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Haunting in Indiana

ebardos said:
Is there some procedural reason an exorcism would have to be done in Latin?
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Absolutely there is!!

The target of the exorcism benefits from it by believing in the mystical powers of the exorcist. The more mystical the exorcist, the greater chance of curing the psychosis. Performing the full-blown, church-sanctioned ritual in Latin - complete with flowing robes, blessed salt, and copious incense is critical if you want the target to believe that they have really been cleansed of demons.

Note that this is exactly what happened here. The first "minor" exorcisms didn't take but once they got the blessing from the Bishop and gave it the full nines treatment all problems stopped.

I absolutely believe that these poor people had been convinced by their beliefs that they were truly possessed by demons. At that point the best thing for them was probably an exorcism. Religion-induced psychosis is often best cured by more religion, sad as that may be.
 
Newbeak said:
The most interesting one was a boy supposedly walking up a hospital wall and onto the ceiling..
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Newbeak said:
Well,the story says a registered nurse was in the room at the time and witnessed it.
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barehl said:
Could the boy have walked backwards up the wall? Yes, if his mother was doing more than just holding his hand. And, I'm sure that was the case. I would imagine she was holding up most of his weight for a couple of seconds.
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Newbeak said:
Never considered that possibility.If she were strong enough,she might have held him inverted for a short time.Makes me think of people who develop extraordinary strength when a car needs lifting,for example.
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The DCS report (names of the children redacted) is here. From page 4:

[Name redacted] had the weird grin on his face and began to walk backwards while the grandmother held his hand [my note: the previous paragraph said she was holding his "hands"] and he walked up the wall backwards while holding the grandmother's hand and he never let go. He flipped over and landed on his feet . . . "
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No mention of the ceiling. It's pretty clear to me he was bracing himself against Grandma and walking backwards up the wall. I knew a guy in college who liked to do that.

He did this in front of the Family Case Manager who filed the report. You know, the person who, by this very report, was asking the court to take the kids away because she thought the mom was nuts. The kid was unable to reproduce this stunt - er, Satan had left the child - when one doctor who had missed the first performance asked for an encore.

The report also mentions that there was DCS involvement in 2009 for educational neglect (mom wasn't sending the kids to school then, either).
 
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Newbeak said:
Saw an interesting story on Drudge: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nat...al&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
Are the witnesses to the levitations hallucinating or plain lying? The most interesting one was a boy supposedly walking up a hospital wall and onto the ceiling..
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An extremely elaborate ruse no doubt, between the children, their parents, local police, hospital staff, *the pastor (Father Maginot), and possibly the journalists as well.

This topic sounds so eerily familiar (oO)
 
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mikeb768 said:
An extremely elaborate ruse no doubt, between the children, their parents, local police, hospital staff, and possibly the journalists as well.

This topic sounds so eerily familiar (oO)
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Hardly necessary for there to be a mundane explanation. Reading a bit more closely might help.
 
mikeb768 said:
Reading a bit more closely might help with what exactly?
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In realizing that a conspiracy is not required to explain the story without resorting to the supernatural. My post said as much so, again, closer reading might help.
 
Garrette said:
In realizing that a conspiracy is not required to explain the story without resorting to the supernatural. My post said as much so, again, closer reading might help.
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Which portion of the article are you focusing in on so deeply? If you don't mind sharing.
 
mikeb768 said:
Which portion of the article are you focusing in on so deeply? If you don't mind sharing.
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None of it. I was referring to posts here, more than one of which provided explanations requiring neither a conspiracy nor supernatural happenings.
 
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Newbeak said:
Do you mean exhibitions of extraordinary strength? I always assumed these events were documented,but maybe not: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hysterical_strength
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I've been a fan of urban legends for some time (cut my sceptical/logical teeth at alt.folklore.urban) and while some urban legends have some basis in fact, I have little confidence in this one.

From that time discussing ULs, I have found quite a number of things I assumed to be correct were in fact merely stories.
 
Newbeak said:
Never considered that possibility.If she were strong enough,she might have held him inverted for a short time.Makes me think of people who develop extraordinary strength when a car needs lifting,for example.
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I'm saying I doubt he walked up the wall and onto the ceiling with his feet sticking like a gecko and then performed a skillful half flip onto his feet. The boy was only eight as I recall. That wouldn't require extraordinary strength. And, I'm saying that the maneuver was completed with his mother's assistance just as all gymnastic coaches do when they begin training. Go to any junior gymnastics training and you'll see the same thing everyday.
 
barehl said:
I'm saying I doubt he walked up the wall and onto the ceiling with his feet sticking like a gecko and then performed a skillful half flip onto his feet. The boy was only eight as I recall. That wouldn't require extraordinary strength. And, I'm saying that the maneuver was completed with his mother's assistance just as all gymnastic coaches do when they begin training. Go to any junior gymnastics training and you'll see the same thing everyday.
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Also, you know, read the original eyewitness report that I linked in post 22 - it was linked in the original article (the Indy Star article, not the Daily News). Either the mom was embellishing for the paper, or the paper got it wrong.

According to the eyewitness account in the DCS report:

1) It was the grandmother, not the mother.
2) She grabbed his hands when he tried to head-butt her.
3) She kept holding on while he walked backwards.
4) He walked backwards a few steps up the wall, still holding her hand(s).
5) The report does not mention the ceiling. That appears to be an embellishment by the Star, or the mother, or someone.
6) He flipped over in front of her.
7) He refused to do it again when another doctor came in.
 
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Garrette said:
None of it. I was referring to posts here, more than one of which provided explanations requiring neither a conspiracy nor supernatural happenings.
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Just to clarify the point you are trying to make, you hastily dismiss the claims of the eye witnesses, and the alleged victims involved in the report.

But you readily accept speculative posts which detail what "really" took place from random strangers on the internet.


Sounds very legit.
 
mikeb768 said:
Just to clarify the point you are trying to make, you hastily dismiss the claims of the eye witnesses, and the alleged victims involved in the report.

But you readily accept speculative posts which detail what "really" took place from random strangers on the internet.


Sounds very legit.
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Hardly an accurate representation. You are conflating experience with explanation.
 
LSSBB said:
How is this news? Gary is practically a ghost town anyway. ;)
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That's a bit harsh. About 1/3rd of Gary was abandoned when the steel mills closed. The population is still close to 80,000 but they are considering pulling in the city limits by 40%. There are 7,000 abandoned properties in Dayton Ohio with about 21% of the houses empty along with 20% in Cleveland. There's 21,000 in Toledo, 19,000 in Pittsburgh, and 4,000 in Milwaukee. There are 78,000 abandoned buildings in Detroit and 11,000 in Flint.
 
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