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WILLIAM SHATNER: You know,
I've been around for a while.

Met some interesting people,
done some crazy things.

So you just might think
that there's not much that

can take me by surprise.

You'd be wrong.

The world is full of
stories and science and

things that amaze and
confound me every single day,

incredible mysteries
that keep me awake at night.

Some I can answer.

Others just defy logic.

NARRATOR: Does the human
body contain inexplicable

mysteries beyond the
reach of medical science?

In Arkansas, a skydiver
plummets to the earth

from over 11,000 feet.

RICK: Shayna!

NARRATOR: And
somehow survives. How?

In New York, a man is
vaporized as he lies in bed.

Can humans
spontaneously combust?

RAY HARLAND: I've been to
fires before too and never

anything, nothing
like that.

NARRATOR: And in England,
a young girl becomes

supercharged with
electricity.

Is she a walking
power grid?

DEBBIE WOLF: She wouldn't
touch me if she was

switching the light switch
on because a jolt of

electricity would
go through her.

WILLIAM SHATNER: Yeah,
it's a weird world.

And I love it.

[♪]

WILLIAM SHATNER:
The human body.

Remarkable, isn't it?
Well this one is anyway.

Just a candid shot
of me at the beach.

But this is what we all
look like underneath.

Unless you believe in
reincarnation, we only get

one of these.

But do we really
appreciate just how

incredible these things
that carry us around are?

Or do we take
them for granted?

You see, many believe we
are much more than just

skin and bones, that there's
things going on inside

us that modern medicine may
never be able to explain.

Is it true?

Do you think they can help
me with my indigestion?

[♪]

NARRATOR: October
9th, 2005.

Siloam Springs, Arkansas.

[♪]

RICK: Hi what's your name?

SHAYNA: You know my name.

NARRATOR: Adrenaline junky
Shayna Rhardson, 21,

is about to attempt her
first solo skydive.

RICK: All right Shayna.

NARRATOR: Shayna's
husband, Rick West,

was also her jump instructor.

RICK WEST: I was very
confident that, you know,

that she was well
prepared for this.

NARRATOR: Rick has
a helmet camera...

RICK: Hi Shayna.

NARRATOR: To capture
Shayna's jump.

Together they will
freefall from an altitude

of 11,000 feet, more
than two miles high.

At first, things go great.

RICK WEST: We exited the
plane well and she did a

perfect dive.

NARRATOR: Rick and Shayna
are plummeting to earth at

terminal velocity -
120 miles per hour.

After thirty seconds of
freefall,

Shayna pulls the ripcord.

RICK WEST: And as you see
in the video, I say...

RICK: Woo! Good job Shayna.

Yeah that's my girl.

RICK WEST: I had no idea
at this time that she was

in any kind of trouble
until I look up.

NARRATOR: What Rick sees
fills him with horror.

On her very first jump,
his wife's main parachute

has failed.

Desperate, Shayna releases
it and tries her reserve.

RICK WEST: And then her
reserve didn't work out so well.

RICK: Shayna!

NARRATOR: Unable to help,
Rick realizes he is

watching what will be his
wife's final moments.

RICK WEST: Shayna is
spinning out of control.

RICK: Shayna!

NARRATOR: Eight thousand
feet from the ground,

Shayna's reserve
parachute has tangled.

She is now plummeting
uncontrollably towards the

ground at over seventy
feet per second.

RICK WEST: Panic sets in.

RICK: Shayna!

RICK WEST: She kept
spinning and kept spinning

and spinning and the
closer and closer we get

I'm seeing cars, semis,
the road, buildings she

was heading right into.

RICK: Shayna!

NARRATOR: Helpless, Rick
can only watch as

Shayna spins toward
certain death.

RICK WEST: It was
horrible for me.

It was just a
sickening feeling.

RICK: Shayna! Shayna!

NARRATOR: To Rick's
horror, Shayna slams

directly into
a parking lot.

RICK: God damn it!

RICK WEST: I was sure she
was dead or going to be

dead really quick.

As soon as I landed I
turned the camera off.

I was just trying to get
to her in time to tell her

that I love her
and I'm sorry.

She was actually laying
in a pool of blood.

Her bottom lip had been
busted, peeled out, uh

split above her
nose, was wide open.

