Today, burying your friend up to his neck in sand on the beach is just a harmless prank. And once upon a time it was a terrible torture or even execution. In both cases, the victim experienced incomparable torment.

Buried alive

Burying a convicted person alive was practiced in many countries. This is how pagan priestesses who violated their vow of virginity were executed in ancient Rome. The priestesses were buried in the ground, having previously provided them with food and water in such quantities that they would last for exactly one day. In Ukraine, a person convicted of murder was buried alive in the same coffin as his victim. And in the Middle Ages in Italy, criminals who did not repent of the murders they committed were buried.

At the dawn of Christianity, many Christian saints were executed in the same way by pagans, who later received the title of martyrs.

Up to your neck in the ground

In addition to burial alive, there was another, more painful type of execution. This is burying the criminal up to his neck in the ground. This was the case with some convicts in the 17th – 18th centuries in Russia. Such punishment was provided mainly for women who took the lives of their own husbands. This was even spelled out in the code of laws “Cathedral Code”, dating back to 1649: “... a wife commits murder to her husband or feeds him poison, for which she will be executed - buried alive in the ground until she dies.”

Immediately before the execution, a deep and narrow hole was dug in a public place, fenced with a low fence so that onlookers could observe the torment of the victim. The condemned woman's hands were tied behind her back and then lowered into the ground. The gaps between the body and the walls of the pit were filled with soil, which was immediately compacted carefully using wooden hammers or stakes.

A guard was on duty around the clock around the clock until her death. He did not allow compassionate citizens who tried to secretly give the victim food or water to the convict. All that was allowed to be left near the head sticking out of the ground was candles and small money for the coffin.

How did the convict die?

Usually the victim of this kind of execution died long and painfully: from several hours to several days. On average, women lasted no more than 4-6 days. However, historians became aware of one case when a certain Euphrosyne, sentenced to death in 1731, lived in the ground for exactly a month. However, scientists are inclined to think that someone fed Euphrosyne, or at least gave her something to drink.

The most common cause of death in women was dehydration. However, the convicts suffered not only from thirst. The fact is that the compacted soil compressed the chest, and it was almost impossible to take a normal breath. In addition, the guards monitored the condition of the pit and trampled the earth more and more densely every day. That is why the second cause of death of the condemned woman was asphyxia, that is, suffocation.

In addition, the cool earth often caused hypothermia, which caused additional suffering to the victim.

), where the main character comes to his senses and discovers that he is buried alive in a wooden box, where oxygen is gradually running out. You can hardly imagine a worse situation. And those who watched this film to the end will agree with this.

Still from the film “Buried Alive,” directed by Rodrigo Cortes.

So, let's look at a few simple rules that would help you survive if you find yourself in a similar situation. I would like to hope that this will never happen to any of us, but it is worth remembering a few rules and relying only on yourself.

1. Don't waste air. In a classic coffin, the air supply is for an hour, maximum two. Inhale deeply, exhale slowly. After inhaling, do not swallow, this causes hyperventilation. Do not light matches or a lighter, this takes away oxygen, but it is not forbidden to use a flashlight. Don’t scream: screaming increases panic, increases heart rate and breathing, and therefore increases air consumption.
2. Loosen the lid with your hands; in the cheapest fiberboard coffins you can even make a hole (with a wedding ring, a belt buckle...)
3. Cross your arms over your chest, grabbing your shoulders with your palms and pull your shirt up and tie it in a knot above your head; Hanging like a bag on your head, it will protect you from suffocation when you hit the ground in your face.
4. Knock the lid down with your feet. Cheap coffins tend to break under the weight of the earth immediately after they are buried!
5. As soon as the lid breaks, direct the earth from your head to your feet; when there is little space, try to press the earth in different directions with your feet.
6. By all means try to sit down, the earth will fill the empty space and shift in your favor, do not stop and continue to breathe calmly.
7. Get up!

And remember the main thing: the soil in a fresh grave is always loose and “it’s relatively easy to fight with it.” It’s much more difficult to get out during rain: wet soil is denser and heavier. The same can be said about clay.

