A private girl’s school in Indonesia was filled with screaming students in July of 2018 after one of them allegedly found herself “looking into the 'otherworld’", with “scenes of blood, gore and violence” swirling around her. 17 year-old Siti Nurannisaa said that this was followed by a vision of “the face of pure evil.”

Soon, at least 39 other students at the Islamic religious institution were in hysterics, fainting and crying out in fear and panic. Others, including teachers, claimed to have seen a “dark figure” lurking about the school campus. The educational authorities sent in Islamic spiritual leaders and counselors to perform exorcisms and calm those affected by the outbreak.

A long feature article at the BBC website describes the story and fascinating cultural background of the outbreak, and how beliefs in spiritual influences and even concepts like Islamic trickster entities known as the “djinn” contribute to this kind of “mass hysteria,” as some have dubbed the incident.

The image above is from a similar incident in India about a month ago.