1 00:00:03,120 --> 00:00:06,000 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Flow Your Mind from how Stuff 2 00:00:06,000 --> 00:00:13,720 Speaker 1: Works dot com. Hey everyone, welcome to Stuff to Blow 3 00:00:13,800 --> 00:00:16,800 Speaker 1: your Mind. My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Julie A. Dougmax. 4 00:00:17,360 --> 00:00:20,079 Speaker 1: And in today's episode, first of all, we want to 5 00:00:20,120 --> 00:00:25,560 Speaker 1: take you back in nineteen okay, to the sleepy town 6 00:00:26,000 --> 00:00:32,920 Speaker 1: of Mattune, Illinois. All right, a prowler is terrorizing the streets. 7 00:00:33,000 --> 00:00:35,600 Speaker 1: That's what everybody's talking about, right It's it's on the 8 00:00:35,680 --> 00:00:40,800 Speaker 1: lips of victims from thirteen area homes. It's in the newspaper, 9 00:00:41,280 --> 00:00:45,080 Speaker 1: and most of the accounts are breaking down like follows. 10 00:00:45,520 --> 00:00:49,440 Speaker 1: A man in black is creeping through the night. He's 11 00:00:49,520 --> 00:00:53,480 Speaker 1: prying open windows. Perhaps perhaps you're r window right now, 12 00:00:53,880 --> 00:00:57,240 Speaker 1: and he's probably open just enough to shove the nozzle 13 00:00:57,680 --> 00:01:00,200 Speaker 1: of a gas gun in Okay, then he pulled the 14 00:01:00,240 --> 00:01:02,840 Speaker 1: trigger and he pumped your home with some sort of 15 00:01:02,840 --> 00:01:07,959 Speaker 1: a noxious paralyzing chemical, a cloud of this stuff that just, uh, 16 00:01:07,959 --> 00:01:10,280 Speaker 1: that just makes you sprawl out on the kitchen floor, 17 00:01:10,360 --> 00:01:11,680 Speaker 1: and then you can't move. All you can do is 18 00:01:11,720 --> 00:01:13,840 Speaker 1: you can you can just listen to the sound of 19 00:01:14,040 --> 00:01:18,400 Speaker 1: hopefully the prowler, the mad gasser, running off into the night, 20 00:01:18,480 --> 00:01:20,479 Speaker 1: and not say coming and trying to open your door. 21 00:01:21,360 --> 00:01:27,160 Speaker 1: And this is the subjective reality of the residence of Mattoon, Illinois. 22 00:01:28,120 --> 00:01:30,920 Speaker 1: I like this for several reasons, and one of the 23 00:01:30,959 --> 00:01:34,920 Speaker 1: reasons is that it sounds like a potential news item 24 00:01:35,200 --> 00:01:37,959 Speaker 1: for the podcast Night Veale. It does sound very night 25 00:01:39,400 --> 00:01:41,840 Speaker 1: And I love that there's this idea that there's this 26 00:01:42,000 --> 00:01:46,520 Speaker 1: marauding mad gasser. And of course this idea all started 27 00:01:46,600 --> 00:01:50,160 Speaker 1: with someone named Alice Kearney who smelled a strange gas 28 00:01:50,200 --> 00:01:53,120 Speaker 1: smell and in fact, the whole community was smelling this 29 00:01:53,240 --> 00:01:57,880 Speaker 1: weird smell and uh, she soon said that her throat 30 00:01:57,920 --> 00:02:01,040 Speaker 1: and lips were burning and she'd and to panic when 31 00:02:01,040 --> 00:02:07,560 Speaker 1: her legs became paralyzed. And this story just rippled throughout 32 00:02:07,640 --> 00:02:11,600 Speaker 1: the community, made its way to news stories, and that's 33 00:02:11,600 --> 00:02:15,720 Speaker 1: when other people began to assume the symptoms for themselves. Yeah. 34 00:02:15,720 --> 00:02:18,560 Speaker 1: So suddenly, I mean, in no time at all, you 35 00:02:18,639 --> 00:02:23,000 Speaker 1: have thirteen area homes, twenty seven different alleged victims, all 36 00:02:23,080 --> 00:02:26,320 Speaker 1: claiming the same story, and the whole time there seems 37 00:02:26,320 --> 00:02:28,880 Speaker 1: to be there's no motive that seems to be at play. 38 00:02:28,960 --> 00:02:32,520 Speaker 1: These individuals were not uh you know, the homes were 39 00:02:32,520 --> 00:02:36,440 Speaker 1: not robbed. They weren't. They weren't in any other way 40 00:02:36,720 --> 00:02:39,480 Speaker 1: of you know, violated. Though you could argue that if 41 00:02:39,520 --> 00:02:42,840 Speaker 1: someone were to pump a noxious chemical into your house 42 00:02:42,880 --> 00:02:45,560 Speaker 1: one that didn't you know that this disables your body, 43 00:02:45,600 --> 00:02:49,480 Speaker 1: even temporarily, that that's that's quite a violation. But still 44 00:02:49,480 --> 00:02:52,280 Speaker 1: this it didn't seem to make sense. Why would someone 45 00:02:52,360 --> 00:02:56,360 Speaker 1: be doing this? What possible reason? And then inevitably the 46 00:02:56,360 --> 00:03:00,440 Speaker 1: authorities look into it and nothing turns up, like, there's 47 00:03:00,480 --> 00:03:04,600 Speaker 1: like no proof. They they bring in an expert in chemicals, 48 00:03:04,639 --> 00:03:06,840 Speaker 1: and none of the none of the symptoms seem to 49 00:03:06,880 --> 00:03:12,000 Speaker 1: match up with any potential uh with most potential chemical agents. 50 00:03:12,400 --> 00:03:15,000 Speaker 1: It just all kind of falls apart, and then in 51 00:03:15,440 --> 00:03:17,320 Speaker 1: no time at all, people kind of forget about it 52 00:03:17,360 --> 00:03:19,120 Speaker 1: and they move on with their lives. But there was 53 00:03:19,200 --> 00:03:24,160 Speaker 1: this this brief period in which this person, this creature, 54 00:03:24,240 --> 00:03:28,040 Speaker 1: this whatever was real, like even if the objective reality 55 00:03:28,040 --> 00:03:31,240 Speaker 1: didn't match up, the subjective reality definitely did. And it 56 00:03:31,240 --> 00:03:33,560 Speaker 1: turns out to be one of the finer examples that 57 00:03:33,600 --> 00:03:36,920 Speaker 1: we have of mass hysteria. And that is not the 58 00:03:37,000 --> 00:03:41,760 Speaker 1: only example, especially when it comes to mysterious odors that 59 00:03:41,880 --> 00:03:44,920 Speaker 1: people smell in different communities or other examples out there, 60 00:03:44,960 --> 00:03:47,920 Speaker 1: But the fact that there was this marauding mad gasser 61 00:03:48,040 --> 00:03:51,920 Speaker 1: in this example and that so many people fell ill 62 00:03:52,560 --> 00:03:55,280 Speaker 1: makes it a stand out yea. Even though this particular 63 00:03:55,560 --> 00:03:57,960 Speaker 1: story isn't one that just gets crazy amounts of attention, 64 00:03:58,000 --> 00:03:59,400 Speaker 1: which is one of the reasons I was drawn to 65 00:03:59,400 --> 00:04:01,000 Speaker 1: it because I never heard of it before and it's 66 00:04:01,040 --> 00:04:05,040 Speaker 1: just so weird and unique. But but individuals have um 67 00:04:05,080 --> 00:04:07,680 Speaker 1: investigated it more, and some people will make more of 68 00:04:07,720 --> 00:04:11,320 Speaker 1: a uh more of a play for a hoax element, 69 00:04:11,640 --> 00:04:14,840 Speaker 1: particularly with the newspapers. Uh. And then some people some 70 00:04:14,920 --> 00:04:17,080 Speaker 1: actually make an argument that there may have been like 71 00:04:17,200 --> 00:04:20,480 Speaker 1: one mad gassing incident or two or even three that 72 00:04:20,560 --> 00:04:24,680 Speaker 1: were legitimate, but in those cases still you would have 73 00:04:25,040 --> 00:04:29,120 Speaker 1: something that spiral out of control into mass hysteria. Be 74 00:04:29,240 --> 00:04:31,479 Speaker 1: it a hoax that people believed in, which of course 75 00:04:31,520 --> 00:04:34,960 Speaker 1: instantly brings to mind, say the orson Wells a war 76 00:04:35,080 --> 00:04:37,520 Speaker 1: the world's broadcast right, where we have something that is 77 00:04:38,480 --> 00:04:42,280 Speaker 1: a hoax of fiction that people buy into and start 78 00:04:42,560 --> 00:04:46,080 Speaker 1: reacting to. Or it's a situation where it happens one 79 00:04:46,120 --> 00:04:48,919 Speaker 1: time and then everyone assumes it's happening all the time, 80 00:04:49,480 --> 00:04:51,760 Speaker 1: uh and that everyone is in danger and for that 81 00:04:51,880 --> 00:04:54,599 Speaker 1: I simply uh invite you to turn on the evening 82 00:04:54,600 --> 00:04:57,840 Speaker 1: news and you're gonna dose with that. Yeah. And I 83 00:04:57,839 --> 00:05:02,560 Speaker 1: think what's interesting about any sort of potential threat is 84 00:05:02,640 --> 00:05:06,799 Speaker 1: that there are two extreme ways in which to assess 85 00:05:06,920 --> 00:05:09,599 Speaker 1: a threat, and one is, say, the normalcy bias. And 86 00:05:09,600 --> 00:05:12,159 Speaker 1: we've talked about this before. This is the tendency for 87 00:05:12,240 --> 00:05:15,200 Speaker 1: some people to say, oh, nothing is a miss, business 88 00:05:15,200 --> 00:05:18,000 Speaker 1: as usual. There's not a crazy guy spewing chemicals into 89 00:05:18,000 --> 00:05:20,599 Speaker 1: my house through a nozzle, because that just doesn't happen, 90 00:05:20,920 --> 00:05:24,080 Speaker 1: or even like that chemical smell nothing, probably from the 91 00:05:24,160 --> 00:05:27,560 Speaker 1: banana bread. I'm bacon, right, So that's just kind of 92 00:05:27,640 --> 00:05:29,400 Speaker 1: you know, the Ostrich effect, putting your head in the 93 00:05:29,400 --> 00:05:32,000 Speaker 1: ground and and not trying to face it. Now, the 94 00:05:32,880 --> 00:05:35,880 Speaker 1: polar opposite of that would be this kind of hysteria 95 00:05:36,040 --> 00:05:40,480 Speaker 1: in which you overreact and then a panic spreads among people. 