Scientists Uncover the Mystery of Lightning Strike Survivors When lightning strikes a crowd, it only hits one person. Why is that? What makes the “chosen one” different from the others? How does that person’s body change afterward? Why does lightning cause some individuals to experience memory loss while others develop supernatural abilities? Recent studies have begun to answer some of these questions, but not all mysteries of the storms have been unraveled.
Lightning is one of the most frequent natural phenomena. Statistics show that approximately 250,000 people are struck by lightning each year.
Many die, but a significant number also survive miraculous encounters with lightning.
According to the National Meteorological and Hydrological Administration, Vietnam experiences 2 million lightning strikes each year – (Image: T.T.D).
However, according to Live Science, lightning strike survivors may face many serious health issues both physically and mentally.
Physically, lightning can cause burns on the skin, commonly referred to as “Lichtenberg figures” – temporary marks on the skin caused by damaged blood vessels leaking fluid into surrounding tissues.
Additionally, lightning strike victims may experience cardiac arrest and respiratory failure due to lightning’s direct impact on the cardiovascular and nervous systems. It can also cause brain damage, memory loss, and seizures.
But lightning does not kill all victims. The lightning bolt passes through the human body in a fraction of a second, and about 90% of those struck survive.
Psychologically, lightning strike survivors may develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), face long-term mood and emotional issues. Researchers indicate that neurological and muscular problems can persist and affect the quality of life for lightning strike victims.
Lightning can also cause victims to suffer eardrum perforations due to pressure waves, impair the respiratory system, or cause secondary burns from hair or clothing catching fire.
They Hunt Us
The odds of being struck by lightning seem low: at most 1 in 600,000. However, this probability increases each year as the number of people struck by lightning rises. Although lightning itself does not occur more frequently – still around 8 million times a day. In the U.S., insurance companies record an average of 600 lightning strike victims per year. This number has significantly changed, now increasing to 1,500 people. Is lightning hunting humans like predators hunting their prey?
Sometimes, reality can compare lightning to a “living body.” A professor assessed lightning as follows: “Dense lightning rods do not confuse lightning. When the usual path is completely blocked, lightning approaches its target from below, taking a detour underground.” But so far, it is not understood what attracts this “living body” to another living body, which is humans. Some scientists even seriously suggest that it could be due to… testosterone – the male sex hormone. They found no other explanation, as 86% of lightning strike victims are men, but they could not explain the attraction of this hormone, although they assert that among a crowd, lightning tends to choose those with higher testosterone levels.
Sweat Boiling, Shoes Reduced to Charcoal
Another mystery is the effect of lightning as it passes through the body. One might think that an electric charge of tens of millions of volts and currents of hundreds of thousands of amperes would instantly kill a person. Yet, some individuals inexplicably survive, and not just a few. In the U.S., this number is nearly 900 people per year. This is the report from the Lightning Strike and Electrical Shock Survivors Association (LS&ESSI).
According to neurologist Nelson Hendler (U.S.), these individuals are very eager for researchers to study them, but few venture into this issue as they believe that lightning and bare conductors operate similarly. It turns out that’s not the case. Sometimes, lightning leaves no marks on the body but penetrates internal organs. Or vice versa, it may skim the outside but char clothing and shoes. There have been cases where a person’s sweat boiled off, creating a cloud of vapor surrounding them. Coins in the pocket of one victim melted into a lump of copper, another had a gold tooth melt, while someone else had their necklace and zipper on their pants melt… But all of them survived.
Nerves “Burned” Like Conductors
Research shows that people survive because although the lightning bolt has an incredibly high voltage, it only “passes through” the body for a few millionths of a second. And it does not always manage to cause burns. The intensity of the impact depends on the resistance of the organs and tissues, averaging around 700 OHM. The higher the OHM, the more severe the consequences.
According to Mary Enn Kuper, a researcher of lightning injuries and a U.S. rehabilitation specialist, our electrical circuits – the nerve fibers – are the first to be “burned.” In the mildest cases, the protective sheath of these fibers, similar to the insulation layer in conductors, is damaged. After recovering from the shock, victims may not even feel the changes. Sometimes, the effects only manifest after a few months when the nerve fibers begin to “short circuit” and create connections where they shouldn’t exist. This explains some issues faced by survivors.
In fact, many members of LS&ESSI complain about poor movement coordination, seizures, tinnitus, and sometimes uncontrollable urination, becoming more irritable. One man who was struck by lightning even shaved his head, not as a trend but because he could not tolerate his hair constantly “fluttering.”
But there are also positive effects that have been noted. A man named Ian Glovache from the Czech Republic reported an incredible recovery of his sexual abilities that had diminished before being struck by lightning. According to Mary Enn, it is possible that in him, a “short circuit” occurred in the spinal cord, leading to a connection that restored the transmission of nerve impulses responsible for erections.
