Collective Delusions
First off, I’ve got to apologize for two things. Thing One: I’m sorry the cicada videos are not uploading correctly. I’m not with my usual computer, and the computers I am with do not seem to be very interested in cooperating. Perhaps they’re not into bugs.
Thing two: I apologize if you are seeing gigantic versions of my pictures. I plan to remedy the situation, once I’m back with my usual computer. I’m not even gonna mess with them with these other, bug-fearing PCs.
Now, on to today’s topic - collective delusions!
Here’s how skeptically.org defines collective delusions: “Collective delusions are typified as the spontaneous, rapid spread of false or exaggerated beliefs within a population at large, temporarily affecting a particular region, culture, or country.”
The site goes on to list several collective delusion events throughout history. In the Middle Ages, French nuns meowing like cats for hours, each and every day. Nuns in Germany biting each other, the problem spreading from convent to convent (seems like the nuns are into collective delusions). A phantom anesthetist in Matoon, Illinois, in the 1940’s (I wouldn’t mind having a phantom anesthetist around). The Salem witch trials. Chupacabras.
According to this essay on the Seattle Windshield Pitting Epidemic of 1954, collective delusions tend to have many of the following factors in common: “ambiguity, the spread of rumors and false but plausible beliefs, mass media influence, recent geo-political events, and the reinforcement of false beliefs by authority figures…”
My favorite of the bunch is the Nigerian Genitalia Vanishing Epidemic of 1990. According to skeptically.org:
“During 1990, an episode of ‘vanishing’ genitalia caused widespread fear across Nigeria. Native psychiatrist Sunny Ilechukwu said that most reports of attacks involved male victims. Accusations were usually triggered by incidental body contact with a stranger in a public place, after which the ‘victim’ would feel strange scrotum sensations and grab their genitals to confirm that they were still there. Then they would confront the person as a crowd would gather, accusing them of being a genital thief, before stripping naked to convince bystanders that their penis was really missing. Many ‘victims’ claimed that the penis had been returned once the alarm had been raised or that, although the penis was now back, ‘it was shrunken and so probably a ‘wrong’ one or just the ghost of a penis.’ The accused was often threatened or beaten until the penis had been ‘fully restored,’ and in some instances, the accused was beaten to death.
Wow. Exciting stuff, no?
I stumbled upon this whole collective delusion deal while checking for any recent Morgellons developments.
Let’s talk about mass hysteria tomorrow, no? For now, I must get to sleep. I want to be well rested, so that I can better keep my wits about me and avoid falling into the pull of any collective delusions that might be going around.
collective delusions, morgellons, Seattle windshield pitting epidemic, nuns, vanishing genitalia
