This will be moi last post for now. Got me exams morrow. See you all after its finished. Ta..ta for now :-)

Do people really die from "spontaneous human combustion"?



Spontaneous human combustion (SHC for short) is one of those twilight zone-type phenomena that people tend to lump with ectoplasm and telekinesis, so discussion has been confined largely to the nutcake journals. Nonetheless, a considerable body of evidence suggests that something like SHC actually occurs.

Over the past 300 years, there have been more than 200 reports of persons burning to a crisp for no apparent reason. The victims are discovered as piles of ashes and oily residue, completely consumed except for an occasional unburnt arm or leg.

Although temperatures of about 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit are normally required to char a body so thoroughly (crematoria, which usually operate in the neighborhood of 2,000 degrees, leave bone fragments which must be ground up by hand), frequently little or nothing around the victim is damaged, except perhaps the exact spot where the deceased ignited. SHC victims have burnt up in bed without the sheets catching fire, clothing worn is often barely singed, and flammable materials only inches away remain untouched.


Here are some typical SHC reports:

On April 9, 1744, Grace Pett, 60, an alcoholic residing in Ipswich, England, was found on the floor by her daughter like "a log of wood consumed by a fire, without apparent flame." Nearby clothing was undamaged.
On May 18, 1957, Anna Martin, 68, of West Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was found incinerated, leaving only her shoes and a portion of her torso. The medical examiner estimated that temperatures must have reached 1,700 to 2,000 degrees, yet newspapers two feet away were found intact.

On December 5, 1966, the ashes of Dr. J. Irving Bentley, 92, of Coudersport, Pennsylvania, were discovered by a meter reader. Dr. Bentley's body apparently ignited while he was in the bathroom and burned a 2-1/2-by-3-foot hole through the flooring, with only a portion of one leg remaining intact

No satisfactory explanation of SHC has been offered. Many SHC victims have been alcoholics, and at one time it was thought that alcohol or its derivatives in the body simply ignited. But experiments in the 19th century demonstrated that flesh impregnated with alcohol will not burn with the intense heat associated with SHC. Other theories involve deposits of flammable body fat--many victims have been overweight. But others have been skinny.

One school of thought blames phosphorous. One of the Teeming Millions explains: "SHC is thought to be the result of an error in phosphorous metabolism

Scaryyyyyyyyyyy stuff especially since noone seems to know the real reason behind it.......so how the heck do u prevent such a ghastly thing from happening.

So the question remains open. At least nobody's claiming that UFOs or the spirit world are involved.