Do you have any idea what it's like to be tortured?

Question

I'm totally serious. I just read another question in which all of these christians are claiming that if they were being tortured they would peacefully gaze at the heavens and find solace in christ's love. I think if you had to endure unrelenting pain, you would do or say anything to make it stop, and that goes for everybody.

Answer 1

I have rheumatoid arthritis, palindromic rheumatism, and fibromyalgia. These are three very painful conditions, but with proper care I am able to keep most of the pain under control.

However, that was not always the case, and before I was diagnosed the pain was such that I hoped for death.

It wasn't unusual for my extremities to swell to the point where the skin would split, and I would experience searing agony. I was unable to walk, to move, to think. I seriously considered lopping off the affected limbs to keep this from recurring.

This type of pain would last up to 20 hours, then diminish as rapidly as its onset. No one had a clue what to do for me, and I lived in fear of this pain returning. For 96 long days I endured this, and oh, yes, it was torture.

I feared I would lose my sanity, I prayed that I would die (yes, I prayed for death, and I am an atheist--I was desperate). The worst was never knowing when and where the pain would strike, or how bad it would be.

At it's worst, I was taken away by ambulance, given morphine en-route to the hospital, and nothing helped. Finally, the attending physicians gave me Dilaudid, and that relieved the pain enough that I could sleep.

A rheumatologist finally diagnosed me, and started the treatment that has allowed me to live a somewhat ordinary life. He validated my ordeal by calling my pain "screaming pain," for that is exactly what you do when this type of pain strikes.

I'm not a wimp. I've had 3 children through natural childbirth--no pain relief at all. I thought that was bad, but I can promise you that childbirth is painless by comparison. I never would have thought it possible for a human being to survive the pain that I have endured. I can't even accurately describe it, but I remember it all too well.

No one, absolutely no one, would be able to peacefully take this type of torture without screaming and begging for it to end. I can attest to that as I have lived it, survived it, and to this day I fear it. It is the only thing that I am afraid of.

Yes, I understand the meaning of the word torture, and it is my hope that no one here ever find it out for themselves. Some things are best left unknown, and this is one of them.

Answer 2

How about this: There's a guy being chained to a chair. There's a huge boulder above him. There's a device under his nose that detects his breathing. Everytime he breathes, the boulder gets lowered until it's low enough to crush him. It won't do it instantly though because it only gets lowered a bit each time he breathes, but it'll be slow and painful. Of course, he could choose to die by not breathing. Giving them options like that is more horrifying, because they are forced to choose their own death.

Answer 3

I percieve the abuse that I experienced as a child as torture. How I dealt with it was to leave my body behind as often as I could. God was not there. There wasn't anything I could do or say to make it stop...until I got older.

But in regards to that question, I believe that a christian could focus on God as their escape from torture. It is yet another good way to leave the physical body. I don't think peaceful is quite the right term though. It's more like a death. Part of you dies to escape the abuse.

Unless you have been there, i don't think you have any place to say or judge what "everyone" would do.

Answer 4

That goes for *most* people. Some, who were tortured severely when young have developed an ability called dissociation. This ability allows one to in a sense separate from their bodies.

Most people though cannot do this. Those who say they might be able to remain at peace and look to the heavens are expressing a fantasy that they might be like those in the tales of the martyrs. I don't think they would be successful.

Answer 5

Let me begin by saying that you are correct. No one who hasn't experienced torture knows how they will react if they are tortured.

However, there are powerful stories told by the Church Fathers of Christians who underwent terrible torture and persecution. Some of the worst was being maimed by lions in the arena and being used as "candles" at garden parties of the Emperor. The fathers tell of their singing hymns of praise to God while being thus killed.

We understand that God alone can sustain us in such moments. We know it is real, because Christians in China and Africa have undergone such torture through the strength of the Holy Spirit.

I don't know what I would personally do if I was tortured for my faith. The concept frightens me. I fear that on my own, I would end the pain as quickly as possible. But I pray that through the Holy Spirit I would be able to sustain the pain and remain faithful to my God.

Pastor John

Answer 6

People do a horrible job at accurately remembering pains of the past, which makes them to an equally poor job of estimating how they would react to pain in the future, especially if they could not even imagine it at the intensity of actual torture.

Answer 7

I completely agree. Take the burning times for example. People being accused of witchcraft were starved and tortured until confession. People who were completely innocent confessed to make the pain stop.

Answer 8

As many people are aware, an earthworm can be cut into many pieces and not feel anything, and in fact regrow itself to a certain extent.

This is due to it having no brain to speak of and a very primitive central nervous system.

Much like the average Theist. Therefore it comes as no shock to me that you could torture them for months and get very little reaction.

Answer 9

Humans are a strange creature, often the worst adversity can bring out the best in us.

Answer 10

Well, here's hoping they never have to find out how wrong they are.