The belief that there are people who possess supernatural powers and use them to harm others dates back to the 14th century. This belief, fueled by fear and mass hysteria, led to the witch hunt which lasted up until 18th century. It resulted in thousands of “witches” being executed by hanging or burning to death. Another factor that may have contributed to the witch hunt was that the people of Salem were suffering from chronic ergot poisoning from fungus on rye bread. This could have caused hallucinogenic side effect that made them believe that witches actually existed. History is crazy:
(via: Geek Girls)
Anyone who believes this should read In the Devil’s Snare, by Mary Beth Norton, a truly excellent historian. The “hallucinogenic”/“ergot contamination” theory was debunked long ago. Norton convincingly ascribes the hysteria to a combination of PTSD, xenophobia, and greed for property.
The trance-like battle rage of the Norse warriors came in two common forms. The bersarkr or bear-shirts took on the mentality of bears, becoming nigh unstoppable solo warriors; and their embrace of the trance was seen as heroic and moral. The ulfhedr or wolf-skins, on the other hand, embraced the trance-state to become terrifying swarm fighters who overwhelmed single prey as massive groups; they were seen as wicked and dishonourable, and most of our werewolf mythology is based upon them. In both cases, hallucinogens were not involved.
The act of assuming such a trance-state is a kind of somafera (literally, body-wild) – a mental discipline of embracing the feral side of the human personality to draw forth savagery and survival strength in battle. While it can occasionally be harnessed accidentally by some few people, it’s more typically a technique in which one has to be trained and to which significant mental discipline must be applied. I first experienced it in a life-threatening circumstance during my teenage years, and later trained myself to be able to do it at will. As someone trained to do it, I can assure you that it’s not something you could ever bring on or maintain with a compromised control of your mind and will.
Some drug-addled people do go into a similar state of somafera. But they do so without control, and as such would be utterly useless on a battlefield. We say that they’ve gone ‘berserk’ because their behaviour harks to that of a true bersarkr; but it differs in that a true bersarkr was able to exert sufficient control in that state to serve as a viable battlefield combatant (and a horrifying one at that). The drug-fiend’s somafera, on the other hand, is to the true somafera of the bersarkr and ulfhedr what an annoyed moth is to an enraged bear. No-one stoned on ergot could have even come close to mimicking its sheer power and unparallelled enhancement of a true warrior’s skills; and if they faced a true bersarkr or pack of ulfhedr in that state, they’d be fatally wounded in mere moments.