In Salem, the New England town in America, 19 innocent men and women were hanged in 1692. Their crime – witchcraft.
Now American scientist Linnda Caporeal may have discovered why they were sent to the gallows, and it’s all linked to the hallucinogenic drug LSD. In the Middle Ages, 40,000 witches were executed across Europe, accused of ‘bewitchment’, a mysterious affliction that saw children convulse in agony, animals die violent deaths and villagers plagued by hallucinations. Caporeal believes they were the victims of ergot poisoning. Ergot is the fungus from which LSD is derived. It also infects rye, the dominant crop of the time. The nightmare visions of the villagers were in fact ‘bad acid trips’, and ergot poisoning may have been misinterpreted as bewitchment way back in 2300BC. Secrets Of The Dead has conducted post-mortem forensic testing on the stomach contents of Grauballe Man, a peat bog body hacked to death in the Iron Age. It seems his executioners thought he was bewitched as well…