You could almost
see the bone.

NARRATOR: But something
miraculous has happened.

SHAYNA RICHARDSON: I
really did firmly believe

that I was going to die.

NARRATOR: Despite smashing
into asphalt from a height

of two miles, Shayna
is somehow alive.

SHAYNA RICHARDSON: My face
hit a split second before

the rest of my body did.

The doctors described my
facial fractures as kind

of an eggshell effect.

I broke pretty much every
bone in my face -

my ocular sockets,
my sinus cavity.

I knocked out the front
five teeth in my mouth so

they had to completely
rebuild my face.

I broke my pelvis
in three places.

I broke my right leg.

NARRATOR: Shayna's doctors
can't comprehend how she

survived her fall.

But then their jaws
drop even lower.

Shayna's not the
only survivor.

SHAYNA RICHARDSON: The
very first thing

I remember hearing from the
doctors was about the baby.

NARRATOR: Unknown to both
Shayna and Rick,

she's pregnant.

Miraculously, both
mother and baby survive.

Their son Tanner
is now five.

Somehow, this remarkable
story has a happy ending,

but the doctors are still
trying to figure it out.

SHAYNA RICHARDSON: The
doctors in that hospital

just said this is,
this is amazing.

This is a miracle.

I don't understand.

NARRATOR: So how were
Shayna and her unborn

child able to survive such
an unbelievable fall?

What had happened that
saved their lives?

Dr. Chris Hart is an
expert in aviation

accident investigation.

He's extensively studied
Shayna's accident and has

reached a controversial
conclusion.

CHRIS HART: I think the
way she hit the ground is,

is critically important
for why she survived.

NARRATOR: It's believed
that Shayna face-planted

into the ground
but Hart disagrees.

CHRIS HART: Looking at the
video, I don't believe she

hit the ground face first.

Clearly she's at about a
45 to 60 degree angle so

when she finally makes
contact with the ground

she contacts feet first,
then legs, then side, and

then finally head.

The injuries to her pelvis
and to her legs are very

common when someone
lands feet first.

If it's a head first
injury, you typically

don't see those
types of injuries.

NARRATOR: Hart believes
that the angle of Shayna's

fall was critical to her
survival as it enabled her

to inadvertently perform
a skydiving safety technique.

CHRIS HART: I think just
the laws of physics

dictated that the way her
body hit was very similar

to a parachute
landing fall.

The parachute landing
fall is a technique for

improving the odds of
surviving a hard landing

without injury.

The technique is
essentially to distribute

the force of impact
over five body points.

You start with contacting
on the balls of the feet

and then the calves, then
the thighs, then the hips,

and then the
side of the back.

You can think of the
parachute landing fall as

almost being like
a bumper on a car.

The head is what
you want to protect.

The body acts as
the shock absorber.

NARRATOR: But what about
the damage to Shayna's face?

How could a successful
parachute landing fall

have resulted in such
horrific injuries?

CHRIS HART: Even though
she didn't hit face first,

her body was traveling at
a very high rate of speed.

She sustained injuries to
every part of her body

that hit the ground.

Her face was probably the
last thing that hit the

ground, but it was still
moving fast enough to

cause some pretty
serious injuries.

Given her lack of
training, it's very

fortunate that Shayna
executed what was very

similar to a parachute
landing fall.

Had she not done that, she
almost certainly would

have perished.

She should consider
herself very fortunate.

NARRATOR: Did the
accidental execution of

the parachute landing
fall save Shayna's life?

Or is the explanation
beyond the understanding

of science?

SOPHY BURNHAM: She was exempt
from the laws of gravity.

NARRATOR:
Twenty-one-year-old Shayna

Richardson experiences
every skydiver's

nightmare: when her
parachutes fail, she slams

into the ground
from 11,000 feet.

But amazingly
Shayna survives. How?

Sophy Burnham
is an author.

She believes Shayna's
survival was, quite

literally, a miracle.

SOPHY BURNHAM: To
me her survival is

incomprehensible except
by divine intervention.

It had to be the
hand of an angel.

She was exempt from
the laws of gravity.

NARRATOR: We've all heard
of angels, but let's just

make sure we're on the
same page as Sophy.

SOPHY BURNHAM: Angels are
messengers of the divine

and they can
come in any form.