Buried alive

It is no coincidence that in almost all nations it is customary to hold a burial ceremony not immediately, but after a certain number of days after death. There were many cases when “dead people” came to life at funerals, and there were also cases when they woke up inside the coffin. Since ancient times, man has been afraid of being buried alive. Taphophobia - the fear of being buried alive is observed in many people. It is believed that this is one of the basic phobias of the human psyche. According to the laws of the Russian Federation, the deliberate burial of a person alive is considered murder committed with extreme cruelty and is punished accordingly.

Imaginary death

Lethargy is an unexplored painful condition that is similar to a normal dream. Even in ancient times, signs of death were considered to be the absence of breathing and the cessation of heartbeat. However, in the absence of modern equipment, it was difficult to determine where the imaginary death was and where the real one was. Nowadays there are practically no cases of funerals of living people, but a couple of centuries ago this was a fairly common occurrence. Lethargic sleep usually lasts from several hours to several weeks. But there are cases when lethargy lasted for months. Lethargic sleep differs from coma in that the human body maintains the vital functions of organs and is not under threat of death. There are many examples of lethargic sleep and related issues in the literature, but they do not always have a scientific basis and are often fictional. Thus, H.G. Wells’s science fiction novel “When the Sleeper Awake” tells about a man who “slept” for 200 years. This is certainly impossible.

Scary awakening

There are quite a lot of stories when people plunged into a state of lethargic sleep; let’s focus on the most interesting ones. In 1773, a terrible incident occurred in Germany: after the burial of a pregnant girl, strange sounds began to be heard from her grave. It was decided to dig up the grave and everyone who was there was shocked by what they saw. As it turned out, the girl began to give birth and as a result came out of a state of lethargic sleep. She was able to give birth in such cramped conditions, but due to lack of oxygen, neither the baby nor his mother managed to survive.

Premature burial, Antoine Wirtz (1806-1865).

Another story, but not so terrible, happened in England in 1838. One official was always afraid of being buried alive and, as luck would have it, his fear materialized. A respected man woke up in a coffin and started screaming. At that moment, a young man was passing through the cemetery, who, hearing the man’s voice, ran for help. When the coffin was dug and opened, people saw the dead man with a frozen, eerie grimace. The victim died a few minutes before being rescued. Doctors diagnosed him with cardiac arrest; the man could not withstand such a terrible awakening to reality.

There were people who perfectly understood what lethargic sleep was and what to do if such a misfortune overtook them. For example, the English playwright Wilkie Collins was afraid that he would be buried while he was still alive. There was always a note near his bed, which spoke of the measures that should be taken before his burial.

Method of execution

Burial alive was used as a method of capital punishment by the ancient Romans. For example, if a girl broke her vow of virginity, she was buried alive. A similar method of execution was used for many Christian martyrs. In the 10th century, Princess Olga gave the order to bury the Drevlyan ambassadors alive. During the Middle Ages in Italy, unrepentant murderers faced the fate of people buried alive. The Zaporozhye Cossacks buried the murderer alive in a coffin with the person whom he had taken the life of. In addition, the Germans used methods of execution through burial alive during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. The Nazis executed Jews using this terrible method.

Ritual burials

It is worth noting that there are cases when people, of their own free will, find themselves buried alive. Thus, certain peoples of South America, Africa and Siberia have a ritual in which people bury the shaman of their village alive. It is believed that during the “pseudo-funeral” ritual, the healer receives the gift of communication with the souls of deceased ancestors.

Taphophobia, or the fear of being buried alive, is one of the most common human phobias. And there are quite good reasons for this. Due to the mistakes of doctors or the illiteracy of ordinary people, such cases occurred quite often before the normal development of medicine, and sometimes happen in our time. This article contains 10 incredible but absolutely real stories of people buried alive who still managed to survive.

Janet Philomel.

The story of a 24-year-old French woman named Janet Philomel is most typical of most such cases. In 1867, she fell ill with cholera and died a few days later, as everyone thought. The girl was given the funeral service by the local priest according to all the rules; her body was placed in a coffin and buried in the cemetery. Nothing unusual.

