Creepy - Russian Sleep Experiment

Episode Date: March 27, 2017

It was supposed to be 30 days. They made it 15...***Presented by Paul Sating Productions and Dog and Pony Studios***Additional voices and sound design by John McClain***Additional voices and line edi...ting by Paul Sating***Intro music by Alex Aldea***Intro/Outro Narrated by Joe Stofko Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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Starting point is 00:00:05 This is creepy. A podcast dedicated to sharing the most famous chilling and disturbing and disturbing creepypastas and urban legends in the world. Whether these stories truly happened, or are simply fabrications is for you to decide. These stories may contain graphic depictions of violence and explicit language. Listener discretion. is advised.
Starting point is 00:00:41 The Russian sleep experiment. Russian researchers in the late 1940s kept five people awake for 15 days using an experimental gas-based stimulant. They were kept in a sealed environment to carefully monitor their oxygen intake so the gas didn't kill them since it was toxic in high concentrations.
Starting point is 00:01:07 This was before closed-circuit cameras, so they had only microphones in five-inch-thick glass porthole-sized windows into the chamber to monitor them. The chamber was stocked with books, cots to sleep on, but no bedding, running water and toilet,
Starting point is 00:01:22 and enough dried food to last all five for over a month. The test subjects were political prisoners deemed enemies of the state during World War II. Everything was fine for the first five days. The subjects hardly complained, having been promised falsely, that they'd be freed if they submitted to the test and did not sleep for 30 days.
Starting point is 00:01:42 Their conversations and activities were monitored, and it was noted that they continued to talk about increasingly traumatic incidents in their past, and the general tone of their conversations took on a darker aspect after the four-day mark. After five days, they started to complain about the circumstances and events that led them to where they were and started to demonstrate severe paranoia. They stopped talking to each other and began alternately whispering to the microphone and one-way mirrored portholes. Oddly, the hell seemed to think that they could win the trust of the experimenters by turning over their comrades, the other subjects in captivity with them. At first, the researchers suspected this was an effect of the gas itself. After nine days, the first of them started screaming. He ran the length of the chamber repeatedly yelling at the top of his lungs for three straight hours. He continued attempting to scream but was only able to produce occasional squeaks.
Starting point is 00:02:46 The researchers postulated that he'd physically torn his vocal cords. The most surprising thing about this behavior is how the other captives reacted to it. Or didn't react to it. They continued whispering to the microphone until the second of the captives started to scream. The two non-screaming captives took the books apart, smearing page after page with their own feces and pasted them calmly over the glass portholes. The screaming promptly stopped. So did the whispering to the microphones.
Starting point is 00:03:21 After three more days passed, the researchers checked the microphones hourly to make sure that they were working. Since they thought it impossible, that no sound could be coming with five people inside. The oxygen consumption in the chamber indicated that all five must still be alive. In fact, it was the amount of oxygen five people would consume at a very heavy level of strenuous activity. The 14th day, the researchers did something they said they would not.
Starting point is 00:03:52 due to get a reaction from the captives. The UZ intercomments had the chamber, hoping to provoke any response from the captives that were afraid were either dead or vegetables. They announced, We are opening the chamber to test the microphones. Step away from the door and lie flat on the floor or you will be shot. Compliance will earn one of you your immediate freedom. To their surprise, they heard a single phrase in a calm voice respond.
Starting point is 00:04:23 We no longer want to be free. Debate broke out among the researchers and military forces funding the research. Unable to provoke any more response using the intercom, it was finally decided to open the chamber at midnight on the 15th day. The chamber was flushed to stimulant gas and filled with fresh air, and immediately voices from over the microphone began to object. Three different voices began begging, as if pleading for the life of loved ones to turn the gas back on.
