Money Crimes with Nicole Lapin - The Case Files History Left Unsolved | Hidden History with Dr. Harini Bhat

Episode Date: May 11, 2026

Dr. Harini Bhat is a clinical pharmacist and storyteller obsessed with the moments in history that still can't be fully explained. Every week she investigates real events that defy easy explanation. Mass hysterias. Vanished civilizations. Medical oddities. Strange signals. Unexplained phenomena that keep repeating across centuries, as if history is trying to tell us something. Hidden History doesn't dismiss ancient events as myth or superstition. It treats them as open case files, shaped by the limits of knowledge, technology, and record-keeping. Because the unknown isn't a failure of explanation. It's a constant in human experience, one that evolves, repeats, and sometimes deepens the more we learn. New episodes drop every Monday. Follow now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or watch on YouTube @hiddenhistorypod Follow @RewindStudios on Instagram. Listen here: https://play.megaphone.fm/9ry5yipcttgps_nmz7kyea To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hi, listeners, it's Vanessa Richardson. Real quick before today's episode, I want to tell you about another show from Crime House that I know you'll love, America's Most Infamous Crimes. Posted by Katie Ring, each week Katie takes on one of the most notorious criminal cases in American history. Serial killers who terrorized cities, unsolved mysteries that keep detectives up at night, and investigations that change the way we think about justice. Listen to and follow America's most infamous crimes. Tuesday through Thursday on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Hi, Crimehouse Community, it's Vanessa. We're releasing something a little bit different on the feed today, but I have a feeling as a listener of this show, you're going to love it. Are you drawn to the mysterious parts of history? Like when in 1518, an entire European city couldn't stop dancing. Or in 1908, when something flattened over 800 square miles of Siberian, forest and an instant. If that intrigues you, then you'll love the new show Hidden History with Dr. Horini Bott. Dr. Bott has spent her career demanding evidence, asking why and refusing to accept, we just don't know as an answer. Every Monday, she goes where history touches the unknown, vanished civilizations, doomsday prophecies, paranormal phenomena, and events that science

still can't fully explain. Dr. Bot treats these moments like open case files, not myths, not superstition, just incomplete explanations, waiting for a closer look. At the end of every episode, she'll tell you exactly what she thinks happened, and ask, what if it happened today? We have an episode for you to listen to now. If you love it, make sure to follow Hidden History on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. We'll also put a link to the show in this episode description. New episodes drop every Monday. This is Rewind. Did you know that in 1518, a European city was hit by a deadly epidemic?

And the epidemic was dancing. To this day, experts still don't know why it happened, but there are plenty of theories. And today, we'll unpack them all. History is so much more than a collection of stories from the past. It's full of intrigue, scandal, and mystery. And on this show, we're getting into all the questions that have yet to be answered. I'm Dr. Herney-Bot and this is Hidden History, a rewind original powered by Pave Studios. As a doctorate pharmacy, I am intensely curious about how the world works, whether it's through

science, culture, or history. I've learned that everything is connected. If you can't find the answer, that just means you need to dig a little deeper. On this show, we're exploring real events from history that have yet to be fully explained and examining all the different theories from science to the supernatural and everything in between. From vanished civilizations and doomsday prophecies to paranormal experiences, an unexplained phenomena. I'm looking at it all, and I want you to join me. Today I'm talking about one of the most terrifying outbreaks in history.

It's not the Black Death, it's not the Spanish flu. I'm talking about the dancing plague of 1518, when hundreds of people in the city of Strasbourg on the border, of France and Germany started dancing, and the only thing that could make them stop was death. Multiple theories about what caused the dancing plague have been proposed over the years, but I still have a lot of questions, which is why this story is worth a closer look. Instacart makes grocery shopping easier, and just because you're not doing the shopping yourself doesn't mean you don't care how it's done. With Instacart shopper notes, you can get particular

about what you want, right in the app. Like rotissory chicken that's extra crispy. Cheddar that's sharp as your skates. And lettuce you'd actually pick yourself. Just leave a note for your shopper so they can get it right for you without having to ask. That way, you can get groceries just how you like. Download the Instacart app and shop today. On July 14, 1518, the sun rose above Straussburg.

