This Paranormal Life - #127 The Exorcism of Anneliese Michel

Episode Date: August 27, 2019

Today we investigate the real paranormal story that inspired the Exorcism of Emily Rose. Grab your holy water folks, this one is going to get demon-y.Support us on Patreon.com/ThisParanormalLife to ge...t access to weekly bonus episodes!Buy Official TPL Merch! - thisparanormallife.com/storeFollow us on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTubeJoin our Secret Society Facebook CommunityIntro music by www.purple-planet.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Did aliens fight in the Second World War? If table football is called foosball, why isn't table tennis called twosball? All of these questions you can find the answer to on This Paranormal Life! Welcome back everyone to This Paranormal Life, the paranormal podcast hosted by myself, Rory Powers, and this guy over here kit greer now if you haven't listened to the show before every single week we investigate a brand new paranormal claim or tale or beast and come to a conclusion usually within the hour if it is if it is paranormal or not sometimes we start filibustering which uh so it goes into sort of constitutional shutdown yeah we have to keep rolling talk basically days on end some days we just go for days on end i think we topped out at two weeks once when we were investigating um the the masturbating ghost monkey of afflehampton
Starting point is 00:00:58 which was eventually cut down into a one-hour episode but i mean we we brought in monkeys at one point and tried to get them to masturbate. We got bananas, filled out the whole place with bamboo trees. It was a very extensive case. Best believe that it's due to sleep deprivation at the end of two weeks. We thought we were masturbating ghost monkeys.
Starting point is 00:01:18 Who wouldn't at that point? And I hope that we bring that level of dedication to today's case kit. Of course. Maybe not the masturbating. But this is a case that is a very popular case. And I'm very glad that we're finally getting to investigate it. Oh.
Starting point is 00:01:32 I think it's time we just dive right into it. Anna Elizabeth Michelle was born on the 21st of September 1952 in West Germany. Her family were super religious. We're talking mass twice a week. Twice a week! Holy water in the Cheerios, prayers every morning and night. Oh my God!
Starting point is 00:01:52 Real religious types. For years, Annalise Michel, her three sisters, and her parents lived in peace, leading a normal family life. It was the 50s. Everyone was probably pretty religious. And having a great normal life. It was the 50s. Everyone was probably pretty religious. And having a great normal life.
Starting point is 00:02:07 Of course. That is until Annalise turned 16. One day in 1968... She discovered rock and roll. It was the end of her. She discovered kiss. She started worshipping Satan twice a week, putting devil water on the Cheerios.
Starting point is 00:02:25 Demon water, which is beer, by the way. Started calling them Beerios, offering them up to the other kids in school. Terrible influence. You're so anarchic, but you still love Cheerios? Well, one day in 1968, Michelle was at school, sitting obediently, listening to the teacher talk about math or whatever they taught in the school in the 1960s, when all of a sudden, her vision began to narrow, and darkness began to flood the room. Out of nowhere, she blacked out. Too many periodes that morning. Later that same day, Annalise Michelle got into bed, ready
Starting point is 00:03:04 to put everything behind her. But the Sandman would not come for her this night, unless that is the name of a demon. Michelle described a night of horrible paralysis, suffocation, as if something was sitting on her chest, pinning her to the bed. So this is after passing out in class? Yes. Wow, okay. Not two things you want to have back to back. You need to get some rest.
Starting point is 00:03:27 You don't need to be seeing demons. That's not going to help the situation. No. You need to put your feet up and have an ice cold bowl of beerios. Now, it would be another year before these problems would resurface. In 1969, these strange episodes started to repeat. Her mother was extremely worried about her, so she took her to a neurologist named Dr. Siegfried Luthi.
Starting point is 00:03:50 A very smart move to get a man of science involved before we hop straight into paranormal town. Well, Dr. Luthi diagnosed Michelle with probable epilepsy, but because of the infrequency of the attacks, he didn't prescribe any medication okay pretty dangerous very dangerous and very bold and bad i think probably i don't know if necessarily doctors living today and working today would uh make no prescription at all for someone who's having epileptic fits well michelle didn't get anything she got 200 cc's of man the f*** up.
Starting point is 00:04:27 So she pushed on with life, coping as best as she could at school. Jesus. So cruel. Her classmates would later describe her as, quote, a very pleasant girl, but also withdrawn and very religious. She's withdrawn because her vision is blacking out as we speak. That would isolate anyone, I think. She can't see you out of the corner of her vision.
Starting point is 00:04:49 A demon slept on her last night. She doesn't want to play tag in the playground. If I get seven hours sleep, I'm grumpy as f*** for two days. If I have a demon sleeping on my chest, I mean, my God. With his bony demon ass. He's gonna drive you crazy. You know he doesn't have any cushion? Of course he doesn't.
Starting point is 00:05:10 He's all bones. All bones and fire. They're missing meals down in hell. Well, eventually she managed to finish high school and went on to college, where she began her studies to become a teacher, just like her parents dreamed. But unfortunately, that dream would never come true. Oh. June 3rd, 1970, Michelle suffered another night seizure.
Starting point is 00:05:33 This one was bad. So her parents brought her to a neurologist to get an EEG, which I researched and found out it was an electroencephalogram. An electroencephalogram. When the results came back in, doctors noticed what they called abnormal brain waves. Something was definitely wrong with Michelle. So the neurologist prescribed another long word here. So stick with me, brother, not making this up on the spot. Sure. Anti-convulsant medication. Okay. That makes sense.
