Introducing
Your new presentation assistant.
Refine, enhance, and tailor your content, source relevant images, and edit visuals quicker than ever before.
Trending searches
In the end, this may be just another strange ghost story. The problem with the paranormal is that none of it can be proved, at least not with modern science. The only thing different about this case is that it was documented, Willard was scientific. We know that these things happened, but we don't know why, or how. Our explanations do make some sense, but leave a few holes. Who knows, maybe in the future we'll find out what really happened. But for now, all we can say is, some really strange things happened to Elizabeth Knapp.
One explanation that may come up is mental illness. Hallucinations are a symptom of schizophrenia, as well as disorganised speech. This doesn't explain the convulsions very well, however. Schizophrenia usually does not cause seizures, although epilepsy sometimes produces symptoms similar to schizophrenia. The convulsions described by Willard did not seem like regular seizures, as most seizures do not last anywhere near 48 hours. The explanation does not seem very reliable. Although mental illness could have easily played a part in it, there are many other answers.
Elizabeth Knapp was a servant to Samuel Willard, a Reverend in the church of Gronton, Massachusetts. Willard took a "scientific" approach and documented the possession. He had presented sermons regarding the dangers of the devil, saying "although God is ready to receive them, the Devil is ready to endeavor them". He was not a very radical Puritan, which was very rare in those days. When Willard called in a medical doctor, who could not explain Knapp's fits, he declared it was a possession. Willard carefully recorded Knapp's behaviour, starting Monday the 30th of October, 1671, until the 12th of January 1672.
Willard stated that on the night of November 2nd, 1671, Knapp confessed to meeting the Devil. She said that the Devil promised her money, youth, ease from labor and the ability to see the world. She also said the Devil tried to get her to kill Willard, his family, and herself, but she refused. In the following months she had multiple violent fits, and after one lasted 48 hours she was immobile for 10 days. Afterwards Knapp confessed to making a pact with the devil, and later spoke in a deep voice during her fits, calling Willard a "rogue minister". This caused Willard to believe the Devil was speaking through her body.
In January of 1672 Knapp confessed to Willard that the Devil was taking control of her and speech, and that he was much more powerful than her. She then went into a fit of wild crying in which she called out for Willard. After the fit she remained completely silent for the next five days. Willard stops documenting her after this dramatic event, leaving it for those who are more "learned, aged, and judicious". Willard finishes his entries by going of the validity of this case. He believed Knapp's distemper was physically impossible to fake, being much to intense. He also believed her temper was diabolical because of the length and strength of her fits. Willard also stated that she spoke on multiple occasions with her mouth closed, her throat closing like a balloon.
One other major explanation, this time used more by Samuel Willard, is society, and religion. Many places in the 17th century were extremely religious, and not everyone liked this. There's nothing wrong with religion, but the way society practically forced it on people in those days wasn't very fair. Knapp could have acted out using religion. The atmosphere was so heavily religious it could've felt normal to her. She was angry, and that's how she got her message across. Calling Willard a rogue minister, asking for ease from her labor, wanting to see some of the world. She was lashing out.
The first odd thing Knapp began to do was complain about pains. She would grab parts of her body and cry out, sometimes mentioning strangulation. Later her emotions went wild, laughing to the point of hysterics, crying and screaming. She stated to have hallucinations, 'two persons' walking around her, a man floating above her bed. According to Willard, on the first Sabbath day after the symptoms first appeared Knapp became violent. She had convulsions, contorting her body so intensely it required multiple people to hold her down, and apparently attempted to throw herself into the fire. While having these fits she would cry out "money", "sin" and "misery".