Link: mental_floss Blog » How Do Sword Swallowers Swallow Swords?.
Swallowing food involves a series of muscle contractions, both voluntary and involuntary. Swallowing a sword requires no actual swallowing, but the complete opposite: the deliberate relaxation of the upper gastrointestinal (GI) tract.First, the sword swallower tilts their head back and extends their neck to line up their mouth with their esophagus and straighten the pharynx. Relaxing their throat, they line the sword up with the path of their GI tract and move the blade into and through the mouth, pharynx and upper esophageal sphincter and into the esophagus. As the sword makes its way through the GI tract, it straightens out esophagus’ curves and sometimes, if an especially long sword is used, passes through the gastroesophageal junction (lower esophageal sphincter) and into the stomach. It sounds easy, but sword swallowing isn’t something you can learn to do in an afternoon. Learning to relax the GI tract takes practice, and lots of it. Furthermore, a sword swallowing performance usually goes better if the swallower can make it look like it isn’t the worst thing that ever happened to them. To see how difficult that can be, touch the back of your throat right now.Not pleasant, is it? Now imagine cramming a long, cold and rigid sword down there, and even further, while keeping a straight face.Beyond the physical proce
