In 1942 , physiologist and Harvard Medical School researcher Walter Cannon release anacademic paperwith the sorting of claim you ’d require from a direct - to - video schlock repulsion motion picture : “ Voodoo Death . ”
Cannon was entirely serious , though . In the composition , he argued that diachronic accounts of supernatural deaths , including those supposedly brought on by voodoo curse , were n’t supernatural at all . or else , Cannon speculate these victims might literally have frightened themselves to destruction .
Cannon was the scientist who strike the idiomatic expression “ fight or escape , ” a concept that is still usually used as a shorthand for the variety of biological changes our eubstance undergo when confront with a stressful situation . So he distinctly had insight into how we respond to terror .
“ Fear , as is well known , is one of the most deep rooted and dominant of the emotions , ” he wrote . “ Often , only with difficulty can it be eradicate . connect with it are sound physiological disturbance , widespread throughout the organism . There is grounds that some of these flutter , if they are lasting , can work harmfully . ”
At the time , Cannon job that abject fear can send a person ’s fight - or - flight response into overdrive , spark a flood of hormones that could — under the right circumstances — cause the physical structure , and in particular the centre , to become fatally imbalanced . He also theorize that fear and isolation could labour someone to avoid food and water , further sinking them into an former grave accent .
Contrary to what you might expect , the Dr. ’s theory was n’t laughed off as ridiculous , thanks to his well - established reputation . But it would take decennary of further inquiry into how the cardiovascular system work before we could really read how fear and stress can submerge the body . And it was n’t until the 1990s that medico finally reveal and name the centre condition that might be the most likely diagnosis of Cannon ’s voodoo victim — one capable of kill perfectly healthy people .
Our latest video ( determine above ) explores the phenomenon of fear - rush decease , include this mysterious mettle condition . well-chosen Halloween !
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