Starting point is 00:06:11 Well, a convulsion is whenever you have a fit, a seizure. Right. So this is anti-convulsant. That sounds kind of sensible. This is, that makes a lot of sense. And this is a doctor in the 1970s. They probably should have given her something like this the first time around i think i knew one person who got uh some sort of anti-convulsant medication because they smoked so much weed that they broke some part of their brain apparently my god how much weed does that have to be a lot you have to be borderline eating it at that point i think i thought the um the antidote for too much weed was just a beer to calm you down and that's why you're not a general practitioner probably a beer and a bag of cheetos take this take two take two of these and see me in the morning. Hard cut to you as a GP going, oh, was it beer before?
Starting point is 00:07:06 No, liquor before beer, never fear. Just writing out on a pad, prescribing a JD and a six pack of Carling. Now these anti-convulsant pills might as well have been a bag of Skittles, because things only got worse. No! Around a week later is when Michelle saw saw her first demon what one night while praying in her room before bed in the darkness she saw an enormous grimacing horrible face looking you're laughing i mean like look there's a lot of people out there who enjoy praying and a lot of personal
Starting point is 00:07:43 and spiritual benefit a lot of people out there who enjoy praying. It has a lot of personal and spiritual benefit. A lot of people out there in society today, though the atheists out there, are skeptical of prayer. Sure, those bastards. I'm not saying I agree with them. Enjoy hell. But, you heathens, if you're praying and mid-prayer a demon visits you, something's not right.
Starting point is 00:08:01 It's doing something wrong. What way are you facing? Are you looking straight down because i like you know i don't know a whole lot about prayers is direction a part of it if it's like a yeah a beam yeah if you have you because you have to go on your knees and look up don't look down that's where the bad guy is. If you're seeing a demon during your prayers... At least stop. Yeah, don't start swearing legions. Because there's some miscommunication going on. And you need that to be clarified before you start saying...
Starting point is 00:08:37 Be neutral. Yeah, be very neutral. Well, before she could even get a good look at it, the thing disappeared in the night. Okay. The doctors believed this could be a side effect of her condition, but her parents believed this could be something much, much worse. And I hear what you're saying, Kit. Rory doesn't... I didn't say anything, but...
Starting point is 00:08:59 You said, Rory, that doesn't sound that paranormal. I mean, who hasn't seen the face of the the devil now and again that actually was what I was thinking exactly fair play you know you see it at the bottom of a glass of whiskey you see it in your poker cards you see it on Christmas day when you're naked looking at your own reflection in the mirror all right I've seen the I've seen the devil all right yeah he's got blonde hair, blue eyes, and a paranormal podcast. Go blonde hair, blue eyes, a million dollar smile, and black soulless pits where eyes should be. It's not that crazy a thing.
Starting point is 00:09:37 We've all seen demons before. But things were a little worse for Annalise Michelle. She began to see demonic horned faces non-stop. This isn't good. She would complain about a horrible stench that only she could smell that apparently smelled like burnt shit. Well, she said feces, but for emphasis, I said shit. And late at night, she could hear knocking on her bedroom door, to which her parents
Starting point is 00:10:04 responded, Annalise, you're just just dreaming no one's knocking on your door however her parents were surprised when her sister said they'd also heard the knocking this isn't good it's just going down it's going downhill this is this is bad this is the part in the horror movie where you're like you move house. Yeah. Get to a completely different, change the physical state, change the mental state. Start swapping it up. Go on a little beach retreat. Go for a paddle in the sea.
Starting point is 00:10:35 There's no demons there, probably. This is the point where you're 25 minutes into a horror film, rated 18, but no one has sworn yet, and you haven't seen anything bad right no it's about to pop off right at this point annalise's mother anna was convinced that her daughter was fully possessed by demons which the accusation probably doesn't help no if your mother is screaming at you that you are basically a car for demons, that's going to sink itself, I think, into your subconscious. You literal Uber X for demons. You Lyft for goblins. One day, her mother even told her father that she had caught Michelle in her bedroom,
Starting point is 00:11:21 staring at a statue of the Virgin Mary when her eyes turned jet black and her hands became claws. What? That is escalated enormously. I thought up to this point, this was largely in Annalise's head. And then, okay, the other kids maybe heard a knock. Yeah. Now she's got claws? I think this is obviously a super religious family okay and we're having this very strange thing happen with annalise who obviously is now
Starting point is 00:11:52 convinced that she's possessed by demons sure the sisters are hearing the same noises so they're starting to think there's demons running about this is all feeding into the mind of these very Christian parents who believe that demons can possess and take over human bodies. That is a bad cocktail. Like, as a parent... It's a terrible cocktail. As a parent, you have one job. Stop your child from becoming a demon. And that's it.
Starting point is 00:12:19 You've got a couple of jobs. You've got... Stop your child from becoming a demon. Feed them. Look after them. And then... Sure, if you have demon, feed them, look after them, and then. Sure, if you have to. Tell them you can be whatever you want to be. Don't tell them they are a demon.
