Jan. 6, 2021

Episode 44 - The Jerusalem Syndrome

The Wolf AND The Shepherd sit down and discuss the Jerusalem Syndrome, a little know psychological disorder where people who visit the holy land experience strange mood swings and messiah complexes. However, they both agree, the old name of the disorder was so much better. Take a listen to find out what it used to be called.

Transcript

welcome to this episode of the wolf and

the shepherd today we're going to be

talking about

the jerusalem syndrome uh kind of an

interesting topic that we stumbled on i

i don't remember if i was

reading a news article or what i was

doing i said

hey you know have you ever heard about

this jerusalem syndrome

and you know you you told me no i

haven't i said

maybe we ought to do a little bit of

research on this

and let's do a podcast about it because

i think

folks might find this kind of

interesting well first of all i thought

it might be a good name for a band to be

honest well

yeah but but what what kind of genre

band

the jerusalem syndrome i don't know i

had to be an old band

yeah but the problem is there's not that

much alternative music out there anymore

maybe it would have been a good name for

a band like 30 years ago

yeah maybe but um i also thought well

there's going to be issues with the logo

because if we're having a paper letter

the jerusalem syndrome we're going to go

bankrupt just on doing the t-shirts

well yeah that's true yeah especially if

you have to like

like you say paper letter that's that's

pretty long but

i mean they could go by like tjs right

yeah they could

but um like you said

we did have to do a little bit research

on this one more than we normally do

which

you know is like saying i walked

you know four and a half feet to the

refrigerator rather than was able to

reach

three free three feet from my seat to

the roof right

and and let's let's go ahead and be

honest

i actually for the first time

did a smidgen of research i didn't leave

all the research

up to you this time did you now did you

actually use google or did you use

bing or yahoo or no i asked go

no i asked jeeves i went in to ask

jeeves is that still around

yes really i don't know

okay i'm lying the problem i have with

duck go

right is i like the fact it says oh

you're not being tracked but to be

honest with you i don't really

type much stuff in where i bother about

anybody's tracking

but it comes up with so few results

when i use go i i just can't use it for

research on stuff

yeah i like the fact it doesn't really

have many ads but

yeah but i think people are going into

duckduckgo

to do a different type of research than

we're doing for the podcast if you know

what i mean

yeah but um go if you want to sponsor us

we are available we do not have an

official

uh search engine sponsored yet that's

true so we are available and we will

edit out

any um i guess

well we haven't said anything bad about

duckduckgo we did do a podcast about

ducks but i yeah i think uh they'd be

okay

with what we said about ducks yeah

that's more duck duck piss off though

yeah yeah that's true yeah but um

anyway jerusalem syndrome i tried to

find a really

simple definition of it okay but you

know the more websites actually visited

it seemed like the worse and worse in

terms of like being able to

find a simplistic definition of it which

didn't stretch into multiple paragraphs

so

so on honestly the more you researched

it

the harder the harder to define it got

worse so i actually went with the

wikipedia one which

you know immediately smacked of a little

bit of skepticism but it said um

the jerusalem syndrome is a group of

mental phenomena

involving the presence of religiously

themed obsessive ideas

delusions or other psychosis-like

experiences

that are triggered by a visit to the

city of jerusalem

okay now i must admit i did have to read

that like about four times because the

only bit i

really got out of it the first few times

was a visit to the city of jerusalem

right yeah so let's break that down for

a minute so

obviously uh criteria number one

you gotta go to the group yeah and it's

the syndrome you get from going to

jerusalem and they just put the

in front of it just to kind of explain

it so well it makes it sound more

official when you put

the in front of it i mean we could have

been wolf and shepard

but we had to throw two of these in

there to make it sound we could

have more legit could have been wolf

backslash shepard i don't know

hyphen shepard yeah i know we would have

gotten confused on the slashes though

i would have used a forward slash you

would have used a backslash

now what's the difference uh the

direction it goes one goes forward one

goes back i mean like what does it mean

in terms of like

you know is there any kind of

mathematical meaning if you have

a forward or a backward slash i don't

think in math it does

right because obviously an ascii well

yeah

in in that and in uh programming yeah

it matters on the internet it matters

yeah i just don't know why

why do we need two slashes we've created

another problem yeah

all right let's make a note of that to

not look that up

so anyway um we've knocked it actually

more basic than the wikipedia definition

it's a syndrome you get

or some people get when they go to

jerusalem okay yeah

so obvious obviously visitors that are

showing up to jerusalem and and

they end up with this jerusalem

it's not even visitors oh but we'll get

on with that like oh sorry it's not even

just visitors

all right well that shows you the extent

of my research

but um it doesn't even just re uh affect

one religion or domination

it's you know actually jews christians

and muslims who get affected by the

jerusalem syndrome

and obviously that leads to

you know people the majority of people

who

i guess i i don't know if you can call

it afflicted

or they get the syndrome or whatever you

know

normally i have you know a firm kind of

religious belief or doctrine before they

go there but

some are very passive in that belief

but um i don't i haven't read about any

atheists who have gone there and

suddenly got the jerusalem syndrome

right so it it doesn't necessarily mean

that you have to have

like a member of the clergy for instance

