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Mass psychogenic illness

Posted on: August 2, 2008 - 10:47am

Renee Obsidianwords

Posts: 1388

Joined: 2007-03-29

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Mass psychogenic illness

I read an article at Discovery.com that I thought I would share with everyone. I found it interesting, first because I had never heard of "The dancing Plague" and secondly, it got me thinking about the human mind and how our cultures and beliefs could set the stage for these types of mass epidemics...

*the accounts of Jesus' resurrection

*speaking in toungues

*spirit possession

*seeing the vigin mary in a window

Please share any other examples you might have!

Slowly building a blog at ~

http://obsidianwords.wordpress.com/

Posted on: August 2, 2008 - 11:11am #1

Wonko

Posts: 518

Joined: 2008-06-18

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Yeah, I'd never heard of

Yeah, I'd never heard of the Tanganyika Laughter Epidemic of 1962, either.

Strange, crazy stuff. Koro, too.

Just as an aside and sharing my own personal experience...

Years ago, after watching my first Cheech and Chong flick, I walked around a little dazed for several days, and at night I dreamed of dancing around a giant water bong. (No, not joking and wasn't under any "influences" at the time)

Does that count??? To this day, I've always wondered what the hell that was all about.

Posted on: August 2, 2008 - 11:23am #2

JillSwift

Posts: 1758

Joined: 2008-01-13

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Wonko wrote:Yeah, I'd never

Wonko wrote:

Yeah, I'd never heard of the Tanganyika Laughter Epidemic of 1962, either.
Strange, crazy stuff. Koro, too.
Just as an aside and sharing my own personal experience...
Years ago, after watching my first Cheech and Chong flick, I walked around a little dazed for several days, and at night I dreamed of dancing around a giant water bong. (No, not joking and wasn't under any "influences" at the time)
Does that count??? To this day, I've always wondered what the hell that was all about.

Yep, that counts.

A psychogenic 'disease' or 'episode' is, in broad strokes, a run-away emotion driven behavior. In your case, it may have been a wish to identify with the characters freedom and adventure-full lives.

"Anyone can repress a woman, but you need 'dictated' scriptures to feel you're really right in repressing her. In the same way, homophobes thrive everywhere. But you must feel you've got scripture on your side to come up with the tedious 'Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve' style arguments instead of just recognising that some people are different." - Douglas Murray

Posted on: August 2, 2008 - 10:47pm #3

Renee Obsidianwords

Posts: 1388

Joined: 2007-03-29

Offline

Wonko wrote:Yeah, I'd never

Wonko wrote:

Yeah, I'd never heard of the Tanganyika Laughter Epidemic of 1962, either.
Strange, crazy stuff. Koro, too.
Just as an aside and sharing my own personal experience...
Years ago, after watching my first Cheech and Chong flick, I walked around a little dazed for several days, and at night I dreamed of dancing around a giant water bong. (No, not joking and wasn't under any "influences" at the time)
Does that count??? To this day, I've always wondered what the hell that was all about.

That Koro...I think Nigeria had a recent bout of that. There were claims that a witchdoctor was stealing men' members! The mind is damn powerful.

Slowly building a blog at ~

http://obsidianwords.wordpress.com/