Starting point is 00:12:32 That's actually a subclause of the third point. Tell them they can be whatever they want to be in life except a demon. Except a demon, no matter how much they want to be a demon. You go, listen, Annalise, demons don't get very good pension plans. It's just not a want to be a demon you go listen annalise demons don't get very good pension plans it's just not a sensible career option there you go shut the f**k up dad all right now see you're using your demon voice again and you know that me and your mother disapprove so this was getting really bad as you said this is a terrible cocktail yeah to try and fight back the resident demons the family decided to take annalise to a
Starting point is 00:13:06 saint shrine a holy place where you can pray and drink holy water and juice do people drink holy water i have i don't think so okay i didn't think so good i i think it's more put it on you just drink the juice yeah just drink the holy juice no not the just regular just the regular juice yeah but if it's in a church does that make it regular juice or holy juice it's regular can any liquid be holy i think holy can i have a holy monster energy drink that fills the revitalizes me with the power of god why would you need to revitalize with anything other than the holy spirit well caffeine as well. It helps pretty well. Yeah, it's pretty awesome.
Starting point is 00:13:46 Actually, priests take a lot of caffeine before they give mass. But when they arrived at the saint shrine, Michelle stated that she couldn't enter the chapel. And she said the ground beneath her burned her feet. Burned her hooves. I mean feet. Her clackety hooves were painful on the pavement okay interesting yeah i wonder what her parents what did they say this isn't gonna help is it no not at all by 1974 annalise michelle was a hundred percent demon possessed what reports state that she was destroying any religious objects she could find,
Starting point is 00:14:25 eating spiders, and also somehow had gained superhuman strength. Presumably not from eating spiders. I don't know. How many spiders have you eaten? There's no nutritional value. You see what they did to Tom Holland? And that bastard just got stung.
Starting point is 00:14:43 If he had eaten spiders, he'd be like Superman. He was a skinny bitch for most of his life. So they got the Spider-Man contract. Now he's a hero. We'd have believed he didn't eat spiders to get there. Apparently she would throw her sisters around the room like ragdolls. And at one point
Starting point is 00:15:00 she... Jesus. At one point she squeezed an apple so hard it exploded. Okay, maybe it was an overripe apple. I don't know. I even think that is difficult. It's pretty hard. Have you ever tried to squeeze an egg from the top and bottom?
Starting point is 00:15:15 Yeah. Impossible. That's hard enough, let alone a whole apple. Swarms of flies and quote-unquote shadow animals would suddenly appear near her and then vanish instantly. If we're adding to the list of things parents should teach their children, don't eat spiders. No. And when they say like an apple a day keeps the doctor away, that doesn't mean you squeeze an apple till it explodes. Every day.
Starting point is 00:15:38 You should have specified. Don't burst an apple every morning. You know. Ingest it. It's tough to be a parent because i think most parents have the kids and even if they've not had kids before we all know the kind of rough time scale the different stages of parenting you've got the kind of infant stage where okay you got to get them a little you know some little toys they can play with some little colors and
Starting point is 00:16:02 little animals then they hit the terrible twos and they're going to, you know, start running about causing havoc. You know, then they get to school age. They learn all those things. You've got to teach them about right and wrong. What I'm trying to say is by the time they go to college, you think you're pretty much out of the woods. You know, a lot of parents kind of take their hands off the steering wheel. They go, hey, the kid's living on their own. Maybe they'll learn a little bit about drugs and sex over the next couple of years. you know a lot of parents kind of take their hands off the steering wheel they go hey the kids living on their own um maybe they'll learn a little bit about drugs and sex over the next couple years but
Starting point is 00:16:30 that's about it yeah you're you think they're spider eating days they're throwing their siblings across the room days are over no no uh-oh what's around the corner it's the spider eating 20s that's right the most difficult stage of any child's life at this point annalise michelle and her entire family were convinced she was possessed in 1975 they stopped seeking any medical advice the only thing that was going to help was a full blown exorcism i mean so if you had presumably it wasn't a doctor who said there's nothing more the medical community can do i'm passing this one to the guys guys in the robes i think there was a doc there was apparently a doctor who said yes she's possessed go to a priest really but after all
Starting point is 00:17:24 these events took place this is a little insight of where this is going during the trial he denied such allegations you saw behind the veil there buddy doctors have the power to refer usually that means to a specialist to maybe a back specialist to a uh you know a pediatric pediatrician, whatever it is, they shouldn't be referring you to church. No, I don't. I don't think. I mean, that kind of goes against their profession and what they've studied is that the human body can be understood from a scientific point of view.
Starting point is 00:17:56 I guess it has to be real bad if the doctor's like, f*** it, go to a wizard. I don't know what's going on in there. This is beyond my pay grade. If you hadn't guessed it already, the events that we're talking about eventually became the film called The Exorcism of Emily Rose. Oh. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:18:16 Interesting. This is one of the most famous exorcism cases of all time. I mean, presumably I haven't seen this movie because this case doesn't sound familiar. Had you seen it? No, I haven't. But I because this case doesn't sound familiar. Had you seen it? No, I haven't. But I do know that it is very popular. I think the film is mostly based around the court case that followed the incident, not necessarily so much on the exorcism.
