The Possession of Anna Ecklund

The exorcism of Anna Ecklund remains one of the most thoroughly documented cases of demonic possession in American history, a harrowing ordeal that stretched over twenty-three days in the late summer of 1928 and left witnesses shaken to their core. Conducted in a small convent in Earling, Iowa, far from the media spotlight of the larger cities, the ritual produced phenomena so extreme that even hardened clergy members questioned their understanding of the boundary between the natural and the supernatural. The case would later be recorded in a pamphlet that circulated widely through Catholic communities and beyond, shaping popular understanding of demonic possession for generations and laying groundwork for the cultural imagery that would eventually find its most famous expression in William Peter Blatty’s novel “The Exorcist.”

The Woman Called Anna Ecklund

The woman known to history as Anna Ecklund was born Emma Schmidt in 1882 in the rural communities of Wisconsin, where German Catholic immigrants had established tight-knit parishes that preserved the faith traditions of the old country with particular fervor. By all accounts, Emma’s early childhood was unremarkable. She was baptized, received her first communion, and attended Mass with the regularity expected of a devout Catholic family. The trouble, according to those who later documented her case, began when she was approximately fourteen years old.

The nature of the initial disturbance was rooted, witnesses claimed, in the darkest corners of her own family. Emma’s father, Jacob, and her aunt, Mina, were alleged to have been practitioners of occult arts, dabbling in folk magic and darker rituals that had survived among certain rural communities despite centuries of Christian teaching. Whether their practices constituted genuine sorcery or merely reflected the persistence of pre-Christian folk traditions in the German immigrant community is impossible to determine at this distance. What is recorded is that Emma began exhibiting disturbing behavioral changes around 1896 that her family and parish priest attributed to demonic influence.

The young woman developed an intense aversion to sacred objects. She could not enter a church without experiencing violent physical reactions. Holy water caused her to recoil as though burned. The sight of a crucifix sent her into convulsions. She began speaking in voices that were not her own, uttering blasphemies and obscenities that seemed impossible coming from a sheltered Catholic girl. She displayed knowledge of events and people that she had no natural way of knowing, and her physical strength at times far exceeded what her slight frame should have been capable of producing.

Her parish priest, recognizing the signs that Catholic tradition associated with demonic possession, arranged for an exorcism in 1912. The ritual was performed by Father Theophilus Riesinger, a Capuchin friar who had developed a reputation within Catholic circles as a man with particular gifts in confronting demonic forces. Father Riesinger was a scholarly priest who had studied the rites of exorcism extensively and approached the practice with both faith and methodical discipline. The 1912 exorcism appeared to succeed, and Emma experienced a period of relative peace that lasted for more than a decade.

The Return of Darkness

By the mid-1920s, the symptoms had returned with renewed and terrifying intensity. Emma, now in her forties, found herself once again unable to participate in the sacramental life that had sustained her during the years of remission. The aversion to holy objects was stronger than before. The voices returned, more numerous and more malevolent. She experienced periods of violent agitation alternating with catatonic withdrawal. Her behavior became so extreme that normal life was impossible.

Father Riesinger was again contacted, and he agreed to undertake a second, more thorough exorcism. However, the logistics presented challenges. An exorcism of this magnitude required privacy, security, and a location where the inevitable disturbances would not attract unwanted attention or endanger bystanders. Riesinger’s own parish was unsuitable, and Emma’s home community in Wisconsin was too small to provide the necessary isolation.

The solution came through Father Joseph Steiger, the pastor of St. Joseph’s Parish in Earling, Iowa, a small farming community of a few hundred souls. Father Steiger offered the use of a local Franciscan convent, where the nuns could provide care for Emma while Father Riesinger performed the rites. The convent was sufficiently isolated to prevent public spectacle, and the nuns, though understandably apprehensive, were willing to participate in what they understood to be a sacred duty.

Emma Schmidt was brought to Earling under the pseudonym Anna Ecklund, a name chosen to protect her identity and that of her family. It was under this name that she would become known to history, and it is the name that has endured in all subsequent accounts of the case.

