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Is it possible that COVID-19 is an example of mass delusion (or mass panic) with irrational fears creating imaginary illnesses?
original to FR | August 1, 2020 | Peter O'Donnell

Posted on 08/01/2020 1:30:39 PM PDT by Peter ODonnell

I wonder how many people might agree that some aspects of the global pandemic resemble historical cases of mass delusion or panic, where hundreds or thousands of people imagine that they have an illness or medical condition largely on the basis of frequent mention of it in the people around them.

There are historical examples of airliners full of healthy people where the notion of a fast-spreading illness led a significant number of passengers to imagine that they too were ill (some may have been), and then when taken to hospital after landing, it became apparent that most were not ill at all.

The parallel would be "asymptomatic positives" combined with some actually ill people who imagined they had the coronavirus when in fact they had some other condition entirely, but then with the apparently large spread of the asymptomatic COVID19, they tested positive and were counted as cases, when in reality, what brought them to medical care was an entirely unrelated illness.

I have the suspicion that mass delusion is playing a significant role in this event. An identifiable class of people can see benefits from the spread of the virus, in terms of political outcomes they favor, or inductive reasoning gains related to unrelated outcomes (e.g., fighting climate change).

As I walk around my home town (unmasked like 90% of the population) what I see of the masked individuals is that they all look very frightened, as if any passing stranger might end their lives. In that mental state, it would be easy to imagine that (for example) an allergy attack or a common cold was the onset of dreaded COVID19. Then a test might reveal the presence of the virus (despite not being the illness presenting). The large number of alternating positive/negative tests and the wide range of outcomes further confuses the situation.

Perhaps the best thing to do now would be to declare an end to this madness, identify the most vulnerable people still left alive and isolate them, otherwise, let this perhaps mild to non-effectual virus run its course and develop herd immunity.

The alternative approach of rolling the dice with the future of the economy and personal liberty seems far too strong a response to the actual threat. And that too is a sign of mass delusion, an over-reaction to a real but minor threat (an example would be, one person goes nuts and shoots up a Walmart, therefore a hundred million armed Americans could pose a huge risk to public safety; or, a few days turn out rather warm, therefore the weather/climate machine is broken and we need to take drastic action to fix it).

The auto-suggestion involved in climate change is fairly obvious to the political right but not to the mainstream or the left who blunder on into ever more bizarre responses. Carefully crafted media images (the setting sun over the ice pack, the heat waves distorting the image of the oil refinery) accelerate a sense of mass panic and lead to compliance from voters who have no real vested interest in the political madness being offered up to them.

I wonder then, how much is this also true of the COVID-19 phenomenon, a mix of actual illness and death with a wider sense of panic, mixed with resignation (this is now our destiny, things will never be the same, etc etc).

Check out other examples of mass delusions. This is far from being the first one. And a considerable number of them have a spiritual dimension (involving outbreaks of demonic possession).


TOPICS: Government; Health/Medicine; History; Society
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To: Peter ODonnell

trial run perhaps- but whatever the delusion is going to be, it’s gonna make people take the mark and worship the beast- give allegience to the beast- in order to get by-

My thought was ‘man caused global warming’ was a precursor- where everything would become so darned expensive due to climate regulations, taxes, fines, and credits, that people would be hard pressed not to pledge allegiance to the beast just to keep their families fed, warm, fuel in the vehicles, etc- When people can’t afford food because food prices are so high due to all the regulations fines etc placed on industries that grow and transport the food- then those families will become desperate-

people will panic when there is no food- we saw a bit of that with the virus and panic buying- still going on a little bit- but not like it was- when there’s no food- many peopel who call themselves Christians, but who aren’t really, will very likely bow down to the beast- rationalizing it in their minds that it’s what hey have to do just to survive, and convincing themselves that God would be ok with it because it’s for the greater good of the family-

I’ts possible something like the virus will bring on the beast too- whatever it is, it’s gonna be huge, it’s gonna be worldwide- and the delusion is going to be very powerful


21 posted on 08/01/2020 1:48:41 PM PDT by Bob434
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To: Peter ODonnell

Is it possible this is an Invasion of the Bidy Snatchers? The face diaper Nazis remind me of pod people.


