WEBVTT - Sideshow Secrets Revealed 0:00:02.920 --> 0:00:05.800 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:05.800 --> 0:00:14.320 Works dot com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to go your mind. 0:00:14.360 --> 0:00:18.560 My name is Robert Lamb, and welcome to the sadness 0:00:18.680 --> 0:00:21.880 that is the circus side show. Sadness looking with a 0:00:21.920 --> 0:00:26.360 lot of sadness, and yeah, it's general sadness to the circus, 0:00:26.440 --> 0:00:28.440 to the circus side show, I mean just to the 0:00:28.760 --> 0:00:32.280 straight up circus, the main attraction, as opposed to what 0:00:32.360 --> 0:00:35.159 exists in its shadows, the circus itself. You have, like, 0:00:35.400 --> 0:00:37.080 we have a lot of of animals that have been 0:00:37.120 --> 0:00:40.600 taken from their natural habitat and forced to perform inside 0:00:40.600 --> 0:00:43.800 of a dark tint for for locals so they can 0:00:43.880 --> 0:00:46.440 cheer and throw a popcorn at them. You have clowns 0:00:47.120 --> 0:00:51.239 prancing around, uh and engaging in various antics, um, some 0:00:51.400 --> 0:00:56.480 of which may be arguably perverse. You have you have singing, 0:00:56.480 --> 0:00:58.720 you have dancing, you have music, and then you walk 0:00:58.760 --> 0:01:01.400 outside and in the shadow of the tent there you 0:01:01.480 --> 0:01:05.720 have the side show. And that's where we encounter a 0:01:05.800 --> 0:01:10.280 number of things that are either um, outright disturbing or 0:01:10.680 --> 0:01:14.840 more subtly disturbing. Well, see that's the adult perspective. If 0:01:14.840 --> 0:01:16.959 you'll come with me to my eight year old self. 0:01:17.640 --> 0:01:21.720 Then you will be delighted and amazed by all of this, 0:01:21.720 --> 0:01:25.840 this rich symbolism present not just at the circus, but 0:01:26.400 --> 0:01:29.840 in the Carnie side show, right, because here the mysteries 0:01:30.440 --> 0:01:33.840 are revealed in front of your very eyes and the 0:01:33.840 --> 0:01:39.600 oddities of life, and you begin to question what is reality? Yes, yeah, definitely, 0:01:39.640 --> 0:01:41.160 I mean there's a lot of it it's about there's 0:01:41.160 --> 0:01:43.320 a lot of magic and law involved, a lot of illusion, 0:01:43.360 --> 0:01:47.280 and then a lot of outright examples of nature gune 0:01:47.280 --> 0:01:49.800 a little strange, and then that forces you to to a question, well, 0:01:49.800 --> 0:01:52.520 what is normal? What is what is what is wrong 0:01:52.560 --> 0:01:56.440 with me? Personally? Because I'm paying to see this, All 0:01:56.440 --> 0:01:59.160 of these factors come into play, and we are going 0:01:59.200 --> 0:02:02.720 to start out while we look at the secrets of 0:02:02.760 --> 0:02:06.440 the side shows more in uh in history here, because really, 0:02:06.760 --> 0:02:09.919 if you look at a current side show today, it's 0:02:09.960 --> 0:02:12.160 nothing like it was in the past. As you say, 0:02:12.200 --> 0:02:16.320 it was very dark terrain here, very dark psychological stuff 0:02:16.360 --> 0:02:19.240 that people were taking their families to. Yeah, and you know, 0:02:19.639 --> 0:02:21.679 there's still still a lot of love for it, a 0:02:21.760 --> 0:02:23.400 lot of nostalgia for it. And you can you can, 0:02:23.400 --> 0:02:26.400 certainly you can go to Coney Island and enjoy some 0:02:26.480 --> 0:02:29.240 of that there and then at various other points across 0:02:29.280 --> 0:02:32.000 the United States. But this was a time, you know, 0:02:32.160 --> 0:02:35.880 ni nineteen forties, nineteen fifties, where people didn't really have 0:02:36.000 --> 0:02:39.600 the understanding, um that we do now of the natural 0:02:39.639 --> 0:02:41.639 loss of science, let's say, and the fact that there 0:02:41.680 --> 0:02:45.200 couldn't maybe be a Fiji mermaid, that skeleton of Fiji 0:02:45.200 --> 0:02:49.240 mermaid that proved that mermaids do exist, because sometimes this 0:02:49.360 --> 0:02:52.360 was part and parcel. Everybody had the more or less 0:02:52.360 --> 