Obscure Occurrences : The Most Extreme Demonic Possession in History || Gottliebin Dittus

 In early 1840, Dittuses moved into their new worn-out apartment on the outskirts of Möttlingen. The Dittus family was made up of two brothers named Andreas and Hans and three sisters named Katharina, Anna and Gottliebin. Their parents had died at a young age and the siblings were left to fend for themselves. As soon as they moved in, the family started hearing creeks, bangs and shuffles from every nook and corner of the house and it appeared as if their new house was trying to fall apart.

The Starting Point

 While Gottliebin, a pious young woman, was praying at the table on the first day of their arrival, she had fits and fell down on the floor. Following this event, the young woman known for her faithfulness and good behaviour started developing repulsive behaviour. The woman who was being liked and respected by the people of the town was now widely disliked and avoided by them. But considering the fact that she was a struggling orphan who had been contracting one illness after another, not many eyebrows were raised about the sudden alteration in her personality. Parallelly, the eerie sounds in the family’s apartment were starting to become omnipresent and the family were doing their best to brush it under the carpet.

 In the autumn of 1841, Gottliebin met Blumhardt, the town's pastor, and opened up to him for the first time. Blumhardt was a Lutheran Theologian who had moved to Möttlingen in 1838.  Although Gottliebin had been walking a great distance every week to attend his sermons for a really long time, she hadn’t disclosed anything to him until then. As the strangeness in the house was growing exponentially, Gottliebin finally decided to open up but even then, she did not reveal much to him. She just told him that she suffered “nightly temptations” and they were getting worse with time. Not having many details to work with, Blumhardt found himself in a position where he couldn’t help her despite wanting to. Thus, he reluctantly saw Gottliebin walk away.

Portrait of Blumhardt (Left) and Gottliebin (Right)

 A few weeks later, Gottliebin and Blumhardt crossed paths again. Gottliebin contracted a deadly facial infection and she was being attended by medical doctors. Thus, Blumhardt visited the woman to pray for her. However, he was annoyed by her behaviour as every time she saw him, she would look to one side. Also, every time he prayed, she would unfold her otherwise folded hands. Blumhardt concluded that she was a “self-willed, self-righteous and a spiritually proud person” and just like other people in the town, distanced himself from her.

A Dead Woman with her Dead Infant

 By April 1842, after Gottliebin fully recovered, Blumhardt started showing more interest in her case after two of her relatives came to him seeking advice. The events at the family’s house had become so profound that they could no longer handle them. The eerie sounds were now so loud that the entire neighbourhood could hear them. Also, Gottliebin started claiming that she saw the figure of a woman from the village who had died two years back and she apparently stood in front of her bed holding a dead child in her arms.

 According to Gottliebin, this woman would often come towards her while repeatedly saying, “I want to be left alone” or “Give me paper and I won’t come back”. Also, there would be shimmers of lights in her room and the others in the apartment witnessed it. Hearing this made the pastor abandon his avoidance and help the young woman and his family. He told Gottliebin not to engage with the spirit as he considered its intentions to be evil.

Occult Remnants

 Not long afterwards, a piece of paper was found under the bed of Gottliebin and it was completely covered in soot. Although it had something written on it, it was not legible because of the soot on it. Right next to it were several coins wrapped in paper and covered in soot. A couple of weeks later, a flickering light on the floor behind the stove revealed a lot of things that were buried in the house including salt, chalk, bones and coins wrapped in paper. Assuming that these were remnants of some black magic ritual, the pastor burnt them hoping for the strangeness to conclude but it only escalated the darkness in the house. The sound of loud heavy footsteps in the house commenced and they never stopped even during the day. They got even worse when Gottliebin was all alone in the house as she would find herself surrounded by the sound of heavy footsteps and the tables around her would start shaking violently.

 To get a better understanding of the events in the house and to make sure the family were not making it up, the pastor arranged for an investigation into the house. Thus, one evening, when the pastor entered the living room while the investigating team were scanning the house, he heard two distinct loud knocks coming from the bedroom in which Gottliebin lay on her bed. These knocks were followed by heavy bangs and all of them seemed to be coming from the same place. Trying to halt the bangs, the pastor tried praying but the moment he started praying, the windows in the room rattled, the chairs around Gottliebin leapt from the floor and sand started raining down from the ceiling.

 The floorboards were removed to try and find the source of the bangs and this paved way for the discovery of multiple other occult objects buried under the house. Scraps of paper, mysterious powders, small packages of money, and a pot which contained small bones mixed with mud were found under the floorboard of the house.