The city was a hub of economic, cultural, and religious activity whose cathedral is one of the tallest buildings in the world. And on that summer day, a woman named Frow Trafea stepped out of her home onto the narrow street and started to dance. At first it was more like a shuffle, but as the minutes ticked by, Frau Trophia started moving faster and faster. Her husband tried to get her to stop to go back inside and calm down, but Frow Trophia just kept dancing until she was so exhausted, she collapsed.

Her husband brought her inside, made sure she got some rest, and probably figured that was the end of it. But the next morning, she went right back at it dancing nonstop until the sun went down. Before long, she was surrounded by curious onlookers who wondered what on earth was going on here. And their first theory was that this was an act of revenge. If I was there at that time, thinking with a modern lens, honestly, the first thought I would have is that this person is going through epilepsy or their half. having some kind of seizure. But doing it for so many hours on end is where it starts to look a little bit different. And that's why we need to dig a little bit deeper. We don't know much about Frautrophia other than she was married. We don't even know her first name. Frau is basically

the German equivalent of Mrs. But supposedly, she and her husband had gone into some sort of argument right before she started dancing. And he hated dancing. So people wondered if this was just a way to get back at him. But by the end of that second day, Frautrophia hadn't stopped. Honestly, would anyone go this far just to annoy their husband? Maybe I would. On the dawn of the third day, her dancing continued, and then on the fourth, and then on the fifth. By the sixth day of this, she was in rough shape. Her feet were bloody, she was dehydrated, and she had barely eaten. If she went on like this for much longer, she might not survive. It became obvious that fraught Trafea wasn't in control of her actions, and some people wondered if she was possessed by a demon.

At the time, women were believed to have weaker morals than men, which supposedly made them more susceptible to sin, and therefore easy targets for possession. So was she up to some shady stuff and a demon was making her pay the price? I think it's safe to say the answer is no. And most of the people in Straussberg didn't think so either, although they still thought there were. was a spiritual explanation for it. But instead of looking to hell, they looked to heaven. They believed she had been cursed by Saint Vetus, the patron saint of actors, dancers, and people with the falling sickness, or as we would call it today, epilepsy. People could pray to St. Vetus to help them with their afflictions or unleash it on their enemies. It was common enough that this

unstoppable frenzy was referred to as St. Vetus's dance. And honestly, if you think about it, does make sense for the time to immediately jump to something spiritual or something even demonic like possession because that was their science at the time. That is how they viewed the lens. It was through this religious perspective, especially in that area. So you can't fault them for that. Fraud Trafeia wasn't the first person to be afflicted with a dancing plague. There had been reports of similar cases in that very region going back hundreds of years. After six days of constant dancing, it was looking like Frau Trophia was this plague's latest victim. So around July 20th, 1518, her jerking body was strapped into a wagon and she was taken to prey

at the shrine of St. Vetus, nestled in the mountains about 30 miles west of Straussburg. The reports don't say what happened to her after that, though some historians believe that it was a case of no news is good news, since it's more likely that it would have been recorded if she had died. But this was far from the end of the story. Soon enough, the city of Strasbourg would be consumed in a living nightmare, because just as Froufia's dancing frenzy was ending, it was beginning for hundreds of others. By July 21, 1518, so just a week after Froufia started her dance,

up to 34 people throughout Strasbourg had been afflicted with the same uncontrollable dancing plague. Initially, they were just curious onlookers, but inevitably, they'd lost control of themselves, too. As the days went by, more and more people fell victim to St. Vetus's curse. By July 25th, the number had risen to around 50 people. With so many affected, it wouldn't be practical to transfer everyone to the shrine, so the city council decided to do something unexpected. Look for a medical explanation.