The Exorcism Begins

The exorcism commenced on August 17, 1928, in a small room at the convent that had been prepared according to the requirements of the Roman Ritual. A crucifix was placed prominently, holy water was at hand, and the windows were secured. Father Riesinger, assisted by Father Steiger and several nuns who served as attendants and witnesses, began the ancient prayers of the rite.

The response was immediate and violent. According to multiple witnesses, the moment Father Riesinger began the opening prayers, Anna was seized by a force that hurled her from the bed. She was flung against the wall with such violence that those present feared for her life. When attendants attempted to restrain her and return her to the bed, she exhibited strength that required multiple people to contain. Her body went rigid, then contorted into positions that seemed anatomically impossible, her spine arching backward until her head nearly touched her heels.

Most dramatically, witnesses reported that Anna rose into the air. She did not simply jump or leap but was lifted, as if by invisible hands, until her body pressed against the ceiling of the room. She remained suspended there, her back arched, her eyes rolled back, while Father Riesinger continued the prayers below. The nuns who witnessed this phenomenon were, by several accounts, so terrified that some fled the room and had to be persuaded to return.

The levitation was not a one-time occurrence. Throughout the twenty-three days of the exorcism, Anna reportedly rose from her bed on multiple occasions, sometimes hovering inches above the mattress, sometimes being propelled violently upward. On at least one occasion, she was found clinging to the wall above the door frame, positioned in a way that seemed to defy the physical capabilities of the human body.

The Voices

Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of the exorcism was the parade of voices that issued from Anna’s mouth. Father Riesinger, following the protocol of the Roman Ritual, demanded that each demon identify itself, and over the course of the proceedings, a succession of entities reportedly made themselves known.

The most prominent among them identified itself as Beelzebub, one of the princes of Hell in Christian demonology. This voice was deep, commanding, and filled with a contempt for the sacred that unnerved even the experienced Father Riesinger. Beelzebub, through Anna, mocked the priest’s efforts, threatened the nuns, and blasphemed in terms so extreme that witnesses found them difficult to repeat.

Another entity claimed to be Judas Iscariot, the betrayer of Christ, condemned to damnation for his treachery. This voice was characterized by a wheedling, desperate quality, alternating between rage and self-pity. Other voices identified themselves as various demons or damned souls, each with its own personality and manner of speech.

Most disturbing to those present were the voices that claimed to be Anna’s own father, Jacob, and her aunt, Mina. These entities alleged that they had deliberately cursed Anna as a child, offering her to demonic forces as part of their occult practices. Whether these voices represented genuine spiritual entities, fragments of Anna’s traumatized psyche, or something else entirely remains one of the central mysteries of the case.

Anna also reportedly spoke in languages she had never learned. Witnesses described her conversing fluently in Latin, which she had no education in, and in other languages that the priests could not immediately identify. She demonstrated knowledge of events happening at a distance, correctly describing the activities of people who were not present and could not have been observed through any natural means.

Physical Phenomena

The physical manifestations that accompanied the exorcism went beyond the levitation and superhuman strength. Anna’s face, according to witnesses, underwent transformations that seemed to go beyond the range of normal human expression. Her features would distort, her head swelling to what observers described as an unnatural size, her eyes bulging from their sockets, her lips pulling back from her teeth in expressions that witnesses found genuinely inhuman. At times, her face appeared to take on the characteristics of different entities, shifting between expressions of rage, cunning, despair, and malice with a rapidity that seemed impossible for a single human countenance.

The vomiting was perhaps the most physically dramatic phenomenon. Anna reportedly expelled enormous quantities of material, far exceeding anything she could have consumed. The substance varied in nature and was described as foul-smelling beyond anything the witnesses had encountered. Quantities were measured in what observers estimated as buckets full, emerging over the course of the exorcism in volumes that seemed physically impossible given the size of Anna’s stomach. Father Steiger later described the smell as unlike anything natural, a stench that permeated the room and lingered long after the material was removed.

Anna’s body also emitted sounds that seemed to come from no physical source. Witnesses described animal noises, growling, hissing, and howling emerging from her without any corresponding movement of her lips or throat. At times, multiple voices seemed to speak simultaneously, each with its own distinct character, as though several entities were competing for control of the same body.

