It is not for nothing that in almost all countries of the world, funerals are usually held not immediately after death, but only a few days later. There are many examples when a “dead man” suddenly came to life before the funeral, or, worst of all, directly in the grave, finding himself buried alive...
Imaginary death
The “pseudo-funeral” ritual occupies an important place among ministers of shamanic cults. It is believed that by going to the grave alive, the shaman is given the gift of communication with the spirits of the earth, as well as with the souls of deceased ancestors. It’s as if some channels are opening in his mind, through which he communicates with other worlds unknown to mere mortals.
Naturalist and ethnographer E.S. Bogdanovsky was lucky in 1915 to witness the ritual funeral of a shaman of a Kamchatka tribe. In his memoirs, Bogdanovsky wrote that before the burial the shaman fasted for three days and did not even drink water. Afterwards, the assistants, using a bone drill, made a hole in the crown of the shaman, which was then sealed with beeswax. Next, the shaman’s body was rubbed with incense, wrapped in a bear skin and lowered into a grave, which was built in the center of the family cemetery, accompanied by ritual singing. A long reed tube was inserted into the shaman's mouth, which was taken out, and his motionless body was covered with earth. A few days later, during which ritual actions were continuously carried out over the grave, the buried shaman was removed from the grave, washed in three running waters and fumigated with incense. On the same day, the village magnificently celebrated the second birth of a respected fellow tribesman, who, having visited “ kingdom of the dead", took the top step in the hierarchy of ministers of the pagan cult...
IN Lately a tradition has emerged of putting a charged mobile phone next to the deceased - suddenly this is not death at all, but a dream, suddenly a dear person will come to his senses and call his loved ones - I’m alive, dig me back up... But so far this has not happened - in our time, with advanced diagnostic devices , in principle, it is impossible to bury a person alive.
However, people do not trust doctors and try to protect themselves from a terrible awakening in the grave. In 2001, a scandalous incident occurred in America. Los Angeles resident Joe Barten, who was terribly afraid of falling into Sopor, bequeathed to make ventilation in his coffin, leave food and a telephone in it. And at the same time, his relatives could receive an inheritance only on the condition that they call his grave 3 times a day. It is curious that Barten’s relatives refused to receive the inheritance - they found the process of making calls quite creepy...
“Secrets of the 20th Century” - (Golden Series)
It is no coincidence that in almost all countries and among all peoples it is customary to bury the body not immediately after death, but only a few days later. There have been many cases when “dead people” suddenly came to life before the funeral, or, worst of all, right inside the grave...Imaginary death
Lethargy (from the Greek lethe - “oblivion” and argia - “inaction”) is an almost unstudied painful condition, like a dream. Signs of death have always been considered the cessation of heartbeat and lack of breathing. But during lethargic sleep, all life processes also freeze, and to distinguish real death from imaginary sleep (as lethargic sleep is often called) without modern equipment is quite difficult. Therefore, earlier cases of burial of people who did not die, but who fell asleep in a lethargic sleep, took place quite often, and sometimes with famous people.
If now burial alive is already a fantasy, then 100-200 years ago cases of burial of living people were not so uncommon. Very often, gravediggers, digging a fresh grave at ancient burial sites, discovered twisted bodies in half-decayed coffins, from which it was clear that they were trying to get out to freedom. They say that in medieval cemeteries every third grave was such an eerie sight.
Fatal sleeping pill
Helena Blavatsky described strange cases of lethargy: “In 1816 in Brussels, a respected citizen fell into deep lethargy on Sunday morning. On Monday, as his companions prepared to hammer nails into the coffin lid, he sat up in the coffin, rubbed his eyes and demanded coffee and a newspaper. In Moscow, the wife of a wealthy businessman lay in a cataleptic state for seventeen days, during which the authorities made several attempts to bury her; but since decomposition did not occur, the family rejected the ceremony, and after the said period, the life of the supposedly dead woman was restored. In Bergerac in 1842, a patient took sleeping pills, but... did not wake up. They bled him: he did not wake up. Finally he was declared dead and buried. A few days later they remembered to take sleeping pills and dug up the grave. The body was turned over and bore signs of a struggle.”
This is only a small part of such cases - lethargic sleep is actually quite common.
Scary awakening
Many people tried to protect themselves from being buried alive. For example, the famous writer Wilkie Collins left a note at his bedside with a list of measures that should be taken before burying him. But the writer was educated person and had the concept of lethargic sleep, while many ordinary people did not even think of something like that.
