9 Unethical Psychological Experiments That Actually Happened
8. The Three Christs of Ypsilanti
Its neither a Shakespeare play nor a Bible-themed vigilante hit squad. Its actually the brainchild of Dr Milton Rokeach who thought it might be a bit of a lark to put three mentally ill people in a hospital together, all of whom had the unwavering delusion that they were Jesus Christ. The theory was that if each man could understand that the other two were clearly fantasists, they might begin to question their own beliefs for the same reasons. The case study lasted a stonking two years and the three patients stuck to their guns throughout, never faltering from the belief that they were the one and only Jesus incarnate, despite their cohabitants claims to the contrary. Initially, the men simply argued over who was the true Messiah but struggled to find a compromise. Eventually the disagreement descended into physical fights but finally an uneasy stalemate was reached. In short, each man discounted the other two as being delusional psychiatric patients or mindless robotic corpses that were being controlled by machinery. To put it simply, there was only one Jesus and they all remained stalwart in their beliefs that they and they alone were the real deal. Its a shame really: if one Christ can feed 5000, a few dozen more could have put a serious dent in the global food crisis.
Peter Austin initially joined WhatCulture as an occasional contributor to our Film, Gaming and Science sections, but made the mistake of telling us that he'd been making videos in his bedroom for over a decade. Since then he's been a vital member of our YouTube team and routinely sets the standard for smart-casual wear in the office.
