Mass Hysteria
By: S.P. Riley
Synopsis: Something happened to people in spring break of 2021 that turned half a million people into obedient shells. Was it Mass Hysteria, or something else?
What happened to nearly half a million people in the Spring of 2021 on the East coast of the United States is considered one of the greatest cases of mass hysteria ever recorded. The idea the people all over would just suddenly fall victim to something that was all in their heads is considered almost impossible, but to those that were afflicted it was quite real. What happened, and more specifically why, is a question that may never be able to be answered. What is known is that what started on April 6, 2021 was so bizarre that no one really knows why an estimated 500,000 people between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five suddenly fell victim to a dissociative disorder that turned everyone into obedient zombies.
To understand why there may have been a sudden onset of mass hysteria the led to the dissociative disorder known as a dissociative trance [FYI this is a real thing] it is first necessary to get a brief background of what was happening within the United States of America in the spring of 2021. The country was just coming off of a very turbulent election between Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden. It was declared that Joe Biden won the office of the president, but there were so many voting irregularities that a question of legitimacy of the election followed President Biden throughout his term in office. However the worst thing that was happening was that the entire world was coming off of a yearlong lockdown after Covid-19 virus mitigation efforts. These efforts, simply put, had made everyone stay home, locked in, and could not go anywhere or do anything for a full year. Mayors, governors, and even President Trump had asked people to, “stay home and stay safe.” There were some mayors and governors whom did more than ask. People were going crazy being locked in their homes, not seeing people except online, and the stress was boiling over. Add to that there were race riots between African Americans and just about everyone, even those not African Americans were fighting with just about everyone, and particularly the police. These race riots were sparked by the unfortunate deaths of African Americans either detained by the police, or force from the police upon African Americans. It has been noted that the media, both broadcast and internet based, were mostly to blame for “fanning the flames” of the African Americans whom went out and rioted.
When spring time came in 2021 there was an mRNA injection that would make any symptoms from Covid-19 be nothing more than a very slight influenza infection. The case count from Covid-19 was dropping like a rock and most states started trying to get back to normal. This included spring break. Denied the ability to enjoy the warmth of the sun, the softness of the sand, and the salty spray of the ocean those that were in college in 2020 were more than ready for spring break of 2021. Thus there were nearly twice the number of college students flocking to the state of Florida at the start of April.
One person that was in Florida to party was Donna Romer. Donna was twenty-years-old when she set foot in the sunshine state from Virginia. She had been studying business management at the University of Virginia. Donna had planned on going to Florida in the spring of 2020, but Covid-19 restrictions in Virginia and Florida had kept her from doing so. Even in 2021 there was still the specter of threat from Covid-19 that most businesses would not let you in unless you were wearing a mask. The masks in question varied from something as simple as a tee-shirt cloth over the mouth to an N-95 professional filter mask that doctors and nurses would wear. Most of the time the masks did nothing and the country was still arguing about this, but Donna had gone to Florida to enjoy the freedom of no mask, and no worries as she enjoyed her freedom.
Donna Romer by all accounts was considered incredibly beautiful. Her had was a wavy black. Her skin was the color of coffee with cream. Her eyes always seemed to sparkle in any light. She also kept fit and trim being on the University’s track team. Donna was not alone with four of her closest friends they had rented a bungalow that wasn’t too far from the beach, surrounded by other rented bungalows, and had a large open area for the other college students to party.
Donna had only been in Florida for two days when on Tuesday, April 6, 2021, the freedom that she had been enjoying slipped away. By all reports the sun was getting low when Donna’s friends were trying to decide where to go for food before going out to a beach party. Donna had been sitting on the screened in front porch when one of her friends asked if she wanted burgers or tacos? The response Donna was reported to have given was, “I want, whatever you want.”
This was the start of the mass hysteria of a dissociative disorder never recorded before. Not long after this Donna’s friends noticed she was not acting normal. They didn’t go get food because they saw Donna sitting up in the lounge chair, staring straight ahead, and not moving or saying anything. The spark in her eyes was gone. One of her friends, James Nordhaus, was reported as saying, “I told her to say something, and she said, ‘something,’ all zombie like and that’s when I got worried.”
