Welcome to a whirlwind tour of 10 superpowers real individuals actually have—abilities that sound straight out of a comic book, yet come wrapped in real‑world complications. From a child who never feels pain to a man who can’t experience fear, each power is as fascinating as it is fraught with challenges.

10. Superpowers Real

10. The Little Girl Who Doesn’t Feel Pain

Olivia Farnsworth never feels pain. She was born with a condition called chromosome 6 deletion, which has left her with no sense of pain and no sense of danger whatsoever.

In some ways, it’s an incredible gift. It helped her survive getting hit by a car. The car drove over her chest and dragged her several yards before finally stopping—and yet, while her family freaked out, Olivia just got up, waved at her mother, and said, “What’s going on?” The only reason she survived was that her total lack of fear kept her from tensing up. Because she doesn’t feel pain, she wasn’t even bothered by what, for most of us, would have been a near‑death experience.

For the most part, though, Olivia’s condition is pretty much just horrible for everybody all of the time. She never feels tired or hungry, so her mother has to pretty much force‑feed her food and sleeping medication just to keep her alive. Plus, our bodies feel pain for a reason: to keep us from getting hurt. With Olivia, that’s never an issue—so she once managed to bite through her own lip without even noticing.

9. The Woman With Perfect Memory

Jill Price never forgets anything. She’s been quizzed on everything that’s happened in her life, and she’s able to perfectly recall the date, time, and every tiny detail of everything she’s ever experienced. Her mind’s like an unending video recorder that can replay any moment from her past.

That sounds pretty cool—as long as you don’t have to live through it. Price herself, though, calls it “non‑stop,” “uncontrollable,” and “totally exhausting.”

Her memory is so vivid that she has trouble focusing on what’s going on around her. She’s constantly distracted by recollections of the past, making it extremely difficult for her to focus on learning new things. And her memory doesn’t actually work on things that are worth remembering. She also only really remembers things from her own experiences—when she tries to memorize facts at school, her memory is, if anything, weaker than most other people.

8. The Family With Unbreakable Bones

In 1994, a man known only as “John” got in a terrible car crash. By all rights, it should have killed him—but miraculously, John was completely unharmed. He had no spinal fractures and not a single broken bone. When the doctors looked into it, they realized that nobody in his family had ever broken in a bone in their whole lives.

You may recognize John’s life story as pretty much the plot of the movie Unbreakable. He’s a real‑life movie hero—a man born with unbreakable bones that are eight times denser than the average person. And, like the movie, he says his greatest weakness is water: John is simply too heavy to swim.

But other people who share his condition have said that it makes life borderline unlivable in their later years. Their dense bones create what they’ve described as “pounding and nauseating headaches,” along with incredible fatigue and leg pains from dragging around their abnormally heavy skeletons.

7. The Woman Who Can See 100 Million Colors

Most people have three types of cones in their eyes, which allow them to see a spectrum of seven million colors. The other millions of colors out there in the universe are imperceptible to all but a few animals—and one woman who is only known by the code name “cDa29.”

cDa29 has four fully functioning color cone types, allowing her to see a massive spectrum of 100 million colors. She’s seen a whole rainbow of colors, including millions upon millions that the rest of us are incapable of even imagining.

This would be awesome—if anybody else could see them. As it stands, though, the practical result is that she just sees a bunch of colors that she can’t communicate to other people. For the most part, the complex shades she can see just make it hard for her to understand the colors other people are seeing. As a result, before it was confirmed that she had tetrachromatic vision, cDa29 was mistakenly labeled as color‑blind.

There’s actually a theory that says that two to three percent of all women can see the full spectrum of 100 million colors but just don’t realize that there’s anything special about it. Instead, like cDa29, they usually just get written off as color‑blind. And their male offspring actually are. In a strange twist of irony, the gene that lets some women see extra colors leaves men color‑blind—meaning that cDa29 will never be able to share her unique vision with any of her sons.

6. The Man With Fantastically Stretchy Skin

Garry Turner is a real‑life Mr. Fantastic. He was born with Ehlers‑Danlos syndrome, a condition that gives him incredibly loose skin that can be stretched like a rubber band.

Also, he is in constant pain every moment of his life. From the moment he wakes up to the moment he drugs himself to sleep, Garry Turner feels a constant, searing pain below his skin that hurts so badly that he has to wear morphine patches just to get through the day.

His stretchy skin has also effectively left him a hemophiliac. The skin has a very hard time clotting blood, meaning that when he gets cut, blood usually just spills out of him without stopping.

He takes so much pain medication to get by that he often passes out, sometimes staying unconscious for as long as 40 hours before he can snap out of it. The constant bouts of unconsciousness made it impossible for him to finish school, severely affecting his options for the rest of his life.

The only way he’s been able to get by is to take up a job as a circus performer. He works as part of a modern freak show, showing off his condition that tortures him for the entertainment of others.

5. The Woman With Mutant Super Beauty

Elizabeth Taylor is a mutant—technically speaking. Her dazzling, blue‑violet eyes and doubly thick set of eyelashes are the results of a mutation of the FOXC2 gene that affects some women, causing them to grow extra eyelashes and to have a particularly stunning iris hue.

The advantages to superhuman beauty are pretty obvious. In Elizabeth Taylor’s case, they helped propel her to superstardom. But it doesn’t always work out as well as it did for her. The FOXC2 mutation can cause hair to grow in some uncomfortable places. Often, those extra eyelashes will rub against the woman’s eyeball, which can be so irritating that it’ll make them tear up. And if left untreated, it can even break down the surface cells on the eye until it starts to hurt her vision—or even makes her go blind.

The mutation is also linked to a high risk of heart problems. Women with the FOXC2 mutation are at a significantly higher risk of heart disease.

Incidentally, that was what ultimately killed Elizabeth Taylor. And if Taylor’s eight marriages prove anything, it’s that set of beautiful eyes can put a woman through a life of heartbreak before it finally makes the heart give out altogether.

4. The Man Who Was Immune To AIDS

Steve Crohn had an inexplicable genetic mutation. For some reason, he was immune to AIDS.

As he was a gay man living through the HIV epidemic, Crohn seemed, from the outside, to be as lucky as any man could be. While the sexually transmitted disease was killing everyone around him, Crohn stayed in perfect health, which sounds amazing—as long as you don’t think about it.

Crohn was forced to go on living while watching everyone he cared about die. Here’s how he described his experience:

What’s hard is living with the continuous grief. You kept losing people every year—six people, seven people. […] It’s not easy, when you’re losing friends and you’re that young, and it goes on for such a long period of time.

Crohn ended up going to doctor after doctor, begging them to study him, because he simply couldn’t understand why he was still alive. They ended up finding out that he had a genetic mutation that made him resistant to AIDS—but they couldn’t actually do anything with it. They weren’t able to use Crohn’s condition to save the life of anybody else.

In the end, watching his friends die became too much for Crohn to handle. When he was 66 years old, he resolved to join them. Steve Crohn committed suicide.

3. The Woman With Super Hearing

Justine Mitchell was 39 years old when she got superhuman hearing. She developed a condition called superior canal dehiscence that caused everything she heard to be amplified to incredible degrees. She was like Superman, basically, except that it was a bit more socially acceptable for her to walk around in blue tights.

As it turns out, though, having super hearing makes life—in Mitchell’s words—“a misery.” Mitchell’s hearing was so strong that she could hear her own eyeballs moving. She said that moving her eyes to the side “sounded like sandpaper on wood in my head.”

When your eyeballs are deafening, every other sound is absolute torture. Mitchell could hear her own heartbeat as loud as a drum. The hiss of a coffee machine was so loud that it made it hard for her to stay upright, and her own voice would make her nauseous.

Eventually, Mitchell managed to get rid of her super hearing through a lifesaving operation. It wasn’t easy—the doctors gave her the choice between having her skull cracked open so they could operate on her brain or plugging her ear canal with extra bits of muscle from around the ear—but Mitchell said it was more than worth it to be able to walk down a hall without passing out.

2. The Man With Super Intelligence

Daniel Tammet has a superhuman brain. He’s capable of reciting pi by memory to 22,514 decimal places, and he can master languages faster than most people can master asking where the washroom is. For example, after only spending one week of studying the language, he conducted a full interview in near‑flawless Icelandic.

All of that would be great, if all life required from people was to recite the digits of pi. But for Tammet, who has Asperger’s, and his extremely logical brain, a lot of the illogical things the rest of us do are almost impossible to understand.

“My brain breaks everything down into concretes and tangibles,” Tammet has explained. “I find intangibles hard to understand.”

Things like putting on a DVD, calling a taxi, or doing algebra equations—which use letters to represent unknowns—are very confusing for Tammet. And he gets so easily distracted that he isn’t allowed to drive a car. But the hardest challenge for him is understanding when other people’s actions don’t make perfect, scientific sense. Emotions, in particular, are very confusing for him.

Tammet says that, when he used his abilities to pull off a real‑life Rain Man victory at Vegas, he had to put a fake show of happiness. He didn’t really feel much of anything, but he did for everyone watching him. He knew it was what they expected.

1. The Man Who Fears Nothing

Jordy Cernik isn’t afraid of anything. He doesn’t even have the option to be afraid—over the course of two surgeries, undertaken to treat his Cushing’s syndrome, he had the glands that produce adrenaline removed. And now he’s physically incapable of being scared.

There are some definite upsides to living without fear. Cernik can jump out of a plane without feeling even the slightest bit of nervousness. And he does, often. He’s started using his special power to do stunts to raise money for charity.

But jumping out of a plane doesn’t really give Cernik the same thrill it gives the rest of us. In fact, pretty much everything is boring for him. He’s said that when he goes on roller‑coaster rides with his family, he’s about as excited as we would be sitting still at the kitchen table.

That doesn’t mean he feels nothing, though. Cernik does feel one thing: constant, unending pain. He still suffers from Cushing’s syndrome, which has left him with brittle, arthritic bones. Now that he doesn’t have adrenaline, though, he no longer has one of the body’s most potent natural painkillers—meaning that every ache he feels is far, far worse.

