WEBVTT - SYSK Selects: Do you stay conscious after being decapitated? 0:00:00.240 --> 0:00:04.960 Hi there, everybody. It's me Josh, your friend Josh, and 0:00:05.080 --> 0:00:10.280 this week I've selected do You Really Stay Conscious After Decapitation? 0:00:10.880 --> 0:00:15.320 It was one of our top three grizzliest episodes we've 0:00:15.360 --> 0:00:19.640 ever done. We talked in depth about what it's like 0:00:19.720 --> 0:00:22.560 to have your head cut off, and it's a pretty 0:00:22.600 --> 0:00:25.279 grim but it's also, in my opinion, one of the 0:00:25.320 --> 0:00:28.120 most interesting ones we've ever done. So if you are 0:00:28.320 --> 0:00:31.040 fain of heart or week of stomach, skip this one 0:00:31.080 --> 0:00:33.760 if you like, But I dare you to listen anyway, 0:00:33.840 --> 0:00:38.800 because it is that good. Welcome to Stuff you should 0:00:38.840 --> 0:00:47.720 know from house Stuff Works dot com. Hey, and welcome 0:00:47.760 --> 0:00:50.760 to the podcast on Josh Clark. There is Charles W. 0:00:51.080 --> 0:00:54.920 Chuck Bryant asleep at the mic. Wake up, Chuck. I couldn't. 0:00:54.920 --> 0:00:56.600 I could fall asleep right now. That's try with you, 0:00:56.840 --> 0:01:00.880 is it, Paul? It's just a means to sweepy. Are 0:01:00.920 --> 0:01:03.600 you you have a long night last night? Yeah? I 0:01:03.640 --> 0:01:06.440 haven't been sleeping that great really. Plus I got the 0:01:06.440 --> 0:01:08.560 window open because the weather so nice, but that means 0:01:09.000 --> 0:01:11.280 I hear birds in traffic really early, so I've been 0:01:11.319 --> 0:01:14.400 waking up at like six fifteen. Yeah, I hate that. 0:01:14.720 --> 0:01:18.440 I hate those birds, the early birds catching their worms? 0:01:18.440 --> 0:01:20.760 Are you don't stupid happy songs? Yeah? I don't like 0:01:20.800 --> 0:01:23.960 that either. I had a weird, uncomfortable dream last night. 0:01:23.959 --> 0:01:26.280 I was trying to rent a car and everything was 0:01:26.319 --> 0:01:28.800 sold out because Texas A and M was in some 0:01:28.840 --> 0:01:32.280 sort of crazy championship and there's like five thousand people 0:01:32.280 --> 0:01:34.120 there and they'd rented all the cars. So I had 0:01:34.160 --> 0:01:36.240 to stand around and wait until somebody brought a car 0:01:36.319 --> 0:01:38.720 back and jump on that. And there's like twelve other 0:01:38.760 --> 0:01:42.440 people doing the same thing. It was kind of no idea, 0:01:42.480 --> 0:01:45.320 why out of nowhere? Huh, I thought, at least to 0:01:45.440 --> 0:01:52.120 be ut No, so chuck, so weird, you know you 0:01:52.160 --> 0:01:55.960 know what that was? That was an example. Dreams in 0:01:56.040 --> 0:02:00.400 general are example of my neural networks. Whatever I learned 0:02:00.480 --> 0:02:04.040 or thought of that that day, um or something and 0:02:04.160 --> 0:02:07.160 jogged my memory. Whatever. There's a there's an idea that 0:02:07.280 --> 0:02:12.040 dreams are the basically your brain strengthening neural networks by 0:02:12.080 --> 0:02:16.080 stimulating different ones, basically doing some some PaperWorks, some sorting 0:02:16.080 --> 0:02:18.560 while your body sleeping. Yeah, we still haven't done our 0:02:18.960 --> 0:02:22.040 Deluxe Dream podcast. We haven't. Somebody asked for it recently. 0:02:22.560 --> 0:02:24.320 I think we're I think we're getting more and more 0:02:24.360 --> 0:02:29.320 prepared to it's coming. Okay, But um, that idea is 0:02:29.560 --> 0:02:33.520 kind of is based on um one of well, it's 0:02:33.560 --> 0:02:35.639 one of the things that's based on what a guy 0:02:35.720 --> 0:02:39.200 named Francis Crick, who you'll remember was one of the 0:02:39.240 --> 0:02:42.680 co discoverers of the structure d n A. Yeah, he 0:02:42.760 --> 0:02:45.959 was the d right. I don't know you're thinking of 0:02:46.080 --> 0:02:50.680 rutten day. Um. He later later on in his career 0:02:50.919 --> 0:02:54.000 really got into the idea of this thing called the 0:02:54.040 --> 0:02:58.400 astonishing hypothesis. But it is it's a little depressing if 0:02:58.400 --> 0:03:00.560 you ask me. We've talked about it before. I think 0:03:00.560 --> 0:03:04.240 we talked about a mirror neurons. But the astonishing hypothesis 0:03:04.320 --> 0:03:09.880 is essentially that all of our thoughts, are dreams, are beliefs, 0:03:09.919 --> 0:03:14.840 our hopes, are fears, are connections to others. Every aspect 0:03:14.880 --> 0:03:21.639 of the human experience is based on neurons and their excitement. Right. 