or

somebody that's very devout religious

person that's gonna

capture this right it could just be your

average joe

maybe they're uh a non-practicing jew

or a uh you know a christian that hadn't

been a church in 20 years

it so it could affect just about

anything yeah and actually wearing a

mask will not prevent you from getting

it

uh but if you stay six feet away from

jerusalem

would that help uh no because i don't i

don't think

i don't think distancing works either so

you know this is immune to masks yeah

but well it's

it's immune to mass but you have to be

in jerusalem so if you stay

six feet away from jerusalem you're not

going to catch it

that yeah we might need to look into

that yeah that might be the answer

although if you're actually deliberately

going to visit jerusalem

keeping six feet away from jerusalem

might kind of really kind of point the

tree

and defeats the purpose yeah i mean even

if you got

like a real cheap plane ticket or

something yeah i mean you might as well

go on

in so generally the thing is that

you know everybody who's been recorded

as having it

does have some level of religious belief

some

doctrine you know they might not be

fanatical

or anything but they do tend to have

some you know

pre-belief before they go there but

you know what has come out is that

you know a lot of the people who do

get the syndrome were previously well

balanced they hadn't had any

psychological disorders or any triggers

red flags or anything else before

it's just an absolute surprise that some

people kind of get it although

not being skeptical i bet you i could

probably pick him out

if i had to really kind of pick out from

a lineup who's likely to get it out of

the uh

people boarding the aircraft right yeah

and i i've been there you know i've i've

done a lot of flying

for uh jobs and everything and i'm

sitting on the

airplane and you're picking out those

people as they're coming down the aisle

saying please don't sit by me please

don't sit by being oh oh please not this

guy

not not not this woman whatever so you

could probably do the same thing if

you're flying to israel it's like

not gonna get it not gonna oh look at

that guy oh yeah

he's definitely getting in the truce

he's getting it yeah he's getting it

so yeah the um you know the best

best known manifestation of jerusalem

syndrome is

normally it's a person who has been well

balanced because i think if you have

had some type of psychotic issue before

they just figure this is another one to

add to the list so i don't even know if

they put this on your uh

resume of uh psychotic issues you've had

before they just go

yeah he's having another episode right

yeah and it just

it so happens to be he's in jerusalem so

that's why because when he goes to

legoland he believes he's a master

builder

and is going to make his own country out

of legos and be the lego king

right yeah that's that's pretty accurate

i think um

now now one thing is that that what

uh studies have not been able to really

kind of uh

get to the bottom of is the timing of

how it occurs

because in the vast majority of cases

it kind of kicks in on the second day

okay right on the second day

right and so so you gotta you gotta

spend at least 24 hours

yeah and uh it kind of goes away

again in most cases the moment you kind

of leave jerusalem or very shortly

afterwards so it's

definitely the proximity effect like he

was saying earlier about that six feet

away so

you should get you know once you get to

six feet away see there there we go

again

so once again if you don't want to catch

jerusalem syndrome just stay six feet

away from

jerusalem and you're safe yeah uh that

this help

tip is brought to you by the wolf and

the shepherd yeah we're trying to keep

you healthy

so obviously if you've done advice on

not getting pregnant actually

oh no keeping six feet away yeah that

that

that sounds like a topic for another

podcast yeah but

all good advice but there are actually

cases where the jerusalem syndrome

doesn't actually go away until a couple

of weeks after leave injuries

okay i don't know that's because they

took a lot of photos on the phone and

they keep looking through them and keep

getting triggered by

you know or maybe their phone gets

confused because it doesn't

update the location settings so the

phone still thinks

they're in jerusalem so kind of carries

over

yeah now funnily enough um

and this is one of the many funny things

about the jerusalem syndrome i mean i

don't like to make

light of any kind of mental health issue

but yes

you've got to admit this one's a bit bit

out there uh

it used to be referred to as jerusalem

squabble poison

jerusalem squabble poison now what do

you think

now do you know what the word squabble

means in england like having a squabble

is having an argument

yeah i'd picture squabble is is like a

skirmish like a little fight yeah

something like that

that's what i think of when i hear the

word squabble

that word didn't jump out to me as much

as the word

poison though

it's a fight that poisons you

i think somebody was being lazy kind of

like the writers of that new wonder

woman movie

the wonder woman 84 that was such lazy

writing

this sounds like the same dude it's a

lazy movie as well

well yeah terrible yeah but

uh if the producers of one woman

don't say want to sponsor us we do not

currently have a female

superhero franchise sponsor in the show

so just get in touch for your email at

the wolf in the shepherd

gmail.com and let's be honest they need

all the help

after that yeah anyway um again we can

edit that out

um so yeah jerusalem squabble poison

i think if you want to be taken more

seriously

in the academic field uh for psychology

and stuff i think you need to switch

jerusalem squabble poison to something

more yeah

aligned like the jerusalem syndrome yeah

syndrome

you know that sounds like an official

thing yeah uh squabble poison

poison yeah i mean it doesn't even

matter what prefix she has there's

nothing which you can put in front of

squabble poison

to make it sound uh legit you know hang

on let me try yeah

the last jedi squabble poison

well i mean that makes a lot of sense

though

[Music]