Cheese Melting
There are cases where lightning strikes directly to the head. The consequences are severe, ranging from eye explosions, coma, and complete paralysis to unusual behavioral changes. One of Dr. Hendler’s patients, after being struck by lightning, “reminisced” about childhood and behaved like a 2-year-old child. Another experienced short-term memory loss and had to write down where he placed his belongings, or he would not be able to find them. MRI scans showed that lightning disrupted a significant portion of the brain of these individuals. However, often the damage occurred at specific points and simultaneously in several places. Researchers even have the term “Swiss cheese brain,” meaning the damaged areas are scattered, like holes in hard cheese. No one can predict where these “holes” will appear, but it is clear that the abnormalities depend on their locations.
Mr. Harold Dean in Missouri became famous for losing his sense of cold. Even in winter, he only wears a T-shirt. Ms. Elen Vard in England has a nose as sharp as a… dog. By smell, she can locate objects that others have previously touched. Meanwhile, Hunter Lunge in Berlin gained incredible mathematical abilities: he can quickly multiply six-digit numbers. In other words, lightning can transform people into something akin to mutant bodies. But even more interesting is that it turns out that within the human brain lie potential abilities waiting to be realized.
Fuses Losing Function
Some people after being struck by lightning have been able to see through others. One woman could erase stripes from credit cards and train tickets by touching them. She had sustained damage in several areas of her frontal lobe. A man with a “hole” in his left temporal lobe reported that he could sense electromagnetic radiation. In fact, he could determine whether there was current flowing in a conductor or not.
Experiments by scientists show that disconnecting certain parts of the brain, which act like fuses, can enhance brain functioning. But who knows what new connections or “short circuits” in the neural network will lead to? It seems that sometimes lightning has the ability to “weld” contact points, much like in the microchips of computers. Lightning not only paralyzes the nervous system, but it also gives rise to unusual supernatural abilities.
Memory Loss After Lightning Strike
Scott Knudsen makes a miraculous recovery after being struck by lightning – (Photo: THE GUARDIAN).
One of the survivors of a lightning strike is Scott Knudsen, a cowboy from Texas, USA. In 2023, Scott shared his story with the media and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to raise awareness about lightning strikes.
Scott recalls the incident that occurred in 2005, on the very day of his daughter’s first birthday. He was holding his daughter while his wife stood beside him near the horse barn where they were celebrating, when he was struck by lightning. The sky was clear that day, but a storm was brewing about 20 kilometers away.
His wife suffered injuries to her eye and ear, while his daughter had minor injuries. Scott was the most severely affected, with the lightning striking directly to his head. He could barely move and found it difficult to control his facial muscles.
Notably, a brain scan revealed that his cognitive function had been severely impacted. Knudsen’s memory was almost completely erased, including basic skills like reading and writing. At the time, he was 37 years old.
This meant that his wife had to teach him how to read and write all over again. Knudsen jokingly said that his wife now had another child—him. The couple practiced counting using the phone keypad and watched children’s music shows on TV to learn vocabulary.
He also relearned previous skills: walking, taking care of horses, driving… After about three months, Knudsen began to show progress.
Nearly 20 years later, Scott Knudsen reflects that the time of the accident and recovery helped him understand the value of family and life. He has also established a project to promote awareness among the cowboy community about lightning strikes.
Lightning Strike Records
Lightning – a phenomenon that can cause serious injuries. (Photo: Alberto Menendez Cervero)
The world record for the most lightning strike injuries belongs to Roy Sullivan, a park ranger at Shenandoah National Park, USA. From 1942 to 1977, Sullivan was struck by lightning seven times. Despite suffering burns from his hair and clothes catching fire, he survived all seven incidents. He passed away at the age of 72 by suicide in 1983. Suicidal thoughts are another symptom that some lightning strike survivors experience, as they may endure severe pain and struggle with recovery after the incident, according to Steve Mashburn, who suffered a broken back in a lightning strike in 1969.
Forensic pathology researcher Ryan Blumenthal warns that only about 3% – 5% of lightning injury cases are direct. Contact injuries—occurring when a person touches another object like a tree or building struck by lightning—account for an additional 5%.
The most common injuries come from nearby lightning and ground current, which together account for over 80%. In cases of nearby lightning, victims standing close to a struck object experience a part of the voltage “jumping” to them. Ground current injuries are similar but occur when lightning strikes the ground beneath the victim. These incidents can harm multiple individuals at once. “This is why herds of animals can be struck by lightning all at once”, Blumenthal explains. The remaining 10% – 12% of lightning injury cases stem from the phenomenon of “upward leaders”, which occurs when positively charged electrical forces on the ground are attracted upward by negatively charged thunderclouds.
