Hey, everyone. Dave here, welcoming you back
to the triumphant return of Interdimensional
Swap. This week, we are bringing you an episode
covering the alleged possession of Annalise Michelle
by the amazing show Station 59. It's hosted by
paranormal investigator Chelsea Deanne, and it
covers everything from the paranormal to weird
history or just some... Like, just wild, unexplained
shit. It's super well -researched. It's funny,
and it's a really good time. And if you like
what you hear, new episodes drop every Wednesday,
and I'll be posting links in the episode description
of where you can find their social media and
then where to listen to them. But definitely
give this episode a listen. It's really fun.
And then if you like what you hear, make sure
you go give them a follow, a nice little rating
and review. Definitely helps everyone involved.
Yeah, so with that out of the way. Enjoy. Hello
and welcome to Station 59. This is a podcast
covering all the weird in the world, and I am
your tour guide to the other side, Chelsea Deanne.
This episode is yet again. late i'm so sorry
i had a full week off work between my investigation
i took pto and thanksgiving break and i thought
that that meant i had a ton of time to work on
this show but it turns out that was not the case
we had a birthday party for my mom on saturday
and then i went straight from that to ambers
um saturday evening we had our ghost hunt sunday
into monday it was 17 full hours on location
um and then got home monday afternoon went straight
to an appointment finally slept spent all of
tuesday and wednesday in recovery mode then thanksgiving
my mom grandma and i go out for black friday
every year and now it's saturday and there's
a snowstorm and i just don't want to do anything
at all ever again frankly I literally have three
pages of Vietnamese homework that I'm supposed
to be doing. I meet with my tutor in like two
hours, but I spent the whole day laying in bed
and now I'm doing this. So clearly my priorities
are in perfect order. But okay, here's my justification,
right? I deserve time off. I deserve downtime.
And when all of my downtime was spent not being
downtime, I get to have some downtime, okay?
Thank you. But speaking of my investigation,
this was the craziest, the most active, and the
most fruitful investigation we've ever had. I
mean, we saw things, we felt things, we heard
things, things moved, we had full -blown conversations
at times. We, I mean, we caught some incredible
EVPs and I literally just finished running them
through my audio editor uh I was like boosting
the volume isolating the voice and all that so
that you could like actually hear what was being
said and oh my god you guys the hair on the back
of my neck was standing up when I heard those
voices spoiler alert we got voices we caught
actual words and I mean, one of them is so distinct.
Like you can make out like a twang in his voice.
it's okay i won't get too much into it now because
we are going to be revealing everything over
on our team instagram page highly recommend checking
that out for all of the details about our investigation
uh this one and all of the ones to come it is
ep paranormal excuse me ep underscore paranormal
eepi I will do a whole episode here about this
particular overnight at some point because there
is so much to go into, but it'll be a while because
we still have to look over all the videos and
pictures and all the rest of the recordings and
all that. So today I have a different story for
you. And actually I have already recorded this
once, but it was supposed to be for Femme Fatality.
However, that file both corrupted. and failed
to save. But only my audio, Carolyn's was fine,
but out of a nearly, and I wish I was joking,
four hour recording, we only got three usable
minutes from my end, and I was the storyteller
for that episode, so that just was, it's just
not gonna work. So, very weird, very frustrating.
But I don't feel like making Carolyn sit through
that again. I am in need of a story. And this
one is very fascinating to me. I worked really,
really hard on this story, actually. And so I
don't want to let it go to waste. And so here
we are. So in my last episode, which was about
Maria Jose Ferreira, I went into this whole spiel
about like possession and how it terrifies me.
And then that. story wasn't even about possession
at all. So that was cute. But that was because
I was thinking of this story. So today we're
going to get into the tale of Annalisa Mikkel,
the real life inspiration behind the movie The
Exorcism of Emily Rose. I vividly remember watching
this movie for the first time and then it was
like based on a true story and I was like what?
So dove into this one. It's spooky. It's sad.
It is a grand opportunity for me to ramble yet
again about the fallacies and dangers of religion.
I will try to keep that to a minimum. But let's
get into it. So, Anna Elizabeth Mikkel, most
commonly known as Annalisa, was born in Klingerman...
Can't talk. Klingenberg, Germany, on September
21st, 1952, to devout conservative Catholic parents.
