Episode 75: Dr. Richard Gallagher & the Mysterious Case of Julia
Is everyone haunted, or is no one?
Episode Transcript
If there is one thing, you guys should know about me by now it’s that I’m not the easiest to convince. Of course, I’ll give anyone the benefit of the doubt when talking about their paranormal experiences.
After all, I’ve shared plenty of my own stories that admittedly may seem a bit too outrageous to believe. But in the grand scheme of things, I don’t think paranormal activity is as common as the internet makes it out to be.
I mean think about it. Nowadays, it seems like every content creator, YouTuber or Podcaster lives in their own haunted house or has some sort of inhuman attachment. Hey, even I fit into that description, though somewhat begrudgingly.
Now this online interest in the paranormal has, of course, made for some pretty viral videos. Not to mention that it’s never been more possible to have a career as a paranormal investigator. But at the same time, it’s those viral videos that have led the masses to question: is everyone haunted, or is no one?
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To be honest, the reality isn’t so cut and dry. I mean, with parapsychology dating all the way back to 1889, it must be that some claims of paranormal encounters are real bona fide experiences, while other ghost stories are simply just stories.
Which means that it’s nearly impossible to separate out what is real and what is fake. Although I don’t that will keep us from trying, will it?
I’m Courtney Hayes and you’re listening to haunts. Stay tuned…
Dr. Richard Gallagher is a board-certified psychologist, a professor of clinical psychology at the New York Medical College. Oh and at least at the start of his career, he was a self-proclaimed skeptic.
Of course, that shouldn’t come as a shock. I mean, Gallagher is a man of science—a doctor, one who treats the human mind. He had no reason to believe in ghost stories, no business entertaining the notion of otherworldly possession when he knew all too well that our brains can mimic the symptoms of demonic infestation almost to a T. Well that is until a rather curious file made its way into Dr. Gallagher’s caseload.
Now, to be honest, there isn’t much information publicly available when it comes to the identity of this particular patient. Outside of what is shared in Dr. Gallagher’s book "Demonic Foes," which I’ll have linked down in the show notes as well as a few subsequent interviews, the accounts surrounding this case file rarely see the light of day.
What we do know is that this patient, whom Dr. Gallagher simply refers to as Julia, is that she was a bright middle-aged woman with no history of severe mental illness. And yet somehow, it was Julia’s story that turned Dr. Gallagher from a die-hard skeptic to a firm believer.
Perhaps it was due to her involvement with a satanic cult. Maybe it was it was her heavily painted eyeliner and box dyed jet black hair. But for one reason or another, Father Jacques was convinced that Julia had been possessed. So much so that he had contacted Dr. Gallagher and asked for him to meet with the woman as soon as possible.
Of course, Gallagher agreed to evaluate Julia’s symptoms. After all, he and the priest had a friendly working relationship and he knew it was rare for anyone who claimed to have a demonic attachment to actually agree to meeting with a psychiatrist.
"If she wants help, let’s go ahead and strike while the iron's hot," was the exact mentality. Although, I’m sure Dr. Gallagher didn’t think much of it until the night before he was set to meet with this new patient.
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It was an otherwise ordinary evening when Dr. Gallagher and his wife were jolted awake by the sound of wailing. The couple had two cats who ordinarily slept soundly at the foot of their bed. But on that night in particular, they were out in the hall going at it like a pair of MMA fighters.
Of course wasn’t easy, but eventually, the Gallaghers were able to pull the cats apart—separating them into two different rooms before heading back to bed. There, they wrote the whole thing off as a strange but likely isolated incident. It was probably just a bad can of cat food or too much catnip.
It was a logical explanation. I mean as a cat owner myself, I know firsthand that sometimes even the cuddliest of felines can get a bit spicy. Although by the time Father Jacques was ringing his doorbell the following morning, Dr. Gallagher wasn’t so sure that the incident was isolated or even coincidental for that matter.
You see, the priest was accompanied by a woman dressed in dark clothes. She was leering up at him with a devilish grin on her face as if she had just heard the punchline of a private joke made at Gallagher’s expense.
It was unsettling, but at least at first, her strange demeanor hadn’t been what bothered Dr. Gallagher. Instead, what troubled him was the fact that Father Jacques had brought Julia to his home at all. Typically, he would meet with the priest’s referrals by appointment only. So for him to arrive with Julia unannounced in the early hours of the morning, well Julia’s case must have been a pressing matter.
"This is Julia," the priest told Gallagher. "She has something to confess."
That’s when the doctor turned his attention back to the woman who was now all but glaring in his direction. And honestly, her confession made his blood run cold.
"How’d you like those cats last night?"
In Dr. Gallagher’s own words, that moment on his front doorstep was the first time he had questioned his working relationship with Father Jacques. And if we’re being honest, it was also the first time he found himself considering the possibility of otherworldly forces having been at work.
