WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.480 --> 00:00:04.679 Hello, everybody. So this is the second episode, and this is Havana 2 00:00:04.759 --> 00:00:10.599 syndrome and Iranian schoolgirls mass poisoning reports. We're actually going to be talking about 3 00:00:10.640 --> 00:00:15.439 an article I wrote for Skeptical Inquiry which is called Iranian school girl a gas 4 00:00:15.439 --> 00:00:19.800 attacks and Havana Syndrome A conversation with Robert Bartholomew, and both of the subjects 5 00:00:19.800 --> 00:00:23.879 there, which is Iranian schoolgirl gas attacks and Havana syndrome, have their own 6 00:00:23.879 --> 00:00:28.079 Wikipedia articles with those names, and you could look those up too. So 7 00:00:28.480 --> 00:00:32.399 I'm going to ask the people on with me, as well as those listening 8 00:00:32.399 --> 00:00:36.439 and watching, what do they think these two situations haven't common? Situation one, 9 00:00:36.719 --> 00:00:41.000 Beginning in late twenty sixteen, the US government claimed there were ongoing attacks 10 00:00:41.039 --> 00:00:46.320 against its embassy personnel in Cuba by unknown forces using unknown weapon. In subsequent 11 00:00:46.399 --> 00:00:50.439 years, the scope of these claimed attacks brought in to include intelligence agents, 12 00:00:50.600 --> 00:00:54.719 other government officials, and even family members stationed in a very very long list 13 00:00:54.759 --> 00:00:58.799 of countries, eventually even happening on the White House ground. The symptoms of 14 00:00:58.799 --> 00:01:03.280 these attacks work collectively eventually called Havana syndrome, and they included everything from brain 15 00:01:03.359 --> 00:01:11.439 fatigue to brain damage. The mysterious unidentified weaponry. Blame for these attacks included 16 00:01:11.719 --> 00:01:17.200 ultrasound, infrasound pulse, electromagnetic energy, microwaves, and a bunch of other 17 00:01:17.239 --> 00:01:19.719 things. So that's the first situation. Situation two. In November twenty twenty 18 00:01:19.719 --> 00:01:23.319 two, just a few months ago, reports surfaced about a poison gas attack 19 00:01:23.359 --> 00:01:27.280 at a girls school in Iran, affecting two hundred students. Reports of gas 20 00:01:27.280 --> 00:01:32.319 attacks then happened all across the country of Iran. As of early this year, 21 00:01:32.400 --> 00:01:36.239 the count of victims stood at nearly seven thousand young girls. The victims 22 00:01:36.239 --> 00:01:42.560 were mostly girls, there were some teachers and extraneous victims that mostly schoolgirls was 23 00:01:42.760 --> 00:01:47.959 out over a hundred schools in nearly that many cities, So speculation ranged like 24 00:01:48.519 --> 00:01:52.680 who could have caused this? Well, the villains range from either the Iranian 25 00:01:52.719 --> 00:01:57.519 government seeking revenge for the recent and ongoing he job protests, or the government 26 00:01:57.599 --> 00:02:01.280 said it was a false slag operation, but people who wanted to look like 27 00:02:01.319 --> 00:02:05.840 it was the government doing it right. And of course the government made mass 28 00:02:05.920 --> 00:02:08.919 arrests. So what do you folks think? These two situations that sound nothing 29 00:02:08.960 --> 00:02:15.960 alike have in common. Helen hysteria and people jumping to conclusions for no good 30 00:02:15.960 --> 00:02:23.039 reason, the usual usual stuff. So when I read this article in or 31 00:02:23.120 --> 00:02:25.319 Not Sana Rob, I really wanted to see, like if this was an 32 00:02:25.360 --> 00:02:30.639 actual thing. So I decided to do some other research on Havana syndrome. 