The idea of to live buried, to be trapped underground, or to be considered dead while still alive It runs through our history like a dark thread that mixes religion, science, superstition, and pure morbid curiosity. From saints almost canonized who woke up inside the coffin, even athletes who pass by hundreds of days isolated in cavesThe fear of premature burial and extreme underground experiments remains very much alive, even though we believe it is a thing of the past.
In parallel, the popular imagination has been constructing urban legends, horror stories and creepypastas that exploit precisely those fears: cursed tunnels, spirits that appear on highways, mad scientists who deprive their victims of sleep, or spectral figures that lurk in the fog. To all this are added real cases of extreme survival In forests, mountains, and deserts, where the line between life and death becomes razor-thin. This article weaves together all these threads to show the extent to which the idea of being trapped, alone, and without a way out fascinates—and terrifies—us.
Buried alive: catalepsy, frustrated saints and the worst fear in the world
Long before we talked about modern medicine, there was already a fear of the apparent death and being buried while in a state of catalepsyOne of the most striking cases is that of the Augustinian monk Thomas à KempisHe was famous for his spiritual work 'The Imitation of Christ,' a book that for centuries was among the most widely read in Christianity after the Bible. What almost no one talks about is what happened after his death in 1491.
Considered almost a saint in his lifetime, the Bishop of Cologne Maximiliano Hendriken He promoted her beatification. But when they went to exhume the body to move it from the Agnettenberg convent to the church of St. Michael in Zwolle, they encountered a truly nightmarish scene: The coffin was full of scratches on the inside.Everything pointed to Kempis having been buried in a cataleptic state; he awoke already buried and desperately scratched at the wood without anyone hearing him.
That brought the beatification process to a screeching halt. The so-called "Devil's lawyer" The figure in charge of finding fault in the canonization processes argued that it was impossible to know what Kempis had thought or said during those agonizing hours in the coffin; perhaps, in his despair, cursed or renounced his faithThe anecdote is recounted by journalist José de Cora in his book 'They have buried me alive', where he reviews dozens of historical cases of catalepsy.
De Cora argues that being buried alive is “the worst death in the world, the most atrocious fear”After researching literature, archives, and newspapers from different eras, he concludes that the problem has not completely disappeared: it happens much less today because most people die in hospitals, where more tests are done, but Episodes of apparent death are still documented..
Among the modern testimonies is that of Marina LF, a resident of Lugo and a nursing assistant at the old Xeral Hospital. In 1964, after a simple tonsillectomy under local anesthesia, she was walking back to her room when she lost consciousness. Doctors rushed to her aid, but They found no vital signs and they pronounced her dead. While her family began to mourn her, a colleague, acting on pure instinct, injected her Nikethamidea respiratory stimulant. Little by little, Marina awoke hearing wailing for a “deceased” person, without knowing they were referring to her. As De Cora explains, she didn't actually “come back to life”: she was never dead, only in cataleptic state.
Not everyone is so lucky. The book also includes the case of the Spanish diplomat. Manuel García Miranda y RivasHe was the grandson of the politician and academic Natalio Rivas. He was admitted to HM Madrid University Hospital in 2004. His wife called a friend to tell her he had just died. But when the friend arrived at the hospital, she found him there. sitting on the bedGarcía Miranda told them: “I have died, yes, but they have given me a week to sort some things outA few days later she passed away, leaving a letter describing her experience in a place of "light, peace, and love," a journey "from which few people return," an experience close to... symbolic resurrection.
History also holds famous episodes of apparent death, such as that of St. Teresa of Jesuswhom De Cora himself describes as “a famous cataleptic.” In 1539, while she was at the Monastery of the Incarnation, she was presumed dead and her vault was opened, awaiting burial. After several days, her father embraced her in tears… and Teresa He came to his sensesLater she would recount that she woke up exhausted, with her tongue torn to shreds from biting it so much, her throat closed up because nothing had happened for days, and extreme weakness.
To avoid mistakes, rudimentary tricks were used at the time: bring a flame close to the nose to see if it moved with the breath, or to place a mirror or a metal sheet over the lips hoping it would fog up. Over time, medicine attempted more precise methods. The Spanish doctor Antonio Lecha-Marzo He proposed a test based on "ophthalmoreaction": placing blue litmus paper in the eye of the presumed corpse between half an hour and fifteen hours after the supposed death. If the person was still alive, the acidity of the tears would be noticeable. It dyed it red and it was confirmed that the death was real. This system was even used during the First World War.
