Possession

In 1985 forensic psychiatrist Ralph Alison described demonic possession syndrome as a dissociative disorder in which patients unconsciously believe that they are possessed by evil spirits who act out their forbidden wishes.

Lillian was born into a family with roots in rural West Virginia where possession by demons was a commonly held belief. Undoing that strong belief that she was possessed was central to Lillian’s healing. In fact it was the resolution of this belief in demonic possession that ultimately led to the integration of Lillian's personalities.

Ellen was one of the personalities who made herself known early on to Lillian’s confidant, Aunt Jean and her doctor, Milton Robinson. Ellen spoke with a down-home country twang and described herself as 25-years-old, with blonde hair and blue eyes. She came to the rescue when Lillian’s stepfather began emotionally and physically abusing Lillian at age eight or nine. Ellen took responsibility for burning Lillian with acid, drain cleaner, and cigarettes, saying she was trying to clean the bad spirits from her body. In her journal, Ellen wrote:

“He [the demon] comes out at night and gotta hide
But sometimes he gets you anyway
I heard he gets in peoples eyes or even your pores if you let him near
He comes out at night an you gotta crunch yourself up real little in a tight ball
But sometimes he gets you anyway.

Tormented by Evil Spirits

The belief that she was possessed by evil spirits tormented Lillian. In fact Lillian was not healed until one of her final therapy sessions, when her psychiatrist discovered the trauma that led to this belief in possession.

For most of her life, Lillian believed that she would never be rid of the evil inside her. The belief began at age 6 1/2 when Lillian’s stepfather and a satanic priest who called himself Reverend Kane conducted an exorcism to expel her alleged demons. The trauma of that exorcism resulted in the creation of the personality, Sarah Ann.

Sarah Ann’s exorcism reinforced Lillian’s belief that she was evil. She described the event:

A man comes to the house and dad and I are the only ones home...  His name is Reverend Kane… Dad offers him a drink, and he says, 'let’s get on with this.  It’s extremely crucial to attack before they are aware.'  Dad… says he has found the man who will make me the good girl I want to be…  It is dark outside and cold, and dad says he will put on the air draft.  But the man says, ‘no, the coldness is good.  Evil breeds fire.'

As a  45-year-old woman, Lillian was still trying to expel the evil she believed was inside her. She wrote: "I feel good. I took at least a whole 8-ounce cup of blood -- maybe more… but now I don't feel as dirty.  The (therapy) sessions are horrible. I hear all that is said. Talking about demons… satanic rights…”

Family, Faith and Demons

Lillian was raised in a family and community that strongly believed in possession. Lillian’s family members believed Lillian was possessed by demons and took a trip to visit family in West Virginia who claimed to have experience in getting rid of evil spirits. Family members took her to a tent revival meeting, dragged her outside and submerged her head in a bucket of cold water repeatedly, to get the demons out.

Lillian's belief in demonic possession was reinforced by others. As a 40-year-old, Lillian was befriended by Liz, a neighbor who believed in exorcism. Jean recalled, “Liz gave Lillian a box of books to read, and after Lillian finished them, she brought them to me to read. Every single book was about evil spirits, possession, Satanism and the ways to deal with being bad. Lillian was shocked when I reacted negatively about all those books and the effect they were having on her mind. She said, ‘I thought everything written in a book or printed in a newspaper was true.’”

Suicide Attempts

During one particularly dangerous period of her life, Lillian began daily suicide attempts. These suicide attempts were violent and unrelenting, carried out with a vengeance, and often with multiple attempts during a single day. The attempts were not typical of an individual who is seeking death as a means of bringing their suffering to an end but more of an attempt to use death to achieve a state of permanent peace. Attempts were carried out in a way that suggested to her psychiatrist that someone, other than Lillian, was trying to murder her. Which personality was trying to kill her? 

After visiting Lillian in the hospital following one particularly brutal suicide attempt when Lillian came close to dying, Jean wrote:

“… At the nurses’ station, an unintelligible voice came over the always open intercom from Lillian’s room.  The two nurses looked at each other and took off running. Just then, Lillian fell into the hall from the doorway, unconscious. The nurses dropped to the floor and found a thready pulse at the carotid artery. But one nurse’s fingers found something else at the neck… swelling.  She realized something was tied there. ‘Help me! I can't get the scissors under it! It's a string of some kind!’”

Jean describes how a nurse had to spread and cut the skin on Lillian’s neck in order to cut the dental floss Lillian had tightly wrapped around her neck, in an attempt to strangle herself.  Once released from the dental floss, the nurses encouraged Lillian to breathe and eventually Lillian’s body betrayed her mind and she began to breathe again.

Clearly someone inside Lillian wanted her to die. Who that personality was and why they were so determined was still unknown.

When Jean returned to visit two months later she found Lillian to still be struggling and learned that she had continued to try to kill herself in ways that her psychiatrist had never seen before.

