Mass-Hysteria in Schools (A Worldwide-History Since 1566) by Robert E. Bartholomew, Bob Rickard (2014)

ALSO OF INTEREST AND FROM MCFARLAND
The Martians Have Landed!

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Little Green Men, Meowing Nuns and Head-Hunting Panics:
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Mass Hysteria
in Schools
A Worldwide History
Since 1566
ROBERT E. BARTHOLOMEW
with BOB RICKARD
Foreword by Glenn Dawes
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers

Jefferson, North Carolina
Table of Contents
Foreword by Glenn Dawes 1

Introduction 3
1. Witch Hunts and Schoolchildren 11

2. Twitching Epidemics and Pregnancy Panics: Historic Tales
from Europe and America 26
3. Fear 101— Fates Worse Than Homework: Modern Tales from
East and West 44
4. The Demon-Haunted Classroom: Tales from Asia 71
5. The Students Who Laughed for a Week: Accounts from Africa 94
6. The Meowing Schoolgirls of Fiji: Accounts from the Islands 121
7. Strange Tales from Latin America 134
8. Strange Schoolyards and Unusual Field Trips: Cases from
Beyond the Classroom 146
9. Global Lessons 173
Chapter Notes 187

Bibliography 211
Index 223
v
Foreword
by Glenn Dawes
This book examines one of the strangest chapters in the study of the
social sciences: the history of contagious conversion disorder (aka “mass
hysteria”) in schools. Robert Bartholomew and Bob Rickard analyze these
outbreaks, which span different cultures and time periods, seeking to iden-
tify their underlying patterns of origin and spread.
This book helps bridge the gap in our knowledge about seemingly
unrelated cases of extreme behavioral changes among young people in
schools through reference to a number of case studies. These studies cover
outbreaks going back to one in 1566 in Holland that mystified observers
and fostered a variety of folk theories meant to explain bouts of twitching,
shaking and supposed demonic possession still common in parts of Asia
and Africa today. Other case studies document changes to student behavior,
such as mass faintings or unexplainable bouts of laughter, to illustrate the
pervasiveness of conversion disorder across global boundaries and cultures.
Bartholomew and Rickard provide a convincing analysis through ref-
erence to cross-disciplinary theories to provide plausible explanations as
to why these events occur. They demonstrate that schools, in addition to
educating students, often are hotbeds of gossip-mongering and misinfor-
mation that gives rise to rumors and folk theories with real consequences.
As sociologists Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann famously concluded:
reality is socially constructed, and if a group of people believe something,
no matter how strange and bizarre it may seem to outside observers, they
act as if it were real. This book is a valuable resource for educators, parents
and students who seek a rational explanation for outbreaks of bizarre
behaviors and illness symptoms in school settings and an understanding
of their impact on the rest of society.
Glenn Dawes is the former chair of the Department of Anthropology,

Archeology and Sociology, James Cook University, Townsville, Australia
1
Introduction
In a Malaysian classroom, a young girl gets a wild look in her eyes

and begins flailing about and screaming. She soon falls to the floor and
curses her principal in a gruff, eerie voice, as if a mysterious force has
seized her. A student in Tanzania starts to laugh, followed by another, and
another. Some students laugh intermittently for days. Before long, thou-
sands are stricken and schools are forced to close for weeks. On the Pacific
island of Papua New Guinea, a nursing student is stricken with a headache,
is struck deaf and attacks bystanders. Over the next two weeks a dozen
classmates are seized with similar symptoms.
These strange outbreaks of mass hysteria also affect students in West-
ern countries. During a British jazz gala, 130 band members tumble over
like dominoes. Near London, a young English girl feels nauseated; her
stomach bloats. Girls around her experience similar symptoms and begin
to suspect that they are pregnant. Tests reveal that no one is pregnant; all
are victims of a rare psychiatric condition. An itching frenzy that lasts for
months sweeps through dozens of American and Canadian schools. In the
Middle East, odor from a school latrine almost leads to war when students
fall ill, believing it is poison gas. In Soviet Georgia, reports tell of govern-
ment forces unleashing a powerful chemical to break up a protest. The
incident makes such a deep impression on 400 schoolgirls that they develop
symptoms of gas poisoning, despite being nowhere near the rally.
Mysterious tremors have been occurring among students in Western
schools for over a century. In 1906 a student at a girls’ school in Germany
was attending penmanship class when her writing turned to scribbles, her
hand shaking violently. In the coming days and weeks, more classmates
were stricken. Like falling ten pins, one girl after another fell victim to
“the trembling disease.” There were other oddities: the same girls went to
other classes without the slightest trouble. These outbreaks took place
when writing instruction in many European schools was agonizingly dull
and repetitive. To “cure” the students, Dr. Johannes Schoedel hooked each
3
4 Introduction
girl to wires and gave them electric shocks, thinking it would render them
open to his suggestions. At their next writing session, an announcement
was made: “Since you are not able to write, you must unfortunately have
mental arithmetic again.”1 The trembling soon stopped.2 Writing tremors
in Europe were common during the late nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries.3
In most episodes, popular myths and preoccupations shape stress or
fear, leading to the spread of rumors, panics, scares, and hysterias. Stress
can affect the body in many different ways. An anxiety attack can trans-
form ordinarily confident students into ones who are certain they are
dying of a heart attack as their heart begins to pound rapidly. In the after-
math of a frightening event, post-traumatic stress disorder can emotionally
cripple the most confident of witnesses, who are left to wrestle with base-
less fears and unrelenting nightmares. One of the most fascinating medical
conditions is conversion disorder. In devising the term, Sigmund Freud
described it as the conversion of psychological conflict and trauma into
aches and pains that have no physical basis. An examination of the patient
reveals normal reflexes and electrical activity. A classic example is the
pacifist whose arm freezes when trying to fire a gun in combat. In other
cases, a person may think that he or she is sick and unknowingly mimic
the imaginary condition. The symptoms commonly mimic their illness
scenarios. For instance, stomachache, nausea and diarrhea are common
after food poisoning rumors,4 while false alarms involving gas leaks typ-
ically induce headache, dizziness and over-breathing.5
Any place where students gather, be it a classroom, schoolyard, sports
field or class trips can be fertile soil for the growth of rumors and social
delusions, because the everyday adolescent world swirls with turmoil and
passions: insecurities, jealousies, rivalries, fears, and suspicions. Under
certain conditions, episodes may develop into full-blown mass hysteria,
which has been known to occur in every country. The result is a strange
mosaic of responses depending on the culture, context and era. While con-
version aptly describes the process of converting conflict into symptoms,6
hysteria and mass hysteria continue to be used by many doctors, psychi-
atrists and historians.7 When we use these terms, it is to describe conver-
sion disorder and nothing more. We must tread carefully here, as the word
hysteria has been used for centuries to inappropriately describe an array
of different behaviors under one label: mass suicide, communist “Red”
scares, Nazism, the fear of AIDS, the Martian invasion panic, rock concert
stampedes, land booms and stock sell-offs. These events have been
described as mass hysteria, but they have little to do with the subject.
Other fallacies include assertions that women cannot handle stress and
Introduction 5
are prone to the condition.8 Such claims come from a bedrock of long-
standing prejudice and stereotypes that view women as the psychologically
weaker sex. They are without scientific merit. The term social delusion is
not used as a psychiatrist would, to indicate mental disorder, but as soci-
ologists use it, to describe the rapid spread of false beliefs.
In chapter 1 we analyze witch scares in European schools dating from
the sixteenth century.9 In a Dutch classroom in 1566, boys and girls went
into frightful seizures and trance states, kicking and shaking on the floor,
at times behaving like cats and crawling across the school roof. The episode
coincided with witchcraft fears and the then-widespread European belief
that cats were familiars of the devil.10 During a French witch scare in 1639,
villagers were preparing to burn the students alive after overzealous inter-
rogators convinced the impressionable youngsters to confess to everything
from eating babies to flying on broomsticks. Suddenly, the specter of guilt
fell upon the female headmistress, who fled for her life, sparing the children
a fiery fate.11 Equally remarkable is a series of modern-day witch hunts
occurring in American and European preschools during the 1980s and
’90s. These imaginary nursery crimes ruined the lives of hundreds of inno-
cent adults with allegations of satanic ritual abuse. The real culprits were
poorly trained investigators who asked leading questions, and overzealous
therapists using dubious techniques to retrieve so-called hidden memo-
ries.
Chapter 2 documents tremors and other bizarre maladies that became
common in Europe and North America between the mid-nineteenth and
mid-twentieth centuries, including twitching, convulsions, blackout spells,
and phantom pregnancies. Appearing in the strictest schools, episodes
reflected pent-up stress. Most cases corresponded to the adoption of a
new educational approach, “mental discipline,” at a time when the brain
was thought to work like a muscle, requiring repetitions in math and pen-
manship. Even high-interest subjects such as English, reading, and social
studies were reduced to drudgery, as little thinking took place. Most lessons
consisted of “memory work.”
Chapter 3 is a survey of outbreaks of psychological illness in European
and North American schools since the mid-twentieth century. Episodes
featured terrorism and contamination fears that developed after exposure
to a real or imaginary threat — most often an odor or rumors of food poi-
soning. Common reactions included over-breathing, fainting, nausea,
stomach pain, and headache. The cases reflect concerns over the quality
of food, air, and water, and safety in the wake of foreign threats. Since
September 11, 2001, there have been many terror scares in American
schools resulting in the evacuation of students who felt ill after smelling
6 Introduction
an odor. Shortly after the anthrax mail attacks of 2001, the “Bin Laden
Itch” struck dozens of U.S. schools. Amid rumors that the outbreak of
rashes was a bio-terror attack aimed at schoolchildren, the Centers for
Disease Control launched a major investigation. They soon found the cul-
prit to be a variety of common ailments. Some ambitious pupils were even
caught sandpapering their arms in order to be excused from school.12 Also
documented are terrorism false alarms in schools before September 11, in
the United States, Asia, and the Middle East.13
In chapter 4, we examine conversion disorder reactions in Asian
schools, which vary with local superstitions and beliefs. In Thailand, anx-
iety from ghost scares often leads to breathing problems and a belief that
spirits are choking the children.14 In Malaysia, group spirit possession is
common among Malay girls in Islamic boarding schools that are notorious
for their strict rules and lack of privacy, where students must account for
their whereabouts at all times.15 Interaction with boys is forbidden, as is
dating. Even visits by family and friends take place in rooms that resemble
fishbowls— under the watchful eye of adult monitors. The formula for
mass hysteria here is simple: all work and no play fosters abnormal states
of mind that reflect local beliefs in the existence of an array of supernatural
creatures. Within this atmosphere of fear, students may collapse on the
floor and enter trances, leading to a widespread belief that they have been
the victims of demonic attacks. A few girls act as a mouthpiece for the
class, publicly voicing complaints and frustrations with the way the school
is being operated. The spirits are thought to be speaking through the girls,
who negotiate better conditions with administrators, such as more recre-
ation time and less homework.16 In reality, their subconscious is expressing
what they cannot voice aloud. The girls avoid punishment for speaking
out because the spirits are seen as wresting temporary control of their
minds and bodies.
In chapter 5 we describe unusual behaviors in African schools. For
several days in 1976, students at a school in rural Zambia twitched,
laughed, and wandered aimlessly about the campus grounds. Weary teach-
ers could only look on in disbelief. After several days many of the 120 stu-
dents were still meandering about as if in a hypnotic trance.17 Similar
incidents, known by locals as “laughing mania,” have been plaguing
African schools for decades.18 Some students claim to be in contact with
ancestors, from whom they seek advice. Outbreaks usually affect West-
ern-run missionary boarding schools. Elders seeking the best education
for their children send them to these schools in spite of the risk of exposing
them to new ideas that often conflict with traditional beliefs. Trapped
between worlds and unable to serve two masters, pupils are caught in a
Introduction 7
cultural and psychological tug-of-war. The result is a kind of mental grid-

lock as they enter trances and “communicate” with their ancestors for a
solution to their dilemma.19 “Talking” with ancestors in times of crisis has
been part of the African religious landscape for centuries. These and other
strange outbreaks in Africa show no signs of abating.
Chapter 6 is an exploration of bizarre behaviors in exotic island
schools in Papua New Guinea, Fiji, and the Philippines. Island culture can
be isolating and restrictive, helping to create ideal conditions for hysteria
outbreaks. Episodes here occur when the teachings of Western schools
conflict with native beliefs, especially over the changing role of women.
In 1973, in the highlands of Papua New Guinea, students at an Australian-
run school complained of drowsiness and headaches, entered trances, and
attacked relatives. They returned to normal within hours, only to suffer
more attacks. It is no coincidence that in this culture, local tribesmen
dominate their wives, restricting them to cooking, gardening, and tending
children and animals. Elders arrange marriages, and their decision is final.
The students’ contact with the school left them wanting more from life.
Caught between the liberal Western values that they were exposed to at
school and their traditions, some chose a bold step: to stop taking their
elders’ advice and pick their own partners. The cost was high: their families
shunned them, and the crippling stress that developed triggered fits during
which students lashed out at relatives.20 Ordinarily, they would be severely
punished for these behaviors, but in this case, they were seen as victims
who had been possessed by demonic forces.
In chapter 7 we look at cases in Latin America, in particular, an out-
break of walking difficulties that affected over 500 students at a Catholic
girls’ school near Mexico City in 2006 and 2007. The episode was triggered
by the use of a Ouija board to try to alter the outcome of a basketball
game. When the girl using the board was expelled for trying to commu-
nicate with the devil, she was rumored to have cursed the school. The out-
break occurred shortly after. A number of factors contributed to the
episode, including strict study and prayer regimes, an absence of leisure
activities and the fear of expulsion, but the most influential was a belief
in ghosts, witches and demons. Also examined is an outbreak of grisi siknis
(“crazy sickness”) among northern Nicaraguan schoolgirls.
Chapter 8 documents outbreaks of mass hysteria and kindred behav-
iors occurring outside of the classroom in such diverse settings as track
meets, football games, chorus recitals and band competitions. In 1972, 130
members of several school bands began collapsing like unstrung mari-
onettes along a parade route in England. Shortly after marching into a
foul odor, the first student fell down, followed by dozens more. The stu-
8 Introduction
dents made a quick recovery upon learning that the stench was from a
pigsty.21 Not a single local student or onlooker fell ill — presumably they
were used to the smell and knew what it was. There are many other inci-
dents of collapsing school bands.22 Over-breathing is a common culprit.
Occasionally, outbreaks occur on buses. In May 2000 near Peoria, Illinois,
a bus of fourth graders was returning from a field trip when a student
began gasping for air, followed by a second student. Within minutes, eight
of the twelve students on board were panic-stricken, gasping for air. The
driver pulled off the road and stopped the bus, allowing the passengers to
scramble out for fresh air. Rescue personnel quickly pieced together the
circumstances: The first two students had asthma and began to worry
about their breathing after realizing they had left their inhalers behind.
The others then began to panic, thinking the bus was giving off toxic
fumes. The children recovered quickly in the hospital.23
In chapter 9 we examine different explanations for the events in this
book. Many cases fall under the category of mass hysteria, of which two
key types are common.24 The first type, anxiety hysteria, typically lasts
only a day and involves sudden fear in the wake of a false or exaggerated
threat. It is common in modern Western schools in response to terrorism
and fears about the contamination of air, food, and water. A second type,
motor hysteria, builds slowly. Weeks or months of relentless pressure soon
disrupt the motor neurons that send messages to the muscles and control
coordination. As a result, students’ bodies go haywire, twitching, shaking,
and convulsing. Interference with brain function results in trance states
and emotional instability; students scream, cry, and laugh uncontrollably.
Such outbreaks are common in Africa, Asia, and the Pacific, but a similar
pattern also arose in Europe during the late nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries.
Outbreaks of these seemingly strange school behaviors mirror pre-
occupations that define each era and unique beliefs about the world. In
Africa, Asia, and the Pacific, the belief in spirits and demons continues to
trigger reports of possession and ghost attacks. In the early twenty-first
century, Western school episodes reflect terrorism fears and environmental
concerns. In the case of modern-day sex abuse scares in preschools,
episodes are a response to deep-seated anxieties. Scientists classify these
incidents as “moral panics” that coincide with the breakdown of the tra-
ditional family and a search for scapegoats to explain why society seems
to be falling into moral decay. They are cautionary tales that convey con-
cern and guilt over the weakened family and its diminished capacity to
protect children in a world where they are being raised by strangers in
preschools.25
Introduction 9
These accounts from around the world highlight the creative ways in
which the human mind adapts to fear, uncertainty and distress. From
afar, outbreaks may seem to have no rhyme or reason, yet on closer inspec-
tion, clear patterns emerge. Episodes are the outcomes of unique cultural
contexts and fears. They are group problem-solving exercises that need
to be recorded and understood. But beyond their fascinating storylines,
they often have serious repercussions, for outbreaks are far more common
than most realize and are impossible to eradicate. Each year the financial
costs run in the tens of millions of dollars as schools in Western countries
are forced to temporarily close while costly tests are conducted in a vain
attempt to identify the cause of a mysterious odor or illness. When the
results come back negative, the community is often thrown into social
upheaval, as parents may keep their students away from school or even
transfer them, under the belief that the mysterious triggering agent
remains on the school grounds. Suspicion of a cover-up by public health
authorities, who are seen as hiding the “real” cause, is common and may
foster longstanding ill-will between the community and government. Then
there is the cost of wasted resources such as emergency responders, con-
sulting physicians, and stress-related disorders among students who are
anxious because they believe that they are continuing to be exposed to
harmful agents. In African and Asian schools, the belief in evil spirits com-
monly results in schools being closed indefinitely until witchdoctors can
be called in to rid the premises of the demons. The sanctioning of native
healers who try to cast out the offending spirits often backfires if the symp-
toms do not immediately subside, prolonging episodes for weeks or
months. In some instances they can endure for years. Occasionally, teach-
ers, principals, and even students have been forced to flee after accusations
that they had caused the outbreak by practicing witchcraft or black magic.
As always, the best way to combat episodes is to educate people about the
history of outbreaks.
CHAPTER 1
Witch Hunts and

Schoolchildren
Speak of the devil, and he is bound to appear.— Proverb
Witchcraft. The very word, whether spoken in a whisper or shouted

as an accusation, was once enough to make grown men tremble. For those
accused, it was often a death sentence. For others, it meant languishing
in a dank prison for months or years, or enduring unspeakable tortures:
flesh seared with hot irons, teeth and fingernails ripped out, bones crushed
with thumb screws. The number of ways to inflict pain on the human
body was seemingly endless. Across Europe during the Middle Ages and
early Renaissance, for many people the night sky was filled with soaring
evil and even the outwardly innocent could harbor the spirit of the devil,
to say nothing of those who were considered eccentric or odd. Those poor
souls who failed to conform to community standards were often meat for
the maw of the brutal campaign against witches.
It is not surprising, then, that the earliest known outbreaks of bizarre
behavior in schoolchildren took place in Europe during the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries, sparked by the widespread fear of witches and accu-
sations of witchcraft. To the average European of the time, fear of the
“dark arts” was every bit as real as the threat of terrorism today. A witch
could take any shape or form, and potential witches were lurking every-
where. The threat is reminiscent of the global anthrax mail scare of 2001,
when people were afraid of something they could not see with the naked
eye and did not know when or how it would manifest. So it was with the
fear of witches, that various misfortunes were taken to confirm the exis-
tence of Satan or his cohorts: sudden death, miscarriages, barrenness and
impotence, crop failures, illness, droughts and floods, even unrequited
love.
The Malleus Maleficarum, or Hammer of Witches, written in 1486 by
11
12 Mass Hysteria in Schools
German demon hunters Heinrich Kramer and Jakob Sprenger, encouraged

the identification and punishment of witches.1 Historians credit this noto-
rious book with triggering the great witch inquisition of the late Middle
Ages.2 As a result, many historians estimate that between two hundred
thousand3 and half a million souls4 were ruthlessly butchered or burned
at the stake: men, women, children, unborn and newborn babies; even
family pets. Countless others endured years of suffering in prison; many
died there. The lucky ones lost property or were banished from their com-
munities. More recently, some historians have taken issue with these older
estimates of the carnage, but all agree that the death toll was significant
and the sufferings were immense.5
It is difficult to convey the depth of the fear of witchcraft that was
prevalent at that time, and the number of learned people who accepted
the reality of witches. Even eminent scientists such as the father of chem-
istry, Robert Boyle (1627–1691), and the father of deductive reasoning,
Francis Bacon (1561–1626), were deeply influenced by the zeitgeist or “spirit
of the times.” Boyle suggested interviewing English miners to determine
whether they had met “subterraneous demons.” Bacon seriously pondered
the likelihood that malicious spirits were responsible for witchcraft.6
English philosopher John Locke (1632–1704), in his supposedly enlight-
ened Essay Concerning Human Understanding, wrote, “Spirits can assume
bodies of different bulk, figure or configuration.”7
Witch Scares and Schoolchildren

It was within this simmering cauldron of cruelty, suspicion and fear
that in 1566, about thirty boys and girls at a Catholic orphanage school
in Amsterdam, Holland, were stricken with strange fits and compulsions.
The attacks would suddenly strike one or more children, their arms and
legs seizing up in violent spasms lasting from thirty minutes to an hour
or more. Later, the children would compose themselves, struggle to their
feet and act as if everything were normal, astonishing onlookers with their
assertions that they could not recall any of their previous seizures, and
instead claiming to have just awoken from a deep sleep.8
Some of the students’ actions were bizarre by any standard. Sometimes
they would fall into trance-like states and behave like cats, and even walk
across rooftops on all fours. On several occasions they ran toward rivers
or ponds as if about to drown themselves, only to stop abruptly at the
edge and cry out: “The big man [God] does not permit it.”9 It may be that
such behaviors expressed their unhappiness by threatening suicide by
drowning; yet they failed to commit the act, as it would be considered

sinful. When angry, the children demonstrated a feline ferocity dramatic
enough to scare onlookers. After appearing to enter a trance, they some-
times spoke a strange, unintelligible language.10
Why did these children behave like cats? There may be a simple expla-
nation. In much of Europe during the late Middle Ages, it was widely
thought that cats were familiars of the devil and could temporarily possess
the human soul. Cats were despised for their sinister profile: sleek killing
machines silently prowling the countryside with sinewy grace, piercing
eyes, and razor-sharp claws built for the kill in the dead of night. As a
result of their satanic association, medieval historian Robert Darnton
writes, the killing and torturing of cats was a popular pastime during the
period, especially at public events and carnivals11: “In the Metz region [of
France] they burned a dozen cats at a time in a basket on top of a bonfire.
The ceremony took place with great pomp ... until it was abolished in
1765.”12 This fear of and disdain for cats undoubtedly shaped the children’s
actions.
During the later Middle Ages, Europeans who were thought to be
possessed by the devil often acted like cats.13 Wolves were also feared at
this time, and there were thousands of lycanthropy cases recorded during
the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Some of these people were no doubt
mentally disturbed; others may have been entering stress-induced trance
states, with their werewolf behavior reflecting the popular culture.14
Back in Amsterdam, orphanage authorities sought doctors to treat
the “cat children,” believing their strange, feline behaviors to be a natural
ailment. Medicine, though, was still in its infancy, and the physicians were
ill-equipped to solve the mystery. Soon many residents were convinced
that the children were possessed by demons, so authorities brought in
exorcists. From today’s perspective, it is clear from descriptions that the
children were having hysterical fits. It is nearly impossible to fake powerful
muscle spasms and body contortions that continue for hours. It is equally
clear that these savvy street kids were not averse to using melodrama to
gain the attention and sympathy of spectators. Some children made it
appear that they were vomiting hair, cloth, thimbles, needles, pins, bits of
broken pottery, even shards of glass. The exorcists failed, and the episode
endured for two more months.15
Physician Johann Weyer (circa 1515 –1588) was certain of Satan’s real-
ity but skeptical that witchcraft was the culprit in this case. As a recognized
expert on witches, his views held considerable sway. Weyer surmised that
the devil was making the children vomit objects in order to spread the
idea that sorcery was to blame. His diagnosis was seemingly confirmed
when the children began showing up on the doorsteps of certain women

and going into fits, as if to accuse them of witchcraft. Weyer thought the
children were acting at the devil’s behest to ruin the lives of innocent
women. If not for Weyer, the women could have easily been thrown in
prison, tortured, or even burned alive.
A lady street peddler named Bametie was despised by the children
and accused by them of casting spells. Upset that she wasn’t arrested for
bewitchment, the children threw tantrums and began scaling the bell tower
of the Holy Spirit Chapel. Inside, they were seen tapping out melodies
with their fingers and singing, “We shall not leave until we have seen
Bametie burnt at the stake.” Surmising that the children held a grudge,
Amsterdam authorities took no action. While little more is known about
this case, it is recorded that the children’s symptoms eventually stopped
after they were temporarily boarded with foster families.
The convulsions and amnesia; the urge to run, climb, and imitate
animals; the blaming of innocent women; and the purported vomiting of
various objects are themes occurring time and time again during mass
hysteria outbreaks of the period, as though the children were conforming
to some stereotypical image of possession.16 During the fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries, there were dozens of similar outbreaks among
repressed nuns in European convents who exhibited convulsions and
would bark or meow, apparently vomit improbable objects such as living
reptiles, and accuse others of witchcraft.17 Many of the accused were tor-
tured into confessing to witchcraft; some were burned at the stake.
The Black Angels of Lille

In 1639, a witchcraft scare erupted at a girls’ school in Lille, France,
where Antoinette Bourignon (1616 –1680), a pious headmistress, founded
a convent. One day she shocked her students by telling them that she could
see tiny “black angels” flying about their heads, warning them that the
devil’s imps were hovering around them. Each day Miss Bourignon
repeated the story, and before long Satan was the sole topic of conversation,
even among the teachers. Despite her claims she continued to perform
her duties and no one sought her dismissal.18
Whether she had an overactive imagination or suffered from mental
illness may never be known. In any event, her claims terrified the children.
One of the frightened girls ran away. She was caught, but during her inter-
rogation she denied having run off, insisting that the devil had carried her
away. Under pressure, she broke down, admitting that she was a witch
and had been since the age of seven. After this news was announced to
her classmates, fits of hysterics broke out. When they came to their senses
and under further questioning, they too confessed to being witches. Even-
tually, all fifty students confessed to witchcraft. Before long, the children
were in such a state of bewilderment that they confessed to flying on
broomsticks, dining on the flesh of infants, and creeping through keyholes
while doing Satan’s work.
Many clergy were sympathetic, suggesting that the affair was a figment
of the imaginations of suggestible youngsters; but the children were in
grave danger as the Lille residents were in an uproar, calling for them to
be burned at the stake. Appearing before a council of Catholic friars, the
parents begged that their kids’ lives be spared, arguing that the children
were not witches but the innocent victims of bewitchment. This idea soon
took root among the townsfolk, who blamed the headmistress. Miss
Bourignon was interviewed by the council and charged with being a witch.
Just hours before she was to be sentenced for witchcraft and burned by
judicial decree, she put on a disguise and slipped out of town dressed as
a man.19 She eventually found her way to a convent in Friedland, Prussia,
where she attracted many followers and became a famous visionary and
religious writer until her death in 1680.20
Witch Panics in Northern Europe

In other schools during this period, rumors and false accusations
made by students about the evil deeds of witches illustrate just how
easily children can be led astray and generate imaginary stories. One of
the most notorious episodes of this social hysteria began in the village
of Älvdalen,21 in central Sweden.22 On July 5, 1668, fifteen-year-old Eric
Ericsen accused Gertrude Svensen of stealing children for Satan. Soon
more and more children were questioned about the accusation. Overzeal-
ous investigators soon had confessions from three hundred children who
told wild accounts of flying on farm animals to meet the devil at the
witches’ sabbat. King Charles XI appointed a royal commission to inves-
tigate the claims.23 When it met in August 1669, interest was so great that
three thousand people came. As a result, seventy adults and fifteen chil-
dren were burned at the stake. Dozens of other children were ordered to
“run the gauntlet,” that is, run through lines of men who struck them
with whips. Those under nine were struck on their hands once a week
for a year.24
The next year, 1670, five hundred children in Rättvik (20 miles south-
east of Mora) testified to priests that female Satanists had abducted them
from their beds in the dead of night and, as at Älvdalen, flown them on
animals or humans to feast with the devil and his cohorts at Blåkulla, a
legendary meadow in which the sabbats were held that could only be
reached by flying.25 At these gatherings sinister acts supposedly took
place — drinking alcohol, swearing, sexual misdeeds and eating babies—
all with the Evil One looking on with delight. The allegations spread,
with children implicating others during interrogations. These children,
in turn, implicated still more innocent victims. In the confusion and
under the pressure of questioning, many children came to believe that
they really had attended the witches’ sabbat, weaving tales that were likely
based on a combination of hearsay, stereotypes, and suggestions put forth
by interviewers who were already convinced of their guilt. These episodes
are far from being a relic of the past. A similar outbreak of false accusations
has occurred in more recent times among schoolchildren in Western coun-
tries. Poorly trained, overly enthusiastic investigators asking leading ques-
tions were largely to blame in the modern-day cases.26 The Rättvik scare
spread to Finland, and later to Stockholm, where physician Urban Hjarne
ended the slaughter by convincing authorities that the persecution resulted
from children’s fantasies, aggressive inquisitors, confusion, fear and mal-
ice.27
Psychologist Richard Sjöberg found a similar pattern in stories of vis-
iting the witches’ sabbat during the Great Swedish Witch Panic of 1664 to
1676. In these accounts, as a child lay sleeping, the witch, usually a neigh-
bor, was said to enter the room after shrinking and crawling through a
keyhole or walking through a wall. After being escorted to the roof, the
child was placed on the belly of a farm animal such as a cow, which was
hovering upside down. As they flew to Blåkulla, they picked up more chil-
dren on the way to a big house for a feast at a huge table. Flames from hell
shot through a hole in the floor as people sat around eating, cursing, and
paying homage to Satan. A flock of white birds from heaven tried to stop
the meeting but failed. The devil asked each child if he or she would serve
him, and they could only say yes. The child’s finger was cut, and the devil
took some blood. The children were given gifts, such as knives to use in
killing their parents, and books of curses. A witch brought the children
home before morning, by which time their gifts had become shavings and
twigs. The children said they were sworn to secrecy at the risk of being
beaten.28 That so many children could believe that they had met the devil—
and accuse others of the same — is a testament to the power of social con-
ditioning.
The Barking Children of Hoorn, Holland

At about the same time as the Swedish witch scare, there were strange
happenings at an orphanage school in Hoorn, Holland. It was 1673. The
orphanage was a haven for a gang of troubled street kids who were stricken
with fits of shouting and barking. There are many cases during this period
of Europeans thought to be possessed by demons, barking like dogs. Canines,
too, were often thought to be in cahoots with the devil.29 The screams and
yelps would start with one child and quickly spread to others.
Amsterdam theologian Balthasar Bekker (1634 –1698) was an eyewit-
ness to these events, observing that the children would suddenly collapse
and get a strange look in their eyes: “They tugged and tore at themselves,
striking at the ground with their legs and arms and even with their heads,
crying, yelling and barking like dogs so that it was a terrifying thing to
see,” he wrote.30 Even more bizarre, Bekker went on to report that some
of their bellies
pounded so fearfully, that one would have said there was a living creature
moving about inside them or even that a barrel was being rolled within their
bodies. So strong were these movements that it took three, four, five or even
six persons to hold them: one would take the head, two others the hands,
one sat on the legs and sometimes another to sit on the belly to prevent them
moving.
Eventually they would lie motionless, their bodies as “stiff as a bar of iron,
so that with one person holding the head and another the feet, they could
be carried anywhere, without making any movement. Sometimes this hap-
pened for several hours on end, and even at night, until 11 P.M., midnight,
one, two or three o’clock.”31
Bekker saw a girl named Catherine suffer an attack as the 8:00 A.M.
breakfast bell rang, remaining in this state until 4:00 P.M. “when the bell
called the children to their evening collation.... [Upon regaining her senses]
she believed she had been in that state only for a moment, because she
could hear the bell still ringing, and when she heard grace being said for
the evening meal she thought it was for breakfast.”32
Like the other children, Catherine had been forced to undergo
monotonous religious instruction and prayer. Within this emotionally
stifling setting, the children’s fits grew common. As they were made to
endure lengthier prayer sessions in hopes of curing their strange malady,
the fits intensified. Prayer gatherings were held at churches across the city
to save the children from the devil’s clutches. Soon after, the orphans were
lodged with local families and recovered.
The Great Preschool Scare: Modern-day

Witch Hunts
In reading accounts of witches and witchcraft during the Middle

Ages, one could be forgiven for thinking they could never recur in modern
times, especially not in the seemingly more developed, civilized West.
However, their ancient roots, overwhelmed perhaps by the topsoil of mod-
ern society, have never been eradicated by advances in education or knowl-
edge. The reason for this persistence lies in the personal and social
psychology that we share with our ancestors, and hence, the underlying
causes of such panics or fears are the same now as they were in times past.
In the 1980s and ’90s, a modern witch hunt broke out in some of the most
educated societies on earth. Preschoolers across the United States and
Europe — and as far away as Australia and New Zealand — began making
bizarre accusations about their instructors, who, they said, had not only
sexually molested them but forced them to join in ghastly Satanic rituals.
Like the early witch scares and witch hunts in European schools centuries
earlier, these modern outbreaks were also incubated in an atmosphere of
ignorance and fear.33 The first director of the National Center on Child
Abuse and Neglect, Douglas Besharov, once described the biggest challenge
facing the agency: identifying the many unfounded claims of abuse — with
65 percent of all allegations being dismissed after an investigation by child
protective services.34
One major example of reported abuse centered on seven teachers at
the Virginia McMartin Preschool in Manhattan Beach, California, who
were charged with the heinous crime of molesting children and flying
them by helicopter to a remote farm where a series of incredible events
were said to have taken place.35 As the media reported the allegations, it
appeared all but certain that the teachers were guilty, for how could the
testimonies of 360 children be wrong? The prosecution even had the
preschoolers’ testimonies on videotape. It seemed that it would be only a
matter of time before the teachers were sent to prison for a long time.
Many news reports insinuated that some or all of the “McMartin Seven”
were guilty. An article in People magazine was typical, referring to the
preschool as “California’s Nightmare Nursery,” while Time described the
charges under the heading “Brutalized.”36 Television coverage was equally
biased in favor of the prosecution.37 But during the trial, the children’s
accounts of what happened were revealed to be outlandish, and serious
doubts were raised about how the interviews had been conducted.
Many of the children’s stories included details and situations that
were clearly impossible, such as descriptions of teachers and students frol-

icking naked in the playground near a heavily traveled road. One child
claimed that the school janitor had sex with him while going through a
public car wash, though vehicles with passengers were not allowed in the
tunnel and the time factor made it impossible. Then after seven years and
$15 million in legal costs, in a stunning reversal each of the accused was
acquitted of all charges. During the trials, which were the lengthiest and
costliest of their type in United States history, suspicion was focused on
scores of other preschools scattered across the U.S. and Europe, and asser-
tions were made that children there were also victims of abuse. Hundreds
of innocent people were falsely imprisoned. But by the early 1990s, with
the aid of experts on child development, memory and suggestibility, the
Great Preschool Scare waned as it became evident that the spate of Satanic
ritual abuse claims had been a witch hunt.
Context of the McMartin Nightmare

In the early 1980s, the Los Angeles area experienced an explosion of
media coverage about a variety of sexually related social ills: juvenile pros-
titution, rape, child abuse, and advertisements with sexual overtones. It
was against this backdrop of suspicion and fear about declining sexual
morals that, in the late summer of 1983, there was growing anxiety about
the safety of preschools. The epicenter of the scare was the elite McMartin
Preschool, owned by Peggy McMartin Buckey and her mother, Virginia
McMartin. The school had a good reputation for minding Manhattan
Beach children for thirty years. Six years earlier, school founder Virginia
McMartin had even been named local citizen of the year, and at the time
of the first allegations, there was a six-month waiting list to get in the
facility.38
On August 12, Judy Johnson, a 39-year-old mother of a two-and-a-
half-year-old boy, told police she was convinced that a school aid named
Ray Buckey — Peggy Buckey’s son — had molested her son. She noticed the
boy’s bottom was red and itchy after he returned from the school. Police
placed the facility under surveillance. Meanwhile, Mrs. Johnson continued
to press her case by making a series of unsubstantiated claims, including
charges that Ray’s mother was a Satanist and that Ray had taken her son
to a church where a baby was beheaded and the boy was forced to drink
its blood. It was later determined that the Mrs. Johnson was mentally ill.39
On September 8, Manhattan Beach police chief Harry Kuhlmeyer,
Jr., made a fateful decision. He sent a letter to two hundred parents, alert-
ing them that Ray was a suspect in a child molestation investigation. “This
Department is conducting a criminal investigation involving child
molestation.... Ray Buckey of ... Virginia McMartin’s Pre-School, was
arrested September 7, 1983 by this Department.” It continues: “Please
question your child to see if he or she has been a victim. Our investigation
indicates that possible criminal acts include: oral sex, fondling of genitals,
buttock or chest area, and sodomy, possibly committed under the pretense
of ‘taking the child’s temperature.’” The letter went on to state that nude
photos might have been taken of the children and asked if any parents
had observed Ray “leave a classroom alone with a child during any nap
period, or if they had ever observed Ray Buckey tie up a child.”40
Buckey was arrested but was quickly released for lack of evidence.
Ordinarily when police conduct criminal investigations, they interview
suspects separately and leave specific details out, to see if they are corrob-
orated. By mentioning so many details in the letter chief Kuhlmeyer had
unwittingly corrupted the investigation, as the children and their parents
had a rough blueprint of what might have happened — but however flawed
the chief ’s letter, it paled in comparison to the scripted way in which the
interviews with the children were handled.
The Scare Escalates

The McMartin episode and similar scares across the Western world
during this period share common elements. At the time of the allegations,
the child witnesses were preschoolers who disclosed their abuse claims
only after coaxing by relatives, law enforcement and health professionals.
Typically, the children said they could not recall any of the abuse until
their memories were jogged by people mentioning specific details or asking
leading questions. A leading question is one that suggests a specific answer,
such as, “Have you stopped beating your mother yet?” Whether you answer
yes or no, it implies that at some point you have beaten your mother.
While an adult would easily see such questioning as biased, these molesta-
tion scares occurred to children who were preschoolers at the time of the
allegations— a period in life when children are highly suggestible.
Another common theme in these cases was the lack of corroborating
physical evidence. Further, even after co-defendants were convicted, and
despite the possibility of plea bargaining for reduced sentences in exchange
for confessions, the accused continued to maintain their innocence. In
each case, jurors were faced with a similar dilemma: should they believe
the children, whose testimony grew more and more unbelievable?41 Each
episode was an emotional community event that drew intense media cov-
erage, which often suggested that those accused were guilty. Few reports
put the McMartin Seven in a favorable light or suggested their innocence.
Ironically, even when the accused were found not guilty, there was a wide-
spread assumption that they had gotten away with it and the justice system
had failed. The McMartin debacle was typical, for after acquitting Ray
and Virginia Buckey on all charges, the jurors were asked if they felt that
some of the kids had been molested. Eight raised their hands but said they
didn’t have enough evidence to convict the Buckeys under the law.42 How
weak was the evidence against the defendants? During the saga, district
attorney Glenn Stevens switched sides to join the defense, remarking that
the evidence on which the original charges were based, was “very weak,
if not false.”43
Creating False Memories

Transcripts of the interviews show that the children’s memories of
abuse were inadvertently planted or modified during the repeated interviews
by the parents, police officials, therapists and social workers, and were rein-
forced by the media. Their memories were vague at best. Consider the fol-
lowing courtroom testimony. Under questioning by prosecutor Lael Rubin,
one boy said that Ray Buckey had placed his penis in his mouth. It was at
this point that defense attorney Daniel Davis cross-examined the boy, who
told a bizarre story of watching Ray beat a horse with a baseball bat. It
quickly became obvious that the boy did not have a clue as to what had
happened, had pieced his story together based on hearsay, and had been
coached on what to say, as the following excerpt from the transcript shows:
Did you see a horse get killed?
Yeah...
Do you know what color it was?
I don’t know.
How did the horse get killed?
Ray hit it with a bat.
Where?
I don’t remember.
Did they ride the horse before it got killed?
I don’t know.
Were other kids there when the horse got killed?
I don’t know.
Who was your teacher when Ray killed the horse with the bat?
I don’t know.44
At this point it became obvious that the boy had been coached, and he
admitted that he had gone over his responses with Lael Rubin.
Lael Rubin asked you questions and you’d practice answers?
Yes....
Did you practice the names of the teachers?
Yes.
Was your mom there practicing with you?
Yes....
You remember how far from the horse you were when it got killed?
No.
Did the horse make a sound?
I don’t know....
How many times did he hit the horse?
I don’t know.
Did the horse jump around?
I don’t know.
Was there any grownup there when it happened?
I don’t know....
Did Lael Rubin practice your testimony with you?
No.
Did anybody practice your testimony with you before the trial?
No.
Last Friday, Lael was at your house showing you pictures?
Yes.
Did you practice questions and answers?
Yes.45
Then came a series of damning responses as it soon became evident that
the boy had no conscious memory of the detailed events he had previously
testified to.
Was there a time you forgot about the molestation?
I forgot everything.
Did grownups help you remember?
Lael?
Were there other grownups that helped you remember?
Yes.
How about the puppet lady? Did she help you remember?
Yes.
Would it be fair to say you didn’t remember anything about molestation?
Yes.
Did your mother tell you you were molested at the preschool?
Yes.
Did she tell you [other children] were molested at the school?
Yes.
Did you believe her?
Yes.46
Another striking aspect of the interviews was the dominance by the

interviewers who did much of the talking, and the leading questions they
asked. How bad were the interview techniques? One videotaped interview
with a six-year-old girl was typical. Dr. Astrid Heger asked, “Maybe you
could show me ... how the kids danced for the Naked Movie Star [game].”
When the girl replied that they did not dance, it was a song, Heger tried
pressure to get the girl to agree that the game was real:
Well, what did they do when they sang the song? ... I heard ... from several
different kids that they took their clothes off. I think that [——] told me
that, I know that [——] told me that, I know that [——] told me. [——]
and [——] all told me that. That’s kind of a hard secret, it’s kind of a yucky
secret to talk of but, maybe, we could see if we could find...
Despite this pressure, the girl continued to insist that it never happened.
Later, when she denied having been touched sexually, Heger said: “I don’t
wanna hear any more no’s.”47
We should remember that the interviewers in the McMartin case
were high status adults: parents, legal officials, and health professionals,
who were often asking leading questions. We also see here an example of
the children’s natural resistance to being guided —covertly or overtly — to
give the answers that the inquirers were expecting or for which they were
fishing. But how did memories of playing something as specific as the
Naked Movie Star game, and tales of fellow kids playing this game while
naked in the school, come to be accepted as reality in the first place? Based
on the testimony of different children, it became evident that the “game”
was actually a rhyme that was used to tease children. As one boy explained
on the witness stand, “There was no naked movie star game. If someone
made fun of you, you’d say, ‘What you see is what you are. You’re a naked
movie star.’”48 It was through the use of leading questions and scripted
interviews that these fictitious events took on their own reality.
The case against the McMartin preschool workers eventually collapsed
once the shoddy interviewing techniques became apparent. Many of the
recorded interviews were textbook cases of how not to conduct an interview.
Leading questions were the order of the day. One research team who watched
some of the interviews wrote: “There was not one spontaneous ‘disclosure’
on any of these tapes.... On all of the videotapes shown, the children repeat-
edly denied witnessing any act of sexual abuse of children. The interviewer
ignored these exonerating statements and continued to coax and pressure
the child for accusations.”49 The consequences for those accused of these
terrible crimes were devastating. While all of them were eventually freed,
they have had to live with the stigma of having been accused of being a child
molester. The school, its reputation in tatters, had to shut down.50
Ironically, many of the children came to believe that they had been
molested by Ray Buckey — like the Lille novices in 1639 — and convinced
themselves of the reality of their fantastic adventures; yet, these memories
of abuse were as shallow as the interview techniques used to extract their
stories. The case against the McMartin Seven did not fail due to a lack of
money; at the time it was the most expensive criminal trial in United States
history. The case did not fail because it was brought about hastily, for the
trial lasted seven years— another record. The prosecution’s case did not
fail due to a lack of evidence. The trial generated over a hundred thousand
pages of transcripts alone as hundreds of children were interviewed at
length. The case against the McMartin Seven ultimately failed due to a
lack of concrete evidence.51 Even today, at the dawn of the twenty-first cen-
tury, it is hard to believe that such a gross injustice could have occurred.
It is important to remember that this was not an isolated episode. Even
more striking are the parallels to the Salem witch trials.
In 1692, Salem Village was the scene of a great fear that spread
throughout New England involving claims of real witches. At least 200
people were imprisoned and twenty were executed. All of those accused
of being witches were convicted on flimsy “spectral evidence” involving
claims by their accusers that the specter of the accused had accosted them.
As in the McMartin case, the principal accusers were children whose tes-
timony was widely believed. The adults saw what they expected to see.
The McMartin Seven initially looked guilty, and interviewers asked the
children leading questions on the assumption that they had been molested
at the preschool. In Salem, a mole or birthmark was seen as a “witch mark”
and a sure sign of guilt. The lesson of the McMartin saga is clear: focus
on the facts and do not let emotions influence your judgment. Child
molestation is one of the most heinous crimes imaginable. It is a crime
against the innocent and vulnerable who must live with emotional scars
for the rest of their lives. One can think of few crimes that are more atro-
cious. Among them is falsely accusing someone of molestation who then
must live with this stigma.
The preschool scare was a form of national scapegoating. All cultures
have a concept of evil, and in modern Western countries with Christian
traditions, Satan epitomes it. From the late 1940s until the breakup of the
Soviet empire, communists conveniently filled this niche. The preschool
scare rose conspicuously with the decline of communism.52 Sociologist
Jeff Victor believes that the creation of Satanic cultists violating the youth
of America and other Western countries was a reflection of parental anx-
ieties. “There is a great deal of parental guilt today; many parents feel
guilty about leaving their children at day-care centers or about having
little time to spend with them or about being reluctant to use their author-
ity to guide their children’s choice of entertainments and friends or about
feeling unable to guide the moral values of their children.”53
The most disquieting aspect of the McMartin saga is that it is but one
example of similar scares that have long plagued humanity. Yet the lessons
go unheeded. Other modern examples include the internment of Japanese
Americans after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the profiling of Muslim
Americans as terrorists after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United
States. Historian Dorothy Rabinowitz observes that every so often society
is afflicted with an exaggerated fear of some evil, such as communists in
the early 1950s. “After the McCarthy era, people would ask: But how could
it have happened? How could the presumption of innocence have been
abandoned wholesale? ... How was it possible to believe that subversives
lurked behind every library door, in every radio station, that every two-
bit actor who had belonged to the wrong political organization posed a
threat to the nation’s security?”54
This chapter has looked at two types of hysteria. The first is mass
hysteria (conversion disorder), which involves the rapid spread of illness
symptoms: twitching, shaking, convulsions and trance states caused by
anxiety that was generated by various social pressures. The earliest known
school example occurred in Holland in 1566, when students experienced
convulsions, spasms and trance states. The second type is social hysteria:
community panics based on the fear of witches or other evildoers for which
the inhabitants began searching for scapegoats in order to account for
inexplicable events. The earliest known examples date from the fourteenth
and fifteenth century Europe (modern-day France and Sweden), where
children were accused of consorting with the Devil and were coerced into
naming other innocent victims. Often, as in the events at Hoorn, Amster-
dam and Salem, mass hysterias and social hysterias have overlapped.
What is so remarkable and alarming about these accounts that occurred
hundreds of years ago is that while the false accusations of witchcraft are
no longer plausible, similar outbreaks of false accusations involving child
abuse continue to occur in modern times because fear clouds judgment.
Future witch hunts are inevitable. As new scapegoats are created, the form
of the scare will change to reflect the social and cultural context. The chal-
lenge is to identify these panics as soon as they appear and recognize them
for what they are: creations of the human imagination.
CHAPTER 2
Twitching Epidemics and

Pregnancy Panics
Historic Tales
from Europe and America
Every man is the creature of the age in which he lives.— Voltaire1
By the late nineteenth and early twentieth century when outbreaks

of mass hysteria began erupting in European schools, the explanation
shifted to reflect the enlightened times. Instead of witchcraft, the emerging
field of psychology was used to explain bouts of violent trembling, twitch-
ing and shaking, as scientists focused on the role of stress on the subcon-
scious mind. Convulsions and trance states were also common. Outbreaks
were clustered around the strictest schools in Germany, Austria, Switzer-
land and France. What were these institutions doing that would evoke
such reactions? Foremost was the new teaching method of “mental disci-
pline,” developed in the writings of German philosopher Christian von
Wolff in 1734 and popularized in the late 1700s by Scotsman Thomas Reid.
This approach, widely accepted in Europe during the nineteenth century,2
held that the mind was a muscle in need of exercise. Teachers using this
method forced their students to endure torturous sessions of monotonous
repetitions in math, science, spelling and writing. Teachers saw themselves
as coaches whose job it was to make students practice each and every
school day in order to strengthen their minds. Students were also forced
to learn subjects that were not immediately useful, since most of the pop-
ulation were laborers. Educators thought it was time well spent because
it would help the students excel in other areas. For instance, learning Latin
was thought to improve one’s recall in history; studying geometry was
held to strengthen the ability to reason. While the theory behind this new
method seemed logical, there was one major problem: it wasn’t true.
26
2. Twitching Epidemics and Pregnancy Panics 27
Experimental studies by the likes of American psychologist Edward

Lee Thorndike (1874 –1949) soon refuted the idea. When math students
were tested for their ability to reason against equally successful pupils with
inferior math training, there was no difference in the two groups’ reason-
ing capacity.3 Thorndike realized that drilling and memorizing was largely
a waste of time. While recalling names, dates and formulas has a place in
education, during the nineteenth and early twentieth century, “memory
work” was European education.4 Creativity was in short supply, and
schools of the period were largely regurgitation factories. In the wake of
compelling evidence put forth by Thorndike and others, the fad of “mental
discipline,” which had waxed so brightly for decades, began to wane, and
by the start of World War I in 1914, it had been eclipsed by less draconian
approaches.
During its heyday, several schools practicing “mental discipline”
recorded an array of strange reactions that correspond to what British psy-
chiatrist Simon Wessely terms “motor hysteria.” The condition is common
in repressive settings and is so named because the slowly accumulating
stress disrupts motor neurons that cause muscles to contract and control
coordination.5 Occasionally it interfered with signals to the brain, resulting
in trance states. Outbreaks were once common in intolerable settings such
as strict schools where students who received poor grades faced a heavy
stigma. Like prisoners, they felt trapped and powerless. But theirs was a
fear of expulsion, not incarceration. There was no negotiation, and protests
were unheard of. In those days parents and school officials were all-pow-
erful, and students did not question their principals or teachers. It was
within this backdrop of chronic stress and frustration that hysteria out-
breaks became common.
Motor hysteria appears gradually and may take weeks or months to
subside after the stressful trigger has been eliminated or reduced. In rare
instances it can take years. Students often convulsed in their seats.6 Some-
times their limbs seized up and became rigid, their bodies falling to the
floor, twisting in odd, unnatural ways.7 These episodes of twitching, shak-
ing and trembling often persisted in a waxing, waning fashion over a
period of days, weeks or months.8 Fellow students could only look on in
amazement as their classmates engaged in the most remarkable behaviors.
In one episode a group of girls wept uncontrollably, only to follow this
with outbursts of nervous, convulsive laughing.9
Outbreaks afflicted students who were under pressure to perform
monotonous drills. A 1908 British inquiry on European education found
that French primary schools had curriculums that were “too intense” and
“far too much composed of memory work.”10 Fear of litigation or losing
one’s job also played a role. Article 1384 of the French education code dis-
couraged physical activities and games, as teachers were held legally
responsible for mishaps occurring under their supervision.11 Playgrounds
were scarce, and during the little time that students were not laboring on
their lessons, recreation took on the look of a prison exercise yard. Most
instructors played it safe by engaging in games that were more mental than
physical. The inquiry noted that in some French schools, teachers and par-
ents put enormous performance pressure on pupils, who knew that if their
grades slipped, there was a long waiting list of eager students ready to take
their place. One educator said, “With such dismissal constantly hanging
over their head, pupils appear to be always at high pressure.”12 French sec-
ondary schools were described as “a veritable prison-house for all pupils
from the youngest equally to the oldest, with a system of continual espi-
onage known as surveillance (every minute of the day being duly appor-
tioned, even recreation policed), relieved ... by scarcely a human feature.”
One British educator who visited a French school described the teaching
as “monotonous and reiterated preaching” during which, at the end of each
lesson, a lengthy tract must be committed to memory.13
Some elite Swiss and German schools were so strict that even the
punishment of elementary students was “harsh and severe,”14 with admin-
istrators obsessing over order, obedience and uniformity.15 School inspec-
tor Joseph Lucas wrote in 1878 that in Bavaria “it truly does not matter if
one serves his three years in the army or in the schoolhouse.”16 One Ger-
man curriculum issued to elementary teachers in 1890 was typical for its
uncompromising rigidity: “In order to save time, maintain order and
quiet, and accustom the children to uniform activity and to ‘obedience
and command,’ it is recommended that every activity which occurs daily
or which is frequently repeated be regulated by orders and done in time.”17
Under the daily barrage of stress in these academic boot camps,
bizarre behaviors broke out. In one girl’s school, fifteen pupils developed
strange coughing spells, imitating animals as they coughed including “the
baying of a hound, others the sounds made by a horse, a parrot, and a
goose.”18 In 1892 a peculiar case of mental contagion struck a Catholic
girls’ school at Biberach in southern Germany, a region notorious for its
strict schooling.19 A young girl kept falling into a trance. Her frightened
classmates soon “fell into such condition themselves that they could not
be awakened by shaking, calling or even by pricking with pins.” Some of
the girls talked while in a trance; others went into violent convulsions.
American child psychologist William Burnham viewed the episode as a
form of group hypnosis.20
In 1893 Dr. S. Rembold investigated an outbreak of mass hysteria at
a girls’ school in Stuttgart, also in south Germany.21 Upon arriving and

glancing down the corridor, he saw a procession of weeping girls making
wild, exaggerated gestures. At times they would break into uncontrollable
laughter. “They were in groups of two or three, in each of which one was
led by another or dragged along by two. Those who were dragged usually
hung unconscious in the arms of their companions, head sunk upon the
breast, and the legs dragging upon the floor,” he wrote.22 About forty girls
were sitting on benches in the drawing room; several were slumped over
and passed out. Others were sighing and crying. Soon the healthy students
were ordered back to classes, while those who were unwell were taken to
an open window, reassured that they would soon feel better and told to
take deep breaths. Their upper eyelids trembled. Ten of the girls were lying
on the floor, unconscious. Rembold tried talking to them but got no
response. He then began shaking them; still no response. He then took
their pulses, which were weak but otherwise normal. Twenty-five girls in
all were affected. His treatment was politically incorrect by modern stan-
dards. He threw half a liter of water into the face of each victim, who was
ordered to immediately stand and “quit such nonsense.”23 The outbreak
lasted less than twenty-four hours. The next day at school the students
showed no signs of illness or unusual behavior; it was as if the wild spec-
tacle of the previous day had never happened.24 That same year seven girls
at the People’s School in Valle, Austria, were stricken with convulsions
and seizures. The students would complain of dizziness and a buzzing in
the ears before passing out,25 after which their bodies would heave and
convulse and they would foam at the mouth.26 They also had a tolerance
for pain, a classic feature of hysteria.
While less common, these so-called psychic epidemics were occa-
sionally reported in British schools. One such incident took place over
several days in May 1905, when forty-five students at a girls’ school in
Derby in the English Midlands exhibited fits of screaming and fainting.
Too weak to walk, they had to be carried home to rest. Enterprising school
officials, suspecting a noxious gas was responsible, placed mice in the class-
rooms and waited. Nothing happened. There was no word on how and
when the episode subsided.27
Emotional Tremors
There are many nineteenth century reports of tremors in European
students undertaking repetitive writing assignments. Between June and
September 1892, a writing tremor epidemic struck at a village school in
Gross-tinz, Germany.28 On June 28 the right hand of a ten year-old girl

began trembling. Soon her entire body was shaking. The next day the
hands of several classmates began to tremble for up to an hour. With each
passing day the malady lasted longer and longer. Soon their entire bodies
were shaking. With each new case, the girls, ages five to twelve, were imme-
diately taken from class. Between July 14 and 20, the symptoms peaked:
“On almost every seat were patients having convulsions of the whole body.
The girls fell under the seats and had to be carried from the room by the
boys.”29 Twenty of the school’s thirty-eight girls were stricken; eight of
them lost consciousness. The fits lasted from between fifteen minutes and
an hour. Upon awakening, those who had passed out said they could recall
nothing of their ordeal.30 The principal soon ordered the school closed.
Upon reopening on August 19, the trembling and convulsions had stopped,
though several girls were complaining of a new ailment: severe headaches
with no obvious cause. Those affected were sent home to rest. The drama
ended after the autumn holiday.31
That same year, trembling spread through a girls’ school in Basel,
Switzerland, preventing twenty girls from writing. The malady subsided
after school hours, only to reappear when students entered the school
grounds. The tremor began in one class and spread to nearby rooms. “The
disorder frequently appeared among children who had before been healthy
when one of the sufferers had an attack in the immediate neighborhood;
and when one child had an attack others did so.”32
The ailment returned to the school twelve years later, striking eleven-
to fifteen-year-olds. On June 11, the right hands and forearms of two stu-
dents began to shake. Apparently the previous occurrence had made its
way into school legend, since the outbreak coincided with a rumor that
the tremor would force the school to close for six weeks if three hundred
pupils were stricken. Crisis talks were held, and it was decided that school
would stay open no matter what. The tremblers were put in a special room
with one teacher, who would instruct them for a month. Instead of being
punished, their workload was cut and they were fed well. Authorities were
also careful not to criticize their inability to write. In all, just twenty-
seven students were affected. The shaking soon subsided.33
One girl, Ellie, was scolded by her mother after coming home on June
17 with a trembling right hand. The stress also caused her face to twitch.
The next day Ellie was put in the tremor class. “She trembled so violently
that writing was impossible for her. She was unable to answer the easiest
questions and could not work with one-place numbers in arithmetic.” But
on June 24, after being smothered with love and encouragement, Ellie was
symptom-free.34
A “trembling disease” also swept through several schools in Meissen,

in east-central Germany, between 1905 and 1906, afflicting children with
heavy writing loads. The outbreak began in October when the hands of a
thirteen-year-old girl began to shake and twitch. Gradually, more students
succumbed. By February 21, 134 students were trembling, and by March
20, a whopping 237 students were afflicted. With all of the time off from
writing, the pent-up tension appears to have dissipated, and by late March
the numbers fell with each passing day. By mid–May, it was over.35
In 1906 at the People’s Elementary School in the industrial city of
Chemnitz in east central Germany, a little girl’s writing suddenly turned to
scribbles as her hand began to shake violently. In the coming days and weeks,
more students were stricken. One girl after another fell victim and was taken
from class. In all, nearly two dozen nine- and ten-year-old girls succumbed.
The pupils trembled only when it came time for writing drills. There were
other oddities: only the arm and hand that each girl wrote with would shake.
Students were able to carry out all other aspects of their schoolwork nor-
mally, including gym class. With only one exception, those affected were
average or above average students. These bright, imaginative pupils were
under pressure to get good grades, yet found it difficult to sit through tedious
writing classes under the baleful eye of a dominating instructor.
School physician Johannes Schoedel took measures that today would
seem barbaric. He gave the students electric shocks, not as a punishment,
but believing it would render them more open to his suggestions. After the
treatment, during the next writing session it was announced: “Since you are
not able to write, you must unfortunately have mental arithmetic again.”
The tremors soon subsided and eventually stopped. Newspapers may have
been instrumental in spreading the symptoms to Chemnitz. The first victim
said that he had read about the “tremor disease” at Meissen in the paper.36
These outbreaks are examples of conversion disorder. Pupils felt they
must stay in school and get good grades, yet they were in conflict with the
workload, especially the tedious tasks. Pent-up anxiety appears to have
been converted into hand tremors, which disappeared when the students
received sympathy for their plight and a temporary respite from their
dreary exercises.
A Tale of Two Continents: American

