With their microscopic size, bacteria are everywhere^[1] and can perform feats that are unachievable for beings like us. In recent times, we have shown you some truly extraordinary microorganisms, such as bacteria that eat radioactive waste. However, there are certain species of these little creatures with abilities that we could say are true superpowers.

Now, we will show you ten types of bacteria with powers that you would expect to see in a superhero comic book instead of in real life. If this information inspires any film studio to make a blockbuster movie of superhero bacteria, we strongly recommend that you ask for scientists’ permission first.

10 Caulobacter Crescentus
(The Super-Adhesive Bacteria)

If a gecko attaches to a surface with its legs, it would take hundreds of kilograms of force to just “unstick” it from there. However, even that does not compare to what the bacterium Caulobacter crescentus can do. As if it were a bacterial version of Spider-Man, C. crescentus has an adhesion force seven times stronger than that of geckos and is three to four times more adhesive than commercial superglue.

C. crescentus lives in any wet environment and in any type of water, be it fresh water, salt water, or even tap water. The microbe moves with the help of an appendage called a flagellum until finding a place to live. Then, one end of C. crescentus attaches to the surface in question, after which the bacterium is anchored to it through thin structures called pili. When C. crescentus is finally in position, it secretes a sugary adhesive substance that sticks the creature to the surface immediately.

The results of scientific tests have shown that the “superglue” of C. crescentus has an adhesive force of about five tons per square inch. In other words, a small patch of this substance would be enough to lift an elephant or several cars off the ground.^[2] Since C. crescentus move in places where there is not much to eat, it is believed that these bacteria also use their superglue to pick up nutrients. Evidently, scientists see the practical potential of such a sticky substance, whose uses could range from surgical adhesives to durable construction materials.

9 Magnetotactic Bacteria
(Living Magnets)

A truly amazing power would be to control magnetism. Perceiving nearby magnetic fields, manipulating metal objects, and moving just by taking advantage of the Earth’s magnetic field sounds like something great but, unfortunately, far superior to human capabilities. Nevertheless, that does not mean that other living beings cannot do it, and in fact, some bacteria already have these fascinating abilities. Meet magnetotactic bacteria, the living magnets.

Magnetotactic bacteria (MTB) are microorganisms capable of accumulating iron oxide molecules and putting them together to form small “pebbles” called magnetosomes. These magnetic granules are 100,000 times smaller than a grain of rice, and an MTB stores many of them inside. In this way, the little inner magnets allow MTBs to feel the magnetic field of the Earth and thus move toward the South Pole or the North Pole, depending on where there is more food. But that is just the beginning.

As MTBs usually live in swamps and similar environments with little oxygen, the microbes must move using their flagella until finding a suitable place. But sometimes, the sediment is too dense to move through in that way, so the MTB uses its magnetosomes to gain thrust with the Earth’s magnetic field.^[3] MTBs could also be true superheroes. To eliminate dangerous bacteria from the human body, scientists have learned to fill these microorganisms with magnetosomes and then kill them using something called “magnetic heat.” MTBs could provide such magnetosomes and thus help eliminate infectious viruses in large quantities.

8 Thiomargarita Namibiensis
(The Little Giant)

Among the superheroes in Marvel comics (and movies), there are some characters that use a certain substance to grow up to the size of a multistory building. While, at the moment, no human is known to have such an ability, some types of bacteria already have the superpower of growing in size at will. And here we will see the largest species of all.

Thiomargarita namibiensis is considered the largest bacterium in the world, three million times larger than average bacteria. Discovered in 1997 on the coasts of Namibia, this microbe is capable of reaching a size of up to 0.75 millimeters, making it visible even to the naked eye. Heide Schulz, the biologist who discovered the bacterium, said in a report: “In terms of size, a T. namibiensis cell is to an Escherichia coli cell what a blue whale is compared to a newly born mouse.”

The extreme size of T. namibiensis is due to its feeding mechanism. The bacterium uses nitrate and sulfide to obtain energy. And since nitrate concentrations are low in the place where it lives, T. namibiensis tries to store as much nitrate as possible inside its own body. That way, 98 percent of its volume is nitrate stored inside an organelle in the center of the bacterium.

In appearance, the T. namibiensis looks white due to the multiple sulfur granules that the creature also stores inside. It is worth noting that since T. namibiensis feeds on sulfur, the populations of these bacteria detoxify seawater, allowing the proliferation of marine life. These microorganisms usually join together by a layer of mucus, forming what looks like a long string of white spheres. This is what gives the bacterium its name, since Thiomargarita namibiensis means “Sulfur Pearl of Namibia.”^[4]

7 Modified Escherichia Coli
(The Living Computers)

Humans have always tried to find the best way to store information. Many millennia ago, we started sharing our ideas through paintings inside caves. Then came books and computers, and we recently learned that diamonds are great data storage devices. But then bacteria entered the game when scientists managed to insert information into them. That’s right: Some microbes can transport text, videos, and images in their bodies, turning them into living computers.

It happens that when bacteria destroy an enemy virus, they store small parts of the virus’s DNA inside their own bodies. In this way, microbes learn to recognize similar threats in the future. Taking advantage of that mechanism, scientists from Harvard University first cultivated a population of 600,000 Escherichia coli bacteria. Then, they coded an image of a human hand and a short video of a galloping horse into a DNA strand.^[5] And finally, the E. coli received electric shocks so that they activated their defense mechanism and thus absorbed the man-made DNA.

To test if the method worked, the scientists sequenced the new genetic code of each bacterium. Then they ran the sequence in a computer program that read it and transformed it into images. Incredibly, the resulting pictures were practically the same as the original files, with just a few pixels of difference. Although this technique sounds difficult, current genetic sequencing technologies make it relatively easy to perform the process.

Anyway, this is not the first time that E. coli microorganisms have carried our information. In 2003, US scientists introduced DNA written with the lyrics of a song inside E. coli bacteria. And in 2011, Canadian writer Christian Bok inserted a poem into the DNA of a single E. coli , which then glowed red and began to “write” its own poem. If you wonder what the potential of this ability is, a gram of DNA can contain 455 exabytes (455 billion gigabytes) of data, about a quarter of all of humankind’s information. So in the not-too-distant future, we could be using modified E. coli populations as our personal microcomputers.

6 Shewanella Oneidensis
(Electric Microbes)

Electrogenic bacteria are microorganisms that can naturally generate electricity through extracellular transference of electrons. To date, hundreds of species of electrogenic bacteria have been found, and they are everywhere, from the bottom of a lake to inside our own bodies. However, a particular bacterium of this type has unique characteristics, which have made it a great object of scientific study.

Shewanella oneidensis is a bacterium discovered in the lakes of New York.^[6] While most life-forms (including us) use oxygen to get energy, S. oneidensis “breathes” metal molecules such as manganese, lead, and iron, among others. For this, many of these bacteria join together and attach to the surface of rocks containing metals. Then, they release long filaments called nanowires, which they use to connect directly to the metal. In that way, the microbes transfer electrons from inside their bodies to metal molecules, and this flow of electrical current is what keeps them alive. Sometimes, S. oneidensis bacteria do the opposite and extract electrons from such metals, so they literally live on electricity.

It is presumed that the nanowires of S. oneidensis allow it to conduct electricity over long distances, as well as to supply electrons to other nearby bacteria. The ability of S. oneidensis to generate electricity has aroused the interest of the scientific community. For example, some researchers are studying the potential of the bacterium to treat wastewater. Meanwhile, NASA took samples of these creatures to space to see if they can be used in the construction of future life-support systems.

5 Pseudomonas Syringae
(The Ice-Maker)

Just like Marvel’s Iceman, the bacterium Pseudomonas syringae can freeze water by touching it, even at temperatures above the natural freezing point. P. syringae bacteria live mostly in farm crops, as well as in many other types of plants. To feed themselves, these little creatures freeze the tissue of plants in order to easily access their nutrients, which, in turn, can cause great damage to agriculture. In addition, P. syringae have also been found in snowy environments from Europe to Antarctica. But how do these bacteria freeze things?

In 2016, scientists learned that P. syringae uses certain proteins in its outer membrane to make ice. First, these proteins modify the order of water molecules, forcing them to form a more solid structure like that of ice. And to make this process easier, the proteins also extract heat from the water, causing it to freeze regardless of the surrounding temperature.

Pure water does not freeze until it reaches around – 40 degrees Celsius (–40 °F). However, a single droplet of P. syringae bacteria can instantly freeze 600 milliliters (20.3 fluid ounces) of such water cooled to only – 7 degrees Celsius (19.4 °F). It is also believed that these microbes contribute to the formation of rain and snow when the wind drags them into the atmosphere.^[7] So we can say that our good P. syringae is both an ice-maker and a rain-maker. Due to their extraordinary capabilities, P. syringae bacteria are currently used to make snow in ski resorts, although they could even be used in biotechnological processes.

4 Modified Klebsiella Planticola
(World Destroyer)

The superpower of this bacterium gives it the ability to potentially erase all plant life on Earth, so Klebsiella planticola earns the prize for the supervillain of this list. Klebsiella bacteria are present in the roots of almost every plant on Earth. These creatures are responsible for decomposing dead plants, thus cleaning the soil of organic waste.

German scientists took a sample of K. planticola bacteria and genetically modified them so that, by decomposing plants, they produced fertilizer and ethanol at the same time. A bacterium of this type would be easy to sell for agricultural and industrial uses, so in the early 1990s, it was planned to test K. planticola in the fields.

However, in order to test its effectiveness, a team at Oregon State University conducted a laboratory experiment with a sample of fertile, sown soil. One part of the soil was filled with the original K. planticola, while the modified bacteria were placed in the other part. The results showed that although the seeds germinated in both soils, all plants in the section of the modified microbes were dead after a week.^[8]

The modified K. planticola produced 17 times more alcohol in the soil than plants could tolerate. In addition, plants use fungi to feed on soil nutrients, but the ethanol-producing bacteria increased the presence of worms that eat those fungi. So the plants not only died of poisoning but also of starvation.

Adding to its evil characteristics, it was confirmed that the modified K. planticola bacterium was able to survive in soil for a long time, unlike other modified bacteria. In the end, the “killer” K. planticola was not commercialized. But it was contended (albeit disputed) that had it been released in the fields, this bacterium would have ended up annihilating all plant life on a continental scale.

3 Aquifex
(The Microbe From Hell)

In the early 1980s, scientists found the first known hyperthermophilic organisms, microscopic beings capable of living and reproducing at temperatures close to 100 degrees Celsius (212 °F). But it happens that most of these microorganisms belong to the Archaea domain, a group distinct from bacteria and discovered in the late 1970s. However, some hyperthermophilic bacteria have also been discovered, and their abilities make them more durable than most life on Earth.

The genus Aquifex comprises bacteria capable of reproducing in underwater thermal vents and hot springs, at temperatures up to 95 degrees Celsius (203 °F). Just to get an idea, a human body submerged in that water would begin to boil until dissolving in a matter of hours. And even so, Aquifex can live in such an environment without difficulty, even at temperatures above 100 degrees Celsius (212 °F), which makes them the most heat-resistant bacteria of all.

As if that were not enough, Aquifex are also aerobic—that is, they can breathe oxygen. Although these microbes only tolerate low oxygen concentrations, they are among the few known aerobic hyperthermophilic bacteria. If the environment does not have oxygen, Aquifex can also breathe nitrogen. But the most impressive ability of these microorganisms is that they produce water as a byproduct while breathing.^[9] For this reason, the bacteria earned the name Aquifex, which means “water-maker.”

2 Ancient Bacteria

If everything goes well, humans can expect to live a little over 70 years on average. Some reptiles can live close to 200 years, while a few trees have lived around 5,000 years. But all that is just a blink (figurative, of course) for the oldest bacteria in the world. Indeed, in 2007, researchers discovered bacteria more than half a million years old, which were still alive.

A team of scientists from the University of Copenhagen (Denmark) obtained samples of these bacteria in layers of ice in Canada, Russia, and Antarctica. It is estimated that the microbes have been alive for about 600,000 years, and when scientists looked at their DNA, they were surprised to see that it was almost intact. This is something extremely unusual for creatures of that age, since DNA starts to break down after some time. To survive for millennia, many microorganisms enter a state of almost total inactivity, but even so, their DNA will continue to suffer great damage.

The key to the long life of these old bacteria lies in their amazing ability to self-repair their DNA. Instead of becoming lethargic and suspending its functions to survive, this particular creature keeps a small part of its metabolism active. In this way, the body of the bacterium will keep constantly repairing its own DNA while waiting for the environment to become more favorable for reproduction.

There have been other reports of even older living bacteria, such as 250-million-year-old bacteria trapped in salt crystals. However, these reports remain unconfirmed, and it is speculated that the samples were contaminated with modern microbes while in the laboratory. By contrast, the 600,000-year-old bacteria are authentic, since the researchers made sure to avoid any form of contamination during the tests.^[10]

1 Staphylococcus Epidermidis
(The Anti-Cancer Fighter)

Cancer is the second-leading cause of death around the world. In 2018, almost ten million people died due to this type of disease, and the annual number of cancer cases is expected to reach 23.6 million by 2030. Well, that could change, because scientists have discovered a method to radically fight cancer. And you guessed right, the method involves bacteria.