0:03:21.960 --> 0:03:27.000 And he said, quite famously, quote, uh, you're nothing but 0:03:27.120 --> 0:03:32.880 a bowl of neurons or pack. Okay, but I said, quote, yeah, 0:03:33.200 --> 0:03:38.040 so you're just rewriting about a sack of neurons like that, 0:03:38.080 --> 0:03:40.680 a fistful of neurons. Oh god, that's awesome, thank you. 0:03:41.200 --> 0:03:42.920 That's a band name. I knew you were going to 0:03:43.040 --> 0:03:45.880 say that full of neurons. Yeah, someone's gonna go be 0:03:46.000 --> 0:03:50.680 that now. Yes. So as as at the basis of 0:03:50.720 --> 0:03:54.440 all of this is the is the neurotransmitter, right, yes, 0:03:54.600 --> 0:03:57.800 which is an electrochemical compound that depending on what kind 0:03:57.800 --> 0:04:01.600 of neuron is excited or what what compound is passed 0:04:01.640 --> 0:04:04.760 from synaps to synaps, right, you're going to have a 0:04:04.800 --> 0:04:07.680 different kind of experience. But all these experiences are based 0:04:07.760 --> 0:04:13.200 on these electrochemical reactions in in your neural networks. So 0:04:13.360 --> 0:04:16.320 you have one one neuron exciting another and they become 0:04:16.320 --> 0:04:17.919 connected and it goes on and on, and then you 0:04:17.920 --> 0:04:21.680 have a neural network that's associated with fear or fear 0:04:21.720 --> 0:04:24.200 of bears. More specifically, you see a bear and it's 0:04:24.200 --> 0:04:26.920 excited because you stored this neural network as a memory, 0:04:27.600 --> 0:04:32.960 and that's consciousness, that's being alive. As they say, right, 0:04:33.279 --> 0:04:35.279 it kind of takes the mystery out of life to 0:04:35.480 --> 0:04:37.520 a certain extent. An you think, yeah, but it also 0:04:37.640 --> 0:04:40.720 and that's a great set up too for this and also, um, 0:04:40.760 --> 0:04:42.120 you know, as long as you can measure that and 0:04:42.160 --> 0:04:44.080 you can measure those brain waves that means there's something 0:04:44.080 --> 0:04:46.160 going on there, right, because we have we do have 0:04:46.240 --> 0:04:50.440 machines called electro en cephalographs e g s that measure 0:04:50.560 --> 0:04:53.440 the electrical activity in your head, and we've determined science 0:04:53.440 --> 0:04:56.680 has come to agree that there's a strong enough correlation 0:04:56.800 --> 0:05:00.279 between somebody going, hey, why is this thing on my 0:05:00.320 --> 0:05:05.040 head um and electrical activity while it's happening that when 0:05:05.080 --> 0:05:08.960 we detect this electrical activity, we're saying this person is conscious, right, 0:05:09.279 --> 0:05:11.479 right right, And that is a great way to set 0:05:11.560 --> 0:05:14.240 up a study that was performed in the Netherlands. He's 0:05:14.279 --> 0:05:18.760 wacky Dutch at the red red bowed. I'm sure that's 0:05:18.760 --> 0:05:21.440 not pronounced correctly. I would say rod Bood rod Bood 0:05:21.560 --> 0:05:27.080 University and the Netherlands in the nes h it's that word. 0:05:27.279 --> 0:05:33.040 I know. It's a lot of nitten him, nimigan, nimogen, 0:05:33.360 --> 0:05:36.360 nije m. That's what I'm going with. And that's one 0:05:36.360 --> 0:05:38.560 of the easier looking Dutch towards us to go over 0:05:38.600 --> 0:05:42.080 their aunt's crazy. Um. So they did this. You know 0:05:42.160 --> 0:05:44.520 when you when you work with lab rats that sometimes 0:05:44.560 --> 0:05:46.920 you have to put them to death. And what they 0:05:46.960 --> 0:05:50.160 do is they chump their little heads off because they 0:05:50.360 --> 0:05:52.839 you know, that's a quicken, speedy way to to kill something. 