0:02:54.960 the basic understanding of the natural world as that the 0:02:55.000 --> 0:03:00.120 common YouTube commenter basically perhaps perhaps it's very possible, but 0:03:00.160 --> 0:03:02.920 today we are We're definitely going to lift the canvas 0:03:02.960 --> 0:03:06.960 tent flap, look inside and see what's going on here. 0:03:07.080 --> 0:03:09.240 And to really understand that, you do need to kind 0:03:09.240 --> 0:03:11.280 of get into the world of the Carnie and the 0:03:11.320 --> 0:03:15.480 side show more specifically in something called ten in one 0:03:16.080 --> 0:03:19.280 and this is part of the circus that contained usually 0:03:19.639 --> 0:03:24.440 ten different side shows in one tent. Well, I don't 0:03:24.480 --> 0:03:26.720 know if it was one price, but I do understand 0:03:26.720 --> 0:03:29.600 from what I've read that you had a guide taking 0:03:29.639 --> 0:03:33.160 you through the sort of hall of horrors or mysteries. 0:03:33.720 --> 0:03:37.200 Um letting you know about all these fantastic things that 0:03:37.560 --> 0:03:39.800 exist in the world. Yeah, and then sometimes at the 0:03:39.920 --> 0:03:42.680 end there's an extra little bit, sort of a sort 0:03:42.720 --> 0:03:45.240 of an under the table bit for for the discerning 0:03:45.240 --> 0:03:48.080 gentleman in the audience. You're talking about some sort of 0:03:48.080 --> 0:03:50.800 like sexy lady thing. Sometimes it was sexy lady thing, 0:03:50.840 --> 0:03:52.880 but sometimes it was simply a stuff that was like 0:03:52.920 --> 0:03:55.880 a little grimmer or for instance, it was or sometimes 0:03:55.920 --> 0:03:58.080 it was just pickled pugs were of course, you know 0:03:58.480 --> 0:04:03.120 various um uh, still births and weird fetuses of animals 0:04:03.160 --> 0:04:05.880 that are preserved and and uh, then you got at 0:04:06.120 --> 0:04:08.160 sometimes that it would be that, and sometimes that would 0:04:08.160 --> 0:04:10.760 factor into an earlier part of the show. Yeah, and 0:04:10.800 --> 0:04:13.320 the Fiji Mermaid, which I had mentioned the bones of 0:04:13.360 --> 0:04:16.880 this supposed mermaid that existed. Um but yeah, there are 0:04:16.880 --> 0:04:19.360 a bunch of different oddities. They had some that were 0:04:19.560 --> 0:04:22.799 really kind of cheesy and and not to illusion heavy, 0:04:22.880 --> 0:04:25.919 Like there was a woman who's head stuck out of 0:04:25.960 --> 0:04:30.039 this board spider web, making it look as though she 0:04:30.320 --> 0:04:33.960 was a human spider and it's very obvious that our 0:04:34.000 --> 0:04:35.880 head is just sticking through something like it sounds like 0:04:35.880 --> 0:04:38.040 they were even doing any makeup on her human head. 0:04:38.080 --> 0:04:40.080 It was just straight up. Look it's a spider with 0:04:40.200 --> 0:04:43.480 a human head on it. And then there's the sword swallower, 0:04:43.560 --> 0:04:45.120 which is a real thing, right, I mean, people are 0:04:45.120 --> 0:04:47.720 actually pulling off this trick, and we'll talk more about 0:04:47.760 --> 0:04:50.360 that later, but all of this stuff is mixed in 0:04:50.440 --> 0:04:54.280 so that you do have some real tricks being pulled off, 0:04:54.520 --> 0:04:57.240 some some real like hey, we're pushing the edges of 0:04:57.279 --> 0:05:02.840 what's possible with our physiology, along with just pure like bunk. 0:05:03.480 --> 0:05:05.480 It reminds me a lot of the Last Unicorn. You've 0:05:05.520 --> 0:05:08.280 seen the Last Unicorn, right, perhaps even read it. I've 0:05:08.320 --> 0:05:12.960 seen ten minutes. You've seen ten minutes of the Last Unicorn. Well, no, 0:05:13.120 --> 0:05:14.839 I tried to show my daughter. She's four years old, 0:05:14.880 --> 0:05:18.560 supersensitive to she saw danger of coming and we had 0:05:18.560 --> 0:05:20.560 to turn it off. It is it's I mean, it's 0:05:20.560 --> 0:05:22.440 really good, but yeah, maybe she's not ready for it 0:05:22.440 --> 0:05:24.960 just yet. But there's a scene in it where the 0:05:25.040 --> 0:05:28.960 unicorn is taken in by this this evil witch and 0:05:29.040 --> 0:05:33.240 she has this side show these various carts with cages 0:05:33.560 --> 0:05:36.880 and inside appears to be a different magical creature in 0:05:36.960 --> 0:05:40.320 each one, like a mantic core and a dragon etcetera. 