i don't know i don't know

but so um did you know that

i don't know how much research you did

on your uh

ask jeeves but um cases of the syndrome

they'd already been observed during the

middle ages which again with that i

didn't do

that it doesn't shock me that much

because they were a bit mad

generally speaking i mean they kind of

believed a lot of weird things back in

the middle ages anyway

because i think the monty python and the

holy grail was pretty much a documentary

in some ways

well it's very historically accurate

it's very historically average yes yeah

i mean that that got me through world

history as far as what happened in

england

yeah and uh it was uh

roughly early 1930s i think before is

actually clinically described in like

you know medical papers that jerusalem

syndrome was a thing

uh but maybe before that point i don't

know what at what time it was

still known as jerusalem squabble poison

so if you're a doctor trying to get some

type of credibility you're probably

giving that one a wide berth you know

when you've got people writing on

you know the black death and all this

other stuff you know

what's your topic jerusalem squabble

poison yeah but you know

if you take away the banned poison from

the 80s

yeah wouldn't jerusalem squabble poison

be a better band name than the jerusalem

syndrome again

this was back when printing t-shirts was

expensive so yeah that's true

i don't think so yeah what are you going

to do with the logo

that's that's worse yeah so the so the

problem i have with that is i keep

picturing the

poison logo from the band from the 80s

and then like jerusalem squabble right

above that i mean what a great t-shirt

that would make

maybe i don't know if it kind of rolls

off the tongue as well as poison

yeah that's true yeah yeah but

plus also you might kind of uh put off

the anti-semetics out there from

following the bands

yeah that's true yeah that that that

could have been seen as like hitler's

favorite band

yeah and that that might have caused

some problems that's why you're here to

keep me in check

see that's why i have these ideas and i

need somebody like you to say hey

once again not a good idea just forget

about it and move on

wouldn't work wouldn't work nowadays

either so

anyway so um what i hadn't

taken the notice of when you first

brought the topic to me was that

the jerusalem syndrome had actually made

a few appearances in pop culture

oh i didn't look any of these yeah and

uh there was an x-files episode where a

character

um had returned to the united states

after going to jerusalem

and they said he had you know jerusalem

syndrome when he ended up killing a kid

who had shown

signs of stigmata i think because you

know he

was the i don't know whether it was a

case of he thought the kid was faking it

and he was trying to get rid of

you know people but in the show they

actually called it the jerusalem

syndrome uh

as far as the internet said that might

be like me not true i was going to look

at apache and watch that because i have

seen like i think pretty much every

x-files episode there ever is but that

might have been like about

20 years ago yeah but i mean how long

ago was the x-files that was a long

time ago oh yeah it was more than 20

years ago the first episode yeah

that was a great show it was i mean it

really wasn't and it had a big following

they had that movie that came out and

everything

we had a couple of movies did they have

more than one yeah

there was some you know there's at least

two

well there was one that went in the

movie theater wasn't there

well i i swear that i saw the x-files

movie in the movie theater a long time

ago

but i could i could see them doing like

a made-for-tv movie because it was a tv

show right or at least yeah there are at

least two styles movies

yeah that's one of those shows but i

need to go back in

and watch but yeah but it makes sense i

mean that's files they

they like to dig into some crazy stuff

and there's probably a couple of people

sitting around the x-files writing room

like you and i say hey have you ever

heard of this jerusalem syndrome maybe

we could

you know write an episode about it so

i'm gonna have to dig that up it's like

jerusalem syndrome do you mean jerusalem

squabble poison

yeah that ban that's exactly that was

over there yeah

yeah so um but yeah even the simpsons

got in the act

um they uh homer and um

i think he went with a group i can't

remember if it was his family as well

but they went to jerusalem

and homer got convinced you know he was

the messiah and then

eventually the whole of the tour group

you know

we're all convinced they're the messiah

so there's a whole bunch of them walking

around

thinking they were the messiah wow so

you not to get too off topic here and

this is going to be kind of off topic

but

have you ever been to jerusalem i have

not yeah neither have i

so that fell pretty flat

so moving on i've been more than six

feet away from jerusalem

outside so about yeah probably actually

got the jerusalem

yeah more than seven feet from me yeah

well

that belief of being the messiah um it

does happen to a lot of the

religious tourists who go there you know

like like i said rather than just

regular people who go

like visit like a church group yeah yeah

i mean that just happened that you know

people get that messiah complex and

actually think they're the messiah

and um there's evidence that some of

these people

you know have had these obsessive

