Humankind hasn’t always understood the basic design of nature and the world around him. We know now that lightning is caused by static electricity generated through friction from the innumerable water and ice particles in a thundercloud. But that understanding took hundreds, even thousands of years to be fully realized. Before we had this answer, we still had the question, “What makes lightning?” Before the introduction of scientific reasoning the answers to that question and those like it were only found in mythology and legends. Here are ten examples from all around the world of mythologies devised to explain destructive natural forces.

SEE ALSO: 10 Historical Events With Hilarious Forgotten Details

10 Tsunami From A Sea Spirit

The Moken, a people living on a few scattered islands near the coasts of Myanmar and Thailand, have a legend hundreds of years old. In the legend the sea spirit Katoy Oken sends forth “monster waves” (Tsunamis to us, Laboons in their language) to purify the people spiritually and physically. The people felt the earth shake, knocking coconuts from the trees. They knew this was the ‘wave that eats people’, awoken and sent by Katoy Oken. They collected the fallen coconuts and went out to sea, hopeful that the man eating wave would go to the island and ignore the boats. Shortly thereafter the boats are slightly jostled and a village elder calls out to his people to look to shore. The water had retreated from the beach. What followed was a wave that reached as high up as the tops of the coconut trees. Katoy Oken’s wave had purified the island, but no Moken were consumed.

The legend survived in Moken storytelling for hundreds of years. In 2004 a magnitude 8.9 earthquake triggered a massive tsunami that reached across multiple countries. The waves killed 175,000 people in the region and another 125,000 went missing, presumed dead. One island of about 200 Moken was right in the wave’s path. When they saw the water recede from the beach all of them fled to higher ground immediately, because they remembered Katoy Oken and his people eating wave. Of the 200 Moken there, only a single one perished in the 2004 Tsunami.^[1]

9 Namazu Shakes The Earth

In Japanese mythology the Namazu is a catfish so giant he causes earthquakes with his tail. Originally he acted as a premonition of danger, warning people before a flood or heavy rains or other damaging event. But as time went on the Namazu became one of the Yo-kai, a creature of misfortune and disaster. Namazu is usually said to be contained by the god Kashima under a colossal capstone, but Kashima isn’t always diligent about his duties or grows tired and Namazu is said to be able to shake his tail despite Kashima. His uncontrolled tail causes earthquakes and tsunami.

Overtime Namazu became known as a punishment for human greed. His earthquakes destroyed the properties of the rich, forcing a redistribution of wealth. In more modern twist of the legend, Namazu is shown less as a force of nature and more of a symbol of cowardly civil servants who would rather hide than fulfill their responsibility to help in disaster relief.^[2]

8 A God’s Baby Trapped Underground

In the Maori creation myth the Sky Father Ranginui and the Earth Mother Papatuanuku were separated to create the earth and the sky and allow the light to enter the world. Still, their separation grieved them greatly and their children, on seeing this, decided to turn their mother over so she wouldn’t have to look at her partner who she could never again be with. However the youngest of her children, Ruaumoko, was still suckling on his mother’s breast when his older siblings turned their mother to face the earth and he was trapped underneath her.

Now in the dark and the cold, Ruaumoko was given fire to stay warm and became the patron deity of volcanoes and earthquakes. When he wakes, he causes terrible eruptions and must be soothed back to sleep by the lullaby of his mother. In another version of the myth Ruaumoko was never even born and its his twisting and stirring in his mother’s womb that causes earthquakes.^[3]

7 Battling Aztec Gods End The World

In the Aztec creation myth the duel god Ometecuhtli and Omecihuatl created itself from nothing and because it was both male and female it was able to produce children. These children represented the four cardinal directions: Huizilopochtli, Quetzalcoatl, Tezcatlipoca and Xipe Totec. These children then created the world. They realized that the world would need an energy source to sustain it, a sun, but a sun was too powerful for them to create. Instead one of them would have to become the sun. Which of them was the sun changed from era to era, but each time one of these four children became the sun, a natural disaster would strike the world and a new era would begin. This is known as the Myth of the Five Suns.

The first sun was Tezcatlipoca, but he was knocked from his place by Quetzalcoatl and in retaliation Jaguars were sent to eat the inhabitants of the world. During the second sun their bickering continued and Tezcatlipoca turned the newly created humans into monkeys, but Quetzalcoatl sent hurricanes and floods to wipe them out. The third sun was the younger god Tialoc and when Tezcatlipoca again caused trouble (stealing Tialoc’s wife) Tialoc caused humanity to turn into turkeys, dogs, and butterflies. Quetzalcoatl tried to eliminate these new lifeforms by raining fire and ash down on them. The forth’s sun was Tialoc’s sister, but Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatipoca were jealous of her. This time they turned the population of earth to fish and caused a great flood. The fifth and current sun, the god Nanahuatzin, is our age and it is said it will end in an earthquake.^[4]

6 A Vengeful Earth Mother

Across the countries of Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia live an indigenous people who revere The Earth Mother or Pachamama. In ancient Incan mythology she is a fertility god, a personification of nature, that helps to nourish and protect animals and plants. In the past, offerings to her included animal and even human sacrifices, but present day offerings are usually limited to dried Llama fetuses, rice, or peanuts buried.

Though known as a fairly gentle and easygoing personage, Pachamama is also said to be responsible for earthquakes, landslides, and lightning which she employs in her anger. These are directed at those who fail to care for the earth or its creatures in a kind way. This vengeful side of hers is reinforced by her frequent depiction as a dragon or a serpent.^[5]

5 Freedom Fighter Trapped Between Mountains

Bernardo Carpio is a mythological figure from the Philippines that is sometimes represented as a giant, but other times is a normal human with abnormal strength. In the tale Bernardo is a kindhearted and courageous person who joins the resistance movement. Which resistance and when depends on the time period the tale is being told, which is mostly remembered through oral tradition, but the common version has him joining against the Spanish. His joining the resistance is a huge boon to their cause, because Bernardo posses superhuman strength. As a child he pulled nails from the floorboard with his bare hands and felled trees with his father while hunting.

Eventually a local shaman used his powers to trap Bernardo between Mt. Pamitinan and Mt. Binacayan. The shaman’s powers and the weight of the earth were too much even for Bernardo’s immense strength, but he refuses to give up. Still trapped to this day, Bernardo keeps trying to free himself and every time he does it causes an Earthquake in the region.^[6]

4 Kagutsuchi’s Corpse Made Volcanoes

A Shinto god or Kami, Kagutsuchi was born from the creator gods Izanami and Izanagi.However as a fire kami, Kagutsuchi’s birth killed his mother in overwhelming flame and heat and she was sent to Yomi, the land of darkness. Izanagi was grief stricken and went to Yomi to retrieve his dead wife, but Izanami could never leave. She had already eaten food in Yomi, which trapped her there. When Izanagi lit a fire it was revealed to him that Izanami was rotting and riddled with maggots. She lashed out at her former husband and he fled Yomi. Once outside he took revenge on his child that had robbed him of his wife and sliced Kagutsuchi to pieces.

From Kagutshchi’s body and the blood dripping from his father’s sword other gods came into existence. Among them Takemikazuchi-no-kami and Futsunushi-no-kami, famous swordsmen and Kuraokami-no-kami a rain god. From his body parts also arose mountain gods, namely volcanoes. From eight pieces of his corpse rose eight volcanoes, which spew flame and heat just like Kagutsuchi did in life.^[7]

3 Plagues from “The Crouching Darkness”

In Ireland, before the introduction of Christianity, worship of a pantheon of gods was more widespread. One powerful deity worshiped was a god named Crom Cruach which means “crouching darkness” or “bent gloom”. One description of his worship paints the picture of a terrible and feared god who required human sacrifices. The Metrical Dindshenchas, a series of ancient oral stories put onto page by medieval monks included these verses about Crom Cruach:

He was their god, the wizened Bent One with many glooms; the people who believed in him over every harbour, the eternal Kingdom shall not be theirs.
For him ingloriously they slew their wretched firstborn with much weeping and distress, to pour out their blood around the Bent One of the hill.
Milk and corn they used to ask of him speedily in return for a third of their whole progeny: great was the horror and outcry about him.
The stirred evil, they beat palms, they bruised bodies: wailing to the demon who had enslaved them they shed showers of tears, prostrate their pouring.