0:05:40.640 --> 0:05:42.880 But the thing is that most of these cages are 0:05:42.920 --> 0:05:46.440 filled with just normal animals that she's cast a spell on, 0:05:47.120 --> 0:05:48.960 and the spell makes them seem to be like the 0:05:49.120 --> 0:05:52.800 the manticor is not a manticord. It's just a broken 0:05:52.800 --> 0:05:55.240 down old lion, but the spell makes it seem like 0:05:55.320 --> 0:05:59.120 something amazing and unreal. Uh. One of the animals actually 0:05:59.600 --> 0:06:04.159 is a dangerous, um crazy magical creature, the harpy. And 0:06:04.160 --> 0:06:07.760 then the unicorn. Uh. The horn is invisible to everyone else, 0:06:07.760 --> 0:06:09.839 so she still has even though the unicorn is real, 0:06:09.960 --> 0:06:11.880 she has to cast a spell on it to make 0:06:11.920 --> 0:06:15.840 it seem amazing to the individuals that are attending her 0:06:15.880 --> 0:06:18.680 little freak show. And you see varying degrees of that 0:06:18.720 --> 0:06:20.320 with with with some of these sides show acts that 0:06:20.360 --> 0:06:22.640 we're looking at, where you'll have things that there's really 0:06:22.640 --> 0:06:24.760 no trick to it at all. There's nothing amazing going on, 0:06:24.960 --> 0:06:27.000 it's just the illusion. Then you have a plenty of 0:06:27.000 --> 0:06:29.680 examples to where there is something really amazing, really dangerous 0:06:29.720 --> 0:06:32.039 going on, but you need to heighten the drama of 0:06:32.120 --> 0:06:35.400 it in order to sell it to the audience. And 0:06:35.520 --> 0:06:38.159 one of the best examples of this that you stumbled 0:06:38.240 --> 0:06:41.960 upon is the Headless Lady. The Headless Lady, Yes, this 0:06:42.000 --> 0:06:44.839 one uh um I may have encountered in passing before, 0:06:44.880 --> 0:06:47.040 but I really had not looked long and hard at 0:06:47.080 --> 0:06:51.320 it until just yesterday. Um. The Headless Lady act generally 0:06:51.320 --> 0:06:54.120 consists of the phone. Uh, they'll be, they'll they'll be 0:06:54.279 --> 0:06:57.240 a woman on the stage, so it's seeded up on 0:06:57.279 --> 0:07:00.600 a pedestal of some kind. But here's the the gimmick. 0:07:00.839 --> 0:07:03.560 She appears to have no head. Uh. There's just a 0:07:03.600 --> 0:07:06.400 stump where where at the neck where the head should be. 0:07:06.560 --> 0:07:09.080 And out of that stump there's like a tree emerging 0:07:09.120 --> 0:07:11.440 like a like a metal pipe with other tubes coming 0:07:11.440 --> 0:07:12.840 out of it, and the tubes are hooked up to 0:07:13.360 --> 0:07:15.320 um what what What's supposed to be a bunch of 0:07:15.320 --> 0:07:18.480 medical equipment but in reality maybe like a carburetor and 0:07:18.560 --> 0:07:21.160 an old octat tank. And who knows what I mean. 0:07:21.400 --> 0:07:23.160 I look at a number of pictures and it ranges 0:07:23.200 --> 0:07:25.160 from I could I could buy that as being some 0:07:25.280 --> 0:07:28.280 you know, typical mad science mumbo jumbo too that is 0:07:28.320 --> 0:07:31.680 totally like a carburetor or something. Um. So there'll be 0:07:31.720 --> 0:07:34.880 a doctor or scientist attending her, because you know, when 0:07:34.880 --> 0:07:38.480 you when you create the kind of scientific breakthrough that 0:07:38.560 --> 0:07:42.120 can keep a body alive without a head and make 0:07:42.160 --> 0:07:45.440 it do your your bidding. You want to showcase that 0:07:45.480 --> 0:07:48.080 at the at the local county fair or freak ship. 0:07:48.200 --> 0:07:50.840 And the doctor has to travel with this one ting 0:07:50.920 --> 0:07:53.240 to ensure that she continues to live. Yeah, so the 0:07:53.280 --> 0:07:55.920 cell on this is the miracles of modern science. Look 0:07:55.960 --> 0:07:58.400 what we can do now. And so the the ideas 