The Exorcisms of Emily Rose & Anneliese Michel

In this episode we discuss the fascinating and baffling practice of exorcism. To anchor our discussion we focus on the American 2005 film The Exorcism of Emily Rose and the case of Anneliese Michel, from Germany in the 1970s—on whom Emily Rose was supposedly “based” (although, as we acknowledge in this episode, the film plays fast and loose with the truth, so much so, that we would suggest it shouldn’t even really be considered to be “based on a true story”).

The film and the case bring up many of our favourite topics of discussion—complex mental health issues, psychosis, pharmaceutical medication, shamanism, religion—although there is a certain dark quality that imposes itself open the vibe of this episode, even more-so than in our recent discussion of the folk horror film Midsommar. 

Listen at your peril (…and if you want to hear more then stay tuned for the addendum episode next week).

References

• The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005) directed by Scott Derrickson
• Igor J. Pietkiewicz, Urszula Kłosińska, Radosław Tomalski, Onno van der Hart. Beyond dissociative disorders: A qualitative study of Polish catholic women reporting demonic possession. European Journal of Trauma & Dissociation, Volume 5, Issue 4, 2021.
• Altered Mates — Episode 34 — ‘Your scientific illiteracy makes me shudder!’ on The X-Files: Jose Chung’s From Outer Space
• Altered Mates — Episodes 26 & 27 — On the Borderline Parts 1 & 2
• Altered Mates — Episode 11 — Giving LSD to kids! (…to treat severe childhood schizophrenia)
• Iris McIntosh — Film review: The Exorcism of Emily Rose: Demons and Medicine
• El Alien (Trance Mix) — note: I (Alejandro) first heard this song sampled in the introduction to The Psychedelic Salon Podcast, hosted by Lorenzo Haggarty. If you haven’t checked it out, Lorenzo’s podcast is a treasure trove of audio from Terence McKenna.
• John Duffey (2011) Lessons Learned: The Anneliese Michel Exorcism
• Austen Harvey (2025) What Happened To Anneliese Michel? Inside The Horrific Death That Inspired The Exorcism Of Emily Rose

Links

Altered Mates Website

Altered Mates Instagram

Altered Mates Substack

Altered Mates Patreon

Music for the show by Si Mulumby

A Glimpse of Eternity by Alejandro Tuama

• Purchase the novel here (hard copy, ebook and audiobook).
• Listen to the free serialised audiobook here.