is it Bollocks?

Film Buff investigates the facts behind outlandish movie plots.

Is there any truth in The Exorcist? TF finds out.

This month the excorcist q

In The Exorcist, possessed Regan (Linda Blair) vomits, spider-crawls and chills the room before her resident evil spirit jumps to one of her exorcists. Diabolical or dead on?

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sam bennetts, medium www.sambennetts.co.uk facebook: sam bennetts medium twitter: @_psychic_sam instagram: pyschic_sam_

The Exorcist features some mind-blowing scenes, but are they real? No. Possession is not a ‘thing’ to be explained. It’s a complex series of patterns of thinking and behaviour. Possession, for me, is a state of unconsciousness in which we are not answerable for our actions or our bodily movements – it’s the total loss of control of the body and mind.

The idea of people possessed by evil spirits is at least as old as the Babylonian and ancient Assyrian cultures. In recent Christian tradition, there is no initiating moment [for possession] that can be identified – spirits just find their way in, like disease. Indeed, the earliest accounts of possession are often just descriptions of illness that people assumed to be caused by spirits because they knew of no other explanation.

I have witnessed trance-like states where people’s appearances change. It’s not a scary experience but fascinating. Many films show the spirit jumping from one person to another, but I have yet to witness this. Every so-called possession is unique – not everyone is religious. So each exorcism has to be done with the family and person involved, and their input. This could involve saging [burning sage], prayers, chants… though I find communication is the biggest tool to use. Spirits can come through with heat or with cold. Films often show the temperature dropping, but in reality it can be any temperature.