America’s Most Famous Case Of Possession

Submitted by SpectreCollector on Tue, 2019-03-05 10:19

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The Entire Case History of Anna Ecklund:

Surprisingly enough, the story of Anna Ecklund is not an easy one to come by, especially since it is considered the most famous exorcism story in the United States. There are different, varying accounts to the whole thing, and very few books have been published about it. One of these books, however, is entitled Begone Satan!, and was written by Father Carl Vogl approximately 80 years ago or so. It was translated into English by Rev. Celestine Kapsner, and published in approximately 1973. The history of this “book” is that it was originally a very thick pamphlet that was distributed amongst seminaries in the United States to familiarize priests with the destructive powers of the devil through the process of possession, but in its book form, its length varies. Depending on the multiple forewords and introductions, it can range anywhere from 32 pages up to 48 pages. Obviously, this is not a very long book. I prefer the version in which all of the unnecessary text is stripped down, so below, through the creative commons law, you can download this book in PDF format at the link provided here:

https://diabolicalconfusions.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/begone-satan-rev-celestine-kapsner.pdf

Anna’s story is not a simple one. It has been briefly mentioned in multiple “dictionaries” or “encyclopedias” dealing with the demonic. I will post all of the entries I have been able to find at the end of this article, for further reading if you so choose, but basically, the story goes something like this:

To start it off, very much like the case of Annaliese Michael, Anna was possessed by multiple diabolical entities, however, there were also additional entities which resided within her which were at one time human, namely the spirit of her father, Jacob Ecklund, and her aunt (as well as her father’s mistress) Mina. Also similar to the Anneliese Michel case, Judas Iscariot was also one of the possessing spirits of Anna Ecklund. Anna was born in 1882, but by age 14, she had already begin to have severely strongly presented symptoms of possession, such as an intense aversion to anything holy or sacred, including blessed objects or images. Very much like Annliese Michel, she was unable to enter a Church because of some unseen force, and she had an almost obsessive interest in deprived and disturbing sexual acts. Many people attribute this to the fact that they truly believe that Jacob was successful in his attempts of an incestuous relationship with his daughter, and these actions imprinted themselves upon her, but this cannot be proven. It is believed that by the time she was 26 years old, Anna had become completely and totally possessed.

The shocking thing here, at least to me, is that it was claimed that Father Theophilus Riesinger, a Capuchin monk from Wisconsin, had successfully completed an exorcism on June 18, 1912, but it was ultimately unsuccessful due to the fact that both her father Jacob, and her aunt/his mistress Mina had begun to place curses on Anna. They would curse the spices in the food which was given to Anna, and around the community where they lived, while they were alive, it was whispered quietly that Mina was actually a practicing witch with knowledge of the Black Arts. During these alleged curses, the two of them actually called upon assistance from the devil so that Anna could specifically suffer the torment of being re-possessed again, because they knew that according to the Bible, if a demon is expelled, but for whatever reason allowed to return, he will return with “seven stronger than him”, and that case of possession will be significantly harder, almost impossible to successfully correct via exorcism.

A full two decades later, Father Theophilus begane the process again. This is actually where the book Begone Satan! opens, and you read about the verbal exchange between Father Theophilus and a friend of his, Father Joseph Steiger, who was a parish priest in the town where this possession is now known for, Earling, Iowa. Father Theophilus had originally hoped that if he could remove Anna from her hometown and perform these rituals elsewhere, then it would be unknown and it could go on in complete discretion, but starting from the moment that the opening prayers were recited, this was proven to be anything but the case.

It was agreed upon that a nearby convent would be used, maintained by Franciscan nuns provided that the Mother Superior would sign off on it, which she did. Once Anna had been transported to this location, strange occurrences began almost instantly. Some of the nuns there had attempted to give Anna food, in which as was their custom, they had already blessed. It was like magic, because from that day forward, if anyone had attempted to bless any of Anna’s food, she would know of it immediately and refuse to eat. She would hiss like a cat, and show great aversion to this food, and therefore only unblessed food was prepared for her.