In February 2018, a group of researchers from the University of California discovered that the bacterium Staphylococcus epidermidis has anti-cancer powers. This microbe is commonly found in healthy human skin. Upon careful analysis, scientists noted that S. epidermidis produces a chemical compound similar to a certain DNA component. When the researchers tested the substance (called 6-HAP) in the laboratory, they realized that it stopped DNA production. Specifically, the chemical prevented cancer cells from multiplying further. However, 6-HAP had no effect on normal cells, since certain enzymes within them deactivated the chemical.^[11]

The scientists injected 6-HAP into a group of mice, while another group was left unaffected. The animals were then exposed to high doses of UV radiation. The results showed that although all mice developed cancer, the tumors of the mice with 6-HAP were 60 percent smaller than those of the normal mice. The researchers proceeded to repeat the experiment, this time by spreading S. epidermidis bacteria on the backs of mice instead of injecting them. Even in that way, the mice covered with the microbes developed only one tumor after the radiation dose, while the normal mice had up to six of them. Although more research is still needed on these creatures, it is believed that S. epidermidis could be used in the future to prevent multiple cancers—besides skin cancer.

Economy student, passionate about Graphic Design, an avid enthusiast of the art of writing.

No one likes getting sick. Debilitating illnesses drain your energy and cause all kinds of nasty fluids to come out of your body. If allowed to spread, these diseases can decimate an entire population. As bad as that sounds, fiction is arguably worse.

Writers have fashioned countless crazy plagues across the storytelling realm. Their insane symptoms are obviously great for shock value, but what’s scarier is how plausible these sicknesses sound. When explaining the viruses, creators often use real illnesses as foundations. That inspiration aids in authenticity, but it can also make you paranoid. After seeing such believable pandemics play out onscreen, you start to question whether they could actually happen. Soon, you’ll be afraid to catch a cold.

Related: Top 10 Disaster Movie Clips Critiqued By Experts

10 Red Flu

The Last Ship (2014–2018) may seem like just a naval action show, but it really revolves around a worldwide pandemic. Dubbed the “Red Flu” by some parties, this disease stems from an ancient plant virus buried in the Arctic. Touch helps transmit it, but you can also get sick from breathing contaminated air. Once infected, you suffer from intense fevers and exhaustion. You then develop grotesque lesions all over your body before your system shuts down. The sickness works quickly and efficiently.

That efficacy lets the virus wipe out most of the globe. It easily erodes entire governments, leaving the world in chaos. As bad as that is, you might be more disgusted at what it does to the survivors. Several cultlike leaders use the crisis to frame themselves as saviors and seize power. As much as it bonds the navy sailors, strife of this scale also brings out the worst of humanity.^[10]

9 Vampirism

It’s no secret that vampires can bite humans to turn them into other vampires. It only takes reading books like Bram Stoker’s Dracula or Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire or watching TV shows like True Blood or Buffy the Vampire Slayer to understand this. However, The Strain (2014–2017) boils that process down to medical science. Rather than fangs, a tendril shoots out of the monster’s mouth and latches onto its victim. It uses this tool to suck blood, but it serves another purpose as well.

Feeding on humans injects wormlike organisms into their systems. These little parasites gradually alter their organs, transforming their targets into hairless husks. Their only purpose is to serve their higher vampire masters. Starting in New York City, this biological warfare is enough to cripple the metropolis, along with the rest of the country. Suffice it to say, these vampires are a far cry from the sexy, sparkling kind.^[2]

8 MEV-1

It doesn’t take a doctor to know that a film called Contagion (2011) concerns a plague. The title refers to a virus called MEV-1. This illness begins in fruit bats and pigs before jumping to humans. From there, infection from fellows is easy. The disease transfers through close contact. That doesn’t just refer to skin but also sweat, saliva, and breath. The ensuing pandemic is fraught with fever, fatigue, shortness of breath, seizures, and whatever other crippling symptoms you can imagine. After a few agonizing days, the afflicted die. Worse still, the virus maintains that speed on a global scale.

The sickness severely hinders the population. Legions of people are dead before they know it, and the remainder line crowded hospitals, pandemic shelters, and dirty streets. Although MEV-1 isn’t quite enough to topple governments or bring forth an apocalypse, it does breed desperation from both professionals and civilians. No one knows how to isolate the infection or synthesize a cure. Even when the doctors engineer a vaccine, they must figure out a means of distribution. Those hurdles ground the movie in uncomfortable realism, which only makes it more unnerving.^[3]

7 Cordyceps

While The Strain grounds vampires in medical science, The Last of Us (2023– ) attempts the same for zombies. This post-apocalyptic franchise sees the Cordyceps plant fungus mutate beyond anything on record. It soon evolves enough to infect humans. Starting at their brains, it slowly morphs them into feral beasts—covered in fungal growths and focused only on killing. It goes without saying that bites can transmit the disease, but dead specimens release spores, which are arguably more effective if you breathe them. In short, the human race has no chance.

It’s not surprising that this new form of Cordyceps kills most of the planet’s population. Humanity has no idea how to combat it with science, so the only option is to fight it conventionally. This desperation turns friends and family against each other. Characters must execute their closest allies or risk getting infected themselves. Such ruthless tactics are undoubtedly isolating, but they’re the only way to survive.^[4]

6 Catriona Plague

World-hopping sounds fun, but it presents a grave danger to everyone around. If travelers aren’t careful, they can introduce foreign objects into an environment, throwing off the whole ecosystem. That’s the mistake that Ciri makes in The Witcher series (2019 – ). As she jumps between worlds, she lands in a port afflicted by bubonic plague, specifically the Black Death. The residents suffer from fevers, aches, swelling, and lack of energy. A bug from this forsaken place hitches a ride on the heroine’s clothes as she teleports back, thereby heralding disaster for her own world.

The bug then jumps to a rat on a ship bound for Ciri’s homeland, and the rest is history. The sickness spreads across the Continent with little difficulty. The denizens of this medieval fantasy realm don’t have the knowledge or tools needed to combat it. Although the illness is technically nonfictional, who knows how it could mutate in the face of Elves, Dwarves, and magic? That unpredictable lethality soon fills hospitals to the brim with the dead and dying. In the end, the losses resulting from this “Catriona Plague” rival those of the war shortly before.^[5]

5 Heart Virus

This sickness differs from other entries in that it only affects one person. That may sound like a walk in the park, but try telling that to the patient. Goku, the overarching hero of Dragon Ball, contracts this mysterious heart virus shortly after returning from his space travels. It gives him the usual fever and exhaustion, but it also puts him in agonizing pain. Not only is he unable to fight, but he can’t even get out of bed. That’s after taking the cure.

The virus on its own is enough to kill him entirely. Sure enough, that’s exactly what happens in an apocalyptic future. For perspective, Goku is among the mightiest warriors in the universe. He withstands the most terrible attacks you can imagine, yet this virus puts him down for the count. Normal folks wouldn’t stand a chance against such an illness.^[6]

4 Simian Flu (ALZ-112)

The best intentions can easily go wrong. The Simian Flu originates as a cure. Namely, Dr. Rodman engineers it to combat Alzheimer’s, testing it on chimps to stimulate brain activity. When a test subject unexpectedly gives birth, her offspring shows immense intelligence. Unfortunately, this young chimp—dubbed “Caesar”—is soon on the receiving end of human cruelty. He retaliates by releasing an airborne version of the serum, granting similar sharpness to his fellow apes. What no one foresees is its effect on people.

The serum knocks the humans off the top of the food chain, paving the way for the modern Planet of the Apes series. The initial strain causes victims to cough up blood and eventually die. That alone eliminates most of Earth’s residents and power structures. The survivors appear to have natural immunity, but the serum is only gestating. The remaining humans eventually lose all higher brain functions, starting with their ability to speak. That downward spiral frees the apes to cage them like beasts. Oh, how the tables have turned.^[7]

3 Greyscale

This dermatological disease is hard to contract and harder to get rid of. Introduced in A Song of Ice and Fire, Greyscale can only transfer through direct contact. That’s a simple prospect in itself. When a swarm of infected individuals attacks you, though, it becomes difficult to dodge. Thankfully, you can easily avoid these mobs by staying out of the areas that they frequent. Such caution is in your best interest.

Greyscale equates to slow and steady suffering. It’s generally nonfatal, but it causes children to become malformed as they grow. For adults, the sickly scales spread across the body, gradually driving the patient insane. Victims have one hope for salvation, but it only brings further pain. Treatment involves carving and peeling the scales off. This process is downright excruciating. It essentially amounts to skinning a person alive. Given that degree of torture, Greyscale is more hazardous than the titular Game of Thrones.^[8]

2 Geostigma

As foreign organisms, aliens run a clear risk of infecting humans. Few invaders are more malevolent than Jenova. This extraterrestrial woman touches down prior to Final Fantasy VII. After being an unwilling test subject, her dissected corpse falls into the Lifestream: the mystical liquid infused into the planet and its people. That unholy mixture has gruesome consequences down the line.

Advent Children (2005), FFVII’s film sequel, introduces Geostigma. This sickness arises from the infected Lifestream, which spreads to the planet’s innumerable residents. Alien matter infiltrates their bodies, causing their systems to fight back with antibodies. The catch is that the bodies overcompensate and collapse. Victims then develop sores and excrete black goo before finally dying. Although anyone can contract Geostigma, it ravages the world’s children first due to their weaker constitutions. Of course, another illness inflicts much more damage in that respect.^[9]

1 Infertility Epidemic

Sometimes, the simplest problems are the most difficult to solve. Children of Men (2006) provides ample evidence of that sentiment. The Infertility Epidemic does exactly what the name suggests. It renders humans unable to produce children. While the story never states the exact cause of this disease, it actively explores the ramifications. Needless to say, they are terrifying.

Society completely collapses thanks to this single issue. Extremists incite their followers to violent tactics, and governments enact totalitarian regimes to maintain control. Meanwhile, everyday people sink into hopelessness. Human beings, like any animal, have an instinct to procreate. Taking that away not only robs them of purpose, but it also prevents the species from continuing. The inevitable endpoint is extinction. That fact makes this sickness deadlier than any other.^[10]

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson tells the story of several people in one of the most haunted houses in the country. The novel has recently been reworked as a hit series on Netflix; reports of viewers passing out with fear from watching the show have circulated.

SEE ALSO: 10 Truly Creepy Demonic Hauntings

The horror Jackson’s characters witnessed is a work of fiction. However, the following families all experienced something that felt very much real to them. These families were driven from their own homes, leaving behind a legacy of pure fear.

10 The Smurl Family

When Janet and Jack Smurl first moved into their family home on Chase Street in West Pittson, Pennsylvania, they knew it was a fixer-upper. The property needed repainting and refixing, but what they didn’t know was that the renovations would be the least of their problems.

Over a period of 13 years, they were tormented by the ghosts that haunted the place. Janet also believed she was molested in her sleep by a demon, and Jack said he was sexually attacked by an unknown force as he watched a baseball game on TV. They also witnessed the family dog being thrown violently against the wall.

Demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren identified four ghosts at the property—a harmless old lady, a violent young girl, a man who had died in the home, and a demon who controlled the other three spirits. In 1987, the Smurl family had had enough of the attacks, and they fled their home with no intention to return.^[1]

9 The Perron Family

The real-life haunting of the Perron family was so terrifying it inspired the 2013 horror film The Conjuring. In 1970, Carolyn and Roger Perron, along with their five young children, moved into a farmhouse in Rhode Island known as the Old Arnold Estate, built in 1736. The previous occupant issued them a cold warning: “For the sake of your family, leave the lights on at night!”

The disturbances began almost immediately. Carolyn was awoken in the middle of the night by the ghost of an old, gray lady named Bathsheba, whose head hung loosely. The apparition warned the family to leave. The children also bonded with the spirit of a little boy they affectionately named “Manny,” who watched them through the windows as they played outside. Then there were the malevolent spirits that tossed them out of bed, pulled at their legs, and filled the house with the smell of rotting flesh many mornings at 5:15 AM.

To this day, the Perron family struggle to talk about what happened. Andrea Perron, now a grown woman, said, “Let’s just say there was a very bad male spirit in the home—with five little girls.”^[2]

8 The Enfield Poltergeist

Between 1977 and 1979, there was one ghost story that gripped the world—the Enfield Poltergeist. At 284 Green Street in Enfield, England, sat a suburban family home on a quiet street. Within this home, single mother Peggy Hodgson and her two young daughters were tormented by a violent poltergeist.

Sisters 13-year-old Margaret and 11-year-old Janet complained of menacing voices, loud banging, and chairs being overturned in the house. Janet would also become possessed and speak in a deep, demon-like voice belonging to 72-year-old Bill Wilkins, who had previously died at the house.

Press photographer Graham Morris, who was asked to report on the disturbances, recalled, “I thought it was an ordinary job until I walked into the house.” Morris managed to capture a famous photograph of young Janet purportedly levitating out of her bed as her face twists in horror.^[3]

7 The Lemp Family Curse

Built in 1868, the Lemp Mansion in Benton Park, St. Louis, Missouri, boasted a cave where the Lamp family brewed their own beer. In 1901, William J. Lemp was left devastated when his fourth son Frederick Lemp died of ill health. In 1904, William committed suicide by gunshot, and William J. “Billy” Lemp, Jr. took over the family business.

