Until recently, one of the most terrible phobias for humanity was Taphophobia - the fear of being buried alive. Scientists have been looking for ways for centuries to determine whether a person is truly dead before burying him.

Inventors made their proposals.

Safety coffins


Safety coffins are one of the projects, the idea is that a person buried alive will wake up in a coffin, he will pull the cord tied to the ground bell, the cemetery workers will hear.
But this project had its drawback, during decomposition the dead body swells and it can accidentally cause a call and a false alarm. No wonder people believed in ghosts.

Design for Security Coffin. Dr. Johann Taberger der Schentod, Hanover, 1829.

The first morgues
Morgues were built at the end of the 19th century in France and Germany, where corpses were laid out to see the first signs of decomposition.
The corpses were constantly inspected by mortuary staff, and some morgues were built with large glass windows so that the public could come and look too. The bodies were treated with antiseptics to prevent infections, in case the person turned out to be alive.

The first morgue in New York City opened in 1866 at Bellevue Hospital.

Finger


It was believed that with the help of a finger one could feel even a faint heartbeat - the pulsation of the blood.

Dr. Collong, a prominent medical innovator, created the dynamoscope, a device that measured vibrations from living things, and the necroscope, a device that confirmed death based on the lungs, heart, and brain.
Although none of the inventions carried over into the modern era, Collong was on the right track.

Language


Death of General Robert E. Lee, at Lexington, Virginia, October 12, 1870. Lithography.

Many doctors believed that death could be accurately determined by applying substances such as lemon, vinegar or alcohol to the tongue.
Doctor I.V. Laborde of France was famous for studying the relationship of tongue to death, and allegedly claimed that he revived a woman who was thought dead by attaching forceps to her tongue and pulling on it for several hours until she awoke. Surprisingly, the tongue-stretching machine design was not implemented.
The idea - to cause pain and it will immediately become clear whether the person is alive or not, was implemented in different forms. For example, a person's finger was held over a burning candle, boiling water was poured on the body, or fingers or toes were amputated.

Hand of a Hanged Man
These techniques only indicate that at that time the study of processes in the deceased body was not at a high enough level.

The closest method to our modern proven methods was galvanism. Luigi Galvani pioneered the field of bioelectromagnetics back in 1780, when he tested the effects of electricity on animal corpses. Together with his wife, Galvani was a sort of Italian Doctor Frankenstein, exploring the connection between electricity and muscles and nerves. In fact, Galvani's experiments later contributed to the creation of the defibrillator. But at that time they were not popular in the scientific medical community.

Luigi Galvani

Luckily today, we know what a coma is, we can detect a heartbeat, and we don't wake up with fewer fingers and toes.

There are many phobias. Less than 10 years ago, science counted about 300 types of phobias, but now their number exceeds 1000. There are many of them and they manifest themselves in different ways. The most common phobias include taphophobia, claustrophobia, aerophobia, and acrophobia. All of them are dangerous to health, and none are inferior to the other in severity. All of them require careful study and comprehensive treatment. What is the fear of being buried alive?

Tatophobia - fear of coffins

Origin of taphophobia

Any phobia is caused by groundless obsessive fear and is a psychological deviation. This can result in illogical actions that are difficult to explain. As a result of the development of a phobia, a person begins to avoid certain places, situations or activities.

Taphophobia is a phobia caused by an uncontrollable fear of funerals; people are literally afraid of the grave. It is one of the main phobias of the human psyche.

Fear of being buried alive, fear of funeral paraphernalia, fear of cemeteries are the consequences of an overly developed fear of death.

Being buried alive is your biggest fear.

The fear of being buried alive is most pronounced and is accompanied by panic attacks. People have been struggling with this fear since ancient times. Previously, in order not to bury a person alive, they came up with tricks to make themselves known, for example, using a bell.

In the 1770s, the Duke of Mecklenburg signed a decree that a person should be buried only on the third day. Because taphophobia was widespread in the 19th century, so-called "safe coffins" were invented. They allowed the buried person to independently leave the coffin or show signs of life.

