Is Spontaneous Human Combustion caused by 'soul' energy?

Do you believe that SHC is ''spiritual'' in nature?

  • Yes

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • No

    Votes: 2 100.0%

  • Total voters
    2
Hi. In the Western world many explanations have been given for SHC, biological and chemical. However I have a problem with biological explanations that the skeptics of SHC put out...I actually find the skeptic's explanations to be implausible or flat out demonstrably impossible. Allow me to outline the problems;

''Wick effect''

This only applies to cases where it appeared that the body had burned for a long time. It cannot apply to cases where the victim was a known non-smoker, was seen to burst into flame, or there was evidence that indicated the body took a very short time, on the order of minutes, to burn to ash, including even the bones and teeth. Accounts from survivors also dismiss the wick effect.

''SHC has biological causes''

This one is the least plausible, because cells die and stop producing heat at only 45 degrees (there are conditions where the metabolism can ''runaway'' , such as in the case of Malignant Hyperthermia, and this never leads to SC.

The ''gasses igniting in the stomach'' (which they can't, due to lack of oxygen) wouldn't burn a human in mere seconds/minutes either, and because even the hottest chemical fires such as thermite are incapable of burning a body so quickly. Many of the victims burned in minutes or were last seen alive 10 minutes before they were found as a pile of ashes, and were not smokers or in some cases even witnessed to burst into flames.. so the slow-burning ''Wick theory'' which takes hours to consume a body, doesn't adequately explain most 'SHC' cases...In some cases the victim was found incinerated yet their clothes weren't singed. The surroundings were not damaged and the hands and legs are usually the only thing that remains. Even bone is reduced to ash. https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/146976213/

''SHC is caused by a chemical reaction in the body''

Chemical reactions in the body are mediated by enzymes. These proteins are extremely sensitive to reactive chemicals or heat. There are many conditions where a mutation or defect can cause a build up of reactive chemicals in the blood although the concentrations of these chemicals are absolutely mundane by laboratory standards, the dilute concentrations are capable of making a person seriously ill or causing death. (Just 0.3% alcohol in the blood is enough to be fatal).

''SHC is caused by a short circuit in the nervous system''

As a person who used to be epileptic I can dismiss this one. The nervous system doesn't use actual electricity but rather uses ion gradients to to transfer neurotransmitters. A ''short circuit'' would entail a seizure. The nerves do not heat up when this happens but if they did, the gradient relies on protein channels which again would break down long before the nerves got hot enough. There's also a limit on how much ''voltage'' a cell can hold, since too much salt = lysis where the cells burst. There's a condition called diabetic neuropathy where excess ions are let into the neurones, and they can burst due to this.

So via process of elimination as a budding scientist who is open to new ideas (despite once being ridiculed by his professor) this leads me to believe it must be something most people consider spiritual in nature.. there were studies recently that apparently detected quantum 'vibrations' in the body, down the nervous system, which some scientists (such as Penrose and Hameroff) believe is the soul and also mentioned that information is retained in this energy in the form of vibrations, and could also explain reincarnation. I was wondering if it's possible that the 'sou'l or 'kundalini' is the cause of SHC. Some people have even survived SHC, and every victim had no idea what happened and were not near an open flame. I cannot say or confidently find a reason that the 'soul' cannot somehow cause SHC, even though I can say that biological processes cannot cause SHC. Meanwhile I cannot say how it could cause SHC either but it's an open subject and many cases seem to suggest it could be related to this.

I recall an old case of SHC where twin sisters combusted at the same exact time a mile apart in a field.. when the parents got to them to help, they were just a pile of ashes. I read somewhere that twins might also share a soul, which is why twins are often so in tune with each other.

I didn't used to believe in souls dismissing them as purely just an idea, but it appears in recent years some scientific evidence has been found to take it seriously and I've also got a book by Ian Stevenson on reincarnation which helped to convince me of it. I also don't think SHC is a weapon test either since it'd be less suspicious to try it on animals and there's ancient records of SHC. It's also interesting to note that whatever humans have inside of them that burns them this way, is spherical in shape and located slightly more towards the head, since the legs seem intact but the skull is sometimes shrunken to an implausible size. What I can't explain is why the energy released does not radiate to other things or in some cases even clothes, despite the fact it'd take about 5 million BTU's per minute to burn a body to ash in say, 5 minutes or so (such was the case with Helen Conway.)

