Evil Spirits, Demonic Possession & Exorcism
Evil spirits, demonic possession, and exorcisms are real. If we pay attention, these experiences can teach us a lot about life and the dark, scary, shadowy parts of ourselves.
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"The principle responsibility of the exorcist is to free man from the fear of the devil."
-- Reverend Gabriel Amorth (1925 - 2016), The Vatican’s Chief Exorcist
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As you listen to and read the remarkable stories on this page, instead of being frightened and repelled, be curious. And look for practical ways to apply this information to your every day life. What can you do to calm the voices inside of you that encourage you to harm yourself and others; the voices that tell you, for example, that you (and others) are broken, useless, unimportant; that you (and others) are unloved and unlovable? What can you do to calm yourself when you feel lost, confused, afraid? Do you call out to God, Jesus, your guardian angels for help? Or do you tear yourself down, beat yourself up, and cut yourself off from family, friends, and the rest of life? When you feel intense negative emotions, do you revel in those feelings, fanning and inflaming them? Or do you reconnect with the deeper parts of yourself that calm storms and heal wounds?
The stories that follow are a reflection of the inner demons that live within all of us. The negative spirits within us, like the negative spirits that occupy the spirit world, feed on negative energy. If we face frightening energies and experiences with courage, connection, and love, they lose their power to harm or frighten us. If, on the other hand, we refuse to acknowledge their existence, cower in fear, or run away, they grow stronger and more assertive. Scary things, of all kinds, grow stronger until we bravely face, befriend, and transform them.
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Father Vince Lampert Describes His Fascinating, Instructive & Supernatural Experiences With Exorcism
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Exorcism: The Battle Against Satan and His Demons
By Fr. Vincent P. Lampert
Amazon Description:
At a time when many Christians no longer practice their faith, there has been an increase in the attention given to the devil and his devious ways. Because the devil seeks to destroy and separate us from God, all Catholics must be on guard.
In Exorcism: The Battle Against Satan and His Angels, Fr. Vincent P. Lampert, a seasoned exorcist, presents authentic Catholic teaching on the devil and his plan against humanity.
Providing a window into the merciful ministry of exorcism, Fr. Lampert equips Catholics with the knowledge necessary to avoid become vulnerable to spiritual attack. In Exorcism, you'll learn:
- How the Church selects and trains priests for the ministry of exorcism
- Where and how the devil operates in the world, and what Scripture has to say about it
- Why it is vital for Catholics to live a vibrant life of faith
- What to do if you suspect the presence of the demonic in your life or in others
- How to fend off spiritual attack and build a stronger relationship with God
Exorcism makes clear that the power of Satan to wreak havoc in our lives pales in light of the glorious omnipotence of our Redeemer, Jesus Christ.
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How To Deal With Evil Spirits (From The Swedenborg Foundation)
From 00:18:50 to 00:34:14 on this video, a psychiatrist describes his experience with patients who regularly hear negative, destructive voices. Some of the things that this psychiatrist has learned about these negative voices include:
1. The voices have access to negative memories that the patient may have forgotten. They use these dark memories to make the patient feel bad about themselves and get them upset.
2. The voices only say and do negative things.
3. Acting as energy vampires, the voices attempt to generate negative feelings so they can feed off them.
While the psychiatrist (and Emanuel Swedenborg) says that these voices are spiritual beings that are not visible to earthly eyes, it is important to realize that our own inner voices (and negative impulses) manifest very similar qualities.
Then the psychiatrist described a very fascinating “cookie cutter” phenomenon. He said that once the voices realized he was on to them, they engaged in four very predictable behaviors. Surprisingly, these four “cookie cutter” behaviors were the same no matter who the patient was, or what hospital they were in. Swedenborg’s experiences with evil spirits also indicated that these energies are very predictable.
So what did the voices do once they realized the psychiatrist was onto them?
1. They got very loud and tried to block out what the psychiatrist was saying.
2. If that failed, the voices told the patient that the psychiatrist was crazy, full of crap, a complete nutcase.
3. If that failed, the voices told the patient to get away from the psychiatrist; to leave the hospital and run away.
4. And finally, if all of the above failed, the voices encouraged the patient to physically attack the therapist.
The psychiatrist mentioned that one of the ways he was able to gain the trust of his patients was by telling them in advance how the voices would begin to act when the patient started listening to him.
So what can be done to deal with these destructive voices? Listen from 00:34:14 to 00:53:30. In this part of the video, we learn that Swedenborg was able to gain immunity through knowledge. Instead of believing in what dark voices tell us, we should study, cling to, and identify with spiritual truth.
How do you get rid of the voices? The psychiatrist discovered these four things helped:
1. Putting a rubber band around the patient’s wrist and snapping it caused a thunderstorm like sensation of static electricity that upset the voices and forced them to retreat, temporarily.
2. Have the patients specifically ask Christ or their guardian angels to shut the voices up.
3. The voices were especially sensitive to the 23rd Psalm and Amazing Grace. They couldn’t stand either one. The voices also couldn’t stand anything positive, including positive religious texts.
4. Give the patients as much information as possible without setting the voices off. Tell the patients that they are different from the voices.
Once the voices had been forced to leave, the psychiatrist emphasized how important it was to fill the empty space with positive things. If you didn’t, the voices returned, sometimes stronger than before.
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Related Links:
• The International Association of Exorcists
• The Vatican's Exorcist Gabriele Amorth
• The Devil Is Afraid Of Me: The Life And Work Of The World’s Most Famous Exorcist (book)
• The Catholic Encyclopedia on Exorcism
• Wikipedia on Demonic Possession
• Wikipedia on Exorcism
• Deliver Us (2016 documentary)
• The Rite Of Exorcism: Myth, Mystery & Hope (2011 documentary)
• Hellish & Distressing Near-Death Experiences
• Can Negative Behaviors Lead To Hellish Experiences? Yes.
• Is There A Hell? (PMH Atwater) (pdf)
• Hell & The Near-Death Experience (Kevin Williams)
• NDErs Who Experienced Hell (NDE Stories)
• Hellish & Distressing NDEs on YouTube (NHNE)
• Wikipedia on Hell
• Why It's Important To Know About Shadow Issues And Work On Them
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How An Exorcist Priest Came Face-To-Face With The Devil Himself
By Larry Getlen
New York Post
March 7, 2020
In 1997, when a young, slim peasant man was escorted into the small room where Father Gabriele Amorth conducted his exorcisms in Rome, the priest felt immediately confronted by evil.