It didn’t take long for Donna’s friends to realize that Donna would do or say anything they told her to do. This escalated quickly. It went from touching her nose to running out into the yard naked and doing fifty jumping jacks. Picture a naked athletic woman is doing jumping jacks around a number of drunken college students. Things went from bad to worse.
A popular video sharing application that most people had on their smart phones was called Tick Tock. This would let you record 60 seconds of video and then post it on the internet, and it was very easy to do. Much of what happened to Donna is known because people recorded her doing whatever she was told and posting it to Tick Tock. There were the commands for her to touch herself, to scream how much she wanted cock, and to do a sexy dance like a stripper. However Donna’s friends were looking out for her, and quickly ushered her back into their bungalow and called for an ambulance.
However the sight of a zombie like woman that simply did whatever she was told without expression or thought seemed to grip some people. The second person that seemed to have their minds locked down was George Ashkin. George was one of the people from a neighboring bungalow to Donna. It was reported that George was standing by a fire on the beach, holding a beer, and his eyes just seemed to glaze over. He stood there, for apparently a long time before someone noticed that Gorge was acting odd. Then someone told George to do something, and he did it. Events escalated quickly. In minutes it went from having him sing, ‘I’m a little teapot’ to having him masturbate into the fire. Of course people had their smart phones out and were recording and posting all this. It wasn’t long before the police showed up and stopped George from doing anything incredibly illegal and had him sent to the local hospital.
Things got worse. College students, both male and female, all over the state had either seen or heard of the people in a dissociative trance and started to act the same way. It is believed that twelve hours after Donna Romer was first afflicted there were twenty people also obeying any command given to them. Twenty-four hours after Donna’s first symptoms there were nearly one hundred people suffering the same symptoms. Forty-eight hours after Donna became patient zero there were nearly a thousand college aged people cursed with obedience. It got worse.
There were videos online of what would happen to people. Typically the afflicted would be sitting or standing, and then they would get quite, and look like they were thinking. Then their face would go slack. They would stop talking. Then their eyes seemed to glaze over taking on a dull lifeless look. At that point they would sway or lean back, but otherwise wouldn’t move. If they were holding something they’d keep holding it. This is where anything they were told to do or say the subject would obey without hesitation. Even when they would be commanded to do something harmful to themselves or others the individual would comply completely. It was a glimpse into the depravity that some people had in their hearts.
There was Nadia Arnold, daughter to State Senator William Arnold, who became part of the mass hysteria. It was reported that Nadia and her friends had started talking about the zombie people, and that when Nadia went to get a drink she slipped into the dissociative disorder while standing in line. Two men, also in line, found she was now in an obedient state and took advantage of her. Videos posted online, and used in the trial, showed the men commanding Nadia to beg for their cocks. They made her pleasure herself with increasingly larger dildos, and then foreign objects. Nadia was told to ride one of the man’s cocks until, “she came so hard she passed out.” Thankfully someone in the hotel they were at called the manager, and the manager called the police, so before Nadia was about to masturbate with a hot light bulb she was saved. At least she was saved from those two men.
Another person, Frances Mukwege, was equally unlucky. Having looked like he had stepped out of a magazine cover, Frances was what every man wanted to look like. Except for after he got a lift from Uber. Uber was a type of taxi service where someone would get on their phone, use the Uber application to order up a ride, and then pay per mile to go where they wanted. However for Frances the driver was one Olga Mourou. Olga realized that Frances had was suffering from dissociative trance disorder when he was in her car. Olga took the young man back to her apartment, where she was in a bisexual relationship with another woman not named in the records. Olga and her lover used and abused Frances for nearly four days straight. One video they recorded they were commanding Frances get hard, and his cock would go up, and then go soft and his cock would go down. Control over one’s erection was a typical ability of the afflicted. One video showed Frances having sex with both women at the same time. Another video showed Frances taking very thin needles and driving them through his erect penis. Another video showed Francis furiously masturbating while saying, “I am a worthless obedient cock to my Mistresses,” over and over again. When Frances fell over, passed out, from exhaustion and dehydration, the women couldn’t wake him up they called for an ambulance. The police came too. Olga was tried and convicted of taking advantage of an impaired individual and was given a minimum of five years before she could even apply for parole.