33 00:02:30.800 --> 00:02:36.800 And there is actual legitimate study into what it could possibly be because there were 34 00:02:37.360 --> 00:02:43.599 US military personnel that were reporting similar symptoms and over there was over a thousand 35 00:02:43.680 --> 00:02:49.439 people that reported having symptoms of what they thought was Havana syndrome. Now there's 36 00:02:49.560 --> 00:02:54.520 a budget different theories out there. There was a review them by Yale at 37 00:02:54.560 --> 00:03:01.080 the met RXIV review that talked about havana syndrome among amongst Canadian diplomats and the 38 00:03:01.120 --> 00:03:07.280 symptoms that they suffered. There was another one that was done by there's a 39 00:03:07.919 --> 00:03:13.759 researcher that's part of Northwest Western University that is also looking at this as a 40 00:03:13.800 --> 00:03:17.800 cause from of a certain type of cricket. Now I'm and they're just looking 41 00:03:17.879 --> 00:03:23.759 at all possible avenues of what this might be. Am I making a statement 42 00:03:23.520 --> 00:03:28.240 on anything about that like this, you know what the actual cause was? 43 00:03:28.360 --> 00:03:31.759 No? But we but we as skeptics like to explore as many things as 44 00:03:31.759 --> 00:03:36.479 possible of how to explain this issue. But I do want to point out 45 00:03:36.560 --> 00:03:43.159 that the government, r US government decided to paint it as you know, 46 00:03:43.280 --> 00:03:49.800 it was a biological attack against you know, the United States and people that 47 00:03:49.840 --> 00:03:54.159 were associated with That's gross. So this is a lot more complicated than we're 48 00:03:54.240 --> 00:03:59.639 going on about. But there is This is a conversation we need to have. 49 00:04:00.159 --> 00:04:01.719 So I do have more to say about this, but I really want 50 00:04:01.719 --> 00:04:05.879 to pass it to Jimmy and give his kind of perspective on this art, 51 00:04:06.199 --> 00:04:10.879 on Rob's work, the article, and you know, his kind of perspective 52 00:04:10.919 --> 00:04:15.040 on things. Sure, So I think that maybe maybe the no good reason 53 00:04:15.120 --> 00:04:20.319 thing, while that's valid there, what we fail to accept or or maybe 54 00:04:20.399 --> 00:04:25.759 investigate, is that there are some other reasons on the fringe that maybe we 55 00:04:25.800 --> 00:04:30.360 don't we don't go over enough. So, for example, in the military, 56 00:04:30.480 --> 00:04:33.000 I had thirteen years of military experience and I've been overseas, and I 57 00:04:33.040 --> 00:04:38.800 have to plagiarize Jason Sherwood when we first talked about this issue back in March, 58 00:04:38.839 --> 00:04:42.600 but he he was in the military as well, and he'd traveled overseas. 59 00:04:42.600 --> 00:04:46.680 He had drank the water and breathed in new environments and things like that. 60 00:04:46.800 --> 00:04:50.079 And you know, felt some physiological effects from that. So that is 61 00:04:50.680 --> 00:04:56.600 certainly probably probably a case in at least some of these that we could attribute 62 00:04:56.680 --> 00:05:00.519 to some of these symptoms. I think also, and and I hate to 63 00:05:00.519 --> 00:05:03.160 say this because I love our military. I'm still in the military. Uh, 64 00:05:03.160 --> 00:05:06.439 but some people kind of just make this stuff up. They hear about 65 00:05:06.480 --> 00:05:10.240 something going around and they figure, oh, that's what I got, you 66 00:05:10.240 --> 00:05:13.839 know. Uh. And and maybe there's some nefarious purpose for that. Maybe 67 00:05:13.879 --> 00:05:16.439 in some of these circumstances they figure out, well, I'll get I'll get 68 00:05:16.480 --> 00:05:19.279 some kind of maybe i'll get some time off, or maybe i'll get some 69 00:05:20.120 --> 00:05:25.360 medical benefits when I separate from the military. So these are are also some 70 00:05:25.399 --> 00:05:28.560 possibilities I do I dare bring them up, because I do think they are 71 00:05:28.639 --> 00:05:32.360 fringe. Most likely, I would say that these reek of mass hysteria. 72 00:05:32.959 --> 00:05:38.120 And I think that when you have a group of diplomats that are feeling something, 73 00:05:38.360 --> 00:05:41.959 then it's likely to encourage other diplomats to maybe say, well, well, 74 00:05:42.000 --> 00:05:45.759 maybe maybe that's what I'm feeling too, maybe we actually are under attack, 75 00:05:46.040 --> 00:05:48.480 when in reality, you know, it's it's it's something else completely. 