Television’s First Exorcism

By on January 6, 2013 in News 5

The blown-out transfer quality only adds to the eeriness of this groundbreaking moment in television. A reverend performs an exorcism in aid of a Chicago couple plagued by voices and moving objects:

First Televised Exorcism! Recorded in Chicago, IL on NBC in 1971 with Carole Simpson interviewing the Becker family about their haunted home. Exorcism was completed by Joseph DeLouise and Rev. William Derl-Davis.

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  • lazy_friend

    If priests and others who claim to have the power to exorcise people really wanted to take out some demons, they should head to any major mall or the DMV and if they really ambitious, Washington dc and wall street. Leave the real cases of the supernatural alone so we can study it and turn it into a start up money making venture.

  • “Big” Richard Johnson

    I tried exorcising a haunted house once. My technique was more “get drunk and yell at the supposed ghost” than this though. It didn’t work.

  • BuzzCoastin

    Back in the day, I was a member of a Jesus People commune and we had a few exorcisms. Now I can’t say that any of these actually cast out any demons, but it was valuable lesson in group psychology.

    Years later I realized that all that crazy behavior was a group (herd) behavior, stimulated by crazy ideas from people we respected as spiritual leaders. The problem for the herd is, they never reflect upon their experiences for insights that might actually exorcise their demons.

    • kowalityjesus

      Following all this talk of ghosts and spirits that visit in the night I had an appropriate episode yesterday. During my dreams where the lights of my apartment were being turned on and off I was asked “do you mind” I responded “no I don’t mind” then I morphed to partly awake, my eyes open, and something to my left that made a sound indistinguishable from a bull-roarer. I was just barely able to stutter “Jesus” in my semi-paralyzed state and the sound left. I’ve heard of this mind-state 2nd hand, but it’s quite another thing to have it happen to you.

      • BuzzCoastin

        Hamlet:
        Swear by my sword
        Never to speak of this that you have heard.

        Ghost:
        [Beneath] Swear by his sword.

        Hamlet:
        Well said, old mole, canst work i’ th’ earth so fast?
        A worthy pioner! Once more remove, good friends.

        Horatio:
        O day and night, but this is wondrous strange!

        Hamlet:
        And therefore as a stranger give it welcome.
        There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
        Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.