The Encyclopedia Of Demons And Demonology

172 Michel, Anneliese
Michel was born on September 21, 1952, in Klingenberg,
Bavaria, to a conservative, middle-class Catholic
family. She was the second of five girls; the first child,
Martha, died at age eight of a kidney ailment. Michel’s
parents were Josef and Anna Michel; Josef worked as a
carpenter. As a child, Michel was frail and sickly but did
well in school. She exhibited signs of being hypersensitive
and was overcome sometimes during Mass at church.
Her parents envisioned a career as a schoolteacher for
her, and they sent her to study at the Gymnasium in
Aschaffenberg.
In 1968, Michel suffered her first blackout, while sitting
in class. That night, she experienced a terrifying
seizure of paralysis, suffocation, and uncontrolled urination.
A year passed before these episodes repeated.
Her mother took her to a neurologist in Aschaffenberg,
Dr. Siegfried Luthy, who diagnosed probable epilepsy
but prescribed no medication because of the infrequency
of episodes. Michel’s health declined and she
contracted tonsillitis, pleurisy, pneumonia, and tuberculosis.
She was also diagnosed with heart and circulatory
problems. She was hospitalized in a sanatorium in
Mittelberg.
Michel was still in the hospital on June 3, 1970, when
she suffered another nighttime seizure. She was sent to a
neurologist in Kempten, who ordered an electroencephalogram
an (EEG). The results showed abnormal brain
waves, and he prescribed anticonvulsant medication.
Michel was returned to the sanatorium, where she grew
increasingly depressed. About one week after her visit
to Kempten, she experienced her first demonic vision.
While praying, she saw a huge, grimacing, cruel face that
loomed before her for a brief moment. Michel was in the
habit of praying intensely, but after this, she was afraid
to pray, lest the demonic face intrude again. She began to
wonder whether the demon was inside her, perhaps causing
her illness. She had thoughts of suicide.
On August 29, 1970, she was sent home, but family
members observed that she seemed changed: She was
depressed and withdrawn. She resumed school, but her
grades were only average. She had a hard time studying.
She suffered another seizure.
Michel was sent back to doctors, who confirmed her
circulatory problems and prescribed more anticonvulsants.
She may not have taken them, at least for long.
Her health and mental state continued to decline,
and she lost all interest in school. She made an effort to
study to please her mother. Her seizures, sometimes severe,
continued. Her mother sent her back to Dr. Luthy in
Aschaffenberg. He prescribed an anticonvulsant and recommended
regular checkups. Michel dutifully returned
at several-month intervals into 1973. She did not inform
her doctor of her increasing seizures and blackouts or tell
him that she now smelled a horrible stench that others
did not. She felt the medication was contributing to her
apathy and listlessness.
Michel had increasing visions of ghastly, horned demonic
faces. There were more stenches of something
burning, feces, or rotting flesh. Knocking noises sounded
in her bedroom; her mother told her she was dreaming
them. However, Anna soon began to think that her
daughter was being plagued by demons. She told her
skeptical husband that she had caught Michel staring at a
statue of the Virgin Mary in the house, and her eyes were
jet black and her hands looked like paws with claws. Josef
recommended prayer and said he would take her to a
saint shrine, the Mother of God of San Damiano.
Michel had a terrible time at the shrine. She could not
enter the chapel and said the ground burned her feet. So
did the miraculous water there. She tore her rosary and
refused to wear a saint medal bought by her father, saying
it suffocated her. She spoke with a man’s voice and
exuded a stench.
Michel’s bouts grew worse. She had periods of seeming
to feel fine and then suddenly had seizures, visions,
or deep depression. She became convinced that demons
were inside her, and she felt empty, torn in two, or believed
that she was someone else. She gave more thought
to suicide. She acquired a boyfriend, Peter, but was unable
to be sexually responsive to him.
Anna returned her to Dr. Luthy. According to Anna
and Michel, he recommended that they consult a Jesuit
priest. Later, after Michel was dead, Dr. Lithy denied this,
stating he would have only recommended another medical
professional.
At any rate, while Michel was shuttling around among
various physicians, she did consult various priests, including
Father Roth at the parish at San Damiano. He referred
her to Father Ernst Alt. Also, Father Adolf Rodewyk of
Frankfurt, an expert on possession, opined in a letter that
she showed symptoms of possession, but he declined to
see her in person, because of his age and distance.
Alt became involved in the case. He seemed to possess
psychic ability or sensitivity and had an empathic connection
to Michel even before meeting her. He was inclined
to see her as suffering from circumsessio (surrounded by
evil forces) at the least and possibly from possession.
Michel had sessions with Father Alt in which they
talked and prayed, and she seemed better, temporarily,
after the visits. Alt wrote to his superior, Bishop Stangl,
on September 30, 1974, asking for permission to say the
prayer of exorcism over her. Stangl refused, telling Alt to
monitor her. The bishop thought she needed more medical
help.
In 1975, Michel was unbalanced by the death of her
grandmother and the departures of sisters from the household.
Studying became harder than ever. She told Peter
that she felt she was eternally damned, although she did
not know why. She developed an aversion to holy objects
and stopped going to church. She could barely walk. She
suffered episodes in which her face and body contorted.
Peter told others she was possessed. When she starting