So, in 1838, an incredible incident occurred in England. After the funeral of a respected person, a boy was walking through the cemetery and heard an unclear sound from underground. The frightened child called the adults, who dug up the coffin. When the lid was removed, the shocked witnesses saw that a terrible grimace was frozen on the face of the deceased. His arms were freshly bruised and his shroud was torn. But the man was already actually dead - he died a few minutes before being rescued - from a broken heart, unable to withstand such a terrible awakening to reality.
An even more terrible incident occurred in Germany in 1773. A pregnant woman was buried there. When screams began to be heard from underground, the grave was dug up. But it turned out that it was already too late - the woman died, and moreover, the child who had just been born in the same grave died...
Crying Soul
In the fall of 2002, a misfortune happened in the family of Krasnoyarsk resident Irina Andreevna Maletina - her thirty-year-old son Mikhail unexpectedly died. A strong, athletic guy who never complained about his health, died at night in his sleep. The body was autopsied, but the cause of death could not be determined. The doctor who drew up the death report told Irina Andreevna that her son died of sudden cardiac arrest.
As expected, Mikhail was buried on the third day, a wake was celebrated... And suddenly the next night his mother dreamed of her dead son crying. In the afternoon, Irina Andreevna went to church and lit a candle for the repose of the soul of the newly deceased. However, the crying son continued to appear in her dreams for another week. Maletina turned to one of the priests, who, after listening, said disappointing words that the young man might have been buried alive. It took Irina Andreevna incredible efforts to obtain permission to carry out the exhumation. When the coffin was opened, the grief-stricken woman instantly turned gray with horror. Her beloved son was lying on his side. His clothes, ritual blanket and pillow were torn to shreds. There were numerous abrasions and bruises on the hands of the corpse, which were not present during the funeral. All this eloquently indicated that the man woke up in the grave, and then died for a long time and painfully.
A resident of the city of Bereznyaki near Solikamsk, Elena Ivanovna Duzhkina, recalls how once in her childhood she and a group of children saw a coffin floating from nowhere during the spring flood of the Kama. The waves washed him to the shore. The frightened children called the adults. People opened the coffin and saw with horror a yellowish skeleton dressed in rotten rags. The skeleton lay prone, legs tucked under itself. The entire lid of the coffin, darkened by time, was covered with deep scratches from the inside.
Living Gogol
The most famous such case was scary tale, associated with Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol. During his life, several times he fell into a strange, absolutely motionless state, reminiscent of death. But great writer He always came to his senses quickly, although he managed to fairly scare those around him. Gogol knew about this peculiarity of his and, more than anything else, was afraid that one day he would fall into deep dream for a long time and he will be buried alive. He wrote: “Being in the full presence of memory and common sense, I state here my last will. I bequeath my body not to be buried until obvious signs of decomposition appear. I mention this because even during the illness itself, moments of vital numbness came over me, my heart and pulse stopped beating.”
After the writer’s death, they did not listen to his will and buried him as usual - on the third day...
These terrible words were remembered only in 1931, when Gogol was reburied from the Danilov Monastery on Novodevichy Cemetery. According to eyewitnesses, the lid of the coffin was scratched from the inside, and Gogol's body was in an unnatural position. Then another one was discovered scary thing, which had nothing to do with lethargic dreams and burials alive. Gogol's skeleton was missing... its head. According to rumors, she disappeared in 1909, when the monks of the Danilov Monastery were restoring the writer’s grave. Allegedly, they were persuaded to cut it off for a considerable sum by the collector and rich man Bakhrushin, with whom it remained. This wild story, but it is quite possible to believe in it, because in 1931, during the excavation of Gogol’s grave, a number of unpleasant events occurred. Famous writers, who were present at the reburial, literally stole from the coffin “as a souvenir,” some a piece of clothing, some shoes, and some Gogol’s rib...
Call from the other world
Interestingly, in order to protect a person from being buried alive, in many Western countries A bell with a rope still exists in morgues. A person thought to be dead can wake up among the dead, stand up and ring the bell. The servants will immediately come running to his call. This bell and the revival of the dead are very often played out in horror films, but such stories almost never happened in reality. But during the autopsy, the “corpses” came to life more than once. In 1964, an autopsy was performed in a New York morgue on a man who died on the street. As soon as the pathologist’s scalpel touched the “dead man’s” stomach, he immediately jumped up. The pathologist himself died of shock and fright on the spot...
Another similar case was described in the Biysk Rabochiy newspaper. An article dated September 1959 told how, during the funeral of an engineer of one of the Biysk factories, while delivering funeral speeches, the deceased suddenly sneezed, opened his eyes, sat up in the coffin and “almost died a second time, seeing the situation in which located". A thorough examination at the local hospital of the man who rose from the grave did not reveal any pathological changes in his body. The same conclusion was given by the Novosibirsk doctors to whom the resurrected engineer was sent.
