Spontaneous human combustion (SHC) describes reported cases of the burning of a living (or very recently deceased) human body without an apparent external source of ignition. There have been about 200 cited cases worldwide over a period of around 300 years.
There are many hypotheses that attempt to explain human spontaneous combustion:
- Paranormal explanations (e.g., a ghost or divine intervention)
- Natural explanations based on unknown or otherwise unobserved phenomena (e.g. that the production of abnormally concentrated gas or raised levels of blood alcohol might cause spontaneous ignition)
- Natural explanations relating to health and lifestyle factors (e.g. smoking, not consuming adequate levels of water etc.)
- Natural explanations that involve an external source of ignition (e.g. the victim was drunk and dropped a cigarette)
Objections to natural explanations typically refer to the degree of burning of the body with respect to its surroundings. Indeed, one of the common markers of a case of SHC is that the body – or part of it – suffered an extraordinarily large degree of burning while the surroundings or the lower limbs remained comparatively undamaged. Although there is no scientific evidence to support them, supernatural explanations of spontaneous human combustion remain popular.
Read more about Spontaneous Human Combustion: Characteristics, Forensic Investigation, Suggested Explanations, In Fiction
Famous quotes containing the words spontaneous, human and/or combustion:
“My vocabulary dwells deep in my mind and needs paper to wriggle out into the physical zone. Spontaneous eloquence seems to me a miracle. I have rewrittenoften several timesevery word I have ever published. My pencils outlast their erasers.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (18991977)
“The depth and strength of a human character are defined by its moral reserves. People reveal themselves completely only when they are thrown out of the customary conditions of their life, for only then do they have to fall back on their reserves.”
—Leon Trotsky (18791940)
“The night has been unruly. Where we lay,
Our chimneys were blown down, and, as they say,
Lamentings heard i th air, strange screams of death,
And prophesying with accents terrible
Of dire combustion and confused events,
New-hatched to the woeful time.”
—William Shakespeare (15641616)