When you picture the 10 amazing animal tricks that could turn ordinary mortals into real‑life superheroes, the mind conjures some pretty wild scenarios. Imagine hoisting ten times your own weight or spotting invisible radiation with your own eyes – all thanks to borrowing a few super‑charged organs from the animal kingdom.

Why These 10 Amazing Animal Organs Matter

10. Planarian Cells

First up are the cells of the planarian flatworm, a tiny creature that packs a regenerative punch most of us can only dream of. Slice a planarian into pieces, and each fragment will sprout into a complete, fully functional worm, complete with a brain and nervous system.

Even more astonishing, the regenerated worm retains the memories of its former self. In other words, it can clone itself while keeping all of its past experiences intact – a biological cheat‑code we’d love to install.

Chop off the worm’s head, and the detached body will continue to sense light, while a brand‑new head forms on the original stump. Conversely, the severed head can grow a brand‑new body, complete with all the necessary organs.

And if you’re a fan of multi‑headed dragons, you’ll love this: cut a planarian in a particular fashion and it can grow several heads – sometimes up to ten! Talk about a creature with a literal “many‑headed” advantage.

9. Snakes’ Vomeronasal Organs

A snake’s vomeronasal organ – also known as Jacobson’s organ – works like a biological scent detector, allowing the reptile to track prey over impressive distances. Imagine if humans could tap into that same ability; finding a lost child in a crowded mall would become a breeze.

The organ sniffs out non‑volatile chemicals – pheromones and prey residues – that cling to surfaces. Snakes flick their forked tongues to gather these particles, then press the tongue against the organ, which parses the chemical clues and points the way to the target. It’s a natural GPS that would be a game‑changer for law‑enforcement or search‑and‑rescue teams.

8. Wood Frog’s Liver

Freezing to death sounds terrifying, but the wood frog has turned that very threat into a survival superpower. While mountaineers and trekkers often succumb to the bitter cold, this amphibian simply hits the pause button on its metabolism.

When the temperature drops, the frog’s heart and nearly every organ shut down completely. Its cells stay alive, but without the usual communication pathways – essentially a state of suspended animation.

University of Alaska researcher Don Larson summed it up nicely: “On an organismal level, they are essentially dead.” Yet the frog isn’t truly dead; it’s in a frozen limbo.

The secret lies in its liver, which floods the bloodstream with massive amounts of glucose. This sugar acts like an antifreeze, lowering the freezing point of the frog’s internal fluids and preventing ice crystals from forming inside cells.

When spring arrives and temperatures rise, the frog thaws, the glucose is metabolized, and normal bodily functions resume as if nothing happened.

7. Ophiocoma Wendtii’s ‘Eyes’

The brittle star Ophiocoma wendtii boasts a visual system that would make any sci‑fi camera jealous. Its entire body is studded with tiny crystalline lenses, turning each segment into a miniature eye.

These ball‑like lenses give the creature a 360‑degree field of view, allowing it to spot predators, locate shelter, and hunt – all without a single brain‑like organ directing the process.

Imagine if humans could see from every hair follicle on our skin; we’d never be caught off guard in a haunted house again. The brittle star’s all‑seeing skin is nature’s version of a built‑in security system.

6. Mantis Shrimp Eyes

If you thought the brittle star’s eyes were impressive, the mantis shrimp takes visual prowess to a whole new level. Its compound eyes contain between 12 and 21 different photoreceptor types, compared with the human eye’s three.

This arsenal lets the mantis shrimp perceive ultraviolet light and a kaleidoscope of color shades that are invisible to us. Its vision rivals that of satellite‑grade sensors, detecting subtle differences in polarization and wavelength.

Scientists still puzzle over why the mantis shrimp’s brain processes this flood of information the way it does, but one thing’s clear: its eyes are a marvel of evolutionary engineering, even if the creature is technically a stomatopod, not a true shrimp.

5. Green Basilisk Feet

Most of us rely on our legs to get us from point A to point B, but the green basilisk lizard—affectionately dubbed the “Jesus Christ lizard”—has taken footwork to a divine extreme. It can sprint across the surface of water for up to 4.6 meters (about 15 feet).

The secret lies in its fringed, expandable toes. As the lizard slaps the water, the toe fringes spread out, trapping a pocket of air that provides enough lift to keep it afloat while it rapidly moves forward.

Picture yourself striding across a pond at a party; you’d instantly become the life of the gathering. The basilisk’s water‑running feat is a true marvel of biomechanics.

4. Owl’s Wings

Stealth flight is something modern engineers spend billions trying to perfect, yet the owl has been doing it flawlessly for millennia. Its near‑silent aerial approach makes it a perfect nocturnal hunter.

The owl’s broad wings have a large surface area, which means it can generate lift with relatively few wingbeats, reducing the noise produced by rapid flapping.

More crucially, the primary feathers on the leading edge are serrated, breaking up turbulent air flow. These serrations act like tiny sound‑absorbing combs, muffling the whoosh of air over the wing.

Combined with soft, velvety down on the wing’s trailing edge, the owl can glide almost noiselessly, swooping down on unsuspecting prey with a success rate that borders on 100 %.

3. Platypus Snout

Imagine hunting in total darkness, with no visual cues and no sound to guide you. The platypus’s bill turns this nightmare into a feast, thanks to its dual sensory system.

Electroreceptors embedded in the bill detect the faint electric fields generated by the muscle contractions of hidden prey, while mechanoreceptors sense minute water movements. Together, they give the platypus a six‑dimensional map of its underwater world.

The bill’s surface is riddled with striped pores that act like tiny antennae, picking up electrical signals, while the mechanical sensors predict the direction and speed of moving targets, allowing the platypus to snap up insects and larvae with astonishing precision.

2. Bombardier Beetle’s Gland

Few insects pack a punch quite like the bombardier beetle. Its defensive strategy involves a miniature chemical laboratory hidden in its abdomen, capable of firing a scorching, corrosive spray at would‑be attackers.

Inside the beetle, two separate chemicals are stored in adjacent chambers. When threatened, the beetle mixes them, triggering an exothermic reaction that instantly boils the mixture and creates high pressure.

The resulting blast of benzoquinone is expelled in rapid pulsations, while a valve shuts the reaction chamber off long enough for it to cool before the next burst, preventing self‑damage.

This fiery defense is so effective that it has inspired research into bio‑mimetic weapons and demonstrates once again how nature can out‑engineer human inventions.

1. Sperm Whale’s Circulatory System

A Badjao tribesman once dove to a depth of 20 meters (about 65 feet) and stayed submerged for roughly five minutes, a feat that would be daunting for most humans given the crushing pressure and limited oxygen.

The current Guinness record for voluntary breath‑holding sits at 24 minutes 3.45 seconds, set by Aleix Segura Vendrell in 2016. The sperm whale, however, routinely stays underwater for up to two hours thanks to a suite of physiological tricks.

Every 90 minutes or so, the whale surfaces, expels air at a blistering 300‑500 km/h (185‑310 mph), and inhales a massive lungful of oxygen before diving again. Contrary to popular belief, its lungs aren’t dramatically larger than those of a land mammal.

The real secret lies in its circulatory system, which carries a far higher concentration of red blood cells, boosting oxygen transport. While submerged, the whale’s heart rate drops dramatically, conserving oxygen.

Blood flow is strategically restricted in peripheral tissues, essentially shutting down circulation to non‑essential areas. Meanwhile, the whale’s muscles store large reserves of oxygen‑binding myoglobin, allowing it to stay active even when blood flow is limited.

Thanks to these adaptations, the sperm whale can linger in the deep ocean for extended periods, outlasting even the most seasoned human free‑divers.

When you think of superpowers, you probably picture flying or laser eyes, but the truth is far more subtle. The 10 superpowers we all quietly carry are tucked inside our biology, waiting for science to shine a light on them. No cape required—just a curious mind.

10 Superpowers We Explore

10 Bioluminescence

One of the best mutations nature has ever come up with is the ability to produce light. Known in scientific circles as bioluminescence, anyone at the beach at just the right time of the night could tell you about the awesomeness of it. Many oceanic creatures, along with certain mammals, have been found to have the ability.

According to recent research, however, humans produce their own kind of light. We didn’t know about it until now because it is outside the range of what the eye can see. In an experiment, researchers plugged in five volunteers and monitored their light emissions for 20 minutes every three hours.

To their surprise, they found that the human body constantly emits a glow we had no idea about, though it’s not to be confused with the glow from all the heat. The glow is the brightest around the head and was found to be the dimmest late at night. They’re not exactly clear on what causes it, but they’re sure that it’s somehow related to our metabolism.

9 Hear Temperature

Our ability to tell hot from cold is already well-documented. We know that our skin is extensively equipped to distinguish changes in temperature. Along with our mouths and other organs, it all comes together to make sure that we don’t accidentally swallow a steaming hot potato and end up burning our insides. That’s only if we touch it, though.

What about the other senses? Could we theoretically hear hot and cold? Absolutely yes, says a study conducted by a sound design agency.

Researchers made people merely listen to the sound of hot and cold water pouring into a glass and asked them to tell one from the other. Surprisingly, a whopping 96 percent of the subjects were able to and researchers have no idea why.

Some theorize that it may be due to cold water being more viscous and our body having developed a sense to recognize it over time. But why we would develop an ability like that remains a mystery.

8 Gaydar

The mythical gaydar is a popular topic of conversation at drunken college parties and in rooms full of behavioral scientists alike. We have discussed whether humans possess the power of detecting someone’s sexual orientation, although conclusive answers have always eluded us. That is, until some scientists took a serious go at it and decided that we do.

The studies have been aplenty and decisive, proving that all of us are born with the ability to identify sexual orientation by various cues. The facial structure is the primary one.

In one study, subjects were shown photographs of 45 gay and 45 straight faces. All the participants—yes, all of them—were accurately able to predict which ones were gay, even when the photographs were flashed for as little as 50 milliseconds.

