In the late 1800s, in the remote logging camps of northern Maine, there was a group of French-Canadian lumberjacks who would obey any sudden command without conscious control.

Startle them and shout “Jump!” and they’d jump.

“Throw your axe!” and they’d hurl it, even if someone was in the way.

“Hit yourself!” and they’d strike their own face.

They had no choice. The response was involuntary, immediate, and uncontrollable.

They couldn’t stop themselves, even when they knew the command was dangerous or humiliating.

This wasn’t a prank. It wasn’t exaggeration. It was a documented medical condition observed and studied by neurologist George Miller Beard in 1878.

He called it “Jumping Frenchmen of Maine.”

And more than 140 years later, we still don’t fully understand what it was.

The Original Observations

Dr. George Beard, a prominent American neurologist, traveled to northern Maine in 1878 after hearing reports of lumberjacks with bizarre, exaggerated startle responses.

What he witnessed seemed impossible.

Here’s how Beard described it:

The startle response was extreme.

A sudden noise—a dropped tool, a loud shout, a hand slap—would trigger violent, exaggerated reactions: jumping, screaming, flailing.

Normal startle responses last a fraction of a second. These lasted much longer and were far more intense.

They would obey any command given during the startle.

This was the strangest part. If you startled them and immediately shouted a command—any command—they would obey it reflexively, without thought or hesitation.

“Strike!” and they’d hit the nearest person.

“Repeat what I say!” and they’d echo your words involuntarily, even if the words were nonsense or profane.

“Throw it!” and they’d hurl whatever they were holding, even if it was dangerous.

They couldn’t control it.

The affected men described feeling powerless to resist. It wasn’t a choice. Their bodies moved before their minds could intervene.

It was specific to certain individuals.

Not all French-Canadian lumberjacks had this condition—only certain men. It seemed to run in families and was most common among a specific demographic: French-Canadian loggers of a particular region and cultural background.

It persisted throughout their lives.

Affected men didn’t “outgrow” it. The condition remained consistent, and co-workers quickly learned to exploit it—sometimes cruelly—for entertainment.

How It Manifested

Beard documented specific examples:

Example 1: Involuntary Throwing

A logger was holding an axe. A co-worker snuck up behind him and shouted “Throw it!”

The logger immediately hurled the axe. It nearly struck another worker.

Afterward, the logger was horrified. He had no intention of throwing the axe. His body acted before his mind could stop it.

Example 2: Echolalia (Involuntary Repetition)

Someone startled a logger and shouted a string of obscene words.

The logger involuntarily repeated them, loudly, in front of a crowd.

He was mortified. He would never say such things intentionally. But his mouth spoke before he could control it.

Example 3: Striking Reflex

One affected man was startled while holding a knife. Someone shouted “Strike!”

He stabbed himself in the leg.

He couldn’t stop it. The command triggered an immediate motor response that bypassed conscious decision-making.

Example 4: Obedience to Absurd Commands

Beard tested this himself. He startled a logger and said, “Say ‘I am a donkey.’”

The man immediately repeated: “I am a donkey.”

Beard asked if he wanted to say that. The man said no. He didn’t know why he said it. He just did.

The Puzzle: Neurological or Cultural?

Beard concluded that “Jumping Frenchmen” was a neurological disorder—a pathological exaggeration of the normal startle reflex.

But over the next century, other researchers challenged that view.

Some argued it was culturally conditioned behavior, not a neurological disease.

Here’s the debate:

The Neurological Theory

Proponents argue:

  • The response was involuntary and uncontrollable. Affected individuals couldn’t suppress it.
  • It involved specific motor reflexes (jumping, throwing, hitting, repeating) that are characteristic of brainstem-level responses.
  • It persisted regardless of environment once developed.
  • Similar conditions have been observed in other cultures (Latah in Southeast Asia, Myriachit in Siberia), suggesting a cross-cultural neurological basis.

This theory suggests that Jumping Frenchmen had hyperactive startle pathways in the brainstem, possibly due to genetic predisposition or neurological dysfunction.

The Cultural/Learned Behavior Theory

Critics argue:

  • The condition was specific to a particular demographic—French-Canadian loggers in remote Maine camps. This suggests cultural or social conditioning.
  • Social expectations and role-playing could amplify normal startle responses into exaggerated displays.
  • The logging camps had a culture of rough humor and hazing. Affected men may have been conditioned over time to respond in exaggerated ways to startles.
  • Once labeled as “jumpers,” affected men may have internalized the role and unconsciously performed it when startled.

This theory suggests that Jumping Frenchmen was a learned, culturally reinforced behavior pattern, not a neurological disorder.

The Hybrid Theory

Some modern neurologists propose a middle ground:

  • A genetic or neurological predisposition to exaggerated startle responses exists in some individuals (possibly a variant of hyperekplexia, a known startle disorder).
  • Cultural conditioning in the logging camps amplified and shaped those responses into the specific pattern of involuntary obedience.

In this view, Jumping Frenchmen was both biological and cultural—a neurological vulnerability expressed in a specific social context.

What makes Jumping Frenchmen even more mysterious is that nearly identical conditions have been documented in completely different cultures.

Latah (Southeast Asia):

Observed primarily in Malaysia and Indonesia, “Latah” describes individuals (mostly women) who, when startled, exhibit:

  • Involuntary echolalia (repeating words)
  • Involuntary obedience to commands
  • Coprolalia (involuntary profanity)
  • Exaggerated startle responses

Sound familiar?

