The Complete Idiot's Guide to Werewolves (35 page)

The ergot fungus can grow on any grain but is most common on rye. Before the 1850s, it had long been thought that the presence of ergot was just a normal part of rye grains. This was likely believed because its presence was so common. For hundreds of years, Europeans were ingesting ergot under the mistaken belief that it was a grain. (This would have resulted in widespread ergot poisoning across the continent.) In times of famine, people were even less likely to pick the ergot out of their grains (as a rare few are known to have done).

 

One doesn’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out what this means. Apparently, for much of human history, our ancestors were tripping out on a psychedelic hallucinogen … and they didn’t even know it.

 

So you may be wondering what any of this stuff about ergot poisoning has to do with werewolves. Well, as anyone who has ever sampled LSD would likely tell you, psychedelic drugs can make it very difficult to keep a firm grip on reality. Such drugs can also cause lapses in one’s ability to sense the passage of time. For example, a person suffering from ergot poisoning might look up and see a person he or she knows. Several minutes may pass, during which the other person walks away, but the poisoned individual is unaware that any time has passed. Then a wild dog or other animal passes by and somehow catches the attention of the affected person. To him or her, it would seem as if only a split second before there had been a person standing where the animal stands now when, in actuality, as much as an hour may have passed between these two events.

 

In addition to losing time, a person suffering from ergot poisoning experiences intense hallucinations that actually “amplify” reality (light, colors, sounds, etc.), often in ways that can become rather frightening under stress. This is commonly referred to by LSD users as having a “bad trip.” Imagine if you will the effect that a sudden encounter with a wild dog (or even a wolf) would have on the mind of a person suffering from ergot poisoning. The dog would likely appear to the person as a monster with huge fangs. Any bark or yelp would sound like the bellowing growls of some demonic creature. In some cases, the poisoned individual might even hallucinate that he or she
is
a werewolf and go running, barking, and snarling through the village (scaring the crap out of the neighbors, who are probably also suffering from the hallucinogenic effects of ergot poisoning). Add to this mix the fact that the werewolf myth is already embedded in everyone’s minds, and you have a recipe for absolute chaos and widespread lunacy.

When one considers how widespread the occurrence of ergot poisoning must have been in ancient and medieval Europe, it is not hard to imagine how so many werewolf sightings occurred during these periods. It may be no small coincidence that sightings of werewolves and cases of lycanthropy have dropped off considerably since 1850, following the identification of ergot’s hallucinogenic properties.

The condition known as porphyria is thought by some to be an explanation for some reports of werewolves. Porphyria is a condition that affects the blood and marrow. Those with porphyria have an inability to create porphyrin in the bone marrow. This leads to a discoloration of the skin that is reddish or purplish. Symptoms of porphyria are as follows:

As a result of social expulsion, individuals with porphyria, especially during ancient and medieval times, may have grown up with little to no interaction with other humans. Their frightening appearances, coupled with their unsocial or “savage” behaviors, may have caused them to be mistakenly labeled as werewolves in the ages of the past.

Rabies
is an infectious virus that, once contracted, has the potential to attack the nervous system of most mammals (including wolves/canines and humans). There are two main types of rabies—paralytic rabies and “furious” rabies. When contracted by a human being, both types of rabies develop through the following three primary stages of infection:

At the end of the third stage of rabies infection, the virus will take the form of either paralytic or “furious” rabies. By the time the rabies virus has reached the third stage, it is almost certainly too late to save the infected person. In all of known history, only three people have ever survived after being treated past the third stage of infection, and all of them lived out their lives with permanent physical damage. This is why it is so important to seek immediate medical attention when one has been bitten by any animal (especially mammals since rabies only affects warm-blooded animals). The sooner treatment is received, the less likely it becomes that one will suffer any permanent nerve or brain damage. However, once the symptoms of the third stage of rabies infection have been displayed, the virus is nearly 100 percent fatal.

 

After the third stage of infection, some human beings develop paralytic rabies. This form of the virus gradually paralyzes the infected person’s muscles, starting from the site of infection (where the person was bitten) and working outward over a period of time until the entire muscular system (including the heart muscle and the diaphragm) has become paralyzed. In the end, the person will appear to enter a coma and remain comatose until his or her heart and lungs cease to function. While the paralytic form of rabies is not likely to have influenced werewolf lore, it would appear that the “furious” form of rabies may be responsible for a vast amount of it.

 

“Furious” rabies also occurs at the end of the third stage of infection. The symptoms and potential behaviors of a person suffering from “furious” rabies are as follows:

Do any of the preceding symptoms sound familiar? They should. Most of these symptoms are also, according to the majority of werewolf lore, the primary symptoms of lycanthropic infection (which are discussed at length in Chapter 15). If one thinks about the occurrence of rabies in the ancient and medieval world, the relationship between rabies and werewolf lore makes perfect sense.

 

First of all, rabies infections are known to have occurred in a good number of canine breeds (including wolves and coyotes). These infections usually occurred when the carnivorous canine devoured a smaller, rabies-infected animal. In canines, any rabies viral infection had the potential to develop into the “furious” form.

During the Middle Ages of Europe, rabies infections were as rampant as occurrences of ergot poisonings. These occurrences were often thought to be cases of lycanthropy or some other work of the devil. During the Middle Ages, many of the people who were bitten by rabid animals, believing themselves cursed with lycanthropy, are known to have taken their own lives. Sometimes they were killed by the other villagers. Sadly, these may have been mercy killings since there was not yet a successful treatment for rabies infection.

To combat these “curses,” the bites were supposed to be immediately treated by being burned with hot irons. In many cases in which this method was put into practice, no further symptoms developed in those individuals. This may have led to the belief that iron was a potent element against werewolves and lycanthropic magic.