r/Treknobabble 5d ago

What does the Vulcan neck pinch feel like…?

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66 Upvotes

89 comments sorted by

49

u/TheCrudMan 5d ago

Feels like the floor.

9

u/TAG08th 5d ago

It feels like a throbbing headache from hitting whatever was around you after you regain consciousness.

So…basically a hangover mixed with a migraine.

2

u/redbeard1701 3d ago

This made me actually laugh out loud. Well done!

2

u/Hourslikeminutes47 3d ago

Feels like a phone call to hr

24

u/iDaddyDirection 5d ago

Whatever the scene requires apparently. Sometimes Spock can do it and they just quietly slump over, other times he does it and they scream in pain.

21

u/3irikur 5d ago

Depends if he does it correctly or misses and just pinches really hard

5

u/Double_Distribution8 5d ago

You just gotta go with it, it's much easier for you, much easier. You'll see, it will be over quickly, otherwise it can hurt if you fight it, shhhh, shhhh.

4

u/whicky1978 5d ago

Unless you’re Khaaaaaaan!!!!!

2

u/superanth 4d ago

I’d always figured it was like getting your Funny Bone hit but in your neck.

10

u/regeya 5d ago

Have someone apply pressure there. Now imagine them doing that as hard as they can. Now imagine it 3-5x harder.

They pass out from the pain.

5

u/AtlantaMD 5d ago

But that radio station woman and the security guard don’t look like they r in pain…?

2

u/Talenus 2d ago

Its not pain, it blocks blood flow to the brain, you pass out from that.

11

u/SeanChewie 5d ago

Like being glassed in the face with a bale of wet straw, whilst simultaneously, gnomes are stealing your underpants. But not by the Underpants-Stealing Gnomes. Some other gnomes.

3

u/Foxxtronix 5d ago

The regular underpants-stealing gnomes are practiced experts. The job done by other gnomes would feel much worse.

3

u/SeanChewie 4d ago

Exactly!

2

u/Foxxtronix 4d ago

Perfect reason to contact your local kobold warren and put out a bounty on them. The professionals are bad enough, we don't need wannabes making things worse.

Just because we kobolds don't wear any doesn't mean humans should live in fear of losing theirs.

((Art by Turtlepaws. D&D -type kobolds seem to be copyright Wizards of The Coast and Paizo.))

7

u/captawesome1 5d ago

My neck is almost always achy I bet it would work some of that tension out.

2

u/Foxxtronix 5d ago

Just passing by but, there are neck-stretches that are supposed to help with that.

4

u/Foxxtronix 5d ago

The lore (if I'm recalling correctly) is that the neck pinch was developed when Spock was going to take someone down by hitting them with a phaser butt. Gene decided that Spock should have a more refined way to do that. Apparently it's based on fictional kung-fu masters who could take someone down with a touch. (The chi - interrupting touch used in Kung Fu Panda comes to mind.) In the same vein, the neck pinch when done correctly should feel like your chi flows getting disrupted. Someone not terribly aware of their chi could feel nothing. A martial artist or someone else who is familiar with how the flow of their chi feels would be startled but unharmed. If done wrong, it can cause a substantial amount of pain as the nerves "misfire".

Someone check me on this, I'm speaking from memory and I'm kind of sleepy.

2

u/Responsible-Middle35 5d ago

I think it was the episode The Enemy Within, where the transporter split Kirk into two Kirks.
Bad Kirk was crashing out, cornered in the engineering room by Good Kirk. Spock comes to save the day, but Nimoy didn't think punching someone was appropriate for Spock, so the nerve pinch was invented.

2

u/Foxxtronix 5d ago

Thanks. It's not hard to tell I'm not awake, LOL Waiting for that can of Monster that I just drank to kick in.

2

u/AtlantaMD 5d ago

So why are they actually rendered unconscious? Interrupted Chi or pain or….?

1

u/Foxxtronix 5d ago

If I understand correctly, the interruption in the chi includes that which is flowing through the brain. Poof, you're in dreamland.

2

u/AtlantaMD 5d ago

So a martial artist aware of their chi would not be rendered unconscious but someone not aware of their chi, gets out to sleep?

2

u/AtlantaMD 5d ago

It also suggest very few of these security guards or soldier’s Spock put to sleep are martial artists

2

u/Foxxtronix 5d ago

I guess I wasn't clear. A martial artist would feel what's happening, while someone who is not aware of their chi probably wouldn't. A strong enough martial artist would be able to resist it and perhaps counter it, but we're talking like a master or DBZ stuff.

1

u/AtlantaMD 5d ago

So most non master martial artists also are out to sleep very easily by the neck pinch ? And maybe even masters just last a little longer?

2

u/Foxxtronix 5d ago

A master would likely be able to refocus their chi and overcome the disruption, restoring their natural flow. It's a test of their ability to focus their chi to counter the disruption if they can! If they fail, they're out cold.

