In sociology and psychology, mass hysteria (also known as collective hysteria, group hysteria, or collective obsessional behavior) is a phenomenon that transmits collective illusions of threats, whether real or imaginary, through a population in society as a result of rumors and fear.
Such behaviour can be found in most societies, with hysterical outbreaks that can be traced back throughout history, they remain a baffling reminder of the power of the human mind.
This occurs very often in the paranormal community and is very often seen on many posts and on many videos from audiences influenced by those they are watching…
However, two particular stories I read about some years ago interests me and is a good example of how many can be influenced by one particular person and they follow:
A nun of a French convent inexplicably began to meow like a cat, shortly leading to the other nuns in the convent also meowing. Eventually all the nuns would meow together for a certain period every day, leaving the surrounding community astonished. This did not stop until the police threatened to whip the nuns.
A similar case occurred in Germany during the 15th century, when nuns began to bite one another. When the news traveled, other nunneries in the area started experiencing the same problem. Soon the biting epidemic had spread as far as Holland and Rome, with no clear explanation as to why this was happening. According to reports from the time, the biting eventually ceased due to the nuns exhaustion. The bizarre behavior of both cases is generally credited to the period’s intense belief in the supernatural, in addition to the fact that many of the women had been forced into convents by their families to live a lifestyle that demanded celibacy, poverty, and hard manual labor.
Written by Charlene Lowe Kemp
This is a case that has always fascinated me. It just shows you how fragile the human psyche is and how easily humans can be influenced, especially when in a group.