Myriachit (Siberia):

Among indigenous Siberian populations, “Myriachit” describes people who:

  • Jump violently when startled
  • Obey commands given during the startle
  • Repeat words involuntarily
  • Cannot suppress the response

Again, nearly identical to Jumping Frenchmen.

Imu (Ainu people of Japan):

“Imu” describes individuals who, when startled:

  • Imitate the actions of people around them
  • Obey sudden commands
  • Exhibit extreme startle responses

The fact that similar conditions appear across unrelated cultures suggests there may be a universal neurological substrate—some rare variation in how the human brain processes startle and command.

But the fact that they’re culturally specific within those regions suggests that cultural context shapes how the condition is expressed and perceived.

The Modern Medical Perspective

Today, most neurologists classify Jumping Frenchmen (and its cross-cultural variants) as hyperekplexia-related disorders or startle syndromes.

Hyperekplexia is a known genetic condition characterized by exaggerated startle responses. It involves mutations in genes that regulate glycine receptors in the brainstem.

In normal startle responses:

  1. A sudden stimulus triggers sensory neurons.
  2. The signal travels to the brainstem.
  3. Motor neurons activate a brief, protective startle reflex.
  4. The response is inhibited within milliseconds by inhibitory neurotransmitters.

In hyperekplexia:

  • The inhibitory system is impaired.
  • The startle response is exaggerated and prolonged.
  • The person may fall, flail, or freeze.

Jumping Frenchmen may have had a variant of hyperekplexia combined with a learned pattern of automatic obedience to commands issued during the vulnerable startle window.

Why Involuntary Obedience?

The most baffling part of Jumping Frenchmen is the command obedience.

Why would a startle reflex make you obey commands?

One theory: the startle response temporarily disables executive control.

During a startle, the brainstem takes over. Higher-level cognitive functions—planning, reasoning, inhibition—are momentarily bypassed.

In that brief window, a sudden command may be processed as a motor instruction rather than a request requiring deliberation.

The brain hears “Jump!” and the motor system executes it before the prefrontal cortex can evaluate whether it’s a good idea.

In most people, this window is tiny—milliseconds. In Jumping Frenchmen, it may have been extended, creating a longer period of automatic, unthinking obedience.

The Ethical Problem

Once co-workers realized they could make affected men obey commands, the potential for abuse was obvious.

Beard’s account mentions that loggers would exploit the condition for entertainment:

  • Startling men into dropping heavy tools.
  • Making them repeat embarrassing phrases.
  • Triggering involuntary actions for laughs.

Some affected men tried to avoid situations where they could be startled. Others became socially withdrawn.

Today, we’d recognize this as harassment and exploitation of a medical condition.

But in the rough culture of 1800s logging camps, it was seen as harmless teasing.

It wasn’t.

The Unanswered Questions

Despite 140+ years of study, Jumping Frenchmen of Maine remains unexplained.

We don’t know:

Was it a genetic neurological disorder?

If so, where is it now? Hyperekplexia still exists, but the specific “command obedience” pattern seen in Jumping Frenchmen is rarely reported today.

Was it culturally conditioned behavior?

If so, how did it produce such consistent, involuntary responses? Learned behaviors are usually more variable.

Why did it occur in that specific demographic?

French-Canadian loggers in northern Maine in the late 1800s. Why them? Why not other isolated groups in other regions?

Is it related to Latah, Myriachit, and Imu?

If yes, what is the universal neurological mechanism? If no, why are they so similar?

Could it happen today?

Are there people alive now with the same condition, undiagnosed or misidentified?

We don’t know.

The Legacy

Jumping Frenchmen of Maine is one of the few medical conditions where the cultural context may be as important as the neurology.

It shows that the brain’s responses aren’t just biological—they’re shaped by environment, expectation, and social conditioning.

A startle reflex is universal. But how we startle, what triggers it, and what we do when startled can be influenced by culture, habit, and expectation.

Jumping Frenchmen suggests that even involuntary reflexes can be molded by experience in ways we still don’t understand.

The Wondering

Imagine living with this condition.

Every sudden noise is a vulnerability. Every unexpected shout is a risk. You know people can make you do things you don’t want to do, and you can’t stop it.

You might hurt yourself. You might hurt others. You might humiliate yourself.

And you can’t control it.

You’re at the mercy of anyone willing to exploit your neurology for entertainment.

That was life for the Jumping Frenchmen.

And we still don’t know if it was a broken brain, a conditioned response, or some strange combination of both.

What we do know:

The line between reflex and choice is thinner than we think.

Control is something we assume until it’s taken away.

And the brain can be hijacked—by commands, by culture, or by its own misfiring circuits.

The Jumping Frenchmen showed us that.

We just don’t know exactly how.

Medical and Historical Sources:

  • Beard, G. M. (1878). “Experiments with the ‘Jumpers’ of Maine.” Popular Science Monthly, 13, 170-178.
  • Saint-Hilaire, M. H., Saint-Hilaire, J. M., & Granger, L. (1986). “Jumping Frenchmen of Maine.” Neurology, 36(9), 1269-1271.
  • Stevens, H. (1965). “Jumping Frenchmen of Maine.” Archives of Neurology, 12(3), 311-314.
  • Andermann, F., & Andermann, E. (1986). “Startle disorders of man: hyperekplexia, jumping, and startle epilepsy.” Brain and Development, 8(3), 213-222.
  • Simons, R. C. (1996). Boo!: Culture, Experience, and the Startle Reflex. Oxford University Press.

Next in the series: Dissociative Fugue States - When the mind erases identity and rewrites reality, sending people on journeys they won’t remember.