The exorcism that killed Anneliese

"Anneliese Michel" is the real name of the "possessed" young woman in the film The Exorcism of Emily Rose. The reason why they could not use her real name is because this movie is, in film parlance, only "loosely based" on Anneliese’s own true story. "Loosely based" really means you make macaroons from coconut – you do not use all the parts of the coconut, but only those parts that serve your purpose (in this case, sell movie tickets) and only after those chosen details have been seasoned and embellished here and there. And those things are what make Hollywood movies so delicious, and those above are allowed under the whole umbrella permit of artistic license. (I loved the caption I saw in one movie review, of the photo of the actress in the said movie, screaming, "I have to be exorcised dammit! Sony Picture said so!") But the edge that the film has with its wide reach, good actors, and spooky come-on, should not drown out reason in looking at this tragedy that happened to Anneliese. Reason considers the complete set of facts. It is reason that will enable us to see not the movie character Emily Rose but the real Anneliese Michel, a fellow human being, a young woman whose real cause of death was starvation because her parents and priests were obsessed in their belief that Anneliese was possessed.

I can imagine some overzealous readers promptly sending their own wishes for a demon dispatch (again) to my address because of my unbelief in "demonic possession." Before they give the demon the pink slip with my address on it, allow me first to reveal some crucial facts. This may save the demon the trip and avoid the mad traffic of lost souls. Based on my sources, namely the Washington Post and the Telegraph whose investigative journalists actually went to Anneliese’s German hometown of Klingenberg to look for the facts, forensic evidence showed that Anneliese died of starvation with her 68-lb body so drained of life, with her knees so broken from the more than 600 genuflections/day (during nine months of exorcism) her already emaciated body had to do as required by the 1614 Rituale Romanum, the exorcism manual of the Catholic Church (the second edition was only done in 1999).

Based on court proceedings, her parents and her exorcists, Father Arnold Renz and Pastor Alt, were all found guilty of "manslaughter due to negligence and failing to administer first aid" and sentenced to six months in jail, and probation. More importantly, to those who think I am challenging the Church in matters of the soul which is way beyond my competency, you have to know that the same Church reversed itself in the case of Anneliese Michel and through a German Bishops’ Conference declared, albeit belatedly after the court sentencing, that Anneliese Michel had NOT been possessed by demons. To confirm this further, her body was exhumed 11 and a half years later and was found to have decayed which I am sure did not shatter the world view of diligent bacteria but I can imagine greatly surprised and disappointed those who have tenaciously stuck to their "demon possession" explanation (apparently, according to the exorcism authenticity checklist, if demons had partied in your body, you will not decay). She turned out to be all too human- frail and perhaps, as some analysts suggest, have fallen victim to the prevailing psyche at the time when the film The Exorcist with head-turning Linda Blair, was released in 1974, where there have been documented reports of increased obsession among psychiatric patients with the idea of "demon possession" as the preferred explanation for their own extreme psychotic behavior. Psychiatric experts who testified in Anneliese’s case also said that the exorcism rites might have aggravated her delusions – something called "Doctrinaire Induction" where the priests had unwittingly provided Anneliese with the "contents of her psychotic behavior."

Anneliese Michel was born in 1952, and in 1968, started to have seizures that were diagnosed as temporal lobe epilepsy. Her parents sought medical help while they, including Anneliese, all very religious, also became increasingly convinced that she was possessed by demons. In 1975, Anneliese’s parents finally convinced the Bishop of Wurzburg (after many rejections of the parents’ requests) to finally send the two exorcists to begin performing exorcism rites in September 1975. They did these once or twice weekly for two to four hours, exorcising many demons supposedly inside Anneliese, demons that included big names in the industry like Cain, Adolf Hitler, Judas Iscariot, Lucifer, and Nero. It was already July 1976 but Anneliese’ worsening condition, even after around 40 very intensive exorcism rites later, still did not convince her parents and the exorcists that exorcism might not be the answer to Anneliese’s condition. She died on July 1, 1976, more frightened than she had ever been and tragically, ultimately exorcised only of life-sustaining nutrients and sadly, of reason.

We definitely need heavy exorcism but I think we need that of the reverse kind. We need to rid ourselves of the dulling, numbing effect of superstition on our minds, especially if we carry it beyond board games and entertainment. People like Anneliese are the very human beings who are most in need of our most careful, methodical thought on what we can cull from Nature that can help them recover the lives they have a birthright to explore, and to give and derive meaning from. Almost two years ago, in a town in Negros Occidental, news carried the story of a fellow named Eugenio who beheaded an elderly couple whom he suspected as having killed his daughter through supernatural means because the couple was known in the town to be "manananggal" (supernatural creatures who can split themselves in half with the upper part flying off somewhere to have a late-night dinner). He thought the couple was too strange, living by themselves in the forest (now, if being strange necessarily made people "supernatural," do watch out for my upper body part flying over to a window nearest you). He even dipped the couple’s severed heads in embers in the belief that the heads were capable of finding their way back to their bodies by themselves. Either Eugene was psychiatrically ill or he watched too much Voltes V to think that humans can just "volt in" even after major arteries, not to mention major human body parts, especially heads, are severed. I think both. Superstition not only makes people idiots, it also kills and makes criminals out of otherwise mentally disturbed people who need professional help to get their lives back. If only reason came in an ingestible material that medical science could liquefy so that it can be taken intravenously, I would tirelessly solicit sponsors for such an antidote to idiocy. 

But rest now, Anneliese. No demons can harm you now while we the living will still have to contend with all sorts of demons, some of them of our own making, some of them elected, some of them appointed, some of them saintly in dress and speech. We are so sorry that those who insisted "use reason!" to help you, were ignored, did not triumph in your case and failed to help you get your life back. We are sorry that your shadow in the character of Emily Rose in this current film became propaganda for superstition cloaked as cinematic entertainment. We are sorry that we used the story of your one precious life, your tragic life to inject recreational excitement and novelty into our weekend lives that have been dulled and worn down by the realities of our tiresome politics and desperate economics. Heads need to turn but it is not your head that needs to whirl this time. It is the heads of those who need to twist their perspective from superstition 180 degrees so they could arrive at reason. And boo! Many may be surprised how the road of reason arrives at a real solution, even with kindness and compassion, much more reliably than the imaginary paths of superstition.

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