So what are your thoughts on the soul theory of SHC? Does it match up to the cases more than the 'natural' explanations?
 
I'd say more information is needed. Almost by definition, there are no eye-witnesses to these cases (I'm willing to hear evidence to the contrary). For example, if I saw someone on fire, I'd attempt to take action to stop the fire - unless there was some obstacle such as distance or a larger fire or something which kept me away. Thus the reports tend to be made afterwards, after it is all over, in effect. This tends to make it difficult to make sense of the matter, but I'd say makes it harder to justify the more esoteric explanations.
 
I'd say more information is needed. Almost by definition, there are no eye-witnesses to these cases (I'm willing to hear evidence to the contrary). For example, if I saw someone on fire, I'd attempt to take action to stop the fire - unless there was some obstacle such as distance or a larger fire or something which kept me away. Thus the reports tend to be made afterwards, after it is all over, in effect. This tends to make it difficult to make sense of the matter, but I'd say makes it harder to justify the more esoteric explanations.
Here are some eye witness cases - https://www.sott.net/article/133945-Spontaneous-Human-Combustion-Eye-witness-cases-in-more-detail
 
Well there are certainly some impressive cases recorded there. Note that Jeanna Winchester would seem to have recovered, so this isn't necessarily associated with death and separation of the 'soul'.

I am also wary of the use of 'energy' in the context of psychic phenomena because I think the word was never meant to be more than an analogy. In other words psychic energy may be real, but not the same as the kind of energy that is measured in Jules!

Fortunately this phenomenon is very rare, so I guess it is hard to explore conclusively.

BTW, the BBC almost always tries to conclude any report into psychic phenomena by jumping for a sceptical explanation!

Did you have a reason to raise this subject on your first post - I mean has something like this happened to someone you know? Fell free to PM me (or anyone else on the forum) if you would rather discuss this privately.

David
 
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Well there are certainly some impressive cases recorded there. Note that Jeanna Winchester would seem to have recovered, so this isn't necessarily associated with death and separation of the 'soul'.

I am also wary of the use of 'energy' in the context of psychic phenomena because I think the word was never meant to be more than an analogy. In other words psychic energy may be real, but not the same as the kind of energy that is measured in Jules!

Fortunately this phenomenon is very rare, so I guess it is hard to explore conclusively.

BTW, the BBC almost always tries to conclude any report into psychic phenomena by jumping for a sceptical explanation!

Did you have a reason to raise this subject on your first post - I mean has something like this happened to someone you know? Fell free to PM me (or anyone else on the forum) if you would rather discuss this privately.

David

There was also a case where two twins combusted at exactly the same time, and they were a mile apart, in a field. The year was 1899 I believe, and I'll try and find that case to link here later. When the parents rushed to help, they were found as a pile of ashes. Bad weather or lightning wasn't mentioned and even lightning is incapable of reducing a person to ashes.

At the moment I'm interested in the Penrose and Hameroff model of the soul, though it's an unpopular one and meets harsh ridicule by skeptics who try and debunk it as 'nonsense'. There's evidence of quantum vibrations within the body (which was discovered after the Hameroff and Penrose hypothesis) and that it corroborates consciousness. http://phys.org/news/2014-01-discovery-quantum-vibrations-microtubules-corroborates.html

Another interesting point is if this quantum or 'psychic' energy is capable of releasing very localized energy. Quantum physics isn't a new subject but research into this subject, especially when it comes to this topic in particular is difficult to come by. If what we call the soul is located in or near brain cells, that'd explain why the legs of SHC victims are left intact, while the torso and head are completely incinerated. You have neurones in your heart, spinal cord ganglia brain and even your gut has some ganglia that are classified as brain cells. In which case the soul would technically be part of the neural system, but would not be biological or chemical in nature.

I notice the same documentaries on SHC also put away 'supernatural' explanations, and then try to tell us that fire can both ignite and survive within the body...try setting fire to a piece of meat. Something that's 60~% water isn't going to burn even if the other 40% is pure alcohol.

To address your question, this has been a subject that's interested me for years and there was a case of SHC ruled by a coroner here in the UK (Ireland, 2011).
 
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