WEBVTT - Season 08 Episode 27: Let's Dance 0:00:10.480 --> 0:00:14.160 In the middle of July fifteen eighteen, the eastern French 0:00:14.200 --> 0:00:17.040 city of Strasbourg was in the grip of a heat wave. 0:00:17.920 --> 0:00:20.720 It had been going on for weeks, and the population 0:00:20.880 --> 0:00:25.840 had adapted accordingly. Residents changed their daily routines to avoid 0:00:25.880 --> 0:00:28.520 the hottest parts of the day, going out to run 0:00:28.680 --> 0:00:31.120 errands at dawn or at dusk, and staying in the 0:00:31.120 --> 0:00:34.559 shade for the rest of the time. On the fourteenth 0:00:34.640 --> 0:00:38.600 of July, as it approached midday, the baking sun inching 0:00:38.640 --> 0:00:42.720 ever higher into the sky, the streets were mostly empty. 0:00:42.880 --> 0:00:45.640 The only people out in the sweltering heat were those 0:00:45.640 --> 0:00:49.080 who didn't have a choice, the farmers and laborers who 0:00:49.159 --> 0:00:52.920 had to be outside come rain or shine. In a 0:00:53.000 --> 0:00:56.200 quiet cobble street, the echoes of a distant church bell 0:00:56.400 --> 0:01:00.440 could be heard striking noon. Just then, a door open 0:01:00.760 --> 0:01:03.639 and a young woman appeared in the door frame, her 0:01:03.680 --> 0:01:08.080 face fixed in an odd, vacant expression. When she stepped 0:01:08.080 --> 0:01:10.280 out onto the street, it was as if she was 0:01:10.319 --> 0:01:13.760 being called to something. She didn't even stop to close 0:01:13.800 --> 0:01:17.520 the front door before heading off briskly towards the town's 0:01:17.520 --> 0:01:21.440 central square. Nobody in the square looked twice at the 0:01:21.480 --> 0:01:25.319 young woman when she first arrived, but then something strange 0:01:25.319 --> 0:01:29.360 began to happen. The woman started to dance on the spot, 0:01:29.760 --> 0:01:33.280 her body twisting and twirling in time to some imaginary 0:01:33.319 --> 0:01:38.039 soundtrack that only she could hear. She seemed utterly oblivious 0:01:38.040 --> 0:01:40.319 to the sun beating down on her and to the 0:01:40.400 --> 0:01:45.480 curious glances of passers by who stopped to stare. At first, 0:01:45.600 --> 0:01:48.880 people were amused. This must be some kind of performance, 0:01:48.920 --> 0:01:53.040 they thought, although the lack of music struck them as strange. 0:01:53.080 --> 0:01:56.080 A few people dropped coins into a pile next to her, 0:01:56.520 --> 0:02:00.440 assuming that she was a busker, but before long began 0:02:00.480 --> 0:02:05.200 to notice some unsettling details. Despite the strange chigs she 0:02:05.280 --> 0:02:07.960 was dancing, the look on the young woman's face was 0:02:08.040 --> 0:02:12.919 anything but merry. Her features were contorted into a strange grimace, 0:02:13.200 --> 0:02:16.760 as if she was in terrible pain. As the temperature 0:02:16.800 --> 0:02:20.519 climbed above thirty degrees celsius, sweat began to pour down 0:02:20.560 --> 0:02:24.560 her face and arms, but the woman refused to stop. 0:02:25.680 --> 0:02:28.640 After more than an hour of continuous dancing, she was 0:02:28.720 --> 0:02:33.640 still going. People began to exchange nervous glances. Then a 0:02:33.680 --> 0:02:36.280 city worker approached the woman and tried to get her 0:02:36.280 --> 0:02:41.360 to pause, offering her water. She ignored him completely, and 0:02:41.480 --> 0:02:44.079 when he put his hands on her shoulders, her dancing 0:02:44.120 --> 0:02:48.240 became even more frenetic. She flung her arms wildly at him, 0:02:48.440 --> 0:02:52.920 forcing him to beat a hasty retreat. All afternoon she 0:02:53.000 --> 0:02:56.920 continued non stop, her legs and arms flailing about, hopping 0:02:56.960 --> 0:03:00.320 from one foot to the next. By the ear evening, 0:03:00.600 --> 0:03:04.240 every inch of the young woman's exposed skin was sunburnt, 0:03:04.800 --> 0:03:08.440 her face bright red, and her matted hair drenched in sweat. 