Weirdest Things People Believed

Humans have always had a generally curious nature when it comes to the world around us, and that has led to the belief in some very bizarre things during less informed times. Things like lambs growing on trees, animals spontaneously generating and brussels sprouts harboring evil spirits. Let’s take a dive into some of the weirdest things people actually used to believe.

Evil Spirits Live in Brussels Sprouts

Do you dread the annual ritual of facing a pile of brussels sprouts at Christmas dinner? Back in the day, people feared brussels sprouts far more than you do and not just because they didn’t like the taste. There was once a time in Medieval Europe, when tiny demons were thought to be making their homes between the leaves of brussels sprouts!

Once inside, they lay waiting for some unsuspecting human to chow down on the veggies so that they could enter their body, making them very ill or at the very least giving them a wicked stomach ache. Ever wondered why people take the painstaking effort to cut a tiny cross into every brussels sprouts bottom before tossing them in the pan?

Apparently, that was the best way to purge the veggies of their inherent evil. It was thought that the Christian symbol would drive the evil spirit out from the leaves, making them safe to eat. Although the tradition has continued into modern day, many chefs have since stated that carving a cross into your brussels sprouts will only make them go soggy.

So unless you really believe a demon is hiding in there, perhaps it’s time to retire that particular custom. But where did that wacky belief come from? It stems back to the even funnier Pagan view that farts were a sign of demonic possession. And since brussels sprouts tended to make people fart, they had to be evil.

Changelings

Plenty of bizarre ideas befell the minds of people in the Middle Ages. In fact, many Medieval Britons were suspicious that their babies weren’t even theirs and I’m not just talking about taking a paternity test. Some parents believed that their child had actually been taken away by fairy people and substituted with a "changeling" a human like creature found in European folklore.

According to legend, a human child might be stolen by fairies out of love or malice, and in some cases an elderly fairy would be even exchanged so that the old fairy could live a life of comfort, being coddled by its new human parents. Once a child had been swapped for a changeling, it may not grow in size and might even possess strange physical characteristics like long teeth or beard.

But how could you know for sure? One test involved putting a shoe in a bowl of soup in front of the baby. If the baby laughed, showing it somehow understood the joke it was a fairy. Similarly, if you pretended to make a loaf of bread in an eggshell in front of the child and it giggled, it wasn’t human.

The efficacy of this test is debatable, considering that babies tend to laugh at anything random. Suspect babies would then be held over a fire to drive the fairies out or would be abandoned altogether. Some scholars have proposed that that cruel belief stemmed from a lack of understanding about infants afflicted with unexplained diseases, disorders or developmental disabilities, those were some cruel times!

Drinking Gold To Stay Young

Nowadays, there are all sorts of creams and serums specially designed to aid anti aging, but in 16th-century France, there was a far deadlier alternative: drinking gold. Of course, that "cure" wasn’t available to everyone, and was mostly reserved for people of nobility.

One member of the Royal Court and King Henry II’s royal mistress Diane de Poitiers, drank a daily tonic of gold chloride mixed with diethyl ether. Six months before she died at the age of 66 in 1566, the French historian Brantȏme noted that de Poitiers seemed ageless, and wrote: “I believe that if this lady had lived another hundred years she would not have aged in her face, so well composed as it was.”

The healing powers of gold had been touted long before De Poitiers discovered it. Roman author Pliny the Elder suggested it was a salve for warts and ulcers, while the ancient Egyptians swore by “gold-water” as an anti-aging remedy.

The whole idea stemmed from the fact that gold didn’t corrode, which suggested people could enjoy similar longevity by consuming it. When an alchemist figured out how to dissolve solid gold into a liquid in the Medieval era around the 16th century, it was advertised as a cure all for everything from epilepsy to mania.

But It wasn’t until centuries later that people realized gold drinking could be fatal. In fact, when de Poitiers’ body was exhumed, researchers analyzed her hair and concluded that she likely died of chronic intoxication due to her long habit of drinking gold.

Spontaneous Generation

Nowadays, animal birth and reproduction are just part of our basic human understanding. But our forebearers couldn’t for the life of them understand how some creatures arrived on Earth. In the 17th century, physician and chemist Jean Baptize van Helmont devised a home recipe for the creation of mice. All that was needed was a soiled shirt and some wheat.

Place the shirt at the opening of a jar containing wheat grains, and according to Helmont, “the reaction of the leaven in the shirt with fumes from the wheat will, after approximately 21 days, transform the wheat into mice”.