Strange things began when, a few hours later, the cemetery worker was finishing the burial. Suddenly he heard a knock coming from underground. They began to dig up the coffin, simultaneously sending for a doctor. The doctor who arrived actually discovered a weak heartbeat and breathing in the girl, raised from her own grave. And on her hands there were fresh abrasions received from the fact that she was trying to get out. True, this story ended tragically. A few days later, the girl died for real. Most likely due to cholera. But perhaps also because of the nightmare she experienced. This time the doctors and priests tried to carefully make sure that she was really dead.

Unknown from Sao Paulo.

In 2013, a woman living in Sao Paulo, visiting her family gravestone at the cemetery, witnessed a truly horrifying picture. Nearby, she noticed a man who was desperately trying to get out of the grave. He did this with difficulty. The man had already freed one arm and head by the time local workers arrived to him.

After the unfortunate man was completely dug up, he was taken to the hospital, where it turned out that he was an employee of the city hall. It is not known for certain how it happened that the man was buried alive. It is believed that he was the victim of a fight or attack, after which he was considered dead and buried to get rid of evidence. Relatives claimed that after the incident, the man suffered from mental disorders.

Baby from Dongdong province.

In a remote Chinese village in Dongdong province, there lived a pregnant girl named Lu Xiaoyan. The medical situation in the village was very bad: there were no doctors, the nearest hospital was several kilometers away. Naturally, no one monitored the girl’s pregnancy. Around the fourth month, Lu suddenly felt contractions. Everyone expected the baby to be stillborn. And so it happened: the baby that was born showed no signs of life.

After giving birth, the girl’s husband realized that she would most likely need professional medical help, so he called an ambulance. While Lu was being taken to the nearest hospital by car, her mother was burying the child in a field. However, at the hospital it turned out that the girl was not in her fourth, but in her sixth month of pregnancy, and the doctors, assuming that the child could survive, demanded to bring him. Lu's husband returned, dug up the tiny girl and brought her to the hospital. Surprisingly, the girl managed to get out.

Mike Mainey.

Mike Mainey is a famous Irish bartender who asked to be buried alive to set a kind of world record. In 1968, in London, Mike was placed in a special coffin equipped with a hole through which air entered. With the help of the same hole, food and drink were passed to the man. It's hard to believe, but in total Mike was buried for 61 days. Since then, many have tried to break this record, but no one has succeeded.

Anthony Britton.

Another magician who voluntarily allowed himself to be buried in the ground in order to get out of the grave on his own. However, unlike Mike, he was buried without a coffin, at a standard depth of 2 meters. In addition, his hands were handcuffed. As planned, Anthony was supposed to repeat Houdini's trick, but things didn't go according to plan.

The magician spent almost nine minutes underground. For the rescuers on duty above, this was the extreme threshold for starting active actions. They quickly dug up the poor fellow, who was in a half-dead state. They managed to pump Britton out. He subsequently said in various interviews that he was unable to complete his stunt because his hands were pinned to the ground. But worst of all, after each exhalation, the earth continued to squeeze his chest more and more, not allowing him to breathe.

Baby from Compton.

Just recently, in November 2015, two women were walking in a park in Compton, a small city in California. Suddenly, while walking, they heard a strange child's cry, coming as if from underground. Frightened, they immediately called the police.

Arriving law enforcement officers dug up a very small child, no more than two days old, under the asphalt of the bicycle path. Fortunately, the police quickly took the little girl to the hospital and her life was saved. Interestingly, the baby was wrapped in a hospital blanket, which allowed detectives to quickly determine when and where she was born, as well as identify the mother. A warrant was immediately issued for her arrest. She is now accused of attempted murder and child endangerment.

Tom Guerin.

The Irish Potato Famine of 1845-1849 resulted in a huge number of deaths. Gravediggers in those days had a lot of work, and there wasn’t enough space to bury everyone. They had to bury many people and, naturally, sometimes mistakes happened. Such, for example, as with Tom Guerin, a 13-year-old boy who was mistakenly taken for dead and buried alive.

The boy was declared dead, brought to the cemetery, like many others, and began to be buried, in the process accidentally breaking his legs with shovels. It’s amazing, but the boy not only survived, but also managed to get out of the grave with broken legs. Witnesses claim that Tom Guerin subsequently limped on both legs for the rest of his life.

Child from Tian Dong.

