An illusional malady…..

A few years ago in a girls’ junior high school of a hilly province of India i.e. Utterakhnad, a weird case of illness was reported. In this incidence, at the school, some girl students were caught with the bout of giddiness, swaying their heads, muttering some words inarticulately and hitting their heads on the earth with painful scream, which finally led them to the unconscious state. This malady spread to the girls students of other classes also. Although all girl students were not caught with this bout of ailment.

                                             Mass hysteria and causes

When this incident got reported into the print media, taking the seriousness of the matter District Health administration took the cognizance of the case and sent a medical team of specialists on the spot. The team of doctors studied the case material intensively that included the physical and mental status and concluded it as the minor case of “collective hysteria.”

The causes behind were ‘social stigma’ and ‘ spontaneous chemical reaction’ resulting from those stigmas in the mind of the girls. In the absence of sufficient information and knowledge, other girl students too presumed themselves infected by that disease as a contagious one and manifested the same behavioral mode. They too began to imitate the other girls.

                                                Hysteria, a mental malady

Hysteria is a mental malady that may be at an individual level or in collective form. In the undeveloped rural areas, be that hill tracks or the plain regions, still there is tradition of receiving treatment of ailment from ojha or tantrik. ( in fact they are sibyl or necromancer or sorcerer etc as such who claim to cure patients by their miraculous divine power.) Apart from this there is tradition of recognizing a local village deity and worship that in every village.

Likewise, a belief too floated that some unsatisfied departed souls also hover over the village people and often attack on the mortal beings and “possess” them. To cure this type of ailment a tradition to invoke local deity with profound rituals is in practice. In this custom, in hilly tracks when deities or manes are invoked, first of all some specific prayers or psalms are chanted in lyrical way accompanied with musical instruments like cymbal, gong or bronze platter.

These instruments are played by skilled persons and a chorus is sung of psalms and prayers in the praise of local gods, This entire process is called by the name of “Jager.” ‘Jager” simply conveys the connotation, “to enliven the divine entity.” This musical treatment of prayer is presented by ” maestro” and with such a high rhythm so that many persons present in the crowd as spectators fall into mesmeric “trance” and begin to cry, jump up, swaying head and by muttering some specific vocabulary give indications that they are now “possessed” by the said “manes or deities” as a courier.

And with this, these “possessed” couriers begin to narrate people’s problem present around and provide a solution to the problem also. Amazingly, sometimes they reveal some hidden secrets of people present there which known to the party concerned only. Though people harnessed with such “divine power” are countable on finger tips only .

                                   An outcome of chemical reaction of body

But if you observe the behavior of people “swaying” under such “trance”, it emerges up that lyrical rhythm of prayer accompanied with musical instruments help to generate a chemical secretion which activates in form of a hormonal reaction in their mind so that they become physically uncontrolled one with limp mental status and flow in that trance. During this uncontrolled mental status they are not able to recall what type of the narration they made and to whom               

                                                       False operator

Medical therapy takes this kind of collective hysteria as the contagious one.  In this case, by watching any such patient another singular or more persons begin to feel same symptoms appearing in them. They too begin to behave in imitation and less or more a ‘crowd’ begin to behave in accordance with the same symptoms. Very interestingly, in this group when some people are caught in that “panic” some “false operators” too begin to behave imitating others intentionally.

The reason behind is, people acquiring the status of “trance” are honored as the courier of ‘deity or manes’ and people try to touch their feet and receive benediction with a reverence. So the “false operators” who in fact are “ambitious idlers” and long for that people with high status should pay veneration to them by touching the feet. In this way, the melodrama helps the false operators attain the mental satisfaction of being ‘excel’ to others.

                                                 Different kinds of hysteria

Various forms of “collective hysteria” have so far been reported over all the world. People caught in the “collective hysteria” too are reported to “dance” for days. A very interesting case of collective hysteria based upon rumors was reported in the year of the 1938 when a Radio play of “War of World” was broad cast on Radio in USA in which a live commentary was relayed of the so called Martian attack on the earth. The radio audience took it as a real and true one and a panic at large scale was observed whole through a huge territory.

Another recent episode we all witnessed and experienced during the pandemic of Covid-19 when every person was taking another person as “courier” of Corona virus and was maintaining a dreadful distance from other people (an example of illness based upon rumor.). Though this ailment is the mental and complex phenomena but majorly two factors are liable for this.

Firstly, a collective illusion that may either be realistic or imaginary, based upon rumors afloat. Secondly, being caught by some imaginary ailment. The example of this is, weird behavior of nuns in French convent where a nun began to “meow” at a specific time of the day, so all other nuns in the Convent too at a certain specific time also “meow” for days to come. Penned by — Vinay Pharasi.