Demonic possession is the most stigmatized and stereotyped of all border phenomena. And I say border  as I refer to the line between what we consider normal and experiences we can’t explain. Perhaps the movies are to blame for our idea of what an exorcism consists of, a little girl screams when splashed with holy water, or a deep evil voice manifests. Neuroscience and psychology associate demonic possession with a call for attention or  a misinterpretation of a modern disease like schizophrenia. The fact that the whole experience is so deeply coded with religious ritual and theology may discourage even the most open-minded paranormal researcher.

A balanced look at the experience of an exorcist must weigh all of these barriers towards providing a fair and believable look at the truth behind these tormenting experiences. Freelance writer and journalist Matt Baglio succeeds at demonstrating why modern demon possession lore is just the tip of the iceberg through his recently released, The Rite: Making of a Modern Exorcist.

I didn’t expect an account of exorcism to be so believable, or so chilling. Partly because Baglio was just as skeptical when he started writing the book, and partly because following San Franciscan Catholic priest Father Gary through his training revealed that he started just as clueless.

When the Catholic Church wrote a letter to every US diocese in 2005, Father Gary was surprised to learn that he had been chosen for the post. Leaving for a sabbatical year, Father Gary spent twelve months at the Continuing Theological Education at the North American College in Rome where he was ordered by his bishop to take a course on how to become an exorcist. That first class was where Baglio and Gary met, Matt seeing an opportunity to follow someone through the process of what he thought might be a sensational ploy at the headlines by the Catholic Church.

Most American priests fall on one end of a large spectrum, they are either quite skeptical of exorcism or “see demons everywhere”. But in Italy, demonic possession is just a fact of life. Oddly enough, the most exorcisms occur in Italy, a country that is over 80% Catholic. Is this because demonic possession primarily affects Catholics or is it because Italians are more likely to seek out an exorcism? These are just some of the interesting mysteries raised by this book.

As Father Gary progresses through the training, he apprentices with Father Carmine, an expert in performing the exorcism ritual. Initially Father Gary only witnessed what he described as people coming in and belching very loudly. Leaving him with many more questions than answers… until he witnessed the case of Sister Janica.

Janica was a nun that suffered from a “very powerful demon.” When Father Carmine began the ritual she shook in her chair and began to beat her head against stone wall until it shook. As the prayers continued she growled and then shouted an ear piercing scream just before, “the voice” manifested. It was an otherworldly guttural rasping sound that shouted obscenities at Father Carmine. Her face contorted into rage. Her eyeballs rolled into her head and she screamed, flailing on the floor. And this had been happening regularly for nine years. Movies and lore depicts the exorcism as a one shot deal but this is rarely the case. The possessed are freed from their demons only after a long process of returning to religious ritual in their lives, for Catholics this means confessions, prayer and mass. The exorcism only makes up about 10-20% of the healing process. But in rare cases, priests have performed exorcisms on Muslims and Hindus, after which they returned to their respective rituals. This is one of the theological reasons that God allows possession, to lead people back to a life of devout faith. After witnessing something as horrible as an evil force acting through a human being, I’m sure I would strike up some sort of repeated action to avoid it.

The scientific explanation against possession lacks the ability to account for quite a few unbelievable experiences. For example, one priest went home after an exorcism and his cats began tearing each other to pieces. The next day when talking to his “patient”, the demonic voice manifested and said to the priest that it enjoyed playing with his cats. Another case involved a possessed individual taunting a priest with a demonic voice about its ability to erase all his phone’s text messages, because he did. Multiple personality disorder and depression can’t explain why the possessed have been known to vomit buckets of sperm, live scorpions and black nails. Clairvoyant abilities are provided by the demons through the possessed as they sometimes describe intimate details of priest’s lives or objects in hidden areas. In very rare cases, a demon will describe its past possessions the priest was involved in. The descriptions that Matt Baglio received of these horrible exorcisms through first hand interviews are very disturbing. As I read them, chills went down my spine because they are so vivid and honest.

Discernment, the ability to determine if someone is truly possessed, is an interesting dilemma. Many exorcists like to work with a team of psychologists, psychiatrists and other advisers. The key to determining if someone is truly possessed can be rather obscured but typically if someone’s condition does not respond to medicine, only to blessings and prayer it is an indication that demonic possession is likely present. Almost always, someone truly possessed won’t attribute their problems to a demon. They only seek out the priesthood after being forced by a family member or friend. If one comes to a priest saying that they have a demon in them, that’s a clue in the direction of a purely psychological problem.

This gripping account of an often ignored portion of the human experience, The Rite exceeded my expectations and led me to question my hodge-podge worldview. Why is it that demonic possessions occur so often in Catholics and in women? This leads me to speculate that like the campfire creating the shadows, the Catholic Church somehow creates this polar opposite manifest in the phenomena of demonic possession. There is truth in the accounts within this book, as depicted by the shock of seasoned priests to the experience of their first witnessed possession. When the exorcists themselves can’t explain what is happening I know it is a profound mystery. What it all means is beyond anyone’s understanding, especially mine. What I most definitely decided after finishing The Rite is that pure evil forces exist in some capacity. The author was raised Catholic but hadn’t been to mass in years. After witnessing an exorcism he became a practicing Catholic again, and I’ll leave it at that.