In reply to John2:
> He claimed that being waterboarded was less painful than receiving a bikini wax.
He wasn't quite as trite about it as just that. Yes, it doesn't sting, but that's not what it works on.
I tried it without being fully restrained (velcro cuffs) and it's properly distressing as it's not containable with any logic, working directly on the panic reflex. As much as you know about it and are in controlled circumstances, it doesn't matter. After the first go, the fear of experiencing it again becomes 50% of the state you get into, where your reality becomes a tunnel of dread fixated on having to go through it again. There's also the fear that the people doing it might get it wrong, or push it too far, something of course played on. It's hazy legality was based on the claim it was mock execution, and a counter claim that it wasn't because the subjects knew in itself it wasn't meant to kill them.