When a person is incapable of saying, “no,” how far will you go? Some people went quite far. There were reports of women, neither capable of saying “no,” having open sex with other women. There were reports of men having their penises severed by such things as car doors or burned by cigarettes. Some women were commanded to orgasm and not stop, found nearly lifeless by paramedics, or completely lifeless by police. All this was happening and yet there were still people slipping into the mass hysteria of a dissociative trance disorder and thus being completely obedient.
The center for disease control (CDC) was called in to find out what was going on. Since the CDC was in charge of delivering the mRNA mitigation drugs for Covid-19 they were right there in Florida. Every afflicted was quarantined as soon as they were identified. A battery of tests were performed. It seemed that biologically nothing was wrong with the victims. It wasn’t long before a handful of CDC employees, all under the age of twenty-five, also became part of the dissociative disorder. It was as if seeing someone giving up free will was a good idea on a subconscious level, and the brain just switched off. However the CDC looked at everything.
While this was going on the media focused on what was happening with salacious announcements. The headlines read, ‘Zombie College Students,’ or, ‘Spring Mind Break,’ and, ‘Obedient Beach Babes.’ News reporters were interviewing anyone who had even seen someone whom had fallen victim. Videos of someone just standing there, glazed eyes, and doing whatever they were told to do became every news report in the country. Politicians declared they would not rest until they found out what was going on. Conspiracy theories involving the Covid-19 mRNA medication were all over the internet. Seven days after Donna Romer was patient zero for the mass hysteria, martial law was put into effect. This meant that the military were on the streets, given the power to arrest anyone they wanted, go anywhere they wanted, and do just about anything they wanted. Given there was this mind affliction going around that people fell into an obedient trance having people with guns shouting out orders seemed unnecessary.
Olivia Paris was a news reporter on location in Florida when the mass hysteria started and was with it until the end. She was given access to all hospitals and holding facilities while everything was going on. Paris reported, “You would walk down the beach and there would be all these college students enjoying the sun and sand. Then you’d look over and see someone else staring off into the distance and say, ‘well there’s another one.’ There were medical professionals constantly there collecting the zombie people and taking them off for treatment. These zombie college students were all over the place, and not just college students. I was at a restaurant and my camera man, Steve, was making up his mind what he wanted for breakfast, and before my eyes our blond haired and blue eyed late teen waitress just suddenly turned zombie. It really freaked me out! I met with her parents and they actually asked me what was going on. I had to admit, I had no idea.”
There were a few facts that everyone could agree on. First the afflicted seemed to only be people between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five. A victim’s sex, gender, sexual orientation, racial background, or economic background did not seem to be a factor. The symptoms would come on in a moment of inactivity. Those affected were always in Florida, and within twenty-five miles from the Eastern coast of the United States. Only people whom had heard of the zombie people became one themselves. This last point is the reason why it is believed this is a case of mass hysteria but the symptoms also fit dissociative trance disorder.
The true term for mass hysteria is mass psychogenic illness. This is the, “rapid spread of illness signs and symptoms affecting members of a cohesive group, originating from a nervous system disturbance involving excitation, loss, or alteration of function, whereby physical complaints that are exhibited unconsciously have no corresponding organic aetiology.” There are a number of qualities of a mass psychogenic illness that fit what happened. There was no plausible organic basis. There was a rapid onset. It occurred in a segregated group, namely college students. There was a presence of extraordinary anxiety in the form of a lockdown from Covid-19 and the race riots going on. The symptoms were spread via sight, sound or oral communication since only those whom heard of the zombie people became one themselves. The last one of note is the preponderance of female participants in the mass psychogenic illness since in the zombie college student’s case four out of five of the afflicted were women.
