Fifty one percent of Americans believe in Demonic Possession. Are you one of them?

I'm not, but that didn't stop me from having thoughts about it.

Around the time my daughter was mysteriously and terrifyingly sick, I remembered reading this bizarre story about a family in my home state of Indiana in the Indy Star. The mother claimed that after moving houses, her children were possessed by the devil. What stood out to me about this story was:

1. It was being reported by Marisa Kwiatkowski, who was one of the Star reporters who would go on to break the USA Gymnastics abuse story and win a Pulitzer.

2. In her story, Kwiatkowski reported that several representatives of state agencies agreed with the mother’s assessment that the kids were possessed.

Slate

That was enough for me to file the story away in the recesses of my brain until this year when I saw there was a movie coming out—The Deliverance, inspired by this true story. I watched it, so you don’t have to. Spoiler alert: it was…not good. But the symptoms of the kids in the movie reminded me a lot of my daughter’s symptoms when she was ill, so I decided to write about religion and illness and the possible role it plays in whether people show up for you in your time of need or not. You can read the whole thing in Slate. Major thanks to Emi Nietfeld for her help with this one.

Speaking of people showing up for you, I loved this piece in The Washington Post this week by Abby Alten Schwartz: “For caregivers, a friend who ‘gets it’ can be a lifeline.” It resonated deeply, especially this part: “I seesawed between steely independence and a longing to lean on others — to stop pretending I was coping when I was ready to break.” It really is so hard to ask for help. I wish, as a country, we were more comfortable doing so.

Also, while I was working on the story for Slate, I learned that 51 percent of Americans believe in demonic possession—51 percent! So then, of course, I needed to do a deep dive on this topic and came across this wild story, “The Demon Slayers: the new age of American exorcism.” Somehow I missed it when it ran in Harper’s in June, but it really is not to be missed.

Thanks for reading! xoxo

Alicia

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