0:07:58.440 --> 0:08:01.080 that this woman lost her head and the body's kept 0:08:01.080 --> 0:08:04.920 alive through this amazing mechanical of feet. And then the 0:08:05.240 --> 0:08:07.920 doctor will even go so far as to h to 0:08:08.000 --> 0:08:10.320 command the body to do certain things to do, like 0:08:10.440 --> 0:08:13.440 small tasks with its hands and uh. And then there 0:08:13.440 --> 0:08:17.120 may even be some sort of vaudevillian uh shenanigans going 0:08:17.160 --> 0:08:19.160 on in there as well, some you know, slapstick or 0:08:19.200 --> 0:08:22.240 what have you. Um, someone tickling her foot and so 0:08:22.360 --> 0:08:24.160 you see the legs moving, yeah, and the whole Yeah, 0:08:24.200 --> 0:08:26.280 the whole time you're seeing her at least twitch and move, 0:08:26.720 --> 0:08:29.160 and you're seeing her performed task. And they do the 0:08:29.200 --> 0:08:32.400 trick by having a real human woman set up there 0:08:32.800 --> 0:08:36.760 with a kind of tiara of mirrors that reflects the sides, 0:08:36.880 --> 0:08:38.640 the dark sides of the booth that she's in and 0:08:38.720 --> 0:08:40.800 makes it look like her head is gone and all 0:08:40.800 --> 0:08:43.319 you see is this tree of tubes that seem to 0:08:43.360 --> 0:08:46.640 be emerging from her neck. So everyone you know attends 0:08:46.640 --> 0:08:49.080 it and they're like, oh, this amazing. And at first 0:08:49.120 --> 0:08:51.200 I was thinking this is a cool thing to cover 0:08:51.240 --> 0:08:53.040 because it's kind of mad science e and it's kind 0:08:53.040 --> 0:08:54.880 of weird, and and it's generally the kind of thing 0:08:54.920 --> 0:08:56.880 I go for. But the closer I looked at it, 0:08:56.920 --> 0:09:00.160 the more disturbing it really was, right because here, in 0:09:00.200 --> 0:09:03.559 its essence, is the objectification of a woman, right. I mean, 0:09:03.640 --> 0:09:05.480 it doesn't matter that she has a head, right, there's 0:09:05.480 --> 0:09:08.600 her body, we see her in pieces. Yeah, and this 0:09:08.640 --> 0:09:11.720 falls in line with a lot of advertising stuff I 0:09:11.760 --> 0:09:14.600 was looking at yesterday to where one author was making 0:09:14.600 --> 0:09:19.520 the point that anytime you see like a commercial advertisement, etcetera, uh, 0:09:19.679 --> 0:09:22.040 look to see if the woman's head is partially or 0:09:22.080 --> 0:09:24.439 completely cut off. Look to see if her feet or 0:09:24.520 --> 0:09:28.000 partially or or completely cut off. They were arguing that 0:09:28.040 --> 0:09:32.120 removing the head, rember, removing the feet, that's complete objectification. 0:09:32.320 --> 0:09:34.040 In that case, you're like, look at this woman, but 0:09:34.120 --> 0:09:36.960 don't worry, she has no brain. She can't look at 0:09:37.000 --> 0:09:39.199 you or speak to you or hear you. And also 0:09:39.280 --> 0:09:41.480 she can't run away, so we can just it's just 0:09:41.760 --> 0:09:44.560 all they are for you. Yeah, every little troop about 0:09:45.160 --> 0:09:49.120 women is contained in this one sideshow act. And what's 0:09:49.160 --> 0:09:52.079 interesting about the sideshow act is that this is the 0:09:52.120 --> 0:09:57.240 age of the artificial lung, artificial heart, and so, you know, 0:09:57.320 --> 0:09:59.120 no doubt there there weren't a lot of people who 0:09:59.160 --> 0:10:01.280 were taken by this. I'm sure most people went through 0:10:01.280 --> 0:10:04.560 it and knew that there was some sort of trick 0:10:04.840 --> 0:10:08.920 at play. And yet it arrests that the imagination because 0:10:09.520 --> 0:10:11.200 you know, there's just a period where it must have 0:10:11.200 --> 0:10:14.280 felt like cutting edge science was going on. Maybe just 0:10:14.400 --> 0:10:16.559 maybe someone could lose their head in an accident and 0:10:16.559 --> 0:10:20.480 a German doctor could somehow PLoP all of these hoses 0:10:20.720 --> 0:10:23.960 into her neck stump and make her live. Yeah, it 0:10:23.960 --> 0:10:27.200 seemed possible, and a little illusion makes it seem completely