No, it’s called simulating drowning because they don’t kill the victim or are in danger of killing the victim.
Your doctor was doing it wrong. My vasectomy was absolutely painless, save for the slight needle prick of the numbing solution.
You’re not asthmatic, are you, Scylla?
On bad attacks, I reach a point where I can breathe all I want, but the amount of air going into my lungs is still a bit questionable. It feels like drowning.
(Which I have come closer than I really want to think about to doing: asthma and certain pool cleaners do not mix)
A normal attack is probably around your ‘wet rag’ level. A very bad one is worse. I’ve been quietly contemplative of the comparison between the two conditions, as how waterboarding is described sounds like my normal life.
Sometimes they do kill people, as has been pointed out. And drowning doesn’t need to be fatal to qualify as drowning.
Agreed.
Feel free to get on the board.
Scylla, thanks.
Coming to a Six Flags near you…
This is a staggering thread.
Was anyone defending this torture? 
In case this doesn’t convince them, please could supporters of Guantanamo arrange to be kidnapped at gunpoint and held for life without trial.
And of course no family access.
And they need to be innocent.
I’ll echo what Czarcasm said. Doing this was foolish and you could have broken yourself in one way or another. That said, it was a very powerful post.
[ed: missing word]
Scylla, I have never been a great fan of your political views or writing style, but this post is extraordinary, and I congratulate you for it. It was a silly, stupid thing to do, but I thank you for sharing it with us.
I wanted to add, I experienced that reptilian brain terror response just once, in 2000, on one of those fairground rides that hauls you up and drops you from a great height. It was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced before. Some deep, unusued part of my mind suddenly awoke and started screaming “YOU ARE DYING! YOU ARE DYING! YOU ARE DYING!” and erased logical thought from my brain. It was total, abject, unspeakable, involuntary terror. It was a devastating feeling.
(I don’t know why it kicked in at that time, as I’ve been on those rides many times before with no ill effect, but that one time it did, and it was the most ghastly thing I’ve ever felt. It disturbed me for years afterwards, introduced me to real fear for the first time in my life, and I have only just managed to conquer a fear of heights it instilled in me.)
What you felt while auto-waterboarding sounds like very similar similar reaction.
I know others have asked similar questions, but I think everyone is curious about how this experience changed your perceptions. So, if you were the torturer and had to choose a method to extract information, is it correct to say that prior to the experience you’d choose waterboarding over sledgehammer?
Yeah, there was/is. Only one US Republican contender for President is strongly opposed to the practice, where the others are various degrees of wink/nudge about it.
Are you still under total spousal supevision?
The one who knows first-hand, not coincidentally.
For me, the issue has never been “Is waterboarding torture?”, when the answer always seemed pretty obvious (but I do admire your curiosity and initiative on the point, Scylla). The issues are “Is torture useful to some broader purpose?” and “Is torture something America should stand for?”. The answers to those seem obvious as well.
This sounds like a fun do-it-at-home project. May I recommend other ideas from the little black book? What about chaining yourself to a wall for two days while your wife rapes you with a glow stick? Well, she has to try to make it hurt. Otherwise this may become a weekend event.
Scylla (or anyone else who has experienced this or something like it), do you believe that if you underwent this regularly, you could get used to it, and the abject terror would eventually subside, or perhaps settle into something that was a relatively minor negative response?
I understand your need for a “don’t try this at home disclaimer.” I read quite carefully before I tried it. The 2 dangers are asphyxiation and cardiac arrest.
I was never in fear of the second as this would be very short, nor was I in fear of the first for the same reason. I was in control, my hands were free, my head was free, and I don’t think you could do this to yourself to the point where you were in danger of passing out. It takes 3-4 minutes before you use up all your oxygen. This took like no time at all, but just to be sure my wife was there, so it really was neither dangerous nor stupid.
People die when this is done because it goes on so long that they asphyxiate, or they have a heart attack. I was in no danger of either.
Before, I tried it, yes. Now, not a chance. I’m pretty sure this has nothing to do with anything psychological. The reaction is a pure hardwired reflex.
Oh yes. I still would if I had to torture. With a sledgehammer they might tough it out. With the waterboard, no chance at all.