A Deal with the Devil - Dæmonic Possession

The case of Clara Germana Cele is a bit more specious, yet if the details are to be believed, dæmonic possession is about the only thing that could explain her behavior and, most importantly, the supernatural phenomena which surrounded her at two separate points in her life. You can dismiss all other online accounts of this case (or the majority of them), as they work from one another, and are incorrect at their foundation.

What makes Clara Cele's case less believable from the jump is that she claimed to have made a pact with the Devil - or so she told her confessor, Father Erasmus Horner. Another thing is that the priests and nuns of the Marianhill Order mission school in Umzinto, South Africa¹, which Clara had attended since she was four, always considered her "somewhat erratic." What that means, exactly, is anyone's guess, but for skeptics, these are signs that something else may have been at-play, such as mental illness or simple fraud. Finally, Cele claimed to have actually entered a pact with the Devil, himself.

The phenomena reported is what makes Cele's case striking:

At 16, Cele confessed to Father Erasmus that she had made a pact with the Devil, yet no one apparently thought much of this until a few weeks afterward, when her behavior changed dramatically. On August 20^th, 1906, she began tearing off her clothes, grunting and growling like an animal. Her strength was so great that she broke one of the posts on her bed. She then began conversing aloud with unseen forces.

While this was shocking enough, the sisters were truly alarmed by the sounds she was making. One nun who witnessed at least one of Cele's outbreaks is alleged to have written, "No animal had ever made such sounds. Neither the lions of East Africa nor the angry bulls." In a moment of lucidity, Clara begged them to fetch Father Erasmus: "I must confess everything," she told them, "But quick, quick, or Satan will kill me. He has me in his power! Nothing is blessed with me." She confided in them that she had thrown away all things holy she'd ever been given. Later that day, she cried out, "You have betrayed me! You... promised me days of glory, but now you treat me cruelly."

Over the next several weeks, Cele began showing "classic" signs of dæmonic possession, such as wretching and blaspheming ferociously whenever holy items were present, even if they were heavily concealed. Holy water burned her, but when regular, unblessed, tap water was substituted in attempts to trick her, she merely laughed.

Cele manifested far-reaching clairvoyance, detailing the daily sojourn of one priest through Africa to Rome, naming the addresses at which he stayed along the way. She revealed the scandalous details of one man's life -- down to the names, dates, and times -- to shame him for ridiculing her.

Somewhat similar to the Bruner boys, Clara began contorting her body impossibly without apparent harm, but her contortions took a far more darkly sinister twist: Clara transformed into a serpent-like creature -- her entire body became like rubber and her neck elongated -- and she writhed across the floor. Once in this state, several of the nuns tried to restrain her. Clara darted from the midst of them like lightning, sped across the floor to a nun who was kneeling in front of her, and bit her on the arm. The bitemark is said to have shown the impression of Cele's teeth... and a small, red puncture, like that of a snakebite.

Germana's levitations are among the most frequent and dramatic in the history of dæmonic possession, having occurred numerous times in front of throngs of witnesses, some of whom attempted to hold, or pull, her down -- to no avail. She levitated in church, was seen levitating by "outsiders" (non-Church members, or possibly non-Christians), and levitated several times above her bed. Germana:

Floated often three, four, and up to five feet in the air, sometimes vertically, with her feet downward, and at other times horizontally, with her whole body floating above her bed... in a rigid position. Even her clothing did not fall downward... instead, her dresses remained tightly attached to her body and legs.

Holy water sometimes stopped the phenomena, but on September 10th of that same year, permission was granted to perform an Exorcism. It was a long and grueling effort which lasted at least two days. At some point, whatever was possessing her said it would signal its departure with a levitation.

This levitation occurred in the mission chapel. In front of 170 witnesses.

In 1907, while Father Erasmus was away, Germana was said to have entered a new pact with Satan. Another Exorcism was performed, lasting another two days. Its success, and the departure of the Devil from her body, was marked by an "incomparably foul stench."

Despite the concept of pacts and all else, Clara Germana Cele's case remains one of the strongest in all the recorded accounts of dæmonic possession.

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¹ - Not St. Michael's, as is stated in several reports across the Web. Many of these same sources report the school to have been located in Natal, which is closer to the truth; Natal is about 20 miles from Umzinto. It is possible that this was intentional misinformation meant to shield Germana Cele from further questioning, ridicule, or even ostracism and/or physical harm, but more likely the fault of the authors'.

© C Harris Lynn, 2010

The Peculiar Case of the Bruner Boys - Dæmonic Possession

In the annals of dæmonic possession, or "diabolepsy" (a term abandoned due to its similarity to epilepsy, which many skeptics think explains away many so-called cases of dæmonic possession), the peculiar case of the Bruner boys, Theobald and Joseph, is pretty tough to beat.

