Can't get a Catholic exorcism in Kansas City? James Vivian is here to help

"I have been explicitly told not to give out this man's identity and information because of the large number of people who think they're demonically possessed," Monsignor Bradley Offutt tells The Pitch. "He's a good man who wants to help, but if he gets 500 calls a week, he can't begin to live and do his job."

"In the vast, vast majority of cases, these people are suffering mental illness," Offutt says of the troubled souls who seek a Catholic exorcism in Kansas City. "I can't say over the phone, 'Have you taken your medicine today?' but I will ask if they're under the care of a physician because we need to go that route first."

Even if a caller is able to get a consultation with the exorcist, the church may demand further psychological and medical tests. If doctors find the exorcism candidate to be in good health, the church has additional benchmarks for possession, such as speaking in a dead language, demonstrating superhuman strength or performing impossible contortions.

"These things do happen, but it is extraordinarily rare to see a case of legitimate demonic possession," Offutt says. "I've been a priest for 22 years. I can say it does happen, but I've never personally seen one."

The Catholic review process can go on for months. Meanwhile, there's been a surge in Pentecostals willing to face the devil.

"I used to get a few calls a month, mostly from people who weren't Catholic," Offutt says. "In the last few months, I haven't had any. I have a feeling it's because of people like this [Vivian]. People are stepping into the void."

Vivian can handle the problem much more quickly, but he needs help.

On a day in early March, Vivian has rented out a conference room at a mall in Wichita.

He's expecting to meet a small group of people who want to be trained to expel dark spirits. Six people are here now. One is Etta, who had a warlock problem until she met Vivian. (Vivian suspects that his spells were responsible for Etta's recent fertility after years of failed attempts at conception. "Her son looks just like the warlock," he says.) Among the three other women are a local preacher and a woman in a leopard-print blouse with a piled-up hairdo, who doesn't speak during the class. There's also a couple Vivian has met before, with concerns about what might be living in them: Mario is a one-time boxer who could have protected himself better (his right eye is dead and milky white after too many punches caused a detached retina, and his flattened nose curves lazily into a center dent); his girlfriend Linda's mother won't stop playing with tarot cards.

Vivian never charges for an exorcism, and he's not charging anyone here to learn how to perform one. He lives off Social Security.

They're sitting at three tables arranged in a horseshoe, leaving space for Vivian to work in the center of the room.

On a large television screen in the front of the room, Vivian plays videos of Larson expelling demons.

In one video, a Satanist throws up a devil's-horn sign before Larson forces her to say she loves Jesus, then she acts like she has no idea how she got there. In another, a woman is identified as being possessed by a snake demon after flicking out her tongue like a bratty child.

There are specific steps when doing this work, and after 500 exorcisms, Vivian still won't do an exorcism without a worksheet in front of him to make sure he doesn't get lost. First, he has to take the case history so he knows how the devil got inside the person. Even an innocent person might have a great-uncle who performed a blood sacrifice and cursed the family. Then Vivian has to get the subject to renounce curses and sins. He cuts off witchcraft ties by using his Bible as a sword. Finally, Vivian tells the demon to come out and confront him so that he can make it admit it has no legal claim to be there and get it to leave.

Wanting the students to practice on him, Vivian pretends to be possessed.

Linda tries and fumbles through her lines, losing her place on the worksheet when Vivian's demonic character challenges her. He's a patient teacher, though.

"Just don't get drawn into a conversation with it," he tells her. "That's the biggest mistake you can make."