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This year may we/1 go down in
history as "the year of the
Devil.
"
Never in recent times
has there been such fascina–
tion with the occult, psychic
phenom(!!na, and t he s pirit
world. ls there more to demons,
evil spirits, and exorcism than
mos t people realize?
by
William F. Dankenbring
ALL
THE
demons of he11 seem to
1""'\_
have broken loose in a fren-
zied avalanche upon the so–
phisticated Westem world where,
ironicaUy. the discoveries of science
are thought to have relegated de–
mons, hell, and
~he
spirit world to
the limbo of ancient mythoJogy.
Since Christmas of l973, millions
of people have queued up in front
of box offices to purchase tickets to
see a film called "The Exorcist." Tbe
movie is so realistic and mind-bend–
ing that customers have staggered
out. fainting, v0miting. mentally
shaken. The movie has wecipitated
a rasb of reported cases ofi demon
possession.
The movie depicts a young girl
who dabbles in the occult, consult–
ing with a "Captain Howdy" via her
Ouija board. She retreats more and
more into her privare worl<,i,
con~
sorting with Captain Howdy, her
supposed "friend.' ' Then one day
Captain Howdy, who is really a vio–
lent, powerful spirit being, seizes
control of lier facuJties. thus begin–
ning tbe torturous drama of posses–
sion and, later, exorcism.
The exorcíst in the fi lm is a Cath–
olic priest. Most priests and psy–
cbotherapists ,do not believe in
demons and consider the occult filn1
"The Exorcist" a dangerous {xperi-
en ce. fra ught wi th peri l for
borderline schizophrenics and the
emotionally unbalanced. Many lead–
ing psychiatrists, as well as theolo–
gians, have wal'ned people not to go
see "The Exorcist." They have had
too many viewers coming
Ló
them.
sulfering from nightmares, trauma,
and fear of demons, as well as
m~tny
others who think they are possessed.
But even psychiatrists are divided
on the subject of demonism. AJan
Reed, Jr. of Milwaukee will not rule
out possession as an ex.planation for
sorne forms of extreme psychic dis–
order. "In the whole field of spiritu–
alism, mysticism, religion and the
human spirit, there are rhings so
minimally understood that almost
anything's possible," he declared.
Another, Dr. Walter Brown
of
Mount Sinai Hospital in New York
City, asserted:
"1
believe in all that
stutf. lo a way. all psychoanalysis
and psychotherapy are forms of ex–
orcism, of getting rid of demons."
The Ritual of Exorcism
A,Hhough skeptics continue to
harbor doubts, those acquainted
with the facts and who have dealt
with cases of demon possession have
no iUusions. Tbey admit freely that.
most mental illnesses, insanity, and
schizopbrenia are not due to demon
possession but are mental, physical
and psychical aberrations due to
physiological and environmental
causes. NeveLtheless. there are times
where demon possession apr.ears to
be the only logical explanation.
Fer
e~ample,
on the night of Jan–
uary 15 1949, trange scratchings
under the fioor terriiied a boy, bis
mothe r and grandmother. Ttie
noises grew worse. and the boy's
mattress be,gan to shake violently at
night, tossing him out of the bed. In
'February, scratches began to appear
on tbe boy's body while bis hands
lay mótionless, causing the boy to
howl with pain. Then the scratches
began to form words written over
the boy's chest and stomach.
A Bible was hurled tbrough the
air in the boy's room. with no ap–
parent cause. A coat on· a hanger
flew across the room. Fourteen dif–
ferent witnesses saw the inexplicable
phenomena. Horrified, the boy's re–
lations called in a physician, a psy–
chiatrist, and a spirítualíst to help
the child. Al! had no success. Finally
an exorcist was called in on the case.
The boy was taken to St. Louis
University for the formal ritual of
exorcism.. As the Rdests began read–
ing the Latin ritual , the boy hurled
answers back at them also in Latín.
No matter what language they
spoke to him, he rep)ied in that lan–
guage, fluently.
The struggJe to free the boy from
rhe bonds of Satan !asted for six
weeks, day and nÍght, and little by
little the boy carne back to normal.
Th:is particular case of exorcism was
thé one upon which the movie ' 'The
Exorcist" was based, although the
similarity betweeo the two is remote.
A natiop.al survey by the Center
for Policy Research, an independent
agency which studies social trends,
found that in nine years the propor–
tion of Aljl1ericans who believe the
devi l exists has risen from 37 per–
cent to 48 percent, with another
20
percent thinking he pwbably exists.
1\he e figures were gathered before
the furor over "The Exorcist." Uo–
doubtedly they have edged upwarcl
since. Meanwhile, those certain of
God's existence declined from 77
percent to 69 percent. lf this t¡ end
j