In 1920, Elsa Lemp Wright, the youngest Lemp child, shot herself following her divorce. As a result of Prohibition, the family brewery was sold at auction after hitting hard times, and Billy Jr. also shot himself in 1922. Years later, in 1949, Charles Lemp, the third son, shot himself in the head after killing the dog. The only surviving son, Edwin Lemp, died of natural causes, and his dying wish was for every family heirloom to be destroyed.

Not surprisingly, the Lemp Mansion, now a restaurant and inn, is said to be haunted.^[4] One legend is that there was another Lemp son who was born deformed and hidden away in the attic—his spirit is believed to haunt and torment the house.

6 The Snedeker Family

The Snedeker House inspired the book and horror film The Haunting in Connecticut due to its chilling legacy. In 1986, the Snedeker family—Allen and Carmen, their three sons and daughter, and two nieces—moved into the house on Meriden Avenue, Southington, Connecticut. While exploring their new home, Carmen found mortician’s tools in the basement, and she soon discovered that the property was once a funeral home.

It wasn’t long before their eldest son experienced visions of evil spirits, and both parents claimed to have been sexually attacked by demons. Demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren agreed that the Snedeker house was infested with demons. Since the family moved from the home, there have been no further reports of any paranormal activity; it is believed that the evil within was drawn to the family rather than the house itself.^[5]

5 The McPike Mansion

Alton in Madison County, Illinois, is considered one of the most haunted places in the United States, as many ghost stories plague this town. However, one building stands out among the rest—the McPike Mansion. Businessman Henry McPike built the 16-bedroom mansion on Alby Street for his family in 1869.

In the 1900s, the mansion was sold to Paul Laichinger, who rented the rooms to boarders. However, those who did stay here soon began to hear strange noises, including children talking and laughing together, although children weren’t on the grounds.

Following the death of Laichinger in 1945, the mansion sat vacant until 1994, when Sharyn and George Luedke purchased the property as a restoration project. Sharyn soon noticed that a ghost-like man would stare at her from the window as she was gardening. Other disturbances included orbs being caught on camera and heavy metal doors opening on their own. Ghost hunters have confirmed that the most paranormally active room in the house is the wine cellar.^[6]

4 The Sprague Mansion

In the mid-1800s, Lucy Chase Sprague lost her fortune and died penniless at the Sprague Mansion on Cranston Street in Cranston, Rhode Island. The property has stood with a dark cloud over it ever since. In 1967, Robert and Viola Lynch moved into the 28-bedrooom mansion that featured its very own creepy Doll Room.

In the late 1960s, night watchman Bob Lynch Jr. and a few of his friends had the blankets thrown off their beds. Using a makeshift Ouija board, they contacted a ghost that spelled out: “Tell my story!” Another entity that haunts the place is a ghost by the name of Amasa Sprague, whose body was discovered bludgeoned to death close to the house in 1843.

Since the Lynch family moved away, paranormal experts who have visited the mansion captured the dolls’ eyes in the Doll Room moving on camera. The wine cellar is also a place of much paranormal activity, including orbs and unexplained lights.^[7]

3 The Danny LaPlante Killings

In January 1987, teenagers Annie and Jessica Andrews heard loud knocking sounds coming from their bedroom walls. They also found blood-red writing on the walls: “I’m back. Find me if you can.” The girls had recently lost their mother and believed there was a spirit trying to make contact. When the girl’s father found a young boy standing in the house wearing a dress belonging to his deceased wife and holding a hatchet, he chased him from the house. Police later found a crawl space in the house and that the “ghost” was 17-year-old Daniel LaPlante.

Following a short sentence in a juvenile detention center, La Plante was released, and he turned his attention to a different family. On December 1, 1987, he assaulted and shot 33-year-old Priscilla Gustafson and then drowned her children, seven-year-old Abigail and five-year-old William, in their family home in Townsend, Middlesex County, Massachusetts. He was sentenced to life behind bars for his horrendous, deplorable actions.^[8]

2 The Lutz Family

On November 13, 1974, at 112 Ocean Drive, Amityville, Long Island, Ronald “Butch” DeFeo Jr. murdered his parents, two brothers, and two sisters with a .35-caliber rifle while they slept peacefully in their beds. Butch claimed he was tormented by voices that ordered him to kill his family.

A year later, George and Kathleen Lutz moved into the Amityville house with their three children after purchasing the five-bedroom property for a low price. George reportedly then began to awaken at 3:15 AM every day—around the time Butch was known to have massacred his family. They also saw a pig-like creature with red eyes staring from the windows of the house, and the young children would levitate from their beds.

Both George and Kathleen passed lie detector tests about what they experienced in the home, and eventually, they fled from the property. 112 Ocean Drive is still known as one of the most haunted houses in America.^[9]

1 The Winchester Mystery House

Located at 525 South Winchester Boulevard in San Jose, California, is the Winchester House, which was first built in 1884. Following the death of her husband, William Wirt Winchester, and with a $1,000-a-day inheritance at hand (the average daily wage at the time was $1.50), Sarah Winchester sought the help of a spiritualist to deal with her grief. Sarah had also lost her only daughter when she was just six weeks old.

The spiritualist warned Sarah that she was cursed and advised her to “build a home for [herself] and for the spirits.” The spirits in question were said to be those killed by Winchester rifles. Sarah sold her home in New Haven, Connecticut, and began work on the Winchester House. “If you continue building, you will live. Stop and you will die,” advised the spiritualist.

Every day for 38 years, Sarah continued building.^[10] The property ended up with 160 rooms, 47 fireplaces, trap doors, secret passages, and staircases that lead to nowhere. The labyrinth-like mansion attracts paranormal experts from all around the world.

Cheish Merryweather is a true crime fan and an oddities fanatic. Can either be found at house parties telling everyone Charles Manson was only 5’2″ or at home reading true crime magazines.
Twitter: @thecheish

There are times when we would all like to have superpowers. For most of us, this has to remain an idle daydream. However, there are people walking among us who already have totally legitimate and totally cool superhuman powers.

And who knows, perhaps these are the tip of the iceberg. There may be lots of them, living in the shadows or hiding in plain sight, waiting for their chance to save (or destroy) the planet! Here are ten real-life people with honest-to-goodness superpowers.

10 The Real-Life Batman

As a baby, Daniel Kish developed retinoblastoma, a cancer which affects the eyes. He had to have both eyes removed before he reached his first birthday. In order to navigate his environment, Kish developed his own echolocation system, using the same techniques that bats use to fly in the dark. In fact, he has been referred to as “the real-life Batman.”

As he moved around, Kish would make clicking noises with his tongue. He realized that every surface had its own sound. He could recognize a tree, for example, because the trunk produces a different echo than the branches and the leaves.^[1]

By listening to the echoes from his clicking, Daniel Kish is able to build a 3-D image in his mind of the objects around him. It is thought that the clicking noises activate the visual functions of the brain, which enhance spatial and depth perceptions. Kish says that he can often find his way out of a concert hall quicker than a sighted person because he can identify the exit from a long distance away. If he is in a noisy place, he just increases the volume of his clicking sounds.

9 The Real-Life Mr. Freeze

Like all good superheroes, Wim Hof discovered his superpowers by accident. When he was 17, he was walking along a frozen canal in his home city of Amsterdam when he felt a powerful urge to jump in. So he did. He soon discovered that he has superhuman ability to withstand the cold, which has led him to claim 26 world records.

He tried to climb Everest in a pair of shorts. Although he made it through the Death Zone unharmed, he was forced to turn back, not by the temperature but by a foot injury. Hof has run barefoot marathons in the snow and broken his own record for ice submergence four times.

Researchers studying Wim Hof’s remarkable abilities have discovered that he is able to override the stress responses in his brain through breathing and meditation techniques. When he is exposed to extreme cold, his brain releases opioids and cannabinoids into his body, inhibiting the signals that register cold and pain. What is not yet clear is how this breathing affects other physical and biological processes, such as Hof’s superhuman ability to resist frostbite, which should be unaffected by his breathing technique.^[2]

8 The Real-Life Flash

Dean Karnazes can run forever. He is one of the most remarkable endurance athletes on the planet. He once ran nonstop for 563 kilometers (350 mi) over three days. He ran nonstop across Death Valley and even ran to the South Pole. Even among ultra-endurance athletes, Dean Karnazes is a superhuman.

Most runners are limited by their body’s lactate threshold. The body breaks down glucose for energy, producing lactate as a by-product. When you reach your lactate threshold, the body is no longer able to convert the lactate quickly enough, leading to an acid buildup in the muscles and a burning pain runners call “hitting the wall.” Running beyond your lactate threshold will lead to muscle fatigue, breathlessness, and a racing heart, until eventually you collapse in a sweating, gasping heap.

Dean Karnazes does not have a lactate threshold, which means that, theoretically, he can run forever.

Karnazes has never experienced any form of cramp or muscle ache, even during runs that last more than 160 kilometers (100 mi). The only thing that stops him is his need for sleep, and he has even sometimes experienced bouts of “sleep running,” where he was able to keep on moving while nodding off.^[3]

7 The Real-Life Spider-Man

Nicknamed the “French Spiderman,” Alain Robert is one of the best climbers on Earth. He is famous for his free solo-climbing exploits up skyscrapers, without the use of ropes or safety harness. The only “equipment” that he carries is a bag of chalk dust. Robert has climbed over 160 skyscrapers, including the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the Taipei 101 in Taiwan, and the Lloyd’s building in London.^[4]

Robert was arrested in October 2018 after scaling the Salesforce Tower in London. He climbed the 202-meter (662 ft) tower without safety equipment, while a crowd gathered below to watch him. Though he reached the top safely, he was soon arrested “on suspicion of causing public nuisance.”

Following a court hearing after the stunt, which only took around 45 minutes to complete, Robert was banned from climbing any building in the UK, which seems a shame. But, then again, the world is full of friendly neighborhoods with tall buildings.

6 The Real-Life Professor X

The actress Marilu Henner has superhuman mental powers. She has Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory (HSAM), an extremely rare condition which allows her total recall of basically every single moment of her life. Fewer than 100 people with the condition have been documented worldwide. Though HSAM would make life easier in many ways (imagine never having to wonder where you put your car keys), there are some disadvantages, too. People with HSAM are more likely to have anxiety disorders and suffer from depression or OCD.

Marilu Henner can recall the month, day, and time of every event that has happened in her life and can also recall things that were on the news or happened to other people. She first became aware of her ability at the age of six.

MRI tests have revealed that people with HSAM have larger temporal lobes and caudate nuclei than normal, but researchers are not sure whether this is the cause or the result of living with the condition. Whatever the cause, Henner has found living with HSAM pretty useful at times, particularly when learning lines.^[5]

5 The Real-Life Elastigirl

Javier Botet is a Spanish actor with a peculiar gift. His extremely long limbs and lean body give him the look of a human skeleton. When he made a screen test in 2013, many people assumed that they were watching a puppet because Botet was able to move his limbs in very unexpected and disturbing ways. Botet suffers from Marfan syndrome, which results in hyperflexibility.

His condition has allowed him to carve out a career in horror movies, where he has appeared as aliens, lepers, monsters, and mummies, as well as the urban folklore-inspired Slender Man. He first noticed the condition as a child and liked to fold his arms and legs into unusual shapes.^[6] (Well, we all need a hobby.)

Marfan syndrome is a rare genetic disorder, resulting in extreme height and slenderness as well as hyperflexibility. It can also cause heart defects and blindness. For the moment, however, Javier Botet is using this elastic powers to conquer Hollywood.

4 The Real-Life Overseer

An unnamed family from Connecticut has been the center of much study by genetic scientists due to their unusually high bone density. Just like Bruce Willis in Unbreakable, the family has a genetic mutation that means their bones never break.

No one in the family has ever had a fracture, and it is thought that they have the strongest bones on the planet, which is impressive. It appears that the condition is genetic. Scientists tested 20 members of the family, with just under half of them being found to have extra dense bones. It is hoped that by studying the DNA of those family members with the condition, researchers will be able to more fully understand the factors affecting bone density, which could lead to treatments for osteoporosis.^[7]

The condition means that the Connecticut family will never need a plaster cast, though they may find themselves spending a lot of money on plastic ponchos. (That’s an Unbreakable joke.)

3 The Real-Life Invisible Woman

It is a universally accepted truth that we all have a unique set of fingerprints. Even identical twins differ when it comes to the minute whorls and loops on a set of dabs. Modern technology has made use of this unique property when it comes to things like cybersecurity, which must make Cheryl Maynard feel pretty invisible.^[8]

Fingerprints are usually fully formed even before we are born. People with adermatoglyphia, however, are born with no fingerprints. (In the picture above, Cheryl’s finger is compared with a normal one.) It is believed that there are only four extended families in the world with this condition, caused by a genetic mutation.

The condition has left Cheryl Maynard feeling pretty invisible. Having no fingerprints has even made it difficult for her to get jobs. However, if she fancied a career as a criminal, she would have a head start.

2 The Real-Life Vision

In 1972, when Veronica Seider claimed to be able to see small objects 1.6 kilometers (1 mi) away, no one believed her. However, eyesight is pretty easy to test, so it soon became clear that Seider’s vision was truly exceptional. She was soon listed by Guinness World Records with eyesight 20 times more powerful than normal human beings.