Fainting Outbreaks
A survey of nineteenth century North American newspapers reveals
a conspicuous absence of the twitching, shaking, convulsions, and trance
states that were so prevalent in Europe at the time.37 While “mental dis-
cipline” was used by the early pioneers, it was diluted as it did not suit
their needs. It was impractical for frontier conditions, which required set-
tlers to wear many hats: trader, farmer, butcher, tax collector, judge,
mayor. Education historian Arthur Pinsent writes that in the New World
the classics might guide a local leader in political and legal principles, but
“if his cows suffered from contagious abortion, or his sheep from foot-
rot, he would need some knowledge of animal husbandry applicable in
North American conditions. He was not likely to find it in Virgil’s Geor-
gics.”38 American schools focused on teaching information that was
“directly applicable to agriculture, manufacture, and trade in frontier con-
ditions.”39 In schools where the rare outbreak of fits and seizures did occur,
discipline was strict, as in a young ladies’ seminary school in Montreal
where sixty Canadian students were stricken in 1894.40
Most outbreaks of unusual behavior in American and Canadian
schools during the late 1800s reflect stereotypes of girls as emotionally
immature and inferior, as evidenced by numerous mass fainting episodes
in response to unexpected events. The triggers were varied, ranging from
hair curling to thunderstorms, and reveal how girls of the time were con-
ditioned to believe that they were psychologically fragile. Consider the
following incident that took place at a small boarding school in New York
City during January 1899. One evening two girls were in their tiny dorm
room when they “took the globes off the gas fixtures for hair curling pur-
poses” and forgot to put them back on. A short time later the curtains
caught fire. The girls let out piercing shrieks and promptly fainted. Their
dorm mates rushed to see what the fuss was about but quickly lost their
nerve. Of the girls who arrived on the scene, one fainted, several stood
around weeping, and some ran out of the building, while the rest shouted
for the only man in the dorm to do something. The lone male arrived at
a chaotic scene: three girls were lying unconscious on the floor, others
were screaming, and by now both the curtains and the adjacent woodwork
were ablaze. Maneuvering over the girls, he ordered everyone else out of
the room to lessen the confusion. Meanwhile, a girl from Texas went to
fetch water, but “returning in mad haste with a pitcher full of water borne
triumphantly aloft, she collided with the retreating forces at the door. The
pitcher struck the leader of the retreat squarely in the face and knocked
out two of her front teeth, where upon the injured girl made the fainting
trio a quartet and the water carrier dropped her pitcher and went into
violent hysteria.” The fire was extinguished by the time teachers arrived.41
There were many cases of American schoolgirls fainting during school
fires at this time. Some triggers were novel. In May 1897 a lightning bolt
struck East Denver High School in Colorado, giving many students an

electric shock, after which several girls fainted. In June 1897 four girls
fainted on a boat ride during a Sunday school outing. The first girl to col-
lapse had a history of fainting spells. The others grew anxious, perhaps
overexcited by the trip, and soon collapsed.42
Modern Outbreaks: Pregnancy Panics and

Drop Attacks
Rare, sporadic outbreaks of motor disturbances continue to strike
students in Europe and North America, such as a mysterious wave of faint-
ing spells that swept through a class at a London girls’ school in the early
1970s. The outbreak lasted for much of the year. Even when conscious,
students complained of walking around in a mental fog. The episode began
in November when the class was taking practice O levels— notoriously
stressful exams that British students must pass to graduate from high
school. Louise, age seventeen, began to have fainting and falling spells in
class. By late February, Margaret began to faint. Shortly after, Rosemary
was stricken. Before long, five more classmates and their teacher began to
have falling or fainting spells. The class was then sent home a week early
for the spring break. Louise was the worst affected, as she would curl up
on the floor in a ball and appear to sleep; at other times she would roll her
eyes and fling her arms about. She claimed amnesia during the attacks.
The outbreak ended in July with the summer recess.43
The saga began when Louise heard that her best friend Anne was
pregnant. Anne gave birth in February but died when a blood vessel burst
in her brain. That’s when Louise’s condition grew worse — perhaps from
anxiety over the potentially disastrous consequences from having sex. A
psychiatric team went to the school to investigate. They later observed:
“If one assumed that Louise’s falling was a form of identification with her
pregnant friend, Anne, one would not be surprised at the epidemic ending
after a period of nine months!” Louise was a charming young lady with a
magnetic personality and a complicated, stressful personal life. In fact,
her personal life was nothing short of remarkable for a girl of seventeen.
Louise had an affair with a brother-in-law, an incestuous relationship with
her bisexual brother, and after that ended, an affair with his bisexual part-
ner, whom she eventually married. To raise anxiety levels even higher,
Louise even had to fend off sexual advances from one of her female teach-
ers. Later, Louise told psychiatrists that soon after the onset of her fainting
spells, she found she relished the attention and began to fake attacks: “At
first, I would not admit to myself that it was not genuine: I was convinced
that, because I really had fainted several times, that I was still doing so.
When I did face up to the fact that it was false, I still couldn’t stop.”44
During one psychiatric admission, Louise triggered a pregnancy panic
after suggesting to her fellow patients that she was pregnant. Within days,
several patients, “at least one of whom had no sexual experience, began to
complain of the same symptoms and needed to be reassured that they were
not pregnant.”45 Through simply chatting with others about the possibility
of pregnancy, Louise’s charismatic personality appears to have caused a
domino effect in the ward. Psychiatrists refer to this condition as false
pregnancy or by its formal scientific name, pseudocycsis. False pregnancies
often involve women who desperately want to bear a child and feel phys-
ically and psychologically as if they were pregnant. Yet when the time
comes to deliver the baby, there is only an empty uterus. Those experi-
encing false pregnancy can show all of the outward signs of pregnancy: an
absence of menstrual periods, vomiting, feeling the baby moving. Some
even suffer pains as if delivering a baby. While many cases of false preg-
nancy have been documented, an epidemic of pseudocycsis is extremely
rare.
A Twitching Epidemic in the Southern

United States
In twentieth-century America, outbreaks of motor disturbances have
taken the form of twitching epidemics and pregnancy scares in traditional
schools in the Deep South. We begin with the story of Helen, who, in the
spring of 1939, was a popular seventeen-year-old high school senior in
Bellevue, Louisiana. By all accounts, she did not like to dance. She was
popular and bright, but a poor dancer: tentative, nervous, and awkward.
Her boyfriend, Maurice, was an outstanding dancer, and this was Helen’s
dilemma: How could she keep her boyfriend from ending their relation-
ship while she was unable or unwilling to dance with him? It seems that
Helen’s subconscious was able to resolve the problem: her legs began to
twitch. Soon Helen was excused from dance classes and Maurice was again
showing romantic interest. The twitching spread to several of Helen’s girl-
friends, who, investigators surmise, were subconsciously identifying with
Helen in order to get attention themselves.
The episode began on Saturday, January 28, at the annual homecom-
ing dance. Because of her aversion to dancing, Helen went only to socialize.
After watching the dance, her right leg began to twitch and jerk. Over the
next several weeks, her attacks got worse. While playing basketball at
school, Helen sometimes had to stop as her leg began to twitch. As news
of her twitching spread, several students urged Helen to stay home, fearing
they could catch it.
On February 21, Helen’s friend Millie was attending Mardi Gras cel-
ebrations in nearby Ferryville when her stomach, chest, and neck began
to twitch. At age sixteen, Millie came from a poor, troubled family, and
before her attacks she had been seeing a doctor for “nerves.” Two days
later, a third girl, Frances, 16, began to twitch during French class and was
sent to the nurse. During this time, Geraldine, who sat next to Frances,
started twitching. She later said: “And then I started jumping. Then they
carried me upstairs to the infirmary, and I started crying. They gave me
ammonia but that didn’t help. Plenty [of ] girls tried to hold me down,
but they couldn’t.”46
While the twitching girls were being taken to the infirmary, an angry
mother made a dramatic scene, loudly demanding that her children be let
out of school, fearful that they might “catch” the twitching. Rumors began
to circulate of strange goings-on, and soon other parents arrived to with-
draw their children for the day. As students gathered in the halls and went
to their lockers before departing, tension grew and word spread that some-
thing was up. The principal called an emergency assembly to reassure stu-
dents, only to have it backfire. As pupils began filing out of the room, the
hallways became chaotic:
With the break-up of the assembly ... the children scurried around and
pressed forward in an attempt to see and hear what they could of the hys-
terical subjects. Some were to be seen in the principal’s office; others were
being administered ammonia-water ... in the infirmary; still others, who had
not developed the motor disturbances, but who contributed even more
largely to the general confusion because of their uncontrolled fearful crying,
had been taken to the nearby teacherage.”47
One observer quipped: “You’ve seen a stampede? That’s how it was. The
children were running up and down and all around trying to get a wiff
here and a wiff there.” School closed early, but on the bus ride home, stu-
dents made light of the day’s events, and the driver joked: “If you want to
talk about the jerks, why don’t you practice them.” Shortly after, Mildred,
age seventeen, began to twitch and jerk. When school reopened on Mon-
day, the girls were reassured that the twitching wasn’t contagious and there
was nothing to fear. Students and parents were skeptical. Nearly half of
the student body stayed away. It took a week for the school routine to
return to normal as the twitching slowly subsided.48
Investigators found several causes for the malady. Several days before
the dance at which Helen first began to twitch, mandatory dance instruc-
tion had started in gym classes. Because of her illness, Helen was excused
from dance instruction, and at the same time she was able to rekindle
Maurice’s waning interest. The investigating social scientists observed that
Helen was being forced to take part in an activity she neither liked nor
was good at, noting: “The jerking of her leg muscles obviously made it
impossible for her to dance, so the painful conflict situation was resolved
with no discredit to the subject.” By this time, the fleet-footed Maurice
was getting friendly with Gretchen, an attractive, energetic freshman and
skillful tap dancer. Despite her youth, Gretchen’s spirited attitude and
dance prowess had caught Maurice’s eye. He found himself drawn to her
and gave her his class ring. Maurice and Gretchen were on the verge of
dating. Helen needed to act quickly but was too shy to approach Maurice,
and she couldn’t win him over through dancing. Helen’s twitching may
have been a subconscious attempt to hold on to her boyfriend by gaining
his attention and sympathy. Investigators concluded, “Helen was both by
temperament and training entirely incapable of consciously making a bid
for the attention of her boyfriend, but ... unconsciously and involuntarily
she may have been achieving precisely this end through [hysteria].” But
high school students are notorious for being cruel and intolerant of any-
thing different. Why weren’t Helen and the other twitching girls seen as
peculiar or strange? The investigators surmise that as Helen was popular
and a local, there was little or no stigma for her or those unconsciously
imitating her twitching and it served a purpose — getting attention.49
A Pregnancy Scare in Cajun Country

Pregnancy. The mere mention of the word once instilled fear in Amer-
ican schoolgirls, who often risked banishment from school and their com-
munity to spend the duration of their term “visiting a relative.” Today,
pregnancy is more common and accepted among American high school
girls. Most no longer try to disguise the fact, and during commencement
it is not uncommon to see a conspicuous bulge beneath the midsection of
a graduation gown. In conservative Louisiana during the 1960s, premarital
sex was a major moral infraction, and getting pregnant was even worse.
The embarrassment, scandal, and repercussions often created a lifelong
stigma.
In 1960, a girl at the all-black Bethume Negro School in the small
town of Welch in rural southwest Louisiana became pregnant. It did not
take long for authorities to identify the boy responsible. The two were
sent away to reform school.50 The repercussions were swift and made a
lasting impression on the student body. Against this backdrop of intoler-
ance and fear, in early 1962, rumors began spreading that more students
were pregnant and that once identified, they too would be sent to reform
school. Sexual activity among students had been rampant, and the rumors
set off a school-wide crisis. Investigators later learned that a series of sexual
rendezvous had been taking place in the photography darkroom during
lunch. Investigators believe that one girl had engaged in sex with thirty
different boys on various occasions. At about this time rumors spread that
all of the girls were going to be given pregnancy tests, and those with pos-
itive results would be sent to reform school. Strange behaviors swept
through the school: seizures, shaking, dizziness, headaches, catatonic pos-
turing, and overwhelming drowsiness. Most of the spells lasted a few min-
utes, though a few persisted for an hour. Doctors tried sedatives, but they
had little effect. Visits by outside authorities made matters worse, further
heightening fears.51 Twenty-one girls and one boy in grades six to eleven
were stricken over the next six months.
The first outbreak began at a nearby Methodist church during an eve-
ning choir concert on February 14. A thirteen-year-old girl complained
of shortness of breath, grew dizzy, and fainted. While it was determined
that she had hyperventilated from nerves, the incident was dramatic, and
she was carried from church unconscious. The next day a classmate who
had watched her friend faint the night before had a “blackout spell” at
school. Her attacks became a daily fixture at the school, and she was soon
ordered to rest at home for a month. On March 6 a third pupil was stricken.
By late March, eight girls were having blackout spells, and by early April
an alarming twenty girls and one boy were afflicted. Theories abounded
as to the cause: a gas leak, a tainted water supply, drugs, toxic poisoning,
even an infection. The Louisiana Health Department investigated, elimi-
nating each of these possibilities and concluding that stress-induced hys-
teria was the culprit. The exams were thorough, with doctors even
conducting painful lumbar spine punctures to try to identify any exotic
abnormalities. While each of the girls was given sedatives, the fear of being
tested for pregnancy remained and the attacks continued.52
A psychiatrist from Tulane University in New Orleans, Dr. James
Knight, led an investigation into the episode and reported that soon after
the outbreak appeared in the press, most of the town’s white population
felt that the affected black students had been “acting foolish” and behaving
in a “childish” manner. At this time, African Americans were commonly
viewed as emotionally immature and mentally inferior, and racial segre-
gation was common, with blacks forced to use separate movie theatres
and restaurants; they even had separate drinking fountains and bathrooms.
Other whites said they thought the girls were on drugs.53 One woman
claimed that a doctor told her that “some kind of humbug was apparently
responsible for the attacks,” suggesting that those involved were engaged
in an elaborate deception.54
A boy named Jerry was made a scapegoat by many parents and teach-
ers. He had transferred to the school just before the attacks. It was widely
rumored that Jerry was selling drugs. Stories also circulated that he was
spiking chewing gum at a nearby store, causing the girls to act strangely.
In a sign of deep anxiety, and without a shred of evidence to go on, the
Louisiana Health Department moved in, testing the gum and other candy.
Investigators found nothing unusual, though the tainted candy rumors
continued.55
Some of the parents thought that the girls’ fits were caused by “black
magic,” though most students scoffed at the idea. At first, many parents
and teachers blamed an infection. This seemed logical, since most of the
stricken “were those who touched, supported, or carried to the lounge
some girl who had had a ‘blackout spell.’” This is not implausible, since
the sexually active girls tended to hang out with each other. They were
also under the most stress and subject to the same conditions, living under
the constant fear of getting pregnant or being tested for pregnancy. But if
the outbreak was driven by a fear of getting pregnant, how can we explain
the one male student who was stricken? It may have been a fear of being
the boy responsible for one of the pregnancies. When this student suffered
a blackout spell, his classmates began to speculate as to whether he would
be the father of a girl or a boy. By early August, the fits subsided as a new,
more lenient principal took over. Because the principal was understanding
and supportive of the girls’ anxiety, they no longer lived in daily fear of
being tested for pregnancy and their stress levels dropped. Life soon
returned to normal; the pregnancy scare was over.56
Signs of the Times

Outbreaks of motor dysfunction in American schools are rare. When
several girls in Mount Pleasant, Mississippi, began to act strangely in April
1976, school officials had one thought: drugs. Narcotics agents swarmed
the building after fifteen students fell to the ground, “writhing and kicking
before passing out.”57 Police found the girls to be free of drugs and con-
cluded that hysteria was the culprit. Many students and parents blamed
voodoo. The girls would suddenly fall to the floor, kicking and screaming:
“Don’t let it get me!” or “Get it off !” before passing out. The attacks lasted
up to fifteen minutes. The trigger turned out to be a schoolgirl rivalry
over the affections of a boy. One group of girls said that a jealous classmate
had put a voodoo hex on them. The fear of magic spells spread quickly
through the group after the first few girls suffered fits, which only
confirmed their classmates’ suspicions of sorcery and fueled their own
fears that they would be next. By the week’s end, one-third of the school’s
900 students were staying home because of the fear of being hexed.58
Mass Hysteria and the Social Network

In 2002, a mysterious malady swept through a rural high school in
North Carolina. Ten girls exhibited strange seizures at the start of the
school year, often accompanied by fainting, shortness of breath, headaches,
lightheadedness, muscle twitching and jerking, tingling, and numbness.
The school nurse noted that the fits were unlike any epileptic seizures that
she had seen before. When she placed smelling salts near the noses of a
couple of the girls, they cringed, while the mothers of two girls said that
when their daughters began to have fits, “they could ‘talk her out of it’ as
the episode started to develop.”59 There was another oddity: the malady
rarely occurred in class, but struck students in the hallways between classes,
in the cafeteria, or in the schoolyard during recess. This feature is highly
unusual and does not fit the historical trend.
The first stricken was a cheerleader, and the fear of “catching” her
seizure may have made her fellow cheerleaders and other classmates nerv-
ous, triggering their blackout spells. It may have also been some kind of
identification with a school role model, as four others who were stricken
were either cheerleaders or former cheerleaders. This case is odd for
another reason — three of the students were eleventh-graders, three were
tenth-graders and four were in the ninth grade. In most outbreaks of mass
hysteria in schools, the students share classrooms, but not so here, as just
two were in the same class. While most had just a few attacks, one had
thirty. It took four months for the symptoms to subside. Doctors Steven
Roach and Rick Langley investigated the episode and reviewed the tests
on the girls. After examining their brain wave results, the doctors were
certain that their seizures were hysterical.60
Five years later, a similar episode took place in nearby Vinton, Vir-
ginia, when an outbreak of twitching arms and legs, headaches and dizzi-
ness swept through William Byrd High School. At least nine girls and a
female teacher were stricken. Once again, there was a conspicuous oddity:
the girls were scattered throughout the school and did not share the same
classroom. The episode lasted several months and occurred during a spate
of public health crises that had been reported in the local media, including
an asbestos scare and warnings that a drug resistant strain of golden staph
(Staphylococcus aureus) had resulted in the death of an area student.61
In 2011, another rare outbreak of motor hysteria was reported among
a dozen girls at Leroy Central School in western New York, and for the
third time since 2002, the way the symptoms spread was highly unusual,
as they were scattered among students throughout the school instead of
being confined to a single classroom. The girls were suffering from facial
tics, twitching muscles and garbled verbal outbursts that resembled
Tourette’s Syndrome. Some of the girls could not complete a single sen-
tence without severely garbling their words. After examining ten of the
victims, neurologist Laszlo Mechtler announced that having conducted a
series of tests and eliminating other causes, he was confident the culprit
was conversion disorder. Of course, there was an immediate outcry from
parents, some of whom allowed their kids to appear on national TV to
refute the diagnosis. Presumably this generated even more stress.
The New York State Health Department made matters worse by failing
to release their hysteria diagnosis to the public, claiming patient privacy
laws and suggesting that it was not a public health issue. However, their
secrecy only served to create widespread fear that a “mystery illness” was
loose in their community, and it fostered conspiracy theories and much
bitterness from many parents when the diagnosis was made public by Dr.
Mechtler in late January 2012. This led to a perception that state health
officials had been engaging in a cover-up and could not be trusted. Before
the official diagnosis was released to the public, the refusal to render a
public diagnosis created a media frenzy. On Fox News Dr. Marc Siegel
said he was almost certain it was PANDAS, caused by strep throat infec-
tions, while others suggested a reaction to Gardasil, used in human papil-
lomavirus (HPV) vaccinations to protect girls against cervical cancer.62
Neurologist Rosario Trifiletti agreed with Dr. Siegel’s diagnosis and con-
ducted his own tests. On February 7, he announced that eight of the girls
had a “PANDAS-like illness.” However, the woman who identified PAN-
DAS Syndrome, Dr. Susan Swedo, refuted the diagnosis and noted that
just because high levels of strep antibodies were found in the patients, it
did not necessarily implicate PANDAS, as the same antibodies are very
common in students of the same age.63 Dr. Siegel was correct on one key
point: given the fear generated by not knowing the cause, it was a public
health issue — and such issues should have overridden the privacy of the
12 girls. It is also curious that many of the girls’ parents only learned of
the mass hysteria diagnosis through media reports. What was really going
on here is obvious: State health officials were afraid of the public backlash
they knew would ensue once the “H-word” was used and their hysteria
diagnosis became public. While the pronouncement was always going to
be met with resistance, withholding it was a mistake and made matters
worse. With 12 families involved and the media placing the issue in the
national spotlight, the public was always going to find out.
A parent of one of the girls was incredulous at the hysteria diagnosis.
James Dupont said: “For us to try to buy that our girls all seem to have a
traumatic experience within a couple of months ... and all seem to have
handled it the same way with the same symptoms, that don’t even know
each other, it’s just unbelievable.”64 Dr. Mechtler later refuted the claim
and noted that the girls were not exactly strangers to one another: “Some
of them were friends, some played on the same soccer team and all are in
the same high school,” he said.65
Researcher Paul Cropper believes that one of the functions of mass
psychogenic illness is to act as a force for instant social networking. He
observes that in Leroy the girls may not have known each other well, but
they “may have unknowingly shared the fact that they felt ‘invisible,’
excluded, neglected (maybe only in a minor way), stressed, etc., but once
Case 1 arrives it becomes a public invitation for all the others to join this
exclusive club or protest —‘the tic sufferers.’” Cropper believes that the
attention drawn to the girls subconsciously underscores their status as
special, different, and suddenly “visible.” As a result of their illness they
even received specialist care; one of the doctors treating some of the girls
described them as wonderful and unique. He speculates that perhaps this
was “the kind of individual focus they weren’t getting in either their school
or family lives before the outbreak.”66
Cropper defends the health department’s strategy of keeping the hysteria
diagnosis under wraps, even though it created communitywide — even
nationwide—anxiety. They were in a damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-
don’t situation. Cropper states: “MSI is a public health issue that is created
and perpetuated in a social space, but not in the same way that a traditional
infectious disease is, and its treatment has to be far more personal than simply
giving vaccine jabs.” He notes that each of the girls may have vastly different
individual pressures and stresses, but the first case signalled that it was OK
to let the tics be the acceptable way to release the pressure and send a public
signal out that there were problems. “Saying it’s all conversion disorder as a
mass explanation for such a personal issue is not a sensitive way to treat the
patients. You also have the massive stigma attached to MSI language as words
like ‘stress’ and ‘hysteria’ are very loaded words,” Cropper observes.67
The public reaction was clearly stoked by the health department’s ini-
tial cloak of secrecy. When the Huffington Post published an article online
about the outbreak on January 17, 2012, they recorded over a thousand
blog postings to their site in less than a week. People suggested dozens of
pet theories ranging from Lyme disease to pesticides. One person wrote:
“Mass hysteria? I call BS. Mass cover up? Most likely.” Another suggested
the likelihood of copper poisoning from the girls’ placing pennies in their
mouths to mask the smell of alcohol! This far-fetched notion is even more
unlikely given that since 1982, pennies contain just 2.5 percent copper;
the remainder is zinc, and the symptoms were not consistent with zinc
poisoning. Other explanations included Ritalin or Ecstasy abuse, exposure
to fertilizer or electromagnetic fields, and magnesium deficiency. Some
even suggested that the girls were part of a secret government experiment.
There was seemingly no end to the exotic theories put forth to explain the
outbreak.68 The most popular belief among locals was that the cause was
toxic chemicals from one of the many dumpsites in the area, in particular
a nearby cyanide dump. However, extensive tests of the area by both the
Environmental Protection Agency and the state health department could
find no evidence of contamination. Furthermore, if chemicals were
involved, why did they almost exclusively affect adolescent girls? Why
weren’t their siblings and parents affected? Many teachers would have been
on the school grounds for longer periods than the students, yet they were
unaffected. Why would symptoms have appeared after decades, and then
in such an abrupt manner? It is clear that the distrust of the state health
department fuelled the list of possible theories and led to the formation
of a local parents group, ensuring that the issue would remain in the public
eye for the foreseeable future.69
The outbreaks of this rare type of motor hysteria in North Carolina,
Virginia and in western New York, all within a 10-year span, are significant
and unique in the annals of psychogenic illness because of the unusual
way that these symptoms spread. The common factor linking these
episodes is the role that social media appears to have played. This is most
clearly evident in the case of LeRoy, as the students used Twitter, Facebook
and Youtube to communicate about the outbreak, not to mention blog
postings, text messages and e-mail. Dr. David Lichter observes: “It’s
remarkable to see how one individual posts something, and then the next
person who posts something not only are the movements bizarre and not
consistent with known movement disorders, but it’s the same kind of
movements. This mimicry goes on with Facebook.”70 Another odd dimen-
sion to all three twenty-first-century American cases is the absence of a
clear singular stressor. It may be that interpersonal conflict — a staple of
the adolescent world — played a major role, and once the initial symptoms
appeared, an array of folk theories, from toxic chemicals to exotic illnesses,
fuelled the initial anxieties.
One of the most commonly observed patterns in the mass hysteria
literature is that episodes are typically spread through sight and sound.
The technology revolution has placed inexpensive telecommunication
devices in the hands of most students, devices that are essentially exten-
sions of our eyes and ears. It would now appear that social media is elim-
inating the necessity of being in direct visual or verbal contact with other
victims. This has implications for the potential of future outbreaks, as
students no longer need to be in close physical proximity to the perceived
harmful agent. This helps to explain why in recent years, American cases
have not been confined to a single classroom but have spread throughout
the schools in question. This may be a milestone in the history of psy-
chogenic illness because for the first time, the primary vector or agent of
spread appears to be the Internet and social media. The neurologists treat-
ing twelve of the LeRoy victims support this view. They write: “As soon
as the media coverage stopped, they all began to rapidly improve and are
doing very well.” By June 2012, they report that all but one of their patients
were “free of tics and vocalizations.”71
Since the sixteenth century, observers have noted a fascinating array
of strange behaviors among students in European and North American
schools, adolescents enduring long-term stress being especially susceptible.
Their pent-up emotions eventually burst forth, resulting in disruptions
to their motor function and triggering coordination problems, convul-
sions, twitching, shaking, and trance states. From the fear of witchcraft
to reactions to drills in repetition and memorization, to more recent
episodes involving a fear of toxic chemicals and mysterious illnesses being
spread through the social media, each of these episodes uniquely reflects
its time.
CHAPTER 3
Fear 101— Fates Worse

than Homework
Modern Tales from East and West
Of all our passions, fear weakens judgment most.— Bertrand

Russell1
Since the 1950s, health conscious Americans and Europeans have

heeded reports of toxic food and unsafe products. Each year the mass
media produce a new list of hazards. Most prove untrue. In 1959, many
Americans avoided cranberries after claims by scientists that use of the
weed killer aminotriazole caused thyroid cancer in rats. After sales were
banned in several states, it was determined that one would have to eat
thousands of pounds to be at the same risk as the rats.2 Twenty years later
there was a fear of “killer apples” as scientists made the alarming claim
that apples sprayed with the growth hormone Alar could cause childhood
cancer. Again, it came to light that the threat was exaggerated. A child
would have to drink thousands of glasses of juice daily to be at risk. More
recent scares include genetically modified foods, various chemicals, and
terrorists. Since the 1960s, European and North American schools have
been dominated by short-lived health scares, with pollution fears fueling
overbreathing, fainting, dizziness, nausea, stomach pain, and headache —
classic indicators of stress. This shift reflects a loosening of strict attitudes
and a greater student voice in school issues. Meanwhile, watchdog groups
such as the Parent-Teachers Association began holding teachers and
administrators more accountable. As education was growing more liberal,
Silent Spring by biologist Rachel Carson led to the birth of the modern
environmental movement in 1962. Exposing the threat from pollution,
Carson’s book led to many new laws protecting the environment. As
awareness of the threat grew, so did the preoccupation with the quality of
water, food, and air. It is no surprise, then, that the most common mass
44
3. Fear 101— Fates Worse than Homework 45
hysteria trigger in the late twentieth century was the detection of strange
odors. Rumors of food poisoning were another source of dread. We begin
our survey of modern outbreaks in the southeastern United States.
Phantom Gas in Florida

Monday, May 13, 1974, began as a typical day in southern Florida —
sunny and warm — when sirens pierced the calm, humid air. The local
dispatcher received a report that a student had fainted at an elementary
school in Dade County. The worried voice on the phone said she was unre-
sponsive, even to smelling salts. It was 9:30 A.M. An ambulance was soon
rolling to the scene, where 169 students from the fourth, fifth and sixth
grades at Bay Harbor Elementary were huddled in the school’s “cafeto-
rium” (a large room used as both a cafeteria and auditorium), unaware
of the unfolding drama. They were rehearsing for a musical. The students
were twenty minutes into singing practice when “Sandy,” a fifth-grader,
began to have a headache and feel woozy. While the music teacher wasn’t
looking, the eleven-year-old slipped away to the nurse’s office down the
hall and collapsed. The teacher and most of the singers were oblivious to
Sandy’s distress.
Just as rehearsal was breaking up, paramedics were wedging through
the hallways with a look of urgency on their faces. It wasn’t long before
they emerged from the nurse’s office wheeling Sandy, looking like a rag
doll, limp and unconscious, on a stretcher for the whole school to see.
Soon after, several students exiting the rehearsal began to feel unwell.
Rumors that a “gas leak” was poisoning students spread like wildfire.
Within an hour scores of students in different parts of the school were
feeling ill: headache, nausea, stomach pain, chills, difficulty breathing.
Soon police, fire, and rescue personnel arrived at the school. Adding to
the confusion was the presence of parents, politicians, community leaders,
curiosity seekers, and a small battalion of reporters.3
By 10:30 A.M., Dr. Joel Nitzkin of the Dade County Health Office was
asked to go to the school to help treat the children who had apparently
been sickened by a “poison gas.” It took him forty-five minutes to reach
the school, at which point thirty-four pupils had been deemed sick enough
to be sent to the hospital or home to recuperate. “The scene was complete
pandemonium. It had the look of a disaster,” he said later. The school was
mobbed. Nitzkin and two colleagues had to park nearby and walk in, as
the parking area was overflowing with vehicles. Nitzkin had difficulty
believing what he was seeing: “Ambulances. Fire equipment. Police cars.
All with their flashers flashing. And the media — they were swarming.
Newspaper reporters and photographers. Radio people with microphones.
Television cameras from four local stations.... Members of the Dade
County School Board. Members of the Bay Harbor Town Council. And
neighbors and passersby and parents all rushing around. I had never seen
anything like it.”4
When Nitzkin got to the school he began to assess the gravity of the
situation. He wondered how the students who had been taken to the hos-
pital were faring. Phoning the attending doctors, he learned that the chil-
dren’s urinalyses, electrolytes, blood counts and blood gases were all
normal. What’s more, the children seemed well, except one who was clearly
hyperventilating and another who seemed to have a mild virus. Unfortu-
nately, in the confusion and chaos at the emergency room, given the pres-
ence of nausea and headache with reports of a strange odor, a doctor hastily
concluded that the victims “must have been exposed to a toxic gas.”5 In
reality, it turned out that there was no gas.
Like a general in the heat of battle, Nitzkin was assessing the situation
on the run, making mental notes and going through different scenarios
in his head. After a quick survey of the building, there was no obvious
sign of anything that would have made the students sick. He reasoned that
bacteria and viruses could not have been the culprits on the basis of the
short incubation period and symptoms.6 The strange odor reported by
many students— the apparent cause of the illness— was carpet glue in the
library. Although it gave off a solvent-like smell, Nitzkin learned that the
distinctive odor had been in the school since the carpet was laid, two weeks
earlier; yet over the previous fourteen days, no one had become ill from
the smell. Why now on the morning of May 13? As more details came to
light, Nitzkin grew more curious. He had a hunch: Everything he was see-
ing sounded suspiciously like mass hysteria. But did the facts fit? He soon
found out that none of the ill children had visited the library that day, and
those who did were not among the ill:
Minutes after dismissal of the class in question from the cafetorium, another
group of children entered through a separate door and spent the next thirty
to forty minutes in musical rehearsal similar to the class before. No one in
this second group, including the teacher, was aware of the commotion from
the previous class immediately outside the door. No one in this second group
experienced illness despite exposure to the room in question.7
Nitzkin believed that what he was dealing with was essentially a large-
scale panic attack, and set out trying to restore calm by reassuring the stu-
dents and the community. He composed himself and began radiating a
sense of outward calm and confidence. At 11:40 A.M. he walked up to a
scrum of reporters and announced his assessment: “mass hysteria with

hyperventilation.”8 In other words, the students had become anxious and
began to overbreathe. Nitzkin was nervous about making the announce-
ment but felt that someone had to take charge. It was a gamble, as he knew
he could be discredited if others began to openly challenge his views. The
immediate reaction was silence. Nitzkin said, “The public health nurses
looked stunned. I saw Dr. Enriquez smiling and nodding. The parents of
the sick children looked horrified and insulted — I was telling them their
children were crazy. But most of the others— the teachers and school board
people and the firemen and the head secretary — just stood there looking
thoughtful.” Nitzkin observed that as he carefully explained his rationale,
a sigh of relief seemed to sweep over the crowd. “The firemen and the police
just sort of disappeared. People began to turn to each other and talk. The
sick kids stopped looking so sick.” Incredibly, by noon, two and a half
hours after it had begun, the crisis was over and no more pupils were sent
home sick. The next day, tests of the building yielded no evidence of toxic
gas. In the days and weeks that followed, attendance rates were normal.9
Dr. Nitzkin’s bold diagnosis and decisive action put a quick end to
the crisis, but the episode was not over. A new drama was emerging among
furious parents, who believed he had made the wrong diagnosis. How dare
he suggest that their children were victims of their own imaginations?
Mass hysteria might happen to other children, but not theirs. Some, while
admitting he was right, were critical of Nitzkin for making such a quick
diagnosis before thorough tests of the premises could be conducted.
Nitzkin steadfastly defended his actions, noting that the telltale signs of
hysteria were everywhere. He simply fit the pieces together — the normal
lab tests, except for values that were altered by overbreathing; the rapid
cessation of vague symptoms; the absence of illness in adults sharing the
identical environment; a preponderance of symptoms among young girls;
and the spread of symptoms by sight or sound.10
Nitzkin later studied the eight most severely affected students, who
were hospitalized for a time. Of the five girls, he concluded that one was
a hypochondriac, while another often complained of vague ailments.
Another had chronic anxiety and a history of hyperventilating under
stress. Of the remaining two girls, one was a close friend of Sandy’s and
the other had come to school that morning feeling vaguely ill. Of the two
boys, one had a long history of getting into trouble at school; the other
was “highly excitable.”11 As for Sandy, she fit the profile of a classic trigger
person in hysteria outbreaks. She was a leader: popular, attractive and
precocious, and a good student. She was someone the other students
looked up to and wanted to emulate. Nitzkin believes that like the pied
piper leading the children into the sea, Sandy’s collapse and dramatic exit
from the school on a stretcher struck a responsive chord in her fellow cho-
rus members, who had just finished a tiring rehearsal only to see rescue
personnel carting off one of their own. It was unnerving. The stage was
set for the children to be led astray by their own imaginations.
“We’ve Been Gassed!” Malathion Hysteria

Malathion is a highly effective insecticide. It has been used for decades
in the war on bugs, from the Mediterranean fruit fly to the pesky mosquito.
When mixed properly, it poses little danger to humans. Malathion is one
of the world’s most widely used insecticides. But everything has a down-
side. In the case of malathion, it has a pungent odor. It is easy to see how
a group of students who were suddenly exposed to such a strong smell
could believe they had been poisoned. Just such an incident happened at
an Arizona elementary school in the spring of 1987.
On Friday morning, April 24, a Tucson man, determined to win his
annual battle with bugs munching on his trees and shrubs, began spraying
his yard next to the school. A short time later, at 9 A.M., two teachers in
separate parts of the building called the main office on the school intercom.
Something was wrong: There was a strong odor wafting through the hall-
ways. The office worker announced that there was a foul smell outside the
school and that doors and windows should be shut until it went away.
Despite being told to stay inside, one teacher took her class outdoors and
walked right into the foul odor. Retreating to the school, they found them-
selves in the cafeteria, where they began to complain of nausea, dizziness,
and headaches.
Seeing the group’s distress, an office attendant became fearful for
their well-being. As luck would have it, the principal was away, so she took
matters into her own hands, grabbing the phone and raising the alarm.
As emergency personnel began trickling onto the scene, they came upon
the twelve students who had walked into the mysterious cloud, all sitting
in the cafeteria and looking unwell. When the fire chief arrived, he made
a quick assessment and called for reinforcements. Within minutes, addi-
tional paramedics, firefighters, and HazMat teams were speeding to the
school “on the basis that an unknown and possibly toxic substance was
causing illness.” As the number of unwell students grew, emergency
responders went into each classroom to see if the students and teachers
were well. Meanwhile, other squad members were fanning out to find the
source of the odor.12
With more and more students feeling unwell, authorities declared a

major emergency and set up a lawn triage. An urgent disaster call went
out to local doctors, who rushed to treat the “poisoned” students who
were by now littering the grounds. The scene was dramatic. Before long,
the head paramedic, unsure what substance he was dealing with, ordered
a full-scale retreat, transporting all 296 students to area hospitals. The
campus looked like a set from a disaster movie. No fewer than one hundred
emergency responders were at the school, and nearly a dozen fire depart-
ments. Police were everywhere. Adding to the confusion, reporters, film
crews, and parents were scurrying about, checking on the children’s wel-
fare.13
The atmosphere at the school was chaotic and tense. The principal
and the triage nurse began arguing over the nurse’s decision to change the
school evacuation plan, at which point it is alleged that the nurse threat-
ened to arrest the principal for interference. It was high drama. This public
argument between the head nurse and principal must have been unnerving
for the students. Several doctors on the scene commented about the pres-
ence of anxiety responses that may have been prompted by the heat of the
moment. Interviews with other observers suggest that “emergency respon-
ders did not consider the effects of their actions on the children,” notably,
that the “shouting of orders” had unduly frightened the children.14
At the hospitals, the students’ symptoms quickly subsided, and it was
soon evident that no one was seriously ill. Symptoms included stomach
upset, headache, runny eyes, weakness, sweating, difficulty breathing,
dizziness, and blurred vision — all typical of sudden stress. When the doc-
tors finished examining the students, not a single case of insecticide poi-
soning was verified.15
Meanwhile, the man spraying the pesticide was being vigorously ques-
tioned. He swore that he had followed the instructions just like he was
supposed to, diluting twenty-two milliliters of malathion into fifteen mil-
liliters of water. On checking the residue in the bottle, investigators con-
cluded that he had done just that.16 To be certain, samples were sent to
two independent laboratories— the manufacturer and the Arizona Agri-
culture Department; both confirmed that he was telling the truth.
So what happened? Malathion gives off a strong odor, but it is widely
used across the United States and is very effective. It has even been used
as a body lotion to control lice. How likely is malathion to cause breathing
problems like those at the Arizona school? Just how harmful is it? The sci-
entific answer is clear: not very, unless you’re drinking it. In one study
subjects were placed in a sealed room with no ventilation while concen-
trated malathion was sprayed into the air for two hours a day for forty-
two days straight. There were no observable effects. Each subject was found
to be in perfect health, with no hint of breathing problems. While there
are warning labels on malathion, they advise against misuse. Of course,
too much of anything can be harmful. Consuming an entire shaker of salt
could prove fatal. Even drinking too much water in too short a time can
kill a person. Investigators found that the malathion had been mixed prop-
erly, but even if it had not been, much higher concentrations should not
have caused the students’ symptoms, which were typical of anxiety.17
The malathion scare is reminiscent of an incident four years earlier
involving parathion, another common insecticide. There was an air of
nervous excitement in east Texas on the evening of June 15, 1983. Dozens
of eleven- to fourteen-year-old students from a summer camp were on a
major university campus for a big dance. Meanwhile, next door, two col-
lege students were conducting a routine fumigation of a biology depart-
ment greenhouse. The evening calm was shattered when passersby noticed
smoke pouring from the greenhouse vents and sounded the alarm. Emer-
gency personnel quickly evacuated the area, fearing a massive case of
organophosphate poisoning from the “toxic smoke.” Firefighters began
dispersing the fumes with fans and urging those in the area to go to the
hospital for treatment. Back at the dance, students were becoming aware
of the “smoke cloud.” While standing on the dance floor, one girl began
to feel woozy and teeter. She was helped to the side to recuperate. Rumors
flew through the group that “the cloud got her.” Before long, other students
felt ill. Worried chaperones took about thirty of the children to the hos-
pital. The victims were treated at two hospitals where doctors were looking
for signs of parathion poisoning: restricted pupils and respiratory distress.
Dr. Gary Elkins was curious about the students’ reactions, as he noted that
parathion poisoning symptoms “were absent in the vast majority of victims
who felt sick; fully 99 of the 119 persons evaluated ... showed no clinical
evidence of organophosphate poisoning.” It was evident that many were
overbreathing as a result of the excitement. Stomach pain and headache
were common, as was a burning sensation of the skin and eyes.18
The blaring sirens and flashing lights of arriving rescue workers only
added to the confusion and tension. Civil defense personnel even told
bystanders that the smoke was toxic. Staff at one hospital gave worried
patients “a list of symptoms” that they could expect to have as a result of
parathion poisoning. Some personnel began to label the victims with triage
tags that would have been more appropriate for a major trauma disaster
such as a plane crash. It looked like a mass poisoning. In his report on the
episode, Dr. Elkins said: “The language used by emergency and hospital
personnel while assessing and treating patients ... can be a powerful source
of counter-suggestion.” In other words, if an emergency worker or doctor

tells you you’ve been poisoned before conducting a full patient exam, it’s
likely to make matters worse.19 The malathion and parathion poisoning
scares underscore the power of suggestion, though neither incident could
rival the events in Europe during the summer of 1999, when a relatively
small number of schoolchildren spread fear through the countryside and,
for a short time, brought one of the world’s largest corporations to its
knees.
The Great Coca-Cola Scare

On June 8, 1999, the innocuous “phffttt” of an opening soda can
became a sound to be feared. Our story begins in the most unlikely of
places— the picturesque small town of Bornem, Belgium, near Antwerp.
What happened that day triggered a series of events that would eventually
send shock waves across Europe and beyond. Thirty-three pupils at a sec-
ondary school were rushed to a hospital upon feeling ill after drinking
cans of Coca-Cola. In hindsight, the Coke was harmless, and the students
were simply suffering from anxiety after noting a funny taste and smell.
But at the time, it appeared to be a disaster. The real casualty was the
Coca-Cola Company, whose sales temporarily slumped.
After the first ten students were stricken, the school nurse quickly
made inquiries and found Coke to be the common denominator. Con-
cerned staff went room to room, asking students leading questions: “Did
you drink Coke?” “Do you feel sick?” Soon, another twenty-three students
reported feeling ill, complaining of headache, nausea, stomach pain,
breathing troubles, and dizziness. At the hospital, doctors found nothing
physically wrong. Urine and blood samples were normal. The only thing
out of the ordinary was that the patients seemed nervous; some were
huffing and puffing, appearing to be overbreathing from excitement. None
of the students were treated with medication, though some were given
oxygen. As a precaution, fifteen were kept overnight. The next day, four
more students from the same school were taken to the hospital with similar
symptoms. Again, doctors found nothing unusual except anxiety.20
As the Bornem incident made headlines across Europe, other students
began complaining of symptoms, with 75 more Belgian children suffering
similar ill effects after drinking Coke at four other schools; in Brugge,
eleven were affected on June 10; seventeen became ill at Harelbeke on June
11; thirty-five felt sick on June 14 at Lochristi; and on the same day in Kor-
trijk, twelve reported soda-related illness. The patterns were similar to the
Bornem outbreak. Meanwhile, Coca-Cola announced a recall of quaran-

tined Coke and Fanta containers on June 11, and by the 14th, with the two
new school outbreaks, all Coca-Cola products were taken off the shelves
in Belgium.21
These beverage scares had their origin in an earlier Belgian contam-
ination crisis. In early 1999 a tank of fats used to make animal feed was
polluted with a toxic brew of cancer-causing chemicals: dioxins, diben-
zofurans, and PCBs. The accident led to many cases of chicken poisoning
when farmers gave their hens the contaminated feed. Despite government
attempts to hush the news, word of the incident leaked to the Belgian
media in May, fomenting a political confidence crisis that cost the jobs of
the ministers for agriculture and health. The fear and anxiety began with
a massive recall of chicken and eggs. (For those wondering which was
recalled first, the chicken or the egg — it was a tie.) Soon most dairy and
meat products were pulled from the shelves. By the time of the Coke scare
in early June, the food contamination crisis dominated Belgian life. Food
safety was on everyone’s mind, and experts worried that even small
amounts of chemicals could seriously impact people’s health.22
With headlines crying “Poison!” the soda scare quickly spread across
Belgium, exploding into a panic. Over the next eighteen days the Belgian
Poison Control Centre logged 943 calls from people feeling unwell after
drinking Coke and other drinks made by the giant corporation: Fanta,
Sprite, Minute Maid, Pepsi, Lipton Ice Tea, Nestea, and Aquarius. Things
were getting out of hand. There was no rhyme or reason to the reports;
calls were scattered from across the country.23 It was clearly a media-driven
scare.
On June 15, Coca-Cola officials made a dramatic admission: they were
at fault. First they blamed transport pallets treated with fungicide for taint-
ing the outside of cans. Then suspicion fell on “bad carbon dioxide.” These
findings were sent to Belgium’s top toxicologist, Professor Dominique
Lison at the Catholic University de Louvain in Brussels. After careful
analysis, Lison came to a stunning conclusion: the real culprit was mass
hysteria. Hydrogen sulphide was present on the cans in quantities high
enough to cause a noticeable odor, yet was harmless to humans at a mere
ten parts per billion. He continued: “Small amounts of 4-chloro-3-
methylphenol were found on the outside of some cans (about 0.4 μg/can).
In both cases, it is unlikely that such concentrations caused any toxicity
beyond an abnormal odour. No other notable chemicals had been found.”
A similar conclusion was reached by a second body advising the Belgian
Health Ministry.24
The ban on Belgian Coke products was lifted June 23. By the end of
June, the episode was over. The recall had cost Coca-Cola as much as $250
million. On March 31, 2000, a Belgian government commission issued its
findings: mass hysteria. Reports of similar symptoms were noted in France
during June, and it is thought that these were incidents of mass hysteria
in the wake of the Belgian media publicity. Coca-Cola shot itself in the
foot. It was embarrassing, but not fatal. Company officials contributed to
the scare by overestimating the seriousness of the first illness reports by
the schoolchildren.25
Post–September 11th Terror Scares

September 11, 2001. Mere mention of the date is enough to raise the
blood pressure of many Americans. The worst terrorist attacks in U.S. his-
tory on that day were closely followed by the mailing of anthrax-laced let-
ters. These events terrorized a nation and generated widespread discussion
about the likelihood of further chemical or biological attacks. In 2008, the
FBI concluded that an American microbiologist named Bruce Edwards
Ivins was the sole culprit. But in 2001, the anthrax was widely believed to
have been the work of foreign terrorists. Media speculation prompted
heightened anxieties and alertness and a surge in false reports. On Sep-
tember 29, 2001, in Washington state, harmless fumes from oil-based paint
set off a bio-terrorism scare at Canyon Creek Middle School. Sixteen stu-
dents were sent to the hospital and an army of rescue personnel rushed
to the scene, believing a terror attack was under way.26
A few days later, on October 2 and 3, a bio-terror scare swept across
the Philippines when 1,400 students from Manila schools flooded local
clinics, reporting mild flu symptoms such as coughing and slight fever.
Some students were confirmed as having Type A H1N1 influenza, but many
were diagnosed with anxiety after rumors spread among jittery parents
and pupils that the cause was bio-terrorism. The bogus story was spread
rapidly by students using hand-held text messengers.27
CNN reported that there were no fewer than 2,300 anthrax false
alarms during the first half of October alone. Almost any powdery sub-
stance was enough to warrant a mass evacuation, and stress was heightened
by emergency personnel, often dressed in space suits, entering buildings
in dramatic fashion and removing the suspicious powder for testing.28 The
anthrax scare appears to have given rise to what historian Elaine Showalter
calls “the Bin Laden Itch,” which swept through dozens of U.S. schools.
Between October 2001 and June 2002, a mysterious rash was reported
by thousands of students in twenty-seven U.S. states and parts of Canada.
From Alaska to Florida, students were scratching. The rashes would last
anywhere from a few hours to two weeks. There were no other symptoms,
and no evidence of spread from person to person. Fearing the worst — a
terror attack on American children — the Centers for Disease Control care-
fully studied the rashes, ruling out an infectious agent given the absence
of fever or headache. The culprit was a variety of skin ailments. According
to CDC officials, “With 53 million young people attending 117,000 schools
each school day in the United States, it is expected that rashes from a wide
range of causes will be observed.” Among the causes: bacteria and fungi,
physical agents such as fiberglass, chemical agents such as pesticides and
cleaning products, allergens, and insect bites. These skin conditions have
always existed in schools, but during the bio-terror scare, students began
paying more attention to their skin and school nurses were on the lookout
for anything out of the ordinary — and were more likely to report such
cases. Dry, itchy skin is notorious during the winter months in the U.S.
as people spend more time indoors and heating systems suck moisture
out of the air. In a few cases, students were caught faking rashes by rubbing
their skin with sandpaper in an effort to close their schools. But the post–
September 11 itching frenzy was not the first time that anxiety in school-
children has triggered terror scares.29
Phantom Terrorists
Mid–February 1991 was an anxious time in America. The Persian Gulf
War was just three and a half weeks old. The news was saturated with dis-
cussion of poison gas attacks on Israel from Iraqi Scud missiles. While no
poison gas attacks took place, several false alarms had everyone on edge.
The stage was set for an outbreak of war hysteria at a Rhode Island ele-
mentary school. It began when a pupil fainted. At the same time, class-
mates smelled a strange odor. A sudden wave of anxiety swept through
the seventh and eighth graders, who assumed they were under an Iraqi gas
attack. Seventeen students and four teachers were stricken with dizziness,
headache, and nausea. The victims were examined at a nearby emergency
room, where they were reassured and quickly recovered.30
Two years earlier, in 1989, Soviet Georgia was in the grip of political
unrest coinciding with the early stages of the breakup of the Soviet Union.
Desperate to maintain control of its crumbling empire, Soviet authorities
ordered the use of poison gas to disperse crowds during a protest rally.
The incident made headlines across the country, shocking Georgian citi-
zens. The episode had a powerful impact on schoolgirls in the region. Amid
rumors that they had been exposed to the potentially deadly gas, 400 ado-
lescent girls at several nearby schools began to exhibit the short-lived
symptoms of gas poisoning: burning eyes, skin irritation, dry throat and
stomach pain.31 The girls were taken to nearby hospitals, where they
quickly recovered.
The West Bank Toilet Scare

The Rhode Island and Georgian terror scares pale in comparison to
what happened in the Middle East during 1983, when a toilet was respon-
sible for triggering an international crisis that nearly led to war. The initial
news reports were both stunning and horrifying, even for a place hardened
by decades of suicide bombings, rocket attacks, political assassinations,
and invasions. Media reports told of a plot by Jewish terrorists to sterilize
up to one thousand Palestinian schoolgirls. The claims made world head-
lines and dominated the media for months. News of the accounts even
prompted a United Nations resolution condemning the acts, triggering
outrage throughout the Islamic world. This time it seemed that the Israelis
had crossed the line between war and barbarity. Had the perpetrators no
sense of decency? It was an outrageous and unthinkable assault on future
generations of innocent schoolgirls. The trouble was that it was not true.
The world media spotlight quickly focused on reports that the girls
had been deliberately poisoned by Israelis. Reports of the poisoning even
appeared in major Israeli newspapers, crystallizing the popular notion that
Jews were behind the sinister attacks. Between March and April 1983, in
the Israeli-occupied West Bank, nearly a thousand schoolgirls, mostly
Arab, fell ill, complaining of headaches, blurred vision, stomach pain,
fainting, blindness, and limb weakness. Investigations by U.S. and World
Health Organization doctors soon concluded that the illness was psycho-
logical.
The scare took place amid poison gas rumors and long-standing
Palestinian mistrust of Jews. The medical complaints appeared over fifteen
days, coinciding with intense publicity that someone was using poison gas
on the Palestinians. The episode was mostly confined to schools in several
adjacent villages in this bitterly disputed region. The case became widely
known as the Arjenyattah Epidemic because panic swept through the
nearby communities of Arrabah, Jenin, and Yattah.32
The social and cultural climate was important in fostering the hys-
teria. The Israeli military has occupied the West Bank since 1967, with its
presence generating intense hatred. While the occupation is widely viewed
as temporary within the Arab world, one observer noted, “Some tend to
believe that the Israelis would do anything to perpetuate the status quo.”33
Targeting would-be Palestinian mothers with poison — either Israeli sol-
diers or civilian extremists, was a natural suspicion within this long-stand-
ing climate of fear and hate. The episode spread in three waves.
THE FIRST WAVE : ARRABAH

A mysterious and sickening smell filled the air near the Arrabah Girls’
School. The date was March 21, 1983. In the middle of class, a seventeen-
year-old pupil felt unwell, complaining of dizziness, difficulty breathing,
headache, and blurred vision. Soon fifteen more pupils fell ill. Some of the
girls said their symptoms coincided with a smell like rotten eggs coming
from a schoolyard bathroom. By the next day, sixty-one students and five
adults were in the hospital for tests and evaluation. Doctors were called
in to investigate the poisonings and noted that the highest attack rates
were in those rooms nearest to the bathroom where the foul smell was
coming from; the lowest rates were in those rooms furthest away.34
On March 22 the Israeli newspaper Yedi’Ot Ahronot reported on the
mass illness at the Arrabah school. In the article, the journalist implied
the likely presence of poison gas, noting that the pupils “were suddenly
afflicted by an attack of blindness, headache and stomach pain.” The
reporter exaggerated the symptoms, as complaints such as “blurred vision”
were changed to “blindness.”35
NERVE GAS ATTACK OR

ATTACK OF NERVES AT JENIN?
A second wave of nearly identical symptoms swept through six
schools near Jenin on March 26, sickening two hundred forty-six girls
and some staff. The next evening, sixty-four residents in Jenin experienced
similar complaints when a cloud of gas was emitted from a passing car.
By March 26, press descriptions were portraying the events as attempted
genocide. Even the Israeli press was jumping on the “Jewish terrorist”
bandwagon. Israel’s Ma’Ariv, for example, said the episode was undoubt-
edly mass poisoning, running this sensational headline: “The Mysterious
Poisoning Goes On: 56 High School Girls in Djenin Poisoned.” The only
uncertainty was the source of the poison. The report read in part: “The
mysterious poisoning of 50 students that took place last week in Arraba
... affected 56 additional students yesterday in Djenin. Currently no definite
evidence exists as to the source of the poison. Yesterday morning, 29
schoolgirls were admitted to the hospital from Djenin High School with
difficulty breathing, cyanosis, and dizziness.” Two days later, a report in

the Israeli paper Ha’Aretz claimed that preliminary tests revealed that
nerve gas had made the Djenin students sick. While the cause of the symp-
toms was not known at the time, both Ha’Aretz and Ma’Ariv said it was a
case of poisoning.36
The Israeli Health Ministry sent psychiatrist Albert Hafez to inves-
tigate the poisoning claims. Visiting Djenin Hospital on March 31, Hafez
noted a melodramatic atmosphere with foreign journalists swarming to
interview both the sick girls and hospital staff. Suddenly, an Arab girl was
rushed in on a stretcher and immediately enveloped in a sea of doctors
and nurses, who pushed her frightened, bewildered mother aside. Almost
instantly, an oxygen mask was forced over her face while someone else
administered an intramuscular injection. The mother later told doctors
that her daughter was playing near their home when she developed a
headache and nausea. Due to the publicity about the so-called mass poi-
soning, the mother grew alarmed and rushed the girl to the hospital. Dr.
Hafez provides a sense of the chaos at the hospital:
While busy examining the girl amid the surrounding crowd, I became aware
of a new turmoil consequent to the arrival of a new group accompanying a
second patient ... an 18 year-old girl who was quite excited and tried to throw
herself off the stretcher while those escorting her tried to restrain her. As
with the previous patient, the oxygen mask and intramuscular injection were
used instantly. The shouting girl, the excited crowd, the first patient, and
her helpless mother together created an atmosphere of utter confusion.37
THE THIRD WAVE : YATTAH

Amid a third cluster of reports on April 3, students and parents began
to panic. The epicenter was a girls’ school at Yattah, in the Tulkarem and
Hebron districts, with symptoms quickly spreading to several nearby
schools. When the schools were closed the next day the “outbreak”
stopped. In an effort to resolve the “poisonings,” Israel’s top epidemiolo-
gist, Baruch Modan, was sent to investigate. Modan and his team soon
traced the outbreak to a smelly latrine near the Arrabah school and con-
cluded that mass hysteria was the culprit. Later that day a second, larger
wave ignited during recess, when friends of the first group affected spread
rumors about their possible poisoning. During the second wave at several
Jenin schools and nearby villages, the media and the rumor mill were
instrumental in spreading the symptoms. As part of this phase, 64 Jenin
residents were reportedly gassed by a speeding car. Investigators were able
to later determine that the “poison” was nothing but thick black smoke
belching from the vehicle’s faulty exhaust system. The final wave of illness
reports was, according to Modan and his team, triggered by the continuous
spreading of poison gas rumors by the media.38
Modan’s report was dismissed as one-sided in the Arab world.39 What
followed was a public relations war between the Israeli government and
the Arab leaders, conducted through the United Nations. On March 30
the Commission on Arab Women, meeting in Tunis, Tunisia, sent an
urgent message to the UN director-general, complaining that Israeli
authorities were responsible for the “poisoning” and asking the UN to
stop the “genocide.”40 Israeli authorities branded the claims as propaganda
fueled by pro–Palestinian forces.41 In an effort to resolve the issue, several
top U.S. doctors were asked to conduct an independent probe. Their con-
clusion: the outbreaks were triggered by the smell of hydrogen sulphide
gas escaping from the Arrabah latrine. Mass psychology and the media
did the rest. In other words, it was mass hysteria. American doctors Philip
Landrigan and Bess Miller concurred with Dr. Modan’s findings, blaming
the media for fueling the crisis. They said that without any clear evidence
to support their claims, the local media published and broadcast reports
that a toxin was the likely cause of the outbreaks. The Americans left no
stone unturned, taking air, water, and soil samples and finding “no evi-
dence” of any toxic agent. They noted the curious pattern in which the
illness struck certain groups: “Support for the diagnosis of psychogenic
illness was provided here by the preponderance of female patients, par-
ticularly of adolescent girls. The relative sparing of infants, adolescent
boys, and older adults argues against the presence of a toxin.”42
Fertility Fears Flourish