They come to the innocent,
to people whose work is

not yet finished on this
plane of existence.

Angels save people from
possible death in any way

that it can be done.

Sometimes it's by
deflecting a bullet and

sometimes it's by
preventing a car accident.

They can change all the
physical laws of the universe.

NARRATOR: No doubt they do
good work, but how exactly

did an angel save Shayna?

SOPHY BURNHAM: It is
not difficult for me to

believe that an angel
carried Shayna down or

broke her fall so that she
would not fall as swiftly

as she should have.

NARRATOR: It's an
interesting theory, but is

it supported by
scientific proof?

SOPHY BURNHAM: Lots of
times miracles occur with

scientific explanations
and are just as miraculous.

I am sure that some people
completely dismiss the

idea that an angel could
save Shayna's life.

I can't imagine what would
have happened if an angel

had not saved
Shayna that day.

There would have been her
body splattered over the

parking lot in a gory,
bloody, disgusting and

horrible, horrible
accident.

It would have
been ghastly.

WILLIAM SHATNER: Wow.
This is incredible.

Instead of being
splattered all over the

parking lot, Sophy thinks
an angel swooped down at

the last moment, somehow
taking hold of Shanya and

breaking her fall.

Could this really
be possible?

Regardless of your
beliefs, one has to admit

that Shayna's story
is, well, miraculous.

But could a guardian angel
have slowed Shayna's fall,

sparing her life and the
life of her unborn son?

And, if so, don't they
deserve some thanks?

NARRATOR: John Leach is a
survival psychologist with

the Norwegian
Armed Forces.

He believes the key to
Shayna's survival lies in

a theory that's far
more down to earth.

JOHN LEACH: If a person
is falling without a

parachute, after about
twelve seconds, they'll

reach the maximum rate of
descent, and it doesn't

matter how long they're
falling for, they will

stay at 120 miles an hour.

If Shayna had hit the
ground at normal terminal

velocity of 120 miles an
hour, she would have had a

very small chance
of surviving that.

NARRATOR: But if her
chances of surviving were

so low, how is it that
Shayna and Tanner are

still with us?

JOHN LEACH: You can see
from the video that

although the parachute was
malfunctioning, it wasn't

completely dysfunctional.

In other words, it was
still acting as a sort of

parachute and providing a
degree of drag so instead

of hitting the ground at
120 miles an hour, which

is a terminal velocity for
somebody traveling without

a parachute, she hit the
ground at 50 miles an hour

according to the records.

NARRATOR: Was Shayna's
survival connected to how

fast she hit the ground?

Or did something
else save her?

JOHN LEACH: Age plays
a role in survival for

various reasons and
a number of studies

involving analysis of
for example road traffic

accidents at different
speeds shows that one of

the best ages for
surviving an impact at

fifty miles an hour is
Shayna's age so somewhere

between the late teens
and early twenties.

NARRATOR: For Leach, the
final factor in Shayna's

survival is the angle of
impact, though with a very

different take to
Dr. Chris Hart.

JOHN LEACH: I don't think
she'd be deploying any

parachute landing
technique.

The parachute was moving
her into a more horizontal

position and the injuries
that she sustained is

consistent with that type
of impact on the ground.

The fact that she hit
the ground more or less

horizontally rather than
on her head or through her

feet also increased her
chances of survival.

NARRATOR: For Leach, the
combination of a partially

effective parachute,
Shayna's age and landing

almost flat to the ground
is enough to leave her

battered but
still breathing.

JOHN LEACH: All these
factors together all

contribute to her
chances of surviving.

So there's nothing
miraculous about it.

It's straightforward
physics.

NARRATOR: Can Shayna's
remarkable survival be

explained by physics?

Or did divine
intervention play a part?

Was she saved by
a higher power?

Or did she just get lucky
and deploy the parachute

landing fall?

For now it will remain a
head-scratcher that's most

definitely weird or what?

[♪]

NARRATOR: In Upstate New
York, a man is incinerated

in his own bed.

With no plausible
explanation, investigators

are left with a terrifying
question:

can we spontaneously combust?

RAY HARLAND: When someone
is cremated, there's

probably more remains
after that cremation than

there was at
this incident.

WILLIAM SHATNER: You know,
fire is a wonderful thing.