Coming from a former Catholic, Catholicism is
already a very conservative sect of Christianity,
but Anneliese's parents and her community as
a whole were considered more conservative than
regular Catholics. In fact, when the Vatican
was reformed in... like 1959, early 1960s, their
community was outraged. They believed that Satan
had gained traction within the church itself
and that this was where the Vatican II was coming
from. For context, Vatican II was a reform of
Catholicism that basically was attempting it
to bring it into modern times. So the whole aim
was to make the church less exclusive and more
accessible to the general public. So Vatican
II is the reason that mass does not have to be
performed in Latin. It can be performed in English.
I think it can be performed in any language that
is being spoken. You know what I mean? If you're
in Mexico, you can perform it in Spanish, but
I don't actually know that because I'm from...
iowa so this reform also emphasized the importance
of social justice human rights and community
involvement at least as far as the catholic church
is willing to endorse those things and the people
of annalise's community were like oh absolutely
not obviously anyone who's pushing this ain't
right so that was kind of the backdrop that we're
working in. So like, for more context, in Klingenberg,
young children were taught the story of Dr. Faustus,
who was a man who sought knowledge so fiercely
that he came to make a deal with the devil, who
subsequently ripped him limb from limb. It was
a cautionary tale of like, this is why you don't
deal with the devil, but also this is why you
don't try to learn things, right? This, this
story is the plot of an old Jacobian era play
But the kids of Klingenberg were taught it as
fact, like actual historical verified happenings.
Also to those in Annalise's community, witchcraft
was extremely real and extremely dangerous. The
witch hunts of olden times had all been real
and justified, and all of those who'd lost their
lives had deserved it for betraying God. There
were women... According to these teachings, the
who possessed evil powers and could place curses
on anyone at will, curses which directly resulted
in the victim becoming possessed by demons. And
this is not a bible school kind of lecture as
it was for me and my floor sleeping situation.
This was literally taught in school. So, it's
not really a surprise that Annalisa grew up an
extremely religious young woman. She attended
church every Sunday and often throughout the
week as well. Her goal in life was to attend
university so that she could go on to become
a teacher of religious studies. However, Annalise's
life was not going to go to plan, and the first
clue to her fate came around her 16th birthday
in September 1968. The young girl was sitting
with a friend just kind of chilling when suddenly
she totally lost consciousness. When she came
to, she told her friend, She must just be exhausted,
so friend goes home, Annalisa goes to sleep.
That night, around midnight, Annalisa woke up
completely paralyzed. She couldn't move her arms
or legs, and she could feel an invisible force
pressing down on her stomach like someone or
something was pinning her down. She attempted
to call out for her sister, but couldn't open
her mouth to scream. She remained frozen like
this. I'm sure panicking, until she lost control
of her bladder, which snapped her out of her
paralysis. She changed her bedding, and she told
her mom what had happened, but mom was like,
oh, it was a nightmare, you know? And to be fair,
it does pretty much sound exactly like sleep
paralysis, but I don't think they knew what that
was at the time. But whatever, by all appearances,
Annalise's mom was right, because nearly a year
went by without any more incidents. But then
these episodes returned with a vengeance. In
August of 1969, Annalisa once again blacked out
while sitting up, and then that night had another
bout of paralysis. This time her arms went stiff,
and they were stretched out in a style akin to
a cat stretching its paws. This incident was
followed by another paralytic attack, and this
time Annalisa's parents brought her to the doctor.
The Mickles were referred to a neurologist who
diagnosed her with a neurological condition,
most likely epilepsy. Just something to keep
in mind as we go through the rest of this story.
Symptoms of epilepsy largely overlap with purported
symptoms of demonic possession. Like, it's pretty
widely believed that most of our documented histories
of possessions are just epileptic fits like you
see arched backs screaming stiffness personality
changes due to depression auditory visual and
olfactory hallucinations like just those are
the kind of the main ones that we're gonna really
get into so just keep those in mind and then
so they diagnose her with this diet of this neurological
condition we don't know exactly which one but
it is presumed to be epilepsy and rather than
being like oh we have an explanation yay let's
take your meds and get you taken care of like
we can deal with this right analisa's mom was
like you cannot tell anybody about this she basically
said that if anybody knew what the doctors had
just said, then everyone would think that Annalisa
was crazy and then she would never get into university
because she's gonna have this reputation of being
the crazy person. And like, again, Annalisa has
one singular goal in life and that is to teach
religious studies and to become a teacher you
need to go to university. So that was wildly
unhelpful. Annalisa now fully rejected her diagnosis
because she didn't want to be crazy. She didn't
want to believe that she would live with this
forever. So she started to be suspicious of herself,
finding that the thought of being possessed was
more comforting than being epileptic. Because
at least then she could pray her way out of the
situation. Demonic possession is temporary. Epilepsy
is forever. However, Annalisa began to regularly
have seizures. She then caught pneumonia and
began experiencing pleurisy, which is inflammation
that causes sharp pain in the chest that typically
worsens with breathing. Again, hold on to that
one, please. She was admitted to the hospital
where she stayed for two months. During her stay
at the hospital, she had another paralytic attack.
