Bewitched (Witch Hunts and Ergot hallucinations) [Secrets of the Dead]
- 10 years ago
Happy Halloween! Intriguing documentary which argues that medieval accounts of witchcraft and possession (St Anthony's Fire) like those at the Salem witch trials really describe LSD-like symptoms brought on by eating food contaminated with the ergot fungus (which Lysergic Acid is derived from).
Known "witch hotspots" do seem to correspond with major rye-growing regions, and evidence is found not only in 15th-18th century Europe and Puritan North America but as far back as the 290BC "Grauballe Man" bog body, and as recently as the 1951 mass poisoning in Pont-Saint-Esprit France.
Great stuff.
Known "witch hotspots" do seem to correspond with major rye-growing regions, and evidence is found not only in 15th-18th century Europe and Puritan North America but as far back as the 290BC "Grauballe Man" bog body, and as recently as the 1951 mass poisoning in Pont-Saint-Esprit France.
Great stuff.