According to The Real Emily Rose
Anneliese Michel (September 21, 1952 – July 1, 1976) (the real Emly Rose) was a German woman who was believed to have been possessed by six or more demons and subsequently underwent an exorcism.
Early Life
Born in Leiblfing, Bavaria. Anneliese Michel was raised in the small Bavarian town of Klingenberg am Main, where her father operated a sawmill. Her parents were strict Catholics and she grew into a deeply religious person.
Hospitalization
Emily Rose is actually Anneliese Michel. From her birth on the 21st of September, 1952, Anneliese Michel enjoyed the life of a normal, religiously nurtured young girl. Without warning, her life changed on a day in 1968 when she began shaking and found she was unable to control her body. She could not call out for her parents, Josef and Anna, or any of her 3 sisters. A neurologist at the Psychiatric Clinic Wurzburg diagnosed her with "Grand Mal" epilepsy. Because of the strength of the epileptic fits, and the severity of the depression that followed, Anneliese was admitted for treatment at the hospital.
In 1968, Anneliese began suffering from seizures and was diagnosed as epileptic at the Psychiatric Clinic in Würzburg. She remained hospitalized for almost two years, and eventually began seeing demonic faces during her daily prayers. Suffering from major seizures, Anneliese returned to secondary school in the fall of 1970, was still able to go to the University of Würzburg in September 1973, where she studied Elementary Education.
In addition to the images that haunted her in the hospital, Anneliese began to hear voices. Coming from a strict Catholic background and lacking any other explanation, Anneliese began to attribute her condition to demonic possession. She grew increasingly frustrated with medical intervention as it did not seem to affect her core problems. When, after four years of medical treatment, her condition and mental depression worsened, she and her parents apparently became convinced that demons or the devil had possessed her.
Exorcism And Death
Soon after the attacks began, Anneliese started seeing devilish grimaces during her daily praying. It was the fall of 1970, and while the young people of the world were enjoying the liberal freedoms of the time, Anneliese was battling with the belief that she was possessed. It seemed there was no other explanation for the appearance of devilish visions during her prayers. Voices also began following her, saying Anneliese will "stew in hell". She mentioned the "demons" to the doctors only once, explaining that they have started to give her orders. The doctors seem unable to help, and Anneliese lost hope that medicine was going to be able to cure her.
In the summer of 1973, her parents visited different pastors to request an exorcism. Their requests were rejected and they were given recommendations that the now 20 year old Anneliese should continue with medication and treatment. It was explained that the process by which the Church proves a possession (Infestatio) is strictly defined, and until all the criterium is met, a Bishop can not approve an exorcism. The requirements, to name a few, include an aversion to religious objects, speaking in a language the person has never learned, and supernatural powers.
In 1974, after supervising Anneliese for some time, Pastor Ernst Alt requested a permit to perform the exorcism from the Bishop of Wurzburg. The request was rejected, and a recommendation soon followed saying that Anneliese should live even more of a religious lifestyle in order to find peace. The attacks did not diminish, and her behavior become more irratic. At her parents house in Klingenberg, she insulted, beat, and began biting the other members of her family. She refused to eat because the demons would not allow it. Anneliese slept on the stone floor, ate spiders, flies, and coal, and even began drinking her own urine. She could be heard screaming throughout the house for hours while breaking crucifixes, destroying paintings of Jesus, and pulling apart rosaries. Anneliese began committing acts of self-mutilation at this time, and the act of tearing off her clothes and urinating on the floor became commonplace.
After making an exact verification of the possession in September 1975, the Bishop of Wurzburg, Josef Stangl, assigned Father Arnold Renz and Pastor Ernst Alt with the order to perform "The Great Exorcism" on Anneliese Michel. The basis for this ritual was the "Rituale Romanum", which was still, at the time, a valid Cannon Law from the 17th century.
It was determined that Anneliese must be saved from the possession by several demons, including Lucifer, Judas Iscariot, Nero, Cain, Hitler, and Fleischmann, a disgraced Frankish Priest from the 16th century, and some other damned souls which had manifested through her. From September '75 until July '76, one or two exorcism sessions were held each week. Anneliese's attacks were sometimes so strong that she would have to be held down by 3 men, or even chained up. During this time, Anneliese found her life somewhat return to normal as she could again go to school, take final examinations at the Pedagogic Academy in Wurzburg, and go to church.