Not only is she able to distinguish people and objects from 1.6 kilometers (1 mi) away, but she is also able to judge distance and position, which can be useful. And she can distinguish the individual colors that make up the color on a television set. Not so useful.^[9]

1 The Real-Life Deadpool

Okay, well maybe this isn’t exactly like Deadpool, but a woman identified only as “SM” has a condition known as Urbach-Wiethe, which has damaged parts of her brain. As a result, she feels no fear. At all. Totally fearless.

The condition manifested first as a complete lack of fear from all external stimuli—such as the large, venomous spiders and snakes she picked up as a child. Once, when she was being held up at knifepoint, her attacker was so unnerved by her lack of fear that he let her go.

Like all superheroes, however, SM does have one weakness. After a barrage of tests where she had shown no fear responses, she was exposed to carbon dioxide and suddenly had a panic attack. Neurologists studying her brain hypothesized that impending suffocation finally produced a fear response where no other stimuli could. However, when the test was repeated, SM did not show any anxiety until the gas started to take effect, proving that her response had been a physical reaction to suffocation rather than a psychological manifestation of fear.^[10]

It could be worse. She could be afraid of cows.

Ward Hazell is a writer who travels, and an occasional travel writer.

Nature can be so serious. Most of the time, an intense survival game plays out. Yet, it is the more indirect side of the natural world—the quirks—that keep scientists on their toes. From the biggest organisms on the planet that nobody ever sees to the Sun setting off explosives, nature seems to have a strange sense of humor.

There are plenty of other cases. But as intriguing as they may be, this weirdness can get destructive. Sometimes, it not only tears apart human constructions but also the scientific community.

10 Haiting Hall

In 2017, an expedition from Hong Kong found a gigantic sinkhole. Located in the forest of Guangxi, it was named the Hong Kong Haiting Hall. A second expedition in 2018 scanned the inner dimensions and revealed a world-class wonder.

Haiting Hall is far from being a hole in the ground. After researchers lowered themselves into the pit, they found an epic cave complex hidden beneath the ground. The sheer size made the site very rare. In volume, it measured 6.7 million cubic meters (236 million ft³).

While 3-D mapping the interior, the team found halls, collapsed structures, craters, stone pillars, and water-polished rocks called cave pearls. The equipment also revealed that the sinkhole itself was 100 meters (328 ft) wide, around 118 meters (387 ft) deep, and almost 200 meters (656 ft) long.^[1]

The 3-D scanning was not just for measuring the standard stuff. It could also help with the reconstruction of the signs suggesting that the sinkhole had suffered a collapse. This could throw light on its formation. Similar sinkholes are usually the result of collapse brought on by the erosion of underground rivers.

9 Antarctica’s Hot Spot

Antarctica has its fair share of mysteries. One of them is rather ironic—the icy continent has a hot spot.

In 2018, a radar survey found the anomaly in East Antarctica. This region is the last place where any kind of heat should appear. East Antarctica is a craton, or a massive piece of Earth’s crust. Magma is shallow in some regions of Antarctica, but not with this craton. The solid interior, as well as its thickness, should prevent warmth within the planet from seeping back to the surface.

Yet the ice sheet closest to the crust is melting, another sign of something hot down there. Analysis showed that global warming cannot be blamed in this case. The bizarre spot is insulated away from the atmosphere and is also quite old.

The truth remains elusive, but hydrothermal energy could be responsible. If there is a fault in the crust filled with water shuttling up and down between the hot lower depths to the ice sheet, it could cause melting.^[2]

8 Woodleigh’s True Size

Woodleigh Crater is an ancient impact site near Shark Bay in Australia. The crater’s size remains a hotly debated issue. Since the crater is buried, an accurate assessment is difficult, although past research placed the diameter at around 60–120 kilometers (37–75 mi).

In 2018, two researchers had no desire to join the controversy. When they examined a core sample from Woodleigh, it was to see how the common mineral zircon behaved during the high pressures of an impact. They were amazed to find reidite instead.

To be fair, reidite is zircon. However, it is an exceptionally rare transformation of zircon. Created during the high-pressure moment when space rocks slam into Earth’s surface, reidite has only been found six times. The discovery could swing the Woodleigh debate.^[3]

To amass the kind of pressure needed to create reidite, only certain size craters can produce this priceless mineral. They must be over 100 kilometers (62 mi) in diameter, which would make Woodleigh the biggest meteorite hit in Australia. Some suggest the crater could dwarf the one in Mexico (thought to be the rock that killed the dinosaurs), which measured 180 kilometers (112 mi) across.

7 The Tree Fight

There is a battle going on in the scientific community. An undeniable amount of evidence suggests that trees are not just wood soaking up sunshine. Studies have identified behaviors that include pain reaction, chemical warning signals to other trees, and the nourishment of saplings and other adults through a subterranean fungal network. They also recognize “family,” or genetically related trees.

This is a far cry from how scientists used to view a forest. The fact that trees are organized, almost like an insect colony, is not really the issue. Both sides agree that these plants show remarkable abilities. However, one question turns things ugly. Are trees doing it on purpose?

Those who support sentient trees believe that these entities operate with intelligence, although it is misunderstood by humans. This is appalling to critics, who feel that chemical reactions to stimuli such as damage, predators, and nutritional needs dictate how trees respond.^[4]

Whether trees have free will or automatically react to their environment, they still behave in ways that scientists are just beginning to understand.

6 Earth Consumes Its Oceans

Earth has several tectonic plates. Often, when one is forced to slide underneath the other, this causes earthquakes. The process also pulls a huge amount of seawater down into the deeper layers of the planet.

Recently, scientists listened to seismic sounds at the Marianas trench where the Pacific plate is dipping under the Philippine plate. They wanted to use the rumblings to calculate just how much water got swallowed this way. Sensors tracked the velocity of earthquake echoes and especially listened for those slowing down as they passed through waterlogged material.

The result was shocking. Every million years, diving plates drag three billion teragrams of water into the Earth’s interior. A teragram equals a billion kilograms. This is three times more than previously thought.

The surprise did not end there. Earth’s deep water cycle should expel an equal amount, but not enough is being spouted by volcanoes or any other means. This inequality plus the fact that the oceans are not losing water volume means that science is missing something about how the planet shuttles water through its deepest plumbing.^[5]

5 Creeping Mud Blob

The Niland Geyser was born in 1953. The mud pool appeared in California’s Imperial County and bubbled placidly for decades. This changed 11 years ago when Niland’s mud began to creep over dry soil.

At first, the pace was so slow that nobody cared. However, in 2018, the flow picked up and became unstoppable. This was a huge problem since the mud’s direction threatened a state highway, train tracks, fiber optic telecommunications lines, and a petroleum pipeline.^[6]

All attempts to stop the mud failed, including an ambitious steel wall that was 22.9 meters (75 ft) deep and 36.6 meters (120 ft) long. The blob merely slipped underneath the barrier and sludged forth. A new railway line was built to circumnavigate the remorseless mud, but the flow could eventually close down state route 111 and force engineers to build a bridge instead.

The geyser, which had been declared an emergency, not only poses a threat to things in its path but also leaves behind a damaged trail. Similar to a bog, a large amount of moisture softens everything up to 12 meters (40 ft) down, ruining the land for future construction.

4 Frankenstein Worms

In 2018, Russian scientists extracted 300 soil samples from the Arctic. The frozen cores were recovered at different locations and represented various geological eras. Back in the laboratory, several 42,000-year-old samples contained worms.

Called nematodes, they had been frozen solid inside the permafrost for all that time. The tiny creatures were moved to a petri dish and left to thaw at 20 degrees Celsius (68 °F). It took the worms a few weeks, but they came back to life.

The dish was filled with a nutrient medium. Appearing unaware that they had stopped living for thousands of years, the nematodes started feeding. This amazing feat set the record for successful cryogenic suspension in animals.^[7]

Naturally, this piqued the interest of researchers trying to freeze humans for posterity. The fact that Pleistocene-era nematodes can survive having their entire bodies frozen, especially without side effects, is remarkable. Something protects them from the ravages of ice and oxidation. This mysterious mechanism can prove invaluable to several medical fields, including astrobiology and cryomedicine.

3 Brazil’s Termite Mounds

A few decades ago, a strange thing emerged from Brazil’s forest. As people cleared land for farming in the northeast, termite hills began to appear. Their sheer size was noteworthy. But in 2018, a study revealed the true magnificence of what the creatures had accomplished.

Thus far, about 200 million have been found and they are enormous. Visible from space, each contains around 50 cubic meters (1,800 ft³) of soil. Most measure 2.5 meters (8 ft) high with a diameter of 9 meters (30 ft).

Together, the hills cover an area as big as Great Britain and have an excavated volume of 10 cubic kilometers (2.4 mi³). This equals about 4,000 Great Pyramids of Giza. Speaking of which, the hills roughly dated back to the time when the Egyptians built the pyramids.

For 4,000 thousand years, termites have constructed the mounds as tunnels—not nests—to reach food on the forest floor. Incredibly, the termites have never gone. They still occupy what researchers are calling the “greatest known example of ecosystem engineering by a single insect species.”^[8]

2 Earth’s Biggest Organisms

The blue whale may be the biggest animal in history, but it is dwarfed by a mushroom. At first glance, the sweetly named honey mushroom resembles a field of small shrooms. However, since it was found 25 years ago in Michigan, scientists suspected that the real “creature” lurked underground. Those caps belong to a single 1,500-year-old fungus spread across 91 acres.^[9]

In 2018, new samples were taken and genetic tests confirmed the whole thing was indeed a single organism. The DNA also revealed a twist. The rate at which the mushroom evolved was slower than previously thought. This made everything bigger.

Calculations determined the fungus was 2,500 years old, covered four times its original territory, and weighed around 440 tons (the same as three blue whales). The Michigan mushroom was the first of its species to reveal how large they could grow, but another honey mushroom in Oregon now holds the record. That 8,000-year-old specimen hugs an area of 7.8 square kilometers (3 mi²).

1 Solar Storm Detonated Bombs

In 1972, a US military plane flew over a minefield off the coast of Hon La in Vietnam. The crew noticed up to 25 bombs detonate in the water, all within 30 seconds. Another 25 to 30 mud splats suggested earlier explosions. The incident was reported, classified, and filed away.

In 2018, the document became public and revealed an extraordinary incident—a solar storm had triggered the mines. As much as people in the 1970s understood that solar activity manipulated Earth’s magnetic field, it could not be proven that the Sun messed with the mines. (The bombs were designed to destruct during magnetic shifts.)

A solid clue was the intense solar activity recorded around the time the detonations took place. This was the main reason the navy suspected a space storm.^[10]

Modern scientists agree. In particular, one coronal mass ejection was identified as the culprit. It behaved like a whip and struck at Earth with unusual speed. Researchers believe earlier flares cleared the planet’s magnetosphere, which added power to the coronal slash.

Recently, there was a GoFundMe scam, which raised $400,000 to assist a homeless man who had allegedly given his last $20 to a damsel in distress on the side of the highway to refill her gas tank. This story was completely made up. Then there’s the Manchester attack’s homeless “hero,” who may have pulled nails from the arms and faces of children after a terrorist bomb killed 22 people, but then he robbed the victims. Judge David Hernandez, who sentenced him to four years and three months in prison, even said, “You presented yourself as a hero. Sadly you were not the hero that you pretended to be. You were just a common thief.”^[1]

Society seems to eat up these stories that fuel their distaste for the homeless, but there are plenty of cases of true heroism that should be remembered and honored. The purpose of this list is to highlight the moments when those who have lost everything in life act as heroes despite societal expectations. In the wake of these “homeless heroes turned rotten” stories, we need to be reminded of some real heroes. There are so many cases when homeless individuals have thrown themselves into a situation, even putting their own life on the line, to help another in need.

10 No Pulse, No Hope

In 2017, a Boston man named George Dakin was strolling down the sidewalk to meet his wife when a heart attack hit him, and he fell to his knees. It was called a “widowmaker” heart attack because 100 percent of his LAD artery was blocked. He lost his pulse for a full 28 minutes. Luckily, he happened to be in front of a group home for people seeking transitional housing. Most people pull out the picket signs when a group home tries to move into their neighborhood, but it saved Dakin’s life.

Austin Davis was staying at the group home at the time, and he raced to Dakin’s side. He performed CPR that kept Dakin alive until the ambulance arrived. It turns out that Davis had performed CPR four times in the past. Each time, he saved a person’s life. Davis said, “All I did was pump and pray, you know. I just hoped he’d make it.”^[2]

Dakin’s family was so grateful that they set up a GoFundMe for Davis. They bought him a used car and set him up in an apartment with the funds. They even helped to secure him a full-time position working at a Holiday Inn. Dakin’s daughter, Jodi, said, “Odds of escaping homelessness are about as bleak as walking away from a heart attack.” As of February 2018, $13,000 had been raised for Davis to help him transition into a new life.

9 A Chilling Splash

At around 2:00 AM on July 28, 2018, Shane Drossard (left above) was resting on the bank of the Mississippi River in Minneapolis when he heard a splash. A woman had jumped off a bridge to kill herself but survived the fall. Now, she was struggling against the current. Drossard reached his hand toward her from the riverbank, but the woman lost the strength (or the will) to hold on. She let go of his hand. Drossard said, “Help’s coming!” and jumped into the dark water.