Amorth said he asked for the help of Jesus, and the young man began to curse and spit, using English instead of his native Italian.
"His curses and threats were aimed solely at the exorcist; then he began spitting at him and preparing to attack him physically," writes Marcello Stanzione in "The Devil is Afraid Of Me: The Life and Work of the World's Most Famous Exorcist", out now. "Screaming and howling, the demon burst forth and looked straight at him, drooling saliva from the young man's mouth."
Amorth said he returned fire with prayers and other ritual recitations, demanding that the demon reveal its name.
"Unclean spirit!" Amorth bellowed. "Whoever you are and all your companions who possess this servant of God … I command you: Tell me your name, the day and the hour of your damnation."
The man fixed him with a glare and snarled: "I am Lucifer."
Amorth was shocked.
He "did not expect to receive such a terrifying response," Stanzione writes. "But . . . he was convinced he had to keep going as long as he had the strength."
Amorth, the official exorcist for the diocese of Rome, claimed to have performed about 60,000 exorcisms before his death in 2016. Born in Modena, Italy, on May 1, 1925, he knew from around age 10 he was destined for the priesthood.
In 1986, he began an exorcism apprenticeship with Rev. Candido Amantini and went on to found the International Association of Exorcists in 1994, where he served as its long-term president, while breaking new ground by speaking openly about his work in the Italian media.
Stanzione, a priest and prolific author who collaborated with Amorth on various writing projects over the past three decades, spoke with him extensively over the years about his process.
Amorth claimed his exorcisms lasted about 30 minutes on average, and he would often conduct five over the course of a morning, by appointment only, with breaks in between for paperwork. He thought it just as effective to conduct his exorcisms by telephone or Skype.
Amorth said an exorcism could be anything from a simple prayer to the full-blown casting out of demons, as depicted in the 1973 Hollywood film "The Exorcist," and noted that an exorcism is not a one-time process, but a practice that is regularly performed on a possessed person, sometimes over a period of years.
"I am content if, in a mildly serious case, a person is liberated within four or five years of exorcisms," he said. "I have had rare cases of liberations in a few months."
For in-person exorcisms, Amorth was usually assisted by four laymen who could escort patients to his exorcism room of about 9-feet-by-15-feet, which was situated away from the Roman streets so that "no one can hear the screams."
He used an armchair for "less agitated patients," a bed, and a box with "tape and belts used to tie the more robust patients."
A photo of St. John Paul II adorned the walls, since "demons become very irritable before him," and Amorth always carried "two wooden crucifixes, an aspergillum for sprinkling holy water, and a vial of consecrated oil."
But when he supposedly met the devil in Rome, Amorth said he mostly used prayer as his weapon, reciting verses of liberation from the Roman Rite of Exorcism.
In return, "the demon resumed his shrieks, making the possessed turn his head back and his eyes roll. He remained like this with his back arched for a quarter of an hour."
As this continued, "the room became extremely cold and ice crystals formed on the windows and the walls."
As Amorth continually commanded the demon to leave the host, "the young man's body stiffened so much that he became hard and began to levitate. For several minutes, he remained hovering 3 feet in the air."
Finally, the man dropped into a chair, Stanzione writes. Amorth said he left for the day but continued to regularly visit the man and pray over him until he was met with no resistance. When he at last sensed the man was at peace, Amorth asked how Lucifer had left his body.
The man said he "began to howl like never before. Then, at the end of this, he felt new and light," Stanzione writes.
In his line of work, Amorth said he has seen all manner of surprises, and claimed that spitting has long been a tool used by demons of possession.
"There are very many who spit, and they try to guess the exact moment to get you," Amorth said.
"An exorcist with a little experience learns to defend himself from the spitting, so he tries to put a handkerchief or tissue in front of his face. I recall one who always spit, and I would see it coming in time, so I would put a hand in front of my mouth."
Once a possessed person spit at Amorth and "three nails materialized in his mouth. I still have those nails," he told Stanzione.
Amorth also claimed that people become possessed in a variety of ways.
"The most frequent case — I put it at 90 percent — is that of the evil spell," Amorth once told an Italian journalist named Marco Tosatti.
"It happens when someone sustains an evil caused by the demon that has been provoked by some person who has turned to Satan or someone who has acted with Satanic perfidy," he said. "The remaining 10 to 15 percent regard persons who have participated in occult practices, such as seances or satanic sects, or have contacted wizards and fortune-tellers."
Early in his career, Amorth heard from Rev. Faustino Negrini, a priest near Brescia, Italy, about a 14-year-old girl named Agnese Salomon, who had been "struck by demonic possession."
Amorth accompanied Negrini to one of his sessions with the girl. When Negrini asked the demon, "Why have you taken this girl?" it responded, "Because she is the best of the parish."
Negrini said he was unable to liberate the girl until she was 26 years old.
Today, exorcisms are on the rise worldwide, including in the United States, with the Catholic Church reportedly sending their exorcists to a new institute that trains spiritual warriors. Though no statistics are available, Catholic leaders say there are more exorcists in the US now than in any time in recent memory. And, in his lifetime, Amorth laid part of the blame on pop culture.
"Forms of Satanism are . . . spread by stars and celebrities who have a huge following, such as Marilyn Manson and other satanic rock musical groups," he said. "I have nothing against rock music; it is very respectable music. I am against satanic rock."
Amorth also believed that wizards shouldered blame for satanic influence, including everyone's favorite: Harry Potter, who he worried could push kids "toward a morbid interest in the occult," Stanzione writes.
"If we truly wish to help children and young people turn away from books poisoned by occultism, it is necessary that parents and teachers have them read good books … where the presence of magic is solely an instrument for the moral of the story and not the substance on which the story is centered."
By the end of his life, Amorth, who died at age 91 of pulmonary-related illness, had helped discussions of exorcism become more widespread in his home country. Stanzione's book is intended as a memorial tribute, and a way to keep his memory and teachings alive.
"I always say to whoever questions my way of doing things that I wish to bring Jesus everywhere, even to the doors of hell," Amorth once said. "Only in this way does one build the Kingdom of God bringing Him everywhere, without fear."
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As A Psychiatrist, I Diagnose Mental Illness. Also, I Help Spot Demonic Possession.
By Richard Gallagher
The Washington Post
July 1, 2016
Richard Gallagher is a board-certified psychiatrist and a professor of clinical psychiatry at New York Medical College. He is at work on a book about demonic possession in the United States.
