Real People With Comic-Book Super Powers

1. Rock Crusher

Seken Tolebekov, 83, of Kazakhstan, can crush rocks with his bare hands. He started crushing rocks when he was 24.

“I think I have some sort of power in my hands. I am getting older, but my hands are still strong. I believe that I got the power from on high. It started when I was young. I kept feeling heat in my right hand all the time, then I felt an urge to crush a rock,” he said, according to Kazakh publication Tengri News. 

“Sometimes people try to repeat what I do, but it has always ended with injuries and bone fractures for them,” he said. “I don’t feel any pain when my hand comes in contact with the stones, it feels like crushing sand.”

2. Malaysian Magneto

Liew Thow Lin, a retired Malaysian contractor in his 80s, can stick metal objects onto his body like a magnet. He’s even been able to pull a car. He was featured by Discovery Channel’s “One Step Beyond” in 2005. Doctors and researchers examined his body to see if there was a magnetic field or if his skin appeared unusual somehow.

They found no magnetic field around his body, yet large metal objects would hold fast to him. The researchers found nothing unusual—it remains a mystery.

His sons and grandsons have the same ability.

Liew Thow Lin as seen in Discovery Channel’s “One Step Beyond.” (Screenshot/HowStuffWorks.com)

3. The Man Who Doesn’t Sleep

In Que Son district of Quang Nam Province, Vietnam, Ngoc Thai has gone more than 30 years without sleep. Ngoc, in his 60s, has tried medications, folk remedies, even drinking himself into a stupor, but he has been unable to go to sleep. Doctors have given him a clean bill of health, and he does not appear greatly impacted by the sleeplessness. He lead a more productive life than most with a full 24 hours at his disposal.

In 2006, Ngoc told Thanh Nien News, “I don’t know if the insomnia has impacted on my health or not, but I’m still healthy and I can do the farm work normally like others.”

4. Batmen

At least two blind people have been known to use echolocation, like bats or dolphins do, to find their way around with great precision.

Daniel Kish lost his eyesight as a toddler. He started making clicking sounds with his tongue, and now, at the age of 47, his tongue clicking can help him ride a bicycle through traffic without trouble. Kish explained to National Geographic, for its July 2013 edition, how human echolocation works: “Sound waves are produced by every tongue click. These waves bounce off surfaces all around and return to my ears as faint echoes. My brain processes the echoes into dynamic images. It’s like having a conversation with the environment.”

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