Across the Arab world at this time, rumors and media reports circu-
lated that a group of Jews had perpetrated the poisonings to counter the
Palestinian birth rate, and that they “specifically targeted young girls
approaching the age of marriage. Supposedly, the poisoning was done to
harm this most fertile age group in order to limit Arab demographic
growth. They [Arab authorities] even said they had found medical proof,
claiming that urine tests showed a high protein level, which means that
something is abnormal in the fertility system.”43 Such test results later
proved false. The Palestinian schoolgirl poisoning claim of 1983 is just one
in a long list of false reports of Jews poisoning their “enemies.”
In April 1993, another scare involving schoolgirls being poisoned
swept across the Middle East in Egypt and Palestine. The Egyptian gov-
ernment convened an emergency investigation into a wave of nausea and
fainting fits that closed 32 schools. The previous six days had seen the col-
lapse of some 1,300 girls aged from 9 to 16. The panic began in a village
school 75 miles north of Cairo, when a teenage girl, reading aloud in class,
fainted. Witnessing that, some of her classmates also swooned. As news
of the event spread to Cairo, Alexandra and Ismailia, the numbers of col-
lapsing girls increased rapidly. A rumor that a girl had died after fainting
caused 150 girls to faint while waiting at a railway station at Damanhour
on the 6th. Further outbreaks in the three days following the establishment
of the committee brought the numbers up to 1,500. Senior officials and
other pundits exacerbated the situation by blaming, without evidence,
everything from food poisoning to nuclear contamination; even a plot to
render Egyptian girls infertile.44
Chewing gum laced with aphrodisiac was also blamed as rumors
spread through the Egyptian town of Mansura, northeast of Cairo, in July
1996, of orgies among the students at the town’s university. According to
local parliamentarian Fathy Mansour, the gum was peddled to the students
by Israeli agents in “a huge scheme to ravage the young population of
Egypt.” An engineering student told a reporter that at first they thought
it was a joke; then “we began to hear rumors that a girl had sex with seven
boys on campus and another had sex with several men in a car.” Loud-
speakers on the town’s mosques began broadcasting warnings against
chewing gum — a topic that had occupied Friday prayers for several
weeks— but this only seemed to make matters worse. A member of staff
at the Youth and Sports Affairs Department told a reporter that girls had
confessed to her that they had had sex with several students after chewing
the gum. Yet another female student, identified only as Amira, admitted
that she had accepted a ride with two male classmates, and after they gave
her some gum she “found no resistance. You know the rest.” Such was the
uproar in the town that the country’s ministry of health stepped in. They
found nothing suspicious in the brands of gum that were “traced to smug-
glers in Gaza,” said Ismail Sallam, the health minister. At the same time,
an investigation by the provincial vice squad found nothing to substantiate
Mr. Mansour’s claim that fifteen young female students had sexually
assaulted their male classmates after chewing gum. Some students were
very specific about the packaging of this now-banned gum. It came in the
form of brightly colored, candy-coated squares bearing the brand names
Aroma or Splay. But when local authorities closed down kiosks and made
several arrests on suspicion of selling the gum, nothing of that nature was
found. It is clear that rumors came to be accepted as truth because so
many people were repeating them and because the authorities were taking
decisive action. Unfortunately it is not clear from the reports whether the
girls who admitted such loose behavior had any real existence outside the
gossip or whether they fell under its sway and became suggestible after
chewing quite ordinary gum.45
A similar scare occurred in 1997. Raphael Israeli, a professor of
Islamic civilization at Hebrew University, describes the affair:
In 1997 the Palestinians exposed yet another Israeli “plot to suppress Arab
population growth.” They claimed to have tested packets of strawberry-
flavored bubble gum which were found to be spiked with sex hormones and
sold at low prices near schoolhouses in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. It was
claimed that the gum aroused irresistible sexual appetites in women, then
sterilized them. Even Palestinian Supply Minister Abdel Aziz Shaheen
believed the myth, saying it was capable of “completely destroying the genetic
system of young boys,” as well.46
In May 1997, the Palestinian Ministry of Supplies said that samples

of gum tested in Cairo food labs were found to contain the female sex
hormone progesterone. One Palestinian official did not help matters by
declaring that seven types of Israeli gum contained “a sexually-stimulating
substance” that “may generate sterility in men and women.” In June, as
general anxiety continued to spread, the ministry went further, sending
40 samples of soft drinks, biscuits, chocolate, beans and sugar to Cairo to
be tested “for ingredients that may stimulate the sex drives of women and
bring on puberty in teenagers.” Then, most sensationally, the newspaper
al-Haya al-Jadida reported that Palestinian forces had seized 200 tons of
aphrodisiac-laced gum allegedly being sold by Mossad agents “so that
Palestinian women will become prostitutes and be easily recruited as
spies.” Dr. Brian Coussin, director of food control services for the Israeli
Health Ministry, acknowledged that gelatin, used to make gum, can be
found in bones, and that progesterone can be found in the bones of female
animals treated with a fertility hormone. “But,” he added, “I think it’s
rubbish to say Israel is trying to change Palestinian society in this way.”47
During the West Bank crisis of March 1983, people saw what they
wanted to see. Doctors treating the girls tended to interpret medical find-
ings based on their politics. Palestinian doctors at Djenin Hospital assumed
that different poisons were used on the girls. This assumption was made
by doctors who had no immediate access to laboratory facilities and were
basing their diagnoses on hunches. In contrast, some Israeli doctors treat-
ing victims at Tel-Hashomer Hospital were certain the girls were faking
to get Palestinian sympathy. They said the girls were often hostile, aggres-
sive, and uncooperative. Some Israeli press reports even supported this
view. According to Dr. Hafez, “Attracted by such a theory, reporters mobi-
lized their resources and ingenuity to bring in evidence to confirm it. They
filmed patients during doctors’ rounds and alone, demonstrating the

change in behavior from one situation to the other. They even tracked cars
that were suspected of ‘recruiting’ new patients and showed these films
live on television.”48 It is hard to believe that from such humble beginnings
as fumes from a blocked toilet, events could have spiraled so out of control.
Every day toilets become blocked up around the world, but they don’t
usually trigger mass hysteria. The Great Toilet Scare shows that anything
can trigger an outbreak of mass psychology given the appropriate context
and a plausible idea.
Mass Hysteria and the Balkans

In 1990, an outbreak of mass hysteria occurred in Kosovo. To under-
stand the episode, it is important to examine the context in which it
occurred. Ethnic strife in the Balkan Peninsula can be traced to medieval
times, but the modern conflicts— involving (at different times) Croatia,
Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Albania, and
Kosovo— arose from the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire in the early
1920s, and more recently from the fragmentation of Yugoslavia following
the death of its president Marshal Tito in May 1980. Superstition and
credulity were openly exploited by the military and the press on all sides.
In 1999, a British journalist noted the increasing use of astrologers and
their predictions by politicians and an accompanying wave of rumors and
baseless claims. Announcements included Yugoslavian assertions to have
a new energy source that could “bring down planes” and “assassinate at a
distance”; that Serbs had military units using “paranormal forces”; that
canisters of deadly spiders had been dropped by planes over Croatia; that
Croats were freeing tigers and other wild beasts to attack dissidents; that
the Serbs originally came from the planet Sorab in the Pleiades; and that
an “army of vampires” would rise up from cemeteries to overwhelm the
enemies of Serbia.49
Not surprisingly, anxiety levels were high and there were numerous
panics against the backdrop of the general terror of war and ethnic cleans-
ing. In March 1990, children in an Albanian community in Kosovo were
gripped by a fear of being gassed. Four hundred students collapsed gasping
and screaming. After they were ferried to the city’s Pristina Hospital, the
nurses there feared that police were about to attack the hospital and closed
all the windows. Examinations of the children found nothing except that
they were exhibiting signs of extreme anxiety. Most children calmed down
and were released the next day, just as 240 more teenagers were brought
in suffering from a similar panic. The Albanian Kosovars believed that

Serbs had sprayed an unknown chemical into the classrooms, which med-
ical spokesmen in Belgrade denied. Soon after, Serbian troops were drafted
into five Kosovar towns, leading to two days of intense fighting. Believing
they had been poisoned, more than 1,000 Albanians complained of stomach
cramps and nausea. On April 3, Albanians in Podujevo were hospitalized.
The Serbian federal government accused them of “deliberately stirring up
trouble.” This was shortly before full-out war broke out. Dr. Zoran
Radovanovic analyzed the “poisonings” and concluded that there was no
toxic agent involved; instead it was psychological in origin, triggered by
poisoning rumors, ethnic tension and mistrust. An increase in respiratory
infections during this period further heightened anxieties.50
Seven years later, in September and October 1997, about 1,000 ethnic
Albanian students in the Macedonian town of Tetovo fell ill with stomach
cramps and headaches. They accused their neighbors of poisoning them
but an investigation team from the World Health Organization found no
evidence of any infectious or toxic agent. Reporting in New Scientist, team
leader Zsuzsanna Jakab noted that “twice as many girls as boys were
affected.” A bad smell was noticed before the panic spread and she thought
“the incident probably started with a few real cases of flu or food poison-
ing,” but mass suggestion then took over.51
The drama was repeated in the Macedonian city of Kumanovo in
December 2002, when, on the 11th, about 200 ethnic Albanian school-
children thought they were being poisoned. Headaches, cramps and dizzi-
ness were blamed on inhaling “a mysterious gas.” The head of the city’s
medical center epidemiology department, Jordan Dzimrevski, could find
no cause. The Serbia-Kosovo peace plan had been implemented just four
months earlier, but ethnic tensions were still in evidence; Macedonia’s
leading newspaper, Dnevnik, dismissed the scare as “manipulation with
children for political purposes.”52
Like the Balkans, the Chechen and Ossetia regions of the northern
Caucasus have an ancient history of ethnic conflict. In the latest war, Rus-
sian troops ruthlessly suppressed Chechnya dissidents, leading to the infa-
mous 2002 siege by Chechen rebels of a theatre in Moscow. Russian
authorities refused to negotiate and gassed the whole building, killing
most of the terrorists and 129 hostages. Since 2005, across Chechnya there
have been reports of many outbreaks involving mainly female students
and their teachers. It seems to have begun with one girl, 13-year-old Taisa
Minkailova, a pupil in Starogladovsk in the Shelkovsk region. On Decem-
ber 7, 2005, she collapsed in class with the familiar complaints of asphyxia,
numbness in her limbs, headaches and fits. She was taken to a hospital in
Dagestan, but her condition did not respond to treatment. Two days later,
two older pupils from the same school were taken to a hospital in Grozny,
suffering similarly. In the following week 19 more children and three adults
were transferred from Starogladovsk to Shelkovsk; then more pupils from
four other schools in the region. Doctors watched as clusters of girls lapsed
into unconsciousness, exhibiting seizures, amnesia, numbness, chills, dry
mucous membranes, breathing difficulties and eye pain. Experts from
Moscow arrived and concluded that the episode was entirely psychological,
triggered by a decade of often brutal warfare that had led to chronic stress
combined with poverty and despair. The doctors also blamed the media
for spreading “alarmist reports.” Musa Dalsayev, the Chechen Republic’s
chief narcologist, went further and accused the sick children of faking and
their mothers of colluding in the hope of getting compensation, even
though, as journalist Paul Sieveking observes, there had been no such
requests from the families of the victims. It was the view of many parents
and some doctors that there was a cover-up under way. If it was hysteria,
said the deputy chief of therapeutics at Shelkovsk hospital, the girls’ con-
ditions should have responded to the sedatives and anti-convulsives they
were given; but they didn’t. “I am certain that such a number of children
could never enter a state of psycho-motor excitation simply from hyster-
ics,” he said. The hospital’s chief physician, Vaha Dardeyevich Ehselayev,
concurred with Dr. Dalsayev: “We will not change our diagnosis— an
intoxication of unknown etiology.”53
An interesting detail then emerged in September 2005, three months
before Taisa Minkailova fell ill. Nineteen children and one teacher from
Staroshchedrinskaya village were brought in with similar symptoms, said
Jamilya Halilovna Aliyeva, a doctor at Shelkovsk hospital. “We saw the
same strange laughter and hallucinations. It was a frightening sight,” she
added. Dr. Dalsayev confirmed that samples were sent for testing and that
a note from the “legal medical expert’s office” declared the children had
been poisoned with carbon monoxide. This claim appears to be a clear
instance of popular opinion being taken as a scientific fact. “How on Earth
did that happen during a heatwave,” Dr. Dalsayev said, “when the stoves
had not been fired up yet?”54
Many of the affected schools remained shut, and parents refused to
let their healthy children go back until the premises had been “detoxified”
and the “true cause” made public. Still the cases kept coming. Just before
Christmas Day, 81 more cases were admitted. By March 2006, the admis-
sions passed 100. Some of those affected exhibited bouts of uncontrollable
laughter,55 frustrating those doctors who searched in vain for a chemical
or biological cause.
Much Ado About Nothing: Parent Hysteria

Sometimes parents alone trigger scares. In 1988 the Centers for Dis-
ease Control investigated a mysterious illness at an elementary school in
Georgia. The first hint of trouble came during a routine gathering of par-
ents and students in the school cafeteria in early September. A mother
noted that since the autumn term began, her child had been ill and looked
pale. Other mothers then recalled similar signs of illness in their children
too since the start of term: pallor, dark circles under the eyes, headaches,
fatigue, nausea, and occasional vomiting. The parents grew suspicious that
the building was making their kids sick. On October 11 their suspicions
were seemingly confirmed. During routine maintenance, a natural gas
leak was found. The building was evacuated as a precaution, even though
the leak was minor. When other minor gas leaks continued over the next
month, parents pressed their case by picketing the school and appealing
to the local media to highlight their fears. A battery of tests were conducted
at the school in hopes of identifying a foreign substance in the air — all
negative — leading investigators to conclude that the fearful mothers had
seen what they expected to see — a sick school with sick kids. Curiously,
the children in question neither sought attention nor were overly con-
cerned with their symptoms, and kept high attendance levels through the
term.56
In their report, investigators from the CDC and the Georgia Depart-
ment of Public Health noted that one third-grader had been ill with
headaches since the first grade. Another student had complained of nausea
and headaches for two months before the gas leak, and still another had a
history of headaches for about a year before the leak. Investigators said
that exposure to natural gas could not have caused the symptoms, which
were vague and common in childhood. The CDC report concluded:
“Parental anxiety, interpersonal contacts, and extensive media coverage
could have further encouraged this mistake.”57
Vaccine Panics
Vaccination in schools has also been a factor in outbreaks of mass
hysteria. This has been particularly true in the Middle East, where out-
breaks have taken place during school immunization drives in Iran and
Jordan. These are places that have long mistrusted the West. Their mass
media are filled with negative images of Europe and North America —
where the vaccines usually originate.
On October 6, 1992, Iranian schoolgirls in the tiny village of Hanza

were inoculated for tetanus. Four days later a girl fainted in class, com-
plaining of blurry vision, headache, tremor, and burning hands. Over the
next several days, nine of her schoolmates, all of whom had received
tetanus shots, began exhibiting similar seizures. An investigation revealed
that the first victim had a long history of stress-induced seizures with
accompanying symptoms nearly identical to those reported during her
classroom fit. At the time of her attack, she was seeing a neurologist, and
she was later diagnosed with conversion disorder and depression. The
other girls grew anxious after observing her fit, fearful that it was a result
of the inoculation.
The symptoms persisted for five weeks amid rumors that a bad batch
of vaccine was causing “brain disease.” The scare subsided when Dr. M.T.
Yasamy invited students, parents and local officials to a dramatic public
meeting, during which he had himself injected with a dose of vaccine from
the same batch used on the twenty-six girls. He then met with five of the
afflicted pupils individually, reassuring them that their symptoms were
psychological. The girls quickly felt better. Symptoms in the other five
students persisted longer, but soon subsided. Two were treated at home
in nearby villages, and three were hospitalized and discharged after being
reassured that the vaccine was safe.58
Between 1992 and September 1998, there was not a single adverse
reaction to the tetanus-diphtheria vaccine (Td) given to all Jordanian stu-
dents in the first and tenth grades. On the morning of September 29, 1998,
the entire class of tenth grade students at the Eben-Al Abas School, 160 in
all, were injected with Td vaccine. Two pupils “felt faint” and were imme-
diately seen by a doctor.59 Their exams were unremarkable and they were
soon returned to class. That evening, several students experienced dizzi-
ness and headaches, but none were ill enough to see a doctor. The next
day, upon arriving at school at the usual time of 6:45 A.M., a boy who had
reported feeling sick the previous night fell at the school gates, cutting his
lip. School officials sent him to the hospital, fearing that his fall was from
fainting. The incident and the school’s overreaction sent a wave fear
through the school. By 7:30 A.M., twenty students had either fainted or
reported feeling sick, triggering more fear. Ambulances and health author-
ities rushed to the scene, suspecting food or water contamination. After
a quick assessment of the situation, they realized that all of the stricken
students had been vaccinated the previous day. Fifty-five students from
the school, all age fifteen, were examined at the hospital.
TV and newspaper reporters descended on the school like a cloud of
locusts on a grain field, focusing on the vaccine. At noon the health min-
istry halted vaccinations nationwide. At 6:00 the health minister addressed

the country, stating that “any student with side-effects from the Td vaccine
should be admitted to hospital for observation.” He also called for an
investigation. Over the next several days, no fewer than 800 students had
side effects; 122 were hospitalized for closer examination. Investigators
soon determined that the vaccine was entirely safe. The vaccine scare coin-
cided with rumors that it was harmful. In making their diagnosis of mass
hysteria in the vast majority of students and ruling out any reaction to the
vaccine, investigators noted that the same batch of Td had been dispensed
in two other countries without incident.60
While there are only a few reports of vaccine-related cases of mass
hysteria, this could be expected, as “the majority of vaccines are admin-
istered to infants and young children, who are not likely to react in this
way given their inability to perceive vaccines as a threat and to interact as
a group.”61 What do these vaccination scares have in common? A small
number of children exhibit symptoms either during or shortly after inoc-
ulation. The appearance of symptoms triggers anxiety among other vac-
cinated children, their parents, and school officials. Episodes are typically
made worse by sketchy, inaccurate media reports suggesting an association
between the symptoms and tainted vaccine.
Smurfs and the Power of Belief

A key element in fostering mass hysteria and social delusions is plau-
sibility. Rumors of schoolgirl poisonings in the Middle East were believable
because of the long history of animosity and conflict between Israelis and
Palestinians. If any belief is plausible, those involved can be susceptible
to its consequences. This is especially true of schoolchildren, given their
inexperienced and often naïve worldview. A fascinating illustration of this
point took place in January 1983, when the Great Smurf Scare swept pri-
mary and junior high schools across the city of Houston, Texas. Many
students refused to attend classes after hearing rumors that a group of
blue Smurfs from the popular TV cartoon were carrying guns and knives
into local schools and killing principals. The scare apparently began when
a Houston TV station carried a news report detailing the arrest of forty
youth gang members known as the Smurfs for a relatively minor crime
spree including petty theft and small-time burglaries. From there, reality
got garbled as the news passed through the student grapevine. Some
accounts held that the Smurfs were wearing blue jackets; others said they
had smeared on blue body paint. By some accounts, they were carrying
knives; others insisted that they were toting machine guns. The stories
were fluid and they raced through the schools like wildfire, sometimes
changing from hour to hour. According to one version, the Smurfs would
not harm any student who was wearing sky-blue clothing; another account
held that anyone wearing sky-blue attire would be a target. In the Aldine
School District, which was the epicenter of the scare, some students were
in danger of wetting themselves after refusing to visit the toilets amid
rumors that Smurfs were hiding there.62
The panic abated after several days, helped by the appearance of
school principal Franklin Turner of the Johnston Middle School, who was
rumored to have been killed by the Smurfs. “Kids wanted desperately to
believe — they wanted some excitement,” Turner said.63 Houston journalist
John Nova Lomax observed how as the story grew, it “picked up variations
and embellishments as it passed over the grapevine at debate contests,
sports events and skating rinks— wherever teens and pre-teens gathered.”64
It would seem that rumors at the school slowly evolved into an urban leg-
end — a piece of living folklore. Two years later after further investigations
into the existence of possible organized youth gangs in the city, Houston
police said that there was no evidence of such gangs. Lt. Bill Sanders said
that some kids formed groups that they referred to as gangs, but they basi-
cally just hung out together.65
Another illustration of the power of belief and fear can be found in
numerous outbreaks of mass hysteria blamed on school hypnosis demon-
strations. One such episode occurred at an auditorium in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, during October 1944. A group of students at Springfield
High School were watching a hypnosis show by E.K. Ernst. When he asked
35 students to stare at a spot on the ceiling above the stage and waved his
hands, 31 of the students collapsed — many laughing or weeping. All but
one of the students was female. It took two hours before the hypnotist,
working with the school physician and nurse, were able to calm the affected
students. Dr. James Ellzey examined many of those affected and later
asserted that the students had not been suffering the effects of hypnosis
but mass suggestion and their symptoms were a form of mass hysteria.
Ipswich High School in Massachusetts was the scene of a remarkably sim-
ilar incident on Friday, January 16, 1953, when hypnotist James McEvoy
gave a talk on Mesmerism. He hypnotized some of the four hundred stu-
dents who were packed into the auditorium. Just as he was finishing his
presentation, at least two dozen pupils, fearing they were under McEvoy’s
control, began to complain “of drowsiness and emotional upset.” School
doctor Frank Collins said that medical exams of those taken ill were nor-
mal.66
The consequences were more dramatic at a school in Maimi, Florida,

when a hypnosis demonstration was blamed for triggering a small riot on
October 25, 1979. Here is how Associated Press journalist Stephen Smith
began his story: “Police say it was hysteria brought on by a hypnosis
demonstration. Some students say it was demons. A school official calls it
a political dirty trick.... police say something sent students and teachers
rampaging through a military school ... smashing windows, ripping a door
from its frame and screaming they were possessed by spirits.” The mayhem
began soon after several students passed out during a tenth grade science
project. There had been recent discussions on the supernatural at the
school. The president of the Miami Aerospace Academy, Evaristo Marina,
blamed the chaos on the journalists who rushed to the school after initial
reports of a mass fainting. “When you are a child and the fire, police,
health and media people all come at once you can go crazy. It’s like yelling
fire in a crowded theatre,” he said. Many of the students were from South
America. Fire official Dan LaMay attributed the mass collapse not to hyp-
nosis, but hysteria, while he said that students had “flaked out all over the
place.” He said: “I saw three girls. They had fainted.... There was some
screaming about ‘bloody Mary’ and more screaming.” LaMay believes that
it was a case of mass suggestion and that pupils were induced to join in
the chaotic events “by the sight of others who became hysterical.”67
In early September 2011, about 40 students were watching a hypnosis
demonstration at a high school “fun day” in Mocoa City, Colombia, when
they reportedly failed to emerge from a group trance induced by a magician
named Miller Zambrano Posada. School principal Daniel Mora said, “30
or 40 minutes after the end of the show, which also included clowns and
jugglers, the students were back in their classrooms, when suddenly they
all started yelling at the same time.” Alarmed by the outburst, public health
officials dispatched no less than ten psychiatrists and psychologists to the
scene and soon concluded that they were not in a trance but were experi-
encing a type of mass hysteria. About 590 students each paid 700 pesos
to attend the popular show. A journalist described what happened next:
Twelve kids were called to the stage, and then four were returned to their
seats; the remaining eight were put into trance by Zambrano with hand
movements, deep eye contact and a monotone voice.
Zambrano made them lift their arms, walk in circles, cry like babies, laugh
hysterically, bark like dogs, act like chickens and whatnot. Students laughed
and clapped at the end of the show and when Zambrano left the stage, the
students were ushered back to their classrooms.
Suddenly, as the students walked back, several students developed bizarre
symptoms. Police at the scene reported some of the students were crying,
others dived into the ground for no reason, others hit their chest with their
palms. One girl went as far as to scream that she was seeing the devil, and
before too long a larger group of kids went into a mass panic attack.68
At least 36 of those affected were girls. Only one of those affected had
been called onto stage by the hypnotist; the others remained in the audi-
ence. The students were taken to a nearby hospital where they were exam-
ined and soon released. An eyewitness said: “I don’t know, they were
touching their chests and they started to roll around shouting strange
things. They all began fainting, crying and one girl was screaming things,
nasty things. She said that she saw the devil.” Mr. Posada was taken into
police custody after the event for his own protection, as parents, teachers
and students were accusing him of witchcraft. He told police that he had
been doing the identical act for many years but had never experienced
such a reaction before.69
In June 2012, a private girls’ school in Quebec, Canada, was the scene
of yet another hypnosis demonstration that reportedly went wrong, sup-
posedly leaving the students in a trance for several hours. The show took
place before a group of 12- and 13-year-old students and was billed as an
end-of-year fun activity. The 20-year-old hypnotist (Maxime Nadeau)
was performing at the Collège du Sacré-Coeur in Sherbooke. After the
show was over, several in the audience reportedly did not snap out of the
trance when the hypnotist instructed them to. One student said she felt
like she was having an “out-of-body experience.” Emilie Bertrand said
she felt “spaced out”: “I don’t know how to explain it. It’s like you’re no
longer there.” Several other students experienced similar feelings through-
out the afternoon. A second hypnotist, Richard Whitbread, was sum-
moned and reportedly snapped the students from their dazed state. “There
were a couple of students who had their heads laying on the table and
there were [others] who, you could tell, were in trance. The eyes were
open and there was nobody home,” he said. That suggestion was the culprit
became evident when Whitbread reportedly “went through the process of
making the girls think they were being re-hypnotized and then brought
them out using a stern voice.” Whitbread tried to explain the anomaly by
observing that as the hypnotist was a handsome young man, it may have
influenced impressionable girls to follow his instructions.70 In each of
these cases, the victims did not appear to be in hypnotic trances, but were
reacting as if they were in such states, highlighting the power of belief.
We live in an age of media-driven crises and scares, where even gen-
uine threats are often overblown. Schoolchildren are especially susceptible
given their scant life experience and tendency to believe much of what
they hear. The most prominent threats of the early twenty-first century
are terror attacks and pollution. In the wake of such dangers, imaginations
can run wild. Our worst fears can become reality in our minds, setting off
a self-fulfilling prophesy in what are essentially school-wide panic attacks.
Shakespeare said it best: “Or in the night, imagining some fear, How easy
is a bush suppos’d a bear!”
CHAPTER 4
The Demon-Haunted
Classroom
Tales from Asia
Interpretive anthropology directly addresses the world in which

we humans are. Conventional science, in its search for under-
lying causes, explains away ... [the belief in ghosts and demons]
and in doing so alienates us from it and destroys its magic. When
we are possessed, we do not exist within the category of psycho-
logical defense mechanisms. Instead, we are in the company of
the gods, who are all the more real for being human creations.
— Miles Richardson1
A young girl collapses on a classroom floor and enters a trance-like

state. When her principal arrives she unleashes a torrent of obscenities
towards him and complains that the school is too strict. Her voice turns
deep and gruff, as if a strange force is controlling her. Students and teachers
struggle to hold her down and restore calm. Soon another girl collapses
and the scenario is repeated. As more girls collapse, the school is closed.
Scenes like this have been common in Malaysia since the late 1950s.2 Even
more fascinating is the link between outbreaks and shopping.
In Malaysia, shopping is an art form. In most Malaysian markets the
price is open to negotiation, and a sale tag is just a starting point. Bar-
gaining is part of everyday life, and Malaysians love to haggle over the
price of everything from fish to taxi fares— even traffic tickets.3 It is not
surprising, then, that bargaining finds its way into the classroom, through
outbreaks of demonic possession during which the students negotiate for
better conditions.
Malay parents are known for pampering their daughters. But when
some girls reach age twelve or so, life takes a radical twist. After spending
a sheltered existence at home during their early years, they are suddenly
71
pushed from the nest and sent to elite boarding schools hundreds of miles
away, where they will gain an edge in the competition to get into a uni-
versity. At these schools, students have little say and keep their frustration
to themselves, as they are taught from an early age to obey authority.4 At
these schools contact with boys is forbidden, and there is an extreme
emphasis on Islam and schoolwork. There is little time for games or enter-
tainment. Under these circumstances in the stricter schools, strange behav-
iors may emerge. A similar pattern occurs to the north in Thailand. What
is so extraordinary is that these shy, seemingly naive and politically pow-
erless schoolgirls usually get their way, with outbreaks of mass hysteria
drawing attention to what they see as unjust rules and poor living condi-
tions. Episodes give a voice to the voiceless as community leaders and gov-
ernment officers soon press school officials to ease rules.
Negotiating with Spirits

Outbreaks of strange behaviors in Malay schoolgirls have been com-
mon since the 1960s, coinciding with the Islamic revival and the growth
of strict religious schools. Muslim by birth, Malays comprise just over half
the population. The victims are almost always Malay girls who have been
sent to Muslim boarding schools. They are reluctant to attend such
schools, where overcrowding is rife and privacy nonexistent. Even basic
decisions such as which school to attend, careers to pursue, and friendships
to develop are made by parents and administrators. A typical day reads
like a page from George Orwell’s novel 1984, where every aspect of living
is rigidly controlled and people are treated like numbers. One cannot
blame these girls for feeling paranoid, as they must account for their where-
abouts at all times. School officials even monitor visits by friends and rel-
atives in special rooms that resemble fishbowls.5
Frustration and anger build over weeks or months. Eventually a single
student becomes “possessed” and is a seed or catalyst for the unfolding
drama. The school is abuzz with talk of demons roaming the hallways.
Anxiety rises further and more girls enter trances. Classmates react by
screaming, crying, and eventually fainting as they get dizzy from over-
breathing. What follows is a ritual of rebellion that is part hysteria, part
melodrama — a subconscious bargaining between the possessing demons
and school officials. Malaysian psychiatrist Jin-Inn Teoh has observed sev-
eral outbreaks: “Some would fall on the floor in a trancelike state, as
though in a stupor. Occasionally one or two of the subjects would speak
up on behalf of the group, voicing their misdemeanors and frustrations.
4. The Demon-Haunted Classroom 73
Very often they became abusive. They characteristically took hints and
cues from one another.”6 When the fits are over, most say they have no
memory of the episode.
Spirit possession and trances are age-old occurrences. Culture and
beliefs color their form. When Christians enter a trance, they invariably
meet Jesus, the Virgin, angels, or Satan. Muslims talk to the Prophet
Mohammed or Islamic angels. Hindus meet one or more of an array of
Hindi gods. While trance and possession states may reflect mental disor-
der, more often they affect healthy people who are under severe long-term
stress. The mind deals with the strain by acting like a circuit-breaker,
switching into subconscious mode. During the trance, a student’s voice
and posture may change to indicate that another personality, in this case
a spirit, is in control. In truth, her subconscious is in charge. Displays of
exceptional strength are also common during trances, regardless of the
student’s religion, beliefs, or gender. One such outbreak of demon pos-
session and emotional upset occurred in Malaysia during the 1970s.
The Evil Spirit Hostel

Forty miles north of the bustling metropolis of Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia’s capital, lies the sleepy town of Helang, population 1,400 in 1971,
the year of our story. On Sunday, February 21, Sarah, a popular Malay
girl, was going about her daily routine in a hostel at the Murai Secondary
School, three miles east of town.7 At age fifteen, by all accounts, Sarah
was happy. She was popular, attractive and described as having film star
charm. But on this day Sarah was in distress. She was having trouble
breathing. Her muscles began to twitch. She began to moan and groan,
crying out that a voice of someone or something was beckoning to her
from the bathroom. The incident made a lasting impression on her friends.
Instead of calling a doctor, authorities summoned a bomoh, or Malay
witchdoctor, who offered prayers to ward off the evil spirits that were
thought to be attacking her. She was soon feeling better.
On March 3, Sarah was again struggling for breath. Later that day,
her father came and took her home to rest. On March 15, two of Sarah’s
hostel mates, Jill and Eva, were stricken with similar breathing troubles.
Eva’s voice and persona began to change. In a scene reminiscent of The
Exorcist, she began to scream and shout, complaining that the hostel
grounds had been tainted by insensitive mortals. Eva revealed that there
was “bad blood” between some of the girls. When the bomoh arrived, Eva
verbally attacked her hostel mates, charging that they were tossing their
dirty sanitary napkins over a fence, polluting the territory of the jinn
spirits whom she said lived there. Most Malays believe in the jinn. The
Koran, the Muslim holy book, discusses these supernatural beings. Eva
also said that her hostel mates were unhappy with the headmaster, insisting
that something be done to rectify the situation. The bomoh nodded in
agreement. Before long, Eva and the other girls were free of any demonic
attacks. But their relief was short-lived. Following the girl’s return from
April vacation, another flare-up hit the school. This time the hysteria spi-
raled out of control.8
The hostel was a hotbed of stress. It was clearly inadequate for the
needs of the fifty Malay girls living there. There was no electricity, so they
were forced to huddle around one of two gas lamps at night just to study.
The girls dreaded the night, when the hostel became dark and eerie. They
felt nervous just going to the bathroom, as the toilets were in a poorly lit
and foreboding area. Another issue was even more troubling than the
physical discomforts: the school’s headmaster, who enjoyed prying into
the affairs of the hostel.
Soon after the school opened in June 1970, a female instructor super-
vising the girls had quit over the headmaster’s meddling in hostel affairs.
The headmaster saw himself as a father figure to the girls and was con-
stantly watching over them. He loved to offer unsolicited advice, dispens-
ing what he thought were pearls of wisdom. The girls considered him to
be mean, aloof, and out of touch with reality, and they took little notice
of his advice. He thought nothing of embarrassing the girls by discussing
feminine hygiene and ordering them to toss their sanitary napkins over a
nearby fence into an old mine shaft. He justified these instructions by
telling them that he worried that the napkins would block the sewer and
create a stench. The headmaster’s actions clearly crossed the line of Malay
decency. An investigating team of psychiatrists would later describe him
as “a short, nervous, obsessional” man who was thoroughly incompetent
and could not even get along with his assistant.9
The headmaster began to conduct surprise inspections of the hostel,
even at night. The girls were angry but were powerless to stop it. Malay
custom dictates that elders must be obeyed — especially by girls. In Malay
society, girls are to be seen and not heard. The headmaster’s intrusions
created tension among the girls and their parents. His actions were taboo
in rural Malaysia. Fearing being caught in an indecent state, the girls were
under constant stress and began to dress and undress in the dark, dank,
foul-smelling bathroom. Though the headmaster had a key, the girls began
to lock their doors, hoping that the sound of a key turning in the lock
might give them a few seconds’ warning. The headmaster also violated
other Malay customs. He instructed them on such deeply personal matters

as how to properly wear a feminine napkin — a topic reserved exclusively
for Malay women to teach their daughters in privacy. As a result of these
actions, the headmaster was loathed and feared. To appear all-knowing,
he claimed to have knowledge of “secrets” passing among the girls, imply-
ing that his spies were everywhere and that it was impossible to keep secrets
from him.10
The headmaster was also arrogant and stubborn. In January 1971,
floods swept through the region, and a river behind the school began to
overflow its banks, causing concern for the welfare of the hostel girls.
Though unlikely, there was a possibility that the rising waters would reach
the hostel and put the girls in danger. The district officer ordered the
school’s evacuation. The headmaster stunned and infuriated the town
when he canceled the orders. The outraged district officer pulled rank and
the evacuation went ahead. After the waters receded, the Education Min-
istry ordered all headmasters to distribute relief funds to students in the
schools affected by the flooding. To the further outrage of students and
parents, the headmaster asserted his misguided sense of power and control
by withholding the money, vowing to distribute it only when he decided
the time was right. It was within this climate of social and political turmoil
that Sarah and her classmates began to exhibit their strange malady.11
On Thursday, April 22, five girls were stricken with mysterious fits.
Among them were Eva and Sarah. Eva fell into a trace, her voice taking
on the tone of a tribal chief. In this state, she “ratted” on the other girls,
blurting out over and over that her hostel mates were not getting along
and were jealous of one another. She then revealed their closely guarded
secrets— that some of the girls were writing to boys, a serious infraction
at Islamic boarding schools, and that there had been many thefts. Eva then
began naming names. The headmaster took down each name with glee,
calling the girls to his office, one by one, to face the consequences. He told
them to confess their misdeeds, publicly apologize, and return the stolen
items. Eva was now the most despised girl in the hostel. The next day,
Eva’s popularity plummeted to a new low. Several hostel girls were singing
together, trying to forget their problem, when Eva had another attack.
This time she accused the girls of opposing the headmaster. He again sum-
moned the girls to his office, forcing them to apologize. The next day sev-
eral of the same girls were fuming with betrayal and went into fits of
hysterics. Among them was Eva, who entered a trance and claimed that
some of the girls were still holding stolen items that must be returned.
That evening, a big pile of stolen goods was deposited on a table. Eva told
the headmaster to burn any unclaimed goods. He did. The next morning
the same five girls were again stricken with fits, during which Eva com-
plained that some girls still had stolen goods. A new pile appeared and was
later burned on Eva’s orders. Eva was growing bolder and more powerful
by the day. Soon the headmaster himself would feel her wrath.12
Two days later the school held a track meet, during which Binama,
a seventeen-year-old mother figure at the hostel, went into hysterics. This
was her first attack. Binama and many other girls thought that a spell
aimed at the five girls had been deflected by accident onto her. While she
quickly recovered, the situation at the school grew increasingly dire by
the day as the outbreaks continued. Education authorities knew they had
to act.
DELIVER US FROM EVA :

THE HOSTEL EXPLODES
On Wednesday, April 28, the state’s chief education officer came to
the school to see what was going on firsthand. It was to be a remarkable
day that none present would soon forget. Upon his arrival, as if on cue,
five different girls went into hysterics— screaming, crying, and hyperven-
tilating. It was a wild scene. Among them was Eva, who spoke for the
group as she had during past fits, in a foreign voice and persona, as if a
spirit was controlling her. The headmaster was quickly losing control. To
make matters worse for him, there was a huge turnout for the visit, includ-
ing journalists, townsfolk, and students. The scene was tense and electric.
Eva had worked herself into an emotional frenzy, lying in bed; tears were
streaming down her face. Her speech grew fluent and dramatic, and she
spoke with wisdom and insight beyond her years. Observers noted that
her words and demeanor were both mesmerizing and poetic. Eva told the
witchdoctor that she would accept nothing less than “a human blood sac-
rifice” to appease the angry spirits. The crowd gave off a collective gasp.
The jittery headmaster grew humble before Eva and the huge audience in
this community drama. He began pleading, eventually managing to bar-
gain her down. Eva soon agreed that a goat would be an acceptable sub-
stitute, but the theatrics were not over. She scolded the headmaster,
ordering him about in front of the crowd for all to see, as an angry mother
might do to a naughty child. The witchdoctor was unhappy with the bar-
gain; he fell to his knees and begged Eva to change her mind about killing
the goat. After an emotional half hour of pleading and negotiation, Eva
relented, agreeing that a “white cockerel was to be sacrificed in a selected
place” and that a bomoh from her village would perform the ritual in order
to pacify the spirits that were harassing her fellow hostelites.13
A major announcement was made that Friday, the Islamic Sabbath,

a holy day of reflection and prayer. An exorcism would be held at the
school to appease the spirits and get them to leave the girls alone. The day
of the ceremony, hundreds of students and townsfolk swamped the campus
to witness the supernatural battle. The stakes were high. If school officials
failed to rid the campus of the angry jinn, the school might be shut down.
The townspeople could not afford to lose this battle with the spirits. As
Eva had commanded, the hometown witchdoctor was brought in to con-
duct the casting-out ritual. But this was not just any witchdoctor. It was
a pawang, a witchdoctor of extraordinary abilities. In this case it was an
elderly father-figure who met the crowd. The smell of burning incense
wafted through the humid tropical air. This was meant to get the attention
of the jinn, so the pawang could communicate with them. He took a knife
and slit the throat of the cockerel. With the blood continuing to flow, he
recited passages from the Koran.14
With great respect and dignity, he asked the jinn to forgive the girls
for dirtying their territory with their sanitary napkins, giving his personal
assurance that it would never happen again. He walked through the school
and hostel, visiting every room while tossing about uncooked white rice
in hopes of pleasing the jinn. He made a proclamation: For the next three
days anyone who had wronged the jinn must undergo a pantang, a 72-
hour abstinence, in order to make amends with the spirits. During this
period, they were not to utter a word, had to live in peace and harmony
with nature, and were forbidden to harm flowers, leaves, insects, or ani-
mals. Lastly, everyone on campus was to stay indoors for the three days
and could not leave.15
There was some historical background that may have set the scene
for the outbreak. Almost everyone in town believed that the school, built
on the site of an old tin mine, had been home to a family of royal jinn.
When the mine opened, many strange things were reported there, such as
machines mysteriously stopping. Eventually the area was cleared to build
the school, angering townsfolk, as a pawang had not been called first to
pacify the jinn living there. It was also believed that the jinn were living
near the mine where the girls were throwing their napkins. The pawang
said that the real culprit for the outbreak was not the girls, but the head-
master who ordered them to dispose of their napkins in the mine, upset-
ting the jinn. The witchdoctor said that the jinns had contacted him
through a series of dreams, expressing displeasure with the situation and
asking the girls to follow several rules: keep their hostel and the surround-
ing area clean; don’t be jealous of other girls; stop saying bad things about
others; don’t steal; live in accordance with the Koran; and remain virtuous.
The witchdoctor said that since the girls were not living in accord with
these rules, the jinn had decided to possess them.16
The hysteria outbreak at Helang was a veiled attempt at leveling the
playing field against the powerful headmaster. The outbreak forced edu-
cation officials to take notice, pressuring the headmaster to be more
accountable. The public exorcism appeased the girls and their parents in
what was essentially an exercise in collective bargaining. The headmaster
was told of his failings and to change his controlling ways or lose his job.
A woman was appointed to care for the hostel and watch over the girls.
The headmaster said he would do his best to stay out of hostel affairs. The
girls grew closer, putting aside their differences. Meanwhile, the headmas-
ter underwent psychotherapy to help him better understand how he had
angered the community. In the end, the girls got what they wanted.
The Malay Underworld

Such dramas may seem bizarre or pathological to outsiders, but
interpretations of these events by all of the parties are consistent with
popular Malay culture.17 In addition to belief in the jinn, many Malays
have an unshakable faith in the reality of other supernatural beings,
such as diminutive fairy-like toyl creatures and hantus— the ghosts of
Malay folklore. There is a widespread belief in supernatural forces such
as magic potions, spells, charms, amulets, and curses, which can be
obtained from witchdoctors, who remain popular. One can easily find
witchdoctors in the Malaysian telephone directory and, more recently, on
the Internet.
The outbreaks of mass hysteria among these Muslim schoolgirls are
similar to hysterical fits and accompanying trances among nuns secluded
in European Christian convents between the fifteenth and nineteenth cen-
turies.18 Melodrama and role playing were a big part of these episodes. In
both cultures young girls were often sent away against their will. In the
European case they were forced by elders to join religious orders in
cramped, female-only living quarters. Male companionship was forbidden.
Hysteria appeared under the strictest administrations. Instead of witch-
doctors, priests were summoned to exorcise the demons, and unpopular
girls were often accused of casting spells. In both instances, those trapped
in the situation released their frustrations by uttering disrespectful and
blasphemous remarks and engaging in strange antics. Their status as pos-
sessed gave them impunity, getting them off the hook for punishment, as
the demons were blamed.
Where the Malay schoolgirls might call for the dismissal or transfer
of their restrictive headmasters, the nuns accused despised colleagues or
convent priests of causing their possession through witchcraft. In short,
it was payback time. Malaysian episodes usually subside when school
figures relax rules or the offending official is fired or transferred, while in
convents symptoms disappeared soon after the accused was removed, ban-
ished, imprisoned, or, more commonly, burned at the stake. While
Malaysian episodes typically persist for months, convent outbreaks often
endured for years, since lengthy church inquisitions were required and
exorcisms were performed in order to remove the offending administrator
and mete out punishment.
One extraordinary mass hysteria saga involving thirty-six Muslim
girls at a Malay hostel in Alor Star, in the remote northern state of Kedah,
endured for five years. The behavior involved shouting, running and men-
tal confusion, crying, bizarre movements, trances and spirit possession.
The girls, ages thirteen to seventeen, complained of too much religion and
study, and too little recreation. School officials brought in witchdoctor
after witchdoctor, to no avail, as underlying dissatisfaction continued to
brew. The struggle between the students and administration waxed and
waned for years, climaxing in 1987, when several desperate girls took
hostages with knives and demanded changes. Their “hysterical” status
deflected blame, and no criminal charges were laid. The fits ceased soon
after former Malaysian prime minister Tunku Abdul Rahman went to the
school and saw to it that the hapless girls were transferred to a more cheer-
ful, liberal school.19
The Helang college affair is far from isolated. Scores of similar inci-
dents have been reported across Malaysia. However, outbreaks are rarely
recorded in such detail. Two other episodes have been investigated, the
first on the southern tip of the country in Johor Baru, the other to the
north along the eastern seaboard.
“Ghost Nests” at an Islamic School

Malaysian psychiatrist Eng-Seng Tan had seen a lot of strange scenes
in his practice. But the events that unfold on September 25, 1962, would
remain permanently etched in his memory. Tan was going about his daily
routine seeing patients at the Tampoi Mental Hospital in the southern
city of Johor Baru when the phone rang at noon. There was a ghost scare
at a nearby Islamic school for young Malay boys and girls. The situation
was described as tense and deteriorating rapidly. Upon arriving, Dr. Tan
was told that a schoolyard rambutan tree was the center of the outbreak;
nearly a dozen girls had fainted after seeing a ghost nearby. Rambutans
are popular, sweet fruits whose skin resembles a spiky red ping-pong ball.
The girls were carried inside where several recovered, but at least eight
were still slumped like rag dolls, lying on the laps of classmates who were
vigorously fanning them in the tropical heat and humidity. They were
conscious and soon moved to benches for examination. Except for a rapid
pulse, neither Tan nor his colleagues could find anything physically
wrong.20
Other psychiatrists went to the school and tried talking to the girls
to find out what had frightened them so, but the girls were rambling and
incoherent. While doctors were trying to assess the situation and decide
on a plan of action, there were occasional flare-ups. One girl started
screaming and crying, beating her breasts and tearing at her hair. Soon
after the first girl went berserk, one or more of the other seven joined in.
Scores of other students were crying, upset by what they were seeing and
caught up in the emotion of the moment. Tan describes the scene as some-
thing out of a theatrical drama: “The atmosphere of the schoolhouse was
tense and electric. There were pupils of the school, some nursing their
fainting schoolmates, others milling around quite bewildered. There were
the school officials rushing about excitedly trying to pacify the screaming
girls, and there was before long a big number of curious spectators crowd-
ing in to see what was going on.”21
With the situation threatening to get out of control, the psychiatrists
ordered the crowd to disperse, and they cleared several classrooms of stu-
dents. They put each of the eight sobbing girls in a separate room along
with one or two schoolmates to comfort them. Over the next twenty min-
utes, the tension faded. Soon the girls were sitting up, feeling well enough
to be taken to the Johor Baru General Hospital, though when their parents
arrived, they were taken home. After talking with teachers and students,
it was learned that the episode began during recess when one girl, Sariaton,
said she saw a ghost near the rambutan tree. She said that when the ghost
threatened to harm her, she screamed and fell unconscious. Soon other
girls said that they too saw the ghosts, though their descriptions varied;
no two were the same.
Later that day saw the dramatic entrance of a middle-aged bomoh
clad in yellow. Most Malays live in two seemingly incompatible worlds—
the scientific and the supernatural.22 When the hysteria broke out, school
officials hedged their bets and made two phone calls. One was to the nearby
psychiatric hospital, the other to the bomoh. The old man grabbed a heavy
iron nail with his right hand, a hunk of clay in his left, and began stabbing
the clay with the nail. He then walked around to each of the afflicted girls,
holding their palms and lightly stabbing them with his nail. This was
intended to exorcise the ghosts from their bodies. Later he escorted the
psychiatrists to the rambutan tree where the ghosts were first sighted. The
witchdoctor told Tan that “it was the nest of a mother — and 44 children-
ghosts. He said that the girls had trodden on the toes of some of the chil-
dren ghosts, so that the mother ghost retaliated by haunting the girls. He
then stabbed the tree with his big iron nail, by which means he said he
had killed a few of the children ghosts and assured us that the incident
would not be repeated.”23
The bomoh’s antics did not “cure” the girls. The outbreak endured for
several more days, always starting with the same pupil, Sariaton, who
began to scream and then faint. Many of her classmates would follow suit.
In all, twenty-nine girls were stricken during the week-long drama. In
addition to fainting and screaming, the affected girls reported vague feel-
ings of discomfort in their heads, heart palpitations, weakness, difficulty
sleeping, and hallucinations such as seeing a ghost beckoning to them.
The psychiatrists were ineffective, since only one of the girls ordered to
seek psychiatric treatment ever showed up. The one who did was given a
sedative and recovered. Many of the girls sought further help from the
bomoh, though their problems continued.
The attacks stopped after the school was shut down for several weeks
and Sariaton was told not to return. But was Sariaton the sole culprit in
triggering the outbreak? What had caused her to become so distraught?
Dr. Tan said that just before the events began, “there was an emotional
storm brewing in the school”— a storm stoked by claims of behind-the-
scenes shenanigans. There were allegations that a school official was show-
ing favoritism, specifically, “of promoting some pupils who had failed their
examination, and, in a few cases, who had not even sat for their exami-
nation.”24 After the hysteria died down, the official was fired. Consciously
or subconsciously, these seemingly powerless girls had succeeded in getting
their way.
Trouble at Timor College

On Malaysia’s rural east coast, teeming with lush, green jungle and
pristine beaches, lies the small, picturesque fishing town of Timor. It was
in this seemingly tranquil setting that, in early 1978, the curtain rose on
a peculiar drama. Timor was a conservative community, and at the time
there was great concern over the moral impact of tiny Timor College with
its 377 students, half of whom were girls.25 An ugly rift broke out between
the townsfolk and the college. The campus became a hotbed of tension
that would soon incubate an outbreak of strange behaviors. Many locals
were fearful that the school’s presence would usher in a catastrophic
decline in morality and lead Timor’s youth astray. To make matters worse,
the school was a magnet for students from liberal, urban areas across the
country. Many students avoided certain parts of town, complaining that
local youths were harassing them. At the time the strange behaviors broke
out, the greatest stress on the girls came from themselves.
Just before the outbreak, the seniors were putting the freshmen
through initiation rituals, trying to scare them with ghost stories and
rumors. The freshmen were soon terrified. One story had it that the school
had once been used as an execution site by Japanese soldiers during World
War II. As a result, it was said to be haunted. Another tale held that a stu-
dent had drowned while swimming at a nearby beach the year before, and
their restless spirit was wandering the campus at night. If this were not
enough to rile the girls, the seniors told stories of spirits inhabiting a
stretch of nearby beach and a clump of campus trees. The scene was set
for a wave of hysteria to sweep through the freshmen.
The trouble began early one Friday morning at about 3:00 A.M., when
a first-year student, Rita, awoke from a nightmare. She was so scared that
she climbed into bed with her roommate, where she eventually fell back
to sleep, only to reawaken in terror a short time later. Suddenly, Rita
screamed and fainted. Five hours later she regained consciousness and
decided to rest while her roommates went to classes. As they left, she again
grew frightened and fainted again. She was found and rushed to the hos-
pital, where doctors could find nothing wrong. Meanwhile, that night, a
senior girl, Wati, “freaked out.” Peering into a bathroom mirror, she saw
her face appearing distorted and ugly. Then an overwhelming feeling swept
over her. She was sure that a presence was watching her. She dashed from
the dorm to a nearby guardhouse. Tears were streaming down her face.
She was adamant that she would not return to her room that night. Wati
had worked herself into a state of great distress before looking into the
mirror that Friday night. On top of worrying about ghosts, she was in
constant, throbbing pain from a toothache, and she had been staying up
late studying for a test the next day. Wati had had similar episodes in the
past.26
That night more strange things happened to other freshman girls.
Roni was strolling with her boyfriend, Aori, when she suddenly felt unwell
and was seized with bouts of laughing and weeping. Aori and several
nearby students carried her back to the dorm, where a senior boy who
may have seen too many Cary Grant films tried reviving her by slapping
her across the face several times. When that failed, someone suggested
phoning a native healer. No one thought to summon a medical doctor.
Later that night another freshman, Zani, became upset when someone
told her that Roni had fainted. She went to a nearby room to check on her
friend’s condition. Soon Roni was well enough to walk into the TV room,
a move that frightened Zani, who said that Roni had a “creepy look” on
her face. Zani suddenly collapsed and was unconscious for two hours.
When she awoke, she didn’t utter a single word for hours. Several friends
stopped by to see how she was doing. One of them was Roni. As soon as
Roni appeared, Zani began to clench her teeth and scream. One of the
boys walked over and slapped her in the face and made her repeat several
Islamic prayers. Still no one thought to call a medical doctor.
By 4:00 A.M. Saturday, yet another girl succumbed to the hysteria.
Newey, a senior, “became disturbed and bruised her neck in the process
of trying to strangle herself.” She was sent to the hospital. Meanwhile
Aori, who saw the incident, was tense and upset, but tried to calm the
other hostilities and then went to bed himself. It was about midnight. He
couldn’t sleep. At 3:00 A.M., still wide awake, he saw a mysterious object
begin to circle above his head: “It was the head of a human being with
long hair and it warned ... that he would suffer the same fate as the other
victims.... [Aori] screamed, cried, and became unconscious. At daylight,
he recovered and attended classes, but became hysterical again in the mid-
dle of a lecture.” He later met with different native healers for help.27
That morning, while Aori’s drama was unfolding, Roni was also
attending lectures when a sudden chill sent shivers through her body. Her
stomach began to ache. She collapsed. Her friends picked her up, placed
her on a desk and began chanting. The religious teacher, or ustaz, came
over and began reading verses from the Koran. At one point Roni began
to scream and moan. The commotion was upsetting to onlookers, and
soon another freshman in the lecture hall cried out and fainted. The
screaming and crying caught the attention of a nearby class, where teaching
came to a halt as students began to eavesdrop on the strange goings-on.
It wasn’t long before that class also descended into chaos. First one student
screamed and fainted, then another. Soon the entire class was in a panic,
including the female lecturer who fled the room with other students,
instructing some male pupils to go back and try to calm the rest of the
class alone, especially the girls. More and more freshman girls soon exhib-
ited fits of hysteria. Each new outbreak created more tension. The cycle
of fear and hysteria was broken only when officials were forced to tem-
porarily close the college.28
In Malay culture, elders and those in authority are all-powerful. You

do not challenge their word. An outbreak of hysteria is one way to get
around this extreme obedience to authority. Ordinarily, students could
not express their feelings about the teasing and the cold shoulder from
locals. During the outbreak, many conservative students felt the posses-
sions and spirit attacks on the freshman girls were deserved. The “freshers”
were said to be provoking the campus guardian spirits (penusggus) with
their flashy dress and make-up. They were also seen as too “uninhibited
in their speech and behavior and too Western in their outlook.” The girls
were unhappy with the way they were being treated. Yet, any expression
of those feelings would surely have been met with punishment or expul-
sion. Their emotions built up. School officials could not take action against
the students, instead blaming the hysteria on the spirits. Another inhibi-
tion created by Malay society is the reluctance to discuss one’s troubles
publicly, because of the fear of embarrassing others. In some cases the stu-
dents may have been feigning or exaggerating; at other times they seemed
to be genuinely having “fits.” In either case, the effect was the same.
Anthropologists Raymond Lee and Susan Ackerman, who investigated the
outbreak, remark, “Voicing one’s grievances through references to the
supernatural is acceptable since it is the spirit, and not the individual,
which is responsible for revealing the person’s problems in public.” In this
way, students can express guilt or remorse, but the evil spirits get the
blame.29
Outbreak at a Thai School

In the fall of 1993, evil spirits reportedly took over girls at rural
Thasala Elementary School in a woody, mountainous section of south
Thailand. Exams were canceled, the school was shut down, and parents
threatened to take their children and leave the region for good. The strange
events that would follow began after a tragic accident. Seven months ear-
lier, two Thasala boys died when their vehicle crashed while traveling to
a scholars’ competition. An obsession with dying soon swept through the
students.
In keeping with Thai custom, a spirit house was built at the school
entrance. Spirit houses are tiny buildings where the souls of the newly
departed are thought to dwell. An integral part of Thai culture, they dot
the landscape. Buddhists believe that these spirits wander the countryside,
awaiting reincarnation as other earthly creatures. Many Thais build tiny
houses on their property as a place for spirits to reside during this waiting
period. With the construction of the spirit house for the two boys, the
students were beginning to accept the loss. But all was not well.
Tensions at the school soon rose as a bitter dispute erupted when
government officials ordered the demolition of an old schoolhouse, a cher-
ished community symbol, in order to make room for a new school. The
officials never asked the townsfolk what they thought of the idea. The deci-
sion to raze the school and move the spirit house sparked outrage. A fight
even broke out between a teacher and a parent over the issue.
Then one day in September, students noticed that a third-grader had
a strange look in her eyes. She told onlookers that her body had been taken
over by a spirit who ordered a new spirit house be built near the new
school. The girl displayed a remarkable ability to enter trances and speak
with the spirit world. She told psychiatrists: “It is easy. I just go into a
place in my mind. I think about a peaceful place such as the beach or the
forest and then I’m there.” She said it was often difficult to tell the differ-
ence between reality and fantasy, noting, “It feels as though it were really
happening to me.”30
Soon thirty-two classmates were stricken with mysterious fits. Some
girls had thirty or more. Before the attacks, they would get headaches and
feel woozy. Some felt “shaky” or that their heart was racing or weak. Most
said that during their trances, they met an elderly woman in traditional
red clothing, who commanded them to follow her. When the epidemic
first broke out, authorities organized a public prayer ceremony to cast out
the demons. Mediums were asked to meditate and pray for a prophetic
vision that would help them find a way to get rid of the spirits. But instead
of getting better, things got worse. During one trance, a girl said that the
old woman dressed in red threatened to abduct “students as revenge
because the school had destroyed her spirit house.”31 The story sent waves
of fear through the schools.
Government psychiatrists soon arrived. One of their first decisions was
to find an open classroom and meet with worried parents to explain that
the strange behaviors were the result of stress. The affected students were
herded into a room next door. As the psychiatrists were explaining that there
was nothing to worry about, one of the girls suddenly screamed and col-
lapsed on the floor, her arms and legs flailing about in violent spasms. Sud-
denly another girl screamed and fainted. Her arms and legs also began to
twitch and shake. Panic quickly swept through the room. Within ten min-
utes, four of the girls were screaming and flailing about. Before long, the
entire class was in a state of panic, unnerving their parents next door.32
Psychiatrist Umaporn Trangkasombat of Chulalongkorn University
was summoned by the mother of one of the stricken girls. She said that
her daughter looked strange. Trangkasombat tried talking to her, but she
stared blankly into space. Eerily, her eyes were wide open. The girl was
helped to a nearby room and eased into a soft armchair where she burst
into tears and wept for twenty minutes. Snapping out of her daze and try-
ing to stand, she was wobbly and had a confused look on her face. Mean-
while, in the same room, another girl suddenly slumped over, her face
hitting the table. She began to move her body as if she were fighting some-
one. “No. No. I won’t go,” she cried. Over and over she wept and cried
out: “No. No. I won’t go.” People tried talking with her but she gave no
response. Her struggle with the “invisible force” went on for fifteen min-
utes. When her eyes opened, her only memory was that of “an old woman,
dressed in red, trying to get me,” she said.
By late November, the “spirit attacks” were over. The psychiatrists
had broken up the group and held counseling sessions in which they
explained the outbreak in terms of long-term psychological stress. They
were careful not to challenge the students’ belief in spirits. It was clear
that many of those stricken were fearful that they would be kidnapped by
angry spirits, unhappy at the demolition of the spirit house and out for
retribution. The pattern was repeated with several students who fell into
trances, saw visions of a woman in red, and struggled as they perceived
she was trying to capture them. Upon coming out of their daze, they could
not recall any of what had just happened but for vague descriptions of
their encounter with the old woman in red. One of the most effective
measures in ending the attacks was the instruction by psychiatrists not to
touch girls during an attack. Teachers, parents, and other students would
often try to comfort them during the fits. While well meaning, this may
have been more of a hindrance, because the girl was likely to misinterpret
the feeling of being touched or held as “the act of the spirit trying to abduct
her. This advice proved useful since the attack stopped more rapidly than
when the child was touched.”33
The psychiatrists believed that several factors led to the extraordinary
tension at Thasala Elementary, culminating in the bizarre fits. The death
of classmates had created a tense backdrop, and stress was increased by
the destruction of the spirit house that might have been used by the dead
students’ spirits— or so many at the school thought. These events created
frustration and anxiety. Within this volatile cauldron, rumors spread
through the school that angry spirits were possessing the girls.
The psychiatrists later made a startling finding: Those most affected
led incredibly stressful lives filled with trauma. The Thasala region is one
of the most crime-ridden in Thailand, notorious for its violence and mil-
itary conflict. Amid this atmosphere of terror, the death of the students
and the destruction of their spirit house pushed their stress levels even
higher. Just how stressful were their everyday lives? The psychiatric team
noted: “Many children had reported encountering dead bodies on their
way to school. Some had witnessed the death of their neighbors or loved
ones. A sister of one of the girls was shot to death a few months prior to
the epidemic.” Everyday fear, coupled with their friends’ deaths and the
destruction of their spirit house, created unbearable tension.
Thai Ghost Attacks

During mid–January 2001, Thailand was also the scene of a series of
“ghost attacks” when about one hundred students at a school camp in
Nakhon Ratchasima province suddenly fell ill for no apparent reason. An
investigating physician said the students were exhausted after a long day
of exercise and grew fearful that ghosts haunted the camp. Dr. Somchai
Chakraphand said the exhaustion “built up on top of the general belief
that spirits and ghosts haunted the area. The students’ fear increased and
this led to hyperventilation and eventually to breathing problems.” The
episode began when a girl who was singing around a campfire screamed
after she thought she saw a ghost. Most area residents have a strong belief
in ghosts and malevolent spirits.34 The ghost fears in Thailand that gen-
erated hyperventilation seem to represent the same phenomenon (anxiety
hysteria) that is so common in modern Western schools, only in a different
social and cultural context.
In August 2003, Buddhist monks were called to a Thai school to drive
out evil spirits reportedly possessing pupils. On August 7 an exorcism cer-
emony was held at the Baan Thab Sawai School in Huai Thalaeng. During
the previous three months, students had been acting out of character for
Thai culture, uttering rude words and threatening to harm themselves.
Some appeared to be in a trance, as if hypnotized. Others were having
“attacks” two or three times daily over the three months. Medical exams
of the pupils surprised doctors, as they found no signs of health problems.
In a bid to appease the ghosts, a merit-making ceremony was held.
Even the provincial governor, Sunthorn Riewleung, took the story seri-
ously. Unable to attend, he sent a letter offering his apologies “to the spirits
and asking them to stop haunting villagers and students, or a spirit house
in the school compound would be demolished.” Soon after the ceremony
was over, an eleven-year-old schoolgirl named Nong Nam began scream-
ing and “went berserk.” She was soon able to regain her senses with the
aid of two Brahmin priests who managed to calm her.
The fits often started with students feeling lightheaded before col-
lapsing and falling unconscious. When they awoke they said “it felt as if
someone was pressing down on their chests. While unconscious, the stu-
dents claimed, they had seen a bald man wearing black glasses and very
old clothes asking them to accompany him.”35
The Thai Fossil Scare of 2002

Some Thai school scares that seem unique are based in the firm belief
that mysterious spirits may haunt grave sites in areas that must be treated
with care and respect. Between late June and early July of 2002, a myste-
rious illness afflicted many students visiting a site harboring dinosaur fos-
sils. Concern began to mount when 180 students went to the site to look
at the remains and fifteen collapsed. Instead of taking the girls to a doctor,
they were instead rushed to Liam Banusawan, a local mor phi (exorcist),
who sprinkled them with holy water, which revived them. Only then were
they taken to hospital in the nearest town.36
A few days later, four students and an instructor — all female — were
stricken on another trip to see fossils. The group was visiting Pedan Cave
in the Thung Yai district when they began screaming, then fainted. The
incident happened in the morning as they were leaving the site. This time
those stricken were first rushed to a local medical center; then they met
with an exorcist who treated them with holy water. Panya Lertkrai, an
assistant professor at the Rajabaht Institute, said, “They [the spirits] could
have been upset by the students’ behavior. Some might have taken dinosaur
remains home.”37
The fossils created excitement when they were discovered at the cave
on June 18, as by some estimates they may have been 300 million years
old. Locals said the cave was used by communists as a base and was also
a burial site for persons executed in the past for their opposition to gov-
ernment policies. One villager stated, “It could have been the work of
those spirits.”38
Thai psychiatrist Inthira Puasakul thought that fear may have been
responsible for at least one incident, as “the students may have collapsed
after their group leader became frightened ... [and] others in the group
may then have been overwhelmed by their leader’s fear and developed
their own.”39 Some villagers blamed the collapse on spirits guarding the
cave, which they hypothesized may have been offended by the students.
The belief in supernatural spirits possessing people is widespread in
Thailand. In June 2003, more than a thousand people disrupted traffic in
the Muang district while following a famous local exorcist through the
area as he hunted down and cast out ghosts known as the pee-paub, who
are thought to feed on human entrails. The exorcism was held after several
mysterious deaths blamed on the pee-paub. The veteran ghost catcher Phra
Khru Udom Panyakorn said he managed to catch thirty-nine ghosts dur-
ing his three-hour search using only chants and hollow bamboo.40
Satanic Panic in Beirut

In early March 2003, a woman on a Lebanese TV show made a star-
tling claim: A group of anti–Christian devil worshippers were operating
in the country. She said she was an eyewitness to baby sacrifices, the rape
of virgins, orgies, and other bizarre rituals. Her appearance triggered a
deluge of rumors, forcing schools to convene meetings with students in
order to dispel the claims. Among the rumors was a story that mutilated
bodies had been discovered in a popular shopping mall. Other accounts
told of kidnappers grabbing children, tearing out their hearts, and drink-
ing their blood.
The problems began on Sunday, March 9, when a privately run Chris-
tian TV station, Tele-Lumiere, broadcast a program on Lebanese devil
worshippers. One mother, Julie Harfoush, said, “They are convinced that
devil worshippers are around the corner waiting to kidnap them.... No
matter what I tell them, they don’t believe me, because they hear their
friends saying that they saw a real devil worshipper on television.” The
dramatic program blurred the face of a supposed former devil worshipper,
who said the group sacrificed babies, the offspring from raped virgins.
The next week, station officials advised young people that they could
avoid being victims by maintaining a well-groomed appearance, covering
tattoos, and not wearing black clothes. At Beirut’s American Community
School, administrators were forced to call an assembly to counter the
rumors, including a story that a teen had been murdered at a local shop-
ping mall. Mall owner Samir Rayess said, “We have closed-circuit cameras
everywhere in the centre.... We monitor everything. If these rumours were
true, don’t you think that the police would have sealed off the centre?”41
Strange Scenes from India and Nepal

It was a bizarre sight: medical and biology students and instructors
at a major university attending a ceremony to exorcise ghosts. This
unlikely scenario happened during the summer and autumn of 2002 at

Panjab University in India. Most school scares are provoked by stress, and
this incident was no different. Over the course of several months, two of
the university’s most popular professors, both department heads, died of
heart attacks. It was against this backdrop of grief, uncertainty, and fear
that students and faculty, who had dedicated their lives to the study of sci-
ence, organized an exorcism to rid the campus of evil spirits thought to
be responsible for the tragedies. The departments involved in the cleansing
ritual were Biochemistry, Genome Studies, Microbiology, Biophysics and
Pharmacy.42
The same year, another ghost scare struck at a primary school in West
Bengal. The scare at the Goalsara Primary School began when a pupil
kicked a ball, and the ball bounced into the school. A student disappeared
into the building to retrieve the ball. A short time later he raced out,
screaming, “Ghosts! Ghosts!” Chaos ensued. Students began running in
every direction — some bumping into one another and sustaining cuts and
bruises in their desperation to get away. The children and parents in this
comedy-tragedy were so frightened that they boycotted classes, fearing
that the “football ghost” was still roaming the halls. After the classrooms
were empty for two weeks, authorities went door to door in an effort to
persuade the students to return. The rumor mill began to churn, and
before long there were stories that apparitions had been spotted in the
school and that the scratches and bruises from the frantic exodus were
from ghost attacks. The next morning, teachers were ready to conduct
classes, but no students came. After two weeks principal Chittaranjan
Bhanja told the New Indian Express, “So far only about 30 students of var-
ious classes have started coming.”43
In May 2003, fears of a toilet-haunting ghost forced authorities to
close a girls’ middle school in the village of Kapurawala, one hundred and
twenty-five miles south of Delhi. Three girls suffered mysterious fits after
using the toilet. Police inspector Hakim Singh said the toilet no longer
existed: “Nobody has seen the ghost, but the school toilet, suspected to
be the devil’s den, was brought down by villagers.” Villagers were planning
a yagya, or Hindu fire purification ceremony, in hopes of flushing the spirit
from where the bathroom once stood, and convincing the girls to return.44
While teachers tried to be good role models and instill calm, one teacher
panicked and fled the school, requesting and receiving a transfer.
At nearly the same time, mass hysteria broke out to the north of India
in the mountains of neighboring Nepal. Two dozen schoolgirls would
suddenly burst into tears, followed by prolonged laughter. The episode
repeated over the course of several months. A team of doctors visited the
grounds of the Nepal Rashtriya Secondary School in the Sunsari district.