In the late 1980s, I was introduced to a self-styled Satanic high priestess. She called herself a witch and dressed the part, with flowing dark clothes and black eye shadow around to her temples. In our many discussions, she acknowledged worshipping Satan as his “queen.”
I’m a man of science and a lover of history; after studying the classics at Princeton, I trained in psychiatry at Yale and in psychoanalysis at Columbia. That background is why a Catholic priest had asked my professional opinion, which I offered pro bono, about whether this woman was suffering from a mental disorder. This was at the height of the national panic about Satanism. (In a case that helped induce the hysteria, Virginia McMartin and others had recently been charged with alleged Satanic ritual abuse at a Los Angeles preschool; the charges were later dropped.) So I was inclined to skepticism. But my subject’s behavior exceeded what I could explain with my training. She could tell some people their secret weaknesses, such as undue pride. She knew how individuals she’d never known had died, including my mother and her fatal case of ovarian cancer. Six people later vouched to me that, during her exorcisms, they heard her speaking multiple languages, including Latin, completely unfamiliar to her outside of her trances. This was not psychosis; it was what I can only describe as paranormal ability. I concluded that she was possessed. Much later, she permitted me to tell her story.
The priest who had asked for my opinion of this bizarre case was the most experienced exorcist in the country at the time, an erudite and sensible man. I had told him that, even as a practicing Catholic, I wasn’t likely to go in for a lot of hocus-pocus. “Well,” he replied, “unless we thought you were not easily fooled, we would hardly have wanted you to assist us.”
So began an unlikely partnership. For the past two-and-a-half decades and over several hundred consultations, I’ve helped clergy from multiple denominations and faiths to filter episodes of mental illness — which represent the overwhelming majority of cases — from, literally, the devil’s work. It’s an unlikely role for an academic physician, but I don’t see these two aspects of my career in conflict. The same habits that shape what I do as a professor and psychiatrist — open-mindedness, respect for evidence and compassion for suffering people — led me to aid in the work of discerning attacks by what I believe are evil spirits and, just as critically, differentiating these extremely rare events from medical conditions.
Is it possible to be a sophisticated psychiatrist and believe that evil spirits are, however seldom, assailing humans? Most of my scientific colleagues and friends say no, because of their frequent contact with patients who are deluded about demons, their general skepticism of the supernatural, and their commitment to employ only standard, peer-reviewed treatments that do not potentially mislead (a definite risk) or harm vulnerable patients. But careful observation of the evidence presented to me in my career has led me to believe that certain extremely uncommon cases can be explained no other way.
The Vatican does not track global or countrywide exorcism, but in my experience and according to the priests I meet, demand is rising. The United States is home to about 50 “stable” exorcists — those who have been designated by bishops to combat demonic activity on a semi-regular basis — up from just 12 a decade ago, according to the Rev. Vincent Lampert, an Indianapolis-based priest-exorcist who is active in The International Association of Exorcists. (He receives about 20 inquiries per week, double the number from when his bishop appointed him in 2005.) The Catholic Church has responded by offering greater resources for clergy members who wish to address the problem. In 2010, for instance, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops organized a meeting in Baltimore for interested clergy. In 2014, Pope Francis formally recognized the IAE, 400 members of which are to convene in Rome this October. Members believe in such strange cases because they are constantly called upon to help. (I served for a time as a scientific adviser on the group’s governing board.)
Unfortunately, not all clergy involved in this complex field are as cautious as the priest who first approached me. In some circles, there is a tendency to become overly preoccupied with putative demonic explanations and to see the devil everywhere. Fundamentalist misdiagnoses and absurd or even dangerous “treatments,” such as beating victims, have sometimes occurred, especially in developing countries. This is perhaps why exorcism has a negative connotation in some quarters. People with psychological problems should receive psychological treatment.
But I believe I’ve seen the real thing. Assaults upon individuals are classified either as “demonic possessions” or as the slightly more common but less intense attacks usually called “oppressions.” A possessed individual may suddenly, in a type of trance, voice statements of astonishing venom and contempt for religion, while understanding and speaking various foreign languages previously unknown to them. The subject might also exhibit enormous strength or even the extraordinarily rare phenomenon of levitation. (I have not witnessed a levitation myself, but half a dozen people I work with vow that they’ve seen it in the course of their exorcisms.) He or she might demonstrate “hidden knowledge” of all sorts of things — like how a stranger’s loved ones died, what secret sins she has committed, even where people are at a given moment. These are skills that cannot be explained except by special psychic or preternatural ability.
I have personally encountered these rationally inexplicable features, along with other paranormal phenomena. My vantage is unusual: As a consulting doctor, I think I have seen more cases of possession than any other physician in the world.
Most of the people I evaluate in this role suffer from the more prosaic problems of a medical disorder. Anyone even faintly familiar with mental illnesses knows that individuals who think they are being attacked by malign spirits are generally experiencing nothing of the sort. Practitioners see psychotic patients all the time who claim to see or hear demons; histrionic or highly suggestible individuals, such as those suffering from dissociative identity syndromes; and patients with personality disorders who are prone to misinterpret destructive feelings, in what exorcists sometimes call a “pseudo-possession,” via the defense mechanism of an externalizing projection. But what am I supposed to make of patients who unexpectedly start speaking perfect Latin?
I approach each situation with an initial skepticism. I technically do not make my own “diagnosis” of possession but inform the clergy that the symptoms in question have no conceivable medical cause.
I am aware of the way many psychiatrists view this sort of work. While the American Psychiatric Association has no official opinion on these affairs, the field (like society at large) is full of unpersuadable skeptics and occasionally doctrinaire materialists who are often oddly vitriolic in their opposition to all things spiritual. My job is to assist people seeking help, not to convince doctors who are not subject to suasion. Yet I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the number of psychiatrists and other mental health practitioners nowadays who are open to entertaining such hypotheses. Many believe exactly what I do, though they may be reluctant to speak out.
As a man of reason, I’ve had to rationalize the seemingly irrational. Questions about how a scientifically trained physician can believe “such outdated and unscientific nonsense,” as I’ve been asked, have a simple answer. I honestly weigh the evidence. I have been told simplistically that levitation defies the laws of gravity, and, well, of course it does! We are not dealing here with purely material reality, but with the spiritual realm. One cannot force these creatures to undergo lab studies or submit to scientific manipulation; they will also hardly allow themselves to be easily recorded by video equipment, as skeptics sometimes demand. (The official Catholic Catechism holds that demons are sentient and possess their own wills; as they are fallen angels, they are also craftier than humans. That’s how they sow confusion and seed doubt, after all.) Nor does the church wish to compromise a sufferer’s privacy, any more than doctors want to compromise a patient’s confidentiality.