religious fixations before visiting

jerusalem and it's like

i guess jerusalem just acts as a some

type of catalyst or whatever and just

you know propels this fixation just out

completely out of control

yeah well i mean that makes sense i mean

it's the home of

the world's three largest religions it's

all right there and i'm guessing like

when you go to vegas

you know you walk by gift shops all the

time and

you want to buy a shirt that says you

know hey i lost this in vegas or

or whatever else i'm guessing when you

go to jerusalem there's all kinds of

religious stuff going on there

and you just get kind of succumbed to

that i mean

you go to colorado and all of a sudden

you just want to be a skier you go to

california and all of a sudden you just

want to be a surfer and you

buy that i guess you go to jerusalem and

there's all kinds of religious stuff

around you saying well

maybe i want to be religious now yeah

the well actually i mean

you know i thought you know there can

only be a handful of cases right

otherwise this thing would be more

widespread in terms of how many people

sure about it but

you know between like 79 and 93 so you

know roughly like 14 years

there were 470 visitors from all over

the world

who actually experienced such extreme

psychosis they had to be hospitalized so

that isn't just the grand total of

people who actually have the jerusalem

syndrome

these are the ones who had it so bad

that they actually had to be

hospitalized

they had 470 they had a severe case yeah

yeah and um but and this is what i was

saying earlier but even local residents

can be even temporary or permanently

affected

by it yeah well it kind of makes you

wonder you know get let's say you're

living in jerusalem

you come home you know you had a bad day

at work right i mean

you didn't sell enough sandwiches at

your sandwich shop come home

old lady sitting there and so you're

kind of beat down and

saying hey you know i am trying to do

something to make

everything better for this family and

the wife says hey

i'm smelling a little bit of jerusalem

syndrome here you need to get off your

high horse you're not as important as

you think you

are and guys like oh yeah that's true we

do live in jerusalem and sometimes that

jerusalem syndrome kind of sneaks up on

me so

i need to get back down and i just need

to go make sandwiches again tomorrow i'm

sorry honey

well it's a bit of a leap from going

from being a little bit narcissistic to

thinking you're the

lord and savior uh but what if you make

the best sandwich in jerusalem

well i don't know what competition is i

can't really comment on that oh yeah but

you know if you're the best sandwich

maker in jerusalem

you might think you're the messiah of

sandwich makers

well i'm well look at this way i mean

like if you're making the best

tex-mex in texas that's a pretty

big boast you're making it in like iowa

where it's probably like

probably get it out of a can and then

it'd be all right

good point you know like wolf brown

chili out the can might be the best

chili they ever

no it's true well it you know saints

yeah we love your potatoes

yeah if that's the only chili you've

ever had yeah you don't know the

difference

yeah and if there's any iowa potato

companies out there who are looking to

sponsor a podcast

we do not yet have an official potato

sponsor from iowa

so maybe give us a call yeah in

in i would rather have one from idaho

not iowa because

i was not really known for potatoes yeah

i kind of hoping you wouldn't notice

that

but hey

but hey if there's a good farmer or a

grocer no potatoes

in iowa i think i would rather have an

iowa

potato sponsor that would be great yeah

you you don't even have to give us a

penny we just wanted an official

iowa potato sponsor it's just like we're

going to skip tex max from texas and

get it from colorado and and we want

someone who grows potatoes in

iowa yeah because we're all about small

business here

yeah now um

a lot of the uh tourists who they

studied

and and not just the ones who obviously

had it so severe they had to be

thrown into hospital they actually

demonstrate

very very similar patterns of

disintegration and symptoms and

what i mean by the disintegration as in

you know their normal

behavior and pattern of thinking

completely breaks down and it's almost

like they take on another personality i

mean not

not quite schizophrenia or like this

association of identity disorder

but you know they just completely

changed well yeah the people who are

with them

kind of notice a personality change

and like i said those symptoms tend to

start round about the second day

okay you know i think that's after on

the first day you know you're a bit

tired anyway you're going to be too

tired to take on a syndrome

let's be honest you're jet lagged yeah

you know you probably

yeah you're sleeping in a different

place

uh nobody sleeps well on their first

date whenever

they're on a vacation or whatever so

you're getting used to the hotel room

trying to figure out what you got for

dinner you realize i forgot my

toothbrush

now i got to go find a cvs and get me a

toothbrush

or you know the tsa they took my shaving

cream because they thought it was a bomb

or something like that

so now you've got past all those first

day

travel woes so now you're calm enough to

let the jerusalem syndrome kind of sneak

up and bite you

well well i think on the first day of

you're kind of like you know what i

think i might be moses but i'm a little