We've harnessed its power
in so many ways, we'd be

lost without it.

It does everything from
keeping us warm to one of

my favourites -
cooking up a storm.

Well that's uh if you can
get it started of course.

The thing about fire is
that - aha - as well as

being our best friend, it
can be our worst enemy.

Does anyone smell
anything that uh...?

NARRATOR: In 1986, college
student Ray Harland was

visiting his father Jack,
a coroner in New York state,

when
the phone rang.

[phone rings]

It would lead them on
the most mysterious and

bizarre journey
of their lives.

RAY HARLAND: My dad owns
the local funeral home and

he was also the
county coroner.

They just said that there
was an unattended death

and one of us always went
with him to help him with

removals.

NARRATOR: The deceased
is a 58-year-old retired

fireman - George Mott.

When Ray and Jack
arrive at Mott's house,

everything seems normal.

RAY HARLAND: It was just a
typical home in the back

roads of the Adirondacks.

NARRATOR: But nothing has
prepared the Harlands for

what they find inside.

RAY HARLAND: The first
words out of the state

trooper's mouth to my
dad was uh I don't think

you're gonna need your
stretcher for this one.

NARRATOR: Entering the
house, Ray and Jack notice

something that tells them
this is no ordinary death.

RAY HARLAND: There was a
thin black film covering

everything.

It was like a dust powder.

It was strange because it
looked like there was a

fire but there's
nothing really charred.

NARRATOR: Where
is George Mott?

As they move deeper into
the house, they're about

to make a shocking
discovery.

RAY HARLAND: When we
walked into the bedroom

you could see where
Mr. Mott was laying.

In my lifetime growing up
in the funeral home I've

probably seen over a thousand
bodies in various conditions.

I've been to fires before
too and never anything,

nothing like that.

There was a perfect
outline of his body burned

into the mattress and the
only thing that was left

of him was his head, a few
ribs and his right foot.

Everything else was gone.

NARRATOR: What happened
to George Mott?

The charred remains
suggest he died in a fire,

but this was no
ordinary blaze.

RAY HARLAND: Usually in a
fire incident the whole

body remains.

You never see parts
of the body missing.

To put it in perspective,
when someone is cremated

for five to six, sometimes
seven hours there's,

there's probably more
remains after that

cremation than there
was at this incident.

NARRATOR: It's a baffling
and gruesome mystery.

George Mott has been
incinerated to a fine powder.

But, somehow, the objects
around him are not even singed

- including a canister of
matches only inches away.

But how?

Remarkably, all over
Mott's house there is

evidence that this was a
fire unlike any other.

RAY HARLAND: Everything
plastic was melted, the

casing on the TV was
distorted and the

telephone was melted
to a ball of plastic.

NARRATOR: It's an
incredible puzzle.

What sort of heat or fire
could vaporize a man and

melt plastic but not
burn the house down?

RAY HARLAND: The firemen
thought it was a gas leak

underneath his bed but if
it was a gas leak and it

was fire, there would have
been a lot more burning.

They never found
a gas leak.

NARRATOR: It's left to
Ray to offer a theory.

RAY HARLAND: I mentioned
human spontaneous

combustion and everybody
looked at me like I was crazy.

NARRATOR: Spontaneous
human combustion, or SHC,

is a bizarre and weird
phenomenon in which a

person instantly bursts
into flames for no

apparent reason.

Amazingly, there have been
forty other cases of SHC

documented in
the last century.

RAY HARLAND: Up until
that point I don't think

anybody in that room has
heard of it and everybody

almost had the
same reaction.

What, spontaneous
combustion, what is that?

NARRATOR: The
investigation into George

Mott's death failed to
reach a conclusion, but

Ray Harland has no
doubt what happened.

RAY HARLAND: I still
believe that it was

spontaneous combustion
because there was, there

was no other explanation.

This is what I saw.

WILLIAM SHATNER: Now
this is weird or what.

I mean we know heavy
metal rock drummers

spontaneously combust all
the time but an innocent,

harmless man minding his
own business in bed and

then poof - he
goes up in smoke?

I mean what's going
here? Are any of us safe?

Oh no, not again.

NARRATOR: Was George
Mott a victim of SHC?

Can a human simply ignite
and burn without any

external cause?