0:05:53.360 --> 0:05:54.800 So they thought, you know, we might want to do 0:05:54.880 --> 0:05:56.760 some test to see if this is actually a humane 0:05:57.080 --> 0:05:59.120 way of doing this, which is what they thought it 0:05:59.160 --> 0:06:02.360 all along, which is why they decapitate rats and other 0:06:02.480 --> 0:06:05.919 lab animals, is because it's assumed that's humane. These Dutch 0:06:05.920 --> 0:06:08.479 researchers saying, well, wait a minute, is it. Let's find 0:06:08.480 --> 0:06:11.400 out I would think smothering one with a tiny pillow 0:06:11.680 --> 0:06:14.760 while petting it, Yeah, while stroking it. I've thought about 0:06:14.800 --> 0:06:18.160 that too. But fear, Yeah, sure, because I think we 0:06:18.200 --> 0:06:22.320 should probably define humane here. Humane is probably the absence 0:06:22.360 --> 0:06:25.000 of fear and pain. It's a humane way to kill 0:06:25.080 --> 0:06:27.640 something on purpose. Yeah right, those are probably the two 0:06:27.640 --> 0:06:30.960 things I would want cut out of my death, fear 0:06:30.960 --> 0:06:33.120 and pain. So um, they did this. They performed these 0:06:33.120 --> 0:06:36.640 tests on rats, attached them to the little e g s, 0:06:36.680 --> 0:06:39.360 cut off their heads, and they found that the brain 0:06:39.440 --> 0:06:43.839 continue to operate uh generate electrical activity between thirteen and 0:06:43.880 --> 0:06:48.840 a hundred hurts frequency, which is that means thought and consciousness, right, 0:06:48.920 --> 0:06:52.159 study of electrical activity in the brain. We found that 0:06:52.400 --> 0:06:56.160 within that band, that frequency band, those frequent stands that's 0:06:56.279 --> 0:07:00.240 when you're thinking and feeling and saying, what is going on? Right? 0:07:00.320 --> 0:07:02.960 Why is my lifeless body over there without my head on? Right? 0:07:03.080 --> 0:07:06.360 For about four seconds and then lights out? Yeah, lights out? 0:07:06.360 --> 0:07:09.400 And then I think after about another fifty seconds or 0:07:09.440 --> 0:07:12.600 something forty or fifty seconds, there was one last burst. 0:07:14.240 --> 0:07:17.400 It wasn't exactly lights back on. It was like the 0:07:17.400 --> 0:07:21.880 the end of everything in one last point. But there 0:07:21.960 --> 0:07:24.520 was nothing between those that indicated consciousness. It was just 0:07:24.560 --> 0:07:28.480 like everything was gone after about fifty seconds, but four 0:07:28.560 --> 0:07:34.840 seconds consciousness, which brings us to capital punishment capital. Uh. 0:07:34.960 --> 0:07:36.680 The way they came up with that originally is from 0:07:36.680 --> 0:07:39.480 the Latin term cut put um, which means head. So 0:07:39.560 --> 0:07:44.120 decapitation was where capital punisiments derived from decapitation. That's exactly right. 0:07:44.160 --> 0:07:47.040 And so now we can talk about humans losing their heads. 0:07:47.120 --> 0:07:49.760 Well yeah, because as we said, um, a humane way 0:07:49.800 --> 0:07:54.760 of executing something or dispatching something um is to take 0:07:54.800 --> 0:08:00.600 fear and pain out of it, right. Yeah. And this, 0:08:00.800 --> 0:08:03.760 this study of these rats suggests that hold on. I 0:08:03.800 --> 0:08:06.840 want everybody to do this, right. I want you to 0:08:06.880 --> 0:08:10.640 look around, to think, to feel, to listen. Well, I 0:08:10.720 --> 0:08:17.160 count four seconds off you're ready? One, two, three, four, 0:08:18.440 --> 0:08:20.280 took a lot in just then, didn't you a lot 0:08:20.320 --> 0:08:22.600 more than I'd be comfortable taking in with my head 0:08:22.680 --> 0:08:25.280 not attached to my body exactly. So here's the This 0:08:25.360 --> 0:08:28.200 is why the rat the rat study is so disturbing 0:08:28.200 --> 0:08:30.560 because it suggests that after your head is cut off, 0:08:32.040 --> 0:08:34.560 you are still very much aware of what's going on 0:08:34.720 --> 0:08:37.679 and can think and feel and be terrified. Right, yes, 0:08:37.720 --> 0:08:39.200 and you know I read. I wish I had a 0:08:39.200 --> 0:08:41.240 better source for this, but I did find one doctor 0:08:41.360 --> 0:08:45.760 that firmly believes that there's a lot