By James Donahue

We are sure readers are keenly aware of the rash of multiple murders and suicides that have occurred in recent weeks, but these events appear to be only the tip of a global social insanity that reflects a subconscious reaction to a cataclysmic change about to sweep over the planet.

A broad number of messengers, astrologers and self-proclaimed prophets are talking about an ascension that is about to affect everyone. Indeed, we see a breakdown in all forms of social order occurring everywhere. The global economic collapse is only part of the insanity. People are just not behaving in normal ways.

The shooting rampage by Michael McLendon that left 11 people dead in southern Alabama, and the strange shooting spree conducted by Tim Kretschmer, 17, that left 12 dead in his school in Winnenden, Germany, and three more dead outside the school before killing himself, are cases that have authorities perplexed. They say the two killers appeared to have had no apparent motive for their actions. Something in these young men just snapped.

Also Cuban immigrant Guillermo Lopez, 47, barged into a family gathering in Dade County near Miami on March 15, shooting four members of his family to death before turning the gun on himself. Police said he had argued with his wife.

And in February, Dannie Baker, 60, went on a strange shooting rampage against his Hispanic neighbors in a Miramar Beach townhouse. He killed two people and left three others injured before he was stopped. He called it a “revolution.”

These are among the more violent events that are making the news. The other signs are either so massive and mixed within the major political, economic and war news that we can’t see it, or tucked away on the inside pages where they hardly get noticed. The following are three such stories that caught our attention.

--In Nicaragua, people living in at least three indigenous communities along the Coco River have been stricken with what local medical people are calling Crazy Sickness. The symptoms include tremors, shaking, difficulty breathing, falling into a trance or looking dazed and sometimes failing to recognize where they are. Women and children appear to be affected more than others. Doctors, anthropologists and sociologists who can find no better explanation are calling it mass hysteria. The locals are calling it witchcraft.

--In Dakar, Senegal, Africa, the government of Dictator Yahya Jammeh ordered the forced arrests of about 1,000 people declared to be witches. Amnesty International, which is attempting to stop the foolishness, says most of the people arrested by police and a band of witch doctors imported from Guinea, were forced to drink an unknown hallucinogen. Jammeh, who took over the country in a coup in about 1994, also claims he can cure AIDS with a mixture of herbs and other substances.

--Most disturbing of all are the actions of Andre Thomas, a condemned Texas prison inmate who recently removed his only eye and ate it. He was sentenced to death after his conviction of the murder of his wife and four-year-old son and ripping their hearts out. He told police God told him to do it. A Texas appellate court last week ruled that Thomas is not crazy under Texas law and will be put to death.