Human Lightning Rods

electromagnetic field. Well, in this episode, we're exploring a similar misnomer, this idea that some unique individuals are natural lightning rods. Although I'm going to guess there are probably less people who think they are human lightning rods than watch stoppers. Yeah, because it's one of those things like strike me once with lightning, shame on you strike me seven times. Well, maybe maybe there's something weird going on with me. It's true,

and we'll get into that. There's a idea that you know that has been kicked around, like could it be genetic? Could could lightning strikes be attracted a certain people. I'm guessing you guys know the answer to that, But we'll discuss it in a bit more. Um, But let's talk about the anatomy of a bolt of lightning because this is really, in and of itself a very cool thing. Yes,

lightning is very cool. Has anyone who's ever seen it can can certainly test ouh and uh and I would also want to call back to our episode from Stuff to blow your kid's mind when we talked about lightning. But essentially, you have this, uh, this generated electrical charge and it needs to get to the earth. It does, and think think about what's going on weatherwise. You have down drafts and up drafts and they're all colliding and

uh dogs everything. Now you're just putting yoga in it. Uh. They're colliding with unstable air and these particles collide and you know it might be particles of ice or rain,

and they cause electrical charges to separate. So if you're thinking about this in terms of the cloud, um, if you've got the cloud in mind, think about this positive charges shooting high and then the negative charges hanging low within the cloud, and then the electrical imbalance kind of hangs in the air and intensiflies within the cloud and then between the cloud and the ground. So most of the lightning that you see is cloud. The clouds just

kind of playing with each other. But then sometimes it makes that jump to the ground again because this is this this upper portion of the storm cloud being that this is positive in the lower portion is negative. Now, the exact mechanics of this are are sort of poorly understood. That we do know that much, and we know that um as that charge increases, the field becomes more and

more intense, so intense. This is really interesting that the electrons at the Earth's surface are repelled deeper into the Earth by the strong negative charge at the lower portion of the cloud. So that's when you get to this cloud to ground lightning because you've got the repletion of electrons causing their surface to acquire a strong positive charge. This is quite a dance going on here in the atmosphere, uh.

And this is when you see the cloud to the ground electricity happen in that strong electrical charge really serving as a conductive path and serving and then in the air serving as an insulator. Right now, when when lightning is traveling to the Earth, it's it's it tends to be very sensible about things. It tends to be very economic, and we can see that reflected in our basic understanding of what not to do during a lightning storm. Like,

what do they tell you not to do? Don't stand under a tall tree why because the tall tree is more likely to be hit by lightning. Don't play golf during a lightning storm. In other words, don't stand up in a in a in a wide open area while raising a piece of metal over your head because you're

susceptible to lightning strike. Right. Why because this flash of light it heats the air around it to nearly fifty thousand degrees fahrenheit about twenty almost twenty eight thousand degrees celsius, and that is hotter than surface of the sun, and the scorching heat really forces the air to expand in an explosion of thunder. That is why you don't want

to wave around a golf club. So yeah, as you said that, as a charge near the ground, something like a tall tree will send positive charges surging up it. And that's why it connects so well with something really tall like a tree or house, a telephone poll and then of course people, right, this is where it all

comes down to. You frequently struck by lightning, but with with humans, Yes, humans do get struck by lightning, and in many cases, uh, there's not a lot of opportunity to test the theory that this individual is more susceptible to lightning, because one good boat can and will kill you in many cases. Yeah, although a lot of people do survive it, but one one will do its um.

In case you're wondering what's going on in the United States, in terms of statistics, lightning researchers estimate that twenty two million lightning flashes strike the ground each year, and of course the majority of that is in Florida, which is at Central Florida has been called a lightning alley and they have on average twelve flashes of lightning pursh square kilometer the year. This is a lot. And so why is the most common month to get struck between the

hours of noon to six pm? So what's going on here? Is Florida just cursed by God? Well that's one interpretation. No, Now, it's all about weather, right, They have tons of it, and they have tons of moisture and warmth and there you know, we've got the ocean there and lo and behold you have sort of the perfect storm, as you would say, and you have a lot of people out golfing, voting, etcetera.