bit too tired to kind of pull it off

today so yeah tomorrow is i'm going to

start 8 a.m tomorrow morning

i am moses tomorrow morning yes

absolutely

yeah but um apparently that the symptoms

start off

and again it's almost in every case with

these inexplicable kind of feelings of

nervousness

and anxiety but i'll tell you what i

mean it must be like an actor you know

going on broadway for the first time

if you're going to step into like moses

or jesus shoes there's got to be a

little bit of nervousness going into

that role oh sure

well that's with any role but especially

you know a

prominent religious figure that

everybody has this

idea in their mind of what they look

like or

you know if you look at charlton heston

in the ten commandments i mean that was

moses so

everybody that's always been moses is

always going to look to say

am i as good as he played moses yeah so

if i'm

if i'm walking around i'm going to be

like i'm uh

i'm not i'm not moses maybe i'm

like one of the other random people

walking around

uh you know kind of one of the b or c

characters in the bible

maybe maybe i could pull that off i

don't think i could pull moses off

yeah because it's got to be a little bit

disconcerting when you're really trying

to get in the role and people are booing

you

yeah because you know that there's out

of all these people who've got jerusalem

syndrome right there's

there's got to be a lot of them who have

claimed to have been the same character

i mean

you know if we're forgetting about the

ones who you know think they're jesus

if we take the other characters in there

there's got to be some duplicates

oh so that maybe they've got a website

which is like you know the top 10

you know moses of you know the 1990s who

had the jerusalem syndrome i don't know

yeah

i mean you could be zacchaeus it's like

you know i'm i'm like five foot two uh

i like to climb trees i'm zacchaeus

everybody's gonna look at you like

you pick that dude okay

we'll we'll let you pretend to be that

would be pretty lazy so i think

lazarus would is the one that would

probably try that would

yeah yeah except for good job you've

been asleep now for

yeah you know a few days so no they're

doing it well that would be a good one

yeah yeah just gonna get somebody to

kind of lift you up through the roof or

whatever

yeah yeah that one wouldn't be too bad

but um yeah also one of the things is

you know when people go in groups you

know even if it's just with their family

not with like a church group or

something

uh it's been noted that they have this

sudden need to be alone

and then they start performing these

weird kind of purification rituals and

like his jewish baths and stuff like

to try and cleanse themselves yeah but

it look i i can see the part about

wanting to be alone i mean if if i'm

going somewhere historical

i tend to want to be alone i when i went

to boston

i want to be alone because i want to

look at the historical part

of that and you know my family or

whoever i've traveled with they think

that's boring

so if i was going to go to jerusalem and

one of the symptoms or

that you know somebody in the group

wants to be by themselves i'd be like

look i want to do my own thing

so why is that so bad if you want to go

off and do your own thing and it's like

automatically

oh that guy must have the jerusalem

syndrome because he wants to go be by

himself

no i want to actually go and read into

things and take my own time why is that

so bad

yeah i'll be honest with you mate most

of my uh friends they go on vacation

with their family want to be left alone

even if they like

you know go to aspen i don't know yeah

see i i think that one's cheating

i i i think that's a a cheating uh

symptom of the syndrome right there of

them wanting to be alone yeah the

purification thing

uh it's hot maybe they just want a bath

yeah i mean maybe that the

shower isn't that great maybe they have

those low flow

showers over there yeah and you're like

you know i i can't seem to get clean

so i i need to take more showers because

i can't get all the shampoo out of my

hair now i know that's not a problem for

you because you don't have any hair on

your head but

you know when you're trying to wash your

hair and you have this

thick luxurious hair like i have

you know which you don't have and i know

i'm rubbing my hair here and i'm making

you jealous

sometimes you got to say you know i got

i'm going to have to take another shower

because i can't get all the

shampoo out of my hair well i think one

of the things which does

count is that um as the condition

continues often they'll start

dressing in robes to try and identify

with characters from the bible

not a robe person not a rogue person

where do you think they get the robe

some do this thing there's a local

market which like is cashing in on the

syndrome or

if there's not we need to stop this

podcast right now

and we need to go sell robes introduced

get etsy or

ebay or something to kind of set us up i

remember in school

i was on a business trip one time and uh

did one of the you know i don't know if

it's priceline or something like that

and did

you know ended up with the fancy hotel

right for cheap price

and stayed there and they had one of the

robes hanging in the closet

and i'm looking at the robe i'm like i'm

not a robe person i don't own a robe i

i don't know what i'm supposed to do

with this but i'm gonna wear a robe

and so got out of the shower put the

robe on called the wife

