What are some of the most unusual and bizarre ways people have died?

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SUMMARY

This discussion explores various unusual and horrific ways people have died, with participants sharing their thoughts on the most painful and disturbing methods. Key examples include being eaten by large predators, dying from cancer, and experiencing torture. The conversation highlights the psychological aspects of death, emphasizing that the worst deaths often involve both physical pain and emotional suffering. Participants reference specific cases and conditions, such as fatal familial insomnia and the psychological torment of witnessing loved ones suffer.

PREREQUISITES
  • Understanding of psychological trauma related to death and dying
  • Familiarity with unusual death cases, such as those listed on Wikipedia
  • Knowledge of the impact of terminal illnesses like cancer and their effects on individuals and families
  • Awareness of historical and cultural contexts surrounding death and torture
NEXT STEPS
  • Research the psychological effects of witnessing traumatic deaths
  • Explore the history of unusual deaths documented in various cultures
  • Study the medical and emotional implications of terminal illnesses like lung cancer
  • Investigate the phenomenon of fatal familial insomnia and its effects on individuals
USEFUL FOR

This discussion is beneficial for psychologists, medical professionals, historians, and anyone interested in the cultural perceptions of death and dying. It provides insights into the emotional and psychological ramifications of unusual deaths.

flyingpig
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I went to this site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unusual_deaths and had a morbid laugh. Then I decided to come up with some of the worst ways to die.

- Get run over by an ambulance
- Have a dream where you are dead and you couldn't wake up, but then you realize you are dead...
 
Physics news on Phys.org
Think about the best way to live.

To answer your question, review all of the horror movies for the past century. The site makes for good comedy.
 
I'v always thought being stomped to death by a large crowd has to be one of the worst. It's the main reason I avoid crowds like the plague.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stampede

Yeah worst way imo.
 
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i've thought being eaten by a large predator would not the greatest way.
 
Electrocuted
 
cary5 said:
Electrocuted

That is actually one of the best ways to go if it's done right... However if gone horribly wrong you I can't disagree.
 
Eaten by wolves!
 
It's easy to construct specific horrific ways to die. Also several varieties of sicknesses would probably go high on many lists if they were presented. But of common non-sickness-related l deaths I'd vote for being eaten by an animal. Immoderate fear of being eaten probably has good evolutionary reasons.
 
  • #10
Burning to death at a stake while people with pitchforks spite you.

Going down in a crab pot

buckwheat
 
  • #11
Insanity said:
i've thought being eaten by a large predator would not the greatest way.
I think being eaten by a Siberian Tiger would be a great way to go. I expect to die at the age of 96 after being shot by a jealous husband.
 
  • #12
Afraid.
 
  • #13
Lacy33 said:
Afraid.

:

Wow... I just got goosebumps... verbatim I was going to quote, "A stranger and afraid in a world I never made."

Afraid is definitely it, and the worst way to live.



On a technical note, it's generally considered to be the most painful experience to be systematically tortured to death. One example:

Your friends and family are imprisoned, and you're all subjected to outrages and basic physical torture. You're all assured that death is your only escape, and then separated. You're placed with an IV of an amphetamine in one arm, and a barbiturate in the other, and made to witness your friends and family tortured and killed.

You're then left alone in cell that is either uniformly lit, or utterly dark, and filled with white noise. Ideally, you cannot sit or lay down.

Finally, you're flayed alive, and then boiled from the feet up.


My point... any death can be made horrific, but the worst elements will always be the pain, emotional, and physical. One enhances the other, as anyone who has ever been depressed can tell you. Is that a satisfactory answer?
 
  • #14
Pythagorean said:
Burning to death at a stake while people with pitchforks spite you.

Going down in a crab pot

buckwheat

You are not a Salem Witch Hunter are you?
 
  • #15
You know that dream state where you are struggling frantically on this amazing idea and then wake up and realize it was utter nonsense.

I think transcending this fiction into reality would be a pretty horrid death. Force a mathematician to memorize inconsistent and incorrect mathematics for many years until that is all that he knows. Step 2: Inevitable suicide.
 
  • #16
PhDorBust said:
You know that dream state where you are struggling frantically on this amazing idea and then wake up and realize it was utter nonsense.

Yup!
And not realizing that it is utter nonsense. Thinking you are "gifted" "special" and posting it on PF where it is promply locked and you get an infratcion with points that NEVER expire, even after you do. That is death while still alive. Death by humiliation is like a failed suicide in a black hole...
 
  • #17
RichardParker said:
Eaten by wolves!

I don't know. At least you die knowing someone had a good meal. :devil:

For me it would be: wanting to die (because of physical pain or whatever) but not being able to. Like the sloth guy in the movie Seven
 
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  • #18
Either being cruxified or going to hell.
 
  • #19
not solving the problem
 
  • #20
That's what I'm talking about.
 
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  • #21
Being consumed by cancer, while being fawned on by relatives that wouldn't have bothered to cross the street to say "hi" when you were healthy.
Sorry for the morbidity, but I identify strongly with Ambrose Bierce. He is my favorite author.
 
  • #22
PAST, n.
That part of Eternity with some small fraction of which we have a slight and regrettable acquaintance. A moving line called the Present parts it from an imaginary period known as the Future. These two grand divisions of Eternity, of which the one is continually effacing the other, are entirely unlike. The one is dark with sorrow and disappointment, the other bright with prosperity and joy. The Past is the region of sobs, the Future is the realm of song. In the one crouches Memory, clad in sackcloth and ashes, mumbling penitential prayer; in the sunshine of the other Hope flies with a free wing, beckoning to temples of success and bowers of ease. Yet the Past is the Future of yesterday, the Future is the Past of to-morrow. They are one -- the knowledge and the dream.
Bierce at his best, IMO.
 
  • #23
I vote a slow death by papercuts.
 
  • #24
To die, with the acute realization that you never had a life worth speaking of.
 
  • #25
There is a fate far worse than the worst possible death: being stuck in the PF politics forum for all eternity with no way out.
 
  • #26
caffenta said:
There is a fate far worse than the worst possible death: being stuck in the PF politics forum for all eternity with no way out.

You need help out? :wink:
 
  • #27
arildno said:
To die, with the acute realization that you never had a life worth speaking of.

To die, knowing that you harmed others through negligence or action has to be worse.
 
  • #28
Right after discovering that you've won the lottery.
 
  • #29
Borg said:
Right after discovering that you've won the lottery.

I really like your sense of humor (not just in this thread).

That WOULD stink!
 
  • #30
Vlad had the right idea, people just so do not like it up them.
 

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