0:03:09.360 --> 0:03:12.320 By now a sizeable crowd had gathered to watch this 0:03:12.480 --> 0:03:17.280 bizarre spectacle underneath the setting sun. It was now obvious 0:03:17.480 --> 0:03:21.280 that this was no street performance. There was something terribly 0:03:21.320 --> 0:03:24.520 wrong with this woman, and nobody seemed to know how 0:03:24.560 --> 0:03:29.160 to help her. Her name was Frau Trofia, and soon 0:03:29.720 --> 0:03:34.320 she would not be the only one you're listening to Unexplained, 0:03:34.760 --> 0:03:46.600 and I'm Richard McLean Smith. By the morning of July fifteenth, 0:03:47.040 --> 0:03:51.000 Frau Trofia had been dancing NonStop for close to twenty hours. 0:03:52.000 --> 0:03:55.240 She hadn't stopped to sleep, to eat, or even to 0:03:55.320 --> 0:03:58.800 rest for a moment. Word had spread all over the 0:03:58.840 --> 0:04:02.520 city and that the doctor was called to make sense 0:04:02.640 --> 0:04:06.960 of what was happening. When the doctor arrived, he found 0:04:07.000 --> 0:04:11.040 an even more bizarre scene than he'd expected. There was 0:04:11.080 --> 0:04:15.360 still a crowd gathered around Frautrofia, but now they weren't 0:04:15.400 --> 0:04:19.960 all just onlookers. At some point in the previous few hours, 0:04:20.160 --> 0:04:24.120 two others had begun dancing too, their faces locked into 0:04:24.120 --> 0:04:28.480 the same rictus grimace, their bodies contorting into the same 0:04:28.800 --> 0:04:34.680 strange jig, incredibly like an especially outlandish m night Shire 0:04:34.680 --> 0:04:40.720 Marlin plot. Whatever this was appeared to be contagious. At first, 0:04:40.960 --> 0:04:44.480 it looked like they were mocking Frautrofia, but their dancing 0:04:44.520 --> 0:04:46.800 went on for too long to be a joke, and 0:04:46.880 --> 0:04:49.320 for the rest of the day, the trio kept up 0:04:49.360 --> 0:04:54.560 their wild moods, ignoring all efforts to make them stop. Finally, 0:04:54.839 --> 0:04:59.760 shortly before five pm that evening, Frautropia collapsed to the ground. 0:05:00.600 --> 0:05:03.240 It seemed exhaustion had finally got the best of her, 0:05:03.520 --> 0:05:07.919 and everybody around her breathed a sigh of relief. Whatever 0:05:07.960 --> 0:05:11.200 this strange fever was, it must be breaking, they thought. 0:05:12.160 --> 0:05:16.400 But then Frau Trothia's legs and arms began to twitch weakly, 0:05:17.120 --> 0:05:21.040 and soon they were wriggling again. Fearing she was dying. 0:05:21.320 --> 0:05:25.200 One onlooker rushed forward to give her some water. No 0:05:25.320 --> 0:05:28.680 sooner had frow Trothia managed a few small SIPs, She 0:05:28.720 --> 0:05:31.560 steadily got back to her feet, and the dance began 0:05:31.760 --> 0:05:36.960 once again, more manically than ever. This time, the horrified 0:05:37.000 --> 0:05:40.000 crowd could only watch on as blood from her feet 0:05:40.360 --> 0:05:43.839 began to seep through the straps of her sandals, creating 0:05:43.920 --> 0:05:48.520 streaks of bloody footprints on the stony ground. It was 0:05:48.560 --> 0:05:50.920 as if she was no longer in control of her 0:05:50.960 --> 0:05:54.920 own body, compelled to keep moving by some hidden, all 0:05:55.000 --> 0:05:58.960 powerful puppet master, as if her mind had been given 0:05:59.040 --> 0:06:04.720 over to the King of the fairies. Soon after, concerned 0:06:04.760 --> 0:06:07.880 city officials appeared on the scene and forced the crowd 0:06:07.920 --> 0:06:12.120 to disperse. Terrified that more citizens might suddenly catch the 0:06:12.200 --> 0:06:16.719 dancing fever, they cordoned off the square in a desperate 0:06:16.760 --> 0:06:19.760 effort to prevent anyone else from being able to see 0:06:19.839 --> 0:06:24.440 the dancers, but it was too late. Over the course 0:06:24.480 --> 