The story of Annelise Michel, who died as a result of the exorcism, is one of the most famous and mysterious cases of the so-called "demonic possession". After the release of the film "Six Demons Emily Rose", filmed on the basis of real events, interest in this mystical story 40 years ago has increased again. Despite the fact that skeptics do not believe in such nonsense (they say, this exorcism of yours can be explained scientifically), there are still a lot of people who are haunted by what happened. There are too many unexplained inconsistencies. So who is this Annelise Michel? Why are many still discussing what happened to her, and some even consider it a saint?
A scene from the movie "Emily Rose's Six Demons"
Annelise Michel was born in Germany on September 21, 1952, to an Orthodox Catholic family. Without missing a single religious holiday, attending Mass several times a week and reading prayers almost hourly, the Michel family became almost fanatical in the neighborhood. This, however, did not bother them at all. Anneliese, as you might guess, grew up a devout Catholic. The girl voluntarily slept on the cold floor in winter - in order to atone for her mother's sins. The fact is that 4 years before her birth, Anna, not yet married, gave birth to a daughter, which became a real shame for the family. After 8 years, the baby died, and for her sister it was such a shock that she decided at all costs to beg forgiveness from God. For this, she believed, it was necessary to systematically punish herself: repenting for the sins of her parent, the girl, kneeling,recited rosaries (prayer beads), and then fell asleep right on the floor.
Annelise Michel at the age of 16
Of course, the world knows a lot of such cases, but who wants to understand the "religious oddities" of an ordinary family, if they do not interfere with the rest? So it was with the Michel family. Until 1968, when 16-year-old Anneliese, having caught a cold after sleeping on the cold floor, ended up in a sanatorium for tuberculosis patients, where it all began.
There, the girl began to pray even more fervently and shared with other patients her plans for the future: she wanted to become a missionary and teach the children of underdeveloped countries the law of God.
And then something happened that became the starting point of the entire mystical story: Anneliese had a seizure, during which she bit her tongue. By the way, the girl was cured of tuberculosis, they gave up on the attack and let her go home.
Things have gone awry since then, and Annelise's health has deteriorated dramatically. Because of this, she barely graduated from school, but nevertheless entered the university to learn to be a teacher: the desire to teach children the basics of the Christian religion was very strong. At the same time, every month Mikhel became worse: at first there were problems with speech, and then it became difficult for the girl to walk. The reasons for this were not clear to anyone. In 1969, there was a second attack: one night, Annelise's body suddenly became rigid, she was paralyzed, and she could not say a word. The family doctor just threw up his hands and advised to see a psychiatrist, but the electroencephalogram did not reveal any changes in the brain. In fact, this meant that the girl was healthy: there were no medical indications for treatment.
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Anneliza (left) with her parents and sisters
Nevertheless, her parents (and this was perhaps the only time they acted reasonably in this whole story) decided to leave her in a psychiatric clinic, where she spent about a year: they did not understand what was happening to her. In 1970, there was a third seizure, after which Anneliese was diagnosed with epilepsy and prescribed strong drugs, which nevertheless did not help. All this was done in circumvention of the law, because repeated EEGs again did not reveal anything suspicious, which means that Mikhel was actually healthy.
After some time spent in the hospital, Anneliese, at first glance, felt better: the doctors felt that the attacks would not recur again, and sent her home, strictly ordering her not to quit taking her medications. The girl tried to lead a life "like everyone else": she studied diligently at the university, attended church and prayed, prayed, prayed … Soon she began hallucinations, and she began to hear voices that claimed that she was cursed and would burn in Hell. According to the girl, she saw the face of the devil on the walls, floor and ceiling, and sometimes in the place of the mother's face.
Parents all this time just shrugged their shoulders: what can you do if the pills do not help? Only hope for a miracle.
This lasted for about three years, with the result that in 1973 Michel was again in a psychiatric clinic (at the insistence of doctors), where she was diagnosed with severe depression.
Anneliese, in turn, became increasingly disillusioned with medicine, since there was no improvement from taking the drugs. Doctors gradually increased the dosage of drugs, not understanding what was happening to their patient. But the girl herself seemed to be perfectly aware of everything: she explained her condition by the fact that, most likely, she was possessed by the devil. How else to interpret the fact that every day she was getting worse, despite strong antidepressants, and mysterious visions appeared more and more often?
Further - more: an Orthodox Catholic, she began to avoid crucifixion in every possible way. The diagnosis (if, of course, I can put it that way) "possessed by the devil" for the first time Annelise was put by a friend of the family, Thea Hein, who accompanied her on the pilgrimage. The woman noticed that the girl could not bring herself to touch the cross, was afraid to look at the icons, refused to drink from the sacred spring, and she smelled badly. Hine advised her friends to visit the priest with her daughter to drive out the demon, which, in her opinion, was exactly "sitting" in the girl.
A scene from the movie "Emily Rose's Six Demons"
However, none of the ministers of the church agreed to carry out such a ceremony: they all recommended continuing the treatment, because they were not entirely sure of Annelise's obsession. In addition, for the exorcism it was necessary to obtain the permission of the bishop, and they did not want to bother His Holiness about such a "trifle".