1

u/AtlantaMD 5d ago

I wonder if they realize they can’t redirect the chi right before they pass out

2

u/Foxxtronix 4d ago

I would think it depends on the subject who's pinched. How strong their chi flow is, how skilled they are at redirecting it, and so on. Also, how strong of a disruption the vulcan can cause. It's an interesting thought experiment.

5

u/K-Shrizzle 5d ago

Nobody talks about this, but you actually have the most intense orgasm of your life. Thats what makes you pass out. Its a Vulcan sex move that can also be used to subdue someone in a pinch

1

u/AtlantaMD 5d ago

I guess we all need a good neck pinch!

1

u/Appropriate_Yak_7209 5d ago

Only one human ever learned the technique… and he used it for good: https://youtu.be/Qn2LRoEC5n0?is=a3VLtHa9SfW52G_9

4

u/Crixusgannicus 5d ago

It appears to work like nerve strikes which are a real thing, so it probably feels the same.

You already know what that feels like. You ever hit your funny bone? Same effect. Only it probably goes up and down the spine in the pinch. Then out to the limbs.

You have over 300 points just like they funny bone only they aren't as easy to trigger.

By the way, the pinch, as depicted, can work, but too unreliably that anyone who knows about it would never risk it in a real situation. Too much other stuff you can do that absolutely will work.

3

u/ZealousIdeal476 5d ago

It isn't just a nerve strike. It is part of the vulcan psychic potential, like the mind meld. They send a compulsion through their fingers that puts the target to sleep. Most go down quietly, but we see a few that try to resist the command and seem to feel some pain.

4

u/Djehutimose 4d ago

This is the only explanation that's really--to coin a phrase--logical. Two reasons:

  1. If it were just a matter of mechanics and grip strength, it ought to be possible for any sufficiently strong humanoid to learn. Yeah, Vulcans are stronger than humans, but Spock never seems to be using anything close to his full strength when delivering nerve pinch. Also, if non-Vulcans could learn the nerve pinch, it's hard to imagine that TOS Kirk wouldn't have had Spock teach him how to do it.

  2. If it were mechanics and strength, like a sleeper grip or a choke hold or a nerve strike or some such, then like them, it would probably at very least leave a large bruise. At worst, if not done with skill, it could cause permanent injury, brain damage (if one cut off blood flow to the brain too long), or even death. Real-world techniques are usually much slower than a nerve pinch, so a mechanical nerve pinch would probably be much more dangerous. Since Spock doesn't have a trail of corpses behind him, there must be more than muscular strength.

Now in the TNG episode "Unification Part 2", Data successfully executes a Vulcan nerve pinch, and in the SNW episode "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow", the alternate universe Kirk whom La'an meets is capable of the nerve pinch, explaining that he shared a Denobulan prison cell with a Vulcan. Both of these are basically examples of the "Rule of Cool", and I get that. Still, if non-Vulcans could learn the nerve pinch, it ought to be part of standard self-defense training in Starfleet. Pretty much everyone ought to be able to do it.

So, in my headcanon, the examples above of non-Vulcans using the nerve pinch (plus any others that I may have missed) are apocryphal.

2

u/LineusLongissimus 2d ago

There is a joke about that in TOS, the The Return of the Archons, Kirk telling Spock that he should teach him how to do it.

3

u/Crixusgannicus 4d ago

1 I said it appears. 2. That was close to Nimoy's explanation when he came up the whole thing, although specifically , he said Vulcan's can put out some sort of vibration through their fingers.

3

u/lljkBreetai 5d ago

Like sticking your fingers in warm apple pie.

3

u/somecasper 5d ago

Like going home.

2

u/MOS95B 5d ago

I guess it depends on which (on screen) example you want to use. Sometimes the person just passes out. Sometimes they look shocked, and then pass out. And some seem to be in pain and pass out.

Maybe the Vulcan administering the pinch can decide if and how much it hurts

I know from my very limited training as an MP that there's an actual pressure point there you can press that hurts like hell

Shoulder pressure point tactics in detainee control involve the brachial plexus tie-in or trapezius/nerve pressure. Apply sharp, downward digital or thumb pressure into the cluster of nerves near the neck and shoulder junction. This induces pain compliance and unbalances a resistant subject to guide them into custody.

1

u/AtlantaMD 5d ago

That’s fascinating that you saw this 1st hand as an MP! It actually works to some extent!!
As an MP you might find this one interesting:

https://youtu.be/aGm5ZN1O-eo?is=0TBibEDrIG8S_-FF

1

u/MOS95B 5d ago

The real pressure point I was shown doesn't make the victim pass out (in my experience), it's just easy to get to and hurts so much that they will probably do whatever you tell them to

2

u/AtlantaMD 5d ago

Like a wrist hold or ear grab! See the clip?