So you have a lot of lightning, a lot of people putting themselves in a position to be hit high lightning. Put those two together, it's natural what's going to occur. And now, so obviously we've talked about the tall objects. We've talked about power lines, reckon. We haven't talked about power lines, but power lines metal, All of these things you would want to stay away from. Um, most people think that includes cars, but that is in fact the opposite.

A car can actually protect you. And I wanted to mention this just because we're kind of going through and debunking a couple of things. Um, Yes, cars metal, but what it does is it acts as a sort of Faraday cage for you. And when I talked about a fair Day cage, I'm talking about something that is conducting the electrons over the surface but keeping the inside neutral. So that's what a car is basically doing. It has nothing to do with rubber tires or you wearing rubber soles. Um.

It's just basically crux. Yes, it's just basically that you are protected because of these electrons moving along the surface of the car and not on you. And it's also worth pointing out when we talk about human lightning rods. Of course, the lightning rod in essence is a is a rod that is erected on, say a building, with the understanding that, hey, we have a tall building in the middle of nowhere, lightning is going to strike it.

So I'm going to have this, uh, this rod here in place so that the lightning will strike this rod, and that's grounded in such a way that it doesn't impact the rest of the building. Right, And that's really important when I when I talk about Faraday or um, the Faraday cage or the car, you're talking about the path of it going into the ground and away from it. So the car, obviously the path of lightning electricity is running along the wall, water or down the tires and

into the ground. Yeah, bolt of lightning sensible, dude. It wants to get where it's going if you if you offer an alternate route that's a little more sensible, it will take that instead. So what have we learn so far right here in terms of being at the wrong place at the wrong time, trying not to visit Florida in the month of July and then decide to picnic on a golf course under a cypress tree while entertaining

your picnic guests by twirling a baton. Let's say, no golfing on a boat in there in the middle of a storm either, that's always a no note. Yeah, And and try to stay away from a phone booth too, because we're talking about lightning hitting the ground and traveling you that telephone booth and up the wires, and if you're happy to be in there holding the telephone, that is not a good situation. Yeah, definitely worth thinking about. The more and more that we end up of burying

our power lines and whatnot. It's easy to maybe see that booth and think, oh, well that's a place of safety, but not so another thing for for mighty Thor's sake, try not to be of the male persuasion. Yeah, now this is uh, this is pretty interesting as well, and I believe it's making the rounds very recently. Uh. The idea here is that of individuals hit by lightning our ment. So then that's a pretty high percentage when you know, essentially we're talking I mean, we're talking about half of

the the species. If we were all getting hit equally, to be about fifty, but I don't know, it's eighty. So what are we to make of that the lightning hates men? Lightning hates men? Well, yeah, so you could say, all right, well this is the act of of of wrathful God and knows that that the men are worse and therefore are deserving of more lightning. Uh. There are some other crazier theories. The one you ran across was

a head to do with the proteins. Uh, no, minerals something I did not go into much iron too much, but it was something like the accumulation of minerals would make men more conductive. I abandoned this article, by the way, But yeah, there are a lot of different ideas. You know. Some people will say, oh, we'll men tend to be taller, so maybe they're more likely to be hit by lightning.

But well, actually there's some information out there that says try to make yourself as small as possible if you are out in a thunderstorm and you are the tallest thing out there. I thought that was more like you want to be submissive to an angry guy, so you just sort of a little bit because if you're proud and like you know, you're doing like chest out, you're just asking for the word is going to take you on.

But no, I mean if you have an umbrella above your head, which is an entirely different can of worms there with an umbrella, but really anything that makes yourself taller. There's this idea to you that men participate more in outdoor sports like fishing and golfing, and therefore there increasing their exposure times to storms. And then there's an idea that men are taking more risks in these sorts of situations. They're out there hunting down the food while the woman

is back cooking it in the kitchen. Well maybe if you're in the mafia. Yeah, no, I don't know what I mean. I see that. I see that there's a logic here that you know, men are going to get struck more than women because you know, let's say that you work on power lines. Um, you know, most likely with the data we have available, you're probably a man. Yeah. And then also you get into the I two that you know, again the men are more more of a risk taker but also a little stupider, and that they

