Meowing nuns and the hunt for a vampire: 5 real cases of mass hysteria

1. Meowing and biting nuns

One day in 1491, a French nun, all of a sudden mew. Literally like a cat. You can say: well, you never know who has some quirks. But her bad example was followed by other brides of Christ.

Soon the whole monastery, led by the abbess, was meowing with passion and fury, which would be the envy of a pack of stray cats. To achieve an intelligible answer, why they make such sounds, no one succeeded.

The cat in the Middle Ages was considered an animal associated with dark forces. Therefore, the locals were alarmed: it would be okay to chirp and crow, but to meow... This really doesn’t climb into any gates. It is obvious that the entire monastery was possessed by a legion of infernal spirits.

The peasants were terribly frightened and called in the soldiers, who threatened the nuns that they would flog them with rods. After that, the cat concert stopped.

IN monasteries in general, the most diverse mass insanities often occurred. Modern psychiatrists can easily explain that it is stress, confined space, heavy vows and exhausting physical labor. But in the Middle Ages, psychiatry was not yet developed, so such troubles were traditionally considered the machinations of Satan.

Not always the tricks of the inhabitants of the monasteries were harmless - sometimes they could lead to injuries. So, one nun who lived in a German abbey in the 1400s, somehow start bite your sisters. After that, they began to sink their teeth into other oncoming transverse ones. This behavior spread beyond the boundaries of the monastery to other monasteries in Germany, Holland and Italy, and even reached Holy Rome itself.

2. War with imaginary Irish

The last years of the reign of the king of England, Scotland and Ireland, James II Stuart, were not easy. He thoroughly tired the country with cruel repressions, religious persecutions and stupid laws. Therefore, in 1688, the Parliament took and impeached the king, and instead invited his nephew, the Dutch prince William of Orange, to the kingdom. He was noted in history as a much more reasonable monarch.

James II fled with his family to France, but did not give up the throne. A year later, he arrived in Ireland and gathered his Jacobite followers there to reclaim the crown.

On December 13, 1688, a rumor swept through England: the Irish, led by Jacob, were marching to London, cutting out towns and villages along the way.

This confirmed Bishop Gilbert Burnet. And another eyewitness stated that at night and early in the morning a cry sounded in the city and suburbs: “Get up, arm yourself, arm yourself! The Irish have come to cut throats!”

More than 100,000 Londoners rose up to resist the aggression. At three o'clock in the morning Parliament met at Whitehall to declare martial law. The news spread that the invaders had already plundered the London suburb of Uxbridge, burned everything there and massacred the local population brutally.

Panic reached the Midlands the next day. The Mayor of Chesterfield announced that 7,000 Catholics and Irishmen had burned Birmingham to the ground and their troops were advancing towards Derby. Wakefield received reports that Doncaster was in ruins, and the people of Doncaster received reliable reports that Birmingham and Stafford were completely sacked and plundered.

The townspeople of Yorkshire received word that the Lancastrians had sided with the Irish and made war on them together. Lancaster didn't know about it. But they heard that the Irish were robbing, killing and slaughtering already on their borders, and the locals formed a militia, barricading and placing Warrington Bridge under guard.

In total, the "Irish Fear", as this event was later called, swept at least 19 districts of England. No one, however, invaded. And rumors of aggression, most likely, were spread by supporters of the Prince of Orange, so that the British rallied around him, demanding protection. As a result, the hysteria ended after a few days as suddenly as it began.

The Irish and Jacobites, by the way, did not have time to arrange the massacre they were suspected of striving for. In 1890 William of Orange smashed their troops in the Battle of the Boyne on the outskirts of Dublin, attacking first. Jacob admitted defeat and abdicated. This event was called in England the Glorious Revolution.

3. Hunt for the Gorbal Vampire

Glasgow has area called Gorbals, and in it is a large cemetery founded in the 1840s. It is also called the Southern Necropolis. And one dark night on September 23, 1954, a constable named Alex Didrose, who was patrolling the neighborhood of the churchyard, became witnessing a frightening spectacle.

Without exaggeration, a hundred or two small children wandered among the graves, the oldest of whom looked to be about fourteen years old. They were armed with kitchen knives, homemade spears, clubs, and some of them were carrying dogs.

The constable approached the children and asked what was going on. They answered the astonished policeman that they were hunting for a vampire.

The children were confident knownthat a creature with iron teeth over two feet tall lives in the churchyard. It has allegedly kidnapped and devoured two boys, leaving not a single bone of them.

Constable dispersed children, ordering them to return to their parents, and reported the incident to the director of the local school. That explained to his students that hunting ghouls at night is simply ridiculous. The children realized that adults would not believe in the reality of the vampire threat, and a couple of days later they gathered again to hunt.

Attempts to find the damned ghoul and drive a stake through his heart lasted three days and stopped as suddenly as they began. It is still unclear what made the children pretend to be Van Helsings.

Immediately after the incident, the people of Glasgow entrusted blame on all sorts of American comics like "Tales from the Crypt" and "Vault of Horrors" and even tried to get the mayor's office to ban them.

However, some of Gorbal's grown children later said that at school they were read a Bible verse about "a monster with iron teeth." And Ronnie Sanderson rememberedhow one of his peers said the word "a vampire». And everyone began to be terrified of this creature, although no one knew what it actually was.

4. The Coming of Jumping Jack

Not only children, but also adults tend to see imaginary monsters. So, long before the humpback vampire Victorian England terrorized by some mysterious creature, which was nicknamed Jack-springs-on-heels, or Jumping Jack.

The first reports of his appearance in London dated 1837. Later, he allegedly appeared in Liverpool, Sheffield, the Midlands and even Scotland. Jack was seen until 1904.

Numerous witnesses described him as follows: he was tall and athletic, wore a helmet with horns (or had his own) and a black cloak, and could jump unusually high.

The London police found traces of him, indicating that "some devices were installed in the soles of the assailant, possibly compressible springs."

Jack often attacked people, tearing their clothes with "iron claws", molested women, frightened horses, causing accidents, and at the same time "laughed with a high and ringing laugh."

He became a press star appeared in a lot of tabloid stories, and he was even shown in cheap theatrical plays. Naturally, after such a popularization of the character, the number of people who are ready to swear that they saw him only increased.

Modern historians considerthat the appearance of Jumpy Jack is a classic example of mass hysteria. Today, for example, some modern overly impressionable personalities also see UFO. In the Victorian era, aliens had not yet been invented - they had to make do with a jumping horned character.

5. Laughter epidemic in Tanzania

We all know that laughter is contagious. Sometimes even very much.

On January 31, 1962, in the missionary boarding school for girls in Kashash, three students began laugh and got a little carried away. Others soon joined in, and laughter spread throughout the school. 95 out of 159 students aged 12 to 18 laughed uncontrollably.

Most laughed for a relatively short time - several hours in a row. But there were unfortunates who laughed hysterically for 16 days, in the process losing consciousness from overwork.

The laughter stopped and then returned again within a few months. March 18 school closed, because no one could concentrate on their studies, but the epidemic spread to the neighboring village of Nshamba.

In April and May, fits of laughter were recorded in 217 rural residents, mostly young people. Then they spread to a secondary school for girls in the town of Ramashenye - 48 students were affected.

The laughter stopped only after 18 months. In total, 14 schools were closed due to fits of laughter, and the epidemic affected about a thousand people.

Scientists supposethat the hysteria was caused by severe stress. Conditions in Tanganyika's schools were not good, and female students suffered from difficult exams and high expectations from teachers and parents.