The disturbances were not limited to Anna herself. Objects in the room moved of their own accord. Furniture shifted position. The temperature of the room fluctuated wildly, plunging to bitter cold in August heat or rising to uncomfortable warmth without any change in the heating system. Strange odors filled the space, sometimes the overwhelming stench associated with Anna’s episodes, sometimes other smells that witnesses could not identify but found deeply unsettling.

The Toll on the Living

The exorcism exacted a severe toll on everyone involved. Father Riesinger, despite his experience and spiritual preparation, was visibly affected by the ordeal. The continuous battle with the entities drained him physically and spiritually. He ate little, slept less, and devoted nearly every waking hour to the prayers and rituals of the rite. By the end of the three weeks, he had lost significant weight and appeared years older than when the process began.

Father Steiger suffered perhaps more acutely. As the local pastor who had volunteered his parish for the exorcism, he bore a unique burden of responsibility. During the proceedings, he experienced what he believed to be direct demonic attacks. On one occasion, his car was forced off the road under circumstances he attributed to supernatural interference. On another, he was struck by a mysterious illness that vanished as suddenly as it appeared. He reported hearing voices threatening him when he was alone, and objects in his rectory moved without explanation.

The nuns who attended Anna endured constant exposure to the phenomena and were required to maintain their composure and their faith under conditions that would test anyone’s resolve. Several experienced nightmares and physical symptoms that persisted long after the exorcism concluded. The Mother Superior later described the experience as the most difficult trial of her religious life, one that tested her faith to its foundations but ultimately strengthened it.

The convent itself seemed affected. Other residents who were not directly involved in the exorcism reported unusual occurrences during the three weeks, including unexplained sounds, moving objects, and an oppressive atmosphere that pervaded the building. Animals in the vicinity behaved strangely, and neighbors noted an unusual silence in the natural world, as though the birds and insects had fled the area.

The Final Confrontation

As September progressed, the exorcism entered its most intense phase. Father Riesinger, following the guidance of the ritual, pressed the entities to declare their departure. The demons resisted fiercely, and the final days were marked by the most violent phenomena of the entire ordeal. Anna’s body was wracked by convulsions of extraordinary violence. The voices reached a crescendo of blasphemy and rage. The room itself seemed to vibrate with an energy that witnesses found almost unbearable.

On September 23, 1928, after twenty-three days of nearly continuous ritual, the breakthrough came. According to witnesses, the demons departed in a sequence, each one driven out by the accumulated force of prayer and sacramental power. The departure was not quiet. Each entity left with a final outburst of fury, accompanied by physical disturbances that shook the room. The final moment was marked by a prolonged, inhuman scream that issued from Anna’s throat and seemed to come from somewhere far deeper than her physical being.

Then silence. Anna lay still on the bed, her body relaxed for the first time in weeks. When she opened her eyes, they were clear and calm. Her first words were “Praised be Jesus Christ,” the traditional Catholic greeting that she had been unable to utter for years. Those present wept openly, overcome by a mixture of relief, exhaustion, and the overwhelming sense that they had witnessed something beyond the ordinary scope of human experience.

Aftermath and Documentation

Following the exorcism, Anna Ecklund returned to a quiet life in Wisconsin. She lived without further reported incidents of possession until her death in 1941, at the age of fifty-nine. She avoided publicity and requested that her true identity remain protected, a wish that was largely respected during her lifetime and for some years afterward.

The case was documented in a pamphlet titled “Begone Satan! A Soul-Stirring Account of Diabolical Possession in Iowa,” written by Father Carl Vogl, a German priest who gathered testimony from Father Riesinger and other witnesses. The pamphlet was originally published in German and later translated into English, where it found a wide and eager readership. It went through multiple printings and became one of the most widely circulated accounts of exorcism in the twentieth century.

The pamphlet’s detailed descriptions of the phenomena, drawn from the testimony of multiple witnesses, provided a template for how demonic possession was understood and depicted in popular culture. The levitation, the superhuman strength, the grotesque physical transformations, the parade of demonic voices, the violent aversion to sacred objects, all of these elements would become standard features of possession narratives in literature and film.

