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Electricity guy on Ripley's Believe it or Not



Original poster: "David Rieben" <drieben@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

Hi all,

I just happened to catch a segment of a rerun of
Ripley's Believe It or Not on TV last night and there
was some guy on there in India that could SUP-
POSEDLY pass electrical current through various
parts of his body to light up light bulbs, TVs, and
even run a waffle iron. I found this quite suspicious
as I could detect no involuntary muscular contraction
in him upon contact. He was supposedly even passing
what I would assume to be either 120 VAC or 220 VAC
(not sure what India's appliances voltage requirements are)
through his tongue to turn on these various appliances.
In this case, I personally have to go with the "NOT" of
Ripley's Believe It or NOT. Irregardless of a person's
so-called immunity to the pain of electrical current
passing through their tissues, they are NOT going to
break Ohm's Law and I don't see 120 or 220 volts
being able to overcome the body's resistance enough
to push sufficient current through it to power common
household appliances. And if that much current did
actually pass through the body, it would  most certainly
cause severe thermal damage to the affected  body tissues
and almost certain death if passed through any vital area
of the body. I think Ripley's was trying to
"hoodwink" us on this one or maybe they were hoodwinked
theirsleves by this gentleman from India. I figure that
he was probably using a sensitive capacitive feedback
circuit that was triggered by his touching with any part
of his body, much like a touch lamp circuit. Thoughts?

David Rieben