Doctors pinpointed the cause: men. They observed that all of the teachers
at the school were male, and concluded that the girls felt uncomfortable
and found it difficult to express themselves in front of men. Parents
believed the girls to have been attacked by supernatural beings, so they
turned to religion. Attempts to appease the forces by sacrificing a goat and
praying to the gods failed.45
Meanwhile, on the other side of the border, another bizarre drama
was unfolding. Fifteen schoolgirls in northern India had to be restrained
from tearing out their hair after a mysterious epidemic swept through
their school in the village of Lower Koti in the mountainous province of
Himachal Pradesh. The girls collapsed onto the floor, pulling at their hair
and shivering as if they were freezing. Principal Purshotam Rana said that
over a one-week period starting in late August, the girls began “shivering
and contorting their bodies and even wailing wide-eyed and flailing their
hair.” Frightened locals were about to conduct an exorcism to rid the
school of the “demons” when a team of psychiatrists arrived. The culprit
was widely believed to be a demon who, according to a local seer, had
taken possession of the girls. The psychiatrists recommended against the
exorcism, instead issuing their own prescription: “Ignore the girls so they
do not feel under undue pressure.”46
Yet another ghost scare shut down schools in the southern Indian
city of Tiruchi in September 2003. The episode began when the newspaper
Thanthi published a picture of a student standing next to a ghostly, witch-
like image. Police said the image was a computer-generated hoax and
launched a public awareness campaign to alert others to such hoaxes. The
article claimed that the student in the photo collapsed after the picture
was taken, went into a coma, and died of a heart attack. Parents quickly
decided to keep their children out of school, forcing it to temporarily
close. It was reported that the ghost was especially fond of little boys. The
scare was made worse when other newspapers published the story, giving
the claims more credence.47
India’s Cat Girls

In early August 2004, at least a dozen girls fell into a strange state
and began acting like cats, meowing and walking about on all fours, at a
school in the remote hamlet of Dolagobind in Orissa, India. The first signs
of trouble came in late July, when several students at the school fainted
for no apparent reason. When the girls awoke, they began acting like cats.
The community reacted to the strange state of affairs by summoning native

healers to get rid of the evil spirits believed responsible. Teachers reported
that the afflicted girls, ages six to twelve, were clawing at their faces and
shrieking like cats, leaving authorities little choice but to temporarily shut
the school down.
The principal, Manjubala Pande, said the episode began on July 26
when Sasmita Mohapatra, a student in Class 10, fainted during prayers.
On that day, she said, “three girls fell down when they came to school. We
thought they hadn’t had food so we gave them something to eat but after
that also they were not normal and behaved strangely.” The next day, she
said, “some six-seven girls started crying, fell down on the floor making
sounds like that of a cat. We immediately informed others in the village
but after the faintings and behavior repeated, we were forced to shut the
school.” Prayers were offered in the school over five consecutive days, but
they had no effect. When the fits first started the girls simply fainted and
began behaving in a cat-like manner, but after the outbreak was underway,
Pande told the Indian News Agency, “The girls tremble with a tingling
sensation. They also cry and act like cats and then faint. They get normal
after a few hours.”48
All of the school’s seventy-five students, including the “cat girls,”
were taken to the nearby Nigamananda Saraswat hermitage run by a local
Hindu wise man, where they were ordered to recite religious prayers. Sim-
ilar outbreaks were reported at several other area schools. “We are organ-
ising rituals to get divine help,” said one parent.49 In modern India, cats
are considered symbols of bad luck. In some places they are believed to
be the incarnation of a witch. The girls’ cat-like behavior may have been
a subconscious reflection of these beliefs.
Stress-Reducing Rituals and Reactions

To outsiders, outbreaks of strange behavior in Malaysia, Thailand
and other parts of Asia may seem simple: stress builds and hysteria erupts.
In reality, it is more complex. The possessing spirit comes from the stu-
dent’s subconscious— which then negotiates with school administrators
to loosen restrictions such as by easing homework or providing more recre-
ation time. Once officials ease up, the stress slowly subsides and the hys-
teria dissipates. The episodes illustrate the power of culture on behavior.
For instance, in Malaysia, where shopping and bargaining are national
pastimes, it is no coincidence that when students are stressed by school
policies that they have little control over, they react using available meth-
ods. That is, when the going gets tough, students use basic shopping tech-
niques to bargain for a better deal. A similar idiom of negotiation exists
in neighboring Thailand. Even more prevalent are Asian ghost and spirit
scares that seem to reflect common fears during times of crisis and bring
students closer together. Outbreaks typically occur amid rumors and are
fueled by the media; this is also the case for vaccination scares.
These episodes are local ways of adapting to stress in the face of over-
whelming fear and anxiety. The ways that the human mind relieves tension
will undoubtedly change during the twenty-first century in order to meet
new challenges. Naturalist Charles Darwin captured the spirit of this
process when he famously said: “It is not the strongest of the species that
survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.”
CHAPTER 5
The Students Who

Laughed for a Week
Accounts from Africa
Under certain conditions men respond as powerfully to fictions

as they do to realities, and ... in many cases they help to create
the very fictions to which they respond.— Walter Lippman1
In much of Africa, people believe that spirits of their ancestors roam

the countryside to keep tabs on the living. In this tense, shadowy world,
invisible spirits of the dead watch over their every move. In the central
and southern part of the continent, the belief in witchcraft and ancestor
spirits causes residents to live in a state of perpetual fear, afraid of offend-
ing ancestors and frightened of witches’ spells. This gives rise to a complex
system of preventative and appeasement rituals.
The Great Laughing Epidemic

It is not uncommon for a student to exhibit an attack of the giggles,
especially near exam time. They typically regain their composure within
a few minutes. But what would happen if the pupil kept on laughing for
several hours before stopping, only to experience another attack the fol-
lowing day, and the day after? This is not a hypothetical scenario. This
scene was replayed over and over in numerous schools in central Africa
during the 1960s.
On January 30, 1962, three girls were sitting at their desks at a Chris-
tian missionary school in Kashasha village near the west shore of Lake
Victoria in the remote northwest corner of Tanganyika (now Tanzania).
Suddenly, an unusual feeling of giddiness swept over them and they began
to laugh uncontrollably. At other times they wept. Some fits lasted but a
94
5. The Students Who Laughed for a Week 95
few minutes; others endured for hours, only to flare up later. With each
passing day, more and more of the girls were afflicted by the mysterious
ailment that was dubbed by locals as endwara ya kucheka, or “the laughing
trouble.”2 Some grew restless and violent, running around in fear that
someone or some thing was chasing them. Many girls said they felt things
moving around inside their heads. The “attacks” would come and go over
several days, though some girls were stricken for more than two weeks.
Curiously, not a single adult from the village was affected.3
As more and more students were overtaken by laughter, teachers and
administrators grew more solemn. At a loss as to how to stop the epidemic,
they had no choice but to close the school. They locked the doors on March
18 and sent everyone back to their home villages to recuperate. Most of
the girls seemed to calm down and recover during the break, so the opti-
mistic headmaster reopened on May 21. The fits of laughing and weeping
returned. By late June, with fifty-seven pupils having fits, the decision was
made to close again. Desperate to solve the mystery, school officials were
ecstatic with the arrival of Dr. A.M. Rankin of Makerere University College
and a local medical officer, P.J. Philip. Their first impression was that a
virus was to blame, one that could spread by tiny infectious droplets, pos-
sibly from sneezing. A cursory survey found that nearly every victim had
been in “very recent contact with someone suffering from the disease.”4
Confidently, the doctors began their examinations, only to find that the
girls’ vital signs were normal and there was no fever. The infectious disease
theory was scratched off the list.
The next suspect was food. The girls had none of the classic signs of
food poisoning, so the doctors examined the possibility of contamination
by more exotic substances. After all, it was tropical Africa, and other epi-
demics of strange behavior have been triggered by food contamination
such as Datura stramonium seeds in corn and wheat flour. But if this was
true, the girls should have exhibited the tell-tale signs: lack of muscle con-
trol, dry mouth, and dilated pupils. None of these symptoms were present.
Sticking with the contaminated food theory, samples were taken and sent
off for analysis. The tests came back normal.5
The two scientists had one remaining suspect on their list: mass hys-
teria. But what would trigger such outbreaks? Rankin and Philip noted a
theory among locals that the strange behavior was caused by “the bomb,”
a popular bugaboo of 1960s–era B-grade movies and science fiction liter-
ature. During this time, American hydrogen bomb tests in the South
Pacific were the subject of intense local media coverage. The culprit was
not believed to be radioactive fallout, the effects of which were not fully
understood at the time, but rather the hydrogen bomb tests themselves,
causing the students to become so filled with fear that the result was hys-
teria.
THE MANIA SPREADS

As the laughing mania spread, the strange fits grew more elaborate.
The outbreaks became violent and spread to nearby schools. More than a
thousand people throughout the region were stricken over the next eight-
een months; almost all were schoolchildren.6 Locals believed the episode
was triggered by angry ancestors.7 The mania was spread by students who
were sent home to recover. For instance, when the Kashasha School closed
in March, several students went to their home village of Nshamba in the
south. There they triggered an outbreak of laughing and crying among
local school children. In June, the Ramashenye Girls’ Middle School near
Bukoba experienced an attack of “laughing sickness.” Nearly fifty pupils,
one-third of the student body, went into fits of laughter, coinciding with
the return home of several girls from the Kashasha School. Boys’ schools
were also “infected” and forced to close. The situation was reaching crisis
proportions as more and more schools in northwest Tanganyika were over-
come.
In November 1963, a strange malady broke out at both Christian and
Muslim missionary schools in neighboring Uganda to the north, in the
vicinity of Mbale. These outbreaks caught the attention of psychiatrist Ben-
jamin Kagwa, who worked at the Burabika Hospital in the Ugandan capital
of Kampala. Kagwa visited the schools and said the mania had morphed
into something more than the relatively benign laughing and weeping:
Those affected ran about aimlessly and slept out of doors near their family
tombs. Almost all of them caught a white chicken, or wore white feathers
on their heads.... They all looked physically exhausted because of continuous
hyperactivity. In addition, they did not take any solid food for some days.
Without exception, everyone complained of “headaches” and “pain in the
heart.” Most of the men carried a circumcision knife with which they struck
their chests incessantly to alleviate the pain.
Kagwa said the first phase lasted three to four days. As with the laugh-
ing mania, students were seized suddenly, without warning, usually in
clusters. They grew agitated, got into fights with other students, and stole
things. They refused to eat, wouldn’t stop talking, and said they wanted
to smoke cigarettes. In short, they were breaking all of the school’s taboos.
When asked why they were acting so strangely, they said they were follow-
ing their ancestors’ orders. Many said they could see visions of dead rel-
atives. During the second phase, the students grew sad and quiet and
seemed to be exhausted. The only exceptions were occasional relapses.

After a few more days the students seemed to regain their senses.8
Elder witchdoctors went about visiting the burial grounds of their
ancestors and weeding the tombs in hopes of appeasing the spirits, whom
they felt must have been upset in some way. Near the tombs they built
miniature huts for these spirits to inhabit, placing baked bananas, chicken,
and gourds of wine inside. White chickens were slaughtered, their blood
sprinkled on the tombs as a blessing. Some of the witchdoctors then sipped
the wine and spat it at the feet of the afflicted students, often causing them
to snap out of their mental daze.9
In May 1966 another outbreak of laughing and crying struck forty
pupils at a school in Musoma on Lake Victoria, forcing it to close for two
weeks. Health ministry official Charles Mywali told the New York Times,
“It spreads like wildfire among schoolchildren, particularly girls, one girl
starts to laugh her head off and all the others follow. Nobody can control
them and the only answer is to separate them for a couple of weeks.”10
Throughout the 1960s, similar bouts of bizarre student behavior in
Central African schools continued to wreak havoc. On June 10, 1967, a
fourteen-year-old girl at a mission school in Ghana in west central Africa
complained of feeling hot and began clutching her heart, which she said
hurt. She grew restless and refused to eat. Her restlessness soon turned to
hyperactivity. Before long, more students were stricken. Many began to
sob; others were overtaken with laughing and giggling. A few showed no
inhibition whatsoever and became uncharacteristically talkative; others
grew shy. Some complained of burning headaches.
By June 20, a whopping 62 students had been stricken. Alarmed
administrators closed the school and sent the pupils home. By this point
the affliction took on some truly creative new wrinkles, adding an array
of dramatic flourishes to the already rich cocktail of symptoms. Some
girls ran into the bush; others began climbing trees. Some threw rocks at
anyone who tried to get near them; others hurled verbal epithets and
grew confrontational. Those who stripped off their clothing had to be
restrained from running around naked; others helped themselves with
fancy clothes, stuck flowers in their hair, and wore pretty ornaments. Some
refused to eat, while others obsessed over food and could think of nothing
else.11
While the hysterical nature of the epidemic was obvious to the inves-
tigating psychiatrist, there was much press speculation that some other
cause was responsible. As a result, the food and water supplies were tested,
but they were found to be normal. Many different approaches were tried
to help the girls. First, teachers used a heavy-handed approach, shouting
at the pupils. This worked, but only for a short time. Next, they tried
reverse psychology, being very nice — even to the point of meeting the stu-
dents’ outrageous demands for food. This didn’t work either. They then
said prayers for a quick recovery and held Bible readings. This neither
helped the afflicted nor protected others from further attacks. At the hos-
pital, doctors gave the girls tranquilizers while offering reassurance. While
this helped many, it did not prevent the spread to others. One action
seemed most effective in halting the epidemic: closing the school and send-
ing everyone home to recuperate.12
Theories abounded. It was juju, or evil spells cast on the school by a
local witchdoctor, said one faction. Another group thought that perhaps
one of their own, a fellow student, was bewitching others. Some parents
thought that the culprit was heat rising out of the ground. Yet another
group of parents blamed the strange behaviors on spirits trying to send a
message to the community through the students. This theory may hold a
kernel of truth — not that spirits were involved but that the episode seemed
to serve as a means for the unhappy students to convey their displeasure
with the poor conditions at the school. Out of respect for authority and
their elders, and fearing punishment, students were reluctant to complain.
During the investigation, a few girls were brave enough to speak of their
dissatisfaction with the school. They confided that advertised menu items
were often unavailable, and when they did find something that sounded
good, it was not properly cooked; the portions of meat were tiny; and
there was a chronic milk shortage. To make matters worse, the water sup-
ply frequently ran out, and brown sediment could be seen floating in the
water when it was flowing. The dorms were crowded. The school nurse
added to the rising stress by often ignoring their medical complaints. Even
when they were very ill, students said that she rarely referred anyone to
the hospital although it was only a short walk next door.
Given that they were poorly fed, drinking dirty water, lacking
sleep, and receiving minimal medical care, the students were justifiably
angry and frustrated over their plight. But what could they hope to do
about it? Over weeks and months, the tension built. A psychiatrist from
the University of Ghana Medical School observed that “the students had
no open channel through which to seek relief.”13 The result was hysteria,
which quickly spread among the anxious student body. The laughing, cry-
ing, and more extreme antics finally got the attention of the community,
alerting them to the seriousness of the problem, and may have been an
unconscious means to get authorities to listen to their complaints and
take action.
A Clash of Cultures
A historical example of this process was the Ghost Dance religion
that swept through the midwest and western United States during the late
1800s. Defeated by the American military and displaced from their tradi-
tional lands, Native Americans were further demoralized by U.S. govern-
ment and Christian missionary efforts to rid them of their “superstitious”
ways and make them “civilized.” In 1883 Interior Secretary Henry Teller
ordered the distribution of new rules meant to stamp out paganism and
“barbarous” customs. At this time, large numbers of Native Americans
were starting to accept Jesus as their savior.14 It was against this backdrop
that the Ghost Dance was born and emotional turmoil ensued. A native
medicine man claimed to have had a vision instructing him on how to
perform a “ghost dance,” which he said would usher in a new, harmonious
era. It involved wild all-night dance frenzies for five successive nights,
repeated every six weeks. The dance spread quickly to many tribes west
of the Mississippi River. Dancers acted strangely, shook and trembled vio-
lently, fainted, stood rigid for hours, wandered about in a daze, and saw
visions. As sociologist David Miller notes, “During their faints or trances,
dancers said they were transported to the Happy Hunting Ground, where
they visited with their dead ancestors.”15 Like the laughing mania, the
Ghost Dance was an attempt by a group in crisis to establish ancient ties
by contacting their ancestors. Both episodes were misunderstood by out-
siders. Many settlers wrongly thought that the dancing was a preparation
for war, and on December 29, 1890, tragedy struck. Nearly three hundred
Native Americans were massacred at Wounded Knee Creek in what is now
South Dakota. The Ghost Dance quickly faded and Christianity was soon
back, stronger than ever.16
As we seek to understand the laughing mania, questions arise. Why
laughing? Why missionary schools? Why Tanganyika and the spread across
central Africa? Why the 1960s? Every behavior has a context, and the roots
of the laughing mania are no different. Central and eastern Africa were
the scenes of several major Christian revivals in the early decades of the
twentieth century — revivals that had as major features bouts of laughing
and weeping.17 Such symptoms were recorded as early as 1914, when a reli-
gious renewal swept through the nearby Belgian Congo in west central
Africa, which borders present-day Tanzania. One observer describes the
scene during the 1914 revival as electric: “The whole place was charged as
if with an electric current. Men were falling, jumping, laughing, crying,
singing, confessing and some shaking terribly.... As I led in prayer the
Spirit came down in mighty power sweeping the congregation. My whole
body trembled with the power. We saw a marvelous sight, people literally
filled and drunk with the Spirit.”18
In 1935 the Great East African Religious Revival started in Rwanda
and quickly spread west to the Congo (now the Democratic Republic of
Congo), south to Burundi, and north to Uganda, eventually filtering into
northwestern Tanganyika.19 This event set off a series of revivals across
the region that persisted into the mid–1980s. Laughing and weeping were
prominent features of this movement.
The east African revival had a major impact on many cultures in Tan-
ganyika, especially in the northwest corner near the shores of Lake Vic-
toria, epicenter of the laughing mania.20 Christian missionary schools were
popping up like mushrooms throughout the Bukoba District in the decades
after the revival. But while the new Christian God was moving in, the old
gods had not yet left the premises. The result was a festering spiritual
conflict between the old and the new, generating great anxiety and guilt.
To understand the laughing mania that ensued, we must understand the
beliefs of this region, which were dominated by the practice of ancestor
worship.
Religious Conflict
Since the 1950s African religious scholars have been struggling with
the challenges posed by ancestor worship in central Africa — a practice
that conflicts with Bible teachings. Ancestor worshippers believe that when
relatives die, they maintain an active relationship with the living. They
are with you every minute of every day; you just cannot see them. They
exist in an invisible, parallel world. Dead relatives are the most revered
members of society. At meals, small portions of food are prepared or spilled
for their benefit. When things are not going well, relatives commonly offer
their ancestors expensive gifts in return for guidance or help. During crises,
it is not uncommon for people to enter trance states and report seeing
ancestors who offer solutions to their problems. Ancestors are interme-
diaries— the living dead — who are thought to communicate with both
the living and the gods.21 Working oneself into a trance and talking to
ancestors is believed to be like having a hotline to the gods, only the ances-
tor takes the call and speaks on your behalf. Old beliefs die hard, and
conflict arises when the locals are faced with the missionary church’s insis-
tence that they renounce ancestor worship and embrace the Bible, because
their traditional beliefs remain and are often relied upon during times of
crisis and death.22
During the 1960s, missionary schools were notorious for paying little
or no attention to the pupils’ cultural heritage, instead focusing on Western
religious and cultural practices.23 The resulting tension between the old
ways and the missionary ways is described by theologian Jack Partain, who
spent time living in Tanzania: “Many African theologians— themselves
highly educated and westernized Christians— speak of their passionate
desire to be linked with their dead and of their own inner struggle.” The
people’s belief that their ancestors are watching their every move and judg-
ing their morality brings this psychic stew to a boil, especially for students
in missionary schools, who are taught to worship their ancestors at home
and are steeped in the study of the Bible at school. Each teaches that the
other is wrong. According to Partain,
Church leaders ... agree that some traditional notions about ancestors cannot
be accepted by Christians. For instance, Christians cannot accept the view
that ancestors have power over living family members, and they must
emphatically deny that deaths are caused by ancestors. And divination [the
supposed ability to foresee the future by supernatural means], a primary
preoccupation of the ancestral cult, is entirely unacceptable.24
Tanzanian scholar Gabriel Setiloane uses poetry to describe the
conflict that he feels in embracing Christianity and the guilt that arises
from accepting a religion his ancestors would disapprove of: “The dead
are not dead; they are ever near us; approving and disapproving all our
actions. They chide us when we go wrong.”25 While the voices of their
dead ancestors cried from beyond, there was more grief to be had. The
laughing mania coincided with a period of local unrest that occurred when
government officials forced families to move off their tiny farmsteads and
onto more “civilized” planned villages in urban areas. This generated great
stress as the people were driven away from their ancestors’ graves.26
Modern-Day Laughing Epidemics

If one looks at the history of religious revivals, all sorts of strange
behaviors are on record: twitching, shaking, jumping and so on. Congre-
gations are worked up into emotional frenzies. These states are the product
of what psychologists call hyper-suggestibility. During these services, peo-
ple become temporarily open to suggestion and are prone to imitate what-
ever they see. If someone begins to laugh, others may also begin to laugh.
It is in this way that traditions develop. The two major central African
revivals in the first half of the twentieth century featured laughing amid
the rapture of the emotional services. It may be that these conflicted stu-
dents were simply imitating what they had witnessed at their missionary
schools or during revival meetings. This is how the modern-day “Laughing
Revival” began in North America.
During the 1990s, fits of laughing and weeping became common in
parts of the United States and Canada at revival meetings of the Ontario-
based Toronto Blessing. The Holy Laugh Movement or Laughing Revival
then spread around the world and continues today. The man credited with
sparking the movement, Rodney Howard-Browne, arrived in Toronto
after practicing in Africa, where he served with the World Faith Movement.
One attendee describes his experience with the Toronto Blessing: “Soon,
people were falling down like nine-pins, and there was much holy laughter,
shaking, and other manifestations.... One could hardly see the carpet for
all of the bodies laying thereon! ... My pastor didn’t even touch me ... and
I was on that ground in no time at all! And for the first time ever, holy
laughter came over me, and I was laughing, and shaking, and laughing,
and shaking, and laughing ... for at least 30 minutes, maybe for an
hour!!!”27 Like the laughing mania in Africa, symptoms can last intermit-
tently for days. In his video The Coming Revival, Howard-Browne
describes an episode involving a man who became intoxicated with the
Holy Spirit “and laughed uncontrollably for 3 days.”28
During Toronto Blessing revivals, members made animal noises:
barking, roaring, meowing, and hooting. Some began cackling like chick-
ens, others chattered like monkeys.29 The Bible is filled with all manner
of livestock, from the guests on Noah’s Ark to sheep in the manger and
sacrificial lambs, so imitating such creatures is seen as natural. Here is a
firsthand account of a service during which people in the congregation
were asked to share their testimony with the group:
The first person ... went to the front, began to speak and after a few sentences
fell to the floor roaring and screeching. The leader reassured us that every-
thing was all right. This roaring, he explained, was caused by the Holy Spirit
... it is the roaring of the lion of Judah. This was apparently a common occur-
rence in their meetings. The speaker concluded his message by telling us that
the Holy Spirit was now moving in our midst and anyone who felt any shak-
ing, trembling, or numbness was to understand that those feelings or man-
ifestations were from the Holy Spirit and those who were experiencing those
things should raise their hands and a member of their ministry would come
and pray with them. Many people began experiencing this uncontrollable
shaking of their bodies. Many fell on the floor roaring and screeching. Some
were laughing hilariously.30
In explaining the animal noises during emotionally charged meetings,

many followers consider it to be prophetic, noting that “a man roaring
like a lion is God prophesying that He is coming soon as a roaring lion.”31

This is consistent with scripture suggesting that there would be strange
signs near the End Time. A disciple of the Toronto Blessing describes one
meeting: “That room sounded like it was a cross between a jungle and
farmyard. There were many, many lions roaring, there were bulls bellow-
ing, there were donkeys, there was a cockerel near me, there were all sorts
of bird songs.... Everything you could possibly imagine. Every animal you
could conceivably imagine you could hear.”32 Once you understand the
context in which these acts are occurring, they seem less strange.
Clashes of Old and New

Since the 1970s even government schools that do not actively promote
religious beliefs in their students have been the scene of hysterical out-
breaks of laughter in central and southern Africa. In July 1971, Ugandan
psychiatrist Joseph Muhangi, from Mukerere University in Kampala, was
sent to examine students who had seemingly gone berserk at their school.
Upon his arrival, Muhangi calmly conducted a series of interviews, piecing
together what had happened. The outbreak centered on the school’s poorest
performing student, a twenty-year-old man named Ugee, who was still in
the seventh grade. Though his performance was academically abysmal, he
was not a troublemaker, being ordinarily shy and quiet. One day, he began
laughing at things that did not seem funny. Soon Ugee was making strange
grimaces with his face and cryptic hand gestures, as if he was playing a
game of charades. Before long, he was ignoring his teachers and stopped
grooming himself. As a result, his appearance became unseemly, he began
to use vulgar language, he stopped wearing his school uniform, and he
wandered aimlessly about the school grounds and into the nearby bush.
Though Ugee was a far cry from one who would ordinarily be cast
in a leadership role, within days dozens of Ugee’s classmates were imitating
his actions: laughing, disobeying authority, making strange gestures, gri-
macing, and disregarding their own hygiene. The school was in chaos. By
now some fifty students were involved. Some pupils began to elaborate on
the original symptoms, acting in ways that the first student had not: throw-
ing stones, threatening violence and demanding to drink soda. Many
reported headaches.
While the other students and teachers could not have known it at the
time, Ugee would later be diagnosed with acute schizophrenia and be hos-
pitalized.33 But what of the others who were apparently not suffering from
mental illness? Muhangi noted that for many students the school environ-
ment was a place of “chronic anxiety.”34 The cause of the constant stress
was obvious even to an outsider. Many of the older students age 16 and
up had started school late and were in the same classes with much younger
students. Muhangi believed this situation sparked powerful “anxiety at
the thought of failure. Secondly, ... where the younger children were
achieving better academic results, the less fortunate older children were
resentful and ashamed of themselves for doing less well.”35 At the same
time, Muhangi identified another reason for stress: the school system had
recently introduced new ideas that were often in conflict with the teachings
of the students. Some of this frustration at being taught one thing at home
and another in school may have incited rebellion, including violence and
tossing stones.
Five years later, in May 1976, newspaper headlines in Zambia told of
a “mysterious madness” sweeping through a secondary school in the
remote village of Mwinilunga in the northwestern corridor. Jikita, seven-
teen, was sitting in class when her body began to twitch.36 At the same
time she began to laugh. The teacher said that Jikita’s eyes looked strange.
She began to recite poetry in a loud, gruff voice. Shocked onlookers later
said she appeared both confused and euphoric. Soon four more girls began
to act in a similar manner. A number of students in other classes, upon
seeing the commotion, grew anxious and began to act strangely, running
around the school aimlessly. By the end of the day, the six afflicted girls
were taken to a nearby hospital for evaluation. That night, more cases
appeared, wrenching several girls and boys from their sleep. They too had
to be taken to the hospital.
By morning of the second day, it was chaos. A “witch-finder” said the
“madness” was the result of contaminated food. Soon the finger of blame
was pointing at the cook, and the students were transformed into a torch-
bearing mob, intent on burning his house to the ground. Fortunately, he
got out of the house just in time and fled for his life as police were called
in to restore order. While this was going on, the food tests came back neg-
ative. On the third day of the outbreak, the school had to be closed and
all of the students were told to go home for two weeks. About 120 girls
and six boys were stricken. During the episode, many of the students wan-
dered about in a mental fog. Others were twitching, laughing, and running
about.37 Two psychiatrists at the scene blamed the episode on anxiety
caused by the new administration, which was cracking down on rules.38
When classes resumed, the students had returned to normal.
In June 1993, the laughing mania was back, this time in the small
southeast African nation of Malawi. On June 14, one hundred students
attending a girls’ Catholic boarding school in the country’s commercial
capital of Blantyre were thrust into the national media spotlight after
reportedly going berserk. Some were screaming; others laughed nonstop
for long periods. Some were weeping loudly, while others fell to the ground
and rolled in the dirt. A number of the girls threatened to do violence to
one another and had to be separated. Several wandered about speaking in
an unintelligible language. Some complained of a pain in the back of their
skulls. Curiously, when school was closed and the students were sent home,
the symptoms disappeared. Some refused to eat and wanted to be alone;
others showed a strange hypersensitivity to noise. Many claimed unaware-
ness of their bizarre actions. In all, 110 students at Stella Maris Secondary
School in Blantyre, about one in five, were affected.39
Within days of the outbreak, a team of psychologists arrived on cam-
pus, concluding that the key trigger was political tension. Just before the
outbreak, the girls had been forced to dance at a ceremony presided over
by the country’s then-president, Hastings Kamuza Banda. Banda’s office
always requested their presence whenever there were ceremonies in Blan-
tyre. But this performance was different. The invitation came at a time
when the government was under great international pressure to do away
with its one-party rule and become democratic. A national referendum
would soon be held, in which Malawians would decide on which system
to chose. A bitter rift split the country. While the girls had no choice but
to perform at the ceremony, they were not looked upon favorably. As their
bus was pulling away from Kamuzu Central Stadium, it was met with a
hail of stones from supporters of democratic rule. Not long after the girls
arrived back at their school, people walked up to the campus gates and
began tossing stones, this time warning that if the girls performed again,
they would be attacked. It wasn’t long before the strange fits broke out.
The young girls had found themselves in the middle of a political tug of
war. There was no way out. The psychological conflict was overwhelm-
ing.40
The girls were seething with frustration and anger at the hypocrisy
of their being forced to perform. One of the government’s new themes
was empowerment for women, but the girls were forced to comply with
the rigid rules at their traditional Catholic convent school. Tension rose.
Later that same day, a 16-year-old girl began to dance and scream while
complaining of a terrible headache. The next day, a classmate went into a
wild, screaming frenzy. She was taken to the hospital and given Fansidar,
a drug used to control malaria symptoms, because it was the only drug in
the entire hospital. Needless to say, it did nothing to combat her symptoms,
and it was not long before she was again screaming, weeping and with-
drawn. Before long, while another girl was quietly studying, she suddenly
had a screaming fit. When someone managed to get a hold of the powerful
sedative Valium, it had little effect and she continued to exhibit bouts of
screaming, interspersed with periods of laughter, through the following
day. After these first few cases, roughly fifteen students developed symp-
toms every day for the next week.41
On top of this political stress, the outbreak took place just before
final exams. Witchcraft, or fufu, is an everyday worry in Malawi, and
when the first few students began to act strangely, many of their classmates
grew anxious, fearing their friends had been hexed or charmed and that
they might be next. Many of the afflicted students and their parents were
convinced that with exams looming, some pupils had cast spells in order
to steal the brain power of fellow students. Witchcraft in Malawi can be
a complex affair. Some felt that the first few students to fall ill could have
been the perpetrators: Many Malawians believe that if someone tries to
cast a spell on another and the other person anticipates it, it can be reflected
back to the person or persons originating it and result in strange
behaviors.42 The school reopened after several weeks, but by then, the
laughing mania had spread to two nearby Catholic schools.
Reports of laughing mania continued in parts of Africa. On about
March 20, 2000, Okavango Community Junior Secondary School in remote
northern Botswana was closed for three weeks after an outbreak involving
ninety-three pupils. Some press reports described many students as appear-
ing to be in trances.43 At nearby primary schools in Gumare, students were
stricken with fits of laughing, weeping, and screaming. Some talked cease-
lessly for long periods. Others grew violent. Journalist Wene Owino noted,
“Afflicted students have caused injuries to their teachers and themselves
besides destroying school property.”44 School officials first suspected malaria,
but blood tests were free of the parasites. Some villagers attributed the episode
to witchcraft and demanded that school officials bring in a traditional healer,
but the administrators refused to bow to superstition.45 Violent acts were a
major factor in closing the school, as students threw all manner of dangerous
objects at their teachers and classmates. During one meeting between worried
parents and school officials, a student pulled out a rifle and began pointing
it at the gathering, forcing them to scatter like rats at a pest control conven-
tion. Police captured the student before anyone was hurt.46
Laughing mania outbursts across Africa highlight the remarkable link
between culture, hysteria and distress. These could have fostered racist
stereotypes in Europe and North America about Africans being innately
prone to superstition. It was one of the reasons used to justify colonial
intervention during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries: Clearly, such
people were incapable of governing themselves. Of course, nothing could
be further from the truth. Poverty, lack of education, and Western mis-
sionaries and their tent revivals likely contributed to the states of mind
that fostered the laughing mania. Religious beliefs, such as the belief in
the constant, watchful eyes of ancestor spirits, may also play a key role
promoting stress and anxiety. In recent years, mass hysteria in African
schoolchildren has taken other forms, from spirit possession to outbreaks
of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). These episodes reflect the
remarkable resiliency of the human mind.
Hell on Earth: Rwanda

Sometimes life becomes too painful to bear. During times of war, in
the wake of unspeakable acts of cruelty and surrounded by the stench of
death, survivors are left with psychological scars they carry with them to
their graves. Rwanda in 1994 was just such a place. Half a million people
were slaughtered over the course of a few months during ethnic unrest.
In April of 1997, some thirty teenage students from the Nyanza Secondary
School attended a solemn ceremony for the remains of their murdered
relatives. According to Rwandan psychiatrist Athanase Hagengimana and
his American counterpart Lawson Wulsin, “They developed acute emo-
tional reactions such as agitation, seeing vivid images of genocide” and
continued weeping for more than two days after the ceremony had ended.
The grief-stricken children, confused and overcome by emotion, fled the
scene. The government quickly ordered the school to close its doors. A
similar reaction took place during a later reburial service.47
Wulsin and Hagengimana report that in the wake of the killings, an
epidemic of mental disorders swept across the countryside. As a result,
the psychiatrists estimate that as many as twenty percent of all adults in
the country may be suffering from PTSD. “The sudden, overwhelming
trauma afflicting most civilians and the persistence of unpredictable
threats four years after the ‘end’ of the war (a period now commonly
known as ‘the insecurity’ in Rwanda) have caused an epidemic of PTSD
and related psychiatric disorders,” they note. In addition, there has been
a dramatic spike in the number of individuals with relatively minor phys-
ical complaints experiencing conversion disorder. In one case cited, a sol-
dier returned from the front lines after suffering sudden hearing loss,
paralysis to his right side, and inability to use his trigger or index finger.
In another instance, an unexplained loss of hearing beset a soldier whose
parents and siblings were killed in the genocide in January of 1998. Tests
of his ear by an expert revealed that his ear was in perfect functioning
order. This is not uncommon in cases of trauma and hysteria. It is as if

the mind is protecting itself from unspeakable horrors by shutting down
the ability to hear.48 It is also not uncommon in such cases for hysterical
blindness or paralysis to occur. Such problems are usually temporary and
function eventually returns.
Spirit Possession Among Nigerian Schoolgirls

In 1996, UCLA anthropologist Conerly Casey was in central West
Africa when he came upon an outbreak of mass hysteria. The previous
December, five girls attending a secondary school in Kano, Nigeria, had
been at a dance party when an elderly woman named Sumbuka appeared,
asking them to break up the festivities. They swore at her and told her to
go away. The woman grew furious, vowing revenge. Pointing toward the
girls, she said that they would be cursed for the rest of their lives, then left.49
In the following days the girls began to behave in a strange manner,
“foaming at the mouth and holding their arms like Inna,” a spirit blamed
for causing paralysis. Over several weeks, similar symptoms spread to a
whopping six hundred girls at secondary schools in the country. In addi-
tion to experiencing temporary paralysis, the girls would scream, cry and
break into “spontaneous dancing which resembled that performed in
Indian masala film.” Masala films usually involve plots that emphasize the
glories of romantic love, although arranged marriages remain common
in India. A similar situation occurs in Nigeria. Curiously, only girls of a
single ethnic background — the Hausa — were stricken, and of these, only
those with families originating in Kano. This was said to have been the
first time spontaneous dancing such as that featured in the Indian masala
films was seen by the Hausa. Local explanations for the hysteria included
witchcraft and spirit possession. During interviews with Islamic scholar-
healers, Casey was told that the cause of the mysterious behaviors was
either an invasion of foreign spirits from places like India “or new configu-
rations of known spirits and witches.”50
Casey set out to answer this question: Why did the hysteria affect
only Muslim Hausa secondary-school girls? Part of the explanation may
lie in the mental conflict between pressure to conform to local traditions
and the desire to follow outside ways. Their desire to emulate foreign ways
was a source of great stress. On the one hand, the Indian movies they were
watching promoted romantic love. On the other hand, most of these same
girls were likely to have an arranged marriage. To make matters worse, the
liberal girls who watched the Indian dancing movies were stereotyped by
school and religious authorities as criminals, drug abusers, and sexually

promiscuous. All of this tension was too great. Hysteria was the result.
The outbreaks of strange behavior also coincided with an epidemic
of meningitis that spread across northern Nigeria from November 1995 to
May 1996. The outbreak was terrifying, killing thousands and sickening
many more. The government responded with a massive inoculation cam-
paign in hopes of immunizing each and every person in the Kano metro-
politan area — six million in all. As more and more schoolgirls were
stricken during the winter of 1995, stories of spirit possession and witch-
craft abounded. It was during this time that many inhabitants began to
tell stories about Sumbuka, the old woman who was said to wander
through Muslim areas of the city, spreading both the girls’ hysteria and
meningitis. Soon many locals were placing ashes in front of their homes
to keep the evil woman away. According to one account, a police officer
had killed the woman just outside the city. During this same period,
rumors of teleportation began to circulate through the city. People told
stories of having entered taxis or buses that took them to such far off
places as Cairo, New Delhi, and Moscow, or of hearing such destinations
being called out during their trip.51
One religious official blamed the possession attacks on the girls,
claiming they were the result of impure lifestyles such as their taste in
music: “They listened to music and some sounds and we heard that the
source of their illness, Sumbuka, was that the girls were celebrating their
success on their qualifying exams so they stayed late in the night beating
drums and dancing. These are all what attracts the attention of the spirits,
so they came and joined the girls.”52
An Islamic Hausa teen allowed Casey to read his diary, which was
filled with examples of the contradictions faced by the youths, especially
their exposure to the media and the guilt and confusion that it generates:
“I have the Devil’s alter-nature in front of me now.... I am going to listen
to the music I like, hoping that it will not be a source of my ruin. It seems
to be a paradox, but for the meantime, it seems, I can’t help it. Yes, I
stopped watching TV, reading some novels. But some of these things give
one more experience in life. There is no point in stopping these when the
inner self yearns for them.”53
The Collegiate Life of Demons

The campus of St. John’s College, a church boarding school in
Umtata, Grahamstown, is situated along the beautiful eastern cape of
South Africa. On May 21, 1999, more than seven hundred students were
attending a morning prayer service when a scream pierced the reverie and
a single female student collapsed. Within minutes, at least fifty other stu-
dents lay on the ground. One authority described the scene as “complete
pandemonium.”54 What had been a quiet church service assumed the look
of a battlefield. Ambulances could not reach the scene quickly enough, so
students and teachers began using private cars to transport the stricken
girls to local clinics and the nearby hospital. When the girls arrived, puz-
zled doctors could find nothing wrong. Told of the circumstances of the
mass collapse, a diagnosis of hysteria seemed evident and the students
were quickly discharged. But the next morning at another prayer service,
once again scores of girls began to scream and collapse. This time even
more students were affected, some going into fits of jerking, others con-
vulsing. As the incident had begun while the school chaplain was offering
prayers, he and other priests tried to exorcise the girls’ “demons” by sprin-
kling them with holy water, but without success.
These fits persisted throughout the month of August and affected
more than a hundred students. During the outbreaks some went into
trance states and suffered bouts of screaming, crying, and writhing. Some
of the girls foamed at the mouth. Although the school was co-educational,
with a population of about fourteen hundred students, only girls were
affected. The episode forced the school to temporarily close. The symptoms
first appeared during an examination period. The fits were especially
intense during prayer time and at large gatherings.55 According to the
school chaplain, Reverend Ebenezer Ntali, “Many girls began to scream
or run wildly and most collapsed as their legs became wobbly. They were
biting on their teeth, foaming at the mouth and experiencing stomach
cramps that caused huge lumps just below their chests. There was also the
twitching and jerking of their bodies as if they had suffered epileptic
seizures, while their eyes rolled backwards until only the whites were vis-
ible.”56 Ntali expressed his view that the girls were suffering from demon
possession, known locally as amafufunyana.
In an attempt to banish the demons, Ntali conducted a mass exorcism
on June 9. His weapons were prayer, incense, holy water, and oil. His
stated goal was to get the girls to praise Jesus. Once again, this measure
failed. Following the exorcism, at least thirty-two of the girls were hospi-
talized with what medical personnel described as states of extreme
hysteria.57 Many reported terrific headaches. Bongeka Bulo, a nineteen-
year-old student who experienced some relief courtesy of the priest’s min-
istrations, recounted, “Many pupils also complained of excruciating
headaches, blindness and memory loss. The pain was terrible and it felt
as if something from inside my head was going to fall out. But it all stopped
once the priest started praying for us.” Makhosi Majozi, sixteen, said she
could recall only being stricken with a headache followed by the sudden
loss of sight: “I have no recollection of what happened next and when I
awoke I was in hospital.”58 According to Professor Felicity Edwards of the
Department of Religion and Theology at Rhodes University in Cape Town,
the incident was likely caused by anxieties associated with rapid social
change, such as the shift “from a peasant society to a competitive and con-
fusing western culture.”59
During their fits of screaming and fainting, many of the girls rolled
their bodies on the ground. Some reported seeing visions. Headache and
dizziness were also common. Some banged their heads against various
objects. Once the attack was over, most of the girls appeared to be perfectly
normal. Others seemed to be confused; some said they could not recall
their ordeal. Investigators identified several possible factors contributing
to extreme stress on the campus. These included exam stress, dissatisfac-
tion with hostel life, and rumors of satanic practices. In the latter case,
“there was a church nearby the school where the students and members
of the community believed that satanism was being practiced.”60
Attacks by Ghosts and Goblins

In 2000, anxiety and hysteria in African classrooms took a different
form as a series of ghost attacks were reported at primary and secondary
schools across Kenya. Rural schools were especially hard hit. At the
Kathuma Primary School in the Kitui district, evil spirits reportedly
invaded the school and tried to strangle students, who experienced breath-
ing difficulties.61 At the Kambaa school it was claimed that ghosts had
thrown stones onto the hostel roof during the night. Many girls believed
a staff member was responsible for conjuring the ghosts up. As usual, the
episode forced school officials to temporarily close their doors and send
the students home. The co-educational Gitogo secondary school was tem-
porarily closed in mid–July after several boys claimed to have been
attacked by ghosts in their hostel. The fear climaxed in a stampede, and
some students required hospital treatment.
The use of so-called ghost-busters is common in rural areas to get
rid of evil spirits, with some schools even holding fund-raisers to collect
money to hire witchdoctors. After a series of ghost attacks at the Itokela
Girls’ Secondary School in early June of 2000, a Kenyan businessman
reportedly confessed to triggering the episode by sending ghosts to the
school. He was arrested after many of the girls showed up at the district
commissioner’s office and asking that something be done. The ghosts
reportedly relished pushing the girls to the ground. The businessman’s
motive was said to have been to avenge his daughter, who had been so
unhappy with her treatment at the school that she eventually left. The
man ultimately agreed to pay for the spirits to be exorcised from the
grounds.62
A similar scare was reported in 2001. Concerned by the ongoing pres-
ence of a “mysterious illness” striking down students, the Loreto Day Sec-
ondary School in Kenya was closed in early October amid a devil-worship
scare. The mood at the Catholic school was tense. The school’s closing
spread fear to the neighboring Loreto-Matunda Secondary School. Uasin
Gishu district education officer Julius Bissem said it was imperative to
close the school in an effort to reduce the level of stress among students
“following claims that some students were engaged in devil worship.”
When interviewed by journalists in Eldoret town, students said that the
problems had begun to surface shortly after the school reopened for the
new term. Many students were upset that school officials had decided to
admit several Form Three students who had been suspended for allegedly
practicing devil worship. “Since we came back, ghosts have been visiting
our school,” said one of the disgruntled kids, “making students develop
mysterious diseases and more than 100 than have been admitted in hos-
pitals.”63
Not long before officials decided to temporarily close the facility, there
were reports that a local prophet was predicting that the building would
be destroyed by a fire. By now tension at the school was reaching a
crescendo. There were also rumors that the school was “being protected
against the Holy Spirit by an angel Rael.”64 The outbreak occurred amid
a backdrop of widespread fears within the region that devil-worship was
a major problem in many schools.
Goblin Scares in Zimbabwe and Ethiopia

In July 2002 a phantom goblin scare swept through the St. Mark’s
Secondary School in Mhondoro, Zimbabwe. The headmaster of the Angli-
can church school fled the campus and hid out amid claims by parents
that he was in control of tiny creatures that were sexually harassing female
pupils and teachers.65 The charges forced the school’s temporary closure;
the community was in an uproar over the accusations and angry parents
turned up at the school, trying to see the headmaster.
Students and teachers told journalists that they had been beaten by
invisible objects. At least 30 students said they had been attacked. One
teacher, who did not want to be identified for fear of being victimized,
said that some of the students were possessed by evil spirits: “I witnessed
one incident when a student went into a trance.... He was demanding
meat, threatening that after finishing with the students, the spirits would
attack the teachers next. We are living in fear here.” The outbreak coin-
cided with mid-term exams.66
With the headmaster in exile, the assistant principal suddenly found
himself having to deal with irate parents. He referred all inquiries to the
Ministry of Education, Sports and Culture, and issued a statement that
said, “Everything is now back to normal,” hoping to calm the community
unrest. But he reportedly kept his distance from the school in an effort to
avoid being cornered by hostile parents; his words were not taken seri-
ously — and the situation was still far from normal.67
The first signs of trouble had begun six weeks earlier when some stu-
dents claimed that “mysterious beings” were harassing them in their hostels
at night. The creatures were known as zvikwambo and mubobobo in Shona,
and tokoloshe in Zulu.68 According to one student, “About 30 students
have been victims of the attacks and we can’t bear spending another night
at this haunted place.... A friend of mine was bitten on the arm after she
wrestled with a ghost which wanted to sleep with her.”69 Some teachers
also claimed they were being sexually assaulted at night by strange crea-
tures. A written statement issued by some of the teachers read in part,
“Sometimes we get up in the morning to find the bedding mysteriously
wet and we suspect foul play.”70
During September 2002 another “mysterious hysteria” swept through
the co-educational Moleli High School, operated by the Methodist Church
in rural Msengezi, southeastern Africa. Symptoms included shaking of
the hands, legs, and shoulders, and “sleepwalking.” Some students wan-
dered about in a daze, oblivious to the world around them. Some victims
appeared to be possessed by spirits and seemed to be hallucinating. The
outbreak began on Saturday, September 7, when the first three pupils were
affected. Five more cases appeared the next day. By Monday, twenty-one
students were afflicted, and the total would eventually reach twenty-four.
Only female students, most from Form One and Form Two were
involved.71 According to school officials, concerned parents withdrew four-
teen of those exhibiting symptoms from the school.
One student was admitted to the Kutama Mission Hospital in Zvimba
after becoming violent. Doctors gave her a sedative to calm her, and she
was soon withdrawn from the school by her parents. Some worried parents
were said to be consulting with both physicians and prophets. For the
other affected girls, doctors prescribed Phenobarbital and painkillers. This
practice upset some psychiatrists, who complained that it was inappro-
priate without first conducting a thorough history of the students. One
surprising aspect of the case was the absence of symptoms once the stu-
dents returned to their homes and its reappearance once they returned to
the premises. A possible contributing factor was the rumor circulating at
the time that the spirits of twenty-two students who had drowned on Lake
Chivero in a 1995 boat accident were haunting the girls’ hostel. It was
believed that their spirits were targeting those affected. Amid the ghost
stories, girls claimed to hear voices at night, as well as the sounds of foot-
steps and a screaming child.
Ms. Kwadzanai Nyanungo, the chief education psychologist from the
Ministry of Education, Sport and Culture, says the episode was triggered
by “rumours and fear.” She says that every year her department learned
of one or two cases somewhere in the country, explaining that part of the
blame lies with the teaching staff for failing to address rumors in a timely
manner. According to Nyanungo, “Schools should take care of the kids
and parents must watch their kids and assist them to get confidence.”72
However, the secretary-general of the Zimbabwe National Traditional
Healers’ Association, Dr. Peter Sibanda, disagrees with the government’s
approach, noting that a similar outbreak of hysteria at the school about a
decade earlier was successfully handled using native healers. Sibanda says
an exorcist who was sent to the school had learned that a disgruntled for-
mer employee who was not being paid his pension had apparently cast a
spell. He said the hysteria stopped after locals were summoned “to disci-
pline the man.” It is Sibanda’s belief that some small-scale farmers in the
vicinity of Msengezi harbored supernatural creatures known as tokoloshis,
which may have been responsible for the school hysteria: “If these [beings]
lack socialisation, they go out to prey on females in the vicinity, in this
case girls at Moleli High School.” Sibanda said the outbreak could be
quelled if, with the community’s consent, a native healer was sent to the
school to capture the tokoloshis.73
“Ghost Attack” in Ethiopia

We have learned of a great many cases in which it appears that girls
are more susceptible to hysteria attacks than boys, but there have been
instances in which mass hysteria has occurred exclusively in males. During
the first week of February 2003 at Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia, at
least 36 male students fainted in the wake of concern over the unexplained
deaths of two fellow students the previous week. Rumors circulated that
the pair had been poisoned. According to the hospital authorities where
the fainting students were taken, “All the students complained of being
poisoned, but it could not find any evidence of this.” All tests were neg-
ative, including X-rays and analysis of urine, blood, and stool. While some
students complained of weakness, hospital physicians noted that “all their
vital signs were normal.” Fearing the further spread of mass hysteria, uni-
versity officials canceled exams.74
Ugandan Running Sickness

A case reminiscent of the laughing mania occurred in the village of
Kayayimba, Uganda, in July 2002. Symptoms included running, perceived
demon possession, visions, and various aches and pains. Some 30 people
were affected, mostly female. At one primary school, 18 stricken students
removed all of their clothing and began screaming and committing acts
of violence. One young woman, Annette Muhairwe, said, “All of a sudden,
I felt pain in the chest. My hand was aching and heavy. Sometimes, I could
see snakes, then fire, but I could not touch them. Even if I tried to show
other people, they could not see these things.”75
According to Dr. M. Kizito, health director for the Kiboga district,
the underlying stress triggering the hysteria was an epidemic of cerebral
malaria that was sweeping through the area. According to psychologist
Julius Kayiira, the intense stress triggered mass suggestibility that was
incubated in an environment of fear and witchcraft beliefs: “It is a kind
of collective consciousness. Something unusual happens and attracts peo-
ple’s attention, then people behave that way because of fear. And that fear
develops because of what they believe in.”76
Demons and Witches in Uganda

Reports of demon attacks on Ugandan school students have become
common in recent times. Between May and July 2004, Bisika Primary was
closed after students began acting strangely, speaking in a rapid, incoherent
manner while running around the school grounds. Some shook violently
as if given an electric shock; others stripped their clothes off and foamed
at the mouth. In order to stop their children from wandering off too far,
some parents resorted to tying them to pegs with ropes. Those affected
were under age 12 in grades 4 to 7. The outbreak resulted in the arrest of

a local witchdoctor, Isma Sserunkuuma, who had been accused by parents
of conjuring up the demons. A well-known traditional healer, Ben Ggulu,
was called in to rid the school of the demons, using chants, herbs and a
cow’s horn. As to why none of the male students were affected, locals spec-
ulated that the demons were only interested in virgin girls.77
Four years later scores of parents rushed to the Sir Tito Winyi Primary
School in the Hoima District after reports that over 100 students had gone
berserk. Head teacher Vincent Kitende described the scene as baffling and
out of control: “The situation is bad. About 100 pupils are totally mad.
They are chasing everybody including teachers and fellow pupils, throwing
stones, banging doors and windows. The situation is difficult to explain.”
It happened during the first days of term for the new school year. Kitende
said that a similar outbreak at the school during the previous year had
affected 210 pupils. That incident had resulted in the arrest of four resi-
dents, who were charged with casting spells on the school. Curiously, each
of the suspects had been involved in a land dispute with the school.78 The
2008 episode also involved a property dispute, as locals were blaming a
well-known land owner for triggering the “attacks.” According to the
newspaper New Vision, the outbreak began when a female student “started
barking like a dog. Then, others started shouting and pressing their stom-
achs, saying they felt a burning sensation in their stomachs. Children,
both boys and girls, dashed out of their classes. Many were crying. Some
fell to the ground and crawled. Others threw stones at people who were
rushing to the scene.” In order to calm the chaos, teachers and other adults
tied up the wayward students and brought them to church, where prayers
were offered and they soon recovered. Reporter Pascal Kwesiga went to
the school and noted a common belief in both students and parents that
a land dispute was the cause. He writes: “As the saying goes, when two
elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers. Juliet Katusabe and Lillian Kwik-
iriza had just begun the new school term last week when they were hit by
severe headaches. Then came sharp pain in their stomachs. And then,
darkness. Residents believe the children were attacked by demons, result-
ing from the land wrangles in Hoima District.”79
In October 2010, another witchcraft scare prompted the closure of
Nakasongola Junior Academy in the town of Migeera after an escalation
in the number of “spirit attacks” at the school. At least 26 students, out
of a total enrollment of 2,000, were taken to the local health center for
treatment of “physical injures.”80 In March of the following year, police
rushed to the Kitebi Primary School in the Rubaga Division after a group
of nearly 100 students attempted to kill a teacher whom they had accused
of practicing witchcraft. The school had to be closed to restore calm.