Admittedly, that one was only on male faces. In another study, researchers found that we are even better at determining sexual orientation for women from their photographs.

7 Superhuman Strength

No matter who you talk to, we all know the limits of human physical strength. While we’re intellectually gifted enough to build cool stuff like spacecraft and YouTube, humans have never been very high on the strength rankings—and we know it. Sure, we can pick up a heavy rock or two if the situation demands it. But we can’t, say, lift a car now, can we?

Weird thing is, we can. It doesn’t just show up in urban myths. People have verifiably been able to lift cars and other seemingly impossible weights in times of distress—like when their child is in danger—that they weren’t able to replicate afterward. Ordinary individuals have been able to do on a usual day what Guinness World Record holders practice years and years to do once on camera. So, what gives?

Sadly, we don’t exactly know the kind of mechanisms that come into play when superhuman strength is activated as those situations are difficult to replicate in the lab. But we have certainly recorded enough cases that prove it’s a super ability we’re all born with.

6 Seeing A Single Photon

The limits of the human eye aren’t precisely known. While we know it’s capable of perceiving the world better than those of most other creatures with vision, we don’t really know exactly what all it can do.

One of the biggest questions scientists have been asking for a while is exactly how many photons the human eye can see. Despite being a weirdly specific question, this has been difficult to answer.

While previous studies had been done to gauge the photon-spotting limits of our eyes, it couldn’t be established if it was just a response or a true visual signal transmitted to the brain. In a recent study, though, researchers found that the human eye can spot a single light photon.

Describing it as “almost a feeling, at the threshold of imagination,” the researchers say that this could open up the way for crazier experiments. For example, how will this apply to unexplainable quantum phenomenon like quantum entanglement? We’ll find out soon enough as those studies are ongoing.

5 Detecting Molecules By Touch

Our sense of touch doesn’t usually get the most stage time, mainly because it’s usually not able to do cool things like the more popular senses of vision or hearing can. While we know we can touch and tell a lot about a wide variety of things, we’re never exactly told how advanced our sense of touch really is.

To really determine the limits of touch, scientists tested to see if people could distinguish between silicon wafers with a difference of a single layer of molecules on the top. To be clear, they were made to be so smooth that telling the difference between the two should have been impossible.

Researchers were surprised to find that all 15 people surveyed could tell the difference 71 percent of the time. The scientists found it so impressive that they’re now planning to implement it in existing prosthesis tech, meaning that prostheses could soon be better at the sense of touch than actual hands.

4 Recognizing A Smile Before It’s There

The smile forms an important part of human conversation no matter where you go in the world. It’s also one of the most mysterious as we don’t fully understand it.

For example, a smile is not always a response to something funny and may even be able to convey an emotion better than words at times. We’ve always wondered what makes it such a crucial nonverbal cue in everyday interaction, especially how well we can detect a fake smile from a genuine one.

According to studies, we’re also able to detect the type of smile before it even happens. Researchers found that we have the ability to anticipate an oncoming smile and match ours with it in a day-to‑day conversation. In addition, we can detect if the smile is fake because the responses only triggered if the smile was genuine.

3 Sense Of Smell As Strong As Dogs

While our sense of smell is cool in the way that it lets us sniff nice fragrances and alerts us to harmful particles in the environment, it’s never been thought to be particularly powerful. Dogs and other mammals are usually believed to be better at smelling than we are. In fact, humans even think of it as a superpower—heightened smell is one of Wolverine’s powers.

According to a neuroscientist who’s spent 14 years studying the human olfactory system, our sense of smell is as powerful as that of any other mammal and is already as strong as Wolverine’s. The notion that the human sense of smell is not as good came from an inaccurate 1979 study which stated that the human organ for smell was smaller than those for mammals like rats and dogs.

The neuroscientist’s findings prove that it’s actually much bigger than we thought, surprisingly so. He even found the number of smell receptors to be much more than previously believed and on a par with animals we usually think are better smellers than us.

2 Detecting Ovulating Women

Detecting women in fertile stages of their menstrual cycles is a useful—if a bit creepy—way to determine who to approach at a social gathering. But it’s not understood very well. Scientists have been trying to find the external cues for it for a long time. Then they realized that we don’t need to know the cues as the human brain is quite capable of detecting them on its own.

In one study, women were found to be aptly able to recognize other women in their ovulating stages, probably to tell which girl is the most likely to hit on their partners. This seems like a justifiable response from an evolutionary standpoint.

In another study, researchers found that men tended to see ovulating women as more attractive, indicating that the ability is innate in most of us. Surprisingly enough, that wasn’t true for married or committed men, which suggests that even evolution highly advises against cheating.

1 Smelling Personality

Gauging someone’s personality in a conversation and modulating our responses accordingly is something we all do subconsciously, even though we don’t realize it. A lot of it is still based on visual and audio cues, and we don’t really associate other senses with it. That’s why researchers were surprised to discover that we’re pretty good at smelling out personality as well, completely changing how we look at day‑to‑day interactions.

In a study at the University of Wroclaw, researchers found that we’re able to predict various personality traits—such as extroversion, neuroticism, and dominance—from body odor alone. The accuracy rate was as good as when the subjects were shown visual cues, especially for dominance in those from the opposite sex.

The researchers don’t quite understand how it works. However, this study was the first of many now being done to understand the various personality traits our odor carries. More answers are likely on their way.

The world has been utterly fascinated by superpowers for ages, and now we’re zeroing in on the ten weirdest superpowers ever conceived. We’ve all marveled at classic abilities like flight, super‑speed, and mind control, but the modern era of movies and comics has spawned a parade of truly bizarre talents. From the power to speak every language on the planet to muscles that can reshape reality itself, this list showcases the strangest feats ever imagined.

Why These Ten Weirdest Superpowers Stand Out

10 Omnilingualism

The gift of uttering any language—what Thor whimsically dubs “all‑speak”—is more than a party trick; it’s a universal passport. Picture yourself wandering the cosmos without a translator, or simply being able to chat with anyone, anywhere, at any hour. It would be a game‑changer for diplomacy, espionage, and even everyday travel.

In the X‑men roster, Cypher can decode any spoken or written code, making him the ultimate polyglot. Shazam and the Tooth Fairy from Rise of the Guardians also wield omnilingualism, a sensible perk for a guardian who visits children worldwide. Joseph Petrelli flaunts this skill, and his son Peter mimics it, proving it can run in families.

Other notable bearers include the enigmatic Traveler, the seasoned spy Jason Bourne, and Alex the Alien from Invincible, who communicates telepathically with built‑in translation. Though not always spotlighted, a subtle omnilingual ability threads through a surprising number of fictional figures.

9 Indestructible Digestion

An impervious stomach may sound odd, but it’s a surprisingly practical superpower. Matter‑Eater Lad of the DC Legion of Super‑Heroes epitomizes this ability, munching on anything from kryptonite to whole planets without a hiccup. It’s a digestive shield that turns hazardous bites into harmless snacks.

Cartoon legends like Daffy Duck and Wile E. Coyote have swallowed live dynamite and walked away unscathed, while Scooby‑Doo, Mr. Vulture, The Hulk, and Ben‑10 showcase similarly indestructible gullets. Even a live‑action nod appears in The Orville, where a character chews through seemingly lethal material.

In the McFarlane Star Trek parody’s first season, episode six, Lt. Commander Bortus flaunts a Moclan stomach that devours glass, cactus, and forks—an unsettling yet entertaining display of culinary resilience, especially useful when stranded in a desert.

8 Liquid Transmutation

Imagine delivering a punch that liquefies your foe into a puddle of mud—welcome to liquid transmutation. Clay Face can morph his own form into a fluid state, while X‑Men’s Mercury slides through fortified zones like a living mercury stream. Even Brainiac has survived as a shimmering fluid, and Plastic Man briefly resembles a reddish water droplet.

Being liquid isn’t without pitfalls; a careless sweep of a mop could spell doom for a hero like Plastic Man. Nonetheless, self‑liquid transmutation is rarer than turning objects into liquid, though both exist. In the TV series Heroes, Zane Taylor could melt any solid, a talent that Sylar gruesomely appropriated by consuming his brain.

These abilities showcase a slippery edge to combat, where the line between weapon and vulnerability blurs, making liquid transmutation a delightfully weird power.

7 Technothapy

The realm of technopathy is richer than most realize. Micah Sanders from Heroes claims he doesn’t command tech but merely chats with it, coaxing assistance. Meanwhile, Adam from Buffy the Vampire Slayer openly bends machines to his will. Technothapy lets a hero converse with hardware, while cyberpathy focuses on software manipulation.

Icons like Viral (TMNT), Neo (The Matrix), Ultron (Marvel), and Brainiac (DC) illustrate the spectrum of this ability. For villains, technopathy is terrifying in an age where society leans heavily on gadgets; for heroes, it’s a Swiss‑army knife of utility—reviving dead machines, diagnosing malfunctions, and even reprogramming a tank on the fly.

6 Density Manipulation

Altering one’s own density opens a toolbox of tactical options. Vision of Marvel fame can become dense enough to shrug off crushing blows, or turn intangible so attacks simply glide through him. Others like J’onn J’onz, Firestorm, and DC’s Thunder also wield this flexible power, with Duck Zhang from Gone joining the roster.

Big Bertha, a lesser‑known Marvel hero from the Great Lakes Avengers, employs density manipulation to maintain a secret identity. She shifts between a super‑strong, hefty form and a sleek, model‑ish persona named Ashley Crawford. While the power itself isn’t bizarre, using it to hide in plain sight by becoming unexpectedly obese adds a quirky twist.

5 Reactive Adaptation

Reactive adaptation is nature’s own upgrade button, embodied by characters like Darwin of the X‑men. His body instantaneously reshapes to survive any threat—growing wings, turning iron, or resizing on a whim. While many heroes display fragments of this trait—Amazo, Doomsday, the OMACs, and even The Hulk—Darwin takes it to the extreme.