76 00:05:48.759 --> 00:05:53.839 And I think that these two stories where we talk about the the Iranian girls 77 00:05:53.839 --> 00:05:58.519 being poisoned and then the the US diplomats slash military members. They do have 78 00:05:58.560 --> 00:06:00.920 two kinds of things going on, so, uh, the mental effects and 79 00:06:00.959 --> 00:06:09.399 the physiological effects uh that associated with mass hysteria and the other uh I escapes 80 00:06:09.480 --> 00:06:13.079 me right now. What what Rob Bartholome you called it? But basically, 81 00:06:13.360 --> 00:06:17.480 uh, happens a lot among close knit groups, and I think functionally the 82 00:06:17.519 --> 00:06:20.759 diplomats have kind of this close knit tie to one another, right, so 83 00:06:20.800 --> 00:06:25.079 they perform the same job, they're going through the same things, they're they're 84 00:06:25.120 --> 00:06:30.879 separated from, uh, their natural environment, while the girls in these schools 85 00:06:30.879 --> 00:06:34.199 they have more of a close knit, uh close knit relationship in proximity, 86 00:06:34.319 --> 00:06:39.040 and so I wanted to point out that difference. And yeah, see what 87 00:06:39.079 --> 00:06:41.720 you guys wanted to say about that, Aaron, what do you think? 88 00:06:42.079 --> 00:06:45.519 I'm not a scientician. I don't I don't understand this. Yeah, this 89 00:06:45.639 --> 00:06:48.199 stuff too well. Uh. I know that the technical term I guess on 90 00:06:48.279 --> 00:06:54.920 Wikipedia for this is called mass psychogenic illness, and psychogenic psychogenic means it comes 91 00:06:54.920 --> 00:06:59.680 from your brain. And I really I kind of wish this was most used. 92 00:07:00.160 --> 00:07:01.959 What's called mass agnosed Those illness. I just made that up. I 93 00:07:02.000 --> 00:07:05.560 just coined it agnosed those says, you know, means unknown because we don't. 94 00:07:05.680 --> 00:07:09.319 Honestly, we don't really know from what I've from what I've read, 95 00:07:09.319 --> 00:07:12.639 we don't really know where this is coming from or why it's really complicated. 96 00:07:12.839 --> 00:07:16.040 Our brains are super complicated. They do weird things. They do weird things 97 00:07:16.040 --> 00:07:20.600 by ourselves, they do weird things when we're together, where I think we're 98 00:07:20.639 --> 00:07:26.680 barely beginning to understand how our brains work, how we work together as communities. 99 00:07:27.480 --> 00:07:30.560 If we look back one hundred years from now at the mental health and 100 00:07:30.639 --> 00:07:33.639 the regular medical care, it kind of seems barbaric the things people did, 101 00:07:33.800 --> 00:07:38.399 and people would look back on us in a hundred years and kind of say 102 00:07:38.439 --> 00:07:42.519 they did what to treat this or they didn't understand this. So I think 103 00:07:42.519 --> 00:07:46.480 we have a lot to learn. And the difficult thing about this particular thing 104 00:07:46.560 --> 00:07:48.800 is it's really hard to reproduce in the lab, Like you can't do a 105 00:07:48.839 --> 00:07:54.279 study. And at least I've never heard of somebody, uh, you know, 106 00:07:54.319 --> 00:07:58.959 trying to get people to experience mass psychogenic illness. So you have to 107 00:07:59.040 --> 00:08:01.199 kind of in the wilds, So you have to go out and find out 108 00:08:01.199 --> 00:08:05.639 when it's happening, and do lots more work and try and figure out root 109 00:08:05.680 --> 00:08:09.519 causes and patterns and things like that. It took us thousands of years to 110 00:08:09.560 --> 00:08:13.120 figure out discover germ theory and that germs were a thing. Bacteria worth thing, 111 00:08:13.279 --> 00:08:16.079 virus is worth thing, and that's what caused illness. And maybe it's 112 00:08:16.079 --> 00:08:20.120 going to take us another few thousand years to figure out what the heck is 113 00:08:20.160 --> 00:08:26.480 actually going on with this. Rob Well, so I have written about this 114 00:08:26.560 --> 00:08:31.399 and investigated it since it started in twenty sixteen. Jimmy mentioned Robert both allomeal, 115 00:08:31.439 --> 00:08:33.799 so I've intivied him several times. We actually communicate about these things. 