Father Riesinger continued his ministry and performed additional exorcisms over the course of his career, though none achieved the notoriety of the Earling case. He died in 1941, the same year as Anna Ecklund, a coincidence that some have found meaningful and others dismiss as mere chance.

Interpretations and Controversies

The Earling exorcism has been subject to widely varying interpretations since it first became public knowledge. For believing Catholics, the case represents a genuine confrontation with demonic forces, a demonstration of the power of the Church’s sacramental ministry to combat evil in its most direct manifestation. The detailed testimony of multiple credible witnesses, including ordained priests and consecrated religious, lends weight to this interpretation for those predisposed to accept the reality of demonic possession.

Skeptics and psychiatric professionals have offered alternative explanations. Anna’s symptoms are consistent in many respects with severe dissociative disorders, conditions in which the personality fragments and distinct identities emerge, each with its own voice, mannerisms, and even knowledge base. The cultural expectations of a deeply religious community may have shaped the expression of these symptoms, causing a psychiatric condition to manifest in terms drawn from Catholic demonology.

The role of suggestion and expectation cannot be discounted. In a setting where everyone present believed in the reality of demonic possession and expected to witness specific phenomena, the human capacity for perception may have been significantly influenced. Witnesses may have interpreted ambiguous events through the lens of their expectations, and the retelling and documentation process may have further shaped the narrative to conform to established patterns of possession accounts.

The physical phenomena, particularly the levitation and the impossible quantities of vomited material, are the most difficult to explain through conventional means. If the witness testimony is accurate, these events fall outside the known capabilities of the human body and resist easy categorization as psychological phenomena. However, testimony gathered after the fact, filtered through the biases and expectations of the witnesses, and recorded by sympathetic documentarians, must be evaluated with appropriate caution.

Cultural Legacy

The influence of the Earling exorcism on popular culture extends far beyond the original pamphlet. The case contributed significantly to the body of possession lore that William Peter Blatty drew upon when writing “The Exorcist” in 1971. While Blatty’s primary inspiration was the 1949 exorcism of a boy in Maryland, the Earling case provided many of the specific details and imagery that made his novel and the subsequent 1973 film so terrifyingly effective.

The levitation scenes, the transformation of the possessed person’s face, the supernatural knowledge displayed by the demons, the physical toll on the exorcist, and the dramatic climax of the ritual all find their antecedents in the Earling account. Through this chain of influence, Anna Ecklund’s ordeal in a small Iowa convent shaped the cultural imagination of millions who have never heard her name.

The case also played a role in maintaining awareness of the Church’s exorcism ministry during a period when such practices were increasingly viewed as anachronistic. In an age of growing scientific rationalism, the Earling exorcism reminded believers that the Church possessed tools for dealing with forces that science could not explain, and it ensured that the rite of exorcism remained a living practice rather than a historical curiosity.

The Convent Today

The convent in Earling where the exorcism took place has since been demolished, and the small town itself has continued its quiet existence as a farming community in rural Iowa. Little physical evidence of the events of 1928 remains, and the community has shown limited interest in commemorating or capitalizing on the notoriety of the case.

This absence of physical memorialization stands in contrast to the enduring power of the story itself. The account of Anna Ecklund’s possession and exorcism continues to circulate, finding new audiences with each generation. It appears in books on the paranormal, in documentaries about exorcism, in academic studies of possession phenomena, and in the countless fictional works that draw, knowingly or not, on the imagery first documented in that Iowa convent nearly a century ago.

Whether Anna Ecklund was genuinely possessed by demons, suffering from a severe psychiatric disorder that expressed itself in the language of her deeply Catholic culture, or something else entirely that defies easy categorization, her case remains a landmark in the history of the paranormal. The testimony of those who witnessed her ordeal speaks to something that exceeded their ability to explain, something that challenged their understanding of what is possible in the interaction between the human and the unseen. In the small room where she writhed and screamed and was finally delivered, something happened that those present could only describe as a battle between good and evil fought on the most intimate of battlefields, the body and soul of one tormented woman.

Sources

• Wikipedia search: “The Possession of Anna Ecklund”
• JSTOR — Religious studies — Peer-reviewed research on possession and exorcism
• Chronicling America — Historic US newspapers (1690–1963)