96 00:05:41,080 --> 00:05:44,320 Speaker 1: And there are countless examples of this, but we thought 97 00:05:44,320 --> 00:05:46,520 Speaker 1: we would roll out a couple to try to give 98 00:05:46,640 --> 00:05:49,920 Speaker 1: people an idea of how throughout the ages and even 99 00:05:49,960 --> 00:05:53,240 Speaker 1: in modern times, there are cultural things at work here. 100 00:05:53,279 --> 00:05:55,760 Speaker 1: There's a sort of pattern behind all of this. You 101 00:05:55,760 --> 00:05:58,560 Speaker 1: know that the first when you mentioned instantly that brings 102 00:05:58,600 --> 00:06:01,799 Speaker 1: to mind emails that you get, generally from a concerned 103 00:06:01,800 --> 00:06:06,600 Speaker 1: family member who says, I heard that someone is going 104 00:06:06,640 --> 00:06:09,159 Speaker 1: around like the kids are like. The one that I 105 00:06:09,200 --> 00:06:13,040 Speaker 1: read most recently was that if you're an egg is 106 00:06:13,080 --> 00:06:15,840 Speaker 1: thrown at your windshield, it's because it's a gag and 107 00:06:15,880 --> 00:06:17,800 Speaker 1: what they want you to do is turn on your 108 00:06:17,800 --> 00:06:21,400 Speaker 1: windshield wipers, which will then me money up your your 109 00:06:21,400 --> 00:06:23,240 Speaker 1: windshields even more and then you have to pull over. 110 00:06:23,279 --> 00:06:26,080 Speaker 1: That's when the game gets you. So so it's it's 111 00:06:26,120 --> 00:06:28,680 Speaker 1: a ridiculous idea and it's totally there's no there's no 112 00:06:28,720 --> 00:06:31,240 Speaker 1: truth to it at all. The people buy into it, 113 00:06:31,520 --> 00:06:34,479 Speaker 1: and that because they think, well, you know which side 114 00:06:34,520 --> 00:06:35,600 Speaker 1: am I going to be on? Am I gonna be 115 00:06:35,640 --> 00:06:38,680 Speaker 1: the person that didn't believe that the crazy email from 116 00:06:38,680 --> 00:06:41,600 Speaker 1: my uncle? Uh? And and then end up getting attacked 117 00:06:41,600 --> 00:06:43,240 Speaker 1: by a gang? Or am I going to believe it 118 00:06:43,320 --> 00:06:46,120 Speaker 1: and survive? Right? So right, you can go to to 119 00:06:46,400 --> 00:06:48,839 Speaker 1: one of those extremes. You can do that normal cy bias, 120 00:06:48,880 --> 00:06:50,880 Speaker 1: you can go to hysteria or hey, you could go 121 00:06:50,920 --> 00:06:53,280 Speaker 1: in the middle and really assess the threat as it is. 122 00:06:53,960 --> 00:06:57,359 Speaker 1: But um, that being said, there are plenty of instances 123 00:06:57,400 --> 00:07:02,200 Speaker 1: in which people have kind of fallen prey to that hysteria. Indeed, 124 00:07:02,200 --> 00:07:04,320 Speaker 1: and one of the best is the dancing plague or 125 00:07:04,400 --> 00:07:08,560 Speaker 1: dancing epidemic of eighteen, a time in which there was 126 00:07:08,640 --> 00:07:13,360 Speaker 1: no CNC music factory, and yet everybody danced. Now it's 127 00:07:13,440 --> 00:07:16,560 Speaker 1: no factory to turn it out. But even though there 128 00:07:16,600 --> 00:07:19,000 Speaker 1: was no CFC music factory, Uh, they had some other 129 00:07:19,040 --> 00:07:22,080 Speaker 1: things going on. They had they had the plague. Yeah, yeah, 130 00:07:22,200 --> 00:07:25,320 Speaker 1: they had they had warfare, they had starvation, they had 131 00:07:25,360 --> 00:07:29,200 Speaker 1: just every every normal extreme poverty, along with any other 132 00:07:29,960 --> 00:07:32,400 Speaker 1: daily anks that we might have in our our modern 133 00:07:32,440 --> 00:07:35,800 Speaker 1: age of of comfort. Yeah. And it turns out that 134 00:07:35,840 --> 00:07:39,560 Speaker 1: this made just contribute to the right conditions for someone 135 00:07:40,080 --> 00:07:43,280 Speaker 1: to try to unload all that stress and have their 136 00:07:43,280 --> 00:07:48,880 Speaker 1: own one woman street party. Right they started dancing. Firsts 137 00:07:48,960 --> 00:07:52,920 Speaker 1: it's one gal dancing right than somebody else. Then it's 138 00:07:53,000 --> 00:07:55,760 Speaker 1: it's two, then it's three, and it just escalates until 139 00:07:56,040 --> 00:07:59,480 Speaker 1: it's it's an epidemic. It's mania. People are dancing in 140 00:07:59,520 --> 00:08:04,320 Speaker 1: the street eats for seemingly no reason. And uh and 141 00:08:04,320 --> 00:08:06,920 Speaker 1: and and we've spent the rest of history trying to 142 00:08:06,920 --> 00:08:09,440 Speaker 1: explain why. I mean, there's been various theories that it 143 00:08:09,560 --> 00:08:11,760 Speaker 1: was that it was poisoning, that it was some sort 144 00:08:11,800 --> 00:08:15,560 Speaker 1: of toxicity or illness, but those don't really really actually 145 00:08:15,640 --> 00:08:19,840 Speaker 1: level out all that well. And John Waller, history professor 146 00:08:19,840 --> 00:08:24,040 Speaker 1: at Michigan State University UM, he argues that we're really 147 00:08:24,080 --> 00:08:27,720 Speaker 1: looking at a great classic case of math hysteria. And 148 00:08:27,840 --> 00:08:29,720 Speaker 1: key of all of this is to realize that this 149 00:08:29,800 --> 00:08:32,199 Speaker 1: didn't come out of nowhere. It's not. There was a 150 00:08:32,280 --> 00:08:35,840 Speaker 1: pre existing script for the dancing um to a large extent, 151 00:08:36,000 --> 00:08:39,319 Speaker 1: and that's because the dancing plagues, according to John Waller, 152 00:08:39,440 --> 00:08:43,600 Speaker 1: were a calling card of St. Vitus, an early Christian 153 00:08:43,600 --> 00:08:46,920 Speaker 1: martyr venerated with dance parties. So the idea is already 154 00:08:46,920 --> 00:08:49,960 Speaker 1: in the in the in everyone's heads, and then one 155 00:08:50,000 --> 00:08:52,959 Speaker 1: person starts that everyone else follows in with it. So 156 00:08:53,559 --> 00:09:00,560 Speaker 1: communities stress community and then an existing script for their behavior. Yeah, 157 00:09:00,679 --> 00:09:03,880 Speaker 1: and it was called the dancing Plague of Strasburg because 158 00:09:04,000 --> 00:09:06,079 Speaker 1: it kind of was like a plague in the sense 159 00:09:06,160 --> 00:09:10,400 Speaker 1: that it began to spread throughout the community, but not 160 00:09:10,480 --> 00:09:13,880 Speaker 1: only that people were dancing to their deaths. Now, that 161 00:09:13,960 --> 00:09:17,160 Speaker 1: wasn't too hard given the circumstances, because you know, one 162 00:09:17,160 --> 00:09:21,040 Speaker 1: person might be riddled with disease, another person was starving 163 00:09:21,080 --> 00:09:24,560 Speaker 1: to death, but they were going out dancing. Yeah, well, 164 00:09:24,559 --> 00:09:26,440 Speaker 1: that's a heck of a way to go. Why not 165 00:09:26,559 --> 00:09:28,840 Speaker 1: you're gonna you're gonna topple over into the gut or anyway, 166 00:09:29,559 --> 00:09:32,320 Speaker 1: why not do it after a lengthy about of dancing, 167 00:09:32,520 --> 00:09:35,079 Speaker 1: just tork out your existence. Yeah, And of course another 168 00:09:35,080 --> 00:09:38,120 Speaker 1: element to this too is the idea that that there 169 00:09:38,240 --> 00:09:41,280 Speaker 1: was there was a psychosomatic element here too, write that 170 00:09:41,280 --> 00:09:43,800 Speaker 1: that not only was it affecting behavior, but it was 171 00:09:43,840 --> 00:09:48,120 Speaker 1: affecting at least your perception of your your body the 172 00:09:48,120 --> 00:09:52,719 Speaker 1: way then manifesting in symptoms of the body. And we'll 173 00:09:52,720 --> 00:09:55,640 Speaker 1: get into that more as we go forward. Yeah, Now, 174 00:09:55,679 --> 00:10:00,600 Speaker 1: fast forward a bit. You've got the Salem which trials, 175 00:10:01,160 --> 00:10:03,600 Speaker 1: and you have what is more of a kind of 176 00:10:03,720 --> 00:10:08,320 Speaker 1: moral mas hysteria. And we're talking about, of course, the 177 00:10:08,360 --> 00:10:14,360 Speaker 1: group of girls who seemed to be exhibiting these demonic signs. 178 00:10:14,600 --> 00:10:20,199 Speaker 1: And in some cases, uh, these girls were wrongly convicted 179 00:10:20,320 --> 00:10:23,360 Speaker 1: of witchcraft. In other cases, there was a kind of 180 00:10:23,440 --> 00:10:28,760 Speaker 1: stress reaction to these moral underpinnings among the girls in 181 00:10:28,760 --> 00:10:32,960 Speaker 1: which they were exhibiting tick like behavior. And important here 182 00:10:33,000 --> 00:10:35,679 Speaker 1: is to is to again keep in mind stressful situation, 183 00:10:36,400 --> 00:10:42,160 Speaker 1: stressful environment and young people and a pre existing script, 184 00:10:42,480 --> 00:10:44,959 Speaker 1: because if you've listened to our past episode Hammer of 185 00:10:44,960 --> 00:10:48,679 Speaker 1: the Witches, where we went into depth about witchcraft culture 186 00:10:48,840 --> 00:10:54,959 Speaker 1: and the paranoia about witchcraft, there was very much there 187 00:10:55,040 --> 00:10:58,599 Speaker 1: was a strong script in place for witchcraft and manifestations 188 00:10:58,600 --> 00:11:02,080 Speaker 1: of witchcraft within a community, so they could easily draw 189 00:11:02,160 --> 00:11:04,920 Speaker 1: on that and everyone I knew what it was supposed 190 00:11:04,920 --> 00:11:06,800 Speaker 1: to be. Well, And I was just thinking about the 191 00:11:06,840 --> 00:11:10,200 Speaker 1: spiral of silence the last episode that we recorded in 192 00:11:10,200 --> 00:11:13,200 Speaker 1: this idea that there is a kind of silence that 193 00:11:13,240 --> 00:11:16,880 Speaker 1: settles upon the minority when the majority speaks out very strongly. 194 00:11:16,920 --> 00:11:19,880 Speaker 1: In this case, you have the majority those in power 195 00:11:19,920 --> 00:11:22,080 Speaker 1: are saying that there is witchcraft in this town. This 196 00:11:22,320 --> 00:11:26,040 Speaker 1: is going on, and authority people in the church, yeah, 197 00:11:26,320 --> 00:11:28,760 Speaker 1: you know, particularly who are saying that yes, which not 198 00:11:28,800 --> 00:11:30,720 Speaker 1: only is witchcraft a threat, but is like the big 199 00:11:30,760 --> 00:11:34,560 Speaker 1: threat today, Yeah, among our girls, and we know what's happening. 200 00:11:34,640 --> 00:11:37,640 Speaker 1: So in this weird way, it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. 