10 Spine-Chilling Exorcism Stories That Will Leave You With Goosebumps

Who doesn’t enjoy a good scary story? From The Exorcist to The Conjuring, tales of demonic possession and exorcism have fascinated humans for centuries. But there have been some bizarre true-life incidents, whether due to mental illness or possession. Here are the top ten strangest exorcism stories that will rock your world.

1. George Lukins 

In 1770, 44-year-old George Lukins, also known as the Yatton Demoniac of England, displayed the first signs of demonic possession while attending a Christmas church service. Lukins abruptly began singing in demonic tones and even backward in Latin, possibly creeping out the entire congregation. In 1778, clergymen determined seven demons possessed him and began an exorcism in the local church on the auspicious date of Friday the 13th. 

Seven priests and churchgoers prayed over Lukins while he yelled and screamed profanities at them and claimed power over the world of men. No, he was not possessed by Sauron from The Lord of the Rings, and the demons eventually gave up shouting and left, never to bother Lukins again.

2. Julia

Famous New York psychiatrist Dr. Richard E. Gallagher was frequently summoned by priests to assist in the fight against Satan’s minions and to make a psychiatric diagnosis to rule out mental illness. However, in the case of a woman named Julia in 2012, Gallagher became convinced that extraordinary and evil forces were at work. 

Julia, a Satanist, displayed strange signs of possession. She would go into a trance, abuse in multiple languages, speak in different voices, and reveal details about his life and his mother’s death when they met. Gallagher became concerned when he heard the same voices on a phone call even though Julia was not present. He set up an exorcism in a nearby chapel room and reported that Julia levitated for 30 minutes, made objects fly off shelves, and screamed when holy water was sprinkled on her. Fortunately, the exorcism went well and the incident was recorded as one of the many factual exorcism stories.

3. Gottliebin Dittus

In 1843, the exorcism of Gottleibin Dittus, a 28-year-old German woman, proved to be one of the strangest and most difficult for Pastor Johan Blumhardt. Dittus claimed her house was haunted and that she was frequently seen in a trance. Blumhardt recognized demonic possession after meeting her, especially when Dittus became violent and required restraint. 

The Dittus exorcism went crazy because it took Blumhardt two years, during which she levitated, spit filth on the priest, and vomited nails and blood. One of the most striking things Blumhardt discovered while conversing with the spirits inhabiting Gottliebin was that the majority of them claimed to be human of origin.

Dittus frequently went into convulsions and even had dark apparitions where she screamed about demons and hell. Blumhardt was finally victorious after Dittus’ final exorcism, which was particularly intense. Exorcism stories like these really make you wonder about hell, purgatory, and the realm of demons.

4. Maricia Irina Cornici 

In 2005, Maricia Irina Cornici, a 23-year-old nun living in the Tanacu monastery in Romania, claimed she was plagued by Satan, who kept calling her a sinner and making her laugh during mass. Dr. Gheorge Silvestrovici, a psychiatrist, diagnosed her with schizophrenia. Still, the monastery’s priest, Daniel Petre Corogeanu, felt she needed an exorcism. He persuaded four other nuns to assist him in chaining Maria to a cross with her hands outstretched, anointing her wrists and forehead with holy water, and gagging her to prevent her from cursing. 

She was then locked in a room for three days. The priest opened it on the third day and began praying over her, not realizing she had died of asphyxiation, dehydration, and starvation. He was charged with murder and sentenced to 14 years in prison, but he questions why there was such a fuss, especially since the exorcism was successful. 

5. Clara Germana Cele

The exorcism of a possessed 16-year-old in South Africa in the early 1900s was marked by one of the strangest displays of multilingual speech exorcists had ever witnessed. Clara Germana Cele began to exhibit signs of possession when she began ranting in languages she had never heard before, including French, Polish, and German. Even more bizarre was her revelation of people’s secrets and violent acts of superhuman strength, tossing adults around in rage. 

When her family discovered that she couldn’t stand the sight of religious symbols, they summoned the local priest Father Horner Erasmus, to whom Clara revealed the astonishing but eerie fact that she had made a pact with Satan himself. The priest, assisted by others, was successful in exorcising her of the possession over the course of two days. His was then recorded among the many real-exorcism stories.

