The Mount Rainier Exorcism

In 2014, renewed attention came to a Maryland exorcism case that had been investigated for years by Vatican officials and psychiatric professionals. The case, involving multiple exorcisms of a possessed individual in the Washington D.C. area, was notable for the involvement of trained mental health professionals who ruled out psychiatric explanations.

The Case

Details of the 2014 case remain partially protected, but accounts indicate a young person exhibited classic possession symptoms: speaking in languages they didn’t know, displaying superhuman strength, demonstrating knowledge of hidden things, and reacting violently to prayer and sacred objects.

What distinguished this case was the extensive psychiatric evaluation that preceded religious intervention. Mental health professionals examined the individual and found no psychiatric diagnosis that could explain the phenomena.

Medical Involvement

Unlike many possession cases, this one involved psychiatrists and psychologists from the outset. The individual underwent extensive psychiatric evaluation. Brain scans and medical tests were conducted. Multiple professionals concluded that the symptoms could not be explained by known mental illness.

Only after psychiatric causes were ruled out did the case proceed to religious intervention.

The Exorcisms

Catholic priests trained in the Rite of Exorcism conducted multiple sessions over an extended period. Participants reported witnessing phenomena consistent with historical possession accounts: the possessed speaking in voices not their own, displaying knowledge of the participants’ hidden sins, and manifesting physical strength that required multiple people to restrain.

Resolution

After multiple sessions, the possessed was reportedly freed. Follow-up indicated no return of symptoms. The individual returned to normal life.

Assessment

The Mount Rainier case is significant for the involvement of modern medical professionals. In an era when possession is typically attributed to mental illness, trained psychiatrists examined this individual and found no adequate diagnosis.

Whether genuine demonic possession, an unknown psychiatric condition, or something else explains such cases, the Mount Rainier exorcism represents a modern attempt to apply both medical and spiritual approaches to phenomena that defy easy categorization.