The Rack

Possibly one of the most famous torture devices, “The Rack” was used to get answers out of people by stretching them. Most racks tend to work the same way. One is placed on a wooden slab where their ankles are strapped along with their arms via the wrist. The ties were usually made of tough leather and attached to chains or ropes. The device had rollers at the end that would pull on these areas to stretch out the victim. The device would work via pulley or lever, while the roller would be on its own axis. This made the process easy for the torturer as they did not need to be incredibly strong to pull the body.

The goal is to put stress on the person’s shoulders, hips, knees, and elbows. Pretty much anyone could end up with separated shoulders as well as sometimes severe ligament damage in the legs. Once dislocations happened to a person, pulling no longer could work. On top of this, if muscle fibers are stretched too much, they don’t contract, making them ineffective. Thus, those that could hold on and deal with the pain would regret trying to do so. They along with the torturer would hear bones, cartilage, or ligaments popping. Sometimes, bones could break too. The loudness of all of this is just sickening.

Warrior Wasp Sting

Possessing possibly the most painful sting one could ever take, the Warrior Wasp understands its power and does not randomly go around stinging. Yet their name is fitting, as they can be quite aggressive when needed. Found in tropical areas of South America, the wasps are known to guard their nests with extreme Roman-like precision. Any threat will be attacked by several wasps. What’s worse is that their stinger is barbed, causing them to often lose their stinger, killing the wasp.

This means these wasps believe in protecting their home so much they attack like a Kamikaze pilot. They know it is a suicide mission to sting and do it anyway. Before attacking, they actually create a drumming noise in their nest as a way to warn predators, similar to rattlesnakes using their rattles. The Warrior Wasp sting will cause horrific pain in humans that lasts for around 2 hours. Those stung claim it is a feeling of torture as lava from a volcano flows through your arm. That clearly makes it one of the most painful experiences one could go through.

Kidney Stones

While both men and women can get kidney stones, it seems that men tend to go through it more and often report having the most pain from them. There are many reasons why one can get kidney stones. It could be related to your diet, medications you’re using, or potentially other medical conditions. Kidney stones themselves are just hard deposits made of minerals and salts from your concentrated urine that form inside your kidneys. They look like little balls, but it’s not that simple.

These little balls are often barbed and hurt like hell coming out. While trying to pass one alone is painful, it comes with severe abdominal pain and nausea. It is said that this pain is possibly the most pain a man can experience from natural body-caused issues. That clearly makes it one of the most painful experiences anyone could go through. Luckily, if passed in enough time, there is no risk for long-term damage. Yet some might get them frequently and require specific medication or surgery.

Being Boiled Alive

While it might seem pretty obvious, being boiled alive is pretty painful. It is not as if you’re in some spa or something. Rather, you’re being put in water that will typically be so hot that burns could be immediate upon your placement inside. The thing is, you’re not going to experience the exact same issue as you would with lava. Since lava is a few thousand degrees, it can melt skin upon impact. Yet boiling water will burn you, yet take a long time to melt you to your bones.

The average campfire can be between 600 to 900 degrees Fahrenheit, yet larger versions can get to as high as 900 to 2,000 degrees. Of course, since you’re boiling someone here, it’ll likely be on a smaller fire. Human skin burns and starts melting beginning at around 160 degrees Fahrenheit. Thus, not only are you being burned, but you’re having to experience it for a long period of time that only gets more and more painful. The very fact that it is seemingly endless burn torture makes it horrific.

Childbirth

Did we really need to tell you this is one of the most painful experiences of all time? It is said to be so painful that there is not a true equal pain rate for men. The closest men can get to childbirth pain is a kidney stone combined with pulling your bottom lip over your head. The pain women have to deal with during childbirth is absolutely horrific. However, birthing the child is not the only issue. Contraction pain comes first. A woman could experience them separated by 30 minutes then 20, then 10, and so on. The closer the pains get to one another, the closer it will be to the birth.

While most women tend to have their child naturally through the vagina, some can’t for various reasons. That requires a C-section, where a women’s organs are removed just enough to get the child out and put back in. When the child is born naturally, the cervix will be opened, the child comes out, and then the placenta. During birth, a vagina could stretch up to three times its normal stretch capacity. Imagine men trying to birth out of their penis and having it stretch three times its normal size like that. This is why we believe childbirth is likely the most painful natural human pain experience ever.

Where do we find this stuff? Here are our sources:

Mayo Clinic

Johns Hopkins Medicine

American Academy of Family Physicians

University of Rochester

Yale University

New Jersey Urology

National Institutes Of Health

Scholastic

UK National Health System (NHS)

Orphanet Journal of Rare Diseases

Annual Review of Biomedical Engineering

Animal Planet

BBC

ABC News

Britannica