Mass hallucination

[Fake Messiah]

So this topic is about the claim in "Case For Crist" movie in which a psychologist claims that mass hallucinations are impossible, or more precisely that it is impossible for 500 people to have the same hallucination (of seeing resurrected Jesus). The 500 people come from supposedly Paul's claim.

Now aside from the shaky credibility of that particular line in Paul's letters, and aside from the problems with the historicity of Jesus as well as his tomb, and aside from that the movie "CFC" is full of other lies, let's just concentrate on this claim that this doctor says how mass hallucinations are impossible.

That claim seems far from the truth. For instance, in my recent topic, I mentioned how in the year 1291 many people claimed to have seen a flying house come down in their village. Or take the so-called miracle of Fatima where hundreds of people claimed to have seen the sun dance in the sky while hundreds (majority) didn't see anything.

It doesn't even have to be a mass hallucination because people like to claim that they have seen something that other people claim to have seen - one of my favorite examples to that is an experiment James Randi did which he described in his book "Flim-Flam" when he went on a radio show and said falsely to have seen a UFO at such and such place, and people immediately started calling in the show and claimed to have seen the same thing and in 30 minutes they had exact location of the object, the exact number of them, and time and direction of moving across the sky.


Anyway, here's the clip

[Mister Agenda]

The flying house story iseems to be a case of errors creeping into a narrative and staying because they are easy to remember; no one ever actually saw it, IMHO. IIRC, in the flying house scenario; the family responsible for moving the materials and rebuilding the house was named Angelo; and the story turned into 'the house was moved by angels'. Fatima was more like an optical illusion than mass hallucination; if you stare at the sun too long it will seem to move around due to involuntary eye movements; a reflex evolved to protect our vision fro stupidity, I reckon.

I'm not so sure mass hallucinations are really possible; but the stories are uncredible and have plausible alternative explanations besides mass hallucination.

[no one]

How many people think the Earth is flat?

[Angrboda]

Mass hallucinations are poorly named. It's more a social phenomenon in which a mass of people come to believe that they have experienced the same thing. That's a social and psychological process, not a hallucination, but the traditional name is mass hallucination. So they're effectively attacking a straw man.

[Ranjr]

The key word in that section of Corinthians is "appeared."  Christ appeared to Cephas and the twelve, the 500, and all the apostles the same way he appeared, lastly, to the untimely born Paul.  If we allow the decades later description in Acts to complete story, that would mean Jesus appeared to all 514 plus witnesses as a bright light.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

I grew up Catholic. Every Sunday was a Mass hallucination.

Boru

[brewer]

Obviously has never been to a Grateful Dead concert.

On a side note, I just saw Nelson Mandela walk past the window.

[Mister Agenda]

How many people think the Earth is flat?

Too many, I think that would more properly be a mass delusion.

[Angrboda]

How many people think the Earth is flat?

Too many, I think that would more properly be a mass delusion.  

What's the difference?

[Abaddon_ire]

So this topic is about the claim in "Case For Crist" movie in which a psychologist claims that mass hallucinations are impossible, or more precisely that it is impossible for 500 people to have the same hallucination (of seeing resurrected Jesus). The 500 people come from supposedly Paul's claim.

Leaving aside the fact that this is Strobel's crapfest, I know for a fact that such mass hallucinations happen because I lived through it.

I refer to the "moving statues of Ireland" back in 1985. 100's of thousands faithfully claimed that those statues really moved. It was fascinating. My parents were devout RCC, and even they considered it to be a pile of bollocks. I always wondered how it was that a pair of devout catholics raised 4 godless heathens, but that is a different story.

In any event, the whole thing started at a shrine to holy blessed virgin mary just outside an obscure village named Ballinspittle (pop:who cares). Back then, we were a country saddled with RCC hegemony. Anyway, some twonk reported this roadside statue came to life. The credulous thronged to it in a fit of marian idolatry. Promptly, 30+ other statues around the country also started moving. It became a circus. Nevertheless, there were thousands of "eye-witnesses". Some of it was really bizarre. TV crews would interview convinced faithful folks who would claim that the statue moved so the camera must be wrong or some such. Funny enough, my parents spotted it as a total load despite their faith. Fair play to them.

Still, that illustrates just how easily mass delusions can and do happen all the time.

Interestingly, the whole bucket of nonsense simply fizzled out spontaneously and got tucked away in the "embarrassing history" drawer.

Suffice it to say that the animated statues are still in the same place and pose they always were, with the exception of the first one which was vandalised by a bunch of fundie christians, amusingly.