Harry Coumnas Was Convinced That He Was Possessed by Demons

Born in the 1970s in North Carolina, Harry Coumnas was extremely religious and a devote Catholic who would attend mass twice a week. Things took a strange turn, however, when he was 16 after he experienced a black out at the school and started walking around in a dazed state. After he continued to experience similar episodes and a series of body compulsions, he was finally taken to a doctor where he was diagnosed with temporal lobe epilepsy.

The doctor explained how Harry Coumnas’ condition is marked by seizures, loss of memory, hallucinations, and could also cause Geschwind syndrome which can further lead to hyper religiosity. Even though Harry took a series of medications to keep this medical condition at bay, nothing seemed to help and a little later, he even began to see and hear a devil telling him all kinds of mean things. He soon reached out to the priests after he was convinced of being possessed by demons. After being shunned by the priests initially, the kindest one of those stepped up and got a local bishop to perform exorcisms.

Surprisingly, more than 60 exorcisms were conducted on Harry Coumnas over a period of ten months and in some of those sessions, he even revealed the names of the demons his soul was possessed by. During this tenure, his body began to physically deteriorate. He stopped eating and ended up breaking his bones from excessive prayer. Eventually, he breathed his last soon after as he died from malnutrition and dehydration.

Notably, Harry’s parents as well as the priests were both charged with negligent homicide for the death of the seventeen years old. Even though they were all found guilty, none of them had to go to the prison.