According to the deputy headmistress, Sarah Namutebi, the incident was
triggered when a student began shouting that a teacher named Naome
Wandera, wife of the head teacher, had concealed magical charms in the
compound. The situation soon spiraled out of control. Police managed to
rescue the woman, who was transferred to a police station outside of the
area for her own safety.81 In an effort to rid the school of the evil spirits,
a series of rituals were conducted by witchdoctors. Two goats, one cow, a
pair of chickens and six pigeons were apparently sacrificed during the rit-
uals. An angry mob of students and residents went to Naome’s home,
broke down the door and searched inside for evidence of witchcraft. Sev-
eral suspicious items were removed. All of her belongings were reportedly
taken by the group, leaving her with nothing.82
Elizabeth Ritchie observes that it seems more than a coincidence that
these demon attacks “often occur in schools where there is existing conflict
within the local community. It is not uncommon, for example, for evil
spirits to ‘attack’ pupils when there are property disputes involving school
land. Quite conveniently, they may attack when the school community is
in the process of being evicted by an unscrupulous developer.” This
upsurge in stress, coupled with the widespread belief in ancestor spirits,
may channel the form that these hysteria outbreaks take.83 It is worth not-
ing that many accusations of witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts, during
the 1690s appear to have stemmed from land disputes, and the labeling of
residents as witches may have been a way of settling old scores.84
Ugandan journalist James Onen believes that the belief in demons is
consistent with the worldview of the typical Ugandan: “The majority,
being conservative Christians, are quite happy to accept that it must be
evil spirits that are the cause of the strange behaviour of the children in
these schools. Add to this the fact that in addition to their conservative
Christianity, many whole-heartedly embrace the traditional African spir-
itual world-view, which includes a belief in the existence of ancestral spir-
its, who require continuous appeasement in order for good fortune to
prevail,” he says.85
Starting in 2009, a series of demonic “attacks” were reported in stu-
dents attending the Kitebi Primary School in Uganda. The attacks reached
a crisis in early 2011. Reporter Elizabeth Namazzi managed to interview
a parent of one of the students. The woman said that her granddaughter,
who had become possessed by demons at the school, was still being kept
away from the grounds. On the verge of bursting into tears, she recalls the
recent events at the “cursed school” and a major folk theory for what was
causing it. She said that it was thought that head teacher Godfrey Senfuma
was in love with fellow teacher Naomi Wandera and a secretary, and that
Wandera had become jealous of the secretary and placed charms around
the school grounds to harm her. It is claimed that Mr. Senfuma then
angered the spirits when he failed to follow the instruction of a witchdoctor
as he was apparently trying to defuse the conflict. Curiously, the school
was losing money because it was being forced to hire so many native heal-
ers to get rid of the spirits. The top native healer in the area, Sylvia
Namutebi (aka Mama Fina), was refusing to go to the aid of the students
because the school was unwilling to meet her asking price.86
During late September 2011, the Mugabi Primary School in Hoima
was in crisis following another outbreak of “demonic attacks” that
prompted a mass exodus of teachers from the school. Soon after, the stu-
dents also fled, fearing more supernatural attacks. This placed tremendous
pressure on head teacher Lydia Tusingwire, who was left to handle the
panic. During a public meeting aimed at addressing the situation, jour-
nalist John Kibego reported that people began shouting and collapsing to
the ground from “demonic attacks.” One of those stricken was Ms. Tus-
ingwire.
After she collapsed, some residents began chasing a prominent, eld-
erly gentleman named Yason Bagonza, who was widely seen as the chief
suspect. He was said to have “owned” the demons responsible. Police were
forced to fire their weapons into the air to disperse the crowd. They took
Mr. Bagonza and a colleague into custody. Bagonza was rumoured to have
been interested in acquiring the school’s land.87 In blaming the attacks on
Bagonza, one parent remarked: “My child in P. 7 was very bright but she
has become dense because of demon possessions. Whenever she is prayed
for, she demands to be taken to Yason [Bagonza]. They must be evicted.”
Bagonza reportedly had been evicted from a nearby village a decade earlier
for practicing witchcraft.88
Bewitched: “Love Madness” in South Africa

We have saved perhaps the strangest episode of behavior in an African
school for last. One of the most striking examples of the power of culture
on human behavior is the casting of “love spells” in some South African
schools. Love evokes powerful, sometimes contradictory, emotions. Cul-
ture can channel those emotions in unusual ways. This is especially true
during adolescence. When turned down for a date by a girl, boys from
many Western countries will often feel mild embarrassment or depression,
which wears off within a few hours or days. But not so in parts of South
Africa. There, where the existence of witchcraft and the casting of spells
is taken for granted, some boys refuse to take no for an answer. Instead,
they visit a native healer who specializes in concocting love potions. In
some parts of the country, the making of these potions is big business and
is taken very seriously. In many parts of Africa, witchcraft and the use of
spells and charms are unquestioned realities of everyday life. As a result,
many people walk around in a constant state of anxiety, fearing that they
may be the next victims of a witch’s hex — and they may fall head over
heels in love with someone whom at present they cannot stand.
In portions of South Africa, especially the region encompassing Natal,
the eastern cape, and Zululand, it has long been a common practice for
schoolboys who have been rebuffed in their attempts to date or marry a
girl to consult a healer to intervene magically and change the girl’s mind.
Girls who have turned away boys begin to fear that they may be the subject
of a love spell placed on them by a disgruntled suitor conspiring with a
native healer. In the wake of concerns that she may be the subject of mag-
ical warfare, over the course of weeks or months the tension between the
girl and her friends builds. Suddenly, she experiences what can be described
as bewitchment hysteria. In these regions, such reactions are common
among schoolgirls. Stories of girls “charming” boys are unheard of; it is
always the other way around. As early as 1900, there were many accounts
of South African students being stricken with episodes of strange behavior
known as umhayizo. It usually begins with fits of crying, hyperactivity,
and the irresistible urge to run. It is commonly believed that victims are
being pulled like a magnet toward their intended lover. Most girls even-
tually pass out from the mental stress. Historian Julie Parle and anthro-
pologist Fiona Scorgie note the pattern: “Teaching activities are regularly
interrupted by the sound of high-pitched wailing, classroom doors being
flung open and the sight of at least one girl running out into the courtyard,
screaming and cradling her head in her arms. Usually, she is soon followed
by others, for the umhayizo is apparently ‘infectious’: one girl’s screaming
sets off others.”89
Making Sense of It All

Hysteria outbreaks in African schools may seem alien to observers
in Europe and North America. The recipe for outbursts is stress and belief
systems that include the unquestioned reality of witches, ghosts and ances-
tor spirits. Yet we do a serious injustice to these peoples by underestimat-
ing the influence of the culture and context of their behaviors. When faced
with overwhelming, unrelenting stress, the human mind finds creative

and unexpected ways to adapt to its plight given its unique view of the
world. In Western countries, hysteria epidemics are dominated by over-
breathing, nausea, headache, and fainting, often in episodes triggered by
the detection of strange odors that turn out to be harmless. Such outbreaks
and their symptoms are rare in Africa. Conversely, outbreaks of laughing,
ghost attacks, and spirit possession are rare in Western countries today.
It is a mistake to use Western frames of reference to analyze non–
Western behaviors.90 African beliefs about the nature of the world are so
radically different from those in Europe and North America that they seem
abnormal and bizarre. Africans who believe in ancestor worship talk to
their dead relatives every day. To them the existence of these ancestors is
real. It is no wonder that social delusions and mass hysterias in African
students involve the belief that the ancestors are unhappy. Far from illus-
trating the primitive and irrational side of humanity, these episodes high-
light the remarkable diversity of human beliefs. No less remarkable is the
impact the beliefs can have in fostering outbreaks of mass hysteria and
social delusions. The episodes are cries for help, attempts to relieve stress.
Part ritual, part hysteria, they are culturally acceptable, if sometimes
shocking, ways to resolve problems created by a clash of cultures— the
East and the West — and of generations— the young and the old. They may
seem crude and bizarre, but are often effective in bringing about much
needed change by signaling to the wider community that something is
amiss.
CHAPTER 6
The Meowing
Schoolgirls of Fiji
Accounts from the Islands
We are all tattooed in our cradles with the beliefs of our tribe;
the record may seem superficial, but it is indelible. You cannot
educate a man wholly out of superstitious fears which were
implanted in his imagination, no matter how utterly his reason
may reject them.— Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.1
In 1624, the English poet John Donne wrote, “No man is an island,
entire of itself.” These words are even more true today than in Donne’s
day. Island cultures— misty, romantic, exotic, and remote — are known
for harboring extraordinary customs and beliefs, sheltering their inhabi-
tants from the hustle and bustle of the ever-changing outside world. For
centuries the ocean served as a moat against invasion, either from troops
of soldiers or troupes of tourists—for cultural invasions have been nearly
as devastating as military ones. Yet during the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries, no place remained untouched by the hand of civilization. The
inevitable contact with outsiders brought new ideas that were often in
conflict with native beliefs. In many cases, native groups had lived for
hundreds or even thousands of years with little change to their daily rou-
tines— then, within a generation, everything changed. The arrival of
multinational corporations and a cash economy often meant the locals no
longer had to hunt or gather or tend to animals or gardens. Processed
foods became widely available. Access to new drugs brought about mirac-
ulous cures— and new addictions. Schools with books touting Western
practices and beliefs such as monogamy, Christianity, and democracy
trapped students in a conflicted, twilight world that was neither Western
nor native. The result was an outbreak of strange mental afflictions.
Nowhere was the battleground between the old and the new more evident
121
than in island schools. They were the front lines in the war of ideas between
island ways and the outside world.
New Guinea Nursing Madness

Papua New Guinea is the island that time forgot. Its steamy jungles
are home to the most exotic tribes on earth to a Western eye. Over the
past two centuries, this Pacific island has gone from the Stone Age to the
Computer Age with the clearing of airstrips, the arrival of cargo ships, the
building of missionary schools, and the Japanese invasion during World
War II. But this rapid transition from the old to the new has taken a toll
on the country’s youth.
An outbreak of hysteria at the Australian nursing school in Tele-
fomin, a village in the rustic highlands of western Papua, began with a
terrific headache. It was February 22, 1973. Ara, a twenty-year-old graduate
of the local mission nursing school, was working at the school clinic when
she was overcome by a strange head pain.2 Her stomach began to churn
and she felt like vomiting. Her arms and legs started to shake wildly. Ara
was in the right place to be sick, and her nursing colleagues knew exactly
what to do. She was rushed to the hospital and given a battery of tests.
The doctors checked Ara for a variety of ailments. Every test was neg-
ative and she was released, but the fits continued. During these spells, she
grew confused, started shaking, and passed out. Later she could not recall
any of the events during her seizure. Ara’s fits “made a deep impression
on those closest to her — the nurses, for she was the most senior girl in the
school, and greatly liked.”3 This was but the first of a series of strange mal-
adies to baffle residents of the region from 1973 through 1974.
On October 21 the strange malady spread. The second victim was
Ferah, a fifteen-year-old girl from the local primary school. Ferah knew
Ara and had seen her go into her fits. On that day, Ferah was walking home
when she was overcome by a headache. She grew confused, was struck
deaf, and felt a wave of cold sweep through her. She began striking at
others with her fists, throwing stones, and lunging with sticks until
bystanders were able to subdue her. No one thought to summon a doctor
or even a psychiatrist. Instead, her friends took her to a witchdoctor, who
tried to exorcise the evil spirits that were thought to be controlling her.
The exorcism failed. Only then was she taken to the local health center,
where a twelve-year-old girl named Karolina was being treated for a
sprained knee. She watched with curiosity as Ferah was brought in, fussing
and flailing about. As Karolina left for home she too began to complain
6. The Meowing Schoolgirls of Fiji 123
of a headache and confusion. Her eyes had a strange, wild look. Karolina
grabbed a stick and started whacking bystanders and had to be dragged,
kicking and screaming, back to the health center. For two days she lay in
a hospital bed without uttering a word, occasionally striking out, before
her father brought her home, where an exorcism was held to cast out the
bad spirits.
Over the next few weeks, more and more students were stricken. By
November 10, the toll was sixteen girls. The pattern was similar, beginning
with ai raum (feeling faint), and tingting faul (mental confusion), then
hed i pen (headache). Some reported feeling drowsy (hed i hevi). Many
said they felt a sudden chill and were struck deaf. In addition to partial
amnesia, some became unsteady on their feet, teetering about, while others
toppled over.
To most of the girls and their parents, the cause of the strange illness
was obvious: spirits of their ancestors (usong) or wandering bush spirits
(magarini) had been offended. Perhaps someone had said or done some-
thing to outrage a dead relative. Perhaps one of the students had trespassed
onto the territory of the bush spirits. Something had to be done to right
the wrong, so exorcism ceremonies were held for most of the girls.
In Ferah’s case, the day she was stricken she had been playing bas-
ketball at school when a snake slithered across the court. Instinctively, she
hurled the ball at it in hopes of killing it. Realizing that it may have been
a bush spirit, she tried reviving it with water, but it was too late. It was
then that she was stricken. The snake encounter and the conflict between
the liberal customs of the school and those of the elders may have been
what tipped her over the edge. An exorcism was held that night. To appease
both the bush spirits and the ancestors, a pig was slaughtered and the spir-
its were ordered to leave her body. Another girl — Delunga — didn’t get off
so easily: During her exorcism, a pig was tied to her wrist. The animal was
then shot with a hail of arrows and chopped up. Its liver was ripped out,
cooked and given to the poor girl to eat. It is hard to imagine this ceremony
would reduce her stress level. Some older men blamed the outbreak on
students who ignored female taboos. For instance, women are not allowed
to eat many types of bananas and taro roots and certain kinds of game.
The spirits were supposedly angry because women were eating these for-
bidden foods.4
Anthropologist Stephen Frankel talked with many of those stricken
and saw many fits firsthand, noting that many girls became violent: “Run-
ning was common, and attacks were made using any handy objects as
weapons; they chose sticks and stones or just fists and feet, but never
knives or arrows.” Yet something was odd. Frankel noted that the violence
“was never indiscriminate despite their apparent loss of conscious control;

they attacked close relatives, contemporaries and children most frequently,
and avoided authority figures. They inflicted no serious injuries.” While
some girls shouted verbal abuse, most were silent when they attacked,
operating in stealth mode. After being restrained, most of the girls
returned to normal within several hours, though two were disturbed for
up to two weeks. Weeping and emotional volatility were prominent fea-
tures in four others. There was no evidence that anyone had ingested any
drug including alcohol, hallucinogenic mushrooms, cannabis, pandanus
leaves or betel nut.5
In all, nearly two dozen females between the ages of twelve and thirty
were stricken. Frankel soon realized that those suffering the worst were
the most Westernized. They experienced symptoms for an average of
twelve days or longer, compared to just over four days for those who had
not been as exposed to Western ways. Tribesmen in that region are infa-
mous for their domination of women. Females are restricted to pastoral
duties: tending gardens, animal husbandry, child care, and food prepara-
tion. They must adhere to female taboos, and their sex lives are strictly
controlled. Marriages are arranged, with little means of redress against
abusive or demanding husbands. The women are expected to remain quiet,
loyal, and obedient to their husbands. They cannot quarrel with their eld-
ers and must keep their frustrations inside. Conflicts between these tra-
ditions and Western ideas were evident in the nursing students. In one
case, Aranga had married the “wrong” man over the protests of her parents.
In January 1973, after constant bickering with her parents, she left her
home village to live with her husband, Jonah, in his village. Unfortunately,
Jonah left Telefomin in February to attend college at Wewak. It was shortly
after his departure Aranga had the first of her fits. She was taken to the
Wewak Hospital, near where Jonah was studying, and made a rapid recov-
ery. But when she left for Telefomin again, her fits returned. After a time,
she made arrangements to live with her husband at Wewak and her symp-
toms again disappeared. Frankel thinks Aranga could not handle the pres-
sure and conflict in her life without her husband’s presence, support and
confidence. Hysteria was the result.6
Most marriages in Aranga’s village were arranged. But some of the
women, especially the more liberal, educated ones like those at the nursing
school, were able to choose their own partners. Their freedom came at a
heavy price — the wrath and condemnation of friends and relatives for
not following the old ways. The mental burden was too much to bear, and
the young women developed inner conflicts. Frankel notes that two other
affected girls, Terena and Deerna, were trying to avoid marrying the part-
ners that had been chosen for them and were having affairs with other
men. These and other women who were stricken with the hysteria were
under tremendous pressure from their families to follow their elders’ deci-
sions.7
One women, Juseh, refused to marry the partner chosen by her elders
and instead eloped. Her parents eventually succeeded in poisoning the
relationship, but she still refused to marry the man chosen for her. Her
life became miserable as a result of her defiance, with one quarrel after
another with relatives. During one confrontation, “a stick was thrust into
her vagina.” The daily barrage of physical and verbal abuse became
unbearable and she eventually married the man chosen by her parents.8
The “nursing madness” took place at a time of extraordinary tension
and strife between the young and old. The elders, who exert strong pressure
on young people to conform to traditional island ways, came into conflict
with modern Australian ways. Many at the nursing school had grown to
like Western lifestyles through their contact with European teachers.9
While Frankel is confident that hysteria was the main culprit for the
strange fits at Telefomin, others are not as sure.
Was It Mushroom Madness?

In October 1954 Australian anthropologist Marie Reay was visiting
the Southern Wahgi Valley in the Papua New Guinea Highlands when she
saw something extraordinary. At least 30 people from one village were act-
ing strangely. The men ran amok, decorating themselves, grabbing bows
and arrows or spears, chasing people around and threatening to kill them.
Many young adults and children seemed to react to the goings-on as a
game, dodging behind houses and peeping out, at times calling out to
those affected, seemingly getting them angry on purpose as if to incite
them into doing further violence.10 The women affected stayed in their
huts, going into fits of giggling and recounting both real and fantasized
sexual escapades. Many of the women had delusions they were not mar-
ried.
At first, the explanation seemed simple: The natives had eaten a batch
of hallucinogenic mushrooms, resulting in an outbreak of so-called mush-
room madness. Reay thought the episode was a way for the locals to get
rid of their pent-up troubles and frustrations— what a psychiatrist might
term a social catharsis. The bizarre behavior even had a name —(Komugi
Taï, to the locals)— and was attributed to eating a fungus called nonda.11
While the Kuma eat this fungus year-round, on occasion during the late
dry season, the fungus appears to have hallucinogenic properties. Reay

observed that eleven males and nineteen females out of a village of three
hundred and thirteen began acting strangely.
In 1963 two botanists, Roger Heim of France and R. Gordon Wasson
of the United States, went to New Guinea and met Reay, and together they
gathered samples of nonda that she had identified as being eaten during
the “madness.” They later determined that the “mushrooms— or at least
most of them — do not seem to cause physiological effects leading to mad-
ness.”12 As a result, Reay felt the temporary madness she saw was caused
by mass hysteria.13 Based on further analysis, Wasson later speculated that
one of the mushrooms eaten by the Kuma (Beletus manicus) could produce
effects similar to those reported during “mushroom madness.”14 But why
only during one time of the year? More recently, Australian botanist Ben-
jamin Thomas has argued that acute nicotine poisoning is to blame. Based
on the symptoms described during the “madness” and analysis of local
plants, Thomas identifies two types of tobacco commonly eaten by the
Kuma during the Komugi Taï that could account for the strange behav-
iors.15 This hypothesis is supported by Reay’s observations that many of
the Kuma have been seen chewing and swallowing tobacco during the
Komugi Taï outbreaks.16 Thomas also suggests that other forms of “tem-
porary madness” in Papua New Guinea, such as the strange events in Tele-
fomin, could be nicotine poisoning.
The similarities between Thomas’s description of acute nicotine poi-
soning (shivering, altered vision, deafness, confusion, tinnitus, and inter-
mittent aphasia) and the symptoms of “mushroom madness” at Telefomin
are striking. Lilliputian hallucinations (named for Lilliput, an imaginary
country in Jonathan Swift’s novel Gulliver’s Travels, where everything was
tiny) are common during nicotine intoxication. Consider the description
of a Kuma man observed by Reay. Exhibiting key features of nicotine poi-
soning, the man “began to experience Lilliputian hallucinations, seeing
bush demons flying about his head. The demons were allegedly buzzing
about his head when he heard a strange and terrible noise ‘inside his ears’
which he interpreted as a bush demon boxing his ears. The onset of the
noise was like a clap of thunder, but it stayed with him throughout his
attack and, being loud, deafened him to the ordinary sounds like human
voices and the grunting of pigs.” It wasn’t long before he had trouble see-
ing:
The disturbance of hearing and eyesight was frightening and confusing. All
objects a komugl man saw in front of him while running seemed to him to
be rushing towards him.... According to men who had been komugl ... [they]
saw human beings simply as moving objects unless they were very close. The
visual sensation of movement in a horizontal direction (like people running

or walking) angered him because it irritated his eyes.... His eyes were wild
and fierce, with a piercing brightness. They began to travel upward until
only the whites were showing. The komugl man had periodic rests from his
wild running about.17
Even so, such explanations appear to have a social and cultural structuring.
Determining which symptoms are the result of psychotropic substances
and which behaviors result from social and cultural factors is difficult.
Both may play a role.
Evil Spirits Invade a Fijian School

On November 13, 1968, a telephone call to a medical officer at Labasa
Hospital on the Fijian island of Vanau Levu told of strange happenings at
Qawa Primary School. Racing to the school, he found thirteen girls of
Indian heritage acting in unison, as if an outside force was controlling
them. They were overbreathing; huffing, puffing, and gasping for air. Some
were standing, some sitting; others would slump over, appearing to pass
out, then quickly recover.18 Eight of the girls were sent home while the
remaining five were taken to the hospital for a closer examination. Except
for a slight fever of 99° F — which could be explained by their exertion —
doctors could find nothing wrong. Hours later, they were released to their
parents.
Fijian government doctor R.G. Randall went to the school, where he
found that the “mysterious illness” had begun with twitching muscles and
difficulty breathing in a single pupil in early October. On November 8,
two of the girl’s classmates were stricken with similar symptoms. The next
day, more girls fell ill. Before long, seventeen girls between the ages of
twelve and fourteen were twitching and gasping. None of the Indian boys
at the school were affected.19
The twitching struck only Hindu schoolgirls. Their parents were cer-
tain the problem was angry spirits. But why? It seems that a nearby pool
had been desecrated and the spirits needed to be appeased. The malady
eventually went away, but it took a huge community effort.
Randall was able to trace the outbreak to a twelve-year-old girl named
Preta who had a long history of emotional disturbance, including hysterical
blackouts and overbreathing. The girl had made many visits to doctors
and native healers before the Qawa outbreak.20
On November 14 most of the stricken girls were taken to an Indian
healer by their parents. Randall requested that they meet with psychiatrist
D.N. Snell at the hospital the next day, but only one pupil showed up.
During the meeting she reported feeling “dizzy and strange” and soon
“began to over breathe and twitch her hands and arms.” Calmly, Dr. Snell
soothed her agitation, and she began to calm down and recover. The next
day, authorities were able to convince five of the girl’s parents to bring
them to the hospital. Snell found the girls “sitting on a bench on the hos-
pital verandah. Each was hyperventilating with hands and arms twitching
and meowing sounds coming from their throats in perfect chorus and
identical pitch. Each was sent off singly, their symptoms subsiding as they
left.”21
By November 25, five more pupils were affected, bringing the total
to 18. After Snell’s visit the school followed his advice and closed for one
week. The symptoms gradually subsided and the school soon reopened.
Inwardly skeptical of Snell’s advice even while following it, most of the
parents remained convinced that the cause of the trouble was a bulldozing
accident that had damaged part of a sacred pool near the school play-
ground. The parents believed that the girls were possessed by a supernat-
ural force and it was up to them “to determine which power or spirit
(shaitan) had been roused and how it should be exorcised.”22
The girls’ parents weren’t shy in seeking help and didn’t care where
it came from as long as it worked. The girls were from the Hindu part of
town, but the Hindu healer had failed. Ever practical, they next knocked
on the door of a Muslim sorcerer called Amina. She had reputedly acquired
powers from the neighboring island of Taveuni. She lived in the nearby
village of Bulileka. There she met with seven pupils, and during her healing
ceremony, she placed her hand behind the head of each girl and rubbed
coconut oil on her throat, all the while telling her to be calm and not
worry. “Immediately the hysteria left the girls and they calmed down.”
The parents breathed a sigh of relief. The ordeal of the spirits tormenting
their daughters seemed to be over. But the drama was just starting. Within
twenty minutes after they left Amina’s compound with their parents, the
girls again broke out in twitching and overbreathing. They returned to
the compound, believing it to be a holy place of protection. Having failed
to keep the spirits away, Amina told school officials that they should
approach the Fijian owners of the pool to ask if they would let a Fijian
healer conduct a ceremony that would appease the disturbed spirits by
presenting them with a yaqona, the Fijian national drink. For centuries
Fijians have offered this drink in appeasement rituals, believing it would
help regain favor from the spirit world.23 Would educated school officials
on Fiji take the advice of an Islamic witchdoctor? Absolutely.
Before long a powerful Fijian chief named Poe was conducting the
ceremony, offering yaqona to the pool spirits. He explained that the dam-
age was an accident and that those involved were sorry and should be for-
given. After the ceremony, Poe told the girls to go home to their parents
but as they left they were again stricken.24 Exhaustion and frustration set
in among the parents, and the girls. They had sought help from three sep-
arate native healers, a Hindu, a Muslim, and finally a Fijian. Each had
failed. The parents decided to try another Hindu healer, but not just any-
one. They called on the great Mara Sirdar, the island’s top pujari, or “man
of prayer,” who was known for fire walking. Sirdar worshipped Ganesh,
the elephant god. The parents pleaded with him to come to the school and
rid their children of the haunting spirits. He agreed.
First he made talismans out of white cloth, filling them with holy ash
and chopped margosa leaves. Tying them together with yellow cotton
string, he took the talismans and went straight to the school, where he
checked the grounds in an effort to detect the evil spirits. He said the place
was clean and ordered two of his aids to get the girls and bring them there.
The girls had been staying at Amina’s compound because they felt it offered
protection. As soon as they left the compound, the twitching and breathing
fits came back. Mara Sirdar’s assistants managed to calm the girls by plac-
ing a dot or bhabut on the center of their foreheads. The girls were taken
to the school.
Mara Sirdar again called on Ganesh to help the girls. He told them
not to be afraid and walked over to each one, placing a talisman around
each of their necks. Walking the girls to the holy pool, he burned camphor
at the pool-side, offered the spirits milk, then poured yaqona at spots
around the pool. He called out to the pool spirits, asking for forgiveness,
apologizing for the bulldozing of the stone. He tried to instill confidence
in the girls, noting that they had to believe in order for the ceremony to
work. He told the girls that since the rites had been conducted, “the spirits
had been appeased. There was therefore no reason why the girls’ affliction
should continue and so they had nothing further to fear from the spirits.”25
To be certain, he ordered a great Puja ceremony to be held the following
Sunday at the school. When the day came, some of his followers prepared
a holy area. They cut the grass, spread cow dung, and dug a pit in the mid-
dle, into which they placed mango twigs to be used for a sacred fire.
To an outsider, the ceremony might have seemed like mumbo-jumbo,
but to the girls it had the real power to heal them. Said an observer: “All
those girls who participated in these ceremonies apparently recovered.
The only girl who was treated exclusively with Western medicine appar-
ently did not.” When school resumed the following day, five of the original
girls got nervous and began to overbreathe. Two were sent home. After
that day the school fits never recurred, though Preta, the “trigger girl,”
was recuperating at home.26
The case of the Qawa schoolgirls illustrates how people of diverse
backgrounds, living as neighbors, can resolve problems. Indian and Fijian
residents “combined their beliefs and rituals to appease the spirits and as
far as they were concerned, to cause the girls to recover and to remove the
troubles from the school and to prevent further troubles from occurring.”27
The episode appears to be a case of motor hysteria triggered by the buildup
of anxiety in those who saw the first girl stricken, compounded by the
belief that disturbed spirits were possessing the girls as revenge for the
desecration of a swimming pool. Once the girls were convinced that the
spirits were appeased and had some reassurance from authorities, their
anxiety subsided along with their symptoms.
Fijian Kidnapping Scare

In November 2003, there was a series of alarming reports that students
were being targeted by a mysterious squad of kidnappers whose intentions
were as unclear as they were disturbing. The young boy whose reports
ignited the furor told of his victimization at the hands of a roving band
of shadowy conspirators. According to the boy, he was on his way to school
when a car screeched to a halt beside him. Leaping from the car, his
unknown assailants grabbed him, hustled him into the vehicle, blind-
folded him, and sped away. Here details become hazy, as the boy said he
was then drugged. When he came around he found himself on a slab in a
makeshift operating theater. Somehow, the terrified youngster eluded his
captors, and made his way to police headquarters. Word of the boy’s har-
rowing ordeal got out and before long similar reports started to come in.
But as the police followed up on the boy’s story they grew more skeptical.
They began to suspect that the boy made up the story as an elaborate ruse
to cover up his playing hooky from school on the day of the supposed
abduction. Further investigation of similar reports led authorities to deter-
mine that the claims were not true and were instead part of a student
abduction scare.
Police Commissioner Andrew Hughes said that there was another
possible explanation: pure fantasy. “We have found that the kids who make
such claims are disturbed. They come from broken families and they spec-
ulate the story of being kidnapped to seek attention and this is dangerous.”
In another incident, an investigation of a report of masked men trying to
kidnap students in a boarding school proved to be without merit. As a
result of the emotional frenzy whipped up by the students’ stories, two

men erroneously identified as abductors were beaten by locals. Fortunately,
their injuries were not life-threatening.28
Devil and Fairy Scares in the Philippines

An elementary school in Manila, the Philippines, was temporarily
shut down in January 1994 when about twenty Filipino students went into
an emotional frenzy after imagining they saw the devil standing under a
schoolyard tree. Afterwards, six female students fainted, including Joy
Bolante, twelve, who kept screaming, “There is no God! There is no God!”
as she struggled against several adults who were trying to calm her. The
affected students were later taken to a nearby Roman Catholic church,
where a priest dabbed them with holy water and said prayers for their
recovery. The devil the students claimed to have seen was “a gigantic man
who has horns and a tail,” according to another twelve-year-old pupil,
Marilyn Umpat.29
Nine years later, in 2003 a school in Bagabag, Nueva Ecija, was tem-
porarily closed after evil spirits were reported to have taken control of
many students. Though the school is co-educational, only girls were
attacked. The episode began one day in early July when about twenty-five
girls fainted “almost one after the other.” When they regained conscious-
ness, the girls began acting strangely. It was widely believed that the girls
were possessed by the spirits of soldiers who had died during World War
II and were buried nearby.
“[One of ] the possessed students displayed extraordinary strength.
It took four male students to restrain her,” said teacher Joel Fariñas.
Another teacher, Gloria Jasmin, said that some of the possessed students
began speaking in odd ways, as if someone else was in control of their
minds. Some spoke in deep, harsh voices; others spoke softly. Some let
out piercing screams. Rumors abounded that the high school was built
atop a graveyard used by the Japanese during the occupation. Locals said
that the area had remained vacant until the high school was built on the
site.
In an attempt to appease the angry spirits of the dead, several area
priests were called in from the local Catholic and Aglipayan churches.
They walked through the school, sprinkling it with holy water. A local
witchdoctor, or albularyo, told the teachers that drastic action was needed
in order to stop the attacks. He recommended they dig a hole on the school
grounds, then kill a pig, cut its head off, and bury it in the hole. For the
offering to work, the teachers would have to eat some of the pork. He said
the act should make the spirits happy. The advice was followed and the
outbreak soon subsided.30
In mid–January 2004, a series of fairy sightings at the Rizal Elemen-
tary School in Iloilo, the Philippines, made headlines; reporters from at
least two different news agencies went to the school to interview the stu-
dents and teachers. On the morning of January 16, a fourth-grade teacher,
Ms. Hermie Orieno, had her students cleaning the schoolyard. During the
pickup, students claimed to have seen dwarves about an inch high. One
of the students, Carol, said the creatures had talked to her, saying their
names were Wenden and Wendy and they wanted to be friends.31 About
half the class said they had seen the fairies. One student went inside to
find Orieno, who ran out but saw nothing. According to a reporter who
interviewed the girls, one of the girls said, “Do you see this leaf here that
is moving while the rest of the leaves are not? Ms. Orieno said yes. That’s
because one of the dwarves is right now hanging in there and moving it.”32
Orieno still saw nothing, but apparently believing in fairies and to be on
the safe side, she apologized to the creatures and said she was sorry if any
of the children were bothering them.33
The human mind has a fascinating propensity to see and experience
what it expects. It should come as no surprise that many Filipinos believe
in fairies. Given the tendency for the mind to fool itself, and the imperfect
nature of our senses— human perception is notoriously unreliable and
subject to the observer’s mind set — it may be appropriate to turn the
tables on the old adage and say, “Believing is seeing.”
The “Devil” Appears in a Trinidad School

During the second week of November 2012, panic swept through the
Moruga Composite School on the island nation of Trinidad and Tobago
in the Caribbean after reports that students were attacked by a devil. In
all, 17 female students were stricken with strange behaviors. The girls expe-
rienced nausea and headaches, then rolled on the ground, hissing and con-
versing in a mysterious language. Some ran around the room screaming
before collapsing in a trance-like state. According to the Trinidad
Guardian, two of those affected had to be restrained as they tried to leap
off a railing. One student observer, Kern Mollineau, described a frightful
scene: “One girl was blabbering as if in a strange language. I could not
understand what she was saying. It was sounding like ‘shebbaberbebeb
shhhhee.’ The girls were unusually strong. We had to hold them down so
that they will not hurt themselves. The teachers were right there. I get a
kick in my face when one of the girls started beating up on the floor. Many
of them had bruises.” Mollineau said he had communicated with the
“devil” that had possessed one of the girls. “I asked the Devil what he
wanted with the girls and the voice said he wanted a life. He kept saying
to send the girls in the toilet and to leave them alone.”34
A number of priests and pastors from nearby schools rushed to the
scene in order to quell the situation. Some of them began showering stu-
dents with holy water and reciting prayers. Police and emergency person-
nel were also at the school. Tests of the buildings yielded no toxic
substances. One of the teachers suggested that the attacks may have been
some type of supernatural revenge by a woman who had visited the school
two weeks earlier over a dispute. Another teacher suggested that the out-
break was caused by the school having been built on a burial ground. The
students were examined at a nearby hospital and quickly released.35
In her commentary on the episode, local journalist Marion O’Callaghan
noted that a belief in the supernatural was on the rise among the middle
and upper classes, lending legitimacy to a variety of beliefs and their con-
sequences. “Until recently, witchcraft and devil possession beliefs were
not considered ‘respectable’ in the Trinidad professional or upper middle
class, i.e., the segment of society expected to be exposed to rational expla-
nation. Pentecostalism, with its emotional manifestation of the spirit, was
considered a lower middle class or working class religion.” She observes
that in recent times there has been an increase in “anti-intellectualism”
and “a fundamentalist interpretation of the Bible,” leading to a tendency
for events “to be explained in terms of miracles, the devil, punishment for
personal sins, Government sins of omission or commission and, curiously
for Catholics, the sins of dead ancestors. Surrounded by evil spirits, we
are in constant spiritual warfare.”36
O’Callaghan notes that the region where the affected school lies—
Moruga, one of Trinidad’s poorest and remote areas— has been experi-
encing great economic strain from the collapse of the local fishing industry
and plantation economy, forcing graduates to leave home in order to find
viable work. “It means leaving Moruga and often separating from family
and friends. That the school is a composite school tells the story of an
education system which offers little possibility of upward social mobility.
For those teenage girls the adolescent transition is one of acute insecurity.
Enough to explain hysteria without the help of the devil,” she said.37
CHAPTER 7
Strange Tales from

Latin America
[Believing that] man is an animal suspended in webs of significance he him-

self has spun, I take culture to be those webs, and the analysis of it to be
therefore not an experimental science in search of law but an interpretive
one in search of meaning.— Clifford Geertz1
Latin America spans an area from northern Mexico to the tip of
Argentina and comprises approximately 14 percent of the earth’s surface.
The largest known outbreak at a school in this part of the world took place
in 2007, when media outlets around the world began reporting on a strange
illness affecting schoolgirls in Mexico. Between October 2006 and June
2007, a mysterious ailment swept through an all-girls boarding school
near Mexico City, operated by the Catholic Church. At the Girls’ Town
School students reported headaches, fevers, diarrhea — and, most conspic-
uously, dramatic difficulty walking. Some complained of creaking knees
that sometimes throbbed and bent involuntarily, forcing them to “stiffen
them” in order to walk. Others described pains in their ankles or hips.
Some students had to lean on their classmates just to move around. Occa-
sionally symptoms spontaneously vanished, only to recur. Some were
afflicted once; others experienced many relapses. In all, one in eight stu-
dents were stricken: 512 out of a student population of 4,000, ranging in
age from 11 to 19 — most from poor backgrounds.
A Ouija Board Triggers Mass Hysteria

in Mexico
An investigation by Mexican psychiatrist Nashyiela Loa Zavala traced
the trigger of the outbreak to a Ouija board that was used during a bas-
ketball game.2 An attractive, popular 15-year-old pupil named Maria3 was
134
playing the game when she asked the board to allow her best friend’s team
to win — which happened as requested, infuriating many of the students
who considered the use of the board to be cheating. Ouija boards (also
called Spirit Talking Boards) are thought by some to be a means of com-
municating with the spirit world. Participants sit before a board that has
the words “yes,” “no” and “maybe” surrounded by a circle with letters in
the alphabet. An upside-down glass is placed on the board and the players
place the crossed middle and index fingers of one hand onto the glass,
which begins to slowly move — thus seemingly answering the questions
asked of it.4 Word of the incident soon reached the mother superior,
Margie Cheong, who was originally from South Korea and was unfamiliar
with the game. She was advised that the board “was an instrument of the
devil, capable of changing people’s souls to make them do evil things.”
The mother superior expelled Maria, explaining that ungodly games would
not be tolerated. Maria was devastated and vehemently protested her inno-
cence, but a search of her belongings revealed the Ouija board, sealing her
fate.
Maria was upset by her expulsion and considered it unjust, because
the game was commonly played at the school. As Maria was waiting alone
to be taken home, a wind gust blew shut a door, pinching her hand and
causing her to lose part of a finger. Angry, Maria was rumored to have
placed a curse on the girls who had accused her of using the Ouija board.
Not long after, the strange symptoms appeared at the school. One of the
stories to make the rounds was that Maria’s mother was a witch and a
devout follower of Santa Muerte (Saint Death). This religion has been
active in Mexico since before the arrival of Columbus in the 1490s. The
central figure of their worship is a human skeleton clad in robes and hold-
ing a scythe or globe, reminiscent of the Western figure of the grim reaper.
The Catholic Church has condemned the practice, which many Mexicans
look upon as a cult, but it remains popular in some areas, especially Mexico
City. These stories of Maria’s mother being a witch likely generated fear
in her classmates, and shortly after she was kicked out, several girls in her
dormitory reported seeing a similar image of Maria in their dreams. In
each instance she was enveloped by fire and laughing at them, blaming
them for her expulsion and saying that they would be next (presumably
to burn in hell).
While the first few victims were only among her fellow Ouija board
players, the symptoms quickly spread through the school. As girl after girl
was stricken and exhibited difficulty walking, many teachers feared that
an unknown infection was responsible, and for a time everyone wore sur-
gical masks. The affected girls were separated from their healthy classmates
and placed in a special building, where they were often scolded. One of
the girls, Zitlali, recalls:
They took me there because I started to have pains in my knees but I could
walk all right; first I felt very badly because it looked like a hospital and the
girls were walking around like drunks ... then I started to walk wrongly; they
scolded me when they went to see me because I didn’t walk that way before....
Time passed and then they said it wasn’t contagious and that it was only in
the head ... psychological ... but I don’t know ... maybe it is a little bit in the
mind but it may also be an illness, because they did the Ouija to us ... playing
with the Ouija is like being with the devil.5
Some of the teachers had lost confidence in the mother superior’s

ability to deal with the crisis and harbored views that school officials were
not being transparent enough, so they began to undermine the team of
psychiatrists who came to investigate. They told their students that they
thought the affliction was caused by spoiled food. Another rumor held
that the religious mothers had slipped a powder into their food to stop
them from menstruating. One girl said: “They give us these powders so
we won’t menstruate; many of us go for months without menstruating
and that didn’t happen to us outside, in our homes; but we think that this
time they went too far with the powders and so they went down into our
legs and that’s why we can’t walk right.”6 Another theory pointed the
blame on voodoo; one girl reported finding her rag dolls with needles
stuck into their legs.
When the affliction showed no signed of abating, the mother superior
became so desperate that she pleaded with Maria to return to school and
undo her “curse.” Maria refused. She then turned to the Catholic Church
for help. Soon priests were praying over the girls and attempting to exorcize
demons. Despite this, more girls were stricken. Some girls would make
fun of their unwell classmates and imitate symptoms, only to be afflicted
themselves. The power of suggestion certainly played a role. One girl
observed: “I felt that at any moment I was going to get sick because they
all got sick; one day my knee creaked while I was praying in chapel; I
asked the girl next to me if it started with creaking in the knee, she said
yes and I knew that I had gotten sick too; I already couldn’t walk right.”7
The conditions at the school were challenging. The girls lived in
cramped rooms and were forced to shower together. As some of the girls
were expected to become nuns upon completing high school, they were
under continuous pressure to meet strict religious standards. Dr. Zavala
describes a scene that is reminiscent of the strict Islamic schools in
Malaysia where similar outbreaks of hysteria have broken out. The girls
lived in a pressure-cooker environment of too much work and too little
play, and spent so many hours knelt in prayer that some were developing
inflammation of their knees:
Their hours are filled with religious activities such as Masses, Catholic films,
Bible study and penance.... When they arrive at the school they are dressed
in an identical uniform ... [and] if they are expelled it is taken away from
them “for not having been worthy daughters.” The phenomenon which most
shocked the medical team initially was that the adolescents looked so iden-
tical: all dressed exactly the same in a blouse and long skirt, with the same
Asian type haircut and no ornaments at all, which made it difficult to dis-
tinguish them; they seemed an undifferentiated mass. It was not just the girls
who were nearly identical; everything tends to be homogenized: they eat the
same food, but none of the dishes that would be served in their homes, which
generates frequent eating problems; they all celebrate their birthday on the
same day, which is the anniversary of the school’s foundation.8
Their daily routine was monotonous. Simple leisure activities that

most Mexicans would take for granted, such as watching TV or reading
the newspaper or magazines, were forbidden. Even listening to the radio
was banned. The girls could not even walk across campus but were
restricted to certain areas of the school grounds. At times students had to
endure lengthy periods without talking. Living with the girls in the dorms
were about 40 “religious mothers” or spies whose job it was to keep close
tabs on their inmates.
Most of the 90 Mexican lay teachers at the school were young, inex-
perienced and poorly trained, making them highly desirable because, as
one person remarked, “that way they more readily accept what the religious
mothers tell them.”9 Topics such as human sexuality were forbidden to
be taught, and teachers were required to remain at a distance of at least 6
feet from their pupils at all times. Students were even cautioned not to
become too attached to their dorm mothers; close relationships could
result in expulsion for both the girl and the dorm mother. They were even
cautioned against becoming too close to their classmates. The students
saw their families just twice each year, during summer and Christmas
vacations; each lasts only two weeks. In many respects, the facility resem-
bled prison more than a school. Dr. Zavala observed: “Parents are allowed
to come to the school once a year for a six-hour visit. The girls are not
allowed to write letters but they may receive them. The religious mothers
open and read letters sent to the adolescents and decide whether or not
they are to receive them. Consequently, long months may pass for many
pupils without news of their parents and siblings.”10 The school enforced
strict rules that included absolute obedience to authority; no fighting,
stealing or lying; and giving thanks without complaint. The penalty for
breaking these rules— even once — was often expulsion. Students lived in
a constant state of fear that they too might be expelled; this fostered a fear
that classmates might turn them in for inappropriate behavior. This made
all classmates into potential spies.
Dr. Zavala recalls that one of the affected girls typified the students’
plight of loneliness and not being able to secure deeper relationships while
simultaneously being cut off from their families. When she finished inter-
viewing her, the student made excuses in an effort to stay; she clearly did
not to want to leave. The strict religious setting and rules created an atmos-
phere of extreme anxiety and guilt. This backdrop became a breeding
ground for mass hysteria, when combined with the constant fear of expul-
sion, the widespread belief in the supernatural and the power of Ouija
boards, and a belief that ghosts haunted the dorms. Guilt and sinning was
a constant part of everyday life; even an ordinarily relaxing activity such
as bathing became an event to be feared. One student observed: “Some
girls are morbid and look at the girls when they’re bathing; we have to be
careful with our eyes because with our eyes we can go to hell; the mother
tells us that when we pray is when the devil tempts us most and things
that we’ve looked at wrongly appear.”11
Because the girls were unable to form secure relationships with their
dorm mothers, they lived in an atmosphere of suspicion, fear and perse-
cution. Students who were seen as too close to their “mothers” risked not
only expulsion but also persecution for being labeled as “pets.” Dr. Zavala
notes that there were only 40 or so “mothers” for 4,000 girls— girls who
were starving for human companionship and attention. The act of falling
ill resulted in the students’ receiving more attention than they would have
otherwise received in school. Dr. Zavala remarks that the school had an
unnatural environment where “hundreds of adolescents seem to be one
face, one body and one mind. It is shocking to see thousands of Latin ado-
lescents with Asian hairstyles, dressed identically, who think, speak and
walk in such an identical way. All differences have been erased despite
their both cultural and individual multiplicity.”12
Invasion of the Fairies

In June 1996, something strange began happening in the Central
American country of Nicaragua. The normal routine of the Simón Bolívar
School, in the San Jerónimo district of Masaya, was disrupted by sudden
screams from the girls’ toilets. Several girls rushed out of the bathroom,
one so scared that she fainted. According to the Barricada Internacional
of August 1996, they claimed to have seen three small elves, dressed in red
suits, hats and shoes, “coming out of the toilet bowls.” Ten-year-old Dar-
win Altamirano said: “We were playing during the 9:30 A.M. recess, when
we saw five girls running out shouting ‘There’s elves in there!’” At first,
he didn’t believe them, he added, but when he went to take a look, he saw
“the doors opening and closing all by themselves.” Another student, Bis-
marck Altamirano, said he had heard “strange laughter.” One of the fright-
ened girls, Alejandra Montenegra, said she watched as the little men
“disappeared before my eyes.”
A belief in “little people” is endemic in Nicaragua, as many guide-
books and folklore studies attest, and predates the arrival of the Spanish
and Catholicism. Los duendes, as they are referred to, have a more sinister
reputation than the English “elves.” Traditionally they dress in red or green,
but they specialize in making life difficult by thieving and causing acci-
dents. The majority of country folk believe in them and sightings are com-
monplace, writes Nicaraguan photographer Richard Leonardi. “Their
main purpose, or joy, is to steal yet to be baptized babies or unwed young
women.... The unwed post-pubescent girl is lured away by hypnotism,
little gifts, and sweet words, never to be seen again. Duendes can be heard
laughing in the deep forest, but also take time out to visit schools and
homes of rural villages.”
Leonardi writes, “Nicaraguan newspapers report annually of school
children afraid to attend class and farmers who flee ranches thanks to hor-
rifying little duendes, who appear, laughing their dangerously contagious
duende laugh, invisible to most, but completely visible and both repulsive
and enticing, to a select few.”13 The Managua daily El Nuevo Diario
reported that on June 21, 2003, duendes could even penetrate the country’s
capital city of Managua:
Managua’s Colegio Nicarao (primary and secondary school) principal
reported to the periodical that five students arrived to her office dazed, appar-
ently under a “strange influence.” They then described to her contact with
a yellow duende, who wore a green scarf and had long ears, blond hair, blue
eyes, arching eyebrows, a wrinkled white face, red mouth was about a half-
meter tall sporting pointy shoes and white socks.14
Nicaraguan Grisi Siknis: “Beckoned by

Mysterious Forces”
In March 2009, a mysterious ailment known to the indigenous
Miskito people of the Rio Coco region of northern Nicaragua as grisi siknis
(“crazy sickness”) swept through several schools. Three schools located

between the village of Kamla and the fishing village of Bilwi were forced
to close as around 120 teenage girls fell into “fits.”15 A number of female
students from the city’s National Institute of Technology were also
affected. Many of the victims fell into a trance, believed they were pos-
sessed by the devil, and acted out violently. Locals commonly believe that
sorcerers conjure up the evil spirits. Grisi siknis is a common ailment in
the region and most often afflicts adolescent girls. Anadina Smith said
that one day at school she felt giddy and had difficulty breathing. “Then,
I saw something coming towards me — a kind of black man or a dragon
that entered me and possessed me.” Three of Anadina’s classmates were
affected on the same day in March 2009. Their headmaster, Reverend
Harold Dixon, witnessed many such attacks among his pupils in this latest
outbreak. “They get giddy and they faint and fall to the ground,” he said.
“Then, they start hollering and they hit their heads on the wall or desk.”
They gain an unnatural strength. “You have to have five or six people to
hold down one girl,” Dixon added.16
“Grisi siknis turns people into witches and they go crazy,” says Porcela
Sandino, a respected curandera (traditional healer) in Puerto Cabezas.17
The curandera is in great demand and is called upon to travel widely. The
2009 epidemic was significant. When she goes to see Lola Emberto, in a
poor suburb of Puerto Cabezas, the woman is desperate. “I couldn’t sleep
or eat,” she says. Her three children have been affected for the last four
months. One daughter “was just running around like a maniac. She tore
off all her clothes,” said Mrs Emberto. “One time, she fell into the well
while suffering an attack. Other times, she’d run into the bush or into the
river and people would try to catch her.” Her 18-year-old son and 13-year-
old daughter were also affected.
Grisi siknis is included in the American Psychiatric Association’s list
of recognized mental disorders as a culture-specific syndrome, described
as “a psychological disorder due to stress, upheaval, and despair.” Phil
Dennis— a professor of anthropology at Texas Tech University, who did
fieldwork among the Miskito people in 1978 for a post-doctoral study in
medical anthropology — has called it “a wild, orgiastic rite of sex and vio-
lence”; yet, to be fair, not all cases are as orgasmic as he implies. Miskito
community leaders, however, blame the outbreak on a curse by black
magicians, which no one seems able to identify. According to Dennis grisi
siknis is unique to the Miskito, but comparable to other conditions— such
as anorexia nervosa which is known only in the affluent West; amok among
the Malays; and pibloktoq (“Arctic hysteria”), found only among indige-
nous people in Greenland. “The culture-bound syndromes force us to
realize that health and disease are not simple biological matters, but a
complex interweaving of various aspects of being human. [It] is a very
serious health problem for families and entire Miskito communities.” He
says it is characterized by long periods of anxiety, nausea, dizziness, irra-
tional anger and fear, interlaced with short periods of rapid frenzy, in
which the victims “lose consciousness, believe that devils beat them and
have sexual relations with them.”18
The last major outbreak of grisi siknis began in 1910 and lasted for 20
years, affecting many communities throughout the northern coastal region
of Nicaragua, which faces the Caribbean. However, it is likely to be much
older than that. There is a reference to an illness like grisi siknis in the
1850s, by the English ethnographer Charles Napier Bell, who grew up on
the Miskito coast. In his In Tangweera, he tells of visiting a Miskito vil-
lage:
I have seen a young girl, who was shrieking hysterically in a dreadful manner,
carried in a canoe a long distance to consult a celebrated sookia [healer-
shaman]. All that the sookia did was erect round her painted sticks with
charms tied to them, to blow tobacco-smoke over her while muttering
strange words, to make a bubbling with a tobacco pipe in a calabash of water,
which she was then made to drink, and to tie a knotted string round her
neck, on every knot of which was a drop of blood from his tongue. For as
many days as there were knots she must not eat the meat of certain animals,
must suffer no one to pass to windward of her, and must not see a woman
with child.19
Mrs. Emberto, like many Miskito people, believes that Doña Porcela’s
treatment — using medicinal herbs and candles— will lift the curse from
her children. The healer is proud of her potion: “It can be drunk or bathed
in,” she said. “Within three or four days, they are normal again.” She cer-
tainly has more success than doctors using Western medicine. In 2000,
about 80 people in the community of Krin Krin were affected. Many were
successfully treated by curanderas, invited along by health officials. Porcela
Sandino was one and Carlos Salomon Taylor was another; they both use
time-honored paraphernalia and ancestral rituals. Sandino’s assistants also
drove off the bad spirits by spreading one of her concoctions in a ring
around the village. Based on their success at Krin Krin, both healers were
sent, to Raiti, in 2003, where 25 of the 60 sufferers were said to have
responded well to their treatment.20 The remedies of the curanderas are
said to come to them in dreams that set them on the path of becoming a
healer. It seems nothing much has changed in the century and a half since
Bell observed his sookia.
The outbreak at Raita and neighboring communities near the border
with Honduras, in December 2003, involved upwards of 60 girls, appar-

ently all aged from 14 to 18. The Nicaraguan government sent a large med-
ical team which besides doctors and epidemiologists, included psychiatrists,
anthropologists and five curanderos. The health minister, José Antonio
Alvarado, said that the Miskito healers were getting better results than those
trained in western medicine. The medical team was led by Florence Levy,
the region’s health director; she too acknowledged the success of the curan-
deros. “There’s not much our doctors can do; we are giving support to the
healers as they know the problem better than us,” she said. “The illness is
more spiritual than physical, so they turn to the healer for the spiritual
part,” she added.21 At Uraccan University in Puerto Cabezas, Professor
Pablo McDavis, of the Indigenous Diseases Department, has been research-
ing grisi siknis for several years. “We have taken samples of blood from
patients while suffering an attack and, in a lab, we can’t detect anything
[significant],” he says. He admits to being puzzled: “Drugs or injections
tend to only increase a patient’s aggressiveness. Clinically we can’t detect
anything.”22 Mr. Alvarado said a medical report on an outbreak in the 1950s
raised the possibility of “deliberate contamination of wells with hallucino-
genic substances.” So, at Raita, wells and likely sources of contamination
or poisons were sampled, but no sinister agents were found.23
The illness seems mainly confined to young women, although a few
males and older women are known to have been victims.24 Grisi siknis
behaves like a virus outbreak, says Dr. McDavis. “If an attack is not con-
tained quickly, it can spread throughout an entire community.” This is an
allusion to one of the remarkable characteristics of the affliction; it can
spread by line-of-sight, “sending teenager after teenager into a frenzied
state followed by long periods of coma-like unconsciousness,” notes Fell.
Nicola Ross, who travelled up the Rio Coco to interview families and vic-
tims of grisi siknis, said one girl, Licha, told of a strange ability that came
to her in her madness: she could “predict who the next victim would be
and was at a loss to explain how this knowledge came to her.” She was
eight years old at the time and found this particularly disturbing.25
Phil Dennis also noted victims’ need for there to be other potential
victims within sight; on occasion they named other people and if any of
those people happened to be present, they too became afflicted. This may
be a form of contagious imitation by the secondary victims, but it is
regarded by the community as a form of prophesy on the part of the “nam-
ing” victim.26 This seems to confirm a comment by Dr. Elie Karam to
Linda Geddes: “We need more data about the way this outbreak spreads.
Usually the symptoms start with one person; typically they are reported
to occur in individuals who are in the line of sight of the ‘trigger’ case.”27
Dennis himself witnessed four attacks during his research and said the
victims were “clearly in another state of reality.” In this trance state, they
seemed to perform a feat that bordered on the paranormal. With their
eyes shut, they attempted to flee from their communities, seizing anything
they could find to defend themselves, with surprising strength, against
attackers only they could see. Anadina’s vision of her spectral assailants
seems fairly typical. Ross’ informant, Licha, a surviver of the Krin Krin
outbreak, told her that initially she simply had a headache and felt dizzy,
a condition the Miskito call bla. As the trance deepened, Licha felt her
mouth began to move uncontrollably. Then began a horrible period during
which her stomach bulged and churned. According to several eye wit-
nesses, she said, she then vomited a live spider. Her most vivid memory
was of visions in which “small, black men riding red horses came down
from the mountains to lure her away from the village.” This was why it
was necessary to tie her up, she explained. “They offered her a cup filled
with blood. She was afraid of the duende, the spirits from the forest, but
felt compelled to follow these powerful strangers anyway.”28 As Nicola
Ross put it: “With their eyes closed, and armed with machetes or sticks,
they think nothing of attacking whoever or whatever stands between them
and the mysterious force that beckons.”
A rather lurid report seems to show some grisi siknis experiences
evolving to resemble the reports seen from the Middle Ages onward in
Western culture. Tim Rogers, reporting on the 2009 outbreak around
Kamla and Bilwi for the TicoTimes— a blog and newspaper on Central
American issues— told of the affliction of two sisters, Jose and Rafaela
Chao, in mid–May:
In a scene that must be reminiscent of the Salem witch trials, the two girls,
in the throes of their madness, accused a mysterious drifter, who was living
in town, of being a witch and trying to kill them. That was all the evidence
the townsfolk needed to organize a lynch mob and go after the man. After
being beaten for hours, he admitted he was the one causing all the trouble.
The villagers burned what they claimed were his spell books and forced him
to cure the girls, which he did in exchange for his life. Since that moment
there have been no reported cases of grisi siknis and authorities think the
problem has been resolved for the moment. However, the suspected warlock
has escaped and some fear he will seek his revenge through the dark arts.29
Demons “Attack” Schools in Guyana

During 2009, the small South American country of Guyana — a for-
mer Dutch and British colony — was the scene of an epidemic of demonic
possession among secondary school students. One of the worst affected

was the East Ruimveldt School in the capital city of Georgetown, where
one morning in early November, 15 girls were stricken. Some shouted,
while others giggled uncontrollably. Religious officials came to the school
to offer prayers. Some could be heard shouting: “Get out in the name of
Jesus.” The outbreak triggered a renewed interest in Bible classes at the
school. Some of the girls who were helping to aid those affected were
stricken themselves; they began to shriek wildly and strip off their clothes.
Others turned violent. Some remained silent. The strange behaviors began
at 9:45 A.M. Before long students from across the school were fleeing the
compound, scattering in every direction to escape the “demonic posses-
sion.” Two journalists described the emotion-charged scene: “As teachers
fought to control the girls— who appeared at times to have superhuman
strength — some parents arrived and immediately got involved in efforts
to cast-out ‘spirits,’ while others simply wept and ran out of the building
asking ‘what we must do?’ One mother shouted, ‘God help me daughter.
They got a bag over she face but it ain’t helping.’” Parents and teachers
were forced to dash across school grounds in an effort to chase down some
of the girls who were running around willy-nilly. Some of the victims were
later bundled into vehicles and rushed to a nearby religious center, where
several pastors from the Assembly of God Church prayed for their recov-
ery.30
In March 2012, Georgetown was again the scene of collective posses-
sion among schoolgirls. The episode began at St. Winefride’s Secondary
School on March 14 when six pupils from separate classrooms reported
that they were being attached by “unnatural spirits.” Leroy Smith of the
Guyana Chronicle showed up at the school and said he could hear screams
and tumbling furniture from a flat where several students had been locked
inside while adults conducted a spiritual cleansing exercise using olive oil
and Bibles. School officials prevented the affected students from being
taken to a hospital for treatment, believing that their symptoms were spir-
itual in origin.31
Later that month on March 26, another outburst of possessed students
was reported. The outbreak began at about 3 P.M. when a female student
was standing near the washroom and started to act strangely. A local res-
ident who witnessed the incident described what happened in broken
English: “She start talk like a man ... with a man voice, and say how it [the
spirit] name Augustus, and he come to kill and such. The poor girl pick
up a big heavy wood and was waving it around and running [after] chil-
dren. Some boys take off their belts and hit her hoping the lashes would
cause her to catch herself.” Another bystander said: “She run up Middleton
Street and was ... chasing other children. And after a while it [the spirit]
like left her body and went into another girl and she began to show antics
too. The school needs to be shut down until something is done. Burn it
or something.” Residents were adamant that the school should be shut
down, noting that there had been many attacks by demons at the school
in the past, attacks that only targeted females. On this occasion the two
affected girls were rushed to Georgetown Hospital. At the emergency room
one witness described a chaotic scene: “When they put one of the girls on
the stretcher, four persons had to hold her down, she was jumping up and
moving like a worm. A male voice was coming out of her body saying my
name is Elijah and I won’t leave this body as long as I don’t find Sha-
neeza.”32
CHAPTER 8
Strange Schoolyards and