And after this particular attack, she started
having visions of ghastly, ghoulish faces that
frowned and grimaced and were just generally
horrifying. Real quick, visual hallucinations.
Cough, cough. Who said that? I don't know. She
became very depressed. She started smelling horrible
stenches of burning poop. Do we need to go back
to the olfactory hallucinations real quick? I'm
just saying, I don't know, I'm just saying. Maybe
it's a little obvious which side I take on this
case, but I'm just saying Annalisa was more or
less a textbook case of epilepsy. However, because
of, how many times have I said however? I'm like
a hyper aware of it right now. Because of her
upbringing and the religious, supernatural, fearing
culture that she lived in, she truly came to
believe that she was possessed, and those around
her began to believe the same. Magically. After
being convinced of these things, all of a sudden
these people also could smell the shit smells
that Annalisa was reporting. Wow. Crazy. After
her third episode, the young woman was given
an EEG scan, but it came back normal. The doctors
prescribed her an anticonvulsant and said, but
by this point, Annalisa's sisters had noticed
that Annalisa's whole demeanor had changed, where
once she'd been a sweet, bubbly girl, she had
become moody, quiet, and withdrawn. Her only
interest was religion. It was the only thing
she would talk about. Annalisa finally told her
mother about the fratzen, the grimacing faces
that she was seeing, and mom and dad were officially
on board with the supernatural being to blame.
They believed that Satan himself was tempting
Annalisa and she was being punished for it. Of
course it's her fault. Why wouldn't it be? Two
years passed full of more seizures and more hallucinations,
as well as more EEG scans that continued to come
back normal. Annalisa's hallucinations escalated,
now including knocking sounds, more frequent
visitations by the demonic faces, And she would
hear voices telling her that she was going to
be damned to hell forever. What's more is her
sisters also began to claim that they could hear
knocking, coming from Annalise's closet, under
the floor, and on the ceiling. For the most part,
her father disregarded these claims, which kind
of surprises me, because, like, he is a dad,
right? We know how those act in scary stories.
But actually he had wanted to be a priest in
his boyhood. So I kind of figured he'd be like
the most on board, but he was actually not. It
was mom because mom said that one day she came
upon her daughter standing at the foot of the
statue of the Virgin Mary. Annalisa was staring
up at the statue, her eyes jet black and full
of hate. So mom was like, you possessed dog.
Annalisa finally. asked if she could go to a
doctor in 1973 it wasn't her like being taken
to the doctor she was like i am like not doing
great you guys i'm gonna go talk to somebody
because she was like incredibly depressed she
was completely apathetic towards life she was
starting to experience suicidal thoughts however
jesus i really need to need to do a little ding
every time i say that word anyway the father
of annalise's church stepped in and was like
no no no no you don't need doctors you need more
god he's gonna fix your problems so he took her
on a bus trip to a monastery in italy her father
came along with her but she never set foot in
the monastery she said that she was physically
incapable of entering that the soil felt like
fire it burned her feet They attempted to bring
Annalisa in through the back door, but she was
incapable of passing through the garden. She
couldn't even bring herself to look at holy pictures
or drink water from the shrines. Finally, her
dad decided to bring her a medal from the shrine,
but Annalisa said it brought such a heaviness
in her chest that she felt like she couldn't
breathe. And for my forgetful friends, I would
just like to throw it back real, real, real quick
to her hospitalization for pleurisy. Okay, thanks
so much. Either way, on the way back home, Annalisa
went feral. She went after the arranger of this
trip. I didn't write her name down in my notes.
