Despite so many superhero movies nowadays, superpowers aren’t just a creation of Hollywood. Real people all over the world have astounding abilities and bizarre mutations that honestly seem like the stuff of comic books. From the woman with eyes as powerful as binoculars, to the people who remember everything, here are some incredible people with real superpowers.
Wim Hof, The Ice Man
Have you ever thought climbing Mt. Everest would be so much cooler without clothes? Wim Hof, a man who is practically immune to the cold, clearly has, when he scaled 23,600 ft up Everest in 2007 wearing nothing but shorts and shoes. He’s also completed a half-marathon barefoot in ice and snow, swam 188ft under ice, and has casually set more than 20 other world records for similar feats.
Some of the temperatures Wim Hof subjects himself to would be enough to kill a normal person. But Hof is able to consciously raise his body temperature through a strict regiment of meditation, breathing exercises, and practice. As crazy as it all sounds, Hof’s abilities have been verified by scientists who found he was genuinely able to alter his physiology using his mind. He was found to be able to not only regulate his own temperature, but to trigger the release of euphoria-causing hormones in his brain, serving as natural painkillers. With this combination, and repeated exposure, he can avoid succumbing to the extreme cold he puts himself through.
But this astounding ability is not unique to Hof. A 1982 study investigated how Tibetan monks practicing g-tummo yoga are able to learn to
raise their body temperature with their minds. While the precise biological methods behind this phenomenon are still speculated, the most likely explanation seems to be vasodilation, triggered by different types of breathing. Researchers believe that the monks’ breathing, alternating between forceful and gentle, dilates their blood vessels in order to allow more blood-flow throughout their body, raising their temperatures. So, next time you’re feeling a little chilly, take a few deep breaths, and you’ll be feeling like a superhero in no time.
Joy Milne, The Woman Who Can Smell Parkinson's
It may not be the most glamorous of superpowers, but Joy Milne possesses the unique ability to smell Parkinson’s disease. She discovered her ability to detect the condition, which gradually degrades sufferers’ motor functions, when her husband as diagnosed with it.
She’d noticed, in the years before his official diagnosis, he’d developed a “musky” smell, but couldn’t understand why. Joy only linked the smell to Parkinson’s after meeting others with the disease and noticing the same odor, which no one else could smell. She consulted with scientists, who tested her claimed ability by creating an experiment. The researchers had 6 people with Parkinson’s and 6 without wear t-shirts for a day, and then had Joy smell the t-shirts and determine which people had the condition. Astoundingly, 11 out of her 12 answers were correct, with her one wrong being from her insisting someone who was disease-free had the condition.
The woman who can smell Parkinson's disease - BBC News by BBC News
Amazingly, the subject of the supposedly-wrong answer was diagnosed with Parkinson’s 8 months later! This not only meant that Joy actually got 12 out of 12, but also suggested she could detect the disease earlier than current scientific methods. Researchers theorize that her abilities stem from how Parkinson’s may cause a change in the skin of sufferers, producing an odor undetectable to most people. With Joy’s amazing abilities pioneering new understandings about diagnoses, don’t be alarmed if, in the future, a trip to the doctor’s begins with them taking a big sniff.
Kim Peek, The Real Rain Main
Kim Peek, the man who served as the inspiration for the movie, “Rain Man”, was a living database. His natural gifts for comprehension and memorization of information and patterns were legitimately superhuman.
Thanks to his memorization of maps, for example, he could provide driving directions between almost any two cities in the world. With his perfect memorization of calendars, he could tell anyone what day of the week they were born on from their birth-date alone. Most impressively, he was able to read both pages of an open book at the same time, giving him the ability to speed-read at one-page-per-second with a 98% comprehension rate. What makes the story even more incredible is that Peek’s IQ only ever tested at 87. Peek was what is known as a “megasavant”, and like others of this kind, he traded off certain mental, social, and mobility skills for hyper-boosted skills in other areas. It’s thought that his abilities were due to his brain having language centers, usually only found in the left hemisphere, on both sides. This, alongside other anomalies in his brain structure, appeared to allow him to absorb and store information with tremendous speed and efficiency. But superhuman levels of memory don’t always come with the significant trade-offs Kim Peek suffered. Some people are born with Hyperthymesia, a rare condition in which individuals are able to recall almost every moment they’ve ever experienced with high levels of detail and accuracy.
While average people only tend to remember emotionally-significant events in detail, people with Hyperthymesia remember everything. When asked, they can recall details like the weather or sports results on any specific date they lived through, even if it was decades ago. People with the condition have been noted to possess significantly larger temporal lobes, the part of the brain responsible for memory, than most people. But the specifics of their abilities remain largely a mystery, and raise one particularly big question. Do their abilities to retain and recall information like this imply that everyone has this level of detail stored in memory, but most people simply can’t access it? Only time, and further study of these amazing humans, will tell.