0:06:28.240 of the next few days, dozens more people across Strasbourg 0:06:28.400 --> 0:06:33.720 began spontaneously dancing. When their alarmed relatives and friends tried 0:06:33.760 --> 0:06:38.120 to intervene more reason with them, the victims were completely unresponsive, 0:06:38.560 --> 0:06:44.159 locked in the same bizarre trance as Frautrophia. Doctors ordered 0:06:44.160 --> 0:06:47.719 friends and family to physically restrain the afflicted just so 0:06:47.800 --> 0:06:50.840 they could examine them, but it was impossible to even 0:06:50.880 --> 0:06:54.839 get close to them, and in any event, the examinations 0:06:55.080 --> 0:07:00.200 when they could conduct them, proved pointless. The physicians were 0:07:00.200 --> 0:07:14.480 completely baffled with things threatening to get out of hand. 0:07:14.880 --> 0:07:17.720 Officials implored the doctors to come up with a theory 0:07:17.920 --> 0:07:21.920 as to what was happening. Though they had no concrete proof, 0:07:22.240 --> 0:07:25.560 it seemed reasonable to assume that the frantic flailing of 0:07:25.600 --> 0:07:30.480 the victims arms and legs had a medical explanation. With 0:07:30.600 --> 0:07:34.560 this in mind, the doctors suggested that the victims simply 0:07:34.600 --> 0:07:38.280 be left alone to effectively dance the sickness out of 0:07:38.320 --> 0:07:42.320 their systems. It was a dubious idea, but it was 0:07:42.400 --> 0:07:46.720 the only one they had. Officials began putting plans together 0:07:46.840 --> 0:07:50.880 to manage the ever growing number of inflicted, believing the 0:07:50.920 --> 0:07:54.560 disease would be best dealt with outside. Specific areas of 0:07:54.600 --> 0:07:58.640 the city became designated as dancing zones, such as the 0:07:58.720 --> 0:08:02.360 open air grain market, the guild hall, and a local 0:08:02.400 --> 0:08:07.400 fair ground. Officials also took the extraordinary decision to try 0:08:07.440 --> 0:08:11.280 and make everything seem as normal as possible, hoping that 0:08:11.320 --> 0:08:14.760 whatever this strange virus was, it would be less effectively 0:08:14.800 --> 0:08:19.120 transmitted if it was harder to discern. To that end, 0:08:19.440 --> 0:08:22.720 the areas were completely cleared out so stages could be 0:08:22.760 --> 0:08:26.400 erected for the afflicted to dance on, and musicians were 0:08:26.440 --> 0:08:30.800 even hired to accompany them. What resulted, however, was a 0:08:30.840 --> 0:08:36.280 grimm tableau, like a hyernomous bosh painting come to life. 0:08:36.360 --> 0:08:41.480 The dancing zones became scenes of surreal, nightmarish chaos. The 0:08:41.559 --> 0:08:46.360 afflicted jerked and twisted endlessly under the baking sun, their 0:08:46.360 --> 0:08:51.800 faces aching with distress. They groaned and cried out in pain. 0:08:53.240 --> 0:08:57.679 Some screamed out for God to save them, but the 0:08:57.679 --> 0:09:00.840 ones who were silent were the more disturbing to watch. 0:09:01.559 --> 0:09:05.320 They looked terrified, as though stuck in a nightmare they 0:09:05.360 --> 0:09:10.120 couldn't wake up from. All the while, groups of perfectly 0:09:10.160 --> 0:09:14.319 healthy musicians accompanied them with a muddled chorus of drum 0:09:14.360 --> 0:09:18.120 beats and pipes. As an ever growing crowd of horrified 0:09:18.160 --> 0:09:22.920 townspeople turned up to stare. It was, as one eyewitness 0:09:22.960 --> 0:09:26.760 described it, as though the dancers created the impression of 0:09:26.920 --> 0:09:30.079 people attempting to keep their legs and feet from burning, 0:09:30.800 --> 0:09:35.840 as if they were poised above a fire. City officials 0:09:36.240 --> 0:09:40.680 also hired professional dancers to perform alongside the victims to 0:09:40.760 --> 0:09:43.760 try and keep them dancing or prop them up when 0:09:43.800 --> 0:09:47.640 they grew too exhausted to stand, convinced