Professional Documents
Culture Documents
ISBN 978-0-7864-7888-0
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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.
1
Introduction
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
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
11
12 Mass Hysteria in Schools
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
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.
1. Witch Hunts and Schoolchildren 17
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.
18 Mass Hysteria in Schools
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.
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
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
1. Witch Hunts and Schoolchildren 23
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
1. Witch Hunts and Schoolchildren 25
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
26
2. Twitching Epidemics and Pregnancy Panics 27
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
2. Twitching Epidemics and Pregnancy Panics 29
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
30 Mass Hysteria in Schools
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
2. Twitching Epidemics and Pregnancy Panics 33
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.
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
36 Mass Hysteria in Schools
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
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
38 Mass Hysteria in Schools
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
“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
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
2. Twitching Epidemics and Pregnancy Panics 41
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
42 Mass Hysteria in Schools
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
2. Twitching Epidemics and Pregnancy Panics 43
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
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.
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
3. Fear 101— Fates Worse than Homework 47
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.
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
3. Fear 101— Fates Worse than Homework 51
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
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
3. Fear 101— Fates Worse than Homework 55
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.
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.
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
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
60 Mass Hysteria in Schools
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
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.
64 Mass Hysteria in Schools
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.
3. Fear 101— Fates Worse than Homework 65
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
68 Mass Hysteria in Schools
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,
3. Fear 101— Fates Worse than Homework 69
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
70 Mass Hysteria in Schools
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
71
72 Mass Hysteria in Schools
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.
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.
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
4. The Demon-Haunted Classroom 75
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.
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.
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.
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
4. The Demon-Haunted Classroom 81
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.
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
4. The Demon-Haunted Classroom 83
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
84 Mass Hysteria in Schools
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
86 Mass Hysteria in Schools
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
4. The Demon-Haunted Classroom 87
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.
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 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
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
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,
96 Mass Hysteria in Schools
causing the students to become so filled with fear that the result was hys-
teria.
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
5. The Students Who Laughed for a Week 97
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.
5. The Students Who Laughed for a Week 99
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
100 Mass Hysteria in Schools
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
5. The Students Who Laughed for a Week 101
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
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
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
5. The Students Who Laughed for a Week 105
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
106 Mass Hysteria in Schools
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
5. The Students Who Laughed for a Week 107
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.
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
5. The Students Who Laughed for a Week 111
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
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.
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
114 Mass Hysteria in Schools
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
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
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
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
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
122 Mass Hysteria in Schools
than in island schools. They were the front lines in the war of ideas between
island ways and the outside world.
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
124 Mass Hysteria in Schools
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.
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
6. The Meowing Schoolgirls of Fiji 129
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
130 Mass Hysteria in Schools
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.
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.”
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
134
7. Strange Tales from Latin America 135
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
136 Mass Hysteria in Schools
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
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
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
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
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
142 Mass Hysteria in Schools
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
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
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,
148 Mass Hysteria in Schools
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
8. Strange Schoolyards and Unusual Field Trips 149
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
150 Mass Hysteria in Schools
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.”
8. Strange Schoolyards and Unusual Field Trips 151
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
152 Mass Hysteria in Schools
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.
8. Strange Schoolyards and Unusual Field Trips 153
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
154 Mass Hysteria in Schools
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
8. Strange Schoolyards and Unusual Field Trips 155
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
8. Strange Schoolyards and Unusual Field Trips 159
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
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
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.
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
164 Mass Hysteria in Schools
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? ...
8. Strange Schoolyards and Unusual Field Trips 165
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
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
8. Strange Schoolyards and Unusual Field Trips 167
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-
168 Mass Hysteria in Schools
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
170 Mass Hysteria in Schools
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
173
174 Mass Hysteria in Schools
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.
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.
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
178 Mass Hysteria in Schools
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.
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
180 Mass Hysteria in Schools
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.
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
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.
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
186 Mass Hysteria in Schools
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
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
Notes — Chapter 1 191
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
192 Notes— Chapter 1
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.
