FATHER John Bollan doesn’t like to be called an exorcist - even though he is the official exorcist of the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland. In fairness, he’s never actually had to perform a 'full' exorcism - the mysterious ritual, mythologised by the infamous horror movie The Exorcist, which the church believes can expel demons in possession of a human being. But it would be foolish to mistake scarcity of exorcisms in Scotland for non-existence – exorcism is very real, at least in the eyes of the Roman Catholic church, and according to the Vatican in 2018, demand is on the rise. The Vatican this week started training 50 new exorcists.

Most cultures and religions have their own ideas about what evil is, and of the supernatural beings or forces involved. Religious or atheist, worldviews are filtered through an inherent sense of good and bad, of right and wrong. But unlike atheists, the faithful believe that forces of good and evil are not completely within the control of mere mortals. There is a visible and invisible world existing alongside one another, often colliding, they believe. In what people think are the empty spaces beside them, battles could instead be raging. The forces of good are in a constant state of war with the forces of evil.

In Catholicism, the evil stems from a rejection of God and, therefore, of love itself. Demons are supernatural beings permanently banished from God’s presence after rebellion, and they exist in a perpetual state of bitterness and hatred - and they are out to get human beings. These are the forces that people like Bollan must prepare themselves to meet when they accept the role of the exorcist, and the experiences they go on to report are often chilling.

But exorcism is not a single event, it exists on a spectrum of what Father Bollan calls 'interventions'. There are different stages of possession – it tends to begin with something called oppression – where demons beset a human being rather than possess them. The church also deals with 'infestations', instances where a home or an object is, for want of a better word, haunted.

“The most dramatic incidence of a problem I dealt with in a house concerned people who are not the least bit suggestible, they were doctors, in fact,” says 49-year-old Bollan over tea and biscuits at the chapel house in his Greenock parish. “This family, over a period of time was worn down and became ill as a result of what was going on."

“Very often in this kind of ministry you arrive just after something’s happened, or you happen to leave just before it happens,” he jokes, “but in this particular case there were things happening while I was there – noises coming from within stone walls, the family pets becoming highly agitated. I remember, because it was the middle of a scorching summer, being enveloped in a pocket of icy air. There were footsteps in the house on one occasion when I was the only person there.

“Some of the other things in connection with that specific case were genuinely frightening, because everything that you are used to tells you this shouldn’t happen - it’s subverting the laws of physics, it’s subverting your understanding of how you think and how you know the universe works. That’s what gets you. It’s because it turns upside down your understanding of how nature works and how gravity works. If something can be moved by something you can’t see, how does that work? How does an invisible force move something? It’s a curiosity, and it’s an unsettling experience.”

While fictional depictions of the dark spiritual world often focus on demonic possession, Catholicism believes it is most often preceded by demonic oppression.

“Oppression is where you’re being picked upon, it’s like being bullied by something or someone you can’t see. It’s about being undermined in terms of how you see yourself, how you see your life, how you see your relationships and so on. It’s not simply in that psychological sense of having depression or having a negative mindset, I don’t want to blur those, it’s a spiritual undermining of all that’s good in your life.

“It often does manifest itself in an aversion to good things and to holy things. That’s essentially what evil does, that’s how the church understands evil: as something which warps and distorts good, it warps and distorts love, it warps and distorts compassion, it takes what is beautiful and marrs it and corrupts it.

“Possession is where the person’s freedom, the person’s identity, becomes constrained. There are obviously some parallels with personality disorders, but this is something else coming in and taking control of their lives and taking control of their relationships and in a much more dramatic way.”

According to the church, signs of possession which set it apart from mental health disorders include supernatural knowledge. Father Bollan remembers a priest who once taught him in Rome who would often shed his priestly clothes when meeting possible sufferers, or hide holy communion in his pocket, and if a dark force was indeed present the demonic being would have instant knowledge of the eucharist in his pocket, and react aggressively. That’s another sign of possession: sufferers have a strong aversion to religious imagery and locations.

While exorcisms in films and books tend to involve spinning heads and levitation followed by holy water and crucifixes, that’s not the reality, at least in the eyes of the modern Catholic Church in Scotland. Bollan says when he is approached by anyone with concerns about demonic oppression or possession, a thorough medical investigation is his first priority. Only when medical and psychological explanations have been ruled out will the church intervene, he says, and if a case does lead to an exorcism, the church requires the presence of both a doctor and a psychologist.

