Nexus - 0225 - New Times Magazine-pages

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SPONTANEOUS HUMAN COMBUSTION THEORIES and cause bloating. Often the only way to release it is to make an While many writers have demonstrated their belief in SHC, they _ incision in the stomach and vent the gas. Perhaps this could hap- have not all come up with a theory that would explain spontaneous _ pen in humans where excessive stomach gas causes an excess of fires in so many different circumstagees. Randles and Hough put methane which, when combined with oxygen upon release from forward a number of propositions for the origins of these fierce, the bowels, could cause a spontaneous fire? The result would be a unexplained fires (Fortean Times #63, June/July 1992): phenomenally fiery fart! ¢ The Supernatural: The traditional religious explanation for * Psychic Heat: Within the yogic tradition and other eastern SHC was that it is some kind of divine retribution for sinners, — ways, it is considered quite possible that the the heat mechanism fanatics and other transgressors of divine law. The thunderbolt of the body can be controlled. Yogis can sit in the freezing snow from heaven is a form of this retribution. The famous "pillar of | and need no protection from sub-zero temperatures. In fact, they fire" that consumes some sinners may be understood in this way. can generate enough heat to melt snow. Perhaps in some cases of Through the centuries, sudden burnings have often been blamed SHC there is an element in the body's temperature control system on demons and witches. that goes haywire? * Murder Cover-up: One of the most common reasons ¢ Electromagnetism: There has been speculation about the advanced in forensic casebooks and studies of SHC is that itis effect of electromagnetic and microwave radiation from power used as a cover-up for murder or crime. The victim is incinerated sources in SHC cases. Could electrical fields have something to to cover the evidence of a murder or theft. do with it? In 1975, one researcher, Livingston Gearhart, found a * The Wick Theory: This has been advanced by an English correlation between changes in the peaks of the Earth's geomag- academic, Prof. David Gee, and used in the BBC TV programme, __ netic field and spontaneous human combustion events. Q.E.D., when they screened a special, titled "A Case of * Nuclear Disintegration: The life-force that holds the basic Spontaneous Human Combustion?", in April 1989. The theory is _ particles of the body together could undergo some sort of malfunc- that burning clothes boil the body water away (the human body is __ tion and start giving off heat in the same way that nuclear power approx. 70 per cent water), and the melted stations or a nuclear detonation gives off fat of the body becomes like a wick which heat as the product of fission. Could this—a continues to burn slowly until all the fatty A four-year-old Chinese boy very limited nuclear reaction—be a possible tissue has been burnt away. It consumes had been spontaneously explanation for SHC? everything, including bone, without actually * Dimensional Breakdown: This theory destroying the room around the victim. bursting into flame at various has been put forward to me in private con- Drawbacks with this theory include evidence parts of his body. Fifty versation. Could it be possible that from from crematoria experience with human bod- minutes after arriving in time to time other dimensional realities inter- ies, showing that the extremely high temper- “ face with ours, the resultant effect being ature needed to consume paw woul be very hospital, the boy started massive heat or temporary breakdown of the difficult to generate in a smouldering body. smoking again. During the principles of matter and atomic force? If so, It also ignores the cases where rapid com- next two hours he the breakdown occurring in an individual bustion has been seen outside in daylight by i font might give rise to spontaneous incineration. many witnesses. spontaneously ignited four If it lasts only a few seconds or minutes, this + Alcohol: The most popular theory up to times. Doctors quoted iM.» | could explain why portions of a body still the early twentieth century was that victims newspapers said the boy' $s remain and why furniture and clothing are of SHC were great imbibers of alcoho] or body had a strong electric often left untouched. We have examples of were even perpetual drunks, and that the fish, frogs and sometimes even human high level of alcohol in their bodies ignited current running through it. beings suddenly falling from the sky or spontaneously from home fires, candles or J appearing on the ground, seemingly from matches. This theory falls down in the face of all the cases of | nowhere. Is SHC somehow related to this when things go awry non-drinkers and children who have been victims of SHC. dimensionally? ¢ The Forced Draught: This ties in with the Wick Theory, in * Mathematics: In an article in R.I.L.K.O. Journal (No. 45, that the person who combusts has been caught in a draught froma Autumn/Winter 1994), Dr A. M. Davie proposes that SHC may be chimney and door or window which ignites the smouldering body _ related to geophysical effects. Using Ordnance Survey Maps, he to such a degree that it can combust the entire frame and flesh. studied the geometric pattern established chronologically from a This explanation falls down in cases where the person has died in __ series of fires in Scotland in the last few decades. He suggests that a sealed or closed room, such as in the "Bert Jones" fire in Wales _ with sufficient cases, a pattern can be ascertained and SHC pre- mentioned earlier. dicted in advance. This technique, he claims, can also be used to ¢ The Human Fuel Cell: Ex-fireman John Heymer from predict spontaneous combustion in other flammable materials in England proposed it was possible that an unknown electrochemi- _ factories, farms, etc. He suggests certain elements become unsta- cal reaction in the body may split the body's water into hydrogen _ble at predictable times of the day. and oxygen; the hydrogen flame, consuming the oxygen very A story from the newspapers in 1990 showed another aspect of rapidly and leaping from cell to cell, could consume tissue quick- | SHC that adds to the puzzle. A four-year-old Chinese boy had ly, burning up the body and extinguishing itself as the oxygen is been spontaneously bursting into flame at various parts of his used up. This happens so fast it doesn't burn the surroundings. body. His grandmother first saw smoke coming from his trousers, * Body Chemistry: Ivan Sanderson, who writes for Fortean and a hole was burnt through several layers of clothing. Fifty Times, proposed that loneliness might act on the body to produce _— minutes after arriving in hospital, the boy started smoking again. an accumulation of inflammable nitroglycerine-like phosphagens During the next two hours he spontaneously ignited four times. in muscle tissue. What if these processes went out of control and Doctors quoted in Chinese newspapers said the boy's body had a were ignited? Dr Joyce Nelson suggested that large amounts of strong electric current running through it (The Sydney Morning methane can accumulate in the stomachs of cattle and other stock Herald, 2 May 1990). 58 ¢ NEXUS APRIL - MAY 1995