Starting point is 00:18:39 But this is definitely one of the most famous films based around an exorcism. And then obviously made this one of the most famous exorcism cases for a number of different reasons, which we will discover moving forward. Well, the family consulted with priests and bishops, and eventually they decided a man named Father Renz would help them exorcise the demons out of Annalise Michel. This was a horrible experience, because we're not talking about a quick, hold the cross power of christ compels you bada bing bada boom demons explode yeah textbook $9.95 exorcism you get a free snack
Starting point is 00:19:14 afterwards yeah it's like giving blood they give you a lemonade and a cookie yeah the gritty real world version of an exorcism is that these went on for around a year. What?! We're talking up to two times a week. How much are these guys getting paid? Too much. Way too much. There was screaming, biting, vomiting demon voices.
Starting point is 00:19:39 Annalise would try and escape and bite people. It was not a pleasant process to watch for anyone involved. As time went on, Father Renz was able to communicate with the demons inside Annalise. The main demon called himself Judas, but he said there were four more residing in her. Lucifer, Nero, Cain, and Hitler.
Starting point is 00:20:00 What? Yeah, that's bad, isn't it? It's an A-list cast of demons because they've called them demons but these are just famous figures in history yeah judas iscariot presumably presumably it's the hitler it's not just a demon called hitler yeah i i think um i think the implication here is that these are bad people who died and became that's maybe how you become a demon is they're in hell and now they've possessed this woman can you imagine them breaking the news just going the parents are like so you made contact so how bad is it well i regret to inform
Starting point is 00:20:38 you that um judas is in your little girl judas is inside. Oh my God. Holy shit. The person who betrayed Jesus. God. It literally can't be any worse. You would think so. You really would. You really would. What? There's more?
Starting point is 00:20:54 Hitler. Hitler's in there too. What? Also, Lucifer, who I think is the devil. The granddaddy. The actual devil himself. King of hell. That's pretty bad as well.
Starting point is 00:21:10 It's like some sort of sick tag team match. These demons are bringing in the entourage. Yeah, like I don't know who Nero and Kane are, but you best bet they're some sick motherf**kers. If they're on the A-team with Hitler and the devil, that's a pretty bad roundup of people. This is where you get like a historian in and then the parents are like, oh, well, at least, you know, there's these other two we've never heard of Nero and Cain. Nero and Cain. Oh, you mean Lucifer's evil twin?
Starting point is 00:21:46 Lucifer's the good one? When people die in hell, they go to Kane's hell. It's one foot lower. They go to Neroville. This is not what you wanted to hear. One demon is bad enough, let alone the A-list of demons. The strangest part was, Annalise eventually mentioned another demon by the name of Fleishman, who she claimed was a fallen priest who had become a demon for his sins.
Starting point is 00:22:14 Now, the family had no idea what she was talking about and assumed it was gobbledygook. But when they looked it up, they found records of a priest named Fleishman from the 16th century who was excommunicated from the church. Wow. And I mean, there was no real explanation as to why Annalise Michel would have any idea of who this person was. Yeah. So that's already some pretty creepy stuff. This is pre-Google times, folks. She's not, you know, sitting in her bedroom Googling it.
Starting point is 00:22:45 You probably have to go to some effort to find that information on it. Yeah, and, you know, we've examined demon possession before on this podcast. We've seen videos of Derek Okora being possessed by a demon. And the problem that we have a lot with his possessions is when asked a very specific question about the demon's life or the time it was alive a lot of the time he doesn't know the answer even though i think he passed out on camera when someone asked him a difficult question so he either pretends to fall asleep or just yell yell at the people asking the question whereas annalise michelle is mentioning very specific people from history of which she should have no knowledge of at all absolutely well occultworld.com
Starting point is 00:23:33 said on october 31st 1975 the exorcist believed that they had achieved complete success and expelled the six demons one by one but just when they thought the ordeal was over a new demon announced itself with a growl it identified itself only as i and said that it had been secretly lurking in annalise all along the demon told father wrens that they meaning the other demons had quote really pulled a fast one on you what however not much later father renz was able to goad the demon into admitting that it was just judas who apparently returned immediately after being exercised the first time that's a very judas thing to do so we should we should have seen that coming it's very in character for a demon to lie um so this all makes total sense to me in january 1976
Starting point is 00:24:33 annalise told her family that her trial and suffering would end in july seven months away so in the meantime the family pushed on with the exorcisms now it's worth mentioning actually that father ren's recorded the audio from 42 of the exorcisms you can pretty easily find the audio online and listen to the recordings but after some deliberation i've decided actually not to play them on the podcast because one they're all in german i believe so it's quite difficult to understand exactly what they're saying in any of them uh and two they are genuinely quite terrifying fair enough these are the actual audio recordings from a woman who was having demons prayed out of her body uh for the better of a year. It's pretty disturbing stuff.