Though morbid in his worship rites, Crom Cruach is sometimes considered a fertility god. If his worshipers failed to please him or failed to offer the sacrifices to him he was thought of as the source of poor harvests, blights, and plagues. In one story, the worshipers of Crom Cruach brought along an idol of him and insisted on sacrifices from the Gael people, namely their firstborns who Crom Cruach’s worshipers insisted must be bashed against the idol as a sacrifice otherwise Crom Cruach would put a pestilence on their harvest and blight their livestock.^[8]

2 Storms Stirred Up By The Thunderbird

The Thunderbird is a reoccurring mythological figure in multiple Native American cultures. In general this giant bird was empowered with the ability to control the weather and its beating wings produced thunderstorms, rain, and gales, but each tribe had their own variations of the myth. Usually rather than the cause of disaster, it used natural forces like thunder and lightning to defend and aid people.

To the Winnebago people the Thunderbird wasn’t singular, but a species and many could be found soaring the skies in their legends, but this species also had the ability to shape shift into human warriors. The Passamaquoddy people likewise believed it was a shapeshifter who could control lightning, but would never use those powers against humans, only villains. The Quillayute people believed it was a benevolent helper sent by The Great Spirit to help after natural disasters. One of their stories depict the Thunderbird arriving at a time when the Quillayute were desperate for food. It arrived from out of a thunderstorm of its own creation carrying a whale. It gave the people the whale as food, before disappearing again into the rolling storm-clouds.^[9]

1 Senseless Cause Of Disease and Pestilence

In Ancient Mesopotamia many gods were worshiped. They believed that the gods and humans were co-workers in maintaining the balance and harmony of the world, but if both men and gods valued peace than why did humans suffer? As a way to explain the senseless death and suffering that humans faced, the people of the Babylonian city of Kutha invented a god that had an uncontrolled temper. His name was Nergal or Erra. Originally those names represented two different gods, but over time they became so closely linked that they began to both refer to the same mythological figure.

Nergal is a god of calamity who senselessly lashes out, not to punish a sin or correct an injustice, but only because of his ill temper. In his wrath he was blamed for of diseases, plagues, and pestilence, but would also inflict senseless death on the battlefield as well.

In one story Nergal, for no reason in particular, decides to attack Babylon, but the city is defended by another god named Marduk. Nergal arrives, pretending to just be visiting the city casually, and expresses feigned shock over how Marduk is dressed. Marduk is embarrassed and says he just doesn’t have the time to get new clothes. Nergal offers to protect the city for him so that Marduk has the time to better outfit himself. When Marduk leaves, Nergal inflicts his wrath on the city—killing people indiscriminately in the streets.

Nergal is called before the other gods to explain his actions and in his defense he simply states the kind of god he is, “When I get angry, I break things.”^[10]

Modern medicine has advanced so dramatically in the last century that it’s hard to believe that so much is still unexplained. But doctors are often faced with medical mysteries, those phenomena that currently lack a confirmed cause or full explanation.

Although we can’t list every medical mystery here, these 10 examples are a great way to illustrate how medicine continues to grow and transform over time. They also show how much new research is always needed.

10 Medical Student Syndrome

Nearly everyone has had those fleeting thoughts that they’re experiencing a symptom from a severe, undiagnosed disease. Throughout medical school, future doctors learn about thousands of diseases with various signs and symptoms that they are expected to recognize in their own patients one day. An interesting phenomenon that seems to occur in some of these people is known as “medical student syndrome.”

This occurs when medical students believe they are experiencing the symptoms of a disease that they are studying. As opposed to illness anxiety disorder, these delusions are transient.^[1]

It is unknown exactly why this occurs. But researchers believe that medical students create a mental schema as they learn about a disease and some students begin to recognize normal bodily sensations as part of this disease schema.

One study found that up to 78.8 percent of randomly sampled medical students suffer from a form of medical student syndrome. For some, this illness anxiety can be debilitating and lead to unnecessary medical bills. Despite widespread knowledge of this syndrome, it continues to propagate and affect hundreds of students each year.

9 Chemo Brain

Many cancer survivors use the term “chemo brain” to describe the thinking and memory problems that occur after chemotherapy treatment. Symptoms can vary from person to person—from difficulty concentrating to memory problems or difficulty multitasking. This is an extremely frustrating phenomenon for those who are undergoing chemotherapy.

For years, many doctors did not believe in this phenomenon. As it became more common, however, physicians began to recognize that this was a real and debilitating experience. Currently, there is no consensus on what is causing chemo brain, but it is believed to be due to more than just chemotherapy treatment. Researchers are trying to find the source of the cognitive difficulties but have been unsuccessful so far.^[2]

8 Klippel-Trenaunay Syndrome

First described in 1900, Klippel-Trenaunay syndrome (KTS) is an extremely rare disease. Affecting blood vessels, bones, and soft tissues, this condition results in three characteristic features: a red birthmark known as a port-wine stain, abnormal bone and soft tissue overgrowth, and venous malformations. The increased size of bone and soft tissue can result in oversized limbs, usually in the lower body and legs. The venous malformations can result in large blood clots.

Famous cases of KTS include Billy Corgan, the lead singer for The Smashing Pumpkins, and Matthias Schlitte, a professional arm wrestler. Notably, Matthias is known for his Popeye-like right forearm that allows him to be an extremely successful arm wrestler. His condition causes the bone in his right forearm to be 33 percent larger than the one in his other forearm. Currently, there is no cure for the condition and physicians have little explanation as to the cause of the disease.^[3]

7 Rip Van Winkle Syndrome

The disease sounds like the work of a fairy tale, but Rip Van Winkle syndrome is far from fantasy. Also known as Kleine-Levin syndrome (KLS), this disease has only a few reported cases and its physiological cause has not been confirmed.

At age 13, Stephen Maier became a victim of KLS following an upper respiratory infection. Out of nowhere, his parents were unable to wake him up. When they finally did, he was completely incoherent.

After many tests, all of which were negative, Stephen was left with no answers. Even tests on brain activity showed no abnormalities. Maier would go through sleeping spells of up to 22 hours a day for 10 to 20 consecutive days. As mysteriously as the disease appeared, it gradually faded away in his twenties.^[4]

In another case of KLS, a 17-year-old female from Pennsylvania experienced a sleeping episode that lasted 64 days—from Thanksgiving to January. She was reported to have slept 22–24 hours a day. When she did awaken to eat and use the bathroom, she was in a sleepwalking state.

In addition to this sleepiness, sufferers can experience increased appetite, hallucinations, anhedonia, childlike behavior, and hypersexuality. Between these episodes, however, the patients are completely asymptomatic.

Although it may seem appealing to some to get so much sleep, patients end up missing out on large parts of their lives. A few theories about the origin of this disease range from a virus to autoimmunity, but its cause is still largely unknown.

6 Cannabinoid Hyperemesis Syndrome

First described in 2004 by J.H. Allen and colleagues, this odd disorder presents with intractable nausea, vomiting, and GI distress. With further study, the researchers found that all these patients shared a common background of long-term cannabis use.

Although little is known about the cause of this phenomenon, two theories have been put forth. The first holds that the toxic buildup of cannabinoids may be the cause. The second has to do with the functionality of cannabinoid receptors in the brain. During these episodes, some patients have reported temporary symptom relief from a hot shower or bath or psychiatric medications. The only known cure is stopping the use of cannabis. Improvement can be seen within one to three months.

These vomiting episodes tend to last for one to two days. What is extremely odd about this disorder is that marijuana is known for its anti-vomiting effect. This paradox is especially problematic for people who use marijuana to treat nausea and vomiting and then end up feeling more nauseated. It is unclear as to why some chronic users develop this disorder while others do not.^[5]

Cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome is extremely complex, and researchers are still searching for explanations. As the use of marijuana increases, it is an area that will require much more research.