real. 0:10:27.480 --> 0:10:30.199 But but yeah, just so disturbing, especially when you look 0:10:30.200 --> 0:10:32.040 at some of these photos. There was one photo that 0:10:32.160 --> 0:10:36.280 we're looking at yesterday was actually apparently by your Dora Wealthy, 0:10:36.480 --> 0:10:39.120 and this one that showed it was like really creepy 0:10:39.120 --> 0:10:42.080 because the woman, the headless woman's not up on her 0:10:42.120 --> 0:10:45.200 pedestal in a booth. The drawing shows her standing with 0:10:45.240 --> 0:10:48.440 an arm around one gentleman, shaking the hand of another gentleman, 0:10:48.760 --> 0:10:52.560 and in the text promises you a thousand dollars if 0:10:52.600 --> 0:10:55.480 she is not alive. And that's just it was just 0:10:55.600 --> 0:10:59.839 so grim and gross, and just like the implied molestation 0:11:00.360 --> 0:11:04.280 of a headless woman was just really really weird. It's 0:11:04.280 --> 0:11:06.280 pretty creepy. And I have to say that you know, 0:11:06.400 --> 0:11:10.240 that's not such a crazy bet. She's clearly alive. They're 0:11:10.240 --> 0:11:12.120 not gonna lose money, Yeah, you don't. You don't offer 0:11:12.160 --> 0:11:14.079 that unless you can falter but it. But it also 0:11:14.320 --> 0:11:17.120 falls right in line with a two thousand twelve study 0:11:17.520 --> 0:11:19.880 that that you you also sent me, and this is 0:11:20.320 --> 0:11:23.920 published in the European Journal of Social Psychology titled seeing 0:11:23.920 --> 0:11:27.520 Women as Objects the sexual body part recognition Bias, And 0:11:27.559 --> 0:11:29.520 simply put, the study found that men and women tend 0:11:29.520 --> 0:11:32.000 to see women is an assembolage of various parts rather 0:11:32.040 --> 0:11:34.360 than a complete whole. That's right. They had them look 0:11:34.400 --> 0:11:37.040 at a several different pictures and try to figure out 0:11:37.320 --> 0:11:41.360 if the body part was belonged to this specific person 0:11:41.400 --> 0:11:43.079 and so on and so forth, and they called it 0:11:43.120 --> 0:11:47.560 was it global and local cognitive processing, and so it 0:11:47.559 --> 0:11:49.920 didn't matter if you were a male or a female. 0:11:50.440 --> 0:11:55.080 Overwhelmingly people would look at the photos of women in 0:11:55.280 --> 0:11:58.640 a global perspective, meaning that they there's a lot of 0:11:58.640 --> 0:12:01.120 space between how they saw her, and they saw her 0:12:01.160 --> 0:12:04.120 more in pieces as opposed to the pictures of the men, 0:12:04.160 --> 0:12:07.080 which they saw more as a whole. So what that 0:12:07.200 --> 0:12:10.560 is pointing to is again this idea that um, it's 0:12:10.600 --> 0:12:14.400 sort of written into the code of of society that 0:12:14.480 --> 0:12:17.280 you look at women piece meal. Yeah, um, and that 0:12:17.360 --> 0:12:19.600 you can't help to cut them up at least in 0:12:19.640 --> 0:12:24.000 your psyche. Oh God, that's awful. It is awful, And 0:12:24.040 --> 0:12:25.720 that one of the the awful things about this is 0:12:25.920 --> 0:12:28.800 I wanted to use that Aurora a wealthy uh photo 0:12:28.880 --> 0:12:31.320 in a blog post yesterday. It wasn't available. So I 0:12:31.360 --> 0:12:33.800 did a like a Getty Images and a Corbus Images 0:12:33.840 --> 0:12:36.920 search for headless woman and it was really horrifying. Not 0:12:37.040 --> 0:12:39.360 that I was saying like a bunch of like decapitation photos, 0:12:39.360 --> 0:12:42.400 because the decapitation like art that which intended to be 0:12:42.559 --> 0:12:46.000 uh depictions of the biblical Judith, which was actually rather 0:12:46.559 --> 0:12:48.719 encouraging in light of the other results which were all 0:12:48.760 --> 0:12:53.160 just a bunch of fashion e artsy shots of women, um, 0:12:53.200 --> 0:12:54.920 you know, with their head cut off in the photo 0:12:54.960 --> 0:12:57.600 I cut off via the photography, and it was just 0:12:57.679 --> 0:13:01.920 a really, a really dark afternoon. I'm glad you brought 0:13:01.960 --> 0:13:05.240 that up, because anytime I've done searches in in various 0:13:05.240 --> 0:13:08.880 stock photo systems and it could be like, you know, 0:13:09.920 --> 0:13:13.440 maybe my search keywords are like mouse baby, eventually a 0:13:13.720 --> 0:13:17.400 naked female torso is going to show up in that 0:13:17.480 --> 0:13:20.560 batch for some reason or another. Yeah, well, and you 0:13:20.559 --> 0:13:23.160 can turn off the nudity results on some of those 0:13:23.200 --> 0:13:26.160 search engines. But but then again, if you turn that off, 0:13:26.160 --> 0:13:28.199 you're still going to get a buch of ridiculous images. 