Boy who inspired The Exorcist became a NASA engineer, said he faked it

[zep73]

The secret identity of the boy, who experienced the real life events inspiring the infamous movie, has been revealed. His name was Ronald Edwin Hunkeler, and he eventually became a NASA engineer, famous for inventing "space shuttle panels resistant to extreme heat, helping the Apollo missions of the 1960s that put US astronauts on the moon in 1969."

Hunkeler himself denied anything supernatural had happened to him as a boy:

Quote

According to Hunkeler’s companion, the man himself never believed that he was the victim of satanic possession and he shunned religion.

“He said he wasn’t possessed, it was all concocted,” said the companion. “He said, ‘I was just a bad boy.'”

Full Monty: https://nypost.com/2021/12/20/is-the-exorcist-a-true-story-what-happened-to-ronald-hunkeler/

 

Edited December 23, 2021 by zep73

[zep73]

On 12/23/2021 at 7:36 PM, zep73 said:

famous for inventing "space shuttle panels resistant to extreme heat, helping the Apollo missions of the 1960s that put US astronauts on the moon in 1969."

I managed to find it on NASA's website

https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/20100035762/downloads/20100035762.pdf

[moonman]

It's surprising how quiet this topic is. The biggest, most publicized "possession" was a fake all along, and not a peep from anyone.

The same guy invented the heat tiles on the shuttle - that's crazy. This guy is a space AND paranormal celebrity.

Edited January 10 by moonman

[Abramelin]

4 minutes ago, moonman said:

It's surprising how quiet this topic is. The biggest, most publicized "possession" was a fake all along, and not a peep from anyone.

The same guy invented the heat tiles on the shuttle - that's crazy. This guy is a space AND paranormal celebrity.

You expected he would have said it all really happened?

I'm not suggesting that it all was a real event, just that it is not a thing to publicly announce that he once believed it really happened.

Imagine, your safety in space is in the hands of someone who had been exorcised...

[moonman]

2 hours ago, Abramelin said:

You expected he would have said it all really happened?

I'm not suggesting that it all was a real event, just that it is not a thing to publicly announce that he once believed it really happened.

Imagine, your safety in space is in the hands of someone who had been exorcised...

His partner said that's what he always claimed, so I would assume that to be true, yes. It wasn't admitting anything publicly, somebody else dug it all up.

The heat tiles are long proven to work, it doesn't matter who invented them at this point.

Edited January 10 by moonman

[little_dreamer]

Thanks for the article.  It's just one of many well known cases from decades ago that have gone from paranormal to non-paranormal origin.