Vulcan Nerve Pinch - Death Grip

Death Grip

The Star Trek episode “The Enterprise Incident” includes a scene in which Spock administers the so-called "Vulcan death grip" to Kirk to convince Romulan onlookers, apparently unfamiliar with Vulcan techniques, that Kirk had been killed. In fact, Spock had merely used a particularly powerful nerve pinch to put Kirk into a deep unconsciousness that closely resembled death. Kirk awoke a short time later with head and neck pain but no lasting injury. The "death grip" differs from the "nerve pinch" in that the nerve pinch is administered to the neck area and the death grip was administered to Kirk's face; the palm directly over the nose and the fingers spread out over the rest of the face. This also differs from the "Vulcan mind meld" grip which is administered to only one side of the face.