A similar recipe for creating scorpions involved carving an indentation into a brick and filling it with basil. Next, cover that brick with another, and place the bizarre sandwich in the sun. In just a few days, “fumes from the basil, acting as a leaving agent, will have transformed the vegetable matter into veritable scorpions”.

Those recipes might seem totally wacko, but they spawned from some 2,000 years of false belief in spontaneous generation. In the West, that theory can be traced back to Aristotle, who argued that some animals emerged from “putrefying earth or vegetable matter”. That was widely accepted in Europe and the Arab world for the next two millennia.

Even the greatest minds of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment including Isaac Newton believed in it. The theory continued well into the 17th century until Louis Pasteur, the so-called "master of microbes", squashed it for good. Pasteur argued in favor of "germ theory", which proved that just because you couldn’t see microscopic life, didn’t mean it wasn’t there at all.

Redheads And Vampires

Redheads have never had it easy. Nowadays, ginger people all around the world are embracing their natural hair color, but back in the day there was more than just playground bullies to worry about when flaunting your unconventional locks.

The ancient Greeks believed that redheads would almost certainly turn into vampires after they died. To prevent swathes of gingers from rising from the grave and coming after them with an unquenchable thirst for blood, they burned their bodies to make sure that dead really meant dead.

The thing is, that whole belief was kind of ironic, because Achilles, Helen of Troy and Aphrodite, some of the most prominent figures in Greek mythology were all said to have red hair in texts like Homer’s Iliad. And it wasn’t just the Greeks who hated on gingers.

The Egyptians also believed that redheads were unlucky and should therefore be sacrificed to eradicate the bad juju in that case, that meant being buried alive. The perception of ginger people has fluctuated over time, but we can safely assume that redheads drew a lot of attention in ancient times simply because they were harder to come by and were therefore “different”.

As a general rule, different equaled “evil” back then, and so the myth existed. While no ginger’s have resurfaced as vampires, unless you count Victoria from Twilight it’s true that redheads need to be more cautious around the sun because the pigment ‘pheomelanin’ which is found in red hair makes them more susceptible to melanoma.

Plato's Eye Beams

Sight is a complex thing. It’s so complex, in fact, that back in the day people truly believed that we were only able to see because we shot invisible beams of light from our eyes. It might sound like something only a superhero could do, but according to the Ancient Greek Philosopher Plato, eye-beams were responsible for all human sight.

Those invisible light beams would bounce off of any objects they touched, passing back information to the brain and telling us about what we were seeing before us. That was known as the "emission theory", which has since been replaced by the "intromission" theory that instead explains our ability to interpret the world around us by using light in the visible spectrum.

In that case, light is actually reflected by the objects in the environment and back into our eyes, rather than the other way around. It may seem ridiculous, but evidence of the whole ‘eye-beam’ thing can be seen throughout history.

For example, the custom of saluting is said to stem from the habit of Greek soldiers putting their hands up to their face to “shade” their eyes from the powerful light being emitted from their commanders eyes. It was also thought that the light from the eyes of some animals like cats, who we now know to have highly reflective eyes, could even be seen in darkness.

When two people looked at each other, the belief stated that their eye-beams “twisted” together, which is a pretty uncomfortable thought if you ask me. As the centuries passed and our understanding of the structure of the human eye improved, the emission theory went the way of the Dodo. But it seems to have been revived as an aspect of monstrous superhuman capabilities in pop culture.

Bonnacon

Medieval bestiaries and folktales feature many implausible creatures that people actually believed in, but none are quite as bizarre as the Bonnacon. On first glance, it doesn’t look too terrifying it’s pretty much a regular sized wild bull with inverted horns but it had a particularly nasty trick up its sleeve - well, under its tail.

Considering the creatures horns are practically useless in combat, the Bonnacon would squirt a stream of acidic poop at its attackers, which would burn them badly enough for it to make its escape. The earliest known reference to that ancient beast is said to be found in Pliny the Elder’s Natural History, where he describes it as being found in the region of Paeonia, which roughly corresponds today as being the northern part of Greece and western Bulgaria.

Belief in the Bonnacon became so popular in medieval times that it was included in many bestiaries, including one, the Aberdeen Bestiary that notes how the heat of the creature’s poop is so strong that it actually sets fire to anything it encounters.