of pain associated 0:08:45.800 --> 0:08:50.160 with a decapitation. Execution by decapitation, maybe not for long, 0:08:50.200 --> 0:08:52.360 but he's like, I don't know about this painless thing, 0:08:52.520 --> 0:08:57.280 right well, and long before um this Dutch study was published, people, 0:08:57.679 --> 0:09:01.480 people have long suspected like this, you're still conscious after 0:09:01.520 --> 0:09:04.439 you're decapitated for a little while. Right, let's talk about 0:09:04.520 --> 0:09:06.840 decapitation first. I want to give a shout out to 0:09:06.960 --> 0:09:09.600 our buddy Alan Bellows from Damn Interesting, who wrote a 0:09:09.600 --> 0:09:12.440 great article as well. You know him that, Um, yeah, 0:09:12.480 --> 0:09:15.280 he he emails with us sometimes, Okay, yeah, um, he 0:09:15.320 --> 0:09:18.320 wrote one called lucid decapitation that I used this source 0:09:18.360 --> 0:09:20.320 for this. It's great. I read that today too. Yes, 0:09:21.080 --> 0:09:24.800 um so, chuck, let's let's do talk about a history 0:09:24.840 --> 0:09:28.360 of head loss as it were, and not losing one's 0:09:28.360 --> 0:09:31.760 head isn't losing one's cool. No, do you mean Chopper style, 0:09:32.200 --> 0:09:34.520 although you do probably lose your cool when you lose 0:09:34.559 --> 0:09:37.280 your head and you're still conscious. We'll find out. Uh 0:09:37.280 --> 0:09:40.840 in the biblical uh apocrypha, I love that word. Uh. 0:09:40.880 --> 0:09:43.320 There's a widow named Judith. She cut off the head 0:09:43.320 --> 0:09:49.240 of an Assyrian general name Holofer needs and uh he 0:09:49.320 --> 0:09:51.120 was he was a bad guy, laying seized her town. 0:09:51.200 --> 0:09:54.840 She cut his head off. Romans just sduced him and 0:09:54.880 --> 0:09:56.760 then cut his head off. Well, that's the way to 0:09:56.760 --> 0:10:00.480 do it, especially if you're a biblical widow. Right. The 0:10:00.559 --> 0:10:03.840 Romans did that to um their own because they thought 0:10:03.880 --> 0:10:06.319 it was a better and more painless way than crucifixion, 0:10:06.320 --> 0:10:08.880 which they did to outsiders, which is not a very 0:10:08.920 --> 0:10:12.240 nice way to die. I'm at evil Europe obviously all 0:10:12.320 --> 0:10:15.720 kinds of people from the ruling class, the peasants. And 0:10:15.960 --> 0:10:21.360 uh today it still happens in a few Middle Eastern countries. Yeah, Qatar, 0:10:21.720 --> 0:10:27.959 Yemen ran, most prominently Saudi Arabia. Seeing what was the 0:10:28.000 --> 0:10:32.120 fahrenheight nine eleven. There's footage of like a um, somebody 0:10:32.160 --> 0:10:34.280 being beheaded in public and Saudi Arabia and like the 0:10:34.360 --> 0:10:37.240 late nineties, did they use the sword? Yeah, I really yep, 0:10:37.720 --> 0:10:43.559 the schmidtar and Josh, they're also the extra judicial judicial um, 0:10:43.600 --> 0:10:46.480 like when you know, a journalist is captured and beheaded 0:10:46.480 --> 0:10:48.679 by a group of guerrillas, and that's not like they 0:10:48.679 --> 0:10:51.200 don't use a sword or a guillotine. Is really gruesome, Yes, 0:10:51.840 --> 0:10:55.800 it's extremely gruesome. That's right. That's why um, most modern 0:10:55.920 --> 0:11:00.440 cultures UM have come to the conclusion that beheading is 0:11:01.200 --> 0:11:06.120 um extremely barbaric. It's an extremely painful way to die 0:11:06.320 --> 0:11:08.760 and I imagine probably one of the more terrifying ways 0:11:08.800 --> 0:11:12.240 to die too. UM. But it took a while for 0:11:12.240 --> 0:11:14.960 everybody to come to that conclusion, right, Yeah, And you 0:11:15.000 --> 0:11:17.320 mentioned Saudi Arabia is one of the main countries they 0:11:17.440 --> 0:11:20.560 they have Uh, I guess you would call very qualified 0:11:20.880 --> 0:11:24.640 swordsman to do this, but other places they're not so 0:11:24.760 --> 0:11:28.000 qualified and it doesn't go as smoothly. Sometimes there's like 0:11:28.040 --> 0:11:30.840 some chopping has to go on, which is not ideal. 