Ignorance and superstition have often surrounded stories of demonic possession in various cultures, and surely many alleged episodes can be explained by fraud, chicanery or mental pathology. But anthropologists agree that nearly all cultures have believed in spirits, and the vast majority of societies (including our own) have recorded dramatic stories of spirit possession. Despite varying interpretations, multiple depictions of the same phenomena in astonishingly consistent ways offer cumulative evidence of their credibility.
As a psychoanalyst, a blanket rejection of the possibility of demonic attacks seems less logical, and often wishful in nature, than a careful appraisal of the facts. As I see it, the evidence for possession is like the evidence for George Washington’s crossing of the Delaware. In both cases, written historical accounts with numerous sound witnesses testify to their accuracy.
In the end, however, it was not an academic or dogmatic view that propelled me into this line of work. I was asked to consult about people in pain. I have always thought that, if requested to help a tortured person, a physician should not arbitrarily refuse to get involved. Those who dismiss these cases unwittingly prevent patients from receiving the help they desperately require, either by failing to recommend them for psychiatric treatment (which most clearly need) or by not informing their spiritual ministers that something beyond a mental or other illness seems to be the issue. For any person of science or faith, it should be impossible to turn one’s back on a tormented soul.
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When Exorcists Need Help, They Call Him
By John Blake
CNN
August 4, 2017
A small group of nuns and priests met the woman in the chapel of a house one June evening. Though it was warm outside, a palpable chill settled over the room.
As the priests began to pray, the woman slipped into a trance — and then snapped to life. She spoke in multiple voices: One was deep, guttural and masculine; another was high-pitched; a third spouted only Latin. When someone secretly sprinkled ordinary water on her, she didn’t react. But when holy water was used, she screamed in pain.
“Leave her alone, you f***ing priests,” the guttural voice shouted. “Stop, you whores. … You’ll be sorry.”
You’ve probably seen this before: a soul corrupted by Satan, a priest waving a crucifix at a snarling woman. Movies and books have mimicked exorcisms so often, they’ve become clichés.
But this was an actual exorcism — and included a character not normally seen in the traditional drive-out-the-devil script.
Dr. Richard Gallagher is an Ivy League-educated, board-certified psychiatrist who teaches at Columbia University and New York Medical College. He was part of the team that tried to help the woman.
Fighting Satan’s minions wasn’t part of Gallagher’s career plan while he was studying medicine at Yale. He knew about biblical accounts of demonic possession but thought they were an ancient culture’s attempt to grapple with mental disorders like epilepsy. He proudly calls himself a “man of science.”
Yet today, Gallagher has become something else: the go-to guy for a sprawling network of exorcists in the United States. He says demonic possession is real. He’s seen the evidence: victims suddenly speaking perfect Latin; sacred objects flying off shelves; people displaying “hidden knowledge” or secrets about people that they could not have possibly have known.
“There was one woman who was like 90 pounds soaking wet. She threw a Lutheran deacon who was about 200 pounds across the room,” he says. “That’s not psychiatry. That’s beyond psychiatry.”
Gallagher calls himself a “consultant” on demonic possessions. For the past 25 years, he has helped clergy distinguish between mental illness and what he calls “the real thing.” He estimates that he’s seen more cases of possession than any other physician in the world.
“Whenever I need help, I call on him,” says the Rev. Gary Thomas, one of the most famous exorcists in the United States. The movie “The Rite” was based on Thomas’ work.
“He’s so respected in the field,” Thomas says. “He’s not like most therapists, who are either atheists or agnostics.”
Gallagher is a big man — 6-foot-5 — who once played semipro basketball in Europe. He has a gruff, no-nonsense demeanor. When he talks about possession, it sounds as if he’s describing the growth of algae; his tone is dry, clinical, matter-of-fact.
Possession, he says, is rare — but real.
“I spend more time convincing people that they’re not possessed than they are,” he wrote in an essay for The Washington Post.
Some critics, though, say Gallagher has become possessed by his own delusions. They say all he’s witnessed are cheap parlor tricks by people who might need therapy but certainly not exorcism. And, they argue, there’s no empirical evidence that proves possession is real.
Still, one of the biggest mysteries about Gallagher’s work isn’t what he’s seen. It’s how he’s evolved.
How does a “man of science” get pulled into the world of demonic possession?
His short answer: He met a queen of Satan.
A ‘Creepy’ Encounter With Evil
She was a middle-age woman who wore flowing dark clothes and black eye shadow. She could be charming and engaging. She was also part of a satanic cult.
She called herself the queen of the cult, but Gallagher would refer to her as “Julia,” the pseudonym he gave her.
The woman had approached her local priest, convinced she was being attacked by a demon. The priest referred her to an exorcist, who reached out to Gallagher for a mental health evaluation.
Why, though, would a devil worshipper want to be free of the devil?
“She was conflicted,” Gallagher says. “There was a part of her that wanted to be relieved of the possession.”
She ended up relieving Gallagher of his doubts. It was one of the first cases he took, and it changed him. Gallagher helped assemble an exorcism team that met Julia in the chapel of a house.
Objects would fly off shelves around her. She somehow knew personal details about Gallagher’s life: how his mother had died of ovarian cancer; the fact that two cats in his house went berserk fighting each other the night before one of her sessions.
Julia found a way to reach him even when she wasn’t with him, he says.
He was talking on the phone with Julia’s priest one night, he says, when both men heard one of the demonic voices that came from Julia during her trances — even though she was nowhere near a phone and thousands of miles away.
He says he was never afraid.
“It’s creepy,” he says. “But I believe I’m on the winning side.”
How A Scientist Believes In Demons
He also insists that he’s on the side of science.
He says he’s a stickler for the scientific method, that it teaches people to follow the facts wherever they may lead.
Growing up in a large Irish Catholic family in Long Island, he didn’t think much about stories of possession. But when he kept seeing cases like Julia’s as a professional, he says, his views had to evolve.
“I don’t believe in this stuff because I’m Catholic,” he says. “I try to follow the evidence.”
Being Catholic, though, may help.
Gallagher grew up in a home where faith was taken seriously. His younger brother, Mark, says Gallagher was an academic prodigy with a photographic memory who wanted to use his faith to help people.