Naturally, there’s no evidence to support the existence of the Bonnacon. But it’s important to remember that travelling long distance in the Middle Ages was extremely difficult, so most people had to rely on the reports of those who had the resources to do so. That meant there was no way of knowing what was real and what wasn’t unless you saw it for yourself. It’s a good job this flaming poop bull turned out to be nothing but a fantasy.

Lambs Grew On Trees

There are many instances when a traveler being unable to properly relate what they had seen resulted in imprecise descriptions being accepted as fact, but none are quite as impressive the belief that lambs grew on trees. According to ancient lore, in the woods of Central Asia formerly known as Tartary there existed a mysterious plant known as the "Vegetable Lamb of Tartary".

Rather than bearing fruit, atop that long, swaying stalk jutting from the ground was a bleating, life sized lamb hovering a few feet off the ground. It may seem ridiculous, but the Vegetable Lamb of Tartary crops up in ancient Hebrew texts, medieval literature and even poetry, philosophy, and scientific musings of the Renaissance.

One of the first to report on that mythical plant was Sir John Mandeville, who referred to it in his travel writings on Tartary. In Mandeville’s imagined anatomy, the plant branched out into several seed pods from which new-born lambs would spring forth.

In another variation, each lamb would hover off the ground on a flexible stalk which allowed it to chomp on the grass below. Once all the vegetation within reach had been eaten, the lamb-plant would die. The lambs were particularly vulnerable to wolves, but if a human could procure one by severing the stems with a bow and arrow, it was considered a delicacy.

Mandeville’s thoughts on the lamb tree were taken very seriously in Medieval England, but how did that myth really begin? The cotton plant first bought over from India had been described by the ancient Greeks as being like “fleeces from the trees”.

Meanwhile, Alexander the Great’s admiral would later write that “there were in India trees bearing flocks or bunches of wool.” And so, the whole thing played out like one long, poorly played game of Chinese whispers until people came to their senses and realized that, no, lambs did not grow on trees after all.

The Lost Continent Of Mu

It may seem like we have a pretty good grasp on the world and its landmass, but in the mid-19th century everything was thrown into question with the idea that humans had somehow forgotten about an entire continent called "Mu". You’re probably thinking “where could that mythical continent possibly be found?” According to those who accepted its existence, it would be located in the Pacific Ocean, as seen in the map below.

The theory was first proposed in the late 1800s by an enthusiastic, but entirely inaccurate archeologist named Augustus Le Plongeon. He wrote a treatise claiming that the Mayan civilization had actually originated on the lost continent, which was once populated by an ancient civilization but that it had sunk into the Atlantic Ocean some time ago.

Le Plongeon also claimed that the civilization of Egypt was founded by "Queen Moo" a refugee from the land’s demise, while other refugees had fled to Central America and became the Maya. When he died in 1908, British writer James Churchward continued to peddle the myth by claiming that he’d found a bunch of clay tablets in India which contained writings in a lost language that only he and two others could read.

According to Churchward, the civilization of Mu thrived from 50,000 to 12,000 years ago, and at the time of its demise the continent was home to 64 million people. Many people have believed in Mu over the years, but archaeologists, scientists and geologists alike have stridently denied its existence for a few reasons.

Firstly, Churchward claimed that a super volcano had essentially spelled Mu’s end. But under the theory of plate tectonics, it’s impossible for an entire continent to sink within that timeframe. Even changing the shape of a continent, like when Pangaea split would take millions of years. And if Mu had really existed, then why is there no evidence of it on the ocean floor?

Tobacco Smoke Enemas

Around the year 1774, Drs William Hawes and Thomas Cogan from London formed what would later become the Royal Humane Society. During the 18th century, that society promoted the rescue of drowning people, and paid 4 guineas to anyone who successfully brought a drowning victim back to life.

Around the same time, tobacco had been imported to England from Virginia. It would be chewed, inhaled, smoked in a clay pipe and bizarrely blown up peoples butts. American First Nations people had pioneered the use of tobacco enemas in medicine, and when word made its way across the pond volunteer medical assistants with the society decided to use the procedure to treat half drowned London citizens who’d been yanked from the Thames.

It worked by inserting an enema tube with rubber attachments into the victim and blowing smoke into it. That was thought to warm the drowned person, while also stimulating respiration but, of course, the whole thing was nonsense. Nevertheless, it became a fashion among European doctors much like bloodletting.

Soon, the treatment was being used for headaches, respiratory failure, colds, hernias, abdominal cramps, and later even typhoid fever and cholera outbreaks. Besides being totally useless, tobacco enemas could also have disastrous consequences for the smoke blower.