22 posted on 08/01/2020 1:48:56 PM PDT by Wilderness Conservative (Nature is the ultimate conservative)
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To: Peter ODonnell
Many people have speculated on the possible demonic aspect to this Coronavirus crisis, and other seemingly delusional beliefs like Transgenderism, homosexuality, infanticide, BLM, etc. recently. The answer may be in 2 Thess 2:11-12

11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe [THE] lie: 12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

What is “the lie”? Isn’t it the lie that Satan told Adam and Eve in the Garden...“You can be like God”? Because we are clearly not God, this misplaced trust leads only to fear. Here is the lie in action...You can be whatever gender you want, you can be attracted to whatever sex you want, you can protect yourself from the virus by listening to Fauci.
23 posted on 08/01/2020 1:50:41 PM PDT by Jan_Sobieski (Sanctification)
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To: Peter ODonnell

If it seems like it’s too bad to be true, then it probably isn’t.


24 posted on 08/01/2020 1:51:15 PM PDT by equaviator (If it seems like it's too bad to be true, then it probably isn't.)
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To: Peter ODonnell; All

Coronavirus gave desperate, corrupt elite Democrats trying to stay out of prison for breaking law to keep PDJT from being elected something new to weaponize in a string of “bearing false witness against thy neighbor” accusations to try to keep PDJT now from being reelected.

Send “Orange Man Bad” federal and state government desperate Democrats and RINOs home in November!

Supporting PDJT with a new patriot Congress and state government leaders that will promise to fully support his already excellent work for MAGA and stopping SARS-CoV-2 will effectively give fast-working Trump a “third term” in office imo.


25 posted on 08/01/2020 1:52:12 PM PDT by Amendment10
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To: ThunderStruck94

Is 99.3 a fever? Hell, maybe I’ve had it...


26 posted on 08/01/2020 1:53:45 PM PDT by sam_whiskey (Peace through Strength.)
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To: OrangeHoof

Sure, so is the flu, cancer, heart disease, car accidents, etc. All of which kill many more than a lung virus affecting mainly 80 year olds. Herman Cain was under the mean age, but suffered comorbidities making him vulnerable.


27 posted on 08/01/2020 1:54:46 PM PDT by Jan_Sobieski (Sanctification)
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To: John S Mosby

Seems to effect elderly with existing health problems disproportionately. Skew the results for political purposes. IOW sick people get sick. Co-morbidity is a new buzz word. Seems to be if you die of x and we are pushing a Y plague then we call it Y.


28 posted on 08/01/2020 1:57:40 PM PDT by dblshot (R)
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To: Peter ODonnell

It is a real illness. I have treated it. That said the reaction to this real illness is so hysterically over the top overblown I have never seen anything like it. It is quite similar to H1N1 except with that one it was going people who got. sry sick and died. The reaction in society was nowhere near what we are seeing today


29 posted on 08/01/2020 2:00:02 PM PDT by Mom MD
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To: Peter ODonnell

It does seem that half of the info we got was based on lies.

The trouble is determining which half is the lies.


30 posted on 08/01/2020 2:01:36 PM PDT by TomGuy
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To: ifinnegan

Yes it does, but it is a virus...worse than some (mostly because it’s so contagious, but not even close to as bad as many that society has faced down through the years.

The virus is like many others...it’s society that has changed. Society - the mass of our population- has been trained for decades by this relatively new tool the mass media and by “professional experts” to fear. To fear, period. One thing or another. And to accept. Accept what “the experts” tell us about the reality of the universe we live in. They trained us fear that which they can benefit or profit from and accept that which they can benefit or profit from.

