10 People With Real-Life “Superpowers” That Challenge Our Understanding Of The Human Body

In 2013, British artist Stephen Wiltshire made headlines after he produced a detailed 19-foot-long drawing of 305 square miles of the New York City skyline based on a single 20-minute helicopter ride.

 

A savant, Wiltshire’s memory is certainly superhuman, allowing him to remember every detail of a landscape after a single view.

Now 49 years old, Wiltshire has been extensively studied by neurologists for his abilities, and he has received numerous awards.

 

He is currently a Member of the Order of the British Empire as a result of his artistic endeavors.

Due to an unfortunate case of infant eye cancer, Daniel Kish had to have his eyes removed at just 13 months old. However, that hasn’t stopped the California native from doing things like mountain biking through the wilderness and hiking around Iceland.

How? Kish makes clicks with his tongue to interpret his surroundings, much like bats use echolocation, a skill he calls “Perceptual Mobility.” He even founded World Access for the Blind, an organization that aims to teach blind children to use echolocation to navigate their environments.

Marilu Henner, a 71-year-old woman from Illinois, has a rare ability so superhuman it’s been documented less than 100 times in human history. Specifically, she has Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory, or HSAM, which scientists believe may be thanks to enlarged temporal lobes. 

This superpower allows Henner to remember just about every detail of her life, down to the date and time.

Since 1971, Henner has worked as an actress, and she received five Golden Globe nominations for her part as Elaine O’Connor in the sitcom “Taxi.” Something tells us she’s never had a problem remembering her lines.

Most people consider a marathon an incredible feat of endurance, but for Dean Karnazes, that’s just a warmup.

 

Having taken up long-distance running in kindergarten, the now-61-year-old man is known for his ultramarathon accomplishments, including running 350 miles in 80 hours and 44 minutes with no sleep, running a marathon in all 50 US states in 50 days, and running 3,000 miles from Disneyland to New York City in just 75 days.

While there’s no discounting Karnazes’s mental fortitude and training ethic, scientists have discovered that his body has a seemingly limitless lactate threshold. As a result, his muscles never get tired.

Wim Hof is a Dutch extreme athlete whose “superpower” gives Mr. Freeze a run for his money. With a seemingly superhuman resistance to cold, Hof’s incredible feats include swimming 189 feet (58 meters) under ice, spending 44 minutes under full-body contact with ice, and setting the record for the fastest half-marathon barefoot in the snow: 2:16:34.

Hof claims his abilities are due to his unique training regimen called the “Wim Hof Method,” but scientists aren’t convinced. And, in fact, Hof has been involved in a number of controversies after several people died attempting his techniques. 

While they aren’t exactly sure why the 64-year-old, nicknamed “The Iceman,” can handle low temperatures lethal to most people, scientists suspect it’s due to an innate genetic feature allowing Hof to produce more heat than others. 

The reasoning? Hof has an identical twin brother who, despite living an otherwise normal lifestyle, can also handle extreme cold.

Due to a condition known as Marfan Syndrome, the 46-year-old Spanish actor has an exaggeratedly slender build with long, thin limbs and fingers. At 6’7” (201 cm), he weighs just 123 pounds (56 kg).

The result? Botet has made a successful career for himself by playing unique characters on screen and stage, from Slender Man to Frankenstein’s monster. He’s also played an alien on Star Trek and a wight in Game of Thrones.

Elastigirl may not be so fanciful after all. Daniel Browning Smith, a 44-year-old from Mississippi, certainly makes super flexibility seem like less of a stretch.

 

Holding the title of the “Most Flexible Person In History,” Smith holds seven world records, including the fastest time to enter a locked straitjacket: two minutes, eight seconds.

Smith owes his superpower to a rare condition called Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, a gene variation that changes the body’s processing of the protein collagen, resulting in overly flexible and loose joints.

 

In fact, the professional contortionist is capable of rotating his torso by a full 180 degrees, which has earned him the nickname “Rubberboy.”

While many would consider Vietnam farmer Thai Ngoc’s ability a superpower, he certainly doesn’t. Unable to sleep since suffering from a fever in 1973, Ngoc has visited numerous doctors but still passes his nights tilling the soil to keep busy. Other than his frustration, he appears to have no symptoms as a result of his insomnia. 

YouTuber Drew Binsky spent a night with Ngoc and verified his failure to fall asleep, but scientists have yet to study Ngoc in depth to verify his claims. If they’re true, some speculate his insomnia may be the result of post-traumatic stress disorder from the Vietnam War. Ngoc injured his hand in the conflict. 

And here you thought Spider-Man was from Queens. On the contrary, Alain Robert is a French extreme athlete known for scaling skyscrapers with no safety ropes or specialty equipment. 

Despite frequent run-ins with the authorities over his exploits, Robert’s climbs include notable landmarks like the Eiffel Tower, Petronas Twin Towers, and Sears Tower. 

His highest climb to date is Burj Khalifa, which looms an incredible 2,717 feet (828 meters) over Dubai.