# How does waterboarding work, in exact detail? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 8, 2011, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-waterboarding-work-in-exact-detail/599014 "2011-10-08T17:41:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![eg8576736](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@eg8576736](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eg8576736)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2015, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-waterboarding-work-in-exact-detail/599014/21 "2015-07-17T03:33:54Z")
> [@isaiahrobinson](#): > > I don’t care whether it’s considered torture or not (personally I think it is), I’m purely wondering how it works. The answer as I take it from the replies seems to be that water actually enters the respiratory system, which triggers an instinctive feeling of drowning and panic. Although I’m still not quite sure to what extent the water enters and travels through the respiratory system, or how the different methods of conducting the waterboarding change the effect it has on the victim. For a method so controversial there seems to have been very little precise detail out there on how it works. I think a huge factor is that the person being waterboarded could think their captors might actually _kill_ them by letting them suffocate via the wet cloth. The psychology of a friendly demo vs. unfriendly captors would definitely change my reaction. It’s what you _expect_ might happen, not just how it feels at any moment. As Neil Young sang: “Ain’t it funny how you feel when you’re finding out it’s real?” ---
**Author:** ![GusNSpot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gusnspot/32/436_2.png) [@GusNSpot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GusNSpot)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2015, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-waterboarding-work-in-exact-detail/599014/22 "2015-07-17T04:52:42Z")
A person’s unwillingness to die is the torture’s weapon. Trying to die really screws with the torture process scheme of things. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-waterboarding-work-in-exact-detail/599014.md?page=1)