Appearing during the first three hours, the Director of ParaScience International, Larry Arnold discussed his pioneering research into spontaneous human combustion (SHC)-- inexplicable incidents where people burn up while their surroundings show no signs of fire. One of the rarest of physical phenomena, SHC raises profound questions, and has stirred up controversy in the quest to explain or deny its existence, he said.
The 1951 case of Mary Reeser in St. Petersburg, Florida generated a great deal of public interest. The 175 lb. woman was found reduced to 8-10 lbs. of ash, though her left foot was undamaged. Her skull was said to be shrunk to the size of a tea cup, he recounted. Reports of such cases extend back hundreds of years, and have been seen around the world. In one especially curious case from the UK in 1899, two sibling girls spontaneously combusted, at separate locations a mile apart. In some instances, witnesses have observed sudden ignitions of people, where a blue or silver flame is seen on the victims' body. In 1974, a man named Jack Angel suffered from a partial SHC incident. His right forearm was burned from the inside out as he slept, and the burns seemed to be of an electrical nature, Arnold detailed.
Arnold dismissed the "wick theory," a popular explanation for SHC which suggests that clothing becomes ignited and then body fat becomes the wick for a fire. It has never been conclusively demonstrated, he stated. SHC cases tend to peak every 32 years, and may be related to solar activity or geophysical factors, he offered, adding that unidentified subatomic particles within the body might trigger a chain reaction that leads to SHC.
Wilcock Update
Last hour guest, researcher David Wilcock shared an update on 2012, describing this time period as a mass evolutionary event that will lead to a transition in consciousness.