I believe it's Ms. Hines. Anyway, she broke this
woman's rosary and was mocking her and swearing
at her in a deep voice that they had never heard
before. Annalisa allegedly smelled like burning
fecal matter at this time, according to the other
riders on the bus. Now, it is unclear who first
suggested exorcism for Annalisa. Despite him
refuting this under oath, there are persisting
rumors that it was actually Annalisa's doctor,
like her fucking GP. And he was like, nah, that
wasn't me. But regardless of who first suggested
it, we do know that the first person to take
action was... the lady who Annalisa attacked
on the bus. She was the first one to step in
and contact a priest. So she reached out to Father
Herman, who went on to visit Annalisa 10 times
in the two years leading up to her exorcisms.
And at first, to his credit, he was like, hey,
you should take her to a doctor because this
sounds like a neurological condition. And so
her parents were like, oh my god, yeah, no, we
thought of that too. Like, actually, we've already
taken her to a neurologist. They just didn't
mention the fact that she had received a diagnosis
at said neurologist. crazy right so father herman
was like well shit like if there's nothing neurologically
wrong with her then maybe you do need an exorcism
like what so it's fine okay whatever um it's
not fine they passed the case on to father ernst
alt alt was known to experience visions of religious
iconography And he was asked essentially to use
his powers and visions to tune in to the Mikkel
family to see if he could figure out what was
plaguing Annalisa. Without having met the Mikkels,
Father Alt was able to perfectly describe each
member of the family. Allegedly. After this,
he decided to include Annalisa in his prayers
at his church. So while he was preparing mass
and having gotten to the part where he was going
to pray for Annalisa, Father Alt was hit in the
back by an invisible force. The air turned cold
and a stench of burning filled the room. That
night, Alt was restless. He took a strong sleeping
pill but just couldn't find peace. His apartment
alternated between smelling like sewer. burning
feces and regular non -burning feces. He heard
loud bumps coming from his wardrobe. He was simultaneously
drenched in sweat and freezing cold. So he prayed
to a saint and the awful stank was replaced by
the scent of violets. The chill left the air
and the pressure in Alt's head vanished. After
this, Father Alt spoke to the other priests and
told them of his experience, and the others claimed
to have experienced the stenches as well. From
then on, whenever Father Alt spoke of Annalisa,
he smelled the same series of scents. Finally,
Father Alt met with Annalisa in person. During
this meeting, Alt witnessed the young woman's
eyes turning completely black, and she went absent
before him. This to him was an obvious sign of
demonic possession. This to me is pupil dilation
caused by an absent seizure. It's fine. What
do I know? I only have a student who has those.
It's nothing. Don't worry about it. So Father
Alt performed a blessing over Annalisa and her
eyes returned to normal. and now we're gonna
add in another character because this wasn't
complicated enough right so Annalisa was seeing
this guy named Peter and he went on to become
her devoted boyfriend who is at her side through
it all she was very forthcoming with her about
her possession um I would have loved to be a
fly on the wall for that conversation just like
one of those like you know so we've been going
out for a little bit and I feel like things are
going really well, but I just, I have something
that I have to tell you. You know, it's, it's
not like a huge deal, but you know, I am possessed
by the devil and it's, you know, it's not a biggie
or anything, but I mean, if this is a deal breaker
for you, I get that. I went on with that bit
too long. Um, So at first, Peter claimed to not
be able to smell any of the smells or hear any
of the knocks or whatever. But then, the more
time that he spent with the Mikkel family, the
more that kind of started to change. And, you
know, we'll never truly know was that a case
of he spending more time with them. so he sees
more of it hears more of it experiences more
of it he's around more you know or is it he's
spending more time with the family and they're
talking about all of these things and the power
of suggestion but i should stop talking because
i'm making this story not fun anymore now analisa
continued receiving eegs and testing and things
like that and on her sixth scan there was an
abnormality that appeared however the only prescription
that the young woman was willing to follow was
father or father ernst excuse me he is father
ernst but he's father alt uh and that was his
prescription for a stricter religious lifestyle
he decided that she needed to revisit the monastery
where she had had the initial bad reaction This
visit went much the same, and that cemented Father
Alt's belief that Annalisa's affliction was rooted
in the paranormal, especially because she claimed
to feel more like herself after taking communion.
So Father Alt submitted a formal request for
permission to perform an exorcism, but he was
denied. Annalisa did. get into university, and
she did. She's old enough now, she goes off to
university, she's studying education and theology.
