The Exorcism

     I don’t like doing exorcisms or depossessions. To be perfectly honest they scare the hell into me, not out of me. 

     I received a phone call from a young man. “Do you do exorcisms? I feel that a demon is inside of me,” the man said. His voice was almost a whisper, as if he were trying to keep someone from over hearing. I asked him why he thought he was possessed. He told me that he had suicidal thoughts. He also had nightmares and he couldn’t sleep. Throughout the day he had weird and violent thoughts. 

     I set a day for him to come for a healing session. I had arranged for one of my shamanic students to assist me with drumming. She arrived early with her teenage daughter. She asked if her daughter could help drum.

     I told my student where to sit and drum on the steps leading into my healing room. I looked deep into her daughter’s eyes and said, “Listen to me carefully. I am grateful that you want to help. I must warn you that if you feel even the slightest bit of fear you must leave immediately and go upstairs. Do not come back down, no matter what you hear. Do you understand?” She nodded. 

     The doorbell rang. I told my student and her daughter to stand next to each other and wait for me in the healing room. I picked up a bundle of sage and lit it from a candle in my healing space. I went to the door and opened it. A young man in his early twenties stood with is hands at his sides. Fear was in eyes. His lips were taught and colorless. His face was gaunt. 

     My abdomen began to vibrate as soon as he asked me if I was the shaman. I took a long slow breath while telling myself that I was strong and protected. I stepped outside and asked him if he was allergic to sage. He shook his head, no. I used a bunch of feathers to blow the sage around body. A different voice, a stronger and meaner voice said, “That burns. I don’t like that.” 

     I jerked back, took a breath and ignored the voice. I asked the man to follow me. I led him down the first set of stairs into the den and the down the steps into my healing space. 

     “Please lie down on the rug with your head toward the fireplace,” I asked. 

     His face became darker and at the same time it became frightened.  My hands were already sweaty.When he was in a prone position, I stood next to him with my drum. I told him that I would find his helping spirit, his power animal and then I would consult to see what kind of healing he needed.

     I looked at my assistant and her daughter. “Keep pace with my drumming and don’t stop, even if I do. Keep drumming and asking your helping spirits to protect all of us.” 

     I drummed and called in my own helping spirits.My mouth became dry and my abdomen vibrated faster. I closed my eyes and waited for my helping spirit to show up. “We are ready,” she said. “Relax. Know that you are hear to heal and we will protect you.” 

     I began singing a healing song as I laid my body next to the young man’s. I continued drumming as I left my body and went on a search in the lower world for his helping spirit. A fox showed up and let me know that he was the young man’s spirit helper. I pulled the fox to my chest and brought him up to my healing room. I stopped drumming. I leaned over the young man and blew the fox into his chest. 

  “Stop! That burns!” A raspy and sharp voice said. “There is no room for that filthy fucking fox in here! This fucker is mine! Leave him to me! This fucker is mine!”

     My whole body was vibrating. “Breath and do not be afraid,” my spirit helper said. 

     “Easy for you,” I said to my helper. 

     I took a big breath. I asked the young man to sit up. I blew the fox into the top of his head. The young man’s body began to twist. His head turned far beyond what I thought was humanly possible. 

     “Leave us alone. This fucking piece of shit is mine!” The voice yelled. He began to howl and make unearthly noises and shrieks.

     A part of me wanted to run out of that room. 

     The fox and my helping spirit stood on either side of the man. I picked up my didgeridoo and began to play. I moved it around the man’s body as I walked around him, blowing my didgeridoo. The man contorted his body, yelling obscenities and telling me to stop. The young man stared at me with eyes that were not his.

     Oh shit! What have I got myself into?” I ask of myself. I closed my eyes and filled myself with love and compassion. My knees were shaking. I reopened my eyes. I took a big breath and resumed playing the didgeridoo. 

     The man’s body contorted and twisted as if he were in great pain. I put my didgeridoo down and brought over a bowl of water. “Please leave his body,” I said. “You can’t stay there. Come into the water. The water will heal you.”

     “Fuck you! This little piggy is mine!”

     I lit the sage and wafted the smoke across the man’s body. “Enter the water before you die.” I said.Somehow, I could feel strength coming up through my feet. "Enter the water before you die.” I said louder. “Enter the water before you die!” I yelled.

     I felt the entity enter the water. The water rippled. A horrible stench of rancid body odor filled the room. I re-lit the sage and wafted it over the water. When my spirit helper nodded, I picked up the bowl and carried it out of the healing room, out the back door and far into the back yard. 

     “Please dear forest helpers. Take this spirit and give it healing. Do not let it come back.” I tossed the water into the forest.

     I came into the room. The horrible body odor was still in the room when I returned. I played my didgeridoo around the man.  I sang a healing song for him. I took my rattle and shook it all around his body.

     He stood up. His shoulders relaxed. He had a smile on his face. “That was so weird,” he said. “I don’t know how to thank you.” He put his head down and said, “I’m sorry. I think I invited that thing into me. I was playing with things I shouldn’t have.” The man hugged me and left. 

     I came back to my healing room. My assistant was there by herself. “My daughter left as soon as the man’s body began to contort itself. Can I go get her? Oh. Is it just me or did you also smell some horrible body odor when you removed the entity?”

     I told her that the body odor was real. I opened the windows to the healing space and smudged it with sage when she went upstairs to get her daughter. I thanked my helping spirits and the sage spirit. 

     When my assistant and her daughter came back into the healing room, her daughter said. “Wow! That was scary.” Her eyes were wide and lit up. “Hollywood has the exorcism and possession thing down pretty well.”