Anecdotal Evidence

[bennyboy]

Like Fatima and the “dancing, zig-zagging” Sun?

Sometimes when 1,000 people report something odd it is simply mass hallucination and not qualitative evidence.

Is there any evidence that mass hallucinations are a real phenomena?

Interesting question.  That would be anecdotal evidence for sure, since something like that is unlikely to be reproducible, at least in its original state, which requires charismatic leaders or other special circumstances.  What, are you going to put a thousand people in a lab and have someone try to make them hallucinate?

I would guess yes, because if you get a Megachurch full of a hundred thousand fervent X-tians and get them all dancing and speaking in tongues, their energy is likely to feed off each other's, and this could very likely lead to a trance-like state, i.e. hypnotic.  And we know for sure that in a hypnotic state, people are capable of hallucination.