It is said that Jesus not only turned water into wine, but also had the power to cast outdemons . This means that exorcisms have been around for at least 2,000 years. Surprisingly, the Catholic Church did not establish any rules. until 1614 . But in the modern world, and undoubtedly thanks to the influence of pop culture, exorcism is more popular than ever. It seems like everyone is possessed, meaning there are a constant stream of exorcisms being performed, including several new ones.
10. Home Depot Exorcism
If you've ever shopped at Home Depot, you might have wondered if the store was cursed. However, that doesn't necessarily mean you're possessed. However, your mileage may vary, and for at least one group of people, the idea of the store being haunted by evil spirits was all too real.
In 2021, police were called to a Home Depot in Pennsylvania when several people attempted to perform an exorcism on passage with lumber . They were responding to a call about "disorderly people" and discovered a couple performing exorcisms on dead trees. Whether this meant they were exorcising the trees themselves or doing so on their behalf isn't entirely clear.
How to get firewood out of a passage? The police chief told a local newspaper that two men in black "« sang and moaned »"Unfortunately, after the men were removed, they did not indicate why they thought the tree was possessed in the first place, or whether they managed to save its soul.
9. Hawaiian Bible-bashing
The modern world has by no means limited the market to unusual exorcisms. Although films portray the "real" ritual as something dark and terrifying with strict rules, when people tried to perform it in real life, things didn't always go so smoothly and seriously. Take, for example, the exorcisms in Hawaii, which began as early as 1903.
According to a news report from the time, the man they call a kahuna, whom the newspaper equates to a witch doctor, although the true meaning A somewhat vaguer word for this, he was charged with manslaughter. He was called to treat a man who had malaria and was already receiving medical attention. However, the kahuna declared that the man wasn't so much sick as possessed by demons. The decision? A strong one. beating Hit the man on the head with a Bible until he died.
When brought before the magistrate, the kahuna apparently defended his actions, pointing out that it was the proper way to deal with someone possessed by the devil.
8. Snake Possession
One of the great tragedies of exorcism stories is that, while they seem silly to those who read them, the truth is that there are often real victims who suffer serious injuries and even death as a result. It's all well and good that Katsumi Nagaya was convinced his son was possessed by a snake back in 2013 and laughed it off. But when you learn that his 23-year-old son, Takuya Nagaya, died as a result of his father's attempt to "cure" him, you see where these stories become truly grim.
According to reports filed with police, Takuya was visiting his parents and began acting strangely. They claimed he was unstable and even aggressive, saying, "I'm a snake.".
Instead of taking his son to a mental health specialist, the elder Nagaya began attack the son throughout the day. He beat and even bit his son until he finally collapsed from his injuries.
Some reports say the beatings and biting continued more than a day , and the father's only defense was that he tried to drive out the snake.
7. Text Message Daemon
In the film «"Poltergeist"» Restless and evil spirits are contacting a little girl through television. The evil seems to be technologically savvy. This view is supported by the opinion of Monsignor Stephen Rossetti, a Catholic priest and prolific exorcist who has seen text messages , sent by demons.
Rossetti lives in Washington, D.C., where he performs up to 20 exorcisms each week. He claims to have seen one victim's eyes turn yellow, like a snake's, while another's turned pitch black. But undoubtedly the most sinister manifestation of evil came in the form of demonic text messages.
The father of a possessed young woman began receiving text messages described as "venomous" from the demon possessing his daughter. How vicious? They said things like, "She belongs to us!" Rosetti did some digging, and the messages came from, you guessed it, his daughter's phone. But according to Rosetti, there was no evidence she sent the messages. It was the demon that did it.
Fortunately, Rossetti and a few others were able to devote six months to exorcising this particular demon and freeing the victim's soul.
6. Kassam Stadium
There are few people more superstitious than sports fans and athletes. Rumor has it that Serena Williams refuses to change his lucky socks before a match. Bill Russell's mascot threw up . So the idea that some people might believe their favorite team was somehow cursed isn't that hard to believe. But Oxford United pushed the boundaries a bit when they found themselves on the receiving end of an exorcism.
In 2001, the team suffered a setback, performing poorly in their new stadium. Naturally, the conversation turned more to name-calling than to any actual problems with the team's performance. Rumor has it that the ground on which their new stadium was built had been cursed for several years before it was built.
To bring the team back to victory, the Bishop of Oxford spent on site exorcism . The ritual was performed at the request of the team's chaplain, who also wanted to bless the area. This way, they could even hold weddings there without fear of evil creeping in.
So how did the land become cursed? According to the chaplain, it was once a farm. The farmer hired Roma as day laborers. When the land was sold, the Roma lost their jobs and cursed the place. Sounds reasonable.