Notes — Chapter 2 193
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
Notes — Chapter 2 195
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.
196 Notes— Chapter 3
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
Mass Hysteria,” Archives of Neurology 61.8 Situational Disturbance in an Elementary
(August 2004): 1270. School,” Journal of the Florida Medical As-
60. Roach and Langley (2004), op. cit. sociation 63 (1976): 357.
61. David Harrison, “Expert: Mystery Ill- 4. Berton Roueche, “Annals of Medicine.
ness Is Stress,” The Roanoke Times, Novem- Sandy” (Interview with Dr. Joel Nitzkin),
ber 18, 2007. The New Yorker 21 (1978): 63, italics in orig-
62. “Dr. Predicts PANDAS Syndrome in inal.
New York State Mystery Illness,” http:// 5. Nitzkin (1976), op. cit., pp. 357, 358.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOSJs3aOTlE& 6. Nitzkin (1976), op. cit., p. 358.
feature=related. A radio commentator sug- 7. Nitzkin (1976), op. cit., p. 358.
gested that Gardasil was the cause: http:// 8. Nitzkin (1976), op. cit., p. 358.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=T76zHRb 9. B. Roueche (1978), op. cit., p. 68.
B-Zg&feature=related. Both links accessed 10. Nitzkin (1976), op. cit., p. 359.
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64. “Dr. Speaks on NBC’s Today Show,” certainly understandable, choosing to err on
http://www.wgrz.com/news/article/151637/1 the side of caution.
3/Parent-Disagrees-With-LeRoy-Illness-Di- 13. Baker and Selvey (1992), op. cit., p.
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Involuntary Tics; Doc Says It’s ‘Mass Psy- 159 –60.
chogenic Illness,’” Washington Post, January 15. Baker and Selvey (1992), op. cit., pp.
20, 2012. 158, 160.
66. Paul Cropper, letter to Robert 16. Baker and Selvey (1992), op. cit., p.
Bartholomew dated January 24, 2012. 159.
67. Paul Cropper, op. cit. 17. Baker and Selvey (1992), op. cit., p.
68. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ 159.
2012/01/17/thera-sanchez-tourettes-like- 18. Gary E. Elkins, L. A. Gamino, and R.
illness-tics-leroy-high-school_n_ 12 10 R. Rynearson, “Mass Psychogenic Illness,
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Chapter 3 Health, Epidemiology Unit, November
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Notes — Chapter 3 197
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biphenyls and Dioxins,” Environmental 14 States, October 4, 2001–February 27,
Health Perspectives 109.2 (2001): 101–03; N. 2002,” Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Re-
van Larebeke, L. Hens, P. Schepens, A. Co- port (Center for Disease Control, Atlanta)
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Mertens, H. Schimmel, B. Sejerøe-Olsen, J. the Persian Gulf War: Toxic Poisoning
Pauwels, G. De Poorter, G. G. Rimkus, and or Mass Hysteria?” Journal of Developmental
M. Schlabach, “Preparation and Certification and Behavioral Pediatrics 13 (1992): 339 –
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and D. Lison, “Dioxins, Coca-Cola, and Weissenberg, Cilla Acker, T. A. Swartz, Co-
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isterie van Volksgezondheid, Brussels, Mysterious Gas Poisoning in the Jordan West
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Explain It” (editorial), Lancet 354.9174 (July 36. Modan et al. (1983), op. cit., p. 1472.
17, 1999): 173; Scott Leith, “3 Years After Re- 37. Hafez (1985), op. cit., p. 834.
call, Coke Sales in Belgium at Their Best,” 38. Modan et al. (1983), op. cit., pp. 1472–
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, August 73.