A terrifying story occurred in May 2015 in one of the southern Chinese provinces. A woman who was collecting herbs near the cemetery suddenly heard the barely audible cry of a child. Frightened, she called the police, who discovered a baby buried alive in the cemetery. The baby was quickly taken to the hospital, where he soon recovered.

During the investigation, it turned out that the parents, who did not want to raise a child born with a cleft lip, put the baby in a cardboard box and took it to the cemetery. After several days, the relatives came to the cemetery and, thinking that the child was already dead, buried him at a shallow depth of several centimeters. As a result, the boy spent 8 days underground and survived only because oxygen and water penetrated the layer of mud. According to police, when the boy was dug up, the child was literally coughing up dirty water.

Natalya Pasternak.

A terrible incident occurred in May last year in the city of Tynda. Two local residents, Natalya Pasternak and her friend Valentina Gorodetskaya, traditionally collected birch sap near the city. At this time, a four-year-old bear came out of the forest towards Natalya, who, considering the woman her prey, attacked her.

The bear partially scalped her, left a deep wound in her thigh, and seriously injured her neck. Fortunately, Valentina managed to call rescuers. By the time they arrived, the bear had already buried Natalya, who was in a state of shock, as they usually do with their victims, in order to leave it for later. Rescuers had to shoot the animal. Natalya was dug up and taken to the hospital. Since then, she has undergone many operations, and her recovery is still ongoing.

Essie Dunbar.

30-year-old Essie died in 1915 from a severe attack of epilepsy. At least that's what the doctors said. The girl was declared dead and funeral preparations began. Sister Essie really wanted to be present at the ceremony and categorically forbade the burial to begin until she personally said goodbye to the deceased. The priests delayed the service as much as they could.

The coffin had already been lowered into the grave when Sister Essie finally arrived. She insisted that the coffin be lifted and opened so she could say goodbye to her sister. However, as soon as the coffin lid opened, Essie stood up and smiled at her sister. Those present at the funeral rushed out of there in panic, believing that the girl's spirit had risen from the dead. Even many years later, some townspeople believed that she was a walking corpse. Essie lived until 1962.

Death penalty [History and types of capital punishment from the beginning of time to the present day] Monestier Martin

Buried alive

Buried alive

Two Gauls buried alive in 232 BC. Engraving by Adolf Pannemaker from a painting by Philippoto. XIX century Private count

Execution, which consisted of burying the convicted person alive in the ground, has existed at all times on all continents. In 220 BC, the Chinese Emperor Huan-Ti ordered five hundred scholars whose writings were contrary to the principles of his rule to be buried alive. The Incas executed the Sun Virgin in this way for breaking her vow of chastity. The same thing was done in Rome with the Vestals accused of neglect of duty. The most noble and ancient families of Rome gave their daughters to the temple of the goddess Vesta. Girls were placed in the temple at the age of six to ten so that, while remaining chaste, they could serve the goddess Vesta for at least thirty years. Those who broke the vow and those through whose fault the sacred fire entrusted to their care was extinguished were buried alive in the “Field of Criminals.” The Order of the Vestals lasted for eleven centuries and was abolished by Theodore in 389. It is known that many Vestals were executed this way. Suetonius claims that even the chief priestess Cornelia suffered this sad fate.

A woman buried with her dead husband. Engraving. D.R.

The very history of the founding of Rome begins with burial. Rhea Silvia, the daughter of King Numitor of Alba, became a Vestal Virgin under her brother’s coercion, but gave birth to Romulus and Remus. She claimed that they were the sons of Mars, but she was executed by being buried alive in the ground.

Pope Calixtus I was also executed. He was elected in 218, during the reign of Alexander Severus, and was killed by throwing him to the bottom of a well, which was covered with garbage.

Throwing prisoners into the sea, onto rocks and into a tower filled with ash. Bible Dictionary of the House of Calmet. Private count

The Code of Hammurabi, which was in force in the Babylonian Empire, allowed the law of retribution to be applied. One of the texts stated that if the building of a bad architect collapsed, burying the son of one of the inhabitants under the ruins, the architect's son was to be punished and be buried alive.