Starting point is 00:25:25 It's disturbing stuff. And I don't really want to make light of it. So I will say if you're enjoying the case and you want to listen to the recordings, I mean, they're super interesting. You can find them online. I definitely recommend it if you want to find out more about the case. I got to say, these guys took over a year at this. 42 successive successions of uh exorcism normally if i try something once or twice and it doesn't work i give up like if i'm trying out like a new
Starting point is 00:25:54 cake recipe and i f**k it up once or twice and the cake doesn't really turn out right i'll usually quit and maybe eat something else rather than spend a year trying to bake this cake rather than spend a year meticulously uh working out the recipe uh at what point in 42 sessions did they did they never think this isn't working well i think i mean we're looking at this this incident as a as a whole right now when you break it down into the month by month maybe one month they got rid of one demon maybe the next month they're like we're down to three now right a couple months later oh judas is back we got to get rid of him again psych it was a it was hitler the whole time i think there's like been a process of eliminating demon they feel like they've been
Starting point is 00:26:42 whittling it down and making progress it's is like when you're battling the elite four and pokemon or something and you think you're like one hit away from completing the goddamn game and then they drink a big ass health potion yeah oh god and then you finally beat the last demon aka elite four member and you're like well i'm the leader now not so fast you son of a bitch gary oak is here now you gotta fight this guy aka judas himself it just it never ends you're right that was a great analogy by the way fantastic in the end annalise michelle went through 67 exorcisms some lasting up to four hours long despite her terrible health she was asked repeatedly whether she wanted to see a doctor but she said quote there is nothing a doctor can do
Starting point is 00:27:32 for me i don't think she's in the position to make that call make that call yeah i think that's clear because even if you do think she's possessed by a demon that's what the demon would say the demon's not gonna go yeah actually i need a glass of water and a's what the demon would say. The demon's not gonna go, yeah, actually, I need a glass of water and a sit down. The demon's gonna be like, pour flames into my mouth hole. The demon's like, it's honestly been great sparring with you every day, Keith.
Starting point is 00:27:57 I'll see you same time tomorrow. Same place, same time. Round two. Let's go. On the morning of July 1st, 1976, Annalise Michelle passed away in her sleep. Just like the demons predicted. The first of July. Really?
Starting point is 00:28:13 Yeah. Damn, I forgot that bit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. She had said around Christmas time that all the trials and suffering would be over in July. And the family had waited until July. And the morning of the first of july she passed away for real that's insane yeah presumably they thought that that was the end of the possession demons that the demons would go out of her yeah it's a sick plot twist was that she
Starting point is 00:28:37 passed just passed away yeah well after word got out and the story spread, Father Renz and Annalise's parents were immediately arrested. Of course! And charged with negligent homicide. Essentially stating that Annalise, despite refusing to eat and claiming that she didn't need a doctor, was, as we said, in no way mentally stable enough to make these decisions, and should have been brought to a hospital immediately. While awaiting the results of the trial, an autopsy of the body revealed some strange results.
Starting point is 00:29:10 Firstly, the autopsy showed that Anneliese Michel eventually died of starvation, but the body wasn't covered in sores as it typically would be. Also her brain showed no signs of damage characteristic of epileptic seizures. Not to mention, the family had 42 audio recordings of the exorcisms, which they played at the trial to prove unequivocally that their daughter was beyond a doubt possessed by demons. Long story short, they all went to jail. Of course. demons. Long story short, they all went to jail. Of course. They were completely charged with manslaughter, went to jail for six months with three years probation, which a lot of people
Starting point is 00:29:53 think was way too soft a sentence. Seems pretty on the light end of things. Yeah. Yeah. For negligent manslaughter, six months. That's that's pretty That's pretty light, I would say, considering the circumstances. So as I said, this is one of the most popular and talked about demon possession stories in the paranormal community, in the world, really, popularized by the films. And it's become kind of like, it's got a bit of a cult following. I think, you know, there's bands that have written songs about it. Movies have been made about it. It's a very well-known and very well-documented case. As I said, we have all of these audio recordings.
Starting point is 00:30:33 Quite disturbing, but they are there to prove that this thing really did happen. We haven't really talked in detail about a demon possession on this podcast before. Kit, what are your thoughts? Yeah, I'm glad we covered it. Like you say, we've got a bunch of requests for it. And no matter the circumstances that surround it and the subsequent trial, it's definitely worth covering a paranormal case
Starting point is 00:30:55 that captures the public imagination like this. I can definitely see what drew people to this case over the years. Like you say, artists and musicians, amateur investigators. There's just obviously such a dearth of information for them to get through. Even if you had a passing interest in it and you spoke a little German, you know, I'm sure it would be fascinating to listen to what was going on in those exorcisms. Yeah. And also, I mean, it's enticing enough to hear about a story
Starting point is 00:31:25 where a girl is possessed by demons such as Hitler or the actual devil itself, but then all these other little details of eating spiders and squeezing apples so they explode with their superhuman strength. I mean, these are things that other possession stories don't have. superhuman strength. I mean, these are things that other possession stories don't have. It's true. Yeah, it's incredibly well documented. I know for me, I've personally always wondered, you know, I grew up in a religious sort of background, like my community, the school we went to, all that kind of stuff. And it's kind of nuts to know that, at least in the Catholic Church, which it sounds like, i don't know if this was i think this is yeah yeah that as far as i'm aware to this day they still have like you know gi joe