Unusual Field Trips
Cases from Beyond the Classroom
You can’t depend on your judgment when your imagination is

out of focus.— Mark Twain1
Wherever students gather —football fields, class trips, parades, or

schoolyards—can be fertile ground for rumors, rivalries and the swirling
undercurrents of dread and suspicion that are an everyday part of the ado-
lescent world. These ingredients are the perfect medium for incubating
panics and outbreaks of mass psychogenic illness. We begin this chapter
with one of the most infamous episodes in the modern-day history of psy-
chological illness, known today simply as the Hollinwell Incident.
“The kids went down like ninepins,” said a policeman attending the
scene. The date was Sunday, July 13, 1980. It was beautiful summer morn-
ing for the annual Hollinwell Show underway in fields near the small Not-
tinghamshire town of Kirkby-in-Ashfield. This picture postcard scene of
rural England would become, in that policeman’s words, “like a battlefield
with bodies everywhere.” Precisely what happened was the subject of end-
less and acrimonious debate in the following weeks, involving medical
and welfare experts, government scientists, local council officials, witnesses
and the afflicted.2
The day was to feature a competition involving some five hundred
children from eleven junior marching bands. They had all been practicing
their music and routines for months. Many had gotten up early and were
already tired, restless and certainly nervous when they arrived for the 9
A.M. start. Almost immediately they formed up, their leaders fussing over
their uniforms. It was going to be a long, tension-filled day and it began
with a long wait as the judges made their final inspection. There was no
more time for rehearsals, only for last minute checks. Between 10:30 and
146
8. Strange Schoolyards and Unusual Field Trips 147
12:30, more than two hundred of the children and some adults collapsed.
They were ferried by dozens of ambulances to four area hospitals, where
about 259 people were examined. Nine were detained overnight. The
symptoms included fainting, running eyes, sore throats, dizziness, vom-
iting, trembling, weakness, numbness and a metallic taste in the mouth
... but not all at once or all in the same person. Besides the felled bandsmen,
15 adults, two babies and two horses were affected. Horses? We’ll come to
that in a minute.
In hindsight, it is clear that the area health authorities and the police
acted very quickly; however, while several theories about what had hap-
pened were made more or less likely by the quick accumulation of infor-
mation, the conclusions of the investigating experts were not always well
received. Indeed, the case might well serve as a study of the gulf in inter-
pretation between the authorities and the local public — especially the par-
ents of the children involved — over too prominent and casual a use of the
term “mass hysteria.” Let us go back to the moment that chaos broke out.
An organizer for one of the bands, Terry Bingham, said: “We were ready
for the display when one or two children collapsed. Then a few more went,
and a few more. We called off the event but others fell as they came out
of the arena. Then spectators started dropping.” Another witness said:
“Some kids were catching their friends as they fell, and then they were
falling down themselves.... No one could understand what was happen-
ing.”3
One of the girls affected, Petula Merriman, age 14, said: “We were on
the field in full uniform for an inspection.... I’ve never had to stand to
attention that long before. As we marched off I tried to grab hold of my
drum but just fell on the floor. My friends were collapsing all around me.”
Another of the afflicted, Kerry Elliott, age 10, said: “I went all weak and
got pains in my stomach and then I fainted. Everyone was falling down
and some were crying. My stomach was all tight and aching. I felt better
when I came round in hospital.” Kerry’s 7-year-old brother, Steven, was
similarly affected.
Some of the adults fell during the height of the panic, some were taken
ill accompanying their children to the hospital, and still others collapsed
in wards at bedsides. Terry Bingham said his own eyes began stinging and
watering as he drove six kids to hospital in his car: “I had chest pains. It
was like nerve gas poisoning,” he later told reporters. Margaret Palethorpe,
a 37-year-old mother of five children, three of whom were among the col-
lapsed, said she felt pins and needles in her tongue and lips. “I collapsed
and lost the use of one arm.” Linda Elliott, mother of Kerry and Steven
(above), “felt strange” as she comforted her children on the way to hospital,
where she too collapsed. “My arms and legs felt like sponges and it was
like cramp in my stomach. That’s all I remember until I came round.”
Mrs. Edna Wells, chairman of one band, the Ashford Imperials, said she
tried to keep the children talking: “I was helping them but I was taken ill
too.”
Theories Abound
Food poisoning was the first thought of many who stood around the
arena, staring in disbelief at the numbers of children keeling over. Some-
one — perhaps well-intentioned — broadcast urgent messages over the
public address system warning people not to eat the ice cream or drink
water until the source of the trouble was found, although no one was cer-
tain whether this happened during or after the collapses. A few minutes
later another warning came, this time about mineral waters.4 When the
police moved in with health officials a short time later, they took samples
of food and drink from all the stalls. Even as they did so, it became clear
this theory was not tenable; many of the children had not consumed any-
thing they had not brought with them in their coaches. The results of tests
on the food samples became a formality and proved negative in all cases.
The Severn-Trent Water Authority, which supplied the area, was also quick
to respond. By the end of the day they were able to say the water had no
bacterial impurities. The food poisoning theory was the first to be elimi-
nated, but not in time to save the ice cream men, who for several days
afterward were subjected to taunts and jeered in the housing estates
around Kirkby in Ashfield.
By the time the police and health authorities arrived at the Hollinwell
show-ground, a second theory was being favored, and was to prove longer-
lasting. The children, it suggested, had been poisoned by an insecticide
used by farmers in spraying crops. The front page of the Daily Mirror the
day after the collapse was in no doubt: “Gas Cloud KOs Children,” it pro-
claimed.5 Some people imagined a cloud of insecticide drifting across the
show-ground; others speculated about the harmful effects of dust raised
by the feet of several hundred marchers. The Nottinghamshire Fire Service
was able to establish that this was not a possibility. “The wind was in com-
pletely the wrong direction,” they told the Guardian. Meanwhile, a
spokesman at the Queens Medical Centre, Nottingham, said that the
symptoms of the children taken there “were consistent with exposure to
fumes of some kind.”6 However, every lead turned up nothing. Police
tracked down the farmer who owned the adjacent field: it had not been
sprayed for more than ten years. Someone claimed to have seen a light
plane in the area three days previously on July 10, and it was rumored that
it had been spraying the course and nearby woods owned by Notting-
hamshire Golf Club. This was refuted by golf club officials and a woods-
man. Local farmers and the Forestry Commission also denied spraying.
One of the more exotic theories was postulated by a man in Scotland
who suggested that people had been affected by high frequency radio
waves. A high frequency transmitter was found nearby at a gas board
depot. It did not take long for this line of inquiry, like the food poisoning
idea, to be eliminated. In the search for a likely source of debilitating
fumes, the police sniffed hopefully in the direction of a fire at a plastics
factory, some miles away, that caused an estimated £1 million worth of
damage. Again, the wind was blowing in the wrong direction for this to
have been a factor.
On the 14th, there was speculation that a “mystery bug” was the cul-
prit on the grounds that a number of the children affected were found to
have chicken-pox-like blisters, which the locals call “blebs.” Enid Holmes,
secretary of the Creswell Graglanders, said she had “noticed some children
had blebs on their backs and legs” when she loosened their uniforms. Two
other bands reported blebs on children’s skin.7 One doctor nominated the
Coxsackie virus as the culprit. However, this too was extremely unlikely
to have been the cause of so widespread a reaction.
At a press briefing, Chief Inspector Eric Ogden, who led the police
investigation, said: “The whole thing is a complete mystery. A horse com-
petition or gymkhana was held in the same field later without trouble.” Dr.
John Wood, director of health for the Kirkby area, said he was becoming
convinced that it was mass psychogenic illness as tests had “virtually elim-
inated the alternatives.” “Part of it may have been one or two people feeling
ill and the rest getting hysteria.” To which C.I. Ogden added: “A large num-
ber of small children had been parading and standing to attention for some
time. They would also be under some pressure due to the occasion.”
The Aftermath
Over the ensuing 24 hours, five of the children released from hospitals
were readmitted when their symptoms recurred. On the 16th four people
from the Worksop area, a few miles to the north, collapsed with
Hollinwell-type symptoms. The following weekend, members of one of
the bands involved collapsed again, at separate gatherings in Notting-
hamshire. On the 19th, six members of the Ashfield Imperials band fainted
during a five-mile charity march at South Normanton. “Traffic fumes and

a long march” were blamed.8 Two weeks after the Hollinwell collapse, 19
children were taken to the hospital after being struck down by the “band
bug” in Leicestershire. They had traveled by coach from Lincoln to Leices-
ter, and were treated for “heat exhaustion” at Newark.9 That same week-
end, five young band members were taken to the hospital after they
collapsed during a two-mile procession at a fete at Tipton, West Midlands.
All were aged 14 and said to have “fainted in sweltering conditions.” Two
others were picked up by the ambulances.10 At Manton, south of Notting-
ham, it was the turn of five girls from the Kilton Concordes band, who
had also collapsed at Hollinwell; they fell ill during a charity event.11 They
were the only band affected on this occasion and quickly recovered once
off the field.
Reactions
At first parents, looking for a target for their anger, were critical of
the show’s organizers. The chairman of one band was also critical of the
judges for the long period of standing to attention. “It was disgusting the
way the judges kept the children waiting so long ... no wonder they passed
out,” he told the Mansfield and North Nottinghamshire Chronicle and
Advertiser. “Tests indicate that the cause was nothing more serious than
mass hysteria,” pronounced the Daily Telegraph on the 16th July. “Nothing
more serious...”; this denigration prompted angry reactions from parents
and organizers, highlighting the general misconceptions about the nature
and prevalence of mass hysteria.
In her Observer article Denise Winn referred to American studies of
more than 1,000 cases of what the American National Institute for Occu-
pational Safety and Health dubbed “assembly line hysteria” (after out-
breaks in factories as well as in schools). It was primed, wrote Ms. Winn,
by a combination of the anxiety of performing and the tension of waiting
for a long period at attention, so that when the trigger came —“Two chil-
dren collapsed first, then two more...”— the rest followed in a mounting
wave of unintentional mimicry.12
There was a serious question about the way the “illness” was trans-
mitted from the children in the arena to others outside it. We have to
account for the two babies who became ill, the adults, the spectators, and
several horses. The horses may or may not have anything to do with the
collapse at Hollinwell, but it fit well into the widespread public anxiety
and, to some, was “proof ” that it was a conspiracy and not “mass hysteria.”
A stricken horse was mentioned among the first radio news bulletins; and
the Sunday Times reported on July 20 that five horses had become ill during
a nearby horse competition, and one had to be destroyed. This was later
denied by the organizers, and there is certainly no mention of it among
the police reports.
Sloppy and excitable reporting dogged the event and undoubtedly
contributed to the overall confusion in the wider public. For example, the
Guardian reported that traces of blood and protein had been found in
samples of urine taken from some of the children, possibly indicating kid-
ney damage. Which hospital this information came from is not stated,
but it was grist for the conspiracy mill. At a news conference the next day,
Dr. Malcolm Lewis, director of Nottingham Public Health Laboratory,
said that tests on blood and urine samples for organo-phosphorus poi-
soning had all been negative. Despite an unsupported claim in the Daily
Mirror that the health officers found traces of a “cocktail of cleansing fluid
and diesel fumes” in marching field, which “might” have contributed to
the mass collapse, most newspapers, the next day, reported that “a complete
battery of tests” by the Kirkby public health authorities had found no traces
of agricultural chemicals or toxic agents.
The Times said that the findings (or lack of them) by the health
authorities were greeted with scorn by offended parents and show organ-
izers. Terry Bingham called the findings “rubbish. There has been a cover-
up. Some people are still feeling ill, so how can it have been hysteria?”
This opinion was reinforced by an article in the Western Mail suggesting
that the local authorities were involved in a cover-up and the children had
been poisoned by organo-phosphorus compounds.13
In 2003, BBC journalists revived the idea that fungicide poisoning
was the culprit after finding that Tridemorph had been sprayed on the
nearby fields at the time of the episode. Tridemorph was for years sprayed
across England and around the world without reports of anyone collapsing.
Often applied to cereal crops, it is capable of producing skin and eye irri-
tation.14 It was eventually banned in England, in 2000, because of its harm
to the environment.
In response to the cover-up allegation, the exasperated medics of the
Ashfield District Council published their findings (or lack of them). This
did not satisfy their critics either.15 By now, the clamor included people
with more political motives; Denis Skinner, one of three MPs who called
for a government inquiry, said the “mass hysteria” verdict was “an insult
to the intelligence and another cover-up by the Establishment.”16 Arthur
Peacock, of the Mansfield Ecology Party, wrote to a number of journals
calling for the uncovering of “a major public scandal.” “Everyone but
Ashfield Council,” he declared, “can see it is ludicrous to put the blame

on mass hysteria.”
In Search of a Trigger
What triggered the collective panic? Most reports agree that one, per-
haps two, girls collapsed first, with the rest following like dominoes. It
may be that they simply fainted, which in turn generated anxiety among
the remaining band members. There are, however, other possible triggers.
Firstly, there were the ill-considered broadcasts warning folks not to con-
sume the ice creams or mineral waters. Tucked away in the acres of local
media coverage was a comment that, quite early on that morning, the
show’s organizers had, themselves, made an announcement about the dan-
gers of eating some “joke jelly babies.”17 This warning could well have set
the tone for the day, the later announcements fanning the embers of fear.
Police never found out who made the ice-cream announcements; indeed,
there was a suspicion that they might have been rumors, or not broadcast
at all, simply imagined in retrospect.18 The second possible trigger has to
do with the two very young babies involved. According to the Sunday
Times, Margaret Palethorpe thought she had been the first person to feel
ill. Two of her five children were in the Woodland Gladers band. It is pure
speculation, but perhaps her two children became over-anxious on seeing
their mother becoming ill among the spectators. The occasion of Mrs.
Palethorpe’s unease is quite clear; as her children’s band was waiting for
inspection, she changed the diaper on her three-week-old baby and was
startled to find a mass of “blebs” on him.19 The fact that Mrs. Palethorpe
had to remain in the hospital for over two weeks after the birth might yet
be a significant factor in her anxiety. Quite unintentionally, she might
have been the prime catalyst in the drama. The mother of the other baby
involved, Susan Bonsall, had also panicked when she could not rouse her
sleeping two-week-old baby; and her panic was made worse by the chaos
going on all around her.
History Repeated
Eight years before the Hollinwell incident, a similar event had hap-
pened at Hazlerigg, a town in Northumberland about four miles north of
Newcastle-upon-Tyne in the northeast of England. On July 8, 1972, an
early summer day, six marching bands had gathered for an annual fete.
About twelve hundred people were there to witness the popular spectacle,
four hundred of whom were performers. During the afternoon parade as
the bands were performing, scores of band members and a handful of
adults suddenly felt ill. Dozens of schoolchildren were scattered along the
parade route; some bent over in obvious distress, others collapsed com-
pletely, and many more cried or moaned, complaining of stomach aches,
nausea, dizziness and headaches. Sensations of hot and cold rippled
through many as they lay shivering on the ground. Others felt tingling or
numbness in their hands and feet. As was noted at Hollinwell, the scene
had the look of a disaster film. While the children soon recovered, what
happened remains the subject of controversy.20
Since the gala organizers offered no food, and before the event got
underway most children ate home-packed lunches, food poisoning was
not suspected. The hour-long parade along a mile-long route began at
1:00 P.M. The six bands led the way, followed by local children in fancy
attire. Band members were as young as five and as old as sixteen, and
nearly all were girls. The bands were not lavish: most of the children played
kazoos; some had cymbals or drums. Spirits were high as the crowd
cheered them on. The youngest children held banners as they brought
up the rear. Suddenly a sixteen-year-old bass drummer fell out of forma-
tion, crashing to the ground in a heap. Within minutes, six more girls
began to wobble, then collapsed; they clutched their abdomens and wept,
complaining of dizziness and stomach pain. By 6:00 P.M. four adults and
168 children were being examined at the area’s five hospitals, where doctors
noted a curious pattern: their patients, after a little time away from the
chaos at the scene, no longer showed signs that anything was wrong, and
most got better quickly. Said one physician: “They were all ... frightened
and bewildered, many of them believing they had been poisoned and sev-
eral spontaneously said they had thought that they were dying.”21 Several
of those treated were clearly over-excited and exhibiting tension-induced
muscle twitching; many more were hyperventilating. Another oddity stood
out to investigators— not a single adult or child from Hazlerigg was
affected.22
Immediately after the incident, investigators scoured the area but
found no obvious triggering agent. They looked at everything from candy
to ice cream sold at the gala and whether a local farmer might have sprayed
the area with a toxic substance a week or more earlier. Grazing fields sur-
rounding the gala had not been sprayed and there had been no gas leaks;
indeed, there were no pipes under the field. Weather also didn’t seem to
be a factor as by mid-day the temperature only reached a cool 61° F, and
the humidity was a comfortable 57 percent.23
In their final report on the case, two local doctors who were on the
front lines that day — H.C. Smith of Northumberland and E.J. Eastham
of Newcastle University Hospitals— were critical of the local press for
refusing to accept their mass hysteria diagnosis. This made their job
tougher, they said, undermining their credibility. As at Hollinwell, such
statements from experts were dismissed or challenged by parents and
others who felt the diagnosis of “hysteria” somehow demeaned them. The
doctors were certain that a bacteria or virus was not the cause as the
children came from different locations and had assembled less than five
hours before the outbreak. Despite the doctors’ assurances, the press
rejected their views; one headline even proclaimed: “Mystery Bug KOs
Children.”24
Most of those stricken had noticed a foul smell while making their
way to the sports field. It was said to have wafted from a recently cleared
pig sty. The locals were aware of the odor’s origin, and were probably
accustomed to it, but most visitors were left guessing as to its cause. Many
of those who fell ill described the smell in dramatic fashion. While symp-
toms cleared up within a day for most of those stricken, in others they
subsided gradually over the next week, likely prolonged by media sensa-
tionalism. Investigators report that during the incident, a TV film crew
arrived on the scene, heightening the drama. Smith and Eastham said that
TV and press coverage had stoked the fires of public fear as reporting was
“out of all proportion to the medical significance of the event. It was
implied that the children had a mysterious illness baffling medical science.
It was not surprising, therefore, that in some children the symptoms
tended to persist.”25
A sample of turf was taken immediately after the collapse, to be tested
for insecticide, weed-killer or fungicide, but no such indications were
found. Nevertheless, Steven Mitchell, a rescue squad member treating vic-
tims at the scene at Hazlerigg, supports the fungicide theory: “There were
a lot of young people very distressed — their eyes were very sore and had
severe breathing difficulties— there was a smell in the air.... With the bands
marching up and down, they were dispersing the chemical into the air,
and I am sure it was inhaled by the young children.” As would later happen
at Hollinwell, other explanations put forward for the incident included
food poisoning, water pollution, nerve agents, and radio waves, though
there is little or no evidence to support any of these theories. Anxiety
remains the best explanation. According to one report, one of the attending
doctors separated the children from each other and deprived them of vom-
iting bowls. As he expected, the symptoms rapidly subsided.26
More Marching Mayhem

On a hot, humid Friday evening in Alabama on September 21, 1973,
nearly half of a 120-member marching band either fainted or felt ill
shortly after performing at a high school football game. The contest had
been emotionally draining, with the favored visiting team losing 7–6.
The band had performed a seven-minute halftime routine, remaining on
the field in a kneeling position while their counterparts from the rival
school performed. When the rival’s drill was over, the visiting band stood
at attention, then marched to their seats in the grandstand. Without
warning, a girl in the band fainted. Over the next ten minutes, five more
girls fainted. The girls were laid on benches and several were sent to the
hospital. Within twenty minutes many more band members reported
feeling sick. Many seemed to be overbreathing and reported a tingling
sensation in their hands and arms, and, for some, a feeling of choking.
Some also reported stomach pain or cramps, dizziness, nausea, and weak-
ness.27
Doctors later said that a group of students in the wind section had
over-dressed for the warm conditions and were overwhelmed by the heat
and the excitement of the game. These circumstances triggered minor
dizziness and fainting, which, in turn, generated sudden, extreme fear in
other band members, who began to succumb after seeing their friends
collapse.
A second wave of symptoms occurred as band members were board-
ing buses for the one-hundred-mile trip home after the game. Over the
following three days, ten more girls were stricken, with five of the original
victims having relapses. Tests for food poisoning — the first suspicion —
were negative. Heat stroke was also eliminated as the cardinal symptom,
fever, was absent. While heat may have played a minor role, Dr. Richard
Levine of the United States Public Health Service believed the event was
mostly psychological. Levine said, “The discipline of a precision marching
drill, the discomfort of wearing heavy clothes in a hot environment, the
excitement and disappointment at losing a close game — suggests that the
setting ... was appropriately tense for mass hysteria to occur.” Levine notes
that the first group of girls to be affected were all from the wind section
and were dressed in the heaviest clothing with high-waisted, one-hun-
dred-percent wool trousers “and an impermeable plastic jacket overlay.”
He says that with an air temperature at the time of 73˚F, it’s likely that
some of the girls experienced heat-related fainting spells, but then mass
hysteria soon took over.28
Levine also uncovered a remarkable coincidence. A fainting episode
had occurred in the United States under nearly identical circumstances in

1964. While the location was not noted, as in the Alabama incident, the
episode struck girls in a high school marching band at an exciting “away”
football game. According to one report, “The band had worn heavy woolen
uniforms on a hot day, and the visitors, although their team was favored
to win, had lost. Except for the prominence of fainting, this reported epi-
demic shows a striking resemblance to the one described here.” There are
many similar incidents on record. In 1963, eight girls in a high school
marching band in Maine collapsed after experiencing stomach pains and
overbreathing at the site of their school’s football game. One of the most
remarkable of these episodes occurred during the 1950s.29
A pitched Friday night battle was taking place under the lights
between two rival high school football teams, the Tigers from Neville High
in Monroe, Louisiana, and the home team of Natchez, Mississippi. It was
September 12, 1952. The 165-member Tigerettes Pep Squad had first
paraded along Main Street, whipping up excitement for the coming grid-
iron contest. As the first quarter ended, the cheerleaders bounded onto
the field, mistakenly believing it to be time for their half-time performance,
only to be called back to the sidelines over the loudspeakers. Soon, fainting
ensued among the girls. One man said they “fainted like flies.” The girls,
ages fourteen to eighteen, were all taken to the nearby hospital, where
they quickly recovered. Doctors could find nothing wrong with them. In
an amazing display of athletic determination and despite the presence of
ambulances along the sidelines and even on the field, the game kept going.
At one point, five emergency vehicles were crossing the field at one time.
“It looked like the race track at Indianapolis,” said Thornton Smith. At
times players had to dodge ambulances. Neville High won the hard-fought
game, 21 to 8.30
After talking to the girls, the examining hospital physician, Dr. James
Barnes, said that the first two victims had apparently fainted, while the
rest followed through mass hysteria, prompted by the heat, the excitement
of the game, and the stress of seeing their classmates faint before their
eyes. Neville High’s principal, Paul Neal, said that after the first thirty-
five or so girls had fainted, “every available ambulance and scores of cars
were pressed into service.” It was learned that following the afternoon’s
Main Street Pep Rally, the girls had taken a break, grabbing hamburgers
at the local burger joint before proceeding to the game, so when the faint-
ing spells began, everyone was sure it was food poisoning. But based on
the symptoms, which quickly went away, mass hysteria was the eventual
diagnosis.31
The Falling Chorus Line

School choruses have also had their share of mass fainting episodes.
One large-scale incident took place in Santa Monica, California, on the
evening of April 13, 1989. About six hundred students were warming up
their voices and checking their instruments, readying themselves for a big
concert dubbed “Stairway of the Stars.” Chorus members from three area
high schools were set to perform in the 40th anniversary of a concert tra-
dition. Then a student fell ill. Before long, 247 students were complaining
of dizziness, headaches, stomach pain, nausea, and weakness. Ambulances
and police were soon converging on the building. Not a single audience
member reported feeling ill. Psychiatrist Gary Small said, “Performance
anxiety probably contributed to symptoms.”32
Several years earlier, a similar episode had taken place on the other
side of the country in East Templeton, Massachusetts. On May 20, 1981,
102 elementary students took a bus to their central high school to join
three hundred more students from nearby schools to rehearse for a big
concert that evening that would be attended by nearly a thousand people,
mainly parents. After thirty minutes, several members of the chorus fell
to the floor, clutching their throats and stomachs, some gasping for air.
The stricken students were escorted out of the auditorium to rest and
recover, but the situation worsened. A few minutes later another chorus
member went down, followed by another a few minutes later. On it went
during the rehearsal: itchy eyes, dizziness, fainting, overbreathing, weak-
ness. Soon one of the teachers phoned for help. Of the nine students who
had fainted, six were taken to the hospital, where they were checked over
and released in time for the evening performance. Curiously, nearly all of
those feeling unwell were from the East Templeton school.
That evening, the concert went on as scheduled. It proceeded unevent-
fully until an hour and fifteen minutes into it, when during a stirring ren-
dition of “God Bless America” a girl in the chorus fainted. Within minutes,
four more members collapsed. Several more felt unwell and simply walked
off the stage. The organizers struggled to keep order. Parents sat nervously,
squirming and craning their necks, exchanging glances. For a few minutes
the auditorium teetered on the brink of pandemonium. The music teachers
kept control and the show went on. Meanwhile, on the floor of the nearby
hallway, were children, panicky and frightened, moaning and groaning,
complaining of stomach pain, shortness of breath, nausea, and itchy eyes.
Of the twenty-nine children who were stricken, fifteen were taken to the
hospital.
Except for signs of anxiety and a few cases of pink eye (common in
many schools), the students had normal vital signs. A battery of tests was
given, including chest X-rays and blood counts. Two days later, when the
lab results came back, doctors were surprised to find that all thirteen urine
samples contained n-butylbenzene sulfonamide, a chemical common in
plastics, disinfectants, and insecticides. The announcement caused a sen-
sation in the community as it was believed that the children had been
inadvertently poisoned. One newspaper proclaimed: “Victims of Chem-
ical.” But to everyone’s surprise, when a sample of healthy adults gave
urine samples, they tested positive for the same chemical. Then some water
samples tested positive. Officials were baffled. Had the whole town been
poisoned? Further investigation revealed a curious pattern — the positive
samples had come only from plastic containers. Those samples gathered
in glass containers were free of the chemical, which had come from the
containers themselves.
Amid the fear, uncertainty, and media hoopla, rumors quickly spread
through the town. Some speculated that someone had put a hallucinogenic
drug into the ventilation system. Others said it was a gas leak, ultraviolet
lights, or gypsy moth spray. At one point health officials suggested that
the school janitor was to blame, having disposed of insecticide on school
grounds just two days earlier. But based on the wind direction and distance
from the disposal area, authorities ruled out this possibility. Besides, the
janitor felt fine.
Investigators noted other curiosities. Not a single adult felt ill despite
being in the same building. Further, while students from four elementary
schools sang in the concert, all but one of the students who fell ill were
from East Templeton Elementary. They were a group within a group,
close-knit and apparently excited and nervous after seeing others from
their school fall ill.
One of the biggest outbreaks of choral hysteria occurred in 1959 in
the midwestern United States. It was a perfect recipe for mass hysteria:
5,400 high school chorus members from across Oklahoma, gathered in
the huge fieldhouse at Oklahoma State University for the annual Thanks-
giving Song Festival. It was Monday evening, November 23. About two
hundred buses were parked around the stadium. Being November, the
weather was chilly, so many of the bus drivers started their engines about
half way through the program so they could turn on the heaters to warm
the buses for the trip home. That’s when some of the diesel fumes were
sucked into the air intake fans. The smell frightened the students, who
started fainting, and the stadium was evacuated. Many students seemed
fine and left the stadium in a calm, orderly fashion, only to feel ill outside
when they saw their classmates falling ill. Of the more than five hundred
students who were taken to area hospitals, all quickly recovered. A handful
were kept overnight for observation. G.C. Epperly, the chorus director at
Stillwater High School, said the cause was “a combination of too many
hot dogs, a little carbon monoxide and a lot of mass hysteria.”33
An epidemic of swooning chorus girls swept through Ohio in Decem-
ber 1952. For more than a week, the Warren High School’s chorus suffered
bouts of fainting. Whenever they sang before their classmates, they were
fine. The fainting spells only occurred when they sang before “outsiders,”
noted one reporter: “The choir will be singing along when — plop!— down
go several girls with a swoon, sometimes six or seven at a time.” On Tues-
day, December 9, seven girls passed out while singing at an Exchange Club
luncheon. The next day at a Rotary Club gathering, six more went tum-
bling down. Then on Friday, December 12, members of the Kwanis Club
looked on in amazement as five more keeled over. Not a single student in
the boy’s choir was affected.34
A few days later, Cleveland, Ohio, was the scene of a separate fainting
epidemic that struck down choir members from Myron T. Herrick Junior
High. Seventy girls were singing “The Bells of Christmas Morning” during
a packed school assembly on December 19 when one of them fell over.
Before long, classmates began keeling over “in a wave-like reaction.”35
How Not to Handle a Fainting Epidemic

October 6, 1965, was a big day for schoolgirls in Blackburn, England.
It was the day they were to meet members of the royal family. Even though
the occasion was to be a stolid church service, on the inside the girls could
barely contain their excitement which grew to rock star intensity. But the
royals were late —very late. For three long hours the girls stood and waited.
Wilting from fatigue, their excitement turned to disappointment and,
finally, anger. While the royals did eventually arrive, during the wait twenty
girls fainted.
The next day, the fainting episode was the talk of the school. As the
morning assembly got underway, a girl fainted. This was not uncommon
at the assembly. Ordinarily that would have been the end of it, but through
a series of inept decisions by school officials, by the end of the day 30 per-
cent of the entire student body was stricken. As the assembly broke up,
four more girls felt dizzy. Teachers quickly sat them on chairs. The trouble
was, their seats were center stage, so to speak, along the main corridor in
the middle of the school. Over the first two class periods, six more girls
said they also felt faint and were asked to sit in the hallway with the others.
Now ten girls were seated in chairs along the hallway.
School officials became worried that if one of the girls did faint, she
might smack her head on the hard floor. To be on the safe side, the ten
girls were asked to lie on the floor in the corridor, making for a dramatic
scene, especially considering that none of the girls had fainted — they only
said they had felt faint. To make matters worse, during the morning, most
of the other students had the opportunity to walk by the woozy ten. It was
against this backdrop that with each passing period, more and more girls—
eventually 141 in all —felt unwell, complaining of dizziness, headache,
shivering, abdominal pain, nausea, breathlessness, backaches, facial numb-
ness, and muscle spasms.
An emergency was soon declared. Ambulances and rescue personnel
converged on the school and in the ensuing chaos took 85 girls to the hos-
pital. Media reports only fueled community fears by describing the cause
as a “mysterious illness.” However, a battery of tests on the girls were all
negative and gradually over the next two weeks the cases tapered off. The
Blackburn affair is a case study in how not to handle a fainting epidemic.
If the girls had not been placed in such a high-profile area, the epidemic
would likely never had spread.36
The Great Train Scare

It began innocently, in a quiet Montreal train station on Friday, May
29, 1981. Summer was coming early to southeastern Canada. The day was
exceptionally hot and humid across the region. About 500 seventh and
eighth graders piled into a passenger train that would take them home to
southern Ontario. The weary students were happy to be heading back after
an exhausting four-day cultural exchange in Quebec City, a part of Canada
where French language and culture remain strong and French is the pri-
mary language. The group didn’t mind the heat outside, as the cars were
air conditioned. But when they pulled into the train station in Montreal
at 8:40 that evening and began to disembark, the Montreal Central Station
was oppressively hot and humid. The plan was to eat supper during a
three-hour stopover, then get back on the train and finish the final leg of
the journey home. By 10:00 P.M. a number of the students were already
back at the station, anxious to get on the air-conditioned train and leave.
Suddenly, a young girl felt dizzy and collapsed. Within a few minutes, six
other girls felt weak, shaky, and were seized by headaches and stomach
pain. Before long, police and emergency personnel were swarming. By
now, the number of girls affected had risen to thirteen. Sirens blaring, the
girls were rushed to the Montreal Children’s Hospital. At about this time,
rumors began circulating that a “mystery illness” had struck a group of
girls at the train station. An army of reporters descended on the scene,
and special bulletins were broadcast by local radio stations. Media spec-
ulation was rampant. One rumor held that chemicals were leaking from
the train’s air-conditioning system; others blamed food poisoning. All of
the commotion served to heighten the tension. Amid questions by teachers
and chaperones who began to ask their students if they felt ill, more and
more students succumbed. By midnight, seventeen more pupils said they
weren’t feeling well and were also taken to the hospital for evaluation.37
At the hospital, doctors noticed that the first group of thirteen girls
were anxious and overbreathing. Many of those receiving medical atten-
tion said that they had felt fine until they saw the other children becoming
“sick.” By 11:00 P.M. all but two of the original thirteen were cleared for
discharge. Confident that the cause was a collective panic attack, doctors
calmly explained that while some may have had “a mild intestinal ailment,”
poisoning was unlikely, and they seemed fine now and were well enough
to board the train. Hospital pediatrician Dr. M.E. Moffatt described what
happened next: “Upon hearing this, the two remaining girls got up off
their stretchers and rejoined the others. One of these girls had had severe
vertigo only minutes before, and the other had had severe pseudoparalysis
which immediately disappeared.”38
In addition to fatigue, excitement, the warm weather, and being away
from home, Moffatt believes another factor in the outbreak was isolation.
Over the previous four days, group members had developed an unusually
close-knit bond after being surrounded by French speakers.39 The final
straw was the hot weather, which must have seemed even hotter after trav-
eling in the comfort of the air-conditioned train before the doors opened
and the smothering blanket of warm air hit them at the Montreal train
station.
The Power of Culture: Close Encounters of the

Schoolyard Kind in Asia
Children everywhere have vivid imaginations. Sometimes they exag-
gerate real events; other times the events they recount are pure fiction.
Kids do so because of their limited knowledge of the world, their rich
imaginations, and their need to fit in and be liked. This combination of
culture, naiveté, and the propensity for weaving a colorful tale can produce
some interesting, if not incredible, results. What is believable in one cul-

ture and time is often unbelievable in another. You will recall from chapter
4 that Malaysia has been the scene of many strange classroom tales over
the years. Yet these accounts cannot match the reports of space aliens in
schoolyards. Malay children grow up learning traditional stories about
the reality of an array of tiny supernatural creatures that are widely
believed to inhabit the lush, tropical Malay Peninsula. Among the most
prominent are toyls and pari-pari, thought to be races of diminutive, mis-
chievous fairies that stand just a few inches high. These same children are
also exposed to Western books, films, and TV shows. The result is a strange
hybrid of “close encounter” reports blending elements of East and West.
Since the late 1960s there have been numerous reports in major Malaysian
newspapers describing schoolyard encounters with thumb-sized extrater-
restrials. Before reading these accounts, it is important to realize that while
the reality of the encounters is questionable, the accounts of the incidents
themselves are not, and all were reported by professional journalists from
mainstream newspapers, who traveled to the schools, spoke with the prin-
cipals and interviewed students.
Beginning in the 1950s, children the world over were inundated with
science-fiction movies, TV shows, and playthings. Not coincidentally, this
was also the era in which UFO reports flourished. Many of these new cul-
tural touchstones stemmed from a confluence of the American and Japa-
nese fascination with all things futuristic. Japanese manufacturers cranked
out mechanical toy robots, spaceships, aliens, and spacemen, all bristling
with the promise of advanced technologies and eagerly snapped up by kids
in both countries. The big screens at theaters and drive-ins were awash
with American and Asian films boasting titles such as Destination Moon,
Invaders from Mars, Battle in Space, and The Mysterians, many of which
featured adolescents and teens as hero figures.40
Then, on July 20, 1969, humans first set foot on the moon, and almost
overnight, science fiction became science fact, creating intense worldwide
interest in anything having to do with space travel and the possibility of
life on other planets. It was in this same month, in the city of Johor Baru
on the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, that the “visitors” arrived. At
10:25 A.M. students at the Temenggong Abdul Rahman Primary School
were on the playground for morning recess when, they said, a tiny silver
craft, about the size of a cooking pot, landed in a corner of the schoolyard.
Skeptical teachers were told of five entities standing seven inches tall, who
scrambled from the saucer, wearing tiny red suits and, in Wild West style,
tiny ray guns strapped to their waists. The children said they didn’t feel
threatened and rushed the creatures, hoping to capture them, but they
dove into a tiny hole in the ground. The craft then vanished before their
eyes.41 Perhaps not coincidentally, toyls and pari-pari are commonly
thought to reside in holes and can magically appear and disappear at will.
During 1970, with continuing interest in the Apollo missions, there
was a remarkable spate of close encounter reports in schoolyards across
the country. The most spectacular incident took place in broad daylight
near the Stowell English Primary School in Bukit Mertajam on Penang
island. It was August 19. Ten-year-old K. Wigneswaran said that several
UFOs had alighted in the bushes near the school grounds. From each object
emerged a three-inch-tall entity. He told teachers that just as he was closing
in for a better look, the school bell rang and he returned to class.42
That evening, six schoolmates reported seeing a tiny, blue UFO rest-
ing on the ground in the bushes near the school. The boys said that five
little men got out. One was dressed in a yellow suit; the other four, pre-
sumably of lesser rank, wore blue uniforms. The boys said they watched
as the beings installed what seemed to be an antenna on a tree branch,
frightening the boys, who ran away.43 No one produced the antenna. The
next day, Wigneswaran was found unconscious in the schoolyard. He later
gave a vivid account of having been shot by aliens. He told of visiting the
site of his previous encounter when he spotted a small spacecraft from
which five tiny entities emerged. As with the reports of the evening before,
one of them wore a yellow uniform and had two horn-like appendages
protruding from his head, resembling the alien on the popular TV show
My Favorite Martian. He seemed to be the leader. The other four wore
blue suits.
Wigneswaran said that he tried to catch the leader, who then shot
him. He was later found lying in the bushes, and was carried to his
classroom where he recovered. Wigneswaran said he had proof of his
encounter, pointing to a small red spot on his right leg where the alien
had supposedly shot him. The entire incident occurred in broad daylight
on the school playground, yet no one saw a thing. After school, two boys
went to the spot of Wigneswaran’s encounter. There, they reportedly met
two tiny entities in the bushes, wearing yellow suits. One was on a rock;
the other was perched on a tree branch about three feet off the ground
and had only one arm — the left. The boys said the creature was sitting on
the branch shaking its head from side to side, grasping what looked like
a weapon. Another classmate confirmed the story: Mohamed Ariffin bin
Mokhtar, the son of a police corporal. His father told reporters: “When
he returned home at 6:30 last night, he told my wife and me he had seen
two tiny spacemen in the belukar [small woods] outside the school fence.
When he tried to catch them, one shot him. He had a small cut on his left
hand and my wife treated the wound.” His statement seemed to imply
that the boy’s story should be given credence because his father was a
police officer.44
At 6:30 that evening, a few of the boys who had encountered the blue
UFO on the previous evening returned to the site. One of them, eleven-
year-old Mohamed Zulkifli, reported spotting a UFO on the ground sur-
rounded by creatures three inches tall. One of his friends, Mohamed Ali,
age 8, told the school’s principal, Ooi Keat Guan, that one of the beings
had zapped him with a tiny gun.45 With this incident, the remarkable series
of reports at the Stowell School came to a close.
Perhaps fueled by the publicity in Penang, days later, Rawang in the
state of Selangor was the site of another encounter report. At 10:00 A.M.
several primary students told their teachers that a tiny saucer the size of
a car tire had landed in front of their school; five thumb-sized creatures
got out. Four had two horn-like appendages protruding from their heads.
When several children and teachers moved in for a better look, they said,
the creatures scurried back into the object and flew off. Shortly after,
police rushed to the school and searched the grounds, but found nothing
to support the claims.46
In 1979, nearly a decade later, the island of Penang was the site of
more bizarre reports. At about 3:00 P.M. on May 20, six children from the
Jit Sin Primary School were playing under a tree when they spotted a tiny
craft on the ground, they later said. Exploring the nearby terrain were
four three-inch-tall creatures. One of the boys, Khor Boon Chew, said that
as he tried to catch one, it fired a weapon, causing a “stinging pain” in his
right palm. Chew then said the creature fired another shot, striking a stray
brick and breaking it in two. Another boy said that as the creatures ran
into the saucer, he grabbed onto the craft with both hands but was forced
to let go after an electric current jolted him. As the object flew off, they
said, it caused leaves from a nearby tree to shower down.
A 21-year-old man playing basketball nearby, Raymond Liang, said
he ran toward the school after hearing the commotion and witnessed the
students gathered around something. “I rushed to the scene and saw a tiny
flying saucer under a tree with four aliens ... three inches tall standing
outside,” he said. Liang confirmed Khor’s claim of having been shot by
one of the tiny creatures, saying it used a pistol-like device; after the shoot-
ing they all ran back to the saucer. Liang said the creatures wore green
uniforms with white helmets or caps. Police eventually came to the school
and took statements from the six students. Mr. R. Veerasamy, a senior
English instructor at the school, considered the boys’ accounts believable:
“Can the mind of six children and an adult run wild at the same time? ...
I believe there is some truth in the story and it merits further investiga-
tion.”47
Yet another encounter claim by Malaysian schoolchildren took place
during the weekend of August 21 and 22, 1982, when a spacecraft report-
edly landed in a durian plantation near Sarikei, on the island of Borneo
in East Malaysia. Durians are a spiny, smelly tropical fruit, about the size
of an American football. They are loved by Malaysians. Police interviewed
several 9-year-old schoolboys who claimed to have seen “little people”
with large heads out of proportion to their bodies. Two days later, more
creatures were spotted near a UFO on the same plantation. Police surmised
that the story was either a lie or due to overactive imaginations, suspicious
that the students may have been hunting for durians and used the space
creature story to avoid being disciplined by their principal, who had pre-
viously forbidden them from the plantation. However, two of the boys
steadfastly stuck to their story. The previous week, residents had reported
spotting a fireball in broad daylight. The UFO incident followed shortly
thereafter. It was later suggested that the “fireball” had been a round from
a signal flare gun, apparently fired as a prank. The incident may have
sparked the children’s imaginations, possibly as a cover for their penchant
for durians— which, incidentally, can easily be sold for a handsome profit.48
Fairies in the Schoolyard

The Malaysians’ belief in fairies is nearly as strong as their belief in
space aliens. Encounters with little folk are common in schoolyards across
the country. One flurry of reports took place during October 1974 in the
state of Pahang, near the center of the Malay Peninsula. The episode began
on October 8 in Padang Geroda, as two schoolboys at the Royal Malaysian
Air Force Primary School sat behind the school. Suddenly, near a clump
of bush, they saw a thumb-sized, brown-skinned creature. “It had two
feelers on the head and held a steel-like rod in its hand. A pistol was hang-
ing from its waist,” said nine-year-old Paul Lazario. The boy said he spot-
ted the creature as it was stooping down to drink water and captured the
being but “it escaped from [his] grip and ran into some undergrowth.”
The incident took place during school hours. On the same day, three stu-
dents heading home from school reported spotting a tiny UFO with three-
inch-tall creatures near the RMAF base. One boy said he passed out for
several minutes after the entity “shot” him.49
That evening, after Lazario told his friends of the initial incident,
three schoolmates visited the site and claimed to have spotted a three-
inch-tall creature. Neo Lee Ann, age twelve, said, “When it saw us, it ran
into the undergrowth and disappeared.” After hearing the story, teacher
Yew Kim Guan went to the site and, while he did not see any creatures,
reported finding “a Red Indian-like wigwam beautifully weaved out of
grass and lallang (tall weeds).”
It was not long before the students had the entire community of Kuan-
tan in an uproar. As news of the encounter spread, residents went on the
lookout for the creature. By the end of the next day, there had been three
more sightings of tiny entities in the vicinity. One incident was related by
Nor Akmar Mahmud, age twenty-two, a passenger on a bus trip from
Kampung Melayu in Gambang. Stepping off the bus at the end of her jour-
ney, she accidentally kicked what she thought to be a puppet belonging to
a fellow passenger. She said that she stared at it for a moment when, to
her surprise, the object moved. She soon became aware of three little enti-
ties. One was five inches tall and the other two stood about three inches
high. She claims to have picked one up and was shocked when it laughed.
She then let it go and the three beings held hands and scurried off, disap-
pearing into the crowd waiting for the bus. She described the beings as
looking like tiny men, but with slightly larger, chocolate-brown heads and
hairy legs. In a second incident on the same day, a woman said she was
startled by a tiny creature clinging to her leg as she waited for a bus. She
said the entity grinned at her, revealing shiny teeth. She panicked and
screamed, accidentally kicking the entity under a moving bus. She added
that the creature mysteriously vanished. The final incident of October 8
involved another bus passenger, Maimunah Ahmad, age twenty-two, who
reported hearing a strange voice from the empty space beside her for the
entire duration of a bus trip from Gambang to Kuantan. She said that she
could not understand what the voice was saying.50
On October 16, 1985, a group of Islamic children at the Paka Primary
School in the state of Terengganu told of encountering seven tiny dark-
skinned creatures wearing only shorts. One child said he tried to grab one
of the creatures but had to release it when his hand felt itchy. The witnesses
pinpointed a woodpile as the creatures’ hiding place, so residents rushed
to the site and spent hours removing the wood. They found nothing. Ear-
lier reports had occurred on Friday, October 11, followed by another the
next day, and yet another on October 15. Different witnesses reported each
incident. Thirteen-year-old Mohmed Sabri Zubit said the creatures spoke
a language similar to Indonesian and were wearing male Islamic headgear
known as a songkok. One was wearing a hijab (female Islamic cloth used
to cover the head) “and the rest were wearing nothing but long pants.”
Schoolteacher Baharuddin bin Omar initially refused to believe the reports
but later conceded, “I had to believe because many people saw them at
different times.”51
In February 1989, several students at the Selayang Baru Primary
School in Selangor reportedly spotted six “gnomes.” Three nine-year-old
students said they saw gnomes that stood six inches tall. The male creatures
were described as bald except for tufts of hair near their ears. They weren’t
dressed for the weather, wearing chocolate-colored, short-sleeved fur coats
with matching shorts. The females had flowing hair down to their waists,
and also wore waist-length fur coats and shirts. All had pointed ears. The
students said the gnomes snapped at their hands when they tried to catch
them. On one occasion, they said, when a student grabbed at a creature
it wielded an axe, so he quickly let go. The beings appeared in the evenings,
during school holidays, and at other quiet times. They were often seen
frolicking on school fields and in the parking lot, or having a bath in the
drain. Faizul Afendi said the gnomes had sharp teeth and claws, and that
he was scratched while trying to catch one. The school’s principal, Haji
Abdul Aziz Haji Abu, said, “I dared them to catch the gnomes in a bottle
or a plastic bag. But till now there is no evidence.” He also noted, “The
picture given by them and drawn by the art teacher, clearly show the sim-
ilarity with the toyol,” tiny creatures from traditional Malay folklore.52
During late June of 1990, four teachers and students of the Tapah Sec-
ondary School in Perak reported seeing tiny human-like creatures, about
six inches high. They had hairy brown legs, shiny red eyes, oval-shaped
ears, and their bodies were whitish gray. Two students, Kuzilan and Murali,
both fourteen, said they saw the tiny men exit a cave near the school on
June 26 at about 6:00 P.M. They said the men appeared to be looking for
food, as, after they spotted a piece of cake, they immediately took it and
returned to the cave, reported the Nanyang Siang Pau of June 30th.
Pandemonium broke out at the Sultan Sulaiman Primary School in
Kuala Terengganu in northeastern Malaysia over two days in 1991 as scores
of tiny entities were spotted on school grounds. The incidents occurred on
May 12 and 13 during afternoon recess. Eight-year-old Mohamed Izainurie
Nor Zaidi said he was stabbed in the left hand by one of the creatures as
he tried to catch it. When school officials examined his hand, it appeared
bruised. At the time, the boy’s father, Norzidi Mohamad, was captain of
the Terengganu State soccer team. The boy said he approached an outer
fence around the recess area where he saw “hundreds of tiny people coming
out of a hole near the drain of a housing estate.” Zaidi said he could clearly
see the faces of the creatures, who were dressed in red and stood about two
and a half inches tall. Another eight-year-old, Hafiza Zakaria, claimed that
she and another schoolgirl had seen the tiny folk near a drain. Other stu-
dents, including ten-year-old Yasmin Hadyah Yyuri, were adamant that

they too had seen the tiny people. The sightings were confined to students.
Not one of the forty-one teachers at the school reported seeing anything.53
In July 1991, two 11-year-old boys said that a tiny man had appeared
at the sixteenth mile of Kampung Buluhan near Kota Baru, Kelantan, and
that they had played with the creature as it pranced about on their hands.
They said they first saw the little man at 6:00 P.M., on Friday, hidden among
some stones in the school compound where they had gone to water a veg-
etable plot. As they were about to pick up a hoe near some stones, a plastic
bag moving along the ground startled them. Hiding under the bag was a
tiny man about two and a half inches high. Yusof caught the little man,
but his friend pleaded with him to release the creature. The boys say the
tiny being enjoyed eating chili and other foods that were left near a hole.
They described the being as resembling a human male, except that it had
white stripes. They weren’t sure whether the stripes were part of its clothes
or its body. A teacher who heard the tale noted that bananas from the
nearby trees were frequently missing and may have been gobbled down
by the little fellow.54
During the last week of September 1992, a group of students and a
few residents in Bandar Baru Sentul, Kuala Lumpur, saw a creature that
stood six inches high. Witnesses said it had glittering green skin, with
three long fingers on each hand and long nails on each finger. Thirteen-
year-old Law Wai Chow of Kuala Lumpur’s Maxwell High School said
that he had previously encountered the creature and that its eyes were like
a human’s except that they were red. Another student, Suriakumar Wick-
ramasena, twelve, described the being as human-like but bald. Three days
after the initial sighting he “saw the creature sitting near a hole. The crea-
ture was frightened and ran very fast into the hole.”55
Tiny beings in space suits with ray guns strapped to their sides? Fairy-
like creatures in schoolyards wearing shorts and T-shirts? These reports
are laughable to most of the world. But not to many Malaysians who con-
sider the reality of such beings as plausible. To many Malaysians, the world
is filled with an array of tiny magical creatures. Indeed, if one were keeping
score, when it comes to school scares and hysterias, Malaysia would likely
be declared the world’s epicenter of these tales.
Look! Up in the Sky!

It was the night of July 29, 1992. The story begins at the Hishamuddin
Secondary Islamic School in Klang, about an hour’s drive northwest of
the capital city of Kuala Lumpur. It was there that two hundred students
and their instructor reported seeing miraculous sights in the sky over a
five-hour period. Some said they could plainly see the word Allah (God)
in Jawi script. Jawi is Arabic writing that has a special place in Islamic
Asia as it is the script in which the Koran was written and is central to
religious writings. Soon, someone saw a cloud that looked like a women
with her aurat exposed, and two dead bodies. One’s aurat are body parts
that must be covered according to Islamic custom such as the hair on a
woman’s head. In all, twenty-six images were reported.
The next evening at about 6:50, the words “Allah” and “Muhammad”
reportedly appeared in Jawi script while all of the students were praying
in a school field. This time the script was said to be much larger. All of
the images were reportedly formed in clouds. Dr. Jariah Abdullah of the
Chemistry Department at the University of Kebangsaan Malaysia heard
about the incidents and talked with the students.56
The “miracle” near the Hishamuddin School coincided with a flurry
of reports beginning in about 1990, involving mostly Muslims, of the
appearance of Islamic symbols, most typically Arabic Jawi script, in many
different countries. For example, on June 12, 1990, in Algeria, the Islamic
Salvation Front Party won an upset election victory. While the party leader
was speaking to a crowd of supporters who were standing and shouting,
“Allah Akhbar” (“God is great!”) in the direction of Mecca (the Muslim
Holy Land), a cloud reportedly formed the shape of the word “Allah” in
Jawi. There was great excitement, and many people wept and fainted.57 In
1990 there were many reports of Arabic script appearing in eggplants
(referred to in some countries as egg fruits or aubergines). For instance,
in Nottingham, England, in March, Islamic accountant Hussain Bhatti
cut open an eggplant and became convinced that it contained Jawi script.
In another case, Farida Kassam of Leicester, England, reported that the
seeds had formed a pattern that was similar to “Yah-Allah” (“God is every-
where”) or “Ya-Allah” (“God exists”).58
During times of crisis and uncertainty, people often see what they
want to see in order to make sense of an uncertain world. During the
1980s, two Islamic countries, Iran and Iraq, fought a bitter war that pitted
Muslim against Muslim. Further divisions were soon created with the for-
mation of a military coalition of Muslim and Western countries in 1991
to reestablish the sovereignty of Kuwait after its occupation by Iraq. The
early 1990s also saw adversities faced by Muslims in Bosnia-Herzegovina
and other parts of the former Soviet Union. Under such circumstances,
Islamic sympathizers may have been susceptible to misperceiving mun-
dane events and circumstances relative to the those specific beliefs. The
Klang “miracle” seems explainable in a more straightforward fashion: reli-

gious devoutness— or fanaticism, depending on how one looks at it. A
group of Islamic students attending an Islamic boarding school drill for
hours a day on the teachings of Islam. It’s late at night when they return
from instruction, and there are clouds in the distance. It would seem that
during the Klang “miracle,” clouds in the sky became a Rorschach ink blot
test, reflecting the state of the students’ minds and their dedication to
Islam. Under similar circumstances, a class of Christian students might
have seen Jesus, and Hindus might have glimpsed Ganesh. In this instance,
it would seem that believing was seeing.
Schoolchildren Trigger a Moving Statue

“Epidemic” in Ireland
In February 1985, a group of schoolchildren triggered a series of
extraordinary events across Ireland involving claims that religious statues
were moving. On the 14th, around noon, 30 children from the school in
Asdee, County Kerry, went next door to the church of St. Mary to pray,
as was their daily custom. Five of the students (three from one family)
were the first to see the two near life-sized statues of Jesus and Mary move.
Seven-year-old Elizabeth Flynn said: “I saw Jesus moving. His hand moved
and he called me. Then I saw the eyes of the Blessed Virgin move.” Her
sister Mary, twelve, brother Connie, nine, and his nine-year-old friend
Michael Scully also said they saw the beckoning hand and moving eyes.
They rushed back to school and told their friends in the playground,
unwittingly triggering an epidemic of moving masonry. For the next seven
months, tens of thousands of the faithful and the curious flocked to local
Marian shrines, and there were reports of moving statues from more than
40 locations in 13 Irish counties.
By July 17, there was a major incident at Ballinspittal in County Cork,
when a girl was convinced she saw the Virgin’s statue rocking back and
forth. Upon returning with some 40 friends and family, many saw further
movements. At its peak, 20,000 pilgrims stood and watched in nonstop
vigils at the shrine. In Cork City, three children said a statue rocked so
much they were afraid it would fall on them. At Mitchelstown, four teenage
girls reportedly entered a trance during which the statue spoke to them,
“calling for peace.” In Dublin, a crowd of children, who claimed they saw
a statue move, were dismissed by a priest. At Mountcollins, several women
and children said that a statue swayed and blood poured from its hands.
At Carns, four girls had a vision of Mary, then others claimed to see St.
Bernadette and a crucifix in the sky. In Mooncoin, children claimed to see

the Virgin’s eyes open and close and shed tears. At Mount Melfry, three
children claimed that the Virgin Mary got down from her pedestal to tell
them “God was angry with the world.” Some blamed the incident on the
children’s hunger at the end of the day; and at least one theory attributed
the cause to collective guilt over the large numbers of teenage pregnancies
and unwanted babies.
Psychologist Jurek Kirakowski of Cork University and colleague Tim
Ryan explained the reports as optical illusions, noting that most people
do not spend their time in fields staring at illuminated statues at night
that are hundreds of yards away. If your body begins to sway or your neck
muscles start to tremble, as often happens under such circumstances, “the
image in your eye of the statue will move. If you have no idea you are
moving you are likely to attribute the movement to the lighted portion of
the statue rather than to yourself.... Since it is yourself that’s really moving,
you will tend to see the entire lighted portion of the status moving as a
solid mass, rosary and all.”59 Ironically, when the TV crews began to appear
and turned on their bright camera lights to illuminate the faithful, far
fewer people reported the perceived movement. The strong lights seem to
have created a greater visual connection with the surrounding environ-
ment and the perception of movement diminished. Others claimed these
were psychic phenomena. Once “mass hysteria” was suggested, many of
the faithful got angry. But the famous Irish wit was in evidence too, as
jokes sprung up, such as “how church lights are now being left on so the
statues don’t bump into each other at night.” After a meeting of bishops
to discuss the phenomenon, a spokesman said: “Without wishing to poke
fun at anyone ... I can say that the Church moves much more slowly in
these matters than do the statues.”60
At Mitchelstown, in County Cork, the reports took a darker tone on
the 5th of September when an expectant crowd began to panic. Teenagers
and children began screaming and crying that they had seen a devil. An
unnamed 16-year-old boy went home, trembling, to tell his mother he
had seen “shocking things.” His mother told the Sunday World of Septem-
ber 15, 1985: “While looking at the statue of the Blessed Virgin he saw it
changing into various forms. He saw the face of the Devil. The thing he
saw had horns and was a dark figure. He was terrified. Then he saw the
face of Jesus and a Pope with glasses.” The panic seems to have started
with this boy and was picked up by a group of three girls before spreading
through the crowd with some fainting. Mrs. Eileen Graham, who had been
present, told the paper, “It was as if the children were tuned in to some-
thing. They began shouting ‘He’s here! He’s here!’” The local priest, Dennis
O’Connor, said that several of his altar boys also claimed to have seen the
demonic face. He urged them to pray in the church, not at the shrine.
As an indication of the mounting, and perhaps confused, expectations
among the crowds as incident after incident was prominently reported,
mention was made by pilgrims, who had been to Ballinspittal first, that
the atmosphere at Mitchelstown “was not as comforting but cold and
frightening.” Also, Mrs. Graham revealed that a woman had seen a vision
of the devil at the shrine some six weeks previously. Of her own experience,
she said, she saw the face of an old woman in a nun’s habit. “Another
woman saw the same thing. Then I saw Our Lady’s face and half of it grow-
ing old. I cried.”61
CHAPTER 9
Global Lessons
Confusion is a word we have invented for an order which is not

understood.— Henry Miller1
When viewed through the lens of twenty-first century Western eyes,

these tales from classrooms and schoolyards around the world may appear
to be strange, irrational reactions. As isolated press reports, they seem to
have no rhyme or reason. They appear less strange when understood within
their local contexts. It is only by placing ourselves in the participants’
shoes, understanding their circumstances, unraveling their conduct codes,
and seeing the world through their eyes, that we are able to comprehend
these accounts. We are able to see ourselves in them, for if we had been
in their shoes, we would have acted the same way. Anthropologist David
Mayberry-Louis puts it this way: “In learning about the other, about many
‘others,’ our conception of humanity is enlarged and enriched. We gain
insight into the plasticity of human culture. We begin to see that our way
of life is determined not so much by nature but by culture and history.
Only then can we see that our way of life is just one of many possible
ones.”2
It is tempting for those from the developed world to pity the “igno-
rant” native who sacrifices a chicken to appease spirits in a bid to stop an
outbreak of hysteria in Ghana. We may laugh at attempts to bring in a
native healer to drive out “evil spirits” from a school in Malaysia or to
exorcise ghosts from a classroom in India. Yet to those attending these
schools, Western students likewise may seem equally out of touch with
reality as most go about their daily routines oblivious to the throngs of
supernatural beings that they take for granted. To many Malays, the world
is inhabited by jinn creatures. Many Africans know that the spirits of their
dead ancestors follow them everywhere. To many of these Asian and
African students, their American and European counterparts are a strange
lot.
173
In the West, fear of ghosts, witches and demons has been superseded
by anxieties involving terrorists and toxins. These threats have a greater
grounding in reality than their shadowy predecessors from the spirit world,
but are nonetheless exaggerated. Today Western school children are sus-
picious that anyone or anything out of the ordinary might be evidence of
a terror attack. From the late 1940s to 1990, Western school children lived
under the constant threat of a Soviet nuclear attack. During mock drills
in American schools, students hid under their desks until given the all-
clear. With each announcement that it was only a drill came a collective
sigh of relief. But as the threat subsided with the breakup of the Soviet
Union and the collapse of communism worldwide, other threats took its
place. Expect pollution and terror fears to dominate Western school out-
breaks for the foreseeable future.
History Lessons from Europe

These strange tales offer lessons about the psychological dangers of
treating students as robots to be programmed. Mental discipline as for-
mulated by Christian von Wolff in the early 1700s was a simplistic solution
to education. The brain was one big muscle in need of daily exercise.
Teachers across North America and Europe were soon using this strategy.
How much information was transferred into one’s ability to learn other
subjects depended on the effort in their practice drills. In certain European
schools, teachers drilled hard, especially in such tedious areas as Latin,
though nothing was deemed better for building reasoning than math. But
by the late 1800s it was clear that this approach was the cause of countless
outbreaks of twitching, shaking, and other strange behaviors in the Euro-
pean schools where this method was applied in the extreme. American
schools were spared these hysteria episodes because their approach to
teaching was more relaxed.
As we enter the twenty-first century, there is a lesson here about the
unintended consequences of replacing flesh-and-blood teachers with com-
puter programs. Most studies on the effectiveness of computers give short-
term results. What are we doing to our children, and what will be the
impact of decreasing levels of human interaction? What is it doing to our
social skills? There is no substitute for human interaction.
There is also a lesson about the importance of teaching subjects in a
way to which students can relate — not learning for the sake of learning,
or giving students busy work and perfunctory assignments, but construct-
ing practical, personally meaningful lessons. This means that instead of
lecturing students and dispensing “truth,” we must foster an appreciation

for the notion that good teaching is often messy. That is, the social sciences
are open to interpretation and debate. For instance, the documentation
of history is a subjective, value-laden process that often reveals more about
those writing it than those being written about. It is important to sharpen
our critical thinking skills when approaching this or any other subject.
When was it written? What is the writer’s motive? What is their back-
ground and worldview? What is their hidden agenda? Everyone has a
motive for writing. Our agenda is to recall lessons from the past, lest we
repeat them, and to learn from experiences around the world.
Learning from Fear: Panic Attacks in America

The September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States were immediately
followed by the anthrax scare in which five envelopes containing spores
of Bacillus anthracis resulted in twenty-two cases of illness and five deaths.
These events further traumatized the United States. It was not long before
any powdery substance found on school grounds was cause for alarm,
forcing full-scale evacuations. Decontamination teams would rush to the
scene as people in “haz-mat suits” removed the suspicious substance. Of
the hundreds of cases from schools across the United States and the world,
not one was anthrax. They were later identified as granulated soap, sugar,
flour, foot powder, spilled cake mix — everything but anthrax. Strange
odors wafting through the hallways also prompted worried looks. Was it
a bio-terror attack or just an overdone pot roast in cooking class?
Lessons from Africa

In Africa, the lesson is to celebrate diverse beliefs and customs instead
of trying to eradicate them and substitute foreign idols and ideas. It is a
story of injustice, of poor people so desperate for a quality education that
they send their children to the best schools around — missionary schools.
But the higher level of education comes at a price — they must discard
their traditional beliefs and embrace Christianity or Islam. For the children
caught in this dilemma, the psychological conflict is often more than they
can bear.
There is also a lesson for Westerners who cannot resist making light
of “bizarre” laughing outbursts. The African laughing mania is the poster-
child of the truly bizarre — the epitome of strangeness among “strange”
peoples who are seemingly primitive and backward. Yet laughing fits have
been happening in America and Europe for two centuries, ever since the
Holy Laugh became a common feature of tent revivals. Even today, the
Toronto Blessing has helped to spread the Holy Laugh throughout the
world. The only difference between the Western Holy Laugh and the
African laughing mania may be the location and its occurrence in a more
controlled religious setting.
Lessons from Asia

