The director of The Exorcist, William Friedkin, has said that psychiatrists are more accepting of the possibility of demonic possession than when he made the film.
In a long article for Vanity Fair, Friedkin profiles the celebrated late exorcist Fr Gabriele Amorth, who died earlier this year. Fr Amorth permitted Friedkin to film an exorcism, which was then shown to several leading experts in neuroscience and psychiatry.
Friedkin writes: “I went to these doctors to try to get a rational, scientific explanation for what I had experienced. I thought they’d say, ‘This is some sort of psychosomatic disorder having nothing to do with possession.’ That’s not what I came away with.