However, the entire time, she continued to hear
a voice that would whisper to her that she was
eternally damned. A year later, in August of
1975, Father Ault reappeared into the Mickels'
lives, finding Annalisa in a deep despair, proclaiming
repeatedly that she was condemned. The father
decided to pray over Annalisa, opting for a prayer
of exorcism. And Annalisa freaked. She ripped
her rosary to pieces. So boyfriend Peter arrives.
Father Alt witnessed Annalisa ordering him to
leave in a deep, guttural voice. He then talked
to her friends, who all said that Annalisa had
told them to stop praying for her because it
caused her physical pain, and she had totally
stopped going to mass because she claimed that
her legs wouldn't carry her across the threshold
into the church. Her epilepsy was also getting
worse. Her legs would go completely stiff, not
bending at the knee, and she struggled to walk
without dragging herself along tables and counters.
Annalisa was so frightened that she had almost
entirely stopped sleeping. She had also begun
receiving new visions, this time from the Virgin
Mary. It had started in July of that year when
Annalisa was completely unresponsive. Peter decided
to take her for a drive, then they went for a
walk, which is a little confusing because I thought
she was unresponsive, but suddenly she locked
up and was unable to move for ten full minutes.
As suddenly as it had started, it seemed to end.
She jumped up. She shouted gleefully that she
could walk. She was free. The Virgin Mary had
come to her and healed her. Two months later,
Mary came to her again, this time with a message.
The world was full of sin, and the church was
falling to the devil, and it was a great suffering
for Mary's soul. It was obviously. Annalisa's
responsibility, to do penance for the priests
that were pushing Vatican II and for the youth
of Germany who lived modern sinful lives. She
asked if Annalisa would be willing to suffer
for these souls lest they be lost. Mary gave
Annalisa three days to either accept or reject.
Annalisa spent those three days kneeling in front
of a crucifix. Her parents begged her to decline,
but she thought that she could handle it. She
also believed that if she did deny the request,
that the weight of all the soul's loss would
weigh on her conscience. So, she accepted, and
for a few weeks, Annalisa lived a normal life.
She briefly returned to school, until she was
struck with a paralytic attack while standing
before a crucifix. She returned home where Fathers
Roth and Alt, I don't know if we've met Father
Roth yet, I just kind of snuck him in there,
didn't I? So anyway, they both agreed that exorcism
was necessary. They called on yet another friend,
Bishop Stangle, who was on vacation but granted
verbal permission for small exorcism prayers
on August 3rd, 1975. During this first small
exorcism, Annalisa whimpered that she was burning
and tried to knock the book of prayers out of
Father Alt's hands. She said the pain felt like
she was sticking her hand in a wasp's nest. And
from here, at 24 years old, Annalisa Mikkel fell
completely victim to this delusion of possession.
She got at most one to two hours of sleep a night.
She would shout prayers for hours in a mocking
tone. She knelt and stood repeatedly so often
that her knees swelled up and became ulcerated.
She continued past the point where it should
have been physically impossible. So that is weird.
She ran through the house screaming for hours,
then would fall and tremble and stay like that
for days. She would pee on the kitchen floor,
she ripped religious pictures off the walls,
shattered crucifixes, and ripped apart rosaries.
When it was hot, she would stick her head in
the toilet or roll around in the coal cellar
before climbing into bed covered in coal dust.
She would physically strike out at people. She
displayed disturbing strength, even once squeezing
an apple in one hand until it exploded. She crawled
underneath the table, barking like a dog, and
refused to come out. She became hypersensitive
to smells and sounds, couldn't force herself
to swallow when eating, and sometimes couldn't
even open her mouth. This particular symptom
came and went with such frequency that Annalisa
began very rapidly losing weight. Her behavior
became so out of control that her family had
to keep an eye on her around the clock. So the
family just started like taking shifts to babysit
her. At this time, Father Alt was on vacation
and couldn't be reached, which seemed to be a
recurring thing. When they couldn't get a hold
of Father Alt, the family called upon Father
Rodewick, who attempted to check on Annalisa.
When he arrived, the young woman was in a trance
state. After multiple attempts to communicate
with her, Annalisa finally spoke, but she identified
herself as Judas of Iscariot, aka Judas the Traitor.
aka Judas, no, that guy, you know? When Roderick
went to leave the house, Annalisa followed him
outside and slapped him across the face. And
this was the final straw. In Catholicism, the
striking of a priest is the most definitive sign
of demonic possession. So now, Roderick was convinced.