In Asia, outbreaks of spirit possession and hysteria among Malay
schoolgirls are warnings of the emotional turmoil that can occur when
previously sheltered girls are pushed from the nest too soon and sent to
distant boarding schools. Isolated from boys and kept to strict curfews,
these schoolgirls endure long days of tedious schoolwork and religious
studies, with little time for play. The resulting fits and spirit possession
are predictable. The outbreaks of hysteria in Malaysia are nearly identical
to those experienced by cloistered nuns in medieval European convents.
The episodes serve as cautionary tales about the dangers facing Asian youth
when sent away to suffocating boarding schools to be raised by strangers.
Diploma Mills and Rumor Mills

With their hallways filled with insecure students with raging hor-
mones and limited life experience (though they often think they know
everything), schools are ideal rumor-breeding grounds. Rumors often
trigger strange outbreaks in classrooms around the world. Sometimes they
lead to anxiety and panic; other times they evolve into mass hysteria. The
sudden blossoming of a rumor, such as toxic gas in a school building or
contamination of cafeteria food, usually gives rise to short, intense out-
breaks of anxiety hysteria. Headache, nausea, dizziness, and stomach pain
are common symptoms. These outbreaks were rare before the twentieth
century, but have risen in developed countries and are common today.
Most involve contamination fears such as a gas leak or terror attack. With
no prior warning, there is usually little or no pre-existing group tension.
Most episodes are over in a day or two.
When rumors fester over weeks or months, the ongoing tension may
result in motor hysteria: twitching, shaking, fainting, and trance states.
Such was the case during the pregnancy scare at the Bethume Negro School
in Louisiana during 1960. Rumors that the girls would be given pregnancy
tests sent fear through the sexually active students. The result was a wave
of seizures, headaches, shaking, and catatonic posturing. Motor hysteria
appears gradually and usually takes weeks or months to subside. The fits
lasted more than half a year. In parts of Africa and Asia, the Petri dish for
rumors is the lack of an outlet for students to express their frustrations.
Those boarding schools live under strict rules twenty-four hours a day.
The harsh conditions trigger hysteria in one or two students, after which
rumors swirl — usually that there are spirits in the school — as fellow class-
mates fear that they may be the next targets.
A rumor is born when an unverified but plausible story spreads within
a group. There is often a kernel of truth to the story, enough to make it
seem believable, but no substantiating evidence. Rumors spawn in times
of uncertainty and fear and typically last from a few days to several months.
Rumors, essential components of most school scares and hysterias, take
root in the fertile soil of ambiguous situations of perceived importance.
People unconsciously construct these stories in an attempt to regain a
sense of certainty and reduce fear and anxiety. In other words, “rumor is
most likely to occur when people are intensely interested in a topic and
little definite news or official information is available.”3 Conversely, if there
is little interest and authoritative information is abundant, a rumor is
unlikely to sprout. The more unclear the situation and the greater the per-
ceived significance of the story, the greater the likelihood rumors will
develop. This is why there are so many rumors about the stock market
during periods of war and crisis.
Plausibility is a key in triggering rumors. What is unbelievable to
one person or group may be quite believable to another depending on the
time and place. Over several weeks in late 1979, a headhunter scare broke
out on the island of Borneo in Southeast Asia, where head-taking was once
common. Anthropologist Richard Drake was studying the Mualang peo-
ples when rumors paralyzed village life and forced the local school to close
for lack of attendance. The scare started with rumors that the Indonesian
government was building a nearby bridge and needed a body to place in
the foundation to strengthen it. The locals distrusted the government and
grew up believing such stories.4 An American or European might laugh
at the rumors, but to the locals, they were possible. Another example of
the role of plausibility is the Chinese Zombie Robot Scare of March 1993,
when a bizarre scene unfolded in the city of Chongqing, in Sichuan Prov-
ince. A rumor spread rapidly through this city’s primary and middle-
school students that an American robot had gone out of control and
escaped to their city. Remarkably, many students believed the rumor. A
report by Agence France-Press described the children’s belief that the robot
was a “zombie specialized in eating children wearing red clothes” and it
was said “to have devoured several kids already.” Many of the children
refused to go to school unless their parents made crosses out of chopsticks
and put garlic in their schoolbags. The children’s anxiety was soon picked
up by adults who had no way of judging the factuality of their fears. The
newspaper noted the sudden local shortage of garlic. This panic appears
to have been a hybrid of Western folk motifs and remedies as interpreted
through the imagination of children in another culture. It is similar to the
story in chapter 3 of the panic among schoolchildren in Houston, Texas,
that a gang of Smurfs was about to attack kids wearing blue. In the Smurfs
case, the panic began in January 1993 and came to a climax in March, at
roughly the same time the kids in Chongqing were worrying about their
robot-zombie.5
Psychologists Gordon Allport and Leo Postman have tracked the for-
mation of rumors in laboratory experiments and found that they develop
in three stages. Leveling is the tendency for a story to become shorter and
understood more easily. During sharpening, some key details become
prominent while others lose importance or disappear entirely. Then assim-
ilation, the tendency for stories to be sharpened and leveled in ways that
reflect a person’s culture, biases, and stereotypes, occurs.6 Rumors are a
key part of most school scares, such as the following incident, involving
sexually transmitted disease among Pennsylvania schoolgirls in the early
1960s.
Rumor in Action: A Phantom Gonorrhea

Outbreak
In 1961, Christmas holidays were anything but cheerful for girls at
the Lebanon Elementary School in Fellsburg, Pennsylvania. Many of them
were anxious about rumors sweeping through the community that many
of them had a venereal disease — possibly gonorrhea. On Friday evening,
December 12, the school board ordered the doors closed for a week while
doctors tried to solve the mystery of why some of the girls had discharge
coming from their vaginas. School physician Dr. Eugene O’Leary told
board members that tests appeared to indicate vaginitis— a common bac-
terial infection — and that the problem was not serious. However, board
members decided to close the school upon learning that a local doctor was
convinced the illness was gonorrhea. Every schoolgirl was tested before
being allowed back in class. The community was besieged with rumors,
among them that the disease was spread in the school toilets. The rumors
of illness may have masked the parents’ greater fears— that their girls were
sexually active.7
A team of University of Pittsburgh doctors were asked to investigate
the “outbreak” and soon found that not a single student had gonorrhea.
Further, while a few of the girls showed symptoms of a mild infection,
most of the vaginal discharge may have been normal. The initial misdi-
agnosis of gonorrhea by the local doctor, coupled with worried parents,
produced a hotbed of rumor and fear. The school administration added
to the worry by issuing no less than seven written statements on the affair.
While these reports were factual, they encouraged rumors with such
phrases as “mysterious infection” and “strange malady,” while the local
newspaper referred several times to the school’s “mystery infection.” When
school officials denied the presence of a mysterious illness in the school,
some parents interpreted it as a cover-up. Adding to the tension at the
time of the episode was the fear of outsiders. At the start of the new school
year in September, several poorer children from a nearby community had
transferred into the school after their building was condemned. The pres-
ence of these newcomers may have heightened tension among “the more
prosperous parents and increased their tendency to view the school as a
possible source of infection.” At the start of the scare, this distrust played
a major role.8
Major Explanations
The earliest recorded explanation for mass hysteria was that demonic
agents were responsible for an outbreak of mysterious convulsions at an
orphan school in Holland during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
In many countries in Africa, Asia, and the Pacific islands, similar views
continue to hold sway to this day. On Papua New Guinea it is often
thought that bush spirits are to blame for hysteria outbreaks; many
Malaysians point the finger at Islamic jinn spirits mentioned in the Koran;
and in South Africa the culprit is frequently demons from the Holy Bible.
One thing is certain: Intense religious beliefs about the reality of demonic
agents often play a role in triggering outbreaks, even today.9
In addition to demons, another cause for strange student behavior
discussed during the sixteenth century was the possibility that the Dutch
orphan students were suffering from a physical ailment. A third view held
that they were feigning illness or strange behaviors in order to get some
benefit. At Hoorn, the outbreak conveniently stopped when the children
were lodged with families around the city. On the other hand, such a rem-
edy likely reduced stress, and any cases of hysteria were likely to have sub-
sided in any event. The “feigning” explanation still prevails in some
quarters today. During the Palestinian schoolgirl “poisoning” episode of
1983, several Israeli doctors believed the girls were faking symptoms to
make the Israeli government look evil and gain greater sympathy for the
Palestinian bid to retake their homeland.10
Modern-day explanations for mass hysteria in schools fall into five
broad categories: psychoanalytic, sociological, social-psychological, bio-
logical, and anthropological. These theories often share overlapping fea-
tures.
A View from the Couch: The Brain in Conflict

Psychoanalysts believe that many victims of mass hysteria have deep
subconscious conflicts that are converted into symptoms, although how
it happens on a biological level is a mystery. The affected body parts usually
relate to the conflict. The epidemic of leg twitching at an American school
in 1939 began in the single student, Helen, who thought she was a poor
dancer and feared dance class. The twitching allowed Helen to avoid dance
classes and rekindle her boyfriend’s affection. Investigators surmise that
after seeing Helen’s success, over the next few weeks six classmates expe-
rienced similar unconscious twitching in order to get attention and emu-
late Helen, who was a role model for the group.11
In chapter 1 we learned that outbreaks of hand tremor were common
across Europe during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Episodes struck in the most rigid schools, where students were forced to
complete boring, tedious writing drills. What became popularly known
as “the trembling disease” seems to be a classic example of conversion dis-
order. The pupils were socialized into staying in school and achieving a
high standard; but they were stifled by the excessive, repetitious workload.
Anxiety and frustration rose, and eventually the pent-up emotions were
converted into hand tremors, which gave students attention for their plight
and often a temporary respite from assignments. Mass hysterical tremor
struck at a Swiss girls’ school in 1893, then again eleven years later at the
same school. In both cases, investigators concluded that the outbreaks
were unconscious attempts to avoid schoolwork.12 The mechanism has
parallels to military cases wherein a combat soldier with deep moral oppo-
sition to killing is unable to move his hand to fire a weapon.
A Sociologist’s View: Blame Society

Sociologist Neil Smelser blames school hysteria outbreaks on society.
He believes that societies can become abnormal; for example, some surmise
that in Germany before World War II, something went wrong in the struc-
ture of the society that gave rise to Nazism. Smelser believes that rapid
changes produce an imbalance in the “normal” state of society. Another
key ingredient is strain or conflict, such as a strange odor or an ongoing
rift between students and teachers. Eventually pupils redefine a strange
smell from a situation that is vague and harmless to one that is toxic and
threatening. In June 1980, students at several schools near an industrial
complex in Hong Kong reported a strange odor and began keeling over in
droves with stomach pain, nausea, headache, and dizziness. Before the
incident, rumors of a recent gas scare at a nearby school were already cir-
culating, and several teachers were advising students on what action to
take if toxic gas got into the school. Smelser says that one look of indeci-
sion, confusion or panic on the face of a teacher can quickly spark an
episode or, just as quickly, quell it.13
Social Psychology: The Power of Belief

Some social psychologists theorize that students stricken during out-
breaks tend to be the ones that have personality problems. They have tried
to confirm this by answering the question: Why do some students in the
same classroom feel ill or act strangely, while others don’t? More recently,
researchers have tried to answer this question by giving the students per-
sonality tests. Is there a mass-hysteria-prone personality? There have been
no consistent findings in this area. Some stricken students have scored
higher on scales for paranoia, neuroticism, and hysterical traits, while oth-
ers have not. In the United States, Dr. Gary Small found a link between
students’ grades and their likelihood of being stricken. In Singapore, Dr.
K.T. Goh found no association. Some researchers note that affected pupils
had low IQs, while others found the opposite to be true.14
Other psychologists focus on the context of outbreaks.15 Instead of
emphasizing the role of stress or disturbed students, they focus on how
the students view a given situation. To a Hindu, eating a hamburger can
be a threatening event; they may think they are eating their dead grand-
mother, as it is widely believed that the deceased are reincarnated as ani-
mals. For Muslims, eating pork is a sin; it says so in the Koran. To students
from these backgrounds, the simple act of eating can be fraught with fear.
Many things determine whether a student becomes affected: their cultural

beliefs, their education level, how close they were to the stressful agent
such as a strange smell, or whether they had heard rumors or seen others
being stricken.
British psychiatrist David Taylor thinks that mass hysteria is a drama
that gains a foothold in the imagination of students. In a similar vein,
when we watch a film or TV show, we often get caught up in the drama
as if it were really happening. Belief is a powerful force that is often sup-
ported by relatives of victims. Students who think they are sick may start
feeling sick: “In these dramas the actors and the audience are equal part-
ners. When the sick are presented to doctors the doctors are compelled to
act from their perspective just as the parents or the crowd acted from
theirs. In this way, the medical procedures tend to validate the sickness to
the relatives in the same process which invalidates it to the doctors.”16
Taylor emphasizes the importance of understanding the victim’s context:
“Epidemic hysterias arise couched in social settings that enhance emo-
tionality and promote the rapid ‘mental acceptance of propositions as true
even if beyond observations.’ The sorts of events that produce these
responses are unavoidable apparent threats that have emerged through
some form of ultra-rapid group consensus.”17
How strong is the power of suggestion? Consider the strange case of
psychogenic hallucinations at a California middle school in 1998. On Sep-
tember 23, three fourth-graders unintentionally swallowed a substance
that turned out to be the powerful hallucinogenic drug LSD. The students
were taken to a nearby hospital for treatment amid a flurry of media pub-
licity. That day, eleven other students at the same school recalled that they
had sampled a white powder from a vial, and believing that they too had
ingested LSD, were rushed to the hospital with symptoms ranging from
violent outbursts to hallucinations. In reality, the powder was harmless.
After drug tests proved negative, they quickly felt better and were released
a few hours later.18
The Biologist: Nature

It is easy to see why some people think that biological factors are
at work, as it is undeniable that most school hysteria episodes involve
girls. I have collected nearly five hundred articles on mass hysteria in
schools, factories, prisons, convents, and communities dating back to the
fifteenth century, in languages including Polish, Indonesian, Russian, Ger-
man, Malay, Spanish, Italian, and French. The proportion of victims who
are female is overwhelming and well over 90 percent. The question is why.
Not long ago, it was commonly thought that females were prone to emo-
tional instability, making them prime candidates for hysteria. Some say
this view is sexist, arguing that proponents have not taken into account
the way that females are raised. For instance, girls are usually encouraged
from childhood to express their feelings.19 During an outbreak they may
be more likely to report symptoms, while boys might try to act macho. In
many cultures around the world, females are dominated by males, increas-
ing the likelihood of their experiencing emotional frustration.
But what of the role of biology? In most developed countries, class-
room social conditions are fairly uniform for both male and female stu-
dents, yet hysteria continues to be reported mostly in girls. One
explanation is the finding that women of menstruating age are susceptible
to panic disorder and hyperventilation. Menstruation and the chemical
changes it brings may account for the large proportion of schoolgirls
stricken. Hysterical disorders, in which a person experiences various aches
and pains for which there is no pathological basis, are also more common
in females. One such disorder is globus hystericus— a feeling of a lump in
the throat that gives a feeling of choking. Another is psychogenic pain
disorder. Conversion disorder, in which emotional trauma is converted
into physical symptoms, is more common in females, with studies finding
ratios varying from 2 to 1 to as high as 10 to 1, paralleling the range in
prevalence ratios in school hysteria outbreaks.20
The Anthropologist: Nurture

British anthropologist Ioan Lewis observes that in some “primitive”
societies, groups of stressed people often enter trances and act as if they
are possessed by spirits. Most are women. He also notes that most people
who enter trances during emotionally charged religious meetings are
women. Lewis thinks this is because in most societies women have low
status and are often oppressed by men, especially in less developed coun-
tries. In women who enter trance and possession states— sometimes alone,
other times in groups— twitching, shaking and anxiety-related aches and
pains are common. Curiously, these are the same conditions that crop up
in many Asian and African schools where mass hysteria is common. In
these places, outbreaks most often strike female pupils, who may insult
authorities and criticize administration policies. They may even hit males.
Yet students are able to escape punishment because the behavior is blamed
on the possessing demon, who was talking through them. As a result, mass
hysteria in Africa and Asia may have developed as a means of subconscious

negotiation. Most anthropologists assume that females are not susceptible
just because of their genes, but are rendered so through the way they are
socialized. For instance, in Malaysia girls are raised to be obedient and
submissive, and to avoid direct confrontation with authority. Malaysian
researchers Raymond Lee and Susan Ackerman suggest that mass hysteria
and spirit possession in Asia are simply culturally appropriate ways of
indirectly negotiating problems— a kind of collective bargaining.21
A Neurologist’s View
Many school outbreaks of psychogenic illness are triggered by strange
odors. British neuroscientist David Ray says that contamination fear cou-
pled with a strong odor can trigger mass hysteria: “Smell can precipitate
a strong emotional reaction that can make people ill in a subjective way
... [even] where the children could be shown not to have had any meas-
urable exposure.”22 Why? Because the olfactory nerves that deal with smell
are closely connected to the so-called nausea center. Humans may have
developed such a connection in part as a biological defense mechanism to
stop us from eating rotten food, especially decaying animals, that could
be harmful for us.
Hypnosis and Chemicals

During the nineteenth century, some scientists thought that all sorts
of mass behavior —from hysterical school children to soccer riots— were
the result of group hypnosis. Psychoanalyst Casper Schmidt holds a group
trance interpretation of mass hysteria in school children. Physician Gary
Elkins thinks that trances play a role in school outbreaks and compares
mass hysteria to the active-alert hypnotic state. Elkins surmises that when
the first student falls ill and receives medical attention, classmates focus
on the crisis, fostering a natural trance. He writes: “Alarmed and uncertain
of their own feelings, the group members become susceptible to sugges-
tions of illness. These suggestions were received with very little critical or
reflexive thought.” It is well known that a person can enter a hypnotic
trance without a formal induction and that those under hypnosis are prone
to suggestion. Sometimes tests reveal minute amounts of harmful agents,
but at such low levels that they should pose no threat. Public health experts
Halley Faust and Lawrence Brilliant speculate that chemicals or organic
mixtures may trigger mysterious outbreaks of illness or strange behavior.

This could explain why young girls are most vulnerable: they typically
weigh less than males their age.23
Handling Outbreaks
So what is a principal or headmaster to do when faced with a school
full of anxious students who think they may have breathed toxic fumes
or be suffering from food poisoning? Err on the side of caution and assume
the worst. But when it is evident that mass psychology has taken over,
reassurance is vital. Western outbreaks are usually reactions to sudden,
extreme fear. Administrators and teachers must stay calm. One worried
look or “Oh my God” by a teacher can turn a docile crowd of students
into what resembles a herd of stampeding cattle.
And how is the African or Asian administrator to deal with a school-
house of students who are seemingly possessed by spirits? Identify, then
resolve, the underlying stress or conflict. Native healers are sometimes
helpful, but not always. If a witchdoctor promises to rid the school of
spirits and the symptoms remain — and remember, motor disturbances
don’t go away overnight — an even greater panic may occur and last longer.
Similarly, if Western medics fail to address the perceived terrors and their
symptoms, the outbreak is likely to continue. Teachers should handle new
cases by confidently labeling the incident as psychological, removing the
student from classmates, and sending him or her home until they feel bet-
ter. In stopping ghost scares, open communication is essential to coun-
teract misinformation and rumors. As in Western schools, staying calm
is essential in quelling the spread of fear, which fuels outbreaks. If school
personnel fail to heed this advice, chaos may ensue. In this regard, some
teachers have not only fanned the flames of hysteria and fear — they have
inadvertently lit them.
In 1987 an outbreak of fainting took place at a primary school in Pre-
toria, South Africa — an outbreak that was triggered by teachers. One day
a teacher began acting strange and seemed to enter a trance. She had a hor-
rific vision of her classroom being filled with buckets of blood and the walls
smeared with blood and human waste. She then collapsed on the floor and
later regained her senses. Soon other teachers had similar visions, then col-
lapsed. Before long, several pupils were collapsing onto the school floor
and having visions. By early 1989 the situation at the school spiraled out
of control when as many as 60 students fainted or fell at the same time.
Many parents in the community thought witches were at work. It was
rumored that the school had been bewitched by someone wanting to take
over the principal’s job. Many teachers even believed the witchcraft rumors.
When the psychiatric team arrived, the school was in chaos. Children
were running about aimlessly, screaming and falling to the floor. Some
were passed out, others twitching or convulsing. Many were hallucinating.
Psychologist Bernadette Wittstock said that the students “described visions
of small, dark people; of women dressed in tattered clothes threatening
to hit them with sticks or knives; of frightening animals.” Some of the
animals were strange, such as a creature with a monkey’s head and a dog’s
body. Wittstock said the visions had a profound impact on the kids: “The
figures in the visions called the children to leave the classroom and told
them that they would be killed if they discussed their visions with others.”
Many students steadfastly believed a witch was casting spells on the school.
Some investigators were so unnerved by these events that shortly after
arriving, they wanted to leave and not come back. The falling and visions
gradually subsided over the next several months.24
The Most Important Lesson of All

These seemingly strange classroom accounts are not tales of sickness
but of distress; they are not tales of chaos and disarray but of rebellion;
they are not tales of irrationality but logical responses to unique circum-
stances and worldviews. When we look only at the behaviors and forget
about their context and meaning, we grow vulnerable to mistaking the
exotic as strange, the unfamiliar as bizarre, and folk beliefs as superstitions.
We must remember that there are ghosts, students do become possessed
by spirits, and terrorists have attacked American schools. That is to say,
for the students, teachers and parents in these community soap operas,
the events were real. Events happen in specific social and cultural contexts
that those involved cannot see. As anthropologist Clyde Kluckhohn once
observed: “Culture is like the water fish swim in; it is everywhere around
the fish, yet impossible for the fish to see.”25 Far from being abnormal or
dysfunctional, school scares, panics, and hysterias are collective coping
mechanisms and ways of making sense of the world. As such, these
episodes of distress afford us insights into students and their capacity to
adapt to and cope with change. Ultimately, they are tales of the indomitable
human spirit; clever and creative in its response to repression, fear, uncer-
tainty and injustice.
Chapter Notes
Introduction bornly persists, most notably in the fields of

medicine and psychiatry. See Francois Sirois,
1. William H. Burnham, The Normal “Epidemic Hysteria: School Outbreaks
Mind (New York: D. Appleton, 1924), p. 327. 1973 –1993,” Medical Principles and Practice
2. Johannes Schödel, “Über Induzierte 8 (1999): 12–25; M. S. Micale, Approaching
Krankheiten [On Induced Illness],” Jahrbuch Hysteria: Disease and Its Interpretations
für Kinderheilkunde 14 (1906): 521–28. (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press,
3. L. Hirt, “Eine Epidemie von Hyster- 1995).
ischen Krämpfen in einer Schleisischen 8. Robert E. Bartholomew, “Dancing
Dorfschule [An Epidemic of Hysterical with Myths: The Misogynist Construction
Cramp in a Village School in Schleisischen],” of Dancing Mania,” Feminism and Psychol-
Zeitschrift für Schulgesundheitspflege 6 ogy 8.2 (1998): 173 –183.
(1893): 225–29 (summary of an article by L. 9. Richard L. Sjoberg, “The Catechism
Hirt in the Berliner Klinische Wochenschrift); Effect: Child Testimonies during a 17th-
P. Schutte, “Eine neue form Hysterischer Century Witch Panic as Related to Educa-
Zustande bei Schulkindern [A New Form of tional Achievement,” Memory 8.2 (2000):
Hysterical Conditions in School Children],” 65–69; Richard L. Sjoberg, “False Allegations
Münchener Medizinsche Wochenschrift 53 of Satanic Abuse: Case Studies from the
(1906): 1763 –64; E. Zollinger, “Über die Witch Panic in Rattvik 1670 –71,” European
Pädagogische Behandlung des Nervösen Zit- Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 6 (1997):
terns der Schulkinder [On the Educational 219 –226; Rossell Hope Robbins, The Ency-
Treatment of Nervous Trembling in School clopedia of Witchcraft and Demonology
Children],” Jahrbuch der Schweiz Gesellschaft (New York: Crown, 1966), pp. 348 –350;
für Schulgesundheitspflege 7 (1906): 20 –47. George S. Rosen, “Psychopathology in the
4. Gary Small and Jonathan Borus, “Out- Social Process: Dance Frenzies, Demonic
break of Illness in a School Chorus: Toxic Possession, Revival Movements and Similar
Poisoning or Mass Hysteria?” New England So-Called Psychic Epidemics: An Interpre-
Journal of Medicine 308 (1983): 632–35; H. tation,” Bulletin of the History of Medicine
C. T. Smith and E. J. Eastham, “Outbreak of 36 (1962): 13 –44; Oliver Maddox Hueffer,
Abdominal Pain,” The Lancet 2 (1973): 956– The Book of Witches (East Ardsley, United
59. Kingdom: EP, 1908 [1973]).
5. S. Krug, “Mass Illness at an Interme- 10. Balthasar Bekker, Le Monde Enchanté,
diate School: Toxic Fumes or Epidemic Hys- vol. 4 (Amsterdam: Pierre Rotterdam, 1694),
teria?” Pediatric Emergency Care 8 (1992): p. 517; Jean Wier (Johann Weyer), Histoires,
280 –82. Disputes et Discours Des Illusions et Impos-
6. American Psychiatric Association, Di- tures des Diables, des Magiciens Infames,
agnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Sorcières et Empoisonneurs, translated from
Disorders, 3rd edition (Washington, DC: the Latin original, published 1563, vol. 1
APA, 1994). (Paris: Bureaux du Progrès Médical, 1885),
7. Hysteria became officially passé in 1994 p. 521; Johann Joseph von Görres, La Mys-
when the American Psychiatric Association tique Divine, Naturelle et Diabolique, vol. 5
voted it out of existence, yet the term stub- (Paris: Poussielgue-Rusand, 1855, translated
187
188 Notes— Introduction
from the German Christliche Mystik 1845), sters. Schools Close Down,” New York
p. 231. Times, August 8, 1963, p. 29; New York
11. Charles Mackay, Memoirs of Extraor- Times, August 9, 1963, p. 4; A. M. Rankin
dinary Popular Delusions and the Madness and P. J. Philip, “An Epidemic of Laughing
of Crowds, vol. 2 (London: Office of the Na- in the Buboka District of Tanganyika,” Cen-
tional Illustrated Library, 1852), pp. 539 – tral African Journal of Medicine 9 (1963):
540. 167–170; Benjamin H. Kagwa, “The Problem
12. Elaine Showalter, “Scratching the Bin of Mass Hysteria in East Africa,” East
Laden Itch,” New Statesman 131 (July 29, African Medical Journal 41 (1964): 560 –66;
2002): 12; Robert E. Bartholomew and Ben- Anonymous, “Two Schools Close in Tanza-
jamin Radford, “Rash of Mysterious Rashes nia Till Siege of Hysteria Ends,” New York
May Be Linked to Mass Hysteria,” Skeptical Times, May 25, 1966, p. 36; J. R. Muhangi,
Inquirer 26.3 (2002): 8; “Update: Rashes “Mass Hysteria in an Ankole School,” East
Among Schoolchildren—27 States, October African Medical Journal 50 (1973): 304 –09;
4, 2001–June 3, 2002,” Morbidity and Mor- Gideon Nkala, “Mass Hysteria Forces School
tality Weekly Report (Center for Disease Closure,” Middle East Intelligence Wire,
Control, Atlanta) 51.24 (June 21, 2002): 524– March 13, 2000; Wene Owino, “Mass Hys-
52. teria Causes School’s Temporary Closure,”
13. M. F. Goldsmith, “Physicians with Pan African News Agency, March 8, 2000.
Georgia on Their Minds,” Journal of the 19. G. J. Ebrahim, “Mass Hysteria in
American Medical Association 262 (1989): School Children, Notes on Three Outbreaks
603 –604; Zoran Radovanovic, “On the in East Africa,” Clinical Pediatrics 7 (1968):
origin of mass casualty incidents in Kosovo, 438.
Yugoslavia, in 1990,” European Journal of 20. Stephen Frankel, “Mass Hysteria in
Epidemiology 11 (1995): 1–13; Alastair Hay the New Guinea Highlands: A Telefomin
and John Foran, “Yugoslavia: Poisoning or Outbreak and Its Relationship to Other New
Epidemic Hysteria in Kosovo?” The Lancet Guinea Hysterical Reactions,” Oceania 47
338.8776 (November 9, 1991): 1196; Baruch (1976): 105 –33.
Modan, Moshe Tirosh, Emil Weissenberg, 21. Smith and Eastham (1973), op. cit.;
Cilla Acker, T. A. Swartz, Corina Coston, Daily Mirror, July 10, 1972.
Alexander Donagi, Moshe Revach and Gas- 22. R. Levine, “Epidemic Faintness and
ton Vettorazzi, “The Arjenyattah Epidemic,” Syncope in a School Marching Band,” Jour-
The Lancet 2 (1983): 1472–74; Philip J. Lan- nal of the American Medical Association
drigan and Bess Miller, “The Arjenyattah 238.22 (1977): 2373 –74; E. Bebbington, C.
Epidemic: Home Interview Data and Toxi- Hopton, H. I. Lockett, and R. J. Madeley,
cological Aspects,” The Lancet 2 (1983): “From Experience: Epidemic Syncope in Jazz
1474 –76. Bands,” Community Medicine 2 (1980): 302–
14. See, for example: Aphaluck Bhatia- 07.
sevi, “Belief in Ghosts Sparks Hysteria: Stu- 23. M. Smothers, “Mysterious Malady
dents Freak Out at School Camp,” Bangkok Strikes Kids on Bus,” Journal Star (Peoria,
Post, February 4, 2001. Illinois), May 19, 2000.
15. Sivagnanachelvi Selvadurai, “Prob- 24. Robert E. Bartholomew and Simon
lems of Residential Students in a Secondary Wessely, “Protean Nature of Mass Sociogenic
Technical School” (Master’s thesis, Univer- Illness: From Possessed Nuns to Chemical
sity of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, 1985). and Biological Terrorism Fears,” The British
16. Teoh Jin-Inn, Saesmalijah Soewondo, Journal of Psychiatry 180 (2002): 300 –06;
and Sidharta Myra, “Epidemic Hysteria in Robert E. Bartholomew and Simon Wessely,
Malaysia: An Illustrative Episode,” Psychiatry “Epidemic Hysteria in Virginia: The Case of
8.3 (1975): 260. the Phantom Gasser of 1933–34,” The South-
17. Manohar Dhadphale and S. P. Shaikh, ern Medical Journal 92.8 (1999): 762–69;
“Epidemic Hysteria in a Zambian School: Simon Wessely, “Mass Hysteria: Two Syn-
‘The Mysterious Madness of Mwinilunga,’” dromes? Psychological Medicine 17 (1987):
British Journal of Psychiatry 142 (1983): 85– 109 –20.
88. 25. J. S. Victor, Satanic Panic: The Cre-
18. Robert Conley, “Laughing Malady a ation of a Contemporary Legend (Chicago,
Puzzle in Africa. 1000 Along Lake Victoria IL: Open Court, 1993); J. S. Victor, “The Dy-
Afflicted in 18 Months— Most Are Young- namics of Rumor-panics about Satanic
Notes — Chapter 1 189
Cults,” in The Satanism Scare, ed. James 6. M. Wolf, “Witchcraft and Mass Hys-
Richardson, Joel Best and D. Bromley, pp. teria in Terms of Current Psychological The-
221–236 (New York: Aldine de Gruyter, ories,” Journal of Practical Nursing and
1991); R. Hicks, “Police Pursuit of Satanic Mental Health Services, March 1976, p. 24.
Crime Part II: The Satanic Conspiracy and 7. Wolf (1976), op. cit., p. 24.
Urban Legends,” The Skeptical Inquirer 14 8. Jean Wier (Johann Weyer), Histoires,
(1990): 378–89; J. S. Victor, “A Rumor-Panic Disputes et Discours des Illusions et Impos-
About a Dangerous Satanic Cult in Western tures des Diables, des Magiciens Infames,
New York,” New York Folklore 15 (1989): 23– Sorcières et Empoisonneurs, translated from
49. the 1653 Latin original (Paris: Bureaux du
Progrès Médical, 1885), vol. 1, p. 521.
9. Johann Joseph von Görres, La Mys-
Chapter 1 tique Divine, Naturelle et Diabolique, trans-
lated from the German Christliche Mystik
1. The Malleus was published the follow- (Paris: Poussielgue-Rusand, 1855), vol. 5, p.
ing year, 1487, and saw many reprints over 231.
the centuries, even into the present era. It 10. Balthasar Bekker, Le Monde Enchanté
was written chiefly to refute the belief that (Amsterdam: Pierre Rotterdam, 1694), vol.
witchcraft did not exist. By setting out the 4, p. 517. All other authorities, explicitly or
types of acts for which witches can be held otherwise, use him as their source. “Strange,
responsible, how to identify witches, prose- unintelligible language” is an apparent ref-
cute and suitably punish them, the Malleus erence to glossolalia or “speaking in tongues,”
was widely used as a practical handbook by which occurs in a variety of cultural settings.
witch-hunters. It gained additional authority Theologian Anthony Hoekema defines it as
from the inclusion of the bull of 1484 issued “a spontaneous utterance of sounds in a lan-
by Pope Innocent VIII. Closer examination guage the speaker has never learned and does
of this document, which was addressed to not even understand. This tongue-speaking
Kramer in his capacity as an inquisitor, is usually done only in certain types of reli-
shows it bluntly orders local authorities to gious groups” (What About Tongue-Speak-
cooperate with inquisitors in their pursuit ing? [Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerd-
of heretics, and does not, as parlayed by mans, 1966] p. 9). Glossolalia comes from
Kramer, give full papal approval for his the Greek glossa (tongue) and lalia (speak-
enthusiastic and systematic torture and ing). The literal translation is “tongue speak-
execution of confessed witches. Because of ing.” Psychologist Nicholas Spanos studied
this subterfuge, the book itself played a sig- whether tongue speaking is an altered state
nificant part in driving the fatal pogroms of consciousness or learned behavior. His
against local witches that lasted in Europe conclusion: it can be learned by anyone with
from the middle of the fifteenth century a proper model to imitate and practice.
until at least the seventeenth century. Nicholas P. Spanos, Wendy Cross, Mark
2. Eric Maple, Witchcraft: The Story of Lepage and Marjorie Coristine, “Glossolalia
Man’s Search for Supernatural Power (Lon- as Learned Behavior: An Experimental
don: Octopus, 1973), p. 45. Demonstration,” Journal of Abnormal Psy-
3. Rossell Hope Robbins, The Encyclope- chology 95.1 (1987): 23.
dia of Witchcraft and Demonology (New 11. Robert Darnton, The Great Cat Mas-
York: Crown, 1966), p. 180. sacre and Other Episodes in French Cultural
4. Erich Goode, Deviant Behavior, 6th ed. History (New York: Basic Books, 1984), p. 83.
(Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 12. Darnton, op. cit., pp. 83 –84. During
2001), pp. 344 –45. the carnival of Burgundy, youths would pass
5. See, for example, Jenny Gibbons, “Re- around cats as each person would tear out a
cent Developments in the Study of the Great chunk of fur and relish its howls of agony
European Witch Hunt,” in Pomegranate, (p. 83). At the St. John the Baptist festival,
issue 5 (Lammas, 1998). Gibbons writes: “To crowds often lit bonfires, tossing into them
date, less than 15,000 definite executions “cats tied up in bags, cats suspended from
have been discovered in all of Europe and ropes, or cats burned at the stake. Parisians
America combined. Even though many liked to incinerate cats by the sackful ... [oth-
records are missing, it is now clear that death ers] preferred to chase a flaming cat through
tolls higher than 100,000 are not believable.” the streets” (pp. 83 –84).
190 Notes— Chapter 1
13. Perhaps the best known is the case of Encyclopedia of Witchcraft and Demonology
the meowing nuns. Hecker writes: “I have (New York: Crown, 1966), p. 393; Justus
read in a good medical work that a nun, in a Friedrich Hecker, Epidemics of the Middle
very large convent in France, began to meow Ages, translated from the German by B.
like a cat; shortly afterwards other nuns also Babington (London: The Sydenham Society,
meowed. At last all the nuns meowed to- 1844), p. 127.
gether every day at a certain time for several 18. Charles Mackay, Memoirs of Extraor-
hours. The whole surrounding Christian dinary Popular Delusions and the Madness
neighborhood heard, with equal chagrin and of Crowds, vol. 2 (London: Office of the Na-
astonishment, this daily cat-concert, which tional Illustrated Library, 1852), pp. 539–40.
did not cease until all the nuns were in- 19. Charles Mackay (1852), op. cit.
formed that a company of soldiers were 20. Robbins (1959, p. 307f ) and some
placed by the police before the entrance of archival authorities (e.g., the Christian
the convent, and that they were provided Classics Ethereal Library [CCEL], an online
with rods, and would continue whipping project of Calvin College, Grand Rapids,
them until they promised not to meow any Michigan), who cite writings by and about
more” (Justus Friedrich Hecker, Epidemics Antoinette Bourignon — http://www.ccel.
of the Middle Ages, translated from German org/s/schaff/encyc/encyc02/htm/iv.v.ccl.htm
by B. Babington [London: The Sydenham — suggest a very different account to
Society, 1844], p. 127). Mackay’s, but one that still illustrates our
14. Robb Wellert and Gary H. Grossman, thesis. First, she is described as a “fanatical
producers, History’s Mysteries: Legends of the enthusiast” who developed a very contro-
Werewolves (Weller/Grossman Productions versial theology that was condemned by
for the History Channel, 1998); H. Sidky, clergy wherever she settled, and yet it sur-
Witchcraft, Lycanthropy, Drugs, and vived into the early eighteenth century in
Disease: An Anthropological Study of the Eu- Scotland. She was more a mystic leaning to-
ropean Witch-Hunts (New York: Peter Lang, wards asceticism than a schoolmistress. Sec-
1997); Sabine Baring-Gould, The Book of ond, her school, variously described as a
Werewolves: Being an Account of a Terrible “correctional institution,” “orphanage” or
Superstition (London: Smith, Elder, 1865). “convent,” was founded in 1653 and estab-
15. John Howells, ed., World History of lished as a cloistered convent under Augus-
Psychiatry (New York: Brunner/Mazel, tinian rules in 1658. Third, although she
1975), p. 153; Rossell Hope Robbins, The En- began with fifty girls of various ages, by the
cyclopedia of Witchcraft and Demonology time of the outbreak — most likely between
(New York: Crown, 1966), p. 393; Richard 1658 and 1662 (not 1639 as in Mackay)—
Robert Madden, Phantasmata or Illusions only 32 were involved. Fourth, being devout
and Fanaticisms of Protean Forms Productive herself, she was strict with the girls, or at-
of Great Evils (London: T. C. Newby, 1857), tempted to be, and their confined, repressed
p. 253; personal communication from his- little world inevitably fomented rebellion
torian Hilary Evans in London, February and resentment. Her wilful charges soon
2004. found ways to manipulate Bourignon’s
16. Personal communication, February credulity and avoid her disciplines (remind-
2004, from British historian Hilary Evans, ing us of the Amsterdam “cat” children).
2003. Mr. Evans was director of the Mary Robbins gives the example of one twelve-
Evans Picture Library, 59 Tranquil Vale, year-old’s apparently innocent daydream:
London, England. while playing with other children, they asked
17. Samuel Garnier, Barbe Buvée, en Re- her if she would come with them to the sab-
ligion, Sœur Sainte-Colombe et la Prétendue bat. As soon as she consented, her lover ar-
Possession des Ursulines d’Auxonne [Barbara rived on a little horse “which catched up into
Buvée, and Religion, Sister Columbe and the the air with him and the other girls and they
Feigned Possession of the Ursulines at Aux- flew together to a great castle, where they
onne] (Paris: Felix Alcan, 1895); Vladimir played upon instruments, danced, feasted
Mikhailovich Bekhterev, Suggestion and Its and drank wine.” Another girl escaped being
Role in Social Life, 3rd ed., translated from whipped for stealing by claiming to have
the Russian by Tzvetanka Dobreva-Marti- been tempted by a “handsome young devil,”
nova (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction, 1998 an example other girls readily employed. By
[1908]), p. 78; Rossell Hope Robbins, The the time of the official investigation their
imaginations were rampant. All 32 girls, tracts, may have had significant influence in
aged between 8 and 22, concurred in telling shaping descriptions of what went on at a
an examiner “that they had daily carnal witches’ sabbat in subsequent cases, includ-
cohabitation with the devil, that they ing that of Salem just 24 years later.
went to the sabbat or meetings, where they 24. Oliver Maddox Hueffer, The Book of
ate, drank, danced, and committed other Witches (East Ardsley, UK: EP, 1908 [1973];
whoredom and sensualities”; in other Rossell Hope Robbins, The Encyclopedia of
words, all the things they were forbidden Witchcraft and Demonology (New York:
under Bourignon’s harsh regime. Fifth, the Crown, 1966), pp. 348 –50; personal com-
CCEL source (http://www.ccel.org/s/schaff/ munication from British historian Hilary
encyc/encyc02/htm/iv.v.ccl.htm) notes that Evans, 2003.
Bourignon only fled, in 1662, “under serious 25. Richard L. Sjoberg, “The Catechism
accusations of cruelty” (no mention of being Effect: Child Testimonies during a 17th-
accused of witchcraft); and another says she Century Witch Panic as Related to Educa-
fled the row over the death of a child. David tional Achievement,” Memory 8.2 (2000):
Pickering’s Dictionary of Witchcraft (1996, 65. The legendary Blåkulla (Blue Hill) is ac-
“Lille Novices”) comments: “Remarkably, no tually a small, rocky island off southern Swe-
one thought of accusing Bourignon herself den’s Baltic coast, about 360 miles almost
of bewitching the children…. Instead, news due south of Mora. Its association with
of the case spread far and wide and she be- witches and other superstitions was recorded
came a recognized authority on similar cases more than a century before the Mora inci-
of demonic possession.” Sixth, her flight dents in Olaus Magnus’ Historia de Gentibus
“in disguise” was from the prospect of an Septentrionalibus (1555), and is probably
arranged marriage in 1636. She had a habit much older still.
of running from trouble in several other 26. Paul Eberle and Shirley Eberle, The
places too, until (finally, and again in dis- Abuse of Innocence (Buffalo, NY: Prometheus,
guise) 1679, when she was formally accused 1993).
of sorcery by a former disciple in Hamburg. 27. Hueffer (1908 [1973]), op. cit.; Rob-
She died the following year, in Freisland, bins (1966), op. cit., pp. 348 –50. The Älv-
Holland (not Freidland, Prussia, as in dalen and Rättvik outbreaks were not iso-
Mackay), where she had established a hos- lated incidents but parts of “the Great
pital. (Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/ Swedish Witch Panic”; one continuous phe-
wiki/Antoinette_Bourignon). nomenon, the first (1668) feeding the latter
21. Paul Devereux, Haunted Land: Inves- (1669), and subsequently inspiring similar
tigations into Ancient Mysteries and Modern panics as far north as Finland and as far
Day Phenomena (London: Piatkus, 2001). It south as Stockholm in 1675.
is worth noticing, as a possible vector of the 28. Richard L. Sjoberg, “False Allegations
witchcraft fear in this case, that both the of Satanic Abuse: Case Studies from the
town’s name, Älvdalen (Elf Valley), and that Witch Panic in Rättvik 1670 –71,” European
of its region, Mora, are rich with supernat- Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 6 (1997):
ural associations in the countries adjacent to 219 –26.
Sweden. In Polish, Slovak and Czech lore, 29. Pierre De Lancre, Tableau de l’incon-
mora (and variants) were the exorcised souls stance des Mauvais anges et Démons (Paris:
of the living, perceived as moths or wind- Buon, 1613), p. 357; L. F. Calmeil, De la Folie,
blown straws; in Slavic lore generally, mora Considérée Sous le Point de vue Pathologique,
could refer to a nightmare or a seductive Philosophique, Historique et Judiciaire [On
night-visitor (a succubus). the Crowd, Considerations on the Point of
22. The city of Mora sits at the north end Pathology, Philosophy, History and Justice]
of Lake Siljan, and its municipality includes (Paris: Baillere, 1845), vol. 1, p. 503; Jean
Älvdalen (about 20 miles to its north) and Wier (Johann Weyer), Histoires, Disputes et
Rättvik (about 20 miles southeast of Mora) Discours des Illusions et Impostures des
at the other end of Lake Siljan. Diables, des Magiciens Infames, Sorcières
23. It has been suggested that a woodcut et Empoisonneurs, vol. 1, translated from
that was made in 1670 to illustrate the Royal the Latin original published 1563 (Paris: Bu-
Commission on the terror at Mora, and that reaux du Progrès Médical, 1885), p. 532;
circulated widely throughout Europe and George S. Rosen, “Psychopathology in the
was re-used in some influential anti-witch Social Process: Dance Frenzies, Demonic
Possession, Revival Movements and Similar 43. Butler et al. (2001), op. cit., p. 5.
So-Called Psychic Epidemics: An Interpre- 44. Eberle and Eberle (1993), op. cit., pp.
tation,” Bulletin of the History of Medicine 149 –50.
36 (1962): 35; Ronald A. Knox, Enthusiasm 45. Eberle and Eberle (1993), op. cit., pp.
(Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press, 1950), pp. 150 –151.
560 –61. 46. Eberle and Eberle (1993), op. cit., p.
30. Bekker (1694), op. cit. 151.
31. Bekker (1694), op. cit. 47. “Sample Interviews by Investigators
32. Bekker (1694), op. cit. with Former Students of the McMartin Pre-
33. For a comprehensive overview, see school,” http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/
Jeffrey S. Victor, “Social Construction of Sa- projects/ftrials/mcmartin/victiminterviews.
tanic Ritual Abuse and the Creation of False html.
Memories,” in Believed-In Imaginings: The 48. Eberle and Eberle (1993), op. cit., pp.
Narrative Construction of Reality, ed. by 380 –81.
Joseph de Rivera and Theodore R. Sarbin 49. Eberle and Eberle (1993), op. cit., p.
(Washington, DC: American Psychological 202.
Association, 1998), p. 200; J. S. Victor, Sa- 50. Talbot (2001), op. cit. “[Peggy Mc-
tanic Panic: The Creation of a Contemporary Martin Buckey] served two years in jail, and
Legend (Chicago, IL: Open Court, 1993); J.S. her son, Raymond, served five. They spent
Victor, “The Dynamics of Rumor-Panics their life’s savings on lawyers’ fees and in the
about Satanic Cults,” in The Satanism Scare, end went ‘through hell’ and ‘lost everything,’
J. T. Richardson, J. Best and D. G. Bromely, as she put it after her 1990 acquittal.”
eds. (New York A. DeGruyter , 1991), pp. 51. Talbot (2001), op. cit. “‘Believe the
221–236. children’ was the sanctified slogan of the mo-
34. Douglas Besharav, “Unfounded Alle- ment — but what it came to mean, all too
gations—A New Child Abuse Problem,” The often, was believe them unless they say they
Public Interest 83 (1986): 22–24. were not abused. It didn’t matter that no
35. Margaret Talbot, “The Devil in the trace of the secret tunnels was ever found,
Nursery,” New York Times Magazine, Janu- that no physical evidence corroborated the
ary 7, 2001. Other accusations included charges (a black robe seized by the police as
“teachers who took children on airplane a Satanic get-up turned out to be Peggy’s
rides to Palm Springs and lured them into a graduation gown), that none of the kiddie
labyrinth of underground tunnels where the porn the abusers were supposedly manufac-
accused ‘flew in the air’ and others were ‘all turing ever turned up, despite an extensive
dressed up as witches.’” investigation by the F.B.I. and Interpol, that
36. Paul Eberle and Shirley Eberle, The no parents who stopped by during the day
Abuse of Innocence: The McMartin Preschool had ever noticed, say, the killing of a horse.
Trial (Buffalo, NY: Prometheus, 1993), p. 21. … The prosecution charged forward
37. Edgar W. Butler, Hiroshi Fukurai, Jo- nonetheless, with a seven-year trial that be-
Ellen Dimitrius, and Richard Krooth, came the longest and, at a cost of $15 million,
Anatomy of the McMartin Child Molestation the most expensive criminal trial in Ameri-
Case (Lanham, MD: University Press of can history. It resulted in not a single con-
America, 2001), pp. 28 –34. viction, though seven people were charged
38. Butler et al. (2001), op. cit., pp. 14 – in the McMartin case, on a total of 135
15. counts—just a series of deadlocks, acquittals
39. Butler et al. (2001), op. cit., pp. 13 – and mistrials.”
14. 52. Jeffrey S. Victor, “The Search for
40. Butler et al. (2001), op. cit., pp. 13 – Scapegoat Deviants,” The Humanist, Sep-
14. tember/October 1992, pp. 10 –13.
41. Stephen J. Ceci and Maggie Bruck, 53. Victor (1992), op. cit., p. 13.
“Child Witnesses: Translating Research into 54. Dorothy Rabinowitz, “From the
Policy,” Social Policy Report 7.3 (1993): 2– Mouths of Babes to a Jail Cell: Child Abuse
32. and the Abuse of Justice: A Case Study,”
42. News reports appearing on WRGB, Harper’s Magazine, May 1990, pp. 52–63,
Schenectady, New York (Channel 6) and quoted in “Evil in the American Justice Sys-
WAST, Menands, New York (Channel 13), air- tem,” http://www. law.umkc.edu/faculty/
ing on the day the Buckeys were acquitted. projects/ftrials/evil/evilP18.html.
Chapter 2 11. Johnson (1908), op. cit., p. 26. This is

