Torture?

So I was laying in bed this morning trying to figure out what to do my second post about this week, and I couldn't think of anything. Then, I got a phone call that my best friend had been in a serious motorcycle accident, and that I should get to the ER as soon as possible. As I was sitting there in the waiting room, I thought that it was kind of my own form of torture. More than likely, I'll never be exposed to any of those other things that I've written about, so as I was sitting in that waiting room, not knowing anything about how he was doing, I thought that it was torture. It was emotional torture for sure, but still torture nonetheless. They weren't allowed to release any information about him, so at one point we didn't even know if he was going to be okay. I guess long story short, we all have different forms of torture. It's not something that only exists in third world countries, wars, or many years ago - we each have something that is torturous to us as an individual, and I've realized that that my weakness - my torture - is my friends and family being in danger. WHOA kinda deep, but I'm headed back to the hospital right now and don't have time to research a real torture method right now, so this is what you get!

Crucifixion

One of the most infamous forms of torture is crucifixion. I thought I'd write about it because we've all heard about it, but I didn't know how many people actually knew everything that occurs to cause death.

The Persians were one of the first nations to use it, and many others followed. The victim would be bound to a cross with ropes or in severe cases, nails. Before the actual crucifixion occurred, the victim would be beaten and whipped. The beatings cause the victim to go into shock before even being on the cross. After the flogging, the victim would be forced to carry part of the cross, which weighed over 100 pounds, to the place where the crucifixion will occur. The nails used to attach the victim to the cross cause extensive nerve damage, which is extremely painful. Once the cross is lifted up, all the weight of the man is on the two wrists, which causes elbows and shoulders to dislocate. In addition to that, the victim isn't able to breath properly because of how their body is positioned, and speaking becomes very painful. I could go on for days with the details of everything that happens, but I think that you have the basic idea.


Source:
http://www.apu.edu/infocus/2002/03/crucifixion/
http://www.konnections.com/kcundick/crucifix.html

Heat Torture

Heat torture is something that I had never really heard of, but it doesn't sound pleasant at all. It was developed by the people of what is now known as Greece, and basically involves the torture victim being put into a brass "coffin" - AKA the Brazen Bull. Their feet would be affixed to the bottom by ropes or nails in most cases, but sometimes their feet were left free. The "coffin" would then be placed over a fire until is was red hot. More developed forms of this torture even had systems of tubes so that onlookers could listen to the cries of the person being tortured. Sick.


Source:
http://medieval-castles.org/index.php?cat=31

Photo Source:
http://www.nndb.com/people/837/000097546/

The Scarlet Letter

Ok, so this time I'm talking about the Scarlet Letter. Basically, it was a red letter "A" that an adulterous person was forced to wear. I'm sure a lot of you had to read the book sometime in school. It's not a "painful" method of torture by any means, but I thought I'd try and find one that one typically might not think of as torture. Like the stocks, it was more of an emotional scarring. No one would talk to someone that had a scarlet letter, and they would be outcasts. I can't even imagine what live would be like not having anyone. Think about how the US would be right now if every single unwed mother or cheating husband had to wear this - there'd be chaos.

Source:
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Photo Source:
http://www.alcorngallery.com/JohnAlcorn_TheScarletLetter.html

The Ball

The ball was a torture method that I had heard about, but I didn't really believe that it was something that really happened until I researched it. It is yet another method of torture that was developed by the Chinese, and it was mainly psychological. Basically, the torture victim would be affixed to a wall in some way, and a small ball would be hanging on a rope even with the victim's forehead. The ball would swing back and forth, hitting the victim on the head each time. Eventually, the ball would reach the victim's brain, a process that took several months. Besides the pain of having a ball constantly hit their head, the victim would have to endure blood for the spot where the ball was hitting the forehead going into their eyes. In some cases, it even cause blindness!