He struggled to hold onto her against the current. She wanted to give up. Still, he fought to keep their heads above water while reassuring her that she was beautiful and had a full life ahead of her. Someone else heard her screams and called 911. Finally, both were pulled from the river and saved. Can someone please give this guy a medal? And why not a roof over his head while we’re at it?

In November 2010, another damsel in distress needed a knight in shining armor, but again, it probably wasn’t what she expected. Adan Abobaker (right above) was beside the River Thames when a woman attempted to plunge to her death from Blackfriars Bridge. Not only did he get hypothermia from the freezing water, but all of his precious possessions left onshore were stolen. Afterward, he said, “I took a long time to get over it . . . I still dream about it. I remember the waves coming over my head and swimming down towards her.” At least this guy did receive a medal.^[3]

8 Move Over, Flames

Anival Angulo is a young man with a hardened face and neck tattoos who lives in Las Vegas. He may not be what you imagine a hero looks like or even someone you want lurking in your neighborhood. He was doing just that, however, when he noticed smoke billowing from an apartment in 2017. Then, Angulo heard children screaming.

The gate was locked, so he jumped over it into the yard. He went to the door and saw a three-year-old girl. A 10-month-old infant was also inside. There was a steel deadbolt security bar on the door. He pulled until it bent upward and unlatched. Seriously, this is the kind of guy you want on your team when the apocalypse breaks out.

Las Vegas Fire and Rescue wrote on their Facebook page that the three-year-old “ran to him and wrapped her arms around his waist. He could see through the smoke the leg of an infant on the floor. He reached down and pulled the infant out.”^[4] So, it turns out that neck tattoos aren’t something to be afraid of, after all.

7 Baby Abduction

They say abuse happens closest to home. That was the case in Minden, Louisiana, in August 2017, when a family friend stole a two-month-old baby boy when the parent left the room to get a bottle from the fridge. He walked for miles with the infant before abandoning the boy under an overpass on Interstate 20. He then hitched a ride to a casino, where he confessed his crime to a complete stranger.

The kidnapper may have seemed a nutjob to some (especially since he claimed, “God made me do it,”) but the stranger who he confessed to wasn’t willing to take that risk. Even though the police have never endeared themselves to the homeless, this homeless man called them immediately. Police arrested the kidnapper and found the baby wrapped in a blanket, fast asleep. Chief Steve Cropper said, “The scariest thing about it—if [the baby] were able to roll off that ledge, he would have hit that concrete retaining ledge and probably would have rolled right out into the interstate.”^[5] So, another homeless gentleman acts fast and saves the day. Not all heroes wear capes!

6 ‘Trolley Man’ Fights Terrorist

What do you do when you see a knife-wielding man attempting to stab police officers? Run in the opposite direction, perhaps? Well, one man, lovingly dubbed “Trolley Man” online, had a different guttural reaction that was pure awesome sauce. At this point, mind you, the attacker, Hassan Khalif Shire Ali, had already killed a cafe owner and injured two others in his rampage on November 9, 2018, in Melbourne. Also, he had just set fire to a car full of gas cylinders near a busy street. So, the scene was literally red-hot. The terrorist was attempting to stab two policemen when Trolley Man lunged the shopping cart he was holding straight into Ali several times, helping to fend him off. (Ali was ultimately shot dead by police.)

Well, it turns out that living on the street leads to acts of desperation. Go figure. Sadly, the day before his heroic act, Trolley Man had broke into a CBD cafe and stole $500 from the register. He had also reportedly stolen a bicycle. So naturally, police wanted to have a chat about the burglaries after he had made his YouTube debut. Despite years of avoiding police at every turn, Trolley Man had an incentive to turn himself in. He was so beloved in the public eye that $155,000 had been raised on his behalf to get him off the streets. The community wanted to give him a second chance when they raised that life-changing sum of money for him. Now, Trolley Man, or Michael Rogers, is in a closely monitored support program where he can get the help and counseling he needs.^[6] Hopefully, harmless acts of burglary don’t disqualify hero status? There’s always redemption.

5 Defender Of The Elderly

Early during the morning of Mother’s Day 2018 in Brooklyn, an elderly woman in her seventies pulls her shopping cart while the woman beside her walks on a cane. They are minding their own business when a peculiar man approaches, mumbling to himself. He violently attacks them out of the blue, but another man quickly appears from the shadows to save the day. People stop and stare from the sidelines as the situation escalates. One of the women is bleeding profusely from her head. Both women are in a daze. The assailant tries to run away, but the Good Samaritan wrestles him to the ground and holds him down until police show up.^[7]

Perhaps this anonymous, homeless hero still wanders the city streets, Batman-style, keeping his eyes peeled for any funny business.

4 Accident Leaves Mother And Son Helpless

One moment, a mother and son are safely inside their car, and in the next instant, the car loses traction and slides off the highway. It was completely submerged underwater when the paramedics arrived. It January 2016 in Salinas, California, and a mother and her eight-year-old son had landed in a creek that was flooded from a recent downpour. It quickly swept them away. They traveled the length of five football fields as they battled the raging current. They were even sucked under the highway at one point and spit out on the other side.

A man named Rick Biddle was camping along the embankment when he heard his dog start barking. The dog alerted the man to the flailing woman in the murky water below. It was a close call, but Biddle managed to rescue both mother and son, who were utterly exhausted. It’s a good thing that the drainage ditch ran through Biddle’s camp, or they may not have been so lucky.^[8]

3 Puppy Love

It takes a real lowlife scumbag to hit-and-run in any situation, but somehow it’s even worse when the victim is a dog that can’t even call for help. There’s no excuse not to stop for a defenseless animal except, oh yeah, heartlessness. Thankfully, a homeless gentleman in Jackson, Mississippi, saw a dog get hit in November 2018 and scooped him up in his arms. He walked for miles with the wounded pooch until he found a vet. Despite some injuries, the dog (pictured above) was saved.

In another instance of puppy love, a Salt Lake City man named Ron Howell was panhandling on the side of the highway in 2018 when a woman dropped off a baby chihuahua in his lap. He knew he couldn’t take care of the tiny puppy, but now he didn’t have a choice. He met a woman who offered him a cigarette one day, and she listened to his story about the abandoned pup. She took some cutesy pictures, posted them on Facebook, and voila! The puppy found an owner, and $500 was raised for the chivalrous man who took the puppy in when no one else would.^[9]

2 Burglary Bungled

Jesse Green lived in a tent by a Shell gas station in San Franciso. He would often walk down there to wash windshields for some spare change. One day in January 2018, he happened to glance inside the mini-mart, and out of the corner of his eye, he saw a man trying to rob the clerk. The attacker had the young woman pinned to the floor in a choke hold. Jesse yelled for help as he rushed inside and leaped onto the attacker to pry off his strangling grasp. Two other men followed suit, and they all worked to pull the robber off the clerk.

The attacker made a run for it, but police found him lingering in a stairwell close by, where they arrested him for aggravated assault and burglary. When told that he was a hero, Green said casually, “Aren’t we all, naturally, I mean we got to help each other when we see stuff like that, right? I mean, it made me start crying. It’s not something to get happy on, you know?”^[10] Spoken like a true hero.

1 A Bag Containing $17,000

What would you do if you found a plastic grocery bag stuffed with $20 bills? Okay, now be honest. By the way, the money totals $17,000. Well, Kevin Booth of Sumner, Washington, is a man who’s about as honest as they come. As an adult with special needs who had a brain tumor removed in high school, Booth was at a severe disadvantage in life straight out of the gate. After living on the streets for over seven years, he remains drug-free despite daily struggles.

A surveillance video shows Booth discovering the money at the door of the Sumner Food Bank in 2018. “I kind of looked at the bag a little bit, put it on the trash can here . . . that’s when I pulled out a twenty, sniffed it to make sure it was real, which it was real.” Kevin said. “It is a lot of money. It was hard to turn it in, at first. I’m going, ‘Do I do this? Do I turn it in?’ ” He waited for the first person to arrive at the food bank and turned it in.

After 90 days without anybody claiming the money, the food bank claimed it. Booth said, “This story here . . . this has been, I’d say, the most terrific story ever in my life. This is a story to talk about for years to come.” The pride that he feels in doing the right thing is priceless. It props him to “hero” status for sure.^[11]

+ Rags To Riches: A Hollywood Story

Rock bottom has to be sleeping with your toddler in your arms on the floor of a public toilet at a railway station because you have run out of options. This happened to Chris Gardner when he was 27 years old. The odds were stacked against him from the very beginning. He was raised in poverty. His stepfather was an abusive alcoholic who eventually pushed his mother to attempt murder. Then Gardner was placed in the foster system, where so many children flounder. It didn’t seem that his life would work out so well, and it didn’t right away. He was homeless for a year in San Francisco before he eventually became a multimillionaire and had Will Smith star in the Hollywood movie of his life: The Pursuit of Happyness.

You may be wondering if this qualifies him as a hero. Well, some may argue that having unshakable hope in the face of despair is the quality of a true hero, not to mention his steely perseverance to not only survive but thrive for the sake of his son. However, I see your point. Gardner doesn’t just bask in his estimated worth of $60 million by buying private islands, a golden toilet, or $10,000 pajamas, as you may imagine millionaires do. Instead, he continues to be a champion for the homeless. He travels the globe 200 days of the year, giving motivational speeches. He also sponsors countless homeless charities and domestic abuse organizations.^[12] He’s still not giving up the fight.

Superheroes are the objects of fancy and admiration for millions the world over. They right wrongs, protect the weak, and rescue society from innumerable forms of injustice and peril. There’s only one glaring problem: They aren’t real. The incredible feats performed by these stalwart defenders are made possible by uncanny powers that, sadly, are fictional.

Or are they?

SEE ALSO: 10 Real-Life People With Real Superpowers

What if I told you that natural superpowers exist sealed away in our bodies, only waiting for the proper training to awaken them? Well, as unbelievable as this may sound, it is actually true. So if you’re ready to transcend your fragile human shell and become the superhero you’ve always dreamed of being, here’s a list of ten abilities that you can unlock to become a superhuman!

10 Superhuman Strength

Strength is a much more complex concept than many realize. It is not just about how much muscle we have, but even more so how well we use it. One need not be a bodybuilder to have super strength, as proven by grand master strongman and pound-for-pound strongest man in the world Dennis Rogers. Rogers has performed many incredible feats of strength, including preventing airplanes from taking off and holding back four Harley-Davidson motorcycles at once. These are impressive feats for any strongman but are especially incredible considering that Dennis Rogers is only 168 centimeters tall (5’6″) and 76 kilograms (168 lb). And he’s in his fifties. So how does he do it? The answer is plyometrics.

The goal of plyometrics is to access more of the dormant strength in our muscles by partially bypassing a natural function of the nervous system called the inhibition reflex. The golgi tendon organ (GTO)—present in every muscle—sends nerve impulses to our spinal cords every time we use a muscle. The spinal cord then responds with an inhibition reflex, which limits the amount of power your muscle can use. This process exists because human muscles are capable of creating a higher degree of force than they and other structural elements of the body can withstand. If not for this, reflex muscles would tear themselves from tension, and people would strike things with more force than their bones and tendons could handle without breaking. The GTO however, does not suppress your power only at the edge of damage. Through training with quick, explosive exercises, plyometrics gives us the ability to force out more power more rapidly, before the inhibition reflex occurs.^[1]

The intent of plyometrics is to train your muscles to release more power more rapidly from the muscle that you have, with the goal of generating as much power as possible before the inhibition reflex occurs. To achieve this, plyometrics is based on quick, explosive exercises, which focus on generating immediate force and developing your fast-twitch muscle fibers. In addition to training explosive burst techniques and exercises, an important part of developing fast-twitch muscle is exhausting slow-twitch muscles in other, more extended stamina-oriented workouts, at which point fast-twitch muscle fibers take over and begin to develop.

Plyometrics are wonderful, but muscle is still the source of that strength, so we still need some. There is a difference between how much muscle you have and how strong that muscle is. Both are equally important, and both are trained differently. Muscle growth, or hypertrophy, is best trained through pushing muscles to the point of exhaustion through high reps and consecutive workouts for the same muscle groups. Strength, on the other hand, is developed with lower reps of more weight and reasonable rest time in between.

9 Lightning Speed

You’re probably thinking, “Sure, there are some fast people out there, but there’s a difference between being really fast and ‘superhuman speed.’ ” However, anyone lucky enough to have had the illustrious pleasure of working with the late, great Bruce Lee would likely beg to differ. In order for Lee’s movements to be reasonably visible on film, they had to be slowed down two-fold. First, he would intentionally move slower so that the camera could capture his movements, and then afterward, the film would be slowed so that the eyes of the viewer could follow what was happening. If these measures weren’t taken, it would appear that the villains surrounding him would simply fall over for no reason without any visible cause.^[2] If speed beyond the comprehension of the human eye isn’t fast enough in your opinion to be considered superhuman, then you’re certainly a tough one to impress.

Fighting fast is one thing, but if we’re going to talk about real super speed, we need to take running and other types of movement into account as well. Luckily, this traces back to the same core concept, which is fast-twitch muscle fiber. This is the same fast-twitch muscle fiber discussed in the previous installment regarding super strength and is trained largely with the same type of concepts: plyometrics and explosiveness, as well as focusing these types of training on the muscle groups necessary for the abilities you want to achieve.

