Levitating beds, loss of memory for long periods of time, loss of bladder control, speaking in tongues, these are all symptoms known to be associated with possession. A possession is having control or owning (Farlex). When a person is possessed they have no control over their feelings or actions a majority of the time. The reason it is called a possession is because, when one is possessed, the spirit or demon has control over that person. The possession and exorcism of Roland Doe is one of the most documented possessions in history. Many still believe the case as fictional, but there is significant evidence of Doe’s possession.
The exorcism of Roland Doe was an unusual and frightening experience. The movie, The Exorcism, is a movie about a little girl that became possessed by a demonic spirit and was exorcised by a catholic priest (Leonard). This movie is based on the real life exorcism that took place in 1949, located in Rainer, WA on a boy between the age of 13 and 14 named Roland Doe (Berger). Although, many sources say the name of the boy has varied and no one is sure of the boy’s real name.
Doe was an only child and was very close with his Aunt Tillie (another name that is also varied in different sources). Aunt Tillie was an eccentric woman who was very involved in the "spirit world" (Wildman). She introduced the Ouija board to Doe and they would use it together (Opsasnick) (Wildman). (“The Ouija board is used as a method of alleged communication with the spirit world. Ouija boards have their roots of spiritualism which started in the United States in the late 1840s. Mediums claimed to be intermediaries between the living and dead”) (McCarthy).
Soon after Doe and his Aunt Tillie had begun to participate in the use of...
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Erdmann, Steve. “Exorcism of Roland Doe”. BeforeItsNews. 27 May 2012. Web. 12 January 2014.
Farlex. “definition of possession”. Free Online Dictionary. 2004. Web. 4 December 2013.
Leonard, Tom. "The diabolical truth about the Exorcist; Forty years after its release, Tom Leonard tells the shocking real story that inspired the controversial film”. Daily Mail. London, England. 23 November 2013:14.Web. 29 January 2014.
Manson, Mathew. “Exorcisms and Possessions”. ShopOfHorrors. 11 January 2001. Web. 25 January 2014.
McCarthy, Erin. “A Brief History of the Ouija Board”. 31 October 2012. Web. 3 March 2014.
Opsasnick, Mark / Father Gallagher’s Diary. “The Haunted Boy; Inspiration for The Exorcist”. StrangeMag. 2000. Web. 20 December 2013.
Wildman, Don. The Travel Channel. “Biography of Roland Doe”. “The Exorcist House”. 2005. Film. 12 December 2013.
...ng up the pebble road so they went outside to see who or what was coming to the plantation. When they went outside no one or thing was there one of the office workers there at the plantation said that they heard something so they went to see what it was and they saw a group of rocking chairs rocking all at the same time. Another one of the workers there said that she saw multiple things move across the desk tops. One of the couple tour guides there was giving a tour when suddenly a candle stick flew across the room. Another one of the staff workers there reported hearing someone crying inside of the mansion. A staff worker Mitchell borne was working alone one night inside of the mansion when he felt someone touching his arm. One of the tour guides was walking around when they did not have a tour and saw a figure sitting upright in one of the beds. ("Ghosts tales”).
If a film’s success is measured by the cultural hysteria it produces, Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez’s film The Blair Witch Project was the most successful cult film in recent history. At the surface, Blair Witch is about three young college filmmakers who decide to shoot a documentary about the “legendary” Blair Witch, a character said to be responsible for the deaths of many local children over th...