Starting point is 00:32:13 priests trained in exorcisms yeah ready to go like they don't do it very often because they know it's not seen in the most positive light these days. But they do have people trained to do that kind of thing. And they can be brought out when necessary. So it's actually, sorry to interrupt, but it is interesting to note that this specific case was one of the reasons that sanctioned exorcisms massively decreased in Germany and subsequently across the world. in Germany and subsequently across the world, um, when more and more of these types of cases came forward and it became a lot more frowned upon, uh, by society for better or for worse, I think better, frankly, if this is a case study. Yeah. It's interesting to know that this case had such a huge effect on that practice. But when it comes down to the nitty gritty of what's going on here, it's incredibly depressing incredibly depressing uh the sheer levels of
Starting point is 00:33:06 negligence oh yeah and it's something we thankfully don't have to talk about too much on this paranormal life but it's a good sort of salient example of what can happen when paranormal situations go misdiagnosed oh yeah oh yeah and mean, that's one of the regrettable things doing this podcast is how many investigations you look at where the conclusion is essentially undiagnosed mental illness, because for some reason or another, this person was ignored or it's from a year where there wasn't the level of understanding that we have towards mental illness today. And I think essentially, as you heard from the trial, these people were sent to jail and the overwhelming consensus was that this was a misidentification of mental illness. This is someone who is obviously suffering with possibly schizophrenia, epilepsy,
Starting point is 00:34:01 but had it wrapped around this hyper-religious family and their beliefs, which obviously, I mean, if you go through 67 exorcisms, if you do that to me, I'm going to think I'm possessed. If anyone goes through that and have their parents telling them, you are a demon, you are a vehicle for demons 24-7, especially if you're mentally ill, you're going to start believing that. It also reminds me of a super interesting study I heard about one time specifically to do with schizophrenia. And one of the symptoms of schizophrenia is that you experience voices in your head, kind of like a split personality thing that you hear the thoughts that you attribute to someone else but this study focused on do all schizophrenic patients globally hear the same things and it turns out apparently not apparently depends entirely on
Starting point is 00:34:57 what culture you were brought up in what your childhood was like all of those things and people from say particularly religious backgrounds they're gonna hear things to do with religion uh damnation or they're gonna think they're hearing from jesus himself but if you go to india they obviously don't think they're hearing jesus they they put it in the context of their culture yeah you go to africa they put it in the context of their local religion uh their local belief system i mean that'd be really weird if everyone just heard jesus that would prove a lot of points for uh yeah one church for sure yeah that would that's that would definitely be a full
Starting point is 00:35:37 investigation i don't think i just tag that on the end of this one yeah i mean at least it would be somewhat expected uh definitely a lot less weird than if everyone heard say uh krampus or something yeah or hitler but you can definitely see how that would slot into a story like this where from the very beginning annalise michelle and her parents were immediately framing anything that went wrong with her in religious terms yeah so it unfortunately feeds into this tragic event but we can definitely see how that religious framework was not necessarily helpful absolutely not i think it goes without saying we're both on the same page for this week this is a no this is a no guys here. This is a no, guys. We have a... This is a textbook no. It's a bad case. It is an interesting one.
Starting point is 00:36:27 As I said, if you want to, you can check out the tapes and recordings online of the exorcisms itself. But unfortunately, this week is a double no. But super interesting stories. There's, you know, a couple more possession stories I definitely think we should check out eventually, like the Enfield haunting. Of course. I mean, we're not even far from that.
Starting point is 00:36:48 I know. We keep saying it. We've been saying it for ages, but we've got to check it out. We definitely do. What an episode. Thank you so much for joining us, folks. I hope you enjoyed this week's episode of This Paranormal Life. If you enjoyed listening to this week's episode, why wouldn't you enjoy seeing an episode live?
Starting point is 00:37:08 That is right. We are doing a live investigation in London two and a half weeks away. Good lord. Now, I haven't checked. I don't know if there's any tickets left. All I know is they were moving. They were moving, folks. I don't know if I'm even available for the f***ing event.
Starting point is 00:37:27 The whole thing's a dice roll at this point. But if you do want to see the show live, check it out. All the information is online. It is the 15th of September. Sunday, 15th of September. I can get this right. Sunday, 15th. Don't interrupt me because I'm doing it.
Starting point is 00:37:42 Don't read out this time. Just get it right. Just get it right. Just spit it out. Sunday, the 16th. No, the 15th don't interrupt me because i'm doing it to read out just get it right just get it right just spit it sunday the 16th no the fifth jesus i got sensitive i got it right fine i got it people are gonna people are gonna think it's the wrong day right it's the 15th yeah monday no sunday sorry i even knew that deep down i knew that okay we'll just know it then just know it 16th 15th i'm back at that sorry 15th of sunday the 15th of sunday right people will get in september lean the information from that yes september those words
Starting point is 00:38:16 are right 2020 2019 no 2019 this year i knew that weeks away How would it be 2020? Jesus Christ, man. I thought it was a leap year. This is the live show 30 minutes in. What date is it? It's the 15th, Sunday, September 2019. And it's going to be the best night of your lives. So check it out. If you're also interested in joining the Paranormal Secret Society. Secret Society.