5 Abscopal Effect

Michael Postow and his colleagues put forth a paper describing a patient whose metastatic melanoma tumors began shrinking after the person received the drug ipilimumab and radiotherapy. Published in the New England Journal of Medicine, this report got a lot of attention in the medical community.

The abscopal effect refers to the bizarre phenomenon where metastatic tumors throughout the body shrink in response to localized treatment of a tumor. For many years, there was no explanation for this interesting reaction. In 2004, it was first hypothesized that the immune system may play a role in this systemic shrinking. While researchers are continuing to investigate the cause of what is happening, a firm explanation has yet to be established.^[6]

4 The Lazarus Phenomenon

An 11-month-old girl in the intensive care unit at the University of Rochester Medical Center had been pronounced dead after aggressive cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), seven doses of epinephrine, two bags of fluid, and four shocks to her chest. After two minutes of asystole, the official time of death was called out at 1:58 PM.

The girl’s family was devastated and asked for her breathing tube to be removed so that they could have some time with their daughter. Fifteen minutes after she was pronounced dead, the tube was removed. Suddenly, the girl began to breathe spontaneously. Her heart began beating again, her color came back, and her gag reflex reappeared. The physicians had never seen anything like this.^[7]

The Lazarus phenomenon is a rare occurrence in which patients experience a delayed return of spontaneous circulation after CPR has been stopped. This bizarre syndrome was initially described in 1982. It was named “Lazarus” after the man who was resurrected by Christ four days after his death.

The explanation for this miraculous ability to come back to life has continued to evade physicians and researchers alike. Some believe that there may be more than one mechanism at work, such as the delayed action of drugs or high potassium.

3 Smoking Aversion From Hepatitis

Thousands of people try various methods to quit smoking every year. While many researchers are learning more about the causes behind nicotine addiction, much less is known about the roots of smoking aversion. However, one interesting trigger has been discovered for immediate smoking aversion—the development of hepatitis A.^[8]

There are various presentations when a person is infected with hepatitis A, depending upon its stage. The first phase (aka the viral replication phase) is largely asymptomatic in most patients. Moving into the prodromal or second phase, patients can experience anorexia, nausea, vomiting, muscle aches, fatigue, itching, and an aversion to smoking. The disease then begins to affect the liver and GI system before resolving.

Although aversion to smoking is a documented effect of acute hepatitis A, little is known about its cause. More research is definitely warranted in this area as the discovery of the cause of the aversion may be extremely helpful to millions of smokers throughout the world.

2 Meat Allergy From Ticks

Last year, the researchers at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases were stumped by the increasing number of US cases of anaphylaxis to a molecule found in red meat. Alpha gal is a sugar molecule that is naturally found in beef, pork, lamb, and other red meats.

As researchers delved deeper into the histories of patients with this allergy, they found that most were located in the Southeast and certain parts of New York, New Jersey, and New England. Even more interestingly, all the patients had a history of bites from the lone star tick.

This allergy was particularly hard to diagnose because it presented 3–6 hours after ingestion, unlike common anaphylaxis that presents within 5–30 minutes. The symptoms of this odd anaphylaxis ranged from hives to GI distress to itching and swelling. However, there was no throat swelling. Common allergy tests do not routinely scan for antibodies against alpha gal, so these patients are commonly misdiagnosed.

Dr. Thomas Platts-Mills initially discovered the alpha gal connection.^[9] Some of his patients with a history of lone star tick bites experienced anaphylaxis from the cancer drug cetuximab, which contains alpha gal. Although the source of the allergy has been discovered, the reason that lone star tick bites are associated with alpha-gal allergies remains a mystery.

1 Cellular Memory

Cellular memory is a controversial hypothesis that the body itself is capable of storing memories rather than only the brain. As there is mostly anecdotal evidence to support this theory, many consider it to be pseudoscientific.

Many have linked phantom pain to cellular memory for past trauma to a joint or limb. Cellular memory has also come into play in certain stories of organ transplant patients who develop the traits of their donors.

Researchers at the University of Hawaii evaluated whether organ transplant recipients experienced personality changes following their transplants and if any of these changes paralleled the history of their donors. In a study of 10 patients, each one showed 2–5 changes after the completion of a heart transplant that paralleled his or her donor’s history. These changes in preference occurred in areas such as food, art, recreation, career, and even sex.^[10]

One case involved Claire Sylvia, who received a heart from an 18-year-old male who died in a motorcycle crash. When she awoke from the surgery, she had a strong craving for beer and chicken nuggets, which was out of the ordinary for her. Additionally, she continued to have recurring dreams about someone named Tim L. After searching obituaries, she found that her heart had come from a man named Tim and later discovered that he loved all the foods that she had begun craving.

In a study done by Tufts University, researchers trained a worm and then removed its head and brain, which shrank it to 1/279th of its original size. The worm was then regrown in the lab and still showed signs of its previous training.

The research on cellular memory has a long way to go before this phenomenon is proven to be real. Nevertheless, we still don’t have any explanations for these odd parallels in numerous transplant stories.

Shelby Hoebee is a third-year medical student. While she doesn’t have much free time anymore, she still enjoys writing top 10 lists when inspiration strikes.

The Bermuda Triangle is among the world’s most infamous mysteries. The Devil’s Triangle is responsible for more than a dozen high-profile disappearances of airplanes and ships and an estimated 1,000 deaths. Approximately 20 boats vanish in the Bermuda Triangle every year.

This triangular area of sea between Bermuda, Puerto Rico, and Florida leaves scientists and experts amiss and sailors and pilots with a feeling of dread every time they have to pass through it to this day. And with all that we know about the Bermuda Triangle, there still is no one definitive answer to the puzzle. Here are the 10 best theories that explain the Bermuda Triangle phenomenon.

10 The Wormhole Theory

One Bermuda Triangle theory is the wormhole. For science fiction enthusiasts, this holds a lot of weight. When people vanish in the Bermuda Triangle, they disappear without a trace. The wormhole, which is essentially a time travel portal, would explain why. Unfortunately, scientists have yet to find solid evidence of wormholes in this context. But this hasn’t stopped them from believing that they could cause the Bermuda Triangle accidents.

In 1941, the Navy ship U.S.S. Proteus, which carried 58 passengers and cargo, suddenly disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle. One month later, another vessel called the U.S.S. Nereus also vanished with 61 passengers on board. No one knows what happened, and there wasn’t any recording of a distress signal from the captain. Search teams also found zero evidence of the ships or bodies.

9 The Methane Gas Theory

In 2016, scientists discovered several huge craters on the coast of Norway. The craters measure about half a mile in length and 150 feet deep. Scientists believe that bubbles from massive methane gas leaks in the deep seabed formed the craters. Enter the Methane Gas Theory. Some scientists think that methane gas is responsible for sinking planes and ships in the Triangle.

More research has also proven that there is more methane gas in some ocean spots than others. If that gas is released into the water, it can quickly sink ships and bring down planes. It would happen in seconds, not leaving enough time for those on board to call for help or abandon ship.

8 Electromagnetic Interference

Certain places on Earth negatively affect compasses and cause them to have trouble pointing north. The Gobi Desert is one example, and the Bermuda Triangle is another. This is due to electromagnetic interference. Scientists believe that this electromagnetic interference is one reason why ships disappear and planes crash so often in the Bermuda Triangle.

Many people have made strange reports in their compasses over the years when they get to the Triangle. In 1895, Joshua Slocum, who was the first man to sail around the world solo, disappeared on a voyage while traveling to South America from Martha’s Vineyard. Experts attribute his disappearance to the Bermuda Triangle. People believe Slocum would never have been lost at sea since he was an excellent sailor.

Another incident happened in 1945 when five TBM Avenger torpedo bombers flew across the Atlantic Ocean. The flight’s leader, Lieutenant Charles C. Taylor, became paranoid after noticing that his compass had failed and the planes were moving in the wrong direction. Lieutenant Charles instructed his fleet to fly northeast, thinking they were heading to Florida, but he traveled deeper into the Atlantic Ocean. When the planes went closer to the Bermuda Triangle, they began losing signals, communication, and they vanished, never to be seen again.

