The Encyclopedia Of Demons And Demonology

180 Mottlingen Possession
van der Toorn, Karel, Bob Becking, and Pieter W. van der
Horst, eds. Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible.
2nd ed. Grand Rapids, Mich.: William B. Eerdmans, 1999.
Mottlingen Possession (1836–1843) German peasant
woman possessed by a ghost and more than 1,000
DEMONs. The case was published in English for the first
time by the spiritualist medium W. T. Stead in his book
Borderland: A Casebook of True Supernatural Stories
(1891–92). The victim was a single woman identified only
by her initials, G. D., born around 1816 in Mottlingen,
Wurtemberg, Germany. She was a servant who was by all
accounts pious, so her friends and neighbors were mystified
at the sudden onset of supernatural attack followed
by complete demonic POSSESSION.
Between 1836 and 1838, G. D. had a serious illness
that weakened her overall health and left her with one leg
shorter than the other. The same side of her body was affected
as well, making it impossible for her continue work
as a servant. She went to live with two sisters and a nearly
blind brother, who lived on the ground floor of a house in
Mottlingen. The illness may have made G. D. vulnerable
to spirit invasion.
G. D. immediately felt that a strange presence was
in the house. On her very first day there, she was in the
midst of saying grace at dinner when she had a seizure
and fell unconscious. At night, weird sounds were heard
in the house: a swishing, trailing noise and the sound of
objects being rolled around on the floor. Even the family
who lived on the second floor heard the noises and was
alarmed by them.
G. D. saw shadowy figures and moving lights, which
were not visible to others. She felt an invisible force seize
her hands at night and move them. G. D. underwent a
change in personality, becoming unpleasant to others.
By 1841, the nightly visitations and phenomena had
become so distressing to G. D. that she sought out a clergyman,
Pfarrar Blumhardt. He was at a loss to explain
what was happening to her. That winter, she became ill
again, but she was extremely unpleasant to Blumhardt
when he paid visits to her.
The disturbances escalated. By April 1842, the entire
neighborhood could hear the noises at night. G. D. frequently
saw the specter of a woman who had died two
years prior in the village, holding a dead child in her
arms. The ghost said she wanted rest.
One night, a mysterious light in the house revealed
a loose floorboard. A paper with writing was found underneath,
but the dirt on it was so heavy that the writing
could not be read. Two weeks later, another mysterious
light and a noise emerged from behind the stove.
Underneath the floor, there were hidden objects: money
wrapped up in paper, packets of a strange powder, bird
bones, and other items. G. D. and her siblings believed
these to be magical objects used for spell casting.
Blumhardt persuaded G. D. to move, and she went to
live with another relative. The previous house continued
to be haunted until 1844. Meanwhile, the activity also followed
G. D. to her new residence. Now, she started having
convulsions. Her possessions began.
The dead woman kept appearing to her, and simultaneously
G. D. would feel tapped and even struck sharply
by invisible blows. G. D. said the woman had confessed
to grievous sins on her deathbed and could find no peace.
G. D. would fall unconscious, during which times “unearthly
sounds” would fill the house.
Blumhardt described the first time he saw her become
possessed:
Suddenly, something seemed to enter into her, and her
whole body began to move. I said a few words of prayer,
mentioning the name of Jesus. Immediately she rolled
her eyes, threw out her hands, and spoke in a voice
that was at once recognized as that of a stranger—not
only on account of the sound, as of the expression and
choice of words. The voice cried, “I cannot endure to
hear that name!” All shuddered. I had never heard anything
of the kind, and offered a silent prayer for wisdom
and discretion.
Blumhardt questioned the spirit, who said she had no
rest in death because she had killed two children and buried
them in fields. She could not pray and could not endure
the name of JESUS. She said she was not alone; “the
worst of all beings” was with her. She also said that she
had practiced magic, which made her “the devil’s bondswoman.”
She had been cast out of people seven times, and
she was not about to be cast out again. Blumhardt told her
she could not remain in the body of G. D., but the spirit
was defiant. At last, it left after being sternly ordered out
by the minister.
Subsequently, G. D. suffered frequent possessions,
with an increasing number of demons entering into her.
Blumhardt cast out as many as 14 at one time. Onlookers
often felt blows, but the minister was never harmed. The
demons told him they could not harm him.
The possessions intensified. G. D. felt invisible blows
day and night. Sometimes, she was knocked down while
walking on the street. One night, she awakened feeling a
burning hand seize her neck. The skin blistered, and the
wound festered for weeks.
On July 25, 1842, G. D. suffered a particularly bad
possession, lying unconscious “like dead” while more
than 1,000 demons passed out of her through her mouth.
According to Blumhardt, they exited in groups of 12, 14,
and 28 at a time. After this, G. D. had some peace for a
few weeks, but then the possessions returned, worse than
ever. Every Wednesday and Friday night, the demons arrived.
Her health declined.
Others in the village urged the minister to use remedies
of sympathetic magic, but he refused, believing that
magic would only strengthen SATAN against him. He believed
such folk magic practices, as well as fortune telling
and divining the location of lost property, were the type
of thing the Devil used to ensnare people.