The stories of mass psychosis are as old as the world itself. How many different stories circulate, chilling stories that are hard to believe, it is even more difficult to separate sincerity from conscious lies, where it is sometimes not easy to find the material, natural basis of what you see.
In 1885, a cholera epidemic broke out in Italy. During these difficult days, the inhabitants of the small village of Korano near Naples began to see the Madonna in black clothes, praying for the salvation of people on the nearby hill where the chapel stood. Word of this incident quickly spread throughout the area, and people began to flock to Carano.
All or almost all clearly saw the praying Mother of God. A massive hallucination, like an epidemic, threatened many with madness. Then the government took drastic measures. The chapel was moved to another place, the carabinieri occupied the hill - and the visions ceased.
In the same 19th century, during the Franco-Prussian war, hundreds of peasants of the Rhine province in the battlefield saw images of the Madonna and the crucifixion of Christ on the clouds. Similar massive hallucinations were observed during the First World War. In the Middle Ages, outbreaks of painful hallucinations occurred repeatedly in convents.
In 1631, this was the distinguishing feature of the monastery of the Luzhen Ursuliloks. The nuns claimed that demons began to visit them at night. They saw their "animal-like muzzles", felt how "nasty, clawed paws" touched them. The women fought in convulsions, fell into a lethargic sleep, rolled on the floor with wild screams. They spewed abuse and curses to God.
Investigation of this "case" was carried out by the holy fathers-inquisitors. The culprit was found: the priest Urban Grandier, who had long been suspected of being associated with the devil. After inhuman torture, the unfortunate Grandier was burned.
I would like to cite an excerpt from an article by the famous Russian psychiatrist V. M. Bekhterev, who studied the phenomenon of mass psychoses:
“Undoubtedly,” he writes, “in some cases the transmission of mental“infection”from one to another seems extremely facilitated even among perfectly healthy individuals. Particularly favorable conditions for such transmission are thoughts of the same kind prevailing among many people and of the same mood. Thanks to these conditions, among other things, illusions and hallucinations of the same character differ in many persons at the same time. These collective or mass hallucinations, which occur under certain conditions, are one of the most interesting phenomena. In almost every family chronicle, one can hear stories about the vision of deceased relatives by a whole group of people."
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He himself gives a very interesting example of mass illusion and hallucination that happened to naval sailors. It was in 1846. Two French ships - the frigate "Belle-Pul" and the corvette "Bersot" were caught in the Indian Ocean by a terrible hurricane. The first ship survived the storm safely. Having lost the second ship in the hurricane, the frigate headed to a prearranged meeting point - off the eastern coast of Madagascar. But the corvette was not there.
As the days passed, the ship, on board of which there were 300 people, did not appear. A whole month passed in agonizing anticipation for the fate of his comrades. And suddenly an observer, sitting on the mast, noticed in the west near the coast a ship devoid of masts. The entire crew rushed upstairs. Yes, the observer was not mistaken! Everyone saw the unfortunate ship.
The event excited everyone, and the excitement became even greater when the sailors saw that they saw in front of them not a wrecked ship, but a raft with people, towed by sea boats, from which they transmitted death signals. This vision lasted for several hours, and with every minute more and more details of the visible picture became clear.
The cruiser Archimedes, which was on the road, went to the rescue. The day was already drawing to a close when he approached the "shipwrecked". Instead of a "raft with people," he found many huge trees brought here by the current. The influence of suggestion is clearly visible in the origin of this mass hallucination. There is no doubt that everything experienced greatly excited the nerves of the sailors.
Worried about the involvement of their comrades, they only talked about them. At this time, the signalman noticed a strange object with indistinct outlines on the horizon. The thought of a corvette wreck immediately gives rise to a picture of a dying ship in his imagination. His words about the ship were enough to give everyone an illusion.
And here's another story - about a lame coque. His unexpected death worried many who were on the ship. On the same day, the cooks were buried according to the maritime custom - they were lowered into the sea. And in the evening many saw a dead man walking on the water behind the ship and limping on one leg! The frightened people couldn't sleep all night. And in the morning everything became clear: instead of a ghost, everyone saw a stump of a board tied to the stern.
“Among the collective hallucinations,” writes VM Bekhterev, “include, among other things, the vision of the heavenly army by one detachment of Russian troops before the Battle of Kulikovo, the vision of the crusaders of the army chained in armor and descending from the sky under the leadership of St. George, Demetrius and Theodol and much more."
And nowadays, mass hallucinations are not uncommon at sectarian prayers. A hallucination that appears in one of the worshipers is then transmitted to others. The same mood for all, mutual suggestion associated with constant conversations about the same subject, leads to the fact that hallucination becomes common for the masses.
A simpler example of mutual suggestion is the following fact. Everyone knows how mood changes when a cheerful person appears among the bored. Very quickly, even without particularly striving for it, the rest become infected with his fun. It also happens that a bored person gets in a good mood when he finds himself in a cheerful and lively society.
Nikolay OZEROV