Spontaneous human combustion (SHC) describes reported cases of the burning of a living (or very recently deceased) human body without an apparent external source of ignition. As of 1995, there have been about 200 cited cases[1] worldwide over a period of around 300 years.
There are many hypotheses that attempt to explain human spontaneous combustion. These include several natural explanations as well as supernatural and biblical explanations.
Natural explanations include those:
Based on unknown or otherwise unobserved phenomena (e.g., that the production of abnormally concentrated gas or raised levels of blood alcohol might cause spontaneous ignition)[citation needed]
Relating to health and lifestyle factors (e.g. smoking, not consuming adequate levels of water, etc.)[citation needed]
That involve an external source of ignition (e.g., the victim was drunk and dropped a cigarette)[citation needed]
Objections to natural explanations typically refer to the degree of burning of the body with respect to its surroundings. Indeed, one of the common markers of a case of SHC is that the body or part of it suffered an extraordinarily large degree of burning while the surroundings or the lower limbs remained comparatively undamaged.[1]
Supernatural[citation needed] and biblical explanations of spontaneous human combustion remain popular. In the latter case, some people interpret Bible passages (such as Num 11:1[2]) to be indicative of spontaneous human combustion. As the BBC reports: "In fact, if you were to trawl through the Bible, you'd find a couple of references to people who mysteriously (by divine intervention) caught fire and burned." However, the accuracy of assertions that the first documentation of this phenomena appeared in the Bible is debatable and unverifiable, as such accounts are based on second-hand knowledge and refer to incidents too ancient to be verified.[3]
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