don't want to be seen as a whim. So it's like, well, I guess it's there's a lightning storm moving in. Maybe we should go home. And stop playing golf. Do you want to be that guy? You want to be the guy who says, ah, well heck with that, that's not God's not going to stop this golf game, and then you keep going. So the idea too, is that men are more likely to be that fool hardy regarding their

their risk of likning strike. Well. I think a good example of work related injuries and just a good example of someone being struck repeatedly and actually thinking that thor might be after him is a guy by the name of Roy Cleveland Sullivan, and I think we've actually mentioned him before. He was a force ranger at the Shenandoah National Park in Virginia, and he was struck seven times, once while in the lookout tower, in once while driving

while walking across his front yard. This was in nineteen seventy. Like that one was just you know, it's different if you're the top of the tower, but dude was just like getting his mail or something exactly, standing in a ranger station on patrol in the park, check at camp ground, and then fishing. So after the fourth one, he has to have said that to have gotten very paranoid and begin to think that some force was after him, and

I cannot blame him. Yeah, because again, we tend to see, uh, you know, we tend to apply meaning to patterns, and the crazier the pattern than well, the crazier at the meaning, we end up coming up with Ford. And you know, once you're own lightning hit five or six, I can certainly understand it. Also, there's a there's a biological toll to be taken here, So I mean it can. Lightning strikes can cause a host of of physical ailments, and

some of them are neurological in nature. Yeah. Actually, let's take a quick break and when we get back, we're gonna talk a little bit more about that. All right, we're back, and we're gonna talk about a little something cooled coronopathy. And this is a pathology of lightning, and a handful of specialists actually study the effects of lightning on living things. Again, there's probably not a lot of subjects that these specialists can look at, because thankfully, lightning

strikes are fairly rare. Yeah, like, I don't I don't know that we have a there's a coronapathy clinic in my neighborhood. No, no, no, Well, you know, if you live in a super fancy neighborhood. Maybe that's when you get your own or right, maybe in Florida it's more more likely. But you know, I was looking at the map of showing where lightning strikes are are likely to occur, and George's actually it was in the black on the

on the map. Blogger and science journalist Kyle Hill says that people being bags of electrolytes, are better transmitters of electrical current than most ground is, and many are injured by ground current. Each year's lightning surges up one leg that is closer to the strike, and then down the one that's further away. Yeah, and that's just something to keep in mind because again we're talking about lightning striking people and the reason it does what it does, and

the sort of effects that we have afterward. Dr Elizabeth Glurbier of the Electricity de France, so please don't write in I know it's an awful pronunciation in France, says that lightning survivors experience residual effects, most commonly affecting the brain and the neuropsychiatric, vision and hearing sections, and that these effects can actually develop slowly and become apparent only much later. Yeah, and plus you're throwing and stuff like

just you know, post traumatic stress syndrome as well. I mean, just the the the experience of being struck by lightning is is pretty intense. Well, it is forever changing, and it's not something that we think about all the time because again it's rare. But you tend to think of people being struck by lightning and having these incredible abilities afterward, because we have a couple examples of this. Oh, yes,

we've we've talked about before. The individual who's suddenly had a profound interest in piano music, right and and and someone who had never played the piano before became a composer and actually a wonderful pianist. M He was actually in a phone booth when he was struck by lightning, by the way, But really the most common symptoms that happen physically, you will suffer some burns, but not a lot um. You can get burned through the sweat that's

vaporized by the lightning um. Mentally, the person may suffer from short term memory loss, have difficult difficulty mentally storing new information and accessing old information, get tired very easily because their mental processes are being taxed. Um, they're not really used to sort of running at the same speed that they were before. The personality can change, become very irritable,

and they often suffer irreparable nerve damage. Um. And this is something that again it's not we don't think of with lightning strikes, but this is stuff that will affect them in various ways depending on how they were struck, and they often have chronic headaches, some of which are