that would help 0:09:47.679 --> 0:09:52.400 eradicate the virus. Over the next few weeks, more and 0:09:52.559 --> 0:09:57.640 more victims followed in frou Trophia's footsteps. First, they were 0:09:57.679 --> 0:10:01.400 seized by the uncontrollable urge to die, which they did 0:10:01.480 --> 0:10:05.040 non stop for a period of hours or days, and 0:10:05.120 --> 0:10:08.760 depending on their age and physical condition, they would inevitably 0:10:08.840 --> 0:10:13.600 dance themselves into exhaustion. After six days of almost non 0:10:13.640 --> 0:10:19.200 stop dancing, Frautrophia finally collapsed into unconsciousness and her limbs 0:10:19.360 --> 0:10:25.040 stopped moving. The following day, another dancer keeled over and died. 0:10:26.120 --> 0:10:29.079 The cause was a massive heart attack brought on by 0:10:29.120 --> 0:10:33.560 the sheer physical toll of the dancing. And still more 0:10:33.600 --> 0:10:37.840 people continued to join the throng of tormented dancers, and 0:10:37.960 --> 0:10:40.640 those who hadn't yet been affected were in their own 0:10:40.679 --> 0:10:44.040 grip of terror, petrified at the thought that they would 0:10:44.080 --> 0:10:48.280 be next. By now, the medical consensus was that the 0:10:48.360 --> 0:10:52.040 dancing was being caused by overheated blood on the brain. 0:10:52.400 --> 0:10:56.480 Due to the heat, weve, but rumblings had begun suggesting 0:10:56.559 --> 0:11:07.040 that perhaps there was a much darker explanation. By the 0:11:07.160 --> 0:11:10.760 end of that summer of fifteen eighteen, some four hundred 0:11:10.800 --> 0:11:14.479 people had fallen victim to the dancing plague of Strasbourg. 0:11:15.200 --> 0:11:19.640 Dozens had danced themselves to death, and though the physicians 0:11:19.640 --> 0:11:22.520 were stumped as to what was happening, for the town's 0:11:22.559 --> 0:11:28.360 religious leaders, the explanation was becoming increasingly clear. Back in 0:11:28.440 --> 0:11:32.120 two hundred ninety CE, the Roman emperor of the day 0:11:32.440 --> 0:11:36.360 was Diocletian, but his empire was crumbling as a new 0:11:36.400 --> 0:11:40.440 god had begun to challenge the old powers. That year, 0:11:40.800 --> 0:11:44.360 in the shadowed corners of Sicily, a boy named Vitus 0:11:44.600 --> 0:11:48.920 was born into a prestigious Roman pagan family at the 0:11:48.960 --> 0:11:52.040 age of seven. Vitus is said to have been convinced 0:11:52.040 --> 0:11:55.120 to become a follower of Jesus by the family nurse, 0:11:55.440 --> 0:12:01.240 who also baptized him Secretly. His father, Hylas, a local senator, 0:12:01.600 --> 0:12:05.080 was quick to notice a change in his son. He 0:12:05.160 --> 0:12:09.199 refused to bow before the household gods. He murmured quietly 0:12:09.240 --> 0:12:12.320 to himself when they sat down to eat, and whenever 0:12:12.360 --> 0:12:15.200 they went for a walk, Hilas would catch his son 0:12:15.360 --> 0:12:20.120 gazing wistfully up to the sky. In three hundred three 0:12:20.200 --> 0:12:25.200 c E, Emperor Diocletian issued an edict against Christians, who 0:12:25.240 --> 0:12:29.400 were steadily growing in number. The edict demanded that all 0:12:29.480 --> 0:12:35.240 Christians renounce their faith or faith severe punishment. Terrified of 0:12:35.280 --> 0:12:38.560 what it might mean for his son, Hilas insisted that 0:12:38.679 --> 0:12:43.839 Vitus comply, But as the story goes, the boy refused, 0:12:44.400 --> 0:12:49.400 even when Hylas resorted to beating and imprisoning him. In fact, 0:12:49.679 --> 0:12:55.160 each punishment seemed only to strengthen Vitus's conviction. Then strange 0:12:55.200 --> 0:13:00.800 things began to happen. Hylas's arm would seemingly become temporarily 0:13:00.840 --> 0:13:04.719 paralyzed whenever he raised it to strike the boy. Then, 0:13:04.760 --> 0:13:08.400 a magistrate sent to interrogate Fightus on