This ability hints at near‑immortality, though it isn’t foolproof. Beyond defense, it fuels adaptive combat, letting a hero assume the ideal form to outmatch any opponent. Once an adaptation is triggered, the change tends to recur more often, making Darwin’s ever‑shifting physique both fascinating and oddly unsettling.

4 Dimensional Storage

Pulling a sword from a pocket that seems ordinary at first glance is the hallmark of dimensional storage. Ramona Flowers from Scott Pilgrim uses magical portals to stash gear, while classic toons like Bugs Bunny appear to possess an endless cache of weapons and toys. Hermione Granger’s “bag of holding” spell and Mary Poppins’s bottomless carpet bag showcase similar tricks.

Only a few characters wield this power innately: The Spot (Marvel), Green Lantern (DC), and Lion from Steven Universe. The extra‑dimensional pocket usually serves as a convenient weapon locker, but its potential stretches far beyond armaments, offering limitless storage for any imaginable object.

3 Empathic Influence

Empathy shows up often in sci‑fi, but the ability to steer others’ emotions is far rarer. Marvel’s Empath, aka Manuel Alfonso Rodrigo de la Rocha, can sway massive crowds, dialing feelings from subtle nudges to total emotional shutdown, turning people into obedient, zombie‑like followers.

Other examples include Mantis of the MCU, who can induce happiness or lull opponents into sleep—handy tactics for both battle and negotiation. While not the same as telepathy, this power grants a commander the subtle edge of controlling how foes feel, a potent tool in any conflict.

2 Conditional Powers

Conditional powers turn ordinary abilities into quirky puzzles. Take the Whizzer from season two of Marvel’s Jessica Jones: he can sprint at super‑speed, but only when terrified, making bravery a literal speed limit. The Wonder Twins (DC) must touch to activate their gifts—Jayna can become any animal, while Zan morphs into water in any state.

Spider‑Man (Marvel) sprouts poisonous stingers when confronting a natural spider enemy, and biblical Samson’s strength vanishes once his hair is cut. Even Aki Hojo and Hanasaki Haru can conjure money, but only while flirting. These conditional quirks make powers feel like elaborate riddles, adding a layer of absurdity to the superhero toolbox.

1 Reality Changing Muscles

The Doom Patrol’s Flex Mentallo boasts perhaps the most oddly specific ability ever imagined: reality‑bending muscles. Tired of being skinny on the beach, a mysterious TV‑headed figure handed him a bodybuilding guide titled Muscle Mystery for You. Following the instructions, Flex transformed into a hulking powerhouse, discovering that flexing a particular muscle could rewrite reality itself.

From subtle tweaks unnoticed by the world to massive alterations that reshape existence, a single flex becomes a cosmic switch. Flex Mentallo proves that sometimes, the most extraordinary superpower can be tucked into a bicep.

When you hear the phrase 10 types bacteria, you probably picture tiny, invisible organisms that cause disease or help us digest food. What you don’t usually imagine is that some of these microscopic critters possess abilities that sound straight out of a comic‑book universe. From sticking to surfaces like a gecko on steroids to generating electricity and even fighting cancer, the microbial world is packed with real‑life superpowers. Below, we count down the ten most astonishing bacterial marvels ever documented.

10 Types Bacteria: Microscopic Marvels

10 The Super‑Adhesive Bacteria

If you ever watched a gecko scuttle up a wall, you know that its pads can hold hundreds of kilograms of force. Imagine a creature that can out‑adhere a gecko by a factor of seven and beat commercial superglue three to four times over. That’s precisely what Caulobacter crescentus does. This bacterium behaves like a microbial Spider‑Man, secreting a sugary, ultra‑sticky substance that clings to surfaces with a force measured at roughly five tons per square inch—enough to hoist an elephant or a fleet of cars with a tiny patch of its “glue.”

The microbe thrives in any wet habitat, be it freshwater, seawater, or even tap water. It swims around using a whip‑like tail called a flagellum until it finds a suitable spot. One end then latches onto the surface, anchoring itself via thin hair‑like structures known as pili. Once firmly attached, C. crescentus pours out its sugary adhesive, instantly cementing itself in place.

Scientists have already begun to imagine practical uses for this natural superglue. Because the adhesive works in a range of aqueous environments, it could become a game‑changer for surgical sealants, underwater construction, or any application that demands a bond stronger than anything synthetic can offer.

9 Living Magnets

Imagine a tiny organism that can sense Earth’s magnetic field and steer itself like a compass needle. Magnetotactic bacteria (MTB) achieve exactly that by assembling countless iron‑oxide crystals into chain‑like structures called magnetosomes. Though each magnetosome is a fraction of a rice grain, together they act like a miniature compass, pulling the cell toward the magnetic pole where food is most abundant.

These microbes usually dwell in low‑oxygen swamps and sediments, using flagella to swim until they encounter the right chemical conditions. When the surrounding mud becomes too dense for flagellar propulsion, the magnetosome chain provides thrust, allowing the bacteria to glide along magnetic lines of force. Researchers have even loaded MTBs with extra magnetosomes and then zapped them with alternating magnetic fields, a technique dubbed “magnetic heat,” to destroy harmful pathogens.

Because MTBs can be coaxed into carrying magnetic particles, they hold promise for targeted drug delivery, environmental cleanup, and even novel ways to eliminate viral infections on a large scale.

8 The Little Giant

While most bacteria are invisible specks, Thiomargarita namibiensis blows that notion out of the water. Discovered along the Namibian coast in 1997, this organism can swell to a staggering 0.75 mm—large enough to see without a microscope. To put that into perspective, a single cell of T. namibiensis is to an ordinary E. coli cell what a blue whale is to a newborn mouse.

The extraordinary size stems from a clever nutritional strategy. The bacterium oxidizes sulfide and uses nitrate as an electron acceptor, but nitrate is scarce in its environment. To compensate, it hoards nitrate inside a massive central vacuole, which occupies roughly 98 % of the cell’s volume. This internal storage depot lets the bacterium survive long periods without external nutrients.

Visually, the cells appear white because of the many sulfur granules they accumulate. By converting sulfide to less toxic forms, these microbes help detoxify marine sediments, fostering healthier ecosystems. In the wild, they often link together in mucus‑bound strings, resembling a necklace of tiny pearls—hence the name “Sulfur Pearl of Namibia.”

7 Living Computers

From cave paintings to silicon chips, humanity has always searched for ways to archive knowledge. Now, a humble microbe called Escherichia coli is joining the lineup. By inserting synthetic DNA strands that encode pictures and short videos, scientists have turned these bacteria into living data storage devices.

In a landmark experiment, researchers at Harvard cultivated 600,000 engineered E. coli cells, then encoded a human hand image and a galloping horse video into a custom DNA sequence. After shocking the bacteria to trigger their natural DNA‑uptake mechanisms, each cell incorporated the new genetic script. When the scientists later sequenced the bacteria’s DNA and translated it back into digital files, the reconstructed images matched the originals almost perfectly, differing only by a handful of pixels.

This isn’t the first time E. coli has been used to ferry information. In 2003, a team encoded song lyrics, and in 2011 a Canadian writer embedded a poem that made the bacteria glow red and “write” its own verses. Given that a gram of DNA can theoretically hold 455 exabytes—about a quarter of all data ever created—future biocomputing could rely on swarms of engineered bacteria as ultra‑dense, self‑replicating storage media.

6 Electric Microbes

Electrogenic bacteria are a class of microbes that can literally turn chemical energy into electrical currents. Among them, Shewanella oneidensis stands out for its ability to “breathe” metals instead of oxygen. Discovered in New York’s lake sediments, this organism attaches itself to mineral surfaces, then extends slender filaments called nanowires that act like microscopic power lines.

Through these nanowires, the bacterium shuttles electrons from its interior to external metal oxides such as iron, manganese, or lead. In doing so, it generates a steady flow of electricity that can be harvested for various purposes. Sometimes the process works in reverse, with the microbes pulling electrons from metals to fuel their metabolism—essentially living on electricity.

Because of this unique capability, researchers are exploring S. oneidensis for wastewater treatment, bio‑energy generation, and even space missions. NASA has already sent samples aboard the International Space Station to see whether these microbes could help sustain life‑support systems on future planetary outposts.

5 Ice‑Maker

Just as Marvel’s Iceman can freeze water with a touch, the bacterium Pseudomonas syringae can trigger ice formation at temperatures where pure water would stay liquid. This microbe lives on crop leaves and in snowy regions worldwide, using its icy powers to infiltrate plant tissues for nutrients—often to the detriment of agriculture.

Scientists discovered that the bacterium’s outer‑membrane proteins act as ice‑nucleating agents. They rearrange surrounding water molecules into a crystalline lattice and simultaneously extract heat, forcing the water to solidify even when it’s far above the normal freezing point. In laboratory tests, a single droplet of P. syringae can instantly freeze 600 mL of water that has been chilled to just –7 °C (19.4 °F), whereas pure water would need to reach about –40 °C (–40 °F) to freeze on its own.

Beyond harming crops, these microbes play a role in atmospheric processes. When wind lifts them into clouds, they can serve as nuclei for raindrop and snowflake formation, influencing weather patterns. Their ice‑inducing abilities are already being harnessed to produce artificial snow at ski resorts, and researchers are probing additional biotechnological applications.

4 World Destroyer

When you think of a supervillain, you probably picture a cape‑clad mastermind, not a microscopic soil dweller. Yet the genetically altered strain of Klebsiella planticola earns that title by virtue of its capacity to annihilate plant life on a massive scale. Normally, this bacterium lives harmlessly in plant roots, breaking down dead organic matter and recycling nutrients.

German scientists rewired the microbe so that, while decomposing plant material, it simultaneously produced ethanol and a potent fertilizer. The idea was to create a dual‑purpose organism for agriculture and bio‑fuel production. Early 1990s trials were poised to test the strain in real fields.