Causes

An interesting fact is that taphophobia does not occur alone. Its companions are fear of enclosed spaces and fear of the dark. In impressionable people, such a disorder may occur after a slight emotional shock.

Having experienced the death of a loved one, fear of death may also arise. The situation is further aggravated by the fact that, due to his emotionality, a person can harm himself and lead himself to a nervous breakdown.

Phobia sufferers avoid attending funerals

Definition of a person with a phobia of coffins

Many people are susceptible to phobias. How to determine that your friend, girlfriend or loved one is afraid of death? You just need to watch him. People with this phobia visit doctors quite often and are overly concerned about their health.

Another manifestation is increased attention to one’s own will.

Such people write a will in advance and indicate in great detail all the details of their burial.

Symptoms

Psychologists include the following symptoms of taphophobia:

• partial or complete sleep disturbance (insomnia, nightmares, too light sleep);
• panic fear at the sight of funeral paraphernalia or while visiting a cemetery;
• darkening of the eyes, dizziness, loss of consciousness;
• tremor of the limbs;
• hallucinations.

Each person is different and symptoms may vary. Atypical manifestations include:

• loss of appetite;
• depressive state.

Panic fear of the cemetery

Treatment methods for taphophobia

In the early stages of the disease, when symptoms have just begun to appear, you can try to cope with the phobia yourself. To do this, you can use modern techniques for relaxation and calm. Let's consider the method of meditation. In Hinduism, meditation is defined as inner concentration. Necessary attributes for meditation:

• aromatic oils;
• relaxing music;
• comfortable rugs;
• decorative scented candles.

Meditation is also used for psychotherapy and psychotraining. It will help you relax and calm down. You need to do meditation regularly. This will help you find harmony and understanding of yourself. The process of meditation must take place in a certain way.

Meditation in the treatment of tatophobia

1. You will only need 10-15 minutes.
2. You need to choose a quiet place where no one will disturb you.
3. Take a position that is comfortable for you, making sure to keep your back straight.
4. Close your eyes and place your hands palms up.
5. Start breathing calmly and deeply. You need to inhale through your nose and exhale through your mouth.
6. Try not to think about anything.
7. Feel your body relax.

Next exercise: you need to understand what exactly you are afraid of. Awareness of fear is the first step towards getting rid of it.

In addition to this, you can engage in hobbies or travel. Outdoor recreation is what you need to strengthen the nervous system. If possible, then you need to diversify your life by meeting new people and fresh impressions.

Why is taphophobia dangerous?

Phobia, like any other disease, is treatable. The sooner you start treating it, the easier the treatment will be. Once the disease has started, it is very difficult to treat it.

When faced with such a disease, you should be very careful. It often happens that the patient can harm himself.

Conclusion

This is a serious disease that significantly limits life. There is no need to avoid fears and live with them all your life. This will only complicate the situation. You need to find an integrated approach and get rid of your fear.

Since ancient times, everything related to death has always caused fear, anxiety and even panic in people. The fear of ritual objects and sudden cardiac arrest is incomparable with the horror that arises at the thought of the possibility of being buried alive. Stories about such cases only increase confusion, giving rise to taphephobia in people - the fear of being buried alive.

A little history

The fear of accidental burial was first noted in ancient times, as soon as people began to bury their loved ones. Even then, everything was done so that people could eradicate this fear. In the 18th century, a mandatory three-day delay for funerals was introduced. The presence of death was verified by several specialists and using different methods. However, taphephobia became widespread in the early 19th century. Famous people suffered from it: N. Gogol, M. Tsvetaeva, A. Nobel, W. Collins.

At the beginning of the 20th century, safety coffins began to be produced, which were equipped with means of communication with the outside world. With their help, the buried person could get out on his own.

Causes and mechanism of fear

Impressionable adults and children are susceptible to taphephobia. They are united by experience and strong outside influence. Each of them suffered tragedy in early childhood: they lost loved ones and attended their funerals. The reluctance to accept their death and ignorance of what happens to a person’s body after burial triggered the fantasy.

