THE SJITURDJtY EVENING POST 41

Father John J. Nicola, consultant on the filnn The Exorcist, talks about witch-craft, fallen angels, ESP, and possession.

Gwen Dobson has been a journalist since she wasnineteen years old. Based in Washington, she haswritten perceptive portraits of people in govern-ment and all walks of life which have fascinatedreaders for many years.

There he is. in Rome.In the quiet serenity of Casa Santa Maria, safe-

ly inside the walls of Vatican City, and still hecannot escape the shock waves of a film thatcatapulted this serious, studious priest into alimelight he never quite expected.

When Father John J. Nicola was appointedconsultant on the film The Exorcist, he viewed itas simply another facet of his study which com-menced during his seminary days.

The fact that the film was shot in Washingtonand Father Nicola wa.s then assistant director oflhe National Shrine of the Immaculate Con-ception, added practicality to the matter.

In harmony with his knowledge ofthe subjectwas his familiarity with the actual case uponwhich the book was based . . . the documentedand witnessed and verified case of a fourteen-year-old Mount Rainier, Maryland boy.

The 1949 case had been well followed andreported in the Washington press after a journal-istic-wrestling match between tiie Irish Catholicreporter who wanted to write the account andthe Irish Catholic managing editor, who didn'twant him to but finally yielded. The editor didnot question the story on the basis of its veracityhut rather on its impact.

And that today is the prime concern of thepriest-consultant.

He knew during the shooting that the filmwould draw criticism. He knew that many olderCatholics, steeped in their childhood knowledgeof the Catechism, would react bitterly againstcertain scenes and he tried, often in vain, to soft-en them. He also feared that the film would drawan X or R rating and he fought against that. Hefought to protect sensitivities and he fought toshade several of the scenes which he felt wouldbe repugnant. All the while though, he had tostand his ground against a director, WilliamFriedkin, for whom he had great respect.

The director felt he had a duty to be faithfulto the book and the priest felt as strongly he hada duty to the potential audience, whose reactionadmittedly would be mixed.

So ambivalent was Father Nicola that he re-jected two acting offers in the film as a quietprotest and a silent statement that he did notgive his full approval.

He was particularly upset over the film's mostshocking scene (the masturbation with the cruci-fix) and considered walking off the set. However,he felt there would be more danger in his aban-donment since his presence at least might bringabout some restraints.

"I would have preferred that the scene be leftout altogether. Then I pushed for softening

Father Nicola, an authority on exorcism, fervent-ly hopes he will never have to perform the rite.

it . . . suggesting what was taking place, but as ascan shot, in the dark. 1 lost that. However, Ihave seen the finished product and at least it isnot provocative in any way."

The film is out. The audiences are judging forthemselves. Warner Bros, obviously has found afortune, as lines form for blocks. But ITT andATT are busy coining the cash too, as phone callscrackle into every Diocesan office in the countryand across the Vatican walls into the Casa SantaMaria.

It would have seemed a merciful place to sendFather Nicola-to Rome to work on his doctor-ate in theology. To Vatican City, where he canprepare his thesis on "Demonology" and wherehe can study the works of Monsignor Balduccland talk with Rome's Diocesan exorcist, Mon-signor Novaresa.

But the phone rings. Catholics are incensedthat he had any part of the film . . . oihers call,claiming the need of an exorcist. And FatherNicola worries that the film could produce awave of hysteria which he likens to the periodsof witchcraft and witch-hunts. "Such mass hyste-ria is possible and it could produce an outbreakof what is thought to be demonic infiuence. Thebook itself resulted in some eight or nine cases ofpseudo-possession. I know of about 100 such cas-es and in most instances they were teenagers whohad read the book, identified with it and beganacting it out.

"The other danger is that it will serve as asmoke screen. Let's say 99 percent smoke and Ipercent fire. We might neglect one case of actualpossession by calling it a psychiatric case."

So how is it then that this nice, mild-man-nered priest, age forty-five, with crisp, graying

hair and soft, dark eyes, can sit down and rangeover such unlikely subjects as the devil, fallenangels, fits, ESP and parapsychology?

How is it that he has become the country'sleading authority on exorcism and yel has neverperformed the rite and hopes most fervently nev-er to he called upon to do so?

When "Gcraldine" says: "The devil made medo it," it's funny! When Father Nicola describeswhat the devil makes you do, it is incrcdihle.

And it is not a subject he takes lightly becauselie has had his own brush with the devil.

After attending parochial schools in his nativeEvanston, Illinois, he entered the minor seminaryat the age of fourteen, Tliough he vacillated onceor twice aboul his vocation he chnsc lo stay andwent on to the seminary in Chicago and laterLoyola.