Meanwhile, Michel's behavior during attacks (and they happened more often) became more and more strange. If before she heard only voices and saw images of the devil, now she tore off her clothes, ate coal, spiders, flies, drank her own urine. It was impossible to stop her: at such moments, it was as if some powerful force was infiltrating into her, beyond control from the outside. At the same time, if you do not take into account the seizures, Anneliese was no different from the others: in 1973 she successfully graduated from the university, and fellow students later described her as "ordinary, but extremely devout."
The next stage of the disease was seizures, during which Michel began to speak in different languages and even in different voices, and also call herself Adolf Hitler, Cain, Judas and Lucifer. She screamed, insulted family members, and attacked them.
Once she killed a bird by biting off its head, and another time for two days she sat under the table and barked, imitating the dog.
With all this, it is impossible not to ask a lot of questions. Where were Annelise's parents all this time? Where were they looking? Why was the girl at home all this time, and not in a psychiatric clinic? After all, she could harm not only her relatives, but, first of all, herself. One gets the impression that devout Catholics were waiting for some kind of miracle. The family again turned to the priests for him. True, after two years of daughter's requests, in 1975. At that time, the girl had been sick for about 6 years and had long begged the elders to again ask the church to conduct an exorcism, but for some reason they delayed. As a result, the girl herself wrote a letter to a priest named Ernst Alt. It was he who became the first who agreed to consider the case of Annelise. According to him, she did not at all look like an epileptic patient, but was really possessed. In September 1975, Bishop Josef Stangl gave permission to Alt and another priest, Arnold Renz, to perform an exorcism. True, he ordered to keep everything secret. But the secret, as we know, always becomes apparent …
Michel during the expulsion of the devil
From September 1975 to July 1976, 1-2 times a week they tried to exorcise the devil from Annelise. At the same time, the seizures were so strong that the girl had to be held by three men, and sometimes even chained up her. At the very beginning of the "therapy" she decided to give up taking medications, while the parents strongly supported her daughter's decision, because it turned out that the pills did not help, so why drink them? Michel got a little better, and she was even able to successfully pass the exam in order to be allowed to teach children the law of God.
Annelise during the exorcism
Parents almost clapped their hands: still, what they believed in would work!
However, in May 1976, Annelise suddenly became worse: she was delirious almost all the time due to fatigue as a result of constant rituals: by that time, more than 60 of them had been performed, each lasting about 4 hours. All this time, she had to kneel to pray for salvation from God. 42 rites were recorded on camera.
A few weeks before her death, the girl refused food and water: so she allegedly atoned for the sins of other people. The last exorcism was performed on June 30th. Due to exhaustion, Anneliese fell ill with pneumonia. Exhausted, with a high fever, she was unable to perform the actions demanded of her priests: in the video, which was later broadcast in court, it can be seen that her parents are helping her kneel, holding her by the arms. The next day, July 1, 1976, Annelise Michel died in her sleep.
The autopsy report stated that the girl died as a result of exhaustion (she weighed only 30 kg at the time of death) and dehydration. By the way, Annelise's knee ligaments were torn as a result of about 600 knees …
The death of Annelise caused a wide resonance in Germany: people did not understand how such things could happen in the modern world. After an investigation, the attorney general said that the girl's death could have been prevented even 10 days before the tragedy if her parents forced her to take medicine again. The charges were brought against Ernst Alt, Arnold Renz, as well as both parents under the article "manslaughter", because during the last 10 months of the girl's life, no doctor watched her. The defense broadcast recordings of the rituals to prove that Anneliese was indeed possessed, and also insisted that the German Constitution guarantees freedom of religion, which means that no one forbade exorcism.
The grave of Annelise Michel is located next to the grave of her deceased little sister
The trump cards of the accusations were the testimony of doctors who had previously treated the girl, who said that she was not possessed, but suffered from psychiatric problems, aggravated by epilepsy and religious hysteria. The defendants were ultimately found guilty of manslaughter by negligence and were sentenced to 6 months' suspended prison sentence with a probation period of 3 years.
More than forty years have passed since then, but the story of Annelise Michel still haunts the lovers of mysticism. Hollywood, of course, did not stand aside: in 2005, based on the story, the horror film Six Demons of Emily Rose was shot.
A scene from the movie "Emily Rose's Six Demons"
A year later, the film Requiem was released in Germany, which is also based on the story of the expulsion of demons from Annelise Michel. The girl's mother was against the creation of films, and in one interview she even stated that she did not regret what happened. Anna Michel sincerely believed that numerous rites of exorcism were necessary, and Anneliese died atoning for the sins of others. By the way, even among a small group of Catholics, the girl is revered as an unofficial saint, and her grave is a place of pilgrimage.
The many questions that this mysterious story raises do not make it possible to unequivocally answer what actually caused Michel's death. So which side to take: doctors, priests or lovers of the paranormal is everyone's personal choice.