0:13:28.240 --> 0:13:30.719 So my view is, well, they might as well be 0:13:30.800 --> 0:13:32.080 naked if I'm gonna have to put up with a 0:13:32.080 --> 0:13:34.840 bunch of stupidity in these results. On a side note, 0:13:34.880 --> 0:13:37.760 have you ever seen the collection of stock photos of 0:13:37.800 --> 0:13:42.640 women eating salad? Very funny, It's like women laughing and 0:13:42.679 --> 0:13:46.720 smiling while eating stuck and picture in my mind for sure, 0:13:46.720 --> 0:13:48.559 because I know I've seen that a million times and 0:13:48.640 --> 0:13:52.439 advertising Yeah, you know exactly what I'm talking about. So, yeah, 0:13:52.480 --> 0:13:57.280 it's interesting to go into those vaults of of pictures 0:13:57.280 --> 0:14:00.920 of humans and see all these tropes played out. Um, 0:14:00.920 --> 0:14:03.080 but we're gonna we're gonna get to some some other 0:14:03.440 --> 0:14:06.439 good circus side show stuff here. Yeah, step with, step 0:14:06.480 --> 0:14:09.880 with with more science behind it than the fox science 0:14:09.880 --> 0:14:12.400 of the Headless Woman. Should we take a quick break 0:14:12.600 --> 0:14:15.680 before we go into swords swallowing? Yes, indeed, we'll be 0:14:15.760 --> 0:14:27.040 right back. All right, we're back, and we're talking a 0:14:27.040 --> 0:14:31.920 little bit now about sword swallowing, another another staple of 0:14:31.960 --> 0:14:35.960 the of the side show world and a real thing. Right. 0:14:36.000 --> 0:14:38.640 This is not an illusion. This is something that someone 0:14:38.760 --> 0:14:42.880 is doing methodically and obviously they have practiced so many times, 0:14:43.320 --> 0:14:46.440 have gotten to know their digestive system really well before 0:14:46.480 --> 0:14:48.760 attempting this in front of an audience. Yeah, there's some 0:14:48.840 --> 0:14:51.360 myths out there about it, um, and some of these 0:14:51.360 --> 0:14:52.800 are you know, you'll find I think some of them 0:14:52.800 --> 0:14:56.040 even have been repeated in major Encyclopedia's Harry Hudeny even 0:14:56.720 --> 0:15:00.360 reported that sword swallowers would actually a swallow low a 0:15:00.400 --> 0:15:04.840 metal sheath first before inserting the sword, which for starters, 0:15:05.000 --> 0:15:08.360 does not sound like it would make it any easier. 0:15:08.480 --> 0:15:11.440 It's it's like, oh, don't worry, they're not They're not 0:15:11.520 --> 0:15:15.480 really swallowing a sharp sword. They've secretly inserted a really 0:15:15.560 --> 0:15:19.800 long sword sheath into their into their down their throat, 0:15:19.800 --> 0:15:21.720 and into their stomach. And that's how they're getting away 0:15:21.800 --> 0:15:24.360 with this. Yeah, it just seems like it would complicate things. Yeah, 0:15:24.400 --> 0:15:26.960 and and as certainly as we explain how it's actually done, 0:15:27.080 --> 0:15:30.920 you'll see that that's good. That's completely silly, Yeah, because 0:15:30.960 --> 0:15:33.920 I mean, honestly, it's just I wouldn't say it's easy, 0:15:33.960 --> 0:15:36.560 but it's something that you can control and with practice 0:15:36.600 --> 0:15:38.920 you can do. Um. If you want to see or 0:15:38.960 --> 0:15:41.000 if you want to read more about this, check out 0:15:41.120 --> 0:15:45.680 our sword swallowing article by tricy View Wilson of history stuff. 