Lightning is a powerful
natural phenomenon. A bolt of lightning can carry 120,000 amps of current—and
it only takes 1/10th of an amp to kill a person.
The chance of a person
in the US being struck by lightning in a year is estimated at about 1 in
960,000—literally, one in a million. Of those struck by lightning, about 90 percent
survive.
What would you think
about a person who was struck by lightning, and who survived? Well, first of
all, unlucky to have been struck, but lucky to have survived.
But what would you think
about a person who had been struck by lightning twice? That’s a one in a trillion possibility. It’s far more likely to win Powerball than
to be struck by lightning twice. So, what would you think? Really
unlucky, right? And, if they survived, really lucky,
right?
How about a person who
was struck by lightning three times? In other words, this one-in-a-million
possibility occurred to this person three times already, a one in quintillion
chance. Would you start to think that maybe this person might have something
strange going on with them? Some odd affinity for lightning? Some bizarre
attraction for lightning? And if they survived all three lightning strikes,
would you say that this, too, was pretty remarkable? That this person was
pretty special in some way?
What if they were
struck—and survived—four times?
How about five times?
Or six?
Seven?
A man named Roy Sullivan
was struck by lightning seven times during a 35-year period, and survived every
strike. His worst injuries were burns.
Admittedly, he worked as
a park ranger, which would put him outdoors a lot. But there are many people
who work outside all their lives who are never struck by lightning even once,
never mind seven times. Also, Sullivan was not outside in the park for several
of the strikes. Once, he was driving a truck. Once, he was in his own front
yard.
I wouldn’t want to
describe this poor man’s terrible experiences as a super power. But it
certainly seems like some kind of an ability, or, rather, a pair of abilities, possibly
related to each other: the ability to attract lightning, and the ability to survive it.
This extreme example also
suggests that people in general have more going on with them than they might
think. That the human body is capable of more than we might suppose.
Enough to attract—and
survive—lightning.
