Trigger Warning: This article contains topics discussing torture and death
Perhaps one of the world's most pondered questions has finally been answered – what really is the worst way to die?
Yes, it's morbid, but there's no denying that the majority of us have thought about it.
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It's one of life's many questions that are seemingly impossible to answer, and while nobody wants to experience a horrific death, it's always intriguing to know the worst and most gory ways to go.
Well, thanks to a mortician, we now know exactly what the worst death is and believe it or not, it doesn't involve a blade or a bullet.
Caitlin Doughty is best known for her YouTube channel, Ask a Mortician, where she posts rather macabre content to her 1.85 million subscribers. The LA-based mortician (or undertaker, as the UK knows it as) took to her channel recently to answer a Q&A, in which she explained that 'bad deaths' across cultures all tend to have similar features.
"It's tragic and unexpected, a suicide, a homicide, a terrible accident," she said. "For the survivors, the worst thing could be when the body is never found and funeral and mourning rituals can't be performed."
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Doughty then went on to discuss the worst ways to die, including one of the very worst and unsurprisingly, it comes from an ancient torture method that many of us have probably never heard of.
The method was called scaphism – an ancient Persian method of fatal torture – and Doughty didn't hold back in explaining the horrors that it entailed.
"First your body is stripped naked and you're put between two hollowed-out logs with your head and limbs sticking out," she said.
"Then they pour honey all over you and force you to ingest honey which attracts insects. Then they leave you in a stagnate pond to be slowly eaten - but they come back every day to forcibly feed you more milk and honey so you don't die right away, eventually succumbing to exposure, dehydration, shock and delirium."
According to ATI, scaphing is believed to have originated in around 500 B.C.E and was known as 'the boats', as victims were placed in two hollowed-out logs or boats before their suffering even began.
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Quite naturally, followers were stunned by the fatal torture method and were quick to share their shock, with one writing:
"I would hate to have my last moments of consciousness stolen by another person's desire to see me suffer."
While another said: "I read about scaphism years ago and it was actually already my 'worst death' scenario."
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