndrome, a disorder marked by hyperreligiosity. After her diagnosis, Annelies began taking medication for her epilepsy and enrolled in the University of Würzburg in 1973. However, the drugs she was given failed to help her, and as the year progressed her condition began to deteriorate. Though she was still taking her medication, Annelies began to believe that she was possessed by a demon and that she needed to find a solution outside of medicine. She began to see the face of the devil wherever she went and said she heard demons whispering in her ears. When she heard demons telling her she was "damned" and would "rot in hell" while she was praying, she concluded that the devil must be possessing her.
Annelies sought out priests to help her with her demonic possession, but all the clergy she approached rejected her requests, saying that she should seek medical help and that they needed the permission of a bishop anyway.
At this point, Annelies' delusions had become extreme.
Believing she was possessed, she ripped the clothes off her body, compulsively performed up to 400 squats a day, crawled under a table and barked like a dog for two days. She also ate spiders and coal, bit the head off a dead bird, and licked her own urine from the floor. Finally, she and her mother found a priest, Ernst Alt, who believed in her possession. He stated that "she didn't look like an epileptic" in later court documents.
Anneliese wrote to Alt, "I am nothing, everything about me is vanity, what should I do, I have to improve, you pray for me" and also once told him, "I want to suffer for other people ... but this is so cruel ". Alt petitioned the local bishop, Bishop Josef Stangl, who eventually approved the request and granted a local priest, Arnold Renz permission to perform an exorcism, but ordered that it be carried out in total secret.
Exorcisms have existed in various cultures and religions for millennia, but the practice became popular in the Catholic Church in the 1500s with priests who would use the Latin phrase "Vade retro satana" ("Go back, Satan") to expel demons from their mortal hosts. The practice of Catholic exorcism was codified in the Rituale Romanum, a book of Christian practices assembled in the 16th century. By the 1960s, exorcisms were very rare among Catholics, but a rise in movies and books like The Exorcists in the early 1970s caused a renewed interest in the practice.
Over the next ten months, following the bishop's approval of Anneliese exorcism, Alt and Renz conducted 67 exorcisms, lasting up to four hours, on the young woman. Through these sessions, Annelies revealed that she believed she was possessed by five demons: Lucifer, Cain, Judas Iscariot, Adolf Hitler, and Nero. All these spirits would cost for the power of Annie's body, and would communicate from her mouth with a low growl:
The demons argued with each other, with Hitler saying, "People are stupid as pigs. They think it's all over after death. It goes on "and Judas saying Hitler was nothing but a" big mouth "who had" no real say "in Hell. Throughout these sessions, Anneliese would often talk about "dying to one for the wayward youth of the day and the apostate priests of the modern church." She broke the bones and ripped the tendons in her knees from continually kneeling in prayer.
Over these 10 months, Annelies was frequently restrained so the priests could conduct exorcism rites. She slowly stopped eating, and she eventually edited from malnutrition and dehydration on July 1st, 1976.
She was just 23 years old.
After the second time, Annelies visited a neurologist who diagnosed her with temporal lobe epilepsy, a disorder that causes seizures, loss of memory, and experiencing visual and auditory hallucinations. Temporal lobe epilepsy can also cause Geschwind syndrome, a disorder marked by hyperreligiosity. After her diagnosis, Annelies began taking medication for her epilepsy and enrolled in the University of Würzburg in 1973. However, the drugs she was given failed to help her, and as the year progressed her condition began to deteriorate. Though she was still taking her medication, Annelies began to believe that she was possessed by a demon and that she needed to find a solution outside of medicine. She began to see the face of the devil wherever she went and said she heard demons whispering in her ears. When she heard demons telling her she was "damned" and would "rot in hell" while she was praying, she concluded that the devil must be possessing her.
Annelies sought out priests to help her with her demonic possession, but all the clergy she approached rejected her requests, saying that she should seek medical help and that they needed the permission of a bishop anyway.
At this point, Annelies' delusions had become extreme.
Believing she was possessed, she ripped the clothes off her body, compulsively performed up to 400 squats a day, crawled under a table and barked like a dog for two days. She also ate spiders and coal, bit the head off a dead bird, and licked her own urine from the floor. Finally, she and her mother found a priest, Ernst Alt, who believed in her possession. He stated that "she didn't look like an epileptic" in later court documents.
Anneliese wrote to Alt, "I am nothing, everything about me is vanity, what should I do, I have to improve, you pray for me" and also once told him, "I want to suffer for other people ... but this is so cruel ". Alt petitioned the local bishop, Bishop Josef Stangl, who eventually approved the request and granted a local priest, Arnold Renz permission to perform an exorcism, but ordered that it be carried out in total secret.
Exorcisms have existed in various cultures and religions for millennia, but the practice became popular in the Catholic Church in the 1500s with priests who would use the Latin phrase "Vade retro satana" ("Go back, Satan") to expel demons from their mortal hosts. The practice of Catholic exorcism was codified in the Rituale Romanum, a book of Christian practices assembled in the 16th century. By the 1960s, exorcisms were very rare among Catholics, but a rise in movies and books like The Exorcists in the early 1970s caused a renewed interest in the practice.
Over the next ten months, following the bishop's approval of Anneliese exorcism, Alt and Renz conducted 67 exorcisms, lasting up to four hours, on the young woman. Through these sessions, Annelies revealed that she believed she was possessed by five demons: Lucifer, Cain, Judas Iscariot, Adolf Hitler, and Nero. All these spirits would cost for the power of Annie's body, and would communicate from her mouth with a low growl:
The demons argued with each other, with Hitler saying, "People are stupid as pigs. They think it's all over after death. It goes on "and Judas saying Hitler was nothing but a" big mouth "who had" no real say "in Hell. Throughout these sessions, Anneliese would often talk about "dying to one for the wayward youth of the day and the apostate priests of the modern church." She broke the bones and ripped the tendons in her knees from continually kneeling in prayer.
Over these 10 months, Annelies was frequently restrained so the priests could conduct exorcism rites. She slowly stopped eating, and she eventually edited from malnutrition and dehydration on July 1st, 1976.
She was just 23 years old.
Komentar
Posting Komentar