He conferred with a bunch of other fathers, who
then collectively decided that Father Ault, since
he'd been the one to mainly oversee this case
thus far, needed to write to the bishop for formal
permission for exorcism. Because Annalisa had
hit Father Rodewick, permission was granted.
And so, at 4pm on September 24th, 1975, the first
of 67 official exorcisms began. At first, she
was speaking normally with everyone in the room,
but when she was sprinkled with holy water, she
began to roar and twitch and became filled with
rage. Despite being totally emaciated, it took
three full -grown men to hold her down, and she
was still damn close to overpowering them. Annalisa
called the priest names, like Dirty Sow, or my
personal favorite, You Shit Guy. what we do in
the shadows because that that that's a nandor
line if i've ever heard one you know whatever
i don't care um so the priest leading the exorcism
begins to ask the standard questions who are
you why are you here when are you leaving The
number one thing about demons, apparently, is
that you need information about them. The more
you know about them, the more likely you are
to be able to gain control over them, drive them
out, blah, blah, blah. So Annalisa gave no answer.
Father Renz called on Mother Mary and other saints,
but all this did was make Annalisa even angrier.
This exorcism lasted from 4 p .m. to 11 .30 p
.m., which is seven hours. Annalisa was in bad
condition before the rites even started, and
was in far worse shape by the time they were
done. And yet, 66 more exorcisms were held after
this one, all lasting between two and nine hours.
This first exorcism was recorded by hand, done
by Father Renz. However, Miss Hines, the one
that Annalisa first attacked on the bus trip,
yep, her, She suggested that they actually record
the following exorcisms on tape, which they did.
And audio from one of these exorcisms has actually
been posted to YouTube. And my German is like
a preschool level at best. So I can't actually
understand it, but it is. really unpleasant to
listen to her voice is like raspy and growly
and it sounds like it hurts to make the sounds
that she is making uh she's just like screaming
about catholicism and being very blasphemous
and shit talking god basically so yeah you can
listen to that if you want to but it is vaguely
upsetting um this whole time also her tremors
and hallucinations were getting worse This can
easily be explained, I think, by the fact that
epilepsy is made worse by stress. So the longer
the exorcisms went on, the more stressed Annalisa
would get and the more possessed she would seem.
Her hallucinations began manifesting as separate
entities, so she would seem to switch personalities.
Something to keep in mind is that Annalisa was
very intelligent and well -read. So, when the
exorcist demanded the names of the different
personalities, she was actually able to identify
six demonic presences within her that connected
to actual history. She claimed that there were
seven demons within her, but the seventh one
refused to identify itself, but the others were
Judas Iscariot, Lucifer, Nero, Hitler, Cain,
and a 16th century disgraced priest. named valentine
fleischmann for those who don't know some of
the names that i said nero was a roman emperor
who was very notorious for like persecuting christians
or whatever um so that one's a throwback but
that you know historical accuracy and then valentine
fleischmann was a bavarian priest in the 1500s
who was excommunicated for being a drunk womanizing
bully who beat a man to death in his own perish
and to a lot of people valentine's apparent presence
is very strong evidence towards the possession
being legit because he isn't someone that many
people know about but to analisa in her upbringing
in bavaria he's kind of he's more or less an
urban legend like she is not unfamiliar with
the story of this guy additionally his presence
was seen as symbolically important to Annalisa's
case because she was allegedly possessed in order
to atone for the sins of the catholic church
and here was an entity that represented the very
embodiment of the corruption of the priesthood
so just you know good thing that someone think
about The different demons could be identified
by varying tone of voice, manner of speaking,
and facial expressions. For example, Lucifer
always spoke very majestically, very royally.
He was intelligent and straight to the point.
