The Exorcism of Anneliese Michael: A Story of Possession or Neglect?

Oftentimes I find that truth is far stranger than any work of fiction. That is why I laugh when people talk about how far fetched soap operas are. Of course, many of their stories are a bit out there, but others are actually tame in comparison to real life. That is even true of what many would consider real life horror stories.

This is certainly the case for a young German girl named Anneliese Michael. Born in 1952, by all accounts Anneliese was a typical young girl with one possible exception. She was known to be extraordinarily religious. In fact, her faith in God was the one thing that she never questioned. She certainly would never have expected it to be her undoing.

In 1969, seventeen-year-old Anneliese began a journey from which she would not return. Almost over night her life went from one of sublime happiness to that of absolute terror.

Out of nowhere one day Anneliese’s body began to shake. Try as she might, she could not force it to stop. Once taken to a clinic, physicians diagnosed her as having a grand mal epileptic seizures for which she was treated.

Something, however, told the young girl, that the diagnosis was wrong. Perhaps it was the devilish imps that appeared to her whenever she knelt in prayer. Maybe it was the horrific figurines that suddenly crowded her dreams or the evil voices that whispered in her ear. Whatever it was, Anneliese felt she was being tested.

After two years of continuous onslaught, Anneliese became convinced that she was possessed. She suggested the possibility to her psychiatrist who at first dismissed the girl’s concerns. But after she informed him that the voices were trying to control her and make her do things she didn’t want to do, he diagnosed her as schizophrenic and prescribed anti-psychotic drugs.

Neither the drugs for seizures nor those prescribed for psychosis seemed to work. If anything, Anneliese continued to get worse. With medicine basically ignoring any further concern, the girl begged her parents for a different kind of help. She wanted to have her demons exorcised. Together, she and her parents made the rounds, attempting to find someone who would perform the ritual Anneliese believed that she needed. But door after door was shut in their faces.

They eventually found a pastor by the name of Ernst Alt who was willing to perform the exorcism if his church gave their approval. It did not, instead advising the girl to seek inner peace through stronger faith and a more religious lifestyle. But Anneliese knew her faith was already unshakeable and that her religious life was as full as she knew how to make it.

By 1974, Anneliese bore little resemblance to the once happy, sweet girl that everyone loved. Now she was either remote and unreachable or on a constant brink of explosion. She attacked members of her family and her friends without provocation, hitting them, insulting or cursing at them, and even biting them.

She stopped eating and drinking. When questioned during her few brief moments of lucidity, she informed her parents that the demons wouldn’t allow her anything but the few insects she could find roaming on the ground. Anneliese began to lose weight rapidly and became seriously dehydrated.

Next, the girl began mutilating herself. She would use anything sharp that she could find to cut or jab into her skin. She would tear off her clothes and lay curled up in a naked ball until she was on the brink of freezing. She no longer bathed or washed her hair and fought anyone who attempted to help her.

Finally convinced that Anneliese was possessed not by one, but by multiple demons, the church finally gave permission for the Rituale Romanum exorcism. But the process did not go well. It took three men to hold her down during the procedure and she eventually had to be chained as well.

At first, it appeared that the procedure worked. Slowly Anneliese’s life began to return to normal. She went back to school and once again attended regular church services.

However, it wasn’t long before everyone realized that the brief pause was nothing more than a ruse to lull everyone into a false feeling of comfort. Before long, Anneliese realized she was in more trouble than ever. Without warning, she was subject to moments of total paralysis which even resulted in long periods of black outs.

Once again, the pastor began the exorcism ritual. It continued for months, day after day and night after night. Whenever possible Anneliese’s family and friends took part in the ceremony to show their support.

Anneliese, once again, stopped eating. Her arms and legs became all but useless. Her tendons in her knees ruptured because of her constant genuflections that she hoped would redeem her. Nothing worked.

By the summer of ’76, Anneliese was near death’s door. She was emaciated from lack of eating and suffered from pneumonia with an accompanying high fever. Unable to kneel and pray by herself any longer, her parents helped to move her body to the motions. Finally, unable to hold on, she begged for absolution, expressed her fear, and then passed away.

Wracked with guilt and grief over the loss of their beloved daughter, her parents couldn’t believe it when they, along their pastor, were charged with negligent homicide in the death of Anneliese. Certainly, forensic medicine seemed to back up the charge. It proved that Anneliese had died of dehydration and malnourishment.

Physicians were brought in to testify to the girl’s supposed insanity as evidenced by the series of recorded tapes that were made during the various exorcisms. Some called her schizophrenic while others said she suffered from DID. None could explain why their years of medication had not worked.

The exorcists played tape after tape, leaving few in the courtroom unconvinced of the girl’s possession. But the psychiatrists said that the church had given the girl all of the information she needed to buy into her own psychotic behavior.

Without a previous case for precedence, the courts’ ruling was far less severe than it might have otherwise been. Both Anneliese’s parents and her pastor were found guilty of negligent homicide and sentenced to six months in jail.

A German commission later formally declared that Anneliese had not been possessed. But their opinion carried little weight with those who knew the girl, her family, the pastor, or even with those who had faithfully followed the trial. Her grave remains a place where many go to pray for the soul of a girl who dared to fight the devil.

Some fifty years later, many questions about Anneliese and her supposed possession remain unanswered. One obvious question surrounded the release of the movie “The Exorcist”. Many skeptics wondered if the girl might have simply mimicked what was experienced in the film.

Anneliese’s parents and friends insisted that by the time the movie was released in Germany – – in 1974 – – she was too ill to have gone to the theater. But many claim that the tone of voice and language witnessed on Anneliese’s tapes is very much like that found in the film. They seem to forget that Anneliese’s symptoms began almost five years prior to the release of the film.

Others have raised the issue as to why the girl’s parents didn’t force feed her. Testimony given at the trial indicated, had they done so as late as one week prior to her death, Anneliese might not have died. All discount her sister’s insistence that Anneliese did not want to be committed to a mental institution and force-fed.

A few others claim that certain other factors not brought to light during the trial might have had an impact on Anneliese’s delusion. The first was the fact that her mother had given birth to an illegitimate child about four year’s prior to Anneliese’s birth. The girl, named Martha, died at the age of eight, leading the woman to believe she was punished for her sin.

To make certain that the same fate didn’t befall Anneliese, her mother encouraged to atone for the sins of her own birth (as another illegitimate child). Many believe that this had a major influence on the girl’s religious devotion. She hung pictures of saints on her walls, kept holy water nearby her at all time, and regularly prayed the rosary.

Some of her friends admitted that Anneliese seemed obsessed with atoning for not only her sins, but those of her parents as well. If, therefore, she felt she had failed in her task, it is conceivable that she expected to be punished in a serious way. It isn’t a large leap from there to think that Anneliese might have assumed that punishment could be as severe as demonic possession.

No definitive answer regarding Anneliese’s supposed possession has ever been offered. Most churches cannot even agree whether or not demonic possession exists. However, even those who might accept the possibility of possession, have to wonder whether or not it applied in the case of Anneliese Michael. Certainly, it would seem that the girl believed that she was possessed. Unless she had a reputation as a well-known liar, which was not the case, I think one must assume that she spoke the truth as she knew it.

Those interested in more details about Anneliese’s case might want to rent the movie made about her “The Exorcism of Emily Rose.”* It may raise more questions than it answers but it is a very good film that will make you think and consider all of the possibilities.

*Anneliese’s name was changed to Emily Rose in the movie to try to protect her family and friends.