Since all of this information can be read freely in the PDF eBook I uploaded above, I will not simply repeat this information all over again, what I will do is accentuate and expand on significant presented within the details of this case.

Possessing Demons / Demonized Spirits:

InHuman: Lucifer

Inhuman: Beelzebub

Human: Judas

Human Jacob

Human: Mina

Additional: Many, many additional lesser demons.

Judas, it was revealed, was only there because it was his assignment to tempt Anna into committing the unforgivable act of suicide. Unfortunately, due to his history, it is said that in the hierarchy of Hell, Judas Iscariot would be the equivalent to the “Patron Demon of Suicides”.

Jacob, the girl’s father, was condemned to Hell because he cursed his daughter to be defiled by demons because she would not commit incest with him. We do not know if he was successful, but once in Hell, the devil gladly allowed Jacob to continue his molestation of his daughter, despite the fact that he was no longer among the living.

Mina, Jacob’s mistress, was condemned to hell because she had lead a prolonged immoral life with Jacob while his

Possessing Demons / Demonized Spirits:

InHuman: Lucifer

Inhuman: Beelzebub

Human: Judas

Human Jacob

Human: Mina

Additional: Many, many additional lesser demons.

Mina, Jacob’s mistress, was condemned to hell because she had lead a prolonged immoral life with Jacob while his

Possessing Demons / Demonized Spirits:

InHuman: Lucifer

Inhuman: Beelzebub

Human: Judas

Human Jacob

Human: Mina

Additional: Many, many additional lesser demons.

Mina, Jacob’s mistress, was condemned to hell because she had lead a prolonged immoral life with Jacob while his

wife was still alive. Also, she had committed a child murder. She killed four children in her lifetime. While this can not be confirmed, it is believed that these children were her own, and they were killed during the process of abortion, so I don’t know how much you want to believe that, but it is up to you, the reader.

Out of the entire group, it was claimed that both Mina and Judas were the worst offenders against the Blessed Sacrament, as they were constantly attempting to somehow destroy or defile it. To manipulate or mutilate it would represent everything they had attempted to do in life, and would be in league with the diabolical activity of attempting to taint anything Holy.

Some of the more intense paranormal phenomena that occurred during this 23 day long exorcism were:

Anna exhibited inhuman strength, required sometimes up to six “athletic” nuns to hold her down.

Anna levitated, completely off the ground, on more than one occasion.

Anna leapt from her bed in the ‘lying down’ position, ONTO the wall above the door, where she held on, and maintained her position of crouching, apparently defying gravity, while holding on to the side of a wall.

While Anna was unconscious, voices would talk, blaspheme, and verbally assault everyone present, but not through Anna’s mouth, they came from her throat, but her lips never moved.

She vomited, spit, drooled, urinated and defecated inhuman amounts/quantities of solids and fluids. It was reported that Anna was urinating buckets worth of liquid, and this is at a time where she was not eating hardly anything at all daily.

She would vomit items such as tobacco leaves and other debris which resembled spices.

Her head physically elongated and swelled at certain times.

Her body also seemed as if it would expand to the point of severe bloating, to where it appeared that Anna was almost double her normal size, and then it would retract in size and return to normal.

Her lips reportedly on some occasions grew to the size of hands.

She exhibited signs of “possessed gravity”, to the point that while laying in bed she became so heavy that the bed sank and the iron bedframe was considerably bent.

She spoke many languages in which she did not know.

She displayed numerous instances in which she had hidden knowledge or knowledge of the unknown.

Anna would verbally assault the nuns present and the priests present by reciting sins they had committed in their childhoods.

She predicted that an almost fatal car accident would strike Father Steiger, and that it was a warning for him to walk away from the exorcism and to rescind his invitation to the priests.

There were inhuman and unbearable smells that would constantly assault the senses of all those present. Hordes of flies and mosquitos would suddenly manifest and then disappear just as quickly.