However, an experiment at Oregon State University revealed a terrifying side effect. Researchers grew two identical soil beds: one inoculated with the native bacterium, the other with the engineered version. Although seeds sprouted in both, every plant in the modified‑bacteria plot died within a week. The engineered strain generated ethanol at concentrations 17 times higher than plants could tolerate, poisoning them. Moreover, it encouraged soil‑dwelling worms that devoured the beneficial fungi plants rely on, starving the seedlings of essential nutrients.

Even though the modified K. planticola persisted longer in soil than most engineered microbes, the experiment was halted, and the strain was never commercialized. Nonetheless, its potential to wipe out vegetation across continents remains a cautionary tale about the unintended consequences of synthetic biology.

3 The Microbe From Hell

In the early 1980s, scientists uncovered the first hyper‑thermophilic organisms—microbes that love boiling temperatures. While most of these belong to the archaea domain, a handful of bacteria have also mastered the art of surviving near‑boiling water. The genus Aquifex is a prime example, thriving in underwater hydrothermal vents where temperatures can soar to 95 °C (203 °F) and even exceed the boiling point of water.

Imagine a creature that can comfortably exist in a cauldron of 212 °F. Aquifex does exactly that, making it the toughest bacterial survivor known. Even more impressive, it is one of the few aerobic hyper‑thermophiles, meaning it can breathe oxygen when it’s present, albeit at low concentrations. When oxygen is scarce, the bacterium can switch to using nitrogen as a terminal electron acceptor.

The name “Aquifex” translates to “water‑maker,” reflecting its unique metabolism that produces water as a by‑product while extracting energy from heat. This extraordinary resilience has sparked interest in using Aquifex for industrial processes that require extreme temperatures, such as bio‑catalysis in harsh chemical environments.

2 Ancient Bacteria

Humans may live up to about 70 years, some turtles push two centuries, and ancient trees can stretch their lives to five millennia. Yet even that pales in comparison to the longevity of certain microbes. In 2007, a team from the University of Copenhagen unearthed bacteria trapped in ancient ice layers from Canada, Russia, and Antarctica that were still alive after an estimated 600,000 years.

These icy survivors exhibited remarkably intact DNA, a surprise because genetic material typically degrades over time. Instead of entering a deep dormancy that halts metabolism, the bacteria maintain a low‑level metabolic activity that continuously repairs their own genome, allowing them to persist for half a million years without succumbing to lethal mutations.

While there have been reports of even older microbes—such as 250‑million‑year‑old bacteria found in salt crystals—those claims remain controversial due to potential modern contamination. The 600,000‑year‑old specimens, however, passed rigorous contamination controls, solidifying their status as some of the oldest living organisms ever documented.

1 The Anti‑Cancer Fighter

Cancer claims the second‑largest share of global deaths, with nearly ten million fatalities recorded in 2018 and projections soaring to 23.6 million new cases by 2030. In a surprising twist, researchers at the University of California discovered that a common skin resident, Staphylococcus epidermidis, can throw a molecular wrench into tumor development.

The bacterium secretes a small chemical called 6‑hydroxymethyl‑2‑pentylamine (6‑HAP), which resembles a component of DNA. Laboratory tests revealed that 6‑HAP halts the replication of cancer cells by blocking DNA synthesis, yet leaves healthy cells unharmed because they possess enzymes that deactivate the compound.

In animal studies, mice injected with 6‑HAP and then exposed to intense UV radiation still developed tumors, but the tumors were on average 60 % smaller than those in untreated mice. A second experiment applied the bacteria directly onto the backs of mice; those colonized with S. epidermidis produced only a single tumor after radiation, while control mice developed up to six. Although further research is required, these findings suggest that harnessing this skin microbe could become a novel strategy for preventing—and perhaps treating—various cancers, not limited to skin malignancies.

Ever imagined having a superpower you could brag about at parties? The world’s most fascinating peoples boast abilities that sound straight out of comic books. In this roundup of 10 tribes superpowers, we’ll explore how genetics, diets, and environments have forged talents that most of us can only dream of.

10 Tribes Superpowers Overview

From marathon‑ready legs to eyes that spot distant ships, each tribe on this list showcases a unique advantage that makes them stand out on the global stage. Let’s dive into the science, the stories, and the awe‑inspiring feats behind each group.

10 Distance Runners

Everyone knows that Kenya has the world’s best marathon runners. What most people do not know is that the majority of these runners are from the same tribe. Enter the Kalenjin, the world’s best long-distance runners.

Several scientists, researchers, and sports analysts have tried to explain why the tribe dominates long-distance running. Although their starch‑rich diet, the location of their homeland, and coincidental social and economic factors have been fingered as possible reasons, no one has come to a definite conclusion. However, it is suspected to have something to do with genetics.

The Kalenjin have small ankles and calves and a slim stature, which is just perfect for marathon running. Body size is important in determining who will win a marathon because people with smaller ankles and calves use less energy than others. It is even said that one can guess the winner of a marathon by checking which of the contestants has the smallest ankles and calves.

9 Bajau People Of Indonesia Can Hold Their Breath Underwater For An Unusually Long Time

The Bajau people of Indonesia are called sea nomads or sea gypsies because of their ability to remain underwater for several minutes without any equipment. The most experienced divers can remain underwater for 13 minutes before returning to the surface to breathe. Researchers from Cambridge University discovered that the Bajau people can do this because their bodies adapted to diving, causing their spleens to increase by 50 percent.

Before the discovery, researchers had always suspected the size of our spleens had something to do with our ability to remain underwater. A larger spleen compresses underwater, releasing oxygen‑rich blood into the body. This reduces oxygen use and allows us to stay underwater for longer. In the case of the Bajau people, they have a unique gene that increases secretion of the thyroid hormone T4, which causes larger spleens.

8 Moken People Of Indonesia Can See Underwater

What is cooler than being able to hold your breath underwater? Seeing underwater.

This ability is limited to the children of the Moken people of western Thailand. Like the Bajau people of Indonesia, the Moken live by the seaside and are also called water nomads. Unlike other kids, however, the Moken children have excellent eyesight underwater.

In 1999, Anna Gislen, a researcher with the University of Lund, traveled to Thailand to live with the Moken people and study their superpower. She realized that the eyesight of their children was two times better underwater than that of European children. Interestingly, she also observed that adult Moken cannot see as well underwater.

Gislen initially suspected that the eyes of the children had evolved. But that was not the case because it would have affected their eyesight outside the water. On careful observation, she realized that the children could constrict their pupils and change the shape of the lenses of their eyes—two factors necessary for underwater eyesight. In fact, this is how seals and dolphins see underwater.

To confirm her theory, Gislen trained some European children in Thailand and Swedish children in Sweden to control their pupils and lenses underwater. A month later, they could see as well underwater as the Moken children. The European children did not find it easy, though. Unlike the Moken children, their eyes always turned red because of the salty seawater. But they would have adapted to that, too, if the training continued.

Moken adults cannot see that well underwater because their lenses are already rigid, just like that of adults elsewhere. From all indications, it is unlikely that Moken children will maintain their superpower for long. The entire tribe was moved far inland after an earthquake‑induced tsunami destroyed their seaside village in 2004. They no longer have such easy access to the sea.

7 The Sherpas Are Expert Mountain Climbers

Climbing Everest or any other mountain would be a daunting task for the average person. But not for the Sherpas. They are expert mountain climbers with the ability to seek out previously unknown routes. Today, people climbing Mount Everest always go with Sherpa guides.

Research revealed that Sherpas are excellent mountain climbers because their bodies manage oxygen better at higher altitudes than the average person. This should not be a surprise. The Sherpas have been living on the Himalayas for over 6,000 years, which is more than enough time for their bodies to adapt to the extremely cold temperatures and low oxygen levels. The Sherpas are also immune to the nasty side effects and sometimes fatal ailments that affect other climbers.

Oxygen decreases as we go higher up Mount Everest. In response, the body produces more red blood cells to feed the muscles with the required oxygen. At the same time, these excess blood cells make the blood thicker, stressing the heart.

The Sherpas also experience the same thing but at a much lower rate. This is not all. Their bodies are also able to produce more energy in the absence of oxygen.

6 Some Native Ecuadorean Sufferers Of Laron Syndrome Are Immune To Cancer And Diabetes

Laron syndrome is an ailment that causes mutation in the human growth hormone receptor, leading to dwarfism. It is common among members of a tribe in a remote village in Ecuador. No one thought much of the syndrome until Dr. Jaime Guevara‑Aguirre, who had been working with the tribe, realized that tribesmen with the syndrome were almost immune to diabetes and cancer.

In contrast, tribesmen without the syndrome were highly susceptible to cancer and diabetes. To confirm his suspicion, Guevara‑Aguirre partnered with Dr. Valter D. Longo of the University of Southern California to run lab tests with serum made from genes of the Laron patients.

The researchers added the serum to human cells that had been deliberately damaged. They discovered that the serum stopped these cells from experiencing more genetic damage. At the same time, these cells destroyed themselves instead of turning cancerous.

5 Some Of The Fore People Of Papua New Guinea Are Immune To Kuru And Mad Cow Disease

Kuru is the name of a deadly brain disease that broke out among members of the Fore tribe of Papua New Guinea in the 20th century. It was the result of tribesmen eating the brains of their dead as part of their burial rites.

Some of the consumed brains were infected with prion disease, which caused kuru. The majority of the deaths occurred in the 1950s, forcing the tribesmen to abandon the tradition. At that time, 2 percent of the tribesmen died every year.

Today, several tribesmen are immune to kuru and will not get it even if they eat the infected brain of a dead person. They are also immune to similar diseases, including mad cow disease. This protection has been traced to the unique V127 genetic mutation present in the bodies of kuru survivors. Descendants of tribesmen who never had kuru do not have the mutation or the immunity to kuru and mad cow disease.

To test their theory, researchers used genetic engineering to develop some mice with the mutation before injecting the animals with the different brain diseases. They found that the mice were immune to kuru, Creutzfeldt‑Jakob disease, and variant Creutzfeldt‑Jakob disease, depending on whether the animals had one or two copies of the V127 mutation.

