The True Story of Anneliese Michel

About two decades after the first story of America’s first modernized case of demonic possession came to light, another case popped up in Germany, and it’s perhaps even more intriguing. The possession, exorcism, and death of Anneliese Michel still creates goosebumps on our skin, and we’re about to talk about precisely what it is that makes her case stand out among the many others.

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Anneliese Michel’s Possession and Exorcisms

Raised in a very traditionally Catholic home, and seemingly shy in a normal way, Anneliese Michel was your average German girl. Her peers would later note that she would sometimes let religion get in the way of her participating in “fun” activities, but otherwise, she was an alright gal. She received good marks in school and even went on to graduate from high school at the top of her class.

However, in 1973 when she was about twenty years old, she experienced a violent convulsive seizure. Scared to death, her parents had taken her to many different doctors and Anneliese received many different types of medication that treated epilepsy. However, all of these medications proved to be ineffective for her, and the convulsions continued. As they continued, they also became progressively worse. Anneliese began talking about how during the convulsions, she heard all types of scary voices informing her that she was to rot in hell forever. She would do her best to pray as hard as she could when this occurred, but this would only create hallucinations for her. She would see images of fire, brimstone, and scenes that were so disturbing, she could not bear to reiterate them.

Psychology was still a rather new type of practice in Germany at the time, and medical experts who worked with Anneliese switched their focus from trying to treat epilepsy, to trying to treat the newly discovered disease of schizophrenia. None of the therapy or medications she received for any type of mental illness ended up helping her whatsoever. In fact, just as it had been with her misdiagnoses of epilepsy, more and more failed treatments took place, and her condition continued to worsen.

By now, Anneliese, who had previously considered joining the Catholic sisterhood, was terrified of churches, Holy water seemed to create blisters on her skin, and the mere sight of a crucifix sent her into rages. Her parents finally decided to call upon the Catholic church for assistance, and approval from the Vatican was given to perform an exorcism. The priest who worked on her stated that she did not look like she would have had seizures, and confirmed their suspicions that this looked exactly like the work of Satan himself.

The exorcism sessions, coupled with the medication that Anneliese had been prescribed, continued for almost a year. Sixty seven sessions were performed in total, and everyone in the home had been exhausted. The demon in her caused her to vomit up any type of food or water that she was given, and as a result, Anneliese became very frail. Since she was so frail, her knees became broken relatively quickly due to kneeling in prayer so much, and as a result, she was completely bedridden.

Her condition never seemed to improve, and eventually, she ended up dying from malnutrition. Her parents as well as the attending priest were swiftly charged with negligent homicide, and though they did not serve any time in jail for this crime, they did end up paying quite a bit of money in fines and probationary fees. This case was so controversial that it created a worldwide stir and still stays pretty high up in Google’s global search recommendations even today.

Anneliese Michel was exhumed for further evaluation. The state did not believe that she was possessed, but that she was severely mentally ill. Modern psychological science also backs up this claim with what we know now about dissociative identity disorder, religious fervency, and the like. Her body showed signs of deterioration that had clearly taken place for quite some time, and had this occurred now, perhaps she would have lived and gotten the treatment that she truly needed.

Or was Anneliese truly possessed without hope? The stipulations on attaining the ability to perform the rite of exorcism within the Catholic Church is so extensive, it would seem that the Vatican would have already looked into this. In addition to that, the house that she lived in as well as received the exorcisms in has caught fire multiple times, further making us scratch our heads as to the truth in her story. Since she’s passed away, we may never know the truth in the case of Anneliese Michel.