Stephen Wiltshire, The "Human Camera"
British artist and autistic savant Stephen Wiltshire possesses the mind-blowing ability to look at any city or landscape a single time and draw it out perfectly from memory. Not only does he remember the specific details of the landscapes, but he draws them almost perfectly to scale. Each building is of perfect relative size to the others, including doors, windows, and other details, requiring hours of meticulous focus.
Stephen Wiltshire Recreates Doha from Memory by Stephen Wiltshire Scientists speculate that when taking in a landscape, Stephen’s brain is able to hyper-focus on specific details and patterns and record them, leaving out other sensory information regular folks usually absorb. He then translates it onto the page, often at a huge scale, earning him the nickname the human camera.
Michel Lotito, The Man Who Ate Metal
Frenchman Michel Lotito had the ability to eat pretty much anything, including metal, glass, and, on one occasion, an entire airplane. He began eating unusual materials around the age of 16, initially as a strange habit, and later to impress onlookers, and soon decided to channel his abilities into a career. His career arguably peaked when he consumed an entire Cessna 150 airplane, cut into bite-size pieces, over the course of 2 years.
But throughout his life, he also ate 18 bikes, 15 supermarket carts, seven TVs, six chandeliers, two beds, a computer, coffin, and skis, to name but a few items. Kind of like the career equivalent of a very weird 12 Days of Christmas remix. Mr. Eat-It-All got his odd ability from unusually thick stomach and esophagus linings and tough intestines, which kept him from being hurt. He also had unusually powerful stomach acids, which, bizarrely, meant that while metal was no problem, soft foods like bananas made him sick! On the bright side, he certainly never had to worry about an iron deficiency. He reportedly died of natural causes in 2007, though you can’t help imagining it was food-related. Maybe he ate a gate that was past its sell-by-date? Or maybe his bicycle soup wasn’t kept properly refrigerated, because he ate the fridge?
The Arsenic-Resistant People Of The Andes
The drinking water supply of San Antonio de los Cobres in Argentina is filled with 20 times the safe threshold of arsenic. Yet somehow, the residents aren’t dying. In fact, many aren’t even suffering from it. It turns out, centuries of living with this naturally-contaminated groundwater has given the people of this area a genetic mutation that makes them highly resistant to the poisonous chemical.
San Antonio de los Cobres _ Pintada mural Scholas en el Puente Huaytiquina by Scholas Occurrentes The mutation lets them process arsenic into a safer form at much higher rates than usual, preventing its harmful effects. The genetic trait seems to have developed over generations, with those bearing the mutation being more likely to live long enough to have children, passing the trait on. It’s a classic case of natural selection in action.
Jason Padgett: Brain Injury Turns Man Into Math Genius
In comic book movies, sometimes the hero has to suffer before they get their superpower. Something remarkably similar happened in real life to Jason Padgett. While being robbed outside of a bar, Jason suffered a traumatic brain injury, which caused the way he saw the world to change.
Smooth and curved objects like a stream of water now began to look like a series of pixelated lines rather than one continuous stream. The same was true for sunbeams, clouds, and even his own body. With almost everything Jason looked at being visually overlaid with geometric patterns, he became deeply interested in mathematics that described formulas for the types of shapes he was seeing. Before long, he became able to draw incredibly detailed representations of what he was seeing by hand.
His injury had left him gifted in his comprehension of mathematics, despite never having an interest previously. Baffled, he contacted a cognitive neuroscientist, who diagnosed him with synesthesia, a condition where areas of the brain that don’t usually communicate begin to do so. This can result in people hearing color or seeing sounds, or in Jason’s case, overlaying his vision and thoughts with mathematical patterns. As a result, he gained a new understanding of math as a series of geometric patterns rather than simply numbers, an approach which, intriguingly, was similarly utilized by Stephen Hawking. For most people, a hit on the head means losing braincells. For
Jason Padgett, it meant unlocking his inner genius.
Slavisa Pajkic, The Battery Man
While most people actively avoid coming into direct contact with electricity, Slavisa Pajkic takes the opposite approach. This man currently holds the world record for allowing 20,000 volts to pass through his body. For perspective, electric chairs usually use around 2,000 volts, albeit at significantly higher currents than Pajkic was faced with.
Regardless, 20,000 volts is no joke, even at miniscule currents, so how did he survive? Scientists speculate that people with abilities like Pajkic’s are able to withstand high-voltages thanks to unusual thickness and moisture levels in their skin. In Pajkic’s case, he’s hairless and was born without sweat or salivary glands. His subsequent lack of moisture appears to contribute to a much higher level of resistance in his skin than most people’s, meaning his skin naturally conducts electricity at a lower current. This helps in preventing cell damage, and means he’s less likely to sustain damage to vital organs like his heart. Essentially, his skin is like a rubber glove for his entire body. With his abilities, he can channel a safely-reduced current across his body, allowing him to spark alcohol-soaked rags aflame, and even heat up forks to cook hotdogs.
