10 Bizarre Cases Of Mass Hysteria
From meowing nuns to an imagined monkey-man.
Throughout history, there are many causes and triggers for mass hysteria but it remains a difficult thing to understand. Part of that is because of how common the circumstances behind such events are and yet, strangely, how rarely they happen.
Take a reasonably sized population that finds itself powerless, either from an oppressive government or a drastic change in circumstances that are beyond their control, and they will react badly. That's simple human nature. In the absence of proactive opportunities, hysteria is almost inevitable, which is why it's happened over the years in some fairly notable ways.
From meowing nuns to an imagined monkey-man, mass hysteria is a bizarre and little understood aspect of the human condition...
10. Mad Gasser Of Mattoon (1944)
The Mad Gasser of Mattoon was a tall thin man, who dressed in black and wore a tight-fitting cap. He carried a flit gun - an agricultural tool used for spraying pesticide - and crept up to people's bedroom windows at night spraying gas out of his flit gun into their rooms.
Witness testimony at the time swore to sightings of the ghastly figure and newspapers reported the story, with victims apparently becoming sick - reporting nausea and loss of limb function. The only problem with the whole thing is that The Mad Gasser of Mattoon did not exist.
Strangely, over the course of a week, 26 people reported being gassed. And yet, there was never any evidence of a prowler going around gassing people and it is generally believed to be an example of mass hysteria encouraged by lively reporting in the newspapers.