Religion and Spirituality in Psychiatry

152 Pierre-Yves Brandt and Laurence Borrasand so on. …’ Each insult was followed by snarling,grimaces of hate and bulging eyes filled withblood. It was already another, unrecognizable livingbeing which was lying there. This being wasthe opposite of the girl I had seen before whohad been so quiet, sweet, relaxed, gentle and gay”(p. 14). He then offered to perform an exorcism.After the parents agreed, he took out his prayerbook. He recounts that the demons tried to ripit away from him. The book flew into the air.“We immediately attached Barbara onto her bed,where she struggled violently, trying to breakaway. Four strong men had to hold her, while shespit at them and scratched them. I thought thatthe moment was right to start the exorcism, andI made the sign of the cross while throwing someholy water on the poor creature. The reactionwas immediate. She tried vainly to break free,crying and hurling curses at us. She belched outa series of extremely violent curse words, but Iwent on with the prayer. I wanted to observe duringthis first exorcism session whether the fourcharacteristic signs of possession would manifestthemselves” (p. 15). The priest then noted thatall of these signs were soon observed. A longmonitoring process then began. The priest wentto see Barbara regularly at her home to performexorcisms. Between his visits, her mother calledhim nearly every evening after 11 p.m. so thatthe numbered voices could speak to him on thephone, usually for fifteen to thirty minutes.No immediate improvement was visible. Onthe contrary, no progression was seen at all. Atthe beginning of November 1972, after performingseveral exorcisms, the priest wrote to thefamily that he was not sure that he could stilloversee the case. On November 16, the motherreplied that the night before she had cleaned thekitchen three times between 12:30 and 1:15 a.m.because “the numbers” had covered it with sugar.The priest advised her to go on a pilgrimage toLourdes or Lisieux, places that were known fortheir beneficial effects on visitors. A pilgrimagewas organized for Easter of 1973. During the massin the basilica of Lisieux, one of Barbara’s handsclosed and she could no longer open it. She hadto go home with her hand in this position.After the summer holidays, “the numbers”started to appear again. To help her begin workingagain, she was given typewriting tasks toperform at home. In the evening, “the numbers”destroyed the work done during the day. OnJuly 9, 1974, when the numbers left Barbara asthey did every year for the summer holidays, theyannounced that they would be back on August 5.A second pilgrimage to Lourdes was undertakenon July 25. Everything seemed normal. OnAugust 5, at 11 p.m., the numbers were back. Aturning point occurred at the end of October 1975when the numbers announced that they wouldleave Barbara one day when their “leader” toldthem to do so. But before that, they specified thatthey wanted a prey. In fact, it took several moreyears. On March 3, 1978, the numbers dictated animportant text, of which an excerpt reads: “Thebitch was left at our disposal. We could harass herbecause the one at the top allowed us to. We triedto use the strategy of illness, but we failed to bringher to our side. ‘Mister W.’ also helped us a lot inour work, but it has been a lost cause since thebeginning. Why did we really come? A very longtime ago, someone cursed Barbara’s grandfather,a curse related to a certain ‘book.’… Mr. W. calledus and asked us to help him through our work;that’s why so many of us came. Mr. W. belongs tous .… We are seven numbers. We cannot revealour names; it would be too dangerous, too dangerousfor us. The solution is called 1/2 + 1/2 = 1.That means that when the bitch gets married, wewill have to leave forever. Without conquering!We are damned, damned! cursed! damned!”Barbara’s grandfather had died in 1977.Mister W. was an acquaintance of the family.Barbara’s mother was convinced that this man hadbeen practicing black magic against them. In Aprilof 1978, Barbara was “released.” At that point,number 7 spoke for the first time and revealed hisname: “I am Astaroth.” The priest identified himwith a pagan divinity in the Bible and said thatthis divinity was the symbol of a powerful demon.(He said, this divinity is mentioned in the Bible;Astaroth is a plural. See Judg. 2.13, 1 Sam. 7.3 and12.10, and 1 Chron. 6.56). A few months beforeBarbara was “freed,” she had become involved in