201 00:11:37,679 --> 00:11:39,960 Speaker 1: I'm sure for some of these girls who say, well, 202 00:11:40,360 --> 00:11:44,719 Speaker 1: there they say that the Satan is inhabiting us, and 203 00:11:44,880 --> 00:11:49,040 Speaker 1: maybe I'm feeling Satan inhabiting myself right now. And that's 204 00:11:49,040 --> 00:11:52,400 Speaker 1: why I'm shuddering or I'm talking in voices or exhibiting 205 00:11:52,480 --> 00:11:55,959 Speaker 1: these these really aggressive ticks. All right, fast, fard once more. 206 00:11:56,040 --> 00:11:59,000 Speaker 1: The two thousand six, two thousand seven, a mysterious illness 207 00:11:59,000 --> 00:12:02,439 Speaker 1: begins to affect girls at a boarding school in Choco, Mexico, 208 00:12:02,520 --> 00:12:05,839 Speaker 1: that's near Mexico City. The school, which is run by 209 00:12:06,040 --> 00:12:09,200 Speaker 1: Roman Catholic nuns, is one of ten in Asian Latin 210 00:12:09,280 --> 00:12:12,880 Speaker 1: America operated by a charity called World Villages for Children 211 00:12:12,920 --> 00:12:15,560 Speaker 1: in Asia. The girls, aged twelve and seventeen began to 212 00:12:15,559 --> 00:12:21,640 Speaker 1: show strange symptoms that such as difficulty walking, fever, nausea 213 00:12:21,960 --> 00:12:24,160 Speaker 1: and UH. After the girl and this was after a 214 00:12:24,200 --> 00:12:27,640 Speaker 1: girl's returned from a ten day Christmas break, the ills, 215 00:12:27,679 --> 00:12:30,720 Speaker 1: this illness spreads even more so eventually six hundred out 216 00:12:30,720 --> 00:12:34,560 Speaker 1: of the thirty d girls at the school showed these symptoms. 217 00:12:34,640 --> 00:12:36,920 Speaker 1: And you know, the doctors are looking into it, and 218 00:12:36,960 --> 00:12:39,040 Speaker 1: no one can figure out what exactly going on. You know, 219 00:12:39,080 --> 00:12:42,800 Speaker 1: you're looking for that underlying illness, that underlying environmental cause 220 00:12:42,920 --> 00:12:46,240 Speaker 1: even and nothing is popping up. So after conducting numerous 221 00:12:46,760 --> 00:12:51,320 Speaker 1: test uh surveying the facility interviewing folks trying to get 222 00:12:51,640 --> 00:12:55,280 Speaker 1: to the heart of it. Doctors decided that it was 223 00:12:55,600 --> 00:12:58,520 Speaker 1: it was all a matter of mass psychogenic disorder, which 224 00:12:58,559 --> 00:13:03,000 Speaker 1: we also call collective sterea, mass psycho somatic reaction, and 225 00:13:03,040 --> 00:13:06,720 Speaker 1: of course mass hysteria. There's not one term that we 226 00:13:06,800 --> 00:13:11,040 Speaker 1: end up using because vs M hasn't hasn't ruled on 227 00:13:11,080 --> 00:13:13,320 Speaker 1: a a P style doesn't have have one that they like, 228 00:13:13,520 --> 00:13:16,880 Speaker 1: so UH for all intens and purposes, mass hysteric. So 229 00:13:16,960 --> 00:13:20,079 Speaker 1: going back to the girls at the boarding school, consider 230 00:13:20,240 --> 00:13:25,800 Speaker 1: that these kind of symptoms spread and began after they 231 00:13:25,840 --> 00:13:29,400 Speaker 1: returned from Christmas break, because this is pretty key because 232 00:13:29,440 --> 00:13:33,280 Speaker 1: it turns out that this is a really highly structured environment, 233 00:13:33,600 --> 00:13:38,160 Speaker 1: very disciplined from regimented, and the correspondence and interaction with 234 00:13:38,240 --> 00:13:40,720 Speaker 1: parents is sparse. Their children see their parents no more 235 00:13:40,720 --> 00:13:44,160 Speaker 1: than three times a year, and these kids are returning 236 00:13:44,600 --> 00:13:46,880 Speaker 1: from having just spent time with their families, and it 237 00:13:46,960 --> 00:13:51,199 Speaker 1: kind of stress settles in again in this highly regiment regimented, 238 00:13:51,280 --> 00:13:56,160 Speaker 1: almost you know, foreign environment to them, the opposite of 239 00:13:56,200 --> 00:14:00,160 Speaker 1: what you would think of as a family supportive UH structure, 240 00:14:00,400 --> 00:14:03,080 Speaker 1: And that explains a lot of the reasons why this 241 00:14:03,720 --> 00:14:06,360 Speaker 1: These kids were reacting the way that they were, and 242 00:14:06,400 --> 00:14:10,079 Speaker 1: why it kind of spread in that manner um. Now, 243 00:14:10,080 --> 00:14:14,440 Speaker 1: I wanted to mention two quick outliers here in the 244 00:14:14,520 --> 00:14:21,000 Speaker 1: mass hysteria village. One is Pokemon. A strange and uh 245 00:14:21,160 --> 00:14:27,520 Speaker 1: seemingly inexplicable outbreak of bizarre behavior struck Japan in when 246 00:14:27,520 --> 00:14:31,800 Speaker 1: thousands of Japanese school children experienced frightening seizures after watching 247 00:14:31,840 --> 00:14:36,560 Speaker 1: an episode of Pokemon, and intense flashes of light during 248 00:14:36,560 --> 00:14:41,680 Speaker 1: the show triggered relatively harmless and brief seizures, nausea, and headaches. 249 00:14:42,040 --> 00:14:44,720 Speaker 1: And when doctors diagnosed some of the children with a 250 00:14:44,880 --> 00:14:49,080 Speaker 1: rare pre existing condition called photo sensitive epilepsy, which is 251 00:14:49,120 --> 00:14:52,000 Speaker 1: brought on by all this flashing lights, and they figured 252 00:14:52,040 --> 00:14:53,720 Speaker 1: out that you know, indeed, there was like, you know, 253 00:14:53,760 --> 00:14:57,320 Speaker 1: a couple of kids that were reacting to the show, 254 00:14:57,880 --> 00:15:03,120 Speaker 1: but the other kids there reacted, We're just simply exhibiting 255 00:15:03,200 --> 00:15:06,080 Speaker 1: signs of mass hysteria because they had heard about the 256 00:15:06,160 --> 00:15:10,360 Speaker 1: other kids who were having seizures. So since they were 257 00:15:10,400 --> 00:15:15,160 Speaker 1: copying those symptoms, but but in a more meaningful way almost, 258 00:15:15,160 --> 00:15:17,720 Speaker 1: I mean, they were kind of they were actually participating 259 00:15:17,720 --> 00:15:19,960 Speaker 1: in it. Yeah, And if you think about Pokemon and 260 00:15:20,080 --> 00:15:23,880 Speaker 1: it being such a strong cultural signifier, then it kind 261 00:15:23,880 --> 00:15:26,640 Speaker 1: of follows that, oh wow, if those kids had such 262 00:15:27,000 --> 00:15:29,360 Speaker 1: a reaction to it, maybe I would because it's there's 263 00:15:29,360 --> 00:15:32,280 Speaker 1: this is really an important cultural signifier. Well you think 264 00:15:32,640 --> 00:15:34,880 Speaker 1: you think back to Beatlemania, right, and you see those 265 00:15:35,000 --> 00:15:37,840 Speaker 1: that the footage of the girls just going completely crazy, 266 00:15:37,920 --> 00:15:41,840 Speaker 1: like screaming, mad house crazy over the Beatles, you know, 267 00:15:41,880 --> 00:15:45,080 Speaker 1: which is it can be difficult to understand, right because 268 00:15:45,080 --> 00:15:47,440 Speaker 1: I mean, the things that we love in our lives 269 00:15:47,480 --> 00:15:50,040 Speaker 1: we don't go that crazy for, or at least I 270 00:15:50,040 --> 00:15:52,080 Speaker 1: don't so. But but if you think of it from 271 00:15:52,080 --> 00:15:54,520 Speaker 1: that point of view, that like, like you know, one 272 00:15:54,800 --> 00:15:57,640 Speaker 1: one fan starts acting that way, then another and then another, 273 00:15:57,680 --> 00:15:59,840 Speaker 1: and then that is the that is the script for 274 00:16:00,000 --> 00:16:03,320 Speaker 1: how to react, and you just jump in, you join it. 275 00:16:03,320 --> 00:16:06,040 Speaker 1: It's it's parts peer pressure, it's part fitting in with 276 00:16:06,080 --> 00:16:11,080 Speaker 1: the crowd, but then it has these psychosomatic aspects as well. Yeah, 277 00:16:11,160 --> 00:16:14,800 Speaker 1: apparently the Beatles at some point um at the top 278 00:16:14,880 --> 00:16:18,080 Speaker 1: of their popularity, when when you know, girls were swooning 279 00:16:18,080 --> 00:16:21,400 Speaker 1: and painting and shouting and screaming. They said that it 280 00:16:21,480 --> 00:16:25,720 Speaker 1: became absolutely unbearable to perform because they couldn't even hear 281 00:16:25,760 --> 00:16:29,320 Speaker 1: their instruments, so they and what they were saying is 282 00:16:29,360 --> 00:16:32,760 Speaker 1: that they had become a cultural phenomenon, but not for 283 00:16:32,800 --> 00:16:37,000 Speaker 1: themselves or their artistry. And in fact, their musicianship was 284 00:16:37,040 --> 00:16:39,640 Speaker 1: all but you know, swept aside in this sea of 285 00:16:39,800 --> 00:16:43,000 Speaker 1: scream So it became about the sea of screams rather 286 00:16:43,080 --> 00:16:45,680 Speaker 1: than them. Huh. You know, I also can't help but 287 00:16:45,760 --> 00:16:50,320 Speaker 1: think about the faith based healing uh situations and uh 288 00:16:50,320 --> 00:16:52,640 Speaker 1: and particularly one. I don't know if I've mentioned this 289 00:16:52,680 --> 00:16:55,960 Speaker 1: before in the podcast, but when I was in late 290 00:16:56,000 --> 00:16:58,880 Speaker 1: high school early college, went with a friend to check 291 00:16:58,880 --> 00:17:03,160 Speaker 1: out a jerk in Huntsville, Alabama, and the they were 292 00:17:03,200 --> 00:17:06,720 Speaker 1: doing this thing where people would be healed by the pastor, 293 00:17:07,080 --> 00:17:09,720 Speaker 1: but they would they would fall to the ground and 294 00:17:09,720 --> 00:17:12,520 Speaker 1: they would laugh hysterically and they would roll around laughing, 295 00:17:12,760 --> 00:17:15,159 Speaker 1: and then they would have to bring around blankets to 296 00:17:15,160 --> 00:17:18,639 Speaker 1: put over the females because they addresses on and you know, 297 00:17:18,640 --> 00:17:20,960 Speaker 1: it's like a modesty blanket while you roll around with 298 00:17:21,000 --> 00:17:24,080 Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit rolling through you and making you laugh hysterically. 