Fast movement, however, is not the only element of lightning speed. In order to be capable of utilizing this speed effectively, one must also have super reaction time. Without this, all the speed in the world is meaningless. The best way to train reaction time is through reaction-oriented activities, such as the hand-slap game and speed bag training, as well as through visual athletic training, such as robo-pong, focus loop, and brock string exercises.

8 Incredible Agility

So far, we’ve explored a few powers that will help you knock around the baddies. To do so, you’ll need to get there in time to save . . . whoever it is you’re saving. Super speed will help you with that, but you’ll need to round it out with the super agility to get past obstacles that most people can’t, and quick!

Parkour is just what you need. As stated by founder David Belle: “Parkour is a method of training which allows us to overcome obstacles, both in the urban and natural environments.” Likely the most notable paths for parkour users (traceurs) is across rooftops, as shown in the Rush Hour BBC promo, which was the introduction of parkour to the mainstream.^[3] Being agile enough to climb and jump and run across daunting obstacles may not sound like much of a superpower, but just watch any of the wealth of homemade parkour videos out there, and you’ll be shocked by the incredible things already being done by many across the world!

Founded in 1990, parkour is a relatively new concept but has taken the world by storm and has many training schools around the world. This is important because parkour, when not learned under professional guidance, can be extremely dangerous for obvious reasons (including falling from the rooftops you’re jumping across).

7 Extreme Flexibility

Extreme flexibility is one of the most well-known of all real superpowers. Contortionists have been a staple of the performance world since as far back as ancient Egypt and possibly beyond. A master of this art is Daniel Browning Smith, also known as “Rubberboy.” Recognized by Guinness World Records as the world’s most flexible man, he is known for squeezing himself through unstrung tennis rackets, rotating his torso 180 degrees, bending in half backwards from a laying position, and, of course, squeezing into tiny boxes, not to mention all of the other skills commonly associated with the art.

Jujutsu and its cousins, Brazilian jiu-jitsu and judo, as well as other forms of technical grappling are highly effective and popular martial arts. These styles of ground combatives utilize submission, choking, limb-breaking, and various other types of grappling techniques, and flexibility is essential. Flexibility also increases the quality of many striking techniques, and that’s not just for flashy moves and high kicks. Speed and range of motion in power-generating body parts, like the hips, lead to more powerful strikes.

Healing and recovery are also dramatically increased with superior flexibility, as it decreases stress on joints and reduces pain, making us more resilient and getting us back into action more quickly after a particularly strenuous battle or damaging injury.

Training flexibility is largely based on engaging in all types of stretching regularly and frequently. Dynamic stretching involves gradually increasing reach, movement speed, or both, when moving parts of your body. Ballistic stretching is less controlled and relies on using momentum to push a body part beyond its usual range. Static stretching involves holding a muscle stretched at its farthest point and has two subtypes: static-passive, which is holding the stretched muscle with some external force, and static-active, which means using only the muscles to hold the stretch. Another type, isometric stretching, involves tensing of the stretched muscles, such as if a partner is holding your leg high while you try to push it down. (This is but one of many examples of isometric stretching.)

All types of stretching are necessary for extreme flexibility, but isometric stretching is the best for developing strength and range of motion for athletics and contortion, so using it as a primary focus in your training is key for this kind of ability.^[4]

6 Ultra Fortitude

For a truly superhuman body, fortitude and toughness are of primary importance, as superheroes are faced with constant threat to their bodies. Methods of body conditioning have been used for many years in the world of martial arts, one of the most common concepts being bone mineralization, also called calcification. Bones are primarily comprised of calcium, and the amount and density of calcium in those bones determines their size and structural strength. Resistance training in one’s workout routine is a simple and safe way to achieve mineralization. It is even suggested to help the elderly maintain their health.^[5]

When the body detects that its bones are absorbing large amounts of force, a natural mechanism sends more calcium into the bones, increasing their size, density, and weight, thus adding to the structural integrity of their owner’s body and, in some ways, even striking power. This concept is called Wolff’s law. Many types of martial artists through history have utilized this concept by striking objects repeatedly to cause a calcifying reaction in the bones, including the legendary Shaolin monks.

Davis’s law is a concept similar to Wolff’s law, the difference being that where Wolff’s law concerns bones, Davis’s law concerns soft tissue. The body’s capacity to respond to stress is not limited to bones, and the soft tissues of the body can be trained to harden through stress as well, resulting in more resilient muscles and organs, as well as a boost to pain resistance, which is important, as well.

Having a body that can structurally survive as much punishment as possible is great, but how much pain and suffering the hero can endure before giving in to a villain or extraordinarily arduous task is another thing and also extremely important. Pain has two primary concepts behind it: threshold and tolerance. Threshold represents how much stimulus is required for something to feel “painful,” and tolerance represents how much of that pain one can physically and psychologically endure. Unfortunately, there seems to be no way of increasing one’s pain threshold, but tolerance can be trained, and to a remarkable degree.

A good place to look for this is once again is to the Shaolin. These incredible warrior monks perform superhuman feats of pain regulation, such as lying on spears and having large stones smashed on their stomachs. How do they do it? Meditation. By controlling their minds, the Shaolin can actually distract themselves from and even reduce pain, making it nearly, if not totally, irrelevant. If that’s not superhuman pain resistance, than what is?

5 Surviving Extreme Temperatures

In 2007, Wim Hof set a world record when he immersed himself in ice for 72 minutes in nothing but shorts and boots, and this isn’t even his most incredible feat. He has also climbed Mount Everest, again, in nothing but shorts and boots (he was only stopped from reaching the summit by a foot injury), and run a marathon in the desert without water.

Wim Hof, or “The Iceman,” as he is known, manages such things with a heightened connection to and control of his body. This may sound like something that is likely a trick or hoax, but Hof has always done his work under scrutiny by scientists and journalists, all of whom verify his claims.^[6] Though he has been observed by the scientific community closely enough to prove his legitimacy, exactly how his methods work remains a mystery to science.

So how is it possible to train something that can’t be identified? And how is it that we can be sure that Wim Hof isn’t a one-off freak of nature? Because he teaches people. That’s right, you can take lessons from the man directly, and even if traveling to Europe to train with the man is too much, there are training videos on his website!

4 Enhanced Immunity

Another accomplishment of the Wim Hof method is increasing your immunity! This was proven when Wim Hof was documented resisting that symptoms of an endotoxin introduced in a medical laboratory. The scientists were astonished by what they witnessed but doubted that anyone else could replicate Hof’s feat. To test this, 12 students of Hof’s were brought in, and all of them resisted the toxin, just like Hof!

The Wim Hof method may be incredibly impressive, but it’s not a cure-all, and as dangerous as it may be, for many potential contaminants, the only way to protect ourselves is to expose ourselves. Tolerance to poisons and other toxins is most commonly achieved by consuming or injecting a very small, survivable amount into one’s body at a steadily increasing rate as the body’s natural defensive reactions continuously toughen the body’s immunity to said toxin. This term for this is “mithridatism.”^[7]

Vaccines are a similar concept, created as “imitations” of a disease that cause no illness and are intended to provoke a response from the immune system, which then produces antibodies and T-lymphocytes which protect us against the illness in question.

3 Apnea Diving

Apnea diving, or freediving, is so popular and well-known that it is not only a superhuman ability but also a sport! AIDA International Freediving is a democratic, international organization that sets rules and regulations for safety in the sport, in addition to maintaining world records and organizing events all over the planet. Although scientists believed for years that humans could only survive underwater for a few minutes tops and at depths no deeper than 50 meters (164 ft), some of the world records in this sport include dives to depths well over 200 meters (656 ft), with some lasting over 11 minutes on a single breath!^[8]

This is possible because of an evolutionary adaptation called the “diving reflex.” The action of this reflex is to shut down and/or slow physiological functions that use oxygen, thus allowing our bodies to operate on less oxygen for a longer period of time. Blood shift is another phenomenon also necessary in freediving. This function allows the lungs to fill with plasma, preventing their collapse from pressure.

Though recognized as a sport worldwide, freediving is still extremely dangerous to the ill-prepared. Improper preparation and faulty or mismanaged equipment have caused numerous deaths in the sport. Because of this, it is important to seek proper instruction.

2 Echolocation

Many have heard about how some blind people can use echolocation to navigate their surroundings, but a 2013 study from Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich biologists shows that sighted people can learn this skill, as well! It turns out that the ability to echolocate is a talent that lies dormant within everyone. This is because our brains have learned to shut out echoes so that we can focus more effectively on the primary source of a sound, rather than having the constant distraction of echoes of everything around us. The trick to learning echolocation is to learn to “tune in” to the echoes that already exist in the world.

The LMU experiment consisted of sighted people outfitted with a headset that contained earphones and a microphone. The participants made a vocalization, and the appropriate echo in relation to objects and spaces in the room was created through the earphones. This test allowed sighted people, over a few weeks of training, to learn to extrapolate information regarding shape, size, and distance from the given echo.^[9]

1 Mind Control

Controlling others like puppets may not be realistic, but implanting thoughts and altering the way people think very much is. The human subconscious is frighteningly vulnerable, and controlling minds through planted suggestion is more accessible a skill than many would presume. This is why the reader should learn about this, not only to use if need be but also to defend against it should one come across a user of these techniques.

The essential element of this process is to go after the subconscious mind while the conscious mind is otherwise focused, and here are the five most common techniques: Covert hypnosis entails convincing someone that your thoughts are their own through suggestive, focused conversation. When one engages in pattern interruption, they create a brief hypnotic moment by forcing someone’s concentration through an abnormal behavior (such as placing a hand on someone’s chest in place of shaking their hand in a greeting—the moment it takes them to analyze the situation will cause a brief hypnotic state). The Zeingarnik effect is concentration that naturally occurs in people toward incomplete tasks. This can be achieved by telling someone an incomplete story, otherwise causing them to focus on an incomplete task. During this period of distracted focus, they are highly suggestible. Another method is to use ambiguous phrases or comments that require someone’s focus to analyze, causing a brief period of high suggestibility. Finally, there are hypnotic keywords, subconscious-evoking phrases like “imagine if . . . ” that can cause a rise in accessibility to someone’s subconscious. This technique is a bit vague and weaker but still very commonly used.

Controlling others is not, however, the only use of these skills. One of the most important uses—and the reason this item was saved for last on the list—is that these tricks can be used to help develop ourselves. The reader may be overwhelmed by the sheer apparent degree of effort needed to attain the things listed here, but by getting control of oneself using techniques such as self-hypnosis, it is remarkable what challenges the average person can overcome and what accomplishments they are able to achieve.

Using mind control on yourself is largely made up of neurolinguitsic programming (NLP), which in this context, is largely made up of two techniques: The flash technique is an NLP exercise in which one visualizes an image associated with a negative feeling in a given circumstance brightly and vividly. The person then implants in that imagined image another, much smaller gray scale image of their preferred feeling in that circumstance. Gradually, the preferred imagine grows to take over the negative image, with the color draining from the negative image to the preferred image. This process is repeated over and over until psychologically successful. Anchoring is associating an internal response with an external or internal stimulus in order to reaccess the internal response (similar to how seeing something nostalgic will remind you of how you felt when you first saw it). This effect can be manually created by choosing a simple, self-creatable stimulus—such as making a hand gesture or touching yourself in a certain way and repeating that action when you want to associate the anchored feeling to a given task at hand.^[10]

Though only a few techniques in each category have been listed here, there are actually a great number of others that can be used to achieve the same forms of control.

So there you have it: ten learnable superpowers ripe for practice. Clearly, in the brevity of this listicle, the complete process of learning such wondrous things is not expressible, but all of the items are out there and ready to be trained. All that’s left now is to reach out, grab for destiny, and, of course, always use your powers for good.

Excelsior!

Jason Karras writes, therefore he is.

Merlin was not just a legendary figure. An examination of ancient Welsh poetry, Geoffrey of Monmouth’s accounts of King Arthur, and other works reveals a powerful, real prophet, holy man, and bard.

In Britain in the sixth century AD, there existed a prophet, magician, and counselor to King Arthur—Merlin. Was Merlin real? In Britain of the post-Roman Dark Ages, the traditions of the Celts were still alive despite the influence of Christianity. The existence of Celtic culture and that of the real pagan druid or bard Merlin was removed from history by later chroniclers.

There were probably two Merlins. One lived from about AD 450–-536. This was Arthur’s Merlin. Geoffrey of Monmouth wrote of him in the History of the Kings of Britain, which became a best seller in Europe when it appeared in 1136. The Life of Merlin by Geoffrey appeared in 1150.

The second, later Merlin was a bard named Myrddin in Welsh. After the Battle of Arderydd in 573, this Merlin went insane and retreated into the woods. These two figures have been conflated, adding confusion to the dating of the Merlin’s life.

10 The Collapsing Tower Story Has A Historical Basis

Writing in the sixth century, St. Gildas recounts how the evil tyrant Vortigern fled from the onslaught of Saxon invaders. The tale is taken up in the Nennius papers that Vortigern tried to build a protective citadel for himself and his followers in Snowdonia.

Geoffrey tells how the tower that Vortigern was building kept collapsing. To remedy the situation, Vortigern’s counselors told him to sacrifice a fatherless boy on the site. This boy was Merlinus Ambrosius. Merlin instructed workers to excavate the foundation of the tower. There, in a pool, they would find two sleeping dragons, one red and one white.