Beyond real cases, the fear of catalepsy has inspired countless fictional works. The first version of the story of “Sleeping Beauty” According to De Cora, it would be much more sinister than the Disney film and would be based on an apparent death. The writer also recalls the impact that Roger Corman's film 'Obsession', an adaptation of a story by [author's name], had on him as a teenager. Edgar Allan Poe about a cataleptic buried alive, which kept him awake for nights.
In some cataleptics, upon waking there is no memory left; in others, however, They hear and perceive everything While those around them prepare for their burial, they are unable to move a single muscle. Some suffer a single episode in their lives, others several, and some spend long periods in a kind of semi-longalmost as if they were “hibernating.” De Cora even speculates that it could be a very ancient remnant of Human defense mechanisms against extreme cold.
Within this world also appears the so-called voluntary catalepsyThis practice, employed by certain yogis and fakirs in India, involved inducing a state of apparent death and remaining buried underground for weeks with all bodily orifices plugged. British soldiers reportedly placed bets on how long they could hold out, and tradition holds that the locals always won. This would be one of the few situations in which someone actually fakes their own death. deliberately bury alive, with a carefully prepared “resurrection” protocol.
Extreme experiments underground: living in caves for months
Beyond catalepsy, the desire to to explore the physical and psychological limits of human beings This has led some to voluntarily remain underground for extended periods. A very recent example is that of the elite athlete. Beatrice Flamini, who spent 500 days isolated in a cave in Motril with a dual objective: to break a world record and to serve as the subject of a scientific experiment on subterranean life and extreme isolation.
Behind the project was an association of speleologists and a team from Department of Psychology, University of Granadawho subjected Flamini to periodic tests to monitor her mental state remotely. Beatriz herself, who had previously lived in a van and had prepared herself thoroughly, financed a good part of the experienceFrom his feat will come a study that aims to measure the physical and psychological impact of remaining underground for so long, without natural light or reference to the passage of time.
Psychologist Lara Ferreiro warns that these types of challenges are no game. She explains that previous research on similar experiences shows that, after these extreme tests, A significant percentage of participants have died prematurely or committed suicide.This shortens their life expectancy by about 20 years. In other words, the psychological toll can continue to manifest itself long after they surface.
Among the most frequently mentioned risks are the hallucinations and psychotic episodesFrom the third month onwards, under extreme conditions of isolation, without clear circadian rhythms or real social interaction, the brain can begin to lose its anchors: delusions appear, the person loses track of time And prolonged loneliness can damage structures like the hippocampus, which are essential for memory and attention. In many cases, these alterations could be irreversible.
Furthermore, prolonged isolation increases the risk of deep depression and other mood disorders. Many symptoms develop slowly, between six months and a year after the experience, when those around them already believe that “it’s all over.” The body adapts, but the mind can be permanently scarred, which shows the extent of the trauma. living symbolically buried in a cave It is not just an eccentricity, but an experiment with very serious consequences.
Horror stories and urban legends about the occult and the underground
The fascination with what lies hidden underground or in the dark is not limited to real events. urban legends and scary stories For decades, they've been recycling the same fears: unexplained disappearances, calls coming "from inside the house," haunted tunnels, or secret experiments by unscrupulous governments. Many of these stories are presented as "based on true events," although over time they become distorted and exaggerated stories that are passed from mouth to mouth… or from tweet to tweet.
These modern stories often focus on the superstition and morbidityAnd they almost always conceal a hidden moral: if you do this, this will happen to you; if you don't respect a certain rule, you'll pay the consequences. Some are born from real events that are exaggerated to the point of absurdity, others are complete fabrications that play on our most primal fears: loneliness, the night, loss of control, the unknown.
One of the classics is the ghost hitchhikerThe standard version tells of a driver picking up a hitchhiking girl on a back road. She sits in the back seat and, as they approach a particularly dangerous curve, warns him of the danger. After passing the curve, the driver realizes that the passenger has disappeared without a traceLater, he discovers that a young woman died in an accident at that very spot years before. In other versions, the girl doesn't warn anyone, and the vehicle is involved in a fatal crash from which only one person survives to tell the tale.
