A board-certified psychiatrist documents a case of demonic possession that offers hard evidence the phenomenon is real. Richard E. Gallagher, M.D., a board-certified psychiatrist in private practice in Hawthorne, New York, and associate professor of clinical psychiatry at New York Medical College, presents the evidence in a lengthy article in the February issue of New Oxford Review, SpiritDaily.com reported Wednesday.

Dr. Gallagher is also on the faculties of the Columbia University Psychoanalytic Institute and a Roman Catholic seminary. He is the only U.S. psychiatrist to have been a consistent delegate to the International Association of Exorcists and has addressed its plenary session.

In the article, entitled "A Case of Demonic Possession," he documents the case of a former satanist who had an exorcism performed by four priests, a deacon and two nuns. He details bizarre voices issuing from the woman hurling vicious epithets and vulgarity, her violent reaction to holy water but not to regular water introduced surreptitiously, and paranormal phenomena, such as objects flying off shelves around her.

There were also instances when the demonic voice interrupted phone conversations even though the woman was nowhere around. She also levitated half a foot in the air for 30 minutes and knew intimate personal details of those around her that she could not have known, Gallagher writes.