7 Waterspouts

Waterspouts are similar to tornadoes but form over bodies of water. People have seen several waterspouts in the Bermuda Triangle, and some believe that they are the cause of sunken ships and planes’ disappearances. When a waterspout forms, water bursts out of the ocean. The change in pressure sucks it up hundreds, or even thousands, of feet in the air. If this happens when a ship or airplane passes by, it can easily cause them to capsize or crash in seconds.

Aside from waterspouts, some parts of the Gulf Stream border the Triangle’s edge. This current leads to massive waves, sometimes hundreds of feet high, that can quickly sink ships and boats. The emerging waves hit without warning. Big waves can even knock down planes flying closer to the ocean’s surface.

An excellent example of such a theory in action is the disappearance of Flight 19 after World War II. The flight’s last communication records were disturbing reports from passengers describing how everything looked strange. One of the pilots stated that they were entering “white water” and completely lost. After that report, the flight disappeared. According to the Navy, it was as if they had disappeared or flown to Mars.

6 Aliens

For every mystery, there’s an alien explanation. The Bermuda Triangle is no exception. Even though there’s no evidence to blame aliens as the reason for the Bermuda Triangle accidents, they are a convenient scapegoat in situations when we can hardly explain the disappearances. People who believe this theory claim the Bermuda Triangle is the aliens’ gathering spot where they abduct and conduct research on people.

One incident narrated by Christopher Columbus while on his first voyage through the area claims that he saw a bursting flame that struck the sea. A strange light appeared in the far distance for several weeks. Could this have been an alien sighting? 

In the final scenes of Steven Spielberg’s “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” pilots from all decades return to Earth, in good health and unharmed, from an alien ship. Aliens captured these pilots from the Bermuda Triangle. Whether this piece of fiction is actually a piece of fact is up for the aliens to know—for now. But maybe someday we’ll solve the mystery before the aliens get to us.

5 Atlantis

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvpwtd45QT

Atlantis is another outlandish conspiracy revolving around the Bermuda Triangle incidents. This theory states that the Triangle may be the location of the mythical Lost City of Atlantis. According to The Independent, a blogger wrote that when the gods destroyed the City of Atlantis, it sank to the ocean floor. The writer also wrote that although the ruined temples currently host most of the underwater creatures, the great fire crystals of the Atlantis City that used to provide power and energy exist to date. Therefore, such power and energy may be the cause of the accidents along the Bermuda Triangle.

4 No Mystery

Is there really any mystery behind the accidents and disappearances at the Bermuda Triangle? Some people believe there’s no mystery at all, claiming that the Bermuda Triangle has the same disappearance incidences as any other part of the globe. This theory seems to pan out when you consider that the Bermuda Triangle is one of the world’s most traveled areas.

Those who believe in this theory state that it’s difficult to differentiate between fact and legend, as is the case with ships and planes’ disappearances across the world. And if there are many accidents and shipwrecks in the Bermuda Triangle, then it’s because many ships and planes travel across that part of the Atlantic Ocean. Scientists also attribute total disappearance to the Gulf Stream’s current. No mystery, there!

3 The Human Errors Theory

If you’re searching for a deep theory about the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle, this one is definitely not it. The Human Error Theory states that simple mistakes lead to many accidents annually, both in the sea and air. This theory also assumes that any confusion or error from the captain of a ship or pilot can lead to severe consequences. For example, they could run out of fuel before returning to land, thereby leading to their demise. Additionally, the Bermuda Triangle has many islands that are difficult to differentiate between one another. This confusion leaves sailors and pilots open for greater navigation errors.

2 Rogue Waves

Another explanation behind the Bermuda Triangle is massive rogue waves. According to oceanographer Simon Boxall, when storms from the north and south collide in the Bermuda Triangle, they can form rogue waves and cause significant damage. Another post from the Huffington Post also states that these rogue waves can reach 100 feet high, making them some of history’s largest waves. A good example is the 100 ft high tsunami caused by an earthquake and landslide in Lituya Bay, Alaska, in 1958. The Bermuda Triangle is in a strategic position to be affected by these rogue waves. If they happen as ships or planes pass by, it can result in accidents and death.

1 Pirates

Pirates have been around since robbers could sail the sea. In a real-life “Pirates of Caribbean,” experts have theorized that pirates could be one of the causes for the Bermuda Triangle disappearances. Pirates have abducted ships, caused planes to crash on the Triangle, and endangering travelers’ lives. The U.S. warns travelers and sailors of the possibility of encountering vessels that are engaged in illegal activities close to the Bahamas. 

Conclusion

The Bermuda Triangle is truly one of the world’s strangest mysteries. Many theories have formed around this patch of the ocean, but none of them seem to offer a satisfactory answer. Only time will tell us the key to this puzzle—or maybe it won’t. For now, we just wait to see if any new theories finally give us the definitive answer we’re looking for.

The human body is a mystery. And as far as science and medicine have come—and it is incredibly far—the chemical machines that we are are simply too complicated to master in every infinitesimal, intricate way. Physicians still encounter mysteries daily, and some of them have been seriously strange.

Patients have made impossible recoveries throughout history when all seemed lost or faded away for seemingly no reason. People have grown, secreted, emitted, and even become things you would never imagine, even when life and death were off the table. 

With that in mind, this list will bring together medical phenomena that may be wonderful, terrible, or just bizarre, but all of which doctor’s still can’t explain.

Related: 10 Potentially Deadly Accidents That Cured People Of Medical Ailments

10 Decapitated and Survived

As farfetched as it may sound to us, there are actually a few recorded instances in which a person has been decapitated and survived. The reason: the injury is what’s known as an internal decapitation (or orthopedic decapitation, or atlanto-occipital dislocation), in which the skull and spine separate, but the skin and other tissue around the bones remain sealed. This injury results in a head that is only attached to the body via limp, soft tissue.

Here are the statistics: for those who suffer an internal decapitation, 70% die instantly, another 28% die within hours, and the remaining 2% lucky enough to survive have almost all become paralyzed for life. And yet somehow, in 2008, after nine-year-old Jordan Taylor was internally decapitated in a car crash, the young boy almost fully recovered within three months and walked out of the hospital doors on his own. 

As the boy’s mother, Stacey, puts it, “He’s like a little boy again…he is walking—I have to tell him to slow down. This is the best Christmas miracle that I could ever imagine.”

9 The Toxic Woman

One incident heavy on the mysterious side of miraculous but light on the fortunate side is the case of Gloria Ramirez, better known as “The Toxic Lady.” On February 19, 1994, Ramirez visited an emergency room as she was experiencing heart palpitations. Then Ramirez, the physicians in her room, and seemingly the very air around them evolved into something as deadly as it was baffling.

While the staff was treating Ramirez, they noticed her body behaving strangely. Her skin took an oily sheen, and she emitted two strange odors: one garlicky and one like ammonia. Staff began feeling nauseous and lightheaded. A nurse passed out—then a doctor. 

That night, Ramirez passed away, but not before her odd biochemistry caused 23 people to become ill, five of which required hospitalization. What made the Lady so Toxic is still unknown—though may be related to her use of dimethyl sulfoxide.

8 Phineas Gage

Phineas Gage is a legend. Not because he didn’t exist, as he lived a very real life, but because one accident in his life has become, according to some psychologists, “one of the great medical curiosities of all time.” At age 25, Gage’s head was pierced all the way through by a large iron rod, causing the abrupt removal of much of his frontal lobe and, from that day forward, a complete shift in Gage’s personality.

The rod, a tamping iron, rocketed through and out of Gage’s head due to Gage’s distraction while working as a blasting foreman. From that point forward, every detail of Gage’s life is interesting. Though Gage’s physician and employers agreed that his “memory and general intelligence seemed unimpaired after the accident,” both also agreed that his personality changed for the worse. 

His physician writes that Gage was “fitful, irreverent, indulging at times in the grossest profanity (which was not pre­vi­ous­ly his custom), manifesting but little deference for his fellows, impatient of restraint or advice when it conflicts with his desires, at times pertina­cious­ly obstinate, yet capricious and vac­il­lat­ing.” Gage continued to make uncharacteristic choices for years, until his last few years, when his behavioral changes seemed to begin reversing on their own.