Trying to deny the obvious, the child’s psyche built defense mechanisms. He came up with various options, and thoughts came into his head that the man did not die, but was just fast asleep. Seeing that the coffin was covered with a thick layer of earth, the kid understood that the buried were trapped and were unlikely to be able to get out without outside help.

It is not only the experience of attending a funeral that leads to the obsessive fear of being buried alive. Children could have seen similar stories in horror films or read many stories on the Internet. Growing up, they learn about lethargic sleep, coma, medical negligence, the difficulty of establishing the fact of death at home, sudden revival, and their fear only intensifies.

High emotionality leads to the fact that a person is so imbued with stories that he begins to try on the role of someone buried alive. He models various situations and mentally plays them out, which further develops his sick imagination. Nervousness, anxiety, and constant thoughts appear that a person is no longer able to get rid of. A weak nervous system, great vulnerability and impressionability contribute to the fact that fear turns into a behavioral disorder, which psychiatrists diagnose as taphephobia.

Symptoms of a phobia

All cultures have invented various rituals of farewell to deceased loved ones so that their relatives or friends can survive the pain of loss and cope with stress. In addition to calming, this process also brings a persistent rejection of everything connected with burial. People understand that sooner or later all this will affect them. However, only a few percent of people worldwide have taphephobia. They easily stand out among others due to their characteristic behavior:

• People prone to the manifestation of this disease do not always keep their fear inside themselves. They are actively interested in theories regarding the determination of the fact of death of a person, and discuss the topic of burial.
• Those suffering from taphephobia doubt the reliability of all methods and means of determining death. Although these are complex and technologically advanced procedures, they do not believe that death can be reliably determined.
• People are so scared that they are afraid to go to the funerals of well-known and very close people. They understand that their behavior can be regarded as a sign of disrespect for the deceased, but they cannot do anything. Coming up with various excuses and stories, they try by all means to avoid being at the funeral.
• Those with taphephobic disorder often experience panic attacks. This is due to the fact that the burial process gives rise to thoughts that the deceased can come to life. Constant irrational fear intensifies and turns into horror. Hysteria begins, accompanied by screams and attempts to pull the deceased out of the coffin or dig him up.
• At the physiological level, various changes occur in the body of a taphephobe: sudden general fatigue, dizziness appear, blood pressure increases or decreases, sweating increases, and heart rhythm is disturbed. Such symptoms can lead to fainting. A person’s condition changes due to the fact that he begins to imagine himself in the place of the buried person, who finds himself in a dark, cramped and stuffy space, where oxygen will run out after a certain time.
• A person suffering from taphephobia is constantly afraid of falling into a lethargic sleep and being buried alive. A person will visit doctors for a long time to diagnose the possibility of falling into a lethargic coma. Sleep disturbance in patients manifests itself in insomnia, nightmares, and inability to relax muscles. This is due to the fact that soft bed and darkness are associated with the space inside the coffin.
• Taphephobes sleep in unnatural positions in order to avoid looking like a dead person as much as possible.
• Those who are subject to a constant fear of being buried alive are actively interested in who will bury them in the event of sudden death. On this occasion, they leave wills, where they indicate a long period of delay for the funeral.

If all or several symptoms are present, a person should consult a psychotherapist or psychiatrist. This must be done immediately, since being in constant fear destroys the psyche and leads to serious health problems.

Treatment methods

In the Middle Ages, the fear of being buried alive was so widespread that scientists from technical disciplines became involved in its treatment. They came up with various devices to determine the fact of death. It was a lever with a bell. It was attached to the deceased's hand with tape.

If the deceased suddenly came to life, then all he had to do was pull the ribbon, and a ringing sound would be heard above the ground. The cemetery attendant should have heard the sound and rushed to help. Today medicine can offer electroencephalography, ultrasound and radiographic examination of cerebral blood flow. Knowledge of such accurate diagnostic methods gives patients peace of mind.