Very similar is the legend of lady in whitePresent in half the world. It is usually a woman dressed in a light-colored dress, linked to a local tragedy: the death of a child, a betrayal of love, a murder. Her spirit wanders restlessly seeking revenge or protecting a hidden treasureAccording to the folklore of each region. In Madrid, for example, they speak of the white lady who walks across the rooftops of the House of the Seven Chimneys, identified with Elena, lover of Philip II, who died in murky circumstances.
Japan contributes its share of unsettling stories. Kiyotaki tunnelThe underpass in the Arashiyama area is famous for the numerous traffic accidents attributed to ghostly apparitions, including a woman in white. It is said that the underpass was built under such appalling working conditions that Many workers died therewhose souls would continue to haunt the place. As a final touch, the tunnel measures 444 meters, and the number 4 is associated with bad luck in Japanese culture.
From the same country we also get the figure of RokurokubiApparently a normal person during the day, but at night their neck lengthens monstrously to spy on or attack humans. Some versions only frighten, others devour. These yokai go unnoticed in society, with jobs, families, and friends, and can even to believe themselves to be completely humanThey are said to be identifiable by small white marks on their necks.
In a more gory vein is the legend of Teke TekeThe woman without legs who drags her upper body through train stations, searching for the limbs she lost after being hit by a train while trying to escape attackers. The name imitates the sound of her movement. Anyone who sees her, they say, She ends up being his next victim.
Another world classic is the story of “the call that comes from inside the house”A babysitter is alone watching over some sleeping children when she starts receiving threatening calls. She calls the police, they trace the phone… and discover that the line originates from the same addressWhen the nanny goes upstairs to check on the children, it's already too late. In other versions, the girl is so high that she ends up putting the baby in the microwave, a variant with a very clear moral: be wary of those who care for your children and of drugs.
In the realm of the most sordid terror, we find the legend of "hookman"A couple parks in a secluded spot to spend time together; a news report comes on the radio that a killer with a hook for a hand has escaped from a nearby institution. She wants to leave, he downplays the danger. They eventually return home and, upon getting out of the car, discover a bloody hook nailed to the doorIn many versions, one or both of them die; in others, they narrowly escape. The message is as old as time: “Don’t go to dark places to do things your parents wouldn’t approve of.”
There are also tales of more subtle apparitions, such as the Ghost waiterSomeone travels to a town, chats and drinks all night with the bartender of a lonely bar, and upon returning the next day, is assured that the place had been closed for some time and that the supposed bartender He died months ago.Or the story of the abused "neighbor" who asks for shelter several nights in a row until, upon reporting her husband, the protagonist discovers at the police station that the woman She was murdered a year ago.
The list continues with chains of threatening messages, alleged organ robberies in store fitting rooms, hamburgers made from earthworms, university statues that come to life at night, or the famous legend of the Slender Man (the “thin man”), a very tall, suited, faceless being who kidnaps children and who was born in a Photoshop contest, but ended up becoming an internet horror icon.
Extreme experiments and creepypastas: from the Soviet laboratory to shared dreams
Within the universe of the macabre, there is a type of story that is presented almost as leaked scientific reports...mixing technical jargon with inhuman atrocities. The perfect example is the story of... “Russian sleep experiment”A very famous creepypasta. It is set in the 40s, when Soviet scientists allegedly locked five political prisoners in an airtight chamber, supplying them with an experimental gas to keep them awake for days.
During the first few days, the prisoners talk nonstop and recount their lives. From the sixth day onward, the silence becomes unsettling; only murmurs can be heard. When the scientists open the door after ten days, they find a horrific scene: the inmates have self-mutilated and fed on his own fleshSoldiers are called in to subdue them, but they display superhuman strength, kill several soldiers, and beg for the gas to be turned back on so they don't fall asleep. When asked who they are, one replies: “We are you. We are the madness you hide when you go to sleep.” Although it is fiction, it has resonated so deeply because it exploits the fear of the secret experiments and the dark side of the human mind.
Another disturbing story is that of “the man of dreams”According to legend, in 2006 a New York psychiatrist drew the face of a man described by a patient as a recurring presence in her dreams. Soon after, more patients began to refer to a man with almost identical features. incipient baldness, very thick eyebrows and very thin lipsThe psychiatrist sent the sketch to colleagues around the world, and supposedly, hundreds, then thousands, of people said they had dreamed about the same man. A website was even created to record the cases. The idea of a figure invading everyone's dreams connects with icons of horror such as Freddy Krueger and plays with the feeling that not even in the privacy of our minds are we safe.
