"The cause of death is a statement made by a pathologist to a clinician or a law-enforcement agent which makes the latter say: Well, I'm not surprised that the patient died!" (Bohrod, 1963)
"Nonviolent death occuring unexpectedly within six hours in an apparently healthy subject or in a sick person whose condition was either steady or improving." (Kagan & Uerma, 1976)
"To cause sickness, a shaman blows one of the spirits he controls into his victim by means of tobacco smoke (Stirling, 1938) or, with the aid of his spirits, he sends a magical «thorn» or «dart» ((Tessmann, 1930); (Karsten, 1935)) into him. (The shaman is supposed to keep this thorn or dart inside his body and it is supposed to return to him after his victim dies - this author's remark) É To cure, a shaman sings, plays his drum, takes Datura, tobacco, and cayapi, and sucks out the «thorn». Shamans may also reveal the identity of a sorcerer. (The narcotic helps reveal the sorcerer - this author's remark)" (Steward & Métraux, 1963, p. 626)
"É psychogenic mortality, a syndrome in which a patient's psychological condition triggers physical effects of a pathological nature leading ultimately to death (Maizler, Solomon, & Almquist, 1983, p. 353)"
"A 40-year-old father slumped dead as he cushioned the head of his son lying injured in the street beside his motorcycle." (Engel, 1971)
"A 43-year-old man died 4 hours after his 15-year-old son, faking a kidnap call over the phone, said 'If you want to see your son alive, don't call the cops.'" (Engel, 1971)
"An 88 year-old man, without known heart disease, became upset and excited, wringing his hands, upon being told of the sudden death of his daughter. He did not cry but kept asking, 'Why has this happened to me?' While talking with his son on the phone he developed acute pulmonary edema and died just as the doctor reached the house." (Engel, 1971, p. 774)
"The wife of the owner of the motel in which Martin Luther King was assassinated collapsed the same day with a cerebral hemorrhage and died the following day." (Engel, 1971, p. 774)
"A 31-year-old woman had been having headaches, nausea, and visual difficulties for a brief period when her neighbor and close friend, also 31 years old, died suddenly. Two days later the patient lapsed into a coma and died. Necropsy revealed a glioma of the right frontal lobe." (Engel, 1971, p. 774)
"Éthe death of the 27-year-old army captain who had commanded the ceremonial troops at the funeral of President Kennedy. He died 10 days after the President of a 'cardiac irregularity and acute congestion,' according to the newspaper report of the medical findings." (Engel, 1971, p. 774)
"Éa 70-year-old man who dropped dead during the opening bars of a concert held to mark the fifth anniversary of his wife's death. She was a well-known piano teacher, and he had established a music conservatory in her memory. The concert was being given by conservatory pupils." (Engel, 1971, p. 775)
"A 17-year-old boy collapsed and died at 6 AM, 4 June 1970; his older brother had died at 5:12 AM, 4 June 1969, of multiple injuries incurred in an auto accident several hours earlier. The cause of the younger boy's death was massive subarachnoid Hemorrhage caused by a ruptured anterior communicating artery aneurysm." (Engel, 1971, p. 775)
"A 56-year-old man died a week before the closing of a highly successful business he and his brother had founded with a $500 loan 32 years earlier." (Engel, 1971, p. 775)
"A 52-year-old college president who prided himself on his support of black students died when a group of black students occupied the administration building." (Engel, 1971, p. 775)
"A 57-year-old state legislature died 48 hours after being convicted of bribery and sentenced to prison." (Engel, 1971, p. 775)
"É a 3-year-old child who died when caught in a severe downpour and a terrified 4-year-old girl who died while having some milk teeth extracted." (Engel, 1971, p. 776)
"A 63-year-old security guard died after being bound by robbers." (Engel, 1971, p. 776)
"A 35-year-old man accused of robbery told his lawyer, 'I'm scared to death!'; then collapsed and died." (Engel, 1971, p. 776)
"A 45-yer-old man died as he stepped to the dais to give a speech at a testimonial dinner." (Engel, 1971, p. 776)
"Four men died within from minutes to a few hours after automobile accidents in which they suffered no or only minor injuries." (Engel, 1971, p. 776)
