The Julia Possession Case

“Julia” is the pseudonym of a woman described by the American psychiatrist Richard Gallagher in an article in the New Oxford Review in early 2008. His account is the only source for the case. It is anecdotal and has never been independently verified. No medical record, video, photograph or outside witness statement has been published. We found nothing linking the case to Rome, the Vatican or the exorcist Gabriele Amorth, and Gallagher’s account places Julia in the United States.

What Gallagher Wrote

Gallagher is a psychiatrist and a professor of clinical psychiatry at New York Medical College. He has served as a consultant to Catholic exorcists. He described Julia as a woman of about 39 who said she was possessed. She told him she was a former Catholic and the high priestess of a satanic cult. A priest referred her to an exorcist, who sent her to Gallagher for a psychiatric assessment. He said he found no psychosis and judged that she did not fit the common diagnoses.

He reported that during trances voices spoke through her in Latin and Spanish, which she said she did not know. He also reported that objects flew off shelves, that she knew private facts such as how a team member’s relative had died, and that she screamed in a demonic voice over a telephone line. He wrote that she showed great strength and that she levitated about half a foot for about 30 minutes while several people held her down. The exorcisms took place in a house chapel with a team of priests, nuns and lay helpers. She had eight sessions, then stopped. About a year later she asked to resume and said she was dying of cancer. Gallagher said the team never heard from her again.

What Cannot Be Checked

The sources give no year for the events. The article’s date is the only firm date, and secondary sources disagree on whether it appeared in the February or March 2008 issue. Gallagher says he did not see every phenomenon himself. The team members were believers working in a closed religious setting. Sceptics point out that the evidence consists of recollections by the people involved, and that a person in a trance can seem to know facts by cold reading, prior research or suggestion. Levitation claims made in uncontrolled rooms have never been confirmed under test conditions.

Assessment

This page records what one psychiatrist said he saw. It does not show that anything supernatural occurred. A person who believes she is possessed, with a history of cult involvement, may well have a psychiatric or dissociative condition that Gallagher did not find, or may have deliberately performed. The case is best read as an example of how modern exorcism teams describe their work, not as documented proof.

Sources

• Christ’s Power Shines Even in ‘Creepiest’ Exorcism Case, Says Psychiatrist (National Catholic Register) - Gallagher’s own retelling of the case
• Psychiatrist Documents Case of Demonic Possession (Women of Grace) - 2008 summary of Gallagher’s New Oxford Review article