0:11:30.920 --> 0:11:33.600 And one of the reasons why um it is an 0:11:33.640 --> 0:11:37.040 ideal is because it takes chopping, or it did for 0:11:37.160 --> 0:11:40.080 many many centuries, because you had to either do it 0:11:40.120 --> 0:11:43.680 with a knife, which was really like not a beheading. 0:11:43.679 --> 0:11:46.480 It was more cutting someone's head off over the course 0:11:46.480 --> 0:11:50.080 of a few minutes probably, or you could try to 0:11:50.120 --> 0:11:52.839 behead somebody with an axe or a sword, and those 0:11:52.840 --> 0:11:57.679 are the two favored implements used for state sanctioned executions. Right. 0:11:58.679 --> 0:12:02.000 But like you said, some cultures like Saudi Arabia today, 0:12:02.200 --> 0:12:04.880 you have to be um, you're a very highly trained, 0:12:04.920 --> 0:12:09.720 highly skilled headsman, is what it's called. Um. In other cultures, 0:12:09.760 --> 0:12:12.000 you could have also doubled as the guy who like 0:12:12.160 --> 0:12:15.120 pulled the lever on the gallows and you had no 0:12:15.240 --> 0:12:18.000 extra training. Maybe you've done it once before, maybe you hadn't. 0:12:18.600 --> 0:12:21.720 So for the most part, when you were beheaded, most 0:12:21.760 --> 0:12:23.880 likely it was going to take more than one blow, 0:12:24.679 --> 0:12:30.480 and um, you're going to feel it. Yes, then everything changed. Yes, 0:12:30.640 --> 0:12:34.240 the guillotine, Yes, chuck him. The fact of well one 0:12:34.280 --> 0:12:37.760 of the facts of this, uh this podcast. Yeah, I've 0:12:37.800 --> 0:12:39.360 always heard, and I think a lot of people have 0:12:39.400 --> 0:12:44.040 always heard. The guillotine was named after Joseph Guillotine, the 0:12:44.080 --> 0:12:46.599 inventor of the guillotine. He was not the inventor of 0:12:46.640 --> 0:12:48.679 the guillotine. No, it was named after him. It was 0:12:48.800 --> 0:12:50.320 named after him, But he was not the invitor. He 0:12:50.360 --> 0:12:53.480 was the champion of the guillotine as a humane method 0:12:53.480 --> 0:12:57.640 of execution. Yeah he was. He a doctor, Yeah he was. 0:12:57.760 --> 0:13:02.240 He was a French physician of the revolution. Um. Another 0:13:02.320 --> 0:13:06.000 doctor named Antoine Louis was the one who actually invented it, 0:13:06.000 --> 0:13:09.520 and Joseph Ignas guillotine Um had a lot more power 0:13:09.559 --> 0:13:12.920 in Cloud and said, this invention is awesome. It's going 0:13:13.000 --> 0:13:17.120 to allow us to kill people more humanely but also 0:13:17.160 --> 0:13:21.520 more quickly. And that actually led inadvertently, if you know, 0:13:21.600 --> 0:13:24.320 the guillotine started out to be a humane method of execution, 0:13:24.880 --> 0:13:28.520 UM to what's called the Reign of Terror. Yeah. I 0:13:28.520 --> 0:13:32.359 think you said thirty thousand people, uh, hit the guillotine 0:13:32.360 --> 0:13:34.280 in one year, in less than a year, actually, in 0:13:34.360 --> 0:13:36.800 thirty thousand is one of the lower estimates of it. 0:13:36.840 --> 0:13:39.199 I've seen up to like fifty or sixty thousand people. 0:13:39.480 --> 0:13:42.280 It's just like they're like, oh, great, well, here's a 0:13:42.400 --> 0:13:46.480 machine of execution and we're going to basically turn it 0:13:46.480 --> 0:13:49.280 into the end of the assembly line. Yeah. It's you know, 0:13:49.559 --> 0:13:51.360 for those of you who don't know what a guillotine 0:13:51.440 --> 0:13:54.400 is a little odd because they're all over the place 0:13:54.400 --> 0:13:57.680 and cartoons even in in pop culture. But it's a 0:13:57.679 --> 0:14:00.960 big it's a tall, like fourteen ft tall at the 0:14:01.040 --> 0:14:03.480 at the top, yes, fourteen, and it and it drops 0:14:03.520 --> 0:14:06.040 a large blade that's held in a track, so it 0:14:06.080 --> 0:14:09.800 goes straight down. How have you? So the blade, the 0:14:09.840 --> 0:14:12.319 blade itself has a weight at the top, you can see, 0:14:12.360 --> 0:14:14.920 it's like an iron bar. And then the angle blade 0:14:15.240 --> 0:14:19.400 right diagonal blade. They those two things combined way about 0:14:19.400 --> 0:14:24.440 a hundred seventy The mouton is the weight. Yeah, So 0:14:24.480 --> 0:14:28.240 