and and did the little facetime thing

and said i'm wearing a robe and she said

you look stupid and that was the that

was the end of my run

i didn't even think about that yeah

surely if they have robes in the hotel

room surely you just

wear one of those and the only change

would be you just wouldn't take it off

yeah now if it's got hotel hilton on the

back of it then obviously that's kind of

like

not quite so biblical as like if it's a

genuine one you bought from the

marketplace but didn't you say

that some people who couldn't find robes

were like using curtains and stuff

yeah so so in my little bit of research

that i found there were some people that

used the bed linens right and they made

these and you

you call them a robe i i call it more

like a toga

right you know they were basically

taking the bed sheets off

and kind of making a toga out of that

and wandering around doing that thing

uh i don't think i could pull that off

but

can can you imagine though if we had a

robe store over there

and we put the jerusalem squabble

poison on the back of the robes

now we're getting somewhere you know

nice embroidered

robe with that on the back yeah maybe

get a sponsor over there

like you know hilton you know little

hilton logo on the front and jerusalem

squabble poison

on the back of the robe and we just all

walk around in the robes

sell them for like 500 bucks a piece do

you know what we can retire do you not

think some of the people

deeper into the psychosis will say that

that's

not quite as authentic as they were

looking for

well but they're crazy so how would they

know the difference

temporarily crazy yeah yeah oh we got

all we got to do hey

this is a no refund no exchange type

thing so once they buy it

we're off the hook yeah well um you know

for the most part other than those

people who end up in hospital

most of the sufferers of it just tend to

be kind of like a little bit annoying to

the family or the group they're in

or you know the ones who require

hospitalization

um for whatever reason around about

2010 and that's pretty much an exact

year other than it might be a couple

years either side but around 2010

um the episodes of um jerusalem syndrome

dropped

like incredibly because it used to be uh

there'd be about 50 people hospitalized

a year right

from having their son so roughly one a

week yeah so incredible

uh psychotic episodes but it kind of

went down to about two or three

a year wow just dropped suddenly that's

like it wasn't fashionable anymore yeah

that that's kind of sad i mean can you

imagine if

you were one of those doctors right and

you've got some

some dude comes in and he's got the

jerusalem syndrome

and so the orderly or whatever they are

you know comes up you know you're the

doctor you're walking in for your shift

and

dude comes up to you and he says okay uh

we got joe

over here uh joseph i think joseph

oh okay i picked a bad name yeah

uh look oh sebastian

yeah you know let's use a good english

name right

we've got sebastian over here and he's

got a case of the jerusalem syndrome

so uh so dr wolf uh

what should you suggest

that we do with sebastian over here keep

them six feet away from jerusalem ah

yeah i mean can't they just hop them in

an ambulance and

drive them six feet away from the city

and magically they're cured

so why do we even need the hospital then

well remember this i mean we're sitting

here if

you came out with a six-foot rule it's

not an exact science to cure the

jerusalem syndrome well but i

believe we made ourselves like phds in

this and we

cured it in the beginning of the podcast

so do we need to just

open up a little hospital over there

where we sell the robes

and everybody that shows up that has it

we just put them in a car

like we could probably get a cheap

toyota prius for like

five grand and and just drive them

outside the city

and just leave them out there and say

you're cured you know

walk away i've got a better idea

actually how about we just get alone and

set up a biblical theme park and let

them just run with it and just let them

think they're who they are you know like

people who go to disneyland and all that

stuff

let them just go there and just believe

they're who they are not harming anybody

keep an eye on them we've got security

and all that stuff yeah but run around

okay okay so the problem with that is

what if you have

two dudes out there that both think

they're moses

and time slots you're not you're moses

at two o'clock you're moses at 5 30.

oh that's a good idea theme park for

jerusalem

but mind you now it's gone down to two

or three sufferers a year require

hospitalization i don't know if there's

money

but it's like any other business thing

we think about i mean we'll make like

six dollars i'm betting now that they're

just reporting all of those cases as

covid anyway

oh that's true now um there has actually

been

some pretty extreme cases of jerusalem

syndrome as much

as light as we've made of it and that

doesn't mean we're not going to make

light of these cases either because

these ones are actually

kind of ridiculous um well actually the

first two are kind of sad but

the last one's ridiculous um back in uh

november 2017

uh there's a british tourist where i

think it was i think

see see it's always got to be the

british people well i think it is irish

actually

so yeah i figured you'd thought it well

well i think it was because the article

actually came from an irish newspaper

[Music]