299 00:17:24,520 --> 00:17:26,360 Speaker 1: And uh. You know, I tried to figure out that 300 00:17:26,359 --> 00:17:29,000 Speaker 1: that out for a long time. But when you start 301 00:17:29,000 --> 00:17:31,399 Speaker 1: looking at it from the guise of mass hysteria. It 302 00:17:31,440 --> 00:17:33,119 Speaker 1: makes a lot more sense. Yeah, and it's kind of 303 00:17:33,119 --> 00:17:35,960 Speaker 1: speaking in tongues to the same thing is at work. 304 00:17:36,080 --> 00:17:39,440 Speaker 1: You're part of this thing, whatever it is you're engaging 305 00:17:39,480 --> 00:17:42,040 Speaker 1: in the times, in the ritual. In a ritual, as 306 00:17:42,040 --> 00:17:45,399 Speaker 1: we've discussed before, is incredibly powerful. Now, imagine being a 307 00:17:45,440 --> 00:17:49,879 Speaker 1: lonely nun in eighteen forty four. You're in a French 308 00:17:50,160 --> 00:17:53,879 Speaker 1: uh convent and I don't know, you just feel like, 309 00:17:53,920 --> 00:17:57,119 Speaker 1: you know, I like a cat. And all of a 310 00:17:57,160 --> 00:18:00,239 Speaker 1: sudden you have your fellow nuns me O I with 311 00:18:00,320 --> 00:18:04,240 Speaker 1: you every day at a certain time, for several hours together, 312 00:18:04,840 --> 00:18:09,399 Speaker 1: so much so that the neighbors began complaining that this 313 00:18:10,240 --> 00:18:14,640 Speaker 1: cavalcade of nuns me owing is driving them insane. And 314 00:18:14,760 --> 00:18:19,160 Speaker 1: here you have another lovely little case of mass hysteria, 315 00:18:19,240 --> 00:18:23,400 Speaker 1: and you have those cultural underpinnings present. In other words, 316 00:18:23,400 --> 00:18:26,280 Speaker 1: you talked about the story before, right. The story here 317 00:18:26,440 --> 00:18:30,600 Speaker 1: is that Satan sometimes can take the form of animals, 318 00:18:30,600 --> 00:18:36,760 Speaker 1: particularly cat. Right, So maybe Satan entered you and began 319 00:18:37,200 --> 00:18:39,680 Speaker 1: meowing like a cat so that you could let others 320 00:18:39,680 --> 00:18:41,520 Speaker 1: know that you are now in league with Satan and 321 00:18:41,560 --> 00:18:44,480 Speaker 1: you need help, you know, you think Satan would be 322 00:18:44,560 --> 00:18:47,360 Speaker 1: more creative when he took over a nunnery. I feel like, yeah, 323 00:18:47,480 --> 00:18:50,280 Speaker 1: I feel like the Italian films the nineties, seventies and 324 00:18:50,320 --> 00:18:54,360 Speaker 1: eighties really had more imaginative vision of this sort of thing. 325 00:18:54,440 --> 00:18:57,360 Speaker 1: But yeah, well, I mean, you know that we're talking 326 00:18:57,440 --> 00:19:01,640 Speaker 1: about some very basic folkloreic totems here, like cats, and 327 00:19:01,760 --> 00:19:05,359 Speaker 1: I mean we're again stress and anxiety and almost kind 328 00:19:05,359 --> 00:19:07,280 Speaker 1: of a release valve. Like you think of it as 329 00:19:07,320 --> 00:19:10,960 Speaker 1: the like the crack and that regimented society, and you know, 330 00:19:11,000 --> 00:19:14,520 Speaker 1: maybe there's not room for a full blown goat worshiping release, 331 00:19:14,840 --> 00:19:17,320 Speaker 1: but there's just enough room for me owing to be 332 00:19:17,400 --> 00:19:19,359 Speaker 1: the thing, and then it just catches like well, you know, 333 00:19:19,560 --> 00:19:21,960 Speaker 1: in one In some ways, it's probably a lot more 334 00:19:22,080 --> 00:19:25,080 Speaker 1: acceptable to be possessed by Satan and start me owing 335 00:19:25,200 --> 00:19:27,480 Speaker 1: like a cat rather than just being like this place 336 00:19:27,600 --> 00:19:31,600 Speaker 1: is driving me crazy. You're screaming and acting out, yeah, 337 00:19:31,640 --> 00:19:33,800 Speaker 1: because then there's something really wrong with you. But if 338 00:19:33,800 --> 00:19:36,960 Speaker 1: it's Satan, just kind of like it's like getting your 339 00:19:36,960 --> 00:19:40,520 Speaker 1: email account hacked, right, you just have to say, all right, hey, everybody, 340 00:19:40,800 --> 00:19:42,840 Speaker 1: if you've got a weird email from me yesterday, just 341 00:19:42,880 --> 00:19:46,800 Speaker 1: disregarded I was hacked by Satan. Right, Satan as a 342 00:19:46,800 --> 00:19:49,840 Speaker 1: sacrificial goat in the form of a cat. Yes. Um. 343 00:19:49,880 --> 00:19:53,880 Speaker 1: If you guys want more like full on none mass 344 00:19:53,960 --> 00:19:57,119 Speaker 1: hysteria and other tales, make sure to check out our 345 00:19:57,160 --> 00:20:00,439 Speaker 1: sister podcast If Mom never told you They're crazy? No, no, 346 00:20:00,520 --> 00:20:03,080 Speaker 1: they're not actually hysterical. They're not, And they are hysterical, 347 00:20:03,119 --> 00:20:07,320 Speaker 1: but not in that hysteria way. But their episode is 348 00:20:07,359 --> 00:20:10,440 Speaker 1: called the Mysterious Case of Convulsive Cheerleaders and they look 349 00:20:10,440 --> 00:20:13,959 Speaker 1: a little bit more into the female Factor. All Right, 350 00:20:14,040 --> 00:20:16,359 Speaker 1: we're gonna take a quick break and when we get back, 351 00:20:16,400 --> 00:20:21,320 Speaker 1: we're going to talk more about what mass tripogenic filmness is. 352 00:20:29,000 --> 00:20:32,480 Speaker 1: All right, we're back. We're talking about mass hysteria. We've 353 00:20:32,320 --> 00:20:35,760 Speaker 1: we've run through a number of different encounters from crazy 354 00:20:35,960 --> 00:20:40,720 Speaker 1: guys with gas guns to me owing nuns. And you know, 355 00:20:40,800 --> 00:20:43,440 Speaker 1: the the amazing thing about the crazy thing about it 356 00:20:43,680 --> 00:20:47,000 Speaker 1: is that with all of these cases, on the surface level, 357 00:20:47,080 --> 00:20:51,119 Speaker 1: you have two crazy stories to choose from. Is because 358 00:20:51,440 --> 00:20:55,399 Speaker 1: on one level, meowing nuns, crazy people with gas guns, 359 00:20:55,400 --> 00:20:59,080 Speaker 1: those are crazy ideas and you don't want to live 360 00:20:59,119 --> 00:21:03,120 Speaker 1: in a world where they're crazy gas gun wielding maniacs 361 00:21:03,200 --> 00:21:06,240 Speaker 1: and me owing nuns possessed by the devil, Like that's 362 00:21:06,240 --> 00:21:08,880 Speaker 1: that's a crazy world. But on the other hand, you're 363 00:21:08,920 --> 00:21:13,480 Speaker 1: talking about a world in which you can catch this 364 00:21:13,640 --> 00:21:17,159 Speaker 1: kind of crazy, where there's the you'll have a situation 365 00:21:17,240 --> 00:21:20,320 Speaker 1: where even if the objective reality doesn't match up, the 366 00:21:20,400 --> 00:21:24,879 Speaker 1: subjective reality becomes We're possessed by the devil. And people 367 00:21:24,880 --> 00:21:28,440 Speaker 1: were buying into this behavior. People are are are feeling 368 00:21:28,480 --> 00:21:30,720 Speaker 1: things in their body and experiencing things at least in 369 00:21:30,720 --> 00:21:33,439 Speaker 1: their memory and not in the perception of reality, that 370 00:21:33,600 --> 00:21:38,080 Speaker 1: are starkly different from what's really going on. So where 371 00:21:38,119 --> 00:21:41,679 Speaker 1: it becomes helpful is to really break down mass hysteria 372 00:21:42,080 --> 00:21:44,120 Speaker 1: and and this and and sort of take a few 373 00:21:44,119 --> 00:21:47,160 Speaker 1: different steps to get there, to realize that this isn't 374 00:21:47,200 --> 00:21:51,320 Speaker 1: really a crazy exception to our experience of reality, but 375 00:21:51,440 --> 00:21:54,160 Speaker 1: just a step to the left. Yeah, because you make 376 00:21:54,160 --> 00:21:56,640 Speaker 1: a good point. You have these extreme examples, but when 377 00:21:56,680 --> 00:21:58,679 Speaker 1: you really start to look at mass hysteria, it's a 378 00:21:58,680 --> 00:22:01,960 Speaker 1: lot more subtle than you think, and it actually permeates 379 00:22:01,960 --> 00:22:05,720 Speaker 1: our culture in less flamboyant ways. Like the best way 380 00:22:05,760 --> 00:22:07,919 Speaker 1: to start, really, I think, is to talk about the 381 00:22:07,920 --> 00:22:12,119 Speaker 1: psychosomatic aspects here, like the idea that you can just 382 00:22:12,240 --> 00:22:16,159 Speaker 1: thinking something, believing something, buying into it with your mind 383 00:22:16,320 --> 00:22:20,119 Speaker 1: can have manifestations in your body which can sound a 384 00:22:20,119 --> 00:22:23,679 Speaker 1: little hippie dippie perhaps or more magical on the surface 385 00:22:23,720 --> 00:22:26,159 Speaker 1: of things, except it's been tested out. And one of 386 00:22:26,200 --> 00:22:29,439 Speaker 1: the best examples of this is the cebo effect, but 387 00:22:29,520 --> 00:22:33,240 Speaker 1: also the no no cebo effect, which are basically two 388 00:22:33,240 --> 00:22:38,440 Speaker 1: different shades of the same thing. Yeah, it's essentially expecting 389 00:22:38,480 --> 00:22:41,120 Speaker 1: a certain outcome and that could be a positive outcome 390 00:22:41,280 --> 00:22:43,480 Speaker 1: or it could be a negative outcome. And we've seen 391 00:22:43,520 --> 00:22:46,680 Speaker 1: this and rafts of studies that have to do usually 392 00:22:46,800 --> 00:22:49,960 Speaker 1: with a drug that's being tested out. Right, there's a 393 00:22:50,080 --> 00:22:53,720 Speaker 1: laundry list of negative effects that someone might experience. They're 394 00:22:53,720 --> 00:22:56,960 Speaker 1: given the sugar pill and lo and behold, they experience 395 00:22:57,119 --> 00:23:02,080 Speaker 1: heart palpitations or you know, anxiety depressions, so on and 396 00:23:02,119 --> 00:23:04,800 Speaker 1: so forth, because the expectation is there. Yeah, it's the 397 00:23:04,840 --> 00:23:07,879 Speaker 1: same mechanism that allows the individual who receives the sugar 398 00:23:07,920 --> 00:23:12,720 Speaker 1: pill to feel revitalized and healed. So with both cases, 399 00:23:12,840 --> 00:23:16,280 Speaker 1: there is a there's there's a physical manifestation of what's 400 00:23:16,280 --> 00:23:18,440 Speaker 1: going on. You know, it's not to the effect where 401 00:23:18,440 --> 00:23:20,560 Speaker 1: like a leg is falling off or anything like that. 402 00:23:20,880 --> 00:23:23,760 Speaker 1: But but it's the thing that you have hold in 403 00:23:23,760 --> 00:23:26,800 Speaker 1: your mind, you're also holding in your body. Yeah, so 404 00:23:26,880 --> 00:23:30,480 Speaker 1: it's kind of a short walk from there to say, 405 00:23:30,520 --> 00:23:34,639 Speaker 1: being in a community where