Extreme survival: on the brink of death and confinement
Beyond legends and fiction, there are real stories that brutally illustrate what human beings are capable of enduring. The BBC reported several cases of survival on the edge, some of them with protagonists trapped in environments as hostile as a cave, a ravine or a snowy mountain.
One of them is David LaVauA 67-year-old American man plunged down a 60-meter ravine in a national forest near Los Angeles while trying to avoid another car. With broken bones and a dislocated shoulder, he spent six days lost, surviving on food. insects, leaves and stream waterIt was his own family members who located him, following clues such as the recent use of his debit card.
Equally impressive is the story of Juliane KoepckeJuliane, a 17-year-old girl who in 1971 was traveling by plane with her mother over the Peruvian Amazon rainforest. Lightning struck the aircraft, the fuselage disintegrated mid-flight, and Juliane fell, still strapped into her seat, from a height of more than two miles. sole survivor of the 92 passengersShe wandered for ten days through the jungle, with wounds full of maggots, following streams teeming with crocodiles, until she found a cabin by a river where some lumberjacks rescued her.
Another extreme episode is that of the Uruguayan rugby team Old Christianswhose plane crashed in 1972 in the Andes Mountains. Twelve of the 45 people on board died in the impact; others succumbed to injuries, cold, or hunger, and eight more perished in an avalanche. Isolated at high altitude for 72 days, they ended up eating flesh of the dead to survive. Sixteen were rescued thanks to two of them crossing the mountain in a ten-day march to ask for help.
The mountain also almost claimed the British mountaineer Joe SimpsonIn 1985, he was climbing Siula Grande in Peru with Simon Yates. Simpson broke his leg, and his partner tried to lower him with a rope, but due to a mistake, he left him hanging in mid-air, unable to pull him back up. Fearing that both of them would die, Yates cut the ropeSimpson fell down an ice wall and ended up in a crevasse. Without water or food, with a shattered leg and delirious, he crawled for three and a half days across glacier, rocks, and snow until he reached camp. His odyssey inspired the book and documentary 'Touching the Void'.
In 2003, the American Aron Ralston He was hiking in a remote Utah canyon when a boulder broke loose and trapped his arm against the wall. After five days unable to free himself and running out of water, he decided to take the most drastic measure: using a small knife, He broke the bones in his arm and amputated it himself. at wrist level. He then descended through the canyon until he met up with other hikers. His story was made into the film '127 Hours'.
Something similar happened that same year to the Australian miner Colin JonesTrapped more than two kilometers underground when his tractor overturned in a coal mine and crushed his arm against the rock. Fearing the vehicle would explode before rescue teams arrived, he begged a colleague to amputate it; when the colleague refused, He did it himself with a short-bladed knife.
Other extreme survivors had to cope mainly with loneliness and the cold. Daryl JaneIn 2006, he became trapped in his Jeep in the snow near Mount Adams (Washington). He rationed water, rice cakes, and bananas, and when his water ran out, he drank from puddles. After almost two weeks, he was already writing farewell letters when he was found with symptoms of hypothermia, but without severe frostbite.
In the Gulf of Mexico in 2009, four men—including two American football players—fell into the sea when their boat capsized more than 120 km from the coast. They clung to the upside-down hull for hours, but the sea worsened, with waves reaching over four meters. Little by little, they began to to hallucinate and succumb to hypothermiaOnly one, Nick Schuyler, managed to survive.
That same year, the Briton Jamie NealeA 19-year-old was lost for 12 days in Australia's Blue Mountains. He became disoriented after straying from the trail and survived thanks to... to clothe themselves in tree bark and survive with hardly any foodHe was finally found by two soldiers who heard his cries for help.
In 2011, Amos Wayne RichardsThe 64-year-old was seriously injured when he fell while hiking alone in the Utah desert: he broke his leg and dislocated his shoulder. After popping his shoulder back into place as best he could, he began to slowly crawl toward his car, collecting rainwater in a bottle. After four days and about five miles of arduous progress, rescuers in a helicopter found him.
That same year, in Japan, Sumi Abe and her grandson Jin They were trapped under the rubble of their home after the devastating tsunami of March 11 in Ishinomaki. For nine days they survived by eating yogurt and other scraps from the refrigerator until Jin managed to free himself from the debris and both were rescued with signs of hypothermia, but alive.