The attacks, however, did not stop. In fact, she would more often find herself paralyzed and falling unconscious than before. The exorcism continued over many months, always with the same prayers and incantations. Sometimes family members and visitors, like one married couple that claims to have "discovered" Anneliese, would be present during the rituals. For several weeks, Anneliese denied all food. Her knees ruptured due to the 600 genuflections she performed obsessively during the daily exorcism. Over 40 audio tapes record the process, in order to preserve the details.
The last day of the Exorcism Rite was on June 30th, 1976, and Anneliese was suffering at this point from Pneumonia. She was also totally emaciated, and running a high fever. Exhausted and unable to physically perform the genuflections herself, her parents stood in and helped carry her through the motions. "Beg for Absolution" is the last statement Anneliese made to the exorcists. To her mother, she said, "Mother, I'm afraid." Anna Michel recorded the death of her daughter on the following day, July 1st, 1976, and at noon, Pastor Ernst Alt informed the authorities in Aschaffenburg. The senior prosecutor began investigating immediately.
A short time before these final events unfolded, William Friedkin's "The Exorcist" (1974) came to the cinemas in Germany, bringing with it a wave of paranormal hysteria that flooded the nation. Psychiatrists all over Europe reported an increase of obsessive ideas among their patients. Prosecutors took more than 2 years to to take Annaliese's case to court, using that time to sort through the bizarre facts. Anneliese's parents and the two exorcists were accused of negligent homocide. The "Klingenberg Case" would be decided upon two questions: What caused the death of Anneliese Michel, and who was responsible?
According the forensic evidence, "Anneliese starved to death".
Specialists claimed that if the accused would have begun with forced feeding one week before her death, Anneliese's life would have been saved. One sister told the court that Anneliese did not want to go to a mental home where she would be sedated and forced to eat. The exorcists tried to prove the presence of the demons, playing taped recordings of strange dialogues like that of two demons arguing about which one of them would have to leave Anneliese's body first. One of the demons called himself Hitler, and spoke with a Frankish accent (Hitler was born in Austria). Not one of those present during the exorcism ever had a doubt about the authenticity of the presence of these demons.
The psychiatrists, whom had been ordered to testify by the court, spoke about the "Doctrinaire Induction". They said that the priests had provided Anneliese with the contents of her psychotic behavior. Consequentially, they claimed, she later accepted her behavior as a form of demonic possession. They also offered that Anneliese's unsettled sexual development, along with her diagnosed Temporal Lobe Epilepsy, had influenced the psychosis.
The verdict was considered by many as not as harsh as they expected. Anneliese's parents, as well as the exorcists, were found guilty of manslaughter resulting from negligence and omitting first aid. They were sentenced to 6 months in jail and probation. The verdict included the opinion of the court that the accused should have helped by taking care of the medical treatment that the girl needed, but instead, their use of naive practices aggrivated Anneliese's already poor constitution.
A commission of the German Bishop-Conference later declared that Anneliese Michel was not possessed, however, this did not keep believers from supporting her struggles, and it was because so many believed in her that Anneliese's body did not find peace with death. Her corpse was exhumed eleven and a half years after her burial, only to confirm that it had decayed as would have been expected under normal circumstances. Today, her grave remains a place of pilgrimage for rosary-praying and for those who believe that Anneliese Michel bravely fought the devil.
In 1999, Cardinal Medina Estevez presented journalists in Vatican-City the new version of the "Rituale Romanum" that has been used by the Catholic Church since 1614. The updates came after more than 10 years of editing and is called "De exorcismis et supplicationibus quibusdam" otherwise known as "The exorcism for the upcoming millennium". The Pope approbated the new Exorcism Rite, which is now allowed for worldwide use. This new form of exorcism came after the German Bishop-Conference demanded to ultimately abolish the "Rituale Romun". It also came more than 20 years after Anneliese Michel had died.
Trial And Courtroom Charges
After an investigation, the state prosecutor said Anneliese’s death could have been prevented even one week before she died. He charged all four defendants — Pastor Ernst Alt and Father Arnold Renz as well as the parents — with negligent homicide for failing to call a medical doctor.
The trial started March 30, 1978 in the district court and drew intense interest. A series of doctors who testified at the trial all basically told the court that Anneliese died of a combination of epilepsy, mental disorders and an extreme religious environment which, in the words of Professor Hans Sattes of University of Würzburg, added up to "a spiritual sickness and heavy psychic disturbance."
