Stranger Than Fiction: Possession and Exorcism
Regardless of personal beliefs on what they are exactly, possession is a documented phenomena that still happens to this day and that remains one of the biggest influences in horror media. This list explores the experiences behind the horror, the real-life cases experienced by the energumens (possessed people) and the exorcists and doctors who studied and assisted them.
Always welcome to new additions.
created by FeralAcademic
last updated October, 2026
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This list focuses primarily on the Christian view of “demonic possession” and especially on accounts of exorcisms because that’s my own little interest, but if anyone has any suggestion for titles that span to possessions outside of that view and culture please do let me know!
Also be forewarned that YES a lot of these books will be preachy, understandably. Comes with the territory of the experience being seen as “spiritual warfare.” I’m adding more medical, historic, and skeptic accounts as well to try to give a wide picture on it all but the exorcists are the ones who talk the most.
Great list! I’m so hype to look into these, growing up Christian gave me a massive phobia of possession. even after all this time after leaving it and me not really believing it anymore, I still have such a morbid fascination jajaja 🤣
Same haha! I mean I think there’s a case for not believing in Christianity but still believing in possession. I am going to make another list some time that focuses on non-Christian experiences of like, kundalini awakening, spiritual psychosis, spiritual influence, hauntings, mediums, channelers, ecstatic miracles/ enthusiasmos, all that stuff. But that’s a labor of love that I’m adding things to slowly cause it’s my… entire brain. Is like there is something out there but we have no idea what it is but every culture has some understanding of it and we use our own framework to approach it! Maybe it’s not demons maybe it’s ghosts or aliens or angels or some other thing that has all those names! Somewhere between “power of the mind” and “there is another reality on top of ours that does weird stuff sometimes” lol.
Totally! I think most can agree there’s stuff out there we cannot yet explain and people may interpret it numerous ways. I also think many people have experiences that are hard to explain. I’d love to see that list one day!
You may already know this one, but def check out “the siren call of hungry ghosts” Esp given what happened to the author afterwards 👁️👁️
I used to listen to astonishing legends and other such podcasts when I worked nights (for the spooky vibes haha) and even tho I didn’t generally agree with their takes, I always enjoyed looking into each topic on my own afterwards 😆
Oh WHOAH I never heard of that one thank you 😮
I hope you like it, I’d love to see what you think when you get around to it 🥰
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