David Phillips, a sociologist at the University of California, San Diego, USA, and his colleagues conducted an interesting study among Chinese and Japanese Americans. Scientists found that on the fourth of every month, these people die more often due to cardiac arrest 7% more than on any other day
As the researchers suggested, the abnormal spike in mortality rates is likely caused by stress. But how can he be provoked?
It turns out that the word "four" in several oriental languages - in Japanese, Cantonese, Mandarin and some others - sounds exactly the same as the word "death." Some Chinese and Japanese hospitals, therefore, do not even have wards number four and do not have a fourth floor - from the third you go directly to the fifth.
David Phillips' team has computed mortality rates over 25 years among 200,000 Chinese and Japanese Americans, as well as, for comparison, among 47,000 European Americans. On average, among the Chinese and Japanese, the mortality rate increased by 7% on the fourth day, and among chronic heart patients - by 13%. That is, the patients were afraid and at the same time expected death on the fourth day!
David Phillips, a sociologist at the University of California, San Diego, USA, and his colleagues conducted an interesting study among Chinese and Japanese Americans. Scientists have found that on the fourth of each month, these people die more often due to cardiac arrest 7% more than on any other day.
giving? It turns out that mortality statistics move along with the holidays! For example, in many countries, including Canada, during the week before the Harvest Moon festival, mortality drops by one third (compared to the average), but after this holiday the statistics increase in the same range.
Nightmare syndrome
No less mysterious is the phenomenon of death in a dream, seen among Americans of Eastern (Chinese, Vietnamese, Filipino) descent. The mysterious nightmare syndrome, as it is called in the Philippines, affects mainly men between the ages of 30 and 40, that is, quite healthy and viable. The youngest victim was, however, only 17. There are practically no women among the victims of this scourge. They say that before death, the victim suddenly begins to rush and moan, as if she is dreaming of something terrible, but cannot wake up. And so it dies. And it usually happens in the second half of the night.
What happens during sleep? But this is not known to anyone, since none of the victims woke up. Studies show that for some reason, the rhythm of the heart is suddenly disrupted during sleep
Who is dying of fear?
“We call this peak in mortality the 'Baskerville effect',” the researchers write in the British Medical Journal. Remember Conan Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles? Charles Baskerville encountered a huge dog in the swamps at night, whose eyes were shining, and his heart refused from fear. However, according to researchers from the British Heart Association, psychological stress as such is not a direct cause of death, but a prolonged release of adrenaline can narrow the lumen of the arteries and provoke an increase in blood pressure.
If a person's blood vessels and heart are in order, he will survive any fear.
Phillips' work also showed that people die less often than usual before some significant events that are expected, and more often after these events. It is not surprising, therefore, that, as a rule, very old age jubilees have enough strength for celebrations, but after them … Let us recall the recent death of Lyudmila Zykina - she was gone soon after the solemn anniversary.
But what about the Chinese holidays, which do not have a fixed date and which shift in Kalenmus numbers. In the last moments before death, the victim suddenly begins to show anxiety or some other signs that indicate some form of agony. But the doctors never managed to figure out what exactly was happening, since these people never woke up from the nightmare.
Even if a person moves to some other place, just as Eastern emigrants do to the United States, the mysterious syndrome will overtake them there too.
Astral killers
In this regard, one case, described in the Russian press some time ago, comes to mind. In a dream, a man died, who apparently dreamed that he was being killed. In any case, since childhood he was distinguished by the fact that dreams left quite physically tangible and visible marks on his body. If, for example, he dreamed that he was playing football with the boys, then in the morning he woke up all in abrasions. And if he fought with someone in a dream, then all the bruises and bumps were certainly visible in the morning. Go prove to others later that it was just a dream!
On the day of his death, this man was found with a broken face, as if a heavy sledgehammer had landed on his head. So he saw something like that in a dream? But this, perhaps, is only an extreme, extreme, so to speak, a case of death for an astral cause. And what if we assume that in the countries of Asia there is also the extermination of men by some astral killers, whom we do not see, but which nevertheless exist? Maybe they are what the victim sees in a dream at his last hour? Is that why it rushes and groans? Or is it again the intrigues of some invisible alien aliens who can do everything?
Alas, we have not yet learned how to penetrate dreams. Therefore, the mystery of death from time to time and take with them to the grave victims of the syndrome of nightmares. However, scientists are now developing special computer software that will help manage dreams.
No need to be afraid
And yet one assumption suggests itself. And in the case of waiting for the fateful 4th of the month, and in the case of nightmare syndrome, a person dies for the same reason - from fear. This means that fear is not just a destructive emotion, but also a murderous one. Several conclusions can be drawn here. First, remember that the anticipation of a tragedy can materialize the tragedy itself. We need to drive away sticky, obsessive fears, although there are enough reasons for them in our life: the fear of getting sick, getting laid off, being left without a salary, being robbed (by a lone thief or the state). Added to this is fear for their children and loved ones, fear of natural disasters, before flying on an airplane, terrorist attacks …
No, we Russians are not afraid of the 4th, but we are afraid of the 13th. And we especially hate the days when the 13th is still the same as Friday. We are afraid of a full moon, a solar eclipse, black cats, an empty bucket with which they come to meet us, a broken mirror, spilled salt, returning for a forgotten thing. We are afraid of many things. And, attracting negative energy emanations to ourselves, we actually get into trouble.
Agree that somehow it is not fitting to teach people fatalism - we are used to hearing that a person is the blacksmith of his own happiness. However, all too often our tomorrow depends on us nothing more than the rotation of the planets around the Sun.
We were never taught that we need to enjoy life in its present manifestation - we are always waiting for tomorrow, and we wait - all the time - with fear, destroying ourselves and depriving ourselves of the very opportunity to see if we will live until Monday.
The older generation is unlikely to be able to rebuild, but their children should be taught optimism and fearlessness from an early age. Not to instill, but, on the contrary, to eradicate stupid prejudices and beliefs.