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Mass hysteria is a psychological condition that has been recorded since the Middle Ages. Factors like political instability, environmental stress, the fear of the unknown, and the desire for social acceptance can trigger irrational behavior. Over time, tightly-knit groups, such as schools and small communities, have witnessed strange episodes of mass hysteria.
Often, an isolated strange event with a rational explanation has grown into a widespread panic, where nearby individuals believe they are sharing the same symptoms. From erratic actions to phantom illnesses, numerous mass hysteria outbreaks have occurred throughout history.
10. The Dancing Plague of 1518
We've all been tempted to dance endlessly during a night out, but in the Middle Ages, the residents of a French town experienced an extreme case of dancing to the point of death.
In 1518, a dancing plague struck Strasbourg, in the Alsace region of France. What began with a single dancer soon escalated, leading over 400 people to take to the streets, dancing nonstop for days. Many collapsed from exhaustion, and some reportedly died from heart attacks or strokes. The plague persisted for more than a month, with the majority of those affected being women. Little historical documentation exists to explain the exact cause of the outbreak.
The town leaders were not pleased by the relentless dancing. Physicians of the time proposed that the cause was 'overheated blood' in the brain due to the hot July weather. More recently, it has been speculated that a fungus called ergot, which infected the local wheat (and thus the bread people ate), may have triggered the bizarre symptoms. The effects of ergot are similar to those of LSD.
9. The Tanganyika Laughing Epidemic
In 1962, three students at a boarding school in Tanganyika (now Tanzania) began laughing uncontrollably. Their laughter quickly became contagious, spreading to 95 students at the school.
Episodes of uncontrollable hysteria lasted anywhere from a few hours to over two weeks. Those affected also experienced periods of crying, pain, and fainting. Teachers were unable to continue lessons due to the bursts of hysterical laughter, leading to the school being closed for two months while the epidemic was contained.
The hysteria eventually spread to nearby villages and several other schools. In total, over 1,000 individuals were impacted by the outbreak.
Possible toxins from contaminated food or chemicals were ruled out as the source of the epidemic. No clear medical explanation was found for the laughing disease, which was ultimately attributed to the stress caused by the strict boarding school environment.
8. The Mad Gasser
During World War II, the residents of Mattoon, Illinois, became convinced that they were under attack by a mysterious anesthetist attempting to gas them while they slept. Victims reported a strange odor in their homes before experiencing symptoms such as paralysis, coughing, nausea, and vomiting.
The first incident was reported in late August 1944 when a resident woke up to a strange odor and experienced nausea and vomiting. His wife became paralyzed and unable to leave her bed. Over the next two weeks, police received more than 20 similar reports of 'gassings.' Panic spread as these nightly 'gassings' increased, but no definite sighting of the culprit ever occurred.
All victims made full and swift recoveries. Investigators attributed the incidents to a combination of smells from a nearby industrial plant and mass hysteria triggered by rumors of a nighttime prowler.
7. The Meowing Nuns
During the 15th century, nuns in religious orders across France and Germany began exhibiting strange behaviors. Many women entered convents against their will, forced into lives of celibacy and poverty by their families. Condemned to lives of austerity and manual labor, it’s not surprising that some convent inhabitants displayed bizarre behaviors.
In 1491, a nun at a large convent in France started meowing like a cat. Soon, her fellow nuns followed suit, and the entire convent was overtaken by a 'cat imitation' epidemic. The nearby villagers were disturbed by the constant meowing, to the point that a platoon of soldiers was stationed outside the convent. The nuns were warned they would be beaten with rods if they continued meowing.
Numerous convents across the region reported similar outbreaks of nuns mimicking cats, dogs, and birds, along with biting aggressively. At the time, 'demonic possession' was considered the cause of these episodes. However, it is more likely that the harsh conditions in which the nuns lived triggered a form of mass hysteria.
6. The Strawberries With Sugar Virus
In 2006, more than 300 schoolchildren in Portugal were struck by a mysterious illness. The children reported symptoms such as dizziness, difficulty breathing, and rashes. This strange condition affected only schoolchildren and was reported in multiple schools across the country.