LARRY ARNOLD: Spontaneous
human combustion is

amazing, bizarre,
horrific.

Given all of that,
it still happens.

NARRATOR: A man is
incinerated by a bizarre,

inexplicable fire.

Is his death proof
that people can just

spontaneously catch fire?

LARRY ARNOLD: We have
spent more than three

decades looking at
this incredibly weird

phenomenon and our
conclusion is absolutely,

categorically yes
it does happen.

NARRATOR: Larry
Arnold is a writer.

He's dedicated himself
to the study of SHC.

He came to the scene
of the George Mott

conflagration.

LARRY ARNOLD: To be at
the scene of one of these

remarkably rare and
phenomenal events is eerie.

It's unearthly.

We look at the person who
used to be there and we're

looking at something
burned more completely

than after several hours
at several thousand

degrees Fahrenheit.

NARRATOR: But if Mott
self-immolated,

how did it happen?

Arnold believes the answer
can be found in something

so tiny we can't
even see it.

LARRY ARNOLD: We wondered
how much energy it takes

to cremate someone like
George Mott in natural

conditions and if there
could be a particle that

would have that amount of
energy contained with it.

So we pulled up a theory
from quantum physics,

crunched the numbers.

You come up with a
particle that is

incredibly small, much
smaller than an atom but

it has an energy level
which is humungous.

NARRATOR: Arnold calls
these subatomic particles

pyrotrons.

He believes they may be
tiny but they pack a punch.

LARRY ARNOLD: It's so
small that it can pass

through three-dimensional
matter almost unimpeded,

perhaps through galaxies
without ever striking something.

NARRATOR: But, according
to Arnold, when the

pyrotron does connect with
something physical the

results are catastrophic.

LARRY ARNOLD: On rare
occasion luck runs out,

happenstance happens and
in those conditions when

the pyrotron with its
incredibly high energy

impacts something inside a
human being we posit the

end result is spontaneous
human combustion.

In essence a human
Hiroshima effect, a

thermal nuclear explosion,
if you will, in the body.

NARRATOR: Is spontaneous
human combustion the

result of a pyrotron
colliding with a particle

inside the human body?

Did George Mott die from
a freak collision of physics?

JOE NICKELL: There simply
is no plausible way by any

chemical mechanism known
that the body could just

suddenly burst into flames
and proceed to be destroyed.

NARRATOR: Joe Nickell is
an investigator of the

paranormal and a firm
believer that spontaneous

human combustion is a
myth with a rational

explanation.

JOE NICKELL: I looked at
thirty historical cases

from the eighteenth
century throughout the

twentieth century and in
every case I could find a

plausible source
for the ignition.

The most logical
explanation for the George

Mott fire was a canister
of matches sitting on, of

all places, his
oxygen enricher unit.

He had either been
somewhere to light a stove

or something and at a
spark could have gotten

onto his clothes.

NARRATOR: But how could
a spark, or a cigarette,

burn a human body to the
extent seen in SHC cases?

JOE NICKELL: In the
forensic literature is

something known as the
wick effect and that is if

you think of a wick in a
candle, the wick is not

doing much burning.

The wick is
simply a conduit.

Now if you think of the
human body as sort of a

candle inside out, the
body has a lot of fat.

It's very flammable.

NARRATOR: Sounds horrific.

How can someone
become a human candle?

JOE NICKELL: The clothing
acts as a kind of wick in

which once the body begins
to burn that body fat can

be absorbed by clothing,
mattress, and that begins

this cyclical process in
which the body burns,

releasing more body fat to
destroy still more of the

body to release more.

It's the wick effect
that's helping this burn

in a very efficient way.

NARRATOR: But if your
clothes catch fire you

simply put them
out, right?

JOE NICKELL: In some
cases, the person may have

had a seizure
or heart attack.

In other cases, they may
have been lying asleep and

smoldering material
near them first started

burning, creating a lot of
smoke and they may have

died of smoke inhalation
and never woken up.

NARRATOR: Nickell believes
that his theory can

explain the almost
complete lack of fire

damage around the body.

JOE NICKELL: Since there's
never a big fire here,

nearby objects are
not gonna be burned.

Just as you can sit
just inches away from a

campfire and toast a
marshmallow and not be

burned, the same is true
with this wick effect.