there is a strange odor 406 00:23:34,680 --> 00:23:38,560 Speaker 1: in the air and someone has seems to have fallen 407 00:23:38,600 --> 00:23:41,600 Speaker 1: ill because of it, and then assuming those symptoms for 408 00:23:41,640 --> 00:23:45,800 Speaker 1: yourself because no cebo effect is essentially at play. Yeah, 409 00:23:45,800 --> 00:23:49,440 Speaker 1: I mean, just think about the conversion disorder discus stations 410 00:23:49,480 --> 00:23:53,600 Speaker 1: to experience neurological symptoms such as numbness, blindness, paralysis, or 411 00:23:53,640 --> 00:23:59,080 Speaker 1: fits without any define herble biological cause. And again tying 412 00:23:59,119 --> 00:24:01,480 Speaker 1: in with what we've talked about previously, this often arises 413 00:24:01,480 --> 00:24:04,480 Speaker 1: out of stress or inner conflict, with increased susceptibility of 414 00:24:04,520 --> 00:24:08,679 Speaker 1: the individual has a history of medical or mental health problems. Okay, 415 00:24:08,720 --> 00:24:11,000 Speaker 1: so so we so here we see kind of mass 416 00:24:11,040 --> 00:24:13,719 Speaker 1: hysteria patient zero in a sense, you know, you can 417 00:24:13,720 --> 00:24:16,200 Speaker 1: look at it that way. Yeah, it's an extreme example 418 00:24:16,320 --> 00:24:21,400 Speaker 1: of this right again, though it follows form, and that 419 00:24:21,480 --> 00:24:25,639 Speaker 1: form is basically you have that cultural script, you have 420 00:24:25,880 --> 00:24:29,760 Speaker 1: that stressor and then you have that expectation of what 421 00:24:29,840 --> 00:24:33,680 Speaker 1: you think should happen or might happen, and hey, all 422 00:24:33,680 --> 00:24:35,760 Speaker 1: of a sudden, you have a community or a group 423 00:24:35,800 --> 00:24:39,440 Speaker 1: of people who are experiencing all these terrible things. Yeah. 424 00:24:39,480 --> 00:24:43,000 Speaker 1: And so indeed, we're finally at mass hysteria where people 425 00:24:43,000 --> 00:24:47,840 Speaker 1: are actually catching or at least acquiring the symptoms of 426 00:24:47,880 --> 00:24:51,000 Speaker 1: another person or of multiple other people. And again, this 427 00:24:51,040 --> 00:24:54,000 Speaker 1: is generally taking place in a close knits society under stress, 428 00:24:54,160 --> 00:24:57,560 Speaker 1: with some sort of predetermined script, uh that that can 429 00:24:57,600 --> 00:25:01,840 Speaker 1: explain what's happening. Yeah, And when we talk about this 430 00:25:01,920 --> 00:25:05,480 Speaker 1: kind of contagion, it's worth bringing up that this social 431 00:25:05,480 --> 00:25:10,320 Speaker 1: contagion seems to affect seems to affect more females than males, 432 00:25:10,440 --> 00:25:12,760 Speaker 1: or at least as reported in that way. So a 433 00:25:12,800 --> 00:25:15,679 Speaker 1: lot has been written about this topic. We're not going 434 00:25:15,760 --> 00:25:18,320 Speaker 1: to dive into it too deeply because there's a lot 435 00:25:18,359 --> 00:25:19,920 Speaker 1: of gender issues to take into a kind of a 436 00:25:19,920 --> 00:25:22,600 Speaker 1: lot of historical issues to take into account and and 437 00:25:22,680 --> 00:25:25,920 Speaker 1: ultimately it's going to break down community to community community. Yeah. 438 00:25:26,000 --> 00:25:28,040 Speaker 1: But I mean, one of things you could say is 439 00:25:28,119 --> 00:25:32,160 Speaker 1: that we know culturally that it is, uh, it's far 440 00:25:32,200 --> 00:25:35,560 Speaker 1: more accepted for women to express their feelings than men, 441 00:25:35,920 --> 00:25:39,760 Speaker 1: So that could be one thing at play. Um, here's 442 00:25:39,800 --> 00:25:43,720 Speaker 1: something that's from Ruth Graham, she writes for Slate magazine. 443 00:25:43,880 --> 00:25:47,159 Speaker 1: She said symptoms often start with older girls or women 444 00:25:47,200 --> 00:25:51,840 Speaker 1: and spread to younger or lower status girls. And she says, 445 00:25:51,880 --> 00:25:55,280 Speaker 1: as girlhood guardian Caitlin Flanagan put in New York Times, 446 00:25:55,840 --> 00:25:58,680 Speaker 1: it is cheerleaders and not the linebackers who come down 447 00:25:58,720 --> 00:26:01,639 Speaker 1: with ticks and stuttering. But as research has shown, is 448 00:26:01,680 --> 00:26:04,560 Speaker 1: also the cheerleaders and not the math club girls who 449 00:26:04,600 --> 00:26:07,840 Speaker 1: are likely to spread hysteria. What she's getting at is 450 00:26:07,880 --> 00:26:09,880 Speaker 1: that all of a sudden, it seems like a sort 451 00:26:09,920 --> 00:26:14,520 Speaker 1: of popular girls thing to happen, and it becomes part 452 00:26:14,560 --> 00:26:17,920 Speaker 1: of that whole model that we've talked about with teens 453 00:26:18,119 --> 00:26:22,720 Speaker 1: in this idea of feeling included and not excluded from 454 00:26:22,760 --> 00:26:25,359 Speaker 1: their peers. So you can see how this is working 455 00:26:25,359 --> 00:26:27,760 Speaker 1: at that level as we've discussed in the past. Yeah, 456 00:26:27,760 --> 00:26:30,680 Speaker 1: it's um. It's vital at that age because you're you've 457 00:26:30,760 --> 00:26:34,199 Speaker 1: evolved as an organism to fit in at you know, 458 00:26:34,240 --> 00:26:37,199 Speaker 1: with with potentially lethal consequences if you don't. You have 459 00:26:37,280 --> 00:26:39,359 Speaker 1: to become a member of a community because you have 460 00:26:39,400 --> 00:26:41,600 Speaker 1: this genetic mission you have to carry out, and you 461 00:26:41,640 --> 00:26:43,399 Speaker 1: have to carry that out within a community, and that 462 00:26:43,400 --> 00:26:45,720 Speaker 1: that's the only way you're gonna survive, and so everything 463 00:26:45,720 --> 00:26:48,360 Speaker 1: in your body and your hormones is pushing you towards 464 00:26:48,400 --> 00:26:52,680 Speaker 1: that well. And speaking of genetic mission, this ties in 465 00:26:52,760 --> 00:26:57,000 Speaker 1: really nicely to the next example of mass hysteria. And 466 00:26:57,080 --> 00:26:59,399 Speaker 1: it's a male centric example. And by the way, there 467 00:26:59,400 --> 00:27:02,280 Speaker 1: are plenty of just male centric ones in which this. 468 00:27:02,520 --> 00:27:06,359 Speaker 1: You know, certain hysterias affected only men, and this one, 469 00:27:06,800 --> 00:27:11,040 Speaker 1: this one is called the penis snatching panic. This is 470 00:27:11,080 --> 00:27:14,959 Speaker 1: the idea that one's uh penis will be taken away 471 00:27:15,080 --> 00:27:18,439 Speaker 1: in the night, or that it will withdraw into the body, 472 00:27:18,520 --> 00:27:23,159 Speaker 1: lost to you forever. Yeah. Louisa Lombard, an anthropologist at 473 00:27:23,160 --> 00:27:26,520 Speaker 1: the University of California at Berkeley, described visiting a small 474 00:27:26,560 --> 00:27:29,960 Speaker 1: town in the Central African Republic where she encountered two 475 00:27:30,000 --> 00:27:33,359 Speaker 1: men who claimed that their penises had been stolen. And 476 00:27:33,440 --> 00:27:36,239 Speaker 1: it seems that the day before, a traveler visiting the 477 00:27:36,280 --> 00:27:39,400 Speaker 1: town had shaken hands with a t vendor who immediately 478 00:27:39,440 --> 00:27:42,199 Speaker 1: claimed that he felt a shock and since that his 479 00:27:42,280 --> 00:27:45,679 Speaker 1: penis had shrunk, and then he cried out in alarm, 480 00:27:45,720 --> 00:27:50,199 Speaker 1: and the crowd gathered, and then the hysteria began to spread, 481 00:27:50,240 --> 00:27:53,360 Speaker 1: and other men began to say, my penis shrunk too. 482 00:27:53,960 --> 00:27:56,840 Speaker 1: You know, I'm just now remembering from when we did 483 00:27:56,840 --> 00:27:59,639 Speaker 1: the episode Hammer of the Witches, when went into the 484 00:27:59,640 --> 00:28:02,760 Speaker 1: witch after mania in Europe, Uh, that that there was 485 00:28:02,800 --> 00:28:05,640 Speaker 1: a whole chapter devoted to that in the Western tradition 486 00:28:05,880 --> 00:28:10,560 Speaker 1: of people uh either afraid or convinced that a witch 487 00:28:10,760 --> 00:28:13,600 Speaker 1: may have stolen or otherwise in any way messed with 488 00:28:13,640 --> 00:28:16,679 Speaker 1: their penis in the night. Yeah. No, nobody wants their 489 00:28:16,680 --> 00:28:20,840 Speaker 1: penis to be messed with, certainly stolen by witches. Yeah. Indeed, 490 00:28:22,040 --> 00:28:24,840 Speaker 1: so that's the show that that females do not have 491 00:28:24,880 --> 00:28:29,480 Speaker 1: a monopoly on mass hysteria, that that men definitely engage in, 492 00:28:29,560 --> 00:28:32,760 Speaker 1: and there are models of it that are male exclusive. Yeah, 493 00:28:32,800 --> 00:28:35,320 Speaker 1: and again that's just one example. But a lot of 494 00:28:35,359 --> 00:28:39,080 Speaker 1: this has to do with not just how we tell 495 00:28:39,200 --> 00:28:41,760 Speaker 1: the stories of our culture and we engage in them, 496 00:28:41,760 --> 00:28:46,320 Speaker 1: but also our memories of the events. Yeah. That's especially 497 00:28:46,400 --> 00:28:48,840 Speaker 1: key when you're talking about stuff like the mad Gaster, 498 00:28:49,160 --> 00:28:51,400 Speaker 1: where so much of it is is, you know, after 499 00:28:51,440 --> 00:28:53,800 Speaker 1: the fact, people are being interviewed and saying, what happened, 500 00:28:53,840 --> 00:28:55,560 Speaker 1: We'll tell me about it. Tell me the story of 501 00:28:55,600 --> 00:28:58,640 Speaker 1: this thing that you said occurred, and and then we're 502 00:28:58,680 --> 00:29:01,640 Speaker 1: engaging with our memory, which, as we've discussed before, is 503 00:29:01,760 --> 00:29:06,320 Speaker 1: far from a perfect engine. There. In fact, according to 504 00:29:05,920 --> 00:29:10,080 Speaker 1: u to Daniel Shackter, author of the Seven Sins of Memory, 505 00:29:10,120 --> 00:29:12,600 Speaker 1: How the Mind Forgets and Remembers, there are, as the 506 00:29:12,640 --> 00:29:16,760 Speaker 1: title suggests, seven keys ways that we screw up our memories. 