“We had a sensational childhood,” Mark Gallagher says. “My mother and father were great about always helping neighbors or relatives out.” Their mother was a homemaker, and their father was a lawyer who’d fought in World War II. “My father used to walk us proudly into church. He taught us to give back.”
Gallagher’s two ways of giving back — helping the mentally ill as well as the possessed — may seem at odds. But not necessarily for those in the Catholic Church.
Contemporary Catholicism doesn’t see faith and science as contradictory. Its leaders insist that possession, miracles and angels exist. But global warming is real, so is evolution, and miracles must be documented with scientific rigor.
One of Gallagher’s favorite sources of inspiration is Pope John Paul II’s encyclical “Fides et Ratio” (“On Faith and Reason”). The Pope writes that “there can never be a true divergence between faith and reason, since the same God who reveals the mysteries and bestows the gift of faith has also placed in the human spirit the light of reason.”
The church’s emphasis on faith and reason can even been seen in the birth of its exorcism ritual.
The Rite of Exorcism was first published in 1614 by Pope Paul V to quell a trend of laypeople and priests hastily performing exorcisms on people they presumed were possessed, such as victims of the bubonic plague, says the Rev. Mike Driscoll, author of “Demons, Deliverance, Discernment: Separating Fact from Fiction about the Spirit World.”
“A line (in the rite) said that the exorcist should be careful to distinguish between demon possession and melancholy, which was a catchall for mental illness,” Driscoll says. “The church knew back then that there were mental problems. It said the exorcist should not have anything to do with medicine. Leave that to the doctors.”
Doctors, perhaps, like Gallagher.
Gallagher says the concept of possession by spirit isn’t limited to Catholicism. Muslim, Jewish and other Christian traditions regard possession by spirits — holy or benign — as possible.
“This is not quite as esoteric as some people make it out to be,” Gallagher says. “I know quite a few psychiatrists and mental health professionals who believe in this stuff.”
Dr. Mark Albanese is among them. A friend of Gallagher’s, Albanese studied medicine at Cornell and has been practicing psychiatry for decades. In a letter to the New Oxford Review, a Catholic magazine, he defended Gallagher’s belief in possession.
He also says there is a growing belief among health professionals that a patient’s spiritual dimension should be accounted for in treatment, whether their provider agrees with those beliefs or not. Some psychiatrists have even talked of adding a “trance and possession disorder” diagnosis to the DSM, the premier diagnostic manual of disorders used by mental health professionals in the US.
There’s still so much about the human mind that psychiatrists don’t know, Albanese says. Doctors used to be widely skeptical of people who claimed to suffer from multiple personalities, but now it’s a legitimate disorder (dissociative identity disorder). Many are still dumbfounded by the power of placebos, a harmless pill or medical procedure that produces healing in some cases.
“There’s a certain openness to experiences that are happening that are beyond what we can explain by MRI scans, neurobiology or even psychological theories,” Albanese says.
Dr. Jeffrey Lieberman, a psychiatrist who specializes in schizophrenia, arrived at a similar conclusion after he had an unnerving experience with a patient.
Lieberman was asked to examine the videotape of an exorcism that he subsequently dismissed as unconvincing.
Then he met a woman who, he said, “freaked me out.”
Lieberman, director of the New York State Psychiatric Institute, says he and a family therapist were asked to examine a young woman who some thought was possessed. He and his colleague tried to treat the woman for several months but gave up because they had no success.
Something happened during the treatment, though, that he still can’t explain. After sessions with the woman, he says, he’d go home in the evenings, and the lights in his house would go off by themselves, photographs and artwork would fall or slide off shelves, and he’d experience a piercing headache.
When he mentioned to this to his colleague one day, her response stunned him: She’d been having the exact same experiences.
“I had to sort of admit that I didn’t really know what was going on,” Lieberman says. “Because of the bizarre things that occurred, I wouldn’t say that (demonic possession) is impossible or categorically rule it out … although I have very limited empirical evidence to verify its existence.”
The Tragic Case Of The Real ‘Emily Rose’
If you want to know why so many scientists and doctors like Lieberman are cautious about legitimizing demonic possession, consider one name: Anneliese Michel [see below for more information].
Michel was a victim in one of the most notorious cases of contemporary exorcism. If you have the stomach for it, go online and listen to audiotapes and watch videos of her exorcisms. The images and sounds will burn themselves into your brain. It sounds like somebody dropped a microphone into hell.
Michel was a German Catholic woman who died of starvation in 1976 after 67 exorcisms over a period of nine months. She was diagnosed with epilepsy but believed she was possessed. So did her devout Roman Catholic parents. She reportedly displayed some of the classic signs of possession: abnormal strength, aversion to sacred objects, speaking different languages.
But authorities later determined that it was Michel’s parents and two priests who were responsible for her death. German authorities put them on trial for murder, and they were found guilty of negligent homicide. The 2005 film “The Exorcism of Emily Rose” was based on Michel’s ordeal and the subsequent trial.
One of the leading skeptics of exorcism — and one of Gallagher’s chief critics — is Steven Novella, a neurologist and professor at Yale School of Medicine.
He wrote a lengthy blog post dissecting Gallagher’s experience with Julia, the satanic priestess. It could be read as a takedown of exorcisms everywhere.
He says Julia probably performed a “cold reading” on Gallagher. It’s an old trick of fortune tellers and mediums in which they use vague, probing statements to make canny guesses about someone. (Fortune teller: “I see a recent tragedy in your family.” Client: “You mean my sister who got hurt in a car accident? How did you know?”)
Or take the case of a person speaking an unfamiliar language like Latin during a possession.
“A patient might memorize Latin phrases to throw out during one of their possessions,” Novella wrote. “Were they having a conversation in Latin? Did they understand Latin spoken to them? Or did they just speak Latin?”
Novella says it’s noteworthy that no one has filmed any paranormal event such as levitation or sacred objects flying across the room during an exorcism. He’s seen exorcism tapes posted online and in documentaries and says they’re not scary.
“They’re boring,” he says. “Nothing exciting happens. The most you get is some really bad play-acting by the person who is being exorcised.”
In an interview, Novella went further and criticized any therapist who believes his patient’s delusions.
“The worst thing you can do to a patient who is delusional is to confirm their delusions,” says Novella, who founded the New England Skeptical Society.
