00:00I came over to see what was going on.
00:02Children started laughing.
00:05Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're exploring the most notorious times in history
00:09when people experienced cases believed to be mass hysteria,
00:12psychological epidemics, or unusual phenomena that caused them to question their sanity.
00:17Within a week, another 34 people were dancing.
00:21The soap opera virus.
00:23In 2006, a mysterious illness swept through teenagers in Portugal,
00:27with symptoms such as rashes, difficulty breathing, and dizziness.
00:30The disease seemed to be highly infectious as it spread through several schools,
00:34affecting more than 300 students and strangely no adults.
00:37However, rather than the cause being an unknown virus, there was another reason.
00:44The first case was recorded days after a particular episode of the Portuguese teen soap opera
00:50Morengos com Azรบcar aired.
00:52During it, a life-threatening disease with the same symptoms engulfed the on-screen school.
00:57It's thought that viewers underwent mass psychogenic illness,
01:03believing they'd also been infected by the fictional disease.
01:06It's speculated that stress from the students preparing for approaching year-end tests
01:10also played a major factor.
01:12The face of pure evil.
01:20In 2018, a malevolent force was seemingly calling the SMK Kedera School in Kelantin, Malaysia,
01:26its home.
01:27Students saw a black figure in a face of pure evil, causing them to shriek in terror and even faint.
01:32When the quiet in the air was suddenly shattered by a schoolgirl's piercing scream.
01:37And then another scream rang out.
01:41And another.
01:42As more and more of them saw the creatures screaming echoed across the building,
01:46causing teachers and students to barricade classrooms.
01:49Within a day, nearly 40 people had seen the monster.
01:51Despite Islamic spiritual healers arriving to perform prayers,
02:00it was determined that there was no monster, and it was instead a case of mass hysteria.
02:04The school increased its security in the aftermath, including changing staff,
02:07to help prevent this terrifying event from repeating.
02:10The Monkey Man of Delhi.
02:12In 2001, Delhi, India was in chaos as the monkey man stalked the community.
02:16It didn't have any marks or anything.
02:18It was just hairy and black.
02:19With hundreds of sightings, the creature would attack people at night
02:22as they slept on the roofs of their buildings to escape the summer heat.
02:25The monkey man would leave many scratches on its victims before fleeing.
02:28However, the witness accounts of what it looked like varied wildly.
02:31Sometimes it had metal claws, a helmet, or even used roller skates.
02:34Around 2 or 3 in the morning, there were noises outside.
02:39I went downstairs.
02:41When I was on the stairs, he came out and grabbed me.
02:44The fear of the monkey man even resulted in deaths
02:46as around 2 people lost their lives upon fleeing the creature.
02:49The only known large primate in the area that could be responsible is the gibbon.
02:54There was even a report that a mob killed a man whom they suspected was the monster.
02:58Yet rather than a creature, mass hysteria was declared as the source.
03:02The Mad Gasser of Mattoon.
03:03In 1944, the residents of Mattoon, Illinois, believed the sinister assailant was in their midst.
03:09This person, armed with a pesticide sprayer, would spread an unknown gas into homes.
03:13When people smelled the sweet scent, they began experiencing severe symptoms,
03:19including coughing, vomiting, and leg paralysis.
03:22Thankfully, the symptoms eventually vanished.
03:24Yet the M.O. of the Mad Gasser became more intense
03:26as reports that they'd broken into homes emerged.
03:29Within a couple of weeks after the police previously mentioned mass hysteria as a possible cause,
03:39they went further by declaring that the gas was potentially coming from nearby industrial
03:42buildings that used chemicals.
03:44This declaration seemingly coincided with the Gasser's attacks stopping,
03:48leading to evidence that this was likely mass hysteria.
03:51As scientific understanding and technological advances continue to steadily progress,
03:56it seems like mysterious happenings such as the Mad Gasser of Mattoon
03:59have become less and less prevalent.
04:02The Sri Lanka Epidemic.
04:04In 2012, something strange emerged from a school in Gampala, Sri Lanka.
04:09In one day, 1,100 students began showing symptoms of an allergic reaction,
04:13including coughing, skin rashes, and vomiting.
04:16Hundreds were sent home after getting medical treatment,
04:18while many had to stay at the hospital for further aid.
04:20To make it more terrifying, the epidemic spread rapidly.
04:24Within a week, 15 schools reported similar incidents,
04:26resulting in around 1,900 cases, including five teachers.
04:30Officials began testing various possible sources in the schools.
04:33However, medical staff found the patients showed signs of their symptoms being psychological,
04:38leading to the belief that it was likely mass hysteria.
04:41Murder of Bridget Cleary.
04:42In 1895, Bridget Cleary was in dire straits in Ballyvadle, Republic of Ireland.
04:47She helped finance the family through selling eggs, through making clothes, things like that.
04:54She'd come down with a disease believed to be bronchitis, tuberculosis, or another similar ailment.
04:59Bridget's recovery looked unlikely as a priest came to perform the last rites.
05:03However, this wasn't what took her life.