The enigma of Dyatlov Pass: snow, wind and an “irresistible force”
Among the great mysteries linked to extreme nature, the following stands out: Dyatlov Pass Incident, which occurred in 1959 in the Russian Urals. Nine young men, mostly students from the Ural Polytechnic Institute and expert skiers, embarked on a 14-day winter expedition to summit the mountain Gora OtortenTemperatures could drop below -30°C, and the route was classified as the most difficult. One of them, Yuri Yudin, decided to turn back after the first leg due to health problems, unaware that he would be the only one to live to tell the tale.
When the scheduled return date arrived and the group did not appear in the town of VizhayA search operation was launched. A month later, on February 26, they found the tent on the side of a mountain called Kholat Syakhl“Mountain of Death” in the local language, about 20 km south of the initial target. The tent was damaged and appeared to have been torn from withinFurther down, under an old Siberian cedar, they found two semi-naked bodies, barely clothed in underwear and socks. Between the tree and the tent, they found three more corpses, including that of the leader, Igor Dyatlov, likely killed by hypothermia while trying to return to camp.
Two months later, when the snow melted in a nearby ravine, they appeared four remaining bodiesSeveral had very serious injuries: massive cranial and thoracic fractures, but no proportionate external wounds. Soviet authorities investigated the case for three months and closed the file, attributing the deaths to a “irresistible natural force”without giving a clear explanation. Since then, the incident has generated all sorts of theories: from Yeti attacks or secret weapons tests to UFOs or KGB intervention.
In 2019, the Russian Prosecutor's Office reopened the case and supported the hypothesis of a plate avalanche as the most likely cause, but many researchers and a large part of the public remained skeptical. Why? Because the rescue team did not observe clear signs of an avalanche, the slope had an average angle slightly less than 30º—the typical limit for these phenomena—and the injuries on some of the bodies did not fit well with what is normally seen in avalanche victims. Furthermore, if the avalanche had occurred, it would have happened several hours after the climbers had cut the slope to pitch their tent, without any recent snowfall or obvious trigger.
This puzzle was further complicated in 2019 by the interest of scientists such as Johan Gaume, director of the Snow and Avalanche Simulation Laboratory (SLAB) at EPFL, and the geotechnical engineer Alexander Puzrin, from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. After being contacted by a journalist from New York TimesGaume began reviewing archives, snow friction data, and local topography. Together with Puzrin, he developed analytical and numerical models to try to reproduce what might have happened on the slopes of Kholat Syakhl.
His work, published in the magazine Communications Earth & Environment, suggests that it is indeed possible that a small slab avalanche The snowslide would have occurred on that relatively gentle slope, leaving few visible traces. The cut the hikers made to pitch their tent would have weakened the snowpack, and very specific katabatic wind conditions—cold air currents descending from the summit—would have slowly accumulated more snow on top of the tent until it exceeded the critical threshold hours later.
Gaume and Puzrin's models show that a snow slab of these characteristics could generate sufficient forces to cause severe internal fractures similar to those observed in some bodies, without the need for a giant avalanche that swept away the entire slope. According to their hypothesis, the group, surprised at night by the landslide, would have torn the tent from the inside to escape in haste, would have scattered down the slope in conditions of almost zero visibility and extreme cold, and then, while trying to reorganize and seek shelter near the trees, He would have succumbed to hypothermia and trauma..
The authors are cautious and acknowledge that We will never know for sure. what happened that night. But his work provides a solid quantitative basis for avalanche theory and, incidentally, improves the understanding of this type of snowslide on gentle slopes, something very useful for mountain risk prevention. For many, the Dyatlov case has ceased to be just a matter of conspiracy theories and has also become a scientific testing ground about how small changes in an extreme environment can trigger enormous tragedies.
Between catalepsy episodes that nearly end in death, fakirs who willingly allow themselves to be buried, athletes who spend more than a year in a cave, legends of haunted tunnels, and expeditions that end with tents ripped from the inside, what underlies it all is always the same: a potent mix of ancestral fear of being trapped, fascination with the limits of the body and mind, and a need to make sense of what we do not understandWhether under snow, earth, rock, or simply within a story told by the light of a screen, we continue to look at that psychological and physical "underground" with the same respect that our ancestors looked at poorly sealed graves.