A local case of alleged demonic possession involving a 10 year old boy, is vividly illustrative of the high price we pay when credulity rules the day. With angels being discussed on the cover of Time magazine, and our television screens filled nightly with tales of the supernatural, these events are beginning to take on an almost normal pallor, and families are ever more ready to place their children in harm’s way.
Michael Jones, 10, of Manchester Connecticut and his mother Denise, now married to Michael’s step dad, have become the latest victims of the baseless belief in possession. The victimizer in this case is Keith Auriemme, founder of a local paranormal group called "ISSUES," (Investigations of Strange Sightings and Unexplained Events). Don’t try and find this group if you are in need, they are not listed anywhere, and it is only through word of mouth that cases come to Keith. He has seemed to parasitically adhere himself to this family for the past three months. Mrs. Jones was very defensive of her decision to utilize Keith, and concluded our short phone conversation by saying, "We are only interested in Keith now, he is our friend and family. Don’t call here again."
This behavior on Denise’s part is typical of those who have become the victim of pseudoscientists and their mesmerizing dogma. The alleged savior burns into the victim’s psyche that they must not listen to the ubiquitous naysayers who have, and no doubt will, materialized to discredit them. They will explain to the victim how they are the only one that can aid them, and how their "cure" is not accepted by the mainstream because it is too unconventional for their closed-minded narrow philosophies. They will claim to have volumes of "proof" about their snake oil, and legions of anecdotal testimonies. The pseudoscientist sells this conspiracy to his victim, who’s critical thinking skills are already compromised by their current crisis. In this case, a desperate mother with a troubled young boy has been sold this bill of goods, and her child must pay the price.
Keith, of course, was extremely defensive of the case and his practices. He made the determination that this poor child was possessed by the usual rote methods. He took multiple photos from different angles, he used thermometers to register the heat and/or cold of invisible entities, he made audio recordings and also brandished his ilk’s favorite toy, an electromagnetometer. These devices simply detect the electromagnetic fields that are generated ubiquitously in our electricity-driven world. If a spike appears on the meter, and its origin is not immediately obvious, these pseudoscientists instantly state that a "presence" has been detected. Yet this can be very dramatic to an unaware victim, as they hear words like "electromagnetic energy," and "fields and forces spiking." They watch as the pseudoscientist creeps about their home or loved one, and the meter fluctuates mysteriously, reacting to some unseen power in the bosom of their family’s most cherished places.
Keith also uses religious provocation, the practice of screeching the lord’s name and demanding the entity show itself. Again, a very dramatic ploy, utilizing the victim’s own belief in god to further bolster his hollow claims. One can only imagine what little Michael must have thought as this stranger was screaming in his home for Christ to compel some monster that he and his mother were convinced was present. Very traumatic to a boy already in aggravated distress.
Keith learned this showmanship from the two most famous practitioners of this ugly game. In fact he has a degree in Demonology, granted by our old friends, Ed and Lorraine Warren (see The Connecticut Skeptic, vol. 2 issue 3). Keith is an alumnus of the Warren’s "school" that they conduct in a local restaurant. The school is neither accredited nor recognized by any state authority. The fact that they give degrees is farcical. Yet, Keith waves his around like a proud parent. His methods of certifying that a place or person is possessed are pure pseudoscience. They do not stand up to any degree of scrutiny, and just like any good con man or deluded soul, he has been plying his trade and keeping legitimate investigators from the family, and little Michael. Nonetheless, his hollow findings are what he presents to the exorcist that he employs, "Bishop" Robert McKenna.
I first learned of the good bishop’s penchant for doing exorcisms during the Warren investigation, and it did give me pause that a prince of the Catholic Church would involve himself with the likes of these unsophisticated ghost hunters. Looking a little deeper, however, it was discovered that the bishop was in fact excommunicated from the church, and believes the Pope is not Catholic.
