Anneliese Michel is one of the most famous victims of religious devotion. Due to her death in agony, exorcisms were banned in many countries. But not everywhere ... Today, Poland is the world power in the field of expelling the devil from the human body.
Anneliese Michel was born in 1952 in Leiblfing, Germany. She grew up here and went to school before starting her pedagogical studies. However, she broke it and returned to her family home. The photo shows a pretty young girl with a nice expression on her face. This photograph is often juxtaposed with others of Anneliese just before or immediately after her death. They are terrifying. The girl looks like a victim of an extermination camp where extremely cruel medical experiments were conducted .
The photo shows a pretty young girl with a nice expression on her face.
The photos shocked the public in 1976, right after the girl's death. The news that she died as a result of an exorcism went around the world. They wondered how such cruelty could have happened in a law-abiding state? At the root of this barbarism was religious devotion, and the act was committed by parents, an exorcist and the local parish priest .
Murderous exorcisms
After Anneliese's autopsy, it turned out that starvation and dehydration could be the cause of death. On the day of her death, the girl weighed only 30 kilograms. She damaged her knee joints by constantly kneeling. Numerous wounds and scars, considered by exorcists as stigmas, were also noticed on her body. It later emerged that Anneliese was mentally and physically exhausted. The exorcisms were held there for 10 months - once or twice a week in 4-hour sessions . The last girl was on June 30, 1976. Afterwards, she went to bed and died in her sleep the next day.
Anneliese Michel was born and raised in a very religious and traditionalist family. From an early age, she had to atone for the smallest offenses, e.g. sleeping on a hard and cold floor. At the age of 17, her first epilepsy attacks were confirmed by a medical diagnosis. The severity of the attacks meant that she withdrew completely from the social life she had in college. The disease was accompanied by anxiety states, depression appeared . Over time, Anneliese completely isolated herself from the world and stopped her studies. However, she refused to be treated in a psychiatric clinic.
The house where Anneliese Michel lived
Parents - religious fanatics - saw the actions of demons in their daughter's deteriorating condition. They demanded exorcisms, which was not easy in Germany. Eventually, however, the Bishop of Wurzburg, Josef Stangl, yielded to the pleas and consented. Sessions were to be conducted in the victim's home, and Father Arnold Renz was appointed exorcist, accompanied by Pastor Ernst Alt. It is said that the girl herself during the exorcism confessed that her body and soul were taken over by:Nero, Lucifer, Cain, Judas, Fleischmann (an accursed priest) and Hitler.
It's not devils, it's epilepsy
The trial of Anneliese's death lasted many months. Doctors appointed as court experts, of course, rejected the possession hypothesis, stating that the girl simply suffered from epilepsy. They interpreted her strange behavior as a result of raising religious fanatics in a family. The court admitted starvation was the direct cause of death . The girl's parents and clergy participating in the exorcism were convicted of manslaughter. However, the sentence was mild:6 months imprisonment suspended for 3 years.
Bishop Stangl - like Pontius Pilate - washed his hands and issued a statement in which he stated that possession does not exist and that similar cases are the result of mental illness. This gave rise to an informal ban on exorcisms in Germany (still in force today) which is used in Western countries (with some exceptions - such as Italy).
the bishop of Wurzburg, Josef Stangl, yielded to the requests and gave his consent to the exorcism
"It was she, just a girl in her twenties who had her whole life ahead of her, who became the biggest victim of this dark affair. She could not count on her family - it was in the family home that she lost her life, which left her slowly, after the torments of the body and psyche, but above all without the grace of her mother and father - if any of them tried to give her food and drink, the girl would be maybe she would be alive " - wrote Anna Sroka-Czyżewska in "Głos Kultury".
The Anneliese Michel case became famous in the world mainly thanks to the movie "The Exorcism of Emily Rose". The production was based on the events that took place in Germany, but the screenwriter moved the action to modern America. In the film, a Catholic priest is brought to trial, accused of accidentally killing a young girl.
When mind sleeps demons play
It might seem that exorcisms - as a dark heritage of the Middle Ages - are a thing of the past. But not everywhere. For several years, the world power in this field is ... Poland. There are already over a hundred authorized specialists in casting out the devil in the country . Even the "Exorcist" monthly was created. Even some psychiatrists and psychologists refer their patients to exorcists. Where is it coming from? According to the psychiatrist prof. Jerzy Aleksandrowicz:"We are not a European power of rational thinking."
"Mental disorders can take the form expected or provoked by the environment, the socio-cultural environment. So it's no wonder that some sick people may experience themselves as if they were possessed by Satan. His presence was confirmed by John Paul II, so he is definitely wandering around the world, or at least in Poland. The decision to refer the patient to an exorcist means resignation from rational treatment - pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy " - states prof. Aleksandrowicz.
No less important is the fact of enslavement and mistreatment of people during exorcisms.