A
angellous_evangellous
Guest
OK, I haven't ever told anyone this story. It's about my encounter with an exorcism while in college. Most of the events appear in local papers at the time. Anyway, I've been a member now for almost 10 years and I thought you should know what might be the most important event in my life. My wife doesn't even know this.
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When I was a young religious studies major, the Religion Department at my university had a film of an exorcism given to one of the professors from the late 1970s by one of the three Roman Catholic exorcists who were practicing at the time. There was a rule in the department that only seniors could watch it and the professor had to be present.
Well, a friend of mine was a TA and he got his hands on the film. So myself and four other religion majors - all of us ordained ministers - snuck into the university's original auditorium that still had a reel projector, with the assistance of a film student. Side note - the old auditorium was not in use, and it was deep inside the third floor of the oldest building on campus. For some reason the university chose to build around it instead of repurposing it -- so to get to it you had to walk through a narrow undeveloped corridor that was between the walls. Very cool.
Anyway, the five of us watched the film. I've never told anyone what we saw, but only two of us survived the term.
One of my friends was a pastor who commuted about 40 miles to his church - he was killed along with his entire family on the way to church one day. A dryer of all things fell of a truck - there wasn't enough time or room to swerve, and no one in the car was wearing seat belts. They were all taking off their jackets - it was winter and the car was heating up a bit.
The film student threw himself off the roof of the building that night.
Another religion student killed himself on the stage of the auditorium - he took two blunt butter knives, jabbed them into his eyes, and pounded his head on the stage until he died. His wife said that she was grateful he found peace because he had not slept in the ten days since he saw the film.
That's three dead, so the other survivor and myself returned the film to the old professor and told him everything. We didn't think that it was over, so we sought his advice. He said he couldn't help us - he didn't want to get involved because he had just had his first two grandkids born and he didn't want any harm to come to his family.
The university had been planning on renovating the building for years. But they left the auditorium alone for some reason. What they did do was remove access to it - they removed the door and sealed it up with a wall, leaving the corridor and the auditorium untouched - I guess they planned on repurposing it later if needed. Anyway, they moved in the higher ranking professors into the beautiful new hall.
So there was one survivor and myself. His name is Mike, and he was my best friend in college.
Mike and I both arrived as transfer students in 1999. He and I both had private rooms in the dorm - there were only four in the whole building. Mine was directly above his. We both drove 1994 Ford Ranger trucks, travelled in opposite directions 45 miles to serve in local churches. We married roommates.
He had gotten married in August at the beginning of his senior year, and I got married the following November. We ended up living in the same duplex - we both moved in during the summer, me alone and him with his wife (about a month later).
After graduation, he went into the ministry and I worked for the university.
A new couple moved into the duplex. That’s when my wife started having night terrors. She would wake up screaming and run of the house. She’d wake up outside (with me there, of course). The next night, our new neighbor’s wife - Alice - ran screaming out of her house. This kind of thing would happen about twice a week. After about a month, they moved out. Night terrors stopped.
Well, we thought that Alice had moved out. Police detectives from a nearby town (where she is from) came knocking at our door. Alice had been missing for three days and they asked if we knew that she was having problems with her husband. Apparently he had been cheating on her quite a bit, she knew, but wasn’t financially able to leave.
Professors on the third floor started complaining about a stench that got worse every day. I was working on the first floor, and after a week, I could smell it, too. The maintenance crew couldn’t find anything in the hall, so they looked in the attic, which is massive. That search took a week, and nothing. The smell went away after a while and everything went back to normal.
Three years later I was still working at the university. I was really good friends with the IT department, and they were planning to move into the third floor. When the construction crew opened the corridor, a stench came out that was so powerful that they had to evacuate the building. No one could go in, so the university hired a cleanup crew (that usually cleans houses after fires) to come and clean it out. When they arrived in the auditorium they found it completely covered in ash. That’s were they found Alice.
Mike and I moved on. He’s pastoring churches, and I’m a scholar. Four years ago while I was finishing up my PhD, I started having recurring nightmares of the film. I eventually had to be hospitalized for a few weeks. Mike lost both his parents and both of his wife’s parents within that two week period. Whatever happened to my mind will never be healed - at least that what the doctors say - I’ll be taking pills for the rest of my life. That was 14 years after the incident.
Mike and I are still good friends. We wonder who will be next — or if there will be any more tragedy stemming from our curiosity. It does seem like tragedy seems to strike at key milestones in our lives - graduation from college, getting married, me finishing my PhD. He’s now where I was four years ago… he’ll be graduating soon.