McKenna, now 70, has performed one hundred and twenty five exorcisms (100 places, and 25 people). This struck me as a great deal for one cleric, so I asked him what screening methods he used to weed out fakes, and he replied, "None." He simply takes the word of those who present the cases to him, and all 125 of his cases have issued from Ed and Lorraine, and now, Keith, and that’s it. They are the only ones that present to him and he accepts their "investigations" on their face, and subsequently performs exorcisms for them. He has never turned down a case brought to him. This contrasts sharply with the legitimate Catholic Church, which discredits the vast majority of cases brought to them with only cursory investigation.
Even McKenna had to disagree with Keith this time, however. When the case of Michael Jones was presented to him by Keith, McKenna decided that it was a classic case of possession. However, after performing the rite on the boy for an hour, McKenna decided that Keith’s diagnosis was in error. Michael did not react throughout the exorcism, and in fact did not manifest any signs of possession. From this lack of evidence McKenna concluded that this must be a case of obsession rather than possession, which is being haunted from without, rather than from within. McKenna apparently did not consider the simpler alternative that perhaps no paranormal phenomenon was present. McKenna was then done with the case, as he leaves any further ministrations and follow-ups to Ed or Keith, his involvement in these cases being limited only to listening to the presentation and performing the rite.
Having completed 125 exorcisms, it might be disappointing to true-believers to learn that McKenna’s most compelling "evidence" that he has witnessed were cases in which the possessed had to actually be tied down, growling like lions or howling like banshees, while the entities spoke through them. It is very demonstrative that such occurrences, which could be duplicated by almost anyone at anytime, are accepted as evidence, if not proof, by the credulous of supernatural inhabitation.
In fact, many people who are thought to be possessed are simply the victims of various forms of mental disorder, including schizophrenia, epilepsy, and even Tourette’s syndrome, or are sucked into a perverse form of role-playing by their superstitious kin or credulous charlatans like Keith Auriemme. There has never been a documented case, in all these thousands of alleged cases, where anyone said to be possessed by an entity has ever done anything that could not have been performed by a person with normal faculties and abilities. We were denied the opportunity to evaluate and possibly help Michael ourselves. Dr. Novella offered to give the boy a free neurological screening, (he has already had psychiatric evaluation) but all such requests were met with the same dark veil of secrecy, and denied.
This case was also illustrative of another interesting aspect of alleged demonic possession, namely its treatment by the media. The NESS was asked to be on the Gayle King show, but this fell though when Denise Jones refused to be on the stage with "any skeptics." It turns out that a previous agreement with Prime Time Live, for which they had already filmed a segment, seemed to preclude Keith, Denise or Michael from appearing on the show in any case. We therefore contacted Prime Time Live, and were put in touch with a young assistant producer named Dean, who clearly had no idea what this phenomenon or skepticism were about. After explaining that we wished the views of the New England Skeptical Society to be articulated on the Jones case, he asked "So, do you guys believe in this stuff?" After this stunning question, a crash course in the phenomenon, and details of our personal knowledge of the people involved were given. In the end he said that we had given him a lot to think about and that he would pass all this on to a senior producer. After faxing him several relevant articles from our newsletters, we waited for the contact. None came, and when we called Dean again he informed us that he had passed the material along, but that they felt it was best to simply "present the case to the public and let it decide." We had been dismissed with the standard answer from people in all media. They want to be able to present their pseudoscientific hogwash without having to water it down with insight and facts. They could care less about what the quality and depth of information which the public is fed via their massive vehicles, caring more about ratings, and reason be dammed. Despite this all to commonplace reaction, we will continue to contact the media and attempt to make our voice heard in this wilderness of neglect whenever and however possible.
One of the primary ways we will be endeavoring to do this is through the New England Committee for Paranormal Investigations, the official investigative arm of the NESS. We will place ourselves in the media’s eye, and be available for any investigations that fall under our purview. As always, we would like the assistance of anyone who can give their time and talents to the committee, so that we can truly become the best source of scientific investigation of controversial claims in New England. It is our hope that the future Denise Jones’ of the world will turn to us for help in their times of crisis, rather then the likes of Keith Auriemme.