One Of The Worst Exorcisms In America Happened In Iowa
Wow. who would have guessed Iowa would hold this record. Exorcisms have become infamous not only in real-life history but also in the movie world. In 1928 one of those notorious exorcisms took place in Earling, Iowa.
This unusually long exorcism took place over the course of three weeks and has inspired many terrifying retellings. In fact, this Iowa exorcism partially inspired the novel “The Exorcist,” which later became one of the most notorious horror movies of all time.
We will look at the retelling of this haunting story from onlyinyourtown. Whether you believe in demons, or not... this story is a strange and sad one nonetheless.
Emma Schmidt (sometimes called Anna Ecklund) was 40 years old at the time and had been possessed for the past 26 years of her life.
Over half of her life was reported as "possessed." No matter what the case was, Emma was clearly suffering from something. Those around her looked for an exorcism. This would be one of the last reported sanctioned exorcisms performed.
She suffered from demonic voices in her head telling her to do unspeakable things, and as time went on and the possession grew worse and worse, Schmidt was unable to enter a church, could detect blessed food and would reject it, and would recoil at the touch of a blessed object.
Right away things were strange, angry, and violent, it is claimed that when Pastor Steiger hid a relic in the pocket of his robe, the demons that possessed Emma knew and became angry. Things just got worse from there.
In at least one instance during the exorcism, Emma levitated off of her bed, to the horror of the priests and nuns present. Her body was so swollen and distorted during the possession that the nuns feared she would burst, and according to witnesses, when her head swelled up and her eyes bulged out of her head, she looked almost unrecognizable. She also took to speaking in Latin, and other languages in which she had no formal training.
It gets even crazier than that. In another instance, she somehow escaped the bed she was being confined to, flew through the air, and landed above the door... that's a fun image to have in your head.
In another instance, Emma escaped the bed she was being confined in and broke free of the guards before she flew through the air and landed above the door, where she clung to the wall in an unearthly and terrifying manner.
I'm sure many of you remember that scene in the iconic movie.
Apparently, they identified four different spirits possessing her. This one points to a very sad history and childhood for Emma. The trauma from her childhood could point to other emotional issues besides demons, but they never mentioned that part.
One was the spirit of her dead father Jacob who sexually abused Emma and placed a curse on her, one was the spirit of her dead aunt Mina who was a notorious witch and child murderer, another was a spirit named Judas Iscariot who is believed to be the patron demon of suicide, and the last was the demon Beelzebub, otherwise known as Satan. When asked what they wanted, the demons replied that they wanted Emma to hang herself so she would go to hell.
Despite all this... After three weeks Emma was allegedly broken free from the demons’ grip. Her first words were:
“Praised be Jesus Christ!”
Books and movies were made about this encounter making it one of the most haunting, and famous Exorcisms of all time. You can learn more here.
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Gallery Credit: Stacker