Involuntary fear and awe in a person causes a thunderstorm with its formidable and unbridled rage. It is not for nothing that all peoples in the religious pantheon have always had angry deities - the rulers of the heavens, throwing fiery spears-lightning. This majestic natural phenomenon demonstrates the power of the elements and leaves an unforgettable experience. If you watch a thunderstorm from a shelter, it resembles a spectacular grandiose fireworks display. When a thunderstorm catches you in nature, then to the admiration caused by this bewitching sight comes the realization of your insignificance in front of the fury, strength and incredible power of, probably, not such a blind element.
Landscape after a thunderstorm
I remember a terrible and ferocious thunderstorm that captured me in the mountains. White and orange lightning bolts fell from the sky with a hellish roar. Their light penetrated even through closed eyelids and spread coldly throughout the body. The earth trembled underfoot, the hurricane wind broke tree branches with a crash. On the other hand, on the slope of the mountain, despite the incessant downpour, a huge cedar, split in two by a lightning strike, was burning. Lightning caused a lot of trouble and killed many people. Groups of people were instantly killed, every second or only one person. They killed the rider without touching the horse, or vice versa. They burned people, leaving their clothes intact, or their hands to the bones, leaving their gloves intact, could not leave any marks on their bodies at all. Until now, this phenomenon of nature has many strange, inexplicable and mysterious things. Lightning, like a special creature, a bizarre and crafty spirit,sometimes behaves amazingly. Probably, tired of her terrible deeds, she seems to be playing with a person, showing an outstanding artist's talent and creating whole pictures on the bodies of people. The appearance on the body of one victim of a clear image of the crucified Christ was recorded. Sometimes on the bodies appear fern-like figures of Lichtenberg - the so-called "flowers of lightning".
On a bald head - a black cat
In the backyard, in a stacked pile of wood, cats were yelling furiously as they celebrated their "wedding", and an angry farmer Amos Briggs left the house to disperse them. At that moment, a severe thunderstorm began. Lightning struck the wood, scattered it in different directions and killed the cats. The farmer's left leg was burned and almost stripped to the waist, and a watch on his hand instantly melted and shattered into pieces. Frightened, in shock, he returned to the house. A distinct profile of a black cat appeared on his bald head. The wife, considering this drawing "the mark of the devil", diligently tried to wash and wipe off the bald crown of her husband, but could not do anything. Only the next day, the drawing began to fade gradually and eventually disappeared completely (Townshire, USA, 1890). A lady from Lugano (France) was sitting by the window and knitting. After a bright flash of lightning, an image of a pot with a flower standing on the windowsill remained forever on her leg outside the window. And on the body of businessman Auguste Leccock, who read the stock exchange news in 1878 in the newspaper, an announcement about the exchange rate on that ill-fated day remained for life. Once a cow was killed by lightning, and her "portrait" appeared on the body of a woman who was leading the cattle on a leash. Three teenagers in 1867 hid from the rain under a large tree. After being struck by lightning, which did not cause them any physical harm, the drawing of this tree, accurate to the smallest detail, was imprinted on the body of one of them. In 1906, in New Jersey (USA), a lightning hit a woman and left a pheasant and a snake tattoo on her arm. A picture of a pine tree appeared on the hand of a worker hiding from a thunderstorm in a barn. And on the body of a little girlstanding at the window during a thunderstorm - the image of a poplar growing next to the house. Images of coins, spoons and other objects appeared on the bodies of people. In 2008, during a thunderstorm with a downpour, lightning struck a house at a summer cottage, I was in the yard and flew three meters to the side. A dolphin-shaped burn remains on the brick wall!
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God marks rogue
The French police who seized the killer did not have the main evidence against him - the murder weapon. Having undressed him at the police station, the police unexpectedly found incredible proof of the culprit's guilt on his body in the region of the heart. It was a clear imprint of a then rare weapon - the Browning. It turned out that when the killer was running away from the police, a thunderstorm broke out, lightning struck him, and he lost consciousness. So lightning helped to expose and apprehend a dangerous criminal.
In the summer of 1865, in Vienna, a thief stole a tortoise-shell purse with personal initials of two letters DD from Dr. Drendinger and was soon caught in a thunderstorm. Lightning gave the criminal, and the same doctor was invited to provide medical assistance to the victim. On examining the patient on his thigh, Drendinger saw an image of the monogram of his missing wallet. A detective was not needed to find the culprit of the theft.
Another Arab writer Masurdi in the ninth century described a case when lightning struck in the thick of the battle and hit a warrior. His forehead was immediately imprinted with painful eyes of the enemy, whom he struck with a sword at that moment. There are facts of the appearance on the skin of people of various pictures.
"God's signs" and deadly drawings
In Wells, France, in the summer of 1596, lightning struck a cathedral filled with believers during prayer. On the body of the bishop and the parishioners who fell to the floor in fear, crimson images of a cross appeared on their shoulders, chest and back. The "signs of God" were perceived by them as God's grace, marking their true and sincere faith in Jesus Christ.
But lightning jokes are not always harmless. In 1868, during a shooting practice of a French regiment, six soldiers hid under a chestnut tree during a thunderstorm. A lightning strike killed everyone, and on the hand of one of them the image of three branches of this tree appeared. In 1878, in Bergeim, along the back of one of those killed by lightning to the heels, poplar leaves were imprinted, under which he decided to hide. And the unfortunate woman hiding from the thunderstorm at the mill has a picture of a tree growing in front of her.
In the state of Pennsylvania (USA) in 1892 a lightning bolt killed the negro Kassel. When the funeral directors took off his clothes, they literally saw the place where death overtook him. It was a clear image of a tree in the park, under which he was hiding from the storm. Even the veins on its leaves were visible. Another time, the boy climbed onto the poplar at the wrong time to destroy the nest and steal bird eggs. After being struck by lightning, he fell dead to the ground. And on his chest appeared a picture of a tree with a bird sitting on a branch next to its nest.
Heaven punishes for blasphemy
Cousins Semyon and Kuzma in 1985 in the Omsk region on a clear sunny day, dumped hay on a collective farm field. Sitting under a haystack to rest, they started talking about God. An ardent atheist Kuzma, laughing, declared that all this is nonsense and fairy tales and he would believe in God if he was killed by lightning now. For a week there was cloudless clear weather, there was no thunderstorm at all, but suddenly it flashed in the sky, and the merry fellow was quiet. Semyon realized in horror that he was already dead! The investigator who arrived soon asked the frightened Semyon how it happened that the lightning killed only Kuzma, who was sitting next to him, shoulder to shoulder, and did not touch him. The doctor, who was examining the corpse at that time, pointed out to the investigator Kuzma's chest. It had a bright and accurate picture of the bushes of nettles growing nearby, daisies and butterflies fluttering above them. This, although rare, only happens when struck by lightning,said the doctor to the unspeakably surprised investigator who suspected Semyon of the crime. The picture on the dead man's chest disappeared a day later. In this case, the old popular belief that heaven punishes people for blasphemy was justified.
To the delight of Semyon, a criminal case was not opened due to the lack of corpus delicti on his part and was qualified as an accident during a thunderstorm. The atheist investigator did not believe that this was God's punishment. And the ancient Romans did not bury those killed by lightning, believing that they somehow angered Jupiter. Although, if you deal with the personalities of people killed by lightning, it turns out that good people die much more than real sinners. And among them there are twice as many men as women.
It remains to add that the nature of the appearance of "signs of God", "marks of the devil" and other pictures on human skin, painted by the artist Lightning, has no reasonable explanation yet.
Valery Kukarenko
