A Scientific View

In Northern Europe, scientist had discovered possible evidence about why people may have been accused of witchcraft. The people who had been accused of witchcraft may have acted in the way the accuser had described or the accuser could have really thought they were seeing spirits or people practicing witchcraft.

It all starts in some countries in Europe among the lower class who couldn't afford wheat. Wheat was a special and valuable bread and was not available to the lower class, but was available to the upper. What the lower class ate instead of wheat was rye. What the scientist had discovered was that after unusually snowy weather, and then unusually hot weather, land would be very wet from the melted snow, causing some farms to flood. From all the wetness, the rye that may have been growing in these farms would grow an invisible fungus. The rye with the fungus would be made into bread. This bread would be consumed by the people of the lower class. The fungus in the bread is chemically proven by the scientists to cause hallucinations, much like the drug LSD. The people whom had eaten the bread would most likely get hallucinations of the devil and spirits, act unusually. People whom had witnessed the behavior of the consumer of the fungus would be accused of witchcraft, or accuse people of it, because of their unusual behavior or visions under the influence of the fungus.

In Salem, MA, we shall never know if what the accusers said about the accused was true or not. What we do know is that there is that it is possible that the accused or the accusers were under the influence of this fungus.