People's spontaneous combustion still remains unexplained

 Can people go on fire spontaneously? Contrary to logic and the laws of physics we know, there have been over 200 reports of such incidents in the last 300 years. This phenomenon is called spontaneous combustion or spontaneous ignition. Of the hundreds of recorded reports, most follow a very similar pattern.

A lone victim is often consumed by flame, usually in her home. However, limbs, such as the hands, feet, or parts of the legs, often remain intact. The torso and head are charred beyond recognition, and in rare cases, the victim's internal organs remain intact. The few survivors of this phenomenon later claimed that fire seemed to be emitted from within their bodies.

Knowledge about this phenomenon became popular in the 19th century after the famous English writer Charles Dickens used it to kill one of his heroes. When critics accused Dickens of trying to validate something that did not exist, the author pointed to existing research showing 30 historical cases of the phenomenon taking place. Perhaps it was because of him that self-immolation was later discussed in the British Medical Journal in 1938. The article quoted a book published in 1823 called Medical Jurisprudence which stated that human spontaneous combustion had several common features:

•  the victims were chronic alcoholics;
•  they were usually older women;
•  the body burned up spontaneously, but some ignited substance came into contact with it;
•  hands and feet usually fell off;
• the fire caused very little damage to many other flammable things in contact with the body;
•  burning the body left a residue of greasy and foul-smelling ash, a very unpleasant smell.

Some Victorian doctors and writers believed that alcohol was the key to explaining this phenomenon and that it was the main fuel of the process. It has also been suggested that it could be adipose tissue, acetone build-up, static electricity, methane, bacteria, stress, and even divine intervention. It is particularly interesting that spontaneous combustion seems to happen only to humans, or at least there are no known reports of animals catching fire suddenly. It is worth adding that the human body must reach a temperature of around 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit (1,648 degrees Celsius) to be completely incinerated, as has been the case with many victims.

The modern case of a possible SHC was in 2017. The Independent reported that a 70-year-old man suddenly burst into flames "under mysterious circumstances in a London street." The fire brigade's investigation did not find the cause of the incident, and the man's death was treated as "unexplained". For anything to burn, three things are required: a very high temperature, a fuel source, and an oxidizing agent. It should be noted here that the human body consists mainly of water, so its spontaneous combustion is rather difficult to achieve than in the case of a pile of hay.

From this ambiguity, various less plausible theories arise. One of the weirdest assumptions is that spontaneous combustion is the result of the activation of the Kundalini chakra, the energy of which, without finding an outlet, creates a powerful flame. It is possible that we will never know the truth about this phenomenon. Unfortunately, some aspects of the human body are still unknown to us. The phenomenon of human spontaneous combustion may be one of them.