Certainly, every cinema fan will know a work such as "The Exorcist" directed by William Friedkin. It is considered to be the best horror film in the history of cinematography, showing exorcisms "behind the scenes". In the horror movie, you can also see the behavior of a demon-possessed person. The director of "The Exorcist" was inspired by the book by William Peter Blatty, with exactly the same title. In it, Blatty described the possession of a 14-year-old Roland Doe, whose body was inhabited by a dangerous demon. George Lukins was a man who survived the devil's possession. Why were the clergy forced to carry out an exorcism on Lukins? Was the expulsion of the demon successful? How tragic was George's visit to supernatural powers? This is the story of George Lukins that shocked all of England in the second half of the 18th century.
Roland Doe was born around 1935 in Mount Rainier, Maryland (USA). It is difficult to pinpoint the boy's exact date of birth as his real details have never been revealed. There are also speculations in the documents relating to the Roland possession case as to where the boy was born. However, it is known for certain that Roland grew up in a German Lutheran family, and his family lived in Cottage City in the 1940s. The boy had no siblings. The only child, therefore, usually spent time alone, playing with his numerous toys. His only friend was Aunt Harriet, whom Roland loved to hang out with.
Aunt Harriet was a spiritualist who dealt with the occult. She was the one who showed Roland what the Ouija board was for - a board with letters of the alphabet printed on it and characters that can form different words. It is with its help that séances are conducted in order to talk to the spirits of the dead. Harriet introduced the boy to an inconspicuous blackboard that Roland secretly liked to play with. He did not take his aunt's story seriously at the time, believing that ghosts did not exist. The boy's life was spent playing carefree at home. Roland Doe did not want to play with his peers - he preferred the company of his aunt and the Ouija board.
In 1948, Aunt Harriet died. Roland, who was very closely associated with her, from the moment Harriet died, began to be rude to those around him. From day to day he became more and more desperate and aggressive. The boy became nervous and panicked every day for just no reason. Sometimes he would stay in his room for hours. His behavior, however, did not arouse the suspicions of Roland's parents. They believed that the boy had to come to terms in his own way with the loss of his beloved aunt. They thought that their child would calm down in some time and start to rethink his life. Maybe Roland will finally start going out to the yard to play with his friends? They did not know then how far they were from the truth.
Beginning in January 1949, strange things began to happen at the Doe home. Every night in the kitchen I could hear loud crackling noises like chairs moving around the table and clinking cutlery. These phenomena intensified when the boy appeared near the kitchen. Over time, terrifying noises began to come not only from the kitchen but from all over the house. In the evenings, one could hear loud screams and groans, as well as heavy footsteps. Furniture began to slide in other rooms as well, and the shelves kept opening by themselves. Also, the image of Jesus, which was hung in the living room, began to move by itself. To make matters worse, Roland slept worse and worse night after night. At times, he would wake up screaming, snatched from a nightmare. Sometimes he was also awake at all, and scratch marks started to appear on the boy's body. Did he make them himself? Or was Roland… possessed?
Roland's parents decided they would no longer pretend nothing was happening. However, they remembered well how Anna Ecklund's exorcisms were carried out. They wanted to protect their son at all costs from what happened to the girl in Earling (Iowa) in 1928. They did not accept that their only child could also be possessed. However, just in case, they decided to contact a specialist who would deal with the strange case of their 14-year-old son.
A Lutheran preacher, Miles Schulze, who worked in parapsychology, arrived at the Doe home. Upon arriving at the scene, he decided that it would be best to spend one night at the boy's house, which would allow him to investigate the problem. The clergyman soon began to notice strange paranormal phenomena happening around Roland. The priest, however, was unable to help the boy. Desperate parents sent the teenager to a clinic in Maryland to try to diagnose the cause of his insomnia, aggression, and scratches. Unfortunately, the clinic also failed to establish what was happening with Roland. The boy's parents then decided to contact Edward Hughes. It was the Catholic priest who first exorcised Roland.
During the first exorcism session, Roland Doe was very angry. He was challenging the clergyman and throwing really heavy objects at him. The next day the boy freed himself from the knots - he had to be tied to the bed for the exorcisms to be more effective. Roland injured the priest with a metal spring he managed to tear out of the mattress. As a result, the clergyman had to have 100 stitches applied along the entire length of his arm. Another demon-casting ritual was interrupted.
Father Edward Hughes could not cope alone. He decided that he would ask for help from another clergy - Father Walter H. Halloran and Father William S. Bowdern. As a few of the clergy, they had the opportunity to experience similar, inexplicable phenomena that concerned the possessed child. Father Halloran and Father Bowdern agreed to help the clergyman. The next day, the three men tried to banish the evil that had lodged itself in the teenager's body. The bed and Roland went up and down many times, and everything around them changed their position. It was the first time Roland had spoken in a very low voice that was definitely not the boys.
Roland Doe's last exorcism was on April 18, 1949, at The Alexian Brothers Hospital (South St. Louis, Missouri). Interestingly, the wing where the attempt to drive the demon out of Roland's body took place was completely demolished in 1978. Fortunately, this time the priests managed to defeat evil. They banished them from Roland once and for all. Clergymen are said to have helped Michelangelo, whom Roland Doe had noticed a few days before the last exorcism. The book "The Exorcist" was written on the basis of the history of the boy's possession, and later - on its basis - in 1973 a famous film was made.
What happened to the boy later? His life was back to normal. He grew up, got married, and started a family. To show respect to Michelangelo, who supported the clergy in the fight against the demon, Roland named his first son ... Michael.
