On many levels, it's one of life's great unanswerables. Does beheading hurt? Who would know?
On a spiritual level, many would agree, beheading hurts us all. It's designed to. The mere sight of a severed head seals itself into every witness; always we wonder as we tug at our throats: But does it hurt? Is there pain? Does the brain remain aware?
Yes to all. Yes, it hurts very much to have your head cut off, and the longer it takes, the worse it hurts. Once your spinal cord is cut and your head is severed you will continue to experience the full spectrum of pain, without the heavenly numb of shock-absorbing chemicals, which are back there with your body. You can't talk, of course, but you can move your lips and appear to scream, and you can focus and blink your eyes, as proved by dozens of deathhouse deals.
A severed head is conscious, and in some ways hyperconscious. The head knows it's been picked up by the hair and shown to the crowd. The head sees the crowd, hears the crowd, smells the breath of the executioner, thinks happy thoughts, cannot believe how long 40 seconds is, because 40 seconds is how long the average head remains fully aware, if not alive. Forty seconds of indescribable pain and horror.
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Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - sheri
Yes, CW, it's called Death. And it's the one sure thing we all have in common.
2 - Shark
See also, "Reflections on a Guillotine" by Albert Camus, probably the best piece ever written on capital punishment.
3 - jack e. jett
it sure looked like it hurt for mr. berg.
i had never heard screems like that.
jack
4 - Mac Diva
I'm not so sure about the medical aspects, Curt. Can you provide a link? Having spent time in the country as a child and seen chickens killed, it seems to that the body remains conscious, or at least animated, much longer than the head. (Though, obviously, it is no longer thinking.) Maybe it the situation is different for mammals. Anyway, I would like to know more.
5 - CW Fisher
Diva, you were focused on the body and not the head. Next time, stare into the eyes of the chicken. Talk to the chicken head. Believe me. He's thinking this is nuts, just crazy, this whole stupid day ending up this way, and plus, how much this hurts. Also, I did provide documentation. I don't know if it provides "medical" proof, but after your head's been cut off, there are no medical solutions.
6 - Mac Diva
Curt, I have news about your entry. But first, we must discuss the Diva's dignity. Obviously, it would not be a feather in my cap to be seen staring into the eyes of a chicken, not to mention talking to one. Such behavior is nothing to preen about. I must say that advice is pure chickensh!t.
My search for more medical info was interesting, but not very successful. I may call a neurologist friend tomorrow.
You have a link at Mac-a-ro-nies.
7 - CW Fisher
Madame Diva,
Dignity such as yours is unsmearable. But if it makes you more comfortable, chicken staring can be done privately. Men have long known it's unnecessary to actually kill the chicken, and far more satisfying to merely choke it.
Somewhere in a trunk I have photos of beheadings from the Boxer Rebellion in early 19th century China. If, as your blogger/doctor says, the brain remains viable for hours, imagine the insufferable things you'd hear about yourself, mostly concerning your appearance.
This means that John the Baptist probably witnessed Salome's response to receiving his head. "I said RING me the head John the Baptist!" Hm. Another Sprint commercial.
8 - CW Fisher
Dear Mr. Jett,
Regarding the screams of Mr. Berg, I didn't hear or see any of that stuff (yet) for I am deprived. Once I see it, I'll be depraved.
I enjoy your site and admire your art. Yours is a new wit whose greatgrandfather was the mustasche of Salvadore Dali.
I wonder what kind of a magazine you'd put together if you put together a magazine, and if you'd call it a magazine, or something else, and if so, what?
I've always loved the word oleo and I think it's out of use and back in play. So it's settled then. Oleo the Magazine. (And the theme song is what the guards of Oz sing). (And what are they singing? Is it really: All we owe, we owe her?)
Anyway. You've got a good head on your shoulders, getting back to decapitation for a moment. I'm still trying to figure out how you can scream without lungs.
9 - jack e. jett
cw:
thanks for the comments about the website for our canadian chat show. we have just been renewed for our 3rd year.
the question about screeming without a head is a good one. i did hear screaming on the video.....certainly they did not add that in with some post production.
jack e. jett
10 - RJ Elliott
"Once your spinal cord is cut and your head is severed you will continue to experience the full spectrum of pain, without the heavenly numb of shock-absorbing chemicals, which are back there with your body."
Why are they back with the body? No dopamine or seritonin in the brain? That seems odd...
11 - RJ Elliott
"Curt, I have news about your entry. But first, we must discuss the Diva's dignity. Obviously, it would not be a feather in my cap to be seen staring into the eyes of a chicken, not to mention talking to one. Such behavior is nothing to preen about. I must say that advice is pure chickensh!t."