507 00:29:16,760 --> 00:29:19,200 Speaker 1: That our memories are just flawed either from the get 508 00:29:19,240 --> 00:29:21,640 Speaker 1: go or we end up screwing them up when we 509 00:29:21,680 --> 00:29:25,280 Speaker 1: recall them. Because if you remember from the metaphor we 510 00:29:25,320 --> 00:29:27,440 Speaker 1: always return to, is that a memory is made out 511 00:29:27,440 --> 00:29:29,720 Speaker 1: of play, not stone. Every time you get it out 512 00:29:29,720 --> 00:29:31,640 Speaker 1: of the drawer to look at it, you're getting your 513 00:29:31,640 --> 00:29:33,800 Speaker 1: fingers all over it, and you're changing the form of 514 00:29:33,800 --> 00:29:36,080 Speaker 1: it maybe a little, maybe a lot before you put 515 00:29:36,120 --> 00:29:39,160 Speaker 1: it back in. I certainly refer back to that episode 516 00:29:39,280 --> 00:29:40,640 Speaker 1: more on that. I'll be sure to include a link 517 00:29:40,680 --> 00:29:43,240 Speaker 1: to that episode in the landing page at stuff that 518 00:29:43,440 --> 00:29:45,760 Speaker 1: Your Mind dot Com for this episode. But just to 519 00:29:45,800 --> 00:29:49,280 Speaker 1: run through the seven Sins of Memory real quick. There's um, 520 00:29:49,480 --> 00:29:52,040 Speaker 1: there's transience. This is the weakening or loss of memory 521 00:29:52,040 --> 00:29:56,360 Speaker 1: over time. That the mad Gaster thing happened last week. Uh, 522 00:29:56,560 --> 00:29:58,680 Speaker 1: it's been a week. I don't have his firm memory 523 00:29:58,680 --> 00:30:01,320 Speaker 1: of maybe it's been a year, so your your memory 524 00:30:01,400 --> 00:30:05,800 Speaker 1: fades over time obviously. Uh. Then there's absent mindedness, and 525 00:30:05,840 --> 00:30:07,560 Speaker 1: this is at tension in memory. You know, you're trying 526 00:30:07,560 --> 00:30:10,160 Speaker 1: to recall the details of what happened. And if you're 527 00:30:10,480 --> 00:30:13,480 Speaker 1: you were legitimately stressed, you were on the floor, uh, 528 00:30:13,520 --> 00:30:15,360 Speaker 1: and you didn't feel you could move your legs, maybe 529 00:30:15,400 --> 00:30:18,280 Speaker 1: your your memory of the finer details isn't all that great. 530 00:30:18,760 --> 00:30:21,440 Speaker 1: There's blocking attempted and this is when you're in attempting 531 00:30:21,440 --> 00:30:24,080 Speaker 1: to recall tidbits of memory and uh, and you you 532 00:30:24,120 --> 00:30:27,120 Speaker 1: can't recall that face, you can't recall that name. We've 533 00:30:26,880 --> 00:30:29,760 Speaker 1: all been there before. There's misattribution. This is where we 534 00:30:29,880 --> 00:30:35,040 Speaker 1: recall on authentic memory, but aspects of it are misattributed. Um. 535 00:30:35,120 --> 00:30:38,280 Speaker 1: And then there's suggestibility, the power of suggestion. This has 536 00:30:38,320 --> 00:30:42,520 Speaker 1: been born out in a number of studies, particularly aimed 537 00:30:42,520 --> 00:30:45,760 Speaker 1: at law enforcement. You know, you you suggest that this 538 00:30:45,800 --> 00:30:49,680 Speaker 1: individual in the lineup was the perpetrator, and then you can, 539 00:30:49,760 --> 00:30:51,880 Speaker 1: you know, you can actually convince the victim that that's 540 00:30:51,880 --> 00:30:55,880 Speaker 1: who it was. Bias is a huge effectory Two, you 541 00:30:55,920 --> 00:30:59,000 Speaker 1: already have a bias uh in this particular question. That's 542 00:30:59,000 --> 00:31:02,800 Speaker 1: going to color the memory. And then finally you have persistence. 543 00:31:02,840 --> 00:31:06,080 Speaker 1: This is the failure of the memory system involving unwanted 544 00:31:06,120 --> 00:31:09,560 Speaker 1: recall of information that's disturbing. Yeah, And so we bring 545 00:31:09,600 --> 00:31:12,520 Speaker 1: this up particularly in the context of something like the 546 00:31:12,560 --> 00:31:15,960 Speaker 1: Mad Gasser, in which we have this community that's reacting 547 00:31:16,000 --> 00:31:19,360 Speaker 1: to this smell right there on high alert and they 548 00:31:19,400 --> 00:31:25,400 Speaker 1: begin to misremember details of what's happening at that time, 549 00:31:25,440 --> 00:31:28,160 Speaker 1: but they misremember them in a way that it fits 550 00:31:28,160 --> 00:31:32,400 Speaker 1: into bias since adjustability right pre pre existing script, I mean, 551 00:31:32,400 --> 00:31:35,440 Speaker 1: that's that's the bias though, right there. Yeah, And we've 552 00:31:35,440 --> 00:31:38,400 Speaker 1: talked about this before, but it turns out that the 553 00:31:39,360 --> 00:31:45,040 Speaker 1: more freighted with emotion a situation or memory is, the 554 00:31:45,200 --> 00:31:48,120 Speaker 1: less reliable your memory is. And we've talked about this 555 00:31:48,160 --> 00:31:51,080 Speaker 1: before and the non eleven studies is that, you know, 556 00:31:51,240 --> 00:31:55,320 Speaker 1: the more emotionally charged someone is, um, just the the 557 00:31:55,440 --> 00:31:59,520 Speaker 1: less they can actually recall those events or details. So 558 00:31:59,760 --> 00:32:02,920 Speaker 1: if you think about situations like the Mad Gas or 559 00:32:02,960 --> 00:32:06,720 Speaker 1: really any of the other examples, UM, you can see 560 00:32:06,760 --> 00:32:10,400 Speaker 1: how people begin to piece things together to fit that narrative. 561 00:32:10,760 --> 00:32:16,200 Speaker 1: So the narrative could be informing psycho somatic experiences which 562 00:32:16,320 --> 00:32:19,840 Speaker 1: then that's that's heightening the experience and making the memory 563 00:32:20,360 --> 00:32:25,640 Speaker 1: more malleable to influence by the re existing script. And 564 00:32:25,680 --> 00:32:29,680 Speaker 1: again go back to Placebo Nacebo. You see this at 565 00:32:30,560 --> 00:32:33,280 Speaker 1: play and the most I don't know, I guess you 566 00:32:33,280 --> 00:32:38,040 Speaker 1: could say, uh wrote ways. And yet here here it 567 00:32:38,160 --> 00:32:41,240 Speaker 1: is bearing out this information that it's just the idea 568 00:32:41,960 --> 00:32:45,120 Speaker 1: or even the expectation that can really even color or 569 00:32:45,240 --> 00:32:48,240 Speaker 1: physical symptoms that we exhibit. This all brings to mind 570 00:32:48,520 --> 00:32:51,480 Speaker 1: hallucinations as well, because like the real take home from 571 00:32:51,480 --> 00:32:56,000 Speaker 1: looking at at hallucinations is that the the science of hallucinations, 572 00:32:56,000 --> 00:32:59,680 Speaker 1: the reality of hallucinations really shows that our perception of 573 00:32:59,720 --> 00:33:02,680 Speaker 1: reality itself is a kind of hallucination. So when you 574 00:33:02,720 --> 00:33:04,880 Speaker 1: look at the flaws of memory and the and the 575 00:33:04,920 --> 00:33:07,000 Speaker 1: and the way the way that the mas hysteria can 576 00:33:07,040 --> 00:33:10,440 Speaker 1: take uh can take hold of a community, Uh, it's 577 00:33:10,520 --> 00:33:14,320 Speaker 1: less about how crazy these people are, but how inherently 578 00:33:14,360 --> 00:33:18,320 Speaker 1: flawed and susceptible to this kind of outbreak. All of 579 00:33:18,360 --> 00:33:21,240 Speaker 1: our minds are, all of our communities are, And if 580 00:33:21,240 --> 00:33:25,040 Speaker 1: you think about it this way, um, mass hysteria sort 581 00:33:25,080 --> 00:33:28,000 Speaker 1: of like the based stock of the mass hysteria soup 582 00:33:28,880 --> 00:33:33,240 Speaker 1: is what is the threat level to us. And that's 583 00:33:33,240 --> 00:33:35,320 Speaker 1: where we can see sort of the things that are 584 00:33:35,320 --> 00:33:39,080 Speaker 1: going on in our modern world coloring our reactions to that. 585 00:33:39,160 --> 00:33:43,160 Speaker 1: And I'm talking about specifically bio terrorism. Oh yes, I mean, 586 00:33:43,400 --> 00:33:46,240 Speaker 1: I think most of our listeners can probably chime in 587 00:33:46,280 --> 00:33:49,440 Speaker 1: on this, because in the wake of nine eleven, there's 588 00:33:49,600 --> 00:33:53,200 Speaker 1: there's a lot of this is in the media. Anthrax 589 00:33:53,280 --> 00:33:56,520 Speaker 1: was being sent places, or at least in many cases, Uh, 590 00:33:56,560 --> 00:33:59,360 Speaker 1: you know, some sort of possible anthrax is being sent 591 00:33:59,400 --> 00:34:03,200 Speaker 1: places and we're freaking out. Uh. And at the heart 592 00:34:03,200 --> 00:34:05,360 Speaker 1: of it, in the distance, there there was a threat. 593 00:34:05,440 --> 00:34:07,640 Speaker 1: You know, there were some there. There, there was a 594 00:34:07,680 --> 00:34:10,080 Speaker 1: reality to it, but the echoes from that threat were 595 00:34:10,080 --> 00:34:13,440 Speaker 1: what was really affecting everybody, right, It was spreading through 596 00:34:13,920 --> 00:34:16,799 Speaker 1: people and creating this sort of math asteria reaction to 597 00:34:16,920 --> 00:34:20,080 Speaker 1: it in a way. And more specifically, in December two 598 00:34:20,120 --> 00:34:24,040 Speaker 1: thousand and five, there was a mysterious illness marked by headache, fever, 599 00:34:24,480 --> 00:34:28,440 Speaker 1: and faintness and numbness in the extremities. And this occurred 600 00:34:28,480 --> 00:34:31,640 Speaker 1: in thirteen school children in the shelf Of region of 601 00:34:31,680 --> 00:34:34,640 Speaker 1: czech Nia, and a lot of people believe the illness 602 00:34:34,680 --> 00:34:37,600 Speaker 1: was caused by a Russian chemical weapons attack. That was 603 00:34:37,640 --> 00:34:42,400 Speaker 1: the idea here um, because this is what precipitated this idea, 604 00:34:42,680 --> 00:34:46,719 Speaker 1: the rapid spread of similar symptoms throughout the region. Now, 605 00:34:46,960 --> 00:34:50,880 Speaker 1: medical efficient officials determined the episode was a case of 606 00:34:50,920 --> 00:34:54,839 Speaker 1: psycho somatic contagion here and it was brought on by 607 00:34:54,920 --> 00:35:00,560 Speaker 1: the anxiety over Russian