Source:
http://medieval-castles.org/index.php?blog=5&cat=31&disp=posts&paged=2

Photo source:
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/physics/demo-images/1-Mechanics/1D50-1_ball_and_string.jpg

The Blade

The blade is a device that I had never heard of before. It was a method of torture invented by the Chinese, and apparently it was very effective. If they had a prisoner that they wanted to get to talk or get information out of, they would make tiny cuts on the victim's body until he/she spoke. This type of torture could go on FOREVER because the torturers could just let cuts heal and start all over again, but in most cases prisoners would speak before it got that far. It's weird to think that you could die from something as seemingly minor as a cut, but if you think about it, a thousand cuts would drain a lot of blood!

Source:
http://medieval-castles.org/index.php?blog=5&cat=31&disp=posts&paged=2

Photo Source:
http://filmswords.com/images/highlander/memoirs/HII%20katana%20full.jpg

The Stocks

The stocks are a torture device that I'm sure many of you have heard of. A person's hands and feet would be trapped within the confines of the stocks themselves, and the victim would be rendered helpless. Although the stocks themselves weren't really that painful, the person would be placed in the middle of a common area where they'd be subject to public scorn. People would urinate, beat, ridicule, and sometimes even stone a person in stocks. In some cases, angry townspeople would even cut of parts off the victim, like feet and hands. Whoa!

Source:
http://pictures.exploitz.com/The-Old-Fremantle-Jail-2--The-Stocks--photo-Fremantle-_smgpx10001x15651x175c920c8.jpg

Photo Source:
http://pictures.exploitz.com/The-Old-Fremantle-Jail-2--The-Stocks--photo-Fremantle-_smgpx10001x15651x175c920c8.jpg

The Wheel

The wheel is a form of torture that I think sounds extremely painful. In one form of the torture, the victim would be tied to a horse and dragged behind it, and sometimes they hands were even nailed to a wall to inflict even more pain. The stronger a person was, the more horses it would take to ripped them away from the wall. Once the person's bones were crushed and separated from being stretched by the horse, the victim would be tied to a wheel. In some cases, the wheel was even mobile, which was much more painful than if it were stationary. Sound like a good way to die? Nope...

Source:
http://medieval-castles.org/index.php/the_wheel_torture_device_deadly_and_pain

Photo Source:
dim.com/~randl/cg/wheel.jpg

Water Torture

This week I’m going to talk about different kinds of water torture. I’m sure you’ve all heard of the Chinese water torture. Basically, a person is strapped down, and water is dripped onto their forehead until they go insane. Since it leaves no distinguishing marks on a victim, it was often a favored method of torture. Would this really work? I had my doubts. Sure, water dripping constantly on my head wouldn’t be exactly pleasant, but to go as far as to call it torture?

Another form a water torture was used a lot during wartimes. It’s called water boarding, and it dates all the way back to the fourteenth century. A person is restrained and water is poured on him/her to simulate the feeling of drowning. Sometimes the prisoner’s face would even be covered to enhance the torture. Creepy!

Source:
http://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/it-may-be-chinese-water-torture-for-the-gallery-but-bertie-remains-unfazed-1084801.html
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/Investigation/story?id=1356870

Photo Source:
http://www.geocities.com/daveclarkecb/Australia/FailAust.html

The Thumbscrew

Ok, so I realize that torture devices is kind of a weird topic to have, and it probably makes me look like a total psycho, but I promise I’m not. One of my brothers did a paper about all the different types of torture devices the different countries and cultures used, and I thought it was really interesting. There are so many different forms of torture out in the world, and it’s crazy that they were actually used on people, and some are still used!

The first device I’m going to cover is the thumbscrew. Basically, it’s exactly what it sounds like – a screw for your thumb. The person who was being tortured would be forced to put their fingers into the thumbscrew, and then the torturer would tighten the screws until the victim’s fingers were crushed. A bigger version of the thumbscrew was made to be used on feet, and does essentially the same thing. Ouch!

Source:
http://medieval-castles.org/index.php/thumbscrew_torture

Photo Source:
http://www.firstfoot.com