An apparent phenomenon which occurred at a recent Lana Del Rey concert has left conspiracy theorists chomping at the bit.
Rey’s performance took place at the Foro Sol arena in Mexico City on August 15, but it wasn’t until the weekend that footage of the jaw-dropping occurrence exploded across social media.
Recordings of the incident show swathes of the crowd suddenly toppling to the ground after being hit by what viewers called a “mysterious energy wave”.
The bizarre sweep was filmed from numerous angles and, indeed, looks like a dramatic full-body Mexican wave involving hundreds of people.
X/Twitter users were quick to demand explanations for the strange happening and, inevitably, the responses came in thick and fast.
“Someone's TESTING something without informed consent,” one theorist suggested. “Probably crowd control device.”
“Evil spirits and demonic energy exists,” offered another ominously.
“I’ve seen Holy Spirit do this, as strange as this will sound to most,” wrote a third, who describes himself as a “Jesus Person”.
However, others were quick to shrug it off as just an example of the so-called “domino effect”.
This was explained by crowd science expert Keith Still, who told The Messenger: “It’s called a progressive crowd collapse, where the momentum of one person knocking into another, increases significantly.
“I think the phrase ‘domino effect’ is quite appropriate,” he added.
And yet, scores of viewers remained unconvinced by this idea.
“Progressive Crowd Falls do happen BUT NOT LIKE THIS,” responded one.
“Anyone who’s been to a big show can tell the difference,” they added.
“[One] big difference in my mind: when the progressive crowd thing happens it’s usually stopped when smaller people bump into the bigger people.
“This though, this looks like everyone was pushed nearly simultaneously. That doesn’t happen, like ever.”
Another agreed, saying: “I’ve been to hundreds of gigs before, never seen this.”
Meanwhile, most people accepted the logical explanation.
“Some girl was interviewed and said a person up near the front was crawling on the ground looking for something, caused a few people right above them to fall backwards into the tightly packed crowd causing a domino effect,” wrote one.
And others joked that the crowd had simply been bowled over by the power of Rey’s voice.
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