Does Satan exist? Is demonic possession real? Does exorcism really work?

1976: Satan makes headlines, as Anneliese Michel, a 23-year-old German pedagogics student, dies after undergoing sixty-seven sessions of exorcism over a period of several months. An investigation establishes the cause of death as malnourishment and dehydration. The case draws international media attention. The parents of the deceased as well as two Catholic priests charged with the task of exorcising Anneliese’s alleged demons (among whom were supposedly Lucifer, Cain, Judas Iscariot, Nero and Hitler) are put on trial and found guilty of manslaughter resulting from negligence. All defendants are given suspended sentences with probation.

The case of alleged demonic possession has since fascinated and horrified all who have dared to look into it. It has served as inspiration for books and movies, most notably for the popular Hollywood horror/drama "The Exorcism of Emily Rose." Sadly, many of the works which have dealt with the case have done so in a very exploitative manner, obscuring the real-life tragedy of Anneliese Michel’s fate with sensationalism and inaccuracies.

"Satan Lives: The Return of Exorcism" is a documentary by director Helge Cramer attempting to put a human face on the tragedy, as well as to view the case through a more skeptical lens than is customary for a lot of ‘documentaries’ dealing with similar subject matter. The information-packed documentary contains many never before seen interviews with those who knew Anneliese best, and explores aspects of the case that some in the Catholic church would probably prefer weren’t mentioned.

In the end viewers will have to answer the question for themselves: was this a genuine case of demonic possession or was Anneliese suffering from some kind of severe mental illness?

R.I.P. Anneliese Michel
21/09/1952 – 01/07/1976

*TRANSLATION CORRECTION: At roughly 21:39 the narrator says that Peter Hein knew that Anneliese would sometimes jump at her father with "obszönen Gesten" = "obscene gestures". When I first translated this documentary I misheard the narrator and believed he had said "absurden Gesten" = "absurd gestures" ("obszönen" and "absurden" sound somewhat similar if spoken quickly and/or unclearly). While the mistake is not so grievous that it ruins the rest of the documentary, I nonetheless felt it was important to correct this mistake by placing an annotation over the incorrect translation that gives viewers the correct translation. I regard this correction as important because those trying to understand the psychological factors that may have caused/contributed to Anneliese's illness would certainly need to know about any kind of disturbance/abnormality in Anneliese's sexual experience/behavior. Despite Anneliese jumping at her father in an obscene, sexual manner, there is no evidence to suggest that Anneliese was ever sexually molested by her father, nor that any kind of incestuous relationship ever existed between them. What is certain is that Anneliese was raised in a strict Catholic environment, a fact which makes it safe to assume that Anneliese experienced a lot of sexual repression and feelings of guilt over perfectly normal feelings of sexual attraction and desire. These feelings of guilt would have been all the more intense for Anneliese given her mother's premarital affair while engaged to Anneliese's father Josef, which resulted in the birth of Anneliese's older "illegitimate" sister Martha, who died at the age of 8 from a renal tumor. Anneliese felt obliged, and was possibly also expected by her mother Anna, to atone for her mother's sexual sin. The knowledge of her own mother's sexual transgression must certainly have colored Anneliese's views on sex.

"Warum musste Anneliese Michel sterben?" - Dieser Artikel zum Thema ist sehr lesenswert für die, die Deutsch verstehen: [ Ссылка ]

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