"Exorcism can be extremely violent," says Father Martin. "It is often disturbing, and always exhausting. I have seen objects hurled around rooms by the powers of evil. I have smelt the breath of Satan and heard the demons' voices, - cold, scratchy, dead voices carrying messages of hatred. I've watched men writhing, screaming, vomiting, defecating, as we fought for their souls."
Speaking while in New York...""Satanism is all around us," says Father Martin gently. "We deny it at our peril. I could point out places only minutes from here where black masses are being celebrated. I know of cases of human sacrifice - the sacrifice of babies. I know the people who are doing these things."
"The demon does not physically inhabit the body; it possesses the person's will. We have to compel the thing to reveal itself and its purpose. It can be slow and difficult, with the demon taunting, scorning, abusing you - speaking through the mouth of the possessed, but not in his or her Voice. In the end, though, it does come out - and when that happens you experience the sensation we call 'presence'. At that moment you know you are in the company of the purest evil. I have felt the claws of invisible animals tearing at my face. I have been knocked off my feet, blinded and winded. But it is then, when you've sensed the 'presence', that the real attack on the demon can begin."
"The demon knows it's losing. Instead of screaming abuse, it begins to plead for mercy. It says it's sorry, it begs to be spared. It promises to go home. But the Bible says that only on the last day can the followers of Satan return to Hell. Where they go, I do not know. We do not destroy them, we drive them out. Sometime I encounter the same ones again. As the demon disappears, the person it has possessed is 'cleared', and a wondrous wave of peace comes over them."
Satanism, he says, is far more widespread than is usually imagined. "The cruelty of these practices puts them beyond the civilized pale. I am speaking of human sacrifice, cannibalism and the sexual abuse of children. Not in far away countries long ago, but right here now in New York." The symptoms of possession, Father Martin says, are often confused with mental illness. "Science spent a lot of time trying to prove that these people were, so to speak, loonies," he says. "Now most of my cases are referred to me by psychiatrists." Victims tend to undergo a startling change of personality. They may become unpredictable, violent and treacherous. They humiliate their families, plot against their friends, lie to their colleagues. "They have become alien entities. They have surrendered their wills. The most extreme state is 'perfect possession', when the demon has taken complete control. The perfectly possessed person is totally lost. There is nothing I can do," says Father Martin.
"The peculiar thing is that these people are usually highly sophisticated, and the last thing you would suspect is that they were in league with the Devil. But there is always something about them. It may be a look in their eyes, a tone of voice, a sense of coldness, of contempt. Some- thing inhuman. When you encounter it, you know you have met the true enemy." Father Martin cites David Berkowitz, the 1970s New York serial killer, as a classic case of perfect possession. "I met him in his cell, at his request," says Father Martin. "He confessed that he had been, for many years, a member of a Satanic coven. This was the source of his evil." The encounter with Berkowitz was light relief compared to the time when he believed he came face to face with Satan himself.
"I was standing on a stool in my apartment, reaching for a book and I saw him. He was crouched on the floor looking at me. His body was like a muscular pit bull terrier, but the face was recognizably human. It was the Devil's face. I recognized the eyes They were eyes of the coldest, deadliest hatred. When the Devil sprang at me, I fell from my stool and broke my shoulder, but I felt fortunate. I had seen Satan and I had lived." Father Martin charges nothing for his services. He acts only with permission from his bishop, when all medical options have been exhausted. After two heart attacks he wonders how long he can go on. "Every exorcism takes something out of you that cannot be put back," he says. "The demon goes, but it carries a part of you away with it. A little of the exorcist dies each time. It's a permanent mental fight against a powerful, dangerous enemy."
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