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In 1518, a ‘dance plague’ saw citizens of French city Strasbourg reportedly dancing for days on end. It’s a bizarre event that grips artists to this day, writes Rosalind Jana.
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Bizarre. Wonder if that’s where the fairy tale about those charmed dance slippers came from? Who knew it was a real phenomena?
I went to the Brownsville Texas “revival”
When I was a kid and witnessed and experienced something just like this. Nobody was dying, but there were hundreds of people convulsing, laughing, twitching, you name it uncontrollably and nothing could make it stop. I firmly believe it is demonic. It happens at every famous “revival” from what I’ve heard and people call it “being slain in the spirit” 🙄 It happened to me, and I don’t know why or how. It stopped after many hours and I’ve always known it was most definitely not from God. There was a strong demonic presence at the church and people were making a big deal about some who were openly possessed, but they were all under a spell thinking that they were taking part in a spiritual experience with God. Extremely ignorant and ridiculous.
Prophets in the Bible would behave similarly under the influence of God. For instance: But the Spirit of God came upon even Saul, and he walked along prophesying until he came to Naioth in Ramah. 24Then Saul stripped off his robes and also prophesied before Samuel. And he collapsed and lay naked all that day and night. That is why it is said, “Is Saul also among the prophets?”
Saul was under the influence of an evil spirit. 1Sa 16:14 (NIV) — “Now the Spirit of the LORD had departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD tormented him.” The word translated for prophets can also mean false prophets. In context, throwing oneself on the floor naked and losing control of one’s body isn’t God’s doing, but the evil spirit.
The Pentecostal church freaks me out with its fixation on the tongues of flame and speaking in tongues like happened when the Holy Spirit descended on the disciples at Pentecost. One, it sometimes seems like they are trying to force something similar, which is a very bad idea. Two, I think fixating on one extraordinary occurrence like that also is not the right approach. The whole life and death of Jesus is the point, not isolating or recreating certain miracles. And three, I talk all the time here about kundalini and how bad it is. The raising of kundalini to its ultimate destination in the crown chakra produces an effect which I think mimics the Pentecost flames, only producing flames of hellfire at the crown of the head instead of spiritual fire that doesn’t burn. And I think this St Vitus dance may be kundalini related, resulting from overstimulation of the vagus nerve complex. A similar phenomenon was described among revellers of Dionysus in the ancient world, and Dionysus is one of the guises of the Satan entity.
I don’t disagree but revellers of Dionysus were also purported to “enhance” their spiritual experiences with the use of atropine containing hallucinogens. Likewise, the Sybil of Delphi inhaled fumes in order to enter a trancelike state before prophecying. In short, they got blitzed. To my knowledge, Pentecostals don’t ingest substances, indeed they reject intoxicants.
The mysteries of Eleusis involved Dionysus and they also involved hallucinogenic beer made from barley called kykeon. I wasn’t disputing the role of intoxicants, the Pentecostal comment was in response to Iliketree’s reporting about going to a revival. The OG Dionysians are the tantrics from India, Shiva and DIonysus are the same entity, and it’s a left hand path sacrament to them to drink liquor.
It was probably ergot or mycotoxin poisoning from a fungus found on grains like wheat during especially wet, cool growing seasons. The symptoms include constriction of blood vessels in the brain, causing hyperexcitability, extreme agitation, hysteria, and tremors.
1518 fits within the timeline of the medieval mini ice age, when ergot growth on rye was a particular problem. Contamination of grain supplies by ergot have continued into the 20th century. See the 1951 Pont-Saint-Esprit mass poisoning.
That’s what I was thinking too