At this point in time, doctors made it. mainly relied on the wisdom of ancient Greek and Roman thinkers for guidance. And the city's physicians believed that the dancing plague was being caused by overheated blood, a concept from the ancient Greek medical philosopher, Galen. So during this time, most of medicine really surrounded something called the Four Humors. You probably have heard it before. And the Four Humors was first established by the ancient Greek philosopher, Hippocrates, and then later refined by actually this guy, Galen.

And it all surrounded what it was called, like I said, the forehumors. So those are yellow bile, black bile, blood, and phlegm. And the whole idea is that if you're sick or you're feeling ill, it's because one of those four humors is out of balance. So the whole idea of overheated blood comes from that four humors concept. Is it reliable medicine in today's lens? No. But it is a good thought process.

So let's see where it goes. The theory was that blood was connected to happiness and the love of song and dance. The more people had, the more they enjoyed these things. But if there was a blockage somewhere, blood could pool in the body. When that happened, it could overheat the brain and cause erratic behavior like uncontrollable dancing. Here's what I think is especially interesting though. If they were completely following Galen's teachings, the doctors would have prescribed bleeding and a cooling diet that could have reduced the blood's temperature. But instead, their solution was more dancing. In this case, it seems like they were relying more on traditional wisdom.

The idea was that they needed to be able to let the disease burn out on its own. That's apparently how previous dancing plagues had come to an end as well, including one a century earlier in nearby Zurich, Switzerland. Honestly, it sounds like such a bonkers plan to ask them to continue to dance when that is what is afflicting them. However, if you want to look at it, through a modern lens it's kind of akin, this is not a perfect analogy, but it's kind of akin to when you have a fever. Sometimes you do want to let your fever run its course because that is actually what's going to make you better by killing off all the bacteria. So I can kind of see how maybe that was the line of thinking that they had. Obviously this was before germ theory, but maybe that's what they were

thinking. Like just get it all out of your system. But did it work? We'll find out. So the city's officials ordered for a bunch of space to be cleared out for the dancers to do their thing. To help the plague burn out sooner, they hired dozens of musicians to play lively songs on tambourines, drums, fiddles, horns, and pipes so the party could go on 24-7. City officials even paid people to pick up the dancers anytime they fell over from exhaustion. This plan, as one might imagine, did not work. By August, just a few weeks after Frouetteau started dancing, the number of events, dancers had swelled to almost 400 people. For reference,

Straussberg's population was only 20,000 people. If the outbreak didn't stop soon, it wouldn't be long before the entire city was afflicted. Not only that, but people were starting to die from their bodies giving out. Now sources differ on what the actual death toll was, although some chronicles say it was as many as 15 people passing away a day. But no no matter what, the city council knew they had to try something else before it was too late. On August 3rd, they decided to completely ban music in dancing. They took down the public stages and anyone seen dancing outside in the next two months would be fined. Basically, anyone still afflicted by the dancing plague was quarantine.

It was being treated like a contagious disease that spread by sight. But after a week of this, things hadn't gotten any better. attempt to treat it medically had failed, which made the authorities think maybe it was a spiritual problem after all. Clearly, St. Vetus wasn't happy with the people of Strausburg. So the city council decided to do everything in its power to appease him. They sent an entire team to build a brand new chapel at the shrine in the mountains and instructed the city gills to take all the dancers there. Again, this was not easy. The shrine was 30 miles away over rough roads that went to. through the woods and up into the foothills of the Vosges mountains. They only had one shot at this.

