Does beheading hurt? And, if so, for how long is the severed head aware of its plight?


Yes, beheading hurts. How much depends on the executioner's skill, or lack of it....

A particularly detailed report comes from Dr Beaurieux who, under perfect circumstances, experimented with the head of the murderer Languille, guillotined at 5.30 am on 28 June, 1905. (From A History of the Guillotine by Alister Kershaw. His source is Archives d'Anthropologie Criminelle, 1905):

"Here, then, is what I was able to note immediately after the decapitation: the eyelids and lips of the guillotined man worked in irregularly rhythmic contractions for about five or six seconds . . . I waited for several seconds. The spasmodic movements ceased. The face relaxed, the lids half closed on the eyeballs, leaving only the white of the conjunctiva visible, exactly as in the dying whom we have occasion to see every day in the exercise of our profession, or as in those just dead. It was then that I called in a strong, sharp voice: 'Languille!' I saw the eyelids slowly lift up, without any spasmodic contractions . . . Next Languille's eyes very definitely fixed themselves on mine and the pupils focused themselves . . . After several seconds, the eyelids closed again, slowly and evenly, and the head took on the same appearance as it had had before I called out.

"It was at that point that I called out again and, once more, without any spasm, slowly, the eyelids lifted and undeniably living eyes fixed themselves on mine with perhaps even more penetration than the first time. Then there was a further closing of the eyelids, but now less complete. I attempted the effect of a third call; there was no further movement and the eyes took on the glazed look which they have in the dead.

"I have just recounted to you with rigorous exactness what I was able to observe. The whole thing had lasted twenty-five to thirty seconds."

interesting It's kinda hard to believe, but the brain can manage without oxygen for a "long time". But that the person remained perfectly lucid, or at least enough to react to his own name even after the very blood that would carry oxygen to his brain was draining out of his skull is pretty unbelievable.

Yes but there are many more accounts of a head or recently behead reacting to outside influence at a timezone of 20 /30 seconds after said detachment from torso so it seems conscious/awareness may be present after said act. Huh not a nice thought if ever one was to get beheaded. Maybe the brain can survive just those seconds longer and take even more punishment with awareness of what has actually happened perhaps for a reason.

As soon as I saw the title I thought aah a chance for me to tell the Languille story, but then it was about that anyway

Have any of you read 'Different Seasons' by Stephen King? It contains 4 short stories, three that have been filmed (Shawshank Redemption, Stand by Me, Apt Pupil) but the last one is about an incident just like this. I heard they were planning to film it... would be cool.

I read it a long time ago, what is the last story called in it again?

Well I suspect that if the head gets removed - the brain will compensate for as long as possible - its Interesting

Krug: The Breathing Method

All I can add to this tale is my personal experiences, not with decapitation, but with near death shit. Some of you may be aware I did have a heart defect, now thankfully corrected, that caused dangerously fast tachycardia, now the only way to correct this, before the operation, was an injection of some chemical that actually stopped my heart for anything upto 40 seconds.

I shall now elaborate on my experiences during this moment of near death, my whole body went limp, no muscles would work, altho I had some control of my eyes and eyelids, nothing else. ALso, I had this huge sensation of calm, like nothing I ever experinced before or since. There was no panic, just perfect clarity to my thoughts, a most strange, and yet comforting sensation I must say.

I suppose I could say I was lucky enough to experience this around 10 times before the spoil sports corrected the problem.

Its that eyelid thing - theres a pattern developing.

Hahahaha in the movie Reanimator the beheaded dude seemed to live a longer with his decapitated head hahahha



But yeah kinda sick story, thinking that one is still aware for like 30 seconds what happens aaahhh pretty sicko, not to mention the intense pain one is experiencing

I doubt you'd be able to experience much pain...

I dunno, as pain is a thing which is controlled within the brain. at least that's what the told me

The brain receives signals that something is wrong, and in the case of beheading something is very wrong and missing

You'd have no nervous system left with which to "feel" the pain though, so you would feel nothing.

I've got a problem with my nerves which (when I get attacks) the symptoms vary, but once I could feel NO pain at all down the right hand side of my body (which was weird!), the only reason you feel ANY physical sensation is your nerves. No nerves, no pain

To the best of my knowledge that's not quite true, you would feel constant pain to be more accurate, when your nervous system is cut off from the rest of the body, it would no longer receive any signals, and in this situation the nervous system puts out a 'pain' signal.

No one of course would know, but my best guesstimate would be a constant pain at the back of the head (where the central nervous system is located).

It is the same as losing a limb which is apparantly agony at the point at which it is removed (which is why people normally pass out).

Although no1 knows, I doubt it could be argued as being humane. I hear that the only thing that is near to humane is the leathal injection, because you don't feel any pain, you fall asleep.

That's what i was thinking of yeah.
Incridible Headache, but nottin tranquilizers couldn't fix

Hahhahaha sicko, no really i think you will experience extreme torture. The brain is goiin bezerk of all the impulses it tries to "understand" ahhhhh.............................
This shit makes me never want to loose my head LOL

Once this chick almost beheaded me ... boy did that hurt so yes it does hurt!

it was sore for a week .. hurt when i peed

oh and wondering why I think that, I was reading a medical journal about people loosing limbs. There was lots of freaky things so I wanted to check up on it

I once saw a goose get it's head chopped off. The body ran around the yard for a few seconds.

I am sure this poor chaps eyes are blinking for a few seconds after the chop.

http://www.ogrish.com/iraq_index.htm

Beheading Video Of 'Egyptian Spy' Mohammed Mutawalli
http://ogrish.com/movies/ogrish-dot-com ... -video.wmv

Direct link may not work so go to iraq_index.htm and download from there.