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>>17177508
Occam's razor suggests it was just sheer superstition and ignorance. There was (and still is) plenty of it around. No need for elaborate theories.

>>17177647
No need for a unifying theory to explain St. Anthony's Fire or any other weird phenomena of the age. I guess they were witches.

>>17177508
I think the very fact that you were able to use the word hypothesis correctly in context makes this the best thread I've seen this morning.

For my opinion, while some might have suffered from such a state, making them more confused and easy to convince bad things were happening, two facts:

The politics of the situation was pretty well recorded and make it seem much more like a political/social upheaval that was predictable.

And, people were aware of the delirium causing effects of certain plants, eating some types of spoiled food, etc., so ultimately, while it's not impossible this may have helped influence some, I'm disinclined to believe it was a primary or even significant factor in the larger affair.

>>17177508
>Do wiccans take LSD and fly around on broomsticks?
The other way around. Believe it or not, but ever wondered why broomsticks make witches fly? It does seem like a pretty arbitrary thing to fly on, doesn't it? Well wiccans would put LSD or other psychoactive substances like shrooms and put this mixture on a broomstick to rub it in their vagina, I kid you not, and then, go on a drug fueled trip that felt like flying.

>>17177674
>Ignorant of Occam's Razor, but master of the non-sequitur.

/x/ is your ideal home, my friend. Don't ever leave.

>>17177736
This. The toxin they used is believed to be mandrake root.

There were no Wiccans in Salem though. Wicca was invented in 1954 (by an Englishman called Gerald!) Witches != Wiccans.

>>17177798
Are you gonna seal me in a box?