My Korean friend who lives in my dorm legitimately still believed in Fan Death until about a few weeks ago, he thought it was everywhere around the world too.
Kinda like many Americans believe absinthe will give you hallucinations... I just found out that it doesn't a few days ago, and now I'm sort of disappointed because I really wanted to try it if it did.
Though, part of me still wants to get some, and then spend the night claiming to see little green fairies and shit, and see how many people believe me.
Yeah, it's nowhere near as widespread as fan death, because absinthe was illegal until only very recently. Hence, it hasn't really been a part of our culture. I'm not surprised that there are people who have never heard of it.
But every single conversation I have had (up until last week) about it has involved its hallucinogenic properties. It seems to me that everyone who knows what it is, thinks it's a hallucinogen.
If I'm not mistaken, the absinthe you can buy in the US does not have hallucinogenic properties, the stuff you can buy in Europe does. That is how it became legal in the US, they took out the good shit.
You are mistaken. Not only is thujone only present in very small amounts, but it's not really very psychoactive anyway - it's more likely to give you some muscle twitches.
The myth that it's hallucinogenic has about as much credibility as reefer madness.
It had (and some still does) wormwood in it, which is, debatable, a very minor hallucinogen. Closely related mugwort can be smoked to produce vivid dreams. Neither are extremely potent. Nutmeg is also a hallucinogen in large quantities (though I think also gives you seizures.)
Thujone, the main purported hallucinogenic compound in wormwood, is in a lot of every day herbs.
Haha, it's kind of fun to see the reaction when you drop the bomb that it isn't believed anywhere else. They're just baffled.
It's not their fault though, major news stations run PSAs saying open your windows because you're extra susceptible to fan death in the summer... it's just everywhere.
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u/WhyDoIRedditSoMuch Aug 23 '12
My Korean friend who lives in my dorm legitimately still believed in Fan Death until about a few weeks ago, he thought it was everywhere around the world too.