Why Can People Swallow Swords?

Many people think sword swallowing is a magic trick. After all, like most magic tricks, swallowing a sword seems impossible for the average person.

If you have ever seen a sword swallowing performance, you might be impressed that the performer is trying to gain the audience’s trust, just like magicians do. He invites audience members on stage to inspect the sword or even help pull the sword out of his mouth.

According to How Stuff Works, some sources support the view that sword swallowing is due to sleight of hand. The famous American magician and escape artist Harry Houdini (1847-1926) wrote about sword swallowing in his book: “The Miracle Mongers, an Expose.” According to Houdini, some sword swallowers of his time had swallowed a metal tube before the performance. The online encyclopedia Britannica also reiterates this view. This site defines sword swallowing as a magic trick and states that most magicians prepare for the performance by swallowing a metal tube about 45-50 cm long and approximately 25 mm wide.

Sword swallowing is an extremely dangerous act.

It is true that there are techniques to actually swallow a sword, but it does not involve illusions or pre-swallowed metal tubes, according to How Stuff Works. Instead, it involves a lot of physical and mental preparation. For some magicians, learning to swallow swords can take many years.

The act of sword swallowing is an interaction between two fundamentally different objects: the human upper gastrointestinal (GI) tract and a sword. The upper GI tract is a series of living organs connected together. It includes the throat or pharynx, esophagus, and stomach.

The upper GI tract is quite soft and has several distinct curves when relaxed. Meanwhile, the sword is rigid and lifeless. Although some sword swallowers may swallow a wavy blade and some combine the use of a curved sword in their performance, most swallowed swords are straight. You can imagine that at this moment, the upper GI tract acts like a living sword sheath, and you are sheathing the sword into it.

Although the swallowed sword usually has no sharp edges, it can still puncture or scrape the upper GI tract. Additionally, while inserting the sword into the “sheath” is easy, doing so requires a lot of practice.

In this article, let’s explore how a person can swallow a sword? And why is sword swallowing different from swallowing food? Why is sword swallowing an extremely dangerous act?

Sword Swallowing and the Upper GI Tract

Image depicting the human upper GI tract and the length of the sword.

The human upper GI tract consists of two types of muscle tissue – smooth muscle and skeletal muscle – and a lubricating layer called the mucosa. Generally, the movement of skeletal muscle is deliberate – you can control it. When you speak, write, blink, and move, you use skeletal muscles. Meanwhile, the movement of smooth muscle is generally involuntary. Smooth muscle is responsible for actions such as the dilation of blood vessels and the movement of food during digestion. Many activities of our bodies, including breathing and eating, require the involvement of both skeletal and smooth muscles.

Parts of the GI tract made of skeletal muscle include: the mouth, pharynx, and upper esophagus (connecting the throat and stomach). These are the parts of the upper GI tract that you can consciously control. When you swallow, you consciously use your tongue to push food towards the pharynx. The larynx then moves upward, and a muscle ring called the upper esophageal sphincter relaxes. This allows the food (which has been thoroughly chewed) to move into the throat. A flap of muscle called the epiglottis covers this process so that food does not enter the lungs.

The actions of the rest of the larynx are involuntary. When food reaches the throat, lined up with smooth muscle, an automatic process called peristalsis takes over from there. The muscle ring just above the food compresses the food into a round mass (bolus), forcing the food down into the stomach.

This entire process occurs very close to other organs in your body, including:

Trachea.
Heart.
Aorta (carrying blood from the heart throughout the body).
Vena cava (returning blood to the heart).
Diaphragm – (flat, broad muscle separating the chest cavity from the abdominal cavity that moves up and down allowing you to breathe).

Several other important structures, such as blood vessels and lymph nodes, also surround the throat, esophagus, and stomach. These are the structures that the sword passes through when swallowed.

Next, we will examine the step-by-step process of swallowing a sword.

How is Swallowing Food Different from Swallowing a Sword?

Image depicting the sword passing through two sphincters and straightening the upper GI tract as it is swallowed into the performer’s stomach.

The sword swallowing performer follows the same path as swallowing food, but this process is fundamentally different. Swallowing food involves the contraction of several muscles. In contrast, sword swallowing requires the deliberate relaxation of the upper GI tract. Here’s what happens:

The performer tilts his head back, stretching his neck to align his mouth with his esophagus and straighten his throat.
He consciously moves his tongue aside to avoid obstruction and relaxes his throat.
He aligns the sword with his GI tract and moves it through his mouth, throat, upper esophageal sphincter, and into the esophagus. At this point, saliva lubricates the sword. Some people use additional lubricants like cooking oil or jelly.
As it travels deeper into the stomach, the sword straightens out the curves of the esophagus. It passes through several internal organs, and in some cases, it actually “pushes” them out of its way.

Sometimes the sword also passes through the lower esophageal sphincter and enters the stomach, but this does not necessarily happen. The distance from the teeth to the part of the stomach connected to the esophagus is about 40 cm. The International Sword Swallowers Association (ISSA) defines a sword swallower as someone who can swallow a sword that is 38 cm long, which is not long enough to reach the stomach. The ISSA recommends a maximum sword length of 61 cm, which is long enough to insert the tip of the sword into the stomach of the performer.