behalf of the 0:13:08.440 --> 0:13:13.640 emperor died unexpectedly. One morning, while out walking in a 0:13:13.679 --> 0:13:17.440 market with his nurse, Fitus found himself drawn to a 0:13:17.480 --> 0:13:21.480 blind beggar. The young boy placed his small hands on 0:13:21.559 --> 0:13:25.800 the blind man's face, and the man gasped, blinking rapidly, 0:13:26.000 --> 0:13:28.720 when he felt a sudden flood of light rush into 0:13:28.760 --> 0:13:34.920 his eyes. It's a miracle, he said, I can see. Meanwhile, 0:13:35.240 --> 0:13:38.360 at the Emperor's palace in Nicomedia, in what is present 0:13:38.440 --> 0:13:43.079 day Turkey, Diocletian's son was in the grip of something terrifying. 0:13:44.160 --> 0:13:47.320 He writhed about in his bed in a horrifying seizure, 0:13:47.640 --> 0:13:52.560 as foam flecked his lips. The emperor's advisers stood over 0:13:52.640 --> 0:13:56.480 the boy and gave their ominous assessment. There was no 0:13:56.520 --> 0:14:00.760 doubt about it. The Emperor's son was possessed by a demon. 0:14:02.600 --> 0:14:05.520 So when the Emperor learned of a peculiar boy in 0:14:05.600 --> 0:14:09.559 Sicily who was said to have extraordinary healing powers, he 0:14:09.720 --> 0:14:13.960 sent for him immediately. As the legend goes, it took 0:14:14.080 --> 0:14:17.199 Vitus only a matter of minutes to cure the emperor's 0:14:17.200 --> 0:14:20.600 son and bring an end to his and his father's torture, 0:14:21.440 --> 0:14:25.800 but it would come at a great cost. Though grateful 0:14:25.880 --> 0:14:31.000 for Vitas's help, Diocletian was unwavering in his edict against Christians. 0:14:31.800 --> 0:14:35.320 When he demanded that Vitus renounce his faith once again, 0:14:35.840 --> 0:14:41.600 the young boy steadfastly refused. Vitus was swiftly imprisoned and 0:14:41.640 --> 0:14:47.800 then beheaded by five hundred CE, Vitus was being widely 0:14:47.840 --> 0:14:52.760 recognized as a saint. Then, sometime in the fourteenth century, 0:14:53.200 --> 0:14:57.000 in the Rhine Valley in Germany, some farmers began suffering 0:14:57.080 --> 0:15:02.480 from a mysterious affliction characterized by uncontrollable dancing and twitching. 0:15:03.240 --> 0:15:07.320 But when they began praying to Saint Vitus, the affliction stopped. 0:15:08.400 --> 0:15:13.200 And with this association came its dark inversion. If Saint 0:15:13.320 --> 0:15:17.600 Vitus could stop the dance, could he not also start it? 0:15:25.000 --> 0:15:28.280 As the religious leaders of Strasbourg looked about their town, 0:15:28.720 --> 0:15:31.880 the explanation for the dancing plague, as it would come 0:15:31.920 --> 0:15:35.920 to be known, was simple. It wasn't just the dancers 0:15:36.000 --> 0:15:38.960 that were sick. It was all of them. The entire 0:15:39.040 --> 0:15:43.000 society sick with the sin of debauchery, and now Saint 0:15:43.080 --> 0:15:47.280 Vitus was punishing them for it. With nothing to lose, 0:15:47.520 --> 0:15:51.000 the city council embraced the theory and swiftly ordered the 0:15:51.120 --> 0:15:55.000 dancers to be confined to their homes out of public view. 0:15:56.080 --> 0:15:58.400 Once this was done, they went on a mission to 0:15:58.520 --> 0:16:02.640 rid Strasbourg of any activity that could be considered sinful. 0:16:03.520 --> 0:16:07.640 They imprisoned sex workers and gamblers, and banned known drunkards 0:16:07.640 --> 0:16:11.720 from taverns in their efforts to purify the city. When 0:16:11.760 --> 0:16:15.240 this failed to do anything, a period of enforced penance 0:16:15.320 --> 0:16:19.320 was initiated, during which all forms of music and dancing 0:16:19.560 --> 0:16:23.520 were banned in public. All present victims of the dancing 0:16:23.560 --> 0:16:26.560 plague were rounded up and taken to stay at the 0:16:26.600 --> 0:16:30.800 shrine of Saint Vitus on a mountaintop just outside the city. 0:16:32.280 --> 