Dancing Plague of 1518

I think the movie footloose was based on this. not really.

Originally posted by Whine Flu

Originally posted by Solasis
reply to post by Whine Flu

 

I can just imagine medieval peasants sampling each other and scratching vinyl.

"My rhymes are so phat that Chaucer cannot top me, Now y'all best sit back while I invent Cockney"

Peace, yo!

Would definitely be a spectacle. I bet the rhymes would back then would've been so ill and spread far across the land that they would be straight up Bubonic.

i dont care who you are...that was funny right there! i jsut wonder if the moors would've been invited for freestyle battles?

reply to post by mblahnikluver


That's the first thing that popped into my mind too. I miss the days of Buffy.
Thanks for posting this OP. Very interesting indeed

Very interesting topic, I was totally unfamiliar with this.

My first thought was, as stated above, to the 'dancing in the spirit' of Pentecostal church members I saw as a child in Mississippi. I have witnessed perhaps four or five members dance rather energetically for maybe 15-20 minutes.

Obviously, the duration of this 'plague' for the dancers would make it a different thing entirely, however. (Although personally I tend to find it dubious as to anyone dancing the actual lengths of time implied here.)

Overall, very interesting, star and flag.

[edit on 3-3-2010 by Clark Savage Jr.]

Do they know to what kind of music they were dancing to? it's very hard to dance without music, no matter how hot your blood is, lol, so I'm thinking they must have been played and heard some kind of very cool dance music.

Maybe some funny time travelers have brought rave music to the medieval time (but forgot the Ecstasy pills), who knows

Ko3

A Flashmob gone bad...
Its like in the fairytale, where this one guy had to perform in front of a king to get the princess, and whoever he touched, started dancing (or was it laughing ? Dont remember) , and they couldn't stop, so the guy won...
Or maybe they all had some old or infected food that had some kind of effect on their brains like drugs .

[edit on 3-3-2010 by iscorpio]

Originally posted by xynephadyn
That is absolutely fantastic! Never heard of it before. Makes you wonder if they were under possession. Very interesting that no one back then called them Witches considering the witch trials were going on- especially when they couldnt stop- when a normal person cannot dance 24 hours straight.

Or maybe they just got into some really good drugs- Ayahuasca, marijuana, coc aine, ergot?

Marijuana? Lol no, definitely not a rave drug. Ecstasy perhaps but not pot...

Interesting topic! I wonder if those dancing 'episodes' are what spawned the fairy lore about fairies forcing humans to dance until they either escaped the fairy ring or until they died?

reply to post by mblahnikluver


that episode actually contains explicit reference to the Dancing Plague, I think; either the demon or their research into his nature indicates at some point that he manifested in 1518, too.

No doubt the New Agers will be on here telling us it was sacred energy or something, when in fact they were probably under the influence of drugs either voluntary or involuntary. Maybe something was in the Food/Drink that wasn't really researched a great deal because it was 1518.

Or maybe somebody picked the wrong tobacco leaves and ended up with some hallucinogens .... Either way I bet they were tripping their tits off.

Sound more probably that what the meditation love gurus will come out with.

We had a dancing plague in the UK back in the 90s-turns out these strange pills were spreading the thing about the population...

Joking aside,This story reminds me of the tale of the "monkey man" from India-Basically a form of group hysteria/odd behaviour took place due to rumors of a "monkey man" who came to abduct people in the night:

In May 2001, reports began to circulate in the Indian capital New Delhi of a strange monkey-like creature that was appearing at night and attacking people
[1] . Eyewitness accounts were often inconsistent, but tended to describe the creature as about four feet (120 cm) tall, covered in thick black hair, with a metal helmet, metal claws, glowing red eyes and three buttons on its chest. Theories on the nature of the Monkey Man ranged from an avatar of the Hindu god Hanuman, to an Indian version of Bigfoot.
[2] Many people reported being scratched, and two (by some reports, three) people even died when they leapt from the tops of buildings or fell down stairwells in a panic caused by what they thought was the attacker. At one point, exasperated police even issued artist's impression drawings in an attempt to catch the creature. The entire incident has been described as an example of mass hysteria.

en.wikipedia.org...

People do behave oddly sometimes,maybe chemicals/minerals ener the water supply at times,and create odd behaviour?
Who knows.

Cool Thread!

Thats amazing!

Reminds me a bit of the "flashmobs" you get these days - where hundreds, or even thousands of people meet at a set time and place and freeze, or dance, or go crazy or whatever...

maybe it was a medieval prank gone too far?

Either way, what a way to go!

While this does sound like a "terrible" way to die, I would have to say it seems a lot better than sitting on a couch for 40 years (if you are lucky) stuffing nutrient laden microwavable food down your throat.

First thing that comes to my mind is rye mold, also known as ergot, also called St. Anthony's Fire (for its burning feeling in the legs).
Of course, I offer no medical advice.

reply to post by alttracks


Is that the mold that has been linked to certain hallucinations/visions in the Bible?
I seem to remember reading about Rye mold somewhere.

reply to post by Silcone Synapse


Yeah, that's the one. Also linked to witchcraft trials, etc. Rye mold (ergot) is almost invisible and often the whole town has consumed it for days before the first symptoms show up.

reply to post by smyleegrl


There are a number of psychogenic events that don't result in death.

Laughing plagues and the 14th century Flagellant mobs don't end in death. In the case of the Flagellants they did kill people though, specifically targeting Jews.

I think the "pathogen" responsible is the same kind of anomaly. Something not biological. Carl Jung would probably say it spreads in the collective unconscious like memes.

I believe R. Gordon Wasson touches on this plague in "The Road To Eleusis." His central thesis is that ergot, a mold that grows on rye grain under humid conditions, can induce hallucinations because of the presence of "unrefined" '___', and that this psycho-active substance was used to induce the visions of ancient mystery cults. Outbreaks of ergotism were not uncommon in the damp climate of northern Europe in the medieval period, leading to "chorea" (uncontrollable dancing), witchcraft epidemics and the occasional cat massacre. (Seriously.)

Originally posted by alttracks
First thing that comes to my mind is rye mold, also known as ergot, also called St. Anthony's Fire (for its burning feeling in the legs).
Of course, I offer no medical advice.

Bingo, that is what it most likely was.

www.botany.hawaii.edu...

Originally posted by alttracks
reply to post by Silcone Synapse

 

Yeah, that's the one. Also linked to witchcraft trials, etc. Rye mold (ergot) is almost invisible and often the whole town has consumed it for days before the first symptoms show up.

YUP, did a lot of research on this subject.