If you’re interested in the topic of exorcism, the documentary, “The Devil and Father Amorth,” is worth your time.
It’s a professionally made documentary primarily due to the thoroughness of the director. He interviews a broad sample of observers (and participants) around the exorcisms. And, despite his expertise, the director removes all effects and technical obstacles from his subject rather than add layers of them as he did in “The Exorcist.”
If you’ve watched the clip, you’ve heard the voice of one of the possessed women (Christina) at 1 minute, 12 seconds into the above trailer.
I consistently hear three voices every time the one being exorcised cries out. If this is, somehow, faked by the director, it discredits the documentary. However, I don’t suspect there was any sound editing of the ladies voice. To satisfy my own curiosity of the makeup of these “voices,” I captured many of them from the documentary, and you can see their spectral frequency prints, below.
Dissociative Trance Disorder?
When the director interviews a room full of five doctors of various expertise, he’s quickly referred to what the doctors say is “a recognized diagnosis, worldwide”: Dissociative Trance Disorder.1 From the abstract of that paper:
Although dissociative trance disorders, especially possession disorder, are probably more common than is usually though, precise clinical data are lacking. Ten persons undergoing exorcisms for devil trance possession state were studied with the Dissociative Disorders Diagnostic Schedule and the Rorschach test. These persons had many traits in common with dissociative identity disorder patients. They were overwhelmed by paranormal experiences. Despite claiming possession by a demon, most of them managed to maintain normal social functioning.
You can read the full paper, online.
Bishop Barron Isn’t Ready
Robert Barron, a Catholic bishop in Los Angeles, says he wouldn’t speak to the devil like Father Amorth because he’s not at that spiritual level:
Speaking to the devil like Father Amorth? I would never dare do that. I’m not there, spiritually, I think it’s a very dangerous thing…it’s dangerous ground. You have to be really, really, Holy. . . I’m not ready for that; I’d be afraid.
Jeffrey B. Russell’s Says it Best
One of the most insightful comments in the documentary is by Jeffrey Burton Russell, author of “The Prince of Darkness.” Jeffrey says that possession is merely the seizure of your body.
The way they take over your soul is by tempting you to sin. That’s how they get you because you’re using your free will to do evil.
Spectral Frequency Displays
As a musician, I have a good ear for sounds and the ability to distinguish between them.
For example, you know that feeling you get when you’re watching a movie and can’t quite place the voice? I rarely experience that since the person behind the voice is evident to me (If I know who they are in real life.)
To make a more objective visual image, however, I used the Spectral Frequency Display in Adobe Audition to show the “print” of the voices in this documentary.
For reference: human speaking voices for men range from ~85 – 180hz and for women, 165 – 255 Hz. Frequencies above this are usually attributed to harmonics, room echo, or non-vocal-cord sounds produced by the throat. All of those elements are present in the voice prints, below.
The vertical axis is frequency, and the horizontal axis is time. The brightness represents the loudness of the sound source in that frequency range. The bright yellow areas are the primary sound, the orange and purple are harmonics, echo, or non-vocal-cord sounds. The black areas are silent.
Here’s the director’s voice asking a question:
Here’s Christina answering the Director’s question:
Father Amorth praying:
Father Amorth makes a guttural sound during prayer:
Family praying together:
Christina’s first “possessed” voice:
A six-second segment of Christina’s possessed voice:
When looking at the prints of Christina’s voice during the possession, it becomes apparent why it gives the impression of either three or four voices. Two frequencies are pronounced enough to be heard separately at 1k and below. Two more are at 2k-4k. Her first print is also extraordinary in that it emits harmonics >16khz. No other voice in the documentary does that.
But look at the print when Father Amorth makes a guttural sound during prayer. Strong harmonics appear three or four times just below 3k Hz. This is an important comparison because Father and Christina are in the same room at the same time.
For an additional comparison, I’ve recorded two isolated voice tracks of Janis Joplin. The recordings attempt to isolate only Janis’ voice to be as similar as possible to the Father Amorth and Christina.
Janis Joplin, Clip #1:
Janis Joplin, Clip #2:
- ”Dissociative Trance Disorder: Clinical and Rorschach Findings in Ten Persons Reporting Demon Possession and Treated by Exorcism” by Stefano Ferracuti, Roberta Sacco, and Renato Lazzari, Dept. Of Psychiatry and Psychological Medicine, University of Rome “La Sapienza.” Journal of Personality Assessment, 1996, 66(3), 525-539, Copyright 1996, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. ↩
14 Comments
Gone wrong (which I’m looking into.)
Anyway, what Mangel wrote is quite worth reading and I’d like to comment on it later after taking care
Of some admiin tasks.
