A Man Who Got Struck by Lightning 7 Times and Survived

Wanna hear something shocking? In an ordinary house outlet that we use to charge the phone, the voltage is 110 volts. A high-voltage power line that provides electricity to dozens of buildings has a voltage of 100,000 volts. The energy of one lightning strike is more than 10 million volts!

And the temperature of lightning is almost twice the temperature on the Sun’s surface. And this incredible charge is flying at a speed just two and a half times slower than the speed of light! Now imagine what happens to a person when lightning strikes them.

Well let me tell you. The discharge passes through the body in one-hundredth of a second. Lightning can stop our hearts and disrupt the work of the entire nervous system. You may not even realize what has happened at first. Perhaps you will lose consciousness, and your body will be in a state of shock. Every day, there are several million lightning strikes in the world.

Fortunately, you have little chance of getting hit by one. The odds that lightning will strike you is about 15,300 to 1. About 20,000 people are struck by lightning every year. The chances that lightning will strike you twice are even smaller. And what are the odds that you will be struck by lightning 7 times throughout your life? It seems impossible, but one person experienced it for himself.

His name was Roy Sullivan. He was born in 1912 in Greene County, Virginia, in a big family with 7 children. Roy was an ordinary guy and was no different from his brothers and sisters. But for some reason, the natural element chose him. In 1936, he began working as a ranger at Shenandoah National Park. There, lightning struck him seven times over 35 years.

So, the first accident happened in April 1942. On that day, a strong thunderstorm began. Roy took refuge in a new fire tower, where the builders hadn’t installed a lightning rod. Lightning struck the building several times. A massive fire started inside, and Roy ran out. As soon as he was a few feet away from the shelter, lightning hit his toe and burned a hole in his shoe.

The next time occurred 27 years later, in July 1969. Roy was working in the national park. He was driving a truck through hilly terrain when a storm started. Lightning struck him through the open car window. The charge burned his eyebrows and eyelashes and slightly touched his hair. Roy lost consciousness, and the car continued to move. It stopped at the very edge of the cliff. Fifteen minutes later, Roy came to his senses.

A year later, in July 1970, the third time occurred. The weather was fine. But in a matter of minutes, clouds became thicker, and a thunderstorm began. Lightning struck a transformer near Roy. The man ran away as fast as possible, but nature got him again. Lightning hit his shoulder.

Two years later, in 1972, lightning struck Roy for the fourth time while he was working at a national park station. The charge set his hair on fire, and the man ran to the bathroom and used a wet towel to put out the flames on his burning head. From that moment, Roy began to suspect that some invisible evil force had been pursuing him. He started to carry a bottle of water with him to put out the fire in case of another hit.

The 5th strike happened in the national park again. It occurred in 1973. Roy tripped over a rock and fell. At that moment, he noticed thunderclouds in the sky. Frightened, he ran to his truck, got inside, and stepped on the gas. Roy drove as far away from that spot as possible. Then he stopped and got out of the car to see where the storm was. And at that moment, lightning struck again. It went through his left arm and left leg and set his shoe on fire. Roy quickly climbed back into the truck and extinguished the fire using his water bottle.

In 1976 the sixth case occurred. Roy was walking along a trail in the park just one mile away from the place where lightning struck him the last time. And then storm clouds appeared again. Lightning flashed and stung Roy in the palm. After the 6th strike, he began to suspect something was wrong with the park. After forty years of working, Roy finally decided to quit. Finally.

He hoped the lightning would stop chasing him, but he was wrong. By that time, the man had already become a celebrity. But such fame didn’t let him enjoy life. People were afraid to be near him because they believed that lightning could hit them at any moment. Journalists gave Roy Sullivan the nicknames “Spark Ranger” and “Human Lightning Conductor.” Of course, the man disliked all this and felt very lonely.

But besides this problem, he also suffered from constant fears and the feeling of persecution. All the time, he was waiting for the lightning to strike again at any moment. Fortunately, he was married. His wife supported him and helped him in everything. After quitting his job, Roy decided to move with his wife to the small town of Dooms, Virginia. Wow, Dooms. Talk about foreshadowing...

It was only a year without accidents. Then, on June 25, 1977, lightning struck Roy again. He went fishing at the local pond early in the morning. The catch was good, but the sky was overcast. Roy immediately felt that there would be a strike. There was a smell of sulfur in the air, and the hairs on his arms stood on end. His whole body tensed.

Lightning struck Roy in the head, passing through his chest and stomach. The man ran to his car to take cover. At that moment, a hungry bear came out of the forest. He approached Roy’s bucket of fish to pick up all the trout the man had caught. Roy ran out of the vehicle with the hair on his head smoldering to chase the animal away. After the 7th lightning strike, he lost hearing in his left ear and realized that he couldn’t hide from the lightning anywhere.

His wife was afraid to be with him outside during a thunderstorm. One day, she was hanging laundry in the backyard. Roy came out of the house to help her. A few minutes later, lightning struck his wife. Fortunately, she wasn’t badly injured. After that, besides fear and social loneliness, he felt guilt. Of course, many doctors and scientists tried to help Roy, but no one managed to find the reason for this strange phenomenon.

According to science, each time, it was just a coincidence. Mathematics and physics were powerless here. With such answers from scientists, Roy believed that invisible forces were pursuing him or that fate punished him for something. Perhaps the answer lies in the man’s past. The National Park Service and doctors documented all 7 times when he was struck by lightning.

But there was another, 8th time, which couldn’t be confirmed. According to Roy, lightning struck him in his youth when he was helping his father mow wheat. The discharge hit the scythe blade. No one but the boy saw it. Perhaps at that moment, the lightning changed something in his body and made him more attractive for the next hits. Lightning always chooses the path of least resistance.

And this is how lightning occurs. Rain, ice, and snow particles collide with one another inside a storm. This process increases the imbalance between clouds and the ground, negatively charging the lower layers of clouds. Things down there, like trees and the earth, get positively charged and create another imbalance. Nature tries to remedy this imbalance between two opposite charges by passing an electric current through them.

Perhaps, nature felt some charge imbalance in Roy’s body and tried to remedy it. But why did he get struck at an interval of one or two years? Besides, more than 20 years passed between the first and second hit.

Scientists still can’t explain what happened to him. Maybe Roy was just an attractive guy. As you can probably predict, Roy Sullivan was listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the person struck by lightning most often in the world.