7 The Dancing Plague

In 1518, a few hundred otherwise normal people in Strasbourg, Alsace (modern-day France) found themselves with an insatiable compulsion to dance. They danced for months on end, even enough to cause death, the incident coming to be known as the Dancing Plague of 1518. The reason behind any of the dancing is still unknown.

The incident began with just one woman who danced in the street and soon spread to hundreds of others. Accounts of the case, like most from that time period, are unreliable and superstitious, leaving the number of victims and number of dead (if any) vague. Nonetheless, it is clear that the event took place in some form and that it has no simple medical explanation to this day.

6 Gluten Delusions

There once was a woman in Massachusetts (whose name is left anonymous) who, at age 37, had a good, normal life. At the time, she was well-liked and working on her Ph.D. Then, seemingly out of the blue, she began experiencing severe hallucinations and paranoia. Anti-psychotic drugs didn’t help. Nothing did. One of her many doctor’s visits revealed that she had celiac disease, but by then, her delusions had turned her doctors into sinister, conspiring enemies, and she paid them no mind.

Eventually, when she hit rock bottom, having lost her job and friends and abandoned her studies, she sought out doctors again. They insisted she begin a gluten-free diet. Within weeks, her symptoms were almost entirely absent. What’s more, when at one point during recovery, the woman accidentally ate gluten, her symptoms returned immediately, and she even attempted to murder her parents. And once again, when she returned to a gluten-free diet, her symptoms vanished—this time in prison.

According to the New England Journal of Medicine, the mechanism underlying her story is still being studied and is unlikely to gain a concrete answer soon.

5 Foreign Accent Syndrome

Many different incidents can cause foreign accent syndrome, but most commonly, the cause is a stroke. After the stroke, sufferers begin speaking in an accent different from their own. Frequently, it is from a place they’ve never even been to or encountered at all.

The level to which their speech changes varies, as does the apparent cause. The accent gained can also come from seemingly any region, not even one that primarily speaks the patient’s language. But one commonality to every case is its mysterious neurological mechanisms and the level to which, whether explainable or not, the acquired accents seem impossible.

4 Dead for Forty-Five Minutes

After her incident, Ruby Graupera-Cassimiro told ABC News, “I was dead. My husband tells me, ‘You were gray. You were cold as ice, and you were dead. You had no color in your lips.’” Indeed she was dead—for 45 minutes. Then, seemingly of her own volition, she decided to live again.

Graupera-Cassimiro returned to life after 45 minutes of legal death, which is a miracle in and of itself. But on top of that, she somehow avoided any brain damage and even any burns from the five times doctors tried to jumpstart her heart again. 

During her time under, Graupera-Cassimiro describes a religious experience with a spiritual being, and her impossible recovery makes us not want to question it.

3 The 36-Year-Old Fetus

Imagine at 36 you discover that you were born with a twin you never knew about. Then imagine that you find out your twin is still alive, and even better, is nearby. You might feel like you had been blessed with a miracle. Until that is, you find out exactly how near your twin had been. So near, in fact, that for 36 years, it had been living and growing next to your stomach—surviving by drinking your blood.

That is the story of Sanju Bhagat, who at age 36 went to have a lump in his torso removed, fearing it was a tumor. The lump was somehow both better and worse than a tumor. As one of Bhagat’s doctors recalls, “(the surgeon) just put his hand inside and he said ‘there are a lot of bones inside.’ First, one limb came out, then another limb came out. Then some part of genitalia, then some part of hair, some limbs, jaws, limbs, hair.” 

The most spine-tingling quote of all goes to the surgeon himself, who said, “To my surprise and horror, I could shake hands with somebody inside [Baghat’s body]. It was a bit shocking for me.” The condition, which we know as fetus in fetu, is incredibly rare, and usually, both individuals die before or during birth. In this case, both survived for 36 years. The fetus’s nails were even growing long.

2 Pathological Generosity

The stories of Phineas Gage and the women with celiac delusions demonstrated how major biological changes can cause equally major psychological changes. However, in both cases, the changes were dark and off-putting. Luckily, the story of the Brazilian man known only as João exists to demonstrate the opposite: after suffering a stroke, João became neurologically addicted to charity.

After his attack, João quit his job as a human resources manager and opened a street cart that sold French fries. Well, perhaps sold isn’t the right word, as João gave fries away for free constantly. When he did accept payment for them, he quickly gave it to local beggars and children. He was so generous that he forced his family into relative poverty. 

His neurologist concluded that João was “pathologically generous—compulsively driven to give.” This neurological shift helped some and hurt others, but in either case, remains largely unexplained.

1 Ask and Ye Shall Receive

This particular medical material earns its spot at #1 simply for being a classic and for being a breath of pure, fresh air after some strange twists and turns. At age 56, Greg Thomas was diagnosed with inoperable cancer throughout his head and neck. Doctors instructed him and his family to begin funeral preparations. 

In his supposedly final days, Thomas began stopping by a local church. However, he prayed at its door daily, noticing that it was always locked and becoming increasingly dilapidated. Asking around, Thomas found the owners and requested that he be able to spend what time he had left restoring the church. All he wanted in exchange was the ability to pray inside it.

As he renovated the church and prayed, his condition changed. Thomas remembers that “My oncologist was blown away. She said, ‘Whatever you’re doing, keep on doing it.’” Four years after his diagnosis, the church looked a century younger than it had, and Thomas’s cancer was in full remission. As Thomas puts it, “While I was restoring the church, God was restoring me.”

We’ve all heard at least one ghost story in our lifetime. It seems that everyone and every place has come in contact with the paranormal. Statistically, around 45% of Americans believe in ghosts, and as many as 18% of the American population says they’ve actually come in contact with a spirit. That’s a pretty significant number for what could be considered by some as a total hoax.

Many theories have been proposed as to what ghosts actually are. Are there possible scientific explanations for that shadow following you in an empty house? How about that tingling sensation on the back of your neck in a dark room? Lastly, what about demons? Do they really invade our world to leave claw marks on our backs while we sleep?

Let’s investigate ten possible theories for these paranormal wanderers that are rooted in science rather than the supernatural.

Related: 10 Interesting Pseudosciences and Hoaxes

10 Sleep Paralysis

Probably the most common explanation for why we see ghosts is sleep paralysis. Sleep paralysis “is like dreaming with your eyes open,” says Dr. Baland Jalal. As a neuroscientist, Dr. Jalal studies sleep paralysis at the University of Cambridge in England. He explains that we often experience very lifelike dreams during REM—rapid eye movement—sleep. While in REM sleep, our eyes can move around fairly rapidly under closed eyelids. However, the rest of our body doesn’t—or can’t—move. People may experience this and think they are paralyzed. However, the inability to move is likely “to prevent people from acting out their dreams.”

A lot of the most common examples of supernatural behavior can be explained by this neurological phenomenon: hallucinations, the physical presence of someone or something sitting or lying on a body, and even demon scratches. Yep, you most likely feel something did really happen, but you were in a terrifying awake-dream state instead.^[1]

9 Power of Suggestion

The use of suggestion is a powerful tool, and well-known studies have been done, but only recently have we investigated the power of suggestion with regard to paranormal events. In fact, some might say the entire Spiritualist movement is based on this theory of trickery.

In 2003, Richard Wiseman conducted two experiments for the British Journal of Psychology. The purpose was to examine the power of suggestion in a séance setting, asking whether belief in the paranormal made participants more prone to suggestion. The first experiment consisted of a fake medium who held a séance. During the evening, the psychic inferred that the table had moved. About one-third of the participants later reported that the table did move—though the table remained stationary throughout the experiment. They had wrongly reported the movement. Believers in the paranormal were more likely to misreport such activity than disbelievers.

Paranormal believers were more inclined to believe in the suggestions made or inferred by the medium than disbelievers following the next set of fake séances as well—with one caveat. They only reported that something happened when the suggestion aligned with their personal belief in the paranormal. For example, if the fake medium suggested that an object had not moved when in fact, it had—through trickery, of course—believers were no more likely to accept the suggestion than disbelievers. Overall, around one-fifth of the participants believed they had witnessed genuine paranormal phenomena.

