Was It All A Prank?

Go with whatever granville1 types – he’s always on the money.

I recall reading once that Blatty came close to meeting the boy, but the Jesuits would not allow it. He spoke with the Jesuit who was involved with the exorcism and was able to get his hands on the journal that was kept… or something to that affect. A little hazy on the details but I’m pretty sure Blatty was speaking directly with people involved.

New info to me, Cap, about him almost meeting the young man. Yes, and we’re all granville’s groupies. Me included.

“I’ve been reading about the story that the Exorcist is based on.”

There were other cases of paranormal events that Blatty researched. He mentioned a few in the book, Exorcist From Novel to Film:

Aldous Huxley’s Devils of Loudun (1952) People say that Blatty got a lot of his material for The Exorcist from Huxley’s book, including the blaspheming, lewdness and sexual proffering;

The Three Faces of Eve, a true case authored by psychiatrists Corbett H.Thigpen and Hervey M. Cleckley. (1957) Apparently the woman suffered from multiple personality disorder. Her illness then disappeared in response to treatment based upon a certain diagnosis of the problem, that depended on the interaction within equations of concepts like “mind”, “personality” and “hysteria”;
(The psychiatrist of The Exorcist novel talks about the same 🙂 )

Another case involved a 15-year-old girl. She manifested three distinct personalities, one of them a chatty and eloquent old man who spoke high German, a dialect completely unknown to the girl. She demonstrated telepathic abilities and accelerated intelligence, all of which phenomena were witnessed by the psychiatrist Carl Jung, who found in them no possibility of fraud. (really similar to Regan of the novel)

RE: the medal as a “resonance,” that’s correct. Any recurring theme of medallions (The Exorcist, The Ninth Configuration) are all symbolic of Blatty’s relationship with his mother, and the strange occurrence that happened while he was writing The Exorcist novel. It’s a constant reminder and indication that love transcends and all of that sort of thing.

“Did Blatty know who the boy was?”
Oh yes he knew. He mentioned it in the book, From Novel To Film:
“It is also a fact that I have read the diary; that I have long known the name of the boy and where he lives…”

Blatty wrote about another case that I really think inspired The Exorcist: A true account of a 23 day exorcism in Earling, Iowa in 1928. The book was published in 1935 with the name ‘Begone Satan’ written by Rev Carl Vogl. The victim, a forty year old woman ‘spoke in and understood languages she had no prior knowledge of. She displayed supernatural strength, used horrible, foul language, etc.
Theresa Wegerer, one of the witnesses: “I can truthfully say, that the facts mentioned in Begone Satan are correct. Some of the scenes were even more frightful than described in the booklet… I will never forget the horrible scenes, vile, filthy, and dirty, as long as I live.
Blatty: “It was stated that the victim, would repeatedly and forcefully fly up from her bed as if hurled like a dart, head first, at a point above the bedroom door, where she would hang suspended by her forehead.”

Oh, granny, I thought you knew about these cases. :o)

Friends,

Personally, as a Christian (but not a Catholic) I very much believe in possession and the ritual of exorcism. In regards to whether the story Blatty was influenced by was the real thing, as has been mentioned above, there is some compelling evidence for and against it being ‘real’ or not. More so, I would say, ‘for’ but it’s all a matter of perspective. What we can be sure of, is that Blatty thought enough of it to be real.

Cheers & God Bless
Benjamin Szumskyj
(editor of the forthcoming ‘American Exorcist: Critical Essays on William Peter Blatty’)