It was June 6th of 2013 when an old Bavarian
home went up in flames. Some would claim that they could see the outline
of a person in the smoke. Could this be the spirit of a young girl from
nearly 40 years ago? A girl who many believed was possessed by
up to seven demons and who both lived and died in the same building? Let’s look at what once took place in the
now destroyed property in this episode of The Infographics Show, The Exorcism of Anneliese
Michel. Anneliese Michel was born in West Germany
in September of 1952 to a middle-class family who lived in a white house with green window
frames. She had three younger siblings, all girls. Her parents were Roman Catholics and she was
raised religiously, attending Mass each and every week. However, her seemingly normal albeit strict
upbringing veered off course when she turned sixteen. This was when she had a sudden and debilitating
seizure and was diagnosed as having temporal lobe epilepsy, or TLE. This condition causes seizures that last between
one and two minutes. It is possible for those diagnosed with this
disorder to remain fully conscious. They will then have hallucinations of the
senses, visual distortions, dissociation, déjà vu, amnesia, anxiety, and other strong
emotions. The seizure may end there or progress to an
impaired awareness type in which consciousness is affected. This may cause individuals to stare, unmoving,
move reflexively, or be unable to speak, read, or understand words. They may also feel confused or struggle with
communication. This seizure may even spread further to become
a generalized type where the whole body will tense up and jerk. After seizing someone may be disoriented for
a span of minutes to days. Clearly the condition can be life changing. The good news for Anneliese is that though
she had more than one, she still didn’t have very many. Though the few she had in combination with
other problems were enough to destroy her very wellbeing. It was June of 1970 when she had her third. At the time she was a patient in a psychiatric
hospital and was given anticonvulsant medications to help her with her symptoms. However, these didn’t seem to work. In fact, her situation became worse. She started to hallucinate and see the faces
of demons. Further, she would believe that she was smelling
fire or feces that weren’t really there as well as develop paralysis of both arms. Based on this, doctors added the drug Aolept
to her anti-seizure medication. This was typically effective for cases of
schizophrenia and other forms of delusions. As many with TLE do, she became depressed. She started to hear voices as well while she
was praying. These would taunt her and say she was damned
and destined for Hell. Despite the doctor’s best efforts, by 1973
her mental health only continued to grow worse. She also became more and more depressed. After years of medications and treatments
and without any improvements, she considered an alternate prognosis that required an entirely
different form of intervention. She believed that she was possessed by demons
and could only be saved through an exorcism. The reason she believed she was possessed
was because her mother had had a child before marriage and so the curse for her infidelity
had been passed on to her. The illegitimate child was seemingly cursed
too as she died while undergoing surgery in 1956. Others supported this idea. A family friend was convinced of Anneliese’s
possession once she visited her and displayed oddly religiously intolerant behavior. This included the refusal to walk by a crucifix
or drink any holy water from a spring. In fact, she couldn’t even enter the shrine
that the spring was in as she had the sensation that the ground was burning under her feet. Those praying also looked to her as if they
were frantically gnashing their teeth and the pictures of the holy trinity sparkled
blindingly. These symptoms convinced many beyond her family
that there really was an evil spirit in her. Her parents began to contact priests in hopes
of saving her with an exorcism. At first, their requests were met with refusal
and the suggestion of seeking only medical forms of treatment. Further, the priests explained that such rites
required the bishop’s approval. This would only be granted in the case of
several specific circumstances. In other words, certain conditions would have
to be met that helped determine whether or not an individual was truly possessed before
any action could be taken. The Catholic Church’s term for possession
was infestation. And some of its documented first signs included
feelings of repulsion for religious or supernatural artifacts. Clearly, as far as this, Anneliese fit the
bill. However, she was still not given the exorcism
that she wanted so badly. Instead, she developed several further unusual
behaviors. She began to act violently and bite her family
and also hurt herself. Further, she started to consume her own urine
as well as flies, spiders, and coal. Rumors are that she even bit off and swallowed
the head of a bird and went under a table and barked for days. Not very surprisingly, considering what she
ate, she would have periods of diarrhea and vomiting. She believed that all of this was due to her
past wrongs and began sleeping on the hard stone floor as a self-imposed punishment. Her situation was becoming quite desperate. In late 1973, she began the medication Tegretol
meant to stabilize her emotions as well as prevent her seizures. Like before with the other drugs, it did little
to help. Ernst Alt, a pastor, ended up contacting Bishop
Josef Stangl on Anneliese’s behalf in support of an exorcism. His support was based upon his observations
of her in which he concluded that she didn’t seem like an epileptic and had never, as far
as he had noticed, had a seizure. Instead, he believed her symptoms were due
to the work of demons. Finally, in 1975, the bishop gave his approval
to the Michel’s family’s third request for an exorcism. The procedure was to be performed by priest
Arnold Renz and he was to do it in complete secrecy. The first session took place in September
of 1975. Sixty-six further sessions would follow, up