It was when he began his study of spiritualism(in the seminary) and started work on a paperthat strange happenings began occurring. Lightsinexplicably began going off and on hy iheiii-selves. Furniture moved about noticeably and hisinstructors "suggested" that he might do betterto set aside bis work tor a while.

"That's what you should do when the devilbegins to make his presence known,

"I recognize the powers of lhe devil, his intel-ligence." An intelligence which Father Nicola be-lieves is related to man's in the way Ihal a num'sintelligence is related to lhat, say, of a dog.

The priest calmly outlines the three stages ofdeviltry: infestation, obsession and finally posses-sion, all of which are sti vividly portrayed in thefilm.

"The infestation of the young boy (a girl wasused in the film) hegan several weeks after thedeath of an aunt. The boy was spending a gooddeal of liis time alone,

"His first complaint was of hearing scratchingsounds under the floor boards of his bedroom.His mother, father and grandmother listened.They heard. And the noises worsenet! to thepoint thai they called in an exterminator. Ildidn't help.

"Then furniture began moving about theroom, from one wall to another. The family triedto think of it as a prank or someone sleepwalk-ing.

*'0n a quiet Sunday afternoon as the familyrelaxed in the living room, a heavy lounge chairin which the boy was sitting levitated, tipped for-ward and threw the boy to the Hour and almostsimultaneously a vase lifted from its place on atable and hurtled across the room, crashing into awall."

The boy was rushed to a doctor. There wasnothing wrong medically.

However, the devil followed him to school,where "his desk rolled around the classroom asif on wheels. It became so disturbing to lhe otherstudents that the boy was removed from SCIUH>I."

Next came the nightmares. Tlie hoy scream-ing . . . the family horrified.

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128 THE SATVRD/iY EVENING POST June/July '74

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A visit to a psychiatrist shed nolight on the case . , , the symptomsfit nothing he knew.

The youngster moved on to thesecond stage, the obsession, "whenpain was inflicted. The screaminggrew worse as his mattress levitatedand threw him roughly up and downas in a sling."

With no help from the familyphysician or psychiatrist, the familyturned to their Lutheran ministerwho felt he should observe the childmore closely. He moved In with theminister, sleeping in the same room,and the bewildered man sat in awe asthe boy's mattress repeatedly lifted,swirled about the room and zoomedsickeningly under the bed.

Alarmed, the minister suggestedputting the boy in Georgetown Uni-versity Hospital (in Washington), butafter he had conferred with a priestfriend in the meantime, it was decid-ed to send him to the Alexian Broth-ers Hospital in St. Louis.

"By that time," says Father Ni-cola, "total possession had takenplace and everyone decided exor-cism should be tried.

"At this time, the boy was suffer-ing several fits a night. The doctorscould not sedate him sufficientlyand he was unable to eat or drink.With not enough food to sustainhim, he was very close to death frommalnutrition.

"His voice changed completelyand he cursed his parents and God inthe vilest possihle language."

The first appointed exorcistworked with the boy for three and ahalf months. "There were briefperiods of recession, but then therewere other signs. Brandings wouldappear on the boy's body, fromwhich blood actually flowed. Theboy would become comatose. Hescreamed from the pain. He had tobe shackled to his bed. Four adultmen couid not contain him . , . hewas still able to get free.

"He broke one attendant's noseand another's cheekbone. Thepriest's arm was slashed when theboy wrenched a bedspring coil looseand cut him viciously.

"There were constant abuses tothe priest, who had to sit and prayand intone the Lord and remonstratethe devil. There was unrelentingvomit; continual urination. At onepoint, the priest held a pillow infront of his face in order to continuereading and the boy moved his headlike a cobra, aiming at the priest'sface with his spittle."

For three and a half months, thepriest worked over the boy and final-ly during a rather tranquil sleep, theboy awoke and reported a dream, "avision of a man who seemed to beradiant, in a white outfit like that ofa Roman soldier.

"He slept again and at precisely2:15 in the afternoon, a report washeard throughout the hospital,something like a gunshot. The boystood up. He smiled." And the hor-ror of the long winter episode wasended.

"Choosing an exorcist," says thepriest, "is difficult, but possibly notas difficult as it is to be the exorcist.It is preferable that he be a man ofadvanced years, therefore of ex-perience and understanding.

"It is a draining, exhausting expe-rience. Some priests have sufferedheart attacks, nervous breakdownsand some, even death." (There havebeen known suicides following theperformance of the rites.)

"And in some instances the devilhas made a transference." So It ismore than an occupational hazard. Itcan mean life or death.

