Demonic Foes

August 15, 2020
A professor of clinical psychology at New York Medical College chronicles his decades of experience with people who believe they are demonically possessed. In his foreword, Joseph English, past president of the American Psychiatric Association, writes that this book "may be unique in history: the serious treatment of a long-disputed topic by a superbly credentialed academic physician." Gallagher was drawn into the world of demons by a priest who asked him to help rule out medical causes for a woman who said she was being beaten by invisible spirits. He's been working in this field, mostly as an unpaid consultant to Catholic priests, ever since. Gallagher provides helpful context and background, including the history of belief in demons and the role of the Catholic Church in their exorcism, and he explains signs of the presence of demons: superhuman strength, speaking in foreign or archaic languages, abusive attacks, unexplained knowledge of the exorcist's personal life. The author defines a continuum between demonic possession and oppression (possession is more serious) and describes the suffering of the possessed. He speculates on how victims came to be pursued by demons (several subjects indulged in satanic worship) and analyzes cases where a belief in demonic possession masked true mental illness. Skeptics be forewarned that Gallagher truly believes in demons. A Catholic, he calls them "cosmic" terrorists who despise humans and seek to "negate our loving personalities, destroy us spiritually...even cause our physical death." The author doesn't provide an explicit cosmology or theology for the origin of demons. In the name of confidentiality, he changes names and locations of his victims and the priests he worked with and doesn't provide anchoring dates, making it difficult to further research his account. Nevertheless, this is a cogently written book on a fascinating subject. Believers will love it, unbelievers will relish an argument with its premises, and even the most skeptical will marvel at the mysteries of human behavior it investigates. An unsettling, absorbing account of the phenomenon of demonic possession by a medical expert.

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September 21, 2020
Psychiatrist Gallagher combines experiences from his practice and from witnessing exorcisms with academic interpretations of exorcism accounts in this beguiling memoir. Putting his “professional qualifications on the line,” to write the book, Gallagher, a devout Catholic, recounts how he first became interested in “psychosomatic medicine” after his brother claimed to be healed of various physical ailments by a witch in France. The author first observed possession firsthand after an American Catholic priest asked Gallagher to evaluate a patient in a psychiatric hospital who described her condition as “demonic oppression.” True demonic oppression and possession, Gallagher contends, are rare and feature several distinctive attributes—superhuman strength, aversion to sacred objects, and “speaking foreign languages or possessing hidden knowledge.” Gallagher details cases, five of which he gives a personal account, like that of Anneliese Michel, who received a Catholic exorcism in Germany in 1975, and his engagement in the early 1990s with the hair-raising Satanic priestess “Julia” who “was never delivered from her demonic presence.” A lack of verifiable empirical evidence about any of the cases covered, however, will fail to convince skeptics and critics. Regardless, Gallagher’s piquant accounts should appeal to believers.

October 1, 2020
For 25 years, psychiatrist Gallagher has been a sought-after scientific advisor for exorcists around the world and across religions. His journey from skeptic to believer began when his assistance was requested to examine a potentially possessed woman. Blown away by her ability to speak ancient languages and her knowledge of others' secrets she couldn't possibly have been privy to, Gallagher concluded there was no known medical or scientific cause for her condition. The diagnosis was spiritual. Gallager would eventually consult on hundreds of cases and serve as a member of the International Association of Exorcists. In this book, he matter-of-factly relays the details of his most famous cases, among them: an avowed Satanist who levitated in front of eight witnesses; an afflicted housewife who spewed blasphemies and was unable to hear religious words; and a diminutive woman who tossed a 200-lb man across the room in the throes of possession. Gallagher eschews horror movie sensationalism and breaks down the reality of spiritual oppressions. A thought-provoking read sure to attract intrigued skeptics and believers alike.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)