Spontaneous Human Combustion
Next up we move to a scarier and more macabre subject that can also potentially be related to unexplained levels of energy within the body, at least in some of the theories of course. It is the unexplained and alleged phenomenon of spontaneous human combustion. I remember when I first came across this unexplained phenomenon as a child when I used to watch programs of the unexplained on Sky, and I thereafter experienced anxiety that it could happen to me. Although if it is even an internal phenomenon it appears to be extremely rare, as well as not fitting the alleged criteria seemingly shared between alleged victims. Some of this alleged criterion include the victims being old, less mobile and those who consume lots of alcohol. But again, this criterion does not fit into all cases.
Basically, spontaneous human combustion is people catching on fire, seemingly from within themselves and burning to death for no apparent reason, normally it leaves mostly ashes of the body and a few untouched limbs, even more strangely is the fire that killed the victim leaving the surroundings relatively undamaged in a number of cases, although not in every case. The odd cases of the phenomenon have been found reported through history, one of the first reported cases in the UK happened on 26th June 1613, in Christchurch, Dorset. In this account a carpenter called John Hitchen went to bed with his wife and child after a long day’s work.
Later on, in the night, the mother of Mrs. Hitchen, Agnes Russel, who was sleeping in a different bed, was woken by a blow to her cheek. At this time there was a lightning storm going on outside. Crying out, she went to the bed which contained her daughter, who was burnt all down one side, beside her, her husband and child were dead. Mrs. Russel and the injured daughter dragged the husband out into the street, here he continued to burn for three days, reducing to ashes.
One of the classic cases on human combustion involves the case of Mary Reeser. On Monday, 2nd July, 1951, both Mrs Reeser and the armchair she had been resting in was found completely reduced to ashes in her home, with even the bones reduced to ashes as is seen in a number of cases. The fire (that was no longer active) had not spread to other parts of the apartment like would have been expected, the fire did though stop the electric clock around about the time it happened, which was helpful to investigators. Some have said it could have been the wick effect (explained below) due to her falling asleep with a lit cigarette, but this is a source of continued dispute and the case remains unsolved.
A more recent case in the UK on 1985 involved a teenage girl at a Cheshire College bursting into flames and dying. At one of the inquests a Home Office chemist said the girl had caught fire by leaning against a lighted gas ring during a cooker examination, causing her smock to smoulder which burst into flames about 10 minutes later in another part of the building. Many accepted this explanation but others have highlighted inconsistencies such as the lit gas ring being out-of-reach at the time, none of the several dozen witnesses reported seeing smouldering or smelling burning as well as the girl in question not reporting any discomfort until the moment her back suddenly burst into flames.
There are some cases where people have survived the phenomenon though, which has given some more interesting insight into it. One such case was on 25th May 1985 when Paul Castle, a computer operator, was walking home through Stepney Green, London UK when fire suddenly enveloped the upper part of his body. The torture of the flames caused him to run in panic and then drop and curl into a ball where the fire disappeared as mysteriously as it had begun. The victim took himself to a nearby hospital where he was treated overnight for extensive but superficial burns.
People to this day continue to try and explain the unusual phenomena from simply being cases of tragic accidents, drinking too much alcohol, rare chemical reactions in the body that could potentially explain the speed of the process and lack of damage to surroundings in some cases as well as ball lightning and another theory is the wick effect, where if a part of the body burns long enough the fatty tissues can fuel the fire over the body with devastating results. But as is with the subject within unexplained forces, which this practically is, much more research still needs to be done on it, but again, stigma remains.
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