NARRATOR: But does this
explain the other objects

that were melted
throughout George's house?

JOE NICKELL: The heat of
course is gathering and rising.

Objects above a certain
line will be melted

because the heat has
accumulated there and in

the Mott case there
was soot all over.

There's usually a sooty
deposit if there's a lot

of organic material
being burned.

NARRATOR: For Nickell,
the answer is clear.

JOE NICKELL: If science
knows anything about

spontaneous human combustion
it is that it doesn't exist.

The George Mott
case was a mystery.

I would consider it
basically a mystery solved.

NARRATOR: Does Nickell's theory
prove that SHC does not exist?

Can these horrific deaths be
explained by the wick effect?

LARRY ARNOLD: We've
tried to conduct those

experiments ourself.

We know others in the forensics
field who have done so.

They can't replicate
these fire scenes under

controlled scientific
conditions.

It doesn't work for us and
it did not work for the

local investigators
in Essex County.

Spontaneous human
combustion is amazing,

bizarre, horrific.

Given all that,
it still happens.

NARRATOR: So is
spontaneous human

combustion real?

It's a debate that
will continue to rage.

One thing we do know for
certain though:

it's definitely weird or what.

[♪]

NARRATOR: A British woman
reports an ability that

defies science.

Can she harness
electrical power?

DEBBIE WOLF: The
possibilities of things

going wrong are just
mind-blowingly frightening.

WILLIAM SHATNER: You know,
when it comes to medicine

there's very little modern
science can't explain.

Oh my god, what is that
disgusting thing in there?

Oh. Sometimes we come across
things that are not only

inexplicable, they send a
shiver down your spine -

or in the case of our next
story, a million volts

through your hand.

Whoa.

Weird - ooh - or what?

NARRATOR: Growing up in
London, England,

Debbie Wolf thought she
was a normal child.

DEBBIE WOLF: I think when
you're a small child you

don't realize you're
different from anyone else

but my mum got it
pretty quickly I think.

NARRATOR: Shortly after
Debbie turned four,

her mother noticed there was
something rather unusual

about her daughter.

DEBBIE WOLF: My mum noticed
like hotspots of problems.

It was just the era of um
everyone had walkmans and

I'd drain the batteries
and light bulbs seemed to

be quite vulnerable.

My mum wouldn't touch me
if she was switching the

light switch on because a
jolt of electricity would

go through her.

NARRATOR: Incredibly, it
seems this tiny girl had

somehow become supercharged
with electricity,

but what could cause this
weird phenomenon?

For Debbie and her family,
it's just the start of a

bizarre and literally
shocking ordeal.

DEBBIE WOLF: Every time I
walked past the telly the

channels would start
changing or the volume

would go up or down or
it would switch off.

I was always excluded
from the lounge when the

football was on because
my dad didn't want me

changing the channels.

NARRATOR: Incredibly, when
Debbie interacts with

anything electrical
havoc ensues.

She fries appliances,
drains batteries and

explodes light bulbs.

And as she gets older,
the condition gets worse.

DEBBIE WOLF: There's
one particular occasion

that I remember.

Um I can't have been
more than about six.

We went to the shop, one
of my mom's favourite

shops and as we went past
each street light it went

off and on and off and
on as we passe them.

NARRATOR: Remarkably,
Debbie's electrical power

grows with every step.

By the time they arrive
at the shop, things are

getting out of control.

DEBBIE WOLF: They had
these metal rails where

the clothes were displayed
and for some reason that

seemed to spark me so much
so that I could touch it

and you'd see sparks and
hear the crack of the spark.

So my mum tried to
herd me away from that.

NARRATOR: But her mom
doesn't act fast enough.

Debbie's touch electrifies
the entire store, blowing

the fuses and plunging it
into complete darkness.

Terrified of her young
child's weird power,

Debbie's mom rushes
her from the shop.

DEBBIE WOLF: My mum made
rules about what I was

allowed to do and not
allowed to do because um

it was disruptive.

NARRATOR: What happened
to Debbie Wolf?

Could she be cured by
medicine, or did she need

an electrician?

Sadly, her condition
hasn't gone away.

Over three decades later
she is still suffering.

DEBBIE WOLF: I've
affected everything.