Most importantly, this is the only case of possession where the priests had a lucid, vivid, waking “vision” with his sixth sense during the exorcism. Without him stopping the exorcism, for the last half hour or so of the final exorcism, Father Theophilus physically saw both Lucifer and Beelzebub standing in the corner, confined there. The room was completely set aflame in this vision, and Lucifer, described as being extremely tall, with matted black fur on his lower, hooved body and wearing a crown was seething with rage at Father Theophilus because he was confined by God’s law to be unable to cause physical harm to a person. Beelzebub was also there, as his second-in-command, also seething in rage, but not quite as vocal.

Here are some noteworthy quote from the book, Begone Satan!:

[In regards to the ‘discussions’ portrayed in the book]

The reader would undoubtedly be misled if he were of the opinion that these questions and answers followed in regular order. It must be remembered that these battles and encounters with the devils extended over a number of days. At times the answers were interrupted by hours and hours of howling and yelling, which could be brought into submission only by prolonged prayer and persistent exorcism.

Often no further answers could be forced from the devils in any other way.

Countless brats of devils also interrupted the process of exorcism by their disagreeable and almost unbearable interferences. As a result of these disturbances, the woman’s face became so distorted that no one could recognize her features.

hen, too, her whole body became so horribly disfigured that the regular contour of her body vanished. Her pale, deathlike and emaciated head, often assuming the size of an inverted water pitcher, became as red as glowing embers. Her eyes protruded out of their sockets, her lips swelled up to proportions equaling the size of hands, and her thin emaciated body was bloated to such enormous size that the pastor and some of the Sisters drew back out of fright, thinking that the woman would be torn to pieces and burst asunder. At times her abdominal region and extremities became as hard as iron and stone. In such instances the weight of her body pressed into the iron bedstead so that the iron rods of the bed bent to the floor.

[In regards to the demon Beelzebub mocking the priests about Christ’s crucifixion]

This does not mean that we are now sure how the feet of our Saviour were placed upon the cross, even if Beelzebub’s statement tends to confirm the description given by Catherine Emmerich. We do not give the father of lies credit for being a reliable witness in such matters as the crucifixion, even if there is no doubt that many devils were personal witnesses to the crucifixion of Christ. In like manner I would have no one believe that we know for certain that Judas is in hell, just because he claimed that he was one of the damned in the case of possession at Earling. Holy Mother Church has never yet given a decision regarding this matter even though the words of our Saviour about Judas are thought-provoking: “It would have been better if that man had never been born.”

[In regards to the speaking of the AntiChrist]

Father Theophilus, basing his opinion on his numerous experiences with cases of possession, believes that the hour of the Antichrist is not far distant. Lucifer himself was present for about fourteen days in the Earling case. With all the forces of hell at his disposal he tried his utmost to make this a test case. Once Father Th. Saw Lucifer standing visibly before him for half an hour—a fiery being in his characteristically demoniac reality. He had a crown on his head and carried a fiery sword in his hand. Beelzebub stood alongside of him. During this time the whole room was filled with flames. Lucifer was cursing and blaspheming in a terrible rage:

“If I could, I would have choked you long ago. If I only had my former powers, you would soon experience what I could do to you.”

Through the powers of Christ he had been deprived of his original might as even now through exorcism his influence was further diminished. Father Th. asked him one time: “What can you accomplish, you helpless Lucifer?”

To which he replied: “What could you do, if you were bound as I am?”

This is where things get interesting. According to the book, Father Theophilus believes that the time of the AntiChrist will be coming soon. He also believes that through revelations shown during this exorcism and in conjunction with the visions of Teresa Neumann halfway across the world, the spirit of Judas Iscariot will be the one who is controlling this AntiChrist and guiding every action he makes. A false prophet will arise, who will in reality be Lucifer himself, will perform miracles and tremendous feats of healing. He will have the answer to all of our problems, and he will be worshipped almost as a God.

Also a quote of this book, Father Theophilus claims:

He will not be born of a woman, but will construct a body for himself out of earthly matter in order to plot as a man among men.