0:16:35.840 One by one, they arrived, hopping and jerking at the 0:16:35.920 --> 0:16:42.040 hillside shrine, their feet blistered and bleeding. Each was sanctified 0:16:42.080 --> 0:16:45.160 with holy oil and water, and given a cross to 0:16:45.200 --> 0:16:48.440 wear around their necks and a pair of red shoes 0:16:48.800 --> 0:16:54.040 gently placed on their ravaged feet. Then, every day, beside 0:16:54.080 --> 0:16:57.880 a wooden figure of Saint Vitus, the local priest conducted 0:16:57.920 --> 0:17:01.960 a mass exorcism, crying out to Saint Vitus to relent 0:17:02.080 --> 0:17:08.880 with his punishment and grant absolution. Then something extraordinary happened. 0:17:09.760 --> 0:17:14.560 The victims began to recover. They regained the ability to 0:17:14.600 --> 0:17:18.760 control their movements, and although they were still sometimes gripped 0:17:18.800 --> 0:17:22.159 by the sudden urge to dance, the episodes lasted for 0:17:22.240 --> 0:17:26.480 minutes rather than days. Finally, by the end of September 0:17:26.720 --> 0:17:31.400 fifteen eighteen, the dancing plague including for Frau Trofia, who 0:17:31.400 --> 0:17:35.639 had survived. The whole ordeal was all but over. In 0:17:35.720 --> 0:17:38.560 the five centuries that have passed, there has never been 0:17:38.560 --> 0:17:42.119 a conclusive explanation for what happened, but there's been no 0:17:42.160 --> 0:17:46.320 shortage of theories. Some have tried to explain it away 0:17:46.600 --> 0:17:51.040 as a purely sociological phenomenon. The dancers were members of 0:17:51.080 --> 0:17:55.200 a religious cult. Some suggested enacting some kind of ritual, 0:17:55.760 --> 0:17:59.320 but this doesn't tally with any of the eye witness accounts. 0:18:00.119 --> 0:18:03.920 The afflicted seemed distressed and desperate, and were clearly dancing 0:18:03.960 --> 0:18:06.840 against their will to the point where their feet bled 0:18:06.960 --> 0:18:11.000 and their bodies collapsed. No cult could sustain that kind 0:18:11.000 --> 0:18:15.600 of power. Another possibility is that the victims were all 0:18:15.640 --> 0:18:20.000 poisoned by some kind of toxin. Ergot is a type 0:18:20.000 --> 0:18:23.560 of toxic fungus that grows on damp rye, which grew 0:18:23.640 --> 0:18:28.720 plentifully in the field surrounding Strasbourg. Eating at once isn't 0:18:28.720 --> 0:18:32.760 a problem, but long term poisoning can cause hallucinations and 0:18:32.840 --> 0:18:37.720 muscle spasms. If the city's bread supply was contaminated by ergot, 0:18:38.160 --> 0:18:42.879 this might have caused widespread poisoning, but this theory doesn't 0:18:42.880 --> 0:18:47.720 really hold water either. Hallucinations and spasms don't tally with 0:18:47.800 --> 0:19:02.399 an insatiable urge to dance. In order to really understand 0:19:02.440 --> 0:19:06.399 what happened during the Dancing plague, it's important to understand 0:19:06.480 --> 0:19:10.560 what was happening in Strasbourg before it started. The early 0:19:10.600 --> 0:19:13.639 fifteen hundreds had been a terrible time for the city. 0:19:14.440 --> 0:19:18.520 Multiple harvest failures had caused wheat prices to soar, leaving 0:19:18.560 --> 0:19:22.119 many people on the brink of starvation. A number of 0:19:22.240 --> 0:19:25.960 terrifying new diseases had also begun to spread widely during 0:19:26.000 --> 0:19:32.840 this period, including syphilis and the bubonic plague. Homeless shelters, hospitals, 0:19:32.840 --> 0:19:36.560 and orphanages were besieged, and the streets were full of 0:19:36.640 --> 0:19:42.240 people begging for food. In short, people were desperate, grief stricken, 0:19:42.640 --> 0:19:45.080 and struggling to see any light at the end of 0:19:45.119 --> 0:19:50.560 the tunnel. One moralizing book written by city chancellor Sebastian 0:19:50.640 --> 0:19:55.960 Brandt about twenty years before, titled Das Narrenschiff The Ship 0:19:56.000 --> 0:19:59.879 of Falls, also seemed to have seeped into the public imagination. 