I’ve never told a soul this - but this whole event is why I never became a pastor.
XXXXXX
When I was a young religious studies major, the Religion Department at my university had a film of an exorcism given to one of the professors from the late 1970s by one of the three Roman Catholic exorcists who were practicing at the time. There was a rule in the department that only seniors could watch it and the professor had to be present.
Well, a friend of mine was a TA and he got his hands on the film. So myself and four other religion majors - all of us ordained ministers - snuck into the university's original auditorium that still had a reel projector, with the assistance of a film student. Side note - the old auditorium was not in use, and it was deep inside the third floor of the oldest building on campus. For some reason the university chose to build around it instead of repurposing it -- so to get to it you had to walk through a narrow undeveloped corridor that was between the walls. Very cool.
Anyway, the five of us watched the film. I've never told anyone what we saw, but only two of us survived the term.
One of my friends was a pastor who commuted about 40 miles to his church - he was killed along with his entire family on the way to church one day. A dryer of all things fell of a truck - there wasn't enough time or room to swerve, and no one in the car was wearing seat belts. They were all taking off their jackets - it was winter and the car was heating up a bit.
The film student threw himself off the roof of the building that night.
Another religion student killed himself on the stage of the auditorium - he took two blunt butter knives, jabbed them into his eyes, and pounded his head on the stage until he died. His wife said that she was grateful he found peace because he had not slept in the ten days since he saw the film.
That's three dead, so the other survivor and myself returned the film to the old professor and told him everything. We didn't think that it was over, so we sought his advice. He said he couldn't help us - he didn't want to get involved because he had just had his first two grandkids born and he didn't want any harm to come to his family.
The university had been planning on renovating the building for years. But they left the auditorium alone for some reason. What they did do was remove access to it - they removed the door and sealed it up with a wall, leaving the corridor and the auditorium untouched - I guess they planned on repurposing it later if needed. Anyway, they moved in the higher ranking professors into the beautiful new hall.
So there was one survivor and myself. His name is Mike, and he was my best friend in college.
Mike and I both arrived as transfer students in 1999. He and I both had private rooms in the dorm - there were only four in the whole building. Mine was directly above his. We both drove 1994 Ford Ranger trucks, travelled in opposite directions 45 miles to serve in local churches. We married roommates.
He had gotten married in August at the beginning of his senior year, and I got married the following November. We ended up living in the same duplex - we both moved in during the summer, me alone and him with his wife (about a month later).
After graduation, he went into the ministry and I worked for the university.
A new couple moved into the duplex. That’s when my wife started having night terrors. She would wake up screaming and run of the house. She’d wake up outside (with me there, of course). The next night, our new neighbor’s wife - Alice - ran screaming out of her house. This kind of thing would happen about twice a week. After about a month, they moved out. Night terrors stopped.
Well, we thought that Alice had moved out. Police detectives from a nearby town (where she is from) came knocking at our door. Alice had been missing for three days and they asked if we knew that she was having problems with her husband. Apparently he had been cheating on her quite a bit, she knew, but wasn’t financially able to leave.
Professors on the third floor started complaining about a stench that got worse every day. I was working on the first floor, and after a week, I could smell it, too. The maintenance crew couldn’t find anything in the hall, so they looked in the attic, which is massive. That search took a week, and nothing. The smell went away after a while and everything went back to normal.
Three years later I was still working at the university. I was really good friends with the IT department, and they were planning to move into the third floor. When the construction crew opened the corridor, a stench came out that was so powerful that they had to evacuate the building. No one could go in, so the university hired a cleanup crew (that usually cleans houses after fires) to come and clean it out. When they arrived in the auditorium they found it completely covered in ash. That’s were they found Alice.
Mike and I moved on. He’s pastoring churches, and I’m a scholar. Four years ago while I was finishing up my PhD, I started having recurring nightmares of the film. I eventually had to be hospitalized for a few weeks. Mike lost both his parents and both of his wife’s parents within that two week period. Whatever happened to my mind will never be healed - at least that what the doctors say - I’ll be taking pills for the rest of my life. That was 14 years after the incident.
Mike and I are still good friends. We wonder who will be next — or if there will be any more tragedy stemming from our curiosity. It does seem like tragedy seems to strike at key milestones in our lives - graduation from college, getting married, me finishing my PhD. He’s now where I was four years ago… he’ll be graduating soon.
I’ve never told a soul this - but this whole event is why I never became a pastor.