I lost a job in a
nightclub because every

time I walked past the deejay
box the music would go off.

My house is just like a
graveyard of electrical goods.

DEBBIE WOLF: The thing I
hate most to do but I have

to do it anyway is flying.

I just hate flying.

The fear of being able to
stop a plane in mid air

and having it drop out of
the sky, no, no, no 'cause

the possibilities of
things going wrong are

just mind-blowingly
frightening.

NARRATOR: Is Debbie
somehow generating lethal

amounts of electricity?

If so, how? And why?

Incredibly, she isn't the
only one suffering from

this bizarre affliction.

Thousands of others have
it too and it's even been

given a name - Street
Light Interference syndrome.

Those who have it
are called SLIders.

What are sliders and
where do they get their

supercharged powers?

Are they a threat to
themselves - or even us?

Bill Beaty is an
electrical engineer.

He thinks he can
explain sliders.

BILL BEATY: I um first
heard about this um in the

eighties and I started
wondering - are they some

kind of electric
generator?

NARRATOR: Could sliders
like Debbie actually be

generating their
own electricity?

How could she do it?

Beaty thinks her power
could be an extension of

something we've
all experienced.

BILL BEATY: If you scuff
on the rug and touch a

doorknob and you hear
that little click, that's

static electricity.

The effect is caused by
your body being charged.

NARRATOR: Rubbing your
feet steals negatively

charged electrons
from the carpet.

With each step you steal
more electrons and develop

more of a negative charge
- something easily

detected with a voltmeter.

BILL BEATY: If I scuff on
the rug watch what happens.

I'm scuffing my shoe and
they're all, they're all

turning on and off.

NARRATOR: But could this
build up enough charge to

affect a streetlight?

Beaty believes sliders
could generate large

amounts of static
electricity in another way.

BILL BEATY: Well there's
one thing that um humans

do which might explain
this and that's um

breathing.

NARRATOR: Every day, humans
take over 25,000 breaths.

Remarkably, Beaty thinks
it's possible we can steal

a few electrons from the
air each time we breathe

in and eventually
supercharge our bodies.

BILL BEATY: If you can
charge your body up by

breathing, you have this
field, invisible field of

voltage around your body
that can affect electronic

devices even from
a few feet away.

NARRATOR: But if everyone
breathes air, why would

only a few people, like
Debbie, turn into human

lightning bugs?

BILL BEATY: There's a
chance that it could be a

virus that hasn't
been discovered yet.

There are a few viruses
that they're not like the

flu or colds and instead
when you catch it there's

almost um no change.

NARRATOR: Could some
yet-to-be discovered virus

alter the lungs of sliders
just enough to strip

electrons from the
air and turn them into

supercharged humans?

Or is Beaty's theory a few
connections short of a circuit?

BILL BEATY: Well I was
attracted to it because

it's weird but the vast
unstudied collection of

weird things, some of
those are real and those

are Nobel Prize
discoveries.

WILLIAM SHATNER: So
let me get this right.

Sliders have an innate
ability to wreak havoc on

electrical goods,
especially streetlights. Right?

And one guy thinks the
reason they can do this is

there's a virus going
around that can

supercharge your
body as you breathe.

[blows air]

Nothing.

[blows air]

Can't we come up with
a better explanation?

I mean when it comes to
electrical faults, isn't

it just a matter of some
dummy doing something stupid?

NARRATOR: So do sliders
really have the power to

generate electricity?

LEE COLVILLE: The
phenomena, to me,

is not a real
phenomena at all.

NARRATOR: Around the
world, hundreds of people

known as sliders claim
to have the ability to

interfere with
electricity.

Do they have a
science-baffling superpower?

Lee Colville has studied
sliders for five years.

He thinks he's found
another way to explain the

phenomenon.

LEE COLVILLE: It's highly
improbable anyone can

generate enough electricity
to affect a street lamp.

The most plausible
explanation to me is

basically pure
coincidence.

NARRATOR: But how could
pure chance explain the

incredible effect sliders
have over electrical

devices like street lamps?

LEE COLVILLE: Most people
are not aware of how the

street light works or what
happens when a street

light malfunctions.

Here we have a
common example

of a street lamp, which is
a high pressure sodium lamp.

