mass hysteria sunderbani, j&k (India)

         In the past few weeks, my village Bandrai have been gripped by a strange fear: women's braids are being lopped off by Invisible spirits At least 8 cases have been reported from the adjoining  village. But for all the whispers about ghosts, the police and administration are looking for gangs that might be involved in this weird action.

Women report feeling giddy, losing consciousness. I believe that the women are cutting their hair, either consciously or “in an altered sensorium.

This is mass hysteria Or social delusions, a condition described as   an assumed threat that causes physical symptoms among a large group of people, spreading through sight, sound, smell or conversation, and where people feed off each other’s emotional reactions, causing the panic to escalate.

It is not the first time in india experienced collective delusion. In 1995, people fed milk to Ganesha statues,

Monkey Man or Kala Bandar
In 2001 at Delhi,

The ‘Sweet Water’ of Mahim Creek
In 2006, Mumbai,

The ‘Muhnochwa’ Scare
In the summer of 2002, locals in Uttar Pradesh,

Tamil Nadu’s Blood-Sucking Vampire
In 2016,

In 2015, an unidentified ‘Black Man’ was said to be attacking women and children in Kerala,

Psychiatrists and forensic experts to look at each case. It found that people with high sensitivity were the victims of this. Social delusions are a barometer of the state of society at any given time; they are reflections of humanity itself as they mirror our prevailing hopes and fears.

Schools can be a starting place because as the history of mass hysteria shows, children are quick to pick up irrational ideas and carry them along.

 The best way to fight superstition is to promote rational thinking. It is a ability to consider the relevant variables of a situation and to access, organize, and analyze relevant information (e.g., facts, opinions, judgments, and data) to arrive at a sound conclusion..