This crazy lifestyle began for Pajkic when he accidently touched a live wire at work and, to his co-workers’ surprise, felt no pain. From that point on, he’s spent his life testing the limits of what he can do. Of course, it’s likely that some of Pajkic’s acts are exaggerated with elements of creative showmanship. This is something he has in common with other electricity-channeling performers like
China’s Zhang Deke, who channels current through his fingers, completing a circuit to light bulbs on his head. But despite some exaggerations in the name of entertainment, various tests have confirmed that, at the very least, Slavisa Pajkic’s skin has some seriously abnormal electrical resistance. Shocking stuff!
Ben Underwood, The Boy Who Could See Without Eyes
At the age of 3, Ben Underwood lost his eyes due to retinal cancer. Despite this, he survived the illness, and as he grew older, he adapted to his blindness in an unbelievable way. Ben became one of the few humans capable of echolocation, which is the technique bats use to see in the dark.
Echolocation works by the user making a noise, in Ben’s case, clicking his tongue, and then using the reflections of the sound waves to form a mental picture of the surrounding area. Ben’s reached such proficiency in
seeing using his ears that he was able to safely ride a bike, play football and basketball, and even skateboard. Tragically, Ben passed away in 2009 at the age of 16, when the cancer that took his vision returned, but his incredible story continues to inspire to this day.
Veronica Seider, The Woman with Superhuman Vision
Veronica Seider of Germany suits the title of “eagle-eyed” better than anyone else on Earth. In 1972, it was reported that her visual acuity, which is like the eyeball equivalent of the number of pixels on a screen, was 20 times that of an average person.
Thanks to the unique, ultra-efficient arrangement of the rods and cones packed into her retina, she was found to be capable of identifying individuals from over a mile away. As if that wasn’t enough, she proved her visual prowess by neatly hand-writing out 20 verses of poetry on a piece of paper the size of a thumbnail. That’s 20 verses, not just lines! And all without a magnifying glass. Given most people would have trouble coloring neatly within the lines, Veronica’s pen control is another superpower in itself!
Tetrachromacy
For most of us, the colors we see come from three different types of cone cells in our eyes. Each of these is responsible for gathering different wavelengths of light, allowing us to distinguish between different colors. But thanks to a rare genetic mutation, people with a condition called tetrachromacy possess a fourth type of cone, which detects wavelengths of light most of us can’t see.
While most of us see about 1 million colors, tetrachromats are estimated to see around 100 million! With this gift, tetrachromats can perceive variations between colors that, to the rest of us, would look identical. Of course, these differences are impossible to truly understand for a non-tetrachromat, but people with the condition have noted that the differences are similar to artistic comparisons like the one below. Some tetrachromats, like
Concetta Antico, have even created comparative artwork of their own in an attempt to share a comprehensible representation of their visual gift.
Statistically, tetrachromacy only tends to occur in women, as it’s caused by a mutation in the X chromosome, of which women have two, while men only have one. Men really lost out on this one, because while tetrachromats are overwhelmingly women, 95% of colorblind people are men!
Jyoti Raj, Real-Life Spider Man
Meet Jyothi Raj, a former construction worker turned acrobatic performer and free-climber. Using his exceptional skills of balance and strength, with a dusting of climbing chalk on his hands for extra grip, Raj regularly hangs at impossible angles at India’s Chitradurga Fort. Always completely harness-free.
Kothi Raj - The Wall Climber by Krishnaraj Barvathaya He’s even scaled the Indian state of Karnataka's highest waterfall, the Jog falls, which stands over 830 ft tall, without any safety equipment on a number of occasions. Raj discovered his abilities to climb while working on bamboo scaffolding as a construction worker. After years of tireless practice, his skills are so renowned, he’s been sent on several rescue and retrieval missions at the Jog falls. It’s not an easy job, but when you’re the human spiderman, sometimes you have to live up to your heroic name.
David Blaine: Holding Your Breath For 17 Minutes
In April 2008, David Blaine, the world-famous illusionist and endurance artist, set a world record for holding his breath underwater for 17 minutes and 4 seconds. If you can barely hold your breath long enough to drink a glass of water, you might wonder how such a feat is possible.
Prior to submerging, Blaine breathed pure oxygen for several minutes, before filling his lungs to their maximum capacity, then gulping down some extra by swallowing hard. Then, in true David Blaine fashion, he was submerged inside a water-filled glass sphere to hold his breath as long as he could.