It’s unknown whether the verbal suggestion directly affected the participants’ perception of the event, their memory of the event, or both. An existing belief in the paranormal did reveal the group’s likelihood of reporting a paranormal event when it didn’t happen, whether through true belief, suggestion, or demand characteristics—essentially, subtle cues that reveal to the participants what the experimenter expects to find or how the participants are expected to act. Still, the result is the same: a large minority of the participants reported that certain objects had moved and that they had witnessed genuinely paranormal events.^[2]

8 One Mysterious Planet

It might be cheating to say this, but sometimes supernatural occurrences can be explained by weird, yet not supernatural, things the Earth does every day.

Consider the Oracle of Delphi. Some considered the Pythia’s trance state supernatural and paranormal. She could speak to the spirits, the gods, and any other mythical, magical being to tell the future. People came to Delphi from hundreds of miles just to listen to her visions and see the ancient medium commune with invisible otherworldly beings. Was it all a hoax? Probably not. Scientists are pretty much in unanimous agreement that hydrocarbon gases from bituminous limestone under the Earth where Delphi sat probably brought on the Pythia’s trance.

In fact, a geological team from Wesleyan University found ethane, methane, and ethylene in spring water near the oracle. All the magical fumes inside the Oracle’s cave? Probably just some extremely toxic gasses. We may not all be suffering from faultline gas poisoning when we see our long-lost grandmother, but some of the oldest tales of the supernatural come from a time where furnaces were poorly regulated, mercury was on the loose in food and drink, and candle flames were notorious for throwing shadows. Eventually, those stories get passed down, revamped, and modernized to create some scary ghosts.^[3]

7 Low Frequency Sounds

If you’re a frequent watcher of televised ghost hunting shows, you may know about EMF readers. Supposedly, a ghost can manifest itself using the electromagnetic fields in the room. If that frequency is high enough, theoretically, ghosts could just appear and move objects all by themselves. The thing about EMF readers is that they’re incredibly unreliable. Things like cellphones and camera batteries can set off the meters. However, it turns out there is some science behind EMF and ghostly behavior.

The explanation is something known as the “fear frequency.” Human ears (especially adults) have trouble hearing low-frequencies below ~20 Hertz (or infrasound). However, the body can still sense them, often causing feelings of uneasiness, chills, or “nervous feelings of revulsion and fear.”

This theory helped solve a local ghost story. On Coventry University’s campus, there’s a 14th-century cellar supposedly home to a ghost. That is until lecturer Vic Tandy examined the room and found infrasound levels that explained the paranormal experiences. So, is it a ghost giving you the creeps? Probably not. It’s just your body experiencing a very normal reaction to the environment around it.^[4]

6 Mold and Fungus

Let’s face it, if you walk into a decrepit hospital or haunted house, you’re already going to be on edge about ghostly apparitions. Perhaps you’re in an area where wiring isn’t a problem, so we don’t have to worry about EMF. There’s not a living soul for miles, so human interference is also out. What about black mold? Asbestos? Rye ergot? There’s a high probability all the abandoned buildings have some of these toxic molds hanging out in the damp basements, deteriorating ceilings, and closed-up rooms, in addition to wafting through the air.

It’s possible all the ghostly sightings are just a result of bad air quality in “haunted” places. Associate Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering Shane Rogers said, “The links between exposure to toxic indoor molds and psychological effects in people are not well established; however, notably, many hauntings are associated with structures that are prime environments to harbor molds or other indoor air quality problems.”

The mold theory could also be an example of what paranormal investigators sometimes call “demonic activity.” On television, you might see someone instantly feel sick, feel a choking sensation, or experience headaches or lightheadedness when they come across a malignant spirit. Yet, they feel instantly better when they leave the space to get fresh air. Assuming it was an actor putting on their best performance, these symptoms are also a physical manifestation of being exposed to toxic mold and fungus. Sorry to burst your bubble, but it’s probably not a demon. It’s just your body telling you to get out and get fresh air.^[5]

5 Mind/Body Disconnect

Feeling like a ghost or another supernatural presence is nearby? It’s likely caused by a glitch in how our brain processes self-awareness and our sense of place in space. The brain is a complex organ and can create supernatural manifestations, even if your body isn’t quite aware it’s happening. When our brains inaccurately represent our bodies in space, it can potentially create a second representation of the body, which is no longer perceived as “me” but as someone else, a “presence.”

To demonstrate this, a team of Swiss neuroscientists figured out how to conjure those spirits in a lab. The team studied the brains of a dozen patients who all suffered from neurological disorders and claim to have had experiences with ghosts. MRI results showed that they all had abnormal activity in three brain regions involved in self-awareness, movement, and positioning themselves correctly in space.

Next, the researchers looked at a dozen healthy volunteers. They blindfolded their subjects and asked them to move their arm in a predetermined way. The participants were connected to a robot in front of them (the main robot) while a second robot was behind them (the second robot). The participants were unaware of the second robot, which was programmed to mimic the arm movements against the participant’s back. For example, if the participant made a circle then a triangle with their arm, the second robot would lightly “trace” the circle and triangle on the subject’s back.

When the second robot completed the movement at the same time the participants moved, they didn’t report feeling anything unusual. Then, the researchers had the second robot perform the series of movements after a few seconds delay, altering the participant’s temporal and spatial perception. After a few minutes, the researchers asked the participants how they felt. Unaware of the study’s goal, several participants claimed to have felt a presence around them, with others reporting that there were ghosts in the room. A few did not complete the experiment, requesting to leave the room before the experiment was finished.^[6]

4 Pareidolia

Once again, the presence of a ghost could just be your brain having a glitch in its self-awareness. This time, it’s a totally normal and natural phenomenon called pareidolia. Pareidolia is the same function of the brain that causes us to see images in clouds or facial features on intimate objects—you know, the image of the Virgin Mary on a grilled cheese sandwich.

Pareidolia is an ancient ability that may have helped our early ancestors survive by enabling us to identify potential hidden dangers in our environment—was that something in the grass over there? In his 1995 book The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, Carl Sagan helped spread the claim that pareidolia is why we see certain ghostly apparitions.

It’s a phenomenon that explains how our brains interpret light and shadows or figures in the distance on an eerie, foggy battlefield. It’s not that there isn’t something there to see; it’s just your brain filling in missing pieces to create an image that isn’t really there.^[7]

3 Energy Displacement

Bear with me on this one. It’s an Einstein theory to prove ghosts exist. Let’s assume ghosts are very real, and it’s not an act of supernatural but rather an act of valid scientific theory for why they appear among us.

Paranormal researcher John Kachuba says in his book Ghosthunters, “Einstein proved that all the energy of the universe is constant and that it can neither be created nor destroyed… So what happens to that energy when we die? If it cannot be destroyed, it must then be transformed into another form of energy. What is that new energy?… Could we call that new creation a ghost?” (LINK 4) It’s theorized that all the electricity that keeps our bodies moving is the same that manifests spirits. That’s why ghost hunters rely so heavily on devices to measure that energy.

In fact, Einstein’s theory is still valid, and we do have science to explain what happens to all that energy when we die. However, the answer is not “turns us into ghosts.” After a person dies, the energy in the body goes into the environment—that’s where all organisms’ energy goes after death. When we die, our energy is released in the form of heat. If we are eaten by animals or insects or taken in by plants via the nutrients left behind in the soil by a decomposing body, this energy is then transferred into these animals, insects, or plants. When cremated, our body’s energy leaves us as heat and light.

Consider plants and animals for a moment. Have you ever seen a ghost cow? A ghost Venus Fly Trap? Probably not. When we eat dead plants and animals, we consume their energy and convert it for our own use. Our bodies metabolize food for energy, completing the cycle. To believe that a person’s energy would remain long after the body is gone is highly suspect. Our energy does not remain as a spirit comprised of electromagnetic energy but rather in the form of heat and chemical energy.^[8]

2 Unprocessed Trauma

I’m not a therapist, but one very common explanation of why the living sees the dead has to do with how our brain processes (or doesn’t process) trauma.