There was also severe opposition when confronted with the prayer of Saint Michael, the Archangel who was “promoted” and given he power by God to expel Lucifer from Heaven during the War in Heaven. The original, short version of the prayer is listed below, and has been known to have extreme efficacy against all aspects of the diabolical paranormal.

St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle. Be our safeguard against the wickedness and snares of the devil. Restrain him, O God, we humbly beseech Thee, and do Thou, O Prince of the heavenly host, by the power of God cast him into hell with the other evil spirits, who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.

“If I could, I would have choked you long ago. If I only had my former powers, you would soon experience what I could do to you.”

To which he replied: “What could you do, if you were bound as I am?”

Also a quote of this book, Father Theophilus claims:

He will not be born of a woman, but will construct a body for himself out of earthly matter in order to plot as a man among men.

Author’s Additional Notes:

Protection of Saint Christopher: The Church has provided a special blessing under the protection of St. Christopher against evil and disastrous influences. Therefore, it is customary to put one of these blessed medals or medallions in cars for safety’s sake.

It was also claimed, in the section of the book entitled “Speeches of Satan”, that the actual girl was not the one doing the speaking, for she was unconscious for most of the time, but that he devil spoke from within her, not through her mouth. On many occasions, her lips were open but not even moving during these audible events.

In the section “Satan’s knowledge can be embarrassing”, it is also once again mentioned, in conjunction to what Ed Warren had said in the Demonologist, the diabolical entities made the startling revelation that they only knew the sins in which you had not confessed. If you had confessed them to a priest, they claimed to have no knowledge of those sins.

From the book The Demonologist: The Extraordinary Career of Ed and Lorraine Warren, by Gerald Brittle, ISBN 0-595-24618-4, pages 203 & 204, this is what Ed Warren had to say about the status of sins revealed:

Author’s Additional Notes:

“As the exorcism progresses,” continues Ed, “the possessing entities usually pour forth vulgar, blasphemous language crude, filthy, gutter talk. Speaking in a gross, inhuman voice, these things will also challenge the Scriptures being read, and sometimes even ‘correct’ the exorcist should he happen to omit a phrase or mispronounce some word-Latin or English-in the ritual. These insults and slanderings will later change into a demoralizing personal assault directed against all those present. These spirits, you see, not only know the Scriptures, they also know the life of everyone in the room. They’ll try to drive the exorcist and his assistants away by bringing up hurtful incidents in these people’s lives, recounting their personal tragedies with perverse delight. They’ll reveal personal things that a person may feel terribly guilty about, or dredge up events that provoke great pain and sorrow. When that doesn’t work, they’ll humiliate each and every person present by reciting all their mortal sins in front of everyone, dwelling on those sins that are likely to be the

Author’s Additional Notes:

According to the priest attending to the exorcism, during the final days of the ritual, Lucifer himself as well as his right hand, Beelzebub were present, in the room, threatening and watching the priest continue the Ritual Romanum.

From the book The Demonologist: The Extraordinary Career of Ed and Lorraine Warren, by Gerald Brittle, ISBN 0-595-24618-4, pages 185 & 186, this is what Ed Warren had to say about the Earling possession case:

Lonnie to expel the invading spirit. As the possessing entity itself admitted, it was “weak,” but it also declared “there are others stronger,” referring to the diabolical hierarchy. “Though devils order the possession of a particular human being,” Ed says, “a devil will almost never participate in the possession itself. Instead, the demonic spirit possesses people. There are exceptions, of course.

We know that Lucifer himself was involved in the possession of a woman in Iowa in 1928 named Anna Ecklund because witnesses at the time reported that he showed himself and remained present during the latter part of the exorcism standing in a circle of fire wearing a crown.”

According to Ed Warren, diabolical possession is meant as a challenge to the authority of God, because in such cases, “the devil, in violation of cosmic law, has actually done the forbidden and the most embarrassing to a particular person. For Catholics, this latter problem is avoided through confession: strangely enough, the demonic has no knowledge of sins that have been confessed!

According to Ed Warren, diabolical possession is meant as a challenge to the authority of God, because in such cases, “the devil, in violation of cosmic law, has actually done the forbidden and

taken on incarnate form. When this happens, there is no alternative but to perform major exorcism.”