If the practitioner accidentally inhaled, instead of blowing during a coughing spell, some of the cholera particles could be swallowed! It wasn’t until 1811, when English scientist Ben Brodie discovered that nicotine was toxic to the heart, that tobacco enemas went out of fashion. Maybe that's where the phrase “blowing smoke up your butt” comes from?

Bloodletting Treatment

During less informed times people were willing to try all sorts of wacky cures for their ailments. Around 3000 years ago, the Egyptians invented a practice known as "bloodletting" which would be continued by the Ancient Greeks and Romans and then spread through Europe during the Middle Ages.

In fact, that rather grisly cure which involved applying leeches to a person’s body to drain them of their blood, was a thriving industry up until the 19th century.

It seems pretty gross, but the idea stemmed from the idea that the body, according to Hippocrates was made up of four basic "humors": blood, phlegm, black bile and yellow bile. Being ill meant having an imbalance of the four humors, so treatment involved removing an amount of the excessive humor by various means including bloodletting.

Even after belief in the four humors faded by the second millennium, bloodletting remained popular. Because surgery was still a crude practice, people turned to the church for medical help until, in 1163 a church edict forbade monks and priests from practicing bloodletting. And so, people turned to an unlikely help: barbers.

Barbers performed many functions at the time including minor surgeries, dental practices and administering leeches. The barber would coat the desired body part with sugar water, milk or blood to entice the leeches to start sucking, and each patient could have up to 100 leeches at a time! Thankfully, physicians had started speaking out against the effectiveness of the practice by the 1900s.

Trains Were Thought To Make Women's Uteruses Fly Out

Concerns about travelling from A to B have existed since humans learned to walk, but nothing was quite as terrifying as those new fangled locomotives they called “trains” especially if you were a woman. When the world’s first steam powered locomotives were unveiled in the early 1800s, men feared that its immense speed, with a top speed of 50mph would be so extreme that it would cause a woman’s uterus to fly from her body.

In 1898, one Berlin doctor even wrote that “violent movements of the body can cause a shift in the position and a loosening of the uterus, thus defeating a woman’s true purpose in life, i.e., the bringing forth of strong children”. Women, feel free to grab your pitchforks now.

Obviously, there are no cases of that actually happening and the “flying uterus” myth died off pretty quickly. But that irrational fear of female travel didn’t end at locomotives. As automobiles gained traction in the early 1900s, they were also seen as equally evil and dangerous. There were no stop signs, warning signs, traffic lights, driver’s education, streetlights or brake lights, drivers licenses or posted speed limits.

People hadn’t exactly figured out left turns yet, and drunk driving wasn’t even considered a serious crime! Driving a noisy, erratic car nicknamed “devil wagons” was something of an extreme sport. For that reason, they were definitely not considered suitable for prepare to eye roll “delicate” and “fragile” ladies, because they wouldn’t be able to control themselves inside the vehicle.

But fearful reactions to new technology are age old. Some of our biggest concerns about the dangers of transportation nowadays revolve around stuff like our GPS getting hacked and driving us into a lake. But at least we know trains aren’t out to get the entire female species!

Homunculus: Tiny People In Semen

The birds and the bees has always been a delicate subject, but back in the 17th and 18th centuries scientists thought they had it all figured out. It was simple, in fact: inside every sperm cell was a tiny little man which then grew up to be a much larger man or woman!

The theory was known as "preformationism", and there was a peculiar logic behind it. At the time, how babies formed was really anyone’s guess. People warmed to the idea of preformationism because it made logical and mechanical sense: there were tiny people running around in sperm, and those tiny people also had tiny people in their sperm like some reproductive Russian doll.

The competing theory epigenesis stated that neither sperm nor the egg were independently alive, but that somehow during the pregnancy they acquired a “vital essence” that created a human. Of course, that wasn’t far off the truth but people much preferred the much simpler idea that existing copies were just enlarged under the right conditions.

When Antoine van Leeuwenhoek the “father of microbiology”, became one of the first men to observe sperm under the microscope, he reported that within those individual cells were tiny, folded up individuals. His drawings and descriptions of those “tiny infants” provided the argument for performationism for nearly a century. But as people were able to make more accurate observations of sperm cells, eggs and animal embryos one thing became clear: there are no tiny men inside sperm.

I hope you were amazed at the weirdest things people believed in the past! Thanks for reading.