this puppy slides down very fast at fourteen from fourteen 0:14:28.240 --> 0:14:31.120 feet in its track very precisely gets the back of 0:14:31.160 --> 0:14:34.160 your neck. It's very sharp, and that generally means your 0:14:34.200 --> 0:14:36.440 head will probably just fall straight down into the little 0:14:36.480 --> 0:14:41.080 peach basket right ideally right now, if you are um, 0:14:41.120 --> 0:14:44.040 if you were beheaded prior to the invention of the guillotine, 0:14:44.160 --> 0:14:47.320 right this podcast, And also I have to say, like 0:14:47.440 --> 0:14:51.320 you're you're right, everybody knows what a guillotine looks like 0:14:51.600 --> 0:14:54.640 to a certain extent. It wasn't until I wrote this 0:14:54.720 --> 0:14:57.400 and was doing research for it that I really actually 0:14:57.440 --> 0:15:02.320 looked at the actual guillotine, the whole assembly, right, I mean, 0:15:02.320 --> 0:15:06.360 look at that thing. That monster is horrific, and it's 0:15:06.400 --> 0:15:09.000 like that's used by the state, and that's how you 0:15:09.040 --> 0:15:11.440 are going to die. You're going to lose your head. 0:15:11.840 --> 0:15:16.960 And Victor Hugo famously said that, um, a person can 0:15:17.160 --> 0:15:19.800 have a certain indifference on the death penalty as long 0:15:19.840 --> 0:15:22.440 as one has not seen a guillotine with one's own eyes, 0:15:23.440 --> 0:15:25.640 which is I think very true. It's pretty easy to 0:15:25.680 --> 0:15:27.840 talk a tough game about things like this until you 0:15:27.880 --> 0:15:30.880 actually see it go down exactly. So yeah, So the 0:15:30.920 --> 0:15:34.520 guillotine what it does is knows most notably is it 0:15:34.560 --> 0:15:38.720 deprives your brain of oxygen and blood right your your 0:15:38.760 --> 0:15:43.120 circulatory system. It's a closed system, right, so it's it's 0:15:43.160 --> 0:15:46.160 based on um pressure. Your heart is pumping the blood 0:15:46.160 --> 0:15:49.360 throughout the body. It passes by, the lungs drops off 0:15:49.400 --> 0:15:51.560 c O two, which you exhale, It takes in oxygen, 0:15:51.560 --> 0:15:53.680 which you inhale, and then the whole thing goes again. Right, 0:15:54.600 --> 0:15:56.560 as long as the system is closed and the hearts, 0:15:56.920 --> 0:16:00.960 the hearts beating, and the lungs are transferring, um uh, 0:16:01.000 --> 0:16:04.760 you're fine. Once you take a head off. You have 0:16:04.920 --> 0:16:09.040 opened this closed system, and eventually the heart's going to 0:16:09.200 --> 0:16:12.800 just pump everything out of the neck and whatever was 0:16:12.840 --> 0:16:14.600 in the head at that time is going to come out, 0:16:14.960 --> 0:16:18.480 and the brain, starved of oxygen and blood, starts to 0:16:18.720 --> 0:16:22.480 degrade very quickly. It's processes start to degrade right now. 0:16:22.520 --> 0:16:27.240 If you are at the hands of a hack literally 0:16:27.960 --> 0:16:31.160 headsman right who doesn't notice do and he's got a 0:16:31.200 --> 0:16:34.680 blunt blade, he's hungover, who knows he's gonna take your 0:16:34.680 --> 0:16:39.360 head off. It's good. It's gonna take a few what 0:16:39.560 --> 0:16:43.560 is the disco I okay, it's gonna take it's gonna 0:16:43.640 --> 0:16:48.120 take a few um hacks, and you're going to bleed out, 0:16:48.120 --> 0:16:51.520 probably before your head comes off. Not so with the guillotine. 0:16:51.840 --> 0:16:55.200 It is that very precise. It comes right down, It 0:16:55.280 --> 0:16:57.200 takes your head right off, and then there's a little 0:16:57.200 --> 0:17:00.320 wooden shield to make sure that it doesn't go flying 0:17:00.320 --> 0:17:02.520 into the crowd. Instead, it maybe hits the shield and 0:17:02.520 --> 0:17:06.040 it bounces into the basket where a headsman can hold 0:17:06.040 --> 0:17:08.159 it up. Yeah, or sometimes throw it into the crowd. 