Humans tend to forget their own history rather quickly, and when it comes to the seemingly extensive connections our race has had with werewolves and witches things aren't any different. Myths and legends might seem fantastic and hard to believe, but the fact of the matter is that in most cases they are based at least partially on some amount of truth. In this regard few people understand that the origins of werewolves and witches are actually tied to real life events that occurred in Eastern Europe in the middle ages, and later in the newly founded province of Massachusetts. While the actual story might not be anything you would think, for some people in history the existence of werewolves and witches seemed all too real.
It's likely that most cases of purported werewolf or witch sightings were actually caused by accidental poisonings that resulted in severe and prolonged mass hallucinations. This could only occur if a certain population was all being poisoned, and this is almost certainly what happened in Eastern Europe in the fifteenth century.
During the time rye bread was a staple among most of the general populace. Ergot, a fungus of grasses like wheat and rye, can cause a condition known as convulsive ergotism if not cleaned out of the grain. Fifteenth century peasants had never heard of such a thing and in fact considered the striking black pod-like formations to be a naturally-occurring part of the rye grain, and so into the local foodstuffs it went.
Once consumed ergot can cause convincing hallucinations. At the time people were not aware of pathogens, bacteria or other causes of diseases and conditions, and so any strange condition that could not be explained was often attributed to magic or the supernatural. People who were eating this contaminated rye bread on a daily basis for months and years at a time went into hysteria about werewolves and as a result authorities took action and persecuted a number of presumably innocent people.
Because the occurrence of ergot is related to climactic conditions, there were periods of werewolf hysteria followed by lulls in the phenomena, although cases of mass ergot poisoning never really stopped. In fact, later in history ergot poisoning became a sign of religious or spiritual ecstasy and enlightenment. But once cases of ergot poisoning reached the recently colonized land of America, people found a new hysteria – this one dealt with witches.
It's very likely that the Salem with trails were actually related to mass ergotism. In fact, when studying the matter several hundred years later, Sigmund Freud is said to have been convinced that hallucinations caused by convulsive ergotism caused the witch hysteria in Salem in the seventeenth century. This is detailed in a book by Kathryn A. Edwards titled; Werewolves, Witches and Wandering Spirits:
"Freud was personally ready to concede that the Middle Ages had indeed recognized certain somatic signs of hysteria that his own time had almost completely ignored, suppressed or forgotten. Thus the young Freud clearly acknowledged the high empirical value of medieval demonological observations, even though he rejected the religious explanations of the church."
There have been recent cases of entire towns being poisoned by the ergot fungus, although no documented cases have occurred since the 1950's. Today grains are processed and treated in such a way that this would be impossible. However, despite the fact that our agricultural processes were developed in response to ergot poisoning, few people remember this connection, and even fewer still recognize the connection between the hallucinations cause by ergotism and the existence of werewolves and witches.
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Meekah studied abroad for four years, achieving two masters degrees during this time. However, she then discovered her love of writing and pursued an entirely different career as an editor and professional writer. Today she earns her living with her pen, while 2 useless MA's hang on her wall...