And regrettably, there is no proof so clear of the Devil’s existence than that which is gained during a major exorcism of the possessed.

In the book Hostage to the Devil: The Possession and Exorcism of Five Contemporary Americans, by Father Malachi Martin, ISBN 978-0-06-065337-8, page 13, “possessed gravity” is explained as:

In the records of Christian Exorcism from as far back as the lifetime of Jesus himself, a peculiar revulsion to symbols and truths of religion is always and without exception a mark of the possessed person. In the verification of a case of possession by Church authorities, this “symptom” of revulsion is triangulated with other physical phenomena frequently associated with possession – the inexplicable stench; freezing temperature; telepathic powers about purely religious and moral matters; a peculiarly unlined or completely smooth or stretched skin, or unusual distortion of the face, or other physical and behavioral transformations; “possessed gravity” (the possessed person becomes physically immovable, or those around the possessed are weighted down with a suffocating pressure); levitation (the possessed rises and floats off the ground, chair, or bed; there is no physically traceable support); violent smashing of furniture, constant opening and slamming of doors, tearing of fabric in the vicinity of the possessed, without a hand laid on them; and so on.

In the book The Encyclopedia of Demons and Demonology by Rosemary Ellen Guiley, ISBN-13: 978-0-8160-7314-6 & ISBN-10: 0-8160-7314-7, pages 71 & 72, here is the entire entry of Anna Ecklund, and the case of Earling, Iowa:

Earling Possession (1928)

One of the best-documented demonic POSSESSION cases in the 20th century. The possession of Anna Ecklund also is unusual for the combination of demonic entities within one victim.

Anna was born in the Midwest about 1882 and was raised a devout and pious Catholic. She first began showing the symptoms of possession—revulsion toward holy objects, inability to enter church, and disturbing thoughts about unspeakable sexual acts—at age 14, finally becoming totally possessed in 1908. In the account of Anna’s travails, Begone Satan!, written in German by the Reverend Carl Vogl and translated into English by the Reverend Celestine Kapsner, O.S.B., Anna’s aunt Mina, a reputed witch, caused her possession by placing spells on herbs used in Anna’s food. Father Theophilus Riesinger, a native Bavarian and a Capuchin monk from the community of St. Anthony at Marathon, Wisconsin, successfully exorcized her on June 18, 1912, only to have her fall prey to the Devil again after her father heaped CURSEs on her and wished her possessed. In 1928, when Anna was 46 years old, Father Theophilus tried again.

Seeking a place where Anna was unknown, Father Theophilus approached his old friend, Father F. Joseph Steiger, parish priest in Earling, Iowa. With great reluctance, Father Steiger agreed that the exorcism could take place in the nearby convent of the Franciscan Sisters. Anna arrived in Earling on August 17, 1928. Trouble started immediately; sensing that someone had sprinkled holy water on her evening meal, Anna threw a fi t, purring like a cat, and refused to eat until unblessed food could be served. After that, the devils within her always knew whether one of the nuns had tried to bless the food or drink, and they always complained.

The ancient ritual began in earnest the next morning. Father Theophilus had several of the strongest nuns hold Anna on a mattress laid upon an iron bed, and her clothes were bound tightly around her to prevent her from stripping herself. With Father Theophilus’ first exhortations Anna’s mouth clamped shut and she fell unconscious, followed almost immediately by an extraordinary feat of levitation. Rising swiftly from the bed, she hung onto the wall above the door like a cat, and it took great effort to pull her down. Although Anna was unconscious and her mouth never moved throughout the sessions, voices issued from within her, accompanied by screams, howls, and unearthly animal noises. Earling citizens, alarmed by the outcries, gathered at the convent, ruining Father Theophilus’ hopes of keeping the exorcism secret. Totaling 23 days, the exorcisms covered

three sessions: from August 18 to the 26, from September 13 to 20, and from December 15 to 23. Through it all, Anna’s physical state deteriorated to the point of death. She ate no food but only swallowed small amounts of milk or water. Nevertheless, she vomited enormous quantities of foul-smelling debris, often resembling tobacco leaves, and spit prodigiously. Her face became horribly disfigured and distorted, often suffusing with blood as her head swelled and elongated, her eyes bulged, and her lips grew, reportedly, to the size of hands. Her abdomen would swell to the point of bursting, only to retract and become so hard and heavy that the iron bedstead would bend under the enormous weight.