Starting point is 00:04:54 The chamber was opened and sold it. sent in to retrieve the test subjects. They began to scream louder than ever and soared to soldiers when they saw what was inside. Four of the five subjects were still alive. None no one could rightly call the state of any of them in. Life. The food rations past day five had not been so much as touched. There were chunks of meat from the dead test subjects' thighs and chest stuffed into the drain at the center of the chamber,
Starting point is 00:05:25 blocking the drain in a long four inches of water to accumulate on the floor. Precisely how much of the water on the floor was actually blood was never determined. All four surviving test subjects also had large portions of muscle and skin torn away from their bodies. The destruction of flesh and exposed bone on their fingertips indicated that the wounds were inflicted by hand, not with teeth as the researchers initially thought. Closer examination of the position and angles of the wounds indicate that most, if not all of them, were self-inflicted. The abdominal organs blow the rib cage of all four test subjects have been removed. While the heart, lungs, and diaphragm remained in place.
Starting point is 00:06:14 The skin of most of the muscles attached to the ribs had been ripped off, exposing the lungs through the rib cage. All the blood vessels and organs remained intact. They had just been taken out and laid on the floor. banding out around the eviscerated but still living bodies of the subjects. The digestive tract of all four could be seen to be working. Digesting food. It quickly became apparent that what they were digesting was their own flesh that they had stripped off and eaten over the course of days. Most of the soldiers were Russian special operatives at the facility, but still many refused to return to the chamber to remove the test subjects.
Starting point is 00:06:59 they continued to scream to be left in the chamber and alternately begged and demanded that the gas be turned back on lest they fall asleep to everyone surprised the test subjects put up a fierce fight in the process of being removed from the chamber one of the Russian soldiers died from having his throat ripped out another was gravely injured by having his testicles ripped off
Starting point is 00:07:25 and an artery in his legs severed by one of the subject's teeth Another five of the soldiers lost their lives, if you count the ones who committed suicide in a weeks following the incident. In the struggle, one of the four living subjects had his spleen ruptured and he bled out almost immediately. The medical research was attempted to sedate him, but this proved impossible. He was injected with more than ten times the human dose of a morphine derivative and still fought like a cornered animal, breaking the ribs and arm of one doctor. His heart was seen to beat for a full two minutes after he bled out to the point that there was more air in his vascular system than blood.
Starting point is 00:08:10 Even after it stopped, he continued to scream and flail for another three minutes, struggling to attack anyone in reach and just repeating the word, more, over and over, weaker and weaker, until he finally fell silent. The surviving three test subjects were heavily restrained and moved to a medical facility. The two with intact vocal cords continuously begged for the gas, demanding to be kept awake. The most injured of the three was taken to the only surgical operating room that the facility had.
Starting point is 00:08:50 In the process of preparing the subject to have his organs placed back within his body, it was found that he was effectively immune to the sedative that they had given him to prepare him for the surgery. He fought furiously against his restraining. strains from the anesthetic gas was brought out to put him under. He managed to tear most of the weight through a four-inch wide leather strap on one wrist, even through the weight of a 200-pound soldier holding that wrist as well. It took only a little more anesthetic than normal to put him under. In the instant his eyelids fluttered and closed, his heart stopped.
Starting point is 00:09:28 In the autopsy of the test subject that died on the operating table was found that his blood had triple the normal amount of oxygen. his muscles that were still attached to a skeleton were badly torn, and he had broken nine bones in his struggle not to be subdued. Most of them were from the force his own muscles had exerted on them. The second survivor had been the first of the group of five to start screaming. His vocal cords destroyed. He was unable to beg or object to surgery.
Starting point is 00:09:58 He only reacted by shaking his head violently in disapproval when the anesthetic gas was brought near him. He shook his head yes when someone's, suggested, reluctantly, they tried the surgery without anesthetic, and did not react for the entire six-hour procedure of replacing his abdominal organs and attempting to cover them with what remained of his skin. The surgeon presiding stated repeatedly that it shouldn't be medically possible for the patient to still be alive. One terrified nurse assisting the surgery stated that she'd seen the patient's mouth curl into a smile several times, whenever his eyes met hers. When the surgery ended the subject, look at the surgeon and began to wheeze loudly, attempting to talk while struggling.