However, this situation cannot be avoided without the help of a medical specialist. Effective treatment begins in the office of a psychiatrist or psychotherapist. An ordinary psychologist will not help here, since fear consists of other fears: claustrophobia, aerophobia, acrophobia, taphophobia. A doctor has many techniques in his arsenal to help reduce the manifestations of taphephobia or get rid of it.

First of all, specialists start with hypnosis and cognitive therapy. In more serious cases, medications are prescribed. In treatment, specialists actively use not only individual techniques, but also group methods. The patient is included in support groups and undergoes special training, where he can free himself from his worries by discussing problems and sharing his impressions with others.

The psychotherapist uses the following techniques:

• correction of anxiety through conversations, art therapy, autogenic training;
• disensitization and free association method;
• neurolinguistic programming.

To prevent a relapse, doctors advise impressionable people not to watch films on similar topics, especially at night.

Help yourself

In the treatment of taphephobia, self-education and independent work to strengthen mental health play an important role. High efficiency is achieved if the patient actively performs exercises and organizes simple activities:

• reads books and articles with life-affirming information every day;
• listens to calm and melodic music;
• watches informative films;
• goes in for sports;
• spends a lot of time outdoors;
• organizes his vacation as an active activity;
• looks at your fears objectively and analyzes them;
• studies the literature on phobic disorder;
• reevaluates and comprehends his life;
• reconsiders priorities in daily activities, highlighting creative activities;
• tries to minimize situations in which his fear manifests itself;
• excludes staying in closed, dark, stuffy rooms;
• avoids loneliness;
• talks with people who have similar problems;
• provides help and support to those who suffer from taphephobia.

When contacting a doctor, it is important for a patient to remember that only timely and comprehensive treatment will help quickly get rid of the problem of behavior disorder.

Taphophobia (taphephobia) is the irrational fear of being buried alive. It is closely related to other disorders, such as: fear of death (thanatophobia), fear of tombstones (placophobia) and cemeteries (coimetrophobia), fear of closed spaces (claustrophobia). The term comes from the Greek meaning taphos, "tomb or grave", and phobo, "deep horror or fear".

Taphophobia is the fear of being placed in a grave while still alive due to an error in the fact of death. Before the advent of modern medicine, this disorder was not considered completely irrational. Throughout history, there have been many cases of people being buried alive by accident. For example, in 1905 the English reformer

William Tebb collected reports of premature burials and found 219 attempts, 149 actually completed, 10 live autopsies, and 2 embalming awakenings.

The 18th century saw the development of mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and defibrillation techniques to revive people thought to be dead, and the Royal Humane Society was formed, in essence, as a "Society for the Rescue of Persons Apparently Drowned." In 1896, the American funeral director Montgomery reported that "nearly 2% of those exhumed were undoubtedly victims of suspended resuscitation." At the same time, folklorist Paul Barber argued that the statistics were inflated and because the normal effects of decomposition were mistaken for signs of life.

There were many urban legends about people being accidentally buried alive. They included elements such as a man going into a state of stupor or coma, only to wake up years later and die a horrific death. Other stories tell of the opening of coffins in which corpses were found with long beards or raised arms with palms facing up. Of note is the legend of the premature burial of Ann Hill Carter Lee, wife of Henry Lee III.

On his deathbed in 1799, George Washington made his servants promise that they would not bury him for two days.

Literature has found fertile ground in the study of the natural fear of being buried alive. One of Edgar Allan Poe's terrible works, Premature Burial, is the story of a man suffering from taphophobia. His other stories about this situation are "The Fall of the House of Usher", "The Cask of Amontillado" and, to a lesser extent, "The Black Cat".

Taphophobia was prevented to the extent that the ritual industry could afford. For example, someone negotiates the production of “safe” coffins with glass lids for observation, a bell for alarm, and breathing tubes for survival. Urban legends say that the phrases "Salvation by the Bell" and "Dead Ring" come from the concept of a rope coming from a coffin and attached to the outside of a bell, which can alert the public that the recently buried has not yet died. Over time, these theories were recognized as a hoax.