really debilitating and SUPERINTENSEE. We're looking at some photos of what we call Lichtenberg figures, and you see these, uh you see these on for instance, cattle sometimes that have been struck by lightning into in this one particular instance, on a human being who had been struck, and it's this crazy kind of like tree like pattern, like if you didn't know any better, you'd look at it and I think it was some sort of a body art like like, yeah, I was gonna say it looks tribal

kind of a thing, yeah, because that's sort of like a tree branching out and there is a beauty to it. But I think that one of the things that the lictomrid figures, as it shows you it is evidence of how life altering being struck by lightning would be, or having that sort of current run through your body. That's the sort of imprint that it can make. Sometimes. Yeah, it's like you are you are marked by it, very

deep and profound sense. And of course you have individuals who claim, and this is even less likely, but you have individuals who claim that they have a genetic susceptibility to lightning strikes, that it runs in the family. For there was recently um an episode of on Being an interview with the author Kevin Kling, and uh Kling argued that or not they didn't really seriously argue, but he he claimed that there that lightning strikes run in his family. Again,

all the factors that go into it. We you can ask questions like, well, does your family tend to live in Florida? Does your family tend to climb things a lot? Are you a very outdoorsy family? Are you fisherman? You know, there are all these other factors that go into it. That really has nothing to do with a cursed family lineage or something in your genes that makes you especially susceptible to a lightning strike. But you know, always thinking

about the ancestral Memories episode. Then we talked about sometimes that you take on your family's history and you repeat it, and if this becomes part of your family's mythology, then you begin to especially if if you have an uncle or and or someone in the family that is marked like this, with this Lichtenburg figure, you can easily see how someone might begin to think this is, you know, something that is a curse on their family and not necessarily looking at it like, well, you know, we we

work out in the outdoors quite a bit, and we live in Florida, or you know, various other factors that would make the likelihood even greater for this family to be struck. Yeah, there's a great character in Corte McCarthy's All the Pretty Horses, a character in Blevins, and I think this is reflected in the film version as well. But um he he claims to have this history of lightning strikes, and there's this this great bit where he's

explaining it. He says, it runs in my family. My granddaddy was killed in a mind bucket in West Virginia. It run down in the whole hundred and eighty feet to get him. Couldn't even wait for him to get up to the top. They had to wet down the bucket to cool it for they could get him out of it. Him and two other men. It fried him like bacon. My daddy's older brother was blowed out of a derek in the Baston field in the year nineteen

and four, cable rig with a wood derek. But the lightning got him anyways, and him not nineteen years old. Great uncle on my mother's side, mother's side, I said, got killed on a horse and it never singed a hair on that horse, and it killed him graveyard dead. They had to cut cut his belt off of him

where it welded the buckle shut. And I got a cousin ain't but four years older than me, and was struck down in his own yard coming from the barn, and it paralyzed him all down one side and melted the fillings in his teeth and soldered his jaws shut.

So as persuasive persuasive? Um, alright, so you think that's persuasive, But then all you have to do, as we ever have to do when we try to get outside of ourselves, is to look to space, of course, because there's something about space and lightning going on that explored to look like weak sauce. Okay, scientists have actually observed lightning on Mars and Saturn before. Right, we know this, um, But what is nuts is that it can occur in the middle of space and it has done so to a

force equaling a trillion lightning bolts. Okay, we're talking about electrical surge, trillion lightning bolts. This current was discovered near Galaxy three C three zero three, and it's thought to be the byproduct of a nearby massive black hole that is emitting huge amounts of magnetic energy. Two. It's the biggest burst of electric current ever detected in the universe.

That is just crazy because you have not only do you have a black hole in this scenario, you have the most enormous lightning bolt ever imagined occurring as well. I mean just amazing. Like, I mean, what can you even say about that? That's drama. Yeah, that is that is some drama. All right, Well there you go. All right, well, um, what's called the about over and do some quick listener mail?

All right, this is this one comes from a slightly older episode, but listener of Brenton Wrightson and says, get a Robert and Julie. Perhaps that means this is an Australian listener. We shall find out. I love your podcast I'm slowly working my way through them, and to have just listened to the Firewalking podcast you Your mentioned of your sister putting your tongue on the car cigarette ladder made me smile, as did a similar thing when I was a kid. Just use my finger and