and they don't normally report on

anything outside of ireland you know

like yeah i don't even think they

reported on world war ii during the war

yeah it wasn't nothing to do with them

apparently they had to keep the guinness

factory

yeah so anyway um he disappeared in the

desert

and uh somewhere close to southern

israel i can't remember i think it began

with a g

oval or something like anyway whatever

irrelevant

so he left a trail of bible pastures and

they found his laptop and all this stuff

and they found a lot um a lot of

references to jesus going into the

desert

for 40 days and 40 nights and um

the last kind of update i could find on

the interwebs as of november 2019

it still hadn't been found so that's

like two years so i think he kind of

went past the 40 days 49th thing

yeah or or did he just like change his

name and somehow get back on their plane

and

and go back home and everybody kind of

forgot about it

and that could have happened well maybe

you'd have thought his family might kind

of uh

noticed because this is like two years

later they still hadn't found him

oh okay so so the family's actively

trying to figure out what happened to

the dude yeah but

probably from ireland i don't know how

good their internet is i don't know well

not only that

but can we get them out of the pub long

enough to

sober up and realize that they'll find

out where it is

yeah yeah um i can't remember i should

have written down his name actually

i thought you knew what his name was

sheamus i'm pretty sure it's

shameless oh mahani or something yeah

shane

sheamus oh yeah riley or whatever

sheamus of squabble we're going to call

him sheamus of squabble

so uh a public service announcement

if anyone has any information as to the

location of sheamus oh squabbles last

thing

in the desert yes please send an email

to the wolf and the shepherd at

gmail.com and we will make sure that

sheamus of squabbles

family gets home even though we don't

have any idea how to get ahold of his

family but

uh it'd be a great email to read because

most of most of the email we get i mean

we get some emails from listeners and

everything but

we still do get a lot of spam we take

yeah but i god that would be great to

to get an email about sheamus of

squabble yeah

so um back in 1969 an australian tourist

again

not english uh yeah well he set fire

well even he was on a divine mission

yeah but there was a whole ton of riots

but apparently also did a bunch of other

stuff which

once again though you say not english

but that's where you sent all your

prisoners so did a lot of people though

knows all the english that's the way we

learned it in history so that's true

yeah no no the winners write the history

books so that's the way we learned it so

by default still still english so once

again

you you're doing a terrible disservice

to it

what about this one this last one and

this one was amazing well

okay but but we tell me tell me again

we set fire to a mosque mosque yeah

he believed he was on some divine

mission and it caused a whole bunch of

riots but i think he did some other

stuff as well but the article didn't

which

which mosque is this it that's not the

big famous one there on the temple mount

is it i don't know

i think it is isn't it i i don't know

the dome of the rock i

i don't know what the actual name of

that is but

isn't that the dome of the rock mosque

oh siri

right now oh all right hang on second

second night oh

yeah i mean we don't even we're not

sponsored by

apple but yeah all right so so what am i

asking siri here

uh what's the most famous mosque in

jerusalem

okay all right here we go let's see

oh i thought i just held the side button

down still going out oh

yeah all right well we'll do it with

voice hey siri

what is the most famous mosque

that's my phone nuts yeah

yeah your phone way over there well

maybe it's because my phone was locked

hang on uh hey siri

it's still my phone yeah i don't know

what that means