Based on a study of 88 people who sought psychiatric care from 1974 to 1984, Dr. Lenore Terr proposed that many ghost reports are really the result of hallucinations and illusions drawn from horrible and often life-threatening experiences. PTSD sufferers have reported seeing, hearing, smelling, or “feeling the presence of” ghosts or other beings. Some of the children who had been attacked by animals described being “haunted” by animal spirits. Recent studies have revealed that certain mood and anxiety disorders may also affect sufferers, some of whom admitted to having had hallucinations or delusions or strange beliefs.

After a trauma, some people believe that they have psychic abilities. Severe trauma can lead to hallucinations, where what the brain is trying to process on the inside manifests itself as outside voices or images. The trauma may be from a short-term event like a car accident or more long-term events like prolonged domestic violence or child abuse. The inability or fear of dealing with the trauma can enable the sufferer to see or believe they see apparitions and other paranormal activities. These experiences may be the unconscious mind forcing the sufferer to finally deal with their trauma, leading to the end of the “hauntings.”^[9]

1 Positive and Negative Ions

I know this sounds a bit like Ghostbusters to bring up ions and proton packs, but it’s based on some real science to explore the supernatural. By nature, a negative ion is an atom that carries an extra electron in its shell and vice versa for a positive ion.

Some paranormal researchers claim that spirits can hinder normal ion balance in the atmosphere. In contrast, others say ghosts use the ions’ energy to manifest or interact with the physical world. I wouldn’t trust a ghost hunter with an ion meter. It’s all very unreliable technology to base results on. You see, ions are caused by all kinds of natural phenomena like weather, solar radiation, and radon gas. It all comes down to how one interprets the evidence.

However, positive and negative ions can affect the moods of the living. Negative ions can make us feel calm and relaxed, while positive ions can give us headaches and nausea. This might explain why people who live in “haunted” houses describe fatigue, headaches, and illness. When they feel an ion imbalance, they may think paranormal, not normal.^[10]

The world as we know it is fairly explainable by science. However, there’s still an aspect of existence that blows the most brilliant of minds. There are things science simply doesn’t understand. And we’re not talking about the mysteries of time and space—we’re talking about people with abilities science can’t explain.

Some people seem to have superhuman capabilities. They do things that nobody else can do, often because they acquired these abilities at some point in life without working for them. The common trait in their super abilities is the brainpower these people have. The supernatural has gone over matter in the life of these super, paranormal incredible human beings. These are the ten people with abilities science can’t wrap its head around.

Related: 10 Times Artificial Intelligence Displayed Amazing Abilities

10 The Memory Man

Stephen Wiltshire’s specialty is drawing urban landscapes. But he’s not your typical artist. He once flew over New York in a helicopter for twenty minutes. He managed to recreate everything he saw on a twenty-foot piece of paper. Even the number of windows in the buildings is accurate.

How? He has a photographic memory and can reproduce anything he’s seen just as it is in real life.

When native-Londoner Wiltshire was growing up in the ’70s, he had trouble speaking and relating to others. An autism diagnosis helped to explain how he connected to the world. At school, teachers noticed how much he loved drawing. He started to draw animals, London buses, then buildings. They discovered he had a photographic memory and could reproduce anything he saw.

Stephen became fascinated with sketching London architecture when he was about seven. A year later, he received his first commission from the British Prime Minister to draw the Salisbury Cathedral. His realistic style was mind-blowing even for the most educated art critics. He’s currently one of the most famous artists in the UK.

9 Sleepless in Vietnam

According to science, the average person can’t spend more than a few days without sleep. You don’t sleep; you die. Right?

But somehow, Thai Ngoc, a 75-year-old Vietnamese man, claims he hasn’t slept in forty-two years. His body just doesn’t shut off. Thai Ngoc’s sleepless life story has been reported several times. Vietnamese television has interviewed him, and he was mentioned in a National Geographic magazine blog. Unfortunately, his condition hasn’t changed since 1974.

After getting sick, Ngoc found himself with the ultimate form of insomnia. Ngoc manages to carry on with his daily activities without any symptoms of sleep deprivation. He works hard on his farm and takes care of his pigs. Scientists still can’t explain why this man is still kicking. After a trip to the Danang Hospital, the only problem doctors found was an old war injury. He’s awake and still a mystery to modern medicine.

8 My Samurai Senses Are Tingling

It looks like a Hollywood movie special effect. But a modern-day samurai warrior was filmed in slow motion slicing a high-speed projectile in half with a sword at an LA shooting range in 2011. In a Guinness World Records video, we can see Isao Machii’s blade cutting a bullet, moving at 0.088 km/s (0.0547 mi/s), into two parts.

The organization had to film with a special camera that slowed down the footage 250 times to capture the moment. Machii became world-famous after setting the record for the most sword cuts to a tatami mat. He was also able to make 1000 cuts to a straw mat in just over 36 seconds. In 2004, Isao cut a mat seven times before hitting the ground. Eleven years later, he cut a standalone mat eight times while in the air. When the thing hit the ground, he had reduced it to rags and threads.

Scientists believe Machii has a sensory ability beyond good sight and motion. However, simple clinical and laboratory tests could not confirm this unusual condition. The fastest samurai on the face of the earth makes scientists scratch their heads.

7 The Ice Man Cometh

Wim Hof is a Dutchman with several records with Guinness World Records for showing remarkable resistance to extreme temperatures. He climbed mountains of ice in sneakers and shorts, ran in the desert at over 50°C without food or water, and was covered in ice for nearly two hours.

He managed to do all this without shivering, growing dehydrated, or getting sick. These temperatures would be lethal to any other human. It seems Hof can control his immune system, making his body increasingly resistant.

No, he’s not actually in the X-Men. In fact, anyone can gain the same abilities as long as they practice a series of activities known as the Hof Method. Scientists have conducted several studies with Hof and some of his pupils to establish whether the rumors of his super resistance were true. They could only prove that Hof and the group who performed like him were stronger and healthier than the control group.

6 Call Him Mr. Mistoffelees

The artist featured in number ten on this list isn’t the only human with a heart-warming ability science can’t explain. Kevin Richardson calls himself an animal behaviorist. He can interact with lions in an amicable, almost intimate way.

Richardson grew up in Johannesburg, South Africa, away from the wildlife. He decided to study zoology but was unsuccessful at first and almost quit his career as a scientist. At twenty-three, he was a physiologist who curiously began working with lion cubs. This experience brought back his passion for working with animals.

Richardson is now a TV celebrity known to play with big cats, lions, hyenas, and leopards while commanding them to sit. He can put his forearm in the lion’s mouth without being attacked. Some believe that Richardson’s ability to communicate with dangerous animals is a tool for his real purpose as a wildlife activist. He owns a wildlife sanctuary in Africa to protect animals and raise awareness.

5 Real-Life Iron Man

Dean Karnazes has the ability of physical endurance. He has managed to run 350 miles without stopping, has completed fifty marathons in fifty days, and even ran in glacial weather in a race at the South Pole.

One day, the American soon-to-be ultramarathoner decided to test the limits of his body, so he started running, at the age of thirty, after having a tequila blast. He has been unstoppable ever since. He has a resilient, strong body with a metabolism science can’t explain. He can rapidly flush lactic acid from his system and has never had a cramp in his life.

When ordinary people exercise, the body converts glucose to energy, producing lactic acid as a by-product. As that builds up in the muscles, fatigue and cramps are inevitable as a signal from the body to stop. Karnazes never receives those signals. His ability to perform physically for an extended period under challenging conditions has impressed many sports fans worldwide and intrigued the minds of scientists.

They found that his body has a lower fat percentage than the average person due to a condition, but this is not the only reason he’s so strong. It’s like he’s made of iron. Can somebody get Tony Stark to weigh in on this?

4 Seider Sees Spot Run

Veronica Seider is a German dentist. But her “powers” have nothing to do with teeth. Seider didn’t know she had superhuman vision until she was in her early twenties when scientists at the university she attended discovered her phenomenal eyesight.

Seider can see clearly at the length of over a dozen football fields (1.09 kilometers or 1,200 yards) when you’re squinting at things a few meters or yards away. From a biological point of view, this should be impossible. However, Seider has taken several tests that showcase her miraculous sight. Her supervision ability was featured by Guinness World Records.