“The primary goal of therapy is to reorient them to reality. Telling a patient who is struggling that maybe they’re possessed by a demon is the worst thing you can do. It’s only distracting them from addressing what the real problem is.”
Driscoll, the Catholic priest who wrote a book about possession, is not a skeptic like Novella. Still, he says, it’s not unusual for people on drugs or during psychotic episodes to display abnormal strength.
“I have seen it take four grown guys to hold one small woman down,” says Driscoll, a chaplain at St. Elizabeth Medical Center in Ottawa, Illinois. “When a person has no fear and is not in their right mind and they don’t care about hurting themselves or hurting others, you can see heartbreaking things.”
That doesn’t mean he thinks possession isn’t real. He says the New Testament is full of accounts of Jesus confronting demons.
“Do I still believe it happens? Yes, I do,” he says. “It happened then. I don’t know why it would be totally eradicated now.”
Gallagher agrees and has answers for skeptics like Novella.
He says demons won’t submit to lab studies or allow themselves to be easily recorded by video equipment. They want to sow doubt, not confirm their existence, he says. Nor will the church compromise the privacy of a person suffering from possession just to provide film to skeptics.
Gallagher says he sees his work with the possessed as an extension of his responsibilities as a doctor.
In a passage from a book he is working on about demonic possession in America, he says that it is the duty of a physician to help people in great distress “without concern whether they have debatable or controversial conditions.”
Gallagher isn’t the first psychiatrist to feel such duty. Dr. M. Scott Peck, the late author of “The Road Less Traveled,” conducted two exorcisms himself — something Gallagher considers unwise and dangerous for any psychiatrist.
“I didn’t go volunteering for this,” he says. “I went into this because different people over the last few decades realized that I was open to this sort of thing. The referrals are almost invariably from priests. It’s not like someone is walking into my office and I say, ‘You must be possessed.’ ”
What Happened To Satan’s Queen
He may not have asked to join the “hidden” world of exorcism, but he is an integral part of that community today. He’s been featured in stories and documentaries about exorcism and is on the governing board of the Rome-based International Association of Exorcists.
“It’s deepened my faith,” he says of the exorcisms he’s witnessed. “It didn’t radically change it, but it validated my faith.”
He says he’s received thanks from many people he’s helped over the years. Some wept, grateful to him for not dismissing them as delusional. As for letting a journalist talk to any of these people, Gallagher says he zealously guards their privacy.
Julia, though, gave him permission to tell her story. But it didn’t have a happy ending.
He and a team of exorcists continued to see her, but eventually, she called a halt to the sessions. She was too ambivalent. She relished some of the abilities she displayed during her trances. She was “playing both sides.”
“Exorcism is not some kind of magical incantation,” Gallagher says. “Normally, a person has to make their own sincere spiritual efforts, too.”
About a year after she dropped out, Gallagher says, he heard Julia’s voice on the phone again. This time, she had called to tell him she was dying of cancer.
Gallagher says he offered to try to help her with a team of priests while she was still physically able, but her response was terse: “Well, I’ll give it some thought.”
He says he never heard from her again.
Inevitably, there will be others. His phone will ring. A priest will tell him a story. A team of clergy and nuns will be summoned. And the man of science will enter the hidden world of exorcism again.
The critics, the souls that aren’t saved, the creepy encounters — they don’t seem to deter him.
“Truly informed exorcists don’t tend to get discouraged,” he says, “because they know it is our Lord who delivers the person, not themselves.”
Is Gallagher doing God’s work, or does he need deliverance from his own delusions?
Perhaps only God — and Satan — knows for sure.
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The Exorcism Of Emily Rose
Anneliese Michel (September 21, 1952 – July 1, 1976) was a German college student who died during an exorcism. Her parents and the priests who carried out the exorcism were later convicted of manslaughter.
From her birth on the 21st of September, 1952, Anneliese Michel enjoyed the life of a normal, religiously nurtured young girl. Without warning, her life changed on a day in 1968 when she began shaking and found she was unable to control her body. She could not call out for her parents, Josef and Anna, or any of her 3 sisters. A neurologist at the Psychiatric Clinic Wurzburg diagnosed her with Grand Mal epilepsy. Because of the strength of the epileptic fits, and the severity of the depression that followed, Anneliese was admitted for treatment at the hospital.
Soon after the attacks began, Anneliese started seeing devilish grimaces during her daily praying. It was the fall of 1970, and while the young people of the world were enjoying the liberal freedoms of the time, Anneliese was battling with the belief that she was possessed. It seemed there was no other explanation for the appearance of devilish visions during her prayers. Voices also began following her, saying Anneliese will “stew in hell.” She mentioned the “demons” to the doctors only once, explaining that they have started to give her orders. The doctors seem unable to help, and Anneliese lost hope that medicine was going to be able to cure her.
In the summer of 1973, her parents visited different pastors to request an exorcism. Their requests were rejected and they were given recommendations that the now 20 year old Anneliese should continue with medication and treatment. It was explained that the process by which the Church proves a possession (Infestatio) is strictly defined, and until all the criteria are met, a bishop can not approve an exorcism. The requirements, to name a few, include an aversion to religious objects, speaking in a language the person has never learned, and supernatural powers.
In 1974, after supervising Anneliese for some time, Pastor Ernst Alt requested a permit to perform the exorcism from the Bishop of Wurzburg. The request was rejected, and a recommendation soon followed saying that Anneliese should live even more of a religious lifestyle in order to find peace. The attacks did not diminish, and her behavior become more erratic. At her parents house in Klingenberg, she insulted, beat, and began biting the other members of her family. She refused to eat because the demons would not allow it. Anneliese slept on the stone floor, ate spiders, flies, and coal, and even began drinking her own urine. She could be heard screaming throughout the house for hours while breaking crucifixes, destroying paintings of Jesus, and pulling apart rosaries. Anneliese began committing acts of self-mutilation at this time, and the act of tearing off her clothes and urinating on the floor became commonplace.
After making an exact verification of the possession in September 1975, the Bishop of Wurzburg, Josef Stangl, assigned Father Arnold Renz and Pastor Ernst Alt with the order to perform “The Great Exorcism” on Anneliese Michel. The basis for this ritual was the “Rituale Romanum,” which was still, at the time, a valid Canon Law from the 17th century. It was determined that Anneliese must be saved from the possession by several demons, including Lucifer, Judas Iscariot, Nero, Cain, Hitler, and Fleischmann, a disgraced Frankish Priest from the 16th century, and some other damned souls which had manifested through her. From September ’75 until July ’76, one or two exorcism sessions were held each week. Anneliese’s attacks were sometimes so strong that she would have to be held down by 3 men, or even chained up. During this time, Anneliese found her life somewhat return to normal as she could again go to school, take final examinations at the Pedagogic Academy in Wurzburg, and go to church.