Among the famous people suffering from taphophobia are the poets Edgar Allen Poe, George Washington, composer F. Chopin and writer Hans Christian Anderson.

It is believed that Poe was greatly obsessed with this fear and often used it as a theme for his books, examples of which are mentioned earlier.

Throughout history, there are several hundred documented cases of people making mistakes and burying the living, but this was largely due to the lack of modern medicine and equipment available. Often, someone who fell into a coma during the cholera period or simply lost consciousness was buried alive. Some of them were awakened at autopsies or in the morgue, while others were discovered when visiting a family tomb.

Consequently, the fear of tombs or the fear of being buried alive was prevalent in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and it is not surprising that many tombs and graves were actually equipped with bells to help detect such “mistakes.” It even led to the famous phrase "Saved by the Bell." Other more modern methods to help the "presumed dead" alert people outside include adding air tubes, oxygen tanks and glass doors inside coffins.

Death remains just as frightening, unknown and unexplored. Nobody knows what awaits us in the afterlife. Therefore, people suffering from anxiety or depression are more likely to develop taphophobia. Miners who had the negative experience of being trapped hundreds of feet underground may also have developed this fear. Other negative or traumatic events, such as being buried in sand at the beach for fun by friends who have been gone for several hours, can trigger fears of being buried alive.

Parents or other adults sometimes unknowingly instill these fears in children by talking about it so often that they may develop an actual phobic response to the situation. As mentioned above, many books, films, and television shows have explored this topic.

People who already have a fear of closed and confined spaces may also suffer from Taphophobia.

Symptoms

The thought of being buried alive causes several physical and emotional symptoms, including: heavy breathing, increased heart rate, trembling, and profuse sweating. Avoidance of unwanted situations is another symptom: the patient prefers to stay away from enclosed spaces such as basements, caves, or other underground spaces. He may also refuse to visit cemeteries or look at gravestones.

Some patients experience a panic attack, characterized by crying, screaming and a strong desire to run away. Those who can afford it carefully work through the process of their funeral, placing air ducts, oxygen tanks, cardiac stimulators, etc. in the coffin. Many ask not to bury them for at least three days after passing away.

Most “normal” people do not understand, suffer from taphophobia, which often leads to bullying or bullying, which makes the patient socially withdrawn. Additionally, constant depictions of death in movies might have influenced his perception of death.

Many factors can cause the disorder to become so severe that medical intervention may be required.

Treatment

If the phobia greatly affects your daily life, it is best to seek professional help. This includes medication therapy, psychiatric counseling and hypnotherapy, etc. Hypnosis and NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) are especially useful in getting to the source of the phobia. Both of these treatments help reprogram the patient's mind to respond more positively to the object of their fear, in this case, graves and cemeteries.

Those suffering from taphophobia are also advised to make lifestyle changes such as daily physical activity, charity or volunteer work, yoga or tai chi, deep breathing, meditation, etc. These psychological interventions are known to promote overcoming stress and depression that can cause a phobia. They also help to accept death as the end point of the path and as part of the processes of natural life, so that a person stops fighting it and learns to accept it.

Another way to overcome the fear of being buried alive is to gradually remove the block by visiting cemeteries and graves. You can start by looking at images and films related to the object of fear, and then go straight to it when the level of fear decreases.

A person experiences fear of heights when he is somewhere above a cliff. Fear of enclosed spaces, claustrophobia - in an elevator or in a pressure chamber. However, human fears sometimes extend beyond the specific situation. A person begins to panic in a normal and safe environment, simply imagining that such a disaster could happen to him. All possible measures are being taken to prevent this possibility. Such fears include taphophobia - the fear of being buried alive.

Fears and reality

Cases when a person recognized as dead came to his senses on the eve of burial were not uncommon. And people couldn’t help wondering how many people woke up only in a coffin and suffered terrible moral and physical suffering.