As to the Fore people, researchers believe that all of them would have become immune to kuru and similar brain diseases if they had continued to eat the brains of their dead.

4 Tsimane People Of Bolivia Are Almost Immune To Heart Disease

The Tsimane people of Bolivia have the lowest risk of heart disease in the world. Between 2004 and 2015, researchers tested hundreds of tribesmen and discovered that 90 percent had clear arteries, which is directly linked to a lower possibility of contracting heart disease. At the same time, they have lower blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar.

Researchers attributed this uniqueness to the diet and lifestyle of the Tsimane people. They eat unprocessed carbohydrates along with little fat and protein. They get their protein from the animals they hunt and the fish they catch. They are also very active and work long hours.

3 The Hmong People Of China Can Communicate By Whistling

Whistling is not exclusive to the Hmong people of China. Several tribes around the world independently learned to communicate via whistling. However, they are usually located in mountainous regions where people live far apart. The Hmong live at the foot of the Himalayas.

The Hmong farmers whistle to chat on farms, while hunting in the jungle, and to send love messages at night. Everyone understands what the lovers are saying. But they do not recognize the people because a whistle is not individually identifiable like a voice. This allows the lovers to remain anonymous while passing messages. Some even add nonsense whistles to confuse the listeners.

A tribe on one of the Canary Islands also communicates via whistling. Their whistling language is called Silbo Gomero and sounds so similar to birdsong that some birds are imitating it.

Some Amazonian tribes also use whistling to communicate while hunting in the jungle. This is safer than speech because whistling will not startle game. The Inuit communities of the Bering Strait also use whistling to communicate when whale hunting.

Whistling has even been used in warfare. The Berbers of North Africa used it to pass secret messages during their resistance against France. During World War II, Australia hired Wam speakers from Papua New Guinea to transmit and decode whistled messages to prevent the interception of radio messages by the Japanese.

2 Some Aboriginal Australians Have Superb Vision

Looking for humans with the best eyesight? Check with the aboriginal people of Australia. Some have eyesight four times better than the average person. This allows them to see things that are four times smaller than what the average person can see. Other aboriginal Australians do not have such superb eyesight, although they can see two or three times better than the average person.

Some aboriginal people work as spotters for the Australian army because they can perceive enemies at extremely long distances. They are also used to spot illegal immigrants’ boats and illegal fishing boats in Australian waters.

This superior vision is believed to be the result of the hunter‑gatherer nature of ancient aboriginal people who needed superb eyesight to survive in the wild. Unfortunately, today’s aboriginal Australians do not always have their remarkable eyesight into old age. Due to several factors, including poor hygiene and diabetes, aboriginal people above 40 are six times likelier to go blind than other Australians.

1 The Okinawans Of Japan Live The Longest

Looking for the oldest people alive? Look no further than the native people of Okinawa, Japan. They are likelier to reach age 100 than the members of any other tribe in the world.

Okinawa boasts of having the largest concentration of centenarians in the world. Longevity among Okinawans has been traced to their healthy diet. They eat lots of whole grains, soy, tofu, vegetables, sweet potatoes, fish, squid, and octopus.

Despite their large centenarian population, the Okinawans have been suffering a steady decline in health within the past few years. This has been traced to increased consumption of fast food from outlets that followed the opening of a US base in the area.

Ever wish you could tap into a superpower straight out of a comic book? Well, you’re in luck because we’ve rounded up 10 real life marvels who actually possess abilities that would make any superhero jealous. From people who see miles away to those who can brave ice‑cold temperatures without flinching, these individuals prove that the extraordinary is very much alive among us.

So buckle up and get ready to meet the real‑world counterparts of your favorite caped crusaders, speedsters, and mystics. Each of these ten remarkable humans demonstrates a genuine, scientifically documented talent that borders on the fantastical.

10 Real Life Superpowers Overview

10 Life Batman

When Daniel Kish was just an infant, he was diagnosed with retinoblastoma, a malignant eye cancer that forced doctors to remove both of his eyes before his first birthday. Undeterred, Kish invented his own version of echolocation, mimicking the sonar tactics that bats employ to navigate darkness. This ingenious adaptation earned him the nickname “the real‑life Batman.”

To move about, Kish produces rapid clicks with his tongue, learning that every surface reflects a distinct echo. For instance, a tree’s trunk sends back a different reverberation than its branches or leaves, allowing him to identify each component of his surroundings through sound alone.

By interpreting these echo patterns, Kish constructs a vivid, three‑dimensional mental map of the world around him. Researchers believe that the clicking stimulates visual‑processing regions of the brain, sharpening spatial awareness and depth perception. Kish boasts that he can locate an exit in a concert hall faster than most sighted patrons, and when ambient noise threatens to drown his clicks, he simply amplifies their volume.

9 Life Mr. Freeze

Wim Hof stumbled upon his frosty superpower during a teenage jaunt along a frozen canal in Amsterdam. An irresistible urge led him to plunge into the icy water, and he quickly discovered an uncanny tolerance for extreme cold—an ability that has since helped him claim 26 world records.

His icy feats include attempting to summit Everest in nothing but shorts; although he survived the death zone unscathed, a foot injury forced his retreat. Hof has also completed barefoot marathons through snow and repeatedly broken his own record for submerging himself in ice‑cold water.

Scientists studying Hof’s abilities have found that his specialized breathing and meditation techniques allow him to override the brain’s stress response. When exposed to severe cold, his brain releases opioids and cannabinoids that dull pain and temperature signals. While the precise mechanisms behind his resistance to frostbite remain mysterious, his breathing regimen appears to play a pivotal role.

8 Life Flash

Dean Karnazes is the embodiment of human endurance, having once logged a nonstop 563‑kilometer (350‑mile) run over three days. His ultra‑marathon feats span desert treks across Death Valley and even a grueling journey to the South Pole, cementing his status as a real‑life speedster.

Most runners hit a physiological wall known as the lactate threshold, where the body’s breakdown of glucose produces lactate faster than it can be cleared, leading to muscle acidity, burning pain, and eventual collapse. This “hitting the wall” phenomenon typically forces athletes to slow down or stop.

Karnazes appears to defy this limitation entirely. He exhibits no discernible lactate threshold, meaning his muscles can sustain prolonged activity without the usual acid buildup, theoretically allowing him to run indefinitely.

Remarkably, Karnazes has never suffered a cramp or muscle ache during runs that exceed 160 kilometers (100 miles). The only true obstacle is sleep; on occasion, he has experienced “sleep running,” where he continues moving while nodding off, only to awaken once his body finally forces a pause.

7 Life Spider‑Man

Alain Robert, dubbed the “French Spider‑Man,” has earned fame as a free‑solo climber who scales skyscrapers without ropes, harnesses, or safety gear. His only “equipment” is a small bag of chalk to keep his hands dry. To date, Robert has conquered more than 160 towers, including Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, Taiwan’s Taipei 101, and London’s Lloyd’s building.

In October 2018, Robert made headlines after scaling London’s Salesforce Tower—202 meters (662 feet) of sheer glass and steel—while a crowd watched breathlessly below. He reached the summit safely, but was promptly arrested on suspicion of causing a public nuisance.

Following a swift 45‑minute court hearing, the judge banned Robert from climbing any building in the United Kingdom, a decision that disappointed fans worldwide. Nonetheless, his daring ascents continue to inspire awe and remind us that some people truly defy gravity.

6 Life Professor X

Actress Marilu Henner possesses a mental superpower known as Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory (HSAM). This ultra‑rare condition—documented in fewer than 100 people worldwide—enables her to recall virtually every moment of her life with pinpoint accuracy.

Henner can name the exact month, day, and even the time of any personal event, and she also remembers details from news stories and other people’s experiences. She first became aware of her extraordinary recall at the age of six.

Brain imaging reveals that individuals with HSAM have enlarged temporal lobes and caudate nuclei, though scientists are still debating whether these differences cause the memory boost or result from it. Despite occasional anxiety, depression, or obsessive‑compulsive tendencies linked to HSAM, Henner finds her ability immensely useful—especially when learning lines for a role.

5 Life Elastigirl

Spanish actor Javier Botet boasts a truly uncanny physique: extraordinarily long limbs, a slender frame, and a bone structure that gives him a skeletal, almost otherworldly appearance. During a 2013 screen test, many observers mistook him for a puppet because of the surreal ways he could contort his body.

Botet’s flexibility stems from Marfan syndrome, a genetic disorder that grants him hyperflexibility. This condition has become his ticket to a niche Hollywood career, where he portrays unsettling creatures such as aliens, lepers, monsters, and the internet‑born legend Slender Man.

Marfan syndrome also brings health challenges—including potential heart defects and vision problems—but Botet has turned his elastic abilities into a unique asset, carving out a memorable presence in the horror genre.

4 Life Overseer

An unnamed Connecticut family has attracted scientific curiosity because of their astonishingly dense bones. Much like Bruce Willis’s character in “Unbreakable,” these relatives possess a genetic mutation that renders their skeletons virtually unbreakable.

To date, none of the family members have ever suffered a fracture. Genetic testing of twenty relatives revealed that just under half carry the ultra‑dense bone trait. Researchers hope that studying their DNA will unlock new insights into bone density, potentially leading to breakthroughs in osteoporosis treatment.

While they’ll never need a plaster cast, the family might find themselves spending a fortune on protective gear—perhaps a tongue‑in‑cheek nod to their “unbreakable” status.

3 Life Invisible Woman

Fingerprints are a hallmark of human identity, each one a unique swirl of ridges. Yet Cheryl Maynard was born without them—a condition called adermatoglyphia. Only four extended families worldwide are known to carry the genetic mutation responsible for this rarity.

Because she lacks fingerprints, Cheryl often feels “invisible” in a literal sense. The absence of these biometric markers complicates everyday tasks like unlocking phones or securing jobs, although it could theoretically give her an edge in covert activities.

