In Star Trek (the original series), Spock (a Vulcan) sometimes renders people unconscious by pinching their necks or shoulders. Apparently it is supposed to be some kind of nerve pinch, done because Vulcans by nature are not violent.
A question I have had at least since I was a child: Is a Vulcan grab possible? I.e., could you really render someone unconscious with just a nerve pinch (not necessarily just in the neck or shoulder)?
:):)
There are pressure points on the human body that have been exploited by various martial arts over the ages but I’ve never heard of that produces the effect of a Vulcan Nerve Pinch [sup]TM[/sup]. If it existed, law enforcement, military, rape defense classes, etc. would be all over it.
Carotid sinus massage may result in sudden loss of consciousness due to rapid drop in blood pressure and slowed heart rate, but it’s not real reliable. Or necessarily safe.
Yeah, that’s what I was going to say. Especially not on elderly people, as they can have calcifications built up, and an aggressive massage could theoretically break some loose and give them an embolic stroke.
If you can cut them open and access their vagus nerve, you could stimulate that and cause a rapid enough drop in blood pressure to possibly knock them out. Same sort of thing that can happen to people when they see blood, or needles, or other things.
The various pressure points and such that I was instructed in how to exploit all produced pain in the subject, not unconsciousness. To render the subject unconscious required either a knock out blow or some variation on a choke hold. That neck pinch dealie would be tits if it really existed. IIRC, the reason the show introduced it was because a script called for Spock to hit a mook over the head with a phaser and that seemed to lack the requisite dignity for the character
I don’t have a comment on the basic question, but the nerd in me feels compelled to point out that Vulcans are a long way from being non-violent by nature. They’re non-violent by culture and strength of will.
Here is a video of wrestling legend Danny Hodge using a sleeper hold to render someone unconscious, it happens very quickly but not quite as instantaneously as a Vulcan nerve pinch.
It was originated (as was the Vulcan salute) by Leonard Nimoy.
In Season 1, episode 4, The Enemy Within, Spock was supposed to render James Kirk’s evil transporter twin unconscious. Nimoy decided during the filming that Spock wouldn’t use some crude method like striking his opponent over the head with a blunt object and suggested that Vulcans had the ability to project their psychic energy through their fingertips which when applied to a nerve plexus would cause unconsciousness.
My WAG is that it also required some mystical energies and mental telepathy and whatnot to work, so humans probably couldn’t pull it off. I’m not sure if that was directly addressed in any canonical (or even non-canonical) works.
As Gagundathar just intimated. :smack:
Except that there are instances of non-psionics mastering the technique, including Data in The Next Generation.
I always thought so as well, as Kirk mentioned that he wished he could do that, and Spock replied that he had tried to teach him how and repeatedly failed. But then there’s that NextGen episode where Data was able to do it. 
C’mon guys, Data’s Data. If anyone could do it, it would be him.
I seem to remember that Picard had learned it so apparently in the ST universe, exceptional humans could master it. Ah, here it is: http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Vulcan_nerve_pinch#Use_by_non-Vulcans (It was due to having once mind melded with Spock’s father.) Still, Data (the android) was able to learn it, which would seem to rule out telepathy, etc. as a requirement.
Especially since the most powerful of Betazed’s telepaths could not read him. (I don’t count it as significant that Deanna Troi couldn’t.)
Hmm. I also seem to recall McCoy trying and failing to do it while he had Spock’s consciousness in his noggin.
Perhaps Data’s positronic brain, mimics telepathic signals when he does the nerve pitch and also prevents telepaths from reading him due to its foreignness.
C’mon, a positronic brain producing telepathy? No real science fiction author could take an idea like that seriously.
And also by virtue of Federation membership; the other members engage in violence on their behalf when needed. They’re basically Iceland.
What’s telepathy besides some form of energy manipulation? It’s not magic, it has to work using the energy that the brain produces in some way. Why couldn’t a positronic brain manipulate the brain’s energy in close contact?
It doesn’t have to on the level of full on telepathy, like the Betazeds or even the level of the Vulcan mind meld, but in physical contact with a person and a little positronic ‘push’, why not?
We see him do it, so either it’s not a telepathic thing, in which case anyone with enough training can to it or Data has to be able on some limited level to mimic telepathy and we know Data is a very good mimic.
Damnit Chronos you got me!
Wouldn’t it have to be bilateral, not just one-handed like Spock did it?
AIUI, many judo choke holds work partially by pressure on the carotid sinus, and they are pretty reliable. That is, I never met anyone who didn’t go out pretty quick once the hold was sunk in, but that may not be what you are talking about. And those are always applied bilaterally, such that there is pressure on both sides of the neck.
My first exposure to the idea of pressing on a nerve and knocking someone out is not Spock, but Doc Savage. He was supposedly such a brilliant surgeon that he knew how to press nerves to knock out, or in one case temporarily paralyze, the bad guys.
Regards,
Shodan