Many people believe that the Salem witch trials were caused by ergotism, while others believe that it is just a form of hysteria, but what if I told you it could have been anything those combined together with another theory added? In the story, The Crucible, mass hysteria breaks out throughout Salem caused by the witch trials. The witch trials, however, may not have been the only cause of the hysteria. Argot poisoning in the water along with puritanical pressure causing little girls to act agitated and have fits could also be attributed to the onset of hysteria. Disorders that may have been passed down through heredity could also play a role in this. Hysteria was a common contributor to the Salem witch trials. The first cases of hysteria seemed to have originated in the case of Tituba and the girls who danced naked in the woods and shouted nonsense. With that small event something bigger was unleashed, something like a mass psychogenic illness, MPI, defined as the contagious spread of behavior within a group of individuals in which one person serves as the catalyst or “starter” and the others they imitate the behavior. Before long, more and more girls contributed to the strange behavior that consumed Salem. The physical manifestations of the disease in girls have been explained as conversion symptoms due to intrapsychic conflicts. Their physical expression of psychological conflict is a compromise between unacceptable impulses and the mind's attempt to ignore them. Physical manifestations usually include fainting, malaise, convulsions with hyperventilation, and excitation. Transmission occurs through sight or sound, caused by a trigger that affects group members, who share a certain degree of unconscious fantasies. ...... middle of paper ...... rgotism: Satan loosed in Salem? Science vol. 192 (2 April 1976)." Science 192 (1976): 2.Peraica, Maja and Dubravka Rašić. "The impact of mycotoxicoses on human history/Utjecaj Mikotoksikoza Na Povijest." Archives of Industrial Hygiene and Toxicology 63.4 (2012): 513-518.Woolf, Alan. Witchcraft or mycotoxin? The Salem Witch Trials." Clinical Toxicology 38.4 (2000): 457-460. Caporael, Linnda R. "Ergotism: The Satan Loosed in Salem?" Science 192.4234 (1976): 21-26. JSTOR. Web. March 5 2014. Kibbey, Ann. "Mutations of the Supernatural: Witchcraft, Remarkable Providences, and the Power of Puritan Men" 34.2 (1982): 125-48 Web. 2014. .