Allotriophagy (the desire for abnormal foods) and its association with witchcraft and demonic possession extends back hundreds of years, but does this strange condition hold any basis in reality?

Throughout history, many individuals have claimed demonic possession, demonstrating a host of ‘signs’ including the vomiting or expulsion of foreign objects such as metal pins and even live animals such as frogs! In 1694 Theodorus Döderlein, a 12-year old boy from southern Germany, vomited four frogs and twenty-one newts, amongst a range of other insects and invertebrates.

In 1606, a girl called Anne Gunter was reported to have sneezed, spit up, vomited, and excreted hundreds of pins, despite claiming never to have consumed them. In 1702, a blacksmith by the name of Robert Hathaway claimed a similar affliction. Did these individuals, and countless more, indeed suffer the curse of demonic possession? Probably not.

Both cases were inevitably and predictably proven as fakes. The Bishop of Salisbury designed a simple yet elegant solution for testing the truth of Anne’s claims by marking pins and leaving them in places she wound find – subsequent regurgitation of these tell-tale pins proved that she had swallowed them, rather than being magically placed in her stomach by a demon. Robert’s lie was exposed in a less elegant manner by tying his hands behind his back and thus demonstrating that the vomiting of foreign objects appeared to cease. The packs of pins and needles found in his pockets were also a bit of a give-away. Such false-possession claims carried hefty punishment with Robert being fined for his deceit, imprisoned for one year, and subjected to three appearances in the pillory (that wooden structure with holes for the head and hands in which offenders were imprisoned to receive public abuse, but tourists love posing in). Anne, and her father who put her up to the lie, were both charged with conspiracy, but no further records detailing what ultimately happened to the father and daughter exist.

What comes out must first go in.

Many theories on how demons or the devil inserted the foreign objects into the body were proposed throughout the years. Some thought that the devil inserted the items in to the body of his slumbering victim through a small hole (which he later sealed up), whilst others proposed the expelled items were originally ingested as powder which formed into solid objects once in the body.

As explained by Mulder in the TV series The X -Files, ‘allotriophagy’ is defined in witchcraft lore as ‘the vomiting or disengorgement of strange or foul objects, usually associated with someone possessed by or obsessed with the Devil or other demons’. Current medical literature, however, uses the terms Allotriophagy, Pica, Cittosis, and Cissa interchangeably to describe a disorder in which the individual is compelled to eat non-nutritive substances such as clay, cloth, dirt, hair, paint chips, pebbles, ash, starch, ice, and even faeces, blood, and urine, with no aversion to actual food. The X-ray above is of the abdomen of a 48-year-old homeless man, and shows small foreign bodies scattered throughout the entire colon, and the X-ray below of a man who ingested 227 metal objects!

An individual’s particular condition can be given a unique name depending upon the non-food source consumed, based on the Latin Phagein meaning ‘to eat’, for example trichophagia (hair), papyrophagia (paper), metallophagia (metal), geophagia (earth), and urophagia (urine).

Allotriophagy typically manifests in women during pregnancy and in individuals with psychological problems. In some cases, is thought to be caused by nutritional deficiencies such as iron deficiency, however this view is controversial as supplementation does not lead to resolution of the disorder in all cases. Whilst the condition is classified as an extreme type of dysorexia (an eating/appetite disorder), some medical practitioners and researchers consider the disorder to manifest as part of an obsessive-compulsive spectrum disorder, and may be treated with Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs), a class of drugs typically used to treat anxiety disorders and depression.

Classification aside, pica or allotriophagy can be an incredibly severe affliction requiring swift and effective treatment before health problems occur. Eating non-food items can cause significant medical complications ranging from malnutrition and dental damage to poisoning, intestinal obstruction, perforations, and infections.

The Devil Made Me Do It!

Whilst this, and many other so-called signs of demonic possession, can be explained by modern science, psychology, and medicine, it is shocking to find that there are still many people today that believe in demonic possession. Many crimes have been perpetrated by individuals claiming possession as a means of removing personal culpability for the atrocities committed. The first known court case whereby the defendant claimed guilty by reason of demonic possession is known as The Trail of Arne Cheyenne Johnson (or the ‘Devil Made Me Do It Case’) in 1981, but the judge ruled that demonic possession could not be proven, and therefore the defence plea was not feasible in a court of law. 19-year old Johnson was subsequently convicted of first-degree manslaughter for the violent murder of 40-year old Alan Bono (the first murder ever recorded in the town of Brookfield, Connecticut) and sentenced to 10-20 years in prison, but served only five. Clearly as a valid legal defense or not, claiming demonic possession could help your chances of avoiding a long prison sentence, although nowadays you would hope the individual would receive the psychiatric help they so desperately need.

The medical community may have a difficult task on its hands, with religious authorities appearing to promote this religious delusion.  In 1975, two priests were granted permission by the Catholic Church to perform exorcism on 23-year old Anneliese Michel, who died following repeated exorcisms extending over almost one year. Her parents and priests were charged with negligent homicide after it was declared that she had been suffering from a misdiagnosed mental illness.

More recently, in a paper published in 2014 in the Journal of Religion and Health titled ‘Schizophrenia or possession?’, the author suggests that hallucinations experienced in Schizophrenia could be the result of illusions manipulated by demons:

“One approach to this hallucination problem is to consider the possibility of a demonic world.”

He concludes his paper by suggesting that it would be useful for medical professionals to seek assistance of faith healers in the treatment of schizophrenia. The editor of the journal later stated that the article was meant to provoke discussion, and that it is the journal’s view that demons are ‘not a real entity’.

Shockingly, despite the scientific and psychological evidence against demonic possession as a recognized condition, in 2014 the Vatican formally recognized the International Association of Exorcists, giving credence, at least religiously, to the existence of demonic possession outside the realm of horror fiction.

In the mood for a little possession? Check out my suggestion of movies (if you dare!):

The Exorcist (1973) – The classic possession movie.

Paranormal Activity (2007) – If you have never seen this movie it is an absolute must…during the daytime (or with all the lights on) and definitely not alone. A classic supernatural movie, but the mythology is slowly being ruined by an endless stream of prequels and sequels that get worse with each new release.

Insidious (2011) – Perhaps not what you would consider a straight-up possession movie, but the premise of ghosts or demons wishing to inhabit a human body so that they can once again live seems pretty ‘possession’-ish to me. The sequel and prequel aren’t actually that bad either!

Sinister (2012) – Creepy children made even creepier. Give the sequel a miss this time; nothing new to the story and less than scary ghost children the second time around.

The Conjuring (2013) – Not a 100% possession movie (mostly a haunted house type movie) but there is a sprinkle of possession in there, and overall it’s just a great movie!

Ava’s Possessions (2015) – A fantastic movie about what happens to a person after they have had a demon exorcised from their body.

If you have any more possession movies you think should be on this list, let me know in the comments below.

Sleep tight!

– Jess [Last updated April 2020]