0:20:00.880 --> 0:20:04.200 In it, he wrote that dance and sin are one 0:20:04.240 --> 0:20:09.439 in kind. All of this created the ideal conditions for 0:20:09.520 --> 0:20:14.480 a mass psychogenic illness, more commonly known as mass hysteria, 0:20:15.240 --> 0:20:18.800 a situation that occurs when there's a rapid onset of 0:20:18.880 --> 0:20:24.800 similar or identical symptoms among members of a group. Importantly, 0:20:25.160 --> 0:20:29.040 mass psychogenic illness only occurs in the context of some 0:20:29.240 --> 0:20:33.600 plausible threat, which provokes anxiety and panic within the group. 0:20:34.600 --> 0:20:37.679 The existence of this threat is what makes the spread 0:20:37.720 --> 0:20:42.119 of mass hysteria possible. Just as being sleep deprived or 0:20:42.200 --> 0:20:45.920 malnourished can suppress your immune system and make you more 0:20:45.960 --> 0:20:51.040 susceptible to getting ill, feeling constantly anxious and threatened can 0:20:51.080 --> 0:20:55.720 make you more psychologically suggestible. In the case of the 0:20:55.760 --> 0:21:01.040 people of Strasbourg, they'd lived under constant threat from famine, disease, 0:21:01.640 --> 0:21:05.800 and social upheaval for years. Even for the lucky ones, 0:21:06.119 --> 0:21:08.920 those who still had a roof over their heads, enough 0:21:08.960 --> 0:21:11.720 food on the table, and whose loved ones were all 0:21:11.760 --> 0:21:15.720 still alive, daily life was still fraught and filled with 0:21:15.880 --> 0:21:21.800 reminders of just how bad things could get under these conditions. 0:21:22.119 --> 0:21:27.640 It's possible that Frau Trophia essentially became patient zero. Her bizarre, 0:21:27.920 --> 0:21:32.240 uncontrollable dancing spread like the symptoms of a physical illness 0:21:32.400 --> 0:21:38.440 among the unsettled residents. Of Strasbourg, resulting in the dancing plague. 0:21:38.640 --> 0:21:42.919 But mass hysteria is only half the story. The idea 0:21:43.000 --> 0:21:46.440 of a dancing plague in itself didn't come from nowhere, 0:21:47.000 --> 0:21:50.800 but from a very specific superstition that had existed in 0:21:50.840 --> 0:22:01.639 Europe for centuries. The vast majority of people in sixteenth 0:22:01.680 --> 0:22:05.359 century Europe were strongly religious, believing not only in a 0:22:05.440 --> 0:22:09.040 Christian God, but also in a variety of related saints 0:22:09.040 --> 0:22:13.320 and deities. One of these was the aforementioned Saint Vitus, 0:22:13.600 --> 0:22:17.199 who became known as the Saint of entertainment and dance, 0:22:17.600 --> 0:22:22.240 who legend said, punished sinners by cursing them to dance relentlessly. 0:22:23.400 --> 0:22:26.960 This superstition is so widely known that it even inspired 0:22:27.040 --> 0:22:32.080 medical terminology as an auto immune condition called Sydonym's corrier, 0:22:32.440 --> 0:22:37.000 involving frantic and uncontrollable jerking movements in the hands and feet. 0:22:37.800 --> 0:22:41.760 The alternative name for this affliction is Saint Vitus's dance. 0:22:43.320 --> 0:22:47.520 Surrounded by distress and misfortune, the people of Strasbourg had 0:22:47.560 --> 0:22:50.520 every reason to believe that God and all of his 0:22:50.640 --> 0:22:53.919 saints were angry with them, so it wasn't much of 0:22:53.960 --> 0:22:57.080 a leap for a few people to also start believing 0:22:57.240 --> 0:23:01.600 that Saint Vitus had cursed them personally. If this is 0:23:01.640 --> 0:23:05.560 indeed what happened, then the city council couldn't possibly have 0:23:05.680 --> 0:23:10.639 chosen a worse response. By erecting stages in multiple spaces 0:23:10.960 --> 0:23:14.600 and encouraging the afflicted to continue dancing as crowds of 0:23:14.600 --> 0:23:19.760 spectators watched on, they ensured maximum exposure to the emotional virus. 