The controversy continues andFather Nicola says: "The film willhave bad and good effects, i prayabout these things.

"I do feel there is a return to spiri-tuality. I think I see the dawning. Ithink the fact that the young peopleare fed up with materialism is a hope-ful sign. There Is so much interest inmysticism that I think we're on theverge of a spiritual era."

"I don't think the devil has beenas individually busy lately. When hesees things going his way as they havebeen in recent years and where evil isjust taken for granted, he seems tofigure, why use extra powers?"J3

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He was booed off the stage intears at the Newport Folk Festivalin July 1965 when he showed upwith his electrified band. A monthlater in New York, 14,000 fansdrowned out his folk-rock songswith chants of "We want Dylan! Wewant Dylan!"

They said they wanted Dylan,but what they meant was that theywanted the image of the Dylanwhich they had created from theunique elements of his fantasies andtheir needs, and which they wouldnot give up even though he hadclearly left it far behind.

Around this same time, things inAmerica seemed to begin gettingout of hand. The good will andgood feeling which had once char-acterized and cemented Americansociety began to strain and crackunder the growing pressures of pes-simism, violence, disillusion, andanarchy. Gaps began to open up,credibility gaps and generationgaps, and it looked as if the centercouldn't hold.

Like an artistic seismograph,Dylan registered these disturbances.He began to doubt just who he re-ally was, and became suspicious andafraid of everyone around him. Hegrew moody and impossibly arro-gant and difficult to work with.Things reached a breaJcing pointduring a tour he did with JoanBaez.

At a party after their final con-cert, they both crawled under abed-the only place they could goto get away from the people crush-ing around them-and he told herthat he couldn't stand the pressuresof representing a generation anymore. She had kidded him abouttheir "royal" status as the king ofrock and roll and the queen ofpeace, but he took it very seriously."Hey, man," he said, "I can't beresponsible for those kids' lives."She said, "Bobby, you rat, youmean you're gonna leave them allwith me?" and he replied, "Hey,hey, take them if you want them,but man, I can't be responsible."

Dylan described these troubledyears in some of his most powerfulsongs. Like many young people, hehad drifted into using drugs. He didit partly for the pleasure, partly toenhance his creativity, and partlyjust to keep up with the pressuresof being a rock star and the burdensof being a counter-cultural hero. Atthe very bottom of his despair hewrote a song called "DesolationRow" which described the terriblephysical and psychological toll thatnations and individuals were havingto pay for their riches and power.For a while it looked as if bothAmerica and Dylan might breakapart from the strain they wereunder.

Then, in July 1966, Dylan had a

motorcycle accident which almostkilled him. He was immobilized forseveral weeks, and he used the en*forced rest and leisure to get cleanof drugs and to begin thinkingthings out.

For more than a year, rumorsraged about him: that he was dead,or that he was paralyzed, or thatthe whole thing was just anotherbig publicity put-on. Graduallyword filtered out that he was well,and that he was working on a newalbum.

It appeared in January 1968,and it literally wrenched popularmusic back to its roots. At a timewhen both music and politicalagitation were raging to new heightsof intensity and violence, Dylanhad returned to his earlier sound,with songs that expressed a deeplyreligious, almost mystical, point ofview.

Folk purists considered it justanother cop-out. Political activists,flexing their muscles after PresidentJohnson's decision not to run forreelection, considered it a completesellout. The radical Weathermanfaction of the Students for a Dem-ocratic Society (SDS) had eventaken their name from a Dylan song("You don't need a weatherman toknow which way the wind blows"),but Dylan himself had character-istically already moved on to newand higher ground. In his first in-terview after the accident, Dylansaid that "A man is a success if hegets up in the mornin' and gets tobed at night and in between he doeswliat he wants to. What I want todo is make music."

Dylan sensed that most Amer-icans were sick of the violence anddisruption and were getting readyto try and restore their balance andregain their bearings. In this albumand the three that followed it, hetried to show the rest of us theways he had found to do this. Infact, Dylan had rediscovered Amer-ica, and was showing it off to hisfellow countrymen.

One whole album was devotedto country music. His voice wassmoother and mellower on songslike "Lay Lady Lay," and he evensang one with Johnny Cash, whowas known as a supporter of Rich-ard Nixon. Few of Dylan's earlyfans had thought that the timeswould be a' changin' quite thatmuch!

Dylan was clearly following hisown path at his own pace now. Hehad been married in 1965, and bythe time an album called Self Por-trait appeared in 1970, he alreadyhad a growing family of five whoseprivacy he guarded even more jeal-ously than his own. Very little isstill known about Sara Dylan andher family except for a few stories

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