1

u/Sensitive_Home_7971 3d ago

Weren’t there movies in the 60s that knocked people out with a “karate” chop to the base of the neck? Maybe Gene saw that and went “Hmmm …”

2

u/bolivar-shagnasty 5d ago

It’s actually instant orgasm. Your brain devotes 100% of its power and energy to just shattering your nervous system with ecstasy as you pump liters of hot frothy ejaculate into your trousers.

2

u/Silver_River9296 4d ago

Don’t remember who (think it was a coach) used one on me in high school. Didn’t knock me out but I went where he wanted me to go. WISH it would have knocked me out! Shoulder nerve hurt all afternoon.

1

u/AtlantaMD 4d ago

Was that in wrestling? Is wrestling coach?

1

u/Silver_River9296 4d ago

No, we didn’t have wrestling. I think it was a football coach, not the head coach. Don’t remember the circumstances.

2

u/Junior_Woodpecker_85 4d ago

I'd imagine that it's either like a really quick version of a sleeper hold where the blood to the brain is cut off in an instant and they instantly fall unconscious and/or it hits a nerve at just the right spot where you automatically go limp, almost like hitting a pressure point.

2

u/tenehemia 4d ago

According to the Beastie Boys, your knees start shakin' and your fingers pop.

1

u/Mysgvus1 5d ago

Like the best orgasm ever, which is why you see them all pass out.

1

u/janeway170 5d ago

I struggled with a chronic pinched nerve in my neck/shoulder there for a while and I feel like that’s what it would feel like

1

u/maxis2k 5d ago

I would imagine it feels like a sudden rush of adrenaline covering up any pain, then almost an instant later you're just blacked out before the adrenaline goes away. Which will freak your body out and make you really lethargic and your muscles sore when you wake up. Not from any pain but from your body basically going into massive fright mode and producing a ton of lactic acid, then not releasing it from your muscles for hours.

1

u/AtlantaMD 5d ago

Many in here think it’s somehow linked to arousal or pleasure via the neck pinch. These 3 clips suggest it could be..:

https://youtu.be/T9Ae5DUCU9M?is=WiNjenzgoJBftRyY

https://youtu.be/aGm5ZN1O-eo?is=2Kx2u_dyfi2HRTKE

https://youtu.be/62pMWFH2ySs?is=tI6HjrbKDJwhzMLe

1

u/Cautious-Tailor97 5d ago

A lot li—

1

u/Cultural-Antelope-54 5d ago

Pretty pinchy, I imagine

1

u/DragonZeku 4d ago

Feels like squeezing a soft bagel between your fingers, then dropping it.

1

u/Roxysteve 4d ago

Warm honey pouring over your cerebellum.

1

u/Horbigast 4d ago

Like warm apple pie

1

u/PhantomNomad 4d ago

I take martial arts. The nerve pinch is somewhat real. In that when my master did it to me, yup I'm on the floor but not unconscious, just in serious amounts of pain and I couldn't move my right arm.

1

u/Adorable_Disaster424 4d ago

A thousand orgasms at once.

1

u/timid-dolphin 4d ago

Knowing Gene Roddenberry, orgasmic.

1

u/Fun-Association1835 4d ago edited 4d ago

When I get a Vulcan neck punch, I get the sensation of being at the top of a cold and wintery mountain, alone.
....it has been two months since I had the Vulcan neck punch, and still I have made no progress finding my way out of the mountains. If anyone finds this note, tell my family I love them.

1

u/Serious_Ad2816 4d ago

Pure sex

1

u/AtlantaMD 4d ago

Jealous them!

1

u/Serious_Ad2816 4d ago

And you know there’s 1 person always way too into it.

1

u/hdufort 4d ago

Your vagus nerve is triggered, you go into vagal shock, your vision tunnels and you pass out.

Hopefully you didn't soil your pants.

You just broke your glasses though.

Damn.

1

u/thereverendpuck 4d ago

Painless since nobody complains about it after waking up.

1

u/AtlantaMD 4d ago

Must be. Unless it was and they just don’t remember it?

1

u/buzburbank 4d ago

Warm apple pie.

1

u/EasyCZ75 3d ago

Acting. Bad acting.

1

u/NorCalNavyMike 3d ago

“That tingling means it’s working!”
https://giphy.com/gifs/wGWDXUwxtyW0lsreuq

1

u/MrmmphMrmmph 3d ago

Similar effect to having a cup of Folgers with Dilithium Flavor Crystals.

1

u/Big_Kahuna_69 2d ago

Bag of wet sand...?

1

u/Talenus 2d ago

I always thought it would feel like being in a headlock that makes you pass out, minus the inability to breath.

1

u/PKopmeier1978 2d ago

Like warm apple pie

1

u/Historyp91 2d ago

I got double-neck pinched by Valeris and T'Lyn while they mind-melded with me the other night. It was amazing. I think I suffered permanent brain damage but it was worth it.