Throughout the trial, it was reported, Anneliese's father, 60-year-old Josef Michel, was sitting impassively, tilting close to a special amplifier to help him hear. His wife, Anna Michel, was taking notes steadily, pausing only to moan, "Oh, dear God", when some doctor alleged that her daughter had a mental disorder rather than the devil. Father Arnold Renz presented a commanding figure in his priest's robes, his long grey hair swept straight back and no emotion was apparent in his face. Pastor Ernst Alt, who was wearing dark civilian clothes was the one most involved in the proceedings. He seemed to let no points go by that conceivably could be challenged.
The priests were defended by church-paid lawyers. The parents were defended by one of Germany's top lawyers, Erich Schmidt-Leichner, who had also defended numerous persons in Nazi war crimes trials. Mr. Schmidt-Leichner claimed that not only was exorcism legal, but that the German constitution protected citizens in the unrestricted exercise of their religious beliefs.
The defense played the tapes from different sessions, sometimes featuring the supposed demons arguing, to prove that Anneliese was indeed possessed. Both priests told the court they remained convinced that she was possessed, and that her death finally freed her. The parents also remained convinced that she was possessed, but not that she was freed.
The prosecution countered with an argument of Doctrinaire Induction, claiming the priests gave Anneliese the contents of her psychotic episodes. Added to the basic skepticism concerning an actual demonic possession was a recognition that the country had been thrown into a paranormal panic with the release of the movie The Exorcist two years earlier. The possibility of that influence affecting the perceptions of mentally ill patients was well documented.
Ultimately, the accused were found guilty of manslaughter resulting from negligence and were sentenced to 6 months probation. It was a far lighter sentence than anticipated. It should, however, be pointed out that the prosecutor only asked that the priests be fined and that the parents be found guilty but not punished because they had already suffered enough.
During the trial, the major lingering issues were related to the church itself. A not-guilty verdict could be seen as opening the gate to more exorcism attempts - and possibly unfortunate outcomes - in an area where a certain amount of superstition still lives. But for the most part, experienced observers believed the effect would be the opposite - that merely bringing charges of negligent homicide against priests and parents will provoke changes and more caution.
Exhumation
On February 25, 1978, only weeks before the trial, the parents ordered the remnants of Anneliese to be exhumed from her grave. The official reason provided by her parents was that Anneliese had been buried in a great hurry in a cheap coffin. Almost two years after the burial, her remnants were moved into a new coffin made of zinc.
However, among other circumstances preceding the exhumation was a statement by a Catholic nun from the district of Allgaeu in southern Bavaria. The nun had told the parents that she had a vision that their daughter's body was still intact, and that was proof of the possession - the remnants of Anneliese had therefore not decayed after her death. The official result of the exhumation, however, showed that the remnants had decayed naturally.
The exhumation was attended by hundreds of curious spectators. The accused exorcists — Anneliese’s parents and the two priests — were, however, never allowed to witness the remnants of Anneliese. Father Arnold Renz later claimed that he had even been prevented from entering the mortuary.
Legacy
Although Anneliese's exorcism was sanctioned by Bishop Josef Stangl, a commission of the German Bishops' Conference later declared that Anneliese Michel was not possessed.
Bishop Stangl, who approved the exorcism and was in contact a dozen times with the two priests via letters on the case, was also investigated by state authorities, but they decided not to indict him or ask him to appear at the trial. The bishop maintained that his actions were all within church law. Before the trial, however, Bishop Stangl said that he would henceforth only approve exorcism if the possessed person agreed to the presence of a doctor during the ancient ritual.
There has been some criticism that the district court was trying to protect the church hierarchy. The case also leads to fundamental questions of belief in supernatural events, which, ultimately, is behind the use of such ancient rites as the Rituale Romanum. For example, a 1974 survey by the Freiburg Institute for Border-Line Psychology determined that 63 percent of Catholic theologians in Germany believe in the devil and in his personal existence. Those figures may even be slightly higher in Bavaria; the German press agency (D.P.A.) in 1976 surveyed bishops in 22 Catholic districts to find out if exorcism was still practised. Three said yes - Würzburg, Augsburg and Passau, all in Bavaria.
The courtroom case, called the Klingenberg Case, became the basis of Scott Derrickson's 2005 movie The Exorcism of Emily Rose. The film significantly deviates from the real world events (for example, the film is set in the United States and Anneliese was renamed Emily Rose). An upcoming German-language film called Requiem by Hans-Christian Schmid has been announced, and the individuals involved promised to stay truer to the real-life events.
Today, Anneliese's grave in Klingenberg am Main remains a place of pilgrimage for those who believe in the supernatural version of events.
According to Kiss FM Forum this is Emily just before she died
