Beyond the Veil Magazine

The Possession of Anneliese Michel

Issue #17: May 1980

On 1 July 1976, Anneliese Michel died in her parents’ home in Klingenberg, Bavaria. She was twenty-three years old. She weighed thirty kilograms. She had not eaten for weeks. For nearly a year, she had been subjected to sixty-seven exorcism sessions conducted by two Catholic priests.

Her parents and the priests were convicted of negligent homicide. The case raised profound questions about the boundary between possession and mental illness, questions that remain unresolved.

The Background

Anneliese Michel was born in 1952 to a devout Catholic family. She was intelligent, pious, and apparently healthy until the age of sixteen, when she experienced what doctors diagnosed as a grand mal epileptic seizure.

Over the following years, she was treated with anticonvulsant medications and hospitalised several times. The seizures were controlled, but other symptoms emerged: depression, compulsive behaviours, and what she described as disturbing visions.

Anneliese began to perceive demonic faces in the people around her. She heard voices commanding her to commit sins. She became unable to pass a crucifix without looking away and unable to drink holy water. She developed an aversion to sacred objects and places.

Medical treatment continued, but Anneliese and her family became convinced that her affliction was not merely physical. She was possessed.

The Exorcism

In 1975, after being refused permission by several priests, the Michel family found Father Arnold Renz and Pastor Ernst Alt, who believed Anneliese was genuinely possessed. With the approval of the Bishop of Würzburg, they began exorcism rites in September 1975.

The sessions were tape-recorded, producing over forty hours of audio evidence. The recordings capture Anneliese speaking in voices other than her own, claiming to be demons including Lucifer, Cain, Judas Iscariot, and Nero. The voices spoke in German and occasionally in Latin. They mocked the priests, recited their sins, and predicted their failure.

Anneliese exhibited extraordinary physical symptoms. She performed hundreds of genuflections each day, eventually destroying the ligaments in her knees. She banged her head against walls until the plaster cracked. She bit through her own cheeks. She refused food for extended periods, accepting only small amounts when commanded by the priests.

The exorcism continued for ten months. Medical treatment was discontinued. By June 1976, Anneliese was severely malnourished, dehydrated, and suffering from pneumonia. On 1 July, she died.

The Trial

The state of Bavaria charged Anneliese’s parents and both priests with negligent homicide. The trial, which took place in 1978, became a battleground between medical and religious worldviews.

Prosecutors presented psychiatric evidence that Anneliese suffered from epilepsy complicated by severe psychosis. Her symptoms, they argued, were manifestations of mental illness that could have been treated medically. The defendants had allowed her to die by substituting religious ritual for proper medical care.

The defence argued that Anneliese’s condition was beyond medical understanding. The symptoms (the languages she should not have known, the knowledge of sins she could not have learned, the physical manifestations) suggested something beyond psychiatry’s competence.

Both sides presented expert witnesses. Psychiatrists described temporal lobe epilepsy and dissociative disorders. Theologians discussed the Church’s criteria for genuine possession. The tape recordings were played, their disturbing content echoing through the courtroom.

The court convicted all four defendants, sentencing them to six months’ imprisonment suspended. The judge acknowledged the defendants’ sincere belief in possession but ruled that they should have sought medical assistance as Anneliese’s condition deteriorated.

The Unresolved Questions

The Michel case raises questions that neither medicine nor theology has satisfactorily answered:

Was she possessed? The tape recordings capture phenomena that resist easy explanation. Anneliese appeared to speak in languages she had not studied and to possess knowledge she should not have had. Sceptics suggest these can be explained by cryptomnesia (hidden memories) and the leading questions of the exorcists. Believers maintain that no natural explanation suffices.

Could medicine have saved her? Anneliese had been treated medically for years without resolution of her symptoms. Her response to anticonvulsants was poor. Whether continued psychiatric treatment would have prevented her death is unknowable.

Was the exorcism responsible for her death? The immediate cause of death was malnutrition and dehydration. The exorcism sessions may have encouraged her refusal of food. Alternatively, she may have been refusing food anyway, as part of her apparent spiritual struggle.

Where does religious belief end and negligence begin? The Michels genuinely believed their daughter was possessed and that exorcism was her only hope. At what point does sincere religious conviction become criminal irresponsibility?

The Aftermath

The Michel case has become a touchstone for debates about possession, exorcism, and the intersection of religion and medicine. The Catholic Church has not repudiated the exorcism; indeed, some within the Church continue to venerate Anneliese as a soul who chose to suffer for the redemption of others.

Her grave in Klingenberg has become a pilgrimage site. Visitors leave flowers, rosaries, and prayers for her intercession.

The case has influenced Catholic policy on exorcism, leading to stricter requirements for medical evaluation before spiritual intervention. But exorcisms continue, performed by priests who believe that possession is real and that the Church has both the authority and the obligation to combat it.

Anneliese Michel’s death resolved nothing. The questions she embodied (about the nature of the mind, the reality of evil, and the limits of faith) remain as open as they were on the day she died.

Readers with experience of possession cases or exorcism practices are invited to write to our research department in confidence.