article_snippet.sent: First identified in 2000,  psychologists noted religious pilgrims overcome with excitement at being in close proximity to Jerusalembelieved religious pilgrims were Biblical characters.
article_snippet.sent: Declaration of the desire to split away from the group or the family and to tour Jerusalem alone.
article_snippet.sent: The first included individuals were found to strongly identify with characters from the Old and New Testament.
article_snippet.sent: the study referenced one example of an American tourist suffering paranoid schizophrenia, who believed he was the biblical character Samson.
article_snippet.sent: Researchers cited the case of a healthy German man who was obsessed with finding the 'true' religion, and travelled to Jerusalem to study Judaism.
article_snippet.sent: he ended up suffering a psychotic episode in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, built on the site where Jesus is believed to have been crucified and buried.
article_snippet.sent: One example was of an American tourist suffering paranoid schizophrenia, who believed Jesus was the biblical character Samson.
article_snippet.sent: Despite the study, the notion of Jerusalem has been condemned by a number of experts.