The Persians perfected this terrible execution: the condemned person was thrown into a huge pile of ash, which filled the lungs, causing suffocation much more painful than the simple lack of oxygen during traditional burial.

Choking on gold foil

In China, the perpetrator of a criminal offense could avoid punishment by finding a replacement and agreeing with the victim's family on the amount of damages. Thus, after the mass extermination of the French in Qin-Qin in June 1870, mandarins guilty of incitement could avoid punishment by offering coolies five hundred to six hundred francs, a beautiful coffin and a funeral of the highest standard if they agreed to offer their heads in their place. But if the death sentence was passed by the emperor, there was no salvation. Usually the sovereign gave the nobility a choice between public beheading and a quiet death at home. In the second case, they were sent a bag of poison, a silk rope - yellow or white, depending on the rank, or gold foil, from which the person suffocated. A special Chinese method of suicide using gold foil was that the condemned person placed a thin gold plate on the palm or mouth and inhaled it. The foil clogged the throat, and the person suffocated. Voluntary death, an analogue of Japanese hara-kiri, took place in front of several mandarins, who then sent a report to the emperor.

The Gauls and Germans did this to traitors and cowards. The Goths were buried for pederasty. This practice did not spare the Franks either. Chlodomir got rid of the Burgundian king Sigismund and his two sons by lowering them to the bottom of a well, which was immediately covered with earth. Under Pepin the Short, Jews were executed so often.

The Caroline Code, published around 1530, was the first attempt to codify criminal law among the Germanic and Central European peoples. It provided for seven methods of execution, including burial alive, mainly for infanticide.

Women only

In medieval France, women were not hanged for reasons of “decency.” It was considered indecent to watch a woman's legs twitch convulsively at the eye level of the audience. Women were buried alive. Legal and criminal archives contain documents from numerous trials that ended with such a verdict, in particular in the case of a certain Colette de Saint-Germain, who robbed an officer, for which she was buried alive in Abbeville in 1420. Only in 1449 did women begin to be sent to the gallows: their skirts were tied to their legs at the knees. Religious wars gave rise to mass executions of this kind for both Catholics and Protestants.

In Sweden and Denmark, burial alive was a legal form of punishment until the end of the 16th century. This is how women were usually executed, burial alive replacing the wheeling to which men were usually sentenced. Mostly women accused of infanticide and bestiality were buried. In Gabon, Indonesia and the Solomon Islands, living burial existed until the 19th century, and in India until the beginning of the 20th century: according to the religious custom of some peoples, wives were to be buried alive along with their deceased husbands. In other cases, religious law forced wives to go to the stake to die in the fire next to their dead husband.

To save ammo

Some Nazi units punished rebellious residents and partisans by burial alive, whose death should have served as a cruel lesson for everyone. Such executions were noted in Poland and Russia. Asians seem to have a special predilection for this barbaric relic of the past. In 1968, when the Americans recaptured the imperial palace from the Viet Cong, they found piles of corpses in the pits - more than three thousand people buried alive by the communists of Vo Nguyen Giala.

From April 1975 to the end of 1978, the Khmer Rouge, who ruled Cambodia, carried out mass executions of the population, including using alive burial. Believing that their victims (more than two million people) were unworthy of being shot and did not deserve to have precious bullets wasted on them, they practiced primitive methods of killing: hitting the back of the head with a club or hoe and burying them alive. Whole families of men, women and children were buried in the pits they dug for themselves.

We owe another “invention” to the Khmer Rouge: suffocation with a plastic bag, which was placed on the head of the condemned person, from which he died in terrible convulsions. The plastic bag was intended mainly for adults; children were suffocated by being placed in jute bags.

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The correspondent of Sobesednik.ru tried for herself whether burying alive helps in the fight against fears.

Burying is a tough practice that helps to overcome fears, get out of depression and open a new page in life. Our correspondent was buried alive at her own request. Here are her impressions of meeting the unknown.

For those who have lost their zest for life

I read a lot about the practice of instillation on the Internet. They write that shamans buried themselves alive in Siberia, Tibet and Altai, as well as the ancient Slavs and Mexicans. It was a way to remove negative energy, touch death in order to learn to control the fear of it (which, as we know, is the main human fear) and gain energetic and physical health.