Starting point is 00:38:48 Where all the coolest cats and the paranormal peasants go to chill you should head over to facebook.com forward slash i don't know but somewhere on facebook you can find this paranormal it's it's basically.com forward slash this paranormal life you said it you can find it there you can join the secret society where we share memes we talk about each week's episodes we just hang out and embask it in the glory of the paranormal and air our grievances about the hosts we do relentlessly and as always we don't have any sponsors on the show this show is supported and paid for by you guys and you guys alone except this week where we're proudly sponsored by chompy's the number one we're bringing it back from north korea but chompy's has a new partner that's right start your day with chompy's and end your day with birrios
Starting point is 00:39:39 the only cereal to get you smashed start you start your day strong and end it bong. Because beerios also have some drugs in them. Whoa. That's the toy inside. And we're not talking CBD. We're not talking echinacea, some kind of feel-good hippie drug. We're talking hard shit, folks. We're talking... Didn't we tell you it was from north
Starting point is 00:40:06 korea anything goes there is meth in the beerios um but it all works out because uh all you have to do is use your beerio spoon and with a little lighter underneath of course you can melt it down uh and just have a have a time of your life It's fantastic. So buy a bowl of chompies, where every adventure is a day. And also, pick up a bowl of birrios. Falling off the wagon never tasted so good. That's a damaging slogan. That's offensive to many people. We also get by not just from sponsored content from various North Korean cereal brands,
Starting point is 00:40:42 but also from you guys, from your support on Patreon. If you want bonus episodes and all this fantastic content that we can offer you, and we want to offer it to you, so check it out on patreon.com forward slash thisparanormallife, where the supporters on that site get their names specially shouted out on this podcast. Let's do it right now. Thanks very much to Nathan Marble.
Starting point is 00:41:04 They call him nathan marble because this dude looks like he was carved out of marble whoa like an ancient statue he stands there chiseled abs you know rippling biceps fortunately his dick is also out it's just out um like a lot of these old-fashioned statues. Hopefully it's not like the statues where they've chopped that bit off. Did they do that? Or was that just moving and handling accidents?
Starting point is 00:41:36 I feel like there was a... No, I'm thinking of the nose. They chopped off the nose, but then they put leaves over the private parts. Yeah. That's very tasty. So hopefully, Nathan, you got leaves over your priv parts. Yeah. That's very tasty. So hopefully, Nathan, you got leaves over your privates. Hopefully you still have a nose.
Starting point is 00:41:50 And a penis. But thank you for supporting the show, you marble beauty. Thanks also to Jill. Jack and Jill went up a hill to support a podcast on Patreon. Jill's account got hacked. Her money was jacked. And Jack's was soon stolen after. That's a little nursery rhyme that Jill actually taught me.
Starting point is 00:42:15 It was based on a true story. That's what they actually teach kids in primary school today. It's changed since we were there. Yeah, they use Jill's case as a case study when she subscribed to this podcast. It's the war in the kids about getting doxxed. Jill, I'm sorry we took all your money, but thank you for the support. It's not support if we took it. Thanks also to Rami.
Starting point is 00:42:37 If it isn't Traffic Jammy Rami. This guy just 8.30 every morning goes out to the busiest highway and just starfishes on the road. What? Just trying to cause as much trouble as possible. It's insane. Like a little dickling. Is that legal? Absolutely not.
Starting point is 00:42:56 Wow. The police are trying to arrest him, but they're 20 feet back. Neck deep bumper to bumper. They can't even get to the son of a bitch it's the perfect crime genius holy shit uh i mean i don't know why you're doing it and i don't know how you're making money but thank you for your support they went up to him they were like are you trying to raise awareness for something he said no uh gotta respect that hustle thanks rami thanks also to emily anderson emily anderson is our number one fanderson that's right she loves the podcast more
Starting point is 00:43:35 than anything she gives more than anyone i checked out her social profiles she's selling a vial of your blood on ebay really i don't know how she got it i wake up a little bit paler and a little bit weaker every day and i was wondering what was going on we just thought it was all the beers you've been having lately of course all those late night beerios it turns out she's ganking your blood my blood yeah which like i guess is a something a fan would do but then sell it is pretty weird yeah that would explain the kickback she's been giving us. I guess that's royalties for my own blood. Blood royalties? Wow.
Starting point is 00:44:10 Well, I mean, hell, if all you need is a little bit of kid's blood to give us a donation every month, take away. I don't know if I have the authority to say that, but take away. You don't. Suck them dry for all I care. Okay, that's enough. Thanks also to margaret
Starting point is 00:44:25 margaret is a shooting star grit and i mean that sounds like she's you know she's on the right track and she's heading in the right direction i mean it in the most literal sense possible she's traveling at approximately 30 000 miles a second So if she were to pass the Earth's atmosphere, she would be just a shooting star for all intents and purposes. Yeah, yeah. I mean, you couldn't even touch her because she's almost entirely made of ice. Negative 100 degrees Celsius, you evaporate essentially. Is she human in any sense? I don't know.
Starting point is 00:45:07 evaporate essentially she human in any sense i don't know margaret the stargret seems to just be a sentient rock ah floating on a majestic quest through space and somehow she's got a pair of airpods she's blasting this paranormal life and i appreciate the support thanks also to michael put a comb michael Put that comb down! You don't know where that comb came from. He's out here picking up pine cones from the park. You don't know where a little squirrel could have pissed on that. You don't just pick up shit, Michael.
Starting point is 00:45:38 Are you his dad? We're his guardians. I think as soon as you listen to someone talk for a 100 plus hours, they should become at least a mentor, a sensei in your life. I'm fine with that. I feel like everyone that listens to this show has us as their mentors. I think they really value what we say about life.
Starting point is 00:46:00 Yeah, and I think Michael needs a lot of guidance. He's picking up pissy cones left, right, and center. So Michael, just put it down and enjoy the podcast. Thanks also to Dylan Johnston. They call him Killing Dylan. Because whatever he's doing, he's killing it. Whoa. Work, killing it.