0:15:45.680 --> 0:15:48.480 It's really great. But let's look at the g I 0:15:48.520 --> 0:15:53.680 tracked before we delve into the actual blade into the 0:15:53.720 --> 0:15:56.600 digestive system. Yeah. Now we've covered some of this before 0:15:56.640 --> 0:15:59.840 because we did that that epic journey through the digestive system, 0:15:59.880 --> 0:16:04.240 and we're just talking about the initial jaunt here. You 0:16:04.360 --> 0:16:06.520 remember from that episode that we chew up our food, 0:16:06.520 --> 0:16:09.320 we form this bolus, and the bolus travels down the 0:16:09.400 --> 0:16:10.960 throat and into the stomach, and that's you know, the 0:16:11.040 --> 0:16:13.440 territory we're dealing with here the upper g I track 0:16:13.480 --> 0:16:15.880 because of course a series of connected living organs. It 0:16:15.920 --> 0:16:19.240 includes the throat, uh, the esophagus, and the stomach. And 0:16:19.400 --> 0:16:23.560 it's relatively soft, has several pronounced curves and uh that's 0:16:23.600 --> 0:16:27.440 in a relaxed state. Um. And it's on the surface 0:16:27.440 --> 0:16:30.520 of things, not a perfect sheath in which to insert 0:16:30.680 --> 0:16:34.000 a blade of any kind. No, because it's a regular 0:16:34.040 --> 0:16:35.920 shaped right, and so there are some things that you 0:16:35.920 --> 0:16:38.480 have to do to manipulate it down your throat. But 0:16:38.520 --> 0:16:41.240 I wanted to point out that skeletal muscle is presence 0:16:41.360 --> 0:16:43.960 in the upper g I as well as smooth muscle. 0:16:44.080 --> 0:16:48.080 Skeletal muscle is under voluntary control, so you can just say, hey, 0:16:48.600 --> 0:16:50.200 that's I don't need to contract this right now. I 0:16:50.320 --> 0:16:52.760 need to contract my throat or my mouth. But your 0:16:52.800 --> 0:16:56.320 smooth muscle is involuntary. And this is what is involved 0:16:56.320 --> 0:16:59.360 in paristalsis, and this is that movement of that bullus 0:16:59.560 --> 0:17:03.720 down into the stomach. So what we're talking about here 0:17:04.040 --> 0:17:09.399 is really trying to control those gag reflexes and that 0:17:09.560 --> 0:17:13.679 smooth muscle movement when you're performing this trick. Because there 0:17:13.680 --> 0:17:16.720 are a couple of different things that happen when you're 0:17:16.720 --> 0:17:21.000 inserting the blade. So imagine you have this this sword 0:17:21.480 --> 0:17:24.440 about fifteen inches long, anywhere from fifteen inches to two 0:17:24.640 --> 0:17:28.000 inches by the way, and there's an actual like limit 0:17:28.080 --> 0:17:32.200 that is set forth by the Sword Swallowing Association. Yeah, 0:17:32.240 --> 0:17:34.840 like they they're generally cool with you not having it 0:17:35.040 --> 0:17:37.480 enter the stomach, but it's okay if it does a 0:17:37.520 --> 0:17:39.760 little bit. However, you don't want to use a sword 0:17:39.840 --> 0:17:41.800 so long that it like winds up in your boot 0:17:42.560 --> 0:17:44.480 because then then you're doing it wrong. There's gonna be 0:17:44.480 --> 0:17:47.240 some puncturing going on with that. So yeah, there's actually 0:17:47.320 --> 0:17:52.000 a Sword Swallowers International Association that that sort of police 0:17:52.080 --> 0:17:54.639 is this, if you will, And what happens if you 0:17:54.760 --> 0:17:57.760 have that blade what stays twenty inches long? It passes 0:17:57.800 --> 0:18:00.000 by the teeth and then the eases into the up 0:18:00.200 --> 0:18:03.320 esophageal sphincter scrapes over the teeth even I think that 0:18:03.359 --> 0:18:05.600 makes it even grizzly or so yeah, yeah, okay, now 0:18:05.640 --> 0:18:09.280 I'm like having some physiological responses here to that. Um So, 0:18:09.480 --> 0:18:12.159 then it's coated and saliva at this point, and that 0:18:12.240 --> 0:18:16.400 helps to lubricate it, and it goes deeper into the esophagus. Now, 0:18:16.680 --> 0:18:19.359 the blade as it is traveling down into the esophagus 0:18:19.960 --> 0:18:23.399 is sort of straightening it out this long tube and 0:18:23.520 --> 0:18:26.679 occasionally is actually nudging organs out of the way as 0:18:26.720 --> 0:18:29.399 it passes