military Russian military activities in the area. 608 00:35:00,840 --> 00:35:05,080 Speaker 1: So again, here's this, there's a threat level, an implied 609 00:35:05,120 --> 00:35:09,160 Speaker 1: threat level. Right, you have an aggressor and then all 610 00:35:09,200 --> 00:35:11,520 Speaker 1: of a sudden you have a reaction to this kind 611 00:35:11,520 --> 00:35:14,680 Speaker 1: of constant paper tiger, but not paper tiger, I mean, 612 00:35:14,920 --> 00:35:17,200 Speaker 1: you know. And this is exhibited in the school children 613 00:35:17,440 --> 00:35:20,480 Speaker 1: who probably are the most anxious about it. It is 614 00:35:20,480 --> 00:35:23,120 Speaker 1: almost a comparison to be made with phobias here, right, 615 00:35:23,360 --> 00:35:26,000 Speaker 1: because with phobias you have a realistic fear that just 616 00:35:26,040 --> 00:35:29,520 Speaker 1: gets bigger and bigger until it becomes unreasonable. And with 617 00:35:29,640 --> 00:35:32,600 Speaker 1: this you have fear that becomes bigger and bigger to 618 00:35:32,640 --> 00:35:35,120 Speaker 1: wear it becomes unreasonable, and then it can become so 619 00:35:35,200 --> 00:35:38,799 Speaker 1: unreasonable that it's it's affecting your experience of reality and 620 00:35:38,840 --> 00:35:41,600 Speaker 1: experiencing your your bodily experience of reality. Yeah, and I 621 00:35:41,640 --> 00:35:45,400 Speaker 1: should mention too that according to the Department of Homeland Security, 622 00:35:45,440 --> 00:35:48,120 Speaker 1: there was no evidence of the illnesses were caused by 623 00:35:48,160 --> 00:35:52,120 Speaker 1: a chemical weapon or weapons. So truly, in this case, 624 00:35:52,200 --> 00:35:55,439 Speaker 1: it was a kind of social contagion. Certainly, right now 625 00:35:55,920 --> 00:35:58,640 Speaker 1: as we record this, i Bola is still huge in 626 00:35:58,640 --> 00:36:04,000 Speaker 1: the news. Uh, not only in legitimate concerns about of course, 627 00:36:04,040 --> 00:36:08,279 Speaker 1: the the plight in Africa, but but also ebola here 628 00:36:08,440 --> 00:36:11,440 Speaker 1: on the home front. But while some of it is legitimate, 629 00:36:11,480 --> 00:36:13,560 Speaker 1: there's a lot of illegitimate fear out there, there's a 630 00:36:13,560 --> 00:36:18,080 Speaker 1: lot of fearmongering in the media and uh, and the 631 00:36:18,120 --> 00:36:20,640 Speaker 1: average individual has to figure out where they stand in 632 00:36:20,680 --> 00:36:24,040 Speaker 1: all this. So you know which which which radio signal 633 00:36:24,040 --> 00:36:27,400 Speaker 1: are they in a tune into. Yeah, there's the catastrophic thinking, 634 00:36:28,040 --> 00:36:30,080 Speaker 1: or there's the normal ty bias, or again there's the 635 00:36:30,080 --> 00:36:35,200 Speaker 1: middle just logical reaction. But here is a catastrophic thinking. Example. 636 00:36:35,320 --> 00:36:38,240 Speaker 1: Right here in Georgia, the state in which we reside, 637 00:36:38,600 --> 00:36:43,160 Speaker 1: there was a school who would not allow Rwandan students 638 00:36:43,200 --> 00:36:49,799 Speaker 1: to attend simply because their families we're from Rwanda. They 639 00:36:49,800 --> 00:36:54,880 Speaker 1: live here, of course, not in Rwanda. And moreover, Rwanda 640 00:36:54,960 --> 00:36:58,959 Speaker 1: is something like one two thousand miles removed from any 641 00:36:59,120 --> 00:37:02,719 Speaker 1: of the e bowl uh stricken countries in Africa. So 642 00:37:02,800 --> 00:37:08,120 Speaker 1: again here's an example of well, these people have relatives 643 00:37:08,200 --> 00:37:14,719 Speaker 1: from Africa, and that's yeah, but that's kind of like saying, um, 644 00:37:14,760 --> 00:37:17,720 Speaker 1: there's this outbreak in California, and we have some students 645 00:37:17,800 --> 00:37:22,200 Speaker 1: in Michigan whose families are from California, and so we're 646 00:37:22,200 --> 00:37:23,960 Speaker 1: not going to allow them because that's two that's a 647 00:37:23,960 --> 00:37:27,160 Speaker 1: two thousand mile difference there. So we're not gonna allow 648 00:37:27,200 --> 00:37:31,560 Speaker 1: these students with, you know, from family from California to attend. Well. 649 00:37:31,640 --> 00:37:34,080 Speaker 1: So again it starts as a legitimate concern and then 650 00:37:34,120 --> 00:37:38,279 Speaker 1: it blows into unrealistic proportions. Now, one thing that we 651 00:37:38,280 --> 00:37:42,920 Speaker 1: saw firsthand is this sort of Internet spread of social 652 00:37:43,000 --> 00:37:45,880 Speaker 1: contagion and mass. I don't know if you'd call it 653 00:37:45,960 --> 00:37:48,440 Speaker 1: mass hysteria quite man, but I can see the potential 654 00:37:48,640 --> 00:37:50,960 Speaker 1: from mass hysteria in it, which I think is where 655 00:37:50,960 --> 00:37:52,920 Speaker 1: it gets really interesting. So we did you know that 656 00:37:52,960 --> 00:37:57,560 Speaker 1: episode on holes, the fear of holes, phobia, phobia, and 657 00:37:57,680 --> 00:37:59,560 Speaker 1: we did a little video to go along with it, 658 00:38:00,040 --> 00:38:02,840 Speaker 1: and we did the podcast and I made a photoshop 659 00:38:02,880 --> 00:38:06,640 Speaker 1: and image, yes, with the Lotus ce pod on a 660 00:38:06,680 --> 00:38:10,680 Speaker 1: woman's back. It was great dastardly great. I've spent way 661 00:38:10,680 --> 00:38:12,480 Speaker 1: too much time on it, so I'm glad it worked 662 00:38:12,480 --> 00:38:15,560 Speaker 1: for people. Well, I mean, it definitely had a there 663 00:38:15,600 --> 00:38:17,919 Speaker 1: was a reaction. People went kind of nuts on our 664 00:38:17,920 --> 00:38:20,839 Speaker 1: Facebook feed, and they were a lot of people were 665 00:38:20,840 --> 00:38:24,680 Speaker 1: really upset. We had some people who unsubscribed. And again 666 00:38:25,200 --> 00:38:29,560 Speaker 1: this the idea behind holes, which was borne out actually 667 00:38:29,840 --> 00:38:32,839 Speaker 1: on Facebook accidentally as an experiment for us, was that 668 00:38:33,640 --> 00:38:36,840 Speaker 1: it's not a real phobia. It's just that people see 669 00:38:36,960 --> 00:38:40,279 Speaker 1: these photos, they see the reaction, and then there's a 670 00:38:40,360 --> 00:38:43,040 Speaker 1: kind of you know, social element to it in which 671 00:38:43,080 --> 00:38:46,600 Speaker 1: people say, oh, that's terrible, I'm about to throw up. Yeah. Yeah, 672 00:38:46,600 --> 00:38:49,480 Speaker 1: people have this visceral reaction made at least one person 673 00:38:49,520 --> 00:38:51,640 Speaker 1: commenting on either our share of it or the House 674 00:38:51,680 --> 00:38:54,439 Speaker 1: of Works Facebook share of it who said they were 675 00:38:54,560 --> 00:38:57,400 Speaker 1: physically anxious over it, like they were having trouble coming 676 00:38:57,440 --> 00:39:02,160 Speaker 1: down from a high level of anxiety after seeing the image. 677 00:39:02,360 --> 00:39:04,560 Speaker 1: And of course, my whole thing was you know, was 678 00:39:04,600 --> 00:39:06,800 Speaker 1: and continues to be. If you listen to our podcast, 679 00:39:06,960 --> 00:39:10,640 Speaker 1: we discussed plenty of troubling ideas, plenty of troubling concepts, 680 00:39:10,680 --> 00:39:14,080 Speaker 1: and the spread depressing details from history or just from 681 00:39:14,120 --> 00:39:18,000 Speaker 1: the human experience that you know, are far worse than uh, 682 00:39:18,360 --> 00:39:21,080 Speaker 1: you know, a seed pod photoshopped on to a woman's back. 683 00:39:21,960 --> 00:39:25,920 Speaker 1: But but but it's that image that really stirred people up. 684 00:39:26,040 --> 00:39:28,759 Speaker 1: I will say though, our video producer Tyler Clang had 685 00:39:28,800 --> 00:39:32,960 Speaker 1: said that after hours of editing that footage for holes, 686 00:39:33,040 --> 00:39:36,480 Speaker 1: that he became very sensitive to it. And here's a 687 00:39:36,520 --> 00:39:40,600 Speaker 1: guy who's really practical skeptical, so you know, but that's 688 00:39:40,640 --> 00:39:46,200 Speaker 1: long term exposure, so it's not quite mass hysteria. But 689 00:39:46,200 --> 00:39:49,200 Speaker 1: but again you could see where it could reach that point. 690 00:39:49,280 --> 00:39:52,799 Speaker 1: You do see this fearful idea taking hold of people 691 00:39:52,800 --> 00:39:56,160 Speaker 1: and spreading uh in a kind of meme format. Yeah, 692 00:39:56,200 --> 00:39:59,520 Speaker 1: because ultimately we're talking about here is threat a threat level? Yeah? 693 00:39:59,600 --> 00:40:04,520 Speaker 1: Okay that as the whole really a threat? No, no, right, 694 00:40:04,560 --> 00:40:06,520 Speaker 1: you're not going to fall into it. It's not going 695 00:40:06,560 --> 00:40:08,839 Speaker 1: to break out on your skin. And then you look 696 00:40:08,880 --> 00:40:13,200 Speaker 1: at something like say nut allergies or even vaccinations, and 697 00:40:13,239 --> 00:40:16,440 Speaker 1: you get the same sort of parallels of to what 698 00:40:16,560 --> 00:40:19,840 Speaker 1: degree is there actually a threat? Yeah, no, nut allergies 699 00:40:19,880 --> 00:40:21,759 Speaker 1: that I do want a preface here and say we're 700 00:40:21,760 --> 00:40:26,160 Speaker 1: by no means you know, putting down children with not allergies. 