A guillotine witness: This story is crazy huh?

Question

http://www.metaphor.dk/guillotine/Pages/30sec.html

Answer 1

I've read that before. Here's something on consciousness after beheading (it contains your example; scroll down further):
http://www.damninteresting.com/?p=495

The lips of Mary, Queen of Scots, continued to move for a time after her execution, after two blows:
http://www.tudorhistory.org/primary/exmary.html

It's also said that Charlotte Corday blushed when slapped on the cheek after her beheading:
http://europeanhistory.about.com/library/bldyk10.htm

There are quite a few tales, if one cares to research...

Answer 2

Not really as the person above me said.
There were numerous experiments on this when guillotines were used in France. One doctor who was to be executed told his assistant that after he would be executed he would blink his eyes for as long as he could remain conscious enough to do so, and his did it for almost an hour after his head was severed.
Another doctor discovered that people would react to things for a while after their heads were removed, I don't remember the accuracies in this story though.

Answer 3

Not so much crazy. Questions like this have been on answers manier times. What happened to this person is not extra ordinary. When you're decapitated the remainders of blood left in the head can ensure working brain functions for a little while. The big question we've never been able to answer is if this person is still concious or if these reactions are irratic nerve reactions (like a chicken still running aroung when you cut its head)

Answer 4

Wow..thanks for this, it's not something I think I would have come upon naturally but it is fascinating. If true it goes to show that we are more than just the sum part of blood muscle and bones. of course there could be physiological reasons why a severed head reacts like this. I do not think that was the point the Doctor was trying to make, though.

Answer 5

Yeah.

Answer 6

Okay.