In comparative photos, her smooth fingertip is set against a typical fingerprint, highlighting the stark difference. While the condition poses challenges, it also underscores the fascinating diversity of human biology.

2 Life Vision

In 1972, Veronica Seider claimed she could spot tiny objects from a mile away—a claim that initially sparked skepticism. Subsequent testing confirmed that her eyesight is truly extraordinary, earning her a Guinness World Record for visual acuity twenty times greater than the average person.

Seider can discern people and objects at a distance of 1.6 kilometers (about one mile), accurately judge their positions, and even differentiate the individual colors on a television screen from that range. While the practical applications may be limited, her vision remains a remarkable human trait.

1 Life Deadpool

Meet “SM,” a woman whose brain condition—Urbach‑Wiethe disease—has left her completely devoid of fear. From a young age, she handled venomous spiders and snakes without flinching, and even a knifepoint robbery ended with the attacker fleeing, bewildered by her unwavering calm.

The condition manifested as an absolute lack of fear in response to external threats. However, when researchers exposed SM to elevated carbon dioxide levels, she experienced a sudden panic attack, suggesting that physiological suffocation can trigger a fear response even in her uniquely fearless brain.

Despite this vulnerability, SM’s fearlessness remains extraordinary. Her case provides valuable insight into the neural pathways of anxiety, showing that while emotional fear can be muted, the body’s instinctive reactions to life‑threatening stimuli may still surface.

One humorous observation: she might still develop a phobia of… cows. (We can only imagine.)

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

The top 10 real superpowers you can actually learn are waiting for you to unlock them. Superheroes may be fictional, but the extraordinary abilities they display have real‑world counterparts that can be cultivated through science, training, and perseverance.

Top 10 Real Overview

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.

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.

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. 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.

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.

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. 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.”

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!

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.

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 Zeigarnik 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 neurolinguistic 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.

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.

Welcome to the ultimate guide to the 10 mental superpowers you can develop with a bit of dedication and practice. From dazzling party tricks to sharpening your everyday cognition, each of these abilities is within reach for anyone willing to put in the effort.

Explore the 10 Mental Superpowers

10 Want A Cool Party Trick? Learning To Speed Solve A Rubik’s Cube Is Entry Level

Everyone knows the Rubik’s cube, and most people have at least idly picked one up, solved one side, and then gave up when they realized they would have to destroy their work to fix another side. A lot of people have never bothered to go much further past this, but many wish they could complete one, at least to say that they finally did.

For those of you who feel that solving a Rubik’s cube is out of reach, and that trying to solve one as a speed‑cuber is even more out of reach, the nice thing is it actually isn’t really that hard. If you can solve one side, you can get the rest done, as long as you follow the right movement patterns. You see, there is a simple pattern of movement that will change other parts of the cube, but leave the parts you didn’t want changed as they are as you finish with the movement pattern. As for how hard it is to be a speed‑cuber, a nine‑year‑old in China named Yihang Wang has done it in under five seconds with decent consistency, so you can learn how to do it in a few minutes if you really practice and set your mind to it.

9 Training Yourself To Have An Incredible Memory Is Easier Than It Sounds

Some people see someone with a really good memory, and they’re shocked by that person’s genetic luck, and how they just “have” a good memory. This all goes back to so many people thinking that talent is something you just have, and not something that is mostly a learned ability. However, the truth is that true photographic, or eidetic, memories are considered a myth by most researchers, but that doesn’t mean you can’t still have a great memory. The trick is, you actually need to train and discipline your mind properly to do it.

Now, while there are a ton of mnemonic techniques that can help you which we don’t have room for here, the main concept is just understanding how your memory works. Memory actually has addresses in your brain that trigger it, based on the context when you memorized whatever it was. This can make it hard to remember things, as we have to recall what else was going on at the time, but if we can train ourselves to use triggers that make more sense, we can control our memory much better.

Furthermore, if you use something called chunking, you can actually increase your working memory as well. Short‑term memory can hold up to nine chunks of information at a time, but if you take items and put them into categories, you can expand this capacity.

8 Learning To Count Cards Is Both Easy And Potentially Profitable

In movies like The Hangover, we see a character using crazy math calculations in order to count cards and get our main cast all the money they need to hopefully escape a sticky situation. The technique is made to look almost impossibly inaccessible to anyone who isn’t some kind of crazy genius at mathematics, and the drama is tuned up to the highest degree. However, the truth is it isn’t actually that hard to learn to count cards.

It does require discipline and practice, just like anything that you want to learn properly, and you will probably want to practice memory techniques as well to make sure you don’t make errors under pressure. However, it doesn’t require complex math. In fact, all it really requires is arithmetic, which is something most of us should have mastered long ago. As for whether it is legal, what happened in The Hangover was illegal as it was a conspiracy involving several people. However, if you are working alone without electronic help, you can count cards all day and all they can do is kick you out and tell you not to come back.

7 Learning Human And Animal Body Language Is Like Teaching Yourself An Extra Sense

Most of us know a decent amount of human body language just from being, well, human. But there are many things we don’t know about the science involved, and if we teach ourselves to learn these tricks, it can feel like opening up an entirely new sense. This can be especially helpful with pets, who speak an entirely different language than we do.

Dog body language is mostly well known, but a lot of people don’t quite know cats so well, as studies on them haven’t been as common until more recently. What we do know makes it relatively easy to understand them though, and can open up new understanding between you and your cat. The most important thing is to watch their tail movements, which indicate most of their mood. A raised tail, for example, indicates interest and openness, but a thrashing tail means your cat is really, really angry and frustrated.

As for people, one trick many don’t know about is that by watching which way their eyes are moving, you can often tell if they are telling the truth or not. The trick is that when remembering things, people typically look left, and when thinking of something new, they probably look right and upward. If they are looking right and downward however, it could indicate they doubt their own words.

6 Learn Classical Logic And Apply It To Your Everyday Thinking

A lot of us tend to think of ourselves as pretty logical, for the most part, and we like to believe that we are already applying logic most of the time to our everyday lives. However, while it is true most people are at least trying to be logical most of the time, that doesn’t mean they always are, or that they couldn’t be more logically sound if they took the time to learn classical logic. Now, the reason a lot of people don’t think too highly of it is that at its most basic level it can seem almost absurdly reductive, but that’s kind of the point.

The idea behind classical logic is to break things down into simple statements, like, “If I eat until I feel full, I ate enough; if I eat after I feel full, I ate too much.” It also breaks everything down into simple true, false, or both statements. This is actually really easy enough to learn, even if the more complicated version involves algebra. If you do teach yourself to start applying classical logic to everyday life, you can impress people with your complex problem‑solving skills. Also, by forcing yourself to look at things logically, it will be much harder for the news to emotionally manipulate you as well.

5 Learning To Read Lips Is Useful, But It Can Be Misinterpreted

You’ve probably never thought too much about learning to read lips. Most people don’t. This is usually because we tend to think of it as a skill that’s something you only learn if you’re hard of hearing. It helps you figure out what people are saying when your ears are not working properly, and allows the person to better understand a conversation without needing the other person to know sign language. However, it can be useful for more than just people who are deaf, as sometimes when looking right at someone we might miss a word or two due to sound, and not want them to repeat themselves, or we might be trying to pick up part of a conversation from across the room.

Now, while anyone can read lips, it is important to know that reading lips should be largely based on context and not just what you thought you read. You should also be careful not to take action simply from what you thought you read from their lips. The reason for this is that a lot of words or phrases will make the same exact movement as other words or phrases, and context is not always enough to entirely make up for this.

4 Learning Just The Fundamentals Of A Wide Variety Of Subjects Has Multiple Advantages

It can be easy to get frustrated during your early years in college. You might be annoyed at having to take a bunch of general education courses that don’t seem to fit your major. This is a very common complaint but the colleges stand firm, claiming that it is important for you to learn all of those things. Some people think it’s a conspiracy from the colleges to get you to spend more money going to unnecessary classes, but there is actually a good reason for all of this.

The thing is, while specializing is great, that doesn’t mean that you get to reach the skill of a specialist just by specialization alone. Most subjects have a lot of interconnected things that might not necessarily be a direct part of your major study, and making all these connections as you learn will help increase your understanding of your field. It will also make you a more well‑rounded person capable of impressing people by at least understanding the basics of a lot more subjects. Finally, it will also help you with employers, who are looking for people with a more diverse skill set, and can help land you jobs in interconnected fields.

3 Even Sighted People Can Benefit From Learning How To Use Echolocation

Echolocation is something a lot of people think is just a skill that is unique to heroes like Daredevil, who are not at all real (well, as far as we know…). Now, while it is true that you are unlikely to ever learn to be able to use echolocation to the level that Daredevil can in the comics, you can learn to use it to great effect, even if you can see just fine.

Some of you are probably wondering what the point of this is if you can already see, but echolocation is basically using your brain to create a sonar map. Anytime something is blocking your vision, you can use echolocation to get a better visual map of what might be behind the things that are obstructing your view. Some may think that only blind people can learn this, but the fact is that blind people actually don’t have extra hearing, and some studies have shown sighted people picking it up easier than blind people.

2 Train Yourself Not Just To See Or Hear, But To Observe

This all goes back to the basic principles of Sherlock‑ian deduction, which can be best illustrated by a conversation Holmes once had with Dr. Watson where he asks the good doctor if he knows how many steps lead up to their flat at 221b Baker Street. Watson cannot answer, and Holmes replies, “You see Watson, but you do not observe.” This fundamental principle is the basis of all of Sherlock’s deductions, as he has trained himself to actively observe everything around him, as opposed to just seeing it like most of us do.

Now, some may think this is splitting hairs, or just something you need if you are a detective, but there is a good reason for normal people to train their brains to think like this. There is something called situational blindness where we can see something daily, and be so used to the general schematic of it, that we don’t notice small changes. These changes could even cause you to have an accident in the wrong situation, so it’s good to actively keep your eye on things. Furthermore, by applying this skill to observing people, you will get a better handle on subtle mood shifts that you might have missed in your friends and workers.