26, 2002; “Het Coca-Cola incident juni 1999 39. Modan et al. (1983), op. cit.
in België,” op. cit.; Nemery et al. (2002), op. 40. Report issued by the United Nations
cit., p. 1662. Educational Scientific and Cultural Organi-
26. K. Durbin, T. Vogt, “Fumes…,” zation (UNESCO) Executive Board, June 13,
Columbian, September 29, 2001. 1983 (116th Session) 116 EX/16 Add., Paris,
27. R. L. Villanueva, M. C. Payumo, and June 9, 1983, Item 5.1.5 of the agenda:
K. Lema, “Flu Scare Sweeps Schools,” Business “Implementation of 21 C/Resolution 14.1
World (Philippines), October 3, 2001, p. 12. Concerning Educational and Cultural Insti-
198 Notes— Chapter 3
Straits Times, May 21, 1987, p. 3; “Hysteria 30. Umaporn Trangkasombat, Umpon
Blamed on ‘Evil Spirits’: School Head Wants Su-umpan, Veera Churujikul, Kamthorn
the Ghosts to Go,” The New Straits Times, Prinksulka, Orawan Nukhew, and Vilailuk
May 23, 1987, p. 7; “Council to Meet Over Haruhanpong, “Epidemic Dissociation
Hysteria Stricken Girls,” The New Straits Among School Children in Southern Thai-
Times, May 24, 1987, p. 4; “Seven Girls land,” Dissociation 8.3 (1995): 134.
Scream for Blood: Hysterical Outbursts 31. Trangkasombat et al. (1995), op. cit.,
Continue,” The New Straits Times, May 25, p. 134.
1987, p. 4; “Interview: Fatimah, ‘I Only 32. Trangkasombat et al. (1995), op. cit.,
Fulfilled My Parents’ Wishes,’” The New p. 133.
Straits Times, May 31, 1987, p. 7; “I Can’t Be- 33. Trangkasombat et al. (1995), op. cit.,
lieve It, Says Pupil,” The New Straits Times, p. 140.
May 31, 1987, p. 7; “100 Pupils and Two 34. Aphaluck Bhatiasevi, “Belief in
Teachers Yet to Return,” The New Straits Ghosts Sparks Hysteria: Students Freak Out
Times, July 10, 1987; “Transfer Plan for Girls at School Camp,” Bangkok Post, February 4,
Hit by Hysteria,” The New Straits Times, 2001.
July 21, 1987; “First Group of Hysteria Girls 35. The Bangkok Post (dated August 8,
Sees Psychiatrist,” The New Straits Times, 2003), http://www.ucg.org/worldnews/asi-
August 11, 1987; “Hysteria: Second Batch apacific/AP03.htm, accessed January 2, 2004.
Visits ‘Shrink,’” The New Straits Times, Au- The feeling of suffocation, or of a weight
gust 13, 1987. pressing down on one’s chest while sleeping,
20. Eng-Seng Tan, “Epidemic Hysteria,” also occurs in other narrative genres of para-
paper read at the Scientific Session of the An- normal experience, most notably in the
nual General Meeting of the Malaysian Med- “Night Hag” tales of “sleep paralysis” from
ical Association held at the General Hospital, New England, studied by David Hufford in
Johor Baru, on April 12, 1963, and published his The Terror that Comes in the Night (Uni-
in Eng-Seng Tan, “Epidemic Hysteria,” The versity of Pennsylvania Press, 1982).
Medical Journal of Malaya 18.2 (December 36. Bournemouth Daily Echo, July 3,
1963): 72. 1993.
21. Tan (1963), op. cit., p. 72. 37. “Five Women Treated by Exorcist
22. This is also true of people around the After Visit to Fossil Site,” July 2, 2002,
world, who commonly blend the scientific http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_
and supernatural. 620143.html?menu=, accessed January 2,
23. Tan (1963), op. cit., p. 73. 2003, citing The Bangkok Post.
24. Tan (1963), op. cit., p. 75. 38. “Five Women Treated by Exorcist...,”
25. The name of the college and those of op. cit.
the participants have been changed by Tan 39. Http://www.ananova.com/ news/
to protect the privacy of participants. story/sm_621181.html?menu=, accessed Jan-
26. Raymond Lai Ming Lee and Susan uary 2, 2003, citing “Fear may have caused
Ellen Ackerman, “The Sociocultural Dy- students’ fossil site collapse,” The Bangkok
namics of Mass Hysteria: A Case Study of Post, July 3, 2002.