The attacks, however, did not stop. In fact, she would more often find herself paralyzed and falling unconscious than before. The exorcism continued over many months, always with the same prayers and incantations. Sometimes family members and visitors, like one married couple that claims to have “discovered” Anneliese, would be present during the rituals. For several weeks, Anneliese denied all food. Her knees ruptured due to the 600 genuflections she performed obsessively during the daily exorcism. The process was recorded on over 40 audio tapes, in order to preserve the details.
The last day of the Exorcism Rite was on June 30th, 1976, and Anneliese was suffering at this point from Pneumonia. She was also totally emaciated, and running a high fever. Exhausted and unable to physically perform the genuflections herself, her parents stood in and helped carry her through the motions. “Beg for Absolution” was the last statement Anneliese made to the exorcists. To her mother, she said, “Mother, I’m afraid.” Anna Michel recorded the death of her daughter on the following day, July 1st, 1976, and at noon, Pastor Ernst Alt informed the authorities in Aschaffenburg. The senior prosecutor began investigating immediately.
A short time before these final events unfolded, William Friedkin’s “The Exorcist” (1974) came to the cinemas in Germany, bringing with it a wave of paranormal hysteria that flooded the nation. Psychiatrists all over Europe reported an increase of obsessive ideas among their patients. Prosecutors took more than 2 years to to take Annaliese’s case to court, using that time to sort through the bizarre facts. Anneliese’s parents and the two exorcists were accused of negligent homocide. The “Klingenberg Case” would be decided upon two questions: What caused the death of Anneliese Michel, and who was responsible?
According the forensic evidence, Anneliese starved to death. Specialists claimed that if the accused would have begun with forced feeding one week before her death, Anneliese’s life would have been saved. One sister told the court that Anneliese did not want to go to a mental home where she would be sedated and forced to eat. The exorcists tried to prove the presence of the demons, playing taped recordings of strange dialogues like that of two demons arguing about which one of them would have to leave Anneliese’s body first. One of the demons called himself Hitler, and spoke with a Frankish accent (Hitler was born in Austria). Not one of those present during the exorcism ever had a doubt about the authenticity of the presence of these demons.
The psychiatrists, whom had been ordered to testify by the court, spoke about the “Doctrinaire Induction.” They said that the priests had provided Anneliese with the contents of her psychotic behavior. Consequentially, they claimed, she later accepted her behavior as a form of demonic possession. They also offered that Anneliese’s unsettled sexual development, along with her diagnosed Temporal Lobe Epilepsy, had influenced the psychosis.
The verdict was considered by many to be not as harsh as they expected. Anneliese’s parents, as well as the exorcists, were found guilty of manslaughter resulting from negligence and omitting first aid. They were sentenced to 6 months in jail and probation. The verdict included the opinion of the court that the accused should have helped by taking care of the medical treatment that the girl needed, but instead, their use of naive practices aggravated Anneliese’s already poor constitution.
A commission of the German Bishop-Conference later declared that Anneliese Michel was not possessed; however, this did not keep believers from supporting her struggles, and it was because so many believed in her that Anneliese’s body did not find peace with death. Her corpse was exhumed eleven and a half years after her burial, only to confirm that it had decayed as would have been expected under normal circumstances. Today, her grave remains a place of pilgrimage for rosary-praying and for those who believe that Anneliese Michel bravely fought the devil.
In 1999, Cardinal Medina Estevez presented journalists in Vatican City the new version of the “Rituale Romanum” that has been used by the Catholic Church since 1614. The updates came after more than 10 years of editing and is called “De exorcismis et supplicationibus quibusdam,” otherwise known as “The exorcism for the upcoming millennium.” The Pope approbated the new Exorcism Rite, which is now allowed for worldwide use. This new form of exorcism came after the German Bishop-Conference demanded to ultimately abolish the “Rituale Romun.” It also came more than 20 years after Anneliese Michel had died.
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The Real Exorcism Of Anneliese Michel
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The Exorcism Of Emily Rose (Movie Trailer)
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Horror: The Perfect Christian Genre
By Peter T. Chattaway
Christianity Today
August 30, 2005
Can a Christian make horror movies? Scott Derrickson thinks so. As a screenwriter — and a Christian — he has worked on quite a few films in the genre, including Urban Legends: Final Cut, Dracula 2000 and Hellraiser: Inferno, the last of which he also directed. His newest film as co-writer and director, The Exorcism of Emily Rose, coming to theaters on September 9, looks at first glance like more of the same.
But this movie is a little different. It is based on the true story of a German woman named Anneliese Michel, who died during an exorcism in 1976; the priest who tried to cast the demons out of her was charged with manslaughter. So the film is part horror story, part courtroom drama — and Derrickson says it will get people talking about God.
Derrickson spoke to Christianity Today Movies from his home in Glendale, California.
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Why would a Christian get involved in horror films, of all things?
Scott Derrickson: In my opinion, the horror genre is a perfect genre for Christians to be involved with. I think the more compelling question is, Why do so many Christians find it odd that a Christian would be working in this genre? To me, this genre deals more overtly with the supernatural than any other genre, it tackles issues of good and evil more than any other genre, it distinguishes and articulates the essence of good and evil better than any other genre, and my feeling is that a lot of Christians are wary of this genre simply because it’s unpleasant. The genre is not about making you feel good, it is about making you face your fears. And in my experience, that’s something that a lot of Christians don’t want to do.
To me, the horror genre is the genre of non-denial. It’s about admitting that there is evil in the world, and recognizing that there is evil within us, and that we’re not in control, and that the things that we are afraid of must be confronted in order for us to relinquish that fear. And I think that the horror genre serves a great purpose in bolstering our understanding of what is evil and therefore better defining what is good. And of course I’m talking about, really, the potential of the horror genre, because there are a lot of horror films that don’t do these things. It is a genre that’s full of exploitation, but the better films in the genre certainly accomplish, I think, very noble things.
How do you avoid what some might consider a fascination with evil?
Derrickson: It’s something I’ve thought a lot about. I think of this kind of material in an almost dietary fashion. It’s something that is potent and powerful and it’s not healthy for anyone to overindulge in it.