We’ve lost,, largely, our understanding that the world we live in is a dangerous place and life is not about safety and security. If you get lazy and fat and do things that will develop a heart issue, just about anything can and will kill you. But we are also risk averse to the extreme and don’t want anything bad to happen even if we make ourselves lazy and fat or we grow old. Hell, we are so averse to risk and are so litigious when bad things happen to us, we’ve created the profession of risk management - every organization of any size has this department to tell the company’s management what to be afraid of. We are so afraid and removed from the reality of the world we live in (Hell, most of the Left only believe in subjective reality anyway: reality they make up right off the top of their head) that all we can do is turn over our existence to the “professional experts” and live in a communist system.

Rant over.


31 posted on 08/01/2020 2:01:43 PM PDT by Scott from the Left Coast (Make Orwell Fiction Again)
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To: Mom MD

young people who got very sick and died


32 posted on 08/01/2020 2:02:10 PM PDT by Mom MD
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To: Peter ODonnell

Voodoo (power of suggestion) and psychosomatic illness work.


33 posted on 08/01/2020 2:05:09 PM PDT by Bonemaker (invictus maneo)
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To: Mom MD

In Texas zero deaths under the age of 20. 27 million people here Mom MD.


34 posted on 08/01/2020 2:05:13 PM PDT by ThunderStruck94
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To: ThunderStruck94

Glad you had a mild case. Just last week read no evidence of a child passing it to an adult.
I believe you.


35 posted on 08/01/2020 2:07:59 PM PDT by gcparent (Justice Brett Kavanaugh)
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To: dblshot

A local news story, 23 year old man dies from COVID ! Healthy, played high school football, had no preexisting illnesses! Scary!!

At the bottom of the page, a picture. This guy weighed somewhere north of 300-350 pounds. But it’s impolite to point out that his BMI was 30+.


36 posted on 08/01/2020 2:10:39 PM PDT by Not_Who_U_Think
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To: Peter ODonnell

Yes of course, 150,000 people just worried themselves to death over nothing. Nervousness sandblasted their lungs’ epithelial tissue. The hysteria is so palpable, you can actually see it on a transmission electron microscope.

Oddly enough, it looks a lot like a coronavirus.


37 posted on 08/01/2020 2:12:25 PM PDT by 2aProtectsTheRest
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To: ThunderStruck94
My extended family- 8 of us- had it in the first week of March when it was not on the radar. Three got sick and wife even had pneumonia. All of us did what we do when respiratory symptoms appear and took the literature prescribed megadose of vitamin D3. We all went through mild or, in my case, foreshortened symptoms except wife who went to the doctor with the pneumonia. He gave her an antibiotic and an allergy inhaler-albuterol. She cleared up in three days. We would not know that we had the dreaded China Plague if Son-in-law had not had to have an antibody test for his job. Wife then one daughter got tested then I had to get tested for my job also and we are positive so I assume the rest of us the same.
38 posted on 08/01/2020 2:12:51 PM PDT by arthurus (ccjv!-)
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To: Peter ODonnell

It is often mentioned that we should just isolate the most vulnerable and let the rest of us go in our way.

I sympathize with the underlying sentiment but disagree.

Any able minded adult should decide for him or herself whether to isolate.

If they are in a conservatorship, then it’s up to their conservator.

If they are a minor it’s up to their parents.

Let adults take their own risks. And anyone who says I’m endangering them can freaking well wear a double mask or stay home.


39 posted on 08/01/2020 2:14:50 PM PDT by Persevero (I am afraid propriety has been set at naught. - Jane Austen)
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To: sam_whiskey

About 35-40% of people who get infected show no symptoms at all. Even without a fever, you could have had it.

You can find out with a good serology (antibody) test, but since the FDA dropped the ball and made SARS-CoV-2 serology testing the wild west with zero standards or accountability in place, it’s really difficult to know whether the specific serology test you’re taking is giving you accurate results or not. Buyer beware!


40 posted on 08/01/2020 2:15:02 PM PDT by 2aProtectsTheRest
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