If it didn't work, who knows what would happen. So the city council pulled out all the stops. Along with a brand new chapel, they commissioned a 110 pound wax carving of St. Vetus that would be taken to the shrine. And before the dancers were taken there in late August, the entire city would hold a high mask in St. Vetus's honor. But as the day approached, there was a problem. By August 20th, the new chapel wasn't quite ready yet. And it wouldn't look good to send the wax carving to a shrine that wasn't sanctified. The city council debated whether they should do it anyway or just place it at the altar of the Straussburg Cathedral. In the end, they went with a third option. They decided to have the carving melted into a massive candle and sent to the shrine, which would hopefully be less

offensive. It was a huge risk, but they couldn't bring the dancers there empty-handed. So after the high mass, the candle was strapped into a wagon and the convoy set off. After at least a day of exhausting travel, the rag-tag group arrived in the town of Severn, where the shrine was located. But the journey wasn't over yet. The shrine was just beneath the summit of Vietzburg, meaning Vetus Mountain, and it could only be accessed on foot. The dancers and the 100-pound candle were unloaded from the wagons, their bodies still jerking in frenzied movement. They had to be literally dragged up the steep path to the shrine,

hundreds of feet above them. Once they were all carried to the top and assembled before the altar, they were given small crosses and pairs of red shoes. Now, there is some debate over why the shoes had to be red. Some sources say the victims of dancing plays couldn't see. stand the sight of that color, it's also possible that it was meant to mirror depictions of St. Vetus who wore red and who was martyred in a cauldron heated by red hot flames. Either way, it shows how seriously the plague was being taken. Die back then wasn't cheap,

especially not red dye. So if possibly hundreds of red shoes were being given out for the ceremony, it shows that the city council was willing to shell out some serious money to make the problem, go away. Once the shoes were given out, they were sprinkled with holy water and marked with the sign of the cross. It makes sense, if you think about it. This was a dancing plague, and what better way to heal their affliction than by blessing their feet? After that, the dancers were led in a circle around the altar, which was intended to purify their souls and mimic the movements of the planets and sun through the cosmos. Once that was done, everyone had to donate a penny to the poor, and if they couldn't afford it, the person who brought them there had to give it.

And with that, the ceremony was over. The dancers were carried back down the mountain, loaded up in their wagons, and taken back to Strasbourg. The only thing left to do now was wait. Think about some of the cases that defined true crime in America. Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, the kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart, the Karen retrial. Some crime cases are so shocking. They don't just make headlines they forever change a country. I'm Katie Ring, host of America's most infamous crimes. Each week, I take on one of the most notorious criminal cases, whether it's unfolding now or etched into American history, revealing not just what happened, but how it forever changed our society. Serial killers who terrorized cities, unsolved mysteries that kept detectives up at night,

and investigations that change the way we think about justice. Each case unfolds across multiple episodes, released every Tuesday through Thursday, from the first sign that something was wrong to the moment the truth came out or didn't. These are the stories behind the headlines. Listen to and follow America's most infamous crimes available now wherever you get your podcast. After the ceremony at the Shrine of St. Vetus, the entire city of St. Straussburg waited on pins and needles to see if it had worked. They had reason to be hopeful. About 150 years earlier in 1374, another dancing plague in Germany had been cured by priests who had performed exorcism rituals, and their records of religious intervention working in other cases too.

If they were hoping to prove their devotion to St. Vetus, they had definitely checked that box, but would it be enough to please him? It seems like the answer was yes, because after the ritual, the dancing plague gradually faded away. The survivors came to their senses, regain control of their bodies, and went on with their lives. To this day, we don't know exactly how many people died from the dancing plague. As I mentioned, some records say as many as 15 were dying every day, but it doesn't say how long that went on or the total number of fatalities. But either way, it left a profound impression on the people who experienced it.

In the years to come, people around the region made sure to keep St. Vetus happy with offerings and donations. In turn, Strausburg prospered. There were several good harvest in a row, and the dancing plague never returned, not just in Strausburg, but across the entire region. In the span of just a few generations, it went from a very real fear to little more than a legend. But the dancing plague of 1518 was no folktale. It was very, very real, with accounts from the time describing the horror that people of Strausberg endured that struthorne. summer. Throughout the years, scientists, historians, and all kinds of researchers have tried to understand what started it and, more importantly, why it came to an end. So let's dig into it,

starting with an explanation based in science and one little fungus that could have been responsible for all the chaos. And this is a classic story. I think anyone who's very curious or even remotely into morbid medical history will know about the dancing plague of 1518. So whenever I have read about this, the one thing that always felt weird to me is how it happened in the same place. Centuries apart. How does that even happen? Those kinds of coincidences are very rare. And that for me is what makes the story the most compelling for me personally. One of the main theories behind the dancing plague of 1518 and the others before it is something called Ergut Poet So what is that exactly?