701 00:40:26,840 --> 00:40:29,840 Speaker 1: My son goes to a school and there's a kidney's 702 00:40:29,840 --> 00:40:31,759 Speaker 1: class that has not allergies. All the snacks you don't 703 00:40:31,800 --> 00:40:33,960 Speaker 1: have to be nut free, and that's you know, we 704 00:40:34,000 --> 00:40:36,800 Speaker 1: totally understand that not bucking that system at all. No, 705 00:40:36,920 --> 00:40:39,840 Speaker 1: because some people can have such severe reactions that it 706 00:40:39,880 --> 00:40:41,960 Speaker 1: can actually cause death. And we know this, and this 707 00:40:42,000 --> 00:40:46,480 Speaker 1: is why parents have become so I guess, exquisitely attuned 708 00:40:46,680 --> 00:40:51,600 Speaker 1: to the threat of nuts in schools and other places. Um, 709 00:40:51,680 --> 00:40:55,080 Speaker 1: So we're talking about like instances in which there have been, 710 00:40:55,680 --> 00:40:58,200 Speaker 1: say an evacuation of a bus because there was a 711 00:40:58,239 --> 00:41:01,600 Speaker 1: peanut on the floor rolling around, or you know, again 712 00:41:01,680 --> 00:41:04,680 Speaker 1: nut free schools or served only certain areas where kids 713 00:41:04,719 --> 00:41:07,720 Speaker 1: can eat their peanut butter sandwiches and no other kids 714 00:41:07,760 --> 00:41:11,280 Speaker 1: can come into contact with them. So you have someone 715 00:41:11,719 --> 00:41:15,719 Speaker 1: like Professor Nicholas Cristakis from Harvard Medical School, and he 716 00:41:15,760 --> 00:41:18,200 Speaker 1: says that there's no evidence that any of these extreme 717 00:41:18,280 --> 00:41:22,399 Speaker 1: restrictions work better than more circumscribed policies, or that they're 718 00:41:22,400 --> 00:41:25,040 Speaker 1: worth the money or disruptions that they create. That's what 719 00:41:25,080 --> 00:41:27,200 Speaker 1: he says. Yeah. Yeah. He points out that in the 720 00:41:27,280 --> 00:41:30,480 Speaker 1: United States alone, a hundred and fifty people die each 721 00:41:30,560 --> 00:41:32,920 Speaker 1: year from food allergies, and this is compared to the 722 00:41:32,960 --> 00:41:35,960 Speaker 1: fifty who die from bee stings, the hundred who die 723 00:41:36,000 --> 00:41:39,240 Speaker 1: from lightning strikes, and of course the forty five thousand 724 00:41:39,320 --> 00:41:42,239 Speaker 1: who die in motor vehicle accidents. Uh, and then the 725 00:41:42,400 --> 00:41:45,480 Speaker 1: ten thousand who are hospitalized for traumatic brain injury from 726 00:41:45,480 --> 00:41:49,959 Speaker 1: playing sports. But he says that these issues don't stir 727 00:41:50,160 --> 00:41:52,839 Speaker 1: up such extreme reactions. You know, for the most part, 728 00:41:52,840 --> 00:41:56,319 Speaker 1: nobody is saying, let's ban all sports because there are 729 00:41:56,400 --> 00:42:00,600 Speaker 1: traumatic brain injuries that occur. They're not saying, don't put 730 00:42:00,680 --> 00:42:03,280 Speaker 1: my child in a bus or a car, ever, because 731 00:42:03,320 --> 00:42:06,160 Speaker 1: that's super dangerous and they're going to die that way, right. 732 00:42:06,160 --> 00:42:08,759 Speaker 1: And Christakis is essentially saying that when it comes to 733 00:42:09,120 --> 00:42:12,040 Speaker 1: peanut allergies that there is quote a gross over reaction 734 00:42:12,080 --> 00:42:15,279 Speaker 1: to the magnitude of the threat and basically saying that 735 00:42:15,320 --> 00:42:20,560 Speaker 1: it's similar to mass psychogenic illness, that this idea of 736 00:42:20,719 --> 00:42:24,640 Speaker 1: you know, the threatened people's head has just become outsized. Huh. Yeah. 737 00:42:24,680 --> 00:42:28,120 Speaker 1: And he's definitely's definitely analyzing this from you know, almost 738 00:42:28,120 --> 00:42:31,960 Speaker 1: an economic standpoint, you know, But but it's it's an 739 00:42:31,960 --> 00:42:35,839 Speaker 1: interesting way to look at it. And again, I'm sure 740 00:42:36,480 --> 00:42:39,000 Speaker 1: parents with the children with not allergies or individuals either 741 00:42:39,040 --> 00:42:42,319 Speaker 1: with that allergies. Um, we'll have a very different take 742 00:42:42,400 --> 00:42:45,839 Speaker 1: on this. But indeed, and we are not going to 743 00:42:45,880 --> 00:42:49,640 Speaker 1: dip our toes into the anti vax pool, but we 744 00:42:49,680 --> 00:42:53,839 Speaker 1: can certainly say again, parallels exists there between. Um, you know, 745 00:42:53,920 --> 00:42:56,880 Speaker 1: what is the perceived threat as opposed to the actual threat. 746 00:42:57,200 --> 00:43:00,120 Speaker 1: You have a close knit community, that make community, maybe 747 00:43:00,200 --> 00:43:03,080 Speaker 1: in person, that community maybe on a message board somewhere, 748 00:43:03,160 --> 00:43:05,919 Speaker 1: and everyone's buying into a particular script of what needs 749 00:43:05,960 --> 00:43:09,560 Speaker 1: to be done and what the consequences to uh doing 750 00:43:09,640 --> 00:43:11,799 Speaker 1: or not doing it are. Yeah, and there's also this 751 00:43:11,960 --> 00:43:15,200 Speaker 1: you know, causation correlation thing too, right, So um, for instance, 752 00:43:15,239 --> 00:43:17,600 Speaker 1: then checking out right, there is this idea like, okay, 753 00:43:17,600 --> 00:43:21,400 Speaker 1: this there have been chemical weapons before, therefore that's probably 754 00:43:21,440 --> 00:43:24,799 Speaker 1: what happened here with these children, that's why they fell ill. 755 00:43:25,440 --> 00:43:29,560 Speaker 1: And so again, just we're seeing that cultural script, we're 756 00:43:29,560 --> 00:43:33,520 Speaker 1: seeing those stressors at play. And I can understand this 757 00:43:33,560 --> 00:43:38,600 Speaker 1: because there's probably nothing more stressful, honestly than being responsible 758 00:43:38,640 --> 00:43:42,480 Speaker 1: for another person's life, which is essentially what parents have 759 00:43:42,600 --> 00:43:44,879 Speaker 1: to do. That's their jobs. So you began to look 760 00:43:44,880 --> 00:43:48,040 Speaker 1: at all these different elements in a kid's environment and 761 00:43:48,040 --> 00:43:49,759 Speaker 1: trying to figure out, like, how do I keep this 762 00:43:49,840 --> 00:43:53,040 Speaker 1: kid alive best? Yeah? Yeah, it's like it's it's super 763 00:43:53,360 --> 00:43:55,320 Speaker 1: stressful and if you screwed up, you can go to jail. 764 00:43:55,520 --> 00:43:58,880 Speaker 1: You know that's the crazy part. Yeah you can. Yeah, 765 00:43:59,040 --> 00:44:00,719 Speaker 1: that's why I tell my son all the time. It's 766 00:44:00,760 --> 00:44:03,719 Speaker 1: like I it's like, I'm just trying to to not 767 00:44:03,960 --> 00:44:06,080 Speaker 1: have you die on my hands here. That's what That's 768 00:44:06,120 --> 00:44:07,960 Speaker 1: what I'm trying to do here at the playground today. 769 00:44:08,400 --> 00:44:12,200 Speaker 1: Is you not die? That is daddy's job. Please let 770 00:44:12,280 --> 00:44:14,120 Speaker 1: him do it. And I end up talking to myself 771 00:44:14,160 --> 00:44:17,000 Speaker 1: in the third person, sound like, how does that go 772 00:44:17,080 --> 00:44:19,719 Speaker 1: over with the other parents in the park. Oh, it 773 00:44:19,760 --> 00:44:23,080 Speaker 1: depends on the parents. Yeah some of them. Some of 774 00:44:23,120 --> 00:44:26,120 Speaker 1: them definitely get it. But they're all talking about themselves 775 00:44:26,160 --> 00:44:28,760 Speaker 1: in the third person. Did their toddler anyway? So that's true. 776 00:44:28,880 --> 00:44:32,680 Speaker 1: That's true. So there you have it. Mass Hysteria, the 777 00:44:32,760 --> 00:44:35,719 Speaker 1: Mad Gather And again I just I love this, this story, 778 00:44:35,800 --> 00:44:38,759 Speaker 1: the Mad Gas And I'm so astounded that nobody has 779 00:44:38,800 --> 00:44:41,760 Speaker 1: turned this into a horror franchise because it just in 780 00:44:41,880 --> 00:44:43,840 Speaker 1: my own mind, I've already like worked out all the 781 00:44:43,880 --> 00:44:45,960 Speaker 1: details about how this could this could be the next 782 00:44:46,000 --> 00:44:48,880 Speaker 1: big like slasher movie thing was just a few tweets 783 00:44:48,920 --> 00:44:53,560 Speaker 1: because the the story as it exists is creepy and weird, 784 00:44:53,640 --> 00:44:57,680 Speaker 1: but not necessarily straight up horror movie material. But you 785 00:44:57,680 --> 00:45:01,080 Speaker 1: start combining this with some of the a real terrifying, 786 00:45:01,280 --> 00:45:04,200 Speaker 1: uh you know, aspects of chemical weapons, and you, I mean, 787 00:45:04,200 --> 00:45:06,839 Speaker 1: you've got yourself a pretty scary story. Yeah. I feel 788 00:45:06,840 --> 00:45:12,680 Speaker 1: like there's tons of existential anks to plumb in that too. Yeah. Alright, um, guys, 789 00:45:12,920 --> 00:45:15,880 Speaker 1: we have other offerings for you, and you can find 790 00:45:16,000 --> 00:45:19,600 Speaker 1: these offerings of love at a little place called stuff 791 00:45:19,600 --> 00:45:21,319 Speaker 1: to Blow your Mind dot com. That's right. You will 792 00:45:21,360 --> 00:45:25,319 Speaker 1: find all the podcast episodes there, episodes we recorded there's 793 00:45:25,360 --> 00:45:28,560 Speaker 1: back in you know, primordial days. You will find on 794 00:45:28,560 --> 00:45:31,600 Speaker 1: that website stuff that's not on iTunes. Go check it out. 795 00:45:32,160 --> 00:45:34,360 Speaker 1: And also, especially with some more recent episodes, you know, 796 00:45:34,360 --> 00:45:36,920 Speaker 1: those individual pages are gonna have illustration, they're gonna have 797 00:45:37,400 --> 00:45:41,680 Speaker 1: links to related items on the site, external items making 798 00:45:41,719 --> 00:45:44,000 Speaker 1: real Apidude include all of that. Plus you'll find our videos, 799 00:45:44,000 --> 00:45:45,920 Speaker 1: we find blog posts. Will find pictures of what we 800 00:45:46,000 --> 00:45:48,280 Speaker 1: look like, as well as links out to our social 801 00:45:48,320 --> 00:45:52,120 Speaker 1: media account and if you guys have some ideas percolating 802 00:45:52,239 --> 00:45:55,440 Speaker 1: about mass hysteria, have you ever been involved in an 803 00:45:55,440 --> 00:45:58,760 Speaker 1: instance that sounds a lot like what we're describing. Please 804 00:45:58,800 --> 00:46:00,160 Speaker 1: do let us know about it, and you can do 805 00:46:00,200 --> 00:46:03,040 Speaker 1: so by sending us an email at blow the Mind 806 00:46:03,280 --> 00:46:09,040 Speaker 1: at how stuff works dot com for more on this 807 00:46:09,239 --> 00:46:11,760 Speaker 1: and thousands of other topics. Does it how stuff works 808 00:46:11,760 --> 00:46:17,800 Speaker 1: dot com