5. Exorcism from above
Buenaventura, Colombia, has a serious problem with crime and violence. It is one of the most dangerous cities in the world. A drug war over turf in 2021 per month more than were committed 30 murders and 40 disappearances. In other countries, the poverty rate is twice as high. Health care is scarce, and even functioning water and sanitation are virtually nonexistent. And this has been the case for years.
In 2019, Monsignor Rubén Darío Jaramillo Montoya decided there was only one solution to cleanse the city of evil: exorcism. But how do you perform a citywide exorcism? If you're the Bishop of Buenaventura, you take to the skies. The plan was to fly over the city in a helicopter and spray the ground. holy water .
The army actually provided a helicopter for the ritual, so the plan received significant government support. On the other hand, since it was planned for 2019, and the problems in Buenaventura continue, it appears the plan didn't work.
4. All of Mexico
If city exorcisms aren't extreme enough, don't worry, things are getting even bigger. In 2015, all of Mexico was subjected to exorcisms.
Due to high crime rates, including violence and drug cartel activity, and, according to the Catholic News Agency, high abortion rates, the Church felt the need to take action across the country.
The Archbishop Emeritus of Guadalajara performed a ritual with the very cool name "« Exorcismo Magno »" and told people about it only after it had been performed. So it was a stealth exorcism on a national scale. While it's hard to say how much exorcism has changed in Mexico, the crime rate has actually dropped slightly, and murder rate in 2019 and 2020 was the lowest in the last ten years.
3. Exorcism at Summer Camp
Many kids go to camp in the summer and experience something between the best and worst times of their lives. They make friends and learn new things, but they also likely endure terrible sports, inhumane living conditions, and bullying. It's a time-honored ritual that most people love and/or hate depending on the day. But what doesn't usually happen at camp is an exorcism. Even Camp Crystal Lake didn't have one, and these kids had Jason Voorhees.
Over 1,000 children attended a three-day religious camp in Poland to learn more about God and their spirituality. To that end, the police running the camp decided to bring the students up on stage and perform apractical exorcism , invoking the Holy Spirit and causing children to faint, scream, or otherwise go crazy.
Some children described it as "« psychiatric hospital »" and mentioned that they didn't come the next day out of fear of what might happen. For his part, the priest stated that no one had complained about this.
2. Most of Italy
In recent years, the Vatican has had to step up its exorcism game. Exorcismson the rise , so apparently the demons are very busy these days. But how busy? According to an Italian priest, only in Italy are there more 500,000 people per year Claimed to be possessed. Sounds intense, right? It's worse than you think. Italy has a population of just under 60 million. That means about one in every 120 Italians is possessed. But that's just one year's worth.
So… what's happening on a 10-year timeline?
That's five million possessed Italians, or one in twelve people. At some point, within a relatively short period of time, almost everyone in Italy would be possessed by a demon, based on these numbers, or some people would be possessed repeatedly.
1. The Latoya Ammons Case
When it comes to stories of exorcisms, people typically react in one of two ways. Most people will dismiss such things outright as nonsense. But some firmly believe that demons and possession exist, and that anything is possible in Heaven and on Earth. And the world usually doesn't discuss it anymore. People who believe in spiritual matters are, for the most part, free to believe whatever they want without being persecuted for it.
Every now and then, however, you'll come across a story with so many confusing and disturbing details that, even if you're not a believer, you'll start to wonder, "What if?" LaToya Ammons's story is one of those stories.
A local newspaper obtained more than 800 pages of official records detailing Ammons' story and her family's plight.
The Ammons moved to Gary, Indiana, in 2011. They claim terrible things started happening right away. Doors were swarming with flies. Wet footprints were found in the house. Children levitated. Later, a psychic told them there were demons in their house. 200 of them. It still wasn't that weird.
Ammons and her three children were possessed, but her mother was fine because she said she was immune to that kind of thing.
At this point, it could be any possession movie. But professionals got involved. Not ghost hunters, but their family doctor, the Department of Child Services, as well as psychiatrists and the police. And it becameincreasingly strange .
The official DCS report states that medical staff told them Ammons' son flew across the room without being touched. This occurred after speaking in tongues. Staff called an ambulance and the police. A nurse later witnessed him walking backwards along the wall. Again, all of this is apparently contained in the DCS report.
Her children were removed from her care and taken to the emergency room. They concluded that the youngest boy had been coerced into participating in his mother's delusions. Meanwhile, local police were already convinced the house was haunted after the recording equipment malfunctioned, resulting in strange images appearing in photographs.
The family and the house underwent exorcisms, some of which were attended by police and DCS officers. By this point, many of those present had become believers and claimed to have suffered after the fact from their own ill health and accidents.
Ammons eventually regained custody of her children and moved out of the house. Apparently, nothing happened after that either. The landlord claimed no one had had any problems before or since. He asked the local police to stop driving by so often because it was frightening the new tenants.