When my teacher-summer-furlough ends, the first thing I’m buying is that encyclopedia and reading it cover to cover. Mass delusions and Mandela effects are fascinating and I’ll never get enough.
If you haven’t delved into the wild world of the Dancing Plague of 1518, definitely take a gander.
As someone who suffers from a psychogenic illness (psychogenic non-epileptic seizures - yes, the acronym is PNES), I was quite uncomfortable with the flippancy in the language you used in this piece surrounding it: "all in their heads", "mass hysteria" and "mass delusion" all make it sound like psychogenic illness is based on some kind of foolishness.
I can tell you from firsthand experience: it's not. My seizures aren't any less scary than epileptic seizures to those on the outside (or to me) because they have a psychological trigger. I can't avoid them by thinking more positive or more "rational" thoughts. My hallucinations and disorientation aren't any different from those with left lobe temporal epilepsy except that mine don't show up on an EEG - I actually only recently had my diagnosis revised after 13 years of being labelled as having left lobe temporal epilepsy, they're that similar.
Psychogenic illness is often written off as irrational or attention seeking behaviour, or hysteria, which only makes it harder for people like me (and those in that US embassy) to get treatment, support, employment, and so on. It's an area of medicine and psychiatry that (from my experience as a patient) isn't understood very well, and it would be nice if people treated us like we have a genuine medical condition rather than just thinking we're all just being silly and if we just snapped out of it, we'd be fine.
Wonderful little rabbit hole. I was really excited by the thought of sonic weapons. Too much sci-fi in my brain. Thank you for another interesting story.
Wow that’s fascinating! I had a similar reaction to you when the sonic attacks were in the news so it’s nice to finally get a probable explanation. I’ll have to pickup the book. You should put an amazon affiliate link for when you make recommendations. Thanks for the great stories.
The concept of mass hysteria , as serious as it may be , does not justify how certain politicians point their , ill informed fingers towards other countries to play blame game . I see two major issues highlighted in your blog David . One of the concept of mass hysteria - a conversation that can go as deep as they come.
The second, and the more troubling one, being political 'leaders' justifying the occurance of it as an attack from another country instead of playing at the possibility of acknowledging that it was probably mass hysteria or what a solution to it may be .
Fascinating! I’m reading all the articles you linked. I’m reminded of the case of probable mass psychogenic illness in Leroy, New York in 2011. A bunch of teenage girls started twitching and having speech difficulties. The more media attention it got, the more cases kept popping up. Some blamed a nearby toxic dump, and environmental activist Erin Brokovitch got involved.
Just wondering if you've seen this video of American Armed forces showing reporters how their "microwave gun" works, interesting that they develop a type of weapon then someones else allegedly uses against some of theirs citizens. Also on a side note how is watching the Japanese animated movies going?
I used to work with Rob, my fellow American 😊. He's done such interesting work and for a long time while teaching full time. Thanks for writing about this. It never ceases to amaze me how much the cold War still shapes people's thinking.
When my teacher-summer-furlough ends, the first thing I’m buying is that encyclopedia and reading it cover to cover. Mass delusions and Mandela effects are fascinating and I’ll never get enough.
If you haven’t delved into the wild world of the Dancing Plague of 1518, definitely take a gander.
Thanks for the brain candy!
As someone who suffers from a psychogenic illness (psychogenic non-epileptic seizures - yes, the acronym is PNES), I was quite uncomfortable with the flippancy in the language you used in this piece surrounding it: "all in their heads", "mass hysteria" and "mass delusion" all make it sound like psychogenic illness is based on some kind of foolishness.
I can tell you from firsthand experience: it's not. My seizures aren't any less scary than epileptic seizures to those on the outside (or to me) because they have a psychological trigger. I can't avoid them by thinking more positive or more "rational" thoughts. My hallucinations and disorientation aren't any different from those with left lobe temporal epilepsy except that mine don't show up on an EEG - I actually only recently had my diagnosis revised after 13 years of being labelled as having left lobe temporal epilepsy, they're that similar.
Psychogenic illness is often written off as irrational or attention seeking behaviour, or hysteria, which only makes it harder for people like me (and those in that US embassy) to get treatment, support, employment, and so on. It's an area of medicine and psychiatry that (from my experience as a patient) isn't understood very well, and it would be nice if people treated us like we have a genuine medical condition rather than just thinking we're all just being silly and if we just snapped out of it, we'd be fine.
So yeah, this article hurt a bit.
Wonderful little rabbit hole. I was really excited by the thought of sonic weapons. Too much sci-fi in my brain. Thank you for another interesting story.
Wow that’s fascinating! I had a similar reaction to you when the sonic attacks were in the news so it’s nice to finally get a probable explanation. I’ll have to pickup the book. You should put an amazon affiliate link for when you make recommendations. Thanks for the great stories.
The concept of mass hysteria , as serious as it may be , does not justify how certain politicians point their , ill informed fingers towards other countries to play blame game . I see two major issues highlighted in your blog David . One of the concept of mass hysteria - a conversation that can go as deep as they come.
The second, and the more troubling one, being political 'leaders' justifying the occurance of it as an attack from another country instead of playing at the possibility of acknowledging that it was probably mass hysteria or what a solution to it may be .
( a great nation indeed , I am sure 😑)
Stay safe david❤
I’m not the only one who noticed that the first pic looks like a big vagina opening up over that house, right?
Came to this post from your latest one and wanted to find the book “Outbreak” you mentioned. Turns out that in NZ it’s called
“A colorful history of popular delusions”. Now on hood at the library :-)
Ngā mihi
I worked with Robert. He's a fascinating chap!
"Mass psychogenic illness" is the latest new feature of my vocab :)
Obviously my first thought is one of my favorite X Files - War of the Coprophages.
Fascinating! I’m reading all the articles you linked. I’m reminded of the case of probable mass psychogenic illness in Leroy, New York in 2011. A bunch of teenage girls started twitching and having speech difficulties. The more media attention it got, the more cases kept popping up. Some blamed a nearby toxic dump, and environmental activist Erin Brokovitch got involved.
Would you rather fight one sonic weapon sized mass delusion or one mass delusion sized sonic weapon????
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkGHgsgc6es,
Just wondering if you've seen this video of American Armed forces showing reporters how their "microwave gun" works, interesting that they develop a type of weapon then someones else allegedly uses against some of theirs citizens. Also on a side note how is watching the Japanese animated movies going?
I used to work with Rob, my fellow American 😊. He's done such interesting work and for a long time while teaching full time. Thanks for writing about this. It never ceases to amaze me how much the cold War still shapes people's thinking.