6. Emma Schmidt 

Emma Schmidt, an American woman from Iowa, began exhibiting signs of possession when she was 14. Priests reported seeing unspeakable horrors and acts performed by Emma during her several exorcism sessions. Emma was 46 at the time of her last exorcism, which lasted 28 days and ended on December 23rd, 1928. 

The exorcist, a capuchin priest named Father Theophilus Reisinger, reported that she vomited the entire time and spewed out substances that resembled macaroni and tea leaves, although she had not eaten anything. She spoke in different languages and levitated to the ceiling at one point. Father Reisinger remembered Emma telling him several demons led by Beelzebub possessed her. Finally, the priest was able to deliver Emma from her predicament. Emma, also known as Anna Ecklund, was the last catholic church-approved exorcism.

7. Ronald Hunkeler

Ronald Hunkeler’s or Roland Doe’s exorcism in 1949 was so well-known that it terrified many people in Cottage City, Maryland, and inspired the film “The Exorcist.” His family reported that their aunt Tillie died mysteriously and that religious objects frequently fell or flew off the walls. 

In their house, there was always a knocking and banging coming from nowhere. The strange phenomena finally concentrated in Roland’s room, making priests believe it was a clear possession case. During Roland’s exorcism, priests discovered the words “Christ” and “Hell” appearing on his body and objects constantly whizzing past their heads. He urinated right in front of the priests. Finally, head priest Father Bowden reported that Roland spasmed and fell to the ground, quietly saying, “He is gone.” This is by far the scariest of all other exorcism stories.

8. Anneliese Michele

The haunting and possession of Anneliese Michel, a 23-year-old German woman, inspired the 2005 film “The Exorcism of Emily Rose” and resulted in a gruesome tragedy. Annaliese, a devout Catholic, began acting strangely when she was 16, falling into a trance at school and bedwetting at night. By 1970, she had seizures, but doctors couldn’t figure out what was wrong with her. 

Anneliese began acting strangely by 1973, when she was repeatedly sick, licking her own urine off the floor, stripping naked, eating coal, and avoiding religious objects. Her family, along with priests who were convinced she was possessed, decided to exorcise her. Over the next ten months, Anneliese was subjected to 67 terrifying exorcisms. She was chained and held up as clergymen attempted to exorcise her of the six demons they believed possessed her. Anneliese did not survive, and her autopsy revealed that she had been beaten, bruised, and had blackened eyes and fractured teeth. The priests and Anneliese’s parents were sentenced to prison and fined for negligent homicide in 1978.

9. Janet Moses

Clearly, one of the most bizarre exorcisms in modern culture occurred when Janet Moses’s family in New Zealand believed a demon possessed her after stealing a Taonga, a Maori artifact. Even after she returned the stone lion statue, she continued to exhibit strange behavior, prompting the entire family to perform a Maori-style exorcism that was even more terrifying than anything you’d see in a movie. 

Janet’s family sat on her, poured water on her face, and began sucking her eyes, screaming, ‘Get out’ and ‘You’re not going to have her.’ She couldn’t breathe and started vomiting. Janet was drowned and killed as a result of the constant flow of water into her eyes, nose, and mouth. Instead, the family believed the demon had entered Janet’s 14-year-old cousin and began scratching and rubbing the girl’s eyes until they began to bleed. The strange ritual went on for nine hours until the cops arrived and arrested everyone. In a 29-day trial, five of the eight received only community sentences after admitting to improvising to exorcise the demon Makutu.

10. The Demon House 

Among the many exorcism stories, how many have been about exorcising houses? Houses can also be haunted, and none is more famous than a cottage on 3860 Carolina Street that Latoya Ammons and her family purchased in November 2011. The house immediately began to exhibit paranormal activity, with huge black flies constantly hogging the porch in winter and a black shadow constantly muddying the living room with invisible boots. Investigators and clairvoyants claimed 200 demons haunted the house, and the local church advised Latoya to draw crosses on doors and perform various rituals, but to no avail. 

Her children began to act violently, and her daughter frequently felt as if she was being choked. The children were removed by child services in 2012, but the haunting continued. Finally, in the presence of officials, local reverend Maginot performed a two-hour exorcism during which an entity attacked the family’s DCS case manager Samantha Illic, breaking her ribs. Latoya’s children were returned, and the house was purchased in 2016 by paranormal investigator Zak Bagans to film a documentary. Instead, he decided to demolish it right away.

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