becoming more widespread as a doctrine in
1. Lewis A. Coser, Steven Nock, Patricia British schools due to the placing of restric-
Steffan, and Daphne Spain, Introduction to tions on play and school trips, etc. But unlike
Sociology, 2nd ed. (San Diego, CA: Har- in the latter 19th century European schools
court-Brace Jovanovich, 1987), p. 2. experiencing outbreaks, in general modern-
2. “Faculty Psychology and Mental Dis- day education authorities are steadily low-
cipline: A Brief Overview,” http://employ- ering standards on exams to qualify pass
ees.csbsju.edu/esass/facultypsychology.htm, rates in schools, so there is actually less pres-
accessed July 26, 2004. sure on kids to perform. At the same time
3. E. L. Thorndike and R. S. Woodworth, there is pressure on universities to accept
“The Influence of Improvement on One these less qualified students. It looks as
Mental Function upon the Efficiency of Other though this is a pressure relief valve on what
Functions,” Psychological Review 8 (1901): could have otherwise been a recipe for hys-
247–61. terical outbreaks. Of course, the general lack
4. “Transfer of Training,” Encyclopedia of respect and propensity to talk back to
Britannica, 2004, http://www.britannica. school authorities, and even for students to
com/eb/article?eu=114763, accessed July 25, express their displeasure with swear words,
2004. is also a major source of stress release in
5. Wessely Simon, “Mass Hysteria: Two many contemporary Western schools. In the
Syndromes?” Psychological Medicine 17 Far East, there is still extreme pressure to
(1987): 109 –20. perform at school, and failure seems to be
6. M. Armainguad, “Recherches Clin- internalized more on an individual basis;
iques sur L’hystérie; Relation d’une Petite suicides among failing students having been
Épidémie d’hystérie Observée à Bordeaux a serious issue in modern times.
[Clinical Research on Hysteria and Its Rela- 12. Johnson (1908), op. cit., p. 27.
tion to a Small Epidemic of Hysteria Ob- 13. B. Dumville, “Should the French Sys-
served in Bordeaux],” Mémoire et Bulletin tem of Moral Instruction be Introduced into
de la Société de Médecine et Chirurgie de England,” in Moral Instruction and Training
Bordeaux, 1879, pp. 551–79; E. Hagenbach, in Schools: Report of an International In-
“Chorea-epidemie [Epidemic Chorea],” quiry, vol. 2, ed. M. E. Sadler (London:
Kor-Blatt f Schweit Arzte (Basel) 23 (1893): Longmans, Green, 1908), pp. 116 –17.
631–32. 14. G. Spiller, “Moral Education in the
7. M. Regnard and J. Simon, “Sur une Boys’ Schools of Germany,” in Moral In-
Epidémie de Contracture des Éxtrêmités Ob- struction and Training in Schools: Report of
servée à Gentilly [On an Epidemic of Limb an International Inquiry, vol. 2, ed. M. E.
Contracture Observed in Gentilly],” Comptes Sadler, pp. 213 –30 (London: Longmans,
Rendus des Séances de la Société de Biologie Green, 1908), p. 215.
(Paris) 3 (1887): 344–47, 350–53. 15. J. D. Montgomery, “The Education of
8. L. Laquer, “Über eine Chorea-Epi- Girls in Germany: Its Methods of Moral
demie [An Epidemic of Chorea],” Deutsche Instruction and Training,” in Moral Instruc-
Medizinische Wochenschrift (Leipzig) 14 tion and Training in Schools: Report of an
(1888): 1045 –46; R. Wichmann, “Eine So- International Inquiry, vol. 2, ed. M. E.
genannte Veitstanzepidemie in Wildbad [A Sadler, pp. 231–41 (London: Longmans,
So-called Epidemic of St. Vitus Dance in Green, 1908), pp. 237–38.
Wildbad],” Deutsche Medizinische Wochen- 16. Joseph Lukas, Der Schulmeister von
schrift (Leipzig) 16 (1890): 632–36, 659 –63. Sadowa (Maniz: Kirchheim, 1878), p. 475.
9. S. Rembold, “Acute Psychiche Con- 17. Steven R. Welch, Subjects or Citizens?
tagion in Einer Mädchenschule [Acute Psy- Elementary School Policy and Practice in
chic Contagion in a Girls’ School],” Berliner Bavaria 1800 –1918 (Melbourne, Australia:
Klinische Wochenschrift 30 (1893): 662–63. University of Melbourne, Department of
10. H. Johnson, “Moral Instruction and History Monograph 26, 1998). The Swiss ed-
Training in France,” in Moral Instruction ucation system was similar to that of the
and Training in Schools: Report of an Inter- Germans, with discipline extreme, games in-
national Inquiry, ed. Sir Michael Sadler, vol. frequent, and creativity stifled. See G. Spiller,
2, pp. 1–50 (London: Longmans, Green, “An Educational Democracy: Moral Instruc-
1908), p. 26. tion and Training in the Schools of Switzer-
land,” in Moral Instruction and Training in naries were once used in coal mines to indi-
Schools: Report of an International Inquiry, cate the presence of toxic gasses. They have
vol. 2, ed. M. E. Sadler, pp. 196 –206 very sensitive lungs. If a canary keeled over,
(London: Longmans, Green, 1908), pp. 196, the mine would immediately be evacuated.
199 and 203. 28. L. Hirt, “Eine Epidemie von Hyster-
18. William H. Burnham, The Normal ischen Krämpfen in einer Schleisischen
Mind (New York: D. Appleton, 1924), p. 324. Dorfschule [An Epidemic of Hysterical
The students were ages 9 to 15. Cramp in a Village School in Schleisischen],”
19. Dr. Palmer, “Psychische seuche in der Zeitschrift für Schulgesundheitspflege 6
Sbersten Slasse einer Sadchenschule [A Psy- (1893): 225–29 (summary of an article by L.
chic Epidemic in the First Class of a Girls Hirt in the Berliner Klinische Wochen-
School],” Zentralblatt für Nervenheilkunde schrift).
und Psychiatrie 3 (1892): 301–08. 29. Burnham (1912), op. cit., p. 233.
20. W. H. Burnham, “Suggestion in 30. Burnham (1912), op. cit., p. 229.
School Hygiene,” Pedagogical Seminary 19 31. Burnham (1912), op. cit., p. 229. The
(1912): 229. similarities between the states induced by
21. Rembold (1893), op. cit. The affected both hypnotism and hysteria were formally
girls ranged in age from nine to twelve. recognized by Jean-Martin Charcot (1825 –
22. Burnham (1912), op. cit., p. 230. 1893), the pioneer of neurology and psychi-
23. Burnham (1912), op. cit., p. 230. atry at the Salpêtrière Hospital, Paris, who
24. Burnham (1912), op. cit., pp. 230 –31. discovered how some neurological and psy-
The trouble began near the start of classes: chological conditions can be replicated using
“Immediately after the beginning of instruc- hypnosis under clinical conditions (J.M.
tion one child without any cause had fallen Charcot, Lectures on the Diseases of the
unconscious on her seat, and in a short time Nervous System [London: New Sydenham
a considerable number, altogether perhaps Society, 1877], 3 vols.). One of the conditions
one-third of the class, were attacked in the that fascinated Charcot was the sensitivity
same way.” of the subjects to suggestion and the degree
25. Unusual buzzing noises have been as- to which they would mimic what they saw
sociated with some reports of anomalous or heard. Imitation may well be one of the
phenomena; e.g., during the series of appari- characteristics of the curious psychological
tions at Fátima, in Portugal, which began conditions pertaining to stressed groups of
on the 13th day of May, 1917, and on the youngsters; it is certainly something we see
same day in the following five months. repeated in many of these cases.
While the three young shepherd children 32. Fritz Aemmer, Eine Schulepidemie
went into rapture with their own visions, the von Tremor Hystericus [A School Epidemic
huge crowds gathered on a bleak hillside of Hysterical Tremor], Inaugural dissertation
were in their own heightened state, having Basel, 1893; Burnham, 1924, op cit., p. 329.
waited for hours packed together in cooling 33. E. Zollinger, “Über die Pädagogische
air, straining with great expectation to see Behandlung des Nervösen Zitterns der
something inspiring. Those close to the vi- Schulkinder [On the Educational Treatment
sionary children reported hearing a buzzing of Nervous Trembling in School Children],”
sound — like that of a single bee — at the Jahrbuch der Schweiz Gesellschaft für Schulge-
times the Virgin Mary was said to be speak- sundheitspflege 7 (1906): 20 –47; Brunham
ing. In contemporary interviews and (1924), op. cit., pp. 329–31.
records, it is significant that the witnesses ex- 34. “Ellie” is a pseudonym; Burnham
pressed puzzlement and no one attempted (1924), op. cit., p. 331.
to impose an interpretation upon it (Dr. 35. Burnham (1912), op. cit., p. 229. It is
Joaquim Fernandes and Fina D’Armada, possible that a few cases may have persisted.
Heavenly Lights: The Apparitions of Fatima P. Schutte, “Eine neue form Hysterischer
and the UFO Phenomenon [Victoria, BC: Zustande bei Schulkindern [A New Form of
EcceNova, 2005] pp. 35–40). Parallels on the Hysterical Conditions in School Children],”
morphology of UFO cases are also given. Münchener Medizinsche Wochenschrift 53
26. Burnham (1912), op. cit., p. 231. (1906): 1763 –64, translated from German by
27. Charles Fort, The Complete Books of Edgar Schuler and Vincent Parenton and
Charles Fort (New York: Dover, 1974), p. 851, cited in E. A. Schuler and V. J. Parenton, “A
citing the Derby Mercury, May 15, 1905. Ca- Recent Epidemic of Hysteria in a Louisiana
High School,” Journal of Social Psychology 17 across America. Lulu claimed her “ability”
(1943): 222. According to a report on the out- first arrived during a thunderstorm. After-
break, most victims were nine- to thirteen- wards she seemed able to “charge” furniture
year-old girls from the elementary and middle such that a chair simply could not be sat
schools, and the tremor started in their right upon after she touched it; either the sitter or
hands. “The trembling often extends to the the chair flying away from the other when
forearm and sometimes it also seizes the left they tried. A slight girl, she reportedly resis-
side…. The trembling … occur[s] with vary- ted the efforts of 240-pound men to move
ing frequencies, sometimes also at night, and her; and conversely they could not stop her
they last from a few minutes to half an hour. from moving herself or objects. Chairs could
During the intervals the children usually feel not be wrested from her grasp without
entirely well, except for a certain nervous ex- breaking the chair. She could lift a 200-
citement, until the attack again sets in with pound man on a chair and hold him up for
more or less renewed vigor. This condition two minutes while measurements were
can last for weeks or months.” taken. More pertinently, no amount of push-
36. Burnham (1924), op. cit., p. 327; Jo- ing or pulling could move her from a spot
hannes Schödel, “Über Induzierte Krank– when she decided to “stay put,” if the reports
heiten [On Induced Illness],” Jahrbuch für are to be believed. Between 1883 and 1885
Kinderheilkunde14 (1906): 521–28; Burnham she toured as “The Georgia Wonder” before
(1912), op. cit., p. 234. she quit to marry her manager (Barry H.
37. Based on a search of Newspaper Wiley, The Georgia Wonder: Lulu Hurst and
Archives.com conducted during December the Secret that Shook America [Seattle: Her-
2013. metic Press, 2004]). In her biography of 1897,
38. Arthur Pinsent, The Principles of she confessed to some showmanship, raising
Teaching-Method with Special Reference to the question as to whether her feats were
Secondary Education, 3rd ed. rev. (London: achieved entirely via illusion, magic and
George G. Harrap, 1969), p. 264. Italics in technique. Nevertheless, where Lulu could
original. demonstrate immovability on the stage,
39. Pinsent (1969), op. cit., p. 264. other so-called “electric girls”— such as An-
40. “Brevities,” Nevada State Journal gelique Cottin, of La Perrière, France, aged
[Reno], May 29, 1894. fourteen, who also could not be restrained
41. “Just a Curtain Fire,” The North by strong men—have endured it in a domes-
Adams Evening Transcript, February 2, 1899, tic environment. Other claims included her
citing The New York Sun. ability to exhibit extraordinary variations in
42. “…Seven Hundred School Children weight, strength and physical resistance
Panic-Stricken by Fire,” The Daily Gazette (Charles Fort [1974], op. cit.), p. 1032.
(Colorado Springs, Colorado), February 21, 47. Schuler and Parenton (1943), op. cit.,
1883, p. 1; “To Reward Heroine. Costly Present p. 231.
for Girl Scholar Who Stopped Fire Panic,” The 48. Schuler and Parenton (1943), op. cit.,
Daily Northwestern (Oshkosh, Wisconsin), p. 231.
October 20, 1900; “Denver Deluged. Storm of 49. Schuler and Parenton (1943), op. cit.,
Rain, Hail and Wind causes Excitement,” The pp. 233.
Democratic Standard (Coshocton, Ohio), June 50. Cal Harrison, “Mysterious Ailment
4, 1897; “Four Girls Fainted,” Brooklyn Daily Strikes Students at Welsh,” Lake Charles
Eagle, June 16, 1897, p. 16. American Press, March 28, 1962, p. 1.
43. Silvio Benaim, John Horder, and Jen- 51. James A. Knight, Theodore I. Fried-
nifer Anderson, “Hysterical Epidemic in a man, and Julie Sulianti, “Epidemic Hysteria:
Classroom,” Psychological Medicine 3 A Field Study,” American Journal of Public
(1973): 366 –73. Health 55 (1965): 858 –65.
44. Benaim et al., op. cit., p. 369. 52. Knight et al. (1965), op. cit., pp. 858–
45. Benaim et al., op. cit., p. 369. 60.
46. E. A. Schuler and V. J. Parenton, “A 53. Knight et al. (1965), op. cit.
Recent Epidemic of Hysteria in a Louisiana 54. Cal Harrison, “Mysterious Ailment
High School,” Journal of Social Psychology Strikes Students at Welsh,” Lake Charles
17 (1943): 228, 229, 230. About 60 years be- American Press, March 28, 1962, p. 1.
fore the twitchers of Bellevue, the phenom- 55. Jerry is a pseudonym; Knight et al.
enon that was Lulu Hearst was big news (1965), op. cit., p. 861.
56. Knight et al. (1965), op. cit., p. 861. 2. Aaron Wildavsky, But Is It True?
57. “Fainting Spells Making School Nerv- A Citizen’s Guide to Environmental Health
ous,” Oshkosh Daily Northwestern, April 10, and Safety Issues (Boston: Harvard Univer-
1976, p. 1. sity Press, 1997), p. 442; David S. Wilson
58. “Explanation Sought for Teen-Age and Angus Gillespie, Rooted in America:
Fainting Spells,” Stevens Point Daily Journal Foodlore of Popular Fruits and Vegetables
(Wisconsin), April 10, 1976, p. 11. (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press,
59. Steven E. Roach and Ricky L. Langley, 2000), p. 81.
“Episodic Neurological Dysfunction Due to 3. Joel L. Nitzkin, “Epidemic Transient
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Koji Suzuki, itself a re-telling of the Japanese 12. Adomakoh (1973), op. cit., p. 409.
folk tale “Bancho Sarayashiki.” On East 13. Adomakoh (1973), op. cit., p. 411.
Asian Internet chat forums, particularly, 14. Robert K. Utley, The Last Days of the
there was an extensive wave of people mock- Sioux Nation (New Haven and London: Yale
ing up images of friends with the iconic and University Press, 1963), pp. 31–334.
eerie form of Sadako’s ghost behind them, 15. David L. Miller, Introduction to Col-
or somewhere else in the picture. Nearly all lective Behavior and Collective Action, 2nd
of these “ghosts” were said to have sponta- ed. (Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland, 2000),
neously appeared in a photograph taken of p. 423
an uneventful scene. 16. See also Emily A. Schultz and Robert
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“School Shut Amid Fears that Some Girls tice-Hall, 2000), pp. 519 –20.
Possessed,” IANS News Service, http://news. 17. Many people would not consider this
newkerala.com/indianews/ index. php? to be mainstream Christianity; it has been
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19. http://www.thewaycm. com/pages/
section5/perspectives_pages/africa.html.
Chapter 5 20. Dr. Jack Partain, telephone interview
by Robert Bartholomew, January 17, 2004;
1. Walter Lippman, Public Opinion Dr. Partain is professor emeritus of religion
(New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1922), cited in at Gardner-Webb College in Boiling Springs,
F. MacDonnell, Insidious Foes (New York: North Carolina, and taught at the Baptist
Oxford University Press, 1995), p. 2. Seminary of East Africa, Arusha, Tanzania,
2. Robert Conley, “Laughing Malady a for 13 years.
Puzzle in Africa. 1000 Along Lake Victoria 21. Jack Partain, “Christians and Their
Afflicted in 18 Months— Most Are Young- Ancestors: A Dilemma of Theology,” Chris-
sters. Schools Close Down,” New York tian Century, November 26, 1986, p. 1066.
Times, August 8, 1963, p. 29. 22. Ibid.
3. A. M. Rankin and P. J. Philip, “An 23. R. Murray Thomas, ed., International
Comparative Education: Practices, Issues, and 43. Gideon Nkala, “Mass Hysteria Forces
Prospects (New York: Pergamon, 1991), p. 204. School Closure,” Middle East Intelligence
24. Jack Partain (1986) op. cit. Wire, March 13, 2000.
25. G. M. Setiloane, “How the Traditional 44. Wene Owino, “Mass Hysteria Causes
World-View Persists in the Christianity of School’s Temporary Closure,” Pan African
the Sotho-Tswana,” in Christianity in Inde- News Agency, March 8, 2000.
pendent Africa, ed. Edward Fashole-Luke, 45. “Medics Call for School’s Closure as
Richard Gray, Adrian Hastings, and Godwin Students Go Crazy,” Pan African News
Tasie (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Agency, March 3, 2000.
Press, 1978), p. 407. 46. “Medics Call for School’s Closure as
26. Partain (2004), op. cit. Students Go Crazy,” op. cit.
27. Greg Makeham, “12 Months of the 47. Lawson R. Wulsin and Athanase Ha-
Toronto Blessing,” 1995, http://members. gengimana, “PTSD in Survivors of Rwanda’s
iinet.net.au/~gregga/ toronto/testimonies/ 1994 War,” Psychiatric Times 15.4 (April
12tb-1.html, accessed December 31, 2003. 1998), http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/
28. Dr. Richard Needham, “The Toronto p980412.html, accessed December 31, 2003.
Blessing — Part One,” http://www.geocities. 48. Wulsin and Hagengimana (1998), op.
com/bob_hunter/needham1.htm, accessed cit.
April 5, 2004. Dr. Needham is on the faculty 49. Conerly Casey, “‘Dancing Like They
of the Highland Theological College, Ding- Do in Indian Film’: Media Images, Posses-
wall, Scotland IV15 9HA, United Kingdom. sion, and Evangelical Islamic Medicine in
29. Gino Geraci, “Look Before You Northern Nigeria,” Paper presented at the
Laugh,” 1995, http://www.banner.org.uk/ American Anthropological Association
tb/look.html, accessed April 5, 2004; Dirk Meetings, 1999. I am grateful to Casey Con-
Anderson, “Great Signs and Wonders II,” erly for granting me permission to quote
http://www.intowww.org/articles/art9708.ht from this draft paper.
m, accessed December 31, 2003. 50. Conerly Casey (1999), op. cit.
30. Anderson, op. cit. 51. Conerly Casey (1999), op. cit. Tele-
31. Edward Tarkowski, “Laughing Phe- portation (a word coined by Charles Fort in
nomena: Its History and Possible Effects 1931) refers to the hypothetical ability of be-
on the Church, Part III: The Abrahamic ings or objects to disappear from one place
Covenant And Joyous Feast Of Tabernacles,” and reappear instantly in another without
http://users.stargate.net/~ejt/apos3.htm, ac- physically traversing the distance between
cessed December 21, 2003. them. It has been suggested as an explanation
32. Needham, op. cit. for mysterious appearances and disappear-
33. J. R. Muhangi, “Mass Hysteria in an ances, and is supposed to be a paranormal
Ankole School,” East African Medical Jour- ability that can be done at will.
nal 50 (1973): 304 –09. 52. Conerly Casey (1999), op. cit.
34. Muhangi (1973), op. cit., p. 308. 53. Conerly Casey (1999), op. cit.
35. Muhangi (1973), op. cit., p. 309. 54. Dan Lamla Mkize and Reginald T. Nd-
36. Not her real name. abeni, “Mass Hysteria with Pseudoseizures at
37. Manohar Dhadphale and S. P. Shaikh, a South African High School,” South African
“Epidemic Hysteria in a Zambian School: ‘The Medical Journal 92.9 (2002): 698.
Mysterious Madness of Mwinilunga,’” British 55. Adrienne Carlisle, “Stress May Have
Journal of Psychiatry 142 (1983): 85–88. Caused ‘Mass Hysteria,’” South African Dis-
38. Dhadphale and Shaikh, op. cit., p. 87. patch, May 29, 1999, http://www.dispatch.
39. Daily Times (Malawi), June 14, 1993. co.za/1999/05/29/easterncape/CAUSED.HTM.
40. Malcolm MacLachlan, Dixie Maluwa 56. Ajith Bridgraj, “A Mysterious ‘Mad-
Banda, and Eilish McAuliffe, “Epidemic Psy- ness,’” 1999, The Teacher, http://www.
chological Disturbance in a Malawian Sec- teacher. co.za/9908/demon.html.
ondary School: A Case Study in Social 57. Sunday Herald Sun (Melbourne, Aus-
Change,” Psychology and Developing Societies tralia), June 13, 1999.
7(1) (1995): 85. 58. Bridgraj (1999), op. cit.
41. MacLachlan et al. (1995), op. cit., p. 59. Sunday Herald Sun (Melbourne,
85. Australia), June 13, 1999.
42. MacLachlan et al. (1995), op. cit., p. 60. Mkize and Ndabeni (2002), op. cit.,
85. p. 698.
61. Other incidents occurred in the 79. “Demons in Hoima District,” New
Kirinyaga district, at the Wang’uru Girls’ Vision, February 9, 2008.
Secondary School, at the Gathigi Primary 80. Francis Kagolo, “Kitebi Primary
School about thirty miles north of Nairobi, School Remains Closed over Mass Hysteria,”
and at the Kambaa Girls’ High School near New Vision, March 30, 2011.
Nairobi. 81. Kagolo, op. cit.
62. Tervil Okoko, “Ghosts Invade Kenyan 82. “Kitebi Closed, Christian and Tradi-
Schools,” Pan Africa News Agency, July 19, tionalists Wage War,” Uganda News Picks,
2000; “Ghosts Beat Up Pupils at Kenyan April 18, 2011.
School,” AFP news agency, July 20, 2000, cit- 83. Elizabeth Ritchie, “The Ritchies in
ing local newspapers; “I Hired Ghosts to Uganda. Demons, Ghosts and Evil Spirits,”
Torment Schoolgirls,” The Star (South 2011, http://ritchiesinuganda.blogspot.co.
Africa), June 5, 2000 (Reuters report). nz/2011/04/220411-demons-ghosts-and-
63. Lucas Barasa (2001), op. cit. evil-spirits.html, accessed November 22,
64. Lucas Barasa (2001), op. cit. 2012.
65. “Headmaster Flees as Hysteria Grips 84. Paul Boyer and Steven Nissenbaum,
School,” The Daily News (Zimbabwe), July Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of
30, 2002. Witchcraft (Cambridge: Harvard University
66. “Headmaster Flees as Hysteria Grips Press, 1974.
School,” op. cit. 85. James Onen, “‘Demonic Attacks’ in
67. “Headmaster Flees as Hysteria Grips Ugandan Primary Schools,” Free Thought
School,” op. cit. Kampala, April 4, 2011, http://freethought
68. Although the word tokoloshe is be- kampala.wordpress.com/2011/04/04/woo-
lieved to be Xhosa in origin, variants (e.g., takedown-03-demonic-attacks-in-ugandan-
tokolosh, tikolosi, thokolosi, teikolosha) are primary-schools/, accessed November 22,
widely used throughout Southern Africa. A 2012.
tokoloshe is a pot-bellied, dwarf-like spirit 86. Elizabeth Namazzi and Carol Kasujja,
familiar that combines aspects of a zombie, “Uganda: “What’s Happening at Kitebi Pri-
a poltergeist, and a shape-changer, and is mary School,” New Vision, April 9, 2011.
usually sent by a witch or wizard to cause 87. John Kibego, “School Closed After
mischief or sexual harassment. ‘Demon Attacks,’” The Observer, October
69. “Headmaster Flees as Hysteria Grips 16, 2011; Frederick Kivabulaya, “Hoima
School,” op. cit. School Closed over Alleged Demon Attacks,”
70. “Headmaster Flees as Hysteria Grips Ugandan Radio Network transcript, October
School,” op. cit. 13, 2011.
71. Sifelani Tsiko, “Mysterious Hysteria 88. Kibego (2011), op. cit.; Frederick Kiv-
Hits Moleli High School,” The Zimbabwe abulaya, “Hoima School Closed over Alleged
Herald On-line (Zimbabwe), Friday, Sep- Demon Attacks,” Ugandan Radio Network
tember 13, 2002. transcript, October 13, 2011.
72. Sifelani Tsiko (2002), op. cit. 89. I thank Julie Parle for allowing me
73. Sifelani Tsiko (2002), op. cit. to quote from her unpublished study on
74. Damian Zane, “Mass Fainting Hits umhayizo, and for reading over this section
Ethiopian Students,” British Broadcasting of the manuscript and offering her views.
Corporation, Friday, February 14, 2003, While Julie takes exception to my use of the
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/ africa/2763141. word witchdoctor, I explain my rationale for
stm, accessed June 27, 2003. this in the acknowledgments.
75. Charles Wendo, “Uganda: A Village 90. Michael Gamache, personal commu-
Possessed by Mass Hysteria,” All Africa nication to Robert Bartholomew, February
Global Media, July 6, 2002. 5, 2004; Gamache is a science teacher at Mill
76. Wendo, op. cit. River Union High School in North Claren-
77. Moses Nsubuga and Chris Kiwawulo, don, Vermont.
“Demons Attack Kiboga Pupils,” New
Vision, July 6, 2004, http://www.newvision.
co.ug/D/8/26/370664, accessed November Chapter 6
21, 2012.
78. “Demons Hit School,” New Vision, 1. “The Quotations Page,” http://www.
February 4, 2008. quotationspage.com/quotes/Oliver_Wen
dell_Holmes_Jr./, accessed on August 12, 25. Parke, op. cit., p. 221.

2004. 26. Parke, op. cit., p. 222–23.
2. “Ara” and the names of the other peo- 27. Parke, op. cit., p. 226.
ple afflicted by the hysteria are pseudonyms. 28. “Fiji: Kidnap Hysteria Leads to As-
3. Stephen Frankel, “Mass Hysteria in saults,” November 10, 2003, http://www.
the New Guinea Highlands: A Telefomin pacificislands.cc/pina/pinadefault.php?urlpin
Outbreak and Its Relationship to Other New aid =9726, accessed January 2, 2004, citing
Guinea Hysterical Reactions,” Oceania 47 the Fiji Times.
(1976): 107–08, 117. 29. “Schoolchildren Possessed by ‘Devil’
4. Frankel (1976), op. cit., pp. 113, 114. in Manila,” Reuters News Service report,
5. Frankel (1976), op. cit., pp. 111–13. January 28, 1994.
6. Frankel (1976), op. cit., p. 115. 30. Sol Jose Vanzi, “Nueva Vizcaya Stu-
7. Frankel (1976), op. cit., p. 120. dents ‘possessed’ by Evil Spirits,” Philippine
8. Frankel (1976), op. cit., p. 121. Headline News Online, 2003, http://www.
9. Frankel (1976), op. cit. newsflash.org/2003/05/ht/ht003563.htm.
10. Reay (1960), op. cit., p. 138. 31. Francis Allan Angelo, The Guardian
11. Reay (1960), op. cit., p. 139; Marie (Iloilo, The Phillipines), February 16 –17,
Reay, “‘Mushroom Madness’ in the New 2004.
Guinea Highlands,” Oceania 31.2 (1960): 32. The following report is based on a
137–39. firsthand visit to the Rizal Elementary School
12. Roger Heim and R. Gordon Wasson, by the reporter. Jaime Licauco, “Dwarves in
“The ‘Mushroom Madness’ of the Kuma,” Iloilo School,” “Inner Awareness” column,
Botanical Museum Leaflets (Harvard Uni- Inquirer News Service, February 16, 2004,
versity) 21.1 (1965): 20. http://www.inq7.net/lif/2004/feb/17/lif_22–
13. Marie Reay, “Mushrooms and Collec- 1.htm, accessed August 24, 2004.
tive Hysteria,” Australian Territories 5 33. Licauco (2004), op. cit. Western fairy
(1965): 22–24. traditions also stress the necessity of being
14. “Boletus Manicus,” http://www.en- polite to fairies lest they take offense. This
theogen.com/boletusm.html, accessed June includes referring to them indirectly as the
5, 2003. “Good Folk.” When Bob Rickard was re-
15. Benjamin Thomas, “‘Mushroom Mad- searching the associations between fairies,
ness’ in the Papua New Guinea Highlands: A crop circles and whirlwinds, he came across
Case of Nicotine Poisoning?” Journal of Psy- an old Irish belief that one must take off their
choactive Drugs 34.3 (2002): 321–23. hat to a whirling eddy because of the belief
16. Marie Reay, “Ritual Madness Ob- that these were used by (or caused by the
served: A Discarded Pattern of Fate in Papua passage of ) fairies through the air: “A few
New Guinea,” The Journal of Pacific History days after making this discovery, I was as-
12 (1977): 55 –79. tonished by the coincidence of meeting a
17. Reay (1977), op. cit., pp. 59 –60, cited man from Kerry who, unbidden, told me
in Benjamin Thomas, http://www.shaman- how he was about to cross a bridge when he
australis.com/~benjaminthomas/Komugl_T stopped his car because there was a small
ai_and_Acute_ Nicotine_Intoxication.htm, whirlwind of dust in the way. He said his
accessed June 5, 2003. passengers had laughed when he got out and
18. Aubrey L. Parke, “The Qawa Incident asked its permission to pass.”
in 1968 and Other Cases of ‘Spirit Posses- 34. “Panic After ‘Devil Attack’ at School,”
sion,’” The Journal of Pacific History 30 The Trinidad Guardian, November 12, 2010,
(1995): 210–26, citing the Fiji School of Med- http://www.guardian.co.tt/archives/news/ge
icine Journal 4.12 (December 1969): 4. neral/2010/11/11/panic-after-devil-attack-
19. Parke, op. cit., p. 217. school, accessed January 14, 2012.
20. Parke, op. cit., p. 218. 35. “Panic After ‘Devil Attack’ at School,”
21. Parke, op. cit., p. 218. op. cit.
22. Parke, op. cit., pp. 218 –19. 36. Marion O’Callaghan, “The Devil Ar-
23. Parke, op. cit., p. 220; “Yaqona rives in Moruga,” Trinidad and Tobago
(Kava),” Islands Travel, Lot 7, Qanville Es- Newsday, November 22, 2012, http://www.
tate, Box 10146, Nadi Airport, Fiji, South newsday.co.tt/commentary/0,131243.html,
Pacific, http://www.fiji-island.com. accessed January 14, 2012.
24. Parke, op. cit., p. 220. 37. Marion O’Callaghan (2012), op. cit.
Chapter 7 Miskito,” Medical Anthropology 5.4 (1981):

445 –505; Phil Dennis, “Grisi Siknis in
1. Clifford Geertz, The Interpretation of Miskito Culture,” in The Culture-Bound
Cultures (New York: Basic, 1973), p. 5. Syndromes, Ronald C. Simons and Charles
2. Nashyiela Loa Zavala, “The Expulsion C. Hughes, eds. (Holland: D. Reidel, 1985),
of Evil and Its Return: An Unconscious Fan- pp. 289 –306.
tasy Associated with a Case of Mass Hysteria 19. Charles Napier Bell, In Tangweera:
in Adolescents,” The International Journal Life and Adventures Among Gentle Savages
of Psychoanalysis 91.5 (2010): 1157–78. (London: Arnold, 1899), p. 97.
3. Not her real name. 20. Nicola Ross, “Nicaragua’s Crazy Sick-
4. According to British psychologist ness: An Indigenous Community Grapples
Chris French, Ouija boards can be explained with a Mysterious Ailment,” The Walrus,
using conventional psychology. He says that June 2006, http://www.walrusmagazine.
when someone asks a question, the partici- com/articles/2006.06-anthropology-nic
pants rest their finger or fingers lightly aragua-grisi-siknis/, accessed October 30,
against the glass and it will seemingly answer 2010.
the question by sliding into either a series of 21. Robert Widdicombe, “Nicaragua Vil-
letters that spell out answers, or onto the sec- lage in Grip of Madness,” Guardian, Decem-
tion that says “yes,” “no” or “maybe.” French ber 17, 2003.
says that this can be explained by the Id- 22. Nicola Fell, “She Ran Around Like a
iomotor effect, in which people are unaware Maniac,” BBC News, April 20, 2009, http://
that they are actually pushing the glass. news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8007895.stm, ac-
French says that an easy way to prove that it cessed October 30, 2010.
is a psychological effect is to blindfold the 23. For a discussion of the widespread
participants and have them try answering the fear of contamination of wells and reservoirs,
questions without being able to see where and why it seems unlikely, see Andy Roberts’
they are pushing the glass. Inevitably, they “Reservoir Drugs,” Fortean Times 262 (May
end up with garbled, incomprehensive mes- 2010): 38 –42.
sages. See Chris French, “Debunking the 24. Video clips of victims in their throes
Paranormal,” Health and Wellbeing, http:// can be found on YouTube that do, indeed,
www.videojug.com/expertanswer/debunk show some young male victims, e.g., http://
ing-the-paranormal-2/how-does-a-ouija- www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kWbhdm6 –
board-work. 6E, accessed October 30, 2010.
5. Loa Zavala (2010), op. cit., p. 1162. 25. Charles Napier Bell (1899), op. cit., p.
6. Loa Zavala (2010), op. cit., p. 1163. 97.
7. Loa Zavala (2010), op. cit., p. 1163. 26. Dennis (1981), op. cit.
8. Loa Zavala (2010), op. cit., p. 1164. 27. Robert Widdicombe, “Nicaragua Vil-
9. Loa Zavala (2010), op. cit., p. 1164. lage in Grip of Madness,” Guardian, Decem-
10. Loa Zavala (2010), op. cit., p. 1164. ber 17, 2003.
11. Loa Zavala (2010), op. cit., p. 1168. 28. Bell (1899), op. cit., p. 97.
12. Loa Zavala (2010), op. cit., pp. 1169 – 29. Tim Rogers, “Grisi Siknis Illness
70. Grips Indigenous Nicaraguan Communi-
13. Richard Leonardi, “Nicaraguan Lep- ties,” TicoTimes.net, also as a YouTube re-
rechauns,” Essays on Nicaragua, http:// port, posted August 5, 2009, http://www.
www.nicaraguaphoto.com/essays/update_ni youtube.com/watch?v=7i-vbei4D4Q&fea-
caraguaSept2003.shtml, accessed November ture=related, transcription by B.R. Rogers,
13, 2010. compares the incident to the spectacle at
14. Leonardi (2010), op. cit. Salem. This may not be a frivolous compar-
15. Paul Hoffman, Sex with the Devil, ison; at least one other commentator (to an
August 10, 2009, http://bigthink.com/ideas/ online blog) reminded readers that the Salem
15839, accessed October 30, 2010. children were influenced by a maid, Tituba,
16. Nicola Fell, “She Ran Around Like a who came from the Caribbean, to which
Maniac,’ BBC News, April 20, 2009, http:// Nicaragua is adjacent.
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8007895.stm, ac- 30. Mondale Smith and Jenelle Carter,
cessed October 30, 2010. “Mass School Hysteria Spread Across
17. Fell (2010), op. cit. Guyana,” Kaieteur News Online, 2009,
18. Phil Dennis, “Grisi Siknis Among the http://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2009/11
/07/mass-school-hysteria-spreads-across- 6. A hospital spokesman later said their

guyana/, accessed October 19, 2012. initial diagnosis “has since been ruled out by
31. Leroy Smith, “Spiritual Manifestation chemical tests.” Guardian, July 17, 1980.
Creates Panic at City,” Guyana Chronicle, 7. Oliver Gillie and Toni Turner, “Mys-
March 15, 2012, http://www.guyanachronicle tery Epidemic may have been Sparked off by
on l i ne . c om / s i t e / i n de x . p h p ? o pt i on = The Blebs,” Sunday Times, July 20, 1980.
com_content&id=40707:spiritual-manifes- 8. “More Band Children Ill,” Daily Ex-
tation-creates-panic-at-city-school&Itemid= press, July 21, 1980.
8, accessed January 14, 2012. 9. “Band Bug Hits Kids,” Sun, 28 July
32. Kristen Macklingam, “Another 1980.
‘Demon Attack’ at St. Winefride’s,” Kaieteur 10. “Children Collapse on Parade,”
News, March 27, 2012, http://www.kaieteur Wolverhampton Express & Star, July 28,
newsonline.com/2012/03/27/another-% 1980.
E2% 80% 9Cdemon-attack% E2% 80%9D- 11. Daily Mail and Daily Telegraph, July
at-st-winefride%E2%80%99s/, accessed 21, 1980.
January 14, 2013. 12. Denise Winn, op cit.
13. Western Mail, August 8, 1980.
14. “New theory on ‘mass hysteria.’” BBC
Chapter 8 News, 23 September, 2003, online at: http://
1. Cited in Rhoda T. Tripp, compiler, news.bbc.co.uk/1/ hi/england/nottingham
The International Thesaurus of Quotations shire/ 3128402.stm. Accessed 17/05/2010.
(New York: Harper & Row, 1970), p. 303. 15. The BBC TV regional magazine Inside
2. The main sequence of events was re- Out: East Midlands produced a documentary
constructed from the following reportage called “The Hollinwell Incident,” first broad-
and Robert Rickard’s notes taken as the in- cast on Monday, September 22, 2003. The
cident unfolded; all dates are in 1980: Daily BBC’s info page on the program —carries
Mail, July 14, 15, 16, 17, and 26; Daily Mirror, three viewers’ responses which demonstrate
July 14, 16, 17, and 23; Daily Star, July 14, 15, the level of skepticism about the ‘official ex-
and 16; Daily Express, July 14, 15, and 16; planations.’ Harold Ashby said that “that
Daily Telegraph, July 14 and 16; The Times, blaming mass hysteria is a way of covering
July 14, 15, 24, and 26; Western Mail, July 14 up the truth,” by which he meant “this inci-
and 16; Guardian July 14, 15, and 17; London dent was caused by the crop spraying.” He
Evening Standard, July 14; Mansfield and probably represents a sizeable mindset that
North Nottinghamshire Chronicle and Adver- has no interest in facts which contradict
tiser, July 17, 31, and August 14; The Sunday deeply held beliefs. “No one will ever con-
Times, July 20; Observer, July 20; Shropshire vince me that just one child fainting could
Star, July 14; New Scientist, July 31, August cause over two hundred to come down with
28. This is a revision and expansion of ma- those symptoms.” David Haslam, an author
terial that appeared in Fortean Times 33 (Au- who also appeared in the program, asked:
tumn 1980): 22–27. “If pesticides were the cause why didn’t med-
3. Terry Bingham was frequently wrongly ical tests on victims show this?” Kerry Ran-
referred to as an organizer of the event; he was dall had a question of her own: “If as they
secretary to the Zingaris Band from Clay say it was mass hysteria, why did it affect ba-
Cross, Derbyshire (Daily Express, July 15, bies and adults as well as the children?” See:
1980). http://www.bbc.co.uk/insideout/eastmid-
4. Denise Winn, “Hysteria Tests on Fes- lands/series4/holinwell_incident. shtml.
tival Victims,” Daily Express, July 20, 1980. 16. Don Concannon and Frank Haynes,
According to Ms. Winn’s research, “The panic Guardian, July 15, 1980. Dennis Skinner,
spread when alarming messages, such as Daily Mirror, July 16, 1980.
‘Don’t eat the ice cream. It’s been poisoned.’ 17. Oliver Gillie and Toni Turner, op cit.
and ‘Don’t stand on the grass. It’s been 18. Denise Winn, op cit.
sprayed,’ were relayed across the Tannoy.” 19. Oliver Gillie and Toni Turner, op cit.
5. The Sun seems to have got the verdict 20. H. C. T. Smith and E. J. Eastham,
right early on —‘”KO’d by ‘Hysteria,” Sun, “Outbreak of Abdominal Pain,’ The Lancet
July 16, 1980 — although they favored the 2 (1973): 956 –58.
‘anti-hysteria’ lobby in some of their report- 21. Smith and Eastham (1973), op cit., p.
ing. 957.
22. Smith and Eastham (1973), op cit., p. Ambulances.” Great Bend Daily Tribune
957. [Great Bend, Kansas], September 13, 1952,
23. Smith and Eastham (1973), op cit., p. p. 1.
958. 31. “Mass Hysteria Sends 165 Girls to
24. Smith and Eastham (1973), op cit., p. Hospital,” Daily Redlands Facts [Redlands,
958. California], September 13, 1953, p. 1; “160
25. Smith and Eastham (1973). op cit., p. H.S. Must Take Football Less Seriously,” The
958; David Hambling, “Contagious Fear: Mt. Pleasant News [Iowa], September 13,
Mass Sociogenic Smell Weapon,” Wired, 1952, p. 1; “165 Girls ‘Faint Like Flies,’ All
January 28, 2008, http://www.wired.com/ Rushed Off By Ambulances,” op cit., p. 1.
dangerroom/2008/01/contagious-fe. Accessed 32. “Mass Hysteria Mars the Music,” Sci-
17 May 2010. Hambling compares the Haz- ence News (September 21, 1991) 140(12): 187.
lerigg event to the panic cause by a meteorite 33. “Exhaust Fumes and Hysteria KO
that fell in Caracas on 15 September 2007. Some 500 Students at Festival,” Stevens Point
“According to witnesses, the crater filled with Daily Journal [Wisconsin], November 24,
boiling liquid and noxious gas poured out. 1959, p. 2.
Up to six hundred people were said to be af- 34. “Choir Hit by Fainting Spells,” The
fected, including seven police officers who Times Recorder [Zanesville, Ohio]. December
had to be taken to hospital. An official said 13, 1953, p. 1.
that fumes from the crater caused ‘nausea, 35. “Mass Fainting Hits Chorus,” Man-
vomiting, diarrhea, headaches and stomach sfield News-Journal [Ohio], December 22,
pain.’” Other, more ‘conventional’ cases of 1952.
mass hysteria are mentioned also. Ham- 36. Peter D. Moss and Colin P. McEvedy,
bling’s point is that “the combination of “An Epidemic of Overbreathing Among
smell and fear is frequently the trigger for Schoolgirls,” British Medical Journal 2
outbreaks of mass illness.” He cites a US me- (1966): 1295 –1300. Just about any startling
teor hunter, who proposes that the meteoric event can trigger a fainting episode. At a
impact on the swampy water and the mineral school in Minnesota in 1927, it was the ig-
rocks beneath it resulted in a cloud of nox- niting of flash powder from a camera. On
ious sulphur-dioxide which could be com- November 10, three girls fainted during the
pared to the “stench from a pigsty” fre- assembly after someone took a “flashlight”
quently blamed for the Hazlerigg collapse. picture. This highly public event may have
Ever since, in most mentions of the made others anxious as it set off a series of
Hazlerigg incident, the ‘pigsty stench’ is usu- fainting spells over several weeks. See,
ally given, without qualification, as the cause Willard C. Olson, “Account of a Fainting
of the panic. It may well have been the ‘trig- Epidemic in a High School,” Psychology
ger’ but it could not, of itself, account for the Clinic (Philadelphia) 18(1928): 34 –38.
widespread symptoms. 37. M. E. Moffat, “Epidemic Hysteria in
26. Daily Mirror, July 10, 1973; BBC News, a Montreal Train Station,” Pediatrics 70
September 23, 2003, op cit.; Daily Telegraph, (1982): 308-10.
July 14, 1980. 38. Moffatt (1982), op cit., pp. 309 –10.
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Hwa, Goh Kah Pin, Tan Goon Heng, and compiled for Pusat Islam, The Prime Minis-
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Index
Abdul Rahman, Tunku 79 Baan Thab Sawai School (Thailand) 87

Abdullah, Dr. Jariah 169 Bacillus anthracis 175
Abu, Haji Abdul Aziz 167 Bacon, Francis 12
Addis Ababa University (Ethiopia) 114 Bagabag 131
Afendi, Faizul 167 Balkans 61–62
Agence France-Press 178 Ballinspittal, Ireland 170, 172
Ahmad, Maimunah 166 Bametie 14
Alabama 155 –56 Banda, Hastings Kamuza 105
Alar 44 Bandar Baru Sentul, Kuala Lumpur 168
Albania 61–62 Banusawan, Liam 88
albularyo 131 barking children of Hoorn, Holland 17
Aldine School District (Texas) 67 barking nuns 14
Alexandra, Egypt 59 Barnes, Dr. James 156
Algeria 169 Barricada Internacional 138
al-Haya al-Jadida 60 Bartholomew, Robert E. 1
Ali, Mohamed 164 Basel, Switzerland 30
Allport, Gordon 178 Battle in Space 162
Alor Star, Malaysia 79 Bavaria, Germany 28
Altamirano, Bismarck 139 Bay Harbor Elementary School 45
Altamirano, Darwin 139 BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) 151
Älvdalen, Sweden 15 –16 Beirut, Lebanon 89
amafufunyana. 110 Bekker, Balthasar 17
American Community School (Beirut) 89 Beletus manicus 126
American National Institute for Occupa- Belgian Coca-Cola Scare 51–53
tional Safety and Health 150 Belgian Congo 99
aminotriazole 44 Belgian Poison Control Centre 52
Amok 125, 140 Bellevue, Louisiana 34
Amsterdam, Holland 12–14, 17, 25 Berger, Peter 1
Ann, Neo Lee 166 Bertrand, Emilie 69
Anthrax Scare of 2001 6, 11, 53, 175 Besharov, Douglas 18
Antonio Alvarado, José 142 Bethume Negro School (Welch, Louisiana)
Antwerp, Belgium 51 36, 176
anxiety hysteria 8, 87, 176 Bhabut 129
Ariffin bin Mokhtar, Mohamed 163 Bhanja, Chittaranjan 90
Arizona Agriculture Department 49 Biberach, Germany 28
Arrabah (Israeli-occupied West Bank) 55 – Bilwi, Nicaragua 140, 143
58 “Bin Laden Itch” 6, 53
Arrabah Girls’ School (Israeli-occupied bin Omar, Baharuddin 166
West Bank) 56 Bingham, Terry 147, 151
asbestos scare 40 Bissem, Julius 112
Asdee, County Kerry (Ireland) 170 Bla 143
Ashfield Imperials Band 149 Black Angels of Lille, France 14 –15
assembly line hysteria 150 Blackburn, England 159 –160
aurat 169 Blåkulla 16
223
224 Index
blebs” 149, 152 Daily Mirror 148, 151

“bloody Mary” 68 Daily Telegraph 150
Bolante, Joy 131 Dalsayev, Musa 63
bomoh 73 –74, 76, 80 –81 Damanhour, Egypt 59
Bornem, Belgium 51–52 Darnton, Robert 13
Borneo 165, 177 Darwin, Charles 93, 39
Bosnia 61 datura stramonium 95
Bourignon, Antoinette 14 –15 Davis, Daniel 21
Boyle, Robert 12 Dawes, Glenn 1
Brilliant, Lawrence 184 Dennis, Phil 140 –42–43
Brugge, Belgium 51 Derby, England 29
Buckey, Peggy McMartin 19 Destination Moon 162
Buckey, Ray 19 –21, 24 dibenzofurans 52
Bulileka, Fiji 128 dioxin 52
Bulo, Bongeka 110 Djenin (Israeli-occupied West Bank) 56 –
Burabika Hospital, Kampala, Uganda 96 57, 60
Burundi 100 Djenin Hospital 57, 60
Dnevnik 62
Cairo, Egypt 59 –60 dogs 17, 68, 159
Canada 53, 69, 102, 160 –61 Dolagobind, India 91
Canyon Creek Middle School (Washington Donne, John 121
State) 53 Drake, Richard 177
Carns, Ireland 170 Dublin, Ireland 170
Carson, Rachel 44 Los duendes (Nicaraguan elves) 139
Casey, Conerly 108 –109 Dupont, James 41
“cat children” 13 durians 165
cat girls: Fiji 128; India 91–92 Dzimrevski, Jordan 62
Catholic University de Louvain (Brussels)
52 East Denver High School, Colorado 33
cats 5, 12, 13, 91, 92 East Templeton, Massachusetts 157–58
Centers for Disease Control 6, 54, 64 Eastham, E. 154
Chakraphand, Dr. Somchai 87 Eben-Al Abas School (Jordan) 65
Chao, Jose 143 ecstasy 42
Chao, Rafaela 143 Edwards, Felicity 111
Chechnya 62 Ehselayev, Vaha Dardeyevich 63
Chemnitz, Germany 31 Elkins, Dr. Gary 50, 184
Cheong, Margie 135 Elliott, Kerry 147
Chew, Khor Boon 164 Elliott, Linda 147
Chinese Zombie Robot Scare 177–78 Ellzey, Dr. James 67
Chongqing (Sichuan Province, China) Emberto, Lola 140 –41
177–78 endwara ya kucheka (“the laughing trou-
Chulalongkorn University (Thailand) 85 ble”) 95
Collège du Sacré-Coeur (Sherbooke, Epperly, G. 159
Canada) 69 Ericsen, Eric 15
The Coming Revival 102 Ernst, E. 67
Commission on Arab Women 58 Essay Concerning Human Understanding 12
Congo (now the Democratic Republic of European Witch Scare 5, 12, 17–18
Congo) 99, 100 The Exorcist 13, 73
conversion disorder 1, 4, 6, 25, 31, 40, 41,
65, 107, 180, 183 Facebook (and mass hysteria) 42
Cork City, Ireland 170 –171 false memories 21
Coussin, Dr. Brian 60 Fansidar (malaria drug) 105
Coxsackie virus 149 Fariñas, Joel 131
Croatia 61 Ferryville, Louisiana 35
Cropper, Paul 41 Fijian kidnapping scare 130 –131
culture bound syndromes 140 Finland (witch scare) 16
curandera 140 –41 Flynn, Elizabeth 170
Frankel, Stephen 123 –25
Dade County Health Office (Florida) 45 Freud, Sigmund 4
Dagestan, Chechnya 63 Friedland, Prussia 15
Index 225
Ganesh (elephant god) 129, 170 Huffington Post 42

Gardasil 40 Hughes, Andrew 130
Gaza Strip 60 Human Papillomavirus (HPV) 40
Geddes, Linda 142 hydrogen sulphide 52, 58
Geertz, Clifford 134 hypnosis 28, 67–69, 184
Georgia Department of Public Health 64
Ghana 97–98, 173 Indian masala films 108
ghost attacks 8, 87, 90, 111, 114, 120 Invaders from Mars 162
Ghost Dance religion 99 Ipswich High School (Massachusetts) 67
“ghost nests” in Malaysia 79 Islamic Sabbath 77
Gishu, Uasin 112 Islamic Salvation Front Party 169
Gitogo secondary school (Kenya) 111 Ismailia, Egypt 59
globus hystericus 183 Israeli, Raphael 60
Goalsara Primary School (India) 90 Israeli Mossad 60
golden staph 40 Israeli-occupied West Bank 55
Graham, Mrs. Eileen 171–72 Itokela Girls’ Secondary School (Kenya)
great East African religious revival 100 111
great preschool scare 18 –19
great Puja ceremony 129 Jakab, Zsuzsanna 62
great Smurf scare 66 James Cook University, Australia 1
great Swedish witch panic (1664 –76) 16 Japanese Americans (internment of ) 25
Grisi Siknis 139 –43 Jasmin, Gloria 131
Gross-tinz, Germany 30 Jenin (Israeli-occupied West Bank) 55 –57,
Guan, Ooi Keat 164 60
The Guardian 84, 132, 148, 151 jinn spirits 74, 179
Gulliver’s Travels 126 Jit Sin Primary School (Penang) 164
Gumare, Botswana 106 Johnson, Judy 19
Gymkhana 149 Johor Baru General Hospital 80
Juju (evil spells) 98
Ha’Aretz 57
Hafez, Albert 57, 60 Kagwa, Benjamin 96
Hagengimana, Athanase 107 Kambaa school (Kenya) 111
Halilovna Aliyeva, Jamilya 63 Kamla, Nicaragua 140, 143
Hantus 78 Kampung Buluhan 168
Hanza, Iran 65 Kampung Melayu (Gambang, Malaysia)
Harelbeke, Belgium 51 166
Harfoush, Julie 89 Kano, Nigeria 108 –09
Hausa people 108 –09 Kapurawala, India 90
Hazlerigg, Northumberland 152–54 Karam, Dr. Elie 142
headhunter scares 177 Kashasha School (Tanganyika) 96
health scares 44 Kashasha village, Tanganyika (now Tanza-
Hebrew University 60 nia) 94
Heger, Dr. Astrid 23 Kassam, Farida 169
Heim, Roger 126 Kathuma Primary School (Kenya) 111
“Helang” Malaysia 73 Kayayimba, Uganda 115
Herzegovina 61, 169 Kayiira, Julius 115
Hishamuddin Secondary Islamic School “killer apples” 44
(Klang, Malaysia) 168 Kilton Concordes Band 150
Hjarne, Urban 16 Kim Guan, Yew 166
Holland 1, 12, 17–18, 25, 179 King Charles XI 15
Hollinwell incident 146 –152 Kirakwski, Jurek 171
Holmes, Enid 149 Kizito, Dr. M. 115
Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr. 121 Klang, Malaysia 168, 170
Holy Bible 98, 101–102, 133, 137, 144, 179 Kluckhohn, Clyde 186
Holy Koran 74, 77, 83, 169, 179, 181 Knight, Dr. James 37
Holy Laugh 102, 176 Komugi Taï 125 –26
Holy Laugh Movement 102 komugl people 126 –27
Honduras 142 Kortrijk, Belgium 51
Houston, Texas 66 –67, 178 Kramer, Heinrich 12
Howard-Browne, Rodney 102 Krin Krin, Nicaragua 141, 143
226 Index
Kuantan, Malaysia 166 Malleus Maleficarum (Hammer of Witches)

Kuhlmeyer, Harry, Jr. 19 –20 11–12
Kuma people 62, 125 –26 Managua, Nicaragua 139
Kumanovo, Macedonia 62 Manhattan Beach, California 18 –20
Kutama Mission Hospital (Zimbabwe) 113 Manhattan Beach Police 19 –21
Kuwait 169 Mansfield and North Nottinghamshire
Chronicle and Advertiser 150
Labasa Hospital, Fiji 127 Mansour, Fathy 59
lallang (tall weeds) 166 Mansura, Egypt 59
LaMay, Dan 68 Manton (United Kingdom) 150
Landrigan, Philip 58 Marina, Evaristo 68
Langley, Rick 39 mass hysteria by proxy 64
laughing 6, 27, 67, 82, 94 –104, 106 –7, 115, Maxwell High School (Kuala Lumpur,
120, 135, 139, 175 –76 Malaysia) 168
laughing mania 6, 96, 99 –102, 104, 106 –07, Mayberry-Louis, David 173
115, 175 –76 Mbale, Uganda 96
“Laughing Revival” 102 McDavis, Pablo 142
Law Wai Chow 168 McEvoy, James 67
Lazario, Paul 165 McMartin, Virginia 18 –21
Lebanon Elementary School (Fellsburg, McMartin Preschool scare 18 –25
Pennsylvania) 178 Mecca 169
Leicester, England 150, 169 Mechtler, Laszlo 40 –41
Leicestershire (United Kingdom) 150 Meissen, Germany 31
Leonardi, Richard 139 meningitis 109
Leroy Central School (vocal tics) 40 “mental discipline” 5, 26 –27, 32, 174
Lertkrai, Panya 88 meowing nuns 14
Levine, Dr. Richard 155 Merriman, Petula 147
Levy, Florence 142 Metz, France 13
Lewis, Ioan 183 Mexico City, Mexico 7, 134 –35
Lewis, Dr. Malcolm 151 Miami Aerospace Academy 68
Liang, Raymond 164 Middle East 3, 6, 55, 58, 64, 66
Lichter, Dr. David 42 Miller, Bess 58
Lippman, Walter 94 Miller, David 99
Lison, Dominique 52 Miller, Henry 173
Lochristi, Belgium 51 Minkailova, Taisa 62–63
Locke, John 12 Miskito people 139 –43
Lomax, John Nova 67 Mitchell, Steven 154
London School “drop attacks” 33 –34 Mitchelstown, Ireland 170 –171
Loreto Day Secondary School (Kenya) 112 Mocoa City, Columbia 68
Loreto-Matunda Secondary School Modan, Baruch 57–58
(Kenya) 112 Moffatt, Dr. M.E. 161
Los Angeles, California 19 Mohamad, Norzidi 167
Louisiana Health Department 37–38 Mohapatra, Sasmita 92
“Love Madness” (South Africa) 118 Moleli High School (Zimbabwe) 113 –114
Lower Koti, Nepal 91 Montenegra, Alejandra 139
LSD 182 Montenegro 61
Lucas, Joseph 28 Montreal, Canada 160 –161
Luckmann, Thomas 1 Montreal Central Train Station 160
lycanthropy 13 Montreal Children’s Hospital 161
lyme disease 42 Mooncoin, Ireland 171
mor phi (Thai exorcist) 88
Ma’Ariv 56 –57 Mora, Daniel 68
magnesium deficiency 42 Mora, Sweden 16
Mahmud, Nor Akmar 166 Moscow, Russia 62–63, 109
Maimi, Florida 68 motor hysteria 8, 27, 40, 42, 130, 176 –77
Majozi, Makhosi 111 Mount Melfry, Ireland 171
Makerere University College 95 Mount Pleasant, Mississippi 38 –39
malathion 48 –51 Mountcollins, Ireland 170
Malaysia 3, 6, 71–84, 92, 136, 140, 161–170, moving statue “epidemic” 170 –172
173, 176, 179, 182, 184 Mualang peoples, Borneo 177
Index 227
Mubobobo 113 Ogden, Eric 149

Muhairwe, Annette 115 Okavango Community Jr. Secondary
Muhangi, Joseph 103 –04 School (Botswana) 106
Mukerere University (Uganda) 103 Oklahoma State University 158
“Murai Secondary School” Malaysia 73 O’Leary, Dr. Eugene 178
“mushroom madness” 125 –26 organophosphate poisoning 50
Muslim-American profiling 25 Orieno, Ms. Hermie 132
Musoma, Tanzania 97 Orwell, George 72
Mwinilunga, Zambia 104 Ottoman Empire 61
My Favorite Martian 163 ouija board 7, 134 –35, 38
Myron T. Herrick Junior High (Cleveland, Owino, Wene 106
Ohio) 159
The Mysterians 162 Pahang, Malaysia 165
“mysterious madness” (Zambia) 104 Paka Primary School (Terengganu,
mystery rashes 53 –54 Malaysia) 166
Mywali, Charles 97 Palestinian Ministry of Supplies 60
Palethorpe, Margaret 137, 152
n-butylbenzene sulfonamide 158 PANDAS 40
Nadeau, Maxime 69 Pande, Manjubala 92
“Naked Movie Star Game” 23 Panjab University (India) 90
Nakhon Ratchasima province (Thailand) pantang 77
87 Panyakorn, Phra Khru Udom 89
Napier Bell, Charles 141 Papua New Guinea 3, 7, 122, 125 –26, 179
Natchez, Mississippi 156 pari-pari 162–63
National Center on Child Abuse and Neg- Partain, Jack 101
lect 18 pawang 77
National Institute of Technology PCBs 52
(Nicaragua) 140 Peacock, Arthur 151
Neal, Paul 156 Pearl Harbor (bombing) 25
Nepal Rashtriya Secondary School 91 Pedan Cave, Thailand 88
Neville High School (Monroe, Louisiana) pee-paub 89
156 penusggus spirits 84
New Delhi, India 109 People magazine 18
New Guinea Nursing “Madness” 122–125 People’s Elementary School (Germany) 31
New Indian Express 90 People’s School 29
New Scientist 62 Persian Gulf War 54
New York City 32 pesticides 42, 54
New York State Health Department 40 Phantom Gonorrhea Outbreak 78
Newark (United Kingdom) 150 phenobarbital 114
Newcastle University Hospitals 154 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 67
Nigamananda Saraswat hermitage 92 Philip, P. 95
Nitzkin, Dr. Joel 45 –47 Philippines 7, 53, 131–32
Nonda 125 –25 pibloktoq (“Arctic hysteria”) 140
North Carolina (pseudo-seizures) 39, 42 Pinsent, Arthur 32
Nottingham (United Kingdom) 148, 150 – Podujevo, Albania 62
51 Posada, Miller Zambrano 68 –69
Nottingham Public Health Laboratory Postman, Leo 178
151 post–September 11th terror scares 53
Nottinghamshire (United Kingdom) 146, post-traumatic stress disorder 4, 107
148 –50 pregnancy scare 34, 36, 38, 176
Nshamba, Tanganyika 96 Pretoria, South Africa 185
Ntali, Reverend Ebenezer 110 Progesterone 60
Nueva Ecija, Philippines 131 Prophet Mohammed 73
El Nuevo Diario 139 pseudocycsis (false pregnancy) 34
nunneries 14, 78 –79, 136, 176 pseudoparalysis 161
Nyanungo, Ms. Kwadzanai 14 psychogenic pain disorder 183
Nyanza Secondary School (Rwanda) 107 Puasakul, Inthira 88
Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua 140, 142
The Observer 150 Pujari (Fijian “man of prayer”) 129
O’Connor, Dennis 172
228 Index
Qawa Primary School (Fiji) 127 Schoedel, Dr. Johannes 3, 31

Quebec City, Canada 160 Scorgie, Fiona 119
Quebec province, Canada 69 Scully, Michael 170
Queens Medical Centre, Nottingham 148 Selayang Baru Primary School (Selangor,
Malaysia) 167
Rabinowitz, Dorothy 25 September 11, 2001 5 –6, 25, 53 –54
Raiti, Nicaragua 141 Serbia 61–62
Rajabaht Institute, Thailand 88 Setiloane, Gabriel 101
Ramashenye Girls’ Middle School (Tan- Severn-Trent Water Authority (United
ganyika) 96 Kingdom) 148
rambutans 80 Shaheen, Abdel Aziz 60
Rana, Purshotam 91 Shaitan (Fijian spirit) 128
Randall, R. 127 Shakespeare, William 70
Rankin, Dr. A. 95 Shona language 113
Rättvik, Sweden 15 –16 Showalter, Elaine 53
Rawang, Selangor, Malaysia 164 Sibanda, Dr. Peter 114
Ray, David 184 Siegel, Dr. Marc 40
Rayess, Samir 89 Sieveking, Paul 63
Reay, Marie 125 –26 Silent Spring 44
Reid, Thomas 26 Simón Bolívar School (Nicaragua) 138
Rembold, Dr. S. 28 –29 Singh, Hakim 90
Rhode Island elementary school (terror Sirdar, Mara 129
scare) 54 Sjöberg, Richard 16
Rhodes University (Cape Town) 111 Skinner, Denis 151
Richardson, Miles 71 Small, Dr. Gary 157, 181
Rickard, Bob 1 Smelser, Neil J. 181
Riewleung, Sunthorn 87 Smith, Anadina 140, 143
Ritalin 42 Smith, H. 154
Rizal Elementary School (Iloilo, Philip- Smith, Leroy 144
pines) 132 Smith, Stephen 68
Roach, Steven 39 Smith, Thornton 156
Rogers, Tim 143 Smurf scare 66 –67, 178
Rorschach ink blot test 170 Snell, D. 128
Ross, Nicola 142–43 Songkok 166
Royal Malaysian Air Force Primary School sookia 141
(Padang Geroda) 165 South Normanton (United Kingdom) 150
Rubin, Lael 21–22 Soviet Georgia (phantom gas attack) 3, 54
rumor 1, 4 –7, 15, 30, 35, 37–38, 45, 50, 53, Sprenger, Jakob 12
55, 57–59, 61–62, 65 –67, 82, 86, 8 –90, Springfield High School (Pennsylvania) 67
93, 109, 111–112, 114 –15, 131, 135 –36, 146, Starogladovsk, Chechnya 62–63
149, 152, 158, 161, 176 –79, 181–82, 185 –86 Staroshchedrinskaya, Chechnya 63
Russell, Bertrand 44 Stella Maris Secondary School (Blantyre,
Rwanda 11, 107 Malawi) 105
Ryan, Tim 171 Stillwater High School (Oklahoma) 159
Stockholm (witch scare) 16
Sabri Zubit, Mohmed 166 Stowell English Primary School (Penang,
St. John’s College (Umtata, South Africa) Malaysia) 163
109 Stuttgart, Germany 29
St. Mark’s Secondary School (Mhondoro, Sultan Sulaiman Primary School (Kuala
Zimbabwe) 112 Terengganu, Malaysia) 167
Salem Village 24 Sumbuka 108 –9
Sallam, Ismail 59 Sunday Times 151–52
Salomon Taylor, Carlos 141 Sunday World 171
Sanders, Bill 67 Svensen, Gertrude 15
Sandino, Porcela 140 –41 Swedo, Dr. Susan 40
Santa Monica, California 157 Swift, Jonathan 126
Santa Muerte (Saint Death) 135
Sarikei, Borneo 165 Tampoi Mental Hospital 79
satanism scare 5, 13, 18 –19, 24, 89, 111 Tan, Eng-Seng 79
Schmidt, Casper 184 Tanganyika 94, 96, 99 –100
Index 229
Tangweera 141 vaccine panics 64

Tapah Secondary School (Perak, Malaysia) Valium 106
167 Valle, Austria 29, 125
Taveuni, Fiji 128 Veerasamy, Mr. R. 164
Taylor, David 141, 182 vertigo 161
Telefomin, Papua New Guinea 122, 124 –26 Victor, Jeff 24
Teleportation 109 Virgil’s Georgics 32
Tel-Hashomer Hospital 60 Voltaire 26
Teller, Henry 99 von Wolff, Christian 26, 174
Temenggong Abdul Rahman Primary voodoo 38 –39, 136
School (Johor Baru, Malaysia) 162
Teoh, Jin-Inn 72 Warren High School (Ohio) 159
tetanus-diphtheria vaccine (Td) 65 Wasson, R. Gordon 126
Tetovo, Macedonia 62 Wells, Edna 142, 148
Texas Tech University 140 Wessely, Simon 27
Thai Fossil Scare 88 West Bank 55, 60
Thanthi newspaper 91 Western Mail 151
Thasala Elementary School (Thailand) 84 Weyer, Johann 13 –14
theories of mass hysteria 179 –85 Whitbread, Richard 69
Thorndike, Edward Lee 27 Wickramasena, Suriakumar 168
thyroid cancer 44 Wigneswaran, K. 163
The Times 151 Wigwam 166
“Timor College” (Malaysia) 81 William Byrd High School (twitching out-
Tipton, West Midlands (United Kingdom) break) 39
150 Winn, Denise 160
Tiruchi, India 91 witchcraft 5, 9, 11–15, 18, 25 –26, 43, 69,
Tito, Marshal 61 79, 94, 106, 108 –9, 115 –19, 133, 186
Tokoloshe 113 witches’ sabbat 15 –16
Toronto Blessing 102–3, 176 Wittstock, Bernadette 186
Tourette’s Syndrome 40 Wood, Dr, John 149
toyl 78, 162–3 Woodland Gladers band 152
trance states 5, 8, 13, 25 –7, 43, 100, 110, 176 World Health Organization 55, 62
Trangkasombat, Umaporn 85 –6 Wounded Knee Creek, South Dakota 99
“trembling disease” 3, 31, 180 writing tremor 4, 29
Tridemorph 151 Wulsin, Lawson 107
Trifiletti, Rosario 40
Tulane University 37 yagya 90
Turner, Franklin 67 yaqona (Fijian drink) 128 –29
Twain, Mark 146 Yasamy, Dr. M.T. 65
twitching epidemics 1, 5, 8, 25 –27, 29, 34 – Yattah (Israeli-occupied West Bank) 55, 57
36, 39, 40, 43, 101, 104, 110, 127–29, 153, Yedi’Ot Ahronot 56
174, 176, 180, 183, 186 Youtube (and mass hysteria) 42
Twitter (and mass hysteria) 42 Yyuri, Yasmin Hadyah 168
Uganda 96, 100, 103, 115, 117 Zaidi, Mohamed Izainurie Nor 167
Ugandan Running Sickness 115 Zakaria, Hafiza 167
Umhayizo (“Love Madness”) 119 Zavala, Nashyiela Loa 134, 136 –38
Umpat, Marilyn 131 Zimbabwe National Traditional Healers’
Umtata, Grahamstown, South Africa 109 Association 114
University of Ghana Medical School 98 Zulkifli, Mohamed 164
University of Kebangsaan Malaysia 169 Zulu language 113
University of Pittsburgh 179 Zululand 119
Uraccan University (Nicaragua) 142 Zvikwambo 113
ustaz 83
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Mass-Hysteria in Schools (A Worldwide-History Since 1566) by Robert E. Bartholomew, Bob Rickard (2014)

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Mass-Hysteria in Schools (A Worldwide-History Since 1566) by Robert E. Bartholomew, Bob Rickard (2014)

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ALSO OF INTEREST AND FROM MCFARLAND

The Martians Have Landed!

BRITISH LIBRARY CATALOGUING DATA ARE AVAILABLE

© 2014 Robert E. Bartholomew and Bob Rickard. All rights reserved

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form

Front cover: vintage schoolbell © iStockphoto/Thinkstock

Manufactured in the United States of America

McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers

McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers

Foreword by Glenn Dawes 1

1. Witch Hunts and Schoolchildren 11

Chapter Notes 187

Glenn Dawes is the former chair of the Department of Anthropology,

In a Malaysian classroom, a young girl gets a wild look in her eyes

cultural and psychological tug-of-war. The result is a kind of mental grid-

Witch Hunts and

Speak of the devil, and he is bound to appear.— Proverb

Witchcraft. The very word, whether spoken in a whisper or shouted

German demon hunters Heinrich Kramer and Jakob Sprenger, encouraged

Witch Scares and Schoolchildren

drowning; yet they failed to commit the act, as it would be considered

when the children began showing up on the doorsteps of certain women

The Black Angels of Lille

Witch Panics in Northern Europe

The Barking Children of Hoorn, Holland

The Great Preschool Scare: Modern-day

In reading accounts of witches and witchcraft during the Middle

were clearly impossible, such as descriptions of teachers and students frol-

Context of the McMartin Nightmare

The Scare Escalates

Creating False Memories

Another striking aspect of the interviews was the dominance by the

Twitching Epidemics and

Every man is the creature of the age in which he lives.— Voltaire1

By the late nineteenth and early twentieth century when outbreaks

Experimental studies by the likes of American psychologist Edward

a girls’ school in Stuttgart, also in south Germany.21 Upon arriving and

Gross-tinz, Germany.28 On June 28 the right hand of a ten year-old girl

A “trembling disease” also swept through several schools in Meissen,

A Tale of Two Continents: American

struck East Denver High School in Colorado, giving many students an

Modern Outbreaks: Pregnancy Panics and

A Twitching Epidemic in the Southern

A Pregnancy Scare in Cajun Country

Signs of the Times

Mass Hysteria and the Social Network

Fear 101— Fates Worse

Of all our passions, fear weakens judgment most.— Bertrand

Since the 1950s, health conscious Americans and Europeans have

Phantom Gas in Florida

scrum of reporters and announced his assessment: “mass hysteria with

“We’ve Been Gassed!” Malathion Hysteria

With more and more students feeling unwell, authorities declared a

of counter-suggestion.” In other words, if an emergency worker or doctor

The Great Coca-Cola Scare

Bornem outbreak. Meanwhile, Coca-Cola announced a recall of quaran-

Post–September 11th Terror Scares

The West Bank Toilet Scare

THE FIRST WAVE : ARRABAH

NERVE GAS ATTACK OR

difﬁculty breathing, cyanosis, and dizziness.” Two days later, a report in

THE THIRD WAVE : YATTAH

Fertility Fears Flourish

In May 1997, the Palestinian Ministry of Supplies said that samples

ﬁlmed patients during doctors’ rounds and alone, demonstrating the

Mass Hysteria and the Balkans