 Can you believe that a Pokémon episode cost actual epileptic seizures to hundreds of its viewers? In this Critical Thinkers episode, I'll tell you the story of why it happened, how it almost killed the Pokémon series, and what most people don't know about it. The episode Denocenshi Porygon aired in 1997, where the lead character Ash and the gang got transported to a digital alternate universe. After this episode aired, some reports suggested that as many as 12,000 kids experienced dizziness, blurred vision, and convulsions after watching the show. So what caused this? It turns out that at the climax of the episode, the team gets attacked by an antivirus program, which Pikachu defends everyone against by blasting it with his thunderbolt attack. Since this episode is based in a digital world, the animators decided to try something new in how they represented Pikachu's attack. So they used a technique known as paka paka, where two colors flash rapidly on the screen. The colors alternated at a rate of 12 flashes per second for approximately 6 seconds. That was enough for some people to experience epileptic seizures, who were prone to photosensitive epilepsy, a condition where rapid flashing of lights can induce seizures. It was reported that over 600 viewers, around 300 boys and 300 girls, were taken to the hospital by ambulances. Although many victims recovered during the ambulance trip, more than 150 were admitted to hospitals. Two kids were even hospitalized for more than two weeks. Now I know that you are dying to see the clip yourself, so I'm going to play it in a moment. But if you're prone to photosensitive epilepsy, I figure that you're smart enough to skip the next 15 seconds. I'll give you a countdown to get ready. 3, 2, 1. This incident brought in massive media attention, and it was even later included in the Gamer's edition of the Guinness World Records book, holding the record for most photosensitive epileptive seizures caused by a television show. The following day after the episode aired, the television station that had originated the lone broadcast issued an apology to the Japanese public and suspended the program until the cause of the seizure would be investigated. Pokemon anime went into a four-month hiatus, and Nintendo's shares, who owns the Pokemon franchise, fell almost by 5% immediately. In later years, this event inspired parodies in popular culture. In an episode of The Simpsons, 30 minutes over Tokyo, in which the Simpsons family travels to Japan, Bart sees an anime entitled Battling Seizure Robots, featuring robots with flashing eye lasers, which cause him to have a seizure. The incident was also parodied in a South Park episode called Chimp Pokemon. In the episode, it turns out that the Chimp Pokemon toys and video games are sold to them by a Japanese company who uses the toys to brainwash American children, making them into their own army to topple the evil American Empire. While playing a Chimp Pokemon game, Kenny has an epileptic seizure and later dies in a direct reference to the incident. Coming back to the incident itself, if 600 kids were actually admitted to the hospital, what then about the rest of the formerly mentioned 11,000 people that claimed to also be affected? About 1 in 100 people have epilepsy, and only 3% of those individuals have photosensitive epilepsy. That's a really low number, but the number of the people affected by the Pokemon episode was unprecedented. The reports suggested that 10 times as many people had photosensitive epilepsy as would be expected. This disproportion brought the attention of Benjamin Radford, an investigator who co-authored a paper on the phenomena. While making this investigation, he discovered something that didn't line up. The timeline that everyone accepted said that kids watched the episode at the same time and simultaneously experienced seizures. Turns out, that wasn't quite right. Lots of kids watched the show live, but a lot of them watched it the next day after news reports and schoolyard chatter had spread the word about the Pokemon shock. There were about 600 kids who genuinely did have headaches, convulsions, and breathing problems. Yet the next day when words spread about the incident, that's when more people started feeling bad. Turns out, that in reality, the wider phenomenon was not photosensitive epilepsy, but a condition known as mass hysteria, a real phenomenon where people are under stress to the point where they self-produce physical reactions. These people were convinced by external influences that something will happen to them, and then it did. It's not that they were faking it or imagining it, the symptoms were real, it's just that they were caused by being exposed to other people exhibiting those symptoms. This story also makes me think about us. Of course, people experiencing photosensitive epileptic seizures is a real thing, but so many people who shouldn't get affected become intimidated by rumors and easily give into panic, which exponentially leads to mass hysteria. Thousands of people who were not supposed to be affected were affected by the Pokemon episode, but that's because they potentially lacked the critical thinking skills to stop and ask themselves. Do I really know if over 10,000 people had serious issues because of this episode? Is it really worth panicking about it, and is it really likely that it will affect me? Too many times we rush to conclusions given to panic and rumors and forget to stop and think, to analyze and come to our own conclusions. Even when this mass hysteria can have a little direct lasting effect on us, as we run around aimlessly like chickens without a head, this state can lead us to actions which do have real implications, such as canceling a show, which leads to real people losing their jobs, or in other situations much worse outcomes can happen, such as mass violence due to the mass hysteria and lack of critical thinking. By the way, do you hear this doll say Islam is the light? If you do, and if you are interested whether it really says so, and also what this doll caused, click on the box that the red arrow points to to watch it. I also hope that this episode of incredible critical thinking stories will make you more thoughtful the next time you hear about a massive incident, and that you will do some investigation and use critical thinking skills before entirely believing it or going into a panic mode. This was Rokas, and let's keep creating a culture of critical thinking together.