In the middle of the 18th century, wealthy Englishwoman Hannah Beswick bequeathed her body to be embalmed and left unburied in the hope that signs of life would show. This exaggerated phobia arose after her brother was almost buried alive by mistake. Lady Beswick's mummy lay in plain sight for more than a hundred years and during this time became a landmark of Manchester, after which, due to no signs of life, it was buried.

At the end of the 18th century, the Duke of Mecklenburg issued a decree on funerals no earlier than three days after death, in order to avoid burials alive. After some time, this law spread to a number of European countries. The German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer bequeathed to wait not three, but five days before the funeral. As a result, by the time of the funeral, his body had already begun to decompose.

An entire business was built on people’s fear of being buried alive: coffins with ventilation grilles that could be opened from the inside came into use. They were actively sold in Europe and America until the Second World War. One of the first inventors of safe coffins was Emmanuel Nobel, the father of Alfred Nobel. They both had agonizing fears of waking up in their graves.

One of the most striking examples of individuals suffering from taphophobia is Hans Christian Andersen. A gifted person with a vibrant imagination and an unstable psyche, Andersen was constantly consumed by all sorts of concerns and fears. He was afraid of dogs, robbery, drowning. I always carried a rope with me to get out of the window in case of fire. He was so afraid of poisoning that when fans sent him a huge box of chocolate, Andersen panicked and sent the gift to his nieces. True, when he was convinced that the chocolate did not affect their well-being, he took it back and finished it.

The famous storyteller was so afraid of being buried alive that every evening he put a note next to his bed: “In fact, I didn’t die.”

The English writer Wilkie Collins left a similar note before going to bed. The content of the text stated that if Collins did not wake up, do not bury him before a thorough check.

The writer Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol repeatedly shared with his friends his fear of waking up in a grave. A number of letters have survived in which he expresses such concerns. Subsequently, on this basis, a legend was created that during exhumation Gogol’s skeleton lay sideways or face down.

Burial alive as execution

It is not surprising that people are afraid of being buried alive: this has always been one of the most cruel types of execution. A man dies in the dark from suffocation, experiencing terrible agony.

The priestesses of ancient Rome - the Vestal Virgins - were walled up alive underground if they violated their vow of celibacy. Wrapped in long clothes, the woman descended into the dug dungeon, after which the entrance was filled up and the ground was leveled.

The Russian princess Olga buried the Drevlyan ambassadors alive as revenge for the murder of her husband, Prince Igor.

During the Inquisition during the Spanish Terror in the Netherlands, this execution was intended for young girls accused of heresy. The executioner buried the condemned woman, and then jumped on this place with the aim of breaking her chest.

In Scandinavia, children were immured alive as sacrifices, a tradition that was observed periodically until the 18th century. The fortress of Veliky Novgorod - Detinets - was built on the same sacrifice.

The Zaporozhye Cossacks buried the murderer alive in a coffin along with the victim.

Real cases in our time

And in the modern era, despite all scientific achievements, living people periodically end up in morgue refrigerators as a result of medical errors.

In 2003, 73-year-old Vietnamese man Nguyen Van Quan lay in a mortuary refrigerator for seven hours before he was discovered to be alive.

In 2007, a 30-year-old man was declared dead in Dublin as a result of medical error. The morgue staff found signs of life in it.

That same year, a similar story happened in Fredrick, Texas, with 21-year-old Zach Dunlap after a car accident. Relatives had already signed consent for the transplantation of his organs, but he woke up during the farewell ceremony.

In 2008, in Israel, doctors at Nagori Hospital identified a premature baby girl as stillborn and placed her in the morgue refrigerator. When they pulled out the girl a few hours later, she moved, but they couldn’t save her.

In December 2011, an exceptional episode occurred in one of the morgues in Simferopol. The Death-metal music group rehearsed in the morgue to ensure unity of form and content. And in the midst of the creative process, one of the “dead” woke up - a young man who was mistakenly considered dead.