by, because there's a lot of stuff that 0:18:29.520 --> 0:18:31.720 could potentially get pierced if you do it wrong. We're 0:18:31.720 --> 0:18:34.800 talking about the trachy of the heart, the order, the vannakava, 0:18:34.920 --> 0:18:37.119 the diaphragm, and you can get it all on one 0:18:37.119 --> 0:18:41.560 big shish kebab. It's true you could. And here's the 0:18:41.640 --> 0:18:43.959 thing you need to know your digestive system. You need 0:18:44.000 --> 0:18:48.920 to know whether or not the lower esophagus curves as 0:18:48.960 --> 0:18:52.040 it meets the stomach or if it's just a straight shoot, 0:18:52.080 --> 0:18:54.159 because if it curves, then you're not going to be 0:18:54.200 --> 0:18:57.840 able to insert or plunge that sword as deeply as 0:18:57.840 --> 0:19:00.240 you could if it was just a straight shoot. As 0:19:00.280 --> 0:19:01.560 you mentioned already, one of the big things you want 0:19:01.560 --> 0:19:03.480 to be able to do is suppress the gag reflects 0:19:03.680 --> 0:19:08.520 because we're we're naturally inclined not to let swords climb 0:19:08.520 --> 0:19:12.000 down our throats. Uh. It gets into our regular bodi's 0:19:12.040 --> 0:19:15.080 defenses against choking, et cetera. And uh, and so all 0:19:15.080 --> 0:19:16.920 you have to do now, you know, as you're listening 0:19:16.920 --> 0:19:19.720 to this podcast, is if you hang out and I 0:19:19.760 --> 0:19:25.280 got hope that you'll start to gag a little bit, unless, 0:19:25.320 --> 0:19:28.560 of course, you suppress it. Now, suppressing the gag reflex 0:19:29.000 --> 0:19:31.399 is something that doesn't really it's not going on off switch. 0:19:31.520 --> 0:19:33.040 You can't just you know, go into his end like 0:19:33.160 --> 0:19:35.080 state and be like, I got it. It comes from 0:19:35.119 --> 0:19:40.240 a lot of gagging yourself and possibly vomiting as you 0:19:40.280 --> 0:19:42.199 do it. And and then you need not use a 0:19:42.240 --> 0:19:45.080 sword to do it to to actually prepare yourself. Uh, 0:19:45.080 --> 0:19:47.640 And generally they're using like something you're like a chopstick 0:19:47.720 --> 0:19:50.479 or something, or just good old fingers or your toothbrush, right, 0:19:50.560 --> 0:19:52.120 or your toothbrush. Yeah, I mean this is something you'd 0:19:52.119 --> 0:19:54.159 have to do over and over and over again until 0:19:54.320 --> 0:19:57.119 your mind could get comfortable with this feeling and you 0:19:57.119 --> 0:19:58.919 could kind of say, I need you to suppress this 0:19:59.600 --> 0:20:02.840 because what's happening here. You've got receptors or nerve endings 0:20:02.840 --> 0:20:06.160 that are coming into contact with that blade, and then 0:20:06.200 --> 0:20:09.199 the nerves or the neurons carry the receptors information to 0:20:09.280 --> 0:20:13.280 your central nervous system, and then the integration center says, hey, 0:20:13.359 --> 0:20:15.320 there's there's something going on here, maybe we need to 0:20:15.320 --> 0:20:18.560 have a response. And then right back the motor neuron 0:20:18.640 --> 0:20:22.639 carries the integrating center's instructions to that part of your 0:20:22.680 --> 0:20:25.840 body to say, hey, you need to do something about this, 0:20:26.080 --> 0:20:28.720 and then something called the effect or makes a necessary 0:20:28.800 --> 0:20:32.720 change to what's going on your body, namely this gag reflex. 0:20:32.960 --> 0:20:35.040 So it's a it's a bit of a process, yeah, 0:20:35.040 --> 0:20:37.879 because eventually you kind of have to break down the 0:20:37.920 --> 0:20:40.320 brain and convince it no, it's totally cool that a 0:20:40.400 --> 0:20:43.199 saber is going down my throat and like this is 0:20:43.240 --> 0:20:46.120 something that is in place for your survival, right, So 0:20:46.240 --> 0:20:48.600 you have to convince your brain like, look, there really 0:20:48.680 --> 0:20:52.159 is no threat here, even though it's hard wired to say, really, 0:20:52.240 --> 0:20:56.399 that's a that's a blade coming after us. So, as 0:20:56.400 --> 0:21:00.439