Social Conflict in West Malaysia,” Psychiatry 40. Http://www.ananova. com/news/
43 (1980): 82. story/sm_787527.html?menu=, accessed on
27. Lee and Ackerman (1980), op. cit., p. January 2, 2003, citing: “Exorcist leads hunt
83. for ‘entrail-eating ghosts,’” The Bangkok
28. Lee and Ackerman (1980), op. cit., p. Post, June 4, 2003.
83. 41. “Devil Worship Terror Grips Lebanon’s
29. Lee and Ackerman (1980), op. cit., pp. Kids,” The Business Times Singapore online
83, 85. Lee and Ackerman further state: “By edition, March 17, 2003, http://www.spi.
attributing undesirable actions to the spirit c om . s g / ha u n t e d / k a t ong _ c u l t / de v i l _
world, one is able to negotiate a problematic worship.htm, accessed January 2, 2004.
situation without causing embarrassment to 42. “Science Students Exorcise Ghosts,”
oneself or the parties involved. It is immaterial Tribune News Service, 2002, http://www.
whether other people suspect that claims of tribuneindia.com/2002/20021116/cth2.htm,
spirit involvement are contrived as long as accessed July 30, 2004.
one admits guilt but mitigates it by apportion- 43. “‘Football ghost’ keeps Indian school-
ing blame to malevolent spirits” (p. 85). children off school,” Ananova News Agency,
Notes — Chapter 5 201
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.
Notes — Chapter 6 203
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
204 Notes— Chapter 6
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.
27. R. Levine, “Epidemic Faintness and 39. Moffatt (1982), op cit., p. 310.
Syncope in a School Marching Band.” 40. Thanks to Bruce Francis for these ob-
Journal of the American Medical Association servations.
238.22 (1977): 2373 –74. 41. “Makhlok2 Daripada Dunia Lain
28. Levine (1977), op cit., p. 2376. Mendarat di-Johor?” [Beings From Another
29. Levine (1977), op cit., p. 2373; P. H. Planet Landed in Johor?], Berita Harian, July
Pfeiffer, “Mass Hysteria Masquerading as 4, 1969. “Makhlok2<in> is the proper
Food Poisoning,” Journal of the Maine Med- spelling.
ical Association 55 (1964): 27. 42. The Straits Times, August 22, 1970.
30. “165 Girls Faint at Football Game; 43. The Straits Times, August 21, 1970.
Mass Hysteria Grips ‘Pep Squad,’” New York 44. The Straits Times, August 22, 1970;
Times, September 14, 1952, p. 1; “’Tigerettes’ “Malaysian Sightings,” The Echo, 1980 (exact
Faint Like Flies; Gridiron Looks Like Race date unknown).
Track.” Waukesha Daily Freeman [Waukesha, 45. The Straits Times, August 21, 1970.
Wisconsin], September 13, 1952, p. 1; “165 46. “Orang Orang Kenit Angkasa Lepas
Girls ‘Faint Like Flies,’ All Rushed Off By Mendarat Pula di Rawang?” [Beings From
208 Notes— Chapter 9
Space Landed in Rawang?], Utusan Malaysia, 55. Mustafa Kamil Jamaluddin (1992).
August 28, 1970; “’Spaceship’ in Rawang. “Sekumpulan Pelajar Dakwa Terserempak…
School Staff, Pupils Saw ‘Object,’” Malay ” [A Group of Students Claimed to have
Mail, August 31, 1970. Met….], Bacaria, October 3.