Urget is a fungus that grows on rye when it gets damp. If that rye then gets harvested and turned into bread, people can get poisoned by it. In fact, LSD is derived from Urgett, and consuming Urgett can cause hallucinations and convulsions, which some scholars believe could explain the uncontrollable dancing. And it's entirely possible that hundreds of people in Straussberg could have accidentally suffered from Urget poisoning because the key here, is that it grows on damp rye plants. In the years leading up to the dancing plague of 1518,

the area was experiencing severe famine brought on by poor harvest. The lack of food sent prices skyrocketing, including bread. People were desperate, dying, and hungry. So you can imagine how someone might be okay with eating some food that seemed iffy, as long as it filled their stomachs. It's also worth noting that the dancing plague seemed to especially affect the poor.

And there was historical precedent for something like this. In 1458, there was a dancing mania in Germany after a hard winter. And in 1482, there were reports of people bashing their heads into walls, running into rivers and losing control of their bodies until they died. It's also interesting that after 1518, the area experienced a lot of good harvest, and there weren't any more instances of dancing plague. Although a few hundred years later in the aftermath of World War II, there was another terrifying mass outbreak in a small French town whose symptoms have been linked to the dancing plague of

1518. And science shows that this one was very likely caused by Urgett poisoning. In the summer of 1951, the town of Ponce and Esprit experienced an unusually wet summer, leading to a poor rye harvest. However, they were forced to make do with what they had because the French government was still rationing food while they recovered from the war. So when the village baker got some flour that looked a bit off, he had no choice but to use it. Within 48 hours of selling the contaminated bread, the town was in a panic. Hundreds of people were sick with symptoms like nausea, convulsions, and hallucinations.

It got so bad, one villager thought they were being eaten by tired. Tigers. Another threw himself out a window to get away from whatever he was seeing. One man thought his stomach was full of snakes that were burning him from the inside. Ultimately, anywhere between four to seven people died before the outbreak ended. And while there is some debate about what caused it, Urget poisoning is the likely as suspect. Although historian Stephen Kaplan wrote an entire book arguing against the Urget theory. He thinks it might have been caused by a harmful bleaching agent that Baker used. to make his bread extra white.

And although it might seem like Urget Poisoning could explain the dancing plague of 1518, there are some issues there as well. Because even though it can lead to convulsions, ergot poisoning also restricts blood flow to the extremities, which would make it very hard to dance for days on end. And that's not the only ding on Ergut causing the dancing plague, both the one in 1518 and all the ones before.

They were all contained to a localized area in the Rhine and Moselle Valley. valleys around France, Germany, and Switzerland, which might make you think maybe they grew a crop that was susceptible to ergot poisoning, but it's actually the opposite. If you trace the different outbreaks, they go through different climates where farmers grew different plants, which makes most researchers think that maybe the problem wasn't biological, but cultural. And that leads us to our next theory. So by far, ergot poisoning has been the most popular theory to explain the dancing plague. And honestly, I am a believer of it as well, to an extent, the only thing that doesn't make

sense to me is that it's not exactly a thing to have shared hallucinations. You can't have so many people, hundreds of people, all experiencing the same hallucination. Plus, convulsing for hours and hours and hours on end is not something that you'll see with ergot poison, as we just discussed. So it answers some questions, but not all. And we're going to get into what those other theories might be. These days, the most popular theory is that the dancing plague of 1518 was actually caused by mass hysteria. Meaning, it existed because people believed it did. But how could that be?

