Bianca Harkless
Editor-In-Chief
If anyone says they know a guy who can do exorcisms in his house, I would not recommend meeting him. I would not recommend getting an exorcism in general really. If anyone is a big fan of demonic possession horror movies like me, films like Rosemary’s Baby and The Exorcist really stand out to you. And The Exorcism of Emily Rose might ring a bell. Many people are unaware that this is actually based on the true story of Anneliese Michel, a 23 year old German woman who suffered with mental illness and an epilepsy condition from the time she was 16 until she tragically passed away.
During her short time on earth, Anneliese was born to a Catholic family who felt very strongly about their faith. It is said that in her early 20’s she had a vision of the Virgin Mary asking her if she was prepared to “suffer much for German you and priests.” according to Medium.com, meaning that she would be the person who suffered on behalf of the whole country for them moving away from their religion. She agreed. During her time, her suffering was believed to be in the form of demonic possession and that she would show the world that the devil really did exist. During the time she was believed to be possessed by up to 10 demons, some who revealed themselves as Lucifer, Cain, Hitler, and Judas.
With the claims of divine intervention, it got people's attention. When two priests, Father Ernst Alt and Father Arnold Renz, and her parents sat in the defendant seat, charged with negligent homicide. The sounds of the 23 year-old adult could be heard speaking in strange voices and screaming obscenities from a recording from many of the 70 visits the two made to Anneliese’s home. Eleven months before she died, all medical treatments stopped. All medications that she was on for her depression and her severe epilepsy were no longer given to her. Instead of the medical treatment, the rites of exorcism were carried out secretly in her bedroom.
In Anneliese's autopsy report, her cause of death was not undetermined or demons, but malnutrition and dehydration. The best guess the autopsy tech had for how this happened, was that she had been in a semi-starvation state for a long amount of time, most likely the year when the exorcism rites were performed. The state prosecutor believed that Anneliese’s death could have been prevented even a week before it happened and charged all four people with negligent homicide for failing to call a medical doctor due to her weighing in at 68 pounds when she passed away.
During the trial a series of doctors testified that Anneliese died from epilepsy, mental disorders, and an extreme religious environment which would have added up to “a spiritual sickness and heavy psychic disturbance.” In the end of the trial, the fathers and her parents were convicted on the negligence charges and were sentenced to six months in jail. In 2005, the film The Exorcism of Emily Rose was loosely based on her story.
Whether or not you believe that this is a case of a child dying at the hands of unforgiving people, a 23 year-old woman died tragically. If you are interested in looking further into this case, just be warned that the audiotapes are out there as well as pictures of her in her final days. There are also countless other cases of exorcisms going wrong and there are many similarities between them. Regardless of what you can believe, we can all agree that this was a sad case and she deserved to be remembered not as a girl who was possessed but as a girl who was happy and dedicated to her religion while she was alive.
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