I would be concerned if one of my children were constantly watching nothing but horror films or indulging in gothic literature without the balance of other types of art and entertainment. I do think that’s a danger. C. S. Lewis had that very practical wisdom, well stated, in his introduction to The Screwtape Letters, when he talks about how the two great dangers, in regard to our thoughts about the demonic and the devil, are to think too much of them or too little of them. To be too afraid of them, to be too hesitant to engage in discussion or thought or art that deals with this realm, is to give in to fear; but to become fascinated with it and to indulge in the material is also very unhealthy.
So for me personally, I stagger the kinds of material that I do. I’ve written in other genres, and if I’m working on a project like the one that I just did, during the course of working on it, I don’t watch any horror films, I don’t read any scary literature, I try to fill myself with things that are a bit brighter, to keep myself personally balanced. But I think that both kinds of material are important for a balanced diet — at least for me…
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• Wikipedia on Anneliese Michel
• The Exorcism of Emily Rose (movie)
• The Exorcist (movie)
• Wikipedia on the movie The Exorcist
• The Pope’s Exorcist (movie)
• Other Exorcist Movies
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Glimpses of the Devil: A Psychiatrist’s Personal Accounts of Possession, Exorcism, and Redemption
By M. Scott Peck
In his 1983 bestseller, People of the Lie, Peck devoted a chapter to exorcism. In this astonishing new book, the megaselling author of The Road Less Traveled reveals his work as an exorcist and attempts to establish a science of exorcism for future research. Peck knows that many readers will be skeptical of or flummoxed by his report, and thus he emphasizes that he himself scoffed at the idea of demonic possession before encountering Jersey Babcock; Peck became involved in her case mostly to “prove the devil’s nonexistence as scientifically as possible.” But a comment by Jersey at their first meeting “blew the thing wide open.” Jersey, a Texas resident who believed she was possessed and who was neglecting her children as a result, said that her demons were “really rather weak and pathetic creatures” — a statement so at odds with, as Peck puts it, “standard psychopathology” that his mind began to change. Peck describes two cases in this book, that of Jersey and the more difficult case of Beccah Armitage, a middle-aged woman who grew up in an abusive family, married an abusive husband and was practicing self-mutilation when Peck took her case. Both cases result in full-blown exorcisms with Peck as the lead exorcist, and both, according to Peck, involved paranormal phenomena, including Beccah acquiring a snakelike appearance. Peck intersperses his calm but dramatic recitation of these cases with set-off commentary, and he concludes the book with a reasoned proposal for a science of exorcism (“An exorcism is a massive therapeutic intervention to liberate, teach, and support the victim to choose to reject the devil”). A report from what is to most of us a strange and distant land, Scott’s book probably won’t convince crowds, but it’s powerful and concisely written enough to interest many, and maybe to give a few pause for thought. — Publisher’s Weekly
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Additional Exorcism Articles:
• The Catholic Church’s Views On Exorcism Have Changed – A Religious Studies Scholar Explains Why (Kalpana Jain, The Conversation, 05/24/2023)
• Life Of Vatican’s ‘James Bond Of Exorcists’ Depicted In Russell Crowe Film (Deepa Bharath, Associated Press, 04/14/2023)
• Here's What Real Exorcists Are Saying About Russell Crowe's Vatican Exorcist Movie (Kevin J. Jones, Catholic News Agency, 03/24/23)
• She Spoke Latin, Objects Flew Around And Lights Flicked On And Off — ‘My Girlfriend Was Possessed By Demon’ (Debbie McCann, Extra.ie, 11/15/2020)
• Exorcism Is Something We Can’t Quite Quit (Lynn Hightower, LA Times, 05/07/2022)
• Exorcist Wars: ‘Legit’ and ‘Rogue’ Exorcists Clash Over New Guidelines (Universal Life Church, 07/28/2020)
• Meet Harrisburg’s Modern-Day Exorcist (Dennis Owens, ABC27 News, 02/13/2020)
• Vatican Training More Priests While Exorcism Requests Are On The Rise (WBNS, 10/31/2019)
• ‘The Exorcist’ Maker Says Vatican Let Him Film Real Rite (The Local, 05/19/2016)
• The Exorcisms Of Latoya Ammons (Marisa Kwiatkowski, Indianapolis Star, 01/25/2014)
• Woman Possessed By Demons In ‘Portal To Hell’ House Reveals New Details Of Her Family’s Terrifying Ordeal (Daily Mail, 01/30/2014)
• Mother Details Haunted House Horrors (Inside Edition, 01/30/2014)
• Pope's Exorcist Says The Devil Is In The Vatican (Clark Bentson, ABCNews, 03/11/2010)
• Pope's Exorcist Squads Will Wage War On Satan (Nick Pisa, Daily Mail, 12/29/2007)
• Archbishop Denies Exorcism Performed On Mother Teresa (National Catholic Reporter, 09/14/2001)
• Archbishop: Mother Teresa Underwent Exorcism (Satinder Bindra, CNN, 09/07/2001)
• Vatican University Offering Classes On Satanism/Exorcism (The Irish Times, 02/17/2005)
• Chicago Archdiocese Appoints Exorcist (Ernest Tucker, The Oklahoman,09/23/2000)
• Devil Defeats The Pope In Vatican Exorcism Battle (Bruce Johnston, The Telegraph, 09/11/2000)
• 'Encountered Satan' During Exorcisms: Psychiatrist Sees Evil As Form Of Mental Illness (Kay Bartlett, La Times, 12/15/1985)
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The Lighter Side Of Evil Spirits, Demonic Possession & Exorcism (From Dirt Devil)
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Learn About Near-Death Experiences:
• The Purpose Of Life As Revealed By Near-Death Experiences From Around The World (Book)
• 500 Quotes From Heaven: Life-Changing Quotes That Reveal The Wisdom & Power Of Near-Death Experiences (Book)
• The Formula For Creating Heaven On Earth (Main Website)
• The Formula For Creating Heaven On Earth (Legacy Website)
• NDE Stories
• Encounters With Jesus
• Outstanding Near-Death Experiences (Rumble)
• Near-Death Experience Stories & Other Outstanding Resources (Rumble)
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Thank you so much for your comprehensive article. In recent years, I have had to keep an increasingly open mind to phenomena which I previously had considered rather strange or unlikely. However, it has been a challenging journey of discovery. Overall, my seeking for truth is stronger than my fear of discovering the truth. Thank you also for your many excellent articles on Covid. Best wishes!