On the other hand, Hitler would just repeatedly
shout Heil, which is actually really interesting
because at this point in time, Germany was really
just trying to bury the recent past and therefore
weren't really educating people about the war
and the nazis and hitler so realistically analisa
probably didn't have very much information about
him which would then manifest as her not being
able to flesh out a full personality and act
for him she was going purely off of what little
she knew again just something to think about
uh so we now we have november 1975 during another
exorcism father wrens questioned each demon individually
from 4 p .m till past 1 a .m analisa would taunt
the priests mocking everything they did and calling
them names like sow carcass and asshole she ranted
and raved as these demons her voice changing
to an undulating horse scream No matter which
demon was speaking through her, though, the voice
always came through with a very thick German
accent. Another interesting thing to note that
a lot of people like to point to as evidence
of actual possession, Annalisa never once had
a hoarse voice after her exorcisms. No matter
how long she... screamed, how loud she screamed,
she never strained her voice. And like I said,
a lot of people look at this and are like, however,
it is possible, call it as unlikely as you'd
like, it is unlikely, but it is possible that
she had unconsciously tapped into a particular
vocal skill exercised by Tibetan monks in which
you are able to activate two vocal cords at the
same time. This makes a sound like two voices
speaking at once, and is similar to the techniques
used by Mongolian throat singers. Other people
point out Annalise's ability through possession
to be able to understand other languages that
she had never heard before, but this is largely
believed to be an exaggeration. She may have
been able to piece together words and phrases
that she recognized and then infer what was being
said, Or it's always possible that this was just
played up to make the story more interesting.
There were no non -believers present at these
exorcisms. Just saying. There was one interesting
moment, though, so apparently Annalisa could
understand Chinese, but the demons, I guess,
only knew German and Latin? So Father Renz asked
a question in Chinese, and Annalisa replied as
a demon, If you want to ask something, ask it
in German. So then the possession steps up once
more and Annalisa is now being used as a puppet
for good guys too. So she spoke as Padre Pio,
Barbara Weigand, and Teresa Newman. Barbara saw
visions of the Virgin Mary that was like calling
for the undoing of the Vatican reform, and Teresa
was a German woman who consumed no food other
than the Eucharist for 40 years. Right. When
these Christian figures were in charge, Annalisa
was calm, but always the demons returned, and
often they came in violently. After one session,
Annalisa grabbed a woman by the throat and nearly
strangled her, and her strength was baffling
considering how weak and malnourished she was.
Renz claimed to have brought Annalisa three glasses
of water, two holy and one tap. Annalisa called
the blessed water San Damiano shit water, then
drank the single glass of tap water without ever
being told which was which. However, I'm just
saying, Father Renz is, at the end of the day,
a person, and very easily could have been giving
subliminal hints as to which one to drink. Like,
it could have been as blatant as, oh, like, are
you sure that's the one you want? You know? Or,
like, I'm guilty of this as an educator, of like...
eyeballing the correct answer, you know? And
then the fucking, the kids are smart. They pick
up on your language and they're like, ha ha ha,
I know that one. No, you don't. Anyway, I'm just
saying, keep an open mind on both sides, you
know? Well, on this case, I have a pretty closed
mind to be honest. Admittedly, there was weird
shit that did surround this case. Annalisa seemed
to know when people were praying for her, even
in other towns, and she could even call out the
time in which it was happening. She kept a diary
of souls that were visiting her, and one of the
souls that she listed was Father Roth's deceased
nephew, who she'd had no prior knowledge of.
Like, there was, I admit, there was some questionable
things, but, you know, it's the same. now lucifer
as him as the guy in the her right he would tell
analisa that he would be so happy if she just
went to a neurological clinic so of course then
she couldn't do that because even if she wanted
to now the devil wants her to do that and that's
nefarious obviously And so she was like, no,
I can't go to the doctor. The devil wants me
to go to the doctor. Ew, that's evil. So then
Virgin Mary and Jesus kept telling her that she
was going to be a saint for her sacrifice. But
they also told her that she would be released
from all forms of possession by the end of October.
So Father Renz and Father Alt prepared for one
last extended exorcism, which was to fall on
what other night but Halloween. This final ritual.
finally seeming to be working. Fleischman was
driven out first, then Hitler, Cain, Nero, and
Judas. As each demon left, Annalisa retched and
screamed. Finally, Lucifer was driven out, and
Annalisa announced that she was free. The congregation
sang a closing hymn, but 15 minutes later, they
were interrupted by a guttural growl and screaming.
All no name, declared. That he had, in fact,
not left, and he was still here to fuck shit
up. By 1 .30am, the priests gave up. For the
rest of the year, exorcisms continued. Once a
week, at least, if not more. By the beginning
of 1976, the exorcisms had grown shorter and
less dramatic. It was becoming harder and harder
to access any demonic personality because...
Annalisa had almost entirely stopped eating.
She had no more strength to perform. She told
Father Renz that she was not allowed to eat.