Bollan – who happens to have a degree in psychology, a masters in spirituality and a history PhD - believes his main strengths lie on the investigative side, the “spade work”, as he calls it. Many of the cases brought to him require only low level interventions, or none at all. While some people may be living through a troubled period and simply need some reassurance, others have different agendas entirely – if his next case came from someone trying to prompt the council into rehoming them a bit more quickly with tales of a church-confirmed haunted house, it wouldn’t be the first time.

“Sometimes people are living in abject poverty and they’re living in a standard of housing that is really not fit for habitation,” Bollan says. “Sometimes one gets the sense that it is a way to try and co-opt the church into applying pressure onto a councillor or housing association to get out of there – admittedly it’s a fairly desperate attempt, but that can be part of it, so it is important to go and spend time with people when they say they’re experiencing something.

“While people might be sceptical of the whole process, what they might not realise is that there’s a very careful analysis that goes on, and it involves medical personnel and psychologists.”

Once social problems and medical explanations have been ruled out, if Bollan believes he has a real case on his hands he sends a report to the Bishop and recommends a course of action. Over 15 years, he's dealt with just 15 credible cases, and while he’s never had to perform a full exorcism, he has witnessed apparent possessions.

“I’ve been involved in praying with and praying over people who are being disturbed, and their reaction to being prayed over was similar in some respects to what people report in full blown exorcisms,” he says.

The purpose of possession, according to Bollan, is the total destruction of a person’s life – whether it be in a spiritual or a physical sense. And contrary to popular belief, possession is not necessarily a sign of a distance from God. “The closer one is to God’s love and God’s light, the more intense the struggle is,” Father Bollan says.

He points to Padre Pio, an Italian monk who received a sainthood in 2002. Pio spoke of suffering aggressive spiritual attacks and was said to have received the stigmata – a phenomena in the Catholic Church where the wounds of Christ on the cross inexplicably manifest themselves on the bodies of the deeply religious.

Non-believers and scientists, of course, say there are logical scientific and psychological explanations for the phenomena experienced by those who believe they’re possessed. The Vatican, however, takes it rather more seriously. Last week, its annual exorcism course – attended by priests from 50 countries – began in Rome, and the church is dealing with a growing worldwide demand for exorcists.

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH SAYS

Due to the sensitive nature of this issue, utmost discretion is required by all parties.

Any individual seeking spiritual guidance or support should contact their parish priest in the first instance.

Further information about training courses on the Ministry of Exorcism and the Prayer of Liberation is available from the course provider, at the Sacerdos Institute, Rome.

REAL EXORCISMS

Anneliese Michel: German woman Annelise Michel died aged 23 in 1976 after receiving the prayers of exorcism. Two priests and Michel’s parents were later convicted of negligent homicide, and there are persistent concerns that the process of exorcism risks exacerbating physical or mental illnesses by deterring medical treatment – Michel had previously been diagnosed with epilepsy and psychosis.

Roland Doe: The spiritual sufferer in this case was recorded under the pseudonym “Roland Doe”. He was a 14-year-old boy in late 1940s America who had a number of exorcisms performed on him. Elements of his case went on to inspire cult classic The Exorcist, and it’s said that after receiving the exorcism ritual the boy went on to have a normal life.

Kyung Jae Chung: A 53-year-old woman died in 1996 after an attempted exorcism by members of a Korean Pentecostal church. Chung suffered blunt force trauma, internal injuries and 16 broken ribs after three church members – including her husband – apparently tried to beat a demon out of her body.

EXORCISM ON THE BIG SCREEN

The Exorcist: Inspired by the real-life but mysterious anonymous case of a 14-year-old boy in America, The Exorcist (1973) featured the torment of a 12-year-old girl after she becomes possessed. Written by devout Catholic William Blatty, two priests are enlisted to battle the demons who’ve taken over the youngster’s body. The Exorcist became a cult classic and spawned enormous controversy in its time.

The Exorcism of Emily Rose: Exorcism movies are often based on true life stories, and The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005) is loosely based on the case of Anneliese Michel, who died at 23 after exorcism failed to rid her of deep troubles. The movie focuses on the plight of a young woman who gradually descends into despair as numerous demons invade her body.

The Rite: While exorcism films often focus on the victims, The Rite (2011) charts the real life experiences of Father Gary Thomas when he was an exorcist-in-training. The movie features a number of spooky tales, and Anthony Hopkins plays the lead.

Stigmata: While focusing on the mystical phenomenon known as stigmata, this movie does feature an exorcism on its main character, played by Patricia Arquette. Stigmata (1999) depicts the supernatural experiences associated with a closeness to God as well as to evil, and thus strikes a slightly different tone – although still a scary one – to some other movies of the genre.