 Short Stories: October 02, 2019 Issue [#9784] |
  Short Stories
This week: Mass Psychogenic Illness Edited by: Shannon  
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Welcome to the Short Stories Newsletter. I am Shannon and I'm your editor this week.
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“A fire, a fire is burning! I hear the boot of Lucifer, I see his filthy face! And it is my face, and yours, Danforth! For them that quail to bring men out of ignorance, as I have quailed, and as you quail now when you know in all your black hearts that this be fraud. God damns our kind especially, and we will burn, we will burn together!”
~Arthur Miller, The Crucible
According to Lisa Fritscher, "Mass Hysteria Is a Dangerous Form of Groupthink" (1) -- a term coined by George Orwell in his dystopian classic Nineteen Eighty-Four, but what does it mean?
Mass hysteria (also known as Mass Psychogenic Illness) is an imagined or assumed threat that causes physical symptoms among a large number of people, and there are multiple examples of this strange phenomenon throughout history:
 The Dancing Plague of 1518: "The hysteria kicked off when a woman known as Frau Troffea stepped into the street and began to silently twist, twirl and shake. She kept up her solo dance-a-thon for nearly a week, and before long, some three-dozen other Strasbourgeois had joined in. By August, the dancing epidemic had claimed as many as 400 victims." Exhaustion, heart attacks, and strokes ensued (2).
Salem Witch Trials: young girls began having fits. The devil was blamed. Hundred were accused of witchcraft, and over 20 people were put to death (3).
The Holinwell Incident: in 1980 children across Great Britain gathered for a marching band competition. "Band members began to collapse. At first in ones and twos and then by the dozens. One witness on the day, Terry Bingham remembers, 'They fell down like nine pins. We didn't know what was happening'" (4).
2016 Clown Sightings: while this panic started with ill-advised pranksters, the panic was real. Originally confined to cities across America, the "sightings" and subsequent hysteria quickly spread to other countries (5).
Spring-Heeled Jack: "Before Jack the Ripper terrorized London, Spring-Heeled Jack was tormenting citizens with his claws and tight-fitted clothes" (6).
In 1844, a French nun began meowing like a cat. Rather than saying, "Hey, Sister Mary, what the heck are you doing?" all the other nuns in the convent joined in. This simultaneous meowing continued for hours at a time and days on end. The freaked-out neighbors finally reported the creepy behavior and soldiers responded to the scene, threatening to literally whip the crap out of the nuns if they didn't start behaving normally, at which point the nuns were miraculously "cured" (7).
These stories seem crazy, ridiculous even, but for the people involved they were very real and very scary. I've always been fascinated by things like this; incidents such as these awaken one's creativity.
Have you written a story about mass hysteria? Do you specialize in Mass Psychogenic Illness or have you suffered its effects? Submit your thoughts, ideas, and stories and I will share them in next month's newsletter.
Thank you for reading.
P.S. Every registered author who shares their ideas and/or creative endeavors relating to or inspired by this week's topic will receive an exclusive trinket. I will retire this month's limited-edition trinket at 11:59 p.m. WDC time on Tuesday, October 29, 2019, when my next short stories newsletter goes live.
Sources:
1. Mass Hysteria Is a Dangerous Form of Groupthink
2. What Was the Dancing Plague of 1518?
3. A Brief History of the Salem Witch Trials
4. Holinwell Incident
5. Coulrophobics Beware: America's Creepy Clown Problem Continues
6. The Legend of Spring-Heeled Jack, The Victorian Demon Who Terrorized London
7. The Strange Story of Nuns That Meowed Like Cats and 7 Other Cases of Mass Hysteria
Further Reading:
1. The History of Satanic Panic in the US--and why it's not over yet
2. Babysitters Accused of Satanic Crimes Exonerated After 25 Years
3. Mass Psychogenic Illness: Risk Factors and Treatment
4. Why Are Females Prone to Mass Hysteria?
5. List of Mass Hysteria Cases
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I hope you enjoy this week's featured selections. I occasionally feature static items by members who are no longer with us; some have passed away while others simply aren't active members. Their absence doesn't render their work any less relevant, and if it fits the week's topic I will include it.
Thank you, and have a great week!
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