4 ms·
Historic Hysteria: The Dancing Plague of 1518
- Beggers1960 6y agoA pretty crazy story here about the town of Strasbourgh in modern-day France. Towns folk basically went crazy and literally danced and contorted themselves to exhaustion and death. Upon reading deeper into this it seems that many of them may have been affected by psychedelic mould found on crops. Absolutely wild.
- tabtab 6y agoToday we call that the Burning Man event.
- salvager 6y agoPeople in the 16th century were very spiritual and we see on many occasions that superstition can lead to hysteria, unrest, and even violence. Historian John Waller hypothesises that whilst in a distressed psychological state, the people of Strasbourg may have entered a trance. Thereafter, the issue was exacerbated by the superstitious nature of their neighbours and peers. This reminds me of this incident happened a week ago in India in which educated parents entered trance state and killed their daughters https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/andhra-pradesh/parents-held-for-double-murder-in-ap/article33670152.ece https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/andhra-pradesh/parent...
- Beggers1960 6y agoThat's fascinating. Quite remarkable how humans react in situations of extreme stress, especially in a social context. The spiritual aspect of the Strasbourg incident is a common recurring theme it seems.
- salvager 6y agoYeah, it’s quite strange. Everyone is surprised because the parents in above incident have high education and they run a school together