What could possibly make people believe that there's some affliction or curse that makes them dance until they die? Let's start with the science behind mass hysteria. Its official name is mass psychogenic illness or MPI. It is basically a shared belief that is so powerful, it creates physical symptoms. One person in a group starts thinking they're sick, then another and another until you have an outbreak on your hands. Which is what a lot of people think happened in the dancing plague of 1518. Most of the time, MPI's result in flu-like symptoms, like lightheadedness, nausea, chest pain, fatigue, and so on. Out of control dancing is not on that list, and yet for centuries, people in the region around Straussburg experienced dancing plays.

To solve that particular issue, we have to look at how MPIs are triggered in the first place. Most of the time it starts with something you think could make you sick, like you think you smell gas, so you start feeling sick. And soon enough, other people do too. But the thing is, it doesn't seem like there was a specific trigger like this for the dancing plague in 1518. Frautrophia just went outside that summer day and started moving. Outbreaks of mass hysteria don't necessarily need one, though. They can be brought on by sociological factors like fear or stress. And back in 1518, there was plenty of that going around Strasbourg.

As I mentioned earlier, there was a terrible harvest the year before and before other dancing plague outbreaks as well. Life was already hard enough back then, and now people were struggling with a deadly famine. Not only that, but they were dealing with the onset of a disease that was brand new to the region, syphilis. It had first arrived in the region a little over 20 years earlier in 1495 from soldiers who had been fighting in Italy. Described as bad pox, it started with intense joint pain that turned into blisters all over the legs and genitals before their bodies rotted away. And although doctors didn't totally understand the science behind it,

they thought it had to do with sex because of how it manifested in the genitals. They thought it was a warning from God against fornication and adultery. On top of that, they were also dealing with your standard epidemics like the bubonic plague and smallpox, along with another new disease called the English sweat. So between the famine, disease, and dying, you can see why it would be stressful to live in Strasbourg during this time. To the people of the city, it felt like God was punishing them. And that was their trigger. The gas that lit the flames of mass hysteria, they believed God was angry with them. So when Fram Trafea stepped out of her house and started dancing, hundreds of others couldn't help following suit.

Personally, I think it's certainly possible that the dancing plague was caused by an MPI, although it doesn't explain all the symptoms and characteristics. Because if MPIs used to, you know, usually manifest with flu-like symptoms, how come this took the form of uncontrollable dancing, and why did they only seem to happen in this one specific region? Which makes me wonder, could the dancing plague have been started as an actual hallucinogenic poisoning and then turned into a mass psychogenic illness? Going back to the ergotism theory, remember that the dancing plague was localized in a region along the Rhine and Moselle valleys linked by rivers.

The printing press was only invented around 1440, so for the most part, information was restricted to a few texts and word of mouth. And there was a long history of dancing plagues in the region. Its origins might have gone back to 1021 when 18 people started dancing outside of a German church during mass on Christmas Eve. And even when the priest told them to stop, they wouldn't listen. In return, he cursed them. to dance without stopping for an entire year. According to a local story, the dancers kept going until the following Christmas,

when they fell into a sleep that was so deep, some of them never woke up. The story built on itself from there with dancing plays becoming increasingly dangerous until it reached its deadly peak in 1518. Still not buying it? There's actually a modern parallel to something like this happening, not with dance,

but with laughter. In the suburbs of D.C., a woman fails to show up for work and is found brutally murdered. I wonder what's emergency? We just walked in the door, and there's blood in the foyer. For the next two decades, the case remained unsolved until new technology allowed investigators to do what had once been impossible.

A new series from ABC Audio in 2020, blood and water. Listen now, wherever you get your podcast. Let's go to 1962 and what's now the African country of Tanzania. One day, a group of girls at a boarding school started hysterically laughing and couldn't stop. The laughter kept spreading until it affected 95 out of the school's 159 students. And when they were sent home to their villages, some of the adults there started laughing too. For some of them, it went on for an entire week, although thankfully nobody died.