The only positive quality of mass hysteria and dissociative disorder are that the symptoms are only temporary, for most victims. The affliction started April 6th and by June 18th the cases started to taper off until there were zero cases of anyone falling into an obedient trance by July 14th. Although the cases seemed to disappear the symptoms longevity seemed to be different from person to person.
Some people made a full recovery. Frances Mukwege woke up in the hospital twenty-six days after slipping into a dissociative trance disorder, back to his old self. He had no memory of anything happening to him after he got into the Uber car. Thankfully he did not have to testify at the trial of Olga Mourou.
Some people never make any kind of recovery. Nadia Arnold has yet to break out of her trance like state. She currently resides at a nursing home where she has a strict schedule and is told when to eat, shower, use the bathroom, and even when to go to sleep. If she were not told to do these things she would starve, become overly filthy, hold her bladder until she physically couldn’t, or stay awake as long as possible before she passes out. Due to the unscrupulous of an unnamed orderly Nadia became pregnant and gave birth to a healthy baby girl. Her father, William Arnold, named her ‘Hope’ and has been raising her until Nadia recovers.
Some people make a partial recovery. Donna Romer woke up forty-nine days after first suffering from her dissociative trance disorder. However she has reported that she must keep busy. Donna has said that if she lets herself relax or just take some quiet time she will find that she again has fallen back into her obedient trance. A quote from her, “When I tried meditation I found that three days had passed. I was almost gang raped when I was on a subway in New York and I let my mind wander. Just the other day I was relaxing with my husband and the next thing I know the house is completely clean and he’s licking whipped cream off me. I have to keep my mind active.”
Doctor Renato Lazzari is one of the leading medical researchers into dissociative trance disorders and was widely interviewed by news media while the epidemic was going on. Lazzari was quoted as saying, “We call it a mass hysteria leading to dissociative trance disorder, which is unlike anything we’ve ever seen. Most of the time dissociative trance disorder victims wake up, knowing exactly what they did, but having no control over their bodies. In this case the person’s conscious mind is locked down but whatever they are told to do seems to bring back up the knowledge needed to accomplish the task that was input into their minds. When the task is complete that part of their mind sinks back down and the person again is without conscious thought. That’s why when a person suffering from dissociative trance disorder is told to act as if they were not in a trace they will act normal, for a few moments, and then fall back into the trance.”
The latest diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (DSM) was updated with the new dissociative disorder. The disorder is being called dissociative obedience disorder to reflect how the afflicted behaves. The disorder, however, seems to have been isolated to only the East coast and only at the period of time being the spring of 2021. At the time of this writing there have been no repeated cases anywhere in the world.
Of the nearly 500,000 people initially afflicted in the spring of 2021 nearly 30,000 to this day are still suffering from dissociative obedience disorder. These people are still subject to being unable to even express what they are thinking. They have no voluntary movements. The victims’ families have no one to blame. There is no virus. There is no pollutant. There is no government action that could prevented this from happening. The one saving grace is that it seems that the mass hysteria of the zombie college students has gone underground, and we can all hope it stays there.
The balding fat old man looked up from the paper. He tossed the handful of sheets onto his desk. The desk seemed to dominate the office, along with the computer and short book shelf filled with binders. The only other things were the two chairs before his desk. One of these chairs was occupied. The old man addressed his visitor, “You need to have this looked at for spelling and grammar errors, and the ending was a little abrupt, but otherwise I’d run with it.”
The young man in the chair straightened his red and blue striped tie. His ill-fitting dark blue suit seemed to deflate at these words. “I’ll get right on that,” the young man said, “would you like to review it again after the changes?”
“No just go ahead and publish it,” the old man said. “It ticks all the right boxes. We call it mass hysteria, no one is to blame, it may come back, and there’s nothing anyone can do about it. This article will put it back into people’s minds, and that’s when we’ll make it all happen again. This time there’s going to be a lot more than six percent of people who never recover.”