- These people could form a real-life X-Men team.
Recently, we brought you a list of people with all kinds of extreme body parts. But all that was needed to be included there was owning the part of the body — you didn’t need to do anything special with it.
There are a lot of people whose bodies are seemingly normal, but they can exert a fantastic level of control over parts of them. Some of them trained for years to be able to do the things they do, while to others, it just comes naturally.
Here are 5 individuals who all possess some kind of an unusual ability.
1) Joseph Pujol — The Fartist
Joseph Pujol (1857-1945) was a French entertainer and baker, who was better known by his stage name Le Pétomane. The name translates in English to “fart maniac,” and for a good reason.
Pujol’s butt was no ordinary butt. He was able to suck up air and liquids into hit bottom and blow them out at great precision.
He first discovered his ability as a young boy, when he accidentally slurped up a good amount of water into his butt while diving. After amusing his army buddies during his service, he decided to exhibit his talents as an entertainer.
Between 1887 and 1914, Le Pétomane performed with his own troupe and at such well-known clubs as the Moulin Rouge for audiences that included European royalty and Sigmund Freud. His performances including farting famous songs, imitating instruments and cannons with his butt, and extinguishing candles several yards away with a blast from his bottom.
When WWI broke out, Pujol retired to his pre-showbusiness career of baking. He died in 1945, but his legacy of farts lives on.
2) Kim Goodman — The Eye-Popping Woman
Be careful when asking Kim Goodman from Chicago to take a closer look at something. You might be in for an eye-popping show.
Goodman holds the Guinness World Record for being able to pop her eyeballs the farthest out of their sockets. Her record for extending her eyeballs out of her skull — measured by a certified optometrist with a device known as a proptometer — stands at 0.47 inches.
According to Goodman, she discovered her unique talent as a child, when she got smacked on the head with a hockey mask during a party. Whether the party continued after her eye jumped out of its socket, we don’t know.
Nonetheless, Goodman learned that she could make her eyes pop on command, with both eyes. She has exhibited her ability on various TV shows around the world.
Goodman says that there’s no particular trick to making her eyes bulge, although she’s not quite sure how she does it. Most importantly, though, she says it doesn’t hurt — if it did, she wouldn’t be doing it.
3) Slavisa Pajkic — The Human Battery
A mere 50 volts of electricity is enough to seriously injure a regular human being, and the electric chair blasts you with 2,000 volts. But Slavisa Pajkic, from Pozarevac, Serbia, will only scoff at such a tiny shock.
Pajkic has a superhuman ability to withstand electrical shock and even store electricity in his body. This potential X-Man set a world record in 1983 when he was shocked with 20,000 volts of electricity — and received no damage whatsoever.
Pajkic has a condition called ectodermal dysplasia, which renders his body practically immune to electricity. He can hold live wires in his hands with no issue, and he’s able to even control how much electricity is conducted from his body to surrounding objects.
He showcased this talent when he set another world record in 2003. Holding a wire in one hand, he heated a pot of water to 206 degrees Fahrenheit — just below the boiling point.
Pajcik has also set an alcohol-soaked cloth on fire by releasing electricity from his body, and cooked a sausage by simply grabbing a pair of forks. If you meet this man and feel a spark, you better watch out.
4) Daniel Kish — The Man-Bat
Just like Batman’s, Daniel Kish’s story begins with a tragedy. Kish lost both of his eyes to cancer when he was a 13-month-old toddler.
He was determined to not let such a small thing as not having eyes stop him, though. Through study and training, Kish has developed the ability to use echolocation — like a bat or a dolphin.
By clicking his mouth and listening to the reflected sound, Kish is able to navigate his surroundings to the point where you’d be hard-pressed to believe he’s blind. He’s able to go on hikes and even ride a bicycle through town unassisted.
Of course, Kish’s ability doesn’t give his continuous vision and he can’t use it to read, for example. But the glimpses he gets of the world around him, thanks to his echolocation, allow him to lead a mostly normal life.
Kish hasn’t kept the secrets of human echolocation to himself. He’s the founder and president of World Access for the Blind, a non-profit organization that so far has taught more than 500 blind children learn how to navigate the world based on sound.
5) Shi Lilian — The Water Walker
Walking on water is an ability that’s usually reserved for significant religious figures. Shaolin monk Shi Lilian, however, has decided to show that more or less ordinary people can do it as well.
Shaolin monks are often depicted in the media as performing incredible feats of martial arts, like smashing boulders with their bare hands. Shi has shown that there may be some truth to these stories by running across water for nearly 400 feet.
Granted, he doesn’t exactly walk on just water — that would require truly otherworldly powers. Instead, Shi sprints across water over barely floating plywood planks.
Still, to be able to do that requires incredible amounts of speed, dexterity, and balance. Shi has achieved his skills only over more than a decade of rigorous training and discipline.
Every day, Shi runs more than three miles carrying up to 45 pounds of iron weights on his back and feet, among other insane types of training. When he rests, the monk practices calligraphy to keep his mind concentrated.
His peak condition also allows Shi to scale a 16-foot stone wall in mere seconds with nothing but his hands and feet.