“Nearly two months had passed before I revisited Lillian again,” wrote Jean. “She was in horrible shape. When I came back to see her she was seated at the nurses’ station. When I asked the reason for the punishment Lillian said, "I guess I deserve it.  I lost time…  Then when I became me, I asked for a pencil and paper so I could write and asked one of the personalities if she knew why another patient had been tied to a chair. They (the nurses) gave me a crayon and some tiny slips of paper, not big enough for anything. I threw the paper at them. They said I was violent, and for two days I had to sit within an arm’s length of a nurse. They called it one-on-one. On the second day I was crying and they gave me a tissue. When the nurse watching me looked away, I stuffed the tissue down my throat, shoving it down as far as my finger could go. I must have passed out. The next thing I knew my hands and feet were being tied to a chair.”

Suicidal precautions were ordered. Safety checks were conducted every 15 minutes round-the-clock. Lillian’s suicide attempts were repeated almost daily, subsiding only after her psychiatrist increased her therapy sessions to twice a day.

Clues to Lillian’s Obsession with Suicide

An explanation for Lillian’s obsession with suicide came when Lillian’s spiritual counselor, Pastor Chris, sent Lillian’s new psychiatrist, Dr. Richard Kluft, a typewritten anonymous note which he had recently received in the mail. (Note: the typos in this letter are as they were written.)

It has come to my attention that an evil presence has wormed their way into becoming a member of your parish which you are a Pastor. It is my civic duty to warn you of this woman's tactics to gain attention. The Bible tells us to beware of evil doers and this woman leads the pack. She is possessed and beyond shame feigning fainting, often with a pretense of amnesia to cover her sins. Beware her feeble attempts to gain attention. Even hospitalization has not changed this creature, which is where I came in contact with her “child” pretense, the witch is the heght of her evil. Before your church excepts this ask her about her mental facilities, find out how many times the police have taken her forcibly to a mental institution because of her danger to the world.  Of corse  she will deny it, but you will have been warned and know the truth before it has been allowed to permate your childrens innosense.  She enters her evil possessions in your parish because no one will allow her in her own town.  I sent her a copy of this so she knows there is no place left to hide or desguise her evil!  God knows I do His work for Him.  She is a demon.  I have seen her in her demonic state.

Lillian frantically read the note over and over again. Believing the note must have been written by Reverend Kane, the exorcist who had “treated” her around age seven, Lillian spent days and nights searching for his whereabouts. Lillian was able to track down newspaper articles documenting exorcisms performed by Reverend Kane in three states, but was never able to locate him.

More pieces of the puzzle moved into place following the receipt of a handwritten note sent to Aunt Jean. This note was written by one of Lillian’s personalities, Jackie, who identified as being 19-years-old and wanted to become pregnant and have a baby, much to Lillian’s dismay.

Dear Jean, I have been sitting here reading about Doris Fisher. Do you know about her? I think maybe I wasn't all wrong about Lil being possessed after reading of this. There were Real Doris and Sleeping Doris and Margaret. It even says, “… the unique case of multiple personality disorder – or possession. I wish I could remember what this said about it – my doctor always said we or Lil is not possessed but may be, it just depends on who we talked to.

Liz (Lillian’s neighbor) said she felt like she was going to die. Also that book talking about Doris Fisher tells of Sally Beauchamp who said she was a spirit of fear. But what if we are? I knew we were once and let you all talk me out of it but now I think I was wrong to listen to you... Lil is possessed by us. It makes sense Jean. I will have to let you read it all too. The only way to get rid of us who have been possessed is killing us. People do not write things not true. I got to go. – Jackie.

Was it Jackie who attempted to kill Lillian so many times? Other personalities spoke of violence including Joyce, Rose, Esther, Pat, and Buddy. The source of Lillian’s many attempts to die by suicide remains a mystery.

These series of suicidal events helped Dr. Kluft get to the root of Lillian’s Multiple Personality Disorder. In the days that followed, Dr. Kluft persistently pursued aggressive therapy that resulted in a breakthrough and proved central to Lillian’s healing.

To a non-therapist, the pressing of a patient's fragile defenses at a time when the patient is most vulnerable seems counterintuitive. Yet a trained therapist knows that doing so is necessary to bring about a breakthrough.

The Sleeping One

Suspecting that the original trauma occurred as early as age three, Dr. Kluft pressed Lillian to recall memories of the trauma that resulted in her split identity.

As an infant Lillian had been sedated for surgery that was required because of abuse inflicted by her mother. Dr. Kluft learned that Lillian believed "the sleeping one,” a personality who had never awakened post-surgery, had possessed her soul. Lillian believed that she could not get well until her soul was returned to her.

Subsequent therapy sessions revealed that Lillian believed demons had entered her body through orifices during this surgery while she was asleep.

The discovery of “the sleeping one” proved to be the pivotal breakthrough that led to the eventual integration of Lillian's personalities.

Finally Lillian was made whole.