Now, Seider lives a quiet life as a dentist and helps people with her smile. Just imagine how well she can see your plaque.

3 Biba the Battery Man

Slavisa “Biba” Pajkic discovered his incredible ability when he was seventeen years old. Since then, he’s been demonstrating what seems to be an extraordinary power. The human body isn’t made to withstand high levels of electrical current, but Slavisa appears to be the exception. He first set a record with Guinness in 1983, when he took a 20,000-volt discharge.

His second record dates back to 2003 when he heated water to 97°C (206°F) in 1 minute and 37 seconds. So far, scientists haven’t been able to figure out exactly how he’s doing all these things. He can light a light bulb, cook sausages, and even ignite flammable material soaked in alcohol. Pajkict uses his abilities to conduct electricity and is known as the Battery Man.

Doctors said that Slavisa’s powers originate from a genetic defect. Slavisa Pajkic has no sweat and salivary glands. Scientists suspect the energy is not passing through his body but outside his skin, which acts as a natural insulator. Any person who hugs Biba is very brave.

2 The Monk with an Exoskeleton

Shaolin monks possess superhuman strength. Trained since childhood, they acquire skills that no normal person could have, such as walking on hot charcoal or taking several kicks without feeling any pain. In addition to the countless mysteries and secrets, showcasing strength is one of the monastery’s traditions. A video posted on YouTube shows the most shocking performance of a monk called Zhao Rui.

His ability to withstand pain or get hurt has made him famous as a man of impenetrable skin. Rui once held a power drill to his temple without breaking the skin for ten seconds. His performances include bending an iron bar against his throat, lying upon sharpened metal arrows, and breaking stones with his head.

Science can’t explain why he never gets injured. He credits his ability to face pain to his daily practices of deep meditations. Whether that is the case or not remains a mystery.

1 Uri Geller Bends Metal With His Mind

Psychokinesis is the ability to manipulate objects without touching them. Uri Geller can bend spoons, move things, and reveal details of objects hidden from his sight.

The Israeli psychic can bend a spoon upward with absolutely no force and demonstrated this ability during a visit to the U.S. Capitol. There is some speculation that Geller’s abilities were magic tricks based on scientific principles. However, he’s been doing it since he was five. That sounds like an evil genius origin story to me.

Mysterious sounds trigger something primitive in our brains. They take us right back to our hunter-gatherer days, when deciphering a weird ‘bloop’ in the jungle might have helped us survive (as it may be a new type of predator). While that’s hardly the case anymore, that part of the brain still works the same way.

Mysterious sounds still pique our interest in a way that other senses don’t. There’s something plain creepy about a sound whose origins you can’t completely ascertain, made even creepier by just how many sounds there are nowadays; from classified radio signals to industrial machines most of us haven’t even heard of. Most of them, however, could be explained by ‘everyday things making everyday noises you just hadn’t noticed before’.

It gets weird, though, when a sound is heard multiple times by multiple people, and none of them can establish where it’s coming from. Some of the most bizarre sounds we’ve ever heard still remain unexplained, despite entire sections of the Internet dedicatedly looking for their origins.

This is an encore of one of our previous lists, as presented by our YouTube host Simon Whistler. Read the full list!

This article features some mysteries of human behaviour that science can’t explain. The ten things we don’t understand about humans. Scientists have split the atom, put men on the moon and discovered the DNA of which we are made, but there are some mysteries of human behaviour which they have failed to fully explain. Why do we dream, kiss, blush or shy? These are the basics of human behaviour, scientists still don’t have a clue.

The Following are 10 Mysteries of Human Behaviour scientists still can’t explain.

10. Shyness

The feeling of apprehension, lack of comfort, or awkwardness experienced. when a person is in proximity to, approaching, or being approached by other people, especially in new situations or with unfamiliar people. Shyness may come from genetic traits, the environment in which a person is raised and personal experiences.

9. Art

Painting, dance, sculpture and music could all be the human equivalent of a peacock’s tail in showing what a good potential mate someone is. However, it could also be a tool for spreading knowledge or sharing experience.

For instance, a study by Geoffrey Miller at the University of New Mexico shows that women prefer creativity over wealth when their fertility is at its peak. Others believe the drive to seek out aesthetic experiences evolved to encourage us to learn about different aspects of the world – those that our brain’s have not equipped us to deal with at birth.

8. Adolescence

Adolescence is a transitional stage of physical and psychological human development generally occurring during the period from puberty to legal adulthood. The period of adolescence is most closely associated with the teenage years. No other animal undergoes the stroppy, unpredictable teenage years. Some suggest it helps our large brain reorganize itself before adulthood or that it allows experimentation in behavior before the responsibility of later years.

7. Picking Your Nose

One in four teenagers engage in the habit, at an average of four times a day, a study found. The unappealing but common habit of ingesting ‘nasal detritus’ offers almost no nutritional benefit. So why do a quarter of teenagers do it. on average four times a day? Some think it boosts the immune system.

6. Superstition

Superstition is a pejorative term for belief in supernatural causality. That one event leads to the cause of another without any physical process linking the two events. such as astrology, omens, witchcraft, etc. that contradicts natural science.The unusual but reassuring habits make no evolutionary sense. however, ancient humans would have benefited from not dismissing a lion’s rustle in the grass as a gust of wind. Religion seems to tap into this impulse.

5. Altruism or Selflessness

Doing good deeds is part of human nature. They just can’t decide why we do them. Altruism or selflessness is the principle or practice of concern for the welfare of others. It is a traditional virtue in many cultures and a core aspect of various religious traditions. though the concept of “others” toward whom concern should be directed can vary among cultures and religions.

After all, what is the point of helping others, if they are not guaranteed to return the favor  Robert Trivers of Rutgers University in New Jersey argues that natural selection favored our altruistic ancestors because they could expect to benefit. However these tendencies became misguided as we developed a globalized world.

4. Kissing

The act of pressing one’s lips against another person or an object. Cultural connotations of kissing vary widely. Depending on the culture and context, a kiss can express sentiments of love, passion, affection, respect, greeting, friendship, peace and good luck, among many others.

There are theories that it is associated with memories of breastfeeding and that ancient humans weaned their children by feeding them from their mouths, which reinforced the link between sharing saliva and pleasure. Another idea is our foraging ancestors were attracted to red ripe fruit and so developed red lips to tempt sexual partners.

Kissing has been shown to reduce levels of the stress hormone cortisol and increase the bonding hormone oxytocin, so is good for our health and happiness.

3. Laughter

An involuntary reaction to certain external or internal stimuli. Laughter can arise from such activities as being tickled, or from humorous stories or thoughts. It is considered a visual expression of a number of positive emotional states, such as joy, mirth, happiness, relief, etc. On some occasions, it may be caused by contrary emotional states such as embarrassment, apology, confusion or courtesy laugh.

Laughter boosts levels of feel-good endorphins, helping us bond with others. ‘Laughing at’ can be used to push people away.

2. Blushing

A uniquely human trait. Blushing, the involuntary reddening of a person’s face due to embarrassment or emotional stress. It has been known to come from being lovestruck, or from some kind of romantic stimulation. It is thought that blushing is the result of an overactive sympathetic nervous system.

Charles Darwin struggled to explain why evolution made us turn red when we lie, which alerts others. He called it the most peculiar and the most human of all expressions. However, some think it originally used it to diffuse aggressive approaches by more dominant individuals. Over time it became associated with higher emotions such as guilt and embarrassment.

1. Dreaming

Dream, the experience of envisioned images, sounds, or other sensations during sleep. Dreams help us process and consolidate emotions without the rush of stress hormones that would accompany the real experience. They also help with memory and problem-solving. People are better at recalling lists of related words and links between them after a night’s sleep than after the same time spent awake in the day. It was recently discovered that we can dream even outside of REM sleep. REM dreams were found to involve long stories with more emotion, while non REM dreams often involved friendly interactions.

Sigmund Freud’s theory of dreams expressing our subconscious desires have been generally discredited and it is recognised that they help us process emotions, but the reason why we see such strange visions has not been properly explained.