Though the events which plagued the children occurred from 1865 to 1869, it remains one of the most well-known and accepted cases of "modern" dæmonic possession due to the breadth of symptoms the boys showed, and the documentation of their affliction. From levitation to contortions to glossalia (a specific type of "speaking in tongues," whereby the possessed demonstrates a worldly knowledge of languages s/he could not possibly know, often demonstrated by answering questions posed in one foreign language in another) to the vomiting of foul-smelling articles the boys had never eaten -- if the accounts are to be believed, little else explains the Bruner boys' impossible behavior.

The diabolic events began in 1865 when the Bruner boys started drawing "horrible Devil faces" on their bedroom walls and talking playfully to them for hours. Their bedroom was said to be unnaturally hot despite not being heated. The boys would run and hide from clergymen who visited the house and were said to hide under their covers whenever Rosary beads were placed on their bed. True to form, they would begin cursing and writhing in the presence of Holy items, and soon took to their bed.

Joseph, the younger of the two, displayed fewer, and less fervent, signs of possession than his older brother, who began speaking in foreign tongues and dialects unknown to him, including English. Theobald Bruner also showed knowledge of outside events (clairvoyance, clairaudience) and correctly predicted the deaths of others several times (precognition, or maybe prophecy), which he often did by kneeling beside his bed to mimic the ringing of a mourning bell.

In one such event which included all of the above, a local man's daughter was visiting the house when Theobald predicted her father's demise. Shocked and angered, the girl spat, "You liar! My father is not even ill," to which Theobald responded, "That may be, but he just had a fall." No one in the entire village knew this had happened, but Theobald was correct; Gregor Kunegel had fallen from a scaffold at the precise moment Theobald had made the ringing motion.

Things only got worse from there:

The boys would simultaneously bend backward on their heads and legs, their backs arched high, and nothing could right them "until the Devil saw fit to give these objects of his torture some temporary peace." Every few hours, the boys would entangle their legs so impossibly and intricately that no one could untangle them but the children themselves, who would do so "suddenly... with lightning speed." Their little bellies would bloat and distend to the point of bursting before they would vomit "yellow foam, evil-smelling feathers, and seaweed" which inexplicably covered their clothes, no matter how often they were changed and cleaned. The stench was so foul that their clothes had to be burned.

The children's bed levitated, even with their mother on it; furniture flew around their room; doors flew open of their own accord; the entire house shook.

Finally, Theobald was sent to an Orphanage in Schiltigheim, near Strasbourg. Upon arriving, he was forced to remain in front of the altar. It took three men to hold him there. He remained silent for three days, drooling yellow foam, but on the fourth, he said, "I have come and I am in a rage." When one of the nuns asked, "And who are you?" He responded, "I AM THE LORD OF DARKNESS!"

Joseph was eventually sent to join his brother and a prolonged Exorcism of the two boys began. One of the more curious manifestations of the possession was when the brothers' heads were so infested with bright red lice that a team of four people with brushes and combs could not keep pace with them. These were dispelled by sprinkling Holy water on their heads. Theobald had to be restrained by straitjacket, as he ripped at himself and his clothing and tried to break everything in reach. His Exorcism took a full three days, after which he fell into a deep slumber, or possibly coma. Joseph's Exorcism took only three hours, after which he too fell into a deep sleep. When the boys awoke, neither remembered what had happened to them.

Theobald Bruner died two years later at age 16. Joseph lived to the age of 25. The events which plagued the Bruner boys for those four years have never been fully explained by conventional means.

© C Harris Lynn, 2010

'The Last Exorcism' Leads American Box Office

The Last Exorcism, produced by "torture-porn auteur," Eli Roth, topped the American Box Office this weekend, raking in far more than expected. The movie is said to have been filmed in Louisiana for about $1 million. With another $15+ million in prints and advertising, The Last Exorcism has already made back its money, with an estimated $21 million take.

Although I have not seen the movie, reviews say the first half centers on a faked possession, making the latter half of the film -- which is supposed to show a real possession -- that much harder to take. Mixed reviews have all said the same thing: The first part of the film undermines the intended horror of the latter half.

© C Harris Lynn, 2010

Is Ralphie the Big-Assed Rabbit Possessed by a Ghoul?

Ralphie's mom, Amy, was the largest rabbit in the world until her death.  Now, Ralphie is poised to take that honor -- knocking-back a whopping $20 worth of ruffage a day, and weighing as much as your average three-year old child!  But TV medium, Derek Acorah, feels Ralphie may also be channeling the spirit... of a ghoul!

Apparently, Acorah "spoke" with Ralphie recently, and concluded the oversized bunny rabbit's ghoul-channeling was the source of "spooky happenings" about the family's estate.  Ralphie's owner calls the idea "a load of old nonsense," but agrees that Ralphie, "isn't your average rabbit."

She also said that Ralphie's local celebrity pays-off when neighbors offer to help foot the feeding bill.  Some stop her at the grocery store and offer her cabbage, carrots, and apples -- the vegetables which constitute Ralphie's ghoulish, daily intake.

© C Harris Lynn, 2010