I mean, how else would you explain why Julia knew about the previous night’s disturbances? Not to mention that, at least in Dr. Gallagher’s professional opinion, it didn’t seem like Julia was suffering from any sort of psychological distress. Meaning that whatever she was going through, hadn’t been an affliction of the mind.
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Perhaps it was for that reason that the church ultimately approved Julia’s exorcism. So on an expectedly warm afternoon in June, after months of preparation, blessings, and a few minor rites, Dr. Gallagher, Father Jacques, and a number of other clergymen met to rid Julia of her demons once and for all.
Despite the summer heat, the room was rather cool as they began preparing for the exorcism. It was a temperature that Dr. Gallagher described as distinctly frigid.
Now as a quick aside here, it’s worth mentioning that ambient temperature does often play a role when it comes to paranormal activity. The idea being that the drastic changes in energy will cause the temperature of a room to shift ever so slightly in the presence of a spirit.
So they say, temperatures will drop when a positive entity is present. Whereas temperatures rise upon the arrival of a negative one. Which, of course, brings us back to the afternoon of Julia’s exorcism.
As I said, it was painstakingly cold in the room prior to the rites being administered. But over the course of the next several hours, during which Julie thrashed about under the confines of her restraints and the scrutiny of the clergy’s prayer, a curious thing happened. The temperature in the room began to rise to a sweltering heat—almost as if someone or something was trying to force the exorcists from the room.
As bewildering as it was, the aggressive heat wasn’t the only threat to Dr. Gallagher and the rest of the team that fateful afternoon. In fact, throughout the course of this months-long ordeal, Gallagher, Jacques, and various other members of the team experienced inexplicably menacing phenomena.
On one occasion, for instance, the priest and Dr. Gallagher had been discussing Julia’s upcoming exorcism over the phone when seemingly out of nowhere a third voice came onto the line. It was threatening and vile—even going as far as to curse at Jacques, telling him that Julia belonged to them.
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A similar incident unfolded sometime later during one of the team’s many attempts to exorcise Julia’s demons. Once again a foul voice echoed through the room to the amazed fright of the entire team. Although what was even stranger was that this voice seemed to fall from Julia’s mouth.
As it continued, the group was horrified to find that this puppeteer had Julia speaking in tongues. Between Spanish and Latin, Julia had seemingly become fluent in various languages within a matter of moments, and all the while she referred to herself in the third person.
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Beyond that, Julia seemed to display inhuman if even telekinetic abilities throughout each of these rights. For example, it was customary for Julia’s limbs to be restrained during the rite of exorcism. And yet, on a few occasions, she had escaped the grasp of several fully grown men while an array of items, books, wall hangings, and other trinkets, flew about the room of their own will.
Oh and if that wasn’t chilling enough, then I should tell you that, at least in one instance, Julia did the impossible. Even in spite of the will of man and the laws of physics, Julia actually managed to levitate from the ground right before Dr. Gallagher’s eyes.
I can imagine that would have been the point when any of Dr. Gallagher’s reservations would have been deserted. I mean how could you argue anything other than demonic possession when your patient was floating clear above your head?
But the story itself is a little hard to believe, especially considering that none of us were there to witness such fantastically frightening feats. So as we bring this episode to a close, I think it’s only right to present the skeptic's side of the argument.
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If you’ve been listening closely, you might have noted that some if not many of Julia’s symptoms mimicked that of extreme psychiatric distress. One of my sources, for instance, presented the idea that Julia had actually been suffering from dissociative identity disorder.
Being that she referred in the third person throughout each of her exorcisms coupled with the fact that she was speaking in a variety of tones and voices, well you have to admit this theory does sort of make sense. Although that doesn’t explain how the woman was speaking in languages she didn’t know. Nor did it take into account the fact that Julia seemed to know things about people whom she had never met.
In fact, on several occasions, Julia made somewhat threatening references to the family members of those present for her exorcism. Making mention of personal milestones, terminal illness, and even one individual’s death, Julia just understood things that she couldn’t have been aware of on her own.
It was bizarre, frightening, dear I say it, impossible. But what really gets me about this entire story once again brings us back to a pair of cats.
You see, a team member who had traveled from his home out of state received a rather threatening message from Julia as he assisted with these rites. Evidently, she told him that his pets—two house cats, as it just so happened—had gotten into a scuffle at the man’s home miles away.
At least in the moment, I’m sure the man had written off the warning. Just as Gallagher himself had a few weeks prior. Although, by the time he had returned home the following day, he discovered that his cats had, in fact, been in a bit of a brawl.
The news came as a bit of a shock to the rest of the team, especially to our dear old friend Dr. Richard Gallagher. I mean, after all, if that isn’t enough to take a skeptic and make him a believer then I don’t know if anything could.
Sources
https://www.amazon.com/Demonic-Foes-Psychiatrist-Investigates-Possessions/dp/0062876473