In addition to the physical changes, Anna understood languages previously unknown to her, recoiled at holy words and objects, and revealed clairvoyant knowledge by exposing secret childhood sins of the other participants. The nuns and Father Steiger were so frightened and troubled that none of them could stay in Anna’s room throughout the entire exorcism but instead worked in shifts. Father Steiger, taunted by the devils for having agreed to the exorcism in his parish, was especially harassed and suffered an auto accident that the devils had predicted and apparently arranged. Only Father Theophilus, confident of his powers, remained steadfast.

Hordes of lesser devils and avenging spirits, described as like “a swarm of mosquitoes,” possessed Anna, but her principal tormentors were BEELZEBUB , Judas Iscariot, and the spirits of her father, Jacob, and his mistress, Anna’s aunt Mina. Beelzebub revealed himself first, engaging Father Theophilus in sarcastic theological conversations and acknowledging that the curses of Jacob, Anna’s father, sent the devils into her at age 14. Father Theophilus tried to reach Jacob, only to be answered by a spirit identifying himself as Judas Iscariot, who admitted he was there to torment Anna to commit suicide and thereby go to HELL.

Jacob eventually spoke and said that he had cursed Anna for not submitting to his incestuous advances, calling upon the devil to tempt her with every unspeakable sin against chastity. In Begone Satan! the author describes Jacob’s life as “coarse and brutal,” taking Anna’s aunt Mina as a mistress while he was still married and repeatedly trying to seduce Anna. At his death, a priest had administered extreme unction, but Jacob ridiculed him. The author continues: “In the judgment after death even all that was pardoned him, but (because) he had cursed his own daughter . . . that ultimately was the guilt of his eternal damnation. And so he was still scheming in

hell how he could torture and molest his child. This Lucifer gladly permitted him to do.” Whether Anna’s virginity really remained intact, even at age 46, or whether she had repressed her sexual contact with her father is unknown.

A high, falsetto voice, present from the beginning among the other voices, revealed itself as that of Mina. God had damned her for living with Jacob and for murdering four children. Begone Satan! suggests that the children were Mina’s own, but they may also have been multiple abortions. The author describes Mina as any devil’s equal for malice and hate, filled with spite and blaspheming the Blessed Sacrament.

The author remarks that the truly amazing aspects of Anna’s possession were her basic virtue and pious disposition throughout her ordeal, because “the devil has no power over the free will of a human being.” Sensing his eventual triumph, Father Theophilus continued to exhort the devils to depart, and by the latter part of December 1928, they began to weaken and moan, rather than scream, against his efforts. Father Theophilus demanded that when they returned to hell, each should call out his name as a sign of his or her departure, and the devils agreed.

On December 23, 1928, at about 9:00 P .M ., Anna suddenly jerked up and stood erect in bed, looking as if she were about to rise to the ceiling. Father Steiger called for the nuns to pull her down, while Father Theophilus blessed her and roared, “Depart ye fi ends of hell! Begone Satan, the Lion of Juda reigns!” Anna crumpled back onto the bed as a terrible shout of “Beelzebub, Judas, Jacob, Mina” followed by “Hell, hell, hell” filled the room, repeated several times until the sound seemed to fade into the distance. Anna opened her eyes and smiled, while tears of joy ran down her face and she cried, “My Jesus,

Mercy! Praised be Jesus Christ!”

Begone Satan! describes the end: “During the first thrills of joy they were not even aware of the terrible odor that filled the room. All the windows had to be opened, the stench was something unearthly, simply unbearable. It was the last souvenir of the infernal devils for those they had to abandon upon the Earth.”

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