yeah yeah all right let's give it let's

give it up yeah it's one of the mosques

yeah i mean all right well it's still

there yeah so

uh he failed yeah all the facts are

there that's all you need for that one

yep

so anyway this last one a middle-aged

american who i'm sure you're going to

say had english

descendants i'm sure he did right taurus

decided that he was samson

right which is oh samson okay one right

well

well now we're talking about one of the

you know

b characters of the bible yeah you know

obviously he had some stuff in the bible

written about him but he's not

super famous right i mean everybody

knows who sampson is but it's not like

he took up a

a huge piece of the bible right okay

yeah unless you kind of name check

delilah

a lot of people forget who samson is

yeah that's true

so anyway he got this idea that part of

the western wall needed to be moved by

his bare hands all right

so he was an avid bodybuilder you know

even before he came

there and uh well anyway it didn't work

out too well and after a skirmish with

um the authorities he actually ended up

in a psychiatric ward

but one of the mental health

professionals uh while he was giving him

a diagnosis or whatever made the error

of telling him he wasn't samson so this

kind of enrolled

yeah i kind of went hulk mode

yeah let's admit elementary mistake

right there

yeah that's the worst thing you do yeah

so anyway he turned into the incredible

hulk apparently

uh bruce banner style and he smashed

through a window

jumped out and escaped and a nurse later

found him at a bus stop

and he was quite belligerent until she

praised his

samson-like strength at which point he

finally cooperated

no that almost sounds a little stolen

from the bible aren't you

was there a verse in the bible about

samson waiting at a bus stop

and an s turning up yeah i think so i

think so now didn't you have

now didn't you read about that as well

and it's like dad had to come over and

kind of coax him back

yeah well well so i so i read

about somebody and and i think it was

the samson

guy that they finally coaxed him back

into the hospital or whatever and

so his dad had to show up and fly

back with him to take him back to

america just to make sure he got

back safe and then of course you know

everything just kind of subsided and

everything was good but

honestly can you see samson that the

real samson right saying

hey hey dad hey dad can you come help me

you know he's supposed to be the

strongest guy in the world right and and

he needs his dad to show up

kind of kind of sad i think what be

worse is when he gets back to the states

all his mates go hey how's the vacation

and he's like

not great i i wonder

you know one one thing i couldn't find

and i'm guessing you didn't find it

either

is if the dude had long hair yeah

well you think he would wouldn't that be

ironic if if

they said okay all right

so dr wolf he thinks he's samson

and he's got long hair quick get my wig

so so

let's shave his head like when he's

asleep

and then we say okay all your strength's

gone you gotta go home now

yeah uh you're gonna miss monday night

football if you don't get on this plane

and daddy's gonna come take you home and

and now all your hair is gone it's like

yeah

okay well you know that makes logical

sense so

so now my strength's gone and then they

tell the dad look

just don't let him grow his hair out

let's just rub narrow all over his head

and make sure he doesn't have any hair

anymore and everything

problem solved see this is more of the

reason why

i think we need to run this hospital

over in jerusalem i i think we could fix

all these problems

what would have been better if the nurse

was named delilah

oh how ironic would that be

that would have that would have been a

giant mess that that would have been a

giant mess

well with all that said thanks for

tuning in to this episode of the wolf

and the shepherd we certainly hope you

enjoyed it and we will catch you on the

next one