These steps may sound easy, but sword swallowing is extremely difficult to master. It is also not something we should attempt without the support of an experienced professional. Why is that? And what happens if something goes wrong while sword swallowing?

Learning to Swallow a Sword

The process of sword swallowing involves more than just aligning the organs of the body and letting gravity do its job.

To successfully swallow a sword, the performer must learn to relax muscles that are typically involuntary. These include the upper and lower esophageal sphincters and the muscles of the esophagus involved in peristalsis.

He must also make the performance look easy – a rather challenging requirement. If you have ever swallowed a mouthful of food, whether too much or not chewed well enough, you will understand how sensitive your esophagus can be. In contrast, a sword swallower must maneuver a hard, cold sword down their throat and esophagus without showing any discomfort.

The human body also has a defense mechanism that functions to prevent anything other than chewed food from entering the throat – known as the gag reflex. When you accidentally touch your toothbrush to the back of your throat, you activate the gag reflex. In some people, the gag reflex is very sensitive, and even a slight touch inside the mouth can trigger it. In others, this reflex is harder to activate.

To successfully swallow a sword, the performer must learn to relax muscles that are typically involuntary.

A successful sword swallower must learn to ignore the gag reflex. This is not an easy process. The reflex is unconditioned—it occurs without intention, effort, or prior calculation; for example, you instinctively pull your hand away from a hot pot handle. Reflexes in infants are crucial for their growth and development. All reflexes are vital for survival, and they occur without your conscious involvement. Most don’t even require the help of your brain—the responses take place in the spinal cord, bypassing the brain entirely.

Reflexes involve several physiological components that work together to form a reflex arc. Here’s what happens:

The sensory organs, or nerve endings, detect a threat or an event requiring the body’s immediate attention.
Nerves, or neurons, carry information from the sensory organs to the central nervous system (CNS).
Integration centers in the central nervous system determine the body’s response.
A motor neuron carries instructions from the integration centers to the appropriate parts of the body.
The organs respond to the stimulus, making necessary changes to what is happening in the body.

In the case of the gag reflex, nerve endings at the back of the throat detect an intruding object. This generates nerve impulses, which neurons transmit to the integration center in your brainstem. The brainstem, using motor neurons, instructs the muscles in the throat—the organs that respond to the stimulus—to contract. As a result, a sensation of nausea arises to compel you to expel foreign objects from your throat and mouth. All of this is unconditioned and happens immediately.

The process of learning to ignore an unconditioned reflex takes a significant amount of practice. In sword swallowing, this generally involves continuously triggering the gag reflex. This process can lead to vomiting and is quite uncomfortable. It also overrides a deliberate process meant to protect the body from harm. This is one of the many reasons why sword swallowing is dangerous. What are the other dangers of sword swallowing?

The Dangers of Sword Swallowing

The performance requires extreme concentration and precision down to the millimeter; even a slight distraction can cause the sword to deviate, tearing or puncturing the digestive tract.

Although one can practice many times, it truly is an incredibly dangerous performance because no one can be sure that a seasoned performer won’t be distracted or make a mistake during their next act.

And accidents during performances are something no one wishes for. Even a minor cut to a blood vessel or tissue can lead to internal bleeding and infection. And, perhaps unsurprisingly, in the worst-case scenario, improper sword swallowing can lead to immediate death for the performer.

Sword swallowing involves deliberately controlling the body to do something that its protective mechanisms prohibit. Thus, it is no surprise to say that this is a dangerous act. It has also not been widely studied in the medical field, perhaps because there are too few sword swallowers. The most thorough medical research published was in the British Medical Journal on December 21, 2006. This study surveyed 110 English-speaking sword swallowers. Among them, 46 out of 48 performers agreed to provide their data for the study. 33 respondents provided information about their medical history. Overall, the harm they experienced from sword swallowing included:

We advise against attempting sword swallowing or any foreign objects that may threaten your life.

Sore throat.
Constant lower chest pain, possibly due to esophageal or diaphragm injury.
Internal bleeding.
Esophageal perforation, with one in three requiring surgery.
Lung swelling, pneumonia.
Pericarditis (inflammation of the heart’s protective membrane).

Some individuals describe experiencing severe pain immediately after performing sword swallowing. A logical conclusion drawn is that swelling and tissue injury are associated with minor injuries that can lead to more serious harm. Sinus infections are a potential side effect, as sword swallowing involves passing a non-sterile surface through tissues connected to the sinuses.

Since the survey conducted involved contemporary sword swallowers, it cannot include the opinions of those who have died from sword swallowing. However, medical literature indicates that sword swallowing is a cause of death. Another article in the British Medical Journal describes a sword swallower who died after attempting to swallow an umbrella.

Like other dangerous performance arts such as fire breathing, decapitation, and walking on glass, there is no way to truly make sword swallowing safer.

It must be emphasized once again that this is a dangerous performance that requires extensive training. Absolutely DO NOT ATTEMPT TO REPLICATE!