GABRIEL+-+Telekinesis

Back to MR W'S CLASS TOK NAT SCI ACTIVITY Can science really, thoroughly uncover and explain all the phenomenon that occur? __** Science unravels many aspects of life and the world around us through theories and new discoveries everyday, however there are some mysteries in this world that science still does not have enough evidence to support claims or simply cannot solve or have yet to solve. One of the examples of mysterious occurrences would be the deadly and puzzling concept of Spontaneous Human Combustion.
 * __
 * Spontaneous Human Combustion and the Limitations of Science **

In this case, there are four different types of "knowers' perspectives": The Scientists, the Skeptics, the Involved and the Victims. The knowers can be categorized into two headings, The First-Hand knowers (experiencers) and the Second-Hand (indirect) knowers. The Victims are directly part of the experience and are considered first hand knowers, although few victims have survived out of about 400 known cases of SHC over the past few centuries to provide accounts. The scientists and skeptics are people who have read articles, gathered evidence from sites and processed the sourced information to generate their own personal conclusions, interpretations and theories for the causes of SHC. Skeptics differ from the scientists as their opinions and conclusions reflect doubt whereas a scientist would analyze instead of critique. The involved (recue teams etc.) are slightly better related to the cases, but are not really experiencers and are therefore also under this category.

A neighbour discovered the remains of one Mary Reeser – aged 64 only as a nearly intact legs and a pile of ashes. Investigators observed that the floor and other furniture in the room were completely unburned but covered in greasy black substance. It can be noted that it takes temperatures of over 800 degrees Fahrenheit to reduce a body to ashes and yet the room was unscathed.

A similar unfortunate situation also befell, ironically, a fireman by the name of George Mott – a retired fireman in upstate New York. On the spring of 1986, local fire fighters were called to his home, only to stumble upon a strange and bizarre scene in the heat distorted bedroom. An account from Robert R. Purdy – one of the first people to inspect the scene at the Mott home states, “I have seen people in house fires that burn up and the house burned down and we dug them up and there were still torsos and limbs and things like that. This man didn’t have anything left.” Mott’s body was so destroyed firemen had trouble finding his remains. Both cases fit seem to be the occurrence SHC as defined by Larry E. Arnold – researcher and author of SHC cases, “The phenomenon of the body to blister, smoke or otherwise burn itself, without contact to a known, identifiable source of ignition.”

Skeptic Joe Nickel states that “No one was there, we don't know how it started, we don't know how it progressed, we don't know all the many little hundreds of factors that would make the difference between the fire going out or continuing or burning this way versus that way.” And therefore, there is no certainty, in his opinion that the cases were that of SHC. He also identified a possible source of ignition in the Mott case, as there was a set of matches on top of Mott’s oxygen machine that the investigators have failed to notice in order to back this statement up.

There is great controversy for the causes of SCH. Some people and physicists say it is caused by some undiscovered form of cosmic energy sets victims a fire. Others blaming balls of lightning. Another popular theory is that methane, a flammable gas, builds up in the intestines "through the decomposition of plant compounds and is ignited by enzyme activity within the body". However, cows produce a lot more methane in relativity to humans, yet no cases of spontaneous cattle combustion were ever recorded. An even bigger problem with the methane theory is that no cases of SHC exist in which the victim had their internal organs more damaged than the outside of the body, meaning that the tire must have been external.

Scientists have, therefore, come up with a more rational theory: The Wick Effect. Like how a candle burns by a wick surrounded by solid wax – containing fatty acids, the flame melts the wax, which soaks into the wick, fuelling the fire. Similarly, the human body acts according to this concept of a burning candle - the "wick" being the victim's clothing or other articles similar to this. The "wax" is the victim's body fat. After a victim catches fire from an outside source, her body fat melts in the fire, soaking into the clothing and increasing fires.

As a demonstration, a forensic scientist by the name of John de Haan in California Criminalistics Institute conducted an experiment involving the carcass of a pig – of which has a similar fat distribution to that in humans, wrapped it in blankets, sprinkled it with a little gasoline, put it on a carpet, and set it on fire. After the pig burned for some time, fat boiled out of it and soaked into the blanket and carpet, thus fueling "a hot, low-flame fire that burned for hours without spreading to other near items, eventually reducing the carcass to ashes". The experiment confirmed that the greasy residue left behind in SHC cases is actually melted body fat (as mentioned earlier) and objects in the room of alleged SHC victims, such as clocks, melt because such fires can burn at extreme temperatures for extended periods of time without being large enough to set the rest of the room on fire.

It was also observed that the victims’ legs were often intact as the limbs of the human body have much less fat that the torso and the flames tend to burn upward – this can be illustrated by lighting a match upright.

Despite all these theories to conclude what happened to victims that turned them into the state they were found in, the true question still remains, “How did the fire get started in the first place?” – A question that still requires answers, linking this all the way back to the knowledge issue - "Can science really, thoroughly uncover and explain the phenomenon that occur?"

1. Spontaneous Human Combustion. Discovery Education. 1998. Discovery Education. 31 January 2010. - [|] 2. Weir, Kirsten. "Up in smoke: scientists torch the idea that people can spontaneously burst into flame." __Current Science, a Weekly Reader publication__ 89.8 (Dec 5, 2003): 4(2). __Student Resource Center - Gold__. Gale. Dulwich College Shanghai. 31 Jan. 2010 .
 * __ Bibliography __**