47. “I was Shot by 3-inch Aliens, Says 56. J. Abdullah, A Report of the Interview
Kid,” The Star, May 20, 1979; The Star, May with the Female Teacher and Students at the
23, 1979; “Police to Probe ‘Alien Landing,’” Hishamuddin Secondary Islamic School,
The Star, May 21, 1979. In addition to Khor, Klang, confidential report, n.d.; R. E.
the other primary students who witnessed Bartholomew, Miracle or Mass Delusion:
the event were Cheah Seow Boon, Tan Teik What Happened in Klang, Malaysia? A study
Hwa, Goh Kah Pin, Tan Goon Heng, and compiled for Pusat Islam, The Prime Minis-
Teh See Phui. ter’s Department, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia,
48. “We Saw Midgets, Say Pupils,” The 1993.
New Straits Times, August 26, 1982; “Ball of 57. The Daily Telegraph, June 16, 1990.
Fire Causes Excitement in Town,” The Star, 58. Adam Sisman, ed., The Best of the
August 18, 1982; “Sarikei ‘Fireball’ Could be Fortean Times (New York, Avon, 1992), p.
a Distress Signal,” The Star, August 22, 1982; 63.
“Api Dari Langit Gemparkan Penduduk 59. Tim Ryan and Jurek Kirakowski,
Sarikei” [Fire from the Sky Shocks Residents Ballinspittle, Moving Statues and Faith (Cork,
of Sarikei], Utusan Malaysia, August 18, Ireland: Mercier, 1985), p. 53.
1982; “Jabatan Kajicuaca Beri Penjelasan 60. Ryan and Kirakowski, 1985, op cit.,
Mengenai Bola Api Dari Langit” [The Me- p. 53; The Scotsman, October 24, 1985.
teorology Office Explained about the Fireball 61. Bob Rickard, “A Moving Experience,”
from the Sky], Utusan Malaysia, August 19, Fortean Times 45: 6–7; “The Moving Statues
1982. of Ireland,” Fortean Times 45: 30–34; Lionel
49. The New Straits Times, October 11, Beer, The Moving Statue of Ballinspittle and
1974; “Kisah ‘Orang Kenit’ Gemparkan Related Phenomena (Middlesex, UK, Spacelink
Sekolah Pangkalan Tentera Kuantan” [Story Books, 1986).
About Tiny Beings Shocked Pangkalan Ten-
tera School in Kuantan], Berita Harian, Oc-
tober 11, 1974. Information on the second in- Chapter 9
cident was compiled by Ahmad Jamaludin
from individuals who are aware of the inci- 1. Quoted in Rhonda T. Tripp, compiler,
dents in their area but did not participate in The International Thesaurus of Quotations
the actual sighting. (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1970), p.
50. Berita Harian, October 12, 1974. 158.
51. “Children Say They Saw ‘Aliens,’” 2. David Maybury-Lewis, Millennium:
New Straits Times, October 18, 1985; “Murid Tribal Wisdom and the Modern World (New
Dakwa Jumpa Makhluk Asing,” Berita Har- York: Viking, 1992), p. 8.
ian, October 18, 1985; “Detik-Detik Perte- 3. David L. Miller, Introduction to
muan Dengan Makhluk Asing” [Moments Collective Behavior and Collective Action
of Meeting with Aliens], Bacaria, October (Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland, 2000), p.
27, 1985; “Guru Sahkan Murid Jumpa UFO” 95.
[Teacher Admits Students Saw UFO], 4. R. H. Barnes, “Construction Sacrifice,
Bacaria, October 27, 1985. Kidnapping and Headhunting Rumours on
52. Sajaratul Noor Kamal Hijaz, “Awang Flores and Elsewhere in Indonesia,” Oceania
Kenit Muncul di Sekolah” [Gnomes Appear 64 (1993): 146 –58; G. Forth, “Construction
in School], Watan, April 4 1989; “Gigi Awang Sacrifice and Head-Hunting Rumours in
Kenit Taajam — Faizul” [Gnomes Have Central Flores (Eastern Indonesia): A Com-
Sharp Teeth], Watan, April 4, 1989; “Guru parative Note,” Oceania 61 (1991): 257–66;
Besar: Cuma Khayalan Murid” [Head Mas- Richard Allen Drake, “Construction Sacrifice
ter: Just Student Imagination], Watan, April and Kidnapping: Rumor Panics in Borneo,”
4, 1989. Oceania 59 (1989): 269–78; R. A. Drake, let-
53. “Murid Dakwa Terserempak ‘Orang ter to Robert Bartholomew, August 19, 1989.
