Slaughter of 3 years old during “exorcism”

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Pictured above is 3-year-old Arely Naomi Proctor.

She was tortured to death by her grandfather, uncle, and mother. Convinced that she had demons, they inflicted a truly horrendous 12 hour religious ritual that would supposedly free her, but they ended up slaughtering her in a gruesome and hideous manner.

Arely died on Sept. 24, 2021, inside a small Pentecostal church, Iglesia Apostoles y Profetas, San Jose

I did previously write about her case back in May of last year because all the details had then emerged … https://medium.com/science-and-critical-thinking/3-year-old-girl-killed-in-exorcism-db7b20d9e0ea

This is an update. What is now happening is that the Grandfather, Uncle, and Mother were in court for a preliminary hearing March 19, 2024. Here prosecutors outlined their case against the family. Cameras were not permitted in the court for this hearing, but below is an image (via a screenshot from an NBC news clip) for an earlier hearing …

The case against all three, the Grandfather, Uncle and mother, has been merged into one by the Santa Clara County District Attorney. This is because they were all together in the church the night Arely died during their bizarre religious ritual. If convicted, they could face life in prison.

The details are utterly repugnant. Dr. Michelle Jorden, the South Bay coroner testified as follows …

Jorden recalled the autopsy she performed on Arely after police were called to the church and found the child dead. She testified to finding bruising and markings on the child’s neck, numerous burst blood vessels and brain swelling that were all indicative of asphyxiation.

Arely also had injuries in her mouth indicating that she had severely bit her tongue and had marks on her gumline from being violently shaken. Jorden recounted documenting bruising and abrasions on the child’s face, and bruises all over her torso.

Another injury that the girl suffered — one that wasn’t previously widely known — was a tear in her aorta on the right side of her heart. Jorden stated several times throughout her testimony that Arely’s injuries were consistent “with one being smothered” and “with when someone died of asphyxiation.”

In response to questioning from defense attorney Dana Fite — who is representing the victim’s grandfather — Jorden said there was no realistic scenario in which the child could have died innocuously, and recited the technical definition of homicide in her answer: “This was a child that died at the hands of another.”

We also know …

Arely was subjected to more than 12 hours of physical abuse that included being “strangled multiple times to the point of unconsciousness,” having “fingers shoved down her throat to the point she had multiple injuries to her mouth and to her tongue, and she had pressure put on her body, on her torso from the front and back.”

As for how the mother, Claudia, feels about it all, we also know that via clips she recorded. In a video dated Jan 2022, she says …

“God took her, It’s many reasons why God took her. At least she’s not suffering. That’s what I’m thankful for … that she’s not going to grow up in a world we live in. She’s in a better place. God knows why he allowed these things.”

FFS … no God did not take her, she was murdered by her utterly delusional family of religious fanatics who were convinced she had demons because the three years old did not sleep at night.

Let’s make something very very clear

Demons do not exist. Yes, lots of religious people believe in them, but the actual objective evidence for the reality of demons is exactly zero.

“but I’ve seen …“

No stop, seriously just stop.

Your brain creates a model, an interpretation, of the sensory input it receives. If you believe in spirits and demons, then the wholly subjective interpretation of events in the world around you by your brain will contain spirits and demons.

Things do sometimes go wrong within our brains. As our knowledge grows, we are gaining a better understanding of what is actually going on. Tragically people are still being subjected to horrific religious exorcism ordeals: starvation, burning, chaining, beating, and death. I’m not even talking about a mental health issue. Stubborn children or women can be called witches or declared possessed then end up being tortured with exorcisms.

Ignorance breeds fear. Fear leads to a commitment to even more ignorance.

“Symptoms” of demons, such as throwing up, anger fits, or even visions, can occur when someone has an epilepsy/seizure disorder. A seizure is basically a sort of “electrical storm” passing through the brain and not a spirit.

Anneliese Michel

What has happened to Arely is a recurring theme.

A rather famous example concerns a German girl named Anneliese Michel (that’s her pictured above). She tragically died in 1976 after having endured 67 Catholic exorcism rites during the year prior to her death.

“Demons” was the “solution” embraced by both deeply religious her parents and also her Catholic priest.

The truth was that she had epileptic psychosis (temporal lobe epilepsy). What really did not help at all is that she had also had a very strict religious upbringing. It was the combination of this superstitious belief with her epilepsy that was to prove to be so fatally toxic.

After taking medications for several years that proved to be ineffective, her parents instead turned to the Catholic Church. Once the church had agreed to do an exorcism and a local Bishop had approved this, the parents stopped consulting doctors.

Due to her condition Anneliese simply stopped eating and so she ended up dying of malnourishment and dehydration. You will not be surprised to discover that both of her parents and also two Catholic Priests were found guilty of negligent homicide and sentenced to jail.

As a quick bit of PR, a few years after it all, the Catholic Bishops declared “Oops sorry, she was not actually possessed after all, it really was a medical issue“.

But I’ve seen the Movie

I really should not have to tell you this, but when they say “based upon a true story” or similar, then please take that with a huge mountain of salt. Take for example the recent 2023 movie “The Popes Exorcist” (yes, I’ve seen it, its fun, but is just 6.1 on IMDB). It is supposedly based upon Father Gabriele Amorth, who in real life was a deeply eccentric priest and exorcist who often made utterly absurd claims. For example he claimed he had done at least 60,000 exorcisms.

If you are seriously concerned about demons impacting yourself or others, you do not need a priest or a cleric, but rather a medical professional.

“But but but, I’ve been told …“

Seriously just stop.

  • People do tell lies about what they have seen
  • People do exaggerate about what they have seen
  • People do misremember what they have seen
  • People with mental illnesses or mental disabilities do behave in strange ways
  • People do also behave in strange ways after taking drugs
  • People do work themselves into religious frenzies
  • People do also choose to hoax others with demon claims in order to gain influence, power, or simply for financial gain by basically conning people into the belief so that the hoaxer can, for a donation, supposedly do a “cure”.

Your best play when faced with such stuff is to be deeply deeply skeptical.

Human beings do suffer from things that would in the past have been identified as demons. In every case of supposed possession, you will discover that we now do have a far better understanding of what is actually happening. Specifically, …

No modern doctor (except perhaps a deeply religious one) would seriously diagnose “demons”. This is not because they refuse to recognise the “truth”, but instead because there are far better explanations.

One Last Thought

Think about 3 year old Arely and then carve this into stone – When you embrace ideas that are simply not true, then regardless of the depth of your sincerity, there may be huge negative consequences for yourself and others.

Strive to embrace as many true things as possible and to reject and many false things as possible.

Further Reading

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