In The Quest for Merlin, Nikolai Tolstoy proposes that Vortigern consulted Merlin, a person of spiritual authority who was known by the name “Myrddin Embreis.” He was the successor to the druids who had once presided over the “navel” of Britain, or a center of Earth that Tolstoy theorizes was Stonehenge.

While the tale of the collapsing towers is not historical per se, the place names and the names of the people involved are real.

9 Geoffrey Of Monmouth’s Information Is Sound

Since 1198, the historical accuracy of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s work has been discredited because of inconsistencies and mistakes that could be the result of translation errors or Geoffrey’s geographical errors. Beginning in the 20th century, scholars defended Geoffrey, pointing to the existence of valid written and oral materials in his time for him to draw upon. As he was a careful chronicler, much of Geoffrey’s information can be seen as sound.

For example, archaeologist T.C. Lethbridge used Geoffrey’s descriptions of ancient giants in Britain to uncover the giant chalk figures in the Cambridgeshire hills. Another example is an inscribed pillar stone found in Ireland that supports Geoffrey’s information that Vortigern’s son had fled to Ireland.

8 Merlin Is The Narrator Of History Of The Kings Of Britain

In History of the Kings of Britain, Geoffrey names Merlin as the source of the information that he has translated from British into Latin. In a letter to Alexander, bishop of Lincoln, Geoffrey writes, “The regard which I owe to your great worth, most noble prelate, has obliged me to undertake the translation of Merlin’s prophecies out of British into Latin.”

Throughout the years, scholars have doubted Geoffrey’s claims that his source for the History of the Kings of Britain could have been an authentic sourcebook written in the native British tongue. However, as Norma Lorre Goodrich points out in her book King Arthur, Geoffrey knew Brythonic.

In addition, Geoffrey claimed that his source material for the History of the Kings of Britain was a “small book” lent to him by a churchman at Oxford. Charlotte Guest, who translated ancient Welsh texts into English, wrote that many of her sourcebooks were little books of about 8 centimeters (3 in) by 15 centimeters (6 in).

Given the credence of the tales in the light of modern scholarship and interpretation, it is not outlandish to suppose that the information ascribed to Merlin by Geoffrey was exactly what Geoffrey claimed it was.

7 Arthur’s Merlin Was Archbishop Dubricius

In her book Merlin, Norma Lorre Goodrich makes the case for Merlin and the Archbishop Dubricius being one and the same person. Merlinus Dubricius Ambrosius, the historical personage, was the Merlin who crowned Arthur king at Carlisle, established the church and priory at Llandaf, and created centers of learning and astronomy.

As Goodrich relates, both men were born into a priestly, Celtic family and had unknown fathers. Both were also prodigies and were unmatched in intellectual brilliance, learning, and wisdom. For reasons of its own, the Roman church co-opted Merlin into the pantheon of its saints.

Merlin became a myth while the historicity of St. Dubricius is not questioned.

6 The Legendary Merlin Is Linked To The Worship Of The Celtic God Lug

As early writings about Merlin link him to ancient Celtic worship of the god Lug, Nikolai Tolstoy asserts that the Merlin tales reflect a real figure behind the myth. That figure, Merlin, was an earthly representative or priest of Lug.

Pagan practices were not extinguished in Britain during and after Roman rule. Tolstoy cites evidence that the Celtic festival of Lughnasa, which honored Lug, was celebrated in Britain during Merlin’s time.

In the Welsh poem Cyfoesi Myrddin (probably composed before AD 1100), Merlin foretells the succession of kings after King Rhydderch. Merlin uttered these prophecies “in his grave,” which means Merlin is speaking from the otherworld. Similarly, appearing to Conn, Lug reveals the succession of the kings of Ireland.

These and other similarities suggest to Tolstoy that there was a real Merlin figure who stood for Lug in the Celtic spiritual practices of that time.

5 Merlin Went Mad After The Battle Of Arderydd

North of Carlisle in Scotland, the Battle of Arderydd was fought in the second half of the sixth century. Geoffrey of Monmouth tells that after this battle in which his lord Gwenddolau is slain, Merlin goes mad and retreats into the woods to live, “forgetful of himself . . . lurking like a wild thing.”

This tale refers to Myrddin, who came after King Arthur’s Merlin. Not only has the site of the battle been identified by the historian W.F. Skene, but Nikolai Tolstoy has placed Myrddin’s retreat at a spring known as Hartfell Spa.

4 Merlin Was A Druid

In his book The Quest for Merlin, Nikolai Tolstoy explains that the Battle of Arderydd was fought as Christianity was overthrowing the pagan power of Dark Age Britain.

The Myrddin of Welsh poetry was a druid, and druidic associations abound in the Myrddin poetry. The “sweet apple tree” mentioned by Myrddin hid him from the rival king, Rhydderch. In addition, Myrddin is a prophet and shape-shifter who is associated with Cernunnos, the horned god and leader of the Wild Hunt.

3 Merlin Was A Dark Ages Soothsayer

Merlin was a historical prophet of the sixth century. As evidence, Nikolai Tolstoy cites a passage from The Life of St. Samson. Anna, the mother of St. Samson, and her husband go to see a soothsayer who is “a man sought out from many regions because all who had consulted him were assured of the truth of all he told them.”

As Tolstoy points out, this is significant because it is from an authentic, historical document that describes a contemporary figure of the fame and ability of Merlin.

2 Merlin Prophesied The Time Of His Own Death

In the Huth Merlin manuscript, Merlin predicted that the Earth would be darkened in the middle of the day at the time of his death. According to the work of an Austrian astronomer, 8,000 solar eclipses occurred or will occur between the years 1207 BC and AD 2161. The one numbered 4,143 was visible in Britain on September 1, AD 536. This was the eclipse that occurred at the time of Merlin’s death.

1 Merlin Was Buried At Bardsey Island

If Merlin is indeed the Archbishop Dubricius, then The Text of the Book of Llandaf tells that he was originally buried at Bardsey Island, where he lived “among the bones and bodies of martyrs and 20,000 saints.” His remains were taken to Llandaf in 1120.

Bardsey was a burial place for “the Treasures of Britain,” those of royal and priestly blood, warriors, and the nobility.

Sources:

Goodrich, Norma Lorre, King Arthur. (Harper & Row, 1986)
Goodrich, Norma Lorre, Merlin. (Franklin Watts, 1987)
Hennig, Kaye D., King Arthur: Lord of the Grail. (DesignMagic Publishing, 2008)
Monmouth, Geoffrey, History of the Kings of Britain. (In parentheses Publications, 1999)
Tolstoy, Nikolai, The Quest for Merlin. (Little, Brown and Company, 1985)

+Further Reading

For more tales of mystery, magic, and history, check out the following lists from our archives:

10 Of History’s Most Fascinating Sorcerers
10 Mysterious Swords From Legend And History
10 Notable People Thought To Be Immortal
Top 10 Medieval Urban Legends

Davanna is a writer living on the Gulf Coast of Florida. Contact her on Twitter.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is arguably responsible for making “multiverse” part of the everyday vernacular of millions of people worldwide, but they didn’t create the idea. Multiverse theory, or the Many Worlds Theory as it was first known, was proposed in 1957 by a physicist named Hugh Everett. Before Everett, a man named Erwin Schrodinger came up with essentially the same idea. Everett was more scientific, and Schrodinger was more philosophical. Both had essentially the same idea, however. 

You may have never heard of Everett but you probably know Schrodinger. This is the same guy with the famous cat; that cat experiment is part of the groundwork for the Multiverse itself. Part of Schrodinger’s experiment involves not knowing whether the cat in the box is alive or dead. You can see how this starts to lead into a multiverse theory already. Maybe it’s dead in one universe and alive in another. 

Part of the key to understanding Schrodinger’s experiment is that when you open the box to look at the cat to see whether it’s alive or dead, there’s nothing scientifically unsound about the idea that the other outcome could have been true. 

Also, on paper, it’s scientifically sound if the other outcome occurs. So, in extremely dumbed-down terms that are missing a lot of steps, nothing is saying that a different universe where things play out differently couldn’t exist. Welcome to the multiverse. But is it real or just a theory?

The Multiverse

Since Everett’s time, other scientists have taken on the Multiverse theory to propose the idea. It’s not strictly the realm of superheroes and sci-fi by any means, but the theory is certainly controversial. Like any good scientific theory to explain something esoteric, it’s rooted in what we know about science with a healthy dose of conjecture and supposition. There is no evidence to suggest this is real. But there’s not a lot of evidence to suggest it’s not real.

In some ways, you can think of the multiverse like a tiger in the bathroom. If a guest in your house tells you there’s a tiger in your bathroom, your natural inclination is to immediately say, “Of course there isn’t.” But you don’t know, do you?  Not with 100% certainty. You’ll never know for sure unless you look into it. And if for some reason you can’t get to the bathroom to check, you’re never, ever going to know with 100% certainty no matter how impossible it seems.

There are several different approaches to the idea of the multiverse. The Cosmological Multiverse Theory suggests that, immediately after the Big Bang, as the universe exploded into being it created all these bubbles. Each one is its own universe slightly separated from the main universe that birthed it. Over billions of years this potentially infinite number of bubbles all developed in their own way so some could be almost exactly like ours, and others could be unimaginably different and completely uninhabitable. Our universe would be just one of these bubbles.

String theory also allows for the idea of a nearly infinite number of parallel universes, each one developing in almost any imaginable way with just slightly different parameters each time. 

To go back to Everett and his Many World theory, he believed in a quantum multiverse. In simple terms, the universe is constantly splitting. That means when you go to have breakfast and decide between pancakes or waffles, when you choose pancakes this universe continues while a new one splits in which you chose waffles.

Part of what is inherent to the idea of the Multiverse theory is that we can’t see or understand these other realities. They’re completely separate from our own. That, of course, makes it difficult to prove they exist. As to why anyone would believe they exist if there’s no way to observe them, that’s a little easier to explain.

The concept of a Multiverse can explain a lot of things for us. Science doesn’t know what it doesn’t know. What caused the Big Bang? Why does time flow the way it does? Why do all the scientific constants that we understand as being essential to reality exist as they do? 

If a Multiverse exists, it can help us understand why things work the way they do in our universe. It’s entirely possible we got lucky and all of these things are just the subtle variations that managed to come together to create a functional universe while, in a different universe, nothing but chaos reigns because they were unlucky compared to us. 

Arguments for Multiverse

It’s all well and good to suggest that a Multiverse may exist, but what evidence is there? What science could possibly support this idea? There’s more than you might think, especially if the Avengers and Spider-Man are your only links to the idea.

One argument for a multiverse is based on what we think we understand about space itself. If space is infinite, then the multiverse has to be real. There are only so many ways you can arrange matter and in an infinite space at some point matter would be arranged the same way more than once. So our world, our reality, has to have been repeated almost exactly again and again and again as well as in vastly different ways again and again and again. Infinite space is very big, after all. 

A deck of cards is used as a visualization for how this makes sense. You can shuffle a deck of 52 cards in only so many ways. At some point, patterns emerge. Will the exact same 52 come out in order, eventually? Yes, actually, but smaller strings will happen, too. You’ll get the same three or four or five in a row again and again and again. 

Hand in hand with the Big Bang Theory for the start of our universe is the theory of inflation that the universe expanded out, doubling size 90 times in the smallest fraction of a second you can even imagine. 

Inflation is one of the most well-accepted theories about the origins of the universe and explains a lot, but it leads us back to the bubbles we talked about earlier. Some parts would expand faster than others and where it slowed down these bubbles would form. Those would be the little pocket universes and there could be an infinite number of them as well.

There is even potentially visible evidence of multiverses, but this is still in the realm of theory. Physicists in Europe studying Cosmic Microwave Background radiation left over from the formation of the universe itself spotted something unusual in 2010. There are visible, circular patterns in this background radiation. It’s been theorized that those patterns represent what you might call bruises from where other universes actually bumped into our own.

One of the more interesting arguments for Multiverse Theory proposes that our universe isn’t even a real one, it’s just a simulation. Based on what we know about computers, it was theorized that an advanced race, aliens or future humans, could build a computer so powerful that it would be able to simulate every human mind that ever existed. In fact, it could simulate far more than ever existed and do so very easily. 

Oddly worrisome is that this theory, if it’s logically sound, lends itself to its own reality. The odds are actually in favor of it being true and for us never being aware because we’d be programmed to not know it. The upside is that, fundamentally, it would never affect our day-to-day lives. 

Another argument for the existence of a Multiverse lies in the absolute complexity of our own. Think of how many things have to come together to make our universe work the way it does. Not just what had to happen for life to form on Earth, but how the forces of gravity have to work to allow a sun to burn as brightly, as warmly, and as long as it does. How subatomic forces need to work to hold atoms together. How molecules have to interact to allow for the complex chemical reactions that create livable environments, atmospheres, and so much more. It’s an infinite number of things that need to work together absolutely perfectly. This is sometimes called the “fine-tuning” argument.

Based on all that complexity, the multiverse theory offers a novel answer. Most universes don’t work. Life can’t happen, planets can’t form, and nothing can work the way we know it. But because there are infinite potential universes, some will have to work and ours is an example. 

There is actually an abundance of other arguments in favor of the existence of a multiverse. Some are extremely complicated, some are definitely more philosophical. Some might even contradict others, but they all show a willingness by physicists and other scientists to try to explain what we experience every day by looking well beyond what we can see.