The term possession is widely accepted as being "influenced or controlled by something (as an evil spirit, a passion, or an idea)". (Merriam-Webster) There have been numerous cases of spiritual possessions that causes harm to peoples. According to the Spiritual Research Foundation, to be possessed by spirits means that "the physical, mental, intellectual or spiritual functioning of a person if affected or altered" by such spirits. In both definitions, there is a common ground that spirits take control of whatever they inhabit. Throughout history, there have been occurrences of spiritual possessions of mostly toys or humans. Due to the media's over exaggeration of these "true stories", our minds are warped into believing that we are paranoid over toys, mainly dolls and humans who act abnormally. These spirits still linger in our world because of their refusal to “crossover” to the otherworld. They are an enigma beyond our capability of controlling. We cannot see them, we can only feel their presence. Popular portrayals of spiritual possessions from media and literature are Chucky from Child’s Play, The Exorcist, Dead Silence, The Conjuring, and the Supernatural series. All of these forms of media share a commonality in which the spirits inflict violence towards people surrounding them. Evil spirits are commonly portrayed through the possession of a suitable vessel. These spirits are wicked and angry beings who try to return from the dead, causing chaos and mayhem. Whether it be possessing non-living objects or a body, we are afraid of these things due to our inability to take control over them. Our lack of control causes us to be vulnerable to threats from possessed objects. The more afraid we are, the stronger the spirit...
... platform for silenced, and therefore considered dead, voices - is as provocative a tool for sociological/ethnographic discernment as one might imagine and, as Gordon’s work amply evinces through its case subjects remains desperately needed . It is no coincidence then that Life is complicated bookends this work – and in the words of Luce Irigiary which Gordon summons (39-40), its complications often give us reason to let the unexamined and unchallenged method lead us astray. But also, because as all the best authors of ghost stories know, working in the proximity - on behalf of - ghosts must leave the exorcist and the ethnographer changed; not only is the spirit of the unseen transformed but so is the exorcist/ethnographer. Such reflexivity and acknowledgment deserves a language in which to articulate shifts in positionality. Ghostly Matters provides that vocabulary.
Stacy’s Journal of the Paranormal. Pages 32-35. Volume 31. Issue 4. Published by Awesome Publishing. September 2011.
Wall, Aron, ed. Spirits Who Dwel in Suspense. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Dec. 2013. .
Irving, Washington. “The Devil and Tom Walker”. Elements of Literature: Fifth Course. Austin: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 2008. 175-185. Print.
Web. The Web. The Web. 1 Oct. 2013. http://www.empireonline.com/features/horror-through-the-decades/default.asp>.
Either Cox lived mostly a happy life. She did get sexually assaulted though that's when the poltergeist came to be. Either first started hearing noises under her bed thinking it was a rat. The next day she heard the same noises. She looked under her bed to check it out and found it was a metal box shaking. Her step brother came in the room hearing what's happening. Once he saw the box shaking Either opened it and the box stopped. Then he said they were about to enter hell.
Ghosts have been around for many years and the root of the whole idea comes because it is “based on the ancient idea that a person's spirit exists separately from his or her body, and may continue to exist after that person dies” (“History of Ghost Stories”). Ghost stories have been told through centuries and because of this it is not known where the first spirit could have appeared or why, but one of the first actually recorded experience happened within the first century A.D. A man named Pliney recorded that he had seen a man and heard objects moving around and he could not explain what what happening (“History of Ghost Stories”). Even though the first supernatural experiences are not known, they created worldwide talk to present time about spirits and hauntings.
'What the heck was that?!?' is a very familiar phrase to many. Was it just the house settling? Maybe it was a friend playing a prank. Or could it possibly have been a ghost? The latter choice is normally ruled out fairly quickly. But for some, it is very plausible. To prove or disprove the possibility of an apparition, a surprisingly scientific and frequently detailed investigation is carried out.
Gilbert, Muller, H. Nightmares and Visions. Flannery O?Connor and the Catholic Grotesque. University Press. University of Georgia Press. 1977. 125.
... in witchcraft, this revisits the medieval and unfounded views on witches perpetuated by the Spanish Inquisition that we see in his earlier works.
The moorland scenery generated a habitation that seemed away from the society and the rest of the world. This made a perfect staging for the strange, odd, funny, weird and occasionally ghostlike events that were revealed i...
Web. The Web. The Web. 14 May 2014. Stanley, Jay.