Starting point is 00:10:46 Assuming this must be something of drastic importance, the surgeon had a pen and pat fetch so the patient could write his message. It was simple. Keep cutting. The other two tests subjects were given the same surgery, both without anesthetic as well. Although they had to be injected with the paralytic for the duration of the operation. The surgeon found it impossible to perform the operation while the patients laughed continuously. Once paralyzed, the subjects could only follow the attending researchers with their eyes. The paralytic cleared their system in an abnormally short period of time
Starting point is 00:11:22 and they were soon trying to escape their bonds. The moment they could speak, they were again asking for the stimulant gas. The researchers tried asking why they'd injured themselves, why they had ripped out their own guts and why they wanted to be. given the gas again. Only one response was given. I must remain awake. All three subjects' restraints were reinforced and they were placed back into the chamber awaiting determination as to what should be done with them. The researchers, facing the wrath of their military benefactors for having failed the stated goals of their project, considered euthanizing the surviving subjects.
Starting point is 00:12:05 The commanding officer, an ex-KGB instead saw potential. and wanted to see what would happen if they were put back on the gas. The researchers strongly objected, but were overruled. In preparation for being sealed in the chamber again, the subjects were connected to an EEG monitor and had their restraints padded for long-term confinement. To everyone's surprise, all three stopped struggling the moment it was let slip that they were going back on the gas. It was obvious that at this point all three were putting up a great struggle to stay awake. One of the subjects that could speak was humming loudly and continuously.
Starting point is 00:12:45 The mute subject was straining his legs against the leather bonds with all his might. First left, then right, then left again for something to focus on. The remaining subject was holding his head off his pillow and blinking rapidly. Having been the first to be wired for EEG, most of the researchers were monitoring's brainwaves and surprise. They were normal most of the time, but they were normal most of the time. sometimes flatlined, inexplicably. It looked as if you were repeatedly suffering brain death before returning to normal. As they focused on paper scrolling over the brainwave monitor, only one nurse saw his eyes
Starting point is 00:13:26 slipped shut at the same moment his head hit the pillow. His brainwaves immediately changed to that of deep sleep, then flatlined for the last time as his heart simultaneously stopped. The only remaining subject that could speak started screaming to be sealed in now. His brainwaves showed the same flat lines as ones that had just died from falling asleep. The commander gave the order to seal the chamber with both subjects inside, as well as three researchers. One of the named three immediately drew his gun and shot the commander point blank between the eyes. Then turned the gun on the mute subject and blew his brains out as well.
Starting point is 00:14:07 He pointed his gun at the remaining subject, still restrained to bed as the remaining members of the medical and research team fled the room. I won't be locked in here with these things. Not with you. He screamed at the man strapped to the table. What are you? He demanded, I must know. The subject smiled. Have you forgotten so easily?
Starting point is 00:14:37 The subject asked. We are you. We are the madness that lurks within you all, begging to be free at every moment in your deepest animal mind. We are what you hide from in your beds every night. We are what you sedate into silence and paralysis when you go to the nocturnal haven where we cannot tread. The researcher paused,
Starting point is 00:15:02 then aimed at the subject's heart and fired. The EEG flatlined as a subject weakly choked out. So, But nearly free. This episode of Creepy was a joint presentation between Palsating Productions and Dog and Pony Studios. Line editing and sound effects were provided by Palsating Production, home of the serialized anthology audio drama, subject found, which you can find at www.foundstories.com. Sound design and mix was provided by John McLean of Dog and Pony Studios, a Grammy and Emmy-winning sound studio for independent films, games, and television, since 2003. Check them out on the web at dog and pony studios.net. There's a monster among us. A monster that has
Starting point is 00:15:58 haunted my dreams since I was six years old. A monster that made the Pacific Northwest its home, long before Europeans found this continent. I'm Jared Strong and I'm hunting this monster. These recordings will serve to document this pursuit so I can prove to the world that it exists. I won't stop until it's found. For more information, including pictures and videos of the stories told on this podcast, or to suggest stories for future episodes, please visit us at CreepyPod on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
Starting point is 00:16:56 Or email us. All stories told on this podcast can be found at creepypasta Wikia.com. And are protected by a Creative Commons license. Some rights reserved unless otherwise stated.

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