to twice weekly for four hours each and over the span of around ten months. These would consist of Father Renz and Pastor
Alt moving crucifixes back and forth, burning incense, and chanting prayers. Then Anneliese would scream, for hours, in
unreal and primal sounds. It seemed to be working when the many demons
within her vanished except for one. Until the next day when the rest returned. Somehow, they didn’t give up. In fact, Anneliese asked her family to discontinue
looking to doctors for medical treatments in favor of relying only on the exorcism. They followed her wishes. Eventually, as her treatments went on, Anneliese
stopped eating or drinking. She said that the demons would not let her. According to some sources, Annelise eventually
requested the exorcism to end. She claimed that the Virgin Mary had come
to her in a vision and asked her to stay possessed to benefit mankind and to become a martyr. She obeyed. Quite eerily, she apparently knew the day
she was going to die and accurately predicted it beforehand. She died on the 1st of July in 1976. The official cause of death given was malnutrition
and dehydration. It was determined that she had been in a state
of starvation for almost a year. In fact, her corpse weighed only 68 pounds,
or 30 kilograms. Not long before, she had become so weak that
she could no longer move on her own and the motions required for her exorcism had shattered
both of her knees. She may also have been suffering from pneumonia. She told her exorcist to beg for absolution
and her mother that she was afraid. Those were the last words she would say. She was only 23 when she died. Her parents and the priests involved were
prosecuted and accused of negligent homicide upon her passing. It was suggested that intervention could have
saved her life at any point up until days before she ultimately died, such as through
forced feeding. Doctors gave testimony that Anneliese was
not possessed but her symptoms were only because of her epileptic episodes mixed with her religious
beliefs. Some experts suggested that she had a very
severe case of schizophrenia. However, it was revealed that at least one
such doctor had told Anneliese that there was no type of medicine that could fight the
devil, destroying his credibility. As proof of her possession, tapes were played
in court of the exorcism sessions in which Anneliese spoke in different voices as if
demons were arguing. These evil spirits claimed to be Nero, Hitler,
Judas Iscariot, Cain, and Lucifer. In other words, her body was not just possessed
by one demon but many, and at certain times this was up to seven. She would also speak in various languages
such as Aramaic, Latin, and Greek. Ultimately, those directly involved believed
that the exorcism had been successful as these strange voices ended right before her death. Whether or not this was true, lawyers argued
for freedom of religion and against any sentencing. However, the stakes were not as high as they
could have been. The state pushed for fining the priests and
the prosecution believed that the parents had suffered enough already. Therefore, no parties faced jail time for
what they had done. They were originally convicted of manslaughter
due to negligence and given a six-month jail sentence, however this was suspended. They ended up with only three years’ probation,
which was a greater sentence than the prosecution had asked for but was far from the worst punishment
possible. After it was over, the body of Anneliese was
exhumed at the request of her parents. She was then placed in a better coffin. However, that was not the real reason her
parents wanted access to her body. It turns out a nun from Bavaria had a vision
and afterwards contacted Anneliese’s parents to share it with them. She had supposedly seen their daughter’s
remains unchanged and perfectly preserved in her coffin. They had hoped that this was actually true
and that it would show that she was really possessed and ultimately saved through the
exorcism. Her body, however, as any other body would
do, had begun to decompose with time. Despite this finding, interest in her case
continued. Her grave even became a revered site where
many visited on pilgrimage. Then the buses came. Stuffed door to door with tourists who were
eager to see where Anneliese had lived, her grave, and the chapel erected in her memory. These people who had a fascination with the
case came by in droves and quite overwhelmed the small Bavarian city. The Church was dealt a blow through the negative
publicity. It did eventually have a change of opinion
and state that she was likely mentally ill and not possessed but damage had already been
done. The rate of exorcisms declined. This likely won’t change anytime soon. As recently as 1999 the new pope made the
rules governing exorcisms tougher and approval much harder to get. But were they ultimately right, or were they
wrong after all? It may be just a coincidence, but in May of
2013, the garage of the chapel built for Anneliese burned down. While a faulty light was found nearby, a police
spokesman later claimed that that would be a very odd and atypical way to start a fire. Then three weeks later, the home in which
she both lived and died was engulfed in flames. Fortunately, it was empty, and had been since
her family no longer lived there. Rather unsurprisingly, no one else wanted
to move in. While some think demons are to blame, the
mayor of the town claimed it was arson committed by teenagers. If it was the work of children, all we can
say is that they picked quite a day to burn down the home. June is the sixth month of the year, that
Thursday was the sixth day in the month, and the sum of the digits in the year 2013 give
you 6. That’s three 6’s, or 666, the biblical
sign of the devil. Is it just another coincidence or is it really
an indication that what others feared could be true really was all along? What do you think? Let us know in the comments! Also, be sure to check out our other video
called True Scary Stories - TRY NOT TO GET SCARED CHALLENGE 2019! Thanks for watching, and, as always, don’t
forget to like, share, and subscribe. See you next time!