While huffing pure oxygen might seem like cheating, it’s the standard approach for records like this. The strong desire to breathe we get when holding our breath comes from carbon dioxide buildup in the blood, not oxygen deprivation. Breathing pure oxygen simply delays the initial buildup of carbon dioxide in your blood, allowing for longer submersion times. But when the CO2 eventually builds up, it all comes down to relentless training to resist the painful contractions and burning sensations that come with the instinct to breathe. Resisting breathing at that point falls to a genuine superpower David Blaine has: extreme willpower. With exceptional control over his mind and body, he achieved his world record though he didn’t hold it for long. The record has since been beaten 15 times, with the latest record being 24 minutes and 11 seconds, held by Croatian Budimir Šobat.
Even more hardcore, the record for someone holding their breath without the help of pure oxygen is held by Serbian free-diver Branko Petrovic. He managed to hold his breath for 11 minutes and 35 seconds, using normal air. He later
broke his own records by holding breath for 11 minutes and 54 seconds. If I ever find an endless supply of willpower, I may try something like this, but don’t hold your breath.
The Guinness World Record for the Longest Static Apnea Breath Hold Duration - One Breath Expo by Middle East Dive & Fish Expo The Tough Skin Of Zhao Rui
Zhao Rui is a shaolin monk who claims he can hold a power drill against his head without removing 80 IQ points-worth of brain matter. Zhao claims through intense, pain-managing meditation and relentless muscular training, he’s capable of superhuman feats that would be agonizing, and potentially lethal, to most other people.
He pulls cars left in neutral along with a knife pressed to his throat. He lays down on steel spears whilst stones are broken on his back. And, of course, he withstands a running drill pressed against his head for up to 10 seconds.
Super Body Strength of Kung Fu Master Shows his Skills in China by Patryn While Rui claims the drill part of his display is withstood thanks to the power of his internal spiritual energy, I have my doubts. More likely, he uses a flattened drill-bit and controls how hard it’s pressed against his head using his hand. It still leaves a mark, and probably hurts, but it’s not quite all it’s cracked up to be.
Laying on spikes and pulling cars with a knife against his neck are likely exaggerated too. A partially blunt knife is used for the car trick, carefully positioned to avoid cutting him. The spears, meanwhile, involve careful positioning, with most pressure being applied to his collar bone, which is strong enough to bear the bulk of his weight. It’s still an impressive display of almost-superhuman pain-resistance, strength, and skill, but it looks like Rui’s real superpower may well be showmanship.
Shi Liliang, The Shaolin Monk Who Can Walk On Water
Have you ever seen a man skim across water like a stone? Shaolin monk Shi Liliang is famous for doing just that, kind of. Liliang holds a world record for running 125 meters on the water’s surface over 200 thin plywood planks held together with cloth.
It may not be quite as impressive as running on water unassisted, but it still requires a huge amount of skill. 125 meters is no small distance, especially considering the cloth doesn’t pull the plywood taut like a bridge; it just ensures the plywood doesn’t float away during Liliang’s sprint.
Shaolin monk runs atop water for 125 meters, sets new record by New China TV With little more than the water’s surface tension preventing Liliang falling in, the endeavor takes an enormous amount of training, and immaculate weight-management to ensure he’s lightweight enough. All for the purpose of, as far as people standing at a distance are concerned, the spectacle of running on water.
Isao Machii, The Katana Master
Japanese Iaido master, Isao Machii, is not someone you’d want to mess with. Capable of incredible martial arts and katana tricks, Machii’s hand-eye coordination is unparalleled the world over.
With his combination of relentless training and natural abilities, Machii can perform mind-blowing acts like securing a Guinness world record for the most martial arts sword cuts delivered in one minute. With a record of 87 cuts slicing effortlessly through straw posts like butter, he makes tasks of extreme focus and precision look like a walk in the park.
Martial Arts Master Attempts Katana World Record - Guinness World Records by Guinness World Records He’s also able to casually cut baseballs travelling at 100mph in half like it’s nothing. But arguably his most impressive feat has been cutting a miniscule, barely-visible ball-bearing traveling 200 mph from an airsoft gun out of midair.
Real Samurai Sword Technique - Cutting BB Gun pellet by Isao Machii - Japanese Katana Kenjutsu by kinsei1560 Even for a katana master like Maschii, something like this takes a huge number of tries and a hefty sprinkling of good luck to get right. Because of this, his ability to detect the position of the BB is probably less superhuman intuition and more ceaseless repetition. But the sheer control and speed of being able to unsheathe his katana immediately into position is beyond what most people could hope to achieve in a lifetime. If you were amazed at these people with real super powers, you might want to read about
societies with superpowers. Thanks for reading!
