The actual account happened to a 13 year old boy living in Maryland. The exorcism took place in a hospital under the care of many people. The True Story of The Exorcist This is a story about the real exorcist experience. We all know about the movie, "The Exorcist" starring then child star Linda Blair. Some people don't know that the movie was based on the true experience that happened to a 13 year old boy named Robbie.

 Robbie and his family lived in Maryland. One of the family members that Robbie was very close to and the one that had a huge impact on him was his aunt. Robbie enjoyed board games and one game that his aunt introduced him too was the Ouija Board. Everyone knows when it comes to Ouija Boards, the one main rule is not to play alone. Robbie on the other hand enjoyed playing things alone and did dabble with the spirit game when he was alone also. Around Jan 15th 1949, strange things started happening in the house. The family noticed a lot of different noises, such as scratches and dripping. They tried desperately to find the cause of the noises but could not find anything. Eleven days after the strange noises started, Robbie's favourite aunt died suddenly. Robbie continued using the Ouija Board, but now it was mostly to contact his aunt. When the aunt died the scratching noises then stopped.

 It was at this time that new noises started but in Robbie's room. The bed would shake, table's would move across the room. Vases would fly through the air. Even Robbie's desk at school would move without explanation. Of course his parents took Robbie to see a doctor, psychiatrist, psychologist, psychic and a minister. The first three found nothing. Only one comment was left and that was that Robbie seemed to be normal. The family called in a Lutheran minister, Rev. Schulze. Schulze observed everything that was happening in Robbie's home and he also had Robbie come to his own home and studied him there. Schulze prayed with the family and asked the church to pray for the boy, nothing he did or said could help Robbie. The things that were happening around the boy were getting worse, and the boy could no longer sleep. If he was on the bed, the bed would shake, on a chair...the chair would tip, if he was on the floor...he would be elevated and float under the bed and bounce up and down against the springs.

When all these things would happen, Robbie seemed to be in a trance. About a month and a half later, the scratches started to appear on Robbie. Once the scratches started appearing, Schulze decided it was time to contact the Catholic Church since the Lutheran church did not believe in Exorcism but the Catholics were known to believe in those things. Robbie and his parents then visited Father Hughes. Hughes gave Robbie's father candles and holy water and him to light the candles and to sprinkle the holy water around the house as well as the boys room. So Robbie's mother, desperate to try anything did what Hughes told them to do. When she placed the holy water on the dresser the bottle crashed to the floor and when she lit the candle, the flames shot up so high that she was afraid the house would catch fire.


She called Father Hughes and told him this and he told her to try again and the second time she called him the table that the phone was on just broke apart. The priest decided to go to the house himself to see what was happening and when he went to Robbie's room the boy started speaking in Latin, although he didn't know the language. He told the priest that he was the devil and to leave him alone. The priest then contacted the Archbishop and according to some accounts was then authorized to begin an exorcism. Robbie was taken to a hospital and strapped in a bed and the exorcism began. From the movie's accounts of the exorcism we all know what happened. Lots of different curses hurled at the priest and any nuns in the room in a different language. The bed moving across the room, trays hurled across the room that the nuns would bring in. At one point, it is said that Robbie got one of his hands out of the restraint and worked one of the springs from the bed loose and slashed the priest's arm. It was said that it took over 100 stitches to close the wound and the exorcism was not continued and the priest became withdrawn and seemed beaten and haunted after the incident, although Hughes never did say any of this in his interviews.

 Robbie was soon released from the hospital and the whole incident was basically covered up. The family decided to move away from that house but even though they moved, it didn't stop what was happening to their boy. The family then discussed moving to St Louis, but only temporarily. While they discussed it Robbie screamed and his mother went to investigate. Scratched across the boys chest in blood was the word Louis. While she was telling her son that they would leave soon another word was scratched in her son's skin that said Saturday. Then another scratch that said 3 1/2 weeks. So Robbie's mother then decided that they would follow the instructions since they really didn't know what else to do. When the family arrived in St Louis they decided to try another priest but this time another Lutheran Minister. Along with the rest of their family they also experimented with another Ouija Board. Robbie's mother wanted to somehow prove that the spirit making all these strange things happen was Robbie's aunt and not the devil. His aunt did make her presence known but after that more strange things started to happen. The family then moved on to another relatives house. Robbie's mother had wanted to put Robbie back in school right there with his cousin but at the mere mention of it, more scratches appeared all over Robbie's body that said NO. So the idea was dropped.

 Many more things happened, many more priests were called in and many dramatic things happened. Robbie ended up in a psychiatric ward and Father Bowdern kept up with the exorcism. Father Bowdern wanted to have Robbie Receive Holy Communion. The demon that had taken over Robbie's body kept identifying itself as the devil and refused to allow the boy to take communion. After days of trying to get the boy to take communion he decided that in the morning the boy was almost normal and then tortured by the demons mostly at night so he decided on a Wednesday morning he would try once again. Robbie began to struggle and then in another voice he said, "God has told me to leave at eleven tonight, but not without a struggle". Then for twenty minutes the boy was in a rage, the worst the priest had seen yet. Of course eleven came and went and the demon did not leave. Father Bowdern kept trying to give the boy communion or even just make him say that he wanted to receive communion but every time Robbie would start to say the words, he could never get communion out.
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Finally the next morning, which was Holy Thursday they were able to give the boy communion with no problem. It was decided that on Easter Sunday before 6:30 in the morning that the priests would give Robbie communion and then take him to mass in the chapel. They awakened the boy and after a couple of attempts finally got him to take communion. Then when they were preparing for the mass, the boy got up and started going into a rage again and the demon told them that he would not allow them to take him to mass. The next morning was even worse then the day before. The demon or demons were getting bolder. At 10:45 p.m. a new voice came from Robbie. This voice seemed to be the voice of St. Michael who commanded Satan and the other demons to leave the boys body. For the next 8 minutes the boy went mad with rage. Then he turned to them and said, "He's gone!" Robbie awoke the next morning and told the priests all about the dream he had about St. Michael and the way the saint fought the demons. That afternoon after Robbie's nap he awoke and remembered absolutely nothing of his ordeal at all. He woke and asked "Where am I? What happened?" Then there was an explosion that sounded like a gun shot in the hospital that everyone heard. Then everything was over, just like that. Now in order to believe this story you have to believe that possession is possible.

The book that gives every detail of this story is called, "Possessed, The True Story Of An Exorcism." It was written by Thomas B. Allen and I highly recommend this book if you are interested in exorcism in any way. The movie was a great movie, especially for this Halloween month. If you really want full details though, you can't beat reading the book. There were many details that I skipped to keep this article from going on forever so please read the book. It is definitely worth it!