scruffy1
Veteran Member
- Time of past OR future Camino
- Holy Year from Pamplona 2010, SJPP 2011, Lisbon 2012, Le Puy 2013, Vezelay (partial watch this space!) 2014; 2015 Toulouse-Puenta la Reina (Arles)
Several evenings ago, a middle-aged man was found walking the streets of Jerusalem entirely naked and speaking a language no one could understand. It was after midnight and 3-C degrees outside. The police quickly discerned that the poor individual was suffering from what is known as the Jerusalem Syndrome-they have been trained concerning this subject, one which affects Jews, Arabs, and especially Christians. People possessing a strong religious background or those arriving with expectations of a moving spiritual experience, all seeking the Heavenly Jerusalem as promised in the Torah, the Koran, or the Bible are especially vulnerable. The poor, the clergy, the illiterate and the well educated, as well as English and Swedish, and Russian nobility have all suffered. Sadly, while our Jerusalem can offer great religious/spiritual comfort and joy she also has her assortment of garbage trucks, beggars, pickpockets, drunks and far worse. Neither the Wailing Wall, nor Haram al-Sharif – the Dome of the Rock and Al Aqsa mosque, nor the Holy Sepulture are able to answer these exaggerated spiritual expectations and yearly we witness over a hundred people who find themselves in this unfortunate situation, one which requires hospitalization and removal from the city. The middle aged man mentioned above has not been identified; he disposed of all his worldly possessions as he thought was commanded including his passport and money, Id, and credit cards. It is rumored he speaks something like German, perhaps Afrikaans, but masked with a strange self-invented language of his own perceived End of Days.
I was wondering, is their perhaps a Santiago Syndrome? Santiago is also blessed with an annual influx of thousands and thousands of people, tourists and pilgrims, some with very religious/spiritual motivations and expectations. I have met very disappointed pilgrims who were quite upset with the more mundane aspects of Santiago – an overcrowded and noisy pilgrims mass in the cathedral for example or the plethora of gift shops and overpriced restaurants (moneylenders they called it), people quite irritated and even infuriated but I have never seen one who went over the edge. Is there such a thing as a Santiago Syndrome?
For more on Jerusalem try : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerusalem_syndrome#Prevalence
I was wondering, is their perhaps a Santiago Syndrome? Santiago is also blessed with an annual influx of thousands and thousands of people, tourists and pilgrims, some with very religious/spiritual motivations and expectations. I have met very disappointed pilgrims who were quite upset with the more mundane aspects of Santiago – an overcrowded and noisy pilgrims mass in the cathedral for example or the plethora of gift shops and overpriced restaurants (moneylenders they called it), people quite irritated and even infuriated but I have never seen one who went over the edge. Is there such a thing as a Santiago Syndrome?
For more on Jerusalem try : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerusalem_syndrome#Prevalence