116 00:08:33.799 --> 00:08:37.120 He's the guy who told me about He said, did you know what's going 117 00:08:37.120 --> 00:08:39.559 on? And I ran with the poisonings because it really wasn't covered very well 118 00:08:39.559 --> 00:08:41.480 in the news here. So that was the first I heard of that. 119 00:08:41.600 --> 00:08:48.240 I have worked extensively on both of those Wikipedia articles using putting the scientific insensus 120 00:08:48.399 --> 00:08:52.080 on it, meaning the skeptical perspective, because there was none. The Havana 121 00:08:52.120 --> 00:08:58.080 syndrome article was initially called signic attacks in Cuba right, and the Iranian School 122 00:08:58.120 --> 00:09:03.240 Little Poisoning reports name of the article Wikipedia was poisoning school or poisonings as if 123 00:09:03.240 --> 00:09:05.799 it was real, and there was no question that these are real, right, 124 00:09:05.840 --> 00:09:09.279 But there were people saying that, oh, there's problems, there's red 125 00:09:09.320 --> 00:09:11.320 flags here, and none of that was on the page. So me and 126 00:09:11.360 --> 00:09:16.080 the group of people I work with a grilloskeptics and Wikipedia who put more scientific 127 00:09:16.159 --> 00:09:22.559 information on Wikipedia and fight pseudoscience worked on those articles. So yes, mass 128 00:09:22.559 --> 00:09:24.840 psychogenic illness is likely for both of those things. And I'm going to read 129 00:09:24.840 --> 00:09:30.320 the Wikipedia description of what that means. So mass psychogenic illness, also called 130 00:09:31.080 --> 00:09:35.279 mass psychogenic disorder, epidemic hysteria, involves the spread of illness symptoms through a 131 00:09:35.279 --> 00:09:39.759 population where there is no infectious agent responsible with the contagient or weapons. It's 132 00:09:39.759 --> 00:09:46.320 the rapid spread of illness signs and symptoms affecting members of a cohesive group originating 133 00:09:46.360 --> 00:09:52.600 from the nervous system disturbance involving excitation, loss, alteration of functions whereby physical 134 00:09:52.639 --> 00:09:56.080 complaints that are exhibited unconsciously have no corresponding organic causes that are known. And 135 00:09:56.200 --> 00:09:58.919 one of the terms I think Jimmy was searching for it might have been hypervigil 136 00:10:00.240 --> 00:10:03.440 like if you're if you're looking for something to happen, the smallest thing that 137 00:10:03.480 --> 00:10:05.480 happens to you, which may have nothing to do with anything. It's just 138 00:10:05.519 --> 00:10:09.840 a random occurrence of life. You now associate for this. And Helen mentioned 139 00:10:09.879 --> 00:10:11.559 the crickets, Well, they weren't thinking that the crickets called the analyst. 140 00:10:11.600 --> 00:10:16.879 The thing was some of the original attacks which happened in Cuba, hence the 141 00:10:16.919 --> 00:10:20.720 name Havana syndrome, when people started to think they were being attacked by sonic 142 00:10:20.759 --> 00:10:24.360 weapons, started to record those sounds, and then many months later, it 143 00:10:24.399 --> 00:10:26.120 might have been a year later, they finally got to etymologists, the people 144 00:10:26.159 --> 00:10:28.919 who study insects, and it says, oh, that's just the sound of 145 00:10:28.960 --> 00:10:33.919 the crickets in Cuba. This is a common sound, and those people probably 146 00:10:35.000 --> 00:10:37.879 heard that all the time they were stationed there, never give it a second 147 00:10:37.919 --> 00:10:41.200 thought. But as soon as they were told by the United States government that 148 00:10:41.279 --> 00:10:43.639 other people were being attacked by sonic weapons, oh wait a minute, I 149 00:10:43.679 --> 00:10:46.120 heard that noise and I felt a little dizzy tonight. Now you make a 150 00:10:46.200 --> 00:10:52.200 report. So that's the most likely explanation. And the mass poisonings of schoolgirls 151 00:10:52.279 --> 00:10:56.720 in Iran. Unfortunately, there have been these through recent history. You can 152 00:10:56.720 --> 00:11:01.879 go back a decade than two decades and three