Howdy, Cecil.
On reading your treatise on the subjective experience of decapitation, I was reminded of some required reading from a history class that focussed on incarceraton and corporal punishment. One chapter in particular captured my interest and imagination. It described the grisly experiments of a French physician circa the French Revolution. He pondered the same question you adressed - how long does one stay conscious after losing one’s head? He enlisted the assistance of the doomed by asking that they blink as many times as they could after the guillotine did its work. The highest number, as I recall, was about 30 blinks. The story wouldn’t be complete if I didn’t say the physician, being part of the elite, weren’t then put on the block himself. His assistant counted the number of times he blinked once his head was removed from his body. I can’t remember his score. Does any of this ring any bells?
-Jake