Talk:Tanganyika Laughter Epidemic

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This article was nominated for deletion on 10 October 2005. The result of the discussion was keep. An archived record of this discussion can be found here.

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[edit] Dispute as to verifiability and factual accuracy

This page is unsourced. Of the three external links, two are dead, and the third leads to a page that doesn't discuss the "Tanganyika Laughter Epidemic" at all. --Carnildo 06:38, 17 October 2005 (UTC)

I found a copy of the cited journal article in the Stanford University Library system (Jackson Medical Library). It's legitimate. 128.12.186.193 10:07, 16 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit]  ???

What do you mean? The last link works and discusses the laughter epidemic. --User:Wackojacko1138 00:45, 20 February 2006

Agreed. The americanscientist.org link works, and the first several paragraphs describe the Tanganyika incident.
The NIH have a 167-70 page document published in 1963 which describes the incident. "An epidemic of laughing in the Bukoba district of Tanganyika." [1].
--Kevin L'Huillier 23:45, 17 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] University Challenge

The BBC's quiz programme University Challenge had the following question in tonight's show ((between Newcastle and Royal Holloway College): Apparently an instance of an MPI, or mass psychogenic illness, the epidemic that hit the vicinity of Kashasha in Tanganyika in 1962, originating with a group of teenage schoolgirls, caused in those afflicted an outbreak of what? What's more someone from the Royal Holloway team knew the answer. I don't know whether or not this adds any more authenticity to this article (maybe Jeremy Paxman got the question from from Wikipedia ;-). 80N 20:12, 25 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Radio Lab

Radiolab did a documentary on this. Highly intrugueing story, this. See [2]. 90.128.144.42 (talk) 14:23, 26 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Mass Hysteria or Mass psychogenic illness?

Both terms are used in the article, but redirect to the same page, called Mass Hysteria - which term is to be prefered? JackAidley (talk) 15:23, 31 March 2008 (UTC)

'Mass psychogenic illness' seems to be a term that would be used in the medical community, whereas 'mass hysteria' is a term more familiar to the common person. I think the context in which each is used in this article is fine. The reason we have redirects is so it doesn't matter which term we use. − Twas Now ( talk • contribs • e-mail ) 23:05, 31 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Wait, what?

It isn't entirely clear what actually happened, or how/why. It's vaguely glossed over once or twice but that's it. Oddity- (talk) 09:40, 19 April 2008 (UTC)

What happened is: a bunch of people started laughing uncontrollably for an unusual length of time. The article states that it is now known why it happened, but it does give suggestions. − Twas Now ( talk • contribs • e-mail ) 00:58, 20 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] "Holy laughter movement"?

Does anyone know what that redlink is referring to? --babbage (talk) 18:49, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

Not really sure, but a Google search gives some ideas. This result and this one (and other search results), both mention the Toronto Blessing as part of the "revival" of holy laughter, or somesuch gobbledygook. − Twas Now ( talk • contribs • e-mail ) 19:09, 25 April 2008 (UTC)