She was terribly hungry, but there was a barrier
that prevented her from eating. Now I'm going
to get one thing so super clear. Someone should
have stepped in a long time ago. And done something
for this young woman. But at this point especially,
this is a dying girl. This is the point of no
return. Someone, it was any, any, any, any person
in this situation could have and should have
taken her to the hospital. And had her treated
for dehydration and malnourishment. Like just
point blank period. From February 29th onward,
the demons no longer spoke coherently. It only
raved and roared and made inhuman sounds as Annalisa
jerked around in epileptic fits. Annalisa made
her friends promise that they would never call
a doctor for her because medicine wouldn't help
and the only thing that ever helped was prayer.
And my guy, if this isn't just blatant religious
psychosis, I don't know what is. And it's like
a mob mentality. It's like a shared hallucination.
It's disgusting. By May, Annalisa had completely
given up. She was very vocal about not surviving
the summer. She started biting herself, banging
her head against the wall repeatedly. punching
herself to the point of giving herself black
eyes. And still, more exorcisms were attempted
May 10th, 12th, 14th, and 17th. The only thing
that came out of these was Annalisa chipping
a tooth, bruising and swelling in her face, and
an increasingly obvious mental break. By June,
even Father Alt had to admit that Annalisa was
seriously sick. She weighed under 70 pounds.
She's 24 years old and weighs less than 70 pounds.
She was so emaciated that her face had changed
shape. She was rocking a steady fever, unbroken,
multiple days in a row, of 103 degrees. And still.
On June 30th, 1976, they performed an exorcism.
Two days later, Annalisa Mikkel died of starvation,
barely managing to squeak out her last words,
I'm afraid. Both the priests and Annalisa's parents
were still convinced that demons were responsible
for the death of Annalisa. They went to the public
with their story, expecting immediate horror
and reform and profuse apologies and martyrdom
parades or whatever the hell. And instead, rightfully,
they were met with outrage. Fathers Renz and
Alt and Annalisa's parents, Joseph and Anna,
were charged with negligent homicide. Despite
portrayals in popular media, the defense did
not actually argue that demons were real and
had killed Annalisa, because instead, they argued
that it was Annalisa's constitutional right to
refuse medical attention and therefore her death
was her own fault. Prosecution argued, this is
a duh. thing for me, but who knows, prosecution
argued that those in charge of Annalisa's care
had a direct responsibility to step in and intervene
because she was clearly not in her right mind.
And they had also directly contributed to her
death by feeding into her delusions. To bolster
their case, the prosecution brought in a psychiatrist
who declared that Annalisa would absolutely still
be alive if the exorcisms had not been performed.
She should have been sedated and medically fed
while medical professionals determined what the
real problem here was. Ultimately, all four defendants
were found guilty and sentenced to six months
in prison. The judge suspended their sentences
and instead gave them three years probation.
Fathers Alt and Renz were fined the equivalent
of $10 ,000. Anna and Joseph were determined
to have suffered enough and given no real punishment.
The priests involved and the whole Mickle family
held tight to their belief that medical and psychiatric
interventions would have been no help. They insisted
that Annalise's trouble was purely supernatural.
The mom, Anna, actually stated that the absolute
biggest tragedy of the whole situation was not
losing her daughter in a completely unnecessary,
preventable way. No, no, no. The worst thing
was that no one believed in the devil and therefore
her daughter had died in vain. And then it gets
worse. Yay. One year after the verdict was handed
down, a nun had a vision of Annalisa in which
the young woman's corpse was in perfect condition
in her coffin. So naturally, Joseph and Anna
had their daughter's body exhumed. A huge crowd
gathered, waiting with bated breath to see if
they were about to bear witness to a real life
miracle. Instead, the coffin was opened and Annalisa
was found completely decomposed and practically
nothing more than a skeleton. Still, the family
weren't swayed. Why? Because in a photo taken
of the disinterred coffin, you can see a faint
shadow that, to them, looked like the hand of
the devil. And that is... The tragic story of
Annalisa Mikkel. A couple fun exorcism facts
that I couldn't throw in anywhere else, but I
have them. Despite the fact that membership to
the Catholic Church has been on a steady decline,
more exorcisms are being performed now than ever
before in history. Exorcisms actually hit their
peak in 2020, with America being the most common
location where over a thousand exorcisms are
performed. Every single year, just alone, just
in America alone. So cute. Anyway, that is our
story for the day. I do hope you enjoyed. If
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or review or comment or whatever the heck, wherever
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yeah thank y 'all so much for listening i will
gab at you next week and in the meantime stay
spooky stay weird and i love y 'all bye