Do You Remain Conscious After Being Decapitated?

Certainly one of the more morbid urban legends, it’s a fascinating question to ponder. Throughout history, decapitation has been a popular way to kill or execute others. In fact, the word ‘capital’ from capital punishment was created to describe execution by decapitation. It was derived from the Latin word caput, which means “head.” But is there anything to the myth? Can a person remain conscious for a short time after their head has been removed?





Death By Guillotine

The guillotine was invented as a painless and humane method of execution, one which the inventors claimed brought an instant death. But could they have been wrong?

During the French Revolution, it is said that many of the condemned were asked to blink for as long as possible after decapitation. While many did not blink at all, some did — for as long as thirty seconds. Still other observations describe more specific reactions to stimuli following beheading.

In the Archives d’Anthropologie Criminelle, a doctor observed the following: “the eyelids and lips of the guillotined man worked in irregularly rhythmic contractions for about five or six seconds” and even more startling “I called in a sharp, loud voice: ‘Languille!’ I saw his eyelids slowly lift up, without any spasmodic contractions. Languille’s eyes very definitely fixed themselves on mine and the pupils focused themselves. After a few seconds, the eyelids then slowly closed, and the head took on the same appearance as it had had before I called out.“

A Medical Answer

The modern medical consensus is that life does survive after decapitation for roughly 13 seconds, varying based on a persons build, health and the immediate circumstances surrounding the decapitation. Contrary to what one may think, the actual act of removing a head from a body is not what kills the brain. Rather, it is the lack of oxygen and other important chemicals provided in the bloodstream. To quote Dr. Ron Wright “The 13 seconds is the amount of high energy phosphates that the cytochromes in the brain have to keep going without new oxygen and essential glucose”. The precise post-execution lifespan will depend on how much oxygen, and other chemicals, were in the brain at the point of decapitation; however, eyes could certainly move and blink.

So can we conclude that a decapitated head is capable of consciousness following the act? Not with certainty. Since further scientific observation of human decapitation is extremely unlikely, it will likely be a question which will remain unanswered. Though, the evidence and written anecdotes from history do indicate that for some, death was not instantaneous. Definitely gives a new meaning to the phrase “out of the body experience”.

Continuing with the morbidity theme, we’ve provided some fun facts about death below: