From the book
“Of the many cases I have seen, I highlight the following:
A young woman, a self-described Satanist, who levitated for half an hour during her exorcism in front of eight witnesses—a “once in a century” case, in the words of her two experienced exorcists.
A housewife whose hearing was blocked whenever anyone mentioned anything related to religion and who uttered vile blasphemies during recurring trancelike, possessed states.
A professional woman who suffered from unexplained bruises, spoke several languages completely unknown to her, and during her states of possession periodically ran amok, potentially wreaking havoc on herself and her reputation.
A petite woman who in her possessed state threw a two-hundred-pound Lutheran deacon across the room.
In such cases, I’ve worked hard to develop a system of investigation based on my psychiatric training and experience.”
From the chapter on Julia, the Satanist priestess. The priest, psychiatrist and Julia were in the car. With the priest driving.
“From the back I heard a deep, raspy voice, “Leave her alone, you f**king monkey priest.”
Startled, I turned around and saw Julia glaring at us, her fists clenched. “She is ours. We will never let her go. You’ll be sorry, you stupid monkey priest.”
The “monkey” part I’ve always felt a fair indication of how evil spirits view us humans. The voice was coming out of Julia’s mouth, but it wasn’t really Julia. Her face had taken on a distant, even vacant look. She went on like this for ten minutes.
Suddenly, the voice stopped, and Julia reemerged from whatever state I had just witnessed. She had no idea what had just happened. I asked her whether she remembered telling the priest anything.
She did not, and she asked us what had been said, where we were, and how far we had traveled.”