NARRATOR: Many
streetlights use powerful

sodium light bulbs.

When they get old, they
don't just burn out or

even flicker like
fluorescent bulbs.

Instead, they begin a
process called cycling.

LEE COLVILLE: It
will turn off.

When it cools down, it
will basically come on again.

Obviously it will get too
hot, then it'll cool down

again, come back on
again, cycling on and off

periodically.

NARRATOR: If someone
walked under a cycling

streetlamp at just the
right moment, they could

think they turned it off.

But what about
Debbie Wolf?

She made a whole
street go haywire.

LEE COLVILLE: A row of
lamps that was probably

installed at the same time
so the chances are that if

one is faulty you're gonna
find another one that is

faulty along the same row.

NARRATOR: Do faulty
streetlights

explain this mystery?

What about all the other
electrical gadgets

that sliders like
Deborah destroy?

LEE COLVILLE:
Static electricity.

It's mundane as that.

If you got someone with
very dry skin, you could

build up quite a large
voltage and by touching

any electrical appliance
it could discharge and

cause damage to
sensitive components.

NARRATOR: Are sliders
just mistaking static

electricity and
coincidence for superpowers?

LEE COLVILLE: There's no
reason to be frightened of

spending time around an
alleged slider because the

phenomena, to me, is not
a real phenomena at all.

NARRATOR: So is this
the end of the mystery?

Maybe not.

Suwan Jeyasinghe is a
mechanical engineer who

was intrigued by
Debbie's story.

SUWAN JEYASINGHE: A person
being able to produce

energy or harness energy
is much like the X-Men so

it kind of provoked
my interest.

NARRATOR: He's come up
with a remarkable new

theory to explain
what is happening.

SUWAN JEYASINGHE: I'm a
bit skeptical that the

body alone can generate
enough energy to knock off

electrical street lights
but Debbie's body could

absorb energy from around
us and release it in form,

in the form of an
electrical pulse.

NARRATOR: Instead of
creating electrical

energy, could Debbie
actually be sucking it up

from the world around her?

SUWAN JEYASINGHE:
Electricity plays quite an

important role in
our human body.

Theoretically, one could
possess the ability to store

electricity through their
bodies just like a capacitor.

NARRATOR: Capacitors are
common in all electronics.

They are used to gradually
soak up excess electricity

and then discharge
it in a flash.

Could Debbie be a
human capacitor?

SUWAN JEYASINGHE: Her body
may possess molecules that

are able to
harness this power.

NARRATOR: To prove his
theory, Jeyasinghe has

conducted tests designed
to try and stimulate

Debbie into releasing
an electrical charge.

Using an oscilloscope, an
instrument which measures

voltage, he compares her
output to someone with a

normal charge.

SUWAN: And what I'm gonna
do is I'm gonna show you

some images, see whether
we are able to simulate

some electricity, okay?

NARRATOR: Debbie seems to
become most electric when

she is excited
or stressed.

Jeyasinghe uses images he
hopes will recreate those

feelings.

Although not conclusive,
some of Jeyasinghe's

experiments have produced
surprising results.

SUWAN JEYASINGHE: With
Debbie, we noticed that

there was voltage that was
being measured from her

body that was different
to what coulde measured

from ours, so the slider
phenomenon does exist.

NARRATOR: But this
phenomenon isn't something

Debbie can turn on
and off at will.

DEBBIE WOLF: It's very
hard to bring myself to a

place where I'm going to
be electric I suppose.

I mean I'd be a much
richer person if I could

do circus tricks
and I can't.

It just happens.

NARRATOR: Are Debbie and
thousands like her really

able to store electricity
and release it in a flash?

Could a rare virus have turned
them into human generators?

Or could it all be just
a series of

shocking coincidences?

Whatever the answer, it's
most definitely weird or what?

[♪]

NARRATOR: So
there we have it,

three bizarre
medical mysteries.

An Arkansas woman baffles
medical professionals by

surviving a horrific
skydiving accident.

In Upstate New York, a man
vaporized in a fire leaves

investigators asking: can
humans spontaneously combust?

And a group of people
report being able to

interfere with
electricity.

Do they have an
inexplicable super power?

You decide.

WILLIAM SHATNER: Join me
again next time for more

stories that will
undoubtedly be

weird or what?

[♪]