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The Nature of Superstition

In 1692 a mysterious sickness began to spread in the town of
Salem, Massachusetts. Eight girls had frequent "convulsive
fits" in which they thrashed about wildly while moaning, cry-
ing, and babbling. During those fits they had hallucinations
in which they imagined strange things happening.
People in the community were frightened. If eight girls could
get such a scary disease, then anyone else might get it, too.
Parents began to worry about the safety of their own children.
Physicians were called in, but in those days they knew very
little about illnesses. They found this one especially mystifying.
However, one physician wondered if the convulsive fits might
have been caused by "witchcraft."
WITCHCRAFt! This superstitious idea struck terror into the
hearts of people. Word spread rapidly that there was a witch
among them. Perhaps a gang of witches, possessed by the devil,
were casting evil spells on the girls. Driven by ignorant fear,
the townspeople started a "witchhunt" to find the witches in
their midst.
During their babbling the girls would sometimes utter the
names of people they knew. The townspeople grasped these
flimsy bits of "evidence" as clues to who might be witches. They
put anyone named by the girls into jail. Soon there were 150
innocent people awaiting trial for the imagined crime of
witchcraft, punishable by death!
They were neighbors of the girls, farmers, storekeepers,
housewives, servants, a former minister, and even parents of
friends. The people of Salem had been driven wild with fear

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16 Part One: Superstition and Fairy-Tale Thinking

by a superstition about witchcraft that was totally false.
The Governor of Massachusetts appointed some judges to
decide which of the people in jail were the witches, and which
were not.
How did the judges decide? They used a "test of touch."
The accused person had to touch one of the girls while she
was having a fit. If the fit stopped immediately this was "proof'
that the accused person controlled it, was therefore a witch,
and had to be sentenced to death. However, if the fit did not
stop then the accused person was considered innocent. (Fig. 2.1)

Figure 2.1. In 1692, during the Salem witch trials, accused people were judged guilty