Investigators couldn't find any biological reason for the laughing epidemic, but like the dancing plague, there were sociological factors at play, specifically around the country's newfound independence. It would be especially stressful for kids in a volatile situation, and in this case, their bodies responded with debilitating laughter. So you can see these kinds of stories aren't just restricted to dusty medieval texts. These kinds of phenomenon are very real and are happening today in places all around the world. There's something really interesting about this story, and we know this even from day to day. Laughter is contagious. And it might make you think about something else that is contagious and that's yawning. If you've ever noticed when someone yawns,

you may tend to yawn to. And science says that's actually a form or a sign of empathy. You're empathizing with that other human being and then you yawn too. And there's actually a fun tidbit and take it how you will, that serial killers don't yawn what other people yawn. And that is a sign that they lack empathy. So next time you're with your partner or with your friend, just yawn and see if they yawn back. And then you'll know you're in good company. No serial killers are on the loose. So when I was first thinking about this laughing epidemic in Tanzania, honestly, the first

modern peril that came to my mind was Havana syndrome. So many people probably listening to this have heard about it. Just to summarize, it was essentially happening to all these U.S. diplomats around the world where they're experiencing this very intense, high-pitched sound that was causing them to have severe migraines and nausea, and all of these different various physical symptoms that was extremely debilitating. I think there's still an active ongoing investigation from the FBI and other forms of institutions in our government to see if this is actually a medical condition or MPI. So maybe we'll do another episode on that later if you're interested.

But before we close the book completely on this one, I want to circle back to the beginning, to the first possibility we mentioned, that the dancing plague of 1518 was caused by demonic possession. Because even though it was written off at the time, there are other stories of deadly dancing outbreaks where the devil was to blame. This particular story I'm about to tell you is my favorite in this entire episode. This final story comes from the Swedish folktale of Urgelaten, which roughly translates to the hair's tune or the devil's fiddle. The oldest version of the story comes from 1785 and the village of Urga. As the legend goes, one Saturday evening in the summer, a group of people gather for a party

in a barn. They eat, they drink, and of course, they dance. But as midnight approaches, it's time to go home. Church rule says there's no dancing on Sundays. Most of the partygoers start heading home as the musicians pack up their instruments. However, some of the people aren't ready to call it a night just yet. They want to keep the party going. And as the clock strikes midnight, a stranger appears with a fiddle. The remaining guests are excited to keep dancing, so they don't question it and happily take him up on his offer. But they should have been more careful, because if they looked at him a little closer, they would have noticed that the mysterious musician had hooves instead of feet.

Unbeknownst to them, they had just made a literal deal with the devil. And just as you'd expect, he could play the fiddle like nobody's business. As he played his tunes, the music had the partygoers

in a trance. Their feet moved on their own. They were exhausted, desperate to stop, but they couldn't. Finally, after hours of this, the church bells rang a Sunday morning. The barn doors swung open,

but the curse didn't end. Instead, the devil led the people to the top of a mountain where they danced in a circle around a tree, until the only thing left of them was their heads, rolling around on the ground in time to the music. Morbid. Sounds like the folktale version of a dancing plague, doesn't it? But instead of divine retribution, this was the work of the devil. Although in both cases, it was a warning against what was perceived as degenerate behavior. be on your best behavior or you'll be consumed by your vices.

Now, it doesn't seem like the Swedish legend is based on any actual dancing plague. It's really more of a cautionary tale than the retelling of a historical event that was warped out of proportion. But is it possible that the stories of the dancing plagues in the region around Straussburg made it all the way to Sweden? I'm certainly not ruling that out. And even though a supernatural explanation for these cases might seem, less believable to us now than they would back then, it's important to remember the cultural contexts when religion was science to a large degree. This was their way of explaining the impossible

of diagnosing a problem in trying to find a solution. At the end of the day, that's what makes these stories so relatable to me. Confronting the unknown is terrifying, no matter what century you live in. Whether it's a dancing plague, a laughing epidemic, or response to a gas that never existed, it shows how important community is in times of need, that when we don't know what to do, we look to our friends and neighbors for answers. But sometimes we don't get them. And when that happens, our minds and bodies can react in ways that we never expected. So let's take a look at the theory as we explore today. Does it feel like we found the answer, or is there something out there that could still explain it? Something that we would never expect.