Arguments Against the Multiverse

Let’s start with that last argument – our universe is so vastly complex and unlikely to exist that there’s a good chance it’s just a lucky roll in a multiverse of duds. While you can understand the logic of it, others have argued it commits a version of the gambler’s fallacy. The idea is that a gambler, after losing all night, believes their next roll of the dice has to be a winner because they’ve lost so many times. Except there’s nothing in the odds that support that idea. 

By the same token, nothing about why our universe works the way it does requires an infinite number of other failed or lesser universes to explain it. Whether they all exist or none exist has no relation to ours at all, so the argument is meaningless. By that reasoning, you cannot infer a multiverse.

A similar argument against this brand of Multiverse Theory can be summarized as likening it to faith. If the fundamentals of our universe are so complex and so seemingly impossible that we need to propose an infinite number of other less-perfect universes to explain our own, is this not very much like theology? None of it can be proven, so you must take it on faith that the multiverse blessed us with our more or less perfect universe. 

It’s the inability to infer or prove a Multiverse that is the biggest problem with any of these theories. Take inflation creating these little bubble universes. Every time inflation slows down a Big Bang happens and a new universe is created in that bubble. There could be Big Bangs happening over and over again. But we know from our universe that we don’t know anything about before the Big Bang or outside of our universe. We can’t test these ideas.  They are beyond the laws of physics as we know them in our universe.

The multiverse theory, while helping to explain many issues with quantum physics, also creates entirely new problems that reach levels of absurdity. If an infinite number of realities exist, then any preposterous thing could be happening in any one at any time. 

There could be a universe where the sun explodes for no reason. There could be one where dinosaurs survived and are our masters. There could be one where you’re mulling over this argument right now but you’re also a very intelligent penguin. Stupid? Maybe, but the multiverse has to support it.

Still, when it was said and done, one of the biggest arguments against the Multiverse today is much the same as it was when the theory was first proposed. For any theory to be proven true, you need to be able to test it. It is completely impossible to do that with Multiverse Theory.

In the end, what you have is a bit of a stalemate. There are plenty of arguments that could support the existence of the multiverse. There are also plenty of arguments that take the wind out of its sails. We have no evidence of any kind to suggest the Multiverse is real, nor do we have anything to conclusively deny that it exists.

What we do have is one reality that we currently exist in. We have as much practical proof as we need that we exist, that our universe exists, and that’s what we have to deal with. Until some scientific breakthroughs occur that challenge the laws of physics, that’s all we’re going to have as well.

Here we are again at the intersection of open-world video games and reality, ready to exploit some glitches, make our way into some seemingly unmapped areas, and find the inside jokes left for us by over-caffeinated programmers. In case you missed it, we’ve done this a few times before—but since the stimulant-addled coders of the real world sleep just as infrequently as those who make our games, we’ve had no trouble rounding up 10 more for your amusement and utter befuddlement.

10Standin’ On A Corner

“Well I’m standin’ on a corner in Winslow, Arizona / Such a fine sight to see / It’s a girl, my lord, in a flatbed Ford / Slowin’ down to take a look at me.” So goes the middle verse of the Eagles’ 1972 classic “Take It Easy”—and though the song’s author, Jackson Browne, likely picked the town and state for the sake of meter (and for rhyming somewhat poorly with “corner”), the small town has managed to kindle a respectable little tourism industry centered around the statue and mural installation pictured above.

The statue, which many have noted looks nothing like either Browne or Glenn Frey (who sang the Eagles tune), gazes eternally at the fine sight depicted in the mural as if it were a reflection in a window. The installation wasn’t built until 1999, the result of a push by the cleverly named Standin’ On a Corner Foundation, who saw opportunity in the fact that practically everyone who passed through the town would stop to take selfies on random street corners.

Today, the statue draws hundreds of visitors daily to this tiny town of around 10,000 citizens, many of whom owe their livelihoods to a long-ago name check by that other guy who was in the Eagles, Glenn Frey. There’s also a memorabilia stand where you can purchase T-shirts and mugs and listen to an endless loop of Eagles songs; alternatively, you could just tune to any classic rock station.

9Busted Plug Plaza

Artist Blue Sky, a Columbia native, was commissioned to create this piece by a local bank in honor of its 75th anniversary. This four-story concrete, steel, and aluminum rendering of a fire hydrant is called “Busted Plug Plaza.”

According to the artist’s website, it was conceived as a different project called “Downtown Fountain,” a cement structure that kind of looked like a hydrant, with plugs analogous to various parts of the downtown area. At any rate, this enormous, 306-metric-ton (337 ton) fire hydrant was kept completely under tarps during construction, willed into existence by the combined efforts of architects, engineers, and city planners before finally being unveiled to the wondering, stupefied eyes of Columbia’s residents in 2001.

Strangely, there are a couple of other towns in America that once laid claim to the title of World’s Biggest Hydrant, but Busted Plug Plaza’s behemoth dwarfs them both. Says the artist of his work: “There’s one thing about all my public works. And that is, if anybody looks at it and thinks it’s art then I’ve failed because it’s not meant to look like art. I want it to look like something bizarre and something they’ve never seen before. And the last thing I want them to think is that it’s art.” Bingo.

8Easter Egg Island

Ever wanted to find an actual deserted, tropical island that you could have to yourself for a day or two? Near Petit St. Vincent in the Caribbean, there’s a tiny little island where that fantasy can easily come true.

Looking like nothing so much as a deserted island straight out of a Bugs Bunny cartoon, Mopion Island is all of 30 meters (100 ft) across and completely unadorned by anything except for a picturesque thatched umbrella. As one might imagine, it’s been photographed six ways from Sunday for all manner of travel brochures, posters, and postcards, and probably painted about as many times. Visitors scrawl their names on the umbrella’s post, which we’re surprised isn’t completely inked over—as of this writing, the little shovelful of sand in the middle of all that clear, blue water is Trip Advisor’s third-highest-ranked attraction in St. Vincent.

7UFO Welcome Center

We already know from a previous entry in this series that space aliens occasionally deliver mail to and/or pick up mail from the middle of nowhere, because someone built a mailbox to accommodate that purpose. One South Carolina man, Jody Pendarvis, has taken this one step further by turning his house into a large flying saucer that he calls the UFO Welcome Center.

Mr. Pendarvis is pretty serious about the whole thing: “Seriously, I am here to welcome the aliens from out of space.” He claims to have had several such visits since building the Center in the 1990s, and he has some definite theories as to what they’re up to: “I don’t believe they actually want to land. I think they’d just rather fly around, live on their own ship and maybe come visit, maybe not.” And if they do land, what then? “Aliens can fly from the north or the south and just land in the parking lot and come and chit chat with me.”

At any rate, the extremely small, 1,200-person town of Bowman with its one blinking stoplight has thus far tolerated Jody and the small amount of tourism his labor of love generates. At least they can all agree that it’s the town’s most noteworthy aspect: “Since this is the only attraction in Bowman, I think I’ll run for mayor and maybe I’ll get it,” said Mr. Pendarvis, a completely reasonable man.

6Hidden Solar System

In 1971, sculptor Ivan Kozaric gifted the city of Zagreb, Croatia with his latest work, entitled The Grounded Sun. It is pretty much exactly what it sounds like—a 2-meter (6.5 ft) bronze model of the Sun. That is to say, a huge bronze ball that sits on the ground in the middle of the city square. Interesting as that may or may not be, it’s not exactly Easter egg material. No, that would be the installation that artist Davor Preis created in 2004—since the Sun sits in the middle of the city, he envisioned the rest of it as the Solar System, and distributed the planets throughout the city.

Of course, the planets closest to the Sun—Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mar—are all contained within the square, but the outliers are a little more difficult to find and require some hiking. The installation was never advertised to the public, and it wasn’t until their location was revealed by students at Zagreb University that most residents became aware of it at all. The planet sculptures are built to the same scale as Kozaric’s original work, and of course, their distances from the original sculpture are accurate to the same scale. And for the astronomically nostalgic, the installation does include Pluto, whose planetary status was revoked in 2006.

5The Monster Pad

Here we have the second entry to ever appear in this series from Boulder, Colorado, home to some famously odd people (there’s a reason Mork and Mindy was set there). Tucked in a cozy neighborhood up close to the Flatirons, this neatly kept ’80s-modern house does not have any particularly fascinating features. The owner evidently decided that that would not do, and that the best way to remedy the situation was to place lifelike, life-size statues of Mike and Sulley from Monsters, Inc. in his living room window.

The statues hold their position year-round, delighting children and scaring the hippies, and one has to wonder if the owner is just a huge fan or was somehow able to secure these statues for less than the cost of a snazzy paint job. They wear ghost sheets on Halloween, Santa hats on Christmas, and generally just seem way more like something Jeffrey Katzenberg would have in his den than the centerpiece of some guy’s living room in Boulder. Nobody seems to know who lives in the house or whether they work for Pixar.

4The Lil’ Desert

The Desert of Maine has been attracting visitors for almost a century, and it certainly looks and feels like a desert—heat reflected by the sand dunes pushes temperatures up 20 degrees or so from the surrounding areas, and the little region can reach over 32 degrees Celsius (90 °F) during the summer.

The 47-acre geological oddity was created by a one-two punch of natural erosion and sloppy farming: Ice-age glaciers pulverized the rocks in the area into sand, which was buried deep beneath the topsoil. Said topsoil was slowly eroded by a farming family in the 1700s over generations, eventually exposing a small patch of sand that grew . . . and grew. Throughout the 1800s, the family tried to fight the encroaching drifts, but gave up in the early 1900s. They eventually sold it off for $300 to a Mr. Henry Goldrup, who turned it into the tourist attraction it remains today.

If you visit, you can go on tram tours, guided hikes, and play Frisbee golf. Just don’t ride the camel statues—they’ve been there since the ’50s as a replacement for the real camel they used to have.

3The Lil’ Post Office

Tourists to southern Florida often stop to take photos of the world’s smallest post office, pictured above, in the town of Ochopee. Inside, they find all the things you might expect—trinkets, keychains, postcards—and one thing you might not: a postal worker. Yes, the Ochopee post office actually functions as a post office, even if only two or three people pick up their mail there.

If the building just looks like a little shed, that’s because it used to be exactly that. In 1953, the original post office/general store burned to the ground, and instead of rebuilding it, well, you get the idea. For awhile, the little shed served as both the post office and bus stop for Trailways bus lines. When the decision was made to move the building, the job probably only took around half a day—a couple local residents plopped it onto a wheelbarrow and hauled it off to its current location.

In case you were wondering, the building has all the modern conveniences—a computer, a phone, even air conditioning. Oh, except a bathroom. We suppose that keeping things bottled up is something of a postal worker stereotype, but it still seems like a pretty glaring oversight.

2Homeless Jesus

If, at first glance, the art installation pictured above looks like an actual homeless man, perhaps that is the point. The work has had the police called on it at least once, and a bronze likeness of a hobo sleeping on a park bench seems an odd choice for a public artwork—until you consider the affluent neighborhood in which it resides, and the crucifixion marks on its feet.

Yes, the statue—a $22,000 gift to the Episcopalian Church from a parishioner—is meant to depict Jesus as a lowly vagrant, which may help explain why it was rejected by two other cathedrals before finding a home in Davidson, North Carolina. To their credit, the church that ended up accepting the statue seems to recognize the value of the artist’s intent—Reverend David Buck said, “It gives authenticity to our church . . . this is a relatively affluent church, to be honest, and we need to be reminded ourselves that our faith expresses itself in active concern for the marginalized of society.”

Canadian artist Timothy Schmalz, the statue’s creator, has brought a miniature to the Vatican and received the blessing of Pope Francis; he hopes to get a Homeless Jesus installed in Vatican City one day soon. Parishioners of the Davidson church, meanwhile, have warmed up to their version and have even been seen praying in front of it occasionally.

1E.T.’s Final Resting Place

Finally, we have the actual intersection of real-world Easter eggs and video games. That is to say, an Easter egg consisting of a video game in the real world.

It had long been a sort of urban legend that, after the infamous video game crash of 1983, Atari took a whole bunch of copies of its famously crappy E.T. The Extra Terrestrial video game and dumped them in a public landfill in Alamagordo, New Mexico. Atari never really confirmed nor denied this, and as it sounded just too awesomely fitting to be true, most assumed that it was at the very least a wild exaggeration. Turns out, it was not.

In April 2014, garbage company owner Joe Lewandoski, along with archaeologist Andrew Reinhard and, for some reason, film director Zak Penn, got together to hunt for the biggest Easter egg of all—Atari’s lost E.T. dump. The games had been dumped in a 12-meter-wide (40 ft) hole in a 300-acre landfill over 30 years prior, yet they hit pay dirt the same afternoon they started digging, also coming up with a few Missile Command and Centipede games for good measure.

Game designer Howard Warshaw, creator of E.T., was on hand for the excavation. While alluding to his brutal production schedule for the game (“It is the fastest video game developed in video game history as far as I know”), he also managed to wax philosophical about his supposed role in destroying his industry: “Thirty-two years ago I did a game that people called ‘the worst game of all time’ that toppled a billion dollar industry. Maybe it is true; maybe it is not. The fact is I did something 30 years ago that is still getting people gathered together, enjoying it, getting some excitement.”