Kenit’” [Pupils Claim Encounter with Tiny 5. The Agence France-Press (AFP)
Entities], Berita Harian, May 15, 1991. report was picked up by the South China
54. Nanyang Siang Pau, July 24, 1991. Morning Post, March 22, 1993.
Notes — Chapter 9 209
6. Gordon W. Allport and Leo Postman, demic in Hong Kong,” Acta Psychiatrica
The Psychology of Rumor (New York: Henry Scandinavica 65 (1982): 430.
Holt, 1947). 14. E. L. Goldberg, “Crowd Hysteria in a
7. “Mystery Infection Closes Rostraver’s Junior High School,” Journal of School
Lebanon School,” The Valley Independent Health 43 (1973): 362–66; C. P. McEvedy, A.
(Monessen, Pennsylvania), December 12, Griffith, and T. Hall, “Two School Epi-
1961, pp. 1, 5; “Mystery Infection Called Not demics,” British Medical Journal 2 (1966):
Serious,” The Valley Independent, December 1300–02; Moss and McEvedy (1966), op. cit.;
13, 1961, p. 1; “Mystery Infection — Lebanon J. A. Knight, T. I. Friedman, and J. Sulianti,
School Open; Reports Are Awaited,” The “Epidemic Hysteria: A Field Study,” Amer-
Valley Independent, December 18, 1961, ican Journal of Public Health 55 (1965): 858–
p. 1; “Mystery Infection at Lebanon Is 65; W. C. Olson, “Account of a Fainting Epi-
Discounted,” The Valley Independent, De- demic in a High School,” Psychology Clinic
cember 19, 1961, p. 1; Judith S. Mausner and (Philadelphia) 18 (1928): 34 –38; P. Olczak,
Horace M. Gezon, “Report on a Phantom E. Donnerstein, T. Hershberger, and I. Kahn,
Epidemic of Gonorrhea,” American Journal “Group Hysteria and the MMPI,” Psycho-
of Epidemiology 85 (1967): 324. logical Reports 28 (1971): 413–14; J. Teoh and
8. “School Approved—Pitt Report Clears K. Yeoh, “Cultural Conflict in Transition:
Up Lebanon Infection,” The Valley Independ- Epidemic Hysteria and Social Sanction,”
ent, January 11, 1962, p. 1; Mausner and Gezon Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psy-
(1967), op. cit., p. 327. chiatry 7 (1973): 283 –95; Y. K. Tam, M. M.
9. J. Teoh, S. Soewondo, and M. Sid- Tsoi, G. B. Kwong, and S. W. Wong, “Psy-
harta, “Epidemic Hysteria in Malaysia: An chological Epidemic in Hong Kong, Part 2,
Illustrative Episode,” Psychiatry 8.3 (1975): Psychological and Physiological Character-
258–68; Adrienne Carlisle, “Stress May Have istics of Children Who Were Affected,” Acta
Caused ‘Mass Hysteria,’” South African Dis- Psychiatrica Scandinavica 65 (1982): 437–
patch, May 29, 1999, http://www.dispatch. 49; Wong et al. (1982), op. cit.; G. W. Small,
co.za/1999 /05/29/easterncape /CAUSED. M. W. Propper, E. T. Randolph, and S. Eth,
HTM; Ajith Bridgraj, “A Mysterious ‘Mad- “Mass Hysteria Among Student Performers:
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224 Index
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Umhayizo (“Love Madness”) 119 Zavala, Nashyiela Loa 134, 136 –38
Umpat, Marilyn 131 Zimbabwe National Traditional Healers’
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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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