failuretothrive

I remember watching an episode of Mythbusters around the beginning of October (they're the special effects guys that put urban myths to the test). So they decided to test whether or not Chinese Water Torture was really effective or not, all the while virtually laughing their ass off at the idea that a few drops of water constantly falling on someone's forehead could be torture. They even talked to a Vietnam Vet who had been a former POW and went through god knows what. He tried to convey (very politely) that maybe torture maybe wasn't the best thing to just idly fun around with. Carrie was their volunteer, and they strapped her down to a rack-like table with the clear understanding that she could at any time say "OK, I'm done, I can't take it any more. Get me out of here." They even had paramedics standing by. Carrie is just about as free-spirited as it gets and wasn't about to let some stupid water thing take her down. They started with a short psychological questionaire, "How much anxiety do you feel on a scale of 1-10? How uncomfortable do you feel? Do you feel scared or afraid?..." And of course, she easily laughed them off.

The plan was to keep asking these questions about every 15 minutes or so, and evaluate how effective the torture was. Over the course of about an hour and a half, the anxiety and fear increased slightly but not extremely.

She started to break down after that. Her fear especially rose dramatically, and we the viewer got to watch.

I would sum up the episodes conclusions but I can't handle thinking about it. Maybe I've been there before or something, I don't know. I don't remember anything like that, but it still haunts me, I just wish shit wouldn't haunt me like that.