Ritual burials
However, people do not always find themselves buried alive against their own will. So, among some African tribes and nationalities South America, Siberia and the Far North, there is a ritual in which the tribe’s healer buries a relative alive. A number of nationalities perform this ritual for the initiation of boys. In some tribes they use it to treat certain diseases. In the same way, old people or sick people are prepared for the transition to another world.
The “pseudo-funeral” ritual occupies an important place among ministers of shamanic cults. It is believed that by going to the grave alive, the shaman receives the gift of communication with the spirits of the earth, as well as with the souls of deceased ancestors. It’s as if some channels open in his consciousness through which he communicates with worlds unknown to mere mortals.
Naturalist and ethnographer E.S. Bogdanovsky was lucky in 1915 to witness the ritual funeral of a shaman of one of the Kamchatka tribes. In his memoirs, Bogdanovsky writes that before the burial the shaman fasted for three days and did not even drink water. Then the assistants, using a bone drill, made a hole in the crown of the shaman, which was then sealed with beeswax. After this, the shaman’s body was rubbed with incense, wrapped in a bear skin and, accompanied by ritual singing, lowered into a grave built in the center of the family cemetery. A long reed tube was inserted into the shaman's mouth, which was taken out, and his motionless body was covered with earth. A few days later, during which rituals were continuously performed over the grave, the buried shaman was removed from the ground, washed in three running waters and fumigated with incense. On the same day, the village magnificently celebrated the second birth of a respected fellow tribesman, who, having visited the “kingdom of the dead,” took the top step in the hierarchy of servants of the pagan cult...
IN last years a tradition arose of placing charged Cell phones- suddenly this is not death at all, but a dream, suddenly a dear person comes to his senses and calls his loved ones - I’m alive, dig me back up... But so far such cases have not happened - these days, with advanced diagnostic devices, it is in principle impossible to bury a person alive.
But nevertheless, people do not believe doctors and try to protect themselves from a terrible awakening in the grave. In 2001, a scandalous incident occurred in the United States. Los Angeles resident Joe Barten, terribly afraid of falling into a lethargic sleep, bequeathed ventilation in his coffin, putting food and a telephone in it. And at the same time, his relatives could receive an inheritance only on the condition that they call his grave three times a day. It’s interesting that Barten’s relatives refused to receive the inheritance - they found the process of making calls to the next world too creepy...
This article contains only the most real and known cases when the dead man came to life. For example, in the Crimean capital there was recently a case with metal rockers. The guys decided to rehearse in the morgue.
They received this decision from their superiors. However, the metalheads had no idea that after their strong music, a human scream could be heard in the complete silence of the morgue.
According to the authorities of this morgue, the guys very quickly left their musical instruments, a drum kit with satanic emblems on it was also left behind. The authorities also said that the person had never run so fast as he did that day.
Read also the article about how, in which you will find out what dreams about a living dead mean.
According to morgue workers, the dead can actually come back to life. This happens, of course, rarely. But this can still happen. For example, if a person is an ordinary drunkard or alcoholic for a long time I didn’t look at the pathologist because of the other corpses.
And here's another one real case when the dead man came to life. This happened in Zimbabwe. Brighton Dame Zante, who was 34 years old, died in Gweru. Within a few days the man was completely dead. All his relatives and friends considered him dead. But the strangest thing happened during the start of the funeral procession. As soon as his relatives wanted to say goodbye to the deceased, he suddenly moved his legs. People couldn't believe their eyes. But after some time, the deceased began to move on, terrifying everyone around him. Naturally, after such an event, everyone in the area fled in all directions. Doctors took the body of the deceased to the hospital and connected it to a life-sustaining device.
An equally interesting case, when a dead man came to life, occurred in Egypt. A 28-year-old Egyptian died and his relatives already wanted to bury him. But suddenly the man came to life, and this also happened at the beginning of the funeral ceremony. At that moment, a doctor came to sign a certificate that would indicate the man’s death. But the doctor discovered that life was still barely glimmering in this man’s body.
The man worked as a waiter, his name was Hamdi Hafeza al-Nubi. An accident happened to him at work and he suffered a heart attack. The family did everything in accordance with traditions, they washed his body and were already waiting for the funeral.
But all this is nonsense compared to the story of Claudia Ustyuzhanina. This happened in Barnaul in 1964. The woman was admitted to the hospital with a diagnosis of cancer. Doctors stated that the disease had progressed so much that the woman had only one way - to the next world. Doctors pronounced him dead. But three days later, lying in the morgue, Klavdiya Ustyuzhanina was able to open her eyes. Claudia survived. She said that she had traveled to the next world. She saw everything that happened to her in the operating room. When the woman’s soul rose upward, some voice said that her life program had not yet been completed, so the woman was returned back.