The second half of the eighteenth century was a special period in England's social history. Balancing on the brink of modern materialism and age-old superstitions, the faith of the people of England flew between rural and urban life - that is, between the poor religious people and the less believing rich. It was in these times, in 1743 to be precise, that George Lukins was born. He lived with his family in the village of Yatton, in the ceremonial county of Somerset (North Somerset District). Only 3,000 people lived in this village.
Lukins grew up in the countryside with religious parents. As a teenager, he started working as a tailor adored by all the locals. George was known in Yatton as a man of "exceptionally good character" who, encouraged by his parents, was also an active member of the religious community in the village. Although he was a tailor, he was also known in the area as a mummer - an actor in the local theater group with which he gave performances all year round. His life was perfectly normal until 1769. When George Lukins turned 26, things started to change dramatically.
During the Christmas season in 1769, George Lukins put on a show with other actors at the local church. After the performance, the theater group went to a village bar, where they all consumed a large amount of alcohol. At one point, George fell over and hit his head. The man was escorted home. When he awoke the next day, he noticed that his body was not functioning normally. His right hand began to tremble violently, his face twitched in strange grimaces, and his body was quite hot. In the following days, it was getting worse. Lukins began to speak in different voices, his body contorted and thrashed around the room. The man often spewed out curses as well, screaming in pain.
Lukins' attacks could last for an hour. However, they did happen several times a day. The man's religious parents, concerned about their son's atypical condition, asked Yatton Church for help. The clergy came to Lukins' house. They had to hold the man so that he wouldn't throw himself to the floor. George did not understand what the priest was saying to him. Unfortunately, no one understood what was happening to Lukins. Over the years, the man lived between normal existence and strange seizures. George was not helped by the church or even months of hospital treatment. After observation in the hospital, it was only concluded that the man probably suffered from epilepsy. His health was considered incurable.
Upon returning home, George Lukins had seizures all the time - sometimes stronger, sometimes weaker. The man convulsed for hours, cursed religious figures, sang, and talked in both male and female voices. Epilepsy medications did not help. Over time, Lukins' attacks began to fade away. It seemed to George's family that their son's life was about to return to normal. In 1777, however, the attacks returned - this time with redoubled power. Lukins confidently told doctors and clergy that he had been possessed by ... the devil. As the whole village of Yatton was super superstitious, the clergy decided to help the suffering faithful.
In the spring of 1778, Lukins' story began to spread throughout the region. Bristol Temple Church member Sarah Barber also learned the story of the haunted man. On May 31, 1778, she addressed the vicar of the church, Father Joseph Easterbrook, asking him for help in this matter. The clergyman agreed to meet Lukins. He dragged him to Bristol to determine if the man's attacks could actually be related to a demonic haunting.
The priest saw with his own eyes that George Lukins is actually not doing well. The clergyman confirmed that the matter should be dealt with by the church. He met at Temple Church with three other clergymen. All the men agreed with Easterbrook that Lukins' ailment was supernatural. However, they did not want to participate in the exorcism. Father Joseph was looking for other clergymen who could support him. However, none of them wanted to face the demonic forces.
In the end, the Reverend managed to get six willing clergymen. The men gathered in mid-June 1778 at Temple Church in Bristol to exorcise the demons who had possessed Goerge Lukins. The ritual started around 11 a.m., but it was only after a few hours that the man was able to find out who lived in his body - indeed, it was the devil.
George suffered weird convulsions throughout the exorcism process, frothed, cursed the clergy, and threw him on the ground, constantly changing his voice. Sometimes he would burst out laughing, and other times he would bark and snarl. After many hours of fighting the demon, he was expelled. Lukins' torment, which had lasted more than eighteen years, was finally over. Of course, this was not the only example of exorcism in the world. In later years, exorcisms were exorcised, among others Arne Cheyenne Johnson and Clara Germana Cele. There was also an exorcism of Anna Ecklund, on the basis of which a horror film was actually made.
The story of George Lukins' exorcism reached the local Somerset press through the local Bristol newspaper. By the end of June, Lukins' case had already become something of a national scandal. The more religious people of Bristol were afraid to enter the temple lest they become demon-possessed. Others, in turn, saw the man as a clever trickster who only wanted to get media attention and be recognized throughout England. In the Bristol area, the case of George Lukins' exorcism caused a great deal of controversy. By the end of the 18th century, newspapers frequently printed letters from readers sent to editors of local newspapers that pointed to a number of ambiguities in the history of exorcisms. The journals also printed responses written between readers, thereby revealing a full debate to all interested in Lukins' exorcism.
In December 1788, the case of George Lukins began to quietly disappear from the pages of Somerset's history, without drawing conclusions or revealing any meaningful facts. Lukins himself returned to his quiet life in Yatton - although some believe that he demanded… financial relief from the church. George Lukins died in 1805. His obituary proclaimed, "He was once possessed by the devil." Was the man actually possessed by some supernatural force? To this day, there is no solid evidence that this was the case. Or maybe George Lukins was simulating? But why, if he has received absolutely nothing for his pretending? We will probably never know that again.
Bibliography:
- Robert David Chase: The Visitation. True Stories, Replika Publishing House, Poznań 2019
- Fr. Aleksander Posacki SJ: Exorcisms, Possession, Demons, POLWEN Publishing House, Warsaw 2005
- Gabriele Amorth: Exorcists and Psychiatrists, Publishing House Edycja Saint Paul, Częstochowa 1999
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