From Here to History
The history podcast where Chris Swanson and Jason Weidert discuss events and people of the past with as much openness, understanding, and fairness as we can muster. Our only agenda is to inform in an entertaining and engaging way.
We teach high school, after all, and that's a tough audience. Our hope is that if we can keep teenagers interested we may be able to pull off a worthwhile podcast, too.
We try to release one episode every month. But we're teachers with busy young families so if we go a little longer than that between episodes, bear with us!
From Here to History
Halloween Special: Adventures in Exorcism
In From Here to History's first ever Halloween episode, spirits, demons, and the bodies they try to possess are the topic. Join Chris and Jason as they discuss an anthology of stories and beliefs about possession and exorcism from across time and cultures.
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There are a lot of sources on the subject out there, here were some of ours:
The Penguin Book of Exorcisms A great anthology of exorcism stories from across time and from different cultures
A History of Exorcism in Catholic Christianity by Francis Young
The Devil is Afraid of Me by Fr. Gabrielle Amorth
An Exorcist Tells his Story by Fr. Gabrielle Amorth
Entertaining Satan by John Demos. This one centers on witchcraft in 17th Century New England but the material on possession, the worldview of the Puritans, and how these cases were often handled is worth a plunge
Spirit Possession Around the World by Joseph Laycock
The Devil Came to St. Louis by Troy Taylor. Excellent summary of the Ronnie Hunkeler case
Demonic Possession and Exorcism in Early Modern France by Sarah Ferber
There are also great books on the Anneliese Michel case, we recommend the one by Felicitas Goodman, and The Devils of Loudun is a classic on the Loudun possessions