1 You Can Become A Human Calculator By Learning Some Simple Tricks

Let’s start off by being clear that while everyone can learn it, there is a good reason this one is number one on the list. It’s easily the most impressive skill to learn, but it’s also going to require the most practice of any of them to really get down. That being said, for those who think this is a skill beyond them because it requires advanced math aptitude or skills, you can rest easy knowing that really isn’t the case. You may have seen people at the county fair or somewhere similar managing complex multiplication faster than you would be able to enter it into your calculator, and thought they were a real‑life Will Hunting. However, they are using simple tricks and not advanced math.

The first trick is knowing the basics of arithmetic really well, and understanding how to round up or down and simplify things by breaking them into chunks. If you know the basic principles, you just need to memorize most of the square roots, and then learn a simple formula you can use as a shortcut for advanced multiplication. If you understand that ((A Squared) – (B Squared)) = ((A + B) * (A – B)), how to plug in the right numbers, and you know your square roots, you too can be a math magician.

10. Supertaster

This superpower should be pretty self-explanatory: it’s a heightened sense of taste. The reason some people taste flavors stronger is simply because they have more taste buds. These extra taste buds make them sensitive to flavor, and as a result, they have strong likes or dislikes for certain foods like broccoli, cabbage, spinach, coffee, and grapefruit.

About 25 percent of people in the world are supertasters, while 50 percent are medium tasters and at the complete opposite end of the spectrum are non-tasters, who think everything tastes a little bland, and who make up 25 percent of the population. Women are more likely to be supertasters and people from Asia, Africa, and South America also have a higher chance of being supertasters.

You can test to see if you’re a supertaster by placing a drop of blue food coloring on the tip of your tongue. Rinse your mouth out and make sure it’s dry. Then, place a wax ring or binder enforcer ring on the blue dot and count how many papillae, which are the bumps on your tongue, are inside the ring. If you have more than 30, then you are probably a supertaster.

9. Golden Blood

Nicknamed the “Golden Blood”, Rh-null is one of the rarest and most precious blood types on earth. It is so rare that in 50 years, only 43 people have been found to have this blood type.

How blood types work is that on every red blood cell, there are up to 342 antigens, which are molecules that are capable of triggering the production of antibodies. How people’s blood types are determined is through the absences and presences of those antigens. Then, there are 35 different types of blood systems, and a majority of those blood systems encompass the 342 antigens. For example, ABO is the most common blood system and it’s where you find the most common blood types like A+, B-, O+, and so on. Rh is a different system from ABO and almost all Rh blood types are made up from 61 antigens. How Rh-null is different from other Rh blood types is that Rh-null does not contain any of the 61 antigens, which, until 50 years ago, scientists thought was impossible. Before the blood type was discovered in a living person in the early 1960s, fetuses with the blood type were aborted because doctors did not think the baby would survive.

Now that they have realized that people can live with that blood type, it has become incredibly valuable for a number of reasons. First is that since it’s a negative blood type, it’s a universal donor for all people with Rh blood. But the blood is only used for transfusions in emergencies because the blood is so rare and incredibly valuable to scientists and researchers, so they are reluctant to give it up. In fact, currently there are only nine active Rh-null donors in the whole world. Some researchers have even gone so far as to track down donors and personally approach them, asking for some of their blood.

8. Super Vision

Tetrachromacy is an incredibly rare variation in a gene that allows women to see colors that are invisible to most people. How most people see color is that light enters the eye and goes through three cones. Some animals, like certain birds, reptiles, insects, and fish, have four cones and that fourth one extends the color perception into the UV range. Over time, mammals have evolved away from using this fourth cone, but a very small group of people apparently has a genetic variation where they utilize that fourth cone.

The reason only women can have Tetrachromacy is because, in order to have it, someone needs two gene variations and the variation only appears on the X-chromosome. Since males have an XY-chromosome set, it is impossible for them to have two gene variations. On the flip side of it, this is why many males do not see colors the same way as women and why men are more likely to be colorblind.

As for how much it affects someone’s vision, if you look at the picture above, it was painted by a woman who has Tetrachromacy and it should give you some idea as to how she sees the world compared to the way nearly everybody else does.

7. Rubber Skin and Joints

Ehlers Danlos syndrome is actually a group of disorders that are inherited. The syndrome causes people to have rapid growth spurts, and they can continue to grow into adulthood. It also gives them stretchy skin and incredible flexibility, especially in smaller joints. The reason they are more flexible is because the connective tissue is looser and they can dislocate bones near painlessly.

While being more flexible and having rubbery skin may sound like a good thing, there are a lot of downsides to the syndrome. If they get cut and need stitches, the stitches may not hold because of the elasticity of the skin leaving them with horrible scars. Also, since the joints never really settle, it can lead to early onset arthritis. Not to mention awful growing pains from rapid growth spurts.

One fan theory believes that there actually is a comic book character that has Ehlers Danlos syndrome and that is Batman’s arch nemesis, the Joker.

6. Echolocation

This ability, which, of course, is the same one that Daredevil uses, is utilized by a number of blind and visually impaired people to help them “see” the world. What is interesting about this one is that it is not an innate power, but some people have the ability to learn how to do it.

Commonly, people use echolocation by clicking their tongues and through training, they can pick up subtle audio clues of where objects are. So while they don’t visualize the world quite the way that Daredevil does, some people are so good at it that they can tell what objects their sound is bouncing off of.

Some notable cases include Daniel Kish, who was blind since he was a baby. He can ride a bike, climb mountains, and live in the wilderness alone, all because of his echolocation skills. Or there is Ben Underwood, who had his eyes removed due to cancer when he was three. He learned how to do all the things normal teenagers do like play video games, foosball, basketball, football and he was fearless on his rollerblades. Sadly, Ben passed away from the same cancer that claimed his eyes on January 19, 2009 at the age of 16.

5. Never Age

Staying young for your entire life may seem like one of the better superpowers, especially if you compare it with the ailments of growing old. In reality though, the mysterious syndrome, known as Syndrome X, is actually more of a curse than a superpower. That is because the aging process doesn’t stop when you’re in your prime, like your 20s. Instead, some people stay children for their whole life, like Brooke Greenberg, who was the size and had the mental capacity of a toddler for her entire 20-year life. Or there is Gabby Williams of Billings, Montana who is 10, but still looks and acts like a toddler. Finally, there is Nicky Freeman, who lives in Australia. He grows one year every four years, meaning that while he is 45 now, he is trapped in the body of an 11-year-old.

While this syndrome has to be an incredible hardship on the families of the inflicted, these people may help unlock the solution to stopping the aging process once people get into adulthood. And unlocking this secret may not guarantee we would live forever, it will at least give us the option of living for a long time and still leaving a beautiful corpse behind.

4. Immunity to Pain

A big benefit when it comes to fighting crime is not being able to feel pain. After all, that is the power that Kick-Ass utilizes to fight crime. While he had nerve damage, there is an actual syndrome where people don’t feel pain called Congenital Insensitivity to Pain with Anhidrosis (CIPA). The rare genetic condition affects the development of small nerve fibers that send sensations of pain and hot and cold to the brain. Meaning in addition to not feeling pain, they also aren’t affected by extreme heat or coldness.

While not being able to feel pain sounds like a good thing, it is actually a pretty dangerous syndrome. Just because someone doesn’t feel pain, it doesn’t mean they are immune to injuries. For example, when babies with the syndrome are teething, they can chew until their gums bleed and when their teeth come in, they can bite through their tongue and not notice. As they get older, they can easily burn or cut themselves and not realize they did it and this can lead to infections.

Meaning that while they feel less pain, they actually have to be more careful because they could seriously injure themselves and not realize that anything is wrong.

3. Unbreakable Bones

Thanks to a very rare genetic mutation called LRP5, a small group of people have nearly unbreakable bones due to an incredibly high bone density. This oddity was first noted in 1994, after an unnamed man was involved in a bad car accident. He was uninjured, but just to be safe, they X-rayed him and found out that his bone density was eight times higher than the average man of the same age. Sometime later, doctors came across a family and each family member had a very high bone density, along with very square jaws and they sank when they tried to swim. After finding the family, doctors traced their family’s lineage and they were able to link the family to the man in the car accident. Then they found other people from the family tree with the same mutation, like a man living in Alabama who had problems getting a hip replacement because his bones were too dense to put screws into the bone.

To movie fans, this condition may sound familiar because it appears to be the same condition that Bruce Willis’ character had in M. Night Shyamalan’s Unbreakable.

2. Super Strength

Myostatin-Related Muscle Hypertrophy is an incredibly rare condition and there are only a few documented cases, but it is essentially super strength. How it works is there is a protein in the body called myostatin and it affects muscle growth. If the body produces a lot of myostatin, then it is harder for the body to grow muscle, where if someone has low myostatin, then they can develop muscles easier and they are less likely to retain fat.

Currently, there are two known cases in the world. One is Liam Hoekstra, who lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan. By the time he was five months old, he was able to do the iron cross, which is a gymnastic exercise. When he was 8 months old, he could do pull ups and by the time he was 19 months, he could hang upside down by his feet and do inverted crunches. The other certified case is an unnamed German boy who is apparently even stronger than Liam.

1. Immunity to Disease

Did you know there are some people who are immune to deadly diseases? It’s true and it is all thanks to them being mutants. Just to name a few, there are people who have a rare genetic mutation that keeps them immune from HIV. Another example is that a small group of Amish people have an ultra-low chance of getting heart disease. Or there is the case of the people of Quito, Ecuador. In the town, there is a cluster of people with a unique type of dwarfism that also keeps them immune from cancer.

This is actually one of the more interesting superpowers because if you have it, then you may be responsible for literally saving countless peoples’ lives. The Resilience Project is looking for people who should have gotten sick, but didn’t, to donate DNA. The donors will be anonymously scanned for the 685 genes that cause 127 different diseases. They believe that these people may hold the clues to better treatment and quite possibly curing mankind’s deadliest inflictions.