Even the Psychiatrist Believed She Was Possessed

The priests were talking on the telephone when another voice interrupted their conversation. It told them to leave a woman alone and warned them to stay away from her.

The woman wasn’t on the call. In fact, she was in another city, and the priests had been making arrangements to help her.

Psychiatrist Richard Gallagher would later describe this as one of the strangest cases of his career. But the telephone calls were only part of what he and the other people involved would encounter.

A Woman Asked the Church for Help

The woman was known as Julia, although that wasn’t her real name. She was a middle-aged American who had spent years involved with a Satanic group and claimed to have held a powerful position within it.

Julia had been raised Catholic but had long since left the Church. Now she was approaching priests because she believed something evil had taken hold of her.

The priests wanted to understand what was happening before attempting an exorcism. They contacted Gallagher, a psychiatrist who had studied at Princeton and trained at Yale.

Gallagher had worked with exorcists before. His job was to examine people who believed they were possessed and find out whether they needed medical or psychiatric treatment instead.

When he met Julia, he found an intelligent woman who could hold an ordinary conversation. She spoke clearly, understood what was happening around her and didn’t appear to be confused about reality. But Gallagher soon began seeing another side of her.

A Different Voice Came Out of Her Mouth

During their meetings, Julia sometimes slipped into what looked like a trance. Her expression changed, and she began speaking in a voice that sounded nothing like her usual one.

Sometimes the voice was deep and rough, almost like a man’s. Other times it became unusually high-pitched.

It insulted the priests, shouted threats and demanded that everyone leave Julia alone. At one point, it declared that she belonged to them. When Julia returned to her normal state, she said she couldn’t remember speaking or making any of the threats.

Gallagher had seen patients behave strangely before, including people who experienced dramatic changes in personality. But several other things happened around Julia that he found much harder to understand.

Objects reportedly flew from shelves when she was nearby. She also began revealing personal information about people involved in her case.

She Knew Things Nobody Had Told Her

Gallagher said Julia sometimes knew details about people she had never met. She spoke about their families, illnesses and relatives who had died.

On one occasion, she described the personality of a team member’s relative and correctly identified the particular type of cancer that had killed them. Gallagher believed she had no way of knowing that information.

Another incident involved two cats living in a colleague’s home. According to Gallagher, the animals had suddenly attacked each other during the night, behaving in a way their owner had never seen before.

The following morning, Julia unexpectedly asked the colleague about the cats going wild. She had been staying somewhere else when it happened.

Julia also seemed to know what certain priests were doing when they weren’t with her. Gallagher said she described one man’s surroundings, clothing and activities in surprising detail, including occasions when he was walking along a beach. The priest later confirmed the details.

Even more unsettling were the voices that reportedly interrupted telephone calls between members of the group. The priests said Julia’s familiar threatening voice sometimes broke into their conversations while they were arranging her treatment.

Gallagher wasn’t present for every incident, but he trusted the people who described what they had heard.

The First Exorcism Began on a Warm Day

Eventually, Julia agreed to undergo an exorcism. A group of priests, nuns, medical professionals and other helpers gathered to assist.

Gallagher described the first ceremony as taking place on a warm day in June. Yet shortly after the prayers began, everyone noticed the room becoming unusually cold.

Julia slipped into another trance. Strange voices began coming from her mouth, including deep growls and sounds the witnesses compared to animals.

As the prayers continued, the temperature seemed to change again. The room became so hot that people were sweating heavily and struggling with the heat.

Julia began speaking in languages she wasn’t known to understand. Gallagher said the group recognized Latin and Spanish among the words coming from her mouth.

The voices also continued insulting the people around her, especially the priests and nuns conducting the ceremony. At times, several people had to hold her down because she appeared to have tremendous strength.

The Nuns Said She Rose Into the Air

The most extraordinary incident was described by people who attended one of Julia’s exorcisms. According to their accounts, Julia began rising from her chair while two nuns and several other helpers struggled to restrain her.

Gallagher later explained that the witnesses believed she had risen about six inches into the air. They said the experience continued for roughly half an hour, with Julia moving upward and downward despite their efforts to hold her in place.

Gallagher wasn’t personally present for that incident. The nuns and other witnesses told him what had happened, and he accepted their accounts.

The group also tried using blessed water during the ceremonies. When it was sprinkled on Julia, she reportedly screamed in pain.

But when ordinary water was used without her knowledge, she showed no reaction. For Gallagher, these experiences added to the growing list of things he believed couldn’t be explained by what he had encountered during his years treating psychiatric patients.

He became convinced that Julia was genuinely possessed.

Julia Couldn’t Decide Whether to Leave

The exorcisms continued over two separate periods, but helping Julia proved difficult for reasons nobody had expected. She was frightened by what was happening and wanted relief. At the same time, she remained involved with the Satanic group she had belonged to for years.

Gallagher believed she was torn between wanting to escape and being unwilling to leave that part of her life behind. The sessions eventually stopped without a clear resolution. Julia and Gallagher lost regular contact, and he continued working with other people referred to him by priests.

In March 2008, Gallagher published an account of her experiences in the New Oxford Review. He described the unusual voices, the reports of hidden knowledge and the extraordinary events witnessed during the exorcisms. He protected Julia’s identity, using a false name and leaving out personal details that might reveal who she was.

Years later, Julia contacted him again to say she was dying.

She gave Gallagher permission to tell her story, but wanted her real name kept secret.