Today is Dec. 26, 2003. A news report this morning reminded me that on this day in 1973 the movie “The Exorcist” made its debut. Most will remember that this movie is about the little girl possessed of some evil spirit. After all attempts to cure her failed, a specialist was brought in, an exorcist, whose job it was to rid her of this horrible affliction. The movie caused widespread hysteria as people fainted and were even institutionalized as a result of watching it. It was so horrific that it was banned in Finland. Yet it grossed $165 million in U.S. theatres and $90 million on video. It became one of the most successful horror films of all times and was nominated for 10 Academy Awards.
    According to John Wesley’s WORKS, he too had an experience not unlike the plotline played out in the movie “The Exorcist.” It seems that he was summoned to Stratford to visit a woman said to be “possessed by the devil.” This is the way Wesley described it: “A very odd kind of madness this! I walked over about noon; but when we came to the house [I] desired all those who came with me to stay away. One showing me the way, I went up straight to her room. As soon as I came to the bedside she fixed her eyes and said, ‘You are Mr. Wesley. I am very well now, I thank God. Nothing ails me, only I am weak.’”
    Wesley called the ones who had come with him to join him. They sang a hymn, and he knelt down to pray. “I had but just begun (my eyes being shut) when I felt as if I had been plunged into cold water. And immediately there was such a roar that my voice was quite drowned. … However, I prayed on. She was then reared up in the bed, her whole body moving at once without bending one joint or limb, just as if it were one piece of stone. Immediately after it was writhed into all kind of postures, the same horrid yell continuing still. But we left her not till all the symptoms ceased, and she was (for the present, at least) rejoicing and praising God.”
    Demon-possessed? Evil spirits? John Wesley, the Exorcist? Strange experiences to be sure, whether in real life, as Wesley experienced, or 30 years ago today, as the world experienced it with the release of the movie “The Exorcist.”