Gottliebin Moves Out

 The next day, after attending church, Gottliebin was found unconscious on her bed. The skin of her head and arms were glowing red and she showed signs of suffocation. With the doctor's best efforts to revive her not proving to be fruitful, the young woman got back to her senses on her own after half an hour. With her voice trembling, she whispered to the pastor that she had seen the dead woman again while returning home from church. According to her, the woman was waiting in the living room with her dead child in her arms and her dark presence made her faint.

 With the eeriness in the house growing along with the rumours in the town about the house, the pastor decided to move the family out of the apartment. He anticipated that distancing Gottliebin would resolve the situation and thus, asked her not to return to the building. With the town’s policemen put in charge of the empty house, the rumours around the house slowly started dying and for the people of the town, the peculiar and dramatic case had concluded. But little did they know that what happened next was being kept a secret from them by Gottliebin and Blumhardt.

Beginning of Convulsions

 The eerie bangs and footsteps followed Gottliebin to her new home and in fact, they became worse. The young woman started frequently experiencing violent convulsions whose intensity and duration increased with time. She would often faint in front of Blumhardt and convulse so much that her arms and head seemed to be ripping apart on themselves. Foam would float out of her mouth as she twisted her arms, turned her head and lifted her body up while unconscious. At times, this would last for hours and the doctors who administered her were not able to stop it. On one instance, while Gottliebin woke up, she confessed that she had seen something demonic float in front of her eyes.

 One day, unable to see the young woman suffer, Blumhardt rushed towards her while she was having one of her terrifying episodes, folded her hands forcefully and started praying. He whispered fold your hands and pray. This made her come out of her episode and the convulsions stopped. Blumhardt finally understood what he had to do. Thus, every time she had an episode, Blumhardt prayed and the convulsions stopped. But every next time, the demonic presence returned with much greater energy and at one point, the prayers no more worked.

The Revelation of Demonic Possession

 One day, while Blumhardt reached Gottliebin’s bed while she was having one of these episodes, he noted something new. She was making horrible faces and it emitted extreme rage. For the first time, she was trying to attack him and his prayers never worked. Gottliebin’s eyes rolled back and she started chanting in a demonic voice.

 It is said that Gottliebin’s body was hosting 14 demons and they were being led by the spirit of the dead woman whom she had been previously seeing. This woman was apparently a murderer who killed two children and buried them in her field. She was also a dark magic practitioner and this condemned her to a restless afterlife. Thus, she was forever bound to the devil and she was determined to make Gottliebin suffer. With time, the darkness attached to the young woman kept getting stronger and at one point there were 425 separate demonic entities in her body which further increased to 1067.

Violence Intensifies

 Gottliebin started hurting herself during her episodes. At one point, every time the pastor visited her, he would find new a self-inflicted wound on her body. This included a bleeding nose, bleeding wounds on the chest and strands of hair forcefully plucked out by herself. One night, she was woken up from her sleep by a sharp pain in her neck. When she opened her eyes, she found a burning hand choking her. The hand magically disappeared leaving behind liquid-filled blisters which took more than two weeks to heal.

 With time, the pastor started finding Gottliebin with her body swollen extraordinarily with water and she would vomit out whole buckets of water. She started suffering painful and strong haemorrhages after being assaulted by spirit-like figures and on multiple occasions, she was found on her bed swimming in her own blood. Not being able to bear the ordeal, the young woman tried killing herself but the evil entities inside her did not let her do it. The pastor, however, kept working day and night and successfully relieved her of multiple demons every day.

 From February of 1842, Gottliebin started vomiting strange things. This started with small pieces of glass and progressed to small pieces of iron. With time, she started vomiting multiple nails together and it did not stop there. Gottliebin started vomiting huge shoe buckles, uncountable quantities of pins, lengths of wires and knitting needles. It is said that even small living animals like bats, frogs and locusts came out of her mouth.

The End and The Origin

 During the final period of her possession, the demonic entities in her body started to possess her sister Katharina and her brother Hans. In a possessed state, Kathrina shouted in rage that she would cut Blumhardt into a thousand pieces. She had to be restrained because of her violent actions. While restrained, she shook her body so hard that it appeared as if she wanted to tear her body. Finally, after two years of horrific demonic possession, Gottliebin and her family were completely set loose from the clutches of evil because of Blumhardt's persistent efforts.

 Gottliebin confessed that she was exposed to magic when it was used to heal her illness while she was young. The instance which is linked to her possession, however, happened when she visited her cousin while she was seven. Her cousin who was apparently evil, somehow pledged the poor girl’s soul to the devil following which she was cursed with everlasting illness.