Similar Psychological Phenomena is examined in the courtroom setting of the movie ‘The Exorcism of Emily Rose.’ The DSMV Vs what? There is a lot of confusion in the area of deliverance. Terminology of degrees of demonisation is one thing, legal rights another, what about false vocal cords used to make a guttural or raspy voice? at the top of the throat; psychic phenomena and cultural-anthropology are well explained by Dr. Scott Moreau of Wheaton College, who spends healthy time distinguishing form from material in his course… He does not present an either or view. Currently a supposed former satanist John Ramirez in New York is getting attention with his air time and teaching. He seems to have value and stands his ground against the greater celebrity-wealth culture in Mega Churches. I do not have a point of view for or against him. I wonder whether much has been exploited by prayer ministry frameworks because of the degrees of demonisation language based on legal rights. Also whether the greek word for demonisation has been wrongly translated or used and whether it is consistently should be translated in the NT as demonised or possessed? I see no basis for it to have multiple meanings. That is not to say I am against the language of degrees such as oppression, depression, repression, etc, but the NT usage is consistently that of possession. Read what books and dictionaries we like, the NT is singular in its meaning. If that is the case, what does it imply/mean for/about prayer and deliverance ministries? I am in favour of ‘hearing from God’ in teams when praying for people, and have no doubt about many stories of manifestation I have heard and a couple I have seen. However, I prefer the humility of Dr. Moreau to encourage people to think and test ‘things’ Biblically. Yes, it was very sad and shocking for the Bishop in the Documentary to say, and as the producer himself pointed out, that he was not spiritual enough, that such ministry required a higher/special level of spirituality than he had. Having said that the Bishop was honest enough to say what he did. I do think that Dr Heiser is correct that we are not called to engage cosmic-geographic spirits in a direct battle, and that the primary way we fight the enemy is through Christ being witnessed in us…. There is an amusing argument in the Greek of Eph 6 about whether the putting on and use of armour is connected by a participle or whatever to the act of prayer… I have no doubt it is. The great enemies are sin/temptation, death and the devil – all of which have been overcome by Christ who lives in us and is greater than he who lives in the world. Nevertheless, we are engaged with Christ in our opposition against principalities and powers. I think of the books by Dr Clinton Arnold on Ephesians and Colossians are very helpful as opposed to the older reactionary post war books by Blumhardt and Rupp which attempt to come to grips on institutional evil but are light on textual and contextual exegesis. I spent this time writing this because I think there is need for more academic work in this area that goes beyond the ‘Truth Vs Power’ debate, and feel this area has become a topic for geeking at by Christians and non-Christians in academic circles. In the meantime Christians are saturated with how to books that may be of no more worth than an Ephesian book burning ceremony???
Clicking on the above post, or going to DivineCouncil.org.
Also, I’ve merged the original thread with this one, in case anyone is confused.
divinecouncil submitted a new blog post
It’s a professionally made documentary primarily due to the thoroughness of the director. He interviews a broad sample of observers (and participants) around the exorcisms. And, despite his expertise, the director removes all effects and technical obstacles from his subject rather than add layers of them as he did in “The Exorcist.”
If you’ve watched the clip, you’ve heard the voice of one of the possessed women (Christina) at 1 minute, 12 seconds into the above trailer.
I consistently hear three voices every time the one being exorcised cries out. If this is, somehow, faked by the director, it discredits the documentary. However, I don’t suspect there was any sound editing of the ladies voice. To satisfy my own curiosity of the makeup of these “voices,” I captured many of them from the documentary, and you can see their spectral frequency prints, below.
Dissociative Trance Disorder?
When the director interviews a room full of five doctors of various expertise, he’s quickly referred to what the doctors say is “a recognized diagnosis, worldwide”: Dissociative Trance Disorder.1 From the abstract of that paper:
You can read the full paper, online.
Bishop Barron Isn’t Ready
Robert Barron, a Catholic bishop in Los Angeles, says he wouldn’t speak to the devil like Father Amorth because he’s not at that spiritual level:
Jeffrey B. Russell’s Says it Best
One of the most insightful comments in the documentary is by Jeffrey Burton Russell, author of “The Prince of Darkness.” Jeffrey says that possession is merely the seizure of your body.
Spectral Frequency Displays
As a musician, I have a good ear for sounds and the ability to distinguish between them.
For example, you know that feeling you get when you’re watching a movie and can’t quite place the voice? I rarely experience that since the person behind the voice is evident to me (If I know who they are in real life.)
To make a more objective visual image, however, I used the Spectral Frequency Display in Adobe Audition to show the “print” of the voices in this documentary.
For reference: human speaking voices for men range from ~85 – 180hz and for women, 165 – 255 Hz. Frequencies above this are usually attributed to harmonics, room echo, or non-vocal-cord sounds produced by the throat. All of those elements are present in the voice prints, below.
The vertical axis is frequency, and the horizontal axis is time. The brightness represents the loudness of the sound source in that frequency range. The bright yellow areas are the primary sound, the orange and purple are harmonics, echo, or non-vocal-cord sounds. The black areas are silent.