"One man died at an evacuation center after being removed from an area of mud slides, and another man, 55 years old, collapsed immediately after he walked uninjured from a railroad car partly overturned in a train wreck." (Engel, 1971, p. 776)
"A 52-year-old city official died after giving a speech in a hotel; his predecessor had died under the same circumstances at the same hotel a year and a half earlier." (Engel, 1971, p. 776)
"A 60-year-old ex-prisoner collapsed and died when he returned home to his family after serving a 15-year sentence." (Engel, 1971, p. 776)
"A 55-year-old man died when he met his 88-year-old father after a 20-year separation; the father then dropped dead." (Engel, 1971, p. 776)
"A 70-year-old man died 6 hours after his wife came home from the hospital, presumably recovered from a heart attack. She herself then had another attack and died 13 hours later." (Engel, 1971, p. 777)
"A 56-year-old man collapsed and died while receiving congratulations for scoring his first hole-in-one." (Engel, 1971, p. 777)
"A 75-year-old man, who hit the twin double for $1,683 on a $2 bet, died as he was about to cash in the winning ticket." (Engel, 1971, p. 777)
"A 63-year-old operatic singer died while acknowledging an ovation." (Engel, 1971, p. 777)
"Emperor Nerva is said to have died of 'a violent excess of anger' against a senator who offended him, as did Valentinian while 'reproaching with great passion' the deputies of a German tribe." (Engel, 1971, p. 771)
"An analogous situation in our society is hard to imagine. If all a man's near kin, his father, mother, brothers and sisters, wife, children, business associates, friends and all the other members of the society should suddenly withdraw themselves because of some dramatic circumstance, refusing to take any attitude but one of taboo and looking at the man as one already dead, and then after some little time perform over him a sacred ceremony which is believed with certainty to guide him out ot the land of the living into that of the dead, the enormous suggestive power of this two-fold movement of the community, after it has had its attitudes crystallized, can be somewhat understood by ourselves." (Cannon, 1957, p. 185)
"In 4 patients who complained of regular heart palpitations in connection with severe dreams, a continuous registration of EEG- and ECG-recordings during sleep confirmed subjective reports: almost all (over 30) electrocardiographic registered stenocardic attacks of patients stood in direct relation to corresponding changes in the EEG for which the patients always reported simultaneous, conflict-charged dreams. One of the patients died from a heart attack after both his EEG as well as his ECG had each shown characteristic changes nine times in the previous night." (Nowlin, 1966, p. 7)
"On the 26th of March at the concert of Mr. Bartholemon (London) there was an Englisch clergyman who while hearing my Andante sank into the deepest melancholy because of the fact that on the previous night he had dreamed of such an Andante which announced his death. He immediately left the company, went to bed and today I heard through Mr. Bartholemon that this clergyman had died." (My translation of the original German text) (Menninger, 1948)
Bohrod, M. G. (1963). The Meaning of "Cause of Death". J. For. Sciences, 8, 15.
Cannon, W., B. (1957). 'Voodoo' Death. Psychosomatic Medicine, 19(3), 182-190.
Engel, G. L. (1971). Sudden and Rapid Death During Psychological Stress: Folklore or Folk Wisdom? Ann. int. Med., 74, 771-782.
Kagan, A. R., & Uerma, K. (1976). Atherosclerosis of the aorta and coronary arteries in five towns. Bull. Wld. Hlth.Org., 53, 483-499.
Karsten, R. (1935). The head-hunters of Western Amazonas; the life and culture of the Jibaro Indians of eastern Ecuador and Peru. Societas Scientarium Fennica. Helisingfors., Commentationes Humanarum, Litterarum, 8(1).
Maizler, J. S., Solomon, J. R., & Almquist, E. (1983). Psychogenic Mortality Syndrome: Choosing to Die by the Institutionalized Elderly. Death Education, 6, 353-364.
Menninger, E. (1948). Death from Psychic Causes. Bull. Menninger Clinic, 12(1), 31-36.
Nowlin, C. (1966). Dreams and Seizures of Angina Pectoris. Tempo Medico, 42, 7.
Steward, J. H., & Métraux, A. (1963). Tribes of the Peruvian and Ecuadorian Montana. In J. H. Steward (Ed.), The Tropical Forest Tribes (Vol. 3, pp. 535-627). New York: Cooper Square Publishers, Inc.
Stirling, M. W. (1938). Historical and ethnological material on the Jivaro Indians. Bull. Bur. Amer. Ethnol., 117, ???
Tessmann, G. (1930). Die Indianer Nord-Ost Perus. Hamburg.
(Last revision: 08. August 2000)