0:23:20.880 --> 0:23:26.119 In effect, these public dancing zones were daily psychological super 0:23:26.160 --> 0:23:30.240 spreader events. Even if people were going out of their 0:23:30.280 --> 0:23:34.040 way to avoid seeing the dancers, it was almost impossible. 0:23:34.560 --> 0:23:36.879 They were in the most public areas of the city, 0:23:37.280 --> 0:23:40.879 from the Guildhall to the grain Market, and because the 0:23:40.920 --> 0:23:45.720 afflicted were so inescapable, so visible, the townspeople had no 0:23:45.840 --> 0:23:49.200 choice but to reflect on the possibility that they could 0:23:49.200 --> 0:23:53.240 be next. This fear would have been especially pronounced for 0:23:53.320 --> 0:23:57.360 anybody who was naturally anxious or prone to self recrimination. 0:23:58.400 --> 0:24:01.640 Of course, the authorities were only following the medical advice 0:24:01.680 --> 0:24:05.719 they'd been given. This was two centuries before the emergence 0:24:05.720 --> 0:24:10.440 of psychiatry, and doctors unfortunately had no concept of social 0:24:10.480 --> 0:24:15.800 contagion or collective trauma when they recommended that the victims 0:24:15.880 --> 0:24:19.520 be encouraged to dance until they were satiated. They were 0:24:19.520 --> 0:24:23.240 thinking only about the effect on the individual, not on 0:24:23.320 --> 0:24:28.000 society as a whole. There have been no other recorded 0:24:28.040 --> 0:24:31.679 incidents of a dancing plague since that strange summer of 0:24:31.760 --> 0:24:37.040 fifteen eighteen, but mass psychogenic illness is now broadly accepted phenomenon. 0:24:37.680 --> 0:24:41.200 It's been widely recorded in other forms, from mass spouts 0:24:41.200 --> 0:24:46.680 of illness to supposed multiple demonic possessions, and even epidemics 0:24:46.680 --> 0:24:51.000 of uncontrollable laughter. Has once occurred in East Africa in 0:24:51.040 --> 0:24:56.560 the nineteen sixties. The psychological contagion theory is the closest 0:24:56.640 --> 0:24:59.840 will likely ever get to an explanation of what happened 0:25:00.119 --> 0:25:04.960 for now, The dancing plague at Strasbourg was a bizarre 0:25:05.080 --> 0:25:14.919 and haunting occurrence that remains to this day unexplained. This 0:25:15.080 --> 0:25:19.200 episode was written by Emma Dibden and Richard McLain Smith. 0:25:22.040 --> 0:25:24.639 Thank you, as ever for listening to the show. Please 0:25:24.680 --> 0:25:27.280 subscribe and rate it if you haven't already done so. 0:25:27.920 --> 0:25:30.560 You can also now find us on TikTok at TikTok 0:25:30.640 --> 0:25:34.679 dot com. Forward slash at Unexplained podcast. Unexplained as an 0:25:34.680 --> 0:25:39.800 AV Club Productions podcast created by Richard McClain smith. All 0:25:39.840 --> 0:25:43.200 other elements of the podcast, including the music, are also 0:25:43.240 --> 0:25:47.679 produced by me Richard McClain smith. Unexplained. The book and 0:25:47.720 --> 0:25:52.040 audiobook is now available to buy worldwide. You can purchase 0:25:52.080 --> 0:25:57.120 from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Waterstones and other bookstores. Please 0:25:57.200 --> 0:26:00.760 subscribe to and rate the show wherever you get your podcasts, 0:26:01.040 --> 0:26:03.359 and feel free to get in touch with any thoughts 0:26:03.440 --> 0:26:06.600 or ideas regarding the stories you've heard on the show. 0:26:06.920 --> 0:26:09.359 Perhaps you have an explanation of your own you'd like 0:26:09.440 --> 0:26:13.080 to share. You can find out more at Unexplained podcast 0:26:13.119 --> 0:26:16.960 dot com and reach us online through Twitter at Unexplained 0:26:17.000 --> 0:26:21.960 Pod and Facebook at Facebook dot com, Forward slash Unexplained 0:26:22.040 --> 0:27:12.960 Podcast d. 0:28:05.600 --> 0:30:28.520 A, then then then then on the