A teen soap opera named Strawberries with Sugar was later identified as the source of the problem. An episode had aired just days before the outbreak, in which a strange virus afflicted children at the show's fictional school. Apparently, watching the episode led the children to believe that their minor ailments or allergies were part of the deadly virus outbreak they had seen on TV.
5. Meissen Trembling Disease
In 1905, several schools in Germany were struck by an epidemic of trembling. The outbreak began when a student in Meissen started twitching and trembling as she wrote in October of that year. By May of the following year, more than 200 students in nearby schools had been affected by the mysterious twitching disease. The tremors only appeared when the students were tasked with writing and did not occur during other activities.
All of the affected students were high achievers, suggesting that the pressure to maintain good grades, combined with reports of similar cases of the trembling condition, contributed to the mass hysteria. The students were 'treated' with electric shocks in an attempt to 'cure' the tremors, which eventually stopped after the students took a break from writing.
4. The Hollinwell Incident
In July 1986, a group of schoolchildren in England’s East Midlands experienced an outbreak of swooning.
Over 500 schoolchildren had gathered from all over to take part in a marching band competition. As they were preparing to perform, something strange happened – they began to collapse. By the end of the event, about 300 children and adults had fallen at the Hollinwell showground. Panic swept through the crowd, and emergency responders were called to handle the growing crisis.
Those affected later reported symptoms such as a sore throat and a burning sensation in their eyes. Initial investigations pointed to a possible gas leak or contamination from crop dusting as potential causes for the mass fainting. However, the official explanation attributed the incident to mass hysteria, likely triggered by exhaustion from the long trip to the contest, the sweltering heat, and the stress of preperformance nerves.
3. The Face-Scratcher
In undereducated communities, people often turn to folklore and myth to explain the unknown. In a town in Uttar Pradesh, a belief emerged that aliens were responsible for scratching people's faces at night, sparking widespread panic.
In 2002, locals began reporting sightings of a 'brightly lit object' that 'flies sideways' and attacks victims, leaving scratch marks on their faces. Descriptions varied from football-sized objects to UFOs as large as a tortoise, all allegedly responsible for leaving scratches and burn marks on the victims.
What began as an isolated incident quickly turned into a widespread panic as rumors of the alien attacker spread. Nighttime vigilante groups were organized to fend off the alleged face-scratcher, and residents demanded that the police capture the extraterrestrial assailants. The only confirmed casualties, however, were the result of police firing into large crowds of protesters who had gathered to demand action.
Theories explaining the phenomenon ranged from an insect plague to 'lightning balls' striking victims as they slept outdoors. The face-scratcher mysteriously vanished when the monsoon season arrived.
2. The Wurzburg Screaming Epidemic
In 1749, a nunnery in Wurzburg, Germany, experienced an outbreak of screaming hysteria. Similar to the earlier case of meowing nuns, this epidemic was likely fueled by a combination of boredom and the frustrations of forced religious life.
Sister Maria Renata, the sub-prioress, initially refused to admit a young woman prone to convulsions into the convent. However, her decision was overruled, and soon other sisters began mimicking the young woman’s behavior, exhibiting signs of 'demonic possession' during religious services. The affected nuns experienced episodes of screaming, convulsing, foaming at the mouth, and falling into a trance-like state.
Under duress, the sub-prioress confessed to witchcraft and was executed by beheading for her supposed offenses against the Church, effectively putting an end to the disturbing screaming episodes among the other nuns.
1. Blackburn Faintings
In 1965, a bizarre fainting epidemic struck schoolchildren in Blackburn, a town in the UK, lasting for several days.
The fainting incident began as the crowd waited for Princess Margaret’s arrival outside Blackburn Cathedral, where she was scheduled to officially open the restorations. The long wait in the hot sun was initially blamed, with 140 children collapsing during the event.
The next day, another 98 students fell victim to the unexplained fainting epidemic at a nearby school. By the week’s end, more than 300 children had been affected by the mysterious episode.
The affected schools were closed and thoroughly examined for potential causes, with initial suspicion falling on fumes from a nearby factory. However, it was ultimately concluded that the fainting was triggered by mass hysteria and overbreathing, brought on by the overwhelming excitement of the royal visit.