different countries, and it very 153 00:11:01.919 --> 00:11:05.000 often, if not exclusively, is in Muslim majority ruled countries, and it's 154 00:11:05.039 --> 00:11:11.000 always a schoolgirls. And there's something about if you if you're in an environment 155 00:11:11.279 --> 00:11:13.919 and you're in a population that has no control, and you feel that you 156 00:11:13.960 --> 00:11:18.159 can't control things and you're under other people's thumbs, as happened to the people 157 00:11:18.200 --> 00:11:22.840 in Cuba, by the way, because they were in hostile territory, always 158 00:11:22.919 --> 00:11:24.879 under surveillance by the Cuban government. I mean, that's a real thing. 159 00:11:26.480 --> 00:11:30.559 You know. You put two in two together and then the smallest thing illnesses 160 00:11:30.559 --> 00:11:33.519 of life. You get tonitis, you get a really bad a headache, 161 00:11:35.120 --> 00:11:39.559 and you feel that it's because of this one thing, Helen. So I 162 00:11:39.600 --> 00:11:43.360 want to emphasize that I was not making a claim. I just wanted to 163 00:11:43.399 --> 00:11:48.120 point out that there might be other avenues to explore, because that's one thing 164 00:11:48.200 --> 00:11:52.519 you have. Because we've all heard the person that claims that they know the 165 00:11:52.559 --> 00:11:54.679 truth and then we find out later they're like, Nope, you had a 166 00:11:54.759 --> 00:12:01.320 mass mass psychosis. What you thought it was wasn't actually what it was. 167 00:12:01.559 --> 00:12:07.039 And also there have been people that have illnesses that can't be explained and they're 168 00:12:07.080 --> 00:12:11.480 brushed away, and then we find out later there was actual legitimate illness. 169 00:12:11.519 --> 00:12:16.200 So and these things are very hard to suss out. And the reason why 170 00:12:16.240 --> 00:12:20.039 I'm playing I was kind of playing Devil's advocate because I want everybody to understand 171 00:12:20.080 --> 00:12:26.039 that you kind of have to in these certain situations and really do the work. 172 00:12:26.080 --> 00:12:31.440 Because we are very reactionary. We hear a news story or a conversation 173 00:12:31.559 --> 00:12:37.000 that aligns with our ideas and how we think things go, but it may 174 00:12:37.039 --> 00:12:41.279 not actually be truth, and you have to look at all avenues. And 175 00:12:41.440 --> 00:12:45.200 one thing I really appreciate about the stuff that I kind of I looked up 176 00:12:45.279 --> 00:12:48.639 was that people were looking for alternative explanation. Ultimately, if it leads to 177 00:12:48.720 --> 00:12:52.440 a mass hysteria sort of thing, that is an actual cause for what is 178 00:12:52.480 --> 00:12:58.080 going on. But it's not anything external. This is group psychology, group 179 00:12:58.120 --> 00:13:01.919 think, you know, because every we all do this to a certain extent 180 00:13:01.960 --> 00:13:05.559 because we're empathetic creatures, and it will happen. And I really like what 181 00:13:05.600 --> 00:13:09.320 you mentioned about this was happening to Iranian school girls because the first thing that 182 00:13:09.399 --> 00:13:13.720 went into my brain was the saale On witch trials where we had a bunch 183 00:13:13.720 --> 00:13:16.919 of young girls, you know, claiming to see demons, claiming that they 184 00:13:16.919 --> 00:13:20.759 are possessed and writhing on the floor. And you know, because if you 185 00:13:22.039 --> 00:13:26.279 if you're young and element and repressed society, and you're an underrepresented sex, 186 00:13:26.639 --> 00:13:31.200 you're and to get attention. Because these girls were given attention. So let's 187 00:13:31.240 --> 00:13:37.519 just flip it and we'll move it to Iranian girls living under a suppressive government 188 00:13:37.679 --> 00:13:39.720 where they don't have a voice, and now they're suddenly getting attention, and 189 00:13:39.720 --> 00:13:43.919 you're going to feed into that too. So I think that's something we should 190 00:13:43.000 --> 00:13:46.320 we should explore all avidges. And that was one of the things I wanted 191 00:13:46.320 --> 00:13:48.960 to bring up when we were talking about this article. Jimmy, do you 192 00:13:50.000 --> 00:13:54.080 have any further thoughts? Yeah? I do, So that is actually a 193 00:13:54.120 --> 00:13:56.639 great point. So you kind of have to take this stuff seriously, don't 194 00:13:56.639 --> 00:14:01.080 you write? I mean, even even if there's kind of no telling what 195 00:14:01.120 --> 00:14:03.000 it could be, uh, you you can't just ignore it. And so 196 00:14:03.080 --> 00:14:07.679 I think you know, it being unexplained but still reporting it and having these 197 00:14:07.799 --> 00:14:11.320 kind of mass accounts of not knowing what's going on, uh, is a 198 00:14:11.440 --> 00:14:15.799 necessary thing. I think as a society we bought hit in COVID. I 199 00:14:15.840 --> 00:14:18.639 can't even tell you how many people I sent home from work because they just 200 00:14:18.679 --> 00:14:20.879 were like, hey, I think I lost my sense of smell. And 201 00:14:20.919 --> 00:14:24.879 it's like, okay, well, uh, congratulations, take five days off 202 00:14:24.879 --> 00:14:26.080 of work. You know kind of thing. And you have to treat it 203 00:14:26.120 --> 00:14:31.639 seriously because you know, uh, we just don't know what we're dealing with. 204 00:14:31.720 --> 00:14:35.759 Sometimes, to Rob's point, you know, members of a cohesive group, 205 00:14:35.919 --> 00:14:39.360 you know, dealing with this or or experiencing these things, and uh, 206 00:14:39.399 --> 00:14:41.320 and us knowing, you know, just as a society in general, 207 00:14:41.480 --> 00:14:45.639 or just as like you know, people who have an expertise on this, 208 00:14:45.960 --> 00:14:50.000 uh, knowing that cohesive groups, close knit groups, uh, like Rob 209 00:14:50.039 --> 00:14:54.360 Bartholomy explains, and both in these articles, uh, experiencing this. This 210 00:14:54.440 --> 00:14:56.200 goes all the way back through the Middle Ages, like we were, people 211 00:14:56.240 --> 00:15:00.720 were dealing with this, you know, when the plague broke out. Everybody 212 00:15:00.759 --> 00:15:03.600 had the plague even though they didn't you know, and we see it now, 213 00:15:03.799 --> 00:15:07.080 you know, people who speak in tongues and people who shake on the 214 00:15:07.120 --> 00:15:09.720 floor because God's in the room with them doing whatever. And so I think 215 00:15:09.759 --> 00:15:15.840 it's kind of interesting that we could come up with conclusions of mass hysteria for 216 00:15:15.919 --> 00:15:18.960 things that are like non religious almost, but then when it comes to religion, 217 00:15:20.000 --> 00:15:24.039 people are a little bit hesitant to accept mass hysteria as the cause for 218 00:15:24.240 --> 00:15:26.879 some of these experiences. And I just kind of wanted to inject that to 219 00:15:26.960 --> 00:15:31.440 tie this back to uh, you know, religious and skepticism and atheism, 220 00:15:31.480 --> 00:15:35.360 because I think it holds weight there. And so those are my final thoughts 221 00:15:35.360 --> 00:15:37.320 on that. Aaron, Yeah, do you ever do you ever feel sicker 222 00:15:37.399 --> 00:15:41.159 when someone else around you is sick? Like maybe you come a little there's 223 00:15:41.159 --> 00:15:43.840 throats, a little scratch here when someone else, you know, a scratch 224 00:15:45.120 --> 00:15:48.679 you feel like if a fever when they're sick. Aaron, don't tell me 225 00:15:48.759 --> 00:15:56.519 I'm having psychosic Okay, And that's a great word, psychosomitic. Our brain 226 00:15:56.559 --> 00:16:00.960 and our bodies there it is connected, and our brain a sick, there's 227 00:16:00.000 --> 00:16:03.080 no virus, there's no bacteria. Our brain could do wonderful, amazing, 228 00:16:03.159 --> 00:16:07.240 crazy, stupid, dumb things to the rest of our body. And like 229 00:16:07.279 --> 00:16:11.240 I said earlier, we're just kind of beginning to understand that connection and what 230 00:16:11.279 --> 00:16:15.240 that means. And as my and I just have to point out I found 231 00:16:15.240 --> 00:16:17.240 this out and it just cracks me up. I don't know, want to 232 00:16:17.240 --> 00:16:22.440 crack it's it's kind of dark humor. But the word hysteria comes from a 233 00:16:22.559 --> 00:16:26.960 Greek word hysteria, which is the word for womb in Greek. Yeah, 234 00:16:27.759 --> 00:16:33.600 there you are. Every time I hear the word hysteria or hysterical, I 235 00:16:33.679 --> 00:16:37.679 just kind of have to go, oh, English, oh, English language, 236 00:16:37.919 --> 00:16:42.279 you poor thing. Rub Well. So that, interestingly, Aaron, 237 00:16:42.440 --> 00:16:48.200 is one of the reasons that people who are trying to diagnose this and don't 238 00:16:48.279 --> 00:16:53.559 understand what mass hysteria actually is. They basically say, oh, they can't 239 00:16:53.559 --> 00:16:57.759 be making these things up because they have real symptoms and you're just saying hysterical 240 00:16:59.039 --> 00:17:02.320 or you're saying they're insane, and that's not the that's just not the case. 241 00:17:02.720 --> 00:17:07.880 That was actually said by Marco Rubio in the twenty seventeen I think it 242 00:17:07.000 --> 00:17:11.559 was investigation of what was going on in Cuba, and he refused to believe 243 00:17:12.000 --> 00:17:17.519 that that diagnosis, and people were actually thrown off medical committees doctors who said 244 00:17:17.720 --> 00:17:19.759 we may be having to look at mess hysteria. No, no, no, 245 00:17:19.799 --> 00:17:22.519 it can't be that people aren't making these things up. You know, 246 00:17:22.559 --> 00:17:26.920 and that person likes thrown off the committee. So that's largely the reason why 247 00:17:26.960 --> 00:17:32.319 all the initial uh you know, reasons for this happening were put at microwave 248 00:17:32.400 --> 00:17:36.160 weapons and sonic weapons e fithel. Physicists were saying, none of that makes 249 00:17:36.200 --> 00:17:37.519 any sense. And the last thing I want to say on this is a 250 00:17:37.519 --> 00:17:41.880 good point. This has happened through history. I'm going to just rattle off 251 00:17:41.920 --> 00:17:45.640 a few things. There was a thing called a glass harmonica and Benjamin Franklin's 252 00:17:45.640 --> 00:17:48.599 time, it was. It was a musical instrument that people initially loved and 253 00:17:48.599 --> 00:17:51.680 they thought the sound was making them healthy. One of the one of the 254 00:17:52.200 --> 00:17:55.279 musicians playing it got sick and died, and then all of a sudden, 255 00:17:55.359 --> 00:17:59.759 the belief was the sound was killing people, and the instrument disappeared within like 256 00:17:59.799 --> 00:18:03.799 if years, because you know, can make you and make it pretty bad, 257 00:18:04.240 --> 00:18:07.440 you know. It was the Martian invasion of Earth. Everybody remember that 258 00:18:07.440 --> 00:18:11.559 in nineteen thirty eight. People smelled the gas coming off of the Martian weapons, 259 00:18:11.799 --> 00:18:15.240 you know, And it was a radio play. When the telephone was 260 00:18:15.279 --> 00:18:18.119 introduced, the initial operators were getting crackles in their ears and they would thought 261 00:18:18.119 --> 00:18:21.640 they were getting brain injuries from it, and you know, they may have 262 00:18:21.720 --> 00:18:23.480 been getting sick, but it wasn't from the crackles in their ears. So 263 00:18:23.680 --> 00:18:27.519 there's a lot of connectivity in these things and the things. It's a very 264 00:18:27.559 --> 00:18:30.799 hard thing for people to accept. So final way, I'll say, the 265 00:18:30.920 --> 00:18:36.519 US government actually made an act called the Havana Act, and you know that 266 00:18:36.960 --> 00:18:42.119 actually stood for helping American victims afflicted by neurological attacks, and Biden signed it 267 00:18:42.279 --> 00:18:45.960 so that that put it into US law that this is a thing that there 268 00:18:47.039 --> 00:18:51.519 was neurological attacks affecting us. Of course the acronym did. Of course, 269 00:18:51.519 --> 00:18:56.519 everybody left at acronym. So if you want to learn more acronyms and learn 270 00:18:56.720 --> 00:19:00.839 not to suffer from mass hysteria, click above you and see more nonprofits