Here’s the director’s voice asking a question:
[audio mp3="https://divinecouncil.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Directors-Voice_1.mp3"][/audio]
Here’s Christina answering the Director’s question:
[audio mp3="https://divinecouncil.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Christinas-Voice-speaking_2.mp3"][/audio]
Father Amorth praying:
[audio mp3="https://divinecouncil.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Father-Amort-Praying-2_4.mp3"][/audio]
Father Amorth makes a guttural sound during prayer:
[audio mp3="https://divinecouncil.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Father-Amort-Gutteral-Prayer_5.mp3"][/audio]
Family praying together:
[audio mp3="https://divinecouncil.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Family-Praying-Together_3.mp3"][/audio]
Christina’s first "possessed" voice:
[audio mp3="https://divinecouncil.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Christina-PV-1_6.mp3"][/audio]
A six-second segment of Christina’s possessed voice:
[audio mp3="https://divinecouncil.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Christina-PV12_17.mp3"][/audio]
When looking at the prints of Christina’s voice during the possession, it becomes apparent why it gives the impression of either three or four voices. Two frequencies are pronounced enough to be heard separately at 1k and below. Two more are at 2k-4k. Her first print is also extraordinary in that it emits harmonics >16khz. No other voice in the documentary does that.
But look at the print when Father Amorth makes a guttural sound during prayer. Strong harmonics appear three or four times just below 3k Hz. This is an important comparison because Father and Christina are in the same room at the same time.
For an additional comparison, I’ve recorded two isolated voice tracks of Janis Joplin. The recordings attempt to isolate only Janis’ voice to be as similar as possible to the Father Amorth and Christina.
Janis Joplin, Clip #1:
[audio mp3="https://divinecouncil.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Janis-Joplin-1_18.mp3"][/audio]
Janis Joplin, Clip #2:
[audio mp3="https://divinecouncil.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Janis-Joplin-2_19.mp3"][/audio]
Continue reading the Original Blog Post.
Between them.
For example, you know that feeling you get when you’re watching a movie
And you can’t quite place the voice? I rarely experience that since the
person behind the voice is obvious to me (If I know who they are in real life.)
To make a more objective visual image of the kinds of voice prints
I hear, I used the Spectral Frequency Display of Adobe Audition to record
voices in this documentary.
For reference: human speaking voices for men are ~85 – 180hz and
For women, 165 – 255 hz. Frequencies above this are usually attributed
To: harmonics, room echo, or non-vocal-cord sounds produced by the throat.
All of those elements are present in the voice prints, below.
The bright yellow areas are the primary sound, the orange and purple
Are harmonics, echo or non-vocal-cord sounds, and the black is silence
At that freq. Range.
Here’s the director’s voice asking a question:
View attachment 285
Here’s Christina answering the Director’s question:
View attachment 286
Father Amort, praying:
View attachment 287
Family praying together:
View attachment 288
Christina’s first "possessed" voice:
View attachment 289
A six-second segment of Christina’s possessed voice:
View attachment 290
When looking at the prints of Christina’s voice during the possession, it becomes obvious
Why it gives the impression of either three or four voices. Two frequencies are pronounced enough to
Be heard separately at 1k and below. Two more are at 2k-4k. Her first print is also extraordinary
In that it emits harmonics >16khz. No other voice in the documentary does that.
Before speculating on any conclusions, I’d like to record a voice print of a singer
Like Janis Joplin or the guy from AC/DC for reference.
janitor9 said
Gee, that’s kind of disturbing. The double voices thing seems to imply possession rather
Than assistance. All the more reason to get to the bottom of it.
Terence said
I once heard the same thing, only the "multiple voices" was from the anointing of the Holy Spirit.
This occured when a heavy metal rock singer sang a few notes at church as a demonstration for the congregation.
I sure could hear more than one note being sung. After I inquired of the Lord, He said that was due to one or more of the singers angels helping him sing. It sounded really good, too.
So, it seems that HR has a similar, yet deceiving capability.
Sluggo said
Probably multiple demons crying out at the same time.
I’ve heard something similar from one of Omega Man’s callers on one of his dial-in deliverance shows.
Good to know, Sluggo.
I re-watched the documentary, last night. I may record the voices and look at the waveform spectrum.
If I do, I’ll post a picture here.
Terence said
It’s a professionally made documentary primarily due to the thoroughness of the director.
He interviews a broad sample of observers (and participants)
Around the exorcisms.
If you’ve watched the clip, you’ve heard the voice of one of the possessed
Women at 1 minute, 12 seconds into the above trailer.
I consistently hear three voices every time the one being exorcised cries out.
If this is, somehow, faked by the director, it discredits the documentary. However, I
Don’t suspect there was any sound editing of the ladies voice and found no comments
to that effect, yet.
Wow! That was an interesting documentary!
Terence said
Probably multiple demons crying out at the same time.
I’ve heard something similar from one of Omega Man’s callers on one of his dial-in deliverance shows.
janitor9 said
I just checked and found it on Netflix. I’ll check it out too.
Terence said
Spoil it for you.
Ok. Is it on Netflix streaming now? Will see it soon…
janitor9 said
Why?
That’s Robert Barron and the director’s interview with him is quite insightful.
The more you understand about Barron before seeing it, the better. However, I won’t
Spoil it for you.
Terence said
Women at 1 minute, 12 seconds into the above trailer.
Before that there’s a priest that basically says he wouldn’t have anything to do with the Devil.
Why?
Number one on Jesus’ short list of things to do to expand the Kingdom is to "drive out devils" Mark 16:17