Here are just a few cases when a dead person actually came back to life. There is still a lot of evidence of how a person who is considered dead comes to life after some time. In general, doctors have several dozen ways to determine whether a person is alive or dead. Only by following all these methods can we advise that I want to say that he is a dead man. However, the most incredible miracles happen in life; a person who was considered dead can actually come to life at some point.
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 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 medic who appeared actually discovered a weak heartbeat and breathing in the girl who had been lifted from 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 to begin with. 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.
As recently as November 2015, two women were walking in a Compton park - small town 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 the bike path completely under the asphalt small child, no more than two days old. 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.
Horrifying 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 and left her deep wound in the hip, 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.
Dying is the worst thing that can happen to a person. At least that's what we think. Although, perhaps the worst thing is when you are mistaken for dead, with all the ensuing consequences.
1. A teenager woke up at his own funeral.
The idea of attending own funeral pretty universal, especially in movies when people fake deaths and have fake funerals. Fortunately, most of us have not had this experience. But 17-year-old Indian teenager Kumar Marevad experienced it himself. He had a high fever after being bitten by a dog and stopped breathing. Kumar's family prepared his body, placed him in a coffin and went for cremation. It's good that the guy woke up in time before he became a pile of ashes.
2. Nacy Perez Was Buried Alive, But She Died After She Was Rescued From The Grave
Neysi Perez, a pregnant girl from Honduras, suddenly fell dead and stopped breathing. The family buried Neisi and her unborn child, but the next day, when the girl's mother visited her grave, she heard sounds from inside. Neisy was dug up, and it seemed she was saved! But fate had other plans. A few hours after her release, she actually died and returned again to where she had recently been rescued.
3. Judith Johnson was sent to the morgue without being seen breathing.
Judith Johnson went to the hospital with what she thought was indigestion, but soon went straight from there to the morgue. Unfortunately, what she thought was indigestion was a heart attack, and resuscitation efforts did not help her. She was rescued by a morgue worker who discovered that Judith was still breathing. The poor thing did not die, but her psyche suffered catastrophically as a result. The grave does not let people go so easily.
4. The Miracle of Walter Williams
Walter Williams died in 2014 at the age of 78. The old man's body was taken to the morgue, but when the worker began embalming, Walter began to breathe. The family considered this return to life a miracle. However, science has its own explanation, called Lazarus syndrome, when dead man suddenly it can come to life again. This syndrome is a very rare phenomenon, but sudden resurrection after recorded death is also possible.
5. Eleanor Markham, who was almost buried alive
Eleanor Markham was 22 years old when she died in 1894 in New York. It was July heat, so the inconsolable family mourned the girl and decided to bury her quickly. As the coffin was being carried to the cemetery, sounds were heard from inside. The lid was removed, and then a furious dialogue ensued between the revived Miss Markham and the person accompanying her to last way attending physician. According to a local newspaper report, their conversation went something like this: “Oh my God! – Miss Markham screamed heart-rendingly. “You are burying me alive!” Her doctor calmly replied, “Hush, hush, you’re fine. It's just a mistake that can be easily corrected."
6. Lonely Mildred Clark
Living alone is not scary. It's scary to die alone and be found by your neighbors by their characteristic smell. Such was the case with 86-year-old Mildred Clark, who was discovered by her landlord lying cold and dead on the floor. The old woman was taken to the morgue, where her body awaited its turn to go to funeral service and then to the cemetery. At the morgue, her frozen legs began to twitch, and the attendant noticed that the deceased was barely breathing. So old and lonely Mildred Clark came back to life again.
7. Sipho William "Zombie" Mdletshe
Somehow in South Africa Sipho William Mdletshe, 24, has died. He lay in the morgue for two days, and then woke up in a metal box and began screaming loudly. Fortunately, the guy was rescued and he immediately ran to his family and fiancee. However, the girl rejected him, considering the revived groom to be a real zombie.
8. Alice Blunden, the woman buried alive TWICE
Alice Blunden was a fat woman who loved brandy, and one day in 1675 she died and was buried. A few days later the children heard sounds from the grave. The grave was dug up, but Alice was still dead, although it was clear that she was struggling inside and calling for help. They examined the body and decided to bury it again until the forensic expert arrived. When the coroner finally arrived and the grave was reopened, Alice's clothes were torn and her face was bloody. She was buried alive for the second time. Alas, fate did not give her a third chance. The coroner finally pronounced her dead.
