The Spectacular Life of Donald Omand, Exorcist Extraordinaire
Dark Histories
Performing the Bermuda Triangle ritual
Ben Cutmore describes Oment's 1978 balcony ceremony, coordinated prayers, and his confident sense of success.
When one thinks of exorcisms, it’s hard to get past the infamous imagery published to the world in 1973, of a young girl, floating above a bed, flanked by two priests, flinging holy water and yelling about the power of Christ. At the same time as the Exorcist movie was hitting the cinemas, however, there was one, real life exorcist doing very different work. With several decades of banishing evil under his belt, he was taking on far bigger tasks, with vampires, the Loch Ness Monster and even the Bermuda Triangle all within his sights.
SOURCES
Ewing, William (1914) Annals of the Free Church of Scotland, 1843-1900. T&T Clark, Edinburgh, UK.
Omand, Donald (1970) Experiences of a Present Day Exorcist. Harper Collins, London, UK.
Alexander, Marc (1981) The Devil Hunter: The Incredible Account of the Work of a Modern Day Exorcist. Sphere, London, UK.
Alexander, Marc (1980) The Man Who Exorcised the Bermuda Triangle. A.S Barnes, New York, USA.
Young, Francis (2018) A History of Anglican Exorcism: Deliverance & Demonology in Church Ritual. I.B. Taurus & Co., London, UK.
Underwood, Peter (1990) Exorcism! Robert Hale Ltd, London, UK.
The Sunday Mirror (1977) The Devil Hunter. The Sunday Mirror, Sun 20 Nov 1977, p10, London, UK.
BBC Archive (2024) 1973: EXORCISING the LOCH NESS MONSTER | Nationwide | Weird and Wonderful | BBC Archive. Youtube, https://youtu.be/BNZ1dNWMh7c?si=FB6dipQ_oWTU3CeJ
Miami Herald (1950) Sea's Puzzles Still Baffle Men In Pushbutton Age. The Miami Herald, Sun 17 Sep 1950, p6, Miami, USA.
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Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017
Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.
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