So, If She Weighs Less Than a Duck...
As I was trying to fall asleep, I started wondering about witch hunts. Okay, specifically the Salem with trials of 1692-1693. Some people have claimed that there was in fact an outbreak of ergotism behind it, explaining the claims of the "bewitched" as a result of the hallucinations and physical sensations that ergot (so related to LSD) produce.
More sensible people have declared the ergot claim to be bullshit. Yes, the weather in summer in 1692 was very conducive to the development of ergot, and yes, rye bread was a staple. That wouldn't explain why it was only individuals and not, say, entire families eating this bread finding themselves bewitched. And while ergot does cause hallucinations, weird sensations, manic symptoms, explosive vomiting and diarrhea and convulsions (in general, a terrible trip), it also causes lethal gangrene. And seeing as they kept very detailed record of what evils were being wrought by witchery, they'd likely have mentioned people's limbs rotting the fuck off. Seems the sort of thing you'd remark on, at least maybe like a footnote. Ergotism tends to kill people without very good treatment, and the only people who died as a result of this were hanged.
So yeah. Likely not ergot. What actually kept me from sleeping was wondering why people need to come up with perfectly reasonable, plausible explanations for completely insane things people have believed that made them kill people. It's a lot more terrifying to think that no, generally in these cases, the people who get caught up in that are simply normal people, believing pretty much normal things for their culture and time, who then do absolutely horrifying things. Maybe getting into a panic of some sort, but still, just regular people. Thinking about ergot makes it a lot easier to forget that there are witch hunts, and executions, happening right now.
Thinking about this is likely not going to help me sleep. At least I can watch the thunderstorm. (That's every night for the last how many now?)
More sensible people have declared the ergot claim to be bullshit. Yes, the weather in summer in 1692 was very conducive to the development of ergot, and yes, rye bread was a staple. That wouldn't explain why it was only individuals and not, say, entire families eating this bread finding themselves bewitched. And while ergot does cause hallucinations, weird sensations, manic symptoms, explosive vomiting and diarrhea and convulsions (in general, a terrible trip), it also causes lethal gangrene. And seeing as they kept very detailed record of what evils were being wrought by witchery, they'd likely have mentioned people's limbs rotting the fuck off. Seems the sort of thing you'd remark on, at least maybe like a footnote. Ergotism tends to kill people without very good treatment, and the only people who died as a result of this were hanged.
So yeah. Likely not ergot. What actually kept me from sleeping was wondering why people need to come up with perfectly reasonable, plausible explanations for completely insane things people have believed that made them kill people. It's a lot more terrifying to think that no, generally in these cases, the people who get caught up in that are simply normal people, believing pretty much normal things for their culture and time, who then do absolutely horrifying things. Maybe getting into a panic of some sort, but still, just regular people. Thinking about ergot makes it a lot easier to forget that there are witch hunts, and executions, happening right now.
Thinking about this is likely not going to help me sleep. At least I can watch the thunderstorm. (That's every night for the last how many now?)