Nowadays, the ancient ritual has turned into extreme training - it is often called “Burial and Resurrection” - which is carried out by psychologists. Who is it for? For those who have lost their taste for life, are depressed, who want to open a new page and who want to overcome the fears that prevent them from living. Burying is not a cheap pleasure. On average, training costs 5 thousand rubles. But I strongly recommend not to bury yourself, but to turn to professionals, otherwise there may not be a resurrection.

Psychologist Alexander POTAPENKO, the author of the “Territory of Balance” project, who has extensive experience in such trainings, agreed to bury me. Burial, by the way, is carried out in summer and early autumn before the onset of cold weather and rain. Alexander buries his clients in the forest near the town of Lytkarino near Moscow.

Dig, Olga, dig

The evening before the training, I was not just scared, but very scared. I thought about the worms that surround me on all sides, and that there, underground, I wouldn’t have enough air and I would suffocate. But the cheerful voice of psychologist Alexander on the phone made him get up and get ready for the road. “Dress warmly,” he warned.

Alexander met me at the edge of the forest, he had a shovel behind his back. We walked deeper and, having walked away a little, found a clearing in the forest with two prepared graves, where the trainer was conducting burials. He warned that there would definitely be no worms - the graves were dug in sandy soil, where they were not found. Before the instillation, Alexander found out if I had any contraindications (be careful - not everyone can get instillation!), in particular, whether I had cardiovascular diseases. And he asked the question: what fears do I want to take with me to the grave? They decided that I was burying the fear of loneliness.

I had to dig my own grave myself. And not because the coach was lazy. Digging, as they explained to me, also has a therapeutic effect. A person solves his problems himself; no one but himself can ultimately help him.

I had to dig a shallow grave - less than half a meter. This, according to the psychologist, is quite enough. They put me on a chemical protective suit so that I wouldn’t get dirty, and a gas mask - a tube is brought to the surface and the buried person breathes through it. Alexander warned that I could say “stop” at any time. He will hear me and dig me out. In general, the burial time is individual: 10 minutes is enough for some, while others can spend several hours underground.

There was nothing here

I lay down in the grave with my feet facing north. It was scary, and I started breathing deeply. Most of all, I was afraid to feel the first lump of earth on myself, and the coach and I agreed that he would not throw it on my chest, but carefully place it at my feet. In a real funeral, the first lump of earth is one of the most dramatic moments, which means that everything, the end, the person’s earthly journey is over.

Alexander threw and threw earth at me, and I felt how heavy it was and how much pressure it put on the blood vessels. When I was completely buried, darkness fell. I didn't want to think about anything. I just lay there and breathed deeply through the tube. There was life up there - planes were flying, rain was falling, the forest was rustling with leaves, but here there was nothing. Nothing at all. After 20 minutes I said “stop” - and they dug me out pretty quickly.

During this short time, the world around me was transformed: the Lytkarino forest no longer seemed so boring, and the gray day so stormy. I can’t say that I have completely gotten rid of the fear of loneliness; this feeling still covers me. But there was a shift in my attitude towards death. Oddly enough, this did not happen at the moment of digging, but much later - two weeks later, when I saw my note in the newspaper under the editorial heading “It’s time to get used to the earth.” I realized that part of the path had been passed and there was no escape from it.

There are different graves

Burial is also popular in Ukraine. They began to practice it there even earlier. The instillation technique is somewhat different. The grave is dug deep, 1.5–2 meters, but the person is not buried - a cloth is stretched horizontally in the grave, which separates him from the world. They spend from 12 hours to several days in the grave.

Drug addicts are also buried

The method of burying alive is used by rehabilitation centers for drug addicts. A person who refuses to admit his illness and be treated is nailed into a real coffin. A crowd of mourners line up in front of him with candles in their hands, roles are distributed between them: there are “relatives”, “colleagues”, “friends”. They pronounce monologues in front of the coffin, which the one who lies in the coffin naturally hears.

The “priest” with a cross reads prayers, the coffin is nailed down and covered with earth. After some time, they pull it out and remove the lid. Drug addicts say that it is really scary, especially when you are buried without your consent, but they admit that “burial” works.

Attention!

Dear readers, do not try to do this yourself!

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