05:05Instead, her husband Michael had convinced several people, including her own father,
05:09that Bridget wasn't Bridget.
05:10Instead, she'd been abducted by a fairy and an imposter had taken her place.
05:14And he decided that he would exorcise the fairy changeling from his beloved wife.
05:20It's believed that Michael and his accomplices burned Bridget to death,
05:23as well as others involved being criminally charged.
05:26Michael was sentenced to 20 years for manslaughter.
05:29It's speculated he had cop grass syndrome,
05:31a disorder where a person believes someone has been replaced by an imposter.
05:35127 years after Bridget Cleary's death,
05:38the children in Tipperary may still be heard singing a nursery rhyme.
05:44Are you a witch or are you a fairy?
05:46Or are you the wife of Michael Clary?
05:50The Tanganyika laughter epidemic.
05:52Usually the sound of children laughing is joyful, but not in this case.
05:58What's funny?
06:00Hmm?
06:01Come on, spit it out!
06:02In 1962, at an all-girls village boarding school in Tanganyika,
06:06now known as Tanzania,
06:07kids began laughing in class.
06:09This continued for hours,
06:10sometimes up to 16 days,
06:12which understandably caused many victims to cry from the pain
06:15and fear of constant chuckling.
06:17After 95 students,
06:18the majority of the school began laughing uncontrollably.
06:21The facility was forced to close.
06:23Yet the epidemic then spread,
06:24causing around 1,000 students within 14 schools to have symptoms.
06:28The laughter would spread from village to village
06:30until thousands of people were laughing in Tanzania and Uganda.
06:35The Ground Zero School was reportedly sued by families affected by the spread.
06:39However, it's believed that instead of a disease,
06:41mass hysteria sparked by stress from Tanganyika gaining independence
06:44the previous year was responsible.
06:50The Havana Syndrome.
06:52In 2017, reports emerged that sent shockwaves through world governments.
06:56From 2016, several diplomatic staff and their families based in Cuba
07:00reported symptoms including dizziness, headaches, and cognitive problems.
07:04Seemingly before the symptoms,
07:05the victims heard a grating sound or felt pressure in their heads.
07:08The recording gives us the first tangible sense of what it was like
07:11for these American government workers in Havana
07:13who were hearing these unexplained sounds in their residences
07:17and later developed physical symptoms.
07:19By 2022, it was believed that over 1,000 people had experienced Havana Syndrome,
07:23including those stationed in other countries beyond Cuba.
07:26This led to the belief by some that the diplomats were being attacked
07:28with some kind of sound weapon.
07:30You won't be hearing it, but of course it is going into your system.
07:33It's like an acoustic hammer which is hitting you.
07:37You're just not able to hear it because its frequency is much higher.
07:40There were even recordings released of the apparent sound.
07:42However, they were later dismissed as noise caused by insects.
07:46Governmental reports have stated a purposeful attack was very unlikely,
07:49pointing the finger towards possibly mass hysteria.
07:51We're going to continue to do a comprehensive examination of the effects here that we're seeing
07:57and the potential causes of AHI.
08:00That's something that we're going to continue to look into.
08:02The Dancing Plague of 1518.
08:04Apparently, not all fairy tales are make-believe.
08:06In this case, there are similarities with Hans Christian Andersen's The Red Shoes.
08:10In 1518 in Strasbourg, in modern-day France,
08:20a mother and daughter began dancing on the streets without any music.
08:23Things got even stranger when the manic dancing began to spread.
08:27Soon up to 400 people joined.
08:29However, the victims couldn't stop, even in horrible pain.
08:32While it's disputed, some accounts claim up to 15 people a day perished from the mania.
08:36After medical help didn't work, the authorities believed the possession had taken place
08:40and tried to combat it.
08:41Within a couple of months, the mania stopped.
08:43It's speculated that on top of mass hysteria,
08:45the incident might have happened due to ergot poisoning,
08:47a type of fungus that grows on rye and similar plants.
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09:16The Salem Witch Trials
09:18Over three centuries later, the city of Salem, Massachusetts
09:21hasn't been able to shake off this dark history.
09:24Any place that has had a mass killing or murder usually becomes very haunted.
09:32Beginning in 1692 and lasting over a year,
09:35over 200 people in the community were accused of partaking in witchcraft
09:38and putting spells on their neighbors.
09:40I saw Bridget Bishop with the devil!
09:42Around 30 people were executed or imprisoned after a trial.
09:45After the saga ended, years later, several of the accusers admitted they'd lie.
09:49As such, it's believed this is one of the most infamous cases of mass hysteria in the U.S.
09:53It's also been linked to ergot poisoning,
09:55which can cause hallucinations, psychosis,
09:57and a sensation of crawling under the skin.
10:00Experiencing these symptoms, this may have sparked the accusers
10:03to feel as though they'd been bewitched by someone using magic.
10:06What happened here in Salem is what actually what created the path for our modern legal system.
10:12Innocent people being convicted and killed for crimes that they didn't commit.
10:20Have you ever been swept away and into an incident of mass hysteria?
10:23Let us know below.
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