Starting point is 00:46:19 Boom. Relationships, killing it. Only problem. Oh. Again, I mean it very literally so he works at an animal shelter okay he's killing it oh there's very little recovery involved in these animals he's putting them down ah there's not many adoptions i guess yeah i think dylan murder might seem like the option the number one option for every one of life's problems and hell we teach that lesson sometimes to the commune too but maybe ease up a little bit ease
Starting point is 00:46:53 up on the killing just wound them try wounding it doesn't seem like it try maiming sometimes relationships sometimes like a middle of the road isn't the answer. I don't think maiming animals is... So stick with murder? Or just, like, let him go. Just let him go. Fine. They call him Let Him Go Dylan because he gives up on life.
Starting point is 00:47:14 He'd prefer that he killed it. You'd prefer... You're like, also, giving up on life sounds like murder. Thank you, Dylan. Thank you, too. Alex Milka. Alex, you are the Milka in my chompies you are the beer in my beerios you make everything that's a little too hard in life just that little bit softer like milk does to cereal i think that's a beautiful analogy also you are two percent fat which is remarkable by the way to
Starting point is 00:47:46 get your body fat that low read it beyond belief you are you are a semi-skimmed human my friend and i i'm impressed you uh teach me your ways i am an eggnog to you i think thanks also to sally butler sally me and kit actually are recruiting for a butler in the paranormal commune um someone to just keep on top of our daily tasks um stop any possible revolutions or uprisings i don't think that's what butler does but but i guess if you just mean the name yeah well also to serve us eggs in the morning i also want eggs in the morning. Why eggs? I also want eggs in the morning. Which is also partially why the uprising is happening. Because there's an egg shortage in the commune and people are not happy.
Starting point is 00:48:36 Those jobs are actually very linked. If you could somehow serve us eggs every morning without letting a soul know that we're getting eggs every morning. Yeah, Sally. It's really vitally important that you do it with the utmost secrecy. How many eggs do we want every morning? Classified. Find out when your resume arrives. Thank you, too. Franz, Yuri, Leo, Alto.
Starting point is 00:48:58 As they always say, keep your Franz close and your Enzamis closer. And we're keeping Franz very close. Keep your frans close and your enzames closer. And we're keeping frans very close because he's our right-hand butler in the commune. Oh, Sally, you're out of a job. Sally, you're the left-hand butler. We still need eggs. Of course. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:49:24 Frans, your job's mostly going to be serving us dinner at night, stopping any uprisings, because for dinner we want eggs. Of course. More eggs, which people aren't happy. They weren't happy about the breakfast eggs, let alone the dinner eggs. So, friends, we're going to really need you to just serve the eggs
Starting point is 00:49:36 and just put a stop to any whisperings or traitors or uprisings going on in the commune. We're currently waiting on a large shipment of those fake Chinese eggs that we were kicking about a couple of years ago. Yeah. We really think that those fake eggs will alleviate a lot of attention in the commune. Which, by the way, is only because we refuse to serve anything other than egg-based dishes. People have got tons of soldiers, but no eggs to go with them.
Starting point is 00:50:07 Exactly. They've got loads of Benedict. No eggs. Thanks, lastly, but not leastly, to Ryan Whitelaw. Ryan, we need you to write law in the commune. And the law is, back the f*** off my eggs. All right? People need to just calm eggs. All right? People need to just calm down.
Starting point is 00:50:26 All right? Next week, we have a truckload of chickens arriving at the commune, which we can sell to buy eggs. So just cool it with all this egg famine nonsense. The rumors that are going around. Sure, Kit and I are still eating eggs. Sure, no one else has eaten eggs for weeks, but you know, if we start, if we start letting the leaders go hungry, then what does that say
Starting point is 00:50:53 about the followers? You know? So of course. So Ryan, we need you really just to, um, you know, keep morale high, um, in the, in the, in the commune. Don't yolk them on. It's an egg-based pun there. People hate that. Don't do that. That really stirs them up, actually. That really whisks them up. So don't really do any egg-based content.
Starting point is 00:51:16 But just keep an eye on them and enforce the law if needs be and serve us eggs also. And Ryan Whitelaw, do you know how we like our eggs? White and raw. No yolk. ice cold. We're not even eating all of the eggs that were hoarding Like a magic and give the commune the yolks, which they would probably be happy with It's the most tasty bit the commune are like at least cook the eggs. Hell no white and raw
Starting point is 00:51:43 white and raw shell and all so many people are like i really shouldn't have come here this wasn't what was promised to me this isn't the level of conversation i was promised at the very least eggs at the very most eternal salvation eggs was like the footnote at the bottom was eggs every sunday they can't even deliver on the eggs i really feel like if if kit and rory didn't eat eggs the other six days the week we could all eat eggs on a sunday but no silence ryan get him thank you so much for listening to this week's episode of this paranormal life i had an absolute blast hopefully you did as well kit hopefully you did listening at home uh remember the chickens are coming we're gonna sell those plenty of eggs are coming don't freak out
Starting point is 00:52:35 stop saying that there's stop using hashtag egg famine because it's not real thing just chill out everyone hope you enjoyed this week's episode and we will see you next week for a brand new paranormal tale bye bye folks ciao

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