The Widespread Fear of Being Buried Alive
Pandemic phobia plagued the living
Is there a worse death than being buried alive? Your screams going unheard. The realization that you’ve woken up and can barely move. It’s dark. It’s claustrophobic and the air is getting harder to breathe. You can’t even be certain where you are. There’s nothing but deadly silence surrounding you.
In the past, this fear was so widespread they invented a coffin just for the paranoid. Science had failed to convince people that being pronounced dead actually meant death. There were numerous cases of people ‘waking’ up or hearing muffled screams as a coffin was lowered into the ground. There was nothing like a medieval pandemic to make one suspicious of doctoral authority.
Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick was one such man. His paranoia ran deep. The first recorded safety coffin was constructed on his orders before his death in 1792. He had a window installed to allow light in, an air tube to provide a supply of fresh air, and instead of having the lid nailed down he had a lock fitted. In a special pocket of his shroud he had two keys, one for the coffin lid and a second for the tomb door.
The Duke though, was certified dead.
The fear continued to scorch many a fertile mind. Edgar Allan Poe was so enchanted by the ghastly…