In this case, I'm going to say that the consensus explanation that the dancing plague of 1518 was caused by mass hysteria is also the scariest. You can avoid eating contaminated food. You can even adjust your behavior to avoid a curse. But when it comes to mass psychogenic illness, there's not much you can do to protect yourself. Your mind and body weaponize your own belief against you, blurring the line between fiction and reality until a perceived, threat is made very real. And once it has you in its grip, there is no letting go.

Before we get out of here, I want to introduce you guys to a segment we'll be doing at the end of each episode called If It Happened Today. As the name suggests, I'll be looking at the event in question and asking, what would it be like if it happened right now? So let's imagine that on a summer day in 2026, a young woman steps out of her downtown apartment and just starts dancing. Your first thought would probably be, this girl's on something, and you wouldn't be alone. It's actually been pointed out that the dancing plague has a lot of similarities to modern rave culture. The dancing plague has even been called the world's longest rave. And think about it. People at raves go long stretches without food, water, or rest while they dance. Their movements aren't graceful or coordinated. Of course, there are plenty of rievers out there who aren't on drugs.

And soon enough, people would realize this girl in the street isn't on them either. So maybe you'd think as more people join in, is this a flash mob, some sort of protest? Maybe an event put on by an online streamer. I'm sure it would come off as all fun in games with bystanders live streaming to TikTok and every social media app until the dancers start collapsing. Doctors would take some of the dancers in for testing just to find that nothing is physically wrong with them. And all of a sudden, it would be all over the internet. Endless Reddit theories, blog posts, and speculation.

Maybe some fringe religious groups would take it as a sign that the apocalypse is here. One thing's for sure. There would be plenty of opinions on it. But eventually, with what we know about mass psychogenic illness now, someone would realize the truth. The question is, would anyone believe them? If we're actually thinking about it with a modern lens, like if that happened today, I think the best analogy is Havanaughan,

syndrome. If the dancing plague happened in 2026, I'm pretty sure scientists would label it as mass psychogenic illness. In other words, mass hysteria. In our current landscape, it's easy to go online and find a viewpoint that supports your thinking. It can be a good way to seek out a community of like-minded people or fall into a dangerous echo chamber. Back in 1518, the ceremony at the shrine of St. Vitas helped the dancers feel like something was helping them, that they had found the solution to their curse. They united around a common cause and found a way through. But could that happen today in 26? You tell me, would we be able to harness the fear that started our dancing plague and work together to end it? Or maybe we succumb to it one by one until the whole world

is one big, deadly party. Thanks so much for joining me for this episode of Hidden History. I'm Dr. Khrini bought, join me next time as we explore another unbelievable story from the past. What did you think of the dancing plague of 1518? Any burning theories of your own? Let me know in the comments and I might talk about it in a future episode. And be sure to subscribe on YouTube or rate, review, and follow if you're listening on audio so we can keep building this community together. I'll see you next week for another episode of Hidden History. Thanks for listening to Hidden History. Follow Hidden History on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon music, or wherever you listen. New episodes drop every Monday. I'm Katie Ring, host of America's Most Infamous Crimes. Each week, I take on one of the most

notorious criminal cases in American history. Listen to and follow America's most infamous crimes, available now wherever you get your podcast. Looking for your next listen, check out Hidden History with Dr. Harini Bot. Every Monday, Dr. Bot goes where history gets mysterious. vanished civilizations, doomsday prophecies, and events that science still can't fully explain.

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