Gallows humor...
12 - CW Fisher
RJ -- I'm not a scientist, and I've never been decapitated, but I've read an article and skimmed another, and here's what I think. At the moment of severance, adrenaline explodes into the body to block the unbearable pain, but the head, being severed, won't get any. The poor head becomes like a bucket with a rusted out bottom, draining quickly, but slow enough to keep the head aware for a bonus 40 seconds. --CW
13 - CIA Plot?
WHAT IF .... the CIA had Berg killed in this brutal manner by Iraqi henchmen to draw the world's attention away from the Abu Ghraib prison fiasco??? The US now gets world sympathy, Americans are outraged at terrorists, Bush gets re-elected, and the Iraq war is further justified as revenge? Whaddaya think?
14 - sheri
MAYBE...maybe there is a power we do not see, moving it/us ALL around like pieces on a chessboard.
OR...maybe ideology is more important to some Americans than the truth. More important even than admitting to being wrong.
15 - Virgil Butler
As I worked for Tyson as a killer of chickens in their slaughterhouses for years, I can say that, in fact, the chickens do indeed blink their eyes, open their mouths, and stick their tongues out after losing their heads. It happens every day and night to billions of chickens every year. Billions of sentient beings go through thism and few people seem to care. Yet we make a big deal if it happens to just one person, who is no more sentient and capable of feeling pain than those billions of chickens. I am not belittling Berg's death at all. Don't get me wrong. It was horrible. I am merely trying to point out that most people have no problem with equally sentient beings experiencing the exact same treatment. What's wrong with this picture?
16 - boomcrashbaby
I think what's wrong with this picture is that you are putting something that's far down the food chain on the same level as a human. If you want to advocate a more humane way to kill a chicken, then go for it. As long as it ends up on my plate covered in ketchup, I don't care how it's put down. Decapitating a chicken can't feel much worse than being ripped to shreds and eaten alive by a wolf, as Mother Nature would have it done.
(...apparently you didn't have a problem with it for years, was it because of the paycheck?)
17 - boomcrashbaby
I think that might have come out harsher than I intended. If you want to advocate humane treatment of animals, that's great. But do you squash bugs or spray them with raid? Just curious.
18 - antispam
LOL@ comparing chickens beheading with the Berg beheading seems to have caused a few negative replies.
Awww! just woke up to how other animals feel eh? After all humans are just that...animals! As for the top of the food chain... what about all the hungry people in other countries? DO you still count them top of the food chain considering they are dying off from lack of food? Get real and stop denying the torture of one animal can be justified by some innate ability to say "Humans" are 100% better then everything else.
19 - poop
yukky beasts
20 - googoo
well compare a guillotine to a knife takin ur head off!
21 - Tallking
Oh come on. I used to fly tactical jets. You pull 1/2g too much, and you're unconscious before you know what hit you. I was bad at g-tolerance -- had to fight it constantly any time I was above 4g. And that's just because the brain's blood flow is slightly reduced as a result of the pull of the g forces. I have no doubt there's a good flash of pain when someone's head is lopped off, but 40 seconds of awareness with no blood flow at all. No way at all. I'd give it 3-5 seconds max, and then you're gone.
22 - Umm Yeah?
Hey everyone, I would like to add my feedback on this ever so interesting topic. First of pain or the perception of pain is perceived in the brain(burning you finger on a stove, the nerve endings fire signals from the injury sight to the spinal cord, then to the brain.) Keep in mind the brain can remain conscious without oxygenated blood for a few minutes. Depending on how the head is severed(knife, sword, axe, guillotine etc, will most likely determine the level of pain(method also) To end it the body CAN NOT feel pain without the brain being connected to the spinal cord, so all of the beheadings committed by Muslim extremists are most likely extremely painful because the spinal cord is the last thing the seperate from the body.
23 - mike
I'm an anesthesiologist. We attend people with heart rhythm disturbances and so on; if the heart stops or goes into ventricular fibrillation (sudden drop in cardiac output) consciousness is lost within a few seconds (if not immediately). It takes a few minutes for the brain to suffer permanent damage and death, but without pressurised blood perfusing the brain, the brain does not function.
24 - baigovich
yes it does for about 40 seconds after beheading. proof
25 - Al
Who do you think knows better? Your random website link as proof or the anesthesiologist post?
I've also been around a lot of dying folks and they wouldn't maintain consciousness more than a few seconds at most if they were decapitated.