0:17:08.280 --> 0:17:12.080 Didn't know they did that? Interesting, and sometimes they would 0:17:12.119 --> 0:17:15.800 be big jerks in the case a very famous case 0:17:16.560 --> 0:17:20.680 of Charlotte Corday, she who was executed in France in 0:17:20.760 --> 0:17:25.640 sevente because she assassinated a revolutionary leader named Jean Paul 0:17:25.720 --> 0:17:30.040 Melaw and the jerk executioner picked up her head and 0:17:30.640 --> 0:17:32.520 smacked her around in a little bit. Yeah, he got 0:17:32.560 --> 0:17:35.520 eleven years in prison for it too. And people who 0:17:35.520 --> 0:17:40.560 witnessed this say that her expression on her headless head, 0:17:40.800 --> 0:17:47.560 I'm sorry, her head, bodiless head, her dismembered headed, good lord, 0:17:48.200 --> 0:17:52.959 uh showed unequivocal marks of indignation. So she actually had 0:17:53.000 --> 0:17:56.080 a facial expression of like, how dare you slap me? Right? 0:17:56.119 --> 0:17:59.160 And it wasn't like from from what I understand, it 0:17:59.240 --> 0:18:02.199 wasn't like that's how she looked when she when he 0:18:02.240 --> 0:18:03.800 picked her head up. Yeah, there was a change. It 0:18:03.880 --> 0:18:07.600 was after he smacked her, like her cheeks flushed and 0:18:07.760 --> 0:18:10.360 she basically went into a rage right before she died. 0:18:10.400 --> 0:18:12.760 He had eleven years for that. Interesting, Yeah, the French 0:18:12.840 --> 0:18:14.800 did not You did not screw around. You didn't do that. 0:18:14.800 --> 0:18:19.640 That was a huge lapse in humanity taste. Yeah, cut 0:18:19.640 --> 0:18:23.879 off the heads fine smacking around. Well again, remember that 0:18:23.960 --> 0:18:26.600 this is this is the time, this is sevente France 0:18:26.640 --> 0:18:30.399 officially adopted the guillotine in seventeen two and used it 0:18:30.480 --> 0:18:33.640 until nineteen seventy seven. Yeah, that was the last guy 0:18:33.680 --> 0:18:35.480 to have his head cut off by the French state. 0:18:35.800 --> 0:18:39.080 It was a I believe, a rapist, murderer, UM immigrant 0:18:39.720 --> 0:18:42.080 who hit death row. And then three years after that, 0:18:42.119 --> 0:18:43.960 France was like, We're done with the death penalties. It 0:18:44.000 --> 0:18:46.679 isn't the crazy people were like partying in studio sixty 0:18:46.680 --> 0:18:50.960 four fifty four with their disco eyes sixty four. Where 0:18:50.960 --> 0:18:52.480 in the world did that come from? So yeah, and 0:18:52.480 --> 0:18:54.200 then all of a sudden in France are cutting people's 0:18:54.240 --> 0:18:57.280 heads off. Still right, but again remember they adopted it 0:18:57.359 --> 0:19:00.800 the year before. This guy smacks Charlotte Corday's the year 0:19:00.840 --> 0:19:04.800 after they adopted it, and people are like, uh, I 0:19:04.800 --> 0:19:08.560 don't think that's supposed to happen. So from that that 0:19:08.680 --> 0:19:11.680 moment on, and probably before that because Chuck there there 0:19:11.720 --> 0:19:15.880 have been other um instances of people in history who 0:19:15.960 --> 0:19:19.879 had their heads taken off skillfully. Um. For example, ambole 0:19:19.960 --> 0:19:24.400 In King Charles the first they had their heads taken skillfully, 0:19:24.440 --> 0:19:26.199 and both of them were reported to try to have 0:19:26.960 --> 0:19:29.680 to try to speak like they were moving their lips 0:19:29.680 --> 0:19:32.560 and their eyes were moving. Right. This is not funny, 0:19:32.560 --> 0:19:35.760 it's just it's insane. Yeah, I'm not laughing because I 0:19:35.760 --> 0:19:38.639 think this is funny. And there's a huge debate that's 0:19:38.760 --> 0:19:44.240 become increasingly one sided in favor of what we're talking 0:19:44.280 --> 0:19:49.080 about today. Um. The other side is, well, this is 0:19:49.119 --> 0:19:52.520 just like ghost electrical activity. Yeah, like you prick a 0:19:52.560 --> 0:19:56.000 frog ten minutes after this dissected, and they're still going 0:19:56.040 --> 0:19:58.719 to move. They have that stimulant or Marshall Brain has 0:19:58.800 --> 0:20:03.119 that very popular post on the blogs about sprinkling salt 0:20:03.200 --> 0:20:06.080 on frog's legs and making a move. Really truly, you've 0:20:06.119 --> 0:20:08.800 seen it. I don't think you have to check it out. 0:20:08.840 --> 0:20:13.760 And that's crazy. Yeah. Um, but yes, So that's if 0:20:13.800 --> 0:20:18.000 you cut a leg off or you cut an arm off. Yeah, 0:20:18.080 --> 0:20:22.040 that's remnant electrical activity. It's the same thing in the head. 0:20:22.480 --> 0:20:26.199 It's still electrical activity. The problem is you don't experience 0:20:26.280 --> 0:20:29.880 pain and fear and terror in your arm. Your arm 0:20:29.920 --> 0:20:34.320 feels absolutely nothing. All sensations that we experience, whether it 0:20:34.320 --> 0:20:38.959 it's our arm being cut off or you know, feeling 0:20:39.040 --> 0:20:42.000 terror at seeing our arm cut off, all of that 0:20:42.119 --> 0:20:44.360 is in the head. So when you decapitate, the head 0:20:44.520 --> 0:20:47.879 and there's still electrical activity, the chances are that it 0:20:48.040 --> 0:20:51.320 is conscious experience. Yeah, your brain has It's not like 0:20:51.359 --> 0:20:54.320 your head got bashed in. Your brain is very much intact. Yes, 0:20:54.520 --> 0:20:56.680 it's just not attached to the lower half and it 0:20:56.760 --> 0:20:59.439 still has plenty of oxygen and plenty of blood to 0:20:59.520 --> 0:21:03.080 deliver that oxygen for a few seconds. And that's what's required. 0:21:03.240 --> 0:21:05.560 As long as your brain hasn't suffered any damage, as 0:21:05.560 --> 0:21:08.600 long as um you have oxygen, you have blood, you 0:21:08.640 --> 0:21:11.680 are likely going to experience consciousness. And this is pretty 0:21:11.760 --> 0:21:15.280 much the conclusion that that people have arrived at, Like, yeah, 0:21:15.520 --> 0:21:18.800 if you cut someone's head off cleanly and quickly, they're 0:21:18.840 --> 0:21:21.800 going to know what's going on for a little while afterwards. Yeah, 0:21:21.880 --> 0:21:24.520 and how long is very much up for debate. They've 0:21:24.520 --> 0:21:26.960 tested or not tested, but they've seen evidence and other 0:21:27.160 --> 0:21:30.800 mammals up to like a half a minute. Yeah. Chickens 0:21:31.119 --> 0:21:34.159 are very famous for running around the barnyard with no 0:21:34.320 --> 0:21:35.879 heads for a little while. Do you ever hear the 0:21:35.880 --> 0:21:38.120 story of Mike the headless chicken for a very long 0:21:38.160 --> 0:21:41.600 time in Mike's case, eighteen months, But Mike the headless chicken, 0:21:41.600 --> 0:21:43.440 And if you're interested in that, type in Mike the 0:21:43.480 --> 0:21:47.199 headless chicken, how stuff works, and it will bring up 0:21:47.280 --> 0:21:49.280 some things here. They're including a blog post I wrote 0:21:49.280 --> 0:21:51.879 on it. But his he was different because the farmer 0:21:51.920 --> 0:21:55.280 missed his brainstem, and chickens are almost all brainstem. But 0:21:55.320 --> 0:21:59.080 Mike lived like an extra eighteen months actually in good 0:21:59.119 --> 0:22:02.840 juicy breast and exactly. And he choked on a colonel 0:22:02.880 --> 0:22:05.840 of corn. That's how Mike died, after having his healthy 0:22:05.880 --> 0:22:09.520 feeding it though with a dropper. Okay, well that makes sense. 0:22:09.840 --> 0:22:12.840 Let's tell some more stories, anecdotal stories about people living 0:22:12.880 --> 0:22:16.160 and making faces after their head has been cut off, okay, 0:22:16.160 --> 0:22:19.520 because those are interesting. In nineteen nine, an army veteran 0:22:19.680 --> 0:22:22.720 was in a car crash with um a friend. His 0:22:22.760 --> 0:22:25.760 friend was decapitated sadly, and he saw looked at his 0:22:25.800 --> 0:22:29.240 friend's face not attached to his body, and saw a 0:22:29.520 --> 0:22:34.040 distinct change in expression from he says, quote first of 0:22:34.080 --> 0:22:38.639 shock and confusion and then terror or grief. It's horrific. 0:22:38.760 --> 0:22:43.280 It is horrific. You mentioned Ambo Lennon King Charles Um 0:22:43.400 --> 0:22:45.760 there was there was one story, a very dubious one 0:22:45.800 --> 0:22:50.760 that's not in his biographies, but Antoine la Vossier in 0:22:50.840 --> 0:22:55.439 seventeen ninety four, apparently agreed